Life at home...

A few chores I detest at home:
Handling raw meat. ugh.


Scrubbing the bathtub and shower walls


Wracking my brain to create meal ideas


BUT, really, those are miniscule compared to the blessings of home:

That's Daddy, making his sweetpea giggle like crazy! I just love it!

The other day I heard on the radio a woman discussing how when she goes shopping, she has noticed the massive amounts of Halloween decorations and Christmas decorations and thinks..."What's missing?" Thanksgiving! Our society seems to skimp on the importance of this *gasp* non-selfish, non-sugar-getting, non-present-hoarding holiday. How true. I've now started noticing the same lack of preparation for Thanksgiving as I shop. So it I have decided we are going to be purposeful in remembering and preparing for Thanksgiving in our home this year. Any good ideas? I've started to brainstorm a few, but I'd welcome some!

Yeah... so it has been awhile.

I admit, I took a break. Roughly a 3 month break from here. But I needed to get into the swing of life as a mom and part-time teacher. Do I like the balancing act? Hmm. I am just going to hold my opinion for now and just say, I am deciding. This will NOT be the place I discuss school.

It was one of those "silent" moments in our home. The one where you think to yourself, "its TOO quiet, where is my toddler?" A panic flutters in your chest and you wonder as you take a fast tour through the house, if Dad's Sports Illustrated is being torn to shreds, or if there is a tiny finger probing a socket (please no!!), just WHAT would cause such silence? I whipped around the corner, behold the sight :

Sweetpea was reading!
It melted my heart. She was just happily looking through her animal book, cozy and content as could be. A girl after my own heart. I hope that the book-lovin' will continue on and on and on.....

Life in the slow lane...

Ahhhh.... It's good to be on vacation. Even the rain this morning was welcome. We've been staying at a cottage on a small lake for the week, and I am loving it! Sweetpea has even done well on the boat rides, a new place to sleep and late nights up. We had friends and family down yesterday to visit, and tomorrow we will have more down. But today is just us. A cute ring to it I think- just the 3 of us!! Last summer when we vacationed here, it was just the 2 of us, and we were praying and hoping it would be 3 someday. God is so good. Here we are. I do NEED to get a post about our Sweetpea's welcome into our family. Soon. I promise.
We are so thankful for my Aunt and Uncle's generosity- they are happily allowing us to stay here for the week, and are even excited that we asked and will! I have loads of pictures already, HOWEVER, I just got a new SDHC 4gig memory card for my camera- which works with my camera, BUT my computer does not recognize...grrrrrr. Will have to figure that out when we return to reality. But just now I hear sweetpea murmuring her awakness upstairs in the pack-n-play. adios!

Books.

My title says it all. I LOVE BOOKS. Seriously, I am obsessed with them. When I was single, I used to fall asleep with 5-10 books surrounding me in bed because I would read a section in about 3 or more different books a night. That habit promptly stopped when I got married, (the sleeping WITH the books, not the reading them before sleeping- right now I have 3 on my bedside table) but I do love them still. There is something friendly about a book. My favorite gifts are books too. I never remember what gifts people give me, but if you give me a book~I'll remember!! There was the Emily Dickinson poetry books from the old boyfriend, 3 Francine Rivers books from the old best friend, in 8th grade it was the Janette Oke book series from Grandma, an "old" version of my favorite Shakespeare play from a college friend (12th Night)... ahhh such fond memories.
Tonight I attended my book club. We are a bunch of ladies from church who meet in different homes every 5-6 weeks. (But we don't read all "churchy" books!) It is so delightful! Everyone has welcoming minds and opinions and non are scorned for tastes that may be contrary to another. We gab for a good 3 hours! I wouldn't miss book club night for the world....

Quiet Day

I have dubbed today- a quiet day. This means after 5 days of packing, cottaging, unpacking, berry picking, jamming and swimming, we are going to lay low. I will not allow an agenda of things to dictate my life today :) I think that should be allowed. A trip to the library may occur however. I was so exhausted last night, I lay in bed with Sweetpea sitting up, baby chattering and rolling around next to me, while I just WAITED for her to get tired and go to sleep. It was only 8:30! Whew! However, this did get accomplished in the last 2 days:

25lbs of berries picked, washed, 4 batches of freezer jam and some to share with family.
We have enjoyed fun times with family at pools and cottages over the past several days as well. Sweetpea seems to do well in water, at least no crying! But golly, those blue swim diapers are costly! Any other options out there? Does anyone use just rubber pants? I want to protect other's pools, but our pocket book too!

Another great perk of being a mom....

Dispelling door-to-door salesmen! Yep! Today, while feeding Sweetpea her bottle an Edward Jones guy came to the door. After stating, "Well, I see you have your hands full so I'll be brief..." he launched into his sure to be 10 min. spiel, at which Sweetpea promptly urped up about an ounce of formula down her outfit. With a disgusted and shocked looked, he quickly stated, "I'll let you go" and spun around and left. Superb timing Sweetpea! I didn't even have to try to give a gracious-get-off-my-front-porch statement that I usually try to conjure up. I truly despise door-to-door anything. Not because I have a hard time saying no, trust me, that is NOT a problem with me. I just get creeped out by men, especially when I am home with just her.
This all got me thinking, and just doing some general meta-cognition on what I enjoy about motherhood and what I quite frankly don't like. So I thought I'd make a short 5 item list.
Joys:
1. The sweet smile in the morning
2. Seeing her look for ME, only mom suffices sometimes- and I love that!
3. Watching my husband blossom as a father
4. Being in awe of things like watching her learn how to chew! Even little things like that are amazing!
5. Learning to get rid of my selfishness- especially how I spend my time

Difficulties:
1. Missing my teaching job
2. Having to work a part-time job I don't enjoy
3. How long it takes to load everything up to trek somewhere and time it all just right.
4. Unwelcome advice or criticism of parenting
5. Learning to get rid of my selfishness- especially how I spend my time.

Obviously, # 5 is the same for both lists. This is difficult for me. Sometimes I miss my evenings with a book or movie with my husband, or being able to stay at a friend's house late and not worry about whether or not SP will fall asleep after we take her out of the carseat, etc. But I know too that it is SO good for me, and it is what God wants; and I want it too. I need to learn selflessness.

Dusty Treasures

Delightful finds this evening in the bookstore! With time to meander in the used book section- sans husband and child- I was thrilled to find this devotional book we had gotten as a wedding gift 4 years ago. We took it on our anniversary trip a year later and left it behind in a hotel room. A sentimental, romantic bargain ~ $7.00 for a hardcover!
Another dusty gem I found- copyright 1985- subtitled, "100 proven ways to nurture your child's faith." I am pretty sure my mom had this one for us; if not, I think she could have written the book! It has wonderful topics from creating meaningful holidays and birthdays, to memorizing scripture and a games for car rides. So practical and timeless! (God's Word is both!)



What have been some of your parenting books that your parents used, and now you have turned to? Any other great suggestions out there?!