Happy 30th Birthday!

This year was a special year for Todd, he turned 30! I took the opportunity to throw him a birthday party with friends and family to celebrate.

Most of the time Todd is too smart for his own good, so my goal was to keep it a surprise for as long as possible and it was almost a success (he didn't get suspicious until about the day of).

It was an interesting time trying to keep this all a secret but a lot of fun all in the same. Andrew was such a trooper through the many trips to different stores to get all of the supplies. He quickly picked up on saying Happy Birthday Daddy too which made it extra fun. He kept repeating it over and over during this whole time.

A big thanks to our brother-in-law who took him to play disc golf to get him out of the house, to my sister who made yummy cupcakes, and to my other sister and brother-in-law for lending out their house as storage and cooking center, I couldn't have done it without them!

It was a great time celebrating with friends and family, and I think he enjoyed it!

Harvest Time - Another Farmer in the Family

This year we had proof that farming truly does run in your blood. I never would have guessed that our little toddler would sit in such a confined space for a long time and be so content.

We were able to go back to Todd's parent's home and help with the corn harvest for three days. Each day Andrew and I went and joined Todd in the combine for at least a hour and a half. Andrew loved watching the corn go into the combine and then come back out. After those three days he can tell any one the process...

Combine...Tank...Auger...Wagon...Auger...Bin

His favorite part was to watch the guys unload while running. He would stand in awe as he could watch corn continually going into the combine and out into the wagons all at the same time. My favorite part was when he could see the corn going down in the back window he would excitedly wave and say "Bye Bye Corn!".

 My Farmers

(Can't get over how much they look alike in this picture)

I think that how quickly he picked up on the process and his love of helping with the work made both daddy and grandpa proud. Especially when he announced that he wanted to be a farmer too. (And he has not stopped playing with his farm toys since we got home, going through the whole process of course)

Farming is hard work though...so he quickly discovered that the combine was a good place to take a nap.

We always enjoy going and helping out with harvest but the most rewarding part is the beauty. How the sun hits the golden corn plants is just beautiful and I can never get enough of it.

Before we left I really wanted a picture of us in the corn field, I was worried that it wouldn't happen because of some rain that came through but the weather ended up being perfect the morning before we left.

 

New Adventure: Canning

Earlier I wrote about some apple picking that we did at Todd's parent's acreage, well this one is about the results of all those apples.

From the two full boxes of apples here is what we got...

- 15 Pint Jars of Applesauce
- 6 Quart Jars of Apple Pie Filling (one per pie)
- 6 Pint Jars of Apple Pie Filling (we use this in a pork chop recipe)
- 11 Half Pint Jars of Apple Butter (plus whatever was eaten right away)
- 6 Half Pint Jars of Apple Jelly
- 7 Half Pint Jars of Carmel Apple Jelly

Our take from the process, these cupboards in the basement may

have officially become our canning cupboards.

This doesn't count the two apple crisps that were made or the batch of apple bread that was made as well. 

Wow it was a lot of apples and a lot of work but oh so worth it. I figured it out that the six pint jars of apple pie filling for our pork chop recipe will alone save us over $17.00. 

So I guess I had a lot of fun with all the apples because shortly after we were done with apples, pears went on a really good sale at the grocery store and I walked out with about 15 pounds of them. My boys love pears so I though this would be a great way that they can eat pears for a while even though I know it won't last until they are back in season again. From those 15 pounds I was able to get 10 jars of quartered pears in a very, very light syrup.

 
Yes it was a lot of work but very rewarding, I have already saved off the recipies that we used so that we can do it again next year. Come on another good year for apples!

A Broken Habit

Ever since Andrew was a very little guy he has favored sucking on his thumb for comfort. He never did it constantly, mainly only when he was either tired or nervous (he often gets nervous in strange surroundings and especially when people he doesn't know talk to him). And when I said thumb, I mean thumb; he only ever sucked on his left thumb. With that he quickly developed a large callous on the top.

A few months ago he started his teeth started bothering him and he rotated how he sucked on his thumb. In doing this he started to create a new callous on the pad of his thumb. not to far into that he ended up cutting his thumb with his teeth. This caused him pain every time he went to suck on it.

Todd and I had been discussing how we were going to get him to break this habit shortly before and God blessed us with this "easy way" out, granted neither of liked that our little guy was in pain during it. So we took the opportunity and ran with it. We told him every time he tried to suck on it that it was giving him ouchies and within a couple of days there were no issues. Bedtime was tear free within those couple of days and naptime followed a few days after (this is when he used his thumb the most).

We are so thankful for this habit being broken and his thumb is healing very nicely.

My view during snuggle time has become even more precious.
But I will miss it a little, since he looks even more like a big boy now.

Pumpkin Patch Fun

We are so blessed to have a wonderful and free little pumpkin patch just outside of town, it is perfect for quick morning getaways and can entertain little ones for at least a couple of hours. And better yet they added more this year!

Our first trip out there we got to enjoy with my sister and her husband (truth is they wanted to borrow our son so they didn't feel silly going to the pumpkin patch:) but no worries he adores them). Here are some pictures from that day.

Being Uncle Neal's big helper.

Loving the corn pit.

 

 Our take for the day. And yes the big tall pumpkin weighs almost as much as Andrew, 

but I just had to have it.

The next time that we went we were blessed to go with a friend of mine and her wonderful four kids. She has been such a blessing to me as our friendship grows and it is so much fun to watch our kids play together.

 My fiend's oldest boy taught him how to swim in the corn,

now he swims everywhere, especially in the bathtub.

 

Running through the hay bale "maze" - it was a simple U shape 

made for little kids, but still great fun. 

Lastly we got to join my other sister and her kids at a pumpkin patch near where we grew up while we were there helping with harvest. He could have stayed there all day too but it was very very chilly that day.

 Running through the corn maze,

on the hunt for his cousins

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year and adding in the fun of pumpkin patches makes it even better. Sadly our weather has taken a turn for the cold so our pumpkin patch trips may be done for the year.

Choosing Joy, Much More than Happiness

I was very convicted yesterday morning at my women's Bible study. We were all asked this question in our workbook...What are the things that steal joy from you? I quickly answered it with some typical answers that a lot of people would come up with...crabby child, not being able to finish projects, interruptions, etc.

A friend in my small group quickly challenged me after discussing what I had written down, I don't think it was meant as a direct challenge to me but I definitely needed to hear it. She said that nothing outside of ourselves can steal our joy. Whether I still have joy is dependent on how I decide to react to the situations going on around me. Wow did I need to hear that reminder!

There have been a lot of times in the past few weeks that I have allowed the situations that surround me to affect me to a level that I allow my joy to slip away. These situations probably would have made any person unhappy, I mean who really is going to be happy when their toddler woke up in the middle of the night for an hour or so and then decided he would be up and ready for the day at 5:30, but I allowed his crabbiness and my tiredness to steal my joy away that day.

Romans 5:3-4 "We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation."

My study Bible describes this verse with these words...Joy comes in knowing that no matter what happens God will use everything for our ultimate good. I have been challenged to put a large defining line between Joy and Happiness. Situations are going to arise that aren't going to make me happy but I don't have to let them steal my joy.

I have chosen to take steps on those not so happy days to change my surroundings to strengthen the joy inside of me. But greater than that I have decided to hide these verses in my heart so I have a constant reminder to choose joy.

Psalm 118:24 says "This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it."

Philippians 4:4 says "Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again - rejoice!"

Having happiness is dependent on feelings and surroundings, but having joy is a choice. This is a choice that I have to make every day and I will strive to say yes to joy every single day.

 

I chose to prevent any stealing of joy today after a late night and a early morning...

A trip to a near by pond, Andrew was so excited to see all the dragonflies at the water's edge

and to search for fish and frogs in the water.

A very enjoyable morning with my little man.

 

Apples, Thrift Stores, and a Wedding...

It was a busy weekend full of fun and interesting things. We traveled back to our hometown for the purpose of going to one of my cousin's wedding and as usual we found a lot of other fun things along the way.

Andrew just loves going to Grandpa and Grandma's farm as there is always something new and exciting for him to investigate beyond the usual peak at the tractors and rides on Grandpa's ranger. This time he discovered where apples come from! Our little guy loves, loves, loves applesauce and would eat it by the bucket load if we let him. Apples are always pointed out with a "Peaz" (Please) from him when we are at the grocery store. So he was very interested when he saw them hanging in the tree. 

He was grinning ear to ear when Grandpa told him they were ready and he could pick one (and so was I).

 

 He was such a happy boy carrying around his apple, pretty proud of himself I think too.

It wasn't only Andrew who got to experience a first, I had never picked apples before so I jumped at the change to head out and do so. I didn't know what to expect but an extremely good year for apples made it easy. From one tree we filled five 5-gallon buckets and could barely tell we were there it seemed like (they have two trees on their property and a few more down the road a little),. Our take was two full apple boxes, waiting to be peeled, sliced, and frozen for future pies or crisps or made into applesauce. The picking may have been fast and easy but the work ahead doesn't seem to go that way, very worth it though.

Oh, but the apples were not the end. My sister and I have found something new and exciting for us to do and this weekend we got our mom to come along for the ride (she may have thought we were a little crazy). My sister started going around to garage sales and finding frames, boxes, nic nacs, etc that could be painted and made into something new and great and I quickly jumped on. 

This time we found a great chair for Andrew that I plan to redo, make it a little less pink, among many other things, some to be posted later. I will be sure to post a before and after once it is completed.

The wedding was great, although a little chilly. Our weather has decided there would be no gradual move from summer (90-degree weather) to fall (70-degree weather). It was a beautiful setting at the bride's parent's horse ranch. It was a great time getting to see some extended family members that I haven't seen in quite a while. Sadly Andrew had had enough shortly after the meal so we weren't able to stay very long.

Our weekend wrapped up after our long drive home with Chinese take-out and my boys lounging on the floor watching football. "Go 9ers" (sadly they lost).

 

Labor Day Celebration

Over Labor Day weekend our home town has a celebration and always has since I can remember. The weekend is filled with lots of different events that will keep you busy but not too busy that you don't have any time to relax. This year we went back up there for the weekend for a couple reasons...it is always a good time and Todd's parents were in the community play (like we would miss that!).

When we heard that Todd's parents were going to be in a play we automatically decided that we would make the trip up there this year. Saturday night we got to enjoy their very funny play "Leaving Iowa". It was great to see them up there and great to laugh at all of the funny things that you know are true about your state (we were questioning just how funny it would be when performed outside of Iowa though). It was great to laugh at all the little jokes thrown in there that only people that grew up here would truly understand. They had a great performance and turn out at each show.

A picture of the "hog farmer and hog farmer's wife"

Now Monday is always the busiest day of the weekend, packed full with events. We started off by heading out to the Fly-In breakfast out at the airport with my dad and nephew. Andrew loved being able to see into one of his most recent fascinations...Airplanes! He also loved watching them as they took off and landed right in front of him. Now he gets even more excited than he did before when he hears an airplane.

Lastly, we headed up to the city park to check out everything up there. There is always a craft fair going on in one corner with local vendors, sadly though it continues to get smaller and smaller every year. A recent addition is the book "sale". The local libraries use this day as an opportunity to clean up their shelves a little. They put out duplicate copies of books that they no longer need as the book is no longer as popular or books that have been replaced because one has been very well read. The best part...they are all free!!! Now when you say free books to a person who loves to read, of course they will be there. I grabbed a few unknown titles that looked good but the best was I was able to find all but one book to the Narnia series for my niece (I later went to Half Price Books and got her the missing one). She loves to read as well and I know her imagination will soar when reading these great classics.

Before leaving the park we made sure to walk around and find some very special flags. There is a group in town that takes time out of their busy lives to honor our local heroes, past and present. Individuals (usually family members) can purchase a flag in honor of a veteran. A plaque is attached to the pole stating their name and division of the armed forces in which they serve. Every year on veteran related holidays (i.e. Flag Day, Memorial Day, Veteran's Day, etc) the flags are displayed around the city park. There are hundreds of them that fly in the center of town on these days as a humbling reminder of what it takes to live in this free country.

Amongst these flags fly five that are very special to us (among many others that we know). All four of our, Todd and mine, grandfathers served in the either the Army or the Navy and Todd's dad served in the Army as well. These flags always give me such pride in those men that went to fight for our freedom, even before any of us were here. And we can not say thank you enough.

Andrew standing next to his Grandpa's flag

It was a great weekend filled with family, laughs, fun, and just an overall great time.

Toddler Meal Time

Getting our little guy to eat has been somewhat of a challenge for the past few months. His appetite went from eating everything in sight to eating hardly anything and he became extremely picky as well. I know, I know, it is just a faze but wow, it seems like the switch was flipped overnight. Now we find ourselves adding in a quick prayer that he will eat well as we pray for our meal, and praise God over and over when we have a good meal with him.

We have found a few things that work with him. First, he has to be hungry! We have stopped allowing him to snack anywhere near supper time minus a few nibbles on ingredients as the meal is being prepared but even that is watched closely. This also means that on the days that he takes his extremely long naps and doesn't wake up until 4:00pm he doesn't get an afternoon snack at all.

Second, finding out what our little guys favorite foods are. Right now he could be classified as a vegetarian. He much prefers to eat pastas, rice, vegetables, and fruits over any sort of meat. He wouldn't go so far as being a vegan though as he loves his milk (still on whole milk but cutting back on how much he gets per day), cheeses, and yogurt. 

 Happy Meal Times with some of his favorites.

 Helping Mommy make a Zucchini Lasagna, 

sampling the zucchini before it is cooked.

Some of Andrew's favorite foods:

• Yogurt (any flavor, not picky)
• Broccoli
• Carrots
• Peas
• Peppers
• Lasagna (one meal we can sneak some meat into his diet)
• Spaghetti (usually eaten without shirt or shorts on right now, less laundry)
• Cheese
• Breads
• Macaroni and Cheese (prefers generic brand over Kraft)
• Grapes
• Pears
• Peaches
• Blueberries
• Tacos, especially with carnitas (usually eats the insides first with a fork and then takes bites out of the tortilla)
• Applesauce

We do our best to plan meals around his likes and dislikes, the good thing everything on list are on Todd and mine's as well. Making sure there is something for him to eat well at every meal takes a few extra minutes in planning (just in case he decides he doesn't want the main meal) but a happy and peaceful meal time is very worth it.

Perfection Infection: One Perfect God

So here it is, the wrap up to the Perfection Infection. Jill Savage's book No More Perfect Moms was extremely powerful for me and really gave me a new look on different areas of my life. All in all we need to remember that we will never have perfection, but we are serving a perfect God. He is the only one that will ever hold perfect attributes. The book highlighted the following and I found them to be powerful reminders...

God's Perfect Love
     Unchanging - we can't make Him love us any more or less than He already does
     Unconditional - His love will stay with us no matter the circumstances

God's Perfect Strength
     God sees our weaknesses as a positive. Only when we admit our weaknesses can we realize our need for God's strength.

Each time he said, "My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness." So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.           (2 Corinthians 12:9)

As people we are weak, but God gives us the strength to live out our days and tackle the struggles that come our way. Philippians 4:13 says "For I can do everything through Christ, who give me strength."

God's Perfect Hope
     Having hope in God means that we stand strong with trust, expectation, and a guarantee of Christ's return. This hope that we have will be with us through every high and low moment in our lives, cling to it during those low moments and it will lift you up.

Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone. (Psalm 33:22) 

God's Perfect Truth
     Jill Savage uses this great analogy, God's truth helps us to see the difference between black and white, unlike the world's grey vision. God's word is not changed relative to how we think or feel. 
      So much of our world has changed to make things acceptable by culture, we need to remember God's truth as we come across situations that begin to cross that line. These things can be rough but we need to also remember that we are called to be loving. 

God's Perfect Redemption
     Jesus' life was given in exchange for ours. He has forgiven our past and given us a future. It doesn't get any better than that!




At the end of the book Jill Savage poses you with a question of how will you go forward. My goal is to fight the Perfection Infection as my eyes have been opened to how much pain and destruction it can bring into people's lives. I am committed to being the best mom and wife that I can be with realistic expectations for each day. I want to spread this knowledge that I have gained to help battle the Perfection Infection as it strikes us all.


I want to embrace what Jill Savage writes out as "real motherhood", but I would add just plan womenhood...
          - No expectations
          - No pride
          - No fear
          - No insecurity
          - No judgement
          - No comparisons
          - No agenda
          - No performing
          - No more perfect moms, just imperfect moms (women) partnering with a perfect God.

Every day that I strive to be the perfect wife and mother, I will fail. Every day that I strive to do my best, with God in the lead, I will succeed.

Today while listening to the radio I heard this song and it is a great song to go along with these posts. Blessings.

Natalie Grant "Perfect People

  
 

Perfection Infection: No More Perfect Homemaking

When I quit my job as an accountant almost 2 years ago after Andrew was born I had this fairy tale kind of scene painted in my mind of how things were going to be. We were going to have this wonderfully decorated home oozing with Pintrest ideas (because I would have so much extra time to do things like this), Todd would come home every night to a fabulous home-cooked meal, and our home would be a revolving door of friends and family. I quickly learned that was not going to be the case.

When both of us were working Todd often cooked supper, during my pregnancy with Andrew he did all of the cooking simply because I didn't have the energy left in me to do anything. I was (and still am) so grateful for all of it that I wanted to repay him once I started staying home full time and got into a good routine with Andrew. I started doing the majority of the cooking in the house and I will be quick to admit that I wasn't that good at it right away, not having much practice.

I would end up crying and turning into a mess when things didn't work out as planned. I would get extremely frustrated with what I saw as a complete failure. Thankfully Todd would come home shortly (if he wasn't already home during the meltdown) and tell me that it would be fine and it didn't matter. After many times of this episode repeating I started to get it...it doesn't matter if supper doesn't hit the table at a certain time, it doesn't matter if a new recipe doesn't quite turn out right, generally all my boys (and myself) care about is if our stomachs are full at the end of the meal and it tasted generally good, there are always recipes that will never be made again. After reading this section in Jill Savage's book, No More Perfect Moms, my first thought was food is necessary but it isn't necessary to have a Rachel Ray quality meal every night; some days that just isn't going to be possible with Andrew attached to my leg or propped up on my hip. 

As for the house filled with Pintrest ideas, not so much. In decorating our new house I have been able to utilize some ideas but what was most helpful was using my friends and family to get opinions. We had a general idea of where most of our furniture would go before we moved it but not the position in the room. It was great to have the extra hands to help move pieces around and ideas of stealing pieces from other rooms. We purchased a few new pieces to help fill up the house and because of that I am no longer allowed to go shopping alone with my sisters :). Those ideas that I have all over my Pintrest collection but after looking at some of them again I realized that they really don't work for our family. 


As women we take pride in our homes and all the aspects of it. Jill Savage says that "women tend to be most insecure about body image and home image". That rings completely true for me (see more about that on my previous post Perfection Infection: No More Perfect Homes). Nothing is ever going to be perfect in your home and we need to keep realistic expectations; as long as it works for your family it will be great.

 

Disc Golf

The other weekend we went out to play disc golf with my sister and brother-in-law, thought we could all us some fresh air and it was a beautiful morning.

This has become a favorite thing for Andrew to go out and do with Daddy and he is picking up on the game quickly. He was born with natural athletic ability and coordination (neither of which came from me) so this is no surprise to us but it is still a lot of fun to watch a toddler throw a disc and actually make it into the pin.

Some pictures from that day out...

 Daddy and Uncle Neal showing him how it is done

Made it!!!

Daddy I don't think the pin is in the bushes :)

 Come on Aunt Nichole! 

He was so out of breath after running up this hill, but loved it.

Perfection Infection: No More Perfect Homes

I am a person that can get obsessed and stressed out about having the house absolutely perfect before people come over, especially new people. Now granted over time I have begun to establish cleaned up levels that are applied to different groups of people that come over consistently.

Infrequent Guests/New Comers: My goal, spotlessness everywhere.

Our Community Group: This group of people have become like family to us and they are over generally once a week for Bible study. They are welcomed by a picked up general living area and mostly clean counters in the kitchen (dishes from that night's supper still in the sink or on the stove) but there are probably messes in the rooms not seen.

Family that lives out of town: General clean up overall, make sure there are clean towels and sheets for them to use, and the spare bedroom is clean of any extra stuff that may have been dumped there.

Family that lives here in town: Seriously, they have a key to my house and can walk in at any given moment if they need to, sorry guys but you don't really get any special treatment just maybe a warning on its condition.  

Even this tiered system hasn't re-leaved all stress though. After reading this section in Jill Savage's book I gained a new perspective but this is one that I am still fighting hard against. I still work hard on keeping our home clean and tidy but I want to remove the stress filled evenings or cleaning when all I really want to do is enjoy spending time with my husband or the crazed mornings of last minute cleaning when my little guy just wants mommy to play. I am trying to adapt to these new goals that I have for myself.

Goals for each room:

Kitchen: organized enough to find things that are needed and enough cleanliness and counter space to make a meal. When we moved into our new home we quickly found that we had less counter space to prepare meals than our previous home. With that I have made it a goal of doing the dishes every day after lunch, this doesn't always happen but even if I miss a day they aren't piling up too much that I run out of counter space.

"Keeping our kitchen uncluttered is like shoveling snow while it is still snowing." Jill Savage (Love this because it is so true)

Bathroom: Cleaned regularly and organized enough to find what you need. Once again this was a change for us in our new home. The main bathroom for us has a pedestal sink and no storage in it (minus the linen closet right next to the bathroom). This has been interesting for us and soon we will be replacing the sink with a vanity and adding a cabinet. I give the bathroom a good scrub down at least once a week and in doing so it really cuts down on the time it takes me. Before this was my most hated job so I would put it off until it was terrible, now keeping up with it I'm finding it not so bad.

Bedrooms: The best question to ask yourself here is, Does it work for us? We are not bed makers (I know this would drive some people crazy, including my mom who makes her bed every morning) but it isn't something we find necessary to do every day. I try to keep the room very picked up because the last thing I want to do is go to crawl into bed at night and find a mess there that is going to drive me crazy and keep me from sleeping.

Living Areas: This was the hardest for me, next to the kitchen, because it is the area that is seen by others. I have found it easiest to spend just a few minutes a day working on these areas just enough so they don't get out of control. If a stranger knocks on the door it will be obvious to them that we have a small child as they will see toys out being played with and others in their storage places, but I try to prevent the tornado look through out the day.

This is not going to be an easy one for me to overcome; I feel like I won't ever stop caring what my house looks like or wanting it to be presentable but I think that is a good thing. My goal is to remove the stress and frustration that comes with keeping it that way. I have been searching through Pintrest and asking friends how they keep up with the cleaning, hoping to find something that works for me.

My Ultimate Goal: Finding what works for our family!

Perfection Infection: No More Perfect Days

This chapter in Jill Savage's book No More Perfect Moms hit me hard. She writes...

"Learning to live with kids requires making major adjustments in our realistic expectations. We have to learn to expect the unexpected, find flexibility, and increase the margin. Instead of getting frustrated lets stop expecting a fantasy and instead embrace reality."

All I can say is wow, that really hit home to me. I often found myself waking up in the morning with an agenda and a long list of to dos. Not sure who I was kidding, who can really keep that kind of agenda when you have a toddler? 

I would get extremely frustrated if I wasn't able to get everything done on my list and would feel like I failed. It was as if I had missed a major deadline at work and I was going to get fired. This never helped my feeling of lacking accomplishments that had been boiling up since I left the working world. I know that home is where God has called me to be but it has been an interesting transition.

I have learned that you need to expect the unexpected every day. Every activity of the day will be interrupted by something, a mommy come see, a boom that needs a kiss and a cuddle, a push while cooking because he wants my attention, something has been spilled, a toy that isn't working the way he wants, and the list could go on forever. It is in these moments that we need two things that Jill Savage points out, Self-Control and Perspective.

When my plans don't go quite how I would have liked I need self-control to keep my tongue in check (goes back to remembering that he is a toddler and he is testing boundaries and will make mistakes). There is no reason to raise my voice to him in most situations, although some may need a stern tone to them, but I need to keep my frustrations down and just go with what is happening. I love how she writes about having perspective..."the moment we are in is just as important as the one planned", "embrace 'what is' instead of 'what could have been'".

Better to be patient than powerful; better to have self-control than conquer a city. (Proverbs 16:32)

Jill Savage writes that we should view those not planned for moments as God appointments. We may not have planned on that instant happening but God has a purpose and a reason for them. Often these are the best camera moments and can bring such joy to our days. 

An unexpected moment of having my pots and pan drawer emptied and

turned into a play area, he was sad I only let him stay long enough for a picture. 

I have changed how I plan out my day now. I plan one activity and one or two chore/cleaning items. The activity may not always be something fun but is more something that gets us out of the house. For instance, I do our main grocery shopping once every three weeks, with small trips every week to purchase fresh fruits and milk, so as you can guess on those mornings we don't have a lot of time left to spare for a fun activity outside the house. It is a good thing he loves to ride in the "car carts" that our grocery stores have (and yes I am a crazy mom that circles the parking lot looking for one in a cart coral if I can't see any inside the doors; Todd finds this embarrassing). On these days with a non-fun activity I try to sit down with him and be fully focused on playing with him for at least 45 minutes, no distractions (no tv, no phone, etc). The chore/cleaning items are usually completed right after lunch, a full belly usually means a happy boy and he is generally content helping me clean.

The rest of our day is a go with the flow kind of thing. If our activity didn't take very long and it is nice outside we jump in the stroller or on the bike and make our way to a park or the library. These surprise events can change the tone of the day and bring some of our greatest memories. 

Mixing up a marinade for mommy - my happy chef

The other thing I have learned is to get Andrew involved as much as possible. He loves to help and is great at doing things like mixing up ingredients for a marinade inside a storage bag, dusting the furniture (yes this is usually after I have already done it) and now as he is getting older he is able to get things that I ask for. Doing this makes him feel involved and that smile he has when he has accomplished something is priceless.

I traded my days in the business world that were full of interruptions by adults to days filled with interruptions from my little guy, and I would never go back.

This morning it was overly hot outside so our fun activity was 

a trip to the library, he loves to play with the train and Lego tables

What if I was never disappointed with how things turn out because I never expected anything specific?

- Jill Savage -