Our Weekend (aka a bunch of pictures with captions)

This weekend we headed to the Big D for a conference that I had for the AWESOME company that I joined exactly a year ago that has more than replaced (like getting close to doubling) my full time salary before I became a stay at home momma. INSANE!

 

More on that later!

 

My blog has suffered a bit here lately because I run into feeling like I need some heartfelt, deep, or super funny post in order to blog and I haven't had much of any of that lately, but life has been good, so why not post about that right?

 

I will let the pictures speak for themselves. We had an amazing time in Dallas and needed the getaway.

I stripped all the clothes off my husband due to the 40 degree weather. Thanks honey.

When I get to heaven I will ask God why he made THIS the only way giraffes could eat grass.

Crewe would have spent the entire 3 hours walking around the tree border had we let him.

 Feeding the birds was by far our favorite exhibit. I was surprised at how much Crewe liked it... minus the time he tried to stab the bird with the stick.

 

Revisiting my childhood. My kid HATES a good carousel ride, so momma does it with him.

 

I have learned to throw schedules out the window on long car rides and to just enjoy the journey so we made a lot of pit stops. Nikki's swirl shop is a must and you cant go 6 hours without stopping at at least 1 park... or at least we can't. 

Like father like son

Getting ready for my bar routine followed by my Olympic dismount.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Teaching how he learns

So after my post about being more intentional with my time, it appears I have become more creative. Organization comes naturally to me. I love it and it loves me... being creative on the other hand is not my strong point.

 

 

I struggle so much teaching Crewe through play. I want to make learning fun for him and he is not one of those kids that likes to color and draw being in a confined area. He would much rather run cars into our baseboards or push his lawn mower in circles around the couch all the while screaming, "Don't chase Sophie (our dog), don't chase Sophie". Can you tell what we say to him.... a lot?

 

My first baby is pushing 10... too old to be terrorized by toddler toys.

 

 

 

It was also my mission to not spend a lot of money given the plethora of toys we always have scattered around the house, so this forced me to get creative and combine what he loves doing with learning material we already have.

 

 

I came up with this little game that holds his attention pretty well all the while we are spending quality time together and he is learning.

 

He LOVES animals and cars so combining them is a little slice of heaven for him. We will just play simple games where I will ask him to put his yellow car on the 2 ducks... or his blue plane on the 9 bees. Simple things that helps him with colors and counting.

 

We by no means do this everyday and most days I praise myself for the amount of "self play" I let Crewe do ;-), but coming up with these games really helps me sit down and engage with him.

 

 

Everytime we go to the store I let him pick out 1 Hot Wheels car to add to his collection. By the time he is 10 I am confident we will have no less than 500 hot wheels.

 

Nothing too impressive but I just wanted to share what we are doing to learn and play! 

Word of the year and Play

First,  I want to start by saying THANK YOU to everyone who takes the time to comment on my posts. It means so much to me and even though I am not always the best at responding, I intend to change that.

 

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There is no big surprise that my word of the year is the same word as last year. To be honest I feel like I miserably failed at being INTENTIONAL with anything. If I look back on last year I probably should have picked the word SELFISH because that is what I feel I spent most of the year being.

 

Thank goodness I have another year to try to improve on last, but this year I am picking 2 "Words of the Year". One for my family and one for God. For my family it is to be more intentional with how I spend my energy and time. For God it is, hands down, going to be TRUST.

 

While I LIKE to feel like most of my days are spent trusting God... I am plaqued by worry and fear most of the time. My biggest worry is about the health and well being of these two.

Crewe's hat kills me!

 

I have such a hard time releasing the tight grip I have on them and the feeling that by worrying I can somehow protect them... when really I am just robbing myself of all the current joys. Realizing that in your mind is great, but living it in your day is HARD. 

 

I really struggle with believing in my heart that GOD loves them and cares about them more than I do. That he always has their best intentions in his heart.

 

 I  AM incredibly greatful however; that my walk in trusting him is a PROCESS not a PROJECT. It is not something that in 30 days I have to be perfect at nor does God expect perfection. What he does expect of me is to keep growing in faith and trust.

Toilet paper rolls save my life when I am cooking dinner.

 

That leads into my family word, INTENTIONAL. I feel like so much of my days get caught up with checking things off my to-do list. While I do feel like a to-do list is good and necessary to have at times... for a Type A personality it becomes all encompassing... to where I don't sit down to play with Crewe or snuggle up on the couch with my honey at the end of the day until that to-do list is complete.

 

I don't want to miss all the enjoyments of life, simply to check a few things off the list. Things that are going to be right back on the list tomorrow.... doing the dishes, laundry, sweeping the floor, making the beds... Can I get an AMEN?

 

My point is that those things are always going to be there.

 

I want to take the time to let Crewe out of the shopping cart to help me find stuff at the grocery store  or let him do his balancing act on the curbs as we walk to the car. The rush, rush, rush of the day has got to slow down.

 

 

I want facebook and all the other social medias out there to not occupy so much of my day. I want to spend the time I would be on facebook getting dinner on the table earlier, engaging with my husband after Crewe goes to bed (take that how you will ;-) and I am making it happen everyday. It feels so good, so refreshing, so much more how life is supposed to be. CONNECTING with those my heart loves most rather than my phone or the computer.

They are like damn addictions I tell you. It is madness!

 

And here's another cool thing about it... I have noticed when I shorten my to do list each day my patience drastically increases. I deal with tantrums better, small kinks in our plans for the day don't stress me out, I am just all around a happier person, which makes for a happier family and isn't that what all of us want?

 

Like my honey always tells me, "Babe, the things that you don't get checked off your list today will still be there tomorrow." My sweet laid back husband has it all figured out.

 

So here we go again "Intentional". Please be good to me this year!

 

I'm weird and I know it!

Sometimes my brain works by song lyrics, so put this to "I'm sexy and I know it" and it makes more sense. Just one more little way I keep life exciting.

 

So I have been wanting to do this post for 2 reasons. One, to get it out there that I am kind of weird and kinda okay with it and two, so Crewe can know that weird is okay and cool, because of course his mama is the coolest of weird.

 

Oh and feel free to chime in at the end with how you are weird.... you know just to not make me feel alone here. ;-)

Here are some crazies about me:

 

1) I will wash, dry, fold and hang up 5 loads of laundry and it never fails I get to the last 3 or 4 items and just quit. It is like the thought of hanging up or folding 1 more piece is JUST.TOO.MUCH. Never mind that I just folded/hung 500 articles of clothing.

 

 

 

2) I take swigs of coffee creamer throughout my day as a sweet fix. In reality I probably drink about 200 of my daily calories in coffee creamer.

 

3) When the bath water runs at night I HAVE to have my feet right under it and I like the water to be like scalding hot.

 

 

 

4) Along with the coffee creamer. I snack on bacon bits all.day.long.! They have the perfect amount of salty and the texture is awesome (I really do eat healthy).

 

5) I absolutely, no questions asked, have to shave my legs every.single.day! I cannot stand the way unshaved legs feel on pants and sheets. I think I have some kind of sensory disorder.

 

 

 

6) I hate.hate.hate washing my jeans beacuase it makes me feel like I have gained 10lbs in my sleep.

Confession: I wear my jeans A LOT before I wash them.

 

7) I always have an organization project going on in my head... that will come to completion. Truth: my husband hates it.

 

 

 

8) I have been known, on more than 100 occasions, to make my bed 10 minutes before we get in it just so the sheets are tight. I hate feeling smothered in my bed sheets. Again... sensory issues much?

 

9) I could win an award for the amount of times I have rewashed clothes in the washer because I ALWAYS forget to put them in the dryer and then they will sit in the dryer until I have a load in the washer forcing me to fold them.

 

Daddy always ends up pushing the kiddie cart

 

 

I wanted to have 10, but that is all I can think of tonight. Trust me there are much more than 9 oddities about me.

 

Of course I mixed in some fun pictures, that have nothing to do with my post, which it make it that much more weird, to make me not seem quite as weird. That's a lot of weird.

 

Hope everyone has a great weekend

Enjoying

Not worried about blogging, not overly worried about taking picutes just enjoying the days with my little man and big man.

 

I think there are always times that it is important to put some things down so that other things can be picked up. I have been having some serious tugs at my heart to opt out of the social media world altogether as I think it occupies so much time that could be spent doing other things, but alas I am still here. 

 

We haven't done anything too exciting or eventful but stuff, none the less, that fills my days and makes me happy. The things that seem so insignificant about the day, are the things that John and I sit and laugh about at night.

 

 

Like the dents that are developing in our baseboards from a car loving two year and the humor he finds in crashing them into the wall (ask me how I feel about those when it comes time to put our house on the market)

 or his love for shutting the dryer door 50 times while I transfer the laundry

or the fact that he NOW loves naptime because mommy lays on the floor and cuddles with him the whole time.

Yep he figured that one out quick and I fell for it.

That is just our life now and I am okay with it, some aspects might suffer, but I am enjoying the slow down.
 

There has also been a lot of meeting daddy at the park for lunch, swinging, playing on mommy and daddy's bed after dinner (one of Crewe's favorite pass times), ice cream sharing, geese watching.... (... is my transition for when I don't know what punctuation to use, in case you hadn't figured that out yet)  just soaking each other up... enjoying. Nothing pressing, no schedules.

 

 

Happy, almost, weekend!

My Ministry

There is something about getting out in the fresh air that clears the mind and enables you to think a little more straight, which is just what Crewe and I needed. I keep making excuses as to why not to get out of the house, when if really just boils down to the fact that I hate to be cold.
 

 

Yesterday I made it happen. Crewe has been my little hip baby ever since Daddy came home and his sleep has been hit or miss, so I have been feeling sorry for myself lately.

 

We got out the little wagon he got for Christmas and walked and walked and walked and it was glorious. I wasn't telling him "no"  every other sentence and we were able to just enjoy each other completely.
 

 

The more my negative days are mixed in with the good, granted the negative are far outweighed by the good, the more I am understanding that my ministry right now is in my home.

 

I have been going through a search, so to say, of way I feel like everyday is the same thing over and over. Asking things like....Is what I do everyday even going to make a difference in the world or would I be better off at an 8-5 (cry me a river), but that is how I have felt.
 

 

 There is good in this search though because it is stretching me, molding me, changing me and the good kind of change. The change that makes you a better you. The change that makes you want to go climb Mount Everest and scream your heart out that you did it, when you get to the top.

 

 The search is leading me to learn that my ministry IS doing the laundry, cooking the meals (with a glass of wine), making the beds, nurturing Crewe, taking care of my husband.

 

It IS making our house a home.. a warm, welcoming place for us to escape the world.

 

It IS making sure my desires and heart are lined up with God and nurturing Crewe's little desires and heart to be the same.

 

It IS to provide a center of life for all who live here.

 

It IS being all the things that I have felt for the last 2 years are not contributing to my family in a big way or having much of a ministry at all.
 

 

But you see if I can make my home my ministry and find joy in that task everyday I CAN affect eternity! Because the home I am creating for Crewe WILL effect who he chooses for a wife and the values of a mate he holds high. It WILL effect the home he wants to create for his children and it is a domino effect from there.

 

And you know what??? I hold all of that in the palm of my hand right now, it is mine to decide what I want to do with it. It is completely and utterly my choice. Oh how that makes my heart flutter with excitement and realize just how big my ministry, that I once thought was nothing, IS.
 

I think back on starting my journey with the Crazy Wrap Thang and my "why" for wanting to work from home. I wanted to be able to bring a little bit of income in to save for a family vacation once a year. In my head I HAD to have these monumental vacations once a year so that my son would have fond memories of his childhood.

And while that "side job" has allowed us to take a monthly vacation if we chose... it is not some once a year BIG vacation/ memory that is going to shape my sweet babe... it is the day to day little moments that are going to shape him the most. The kissing of ouwies, the rocking at night, the dinner time prayers, the patience through fits, the walks around the park, playing peek-a-boo behind a tree.

Oh how I had it so backwards.
 

So Crewe, thank you for taking me to the edge and back with your sporadic sleep and 24 hour need of me. I will never have these years back with you and one day I will be wishing you were under my roof, wanting to sit in my lap, on my head, and pulling on my pants. God is doing big things in me, through you.

"Wherever you are right now - BE THERE ... that is where God is - with you - right there - right now"- Christine Caine