in three months

so everyone has wondered where they will be in five years. or maybe your number of choice is ten years. whatever. that's not the point. the point is that we spend time thinking about the future. we set goals and make notes and give time lines and plan like dickens! (what is 'the dickens' anyway?) we plan it all out like we have control or something. we spend hours laying in bed beside our husbands whispering things like "when we have this done" or "when the kids get older" or "when we are out of debt" and dream away our lives. and that is a sad thing, to dream away your life.

am i saying that it is bad to plan and scheme and figure things out for the future? uhhh....BIG NOPE! did you read the post a few days ago? i'm preaching to myself here. yes we need plans and goals and time lines and dickened plans! but not at the cost of the moment. the right now awesome in your face life that happens every second of every day.

in three months i'll, more than likely, i'll have a week old baby and a fifteen month old. (please say a prayer for me!) in three months my son's life will forever change. he'll be a big brother and no longer the baby. i'm trying my hardest to live for every second. i'm making memories with just him. documenting his history as an only child. i'm putting dirt into a kiddy pool and adding water just so that i have a memory of him all by himself covered in ooey gooey mud (true story).

the weeks before silas was born i craved every single second of dave's attention. now in the weeks and months before elijah gets here i crave every single second of silas's attention. i want to make the most of every, single moment. remember every single hug. burn images into my mind of every smile.

with someone this cute that's not so hard though!







carpe diem folks!

i'm a proud mama today!

i have known for a few months that silas isn't allergic to peanuts. he's had peanut butter on toast and bananas, but i hadn't given him the true test yet. will he eat, and enjoy, peanut butter on pancakes? the answer is yes. yes he does! for breakfast this morning he had three quarters of a large pancake schmutzed with peanut butter, five grapes, and a sippy cup full of water.

i have converted my husband to the club of peanut butter on pancakes while we were still dating and i am very glad! my parents are a house divided. my dad smears the peanut buttery goodness all over his pancakes and waffles while my mom turns up her nose and spreads regular old butter. thankfully this is not cause for distress in their marriage!

let's just hope that elijah (have a shared that yet? the new baby will be elijah grey!) likes peanut butter on his pancakes. i don't think i could handle a house divided. no matter how much of an example my parents are!

temporary home

i am a horrible blogger. just throwing that out there and getting it out of the way! :o) now on to the actual post!

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i have been tossing this post around in my head for quite sometime. i just haven't had the time, energy, or actual want to get it out of my head and into the great big internet. people who know me know that i suffer from occasional bouts of depression and every time i start to think about what i'm going to write, i'm likely to either be in a depressed state or about to head into one. this time though, i'm not going to. this time i'm looking with different eyes. hopefully.

today i heard carrie underwood's song Temporary Home on pandora while silas and i were playing. i was immediately drawn to the words and had to look them up and find the video on youtube.



(warning it's a bit of a tear jerker...or maybe it's just because i'm in a contemplative mood and pregnant...read the lyrics here!)

i can't really relate to any of the characters in the song, but i can so relate to the mood and overall feel of the song. i'm in my temporary home. i'm not just talking about terra firma here, though my life on this earth is temporary. i'm talking about where i am in the world at this exact moment. my life right now.

don't misunderstand me, i love my life. i'm at home with son every day and get to witness him grow up right before my eyes. i'm growing another little boy. my marriage is great. my cats are good. our finances aren't perfect, but our heads are above water. i'm working on my masters. life is good. we're living, loving and pursuing happiness. i'm content.

but this is temporary.

this isn't exactly what i want for my family and for myself. i miss teaching like i would miss oxygen if it were suddenly taken from earth. i truly feel that God has called me to the teaching profession, but just not right now (i'm learning lesson in waiting). that career, or any career for that matter, makes me feel important. like i mean something. like i can have what i want because i deserve it. i want my own house, with walls that are painted the colors that i pick out instead of what my landlord wants. i want to put our hard earned money towards an investment instead of a rental. i want family vacations and spur of the moment weekend trips. i want to be able to afford to fix my car if something happens. i want to be able impulse buy a new gadget. i want to take my husband to the doctor when he is sick without worrying about the $75 check i have to write to cover the visit and then the $45 check i have to write to pay for his prescriptions. i want to be comfortable. i want to know that we are going to be able to pay for this winter's electric bill without sacrificing something else.

i know all that sounds selfish. every sentence in that last paragraph was i want. self centered. pity party invites all around! go ahead, tell me to be content. tell me to rely on the One Who Holds the Future. i'll agree with you. i do agree with you! i tell myself that on a daily basis. i pray for contentment and for the ability to rely fully on God. i'm getting there. i really am. God has taught me many, many things over the past year. but He never takes away my yearning for something more. He never takes away my dream of being back in the classroom. He never takes away my desire to have, and be, better for my family. and i'm learning to use those desires to push myself forward.

yes, things are tough sometimes. i still look back on how i came to be in this situation and i get angry and bitter. i'm working on that too. the difference now is that i'm trying to get myself out of this 'temporary home' and into a more permanent one. and i'm not just talking a house here people. i know that someday i'll be where i want to be. that i'll be doing what i love with people who love me. i know that my boys will grow up happy and loved and that my husband and i will be stronger because of this temporary home.

home is where my family is. right now it's in a big drafty farm house with bad insulation and drafty windows. tomorrow it's still going to be a big drafty farm house with bad insulation and drafty windows. but next year? in five years? who knows? for now, though, i'm working on being content in my temporary home.

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"This is my temporary home
It's not where I belong.
Windows and rooms that I'm passin' through.
This is just a stop, on the way to where I'm going.
I'm not afraid because I know this is my
Temporary Home."

wednesday morning thoughts

last night as i was laying in bed with my family, dave and i held hands over silas's little (well not so little anymore) body while he softly snored. we whispered about our day and what all i had to do to get ready to leave on thursday for a few days. we discussed his three days of bachelor-hood and how he was going to live off hot dogs and bologna and i got a little nauseous. i flipped into my sleeping position, half on my side half on my stomach propped up by a body pillow, and baby boy was swimming around. dave says it's because he knew he was there with his whole family. sweet.

i have no idea what we will do when the new baby comes in regards to sleeping arrangements. call me a bad parent and question our decision to co-sleep all you want, but we love sleeping as a family. it feels natural and is what a whole big lot of the world does already. the problem is that i have to have a repeat c-section and i'm not sure i want silas squirming around all night while i'm trying to recover from major abdominal surgery. i don't think it would be good for either of us. so we need to figure something out. he HATES the crib and refuses to sleep in it. he'll sleep in the pack and play for a few hours, but not through the night like he does if he sleeps with us. oh well. we'll wing it. that's what we've been doing so far in this crazy thing called parenting.

i'm half-way there. the cook time for this new little guy is already half-way done. i can't even fathom it. i mean, i know i'm pregnant (thank you constant bathroom going and growing belly for reminding me) and that this baby is coming in october. i know that. i know that silas is going to have a little brother. i know lots and lots of things. it just seems so...not real. does that even make sense?

anyway, enough brooding. a LIST!

-i wish i could eat an entire watermelon. not a slice. not a few slices. THE ENTIRE THING!
-dutch is almost a year old. how in the world did that happen?
-i'm helping my dad photograph my cousin's wedding in PA this weekend. i am not looking forward to the long drives. i'll be so swollen my legs will look like an elephant. oh well! should be fun. that wasn't supposed to be sarcastic...if it was.
-silas has this crazy obsession with balls. he will chase a ball around the room forever!
-i'm hungry. all.the.time.
-i have a pile of laundry that needs done. asap.
-i finally found this cute pair of sandals that actually fit around my ankles and have a cute buckle. i'm really wanting to wear them to the wedding, but if i swell up then i won't be able to wear them and it's regular old flip flops for me! is it bad that i'm going to be wearing flip flops to a wedding? i'm pregnant! if they don't like it...why am i even worried. they aren't going to be caring about my footwear! the happy couple have much more on their minds!
-i think that is enough for now!

i hope your day is full of living and loving!

a house full of boys!

we went today for the big gender reveal ultrasound. we will welcome another little boy in mid october. i'm excited for the brother relationship that will ensue with two little boys. i think i'm going to love being the mama of boys!

in other news, silas is FINALLY cutting his first tooth. he hasn't been cranky about it at all either. i actually probably wouldn't have noticed except my mom was hear today and he was gnawing on her finger and she felt it. so all in one day we have a tooth and another little boy. it's been exciting in this house today!

after our appointment today, we made a trip to walmart to do some grocery shopping. we have a swiper! well, silas didn't really swipe a book, i was waiting for dave and i picked up this cool little dino book. i gave it to silas to look at for a few minutes while i read the back of a book that i'm kind of interested in. anyway, dave came back and i finished up reading the back of my book. i turned back to silas and saw that he didn't have the book. i thought that maybe dave had taken it from him and put it back. when we got home, as we were unloading the bags, i realized he must have thrown it into the cart when i wasn't looking. i'm sure it won't be the last time i pay for some small item that i wasn't expecting to pay for. at least it was a really cool book!

hope your day is full of living and loving!

eleven months

can you even believe that my little is eleven (ELEVEN?!) months old? it is 12:30 am on june 1 and i'm thinking about my boy who is asleep upstairs with his daddy. he's eleven months old. i can't believe that!

which also leads me to think about baby number 2. we've only got about 4 months until they make their debut!

my brain is CRAZY right now. that's all i've got for now. more later today/tomorrow.

i can't sleep because of lint balls!

i seriously have been sitting here for like 20 minutes trying to figure out what to write about. i haven't written in awhile, and i know you have just been on pins and needles waiting for me to put fingertips to keyboard keys and bust out a post. sorry to keep you waiting for so long! :o)

i was lying in bed all comfy cozy, but then i started thinking about the clothes that i put in the dryer before i went upstairs. then i started thinking about that stupid commercial about how lint balls are extremely flammable and that you should routinely inspect and clean your vents. well, i don't know how to routinely inspect or clean my vents and thus i became paranoid. all i could do was lay there and think of different ways that we would get out of this house if it went up in flames. i was tossing and turning and praying that these images of my house going up in flames and dave and i jumping from our porch roof and one of us throwing silas to the other once they were on the ground would just leave me alone, but they didn't. so what did i do? i came down stairs and now i'm waiting for the dryer to go off so that i can sleep in peace knowing that my lint balls aren't going to go up in flames.

praise the Lord, there was the buzzer!

ever since i had silas i CANNOT help but think of these crazy things. this winter i was terrified that one of us would kick the blanket off the bed and that it would get to close to the space heater and catch fire. then there was the week that i was convinced that a mouse was going to climb through a hole in my upstairs floor and get into bed with silas and bite him. now i'm afraid that somehow there will be a snake in my house and that my dryer is going to burst into flames. who knows what i'm going to be terrified of this fall! i think i'm going crazy, or i'm just a mom. i haven't figured it out yet. i'll let you know when i do.

hope your day/night/morning/afternoon/whenever you are reading this is full of living and loving!