Motherhood

I can't imagine not being a mother now. I knew I always wanted to be one, and even in college, I knew I wanted to be a housewife. It is so fulfilling for me and I know that this where God wants me to be.
It's funny, we were talking in our home group about being Godly women and being involved in ministry. I mentioned that I felt badly because I wasn't really contributing to the various ministries at our church. Our worship leader stopped me and said, "God has you just where He wants you. Raising Godly children is one of the most important ministries there is. This is where you are supposed to be in this season of your life." That made me feel so much better.
I know another woman that I went to high school with who recently belittled my existence. "Oh, you're just a stay at home mom?" She is single and does not have any children and I think it is sad that she doesn't get it.

Making My Home a Haven

Travis and I spent the better part of the afternoon and evening returning our house to normal. Bye Bye Christmas! We normally leave the tree up until New Years day at least, but we have been running the heater more for Alton and the tree dried right up. Plus, I wanted Travis's help putting everything away, because there is no way I could have done it all myself while caring for Alton.
We even cleaned up the office! It is normally a pile of crud. We throw everything we don't have an immediate home for in there and boy does it show! We got rid of a bunch of my old Mary Kay stuff and a bunch of expired PartyLite catalogs. The layers of dust we soooooooooo thick in there. Jack and Lucy were not at all amused by the extreme use of the vacuum. The office still isn't done, but we can now see carpet that has not seen the light of day in a couple of years.

Alton is feeling much better. His teeth are still coming in, but his sore throat cleared up and he is sleeping much better. He woke up at one am wanting to party. But his poor parents were not, so we just brought him into bed with us and hoped he would get the message. He finally slept at about 2 and we all slept in until 9:30.

I am excited that I am really building a nice routine for keeping the house nice. When I was having people over last weekend, I was beside myself because I did not have anything to do to the house before they came over. I feel like things are much more under control and making dinner is no longer as stressful since the kitchen is always clean. DO IT! Take back your home. You and your marriage will be much much happier!

PHOTOS!

The sixth month shoot, Disneyland on Christmas Eve, Christmas morning with PAPER!, and new toys!

I am 6 Months Old!

The paper says so!

"ZOMG! Is that paper?!??!!?"

A triumphant squeek is muffled behind a piece of paper...

"It's mine! All mine!"

"Darn. I think I got a paper cut when Daddy took away the
paper."

"I'll smile anyway, the show must go on!"

---

"Come here Lucy, this won't hurt a bit. Angus showed me
how."

"Darn it, another one got away."

---

"We are very advanced. Look at us stand. Don't you wish
your were hot like us?"

---

Christmas Eve at
Disneyland

With Mommy and Daddy at the front of Disneyland.

"Grandpa, don't you know that this is not my good
side?"

"Pop Pop and I have the same hair.

Mommy says that he is where my award winning dimples come
from."

In front of Pooh's honey pots

"This doesn't taste like Honey... or mommy."

"Pop Pop says the camera likes me."

Main Street on Christmas Eve

"Yes, these are my ears."

It says so on the back.

---

Christmas Morning

"It looked like this when I got here, I swear."

"ZOMG!!! Paper. Overload. Can. Not. Handle. The.
EXCITEMENT!!!"

---

Alton's New Teething
Toy

"Hmmm. Nobody's looking."

"It has a fuller flavor than my Pooh teething ring."

---

Mommy's New Toy

"Mommy's wearing me!"

"Mommy is wearing me in the rain, and I am holding the
umbrella."

My favorite toy from Christmas.

Alton and the Jumperooooooooooo

A Big thank you to Aunt Janice and the rest of the Ohio gang for the Toys R Us gift certificate. Mommy and Daddy put it to good use!

I miss my home being a haven!

So with the arrival of Christmas and half the contents of a Toys r Us now taking up residence in our living room, there are piles of stuff EVERYWHERE!
Not coincidentally, Travis and I have been squabbling more.
On top of that, Alton is sick with a virus that gave him a fever of 104. We went to the emergency room with that one.
Finally, he is cutting his first tooth as well which means he wakes up crying. Oh, and because of the teething and the fact that he is congested at night means that we have to drive him around for 1/2 an hour to get him to sleep and then Travis carries in his Britax Marathon car seat where he sleeps until he wakes up screaming. :( I have rocked him to sleep every night for the past three nights, but he always wakes up 45 minutes later. Poor baby.

I promise that soon I will post never before seen pictures of his 6 month photo session and Christmas morning.

Oh, and while the house is a mess, I am still reading my daily devotional and vacuuming at least the living room. So there is hope for me to return to my routine soon.

Happy day to all of my readers. :)

Making My Home a Haven I've lost track of which day

So I was super busy last week, so I did not stick to my new routine, but I did manage a quick pick-up everyday so that the living room stayed nice. Today's task was to clean bedrooms and I did. Alton is asleep, or I would take and post after photos.

One of the babies from my Playgroup board died. The mom hasn't said specifically how she died, but from what we can piece together, her daughter had to be sedated for an MRI, and even though she came out of anesthesia, she died at home later that day. I have heard that is something to look out for when someone so young is sedated. It freaks me out and the board has been pretty much deserted today, as if posting on the board is going to put our babies at danger as well. I did not know Tina in real life, but we are both nursing mothers and she was one of the first people I came to recognise on the board. I can not imagine losing your child and then having to wait for your milk to dry up. :(

Onto more cheery thoughts. I got my to do list done today:
Do two loads of laundry
Make Lunch for Travis
Vacuum living room, bedrooms, and office
Clean bedrooms
Returns and exchanges at Stride Rite and Gymboree
Fold all the clean laundry

We are having our home group over for a white elephant gift exchange and potluck. It should be a good time!

Making My Home a Haven Day 4

I thought I should clean my bathrooms today and guess what today's task is?

I will post photos later.

Today's to do list:
Pack Travis's lunch
Clean Up Kitchen Table
Clean up dining room table
LAUNDRY
Go to Target and return/exchange
Clean the bathrooms

Is anyone reading today?

Making My Home a Haven Day Three

Yesterday's task was tidy the laundry area.

Ours is is the garage, so it is hard to make it "pretty".

But it does look better than it did.

To do list (done)

Fold and put away diapers

Unload dishwasher and clean up breakfast dishes.

Pack Travis' lunch

Do Borders Cafe secret shop

Banking

Got it all done!

Making My Home a Haven Day Two

I did all my tasks for the day.

I did my morning routine, had a quiet time, did the task of the day, and did my to do list.
Today's to do list is as follows:

Pick up Travis's dry cleaning (The thing my husband asked me to do today)
Fold and assemble cloth diapers
Unload the dishwasher and dish rack
Tidy, dust and vacuum the living room (which was the task of the day)
Pack Diaper bag for Disneyland!

Everything is done and I was able to get it all done while Alton had his morning nap. :)

The before shots....

The Afters...

Making My Home a Haven

So today for the first time, Alton played quietly with his toys while I cleaned his room and closet. (Really his room is just a huge closet since his crib is still in our room.) I was able to sort through his outgrown clothes and tidy some things away. I was so excited that he was able to sit and play all by himself and I realized that I might be able to get things done around the house now. :)

Maggie, (the link to her blog is on the right) posted a link to a Christian woman's website that is trying to help women make their homes havens for their families. Since our house was generally in good shape pre-Alton, I was very happy to see a guide to return to my previous housekeeping standards. I miss coming home to a tidy house. Travis hasn't said anything and he is very helpful, but I know he misses coming home to a clean house with dinner started.

On the blog there are day by day challenges and though I am starting a few days behind everyone else, I am still starting. Day one's challenges were to spend time with the Lord and make a morning routine to-do list. I have been meaning to do this for quite some time, but never got around to it. Here is my list:

1. Wake up and pray.
2. Shower and dress.
3. Read my on-line devotional.
4. Breast Feed Alton
5. Make breakfast for my family
6. Eat Family breakfast and discuss plans for the day.

The final task for day one:
3. Do Something! (5 -15 minutes)Each day I'm going to be giving you a simple organizational task to complete in your home. And today we're going to start at the very beginning - a very good place to start!Put on an apron, light a candle, and turn on some uplifting music. Then go to your front door and pretend you are a first-time visitor to your home. Walk in and take a look around. What is your immediate impression of your home? Is it calm and clean or cluttered and chaotic? Take five to fifteen minutes to clean, de-clutter, and beautify your entry area. Do a quick pick up if there are items out of place, mop or vacuum the floor, shake the rug, spot clean the walls, and rearrange things.

I did clean up my entry hall. We had all the bins from the Christmas decor out and about and the coat tree was overflowing. I pruned the coat tree and as soon as Travis got home, we put the bins back out in the garage.

Is anyone reading? Feel free to post a comment or drop me an e-mail so I know. :)

A Boy and His Banana

Alton makes the funniest noises when he is hungry and eating.

I'm afraid he might hyperventilate some day!