Great Mysteries

Have you ever read that Berenstein Bears book about the galloping, greedy gimmies? We need to read it more often at our house. We went grocery shopping this morning (because it was payday--and that is a super big deal at our house if you know anything about our life these last 6 months or so). It seems like every aisle was, "I want this or that or everything." I love my kiddos, but that gets old really quickly. While we were at the store, Aidan asked if there was a bathroom there. What I silly question because it seems like he has used it about 500 times. Anyway, that's not really my gripe. He did actually go potty before we left the house. My challenge is this. How on earth do you make those silly automatic flushers flush? Aidan did his thing and then it wouldn't flush. I waved my hand in front of the little sensor box. I pretended to sit down and stand up. I put my foot on the seat and applied pressure. No flush. So if you were that nice looking lady that walked in the bathroom behind us, sorry. I tried everything I could think of. It still hadn't flushed by the time we washed our hands. I don't know. It's one of life's great mysteries.

Anybody reading this must think that life at our house is lived in the bathroom. We should probably get out more often. I do have to tell you about the picture that Aidan drew for me yesterday. He is quite the little artist. He LOVES to draw pictures. The picture he drew yesterday was mommy in the shower. Mommy is standing in the shower smiling. Fortunately, the only way you can tell that I am naked is because you can see my belly button. The faucet is in color, so I know which is hot and which is cold, but the rest is in pencil. At the top of the page it says, "Aidan (heart) Mom." It really is sweet. I need to find a better way to store his pictures. He is just getting so creative with them. Any suggestions that don't involve taking up tons of space would be appreciated.

Little Victories

I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but sleeping is highly overrated. If you've ever been a parent, you know that each child is different--completely different. Aidan was a super sleeper from the time he was pretty young. As long as we are near to him, he sleeps great. (His favorite place to sleep is on the floor next to Daddy's side of the bed). In fact, that was part of the problem we had with potty training him. He slept so well, that he wasn't waking in the night to go potty. We have since conquered that problem. Breanna, on the other hand, until 2 nights ago has been waking up what feels like 5,000 times each night to nurse. (Yes, my 3 year old still nurses.) Night before last, my beautiful little angel was so tired, apparently, that she slept until 6:30 a.m. Yeah! However, since her pattern is to wake up so much, Mommy woke up several times and had to go check on her. She was fine, of course. So much for a good night's sleep. Last night she again slept most of the night. It was 3:30 a.m. before she came into our room. Yeah! Again, Mommy woke up several times. My prayer is that this is the beginning of her *finally* sleeping through the night. She's 3 now, by the way. Honestly, I've been praying for her to sleep through the night for a long time. Just more proof that God answers prayers in HIS time. With all the other craziness that has been going on in our lives the past few months, one would think we would learn to trust God in the little things, too. Let go, Jennille. That's what God is telling me. I'm learning to listen. Learning doesn't happen overnight. I am thankful for little victories. Right now, she is working toward that ever elusive sleepover at the grandparents' house. You are on your way, little pumpkin!

Disappearing Poo

Who is Jennille? I'm me. That was profound, huh? I'm a child of God. I'm a mom to two. I'm a wife to one. I'm a major screw up--okay, probably not major, but it feels like it sometimes. Thank you, God, for grace and forgiveness. I'm bossy. I'll admit it now, but I didn't use to be bossy, I will have you know. I'm a small business owner. More on that one later. I AM funny--despite what my husband says. I am a lot of things. God blessed me with a lot of talents and desires. I don't know when I will do them all, but He does. At this point, you are probably wondering, "Where is the disappearing poo that you mentioned in the title?" because that's what I would be wondering if I were you...so without further ado, the disappearing poo story.

I don't recall how it came up, but you can't wonder too much when you have a 5-year-old boy around, but the topic of poo arose. Out of the blue, Aidan says,
"Mom! Listen to this! It is SO COOL! I went poop behind the shed and then I went back later and like magic, it just disappeared!" He was genuinely excited about this. Needless to say, I had to go around the corner, so I could fall over laughing without him seeing, because surely we don't want to encourage this behavior, right? My next thought was EEWWWWW!!!! Did I mention that we have two dogs? Their were so excited, apparently, for thier extra snack that day. After we proceeded to pick ourselves up off the floor from laughing, we did manage to tell him that, while peeing outside behind the shed is one thing, we only go poop in the potty. I'll be honest. When we were potty training the little guy, he was just having a rough go of it for a while. So like a good mom that lives in the country, we taught him to write his name in the dirt. It worked. What can I say?

So...not so much on the profound wisdom that I have acquired in today's post, but it's these sweet moments that I want to remember. Someday, these cute little sweetnesses of mine will be grown up and they will want to date and *someday* get married (which Aidan told me last night at lights out that he was completely scared of--and that's okay with me, right now), and I will need to have some stories to tell future spouses. It's only fair. I just want to remember all these fun things. That's what my blog is all about. Life and learning. Signing off for now. Enjoy the poo in life.

There's a first time for everything

Okay. So by the encouragement of my friend, Amanda (who happens to be a very wise and wonderful person and blogger), I am starting my own blog. We'll see what comes of it, but my goal is to have a record of all the great (though not always exciting or happy) things that happen in my life. Along the way, Lord willing, we all keep learning and just keep loving--hence the title. I have such a fabulous hubby and wonderfully sweet, though stubborn, children. This is our life. So on that note...

Happy birthday today to that fabulous hubby of mine, Brad! He has reached the big 3-0 on this very day. I am so honored to call him my own. I am so proud of him for all the hard work that he does--the Lord has really blessed him with a strong work ethic. He's really hot, too. I'll add pictures later, but he's mine, already.

That's all for today. I'll introduce myself more next time. Enjoy!