An End of an Era

THIS is truly the day every mother dreads: the day there are no more naps. I have officially made the conscious decision to not put Breanna down for naps anymore. She just doesn't sleep well at night if she has a nap now. I guess I feel fortunate. Aidan stopped taking naps just after he turned 2. Ouch! So at least I got an extra year out of Breanna. However, quiet time is still REQUIRED--every day. My friend Debbie calls it "sanity hour" at her house. Mommy is just a nicer person when she has a little bit of quiet time each day. We have rules for quiet time at our house. No tv. No laundry. No house cleaning. We CAN read. We can lay down and stare at the ceiling or out a window. We can have one toy and play with it on our bed. (That rule is for the kids.) I actually try to not have any appliances running, too. Not too long ago, I read "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. Not the best book, spiritually & theologically speaking, but a decent read none the less. One of the things she talks about in the book is taking time to be quiet, really quiet. Just sit there and be alone with your thoughts and God with no noise distractions. It's actually kind of difficult. Even living in a quiet, small town there is still noise everywhere. I think sometimes it's easy to let the noise of life distract us. I know it's kind of a cliche, but it really is true. Try it sometime. Turn off everything and just sit. Don't sleep. Just sit. I have an expression that I will *eventually* put on my wall that says "The memory of God comes to a quiet mind." So here is my challenge to myself (and anyone else that might happen to read this): quiet your mind; listen to God. He actually talks to us all the time. Now I just need to listen.

T-ball Wisdom

Last night was Aidan's first t-ball scrimmage. Oh my gosh, was is ever cute! As far as I could tell, they all ran the right direction around the bases--though, some with more gusto than others. My favorite was when there were 3 or 4 kids on one base, and they didn't want to leave. Then there was the sit down and chat Sam, which if you know Sam at all you would not be surprised by that one. He is a very social kid. Aidan is really into team work. He had hit the ball and was now on second. The next batter hit and it came right to Aidan. So what does my little team-player do? He bends over and picks it up and throws it to the "pitcher." THEN he continued his run to 3rd and home. lol! Seriously, though. What if in life, we all took the time to go out of our way and help someone? Wouldn't this be a nicer world? I guess that's one reason we live in a small town. People do help each other out, for the most part. For example, we have some friends that are having some serious marriage trouble. I know statistically speaking it was bound to happen to some of our friends sooner or later, but I just didn't realize how much I would hurt for them, personally. Anyway, Brad has been talking to the man about ways to help and what not. I've been trying to talk to the woman because she's my friend. I thought she was avoiding me. However, I ran into her at church and asked her why should would be doing that. She told me that her husband needed friends, too. I pointed out to her that we could be friends with both of them, though maybe not simultaneously. Silly girl. I love both my kids, don't I? Even when they are fighting with each other. My heart just aches for them both. I know that I can't fix everything and everyone--in my mind, I know that. I just have this tendancy to try. We have to try, right? Maybe not fix, but at least help. That's what being and having friends is for.

Growing

Why do babies have to grow up? I know, in my mind, they HAVE to, but I just don't feel ready sometimes--yet, at the same exact time, I am so excited for it. I'm sure this is the quandry of mothers since the beginning of time. Breanna has decided that she likes going to the "big kid" Sunday school class. I'm sure part of her excitement is that she gets to go with Bubba (aka Aidan), but she doesn't fuss and just runs on in. Yeah! Now can I have a tissue to blot my eyes? She's my BABY for crying out loud! I think we got this sleep thing figured out for the most part, too. Pretty soon, she's not going to want to nurse it all--even though I was convinced that she was on the 18 year nursing plan. So I am sure that part of this is my current guilt over not feeling like the best mother in the world (see Amanda's blog from yesterday--she completely nailed that one on the head, so no need for me to reiterate). I know I'm not perfect. I just feel like there have been more raised voices lately than needs to be. With the Lord's help, I'm working on that one. Honestly, I need to take my own advice. So okay, Jennille, here goes. Children are NOT little adults. They honestly don't understand everything you ask of them. Children are NOT little robots. They don't unquestioningly obey. Children ARE little computers--what goes in must come out. So I can't be surprised if they yell at each other if I yell at them what seems like all day long. Children do have a different and individual personality of their own, so as much as they may look like Daddy and have similar traits, they are different and unique. That's all for today's rant. It's time to go eat pancakes.

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!