Highest form of flattery!

Day 18: Who is a mom you admire? What quality of hers can you live out today?

Wow! Well this was a no brainer!! I admire my Mom!  She is always loving, you always know where you stand with her, she isn't afraid to say the hard things that need to be said, she loves and hurts for us, she would give it all up for us, and most important she is in love with my children!!

Growing up I had it all!  I had 2 parents that had beat all odds.  They were married when she was 16 and he was 18 and they are still married.  They have shown me what a marriage is.  It isn't a perfect picture it is a daily struggle that gladly wake up to every day!!  I lived in a house that had rules!!!!  Very clear rules (that I liked breaking) and very clear punishments that were handed out because of love.  I also lived in a house where church was a way of life not an option.  Our home wasn't always laughter and hugs but we had enough that made memories!!

I pray that my children may look back on their childhood and see all the "unfair" times in a different light.  I hope they know that we punished them and made rules for them out of love.  I hope that I have a friendship with my children like my brother and I have with my mom!  If given a choice I choose to hang out with my mom!  We have so much fun together!!

My mom has taught me how to love, how much I would hurt when my children hurt, and how to love the Lord!  My mom can turn the dullest moment into a fun memory!!  That is the quality I want to live out today!  One example of this would be from when I was younger and I was smarting off about who knows what and she threw an egg at me!!!  We had an egg fight and then I had to clean it all up!!!  I can still hear us laughing and carrying on!!  I know at her work she does the same thing!!! (throws food)

Laughter is the best medicine!

Day 17: Laugh with your children today!

Little miss has a crazy little laugh that you can't help but crack up at!!  She is so funny and is always laughing really hard at herself.  Today was not a laughing day for her though!  We went to visit her new baby cousin (1 month old girl) who is the first girl since Little miss.  Needless to say she cried and screamed for us to put the new cousin down!!!  Later at McDonald's all was better!!  She loves climbing and playing with other kids!

G man is cleverly funny!  He knows exactly when to deliver the laughs!  He has a good sense of humor and enjoys making others smile!  Our running joke is that G man has stinky feet and the minute that he takes off his shoes he pretends to faint or tries to rub them in my face!!  Another thing that he says that he believes is hilarious is that his daddy stinks like cheese!!  You got to love boy humor!!

One think that my husband and I have in common is that we love to laugh and joke together!!  It is never dull in our house and we all enjoy playing and telling jokes!  We are currently walking around with quite grins because we both know what we are going to do on April Fools and we are almost bursting at the seams to do it!!!  Tune it for pictures on our funny day!!

What does their future hold...

Day 16: Picture what you want your child to be like at age 25.  Mother with that in mind today.

My goal for both of my children would be that they are Christ followers.  With that comes different characteristics such as, willingness to stand for Christ, do what is right even when it is hard, and always love the sinner but hate the sin.

Now lets get to the action plan.  Children learn most of their character traits from watching others.  My first action plan is to always remember that I have four curious little eyes watching my every move and observing the actions and words I choose.  My next step of action today is to remember that they see me at my wit's end.  Today, and hopefully from now on, I am going to be more aware of how I react when I have lost my patience. Luckily parenting lets you test these action plans daily!!  So far today I have done a much better job but am asking you to continue to pray for me as I love and encourage these little people into God fearing adults!!

I wanted to have a little fun with this one too so here we go!!
G-man at age 25 I would assume is done with college where he majored in something where he can make things work or build.  My hope is for an engineer.  He is so creative I hope he also uses that to his advantage always!  I hope that he has found a woman who will encourage him and loves the Lord as much as I pray he will.  I hope he makes me a grandma before he is 30!!!!

Little miss at age 25 I think she will be doing something with music... just like her daddy!  She loves to sing, play music, and listen to any kind of music.  Her mood can be changed with a pretty song!!!  I hope she always knows her self worth is found in a loving Father and that she never lets someone tell her the self worth she should have!  I hope she meets a man who leads their house in loving Christian manner and never takes her for granted.

Half way point!!

Well I am half way done!!  Thank you for supporting me through this and if you are just joining this is a great time to catch up on the last 15 days!!

Day 15: Be firm when needed but not harsh!

During our Love and Logic parenting adventure we have learned ways to be firm while taking ourselves out of the problems that don't belong to us.  (ex. how much children will eat, when a tantrum will be thrown)  I know the importance of the child owning their own problem and fixing it.  I have had some conversations today during my staff meetings with G man that are appropriate today!  He and 3 other boys play together during our weekly staff meeting, well today G man came in crying twice over little spouts with the others.  The first time I asked him how he felt and how he was going to make the situation better.  He looked at me crazy and then said he was going to go ask if he could play with them and then share his new sunglasses.  I told him that sounded good and I hoped it worked for him.  The second time he came in he was crying because he was hit by a ball in the hand.  (By this time I am running thin on patience... I have to keep Little miss in the meeting with me and then he keeps interrupting!!)  I asked what was wrong and  he told me then he said I just needed to say that we are sharing and playing now!

Although I have seen success through this program and trust this program works I still revert back to my impatient self.  I try daily and make this apart of  my daily prayer to put my self aside and do this for them.  This program isn't all just awesome experiences, as matter of fact Jim Faye (founder of love and logic) has a saying that L&L parents make their children uncomfortable so that they are learning real world consequences now instead of later.  I didn't understand this completely until we were in the toy section at Wal-mart... do I even need to explain the rest!! :)  G man gets an allowance based on the chores he completes (a dime per chore) which comes out to about $5 a week.  Well after he tithes and pays taxes (real world learning) he ends up with $3.  After trying to get him to save to get something big he screamed and complained about having to have a bigger toy!!!  My husband picked him up and walked him to a corner in WM and told him that he could stay here until he was done with his fit.  (he stayed in timeout with him)  G man was very uncomfortable as were we because he was SCREAMING!!  But he hasn't thrown a fit like that since and he knows that Daddy means it when he says no in public.  G man still hasn't saved any of his money and most of his cheap toys have broken but we believe that is ok because he is still learning that it is better to save for something better then to have to keep buying broken things!!

This one is hard on me...

Day 14: Remember that being a mother is a gift

I can testify to the truth of this statement! In my youth I became pregnant and suffered a loss that I am still to this day not done dealing with.  I don't know if it has more to do with the fact that I hated myself for the choices I made leading up to my pregnancy or the fact that he had "no signs of life" inside of me.  This was such a learning time for me... I learned some hard truths of life.  The one thing that I found out was that all I had was God and my family.  We found out that I suffer from a condition making it hard for me to carry full term and could make me infertile.  Out of this I met the love of my life!!!  Cory made me see truth in this situation (that my parents had been screaming at me) that I am still lovable and worthy of love because of Christ Jesus!!  I have later learned not to hold this in because there are others who need to know that they are not alone and they are not horrible people because of a sin choice.  I am the woman I am today because of this experience, I am a loving mother, a forgiven woman, and have the opportunity to work with other women daily who need me as much as I need them.

Early in our marriage we suffered a miscarriage, we had just found out and lost within 2 days.   Then came G man!!  I think he was just out to prove a point because I carried him for 42 long sick weeks!! I was -33 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight the day I went in to have this 8lb 4oz and 22 in baby!!!!  (I am very short so this is an accomplishment in itself!!!)  I knew the moment I saw him that I was given a gift!!

When G man was almost 2 we tried for 3 months (which seemed like an eternity) to become pregnant.  I found out just in time to tell my family for Christmas!!!  I left school for Christmas break so excited and when I returned I had 3rd graders asking me if I had the baby over break... oh if it were that simple!!   I was only at school for a short week when everything fell apart!  I was put on bed rest and was unable to hold G man!!  I was losing a lot of blood and we weren't sure why.  At 18 weeks (14 of that on bed rest) I went into premature labor and delivered a beautiful baby boy with the aid of my Mom.  I had my aunt in the other room (more like a closet) praying and crying over me and this baby, a distraught husband on his way, and many many more pacing in the waiting area.  My mom got to look at this perfect child before the doctor had to take him and find out what in the world had happened.  I lost again because of my condition, a cyst was in my uterus and when it ruptured it forced me into labor.  G man named this child Russ!

After all of this we were settled in our dream of adopting.  We had talked and talked about adoption and I was done trying to have another child.  So I started looking into all the different routes we could go and we began to pray over the different agencies.  (Adoption is very expensive)  I had a dear friend come down and tell me about her amazing adoption story and the cutie that was added to their family! Well during this time I know God was just cracking himself up because I was pregnant and had no idea!!  I was almost 5 months pregnant when we found out!!!  My Dr. (a very wonderful God fearing man) was bursting to tell me the news!!!  He was the same Dr. who had delivered Russ and helped me through that difficult time.  We were so excited!!  I was nervous and worried and my Dr. put me as a high risk pregnancy so I got to see him a lot during Little Miss' pregnancy.  I had to have her early because of complications at 36 weeks.  She was 5lb 14oz. and 17in long.  She had quite a few health issues following her birth but I am proud to say she is 1 yr old, finally made it on the growth charts, and hasn't had a breathing treatment in 2 months!!!

We are aware that these sweet babies are gifts and I am so proud that God chose me to be their mommy!!

Day 13: Do not criticize your children today.

Criticize is defined as: to find fault; judge unfavorably or harshly.

The definition on this one was very important.   Disciplining isn't criticizing.  This day wasn't a free pass for them... even though G man would have liked that!!

This wasn't all that hard I just had to be really aware of my word choices.  Since I have begun teaching Love and Logic my husband and I have been better about using it consistently and not just here and there.  I say that because this program encourages using empathy and teaching real life learning.  So when G man drives me crazy I use some "enforceable statements" such as, "feel free to go on to your room until you are ready to play nice with your sister."  This has helped our parenting so much!!!

Prayers for a future!

Day 12: Pray for wisdom in mothering your children.

I have a laminated strip on my bedside and it gives examples of what to pray for your children.  Here is what I pray for both of my children nightly.   

*They will know Christ as Savior early in life and desire a close relationship with 

   you throughout their childhood, teen, and adult years 
*They will develop the discipline of prayer and time in Your world 
*You will bring into their lives godly adults and friends who will help them grow in godly living. 
*You will keep them pure and strengthen them against temptation 
*They would develop discernment, wisdom, responsibility, and a strong conscience 

*They will be caught if they wander into cheating, lies, or mischief 

*They wills see other people as You do, treating them with love and kindness 
*You will protect them from emotional, physical, and spiritual danger 
*You will prepare them to be a godly, loving, and faithful spouse or prepare them to glorify You in their singleness; and that You also prepare their future spouse
*They would leave home with an eternal perspective and Christ-like values 
*They will sense Your calling on their lives and their lives will count for Your kingdom.

I haven't thought to include a prayer for myself as their mother.  I would include the following:

*You will equip me as I parent, love, and encourage my children.

*You will give me patience as I help them to grow into the adult You would have them be.

*Please God help me to be an example of Your word to my children.  Let them see You in me!!!

So blessed to have you!

Day 11: Tell your child, "I am so glad you're my son/daughter."

I love having both of my children and I am so glad that God gave them to me.

I told G man that I was so happy that he was my son today.  After flashing me a million dollar smile he told me that I should quit talking and get my swimsuit on!!  I made the mistake (again) of telling him too early that we were going to do something fun!!  He later bugged me for 2 hours until the pool opened!!!  I am still so glad that he is my son!

I saved Little miss from having her leg broken in the side of her crib!!!  I climbed in as she SCREAMED I tried to get her knee out from between the slats.  In my moment of hysteria I realized that I couldn't get it out so I proceeded to kick the slats until FINALLY her knee slid out!!  We were both filled with relief and a calmness that I just laid in her crib with her and comforted her little whimpers.  It was then that I kissed her sweet head and told her that I am so happy that she is my little girl.  Her sweet babble let me know that she understood!

Joy!

Day 10: Today's mom focus is Joy!!

Webster defines joy as:  the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires.

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

—John 15:11 


Because His joy is in me I am full!!!  I am so lucky to have a husband who enjoys spending time with us, children who love to smile and play, and a loving extended family who loves seeing us!  

Joy of living life together!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I have been there...

Day 9: Picture yourself at your child's age.  Try to remember how you felt.

Well... this doesn't work for me.  I don't remember being 1 so I can't relate to Little miss.  My only real memory of being 4 is that I got a bottle out for my new brother and squirted it out on my wrist, I had seen my mom do the same, and then gave "tested" bottle to my mom.  I do know from being told that I loved my little brother, was very imaginative (many imaginary friends), and a little hard headed!

G man loves his sister so much.  He will take up for her, make us go and get her out of her crib at the smallest whimper she makes, he makes sure that she gets the same amount of food that he does, whether she can have it or not, and always wants to play with her!  We as his parents love this!  My husband and I were both first borns and were VERY hateful and hurtful to our younger siblings.  (I am sure both of them will attest to this.)  It is our prayer that they will continue to love each other like they do now and continue to play together!

  He loves to dress up as superheroes or ninja and save the house, he pretends he is one of the dragons from Dragon Tales, and he can beat up a Megatron that I almost woke up!!  Needless to say he is just as imaginative!  When my family tells me about how I would make-up stories that would last hours and hours on long trips, or that they had to go to the clinic to pick up some injured imaginary friends I thought it was wonderful!  Now that I have an imaginative child I know how EXHAUSTING that can be!!  We are constantly having to fight off bad guys or tip toe around the house.  However exhausting it can be it is more fun to make memories this way!

Now for the hard headed part... he did get that!  He will argue over anything and he uses every part of his body language to say what little he was holding back!!  I did... I mean I do the same thing!!  I try very hard to explain to him that emotion won't get you what you want.  Have you ever tried to reason with a 4 yr. old!!!  We will still work on this!!  He is my son through and through and we are so lucky to have a loving, imaginative, hardheaded little boy!!   We can't wait for Little miss to show us more about her personality!

Graduation countdown... :(

Day 8: Calculate how many more weekends are left until your child graduates high school.

Wow!!!  I really didn't want to do this!  G man has 737 weekends until he will graduate high school and Little miss has 893 weekends until she graduates!

What did this help, besides making me use my math skills??
1. I now know that we don't have near as much time as I think.
2. Every moment is precious.
3. There are some things that can wait and others that can't... such as cleaning and busy stuff that can take up the weekend can wait til the sun goes down or until kids are napping so we can play together!
4. We have to squeeze as much family time in as possible now because I remember my busy childhood weekends when we started playing sports!!!  G man will start this summer and if he is anything like me he won't stop!!

eye heart u

Day 7: Leave a sweet not for them.

Well I have 2 non-readers so writing notes would do no good unless I read it to them.  So I decided to do a picture note.  I had NO clue how I was going to do this.  I am a work-at-home mommy so today was a meeting day for me which means my kids were in the house with grandparents and I was in meetings.  I could have left the note for him to find while playing with Nana and Papa but I of course forgot about it... :(  G man requested a day at the park and really, how could I disagree.  So we made a picture note together!!

Yummy in my tummy!

Day 6: bake, make, or buy them their favorite food.

We made chocolate chip muffins!!  This is a favorite of ours.  G man and Little miss like to get on the counter to help stir.  Well I think Little miss just likes to eat the chocolate chips!!  We sometimes get star shaped foil cupcake cups and G man calls them star muffins.  Today however we used the regular cupcake papers.  Gibson stirred in the chocolate chips that Little miss didn't eat and we all helped fill the cupcake papers.  Now to sit back and enjoy them!!

I was going to post a picture of us enjoying our muffins but a sneaky little one kept taking them off the pan and we didn't have enough left to eat for dessert after dinner!!

He is still my baby boy!

Day 5: Tell yourself, "He is only __ years old. He's still a child."  Then, treat him that way.

I started homeschooling G man at 3 years old.  He has just turned 4 and has almost completed a full year of pre-k.  He has showed so much interest in school work and loves learning new concepts.  Because of this it is easy for me to forget that he did JUST turn 4.  He is still so young.  I get so frustrated with him when he doesn't try to put his own shoes on, he pouts, or he forgets to clear his plate at the table.  All day through his rough housing and silly giggling (for no reason) I couldn't help but smile at my little one!  This will be an ongoing one for me.  G man was a bigger baby (ok he was ginormous) and did things very quickly.  (He started walking at 8 months which is also when he quit the bottle and went for a sippy cup.)  My little miss (who is very little) just turned a year and is still in an infant carrier, walked at 12 months, and we definitely treat her like a 1 yr old.  I guess I have always expected G man to act older.

God has such a sense of humor.  G man wore an outfit today to church that he wore about 3 weeks ago to church.  Today it didn't fit him!!! If he raised his arms even the slightest his belly showed and his pants barely touched the tops of his shoes!! So on the day where I am suppose to remember how little he really is I realize that he just hit a big growth spurt and he needs bigger clothes!!!  Good thing the consignment store took our small clothes and we got a lot of cute new clothes and even a little bit of cash back!!  Got to love it!!

This is G man at 1 month old in the family bassinet... notice he takes up the WHOLE thing!

This is little miss in the same bassinet at the same age.

They are perfect when they sleep!!

Day 4: Kiss your children while they are sleeping.  Man this was hard for me... don't get me wrong I love kissing my kids and watching them sleep!!  Here was my problem, we use an older crib that has a hinge swing side that swings down about half way down.  Which means I had to climb into her crib and carefully try to maneuver to kiss her head without waking her!!  Done successfully ;)  G man just got a new bed for his 4th birthday which is a loft bed with a slide!!  I climbed up the ladder and started to kiss his (sweaty) little forehead when 2 big ole eyes popped open and he started giggling!!  I kissed him anyway and slid down the slide.  This was a lot of fun and made me realize that I need to lose some weight!!

Update on the Leprechaun hunt!!

They made a Leprechaun trap!!  Fresh muddy stick from the yard, one of my old boxes, and some homemade Leprechaun Doughnuts!!  

Yes they are decorated Cheerios!!

They went on a scavenger hunt to find some gold treats!

Under chairs...

where he eats...

Daddy was a big help reading all the clues!

On the door...

The sink, his closet, and even the bathtub!!

The loot was in the fridge!!!!!!!!

He found it and devoured his treat!!

Happiness is an unexpected hug!

Day 3: Giver your children 3 unexpected hugs!!  How fun! I got to play chase, sneak attacks, and long cuddles!!!  I love unexpected hugs!  Gibson had a good time too.  I caught him giving little sister unexpected hugs too!!  I love seeing how much they love each other!  I know this one wasn't very long but so far is my favorite one. Hope you enjoyed!

I scream, you scream, we all scream!

Day 2: Go the whole day without yelling at your children.  Well I guess my kids knew that this was the challenge today because they have been a HOOT!! As I am making lunch I put on Diego for them to watch and then I put nuggets on a plate place them in the microwave and come back to this!!

Yes she has my cell phone calling and texting who knows who and that is his BUSTED face!!

These were snotty tissues that I used on runny allergy noses all morning!!

I digress... anyway if you haven't heard of  Jim Fay or Love and Logic it is a parent saver!!!!  This program is amazing for any stage of parenting.  I originally heard of this while I was teaching and used it in my classroom and now I have discovered that there is a parenting version and we have loved using it!!  Using this program cuts down on the yelling and fighting and creates natural consequences for bad choices. (Real world learning experiences!!)  I say that to say this I have already cut down on the yelling but yeah I am still human.  Today I found joy in the mess and disaster and when I started to feel overwhelmed (which is when I snap) I started singing the name song.  You know... momma bo bomma banana fanna fo fomma mi by mo  momma... Momma!! (you just sang that didn't you)  Well anyway I would sing this and then hearing my 4yr old monster sing his version of it made me die laughing and then we were able to move on!!  Today was a good day... despite the tissue mess ;)

Here is a video of Jim Fay from YouTube!

30 Day Mommy Challenge!!! So excited!

Ok so I have completed a 30 day challenge on how to encourage your husband and I loved doing it.  I came across this challenge and I can't wait to complete the next 30 days!!! (At the bottom under LINK LOVE you can find the blog that I got the 30 day challenge from.)

Day 1 "Ask: What is 1 thing we can do together this month?"  This one is easy! I have a 4 year old nature crazy boy all we have to do is spend some time together outside or at a park and he is happy!  We go to the park often so I decided that we should spice it up some and do something that we don't usually do.  Saturday will be St. Patrick's day and this is our theme that we are studying this week as well as who is St. Patrick. On Friday night we are going to build a leprechaun trap and go on a leprechaun scavenger hunt.  Daddy is going to read the clues to G and they are going to hunt down the gold treasure.  I can't wait!!

There are a lot of fun leprechaun traps on Pinterest if you are interested and here!!!

I always like to use literature to teach and help kids understand different things and this book and a wonderful one about who St. Patrick is!

The reason that I am doing this!!