Sweet Song by Eliza

This is a song that Eliza has been learning at preschool. She performed it during chapel at her school yesterday, and then did a solo performance for us last night before bed.

I've heard this song probably 100 times in the last few weeks and every time I love hearing it. It has such a deep meaning. Sometimes as a mother I think it's easy to forget that our ultimate goal is to raise our kids to be good and faithful human beings. It's easy to talk about all the things they should do or all the things they should say. We are quick to remind them of their manners and even quicker to correct bad behavior.

But what about OUR actions?

Children learn by the example they are given. This is especially obvious when they are young and learning things for the first time. They like to repeat what we've said, they like to mock our actions, and they like to follow us around and watch our every move. We are their first teachers, not only by what we say to them, but what we show them by our actions.

In this world we are surrounded by evil. Sin is everywhere we look. We can't even turn the news on without hearing about someone being kidnapped or shot. Our TV shows are full of what society calls "the new normal". Taking our children shopping, even just to the grocery store, can reveal the latest fashion trends that are less than modest. The culture of sex seems to surround us. Where is the goodness? Where are the values?

Those are up to us. WE must be the example for our children. Their little eyes see everything that we do. Their little ears hear the words that we say and how we say them. Their little hands repeat our own actions. The only way to reverse this culture of sin is to be the example that our children can mock. It's time we stop complaining about all the craziness out there and stand up and DO something.

Speak to your children with kind words, and know that they are listening when you speak to others. Do good deeds for others and encourage your children to help. Say prayers with your children and make sure your children see you praying on your own. We are the only ones who can make the future one of love, hope, and morality.

If my words don't touch your heart listen to Eliza sing that song again--and if she doesn't touch your heart I'm not sure what will.

Sometimes I Hate Oklahoma

I think it’s fair to say that I am just a little bit crazy. I don’t think you get into the mom profession without a little bit of craziness. Some days I feel a little crazier than others, and today just happened to be one of those days. The kids were being great this morning and I really needed to get to Target for a few things. If I didn’t, Gavin would be wearing one of Jackson’s diapers this afternoon. So I packed them all up and headed off to Target.

When I take all three kids out I have a pretty solid plan down. I put Gavin in the baby pack, Jackson in the cart, and Eliza walks holding onto the cart. It works pretty well. Today as I opened my car door I nearly fell over from the wind. I grabbed a cart, stuck Jackson in the front, had Eliza hold onto the side, and I put Gavin in the pack. We walked inside being blown sideways the entire way. My list wasn’t too long, so I proceeded to get everything, and because the kids were so good I decided to let them pick out Halloween baskets. They were in the dollar aisle so I figured it was a good bargain on my part. (Plus it's boss's day and I am kinda like their employee--haha) We checked out and headed back out in the wind “storm” to load everything in the car.

I think the wind was even stronger on our way out. I managed to get Eliza in the car, tossed Jackson in his seat and started tossing bags in the car. Poor little Gavin was holding on for dear life. I held his head under a blanket with one hand, held the cart with one foot, and tossed bags with the other hand. And of course the Halloween baskets go flying out of my cart. In that split second I had to decide if I was going to abandon my empty cart and run after the baskets with Gavin strapped to my front or if I would just watch where they go and attempt to get them after I put him in his seat. Luckily, I chose the saner option and decided to put him in his seat first. I thought chasing down rolling baskets in the Target parking lot with a baby strapped to my chest probably wasn’t the best idea. Anyway, I watched where the baskets rolled--they had to stop eventually right.

Then I saw what I thought was a good Samaritan, that must have seen my thoughts of running after the baskets, pull over and jump out of their car to grab the baskets. By this point the baskets are completely across the parking lot and stuck in a line of trees. They start driving back towards me. I figured they’d just pull up right beside me and hand me the baskets. Oh no. They parked a little ways away and hoped out like nothing was going on. I ran over to them, asked them about picking up the baskets, and they said they hadn’t picked them up and didn’t even see them. (So now I think I’m really crazy) I thought maybe they hadn’t picked them up and they were still stuck in the trees. A little frustratingly (b/c I knew they were just lying to me) I got in the car and drove across the parking lot keeping an eye out for the baskets. They weren’t there. I even drove across the street to see if they somehow blew threw the trees. They weren’t there. I guess a couple kids just get some free Halloween baskets. That part doesn’t bother me at all, the part that bothers me is that these people just lied to my face over $2 of baskets. Oh well. Sometimes I wonder why all this crazy stuff happens to me. I really can't make it up!

 As I look back in my head of how I managed to hold onto my cart and get my kids in the car while some of my purchase went flying in the air it just makes me laugh. Sometimes I really do hate Oklahoma--but at least the wind here is strong enough that as I made the split decision to not run after $1 baskets they were far enough away to help make up my mind.

Just an Update

It’s been a crazy week or so around here. Keeping up with this blog isn’t going as I hoped. I’ve had multiple topics I’ve thought about and hilarious stuff happen in the last week, the problem is I have no memory so if I don’t write them down immediately I just forget about them.

I’m going to try to get you up to date with this post and next week I’ll attempt to “get a little deeper” with my posts.

Gavin was baptized this past Sunday. It was wonderful. We had some family come in from out of town and Gavin was decked out in the hand-me-down baptismal gown that has been passed down from my oldest uncle on my dad’s side through 13 children, bunches of grandchildren, and now on to great-grandchildren. It’s pretty awesome to think about how many babies have been baptized in the same gown.

　

　

After everyone left Monday morning we attempted to get back to normal around here. I’ve decided that there isn’t really a normal though. We’ve begun to get ready for fall/winter which means cleaning out dressers and closets. It takes a lot of time to pack and unpack and organize everything. I think the hardest thing about it all is after the kids closets are nice and organized they just want to play with all the toys they see that they haven’t played with in a while. Half of me wants to be excited for me but most of me wants to say please don’t mess it all up, I just cleaned it all up. But kids will be kids and I’m trying to remember that.

Eliza had a class field trip to Orr Family Farm this week too. In case you don’t know Orr Family Farm is a fun little farm around Oklahoma city. The kids got to see animals, go on pony rides, ride the train, and pick a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. Brian was able to go with Eliza and brought Jackson along too. They all had a wonderful time, and it gave me a chance to get a little shopping done. It felt very weird being out and about with only one kid.

Today it is pouring down rain--which helps motivate me to finish up the organizing. I know this post wasn’t all that interesting, but I guess that’s just real life. I’ll do my best to spice it up next week with the funny things my kids do on a daily basis. (As long as I remember to write them down.)


A few more pictures from the weekend:

                                                    Baba and the grandkids wrestling.
                                           There was a lot of wrestling over the weekend.
                                           

                                                               Eliza being silly.

                                                             Cousins Quinn and Eliza

 

                                                                   Lovely Eliza

                                                                 Sweet Jackson

                                                          Baba giving Eliza a horsey ride.

Cousins chillin after a long day of playing.

                                        Gavin sleeping through the craziness of the weekend.

                                                        Uncle Michael and Gavin

                                                              Yum...puppy chow!

                                     Poor Jackson was scared to death of a toad in this picture.

A Love Like Ours

“I love you.” Such a simple phrase with a huge meaning. I don’t know how you look at the phrase “I love you” but I’m a pretty selective “I love you” sayer. Honestly, I’ve only ever said “I love you” to my family and to my husband. It’s just a very serious thing to me. I never said it to any boyfriends either--except for Brian.

Our love story began with me saying I love you to him before we ever started dating. We had been best friends for years so he knew very well how big of a deal me saying that was. Brian had chased me for years and I always blew him off--for some reason it just never clicked for me. I guess all that needed to happen was for him to be taken away to college for me to realize my true feelings. I was only 17 at the time, but when I said I love you to Brian it was as if I said “I do.” I knew at that very moment that I would spend the rest of my life with him. It’s a crazy thing to know at 17, but I really did know. Now 10 or so years later we are together still with 3 beautiful children.

The word love is not very respected in our society. I feel like people don’t truly understand the meaning of love, and it wasn’t until I thought about it recently that I realized just how amazing the love between Brian and I is. I kept trying to figure out why. Why are we so “in love”? Why does our marriage work so well? Why does it seem like our love multiplies every single day? The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it all has to do with our foundation. The foundation of our relationship has always been God. Even when we were just friends--our friendship was rooted in our faith. When we began dating God was always the center of our lives independently and together. We strived to follow God’s will through our dating relationship and we continue to strive to follow God’s will in our marriage.

We do it together. We have had some very hard times and some very good and happy times, but the one thing that remains the same through it all is our foundation in God that we follow together. We do some things in our marriage that very few couples do today, and quite frankly a lot of people probably think are just crazy. (more on that later) We do these things because we are faithful, not just to each other, but to God. The amazing thing about being faithful to God is that He will always provide. I don’t just mean financially but I mean in every way possible.

It seems like in today’s society marriage is just a next step. It’s not seen as a forever bond as man and wife, it’s seen as something to do and something that can be undone at any point. The crazy thing is that society really embraces this idea of undoing marriage. People are encouraged to separate and divorce all the time for all sorts of stupid reasons or no reason at all. It’s time that the faithful take over again. It’s time for marriage to be a serious thing again. It’s time that we start encouraging engaged couples to have a foundation in God. No one ever said marriage was easy--it’s time we tell young people that marriage isn’t easy, but it is worth it. It’s time that we stop taking the easy way out. Taking the right path is more often than not the hard path. It’s time to encourage morality in this ever-progressive world. It’s time to speak up and let the faithful be heard, because I don’t know about you but I’m not going down without a fight. I will continue to fight for a moral and decent world for my children to grow up in.

Love is an action not a feeling. Let’s start acting.

What's Your Because...(Part 2)

It’s so easy to look at the negatives. It’s human nature to feel sorry for yourself and to always look towards greener pastures. What if instead of always looking for something better we were satisfied with what we have. We are so abundantly blessed that we have no right ever complaining. We have our bad days--sure. Our good days are so good though. Recognizing that we need God is a huge step and those hard times help us need Him.

So I took all the negative "because statements" from the other day and I turned them into positives. I can’t say that this is how I always look at my life, but doing this little exercise has reminded me that I should think about the negatives in the positive before I feel sorry for myself. You should try it.

　

Because the way my 20 month old communicates is pretty darn funny.

Because my 3 year old hasn’t pooped in her pants in 2 days.

Because my 3 year old does things at meal time that amaze me to the point of smiling and shaking my head when I should just spank her.

Because when I was grocery shopping without any children.

Because I just turned around and the box of Lucky Charms is all over the floor, but both kids just dove right in and started eating all the marshmallows. That’s one way to get it cleaned up.

Because pinterest does have some pretty cool ideas for me, my family, and my house.

Because I have no privacy--bathroom time for me is either party time or story time depending on what the kids decide. Not everyone can say they get to party every day.

Because I didn’t vacuum at all today.

Because my family has enough clothes to have piles of laundry to do.

Because everywhere I go I have multiple people “reminding” me that I have my hands full and that reminds me how blessed I am to have such great kids.

Because my kids are smart enough to push a chair over to reach anything that’s supposed to be out of their reach, which means they can grab some chocolate for me while I’m stuck breastfeeding the baby.

Because Eliza is rambunctious and full of energy all the time.

Because my husband might not do a great job rinsing his plate, but he works so hard every day to provide for our family.

Because gummy vitamins all over the floor make for a fun keep away game with my 20 month old.

Because we are blessed enough to have a new van that fits all the kids.

Because sleep is overrated when you have bonding to do.

Because not everyone can brag that they can squirt milk across the room from their boobs.

Because the preschool teacher tells me that my 3 year old is always good at school.

Because my 3 year old likes to “paint” herself with sidewalk chalk and water and therefore my 20 month old thinks it’s a wonderful idea to follow suit. Hilarious sight.

Because some days I get lucky enough to enjoy some quiet time during the middle of the day while the kids are napping.

Because my 3 year olds’ nap time has turned into puzzle time, Candyland time, and coloring time -- bonding time!

Because certain people don’t know how else to communicate other than asking for some help, and I’m lucky to be able to lend some advice.

Because when we do see grandparents it’s always super special and for multiple days at a time.

Because my house is messy with children’s art work and those fingerprints are the most beautiful artwork I could think of to decorate my house with.

Because we can afford to buy good food and I learned how to make that good food into a healthy meal for my family every night.

Because the majority of nights I get to battle with my 3 year old to eat that home-cooked meal and she is healthy and happy because of it.

Because it is NEVER quiet in my house. Noise is so comforting to me now and chaos is weirdly calming.

Because bad things happen to the good people in my life and I do my best to be there for them along their journey.

Because I’m tired. I’m tired because I get to spend all day and night with my children.

Because communication through tantrums is the only way sometimes.

Because most days I work more than 24 hours. And I love most parts of it.

Because I’m so blessed to be a mom.

Because we can afford to buy new kitchen appliances.

Because my children learn so much because they always ask why.

Because my 20 month old chucks his pacifier at the door to let me know he’s up from his nap, and then in his growl language points at it when I open the door like he has no idea how it flew across the room. I laugh every time I get him out of his bed and so does he.

Because little kids need a lot of things repeated.

Because I love nursing my baby and I’m so blessed to be able to stay home and take care of him.

Because sometimes you just gotta take a break from working out.

Because I’m so lucky to have enough milk to provide my baby with nourishment.

Because when my husband doesn’t get home until after 6:30 it means he was working hard yet again.

Because some days we laugh and play and eat ice cream before dinner.

Because having everyone remind you of things is nice.

Because I don’t really care what I look like most mornings. At least I have a working and healthy body.

Because not completing a thought has become the norm and it can make for some very funny conversations.

Because I could probably write 3 more pages of these if I spent all day tomorrow working on this.

　

　
　

Because the truth is that my cup is over flowing-- it’s no where near half full or half empty.

What's Your Because... (Part 1)

The thing about life is that there are 2 sides of it. Both are very real. There is the optimistic, glass half full, sunshine every day, glorious side and then there is the pessimistic, glass half empty, dreary, grey side. Normally I'm on the sunshine team...today we're going to dissect the dreary side.

The following is a list of why life stinks, why I should be crazy, why I need a whole lot of prayers to get me through the day, just why. (I'm sure a lot of you will understand)


Because the way my 20 month old communicates is through a series of growls.

Because my 3 year old has decided it’s a good idea to poop in her pants during “nap time”.

Because my 3 year old managed to not only spill her milk all over herself, but she managed to rip a huge hole in her shirt as well.

Because when I was grocery shopping without any children I was asked when I was due.

Because I just turned around and the box of Lucky Charms is all over the floor.

Because pinterest doesn’t have a pin to give me extra arms, extra legs, or extra energy.

Because I have no privacy--bathroom time for me is either party time or story time depending on what the kids decide.

Because I could vacuum my house 4 times every day and it would still need a 5^th vacuuming.

Because there is always laundry to do, in fact, there is always laundry in the washer and dryer.

Because everywhere I go I have multiple people “reminding” me that I have my hands full.

Because my kids are smart enough to push a chair over to reach anything that’s supposed to be out of their reach.



Because my husband still doesn’t know how to rinse his plate before putting it in the sink.

Because while I was changing the baby’s diaper my 21 month old got to the gummy vitamins, somehow opened the bottle, and was making a mad dash to eat as many as he could before I got to him.

Because when I got in the car to buckle all the kids into their car-seats my hair got stuck on the clothes hanger of the car ceiling.

Because I haven’t slept more than 2 straight hours in months.

Because breast feeding truly makes you feel like a cow--a cow that can squirt milk across the room on any given day.

Because the preschool teacher tells me that my 3 year old is really good at getting messy--as if I didn’t already know.

Because my 3 year old likes to “paint” herself with sidewalk chalk and water and therefore my 20 month old thinks it’s a wonderful idea to follow suit.

Because “is it nap time yet?” is something I say multiple times a day.

Because my 3 year olds’ nap time has turned into puzzle time, Candyland time, and coloring time yet again today.

Because certain people only call/text me when they need something from me.

　

Because I don’t have the option to drop the kids off at the Grandparents house and run to the store real quick.

Because, not only is the world my children’s canvas, the inside of my house seems to be their canvas as well.

Because the majority of nights I make a home-cooked meal that is actually healthy for my family.

Because the majority of nights I battle with my 3 year old to eat that home-cooked meal.

Because it is NEVER quiet in my house.

Because no matter how desperately I want to fix the problems of the people I love sometimes there is absolutely nothing I can do.

Because I’m tired.

Because I secretly understand why little kids throw tantrums--and some days I want to do the exact same thing.

Because most days I work more than 24 hours.

Because only 1 out of 3 of my children speaks actual words and I still want to change my name from “mom” to anything else.

Because multiple kitchen appliances decided to break on the exact same day.

Because why? Why does it matter?

Because my 20 month old chucks his pacifier at the door to let me know he’s up from his nap, and then in his growl language points at it when I open the door like he has no idea how it flew across the room.

Because I’m tired of repeating myself.

Because as I was burping the baby today he spit up and it cascaded right down my cleavage.

Because I had a c-section 3 ½ weeks ago and I already feel guilty for not working out yet even though I’m not allowed to for 3 more weeks.

Because of that feeling you get when your milk comes in.

Because when my husband doesn’t get home until after 6:30 it makes for a really long day.

Because some days it feels like all I do is correct and spank my children.

Because having children really does kill your memory.

Because some mornings brushing my teeth and throwing my hair up is about all the energy I have for me.

Because not completing a thought has become the norm.

Because I could probably write 3 more pages of these if I spent all day tomorrow working on this.


What's your beacause??

God Will Provide

"God will provide."

We’ve all heard this magic phrase. It’s one of those comfort phrases that people say to you when you are going through a tough time. They might as well just say “hang in there, He will take care of you”. It’s a phrase that is hard to believe unless you’ve truly experienced it, and then it’s pretty amazing.

Brian and I were fortunate enough to experience this first hand yesterday. The day had come to take our 3 little munchkins to Mass for the first time. To say that we were dreading it is a HUGE understatement. Even as we were getting ready in the morning Brian looked at me and said “I may never go to Mass again!” On the way to church I led our family in a little prayer. I felt that it was the only way that I could calm my nerves about taking three small children to Mass. It was a simple prayer and a prayer asking for help--and you know what… it actually worked. I saw this little cry for help prayer answered before my eyes!

As we pulled in the parking lot I took a deep breath-- not to calm myself, but because I smelled something gross. I thought to myself, how are we going to make it through mass when I have to change a poopy diaper before we even make it through the door! Well, apparently all my children are on the same bathroom schedule, and after 2 dirty diaper changes,1 run to the bathroom followed by nursing Gavin in the Narthex we had made it through our first Mass as a family of 5. The crazy thing is that it was one of the best church experiences we’ve had in years. Both Eliza and Jackson were really well behaved and except for a little cry of hunger Gavin was awake and checking stuff out the whole time without another sound.

It would have been easy to put off going to Mass. Shoot, it would be easy to put off going to Mass for a few more years until the craziness has passed. Fortunately, we’re not in this for the easy. We’re in this to glorify God in all that we do each and every day. Amazingly, God provided us with a wonderful experience of enjoying heaven on earth with our family during mass on Sunday. That one Mass is going to give me something to look to for hope while I go through my days of craziness this week.