Links From The Past Week

Have a great weekend!!

• A great post on strong willed children from Steady Mom. <---A GREAT BLOG! Gilly is definitely a strong willed child and even though some days it can be challenging, we know that God has a great plan for her life and we are so thankful for her!
• The Lie Many Parents Believe by Simple Mom
• A very real post about everyday life from my friend IRL, Amy.
• Purposeful Motherhood: How to Create A Mission Statement from Inspired To Action. One of my new favorite blogs!! Very good stuff for moms!!
• Decluttering and Organizing Your Bathroom from Organizing Your Way.

Book Review: Toddler Time

I just checked out a book from my MOPS library; Toddler Time by Melissa Bogdany.

It's starting to get a bit nicer out (PRAISE GOD!), but we're still having some cold days and I thought it would be nice to get some ideas on things to do inside with the little pumpkin.

I really liked this book! Here are a few ideas I thought were especially good:

• Give your toddler a set of doubles when you get pictures developed. Gilly really does love to look at pics of all of us, and I'm sure giving her some of her own would keep her busy for a while!
• Stash a few new dollar-store toys, and pull them out when you have a busy day ahead of you.
• Open a snack to keep your toddler content at the grocery store. I must confess, I do this way too much. I've been trying to NOT do this so much, because Gilly was starting to think that every time we got in the car, she would get a snack. Not necessarily a good thing. This is definitely better to do in moderation. :)
• Let your toddler tear up lettuce for salad. I already try to incorperate Gilly as much as I can in the kitchen, but since she's not quite 2, this can be a challenge. I thought the lettuce tearing was a good (and not quite so messy) idea!
• Pop in an exercise video for your toddler to move along to. This one is great for both Mama and toddler. :)
• Give your toddler his/her own kitchen cupboard. I've always done this with Gilly. She's always had access to Mamas drawers and cupboards. She loves it! I just put the dangerous things in a place that she can't get to.
• Pack an activity kit that you take with you to appointments.
• Set up a tent or fort in your house.
• Make houses/forts out of cardboard boxes.

Some things that I've tried that weren't in this book are:

• Blow bubbles in the house. This can get a little messy - but the kids love it! :)
• Make "houses" or "tight wire ropes" with masking tape on the floor. She doesn't quite get this yet, but it won't be long! (This isn't my idea)
• Let her play with an old cell phone.
• Let her put groceries into the shopping cart at the grocery store. At this age, she really loves to help out and do the same things Mama is doing! So sweet!
• Have her help put her toys away. Again, she loves to help! We have a bag of blocks and she loves putting the blocks back in the bag.

What about you? What fun things have you tried to keep your toddler occupied?? Especially as the winter starts getting L O N G..... ugh.

Being A Mama Is For Wimps??

I'm pretty sure everyone would agree that there are a lot of changes that take place after becoming a parent.

Yesterday, I was explaining to my hubby how I had to "gun it" to get out of my friends' driveway. It's snow covered, uphill and quite long. I was just saying that I was glad I had the car instead of our HUGE rear wheel van with HORRIBLE tires. He started chuckling and asked "..where his adventurous wife went?"

My reply? "That changes when you become a mother." He then so tactfully replied, "If I'd know that, I'd knocked ya up a long time ago!" Thanks, honey.

You see, Aaron and I are different in most things. For those of you that know us in real life, I know - you're shocked.

No, but seriously.

He's totally the guy who ALWAYS wears his seatbelt, NEVER makes "illegal" (I use that term loosely) U-Turns, always drives the speed limit, doesn't hunt for Morel mushrooms (YUM-MY) on land unless he knows for a fact who's land it is and so on and so forth. (Strangely enough though, he feels the need to "test" out his snow tires going a tiny bit over the speed limit after a big snow on back roads where there could be deer while I'm, like, 5 months pregnant!!!!! Not that I'm bitter.)

Me? Not so much. I like to live life on the wild side. Yup. That's me. Since re-dedicating my life to Christ, I've slowed down a bit on the partying and stuff - ok, I've totally stopped ;) (Thank goodness.) but I love rollercoasters, driving fast, and I've been skydiving 4 times and LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT, and riding cable cars over 1,000 ft gorges, etc.

If it goes fast and high, you can count me in. I'm not going to even tell you how many speeding tickets I've had. Not that I'm proud of it or anything...... or am I? MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I'm kidding.

Well, at least that's how I used to be.

The first time I realized that this whole "Mama" thing was changing me (aside from the snow tires "incident") was when I was pregnant with Gilly on our "Babymoon" to Door County.

In front of Lake Michigan April 08.

We were climbing up some sort of tower to get a better view of Lake Michigan, and we got about half-way up and I sort of froze. Aaron won't let me live it down. He thought it was so funny that his "crazy" wife wouldn't climb this little tower that even he would climb. Ha. Very funny.

It just got worse after our little pumpkin was born.

Summer of '09

I started driving slower - especially in winter. I'm pretty sure I'm now one of those people I used to get irritated with because, "C'mon! You live in Wisconsin! Get used to driving in the snow!" *hanging head in shame*

Yup. I go about 40 miles an hour when there's only a little snow on the road. I apologize if you ever get stuck behind me.

Asleep on Daddy's legs.

I probably wouldn't go skydiving these days.

Cable car? Nope.

Rollercoaster? Maybe. ;)

But you know what? I'm comfortable with that.

It's not that any of these things don't seem fun to me anymore, it's just that now I have more than myself to think about. My world doesn't revolve around me. I have a sweet, precious little girl who needs me and no car, rollercoaster or airplane is worth more than that.

Or going really fast up a really long, scary driveway.

Gilly about 6-ish months.

Aha! I'm Not Completely Insane.... I Think...

Some of you may have thought I was a little crazy what with all the spray painting I was doing last fall. I just wanted to show you this post to confirm deny any false accusations. Thank you, Nester. :) And here is another post about decorating with sticks from A Soft Place To Land.

I will admit that my stick decor isn't as tastefully done as some of these, but what are ya gonna do? :)

Thanks.

Ahh. It felt good to get yesterday's post out. Sometimes you just need to "talk it out", know what I mean?

It has got me to thinking, though, about the verse I have in my sidebar. Sort of my "life verse" lately. Here's a different version:

"I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength" Phillipians 4:12-13 NIV

It's so important to not let our circumstances determine how we react. Notice I didn't say "how we feel". It would be nice to be able to control our feelings, but I don't think that's always possible. At least not for me.

The key is to move past our feelings in any given situation, and lean on what we know to be true.

I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.

I may be feeling defeated but the truth is, if I call on Him for help, He will see me through. My problem is usually forgetting that tiny little detail of asking for help. Why is that so hard??

"Is anyone of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let Him sing songs of praise." James 5:13

James is one of my favorite books of the Bible. So much wisdom!

Thank you, Lord, for your Word! Please help me to remember to ask you for help when I'm feeling discouraged. I know you are always there waiting. Amen.

So, again, thanks for letting me vent. :)

Still don't have a camera yet, so here are some pics of Gilly when she was about 10mos old in the tub. :)

Global Warming, Global Schmarming.

Ok, seriously. What's all this talk about Global Warming?!? I say bring it on!

I'm about ready to shove an ice pick in my eye. I've had it with winter. Winter stinks. It's for the birds. I think you get the point.

Of course there are a few redeeming factors about winter. One is....um....well...... ok, I'm gonna get back to you on that.

I just get so stir crazy starting about Janurary-ish.

I think Gilly may take after me in this. We've both been a bit crabby lately. Poor Aaron. Ok, I don't feel that sorry for him. ;)

Gilly and I were able to go for a little walk today, which was wonderful! Relatively speaking it was "warm" out this afternoon. I use the term "warm" VERY loosely. Never underestimate the power of a little sunshine, though! I can't wait until we are going on daily walks. *sigh**dreamily staring off into the distance*

It's so hard for me to tell these days if my crabbiness is just being prego, or if it's actually valid. If you ask me, long winters are a very valid reason for being crabby. Harumph.

On top of my winter blues, I look around the house and instead of seeing our beautiful, cozy home, I see just a bunch of rooms that need to be cleaned and organized and cleaned some more. Some days it feels like there's SO much to do before Baby #2 comes.  I get exhausted before I've even gotten started! It sure is rough being me. HA! I'm begging for sympathy here. Can you tell? ;)

And one more thing. Gilly has been absolutely ATTACHED to our (my hubby and mine) hips lately! You're probably thinking "What a mean Mama!" But seriously, I can't walk across the room without her crying! Aaron, too. It's so strange. I've heard from several people that maybe she's teething??? I dunno. Sure makes it hard to get all my cleaning and organizing done though, that's for sure.

It's not like we don't spend any quality time with her.  Any suggestions you out there in bloggy land? Please??

Ok. I think I'm done now. Thanks so much for coming to my Pity Party and thanks for letting me vent. Hope you had fun! Do you ever have days (weeks) like these?

Here is a picture of us in July of 08 - almost 2 years ago when I was pregnant with Gilly!

Holy Big Belly, Batman!!! (And belly button!! LOL!)