An experiment

So, Jon Acuff wrote a blog post called "The biggest lie about travel we all believe" from his website Stuff Christians Like.  To summarize it in one sentence as he did: "You don't need a plane ticket to be distant from your family".  He talks about how he travels a lot, but he makes it a priority to stay connected and when he is home, he is home.  Not off in facebook or twitter or blog land.

At first, I thought, "Amen Jon!" And then I thought, wait a minute...do I do that??  So I spent yesterday evening lying in bed analyzing our day and being consumed with guilt.  It was not a typical day...I don't think at least... but nonetheless it was not my most stellar day as a mommy.

My daughter does an excellent job of entertaining herself.  She has a wonderful imagination.  She talks to her stuffed animals and "reads" (note: looks at pictures) and takes her toys apart and puts them back together.  She will even just look out the window sometimes!  It is a good thing, of course, but unfortunately, it feeds my laziness.  And if there is anything I HATE in this life, it is my natural inclination to be lazy. 

The thing that is so convicting is that while she is happy playing by herself, she is super duper happy when her mommy plays with her.  She, like every other child ever born, loves attention and affection and fun!  She loves her stuffed Elmo (who was having a conversation with her little red bear a few minutes ago:) ), but she loves talking to her mommy more than her Elmo and she would rather read a book with me than by herself.  That's the simple, but profound, truth.

So, I have challenged myself to be 100% internet free while I am with her from tomorrow until Thanksgiving.  That's right.  100% free.  I don't know if it sounds easy to you or not, but when the Internet is literally at my fingertips via my smart phone, it is not going to be easy for me.  It is going to be challenging.  It is going to test my self discipline.  It is probably going to test my patience.  But I also think it is going to enrich my daughter's life.  I think it is going to make us closer.  I think it is going to be hard, but worth it and in the end, awesome! 

Pray for me ;)  No, really, pray for me!  I'll let you know how it is going in a day or two!

Learning is Fun Weekly Post

So, yeah, I might have to not call it a weekly post if this track record stays strong. 

So to recap, here were my goals from 2 weeks ago (age attempted 18 months):
1. Play with hats-I knew that wasn't going to happen.  Why did I even put it down? 
2. Bubbles-check, check.
3. Color with red, blue, yellow-we have done this a lot!  I think I was making up for slacking the previous week or something.   She is starting to notice the color red.  I think.  Maybe.   :)
4. Learn where her thumb is: Yes, that was easy.
5. Learn to sign "daddy" and "help".  She can do both of them, but doesn't do them unprompted.  I'm not too worried about daddy since she can say that, but I would like for her to use help since she just gets mad and starts crying when she can't do something.
6. Boo at the Zoo: so much fun!  Crazy and chaotic, but fun!
7. Crunch in some leaves: We did this last week and today.  She has a lot of fun with it.  I should take some pics.  Or maybe a video.  We also made a big pile and she walks through it and kicks it around.
8. Hula Hoop: mommy fail.

Extra Activities:

9. Fall Sensory Tub.  Pine needles, acorns, holly (with the thorns cut off), and pine cones.  She didn't really enjoy playing with that one.  What I did instead  was get some heavy cardboard and cut out a wreath shape and we glued all the goodies to the wreath (she stuck the pine needles on and I glued the acorns and the holly) .  It turned out quite beautiful :)  The coolest thing about this activity was all that stuff was in the back yard!
10. Halloween Sensory Tub.   Black beans, pumpkin seeds, little skeletons, pumpkin erasers, fake spiders, and Halloween finger puppets.  She enjoyed this one much more.  Her favorite thing to do with the tub was did out the pumpkin seeds and the little pumpkins from the black beans.  Here she is giving a black cat finger puppet she found a kiss :)

Luckily it was warm enough to play with outside because sensory tubs are quite messy! I'm not sure how we are going to do them this winter. 

11.  Does trick or treating count as an activity?  I think it should :)

SO...for next week, we have:

1. Learn where her ankles are on her body.

2. Learn to sign "cat"

3. "Cloth Pull" found here.

4. "Leaf Bracelet" found here.

5. "Pushing Puff Balls" found here.
6. Glue red, yellow, blue shapes onto paper (probably just circles and squares).
7. Song/Nursery Rhyme of the Week: "This old man...he played one"
8. Book of the Week: "The Potty Book for Girls".  Not that I am comitting to anything, but it never hurts to prepare...

I'm Tired

So so tired. 

I'm tired of a lot.  Was I this tired with my last pregnancy?  My last pregnancy wasn't this emotionally challenging, that's for sure.  Although, at the time, I thought that pregnancy was plenty emotional for me.  Do they get harder?  I thought they would get easier, but maybe God just breaking me in slowly...scary thought!  If there is a 3rd pregnancy, I hope it's easy peasy on the emotional side of things!  And everything else too.  And, how quickly I get off subject! 

I'm tired.  Here are some things I am tired of (warning: mini vent): 

-tired of being so sleepy every morning, afternoon, evening
-tired of trying to be the best mom I can be
-tired of cooking dinner
-tired of feeling guilty over not making my bed
-tired of being responsible with our money
-tired of all my parent's pets
-tired of my daughter's beautiful curls (awful of me to not be thankful for them 24/7 I know, but it's true.  That wild hair is hard to handle some days)
-tired of being behind in bible study
-tired of oversleeping/not being disciplined enough to go to bed early
-tired of feeling fat/ugly/unkempt/etc

Well, that's seems like plenty so I'll stop.  I guess when you boil it all down, I'm kind of tired of life.  I know I am blessed and I know God is good to me.  I love the Lord and I wouldn't change much about my life right now...well, maybe that whole Hubby in the desert thing, but I trust we are in God's will right now. 

People talk about "nesting".  So far, I say that's a myth.  I didn't nest during either one of my pregnancies.  I don't know if I'm defunct somehow or my ever unstable life makes nesting especially difficult.  Grrr.

That's all.  I'm tired. 

I'll Tell You a Secret

I love love love Martha Stewart.  It's true. 

BUT, I am scared of her.  If we were friends, she would totally hurt my soft feelings so I hope I never meet her.  Unless it's in Heaven, then we'll both be whole and healthy and like Jesus so we should get along ;)

Learning is Fun! Weekly post

Gosh, I can't believe I haven't been posting between these learning posts.  I guess I could try to do better ;-)


So, this is how we did this past week: (Age attempted was 18 months)


1.) Practice climbing down stairs: Check.  She did so good with this.  She kind of knew how to do it before, but not very well and now that I have purposefully taken time to practice with her, she does really well and I don't have to freak out when I am putting away clothes and she is running around :)
2.) Sidewalk Chalk: OMGosh she loves sidewalk chalk!!  She is obsessed now.  I don't love it since it gets ALL OVER her clothes, but she loves toddling around everywhere "chalking" everything and making her mark.  All the bricks and rocks and tree trunks now have chalk lines (or at least they will until it rains!). 
3.) Color again with Red, Blue, Yellow crayons: Mommy fail.
4.) Learn where her "bottom" is:  I think she knows.  Sometimes she points to her belly, but I think she mostly knows.
5.) Signs "dad" and "help":  Mommy fail with "dad" :(  With "help" she does pretty well mimicking me, but she doesn't do it on her own yet.  She did, however, for the first time ever sign "please" today totally umprompted!! 

6.) Drop clothespins in a bottle: check.  Proof:

She did very well with this.

7.) Pumpkin Patch:  Lots of fun!  

Love her :)

8.) Dance:  we did this a lot!  Mostly with me holding her (not for very long.  This preggo chick gets tired easily!).  I should give her more practice and encourage her to dance all by herself. 

Additional Activities:

9.) We rode on a train which was a fun learning experience.  I heard "choo choo" for several days afterwards :)

10.) Played with bubbles!!

Next week's activities:

1.) Play with hats (I don't really have any hats, but maybe I can scrounge some up)

2.) Bubbles again

3.) Color with red, yellow, blue (why am I such a slacker when it comes to this simple activity?!)

4.) Learn where her "thumb" is (should be easy since it's always in her mouth)

5.) Keep learning how to sign "dad" and "help"

6.) Go to Boo at the Zoo (yay! I'm so excited about this!)

7.) Crunch in some leaves if we can find any

8.) Play with a Hula Hoop if I can find one at the dollar store

9.) Featured Book (a book we read every day): "Elmo's First Book of Colors"