I just checked the weather and it's 15 degrees. Brrr! Chris took the kids out this AM to play at the indoor playground at church and Shay was crying on her way back to the car because it was so cold. When I arrived home from work they were drinking hot chocolate. Yum. Today we had a fun "craft time". I am trying to get Jack to do some more fine motor things because this is hard for him. We made Christmas trees and gingerbread men. It was the "just right challenge" for him because he was really into it and proud of his creation. Shay enjoyed herself too and went off to show "James" her completed project. James is a train and there is a picture of him in Jack's room. SHe loves talking and dancing to this picture. She is so funny about this new "imaginary friend".
The kids are down but not sleeping. Shay is all wired up for some reason. The dogs are cozy in their beds as it's much too cold to be outside. They really are good dogs. They just need more attention.
I will enclose some photos over the weekend. We have a lot of fun, new ones.
Well my "Little Bit" (Shay) woke up this AM coughing so hard and eventually coughed to the point of throwing up. She did this for an hour or so. I called the doc and he suggested that I take her into Convenient Care. My wonderful neighbor Mrs. Knapp came over and stayed with Jack while Shay and I went to the ER. We got in quickly and they were super sweet to her. They gave her some medicine which seemed to help right away. The doc wanted a chest x-ray because her lungs sounded "wet". She did great with the x-rays. I couldn't be in there because I'm pregnant so the registration girl helped. The result of the x-ray was she has mild pneumonia. She is on a couple different meds and then seeing her doc tomorrow. I will have Jack checked out tomorrow too because his cough is lingering and he is still not feeling well. He has been taking 3 hour naps all week...right now he is on four hour nap!
So Shay is running around right now in her princess dress pretending that she is a kitty. She got her second wind. I have to give her a breathing treatment in an hour or so. Chris's parents are on there way right now. They will be here for Thanksgiving. My mom and her new husband (as of yesterday) are coming Thanksgiving day for dinner. It should be fun. The kids won't know what to do having both grandparents in the same house. It's very unusual.
Shay continues to make progress with potty training but only #1...she is not willing to try #2. Someday soon I hope.
We got a new front door last week, and side door. They both look sooo much better and the house is warmer too. The dogs like the new storm door because it's all glass so they can see in the house when the door is open.
So Shay is making progress with potty training. However today wasn't that great. We seem to have one good day and then one not so good day. Overall though she is doing great, gets the hang of things but her stubborn streak gets in the way of her sitting on the potty when I ask her. It has to be her idea and if I make her try, it's not pretty...so I don't bother. Jack is her biggest cheerleader and it's very cute.
I just returned from my prenatal aquatics class. I'm tired but in a good way. We are getting a new front door and side door next week so we'll go pick it out tomorrow. I can't wait to NOT have a cold breeze when I walk past the front door...especially in the winter.
We are still staining our doors in the basement. Slowly but surely. They'll look beautiful when they are done. Hopefully by Thanksgiving. That is the goal but we better work fast. We are working against the weather so if it's too cold we can't do them, the sealer won't dry. So long for now.
So Shay continues to be my "morning glory girl" but at least she is waking up in the 5:00 hour. I am getting used to this and she seems to wake up around 5:30ish. It has been good in that I put on a cartoon for her and then do my quiet time. I haven't been this consistent with doing my QT in the morning since I don't know when. I really like spending time with the Lord in the morning rather than before bed, so this works out good right now.
So Shay just finished day two of potty training. Actually we have been working on it off and on the past week, but yesterday we were serious. She successfully went on the potty four times. Today we weren't as successful because Jack was home with us and Chris was gone. However this afternoon, she sat on the potty and went and tried to go #2 but that didn't work. She is on her way I feel. We watched a movie together tonight called "the First Noel". Both kids really liked the movie. Jack liked it because "it wasn't even scary". Shay liked it because there was a lot of musicT
The weather has cooled down and it feels like winter today. Brrr! I have been in my pajamas since noon. Is there anything wrong with that??? Nah! I tried to get the family out after nap and Jack kept saying "mommy I just want to stay home and be cozy". I can't blame him for that. He proceeded to give me a pile of books and read to him while Shay was sitting on the potty seat for 40 minutes! She wouldn't get off, she was determined to go and she did. I need to buy her some new panties. Something "special". =)
So again, I have no idea who reads this but for anyone who does prayer is a good thing for me right now. For the past 3 or 4 days Shay is waking up earlier and earlier. WIth the time change it has made the situation worse. Today she woke up at 4:09 but then was quiet until 4:45. I try to lay back down with her and get her to go back to sleep but that only buys about 30 minutes. The good thing in all of this is that I put on a cartoon and I go upstairs and do my quiet time. So I feel like I am spending a lot of time with the Lord..which I need. THe past two days Jack woke up at 5:15 or 5:45. This is very early for him. So please pray for my stamina, joy and contentment in the midst of my lack of sleep. Oh and of course prayer for the kids sleep patterns to change would be good too but I feel like that is not how the Lord wants me to pray. But maybe He wants YOU to pray that way. =) Thanks for any of you who pray. =) I'll keep you posted
I forgot to include these really sweet pictures that Chris took.
Yesterday was the first sign of winter. We had snow flurries off and on. Shay immediately put on her shoes and jacket and said she wanted to go outside and make a snowman. By the time we got out there it had stopped snowing and she kept saying "where did the snowman go?" Anyway we proceeded to have fun playing in the leaves and on the bike and such. She loves the outdoors.
Speaking of outside. We went to Door County in WI last week and enjoyed ourselves. We stayed in a log cabin that was pretty much in the 'county'. The kids enjoyed the change of scenery and slept good for the most part. We enjoyed making a fire, roasting marshmellows and playing outside. The weather was cool and when there was wind it was hard to be outside too long. Door county is filled with small little towns, all about 6 miles from each other with a lot of shopping in little boutiques/antique places. Not kid friendly in the fall but I'm sure in the summer it would be fun. Our ride on the way home was long and dramatic as Jack had a runny nose and made sure everyone in the car knew he was uncomfortable. Shay didn't nap. We survived however and put the kids down at 6pm that night. All in all we had a relaxing time. I was able to read in the evenings and took LONG naps during nap time. We would go back again...even in the winter. It's just so peaceful. The cabin belongs to a family from church and they are trying to sell it. If they don't we would love to go back in the summer...Chris reminds me though that we'll have a newborn. Well we'll see how it goes.
As for the new baby, my due date is now May10th. I had an ultrasound today and saw the baby moving around, crossing their legs and trying to suck their thumb. Isn't that funny, only 12.5 weeks old and already hand to mouth. Cool! Please continue to pray for the health and development of this baby and that my pregnancy would go smoothly. If I can ever figure out how to post the ultrasound picture I will do that. We have a good picture this time!
The past two days have been a little hectic. Shay is testing my mothering skills full speed. I'm not sure if I am doing very well. Today she decided to wake up at 5:20 AM so on top of testing the limits she was also tired. Fortunately Chris got up at 7am and I went back to bed for an hour and a half. That really helped. I'm tired now and ready for bed. Shay went to sleep nicely, no struggles tonight. I think she was tired.
So if anyone actually reads my blog, I would ask that you would pray for me. Specifically for God to give me wisdom, creativity, consistency, perseverance, patience and grace as I deal with her new found independence, curiosity and testing. Along with that, I need prayer with Jack and to have my No's mean NO and not allow him to persuade me otherwise...it's the little things but it's not good for me to be weak.
I'm feeling less queasy so that is good. I just feel hungry all the time and even when I eat I don't feel satisfied. I still have a queasy/uneasy feeling. It's hard to describe.
We are heading up to Wisconsin on Monday. We will be staying at a log cabin in Door County. It's supposed to be beautiful. It's about 5 hours away. When we return home, I am attending a course for work Friday-Sunday...so the next week will be very different. Chris is watching the kids the days that I'm at the course, so I will be praying for him during those days. I'm sure it will be fine. They love daddy time.
That's all for now. I am off to bed.
I haven't posted for awhile for a number of reasons. I'm not even sure who reads my blog but I'll write up a brief summary since the departure of our Iraqi family. Well the family found an apartment on the other side of town. They are all settled in now...going to school, ESL and just doing the American life. We haven't seen them as much as I was hoping but I haven't been feeling good.
So the reason I haven't been feeling good is because we are going to be having another baby. I am about 11 weeks along and due May 4th. When the Iraqi family was here I was starting to feel really sick. The smells of food were bothering, I was very nauseous, sooo tired and just some other "symptoms". Me being the insightful person that I am thought..."man I must be doing too much, I'm sooo tired". Chris kept saying "you must have a bug". Well after about a week and a half of this I thought, maybe I should take a pregnancy test. So I did and it was negative. So a few more days went by and I still felt crummy so I call my family practitioner. During my appt he had me take a urine test for pregnancy just in case. When I got there they weighed me, which I hate, and to my surprise I had gained some weight. I was a little irritated and mentioned that I was going to sign up for weight watchers after my appt if I wasn't pregnant. Well when my doc came in (he already saw my pregnancy test results) he sat patiently and listened my list of symptoms/complaints. I said something like "all these symptoms would be fine if I were pregnant but..." then I stopped and looked at him. He had a strange look on his face. So I said, "wait, am I pregnant?" and he said "yes Laura you are", with a smirk. I just started laughing and mentioned how lame I felt for missing that. Anyway, it was pretty funny.
So here I sit getting a little bigger each day which I often say, "oh it's not me getting bigger it's the baby!". Today I'm feeling better, no queasiness. I think it's starting to subside. I hope. I had an ultra sound and the baby was much bigger than I thought. By the time we saw the OBGYN and the ultrasound I was 10 weeks along. Cool. So all this is exciting news and I had never really resolved that we would have only two kids. So three is great. I know it will be a lot more work but the good thing is Shay will be close to 3 and Jack will be four. So I'm hoping that will help a bit.
Me and the kids just started Bible Study Fellowship. We are all studying the Life of Moses together. I'm excited about this and am eager to get new ideas from BSF on how to teach God's word in our home and make it toddler friendly. Sometimes that is hard.
I better go, Shay is upstairs in the kitchen and last time she was there I arrived to find her sitting on the floor with three different ice cream bars on her lap and one in her mouth (with the wrapper on).
SO long for now. Pictures to follow.
So I have been going over in my mind what I would post about today...there is so much to say. Well September has been a blur. We'll start with that. We started the month by spending our vacation in CA...we went to the beach, to Disneyland, to Santa Barbara..etc. We had a great time. We came home and quickly got back into the swing of things. About four days after being home Chris asked me if I would consider hosting a refugee family from Iraq. They were coming to the US on Wednesday and had no place to stay. The selfish Laura immediately said no, then a few seconds later I knew that was NOT from the Lord. So I told Chris, ONLY if they have no other place to stay. By Tuesday he told me that they would be staying with us. I was excited and nervous at the same time. I spent Wed AM getting the guest room ready and the basement. It would be a family of 6...One mom and 5 kids. I thought they could sleep in the guest room and basement...they did.
So they arrived on Wed night, tired but always smiling. The next few days would be spent getting to know each other, having the family catch up on sleep and just hanging out. They all spoke english, except the two younger ones. They are also Muslim and in the middle of celebrating Ramadan. So they were fasting all day and then they would eat a big meal after sunset. They also had to wake up at 4am and eat breakfast. So that is what they did. One AM Chris and I awoke to a foul smell (at least it was to me). They were cooking breakfast. Chris thought that the house was burning down. That was the only AM that I awoke to a smell...all the other days were fine. Aseel (the mom) made amazing dinners and included me and Chris in those meals every night. I was DOG tired each night as dinner and clean up were over at 9pm. I would just go upstairs and go to bed, read or work in bed. I didn't watch TV for 12 days!
So as the week and a half went by, we all got to know each other quite well. The kids had fun playing with the two younger kids. The 15 year old girl was a good mother's helper for me at times. The two older boys (twin 17 y.o) pretty much played on the computer during the day or played soccer at the park. Shay got along great with Noona (4 y.o girl). Jack and Ali (6y.o boy) had a love hate relationship. Jack had a hard time sharing but Ali also had a hard time so the two of them would butt heads, neither understanding what the other was saying, but both knowing that "anger" was involved by tone of voice. Noona got annoyed at Jack too for various reasons, not all Jack's fault.
I remember Chris coming home on day 2 and asking me how the "missions trip" was today...He was right, this was a missions trip. My only complaint was that I was not being given the designated "quiet time" that one typically receives while on a missions trip. I would slide into bed at night, open my Bible and try to read a couple verses...then slip off to sleep. That was all...So despite my limited alone time with the Lord, I was super thankful for His faithfulness and His grace. He equipped me with everything I needed for doing His will...I felt pretty joyful most of the time and calm, but there were times, of course, where stress and fatigue were beating me down. The kids bickering was the thing that would make me tired.
So now that they are settled in their own place, I am able to reflect a little on their stay. I would do this again. I am so thankful that we have a relationship with a family whom I might never have met had I not done this, I am thankful that my children were able to learn a little about hospitality and serving those who need help. I am thankful that God believed that I could handle this (and Chris) and that Chris pushed me past my comfort zone. He is good with that! So all in all, I am amazed at God's goodness. I am blessed to have this family in our lives and hope our relationship continues to grow. Ultimately, I hope and pray that they come to know Jesus as their Lord of All and see Jesus in me and my family.
Here are some pictures...I need to scan the picture of the entire family...sorry I just have pics of the kids playing.
