Wednesday, October 12, 2011

October Forecast - Follow Up Part 1

It's October 12th and I haven't written an update on all my October Forecast Challenges yet!  Well, I'm happy to say that I've succeeded on A LOT more than I thought I would!  I'm surprised by this because I know myself, and even though I LOVE to plan and make lists, it's the follow through that I struggle with so VERY VERY much!  With that said, so far I've succeeded at 2 out of 3 of my "plans" for the month.

First off, my Hello Mornings! Challenge.  I'm SOOOO excited to report that I've succeeded at this one 100% of the time!  WOO HOO!!  This is a HUGE deal for me, to actually wake up by an alarm clock and before my boys wake up.  My alarm has gone off at 5:45am every Mon-Fri and I've been out of bed between 6-6:30 each of those mornings.  Even though I snooze, I still count it as a success because I am accomplishing my long term goal, which is to be up before the boys in order to have a quiet time and complete anything else I can before they wake up.  Granted, they have been waking up earlier off and on, and a couple days, I've been up at 6, and so have one or both of them, but overall, 95% of the time, I have a solid 30 minutes to myself, to pray, journal, read and study the Word before they are ready to get up.

Second was my cleaning schedule.  So, this was the one that I've failed at miserably, and if you were to walk in to my house right now, it would be very clear to you that I haven't done hardly anything in this department!  Don't get me wrong, we sleep on clean sheets, wear clean clothes, the dishes stay clean for the most part, and I do vacuum and dust, but other than that, not much has gotten done.

In lieu of cleaning, I have spent countless hours playing trains, reading books, coloring, playing playdoh, racing cars, playing Elefun and so many other things with my boys, and to me, that is far more important than having a spick and span home.  The time that they actually want me to play with them is so limited in the grand scheme of things, and I've decided that I am not going to feel guilty about forskaing cleaning to spend priceless time with my two little cuties!  I hope that if you do come over and see my home, in all disarray, that you will be slow to judge and quick to realize that messy homes = memories are being made!  Thanks in advance for giving me grace in this area!

Third, journaling for my boys.  I have succeeded 100% in this area as well and am pretty sure the Lord is teaching me much more through writing to them than I ever thought possible!  What joy it brings my heart to write down memories from that day as well as having the opportunity to write out my heartfelt prayers for them.  Something that I hope and pray they treasure for the rest of their lives!  I give all credit to the Lord for this, for giving me a passion to write.  It's not about me, it's not about them, it's about what the Lord wants to say to them and I'm humbled that He is using me!  Thank you Lord!

So, there's my update for the first part of the month!  I am so thankful that the Lord has been nudging my heart to change, even in the smallest of areas, and I pray that I will continue to allow Him in to every area of my life so that the change He brings, will only show more of Him and less of me.

Be Blessed and Encouraged!



Sunday, October 9, 2011

13 Months

Asher sweetie, you are 13 months old!  Woo Hoo!  You are all boy and I absolutely LOVE the fact that you are now WALKING and need no help from mommy or daddy anymore(you love it too!)!  You are also all about being "busy" every moment you are awake.  You constantly want to be playing and moving and I love it!  It keeps me on my toes and I'm pretty sure you are the reason I've recently lost weight!  

You are beginning to understand when mommy or daddy tell you "no" and you don't like it (big surprise there, right?!?).  You squeal at us, and sometimes you take a swing at me if I'm holding you when I tell you no.  We are already having to work on discipline with you in the sense that you LOVE outlets and anything that might injure you. 

This past month you had your first haircut and look soooo much more like a little boy!  I love it!  And I love the fact that Fall is just around the corner because you look so handsome in your little jeans, sneakers and long sleeve t's!  Thank you for speeding over to me multiple times a day and bear hugging my neck, it's my most favorite moments I share with you each day!  And thank you for your big smiles and your belly laughs! You are such a honey and SUCH a priceless treasure to me and daddy!  We love you so much!

Here are a few pics from the past month of your life!  I could just stare at them all day long!

 Again, the talking to the food thing, HILARIOUS!!
 You've got long eyelashes like your brother!
 The beautifulness that was your hair before we had it chopped off!  I still look at this and miss those curls!
 Haircut time!

 So proud of yourself for walking all the way to daddy!
 You in jeans melts my heart!
 Eeeek!  My little superman!  I could just snuggle you ALL THE DAY LONG!!!

Be Blessed and Encouraged!



Tuesday, October 4, 2011

33 Months

Oh my sweet Caleb.  You have become such a funny little guy lately!  Your personality is really starting to bloom, and I can see a bunch of both me and daddy in you!  You are very free spirited and love to dance around and do your own thing, and you also love to just lay down and relax!  What a cuddler you are too, you know I will never turn down any cuddle time with you!!  In three more short months you will be 3 years old, and I just don't think I'm ready for that yet.  Time is going way too fast, and I truly want to just freeze it right now!  I love you sooooo very much!  You are such a priceless treasure!  Thank you for bringing so much joy to my heart each and every day!  Here are a few pics from the past month, I still can't believe how big you're getting!

You and daddy just chillin' out!  Daddy wasn't feeling well when he got home this day and you climbed right on up to cuddle with him!
 You tolerate Asher SOOOOO well honey!  You are an amazing big brother and Asher is so blessed to have you!  I can't wait to see how your relationship continues to develop over the years!
 You are ALL boy, all the way down to the way that you eat, and the mess that you make, AND I LOVE IT!!!  I wouldn't change a single thing about you!  I've come to grips that my home will be in disarray for the next 15-20 years, and I'm completely ok with that!  Memories are being made!
 These pj bottoms are just slightly big on you, but you thought it was hilarious when I pulled them all the way up over your cute belly!  I called you my little Nacho that day, in reference to Nacho Libre for any of you who wondered why I picked that name!

 You are a HOOT!  You walk around, dance around and run around with your lovies hanging off the top of your head all the time!  It makes mommy laugh so much because you crack yourself up by doing it!
 Yep, this is how you roll!  You had just gotten your new shoes that afternoon and would not let me take them off of you.  I also got creative and made you a "hat" out of the top half of a Chipotle bag and stuck it on your head.  You LOVED it!  And of course, it's normal for you to be running around in your undies, pretty much every day!
 And I can't forget to post this momentus picture, your FIRST day of preschool!  Oh my goodness!  You absolutely LOVE preschool and have made so many new friends!  It's especially special because your friend Haley goes to the same school and apparently y'all get to play together on the playground each day!  What fun!  I truly am so excited that you were able to go this year, you are learning SOOOO much and I love picking you up and hearing all about it!

Happy 33 month birthday buddy!  We love and adore you so much!

Be Blessed and Encouraged!



Saturday, October 1, 2011

Asher's First Haircut

Today we took Asher for his very first haircut!  Wow.  He looks so much more like a little man than a baby, and I was definitely sad to see all that gorgeous baby hair go.  So, without further ado, here are a few pics!  Enjoy!

Before, goodness gracious your hair was so long!!
And curly, oh how I love those curls!!
He did SOOOOO fabulous!  He sat on my lap and watched Cars while the very sweet lady cut his hair.

 And, the final result!  My handsome little senator!!

Be Blessed and Encouraged!


October Forecast

October is going to bring some major changes around here.  Maybe not too noticeable to the outside world, but very noticeable here, and specifically to me!  I'm taking on a few challenges, some new, some repeats from "back in the day".  So, in order to have written proof that I've attempted these changes, I'm blogging about them, before I even start most of them!  If you read my blog, feel free to ask me how I'm doing with them through this next month.  I will also post updates, probably only once a week, for lack of time really.  Anyway, on to the good stuff...

Some of you may remember me sharing a while back about a new morning routine that I was going to commit to for 3 months, May 15th - August 15th, called Hello Mornings.  Well, I kinda failed at the round, so I signed up for the next one, Sept. 15 - Dec. 15th and so far, I've been successful EVERY.  SINGLE.  DAY. (Yay me!!).  If you know me at all, you know that I AM NOT a morning person, whatsoever, so hearing the not so soft sound of my cell phone alarm go off at 5:45 each morning has rocked my world.  It has been such a wonderful accountability "program" for me, just knowing that 20-25 other ladies, who are mostly in my life stage, and have the same desires to wake up early before the kids and spend some quality time with Jesus, has truly made the past couple weeks so far so much more enjoyable, and doable!  I've never met any of these wonderful mommies in person, but I get to have a short conversation with them each morning when I "check in" in our group's FB page each morning, as soon as I get up.  Some of us are working towards getting in steady quiet times with Jesus, as well as a morning workout routine.  Don't even ask me how I'm doing with that last bit, because there is absolutely nothing to share!  Anyway, this is one thing that I will continue to strive towards through the month of October, in addition to texting a dear friend of mine each morning at 6:30, to help hold her accountable to getting up and having Jesus time before the kids wake.
       
Next, comes the not so fun part of the month...cleaning.  I have written out a detailed cleaning check list for each day of the week, and hopefully I can stick to it!  I created a Family Binder quite a while back and have not had the motivation to fill it and use it until just within the past couple weeks.  It's so cute that I think I was almost afraid to use it for fear of beating it up, but isn't that what it's for?!?  Anyways, the first round of tabs are monthly sections (Jan - Dec) for calendar pages.  I've got a great layout that works best for me and I've been using it in my purse size planner for quite a while.  I was pretty excited to have a full size binder to move to, it gives me more writing and planning space!  Here's a cover shot... 

  Here's a sneak peak of what my "layout" looks like.  I've got everything color coded too (yes, I'm sure y'all think I"m absolutely insane but I don't care, it works!).  As you can see, my "chore chart" is in gray, schedules are in teal, and misc. notes in yellow at the bottom left.  On the bottom right of each page, I have my mission statement, a GREAT daily reminder of who I am striving to be during my short life here on earth, and in the top right corner (not filled in yet), is a place to put the memory verse I'm currently working on.  Also included is a menu planner, a water log and the day's most important things to accomplish.  I'm really hoping being more organized on paper (and having a box to check) will really help me get my butt in gear!
I also just put together a quick weekly calendar.  It's hanging on the wall in our kitchen and includes breakfasts, lunches and dinners for the week, a place to jot down anything on the calendar, a grocery list and a to do list.  I know it's kind of a repeat of what's above, but it's more for Aaron to see what we have going on that week, as well as if there is anything in particular he wants from the store he can jot it down there.  It's great because as you can see, it's a dry erase board, so each week, I get to start over!  I love it!
                                      

So, finally, my final goal for the month is this.  I went out and bought two composition notebooks, one for Caleb and one for Asher.  My goal is to simply write or journal something to them at the end of each day, including what I'm specifically praying for them that day (using the mommy's prayer calendar found here: http://www.inspiredtoaction.com/wp-content/uploads/kat/I2A_Prayer_Calendar.pdf).  It doesn't have to be anything long, detailed or emotional, just something that I truly want them to remember about that day.  My goal is to do this each day of October, in hopes that it will become a regular "event" in my daily life.  I would love to be able to give them all of these journals with hand written memories and letters from me.  Can you tell that my love language is words of affirmation?!?

Well, there you have it.  My goals for October are to stop procrastinating, set a morning routine in place, follow through on a cleaning/organizing regimen and be consistent to love on my boys in a more tangible way, even if they don't realize what it is now, I truly just want them to know how incredibly much I love being their mommy!

Be Blessed and Encouraged!