currently enjoying...

...a cup of coffee every morning. i've never been someone who has to have a cup of coffee every morning, but since the little guy was born, i have come to rely on that cup of coffee to get going in the morning.

...all the things i crossed off my to-do list this afternoon.

...a house that smells like spring thanks to three hyacinths from the backyard that are now on our dining room table. jeremy picked them for me after he got home from work last night. (when he is home, they have to go out on the porch because they irritate his allergies...but i have been enjoying them today while he is at work).

...opening the windows and wearing short sleeves, shorts, and sandals! spring has arrived!

...spending time outside with our two amazing little humans. finding bugs, digging in the sand, walking in the woods, swinging at the park, and watching them learn.

...stories on cd. i recently purchased two of these ("frog and toad" and "francis") for love to listen to during her "rest time" in the afternoons. she rarely sleeps but usually spends some quiet time in her room. they are perfect for her to listen to while she lays in her bed for a rest, and she really looks forward to listening to them.

...knowing that my new glasses will be arriving in the mail soon. i found out last week that my suspicion that i need glasses is correct, so soon i will be sporting a new spectacled look. the time has come for me to be a full time glasses wearer. it's only fitting as i will be turning 30(!) in june. i look forward to less eye strain and clearer vision (though it is going to be take some time for me to be at peace with the idea of having to wear glasses all the time).

...counting down the number of days jeremy has left to work. we will have three weeks together {they will be crazy, but together} to move and get a little bit settled before he starts his chaplain training.

...looking forward to our trip to south carolina (two weeks from today we will be there). just the two of us! (not looking forward to leaving the kiddos...but they will be well taken care of by grandma and aunt kate).

...the bin of sand on our front porch. love plays with it for hours at a time.

...watching the trees bud and the flowers grow.

...love's little words for things. examples: fridge-u-lator (refrigerator), and oapmeal (oatmeal).

...how clean our house usually is since it is on the market (i'm trying to look on the bright side here, because really i just find that all stressful).

...these energy bars. i made them the other day and oh, they are so good. they remind me of seven layer bars, only they are healthy.

...just feeling better overall. no sugar, no wheat, and fewer carbs = a healthier, more energetic, and more content me. it's a good trade.

...the fact that a guy came and looked at our roof, said that our roof looks great, that the leak was from an area that needed to be resealed, and did it for free in about ten minutes! i, of course, was preparing for the worst, so when the guy gave us the good news, i could have hugged him!

...dreaming of the possibilities that come with moving to a new city...meeting new people, making a new house into our home, exploring a new city, and getting a fresh outlook on life. (i do know that there will be difficult times as well, and there are certainly plenty of people who we love and will miss after we move).

...my new sandals (and the very low price we paid thanks to jeremy's job). they are very comfortable.

...the fact that it is the last day of april. i am welcoming may with open, adventurous arms.

what are you enjoying these days?

steps!

jobot hit the eleven month mark yesterday. eleven!

he also officially took his first steps! over the last week he started taking a little step here and there, but yesterday was taking 5 - 6 steps at a time. it won't be long and he will be toddling all over, just in time for summer. it is so fun to watch him learn to walk, he is so proud of himself. i am proud of him too, but i will admit that seeing him walk makes my heart hurt just a bit...a reminder that he will only be a baby for a bit longer. i'm going to treasure the days, even in the midst of the craziness of our life right now.

p.s. tomorrow evening we have our third showing on the house. will you pray with us that the third time is the charm? we are praying for a house selling miracle!

reality

the reality of life right now is that i am stressed. very, very stressed.

our house is on the market. we had one showing on wednesday. trying to keep the house neat while you have two little kids is just close to impossible, but i did it. the people who looked at it decided not to buy it. there isn't much interest in the house. we will likely rent it. it is stressful to think of the logistics of renting, though it does seem to be a good option considering the circumstances.

just this morning we noticed that there seems to be a leak in our roof...the wood that covers the scuttle hole (i just learned that term...thanks google) to the attic was wet. it appears there is a small amount of water getting in just above that. so...now we have calls out to roofing companies to get estimates for repair. we both kind of felt like we wanted to throw up...i still kinda feel that way. it just feels like one thing after another and our resources to fix things are limited at this point.

we don't know where we are going to be living after we move. it looks like jeremy and i are going to go to south carolina in mid-may to scope out our options and hopefully find somewhere to live when we move there a few weeks later. even though our time there will be very task-oriented, we are looking forward to getting away for a few days together. as much as we can, we are going to try to make it feel like a little vacation. i don't think it will take much...just the thought of driving in a car together and having uninterrupted conversation for approximately fourteen hours sounds like a vacation to me.

jeremy's work schedule is just crazy these days. working all kinds of weird hours. he will only be working there for three more weeks after this one. we can definitely handle three more weeks of this craziness. once he starts working in south carolina, he will work a normal monday through friday schedule, with occasional turns being on call. i can hardly wait to be on a normal schedule. i think it is going to really help all of us.

parenting in the midst of all of this is quite a challenge...it's hard to keep patience and maintain a calm atmosphere when inside we both feel totally stressed out.

my mom is coming for the weekend and will be arriving soon. it will be really nice, especially since jeremy is working all weekend.

one kid is napping, the other is in her crib counting to thirteen at the top of her lungs (thirteen is as high as she can get). i should probably go get her up. she will be excited to see grandma when she arrives!

april showers...may flowers

if april showers really do bring may flowers, we will be overtaken with flowers by the time may gets here. for who knows how many days, it rained every. single. day. when i began writing this post (about three days ago), there was a rain/snow mix coming down outside and jeremy and i couldn't remember the last time we saw the sun. it was really exciting when the sun peeked out for a bit yesterday morning, and the sun has been shining all day today. the grass is really green, flowers are starting to pop up, and trees are starting to bud! it has been a cold, wet spring so far, and we were so ready to get outside yesterday.

the kids and i spent over four hours at our local botanical gardens. it was mostly cloudy and there was a cool breeze, but we were outside and we loved every second! we walked around the paths outside and stopped for snack time. we marveled at the flowers peeking through the dirt, chased a canadian goose (love: "goose. what you doing? i want to know what you are doing!"), and befriended a few bugs along the way. i giggled when love saw a large patch of grass and ran around on it joyfully yelling, "grass! grass! grass!" (you know your kids have been stuck inside for too long when that happens!).

i took great joy in watching love play on the playground. it has a shaky bridge that kids can walk across and i saw her approach it and then stop right on the edge. she took one step onto the bridge and then clung to the railing with all her might. she looked terrified. there were a lot of older, rowdy kids running around and she tends to be a bit timid in those situations anyway. kids ran by her and several times they pulled one of her hands free from the railing so they could run by, or they unintentionally shoved her out of the way. the bridge bounced up and down as they ran across and she just stood there, petrified. it was all i could do not to run up there and help her across, but i knew she could figure it out on her own, so i just quietly observed. she eventually looked over at me and i gave her a big smile and some words of encouragement, but otherwise i just watched. that was hard for me. and then...she slowly started across, and made it all the way to the other side! a huge grin spread across her face and i could almost see her self-confidence grow. i was so proud of her!

all of that was fun, but we spent most of our time in the huge sandbox. go figure...a large, beautiful botanical garden complex that i'm sure cost millions upon millions of dollars to create, and the kids could care less about all that...give them a big pile of sand and they are happy. love was happy to play with her little construction vehicles...she made up stories and narrated right along with her play. at one point, i heard her call, "excavator, come over here. i have a very special job for you to do!"

jobot puttered around, running the sand through his fingers and every once in awhile looked up at me with adoring eyes like he was saying, "i can't believe you are letting me play in this. it is amazing! thank you! thank you!"

it was such a good time. i love watching them learn and explore. i'm so glad they enjoy simple things like dirt and bugs. and i'm so happy that they were both covered in dirt by the time we left. i think that the more dirt on their bodies at the end of the day, the better the day was. i am really excited for this summer - they are both going to be at such fun ages. i think we have a lot of bathtub rings in our future.

easter! and our news...

the news is...we are moving! to the state of south carolina. we have never been there and certainly never considered living there...to be honest, we've never really given that state much thought. but now, here we are...looking up things to see and do, looking for housing, and imagining our life there. jeremy will be doing a fifteen month program to become a chaplain. it is all quite exciting. and the logistics are quite stressful. we have known for about six weeks. six weeks that have been filled with caring for two kids while cleaning/purging/organizing, pricing moving trucks, prepping our house to go on the market (which will officially happen next week), and jeremy working more than full time at his current job. it's been crazy over here. only to get more crazy once the house is actually on the market and has to be ready for showings at any time!

anyway, in the midst of all of that, i realized the other day that i haven't done any preparations for easter! i know that love can understand the basic idea of easter and decided to look for a book that we could read with her that would help her understand. i was surprised and disappointed to find that the selection of children's books about easter seems quite small and lacking. it's surprising, considering the significance of the holiday in our lives. anyway...after feeling quite inspired to write and publish an easter book myself (since i have so much spare time these days), i finally settled on a book.

i chose "easter surprise", a lift the flap board book, by howie and maclean. i am quite happy with this book...it is an accurate telling of the easter story beginning with palm sunday, it doesn't get into the gory details, but it does say that Jesus died and shows the three crosses from far away. the people aren't white with blue eyes, and it's fun for kids to lift the flaps as the story is read. love really enjoys the book as well.

we also got a set of resurrection eggs this year. i was going to make my own, but i was having trouble finding some of the pieces to put in the eggs, and i just didn't feel like it was coming together nicely...so i decided to purchase a set that we can use for the future as well. the eggs came with a little booklet, so love and i went through it together earlier today. she really enjoyed opening the eggs and finding what part of the story was inside each one. we will probably continue to use this over the next week or two and then we will stash it away for next year's use.

we have a "way of light" wreath, which can be used for both advent and lent. i didn't get it out for lent this year though...maybe next year.

does anyone who reads this have any other books to recommend? how do you observe lent and easter in your home with little ones? any suggestions for us?

ten months!

oh, they just keep growing.

jobot hit the ten month mark this past week. ten months! where has the time gone?

he is quite the boy. at his doctor appointment a couple of weeks ago he weighed 25 pounds, 12 ounces and was 31.25 inches - off the charts for both height and weight (he's always been off the charts for height, but this was the first time he was off the charts for weight too!). he is wearing size 18 - 24 month clothes. this would all explain why i actually seem to have size-able biceps for the first time in my life. seriously.

he is starting to talk. he appropriately says "all done", "uh oh", "banana", "mama", and "dada". he waves and claps. he is working on his fourth tooth. he cruises on the furniture and stands on his own. he is getting very close to walking! he likes to bang things on the coffee table. he is mischievous...he knows he is not supposed to bang on our glass cabinet, but he crawls right over with a toy, looks at me with a giggle, and bangs it on the glass. i say, "no no", and move him to the other room and he thinks it's a game and goes right back to the cabinet. whew...keeps me busy!

he is napping much more reliably these days. one good nap a day...usually in the morning, but sometimes he takes an afternoon nap too.

he is such a joyful and happy baby and fills our home with so much joy. i love having a son...so different than having a daughter. i love having a girl, but there's just something special between a boy and his mama. and wow, he is just so cute.

three!

our amazing little love turned three on sunday. three!

there's something about three...it seems so much older than two. i have to admit that i felt a bit teary on our little one's last day as a two-year-old. although some days feel so long, these sweet years seem to be passing too quickly.

she was so excited for her birthday this year! papa (jeremy's dad) was here from california for her birthday, so that made the day extra special for all of us.

there was a special birthday donut for breakfast (the sprinkles were all licked off first, kid-style). 

three tulips from daddy (per tradition...each year he gets her the number of flowers of the age she is turning...he's such a great daddy).

there was a special mama-made button to wear to church.

a mama-decorated cake (we made the cake together the day before). this girl is into anything that has wheels, and the construction themed cake was a real hit! we had a few friends over to share cake and celebrate our girl with us.

there were some new puzzles, a new game, and a few other fun new activities.

we ended the day with homemade pizza and watched the movie "cars". she loved it and it was a fun end to the day.

so much has happened in the past three years, yet in some ways, march 17, 2010 seems like it was just yesterday.

it has been such a joy to watch love grow from a baby into a little girl. she is sweet, witty, incredibly bright and intelligent. she keeps us laughing, tells us she loves us as we tuck her into bed, and loves to sing. she has really started to hold up her end of conversations, and often initiates conversations with us. she has an incredible memory and often shocks us with what she remembers or knows. she usually asks politely for things ("pretty please mommy?"), and she exercises her dramatic side numerous times a day. she loves trains, school buses, construction equipment, legos, "gummies", butterflies, books, snowmen, and ballerinas. she loves her little brother and {usually} makes him laugh. he looks up to her and follows her around during the day. she still sleeps in a crib (we will see how long we can keep that up!) with a washcloth in each hand and the little blue stuffed bunny that her daddy used to sleep with when he was little.

love is such a delight and we love her so very much...more than words could ever say. we thank God everyday for her life and her place in our family.

as we currently have written on the chalkboard in our kitchen, "the Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy!"

love must have thought that her birthday was a lot of fun, because she informed me the next day that she was ready for another birthday. not so fast, girly! this mama can't handle another birthday for at least a year! four can take it's time in coming.