Monday, February 22, 2010

Back to life, back to reality

Upon returning home from a more-than-wonderful trip to Colorado, my mom asked me, “Are you glad to be home?” To which I quickly replied, “No.” I followed it up with, “I’m glad to see my children yes, but I’m NOT glad to be home. On Friday morning, when we were packing up I said, ‘Can’t we just SEND for the children? Have them come here? We can all stay in this house, here in Colorado FOREVER!’” Apparently that was not reality and that could not happen. Blast. I cannot describe how great the trip was. My words will never do it justice, but I’ll give you a glimpse.

#1. I cannot tell you how very, very needed this trip was for Jeremiah and I. After 4 months of trying to survive as parents of three, we realized, “Oh yeah! We are spouses too... not just parents! Maybe we should act like it!” It was good to spend time with him. It was good to look at his face again and see the man I married. It was good to hug, and joke, and laugh, and hold hands. It was good. It was good to talk with my sister-in-law, Stephanie, who has been on this same road before, raising small children and doing life as a couple. She gave me extreme hope. I love her dearly.

#2. Relaxed! Although I did spend 3 days skiing, I was able to bookend the week with days of relaxation in the house. They were phenomenal. I probably could have sat in the living room and stared out the window all week long. And don’t get me wrong, the skiing that I did was also pretty relaxed. I was a bit sore walking up and down the stairs, but I’m honestly sorer tonight after kickboxing. Apparently Lyssa, our instructor, thought that since we have had 2 weeks off (snow day and President’s day) that we needed to play catch up tonight. It was brutal. She’s mean. Just kidding, I like her. Please don’t punish me next week for saying that Lyssa! (No just kidding, she doesn’t really read this)

(Ok, I digress...)

#3. Time with family is always a plus, especially when you love your family TREMENDOUSLY! I am so very blessed to have been raised in a family with whom I love to spend time. I am also very, very fortunate to be married into a family of whom I also adore. We had many a good chat, talk, conversation, laugh, cry, hug, etc. I was so glad that the time had come for all of us to be able to go on a vacation together, to examine what we look like as a family of adults and move forward as a wonderful group.

#4. Piggybacking on that- how could I ever thank my mom and dad, sister and brother enough for taking care of Jonah and Aphia while we were gone?! What a TRUE blessing they are!

#5. I’ve become a snob. I do not have any desire to ski on those blah mole hills in Minnesota anymore. I will ski in Colorado and Colorado only. Ok, maybe not, but seriously- the mountains are indescribable! We literally skied out our back door onto the hill. Wowsers! And the powder, OH THE POWDER, it is SO much fun to ski in.

#6. I've never had so much fun, standing in a stand up shower with 11 other people. Can we say, "SUPER FUN GAME OF SARDINES!!!"??? I laughed until I cried, after we had all been standing in there, waiting for... oh wait, no one, we were ALL in the shower! "Stephanie? Yeah. Bonnie? Yeah. Dave? Yeah." Laughing just thinking about it.

#7. All I can say is, see for yourself..

Standing on our deck (that had a heated floor so no snow could accumulate on it... same as the driveway and back patio out to the hot tub!)


Bex and I on the chair lift, here we go!


Becca's snowboard, my skis


JJ and I, ready for swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!


Driving into the village at night

Saturday, February 13, 2010

And We're Off!

In just 14 short hours I will be aboard a plane, with babe in arms, and husband nestled next to me traveling to far off, mountainous lands! Ok, maybe not too far off, just two, short, plane ride hours away to the wonderful state of Colorado. Never been there before. Am super duper UBER excited to go.

Jonah and Aphia are packed to go to my parents for the week (bless their hearts). Isaiah will be experiencing his first airplane ride at 3 1/2 months old. I've never flown with a baby before, hopefully he will be good. Hopefully we'll take off at our scheduled time because that is just when he needs to eat, so I'll give him a bottle going up and hopefully his ears will not bother him in the least. Descending might be another story... we shall see.

It is currently 9:30 the night before departure and I am actually ready to go. Praise GOD that we had the entire day today to get our stuff in order. That actually never happens. We always leave to go somewhere either on Friday night or Saturday morning and I have to get everything ready, by myself, prior to leaving. Thankfully, Jeremiah and I had the whole day today to tag-team getting ready. Whew. So thankful for that, it'll probably never happen again.

Adios! Off to Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Happy 3rd Birthday Aphia Michelle

Today is my little girl's 3rd birthday! It seems surreal with her. With my boys, I feel like they are the age they are (imagine that!). But with Aphia I, for some reason, do not feel like she should be this old yet- sniff, sniff, tear!

Have a blessed day my Beeba Girl! You are such a sparkle in our lives,
you keep us on our toes and you light up our home!
We praise the Lord for you everyday!
Here are a couple pictures of her along her journey to 3!
Aphia just days after coming home from the hospital
The above picture is her on her 1st Birthday!
Here she is on the weekend of her 2nd Birthday at Grand Rios Waterpark

Here she is, the Birthday Girl at 3 years old!


Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Visions of Sugarplums... er... other stuff rather...

Today I had a "stop dead in my tracks" moment. But not really. Only in my mind. But it was rather cool, nonetheless.

At MOPS today, our speaker was talking about being a mom and finding peace in the midst of chaos. She asked us to pinpoint certain times of the day when chaos seems to take over in our homes. Times like the hour right before dinner, just before bedtime, trying to get out the door, etc. At the end of her talk we revisited one of these times that rings true in our lives.

Back up just a couple hours before she spoke...

With the freshly fallen snow, comes the early morning phone call for Jeremiah... "Hey Jeremiah, we're going to plow [at work] so come on in when you can." And my wonderful husband who is always home to help me in the morning scoots out the door earlier than normal. It's all good, I don't really mind it, except that I'm a planner and when things like this get thrown at me and I have to shift gears quickly, it's tough. I can do it, sure. I'm good at pulling up the bootstraps, but my head swirls and it does a number on my psyche. Especially when I have to get up, shower, get myself ready, make a hashbrown casserole for MOPS, nurse a baby, pump off the rest, get breakfast for the others, make sure clothes are on, diaper is changed, bladders are empty, hands are washed, teeth are brushed, hair is combed, winter gear is on, car seats are buckled, oven is off, dog is in kennel, and we're out the door by 8:40- whew!

It was all going fairly smoothly and I'm remaining calm despite the lack of any urgency by Jonah and Aphia, who don't seem to care if we get to MOPS today or sometime in late July. But then it happens, the straw... and I'm the camel. The Leapster, left out, on the floor for anyone to step on! Oh Sweet Jesus! (Sense the sarcasm as I kindly mock MYSELF) "Jonah, how many times have I told you not to leave this laying out? If you don't take care of your things, you are going to get consequences! I'm going to take it away AGAIN if you don't take better care of your Leapster!" The ever sensitive child replies, literally, in his sweet way, "Ok Mom, I'm sorry. I'll try to remember that next time." I breathe. I apologize for yelling at him and we hug. And out the door we go!

Fast forward now to our speaker asking us to revisit our moment(s) of chaos that haunt us, and that was the situation I envision. So then she says, "Now picture Jesus, there in the midst. (pause) What does that look like?" So I go on with my vision of my morning, only putting Jesus into the mix. I envisioned myself walking out of my bedroom, down the hall expecting to see him helping the kids put their jackets on, so we can head out the door. HALT! That is not what I saw AT ALL. My own vision stopped me dead in my tracks. Hold up! This was MY vision. Jesus was supposed to be putting my kids jackets on. WE HAD TO LEAVE THE HOUSE IN 3.7 SECONDS! What I saw, was Jesus, sitting on my living room floor, with Jonah and Aphia next to him, playing. PLAYING! Did he not know it was a MOPS DAY!?!?! But like I said, the vision brought me to an abrupt stop. And so stop I did. I took Isaish with me and we joined them. We sat on the floor and forgot about MOPS. This was Jesus and he had joined us for the morning, and this was where we were going to be. Little bit of an eye opener for this "Martha" who needs to be more "Mary."

Today I will...
-not say "Just a second" when my kids ask something of me
-give them my all when they need me
-be present with Jeremiah at the end of his day
-put off today, what can be done tomorrow
-sit at Jesus feet and enjoy his company

What will you do today?