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

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!

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!

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?

Ode to Vitamin D

Last year my friend Jen told me that most Minnesotans are extremely deficient on vitamin D and that could be the reason for so many people suffering from S.A.D.D. I was a definite sufferer of S.A.D.D. I remember dramatically saying that I wanted to plunge my head into the toilet and leave it there. Not really. But kind of. So I started popping vitamin D religiously. Oh the sweet relief. It has been a world of a difference. I take two each day and on those long stretches when we don't see the sun for DDDDDAAAYYYYYYSSSSS on end, I'm still doing ok. I care not to leave this world just yet. If you find yourself sad in these long winter days... try some vitamin D, it does a body good.

The following pictures really have nothing to do with vitamin D, except maybe that my kids looked really, really cute in their Vikings apparel and that makes me happy.

Jeremiah said to me on Sunday morning, "I'm wearing my Vikings jersey to church." (clearly testing me and my reaction) I said, "Ok." He said, "REALLY?!" I said, "Sure, put the kids' on them too." He was thrilled. And all the guys in church were jealous of him [that he has such a cool wife that lets him wear a Vikings jersey to church].

Too bad Los Vikes couldn't break the curse.

Here's the monthly picuture... even though I took it on time, we're almost due for another. This was at the beginning of January. A February one will come in, well, February.

Just playing outside, since the weather was warm enough- like in the 20's!! Woohoo!

Hear Me Roar

My name is Isaiah and I'm a pretty cute dude.

Up until about 5 days ago, I was really, really good 99.2% of the time. Then on Monday my mom was mean and brought me in for my shots. That night I wasn't feeling super great and I figured out what fussy meant. And since then I've cried like 3 times. THREE! Don't worry though, I'm getting back on track. The last two days I've been pretty much completely back to my old self of not crying. My mom said it was ok that I did cry though because it helps me exert some energy and is good for my lungs to give a little shout once in a while.

My mom doesn't like to brag too much, so I figured I had to let ya'll know that I AM a little stud muffin. I like my sleep, going to bed around 8:00 pm, Mom wakes me up at 10:00 for my last feeding, then I'm down until 7:30 am. I'm a happy camper, talking/cooing, smiling lots and starting to giggle. I love to lay under my play gym or just in the middle of the chaos that is defined by the words "Jonah" and "Aphia". I'm starting to nurse really fast, but I also like to clamp down and PULL HARD. Mom says that when I get teeth we'll be DONE-DEE. Even Dad covered his chest in mock-pain when he saw what I can do last night.

So that's me, Isaiah John. To reiterate: I'm super cute. I'm a good boy. I love food. Hear me roar (which I really never do). Peace out.

Both

I can’t always have both. I want both. But I cannot always have both. There are so many times in life that I would just feel so much better if I had been blessed with the ability to split myself in two and be two places at once. Does that seem like to much to ask? Seriously.

I want to go out sledding with Jeremiah and the kids, but I want to stay home and snuggle in. I want to take a shower, take off my old, grungy toenail polish and re-polish, but I want to be lazy and do nothing. I want to go out with my friends and sing karaoke, but I want to stay with my family because we’ve been busy all day and I just need down time with them. I want to go to all the Christmas and New Year’s festivities with all of our families and friends, but I want to stay home, keeping it low key, like Jeremiah always asks for. I want to go to bed and sleep, because I know that Isaiah will be up like clockwork at 7:00 a.m., but I want to stay up and watch a movie with Jeremiah. I want to cook a yummy homemade meal because I love to cook, but I want to go out for Thai food because it is so yummy!

I can’t have them both, all the time. I need to remember this. I need to be able to make a decision and be satisfied with it. I need to feel no guilt from either side, because in reality, both sides will be fine with or without me. I need to know that sometimes it is ok to say “yes” and sometimes it is ok to say “no”.

It seems that the idea of “balance” is an idea that a lot of people struggle with. There are probably very few people who would say that they always have a nice, even balance in their lives. But it is not something that cannot be strived for. Balance is a good goal. I like happy mediums. In life, I think they seem to rank high... just after relationships. (That was a mantra we always said in my Youth Ministry classes, “It’s all about the relationships.”) That is where the tricky part comes in. For me, I’m very relational, and so I like to be with everyone all the time. But I need the balance of being with those whom I love and care about, but also finding alone, quiet, down time.

Ahhh, the blessing that a new year brings. The chance to ponder these things. The chance to look ahead to the newness and make decisions about what this year will bring and how I will shape and form it. It’s my life. It’s my choice. And I’m going to forge ahead with what I think God wants from me. And that my friends, this year, is a balance of both.