Who Has Time For BonBons and Oprah?

I am put off by something negative that I read about women whose responsibilities are for their home surroundings rather than within a career in the fast-paced workforce. *Growl!*

I think men and women who have jobs that earn them a salary are phenomenal people who make a great impact on this world. Equally, though, I am sad for people who think that being a "housewife/househusband" or "stay-at-home" parent is any less important. Or tough. Or fast-paced (I can multitask like nobody's business!). Just as a cash-generating career may be awesome for some, the non-profit work of a domestic engineer is extraordinarily fulfilling for others and should be respected as such.

I enjoy having the responsibility of little lives, it keeps me tremendously accountable to my Creator.

I enjoy the challenge of child development, it keeps my pride in check.

I enjoy the dirty dishes, it means I filled a belly & met a need for nourishment.

I enjoy sweeping & vacuuming, it means I have the sweet pitter-patter of lil' feet running toward me with hugs.

I enjoy the laundry, thankful each day that the ones I love are nearby right now rather than far away (we all know kids grow up & move away too soon).

I appreciate the opportunity to make my own schedule, it means my husband works hard to provide the time I'm blessed to spend teaching my children the alphabet, colors, numbers, and life values.

I am not criticizing people who don't have children.

I am not criticizing people who do have children and who work for a living.

All I'm asking is that before such people criticize those of us who have children and spend our days among our families, they should surely first attempt walking a mile in our shoes...

I bet they'd find it hard to keep up.

Domestic Bliss

This is domestic bliss, and it's a welcome sight!

Don't get it twisted--I stay on top of washing/drying laundry...but that tends to be during the kids' sleep times so then clean things tend to get left in baskets and not put away where they belong quite immediately (I have no interest in barging in on a baby's naptime to hang his t-shirts!). Today, though, we got 4 baskets of clean laundry folded, hung, and put away in each family member's closet! Yay! As usual, the kids wanted to help. They were given the responsibility of getting their clothes out of those baskets, into their own respective piles, then carrying their pile to their closets, where I then helped them hang clothes. Awesome big sister she is, KyKy helped JoJo, too, who'd taken all sorts of random things out of the laundry baskets to make a big pile--and didn't care that "his" pile consisted of his clothes + bath towels, Daddy's socks, Mommy's jeans, etc! He's only 1 yr old, he just wanted to make piles! The kids also had fun sitting in the newly-emptied baskets while their daddy lifted them waaaay up in the air!

Another change coming is that while I take care of the kids and I clean and all that, I do very little "real cooking"...until now. See, when Josiah was a smaller baby I was preparing certain foods for Kyleigh due to her allergies, and then spoon-feeding baby food to Josiah--not the perfect scenario to sit down and eat together when you're feeding a baby! I would just eat later (whenever that may be!), and that habit has continued. The kids eat different foods than do Chris & I (a food allergy situation), and Chris has not really been home for regular meals in a loooong time (except the occasional day off, and then we eat 'slacker' meals like taco salad or spaghetti or whatever's easy). Why would I cook a big meal for only myself? Chris likes to cook, so when he has been around he'd make food to last the two of us a couple days and something for the kids, like maybe grilled chicken breasts to store for a couple days, with which I'd just quickly heat up veggies and slice up some fruit and such for their mealtimes. So that's not a whole lot of "real cooking" on my part, eh?! Anyway...all that's changing!

These days, obviously, Josiah can feed himself, and with a new work schedule coming into effect we want to eat dinners as a family--finally! We've looked for recipes that would allow us to do that--to create one meal that every family member can share and enjoy. Removing certain ingredients from our meals is easy in some senses, complicated in others, so this new goal ought to be interesting! Tonight Chris and I tested out a new recipe, and it was yummy! It felt weird to be back in the kitchen reading a recipe and slicing, dicing, chopping ingredients. But it was worth it! I ♥ food!

We got this recipe from Kelly's Korner not too long ago, and figured it was worth a shot. All the ingredients are "approved" for the kiddos, but actually tonight we cooked our dinner very late so the kids ate something previously prepared and Hubby & I were the guinea pigs for this recipe. It was simple with short prep time so it worked for me. (Our view: we used fresh green beans rather than canned, but too much lemon flavor seeps into them to suit our taste...
we'd be willing to make it again w/out all the lemon, but that's just us.) I have a menu lined up for each day this week and all necessary ingredients stocked in the kitchen, so I'm ready to attack dinners head-on! I hope all are as cute as this one was:

Is There A Doctor In The House?

This post is not about anyone being sick! In fact, we're all starting to feel a little bit better...finally! This post is actually about a gift that made a little girl VERY happy!

I feel the need to say that we don't spoil our kids, not with allowed behavior and not with toys. I was raised in a strict home, so I don't understand allowing my kids to do whatever they want whenever they want, nor do we buy them whatever they want whenever they want it. But I am nice to my kids, and I thoroughly enjoy seeing them happy! Today, we got to experience an entire day of pure joy with Kyleigh. After feeling so funky for the last few weeks, this simple gift made things so much more fun around here!

I've got a handful of gifts put away for Christmas, but today we let KyKy open one early. Why? Just because.

Kyleigh is very nurturing and caring and loves to help people. She also uses her imagination wonderfully. Kyleigh's seen a LOT of doctors in her life, been through a lot of testing and probing and such, so she knows just how "all that doctor stuff" works. For example, for some time she's taken different random objects and put them around hr neck like a stethoscope. And upon taking Josiah to the doctor recently, I noticed her trying to teach him to say "aaahhh" so the doc could look at his throat. And today I stubbed my toe and she patted me on the shoulder, kissed my ouchie to make it better, showed me where I could find a band-aid (though I didn't need one), and promised me "it will be okay"! We've had a little medical kit put away as a holiday gift, so we decided today to just give it to her...just for fun.

She was THRILLED! Some of the little medical tools light up, like the one used to look at the pupils and the one to look inside the ears, etc. She even got a little name tag...and she told her daddy her name is "Dr. KyKy". LOL Our sweet girl had a blast playing doctor and sharing her medical knowledge with the family. Thanks to Dr. KyKy, we've all had our shots and are decidedly healthy!

Here's some pics of our exams

with Dr. KyKy, and her assistant, Dr. Siah:

(sorry, low-quality cell pic!)

***Pssst, Mom...I sent you an email!***

All Done!

When Josiah is done eating or closes a book he's finished reading, he stretches his arms out and exclaims quite matter-of-factly, "All Done!".

As of today, a life chapter is closing. It's "All Done!". My husband is completing his final day as a full-time sales associate in a retail environment! Next week Chris begins his job at the bank, and I'm totally excited for him! And for our kids. And for me! Yay!

I know, I know, so many people working the 9-5 daily grind are bored with their lives and want something different. I understand that. And to those people I say, "Go get it!". Go get what you dream of for your family! I realize the monotony is too much for some. But for us, it's different. The ever-changing schedule, the nights, the weekends, the holidays all being about work is too much for our young family. My husband has been working a lot because he's had to as required by his job. He worked his way up from regular associate to Assistant Mngr to Manager. With each promotion there were pros and cons...the "pros" always coming up short with "cons" that included living in a town with no friends, no fellowship, no life. The only way to eliminate those cons (basically to stop relocating and to get better work hours) was to keep working his way up to managing a local district or region...but then the price would be traveling far away from his family for meetings on a consistent basis. Like driving far enough to have to stay in hotels each week or even airplane rides away frequently. This was not my hubby's idea of a situation improvement. So he was done. He stepped down from leadership, moved our family closer to our friends and back to the town where we first met, became friends, fell in love, got married, and started our family. With the Lord's help, he gave our family a fresh start, and I'm so grateful for that!

Now it's his turn for another fresh start with his upcoming job! I'm so happy to see my hubby get back into a business that holds his interest, which provides for our family's needs, and allows him to pursue his passions (discipleship with college students, continuing his education, quality time with his kids, taking his awesome wife on dates...*wink*)

I'm so excited that from now on we'll be seeing more of this:

If you have a goal, reach for it. If you have a dream, dive into it. If you want a change, go for it! Wishing you all a wonderful holiday weekend.

It's 3am and I'm Whining

It's 3 am. I'm still wide awake. My body needs a vacation. Maybe not a tropical local, but at least a break from all this sickness in my house!

To start, I got a little "cold" or some bug...no big deal. Then it turned into a sinus infection. That developed into bronchitis, and according to the doc I've seen twice it has been "on the border" of pneumonia. Honestly, I'm no physician, but I know my body, and this isn't just a sore chest from caughing--there's pain in my rib cage and my back feels like someone beat me with a baseball bat (I already have back problems, so this is beyond "discomfort"). The pain, fatigue, chills, and trouble breathing...all signs point to walking pneumonia.

I've been on antibiotics, steroids, and cough medicine. My husband has given me every possible opportunity to rest, but I can't fall asleep at night. For the past couple of weeks I can't start to drift off to dreamland until between 4-6am, and how late I sleep depends on Hubby's work schedule...if he works at 1pm the following day, he manages the kids and home through lunchtime while I rest; but if he works at 9am...well, those are really long days for a sick, exhausted mommy w/ two toddlers. Today was one of those long days.

Over the weekend my son developed a cough (from me, no doubt, even though I actually did the hardest thing in the world and passed up some opportunities for cuddles and smooches, trying not to pass along this never-ending bronchitis---lesson learned: just take the cuddles and smooches next time!). Doc didn't declare him to have an ear infection, but was concerned that whatever he observed with Josiah's ear could turn into one, so meds for both concerns were prescribed. The two medicines make JoJo partially lethargic & partially wired, so even if he's tired he's not sleepy once he takes it. Thankfully we've had no trouble with evening bedtimes, but today Siah missed his usual afternoon nap, and that I was not ready for that. Such a bummer, I was totally hoping to catch some zzzz's this afternoon!

So far Kyleigh's mostly fine, but today (Monday) my hubster is officially "sick". He's been tired and rundown from working full-time and taking care of all my responsibilities as well, so we both saw it coming. He started off the week with a sore throat Sunday, and today was sent home from work early because he was just struggling. I wish I could go to his workplace and help him the way he does so much around home for me, but it doesn't work like that. Poor guy. It's his final week at this job, too, and he wants to do his best and leave while working with the same effort and enthusiasm he did on his first day at the job, but it looks now like he's just going to have to do his best and take it one hour at a time.

Okay, so all my whining aside... Has anyone had this sort of intense gunk before? Any tried and true remedies? We're at about the 3rd week of this, and I've had enough of this sickliness holding my family hostage!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Wishing my dad a very happy birthday!

Dad, sorry we can't be there to celebrate with you,
but I know you appreciate us keeping our
sickliness to ourselves this weekend, right?!
Yeah, consider that our gift to you! Ha!
As for birthday hugs, will you take an IOU? Or 4? :)

Some say a picture is worth a thousand words...
Hope that's true for videos since I can't really talk!

We made a video for you, Grandpa (a.k.a. PopPop B),
so you could see your Kyleigh-bug & big man Josiah.
We miss you & Grandma & Moriah.
Love you bunches.

Romans 12:15

Romans 12:15
"Rejoice with them that do rejoice"

Tonight a blogger friend, "J", shared some great news, and I'm soooo excited for her family!

She and her hubby have two small children, and the hubby has been working a less-than-stellar schedule. Sound familiar??? Just as we hoped and prayed for our family's situation, J and her hubby M have hoped for a change as well. They've leaned on one another and God's word, remembering that while the process may not make sense, the Lord has a plan for them.

Finally, this family has received notice that they will not have to relocate for a job as they once expected, nor deal with anymore silly schedules! M got a job where he gets to be home with his family every night! What an answer to prayer!

If anyone understands the excitement in this, it's my household! I shared the story w/ my hubby, and tonight our hearts celebrate with this family in their joyful news!

M, J, and little ones---CoNgRaTuLaTiOnS!