I meant to post about 3 weeks ago about the flipside of motherhood, but life got in the way........again.
Here are some of the things that I enjoy about being a mom:
Getting to watch Mr. E with Miss E. He is a great dad and helps so much. I love how he prays for "his girls" before he goes to work everyday. He's got a bunch of ways to get her to smile, it is so cute to watch.
Watching and listening to Miss E sleep. She squeaks and grunts so much while she sleeps. She moves around continually and is constantly changing facial expressions, it can be very humorous. She wakes up very slowly, but is happy when she does.
Knowing that no matter if she is happy or screaming, changing her diaper will almost always make her smile. This girl doesn't like "mud on her butt" (quoting Phil Robertson on Duck Dynasty).
Seeing the determination on her face when she "stands up" while we hold her up. She puts her whole soul into it.
Observing how her personality is developing. I think she's got a lot of mine......bummer.
Enjoying how she is starting to get excited when I go to pick her up. I think she is finally recognizing me!
Waiting for her to wake up from a nap. Although I love the time to get things done and the "downtime", I do miss her when she is sleeping.
God has given us a great blessing and it is hard to imagine our lives without her.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
The Things I'm Learning
I know, I'm not keeping up on blogging. When I sit down now, I usually only have one arm and that makes typing quite difficult. Most of the other "downtime" is spent running around like a crazy woman trying to get caught up on the housekeeping duties!
Before reading the following, remember this disclaimer and please don't misconstrue what I'm saying! **I love my daughter immensely, I am so thankful that God gave her to us and I wouldn't change my life now for anything!
Being parent is not easy. I'm hearing the "duhs" loudly. Someone asked me this question a few weeks ago, "Don't you just love being a mom?" It took me off guard and to be honest, I couldn't say yes. (Disclaimer) In the earlier weeks after she was born, I really struggled. Most of it came down to pure selfishness. I had spent the last 15ish years of my life doing what I wanted to do, when I wanted to do it. Not anymore. As much as I'm trying not to let her completely take over our lives, it still has happened. Miss E's needs takes precedence over getting my teeth brushed, dinner cooked and most important, sleep! Mr. E and I have pretty much done everything together since we got married. Even if it was going ten minutes down the road to fill up a gas can for the lawn mower. There is no jumping in the truck and doing that anymore. Mind you, we still do it, but it is more of a production to get out of the house. I'm learning to get over my selfishness, but it still creeps up!
Adding to the everyday physical struggles of being a parent, I struggle(d) with the emotional and spiritual weight. I am now responsible for someone else. Yeah, I help my husband, but he could still take care of himself if he needed to.....she can't. I question myself a lot about "am I good mom?"
"am I doing things right?", etc. Then the spiritual side, raising her up to love the Lord and teaching her about His Word. It is all just a heavy responsibility when I think about it.
So to answer the question, Yes, I love being a mom, but sometimes the struggles seem overwhelming and tend to steal the joy of having her. I guess the lesson here is to not focus on the hard parts and trust that God gives me the wisdom I need to be a mom. I'm going to have to do lots of praying! Maybe that is the reason why I get up at least three times a night. :)
We are doing well, finally into a better routine. It took a while for Miss E to realize that there was nothing going on at night to stay up for. Now if only she would learn to sleep more during the day.
I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!
Before reading the following, remember this disclaimer and please don't misconstrue what I'm saying! **I love my daughter immensely, I am so thankful that God gave her to us and I wouldn't change my life now for anything!
Being parent is not easy. I'm hearing the "duhs" loudly. Someone asked me this question a few weeks ago, "Don't you just love being a mom?" It took me off guard and to be honest, I couldn't say yes. (Disclaimer) In the earlier weeks after she was born, I really struggled. Most of it came down to pure selfishness. I had spent the last 15ish years of my life doing what I wanted to do, when I wanted to do it. Not anymore. As much as I'm trying not to let her completely take over our lives, it still has happened. Miss E's needs takes precedence over getting my teeth brushed, dinner cooked and most important, sleep! Mr. E and I have pretty much done everything together since we got married. Even if it was going ten minutes down the road to fill up a gas can for the lawn mower. There is no jumping in the truck and doing that anymore. Mind you, we still do it, but it is more of a production to get out of the house. I'm learning to get over my selfishness, but it still creeps up!
Adding to the everyday physical struggles of being a parent, I struggle(d) with the emotional and spiritual weight. I am now responsible for someone else. Yeah, I help my husband, but he could still take care of himself if he needed to.....she can't. I question myself a lot about "am I good mom?"
"am I doing things right?", etc. Then the spiritual side, raising her up to love the Lord and teaching her about His Word. It is all just a heavy responsibility when I think about it.
So to answer the question, Yes, I love being a mom, but sometimes the struggles seem overwhelming and tend to steal the joy of having her. I guess the lesson here is to not focus on the hard parts and trust that God gives me the wisdom I need to be a mom. I'm going to have to do lots of praying! Maybe that is the reason why I get up at least three times a night. :)
We are doing well, finally into a better routine. It took a while for Miss E to realize that there was nothing going on at night to stay up for. Now if only she would learn to sleep more during the day.
I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Our gift
God has given Mr. E and me an amazing gift. Our daughter, Joanna Aaron was born on Friday, October 4th at 2:30 am. She weighed 5 lbs. 10 oz. and was 19" long.
When Mr. E and I talked about what to name our baby, we wanted his or her name to have a good meaning or to use a name of someone who has been instrumental in our lives. Miss E has both.
Mr. E picked out Joanna when he was reading the Biblical account of the resurrection in Luke 24. Joanna was one of the women who was at Jesus' tomb and then told the disciples that Jesus had risen. Joanna means "God is gracious" or "gift from God", a perfect meaning.
You may think that Aaron is a strange name for a girl, as this spelling is used predominately for boys. It is actually my mom's middle name, so it met our criteria of someone who is instrumental in our lives. The name also has a good meaning, "exalted" or "mountain of strength". I thought "mountain of strength" summed up my mom pretty well and she is a great example for Joanna to look up to.
Here are some pictures of our little one:
We are enjoying her very much and we are extremely blessed!
When Mr. E and I talked about what to name our baby, we wanted his or her name to have a good meaning or to use a name of someone who has been instrumental in our lives. Miss E has both.
Mr. E picked out Joanna when he was reading the Biblical account of the resurrection in Luke 24. Joanna was one of the women who was at Jesus' tomb and then told the disciples that Jesus had risen. Joanna means "God is gracious" or "gift from God", a perfect meaning.
You may think that Aaron is a strange name for a girl, as this spelling is used predominately for boys. It is actually my mom's middle name, so it met our criteria of someone who is instrumental in our lives. The name also has a good meaning, "exalted" or "mountain of strength". I thought "mountain of strength" summed up my mom pretty well and she is a great example for Joanna to look up to.
Here are some pictures of our little one:
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| Meeting Dad |
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| A couple days old |
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| 9 days old |
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| 11 days old, Granny E's lap was comfy! |
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| One of my favs, she was quite alert while dad read the Bible to us. |
Monday, September 23, 2013
What has been going on
I've had lots of posts in my brain, but I just haven't taken the time to sit and write them out.
A quick recap of the past month or so. We finally finished the remodeling of our house. We still have some re-organizing to do and painting the outside of the house, but other than that, we're done. It has been so nice these past two weeks or so being able to relax a little.
Recently, most of my time has been spent canning and freezing the garden produce. Early in the summer, we didn't think the garden was going to produce much, but my goodness, we were wrong. I love seeing all the produce in the jars and in the freezer. We will be able to enjoy okra, green beans, black-eyed peas, jalapenos/serranos, squash, carrots, cantaloupe, bell peppers and onions this winter. Vegetables from the garden taste so much better than store bought stuff!
We are still preparing for baby E. The due date is quickly approaching and I must say that time has flown. It is exciting and overwhelming all at the same time.
Switching gears.
I've been thinking a lot lately about bitterness and how toxic that can be in someone's life. There have been and are situations in my life that could cause bitterness to creep in. When I think about them, I either get mad, frustrated or try to push them off and pretend that it doesn't effect me, but they do. I also want to fix them. I know many of these situations are because of misunderstandings, miscommunication and not being open and honest. In my flesh, I want to stay mad, or shut the problems out and stay irritated, which is when bitterness will take over. Bitterness only really effects the person that is holding on to it. It doesn't effect the other people. I've really had to watch out for this lately. I have to keep reminding myself that God has everything under control and that He calls me to forgive and not let bitterness take over. I will admit, it has been difficult to do. Anyway, that's what I've been struggling with. Thankfully, God's there to help me through it all.
Gotta go, have a good week!
A quick recap of the past month or so. We finally finished the remodeling of our house. We still have some re-organizing to do and painting the outside of the house, but other than that, we're done. It has been so nice these past two weeks or so being able to relax a little.
Recently, most of my time has been spent canning and freezing the garden produce. Early in the summer, we didn't think the garden was going to produce much, but my goodness, we were wrong. I love seeing all the produce in the jars and in the freezer. We will be able to enjoy okra, green beans, black-eyed peas, jalapenos/serranos, squash, carrots, cantaloupe, bell peppers and onions this winter. Vegetables from the garden taste so much better than store bought stuff!
We are still preparing for baby E. The due date is quickly approaching and I must say that time has flown. It is exciting and overwhelming all at the same time.
Switching gears.
I've been thinking a lot lately about bitterness and how toxic that can be in someone's life. There have been and are situations in my life that could cause bitterness to creep in. When I think about them, I either get mad, frustrated or try to push them off and pretend that it doesn't effect me, but they do. I also want to fix them. I know many of these situations are because of misunderstandings, miscommunication and not being open and honest. In my flesh, I want to stay mad, or shut the problems out and stay irritated, which is when bitterness will take over. Bitterness only really effects the person that is holding on to it. It doesn't effect the other people. I've really had to watch out for this lately. I have to keep reminding myself that God has everything under control and that He calls me to forgive and not let bitterness take over. I will admit, it has been difficult to do. Anyway, that's what I've been struggling with. Thankfully, God's there to help me through it all.
Gotta go, have a good week!
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Monthly post
Here is what seems to be now my monthly post. I'm not avoiding blogging, my computer and I just haven't really found time to be with one another lately.
The garden is producing lots of stuff at the moment and I've been canning pickles, carrots, black-eyed peas and squash. Pickled okra is scheduled for canning tomorrow.
A couple of weeks ago, I had a baby shower given by some wonderful women. For the most part, I think we are ready for little E to come, just not right now.....he/she needs to grow quite a bit more! I don't think I've actually posted a picture of me pregnant yet, so here's one....I find it awkward posing for these kinds of pictures.
The house is almost done! That is the exciting news that's happened in the past couple of weeks. We have lots of re-organizing to do, but that just means we are close to being done. We were considering some changes to our kitchen, cabinets/counter tops etc., but I think we've now decided that we need to just stop where we are right now and we can do that at another time. This has been a project and a half, but we are happy we did it and we love the results.
Anyway, that's about all I have time for today. I've been watching my niece today and I think she's waking up from her nap. I'd better go check.
The garden is producing lots of stuff at the moment and I've been canning pickles, carrots, black-eyed peas and squash. Pickled okra is scheduled for canning tomorrow.
A couple of weeks ago, I had a baby shower given by some wonderful women. For the most part, I think we are ready for little E to come, just not right now.....he/she needs to grow quite a bit more! I don't think I've actually posted a picture of me pregnant yet, so here's one....I find it awkward posing for these kinds of pictures.
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| Yep, we're officially ready, we've got the Packer outfit! |
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| The new addition now actually has furniture and the windows are trimmed out! |
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| Mr. E is an expert door installer now. |
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| New front door, hopefully will keep the scorpions out! |
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| Living room flooring, wood-grain tile. |
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| New kitchen flooring. |
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Behind
I'm so behind!! I've got lots to do today, but when life is so busy, what better way to get things done than to blog?! :)
The end of June/early July began with an eleven day road trip up to Montana. We went through eight different states and put about 3500 miles on our vehicle. It was a great trip. We had our problems, which included a flat tire, check engine lights and a hot night of camping, but the fun and great times outweighed them. Even with the problems we saw God taking tremendous care of us. Like the flat tire.....we were on some treacherous and lonely roads many times, but the flat tire happened ten minutes outside of a town on a flat stretch of highway with a roadside turnout right there. (I apologize for all the prepositional phrases in that sentence.) After four days of camping, we were giving the opportunity to stay in someone's semi-luxurious cabin (the only thing it didn't have was electricity) for the next three days! It was a blessing to us. Not that the camping was bad at all, it was nice to have a permanent place to sleep instead of unpacking and packing up everyday. Here are a few pictures from the trip.
While we were gone, we had a contractor working on our house. He taped, mudded, and textured our new addition and some other things that we changed in the house. He also laid new tile in our livingroom and hallway. Oh yeah, on top of doing the addition we also decided to replace all the flooring in our house. I, the one who likes everything in her house to be neat and tidy and everything in its place, am having to learn lots of patience (and blindness!) with all that is going on. Currently, my dresser is in my livingroom and most of the livingroom furniture is in the kitchen. Mr. E is working so hard to get it all done! The addition was painted last night and the lights were installed. Here are a couple of updated pictures.
We are currently enjoying some cooler weather (70s), with some rain. Thank you Lord! We are in desperate need of rain.
I have more that I could write about, but I need to get moving on with other things.
The end of June/early July began with an eleven day road trip up to Montana. We went through eight different states and put about 3500 miles on our vehicle. It was a great trip. We had our problems, which included a flat tire, check engine lights and a hot night of camping, but the fun and great times outweighed them. Even with the problems we saw God taking tremendous care of us. Like the flat tire.....we were on some treacherous and lonely roads many times, but the flat tire happened ten minutes outside of a town on a flat stretch of highway with a roadside turnout right there. (I apologize for all the prepositional phrases in that sentence.) After four days of camping, we were giving the opportunity to stay in someone's semi-luxurious cabin (the only thing it didn't have was electricity) for the next three days! It was a blessing to us. Not that the camping was bad at all, it was nice to have a permanent place to sleep instead of unpacking and packing up everyday. Here are a few pictures from the trip.
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| Fishing in Yellowstone NP |
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| Old Faithful about to spew |
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| One of the many animals we saw. |
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| Fishing on a backroads creek. |
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| I fished too, but I also liked to find a place to sit down! |
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| July 4th sunset |
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| One of the places we camped, hard to beat that view from the tent! |
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| The backdrop Mr. E had for fixing the tire......The Grand Tetons. |
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| Us |
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| The view from our semi-luxurious cabin. |
While we were gone, we had a contractor working on our house. He taped, mudded, and textured our new addition and some other things that we changed in the house. He also laid new tile in our livingroom and hallway. Oh yeah, on top of doing the addition we also decided to replace all the flooring in our house. I, the one who likes everything in her house to be neat and tidy and everything in its place, am having to learn lots of patience (and blindness!) with all that is going on. Currently, my dresser is in my livingroom and most of the livingroom furniture is in the kitchen. Mr. E is working so hard to get it all done! The addition was painted last night and the lights were installed. Here are a couple of updated pictures.
We are currently enjoying some cooler weather (70s), with some rain. Thank you Lord! We are in desperate need of rain.
I have more that I could write about, but I need to get moving on with other things.
Monday, June 17, 2013
Whirlwind
Our lives seem like a whirlwind nowadays. We spend most of our spare time in the addition, trying to finish it up. We finally feeling like we are getting somewhere. The sheet rock is almost done! It's been one of the most time consuming parts of the build. Thankfully we had lots of help, we couldn't have done ourselves, as I'm not too much help. Here are a few more pictures.
I'm hoping we will be done with this project by the end of July. Lord willing, that will give me a few months to get this house organized before Little E comes.
Speaking of Little E......the two questions that I've been asked the most frequently are, "How are you doing/feeling?" and "Do you know yet if it is a boy or a girl?" As to the first question, I'm doing fine. I've had an "easy" pregnancy so far. The gender question.....we aren't finding out, we've decided to be surprised when the baby comes. I know, it's out of the ordinary these days, but we like to be different.
Switching gears. I'm working through a study this summer on thoughts that we have. When I first said I would help with this class, I didn't really expect that it would pertain that much to me. Ha! God has such a sense of humor. I'm really good at having a running conversation in my head with myself throughout the day. When I sat back and thought through what I think about, it isn't always uplifting. I tend to be a pessimist and I'm good at it! I'm also really hard on myself, expecting perfection at all times. The author of the book challenged us at the end of week one with
Philippians 4:8:
If it is true, I will meditate on it.
If it is honorable, I will think about it today.
If it is right, I will dwell on it today.
If it is pure, I will fix my thoughts on it.
If it is lovely, I will give it shelf space in my thought closet.
If it is of good repute, I will meditate on it today.
If it is excellent, I will let it be the sound track in my thought closet.
If it is worthy of praise, I will deliberate on it today.
I've still had my pessimistic moments, but trying to focus on this verse has really helped me not to get bogged down, especially with all that is going on in our lives. My focus should be on God and what He is actually doing in my life, not making up "what if" scenarios in my head that most of the time aren't true, right, lovely, excellent, etc.
Happy Monday everyone, hope you have a great week!
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| The sheet rock hoist was a back saver! |
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| I'm going to love my 9x6' closet! |
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| All the outside walls are finally up and ready for siding, we now have to climb through the window to get in! |
Speaking of Little E......the two questions that I've been asked the most frequently are, "How are you doing/feeling?" and "Do you know yet if it is a boy or a girl?" As to the first question, I'm doing fine. I've had an "easy" pregnancy so far. The gender question.....we aren't finding out, we've decided to be surprised when the baby comes. I know, it's out of the ordinary these days, but we like to be different.
Switching gears. I'm working through a study this summer on thoughts that we have. When I first said I would help with this class, I didn't really expect that it would pertain that much to me. Ha! God has such a sense of humor. I'm really good at having a running conversation in my head with myself throughout the day. When I sat back and thought through what I think about, it isn't always uplifting. I tend to be a pessimist and I'm good at it! I'm also really hard on myself, expecting perfection at all times. The author of the book challenged us at the end of week one with
Philippians 4:8:
If it is true, I will meditate on it.
If it is honorable, I will think about it today.
If it is right, I will dwell on it today.
If it is pure, I will fix my thoughts on it.
If it is lovely, I will give it shelf space in my thought closet.
If it is of good repute, I will meditate on it today.
If it is excellent, I will let it be the sound track in my thought closet.
If it is worthy of praise, I will deliberate on it today.
I've still had my pessimistic moments, but trying to focus on this verse has really helped me not to get bogged down, especially with all that is going on in our lives. My focus should be on God and what He is actually doing in my life, not making up "what if" scenarios in my head that most of the time aren't true, right, lovely, excellent, etc.
Happy Monday everyone, hope you have a great week!
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