Being sick

I have a cold. Yup, wet and juicy coughing is the name of the game now, and I just want to know one thing: how can I help prevent my son from getting what I've got? It's not like I can avoid being around him, you know? And nursing means I have even less options for trying to keep him away from my germs. This is the sound of me sighing...

I guess I just pray and hope. If you have any suggestions as to how I can keep my child healthy or how to get over a cold quickly please let me know.

The things you learn

We just returned from taking my 4 month old son on a week long vacation halfway across the country.  He did better at traveling than some adults.  As someone put it to me so well "It's always a little nerve wracking knowing that you could be the one with 'that little kid who never stopped screaming the whole flight'."  But he didn't!  Jonathan tends to cry for specific, fixable reasons.  When he's hungry, tired, wet, bored.  These are things I can take care of - and when I can help my baby be happy I feel like a Good Mommy.  That being said, it was really wonderful to have family around to hold, cuddle and play with him.  It makes all the difference when you can hand the baby off to someone and go down to the pool for half an hour with your hubby, or go see Sherlock Holmes with hubby and siblings.

Also, I have a renewed appreciation for coffee!  Let me tell you something, babies don't understand time differences.  Add that together with being in a new place and Mommy doesn't get as much sleep as she was hoping for on vacation!  But my dad and my sisters are strong coffee aficionados so I am assured of getting what I need wherever we go - another nice thing about traveling with family as my dear hubby does not drink the stuff.

Between hubby and me we took 979 pictures this past week.  Many of them were of the old ships we toured but I do have some of people - including that beautiful child of mine :)

 

 

 

There are so many things I want to say, but in the interest of keeping this at a readable length I will continue posting about our Grand Adventure tomorrow.  This week we also need to talk about Christmas (and how this year I had ALL my shopping done! Until I didn't).  What do you do for presents for a 4 month old who doesn't understand any of it?

Until tomorrow then...

What do you do?

-What do you do when you just want to fly halfway across the country and smack somebody upside the head?

-What do you do when someone you love is hurting but they are halfway across the country and you feel helpless to help them?

-What do you do with all those pictures of a person who suddenly decided they didn't want to be involved in your lives anymore?

-What do you do with prepaid airline tickets when there isn't going to be a wedding?

I don't know what you would do, but here's what I've done so far:

-I prayed, then played video games in godmode with my hubby to kill monsters as much as I wanted.

-I pray and send random, hopefully encouraging, texts and ask people to join with me in prayer.

-I ignore them. For now.

-We are flying to CA. Taking a family vacation. We are going to do silly things and have fun, and my 4 month old will experience his first plane trip.

I still want to smack somebody upside the head. I still hurt for my brother. Those feelings aren't going away anytime soon. But life is more than anger, life is more than pain. God has given us so many blessings, and we have so much to be thankful for. This too shall pass.

Being a mommy means...

…feeling responsible when your baby doesn’t sleep.

…fighting back tears when you put your baby down for 30 seconds to use the bathroom because he’s not feeling well so he bawls until you pick him up again.

…calling your mom when you are at your wit’s end after 9 hours of your baby getting only 1 hour of sleep and crying almost every time you put him down.

…celebrating when he naps for longer than 15 minutes.

…snuggling under the blankets in the mornings before either of you are fully awake.

…getting smiles and giggles when you kiss his fingers (which you do every chance you get even though you know that hand was just recently being slobbered on).

…loving all those wonderful people who love your baby.

Today

Today I babysat my 2 1/2 year old niece for an hour and a half.  My son is 4 months old which means I'm still at something of a loss as to what to do with a 2 year old.  So we colored with (washable) markers.  That lasted all of 7 minutes.  Then we were going to read but she couldn't decide on a book.  Then she noticed my computer so I taught her how to use Paint (rather less successful than real markers because she couldn't quite grasp the idea of pushing the button and dragging the cursor but she kept asking to go back to it later), Word (she knows very well now what the backspace key does), and watched Veggie Tales Silly Songs on Youtube. Then she surprised me by playing quietly with some of my toys for perhaps 15 minutes.  By herself.  This allowed me time to put my son down for a nap and get him up again because he decided not to sleep.

Oh yes, that's the other fun thing in my day: my 4 month old has decided that sleep is for wussies.  He has slept, intermittently, a grand total of 30 minutes in the past 7 hours.  30 minutes.  7 hours.  Of course this makes him grouchy.  Too grouchy to sleep so he wouldn't be grouchy anymore.  These are the times that I wonder if my mother put a curse on me - was I like this as a child?  Better question: how did she deal with having a toddler and a baby at the same time?  Better question: how did she handle 5 kids under the age of 9????  And she did it all without internet help, and she moved away from family before the 5th was born so she was on her own (with my dad) except for church family and never went anywhere without us probably and homeschooled us all (and we all turned out ok and succeeded in school/jobs/family/etc) without going crazy.  And did I mention she plays piano, sings, acts, teaches and directs when she gets the chance?  Right.  Forget the curse - my mother is Superwoman.

I can only do what I can do.  Which includes babysitting for my sister in short time increments, trying new meals for my hubby when I can, falling behind on housework and looking sadly at the dishes in the sink, and loving on my son.  And that's the important thing.  It's what my mom did: love us.  Love us, and spend time with us, and support us in whatever we decided to do.

Thank you for reading my rambling stream of consciousness.  Thank you, Shelbs for putting up with me.  Thank You, God for all the wonderful people in my life and a chance to eat a proper lunch today!

Until next time,

Bee

Cooking experiments

This week I had 2 successes and 1 not-so-much-a-success-but-not-a-complete-failure-if-covered-in-bbq-sauce experiments in cooking. 

Success #1: Tuesday I made "Mexian" style chicken in the slow cooker with tomatoes, served over rice. Some editing may be made to this recipe in the future, but for a first attempt it was really not bad. I am in love with my slow cooker.

Success #2: Wednesday I made chicken and green bean casserole with a cheese sauce and tater tots on top. YUM. We finished off those leftovers on Thursday. Don't really think this recipe needs adjusting, although I might try it with different veggies or cheeses.

Not-so-much-a-success-but-not-a-complete-failure-if-covered-in-bbq-sauce: For lunch today I attempted to make my own version of hash browns with potatoes and leftover cajun chicken from the freezer. This meat I do not recommend for this dish. I ended up only eating the eggs. Shelbs ate all of it, but covered it with bbq sauce and said it was much better that way. While I do plan to try hash browns again, this recipe needs much work.

Mostly a successful week in experimenting with new things I think. Next week I might try to actually follow some recipes instead of making up my own. We'll see. Tomorrow hubby is making tomato basil soup. I'm looking forward to this in no small part because the recipe calls for 2 cups of gouda!

Have a lovely weekend! May God show His love to you in extra special ways!

Bee

Being a mommy means...

…sitting up in a rocker at 4am for an hour because your baby can’t sleep.

…letting your lunch get cold because your baby got hungry sooner than expected.

…nuzzling freshly washed baby head.

…kissing baby as often as you want.

…watching your baby explore a new world – even when it means hitting himself in the face with the rattle he just learned how to grab.

…listening to your baby’s laugh when you tickle him.

Check back on Wednesdays for more "Being a mommy means..."

Is it possible?

Mondays.

Lots of people hate Mondays.  Until recently I was one of them.  But I'm starting to feel my perspective change.  Granted, I still strongly dislike my hubby going back to work after having him home for two days, but I am realizing that Mondays do not have to be blue.  Ever since I became a (mostly) stay-at-home mom three and a half months ago we have been trying to figure out a schedule.  I am told babies like schedules.  I am bad at schedules.  I am a freelance interpreter for a reason; things like my schedule always change and that keeps me interested and on my toes.  Doing the exact same thing everyday makes me NUTS.  So I have a hard time with the "babies do better on a schedule" idea.  We are working on the idea of naps, but that is about as much schedule as I can handle right now.  Except for Mondays.  Mondays have become almost sacred in the "stay home and chill" department.  We don't tend to go out on Mondays, we don't like to run errands or even be dressed by a certain time.  We chill at home.  We do laundry (ugh!) or dishes, or other necessary things here (like update a blog!).  And we chill.  We relax.  We just hang out.  I need this time to be a better Mommy.  J needs this time to recover from the weirdness of the weekend and have time with just me.

Yup.  I'm starting to like Mondays.

And I think J agrees :)

Cooking is fun

Cooking is fun.

I'm learning this more and more lately.  Coming up with a new creation or following a new recipe is an exciting project.  Also, I like to know what is in the food I eat and cooking for myself allows me to do that.  My husband and I have different cooking philosophies; I taste as I go and he tastes at the end.  I cannot stand his method!  He doesn't know until it may be too late if something needs adjusting!  But then again, with me tasting all the time I have a tendency to second guess myself continually.  I suppose there is something to be said for both, but I'll stick with my way, thanks.

Today I made up a dinner for some friends and my sister dropped it off at their house.  I will never get to taste it and I won't know if it was good or not!  Grr.  That's OK though.  I will just have to try it again here sometime.

My family is coming to my house Friday morning for breakfast.  I'm going to make baked french toast and I'm rather excited about it because it is so darn yummy.  There probably won't be any apples this time as I forgot to pick any up today.  Oh well, they will live.

Hubby is baking pies for tomorrow.

I love Thanksgiving.

Cooking is fun.

Thank you for reading my random disjointedness.  Trust me when I tell you that it might have been much worse.

Today, I am thanking God for my immediate family - those I grew up with, and those I married into:

Thank You for my Mom. She taught me so much growing up, and continues to teach and inspire me now that I'm a mom myself.

Thank You for my Dad. He is encouraging and smart and supportive.

Thank You for my sister, Dana. She is a wonderful mom and such an encouragement to me as a new mom.

Thank You for my nieces, Daisy and Fern. They are such fun and they love their cousin, J.

 

Thank You for my brother-in-law, Joseph. His quiet support and love are perfect for my sister and I love to see their marriage thrive.

Thank You for my brother, Josh. His pursuit of You is an example that inspires and encourages.

Thank You for my almost-sister-in-law, Molly. For the light she is in Josh's life.

Thank You for my sister, Jessie. Her passion - whether for movies, books, family, or You - is a wonder and a joy.

Thank You for my sister, Hannah. Her joy and laughter light my soul.

Thank You for my mother-in-law. Her quiet strength and love for her son and mine.

Thank You for my father-in-law. How much he loves J.

Thank You for my brother-in-law, Kirby. How he and Shelbs are reconnecting.

Thank You for my sister-in-law, Abby. Her excitement for life and passion for J.

Thank You for my son, J. Thank You for the wonder that he is. Thank You for the opportunity to raise him, the chance to love him. Thank You that he is healthy and growing on a daily basis.

And Lord, thank You for my husband. He means so very, very much to me. Thank You for his love, thank You for his companionship, thank You for his awesomeness.