Sleep – More of an optional thing

So I did something I thought I would never do again… I bought a book on how to get your baby to sleep.  I decided a while ago most books about how to take care of your baby were unrealistic and more than anything else, just make you feel like a bad parent if you are not following their advice exactly.  Parenting magazines are a whole different category of unrealistic and I usually just get irritated reading them at the doctor’s office with how out of touch with reality they are.

So happy this morning

Before however, my kids generally slept.  Or I felt I had a good hold on how to handle it during the first year.  Summer is just getting worse and worse with her nighttime sleeping.  I know it is partly my fault because I usually respond immediately to her to keep her from waking up the whole house.  I feel like I am a much different person than I was when Ahnna and Isaac were babies.  I had a much shorter fuse then and if I was fed up with how much they were getting up in the night it was a lot easier for me to put my foot down.  Usually once I decided I wasn’t going to give them a bottle at night or stay in the room until they fell asleep, it was the best decision ever because they would start sleeping better almost immediately.

Summer used to be great at putting herself back to sleep even though she woke up 10 times a night. I would just put her bink back in her mouth and she was good until I gave her her one bottle a night.  If she was Ahnna or Isaac I never would have gotten up to put their bink back in THAT often but with wanting every one else to sleep well and being much more patient I always did it.  She wasn’t waking because she was hungry because she would eat well before bed and most the time not even finish the bottle I gave her.  It has become worse since she started moving around.  Now that she can get on her hands and knees and wants to pull herself up, she is just too wiggly to get herself back to sleep, so she just cries.   When I finally get her to sleep, she wakes up an hour later and cries some more.  Last night was again the most she has been awake.  I’m not a fan of her breaking her own records all the time.  I need to learn some other method. Lot’s of people have said how great Baby Wise is so I will give it a try.

The only thing making my sleepless nights bearable is for some reason I still have a good amount of energy during the day.  I think it is a tender mercy.  Especially when Isaac had a hard night as a baby, the next day was absolutely horrible to endure.

Praise for Well Deserving Parents

My parents and all my siblings.This picture was taken just a few weeks after I found out I was pregnant with Isaac.

I got a new dishwasher !!  I know my life is THAT exciting.  But seriously, dishwashers are important.  I was telling my mom the little tricks I needed to do to get the dishwasher to make it through a wash and she offered us their old (not old) dishwasher!   They switched to stainless steel a while ago and their white one has just been hanging out in their shop.  So not only did they bring it out here for us but my dad installed it.  Who has the best parents ever?  That’s right me.

My mom kept saying how she wished it was a better one, they got a bottom of the line model because they thought they were selling the house.  Please.  My dishwasher had one propeller…. this one has three… that right there makes it WAY better.

These two are the most giving people I know.  Something that keeps coming to my mind lately is one time, when I had just graduated high school and waiting to go to college in the fall, I got this boyfriend.  He was a LOT older than me, he had been married once already and even had a kid.  Not that there is anything wrong with people who go through a divorce, this guy had just had a lot of life experience for an 18 year old girl.  The point is, from the parental point of view, I can see how it might be a little unsettling to have your last little girl, who is on the verge of going out on her own and make all her own decisions, decide on a 26 year old guy…  In a band…  With a seasonal job and no real long term goals.

Despite all of this.  His car broke down and while he was at work with the company vehicle, my parents and I secretly went to his house, and they fixed it for him.  He came back on his lunch break, which we were not expecting so he saw them working away and he said to me, “your parents are amazing, no really you don’t understand.”  He just kept telling me I had no idea.  To the point where I was annoyed.  I understood then and I still feel like I understood then how service oriented my parents are and how lucky I am.  They have set quite the example and they always taught us that if you want to grow closer to God, you serve his children.  I hope I can set that kind of example for my kids.

Epic Fail

Well the computer decided to stop working with my phone, camera, AND printer.  So I guess my computer is a jerk because NO ONE wants to work with it.  In other words I am way behind on my picture a day for a whole year thing and I think I will just accept it and move on.  I already had a few posts without pictures and quite a few where they were not pictures I took so I was cheating anyway.  Perhaps another year.  I will however still try to blog often.  I really like doing lots of short little posts.

This time, just a little update on the work out.  I am going strong on consistently working out and loving it.  I’m going to the gym as often as possible.  Nathan and I are suppose to be alternating days but I try to go even on the same days he does as often as I can.

As far as training for a 10k my focus has been a little off.  I realized if I am going to take forever to go a mile I don’t feel like it is worth it.  I’ve been working on speed as opposed to distance and I have found I can do a LOT more than I ever thought I could.  I have just recently got up to a speed I feel is decent as my easy pace so NOW I will try to focus on distance a little more.

I REALLY like working out and I look forward to the next day’s excecise.  I’m seeing some results now and that is a huge motivator.  Just feeling more fit and strong is nice, but Nathan noticed my arms looking more defined and that is pretty awesome too.

 

Day 44 – Eating Better

I’ve been thinking a lot lately of my eating habits.  With working out and wanting to look fit I KNOW food is going to make a big difference.  I have three big issues that are a huge hindrance to eating healthy right now. 1. Sugar 2. Eating right state of mind. 3. Kids

I am completely addicted to sugar. Addicted to the point where if I am eating healthy and doing well I feel lethargic and tired and like I can’t function.  About 15 minutes after getting a cookie or a piece of chocolate I perk up completely and I’m ready to go.  Going through that withdrawal feels impossible with trying to keep up with the kids.

Now the other part is whenever I decide I am going to eat better, even when I’m trying to be relaxed about it,  I end up thinking about food more and stressing that I can’t eat it, so I break down and just eat more.  When I’m not stressing about food I really don’t eat much but my selection of food is horrible.

Kids. It’s much easier to make mac and cheese or peanut butter and honey and just eat what they do.  It is a lot harder to make them eat what I should eat which is something that will take longer to make and they most likely won’t touch and making separate things is even more work – almost impossible.

I recently realized the food blogs I subscribe to are all about baking and desserts and mostly the tasty food I need to limit. So I need to dive into tasty healthy blogs that will hopefully help me take another step in the right direction and unsubscribe from the dessert ones.  They both have pictures that make them look delicious and that is really the biggest motivator for me actually making it.  You are what you surround yourself with so I need some different food friends.

Since I am on the petite side, I can understand some people thinking that maybe since I can get away with eating unhealthy things and not gaining a ton of weight than maybe I shouldn’t worry about it.  On the other hand, I want to know what I could look like if I actually could eat healthy.  What would make me feel really good is seeing if I can actually get away from the sugar vice.  It is annoying that something has so much control over me. My brother has complete self mastery over his diet.  He can go months eating nothing but low calorie good things.  When we visited for Thanksgiving he broke his diet and felt sick and didn’t like it because his body was so used to not having any junk.

That reminds me.  Obstacle number 4 is budget.

But never mind the excuses.  I’m going to do what I CAN. Right now that is getting the new food friends.

 

43

Sorry for the lack of pictures.  My camera has been dead and I haven’t charged it yet.  Aaron spoke in church today, it is always good to start with an attention getter.  His opening line was “Service is like peeing your pants.  Everyone sees you do it but only you get that warm feeling.” Oh the things teenagers come up with!  It got everyone’s attention for sure.  He did very well actually and I am happy he was willing to speak.

We got Ahnna back thank goodness.  It was fun to see Summer get excited to see her.  Poor little baby has been teething for the past few days and has a fever that comes and goes.  Most the evening she was content to just sit on her dad’s lap and dose.

I feel like I have been coasting along as a parent the past few weeks.  Most the day the kids are content doing their own thing and I do my own thing and just make sure everyone is fed and sharing their toys.  I’m hoping to put forth a better effort to do things with them this week.  We are going to read and color together and I am going to feel like I am teaching them SOMETHING.  I pinned a bunch of different activities on Pinterest that hopefully will help and I think I want to try a day where NO one is on any kind of screen all day…. since we are all addicted I might start with a half a day.  Maybe we can make it a habit to not be on any screen until a certain time of day.  I dunno.  Mostly I’m hoping with having a bunch of little goal to work towards this week, I will be able to accomplish a few of them so I start working in the right direction instead of coasting.

 

42 – Birthday Planning Already?

Isaac’s Birthday is in – well – 4 months.  Still got a while and I know, I said I would never go all out like I did for Ahnna’s birthday but….. yeah… there is still no way I am going to do that much for a birthday ever again. BUT I am going to have fun doing a few choice things for Isaac’s ANGRY BIRDS BIRTHDAY!!!  He LOVES Angry Birds.  His invitation, which is completely customizable, is available in my Etsy shop for everyone else too! Just click on the picture to go there.

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This is a fun little idea I found on Pinterest I might do for favors.  They are super cute and super cheap to make.  Love It!

 

But seriously, the invitation, the game, and the cake, that is IT…. really.  I WILL restrain myself…

Day 41

Ahnna stayed with her grandparents while the rest of us trekked home again.  Isaac, who I was just boasting about being so good in the car, slept for about 45 minutes and then balled the rest of the way home when he realized Ahnna and Grandma were not coming.  Poor little guy.  I couldn’t help but feel bad for him.  When we drop off his dad at work every morning he points to the highway and wants to go to Grandma’s house.  On the way there yesterday he was chanting “Grandma’s house, Grandma’s house!”  It was so cute.  Ahnna comes home tomorrow and we all can’t wait.  It is hard not having my little helper here to help with all the go-for tasks I always give her and, most the time, she is so happy to help!

Making cookies with Grandma, always a must for Ahnna

Day 40

Went to Spokane today.  I’ve needed to get a few things done there and the kids had not seen their grandparents Spinelli for a while.  This is the first time we haven’t somehow got all the needed clothing for the upcoming season from a mix of hand me downs and gracious grandparents so I got to do some real shopping for Ahnna’s summer clothes.  I went to Target and fell in love with a dress I wanted for both my girls.  Even though it wasn’t exactly summer time play clothes, I got it.  I have my weaknesses…

In reality, they did not have a 12 month size in stock and I realized Summer is going to be crawling any day and dress wearing is going to be impossible until she can walk. So with great pain I did not buy her a matching dress because 9 months would be tighter on her even now.  I’m going to have to get a picture with Ahnna in the dress, this picture does not do it justice.  It is simple and pretty, very much a typical little girl fluffy dress but it makes me think of ballerina’s and Pinkalicious.  Things Ahnna just loves and I love her so I love the dress

Day 39 – 9 Months

Only 3 more months of bottles and formula! I can hardly wait.  It is always so nice to ditch the bottles.  She is still not crawling but I can tell she really wants to and she is up on her hands and knees a lot.  She usually gets into that position and the just cries out of frustration or something.  This is a short video when Nathan decided to give her a shower instead of a bath and she loved it.  As usual the best smiles and giggles were not caught on video but it is cute anyway.

Day 38 – Pantry Organization

72 Hour kits are done!  Next up is 3 month supply of food.  Part of getting everything ready for a good three month food supply is organizing for maximum capacity and ease of rotation in the pantry. Yes! A good excuse to buy organizational things!  I really wanted to get vintage looking glass jars with really awesome labels for everything that comes in bags or containers I just hate dealing with.  However, still on a budget, I had to make do with the rest of the vinyl my mother-in-law got me a few years back and the roughly $2 containers from Walmart.  Not amazingly stylish but I still LOVE them!  I just love organisation, especially in a place like a pantry which can start to look like a cave.  A major reason we bought this house was because it has a huge pantry.  And now I have more room to cram food into it.

The bluetooth connection from my phone to the computer stopped working so I can’t show the other ones I did.  Frustrating!  I also have containers for sugar, corn starch, brown sugar, powdered sugar, and nuts.  Soon I will have one for coco too but I bought out the containers at our Walmart.  I also got a bunch of cardboard can rotation boxes.  They are very sturdy and I think they will hold up well.  You can check out the store here or click on the picture.