All 3 kids are napping AT THE SAME TIME and I’m actually rested enough to blog instead of feeling like I’m going to collapse in a heap….that’s an answered prayer in itself!! It’s hard to believe my baby girl is a week old today –and to celebrate, here’s a quick 5 answered prayers this week:
1.) Tom was home for Gracyn's birth….he got home Sunday night before she was born Monday evening. He was gone Thursday morning-Sunday night and I was nervous that I was going to go into labor while he was gone and he wouldn’t make it home in time.
2.) Gracyn is PERFECT! I can’t tell you what an answered prayer it is to have such a laid back baby girl! I was more than a little stressed about the idea of adding a 3rd child to our family and was downright terrified that this baby might be as colicky as Micah was….don’t get me wrong, I love Micah man dearly, but he was NOT an easy baby (he got easier once we got the MSPI issues figured out….but it wasn’t a very fun start)! 
We still don’t know if we’re dealing with any MSPI issues—I cut dairy and soy just to be on the safe side and once we’re into a good nursing routine I’ll try adding them back slowly and see how we do. Whether its due to the diet changes or not, she’s a very content, laid back little girl….and we are very thankful!
3.) Makenzie and Micah have adjusted very easily! Another HUGE answer to prayer! If you know my Micah man, you know he’s a major mama’s boy and I’ve prayed and prayed that he would handle the addition of another baby easily…..and he has! He dotes over “baby sista” constantly and loves to tell us about her tiny ears and tiny nose. He kisses on her and hugs her (sometimes a little too roughly but she’s pretty forgiving!) Makenzie is thrilled to have a baby sister and loves to “share” with her (i.e. give Gracyn all sorts of stuffed animals and blankets….especially when we’re ready to go out the door which means I end up with an armful of gifts to take with us!) She loves to help me and is pretty sure she could take care of Gracyn without any help.
4.) My own recovery has been easy –I felt like I was slow to recover after Micah’s birth and was slightly terrified at the prospect of trying to manage 3 children (4 and under) by myself when Tom went back to work, but I have actually felt pretty good and Tom’s been back to work since Thursday with no major catastrophes at home (minus Micah going like 6 hours Thursday without a diaper change because his mother never thought of it…..the good news is, he survived and I’ve managed to remember to change his diaper somewhat regularly since then!)
5.) My hubby has been amazing! He has been great about taking Makenzie and Micah outside to run off energy when he gets off work, doing baths in the evening and picking up the slack around the house so I can rest. Sunday morning he got up with both kiddos and let me sleep for 2 more hours! I wouldn’t want to do this without him!
Apparently my motherly instincts are totally wrong – I was sure we were having a blonde haired little boy and instead we have a little girl with a whole head of dark hair! Gracyn Linnea (Linnea is Tom’s mom and grandma’s middle name) was born yesterday, April 16th at 5:32 p.m. She weighed 7 lbs 13 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. She is absolutely beautiful –and the “missing link” between Micah and Makenzie! Gracyn has her sister’s dark hair and bright eyes but her brother’s nose and mouth. Makenzie and Micah have done great –they’re both pretty thrilled with baby sister, in fact Micah man had a tough time going to sleep tonight because he was sure baby sister should “nuggle” with him. 
It’s been one of those weeks around here – you know, the kind where mama is way to crabby and the 2 year old isn’t sleeping well and is taking great joy in antagonizing his sister and the 4 year old is testing the little tiny bit of patience that mom still has…..and the daddy is gone for 4 days (not to mention the crabby not so patient mom is also nearly 39 weeks pregnant and slightly freaking out at the prospect of the hubby not making it home if she goes into labor).
BUT, today has been fantastic! The sun is shining, the weather is warm, the kids can run and play outside while I sit in my favorite red lawn chair soaking up the sun (and occasionally playing referee), we have a play date with friends after naptime….and the icing on the cake, both babes are down for naps and I found this article on a blog I love to read. Perhaps my favorite part of the article was the quote at the beginning -- “God doesn’t expect us to be instant experts at something we’ve never done before. And he promises to make up the difference.”
And I’m SO, SO thankful for His help in this adventure called parenting!
In case you missed it, I actually made some New Year’s Resolutions this year –and because I don’t want to just make them and forget until December rolls around (that and the fact that I’m not almost 38 weeks pregnant and trying to focus on everything except how ready I am to have this baby!!), I’m going to give you all an update of how I’m doing…..with any luck, I’ll try to do this quarterly, mostly just to keep myself on track! Here is the short version of the goals -
1. Read 6 books this year. I just finished #5…..I started with the Help, then read Made to Crave (by Lysa TerKeurst), Unplanned (by Abby Johnson), Revolutionary Parenting (by George Barna), and Real Marriage (by Mark and Grace Driscoll. My least favorite has probably been Revolutionary Parenting –overall it’s a good book and it had some GREAT ideas that I hope to implement in my own parenting, but it was a little too statistic/fact heavy for me and sometimes just downright discouraging.
Our small group is going through Real Marriage, and even though we baled on small group for the time being, I decided to read the book while they were reading it. Made to Crave has made the list of books to read again in the very near future—it’s on the post-pregnancy list…..working on changing my thinking patterns not just my eating habits to get rid of the baby weight! Unplanned was really good too – I hadn’t really planned to read it, but Abby Johnson is speaking at a banquet that we’re going to next week and I wanted to read the book before I heard her speak….and now I’m SUPER excited to hear her!
Next on the list – a couple of Francine Rivers books….I LOVE her books and I decided with baby’s arrival quickly approaching some good novels (i.e. no thinking required) would be good! I think it’s safe to say this goal will be met this year!
2. Be more strategic with my kiddos. This has actually been really fun but definitely isn’t something you do once and check off the list…it’s an ongoing job (and an ongoing STRUGGLE….why is it so easy to be lazy when it comes to the time I spend with my kiddos??). Seriously, if you have suggestions/ideas for being intentional with your kids – leave me a message, I’d love to hear!!!
Here and here are two great links to a resource that I found to help me with this – the first is a chart I filled out for each kiddo and the second is a chart with some ideas to help you fill out the first one! I found this in a magazine called Thriving Family (GREAT magazine by the way…if you have kids you should get on Focus on the Family’s website and subscribe!!) – and found it super helpful to sit down and put together some sort of a plan for the next year. Makenzie actually helped with hers and set some of her own goals –2 of which she has already accomplished, learning to zip her coat and learning to tie her shoes; and just this week she asked to add 2 new goals, go across the monkey bars by herself and ride her bike without training wheels. We also set a goal with Makenzie to work on memorizing Bible verses and it’s been really fun to see her soak this up like a little sponge! We’ve been going through a family devotion book called Step Into the Bible (by Ruth Graham….another REALLY GREAT resource if you’re interested)….the kids and I like to read a story each morning and there’s a bible verse with each story (the bible verse is the same for about a week at a time which makes it easier to get it memorized). She does an amazing job of remembering all the verses we’ve memorized in past weeks too –I’ll have to post a video of her reciting everything, it’s pretty incredible!
Micah man has also memorized a bible verse…well kind of (in his own 2 year old way)…which requires a lot of prompting and repeating after mom! We’ve focused with him on Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” This is one Makenzie also memorized and it proved to be a good starting place for talking about the fact that God also made them….Micah loves to have you ask him, “Who made you?” And he responds with a big smile, “God”….and then the follow up question, “And that means you’re….” “Good” he yells with another big smile! I’ll post more another day about the goals we set and how we’re doing….that deserves a post of it’s own.
I also made a couple of changes in the way I do things – for starters, no more computer in the morning….no email checking until I get to work so that I focus my time and attention on the kids, grocery shopping on Sunday or Monday night instead of Tuesdays with kids, and saving laundry folding until naptime instead of trying to do it while entertaining kids (because that usually means screaming kids and mom).
Being more strategic has also meant planning more activities to do together instead of just “winging it” each day…..practically speaking, this has meant a whole lot of crafting, coloring, painting because those are the things Makenzie LOVES to do and Micah is happy to join in…..unfortunately, these are things that kind of make me cringe because I really hate messes and any sort of art with a 2 and 4 year old generally means a mess! 
3. Make at least one positive change. This is something I’m still wrestling with and trying to figure out just what “change” is going to look like…..but in the mean time, one little change is that I’m no longer taking juvenile court appointments out of one of the counties I used to work in. They only have court on Fridays….which means every time I have a hearing, it takes away from time I would otherwise have at home. I didn’t bail out of the cases I’m currently appointed too, but I’m not taking any new ones – so I hope that in the near future I’ll be completely done with Friday court. For now, I’m working to consolidate hearings so that I can review multiple cases on one Friday and not have to appear several times a month. It seems to be working – I had one Friday court hearing this month and now I have NOTHING until June 1st—and I have 3 cases set for that day!
4. Get organized at home. We’ve made good progress on this – the house is all flipped, all the bedrooms are organized and decorated, and the nursery is all set up. I still have high hopes of doing a little more closet cleaning (mostly cleaning out & hauling to good will) and toy purging and I have a couple “big” projects to finish this year- replacing the front door and living room lights and painting the trim on the house….not that those are really part of getting "organized” but they’re on my home to do list.
Not bad progress if I do say so myself! I’m pretty sure the next few months will be spent in survival mode as we figure out how to manage three children….so don’t expect quite so much in the next update!
