Hiatus

I'm going on an internet break of sorts. Life is getting busier with two kiddos, and my best time spent is not on the computer. I will be updating my blog at times, and will check my email since it's tied to work. My interest in facebook as waned, and I find myself not even going beyond the home page of it. I will only be on there when in need to contacting someone or when I need to respond to a post.

I made that decision a little while ago because it's easy for me to spend a lot of time on the computer instead of spending it on real life - devotional time, time with the family/friends, exercising, or let's face it: cleaning my house. Just trying to find a balance and prioritize what is really important.

Hope that you are all having a great summer!

I Am Thankful...

That our Father hears even the most simple prayers...
That I know our Father is carrying friends, even in hard times...

My List of Twelve

1. R turned two months yesterday. To get the developmental stuff out of the way (what can I say, it's drilled into my head due to my job), R's starting to laugh, suck this thumb, sleep a bit more, mimic facial gestures/sounds, kicking, likes tummy time, growing like crazy. It's nice to see that he's responding to us.

2. My co-worker/friend is giving us a free infant massage session next week. I'm pretty excited.

3. Potty training E is going so/so. I think we've become lazy about it.

4. Work is going well. I'm pretty drained by Thursday, though. Loving Fridays.

5. A friend and I are starting a playgroup for the children in our church. We've been talking about it... now we're finally going to implement it. Pray that parents/kiddos feel welcomed and that great relationships are made.

6. L and I are celebrating our six year anniversary on Sunday. We've been pretty blessed.

7. My good and super talented friend, Kristin, made our announcements, and they are too cute. I have no idea how to post them to show you, since our scanner is still packed away.

8. I've given up all caffeine and soda. Not pretty, but I've found the more water you drink the more you crave.

9. We've been going for walks every day, but it's slow moving. E likes to walk by herself, and stops to pick up every rock she sees "Oooh pretty one! Oooh big one!"

10. E loves to play "I Spy", and it's fun for her to make us guess "Spy something... pink".

11. Looking forward to blueberry season and watermelons from the farmer's markets.

12. I'm limiting my computer time since life is getting busier. You may not see a lot of consistent posting for a while.

Rocks At the Beach

E has an obsession with rocks. If she's outside playing, she's picking up rocks and putting them in her wheelbarrow, or throwing them, or carrying them around. Maybe it's because we don't have a lot of outside toys, and she has to be content with dirt and rocks. Maybe it's a developmental phase or maybe she's a future geologist.

Nevertheless, her love for rocks continued yesterday after we walked down to a beach on the northside of our town. She spent much of her time laying in the water, grabbing a handful of rocks and throwing it back into the lake.

She even decided to go "exploring" and found other rocks to toss in the lake. The bigger the rock, the bigger the splash, right? You can imagine the number of times we had to caution her to keep the rock in her hands and not on her foot.

We decided to join in on the fun ourselves and started looking for sea glass. We had a couple really pretty pieces, but made the mistake of letting E hold them... off into the water they went. I think we're going to go on a "hunt" with each trip to the beach, and see how many we have by the end of the summer.

I have to admit - it was hard to stop once we started. :)

Baby Bliss

It's coming...

Wait for it...

Wait for it...

Wait for it... seriously, it's coming...

Now... aren't you glad you waited?

A Good Monday

Hope that you all had a lovely Fourth of July. We spent our weekend with friends and family, and with each other. It was nice. We were also pretty excited to find that we have roses that actually bloom in our yard. It's one of the few "bushes" that aren't weeds, so yay.

E and R napped at the same time yesterday, so I faced my own dilemma: nap or no nap? I almost always choose "no nap", since it's my time to relax or get something done. I've decided that can be better than napping, which rang true yesterday.

My time was spent in the kitchen making bread. I haven't had much success with bread making (even with a machine), so it almost felt like a waste of time. Thankfully, Elizabeth mentioned that recipe on her blog, and it turned out really well. Kneading felt almost therapeutic - much like weeding does for me. The homemade butter (which was incredibly easy to make, and really could only have been better if I had used Shetler's cream) and the strawberry jam made the bread all the more perfect. Yum.

I was also able to sneak some homemade croutons into the oven. E loves croutons, and often wants them as a snack (even our daycare worker mentioned this to us). I had some leftover bread, and decided to throw some olive oil, garlic salt and pepper on them for some taste and baked it in the oven. We had a salad for dinner last night, and we found her "sneaking" extra croutons off of the pan. She approved at least.

The rest of the day was spent coloring, digging in a sandbox, and playing with her train set. It was good.

We're Tired, but...

We've survived my first week back to work. Monday evening and Tuesday morning was spent organizing bottles, breastmilk, pumping, getting extra diapers, buying sunblock for E, organizing my own work bag, packing lunch, getting the kiddos ready, getting my pump bag ready...

L took the kiddos to daycare, because he thought it would be easier on me emotionally (it was true). E was excited about showing R off to her friends, and ran right inside without a second thought. L promptly called me to say everything was okay, and that our daycare worker said I could call every hour if I needed to (I only called once).

So, I drove to work, relieved that everything went okay, that we seemed to remember everything, and preparing to get back into work mode. I decided to drive to the bank, which is down the road from my job, to drop my check off, and I realized... no wallet.

I remembered EVERYTHING but my wallet, so I had to turn around and go back home.

Other than that little inconvenience, things are going well. When my maternity leave started, my caseload had tipped over 40 cases, and now (miraculously), I have in the mid-20s. That's pretty great. Really great, actually.

E seems to be into the swing of things, and our daycare worker states that R never cries, and seems to love watching the other kiddos. He's taking the bottle well, which was something I was nervous about. Pumping is going well, though, it's a bit of a pain to do at work.

And a bit of good news on my first week back: I got a raise. A very small one, but my boss said she wanted us to know that she really appreciated all of the work we do.

So, praise God that He provided a smooth transition for all of us. I don't know why I worry so much.