Soak in the Daddy Time!

After 8 wonderful uninterrupted months together, the time has come where Daddy has to deploy again.  I'm so grateful for the timing of his last homecoming, and for this long break with him home, that I feel guilty being sad this day has come.  I was talking with my mom the other day though, and she gave some insightful advice.  Not a rare thing for my mom, many of you have probably heard me repeat sound wisdom from her.  She said she's realized we really can't control what we feel.  We feel what we feel!

Emotional pain is like physical pain.  When or how it happens is not within our control. Imagine if an OB doctor told a mother in labor, that she shouldn't be feeling pain.  It's all in her head.  I think if such a doctor existed, he wouldn't live long! Of course her pain is real!  She can't decide whether she feels pain or not.  There are coping strategies for pain.  Lamaze classes, right?  However I think most mothers who have actually experienced childbirth will admit such classes are beautiful in theory . . . but when you're in the delivery room, and it's all so much worse than you ever imagined, you consider strangling the nurse who's reminding you to breathe in patterns!  You can't control what you feel, and it isn't easy to control how you react to feelings either.

Despite the thousands of books written on emotional health, and millions of dollars spent on therapy, I think when it comes to painful experiences we know are coming- most of us follow a universal 3 step approach:

1. Dread
2. Acceptance
3. Endurence


So while experiencing phase 1 during the last few days Daddy is home, we're trying our best to not be too distracted by the process, so we can enjoy what time we have left before steps 2 and 3.

Last Sunday I stayed home with Merrylee and Ben who were fighting colds, so it was just Anny and Daddy at church together.  Daddy said she was a very good girl.  I curled her hair, she looked very grown up and pretty.        

Daddy had an old ROTC buddy call up and say he was driving through our area, so he meet him for dinner in Pensacola, and took Merrylee with him.  Being the middle child, she doesn't get a lot of individual parent time.  She felt very special to be the only one accompanying him, and was excited to have Dad all to herself.  

Baby Ben will probably go through the most changes while Daddy is gone, so he's tried to spend a little extra time with him too.  Some might argue 8 months is a little early for ice cream.  Ben didn't complain though, and there's no way Daddy was going to miss sharing that first bite of Bryers Mint Chocolate Chip.

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

So phase 1 hasn't been too horrible.  Wish us luck for 2 and 3.  I don't think I'll be in the mood to blog about them.

Another form of relief

Last post I tried to provide a little heartfelt encouragement, in the best way I knew how.  It concerned feeding the soul, and finding solace through Christ.  Now for a lighter yet often effective form of relief- humor.

I dare you to watch this video and not laugh, or at least smile!

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Special thanks to Anny, and the laughter we've had at her expense.  She giggles at this video now though, so I figured she wouldn't mind if I shared.  In her defense, she was a little tired from trick-or-treating (that's a lot of walking for a 5 year old) and she'd been going at that doughnut for about 5 minutes before she'd finally had enough.  I think it's safe to say she put the old adage "when at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again" to the test, and found it to be lacking in this case.

Where can I turn?

This week I've been thinking much about some people very close to me.  Some dear friends, who are going through some very sad or difficult things.  I know they are crying.  I know they are sad, and lonely.  I want to fix it.  I wish so much I could take their pain away.  But I cannot.  I do not have that power.  I know someone who can though.

I believe in Christ.  I can testify that he lives.  He knows us individually.  He feels our pain, and suffers with us.  Though we cannot see him, we can feel his love for us when we pray.  He can heal all wounds, and comfort all who stand in need of comfort.  He is the greatest relief there is, to any trial, or grief, or sadness.  He suffered all pain, and knows every heartache, because he experienced them all during his great atonement for us.  It is only through him that we will find real peace in anything.

I sent some things to my friends in need this week.  A package of things I hope are comforting, white flowers to help uplift and cheer somewhat.  However that just doesn't feel like enough.  It's like a doctor, giving condolences and sympathy to a sick patient, but no prescription or treatment.  I felt I had to pass on what I know of real treatment, real peace and comfort.  The very best comfort I feel I can give, is the message that Jesus Christ loves us.  He is not merely a good feeling, or a theory or nice idea.  He is a real, living, resurrected being, who gives true and lasting comfort and healing.  He will help.  He loves you.  Read his words.  Lose yourself in meaningful prayer.  You will feel that he is there, and you are not alone.    

As I was writing this, I could hear the words to the hymn Where Can I turn for Peace fill my mind.  You can listen to it here.  Below are the lyrics:

Where can I turn for peace?
Where is my solace
When other sources cease to make me whole?
When, with a wounded heart, anger, or malice
I draw myself apart searching my soul?

Where, when my aching grows?
Where, when I languish?
Where, in my need to know?
Where can I run?
Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish?
Who, who can understand?
He, only One.

He answers privately.
Reaches my reaching.
In my Gethsemane, Savior, and friend.
Gentle, the peace He finds
For my beseeching.
Constant He is, and kind.

Love without end.  

This song is dear to me.  It could be because I grew up singing it, and that makes it comforting to me.  However I think it's the words that make it so sweet.  I remember one Sunday at church, in which I was particularly sad about something.  It was time for the congregation to sing the closing hymn.  Lost in my thoughts I flipped to the page and started to sing.  My mind was drawn to the lyrics, and the music seemed to fill my heart, and put words to what I was feeling.  I sang the words

Where can I turn for peace? Where, in my need to know? Where can I run? Who, who can understand?

Then I saw the song answer it's lyrics and my inner thoughts and questions, and found I couldn't sing, but only whisper the response, He, only One.    

To my sweet friends during this time, and to anyone else I know who might be concealing a secret pain or trial, please know I love you.  I will not pretend I understand or know what you're going through, but the Savior does, and I'm praying you will feel his everlasting love, that it will fill your heart and carry you through these times of need. Constant He is, and kind. Love without end.

May your days be bright

My DH has a sort of talent I covet.  He easily forgets bad memories.  Arugments we've had, unfortunate events from the past, he can't remember them.  They never happened.  He doesn't just choose not to bring them up- he somehow manages to erase them.  I've in a laughing mood, tried to recall with him disagreements from our past, and he thinks I made them up.  He cannot remember them.  Fortunate man!

I am usually not so fortunate, and can recall a little too perfectly how things I don't wish to remember, went down.  However when I look back on 2011, I'm overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude.  Even if I try, I cannot focus on a memory where I was heartbroken, downtrodden, or miserable.  I suppose there were some, no one is safe from hard times, but all that comes to mind is seeing my husband walk through the door, early from a deployment, the day before Benjamin was born.  I recall the girls hands and mouths stained red from strawberries we picked together, and can remember they were the sweetest, freshest berries I'd ever had.  I think of the happy, sleepy look on Merrylee's face as she awoke on her third birthday, and realized what day it was.  I can see Anny during family scripture study at our family reunion, staring at the 4th of July fireworks from the beachouse window, too distracted and excited to hear our devotional.  I remember my brothers, father, and a few good friends, standing in a circle, holding our baby boy, as my husband gave him a name and a blessing.  It was a year abundant in happiness, culminating in a Christmas Season with Daddy home and our family together.  I've been blessed to only remember the good things, and there were so many good things this year.  Those good things come from one source, and it's to Him, our Savior, Jesus Christ, that we are grateful, and who we celebrate.  Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year.  May your 2012 be bright!

Special thanks to my talented sister, Katie, the pianst who provided the music for this slideshow.  Not included here are pictures from a visit to Virginia.  We had a wonderful time, but forgot our camera.

 

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

I want to run through the halls of my highschool . . .

I've been watching ABC's new show Once Upon a Time.  For the most part I've enjoyed it.  I like the fairy tale element, and am a true lover of a good fantasy story.  In one thing with this show I've been extremely dissapointed though, and it's been stewing in my mind for weeks now. What I wish to write about today, concerns the Prince Charmings. 

The basis of the show is how the evil witch who haunts Snow White, has moved all fairy tale characters to our modern world, where she can doom them to misery and dominate them.  There are flashback scenes in the fairy tale world, intermixed with scenes showing how our beloved characters, cursed with no memory of who they used to be, are dealing with modern times.  

In the beautiful fairy tale world, the Prince Charmings don't vary much from how we've always known them.  They are dashing, chivalrous, honorable, selfless, and kind.  Protecting the innocent and those who cannot help themselves, they are heros who bravely fight dragons, monsters, wicked soldiers and witches.  Always great leaders, their knights trust them and promise unfailing loyalty.  They are ferocious in battle, yet demonstrate softer sides where they adore their beautiful princess brides, even enough to wait until their wedding nights for intimacy.  They are family men who want to have children, and would die to protect anyone they love.      

The actors who play the prince charming characters are the same men in the "real world" settings.  However just as their outfits change, so do their characters.  They are just as dashing, but not half as honorable.  Cinderella's man is a son from a rich family, who has gotten her pregnant at 19, abandoned her, and allowed his father to make illegal adoption plans for the unborn child, against Ella's will.  Our prince stands idly by, only to make a last minute appearance in the hospital after poor Ella went through labor alone.  He oh-so-sweetly sits by Ella's side, and promises he'll never leave her again.  He doesn't even offer a better-late-than-never marriage proposal, but rather a pathetic promise reminiscent of most trashy dads who sire illegitimate children with teenage girls.  That hospital scene is set to sweet music, and illustrated as beautiful, possibly worth a glistening tear.

Snow White's prince is a little better, but not by much.  His story hasn't concluded, but it doesn't look too promising.  So far he has woken from a coma, and in his new life in our world, he's a married man suffering from amnesia, and falling in love with Snow White.  Did I mention Snow White is not his wife?  He still feels some connection with Snow though, and convinces her he has plans to leave his wife to be with her. Awwww.  Every mother's wish, right?  For her daughter to marry a man to who's broken his current home to start up again.  How sweet.  I'm sure this time his promises are sincere.  In case you can't read between the lines, I'm laying on the sarcasm pretty thick.  Snow White's prince does suddenly "remember" his past, and decides not to leave his wife after all - but not before he's given great heartache to both his wife and Snow White, leaving one confused and the other devastated.

These type of men do exist.  I'm not arguing the true-to-reality fact there.  My problem is these are the type of men we are painting as modern day prince charmings.  How sad.  How pathetic.  While the readers of my blog are probably the choir I'm preaching to, I feel I must put my voice out there, and proclaim that prince charmings of the fairy tale world exist.  They are real!  There are honorable men, in every way as wonderful as the men we read about in story books.  There are good men, with good hearts, living clean lives, who wish to provide and protect, who love kids, and will devote themselves to you and your family forever! It is not a fantasy!!

"The hunt" is a lesser known secret though- one I wish to reveal here.  These glorious men are not waiting in singles bars, or at the club.  You're not likely to simply run into a prince on the street either.  Good men are found in good places, doing good things.  They're at church, or serving as the volunteer coach on the soccer field, or helping out at a charity function.  Get involved in those kinds of things, and you'll run into them.  Live worthy of these men by livng lives similar to theirs, and they'll fall in love with you, and stay in love. 

John Mayer sings a song I laugh at, called No Such Thing.  Fans of his, forgive me, I don't hate the guy, just this particular song.  I think it's silly.  In the chorus he says:

I want to run through the halls of my highschool
I want to scream at the top of my lungs!
I just found out there's no such thing as the real world
It's just something they try to lie about.   

I laugh at this, because obviously for him there's no such thing as the "real world".  He's a successful rockstar!  Whatever reality he lives in has nothing to do with the world the rest of us experience.  Anyway, the song comes to mind here.  I too want to run through the halls of my highschool, and scream at the top of my lungs.  I want to yell to all the young girls there the amazing news that Prince Charmings are real!  They are real and waiting for women who are living like them.  So be like them!!!  Impress them, and be irrisitable by living honorable, chaste, sweet lives like the princesses in the stories.  Be smart, be kind, be clean, be honest, be involved, be positive, be true.  Live beautifully, and find yourself frequently in the places these great men are found.  They will see you there, and they will seek you out.  They will love you, and cherrish you, and will make you happy.  Did I mention they'll marry you before they love you too much?     

I can't physically run through my highschool's halls, the security guards would kick me out.  Consider this post my scream though, and pass this on to any woman searching.  If you're the one searching but feel you aren't currently living the life of a princess worthy of the men I described, then change!  Become worthy, and live your life so you can recognize a good prince when you see him.  Then go to the right places to seek him out.  Don't give up on your search until you do.  A good prince will fight for you, go do the same for him.  He's worth it.  Beleive me, I know.  I happen to be speaking from beautiful, wonderful, long lasting experience.   

menu, shopping list, plus some tips and tricks I've gathered in the last 7 years

My first semester in college and away from home, my mom emailed me her Thanksgiving menu and shopping list.  I thought that was so cool.  I have an exceptional mother.  I copy her a lot - hence this post.

Thanksgiving is my DH's very favorite holiday.  He spent last years' big day overseas with a bunch of dudes, not ideal, to say the least.  So the pressure is on to get it right for him this year!  He's gettin' the boys from church ready for some flag football, and then later no doubt he'll watch some games with Ben on TV, while I'm prepping up for some serious kitchen time.  I'm making my list, checking it twice, and the kiddos and I are making the trip to walmart after music lessons today!!  Wish me luck!  

The Florida Andrews Family 

Thanksgiving Day Menu

Oven Roasted Turkey with Stuffing

Mushroom Gravy

Dairy Free Mashed Potatoes

Candied Yams with Marshmallows

Baked Asparagus

Relish Tray

Oranged Cranberry Sauce

Crescent Rolls

Pumpkin Pie

Apple Pie

Lemon Meringue Pie

Sparkling Cider

The Shopping List

I read a few years ago a great tip for making your shopping lists.  The tip was to divide your list into four categories (I quarter my handwritten list by making a line down the middle top to bottom, and then one left to right).  The categories are Produce, Cold Items, Dry/Canned or Bottled Items, and Non-Food Items.  I simplify with Pro, Cold, Dry, and Non.  This has saved me so much time while shopping.  I don't have to do a lot of back and forth around the store while going through my list!  

So, thus categorized, here it is:

Pro

Oranges

2 lbs Cranberries 

baby carrots

celery

mushrooms

1 bag apples

2-3 lemons

asparagus

cherry tomatoes

Cold

orange juice

turkey

unsalted butter

Pillsbury crescent rolls

cream cheese

1 pre-made pie crust

heavy cream

whipped cream

egg nog

Dry

Sparkling Cider

Artichokes

baby dill pickles

baby sweet pickles

smoked oysters

hearts of palm

canned yams

graham cracker crumb pie crust

16 oz can pumpkin puree

dark brown sugar

turkey gravy packet

Stovetop stuffing mix

marshmallows

Non

candlesticks

dishwasher soap

Last year I discovered this recipe for Oranged Cranberry Sauce.  It's amazingly tasty.  It's a Jamaican recipe, and includes cinnamon.  It's my latest change to my evolving menu.  I'd also like to note that my dairy free mashed potatoes are my own recipe, and they're fabulous.  I bet if you did a blind test with mine and the dairy version, you wouldn't know which is which!

I still don't feel like I've mastered turkey roasting.  If you have tips to share, please pass them on!!  

I'll save a gratitude post for another time, but at the top of my list is having a husband home to cook for.  His favorite holiday just isn't as fun without him.  

Shining for the whole world to see . . .






 A good friend gave me this cute bib for Ben. 

Here's a few more glamour shots of our new little star shining brightly. 






Little blue chair for our little blue man. 






He loves his big sisters, and they're crazy about him!



How can we not adore this perfect little face?

our holistic classroom

It's 11:30 pm, and my baby is asleep.  I haven't had more than 4 consecutive hours of sleep in months now, and I'm beyond exhausted.  My limbs feel heavy, and my eyes have developed an unattractive puffiness.  Yet here I sit, typing away.  I actually don't want to go to bed right now.  I want to write, and share my thoughts with you.  Perhaps I'm too tired to make wise and healthy decisions.  Maybe I spend a little too much time at home sitting on my couch nursing and taking care of children, and this is my necessary window into the outside world.  Most likely it's a combination of both. 

As I wait for the photos from my new camera to load onto my computer, please allow me to ruminate about my slowly growing knowledge of the homeschool experience.  Some of you may know about my decision to keep Anny home for Kindergarten this year.  I haven't decided how long we will homeschool.  Circumstances are always changing- our location, our family size and situation, my patience level with my kids, their tolerance of me, the quality of local schools and teachers, and the list goes on.  Each year we'll reassess our situation, and decide.  This year the decision was to start at home. 

I like order, organization, and structure.  I have learned from experience that they are crucial to a successful school with classes of children.  I spent some time at a school that abandoned those things, and watched it fail miserably.  It was painful to teach there.  However to my surprise, in our little homeschool, I've found the opposite is true.  Structure, order and hours of lesson planning are not only unnecessary, but detrimental.  I don't need to teach that way, and shouldn't. 

I am enjoying a holistic style of education with my girls.  We don't have a schedule or cement routine.  We do a little math from a workbook, then bake cookies and talk about measurements.  Anny's sentence structure and handwriting practice can be in the form of a letter to Grandma, and her science lesson is with Daddy as they look up the weather radar of an approaching tropical storm.  The girls ask questions, and we stop what we're doing to explore the answers. I incorporate housework with studies whenever I can.  Merrylee and I can listen to Anny read while I'm on the couch nursing Ben.  Today I found a huge snail on our driveway, so we had a hands on, exploratory biology lesson.  Anny's long list of "why" questions don't detract from the lesson, they are the lesson.  We go with the flow, and it's wonderful. 

Don't worry, I'm not completely without structure.  I've looked up the FL core curriculum, and make long term goals, and order materials to align with them.  We have textbooks.  I got to choose them though, and I chose books that are interesting,and incorporate children's literature into the lessons.  They are tools though, and we set them aside to discuss and explore when it feels right.  My mom's advice as I started teaching was to relax.  If we're having a rough day, put the workbooks away and read a story, pop in an educational dvd, or better yet, leave the house and visit the playground.  She said to enjoy being together.  It has taken a bit out of me to abandon my training of order and intense planning.  I know my children though, so the adapting and tailor-fitting of lessons has been a surprisingly easy job.  The organization in a way was already there, it's just a little more instantaneous than planning for a group of 25 children from 25 different homes.   

Here are some pictures of some science adventures we've had.  We purchased Painted Lady caterpillars, and learned about their life cycle.  After watching them form chrysalises and miraculously emerge as butterflies, this week we set them free in our backyard.  There are also some photos of Dad helping the girls with a little turtle rescue experience.  He found this poor guy trapped by the fence in our backyard.  Dad held him so the girls could check him out, and they watched him walk in the yard a bit.  Then they put him in a tupperware with a little water, and walked about a half a mile to a nearby stream.  It's hard to see the stream in the pictures, but as soon as our little green friend heard that rushing water, he seemed to instinctively know he was home, and headed straight for it.  Dad had a very full Saturday, but he knows a good teaching opportunity when he sees one, and felt the yard work, college football, and prep for Sunday church meetings could wait.  I love that man.

Several hours have passed since I first sat down to write this entry.  I've now been interrupted by a coughing three-year old, a smiling and very awake, very cute baby boy, and a dime sized frog I caught hopping across the carpet. He's now climbing the side of an overturned glass I grabbed from the kitchen.  Can anyone guess what we'll be studying for science tomorrow?  Hey- he dared to enter my house, he suffers the consequences of study and observation by two pairs of curious little eyes before being set free.

Another sleepless night.  It looks like my puffy eyed look will continue, as does my busy, crazy, unorganized, unstructured, yet happy and full life.          

Look at Anny's skirt and you can see a butterfly that just flew out!

The turtle is just to the left of the bottom middle of the picture.

Be free little guy!

Meet the world's cutest little naturalists!

Pass the Hinny Minny's please!

All kids mispronounce things.  It's a part of speech development, and pretty cute.  Sometimes I think the way my girls have mispronounced certain words, are actually an improvement on them.  We've come to use the improved version in our everyday speech at home.  If you ever hear us use the improvements instead of the official word, I have provided the Andrews Sisters-English translation below, for your own personal reference.   

For your convenience, I've listed the words in alphabetical order. 

Binanan  (Banana)
Dusting Panner (Dust pan)
Hinny Minny's (Frosted Mini Wheats)
Hoopa-loop (Hula-hoop)
Lellow (Yellow)
Marshlellow (Marshmellow)

It's a short but cute list.  After all, we do have smart little girls who love to talk, so mispronunciations aren't in a great abundance.  I'm not actually convinced that's what these are, to be honest.  They're more like creative interpretations of the words.  Feel free to add them to your own vocabulary!

Now if you'll please excuse me, I need to go use the dusting panner to finish sweeping up the breakfast mess my girls made from marshlellow and Hinny Minny cereals.  I'd ask Anny to help me, but she's busy using her binanan lellow hoopa-loop.   

the Patience

The cute but seemingly clueless Italian admirer of Jennifer Lopez in The Wedding Planner gave her a surprising bit of wisdom that I found myself repeatedly quoting in my head tonight.  He said to her, "You need to learn the patience.  Sometimes love, is just love"

I'm not sure exactly what the "love is just love" part meant, but over and over I've been repeating in my head, "you need to learn the patience".

The phrase "parenthood requires patience" is sort of a burned out phrase.  We all hear it, and think, "well yes, of course it does."

However I always imagined that meant being patient when your toddler wakes up with nightmares, being patient when milk is spilled on the floor, patiently teaching your kids to clean up their toys, or not argue.  Those occasions do require patience, it's true, and yet they don't even begin to describe the word.

There are many "Patience is . . . . stories we all can tell about our kids.  Here's mine for tonight.

Patience is when your daughter is Reading Hop on Pop, and on every 8 word page, she pauses to analyze the picture for 30 seconds, reads the words, comments on the picture,"Look!  They're hopping on his tummy!!!  That's so silly!"
and then asks a question about it, with the expectation of a fully drawn out answer.

Anny:"Why are they hopping on their Dad?"
Me:"I don't know, to be silly I guess"
Anny: "Don't they know it can hurt?"
Me: "Maybe they didn't think about that"
Anny: "Why wouldn't they think about that?"
Me: "I'm not sure.  Maybe they're naughty kids"
Anny: "Why are they naughty kids?"
Me: "I don't know Anny, it's just a story"
Anny: "Don't they love their Daddy?  Jumping on him is not nice..."

At this point I have turned the page, looking at the remaining 30 or so pages left, and thinking over and over, "the patience, the patience, you need to learn the patience...."

I didn't start the book with this attitude.  I opened it with anticipation, thinking "I'm pretty sure she can read this, I love my daughter, she's so smart, this is going to be so fun hearing her read the bedtime story all by herself!"

On the first page as she scans the picture I think, "Look at her analyzing the scene, that's a sign of great reading comprehension, and something I should encourage!"

However by page 32, we've gone through a similar routine 32 times, varied occasionally by her fixing her hair for a minute, and then pausing to scratch her foot.  Then she'll begin again to analyze the picture, read the words, and have an in depth conversation about it.  If Merrylee interrupts her we sometimes get to go through the routine twice per page, because she gets distracted and feels she must begin again.  No need to remind her she's already scanned this picture, after all- this is a sign of great reading comprehension, and something I should encourage, right??? 

There are 64 pages in that book.

I love Dr. Seuss, but what was he thinking?!!!  Obviously he never had kids.  Ten pages would have been generous.

I could create an entire new blog dedicated to Patience is ... parenting moments.  Perhaps I could do one about how a short blog entry takes two hours to write because every five minutes my baby starts fussing and wants to be held, and typing with one hand is hard.

Sometimes being a mother is delightful, and blissfully sweet.

Sometimes blissfully sweet takes too long, it's an hour past bedtime, and Mom's exhausted.

Someday I will learn "the patience".  Maybe.

my personal trainers

While doing my postpartum workout today, I realized something funny I consistently do.  I make friends with my DVD workout trainers.  Obviously we don't go out for sodas or have playdates with our kids (although that'd be so cool if we could!)  However while pulling my knees to my chest, completing the last stretch in today's workout, Erin O'Brien grinned and said, "You did it!" and I replied with my own smile, and said with a sigh, "thanks Erin!"

I didn't say it just to be cute.  There was no one else in the room, who would I be sounding cute for?  I felt sincere gratitude for Erin coaching me through the workout, and found myself thinking, "That Erin, I really like her.  She's cool. She's my friend."

In my defense we do see each other almost every day - every day I find time to workout anyway.  She gives me advice, tells me a bit about her life, and motivates me to be a better person.  That's what friends do, right?  It just so happens she says and does the same things every time we're together.  That and I paid $13.99 for her friendship.   

I'm not crazy.  Not yet anyway, although with the extreme shortage of sleep that comes with raising two little girls and a newborn, I'm probably close.  I can't blame this behavior on that though, because I've felt the same way about my other DVD trainers, who I knew and worked with back in the days I used to get plenty of sleep.  Denise Austin was my girl during my last pregnancy, as we did low impact aerobics, and she coached me through special workouts for the second and third trimesters.  Erin O'Brien is my new friend now.  I used to use the Wii Active Personal Trainer program, and I even felt grateful for the motivation given by the animated digital trainers.  They'd respond to my motions with pre-recorded phrases like, "way to go!" or "I can tell you've been working on that" and "I know you can do this!", and I'd nod my head and say, "Yeah!  You're right, I can do this!"

Perhaps this is a sign I need to get out of the house more often.  I probably would enjoy an aerobics class with real people, and adults to converse with.  Classes cost money though, and don't answer the question of what to do with the kiddos.  With my DVD and Wii workouts, I can nurse Benjamin, put the girls down for naps, cram a bologna sandwich, and then pop in a DVD before everyone wakes up and needs me again.  I can exercise on my schedule (or lack of) without leaving the house.  The convenience is too immense to attempt anything else.   

Exercising releases positive hormones, and that bit of time dedicated to just me feels so great!  I'm happier on the days I workout, and have more patience with my messy house and noisy kids.  Can I help it if gratitude for my improved mood goes to the friendly TV image of a trainer who is guiding me down the path of a healthier, stronger, more energetic me?

So thanks guys.  Thanks Denise, thank you Erin, and thank you Wii digital person who has no name!  This post is dedicated to you.  You guys are #1 in my book, even though you don't know me, or don't really exist.     

I'm a rapper!

OK- wrapper.  Baby wrapper, to be specific.   

One would assume by the third baby, I'd have a routine set in place, know what I like, and how to handle the whole new baby experience.  You know what they say about people who assume!

With each new baby, things change.  Circumstances have obviously changed.  I now have three kids instead of two.  That's definitely challenging.  I still don't feel comfortable in those shoes, as my messy house and worn out husband can say.  Shout out to my DH who although is now back to work, still takes on a huge chunk of the household chores.  He's a dreamboat, I know. 

Products change.  Because just about every baby item we owned was in some shade of pink, we had to get a few new things.  To my surprise the same things I used with the girls aren't the same anymore.  Even my favorite brand of binkys (mam) have changed their design.  There are also new products to try out.  I'm a shopper, and baby things are a special favorite of mine to buy, so I find this part of having a new little one fun!

I always liked the theory of front packs and slings. 

1. You can keep your baby close to you all the time
2. Baby is comforted and happy being so close to mom, and less likely to cry or act colicky 
3. Your hands are free

I've had two different slings, and haven't managed any of the above.  I never felt confident my baby wouldn't tumble out, and the whole experience felt awkward.  Front packs strain my back and neck, and make me feel achy and cramped after 30 minutes or so of use. 

Enter my latest discovery in the world of baby products- the Moby Wrap

I love my new Moby wrap.  It's a simple design, basically a long piece of stretchy knit cotton.  If you're ambitious enough you could probably make your own.  I'm not ambitious enough.  I paid for my lack of ambition, as this company charges a lot for a long piece of stretchy cotton, but I'm so happy with this wrap,  I don't mind!  The link will show how exactly to wrap it around you and how baby fits in, but it's not complicated.  Benjamin feels secure, and I really can use both my hands.  He likes being snuggled close to me, and fell asleep pretty quickly once he was tucked in.  Best of all, his weight is distributed well on my back.  It's not tugging on just my shoulders, neck, etc.  I don't feel sore or achy, and I've had it on for a few hours.  I'm actually typing this entry while wearing it!  Ben is still sleeping comfortably, snuggled against my chest.  I'm now a wrapper!  I may change my tune as he gets bigger and heavier, although the workout will be good for me.  The little pamphlet that came with the wrap even illustrates exercises I can do while wearing my baby.  I haven't tried them yet, but plan to! 

 Here's the wrap from the front.  Merrylee's stretched hand is right where I tied the ends of the fabric at my right hip. 

 Here you can see  how the fabric crosses on my back, helping distribute Benjamin's weight well. 

Here's a closer view of his little face peeking out.  However I have the best view.  I can glance down and see his cheek resting on his tiny hands, and easily kiss the top of his head, all while doing the dishes, vacuuming, or playing wii.