In the past year...

My birthday was this weekend (by the way, birthdays are not as exciting as a grown up as they were when I was little!).  As the number for my age increases, I took some time to reflect on the past year.
November 5, 2014- The first time we saw Little Sister on an ultrasound.  Now, anyone who has had a pregnancy loss, or maybe even anyone pregnant, can understand how I was feeling.  By the time of our appointment and we were walking to the ultrasound room, I was already in tears.  I was so worried that I had already lost this baby.  The ultrasound tech was great.  She found the baby quickly and we saw the most amazing thing- the beating heart!  My tears of fear and worry quickly changed to tears of joy that this baby was doing well and growing!

December 31, 2014- My dad and stepmom both retire!  This meant that they can travel to see us more often!

March 10, 2015- Little Guy began preschool.  This was sooner than we anticipated, but we decided it was a good time due to the upcoming changes to our family.

May 31, 2015- Two years since I became a stay at home mom!  Although I miss teaching, my heart is still at home with Little Guy and now Little Sister!  I feel so blessed that I am able to do this!

June 11, 2015- The day we met Little Sister!

June 25, 2015- Little Guy turned 4! and learned how to ride a pedal bike (with no training wheels)!

Life is so different now than it was a year ago.  Little Sister came into our lives and now everyday seems like an adventure with two little ones.  I have to remember to allow myself some grace as I have not figured out how do everything I used to do.

I love where my life has brought me.  A loving husband who works hard and two beautiful children that I am blessed to be at home with.  This past year had some wonderful moments.  I can't wait to see what this next year brings.

Healthy Mama Challenge Week 2

Last week, I wrote about the mama slump.  Those times when you just feel out of sorts with being a mom, even though you love your kids.  Those times when you need to spend a little bit of time focusing on yourself.  To help me get out of the slump I was in, I joined the Healthy Mama Challenge through the mom's group I belong to.  This continues to be a great choice!

One area of focus is Body.  During week two, I was able to keep up with working out.  I actually worked out six days last week!  Yay!  Most of these were again early morning workouts (I think one was at 5:00), but this time of day is great for me.  One morning the workout was a little later, and so Little Guy was up and joined me!  He is pretty cute when he works out.

My sweaty post workout selfie!

Another aspect of the Body challenge is to think about what I am eating.  I get points for eating two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables each day.  While eating the fruit is pretty easy, I have had to focus on the veggies a little bit more.  But the encouragement to do this has been great, and I don't think I've missed a day of fruit or veggies.  We are also encouraged to keep a food journal.  This can be however we want; I have been using My Fitness Pal.  It helps me to think about what I am eating and how much.  However, I sometimes struggle with eating enough.  On days that I do cardio and weights, in addition to breastfeeding, I burn a lot of calories.  I am not trying to lose any weight right now, and so want to be eating close to the amount of calories MFP suggests.

This is what MFP looks like on my phone.

One area of the challenge I struggle with is Spirit.  This category includes time alone with spouse, time spent focusing on kids, time with friends with no kids, and doing things specifically for me including taking a bath, keeping a personal journal, and praying or meditating.  Although I love to take baths, I find it hard to do at the end of the day.  Same with keeping a journal or praying.  One of my goals, going into week 3, is to start doing at least one of these each day.

The last area is Mind.  This area has 3 options: reading a book, doing a hobby, or taking a college course.  This is one area that is easy for me!  I love to read, and read every night before I go to bed.  Currently I am reading The King's Curse by Philippa Gregory.  This is the sixth book in the Cousins' War series, with this book focusing on the reign of King Henry VIII of England.  I have also been working on my hobby- digital scrapbooking.  I used to do paper scrapbooking (you should see my wedding scrapbook!), but no longer have the time or space to do it.  So I have started digital scrapbooking and have really been enjoying it!  I am currently working on a scrapbook of Little Guy's first year.  (Side note- it is really fun to look at pictures of him when he was a baby!  And it is amazing to me how much my two kids look alike!)

 So, that's how I'm doing!  Some days are still hard, but I find that doing these things really does help.  What suggestions do you have?

Some days...

Many days we get out of the house.  Swim lessons, zoo class, preschool, playgroup, playdates, so many reasons to leave the house.  But some days, we stay home.  We stay in our pajamas, read books, and don't worry about getting out.  I like these days.

Sugar cookies fresh from the oven, waiting for decorating.  Dinner already cooking in the crockpot.

A door decorated with pumpkin and leaf faces, the product of our morning.

 The books we read, waiting for another reading.

 The fireplace keeping us warm and cozy, matching the feeling in our hearts.

Getting past the "Mama slump"

Do you even get into that "mama slump?"  You know, when you love your kids immensely but are tired and grumpy and maybe not just yourself?  I get that way sometimes, and a little more often after having Little Sister.  I feel like I give so much of myself to my two little ones, that there is not always a lot left over for me.

So it was time for a change.  A positive change.  The mom's group that I am a part of started a "Healthy Mama Challenge."  This is a four week competition (although competition is used loosely here) that encourages us moms to take care of our body (through exercise and eating well), our mind (through reading and hobbies) and our spirit (by praying or meditating, spending time with our spouse, focused time with our kids, and time alone).

Yesterday wrapped up week one of the challenge.  Guess what?  I feel good!  For the first time since Little Sister was born, I worked out more than one time during a week.  I actually got in five workouts last week, and one yoga session!  Although I love group fitness classes (remember, I was a Stroller Strides instructor), that type of workout just does not fit with my life right now.  So I have been doing workout videos off of YouTube.  PopSugar Fitness has been great!  For me, working out is something that I do for me, a time to focus on my body and my needs.  For now, it means I am getting up early in the morning to have enough time, but I feel better about myself when I do this!

Daddy and I spent some quality time together this week.  In the busy-ness of life with little kids, sometimes it is easy to overlook our partners.  Even though our children go to bed pretty early (they are both in bed by 7:30), there always seems to be so much to do- dishes to be washed, laundry to be folded, dogs to take care of, plus many more.  So it was nice to be "encouraged" to spend time focused on Daddy.

The time focused on the kids may have been the easiest, but oh so needed.  I spend all day with Little Guy and Little Sister, but I know I am not always 100% focused on them.  Last week we were having some beautiful weather, so four afternoons we walked to the local elementary school so Little Guy could play on the playground or ride his bike on the blacktop.  It takes us about 10 minutes to walk there, but we had fun singing songs on the way, telling stories, or just talking.  Little Sister either rode in the stroller, which she seemed to enjoy, or I wore her in my Boba carrier.  I think it was great for all of us to get out into the fresh air, spend that time together, and great for Little Guy to run around and play outside!  I really hope the nice weather sticks around so we can do this more this week!

I am excited to begin week two of this challenge!  I hope that I can continue to be encouraged to do things to take care of me, while taking care of my family!

What do you do to get out of the "mama slump?"

My pregnancies (and losses)

Since Little Guy was an only child for almost four years, you may think that I was only pregnant twice.  Well, that's not the case.  It was not even the third time I've been pregnant.  No, this is the fourth time that I have been pregnant in the past four years.

This is one of those things that is really hard to talk about when you it is happening to you.  Back in September of 2012 we decided it was time to try expanding our family.  After  a few months, I got a  positive pregnancy test!  We were so excited.  It was early December so we decided to wait until Christmas to tell our parents.  My first prenatal appointment was scheduled for December 28 when I would be 8 weeks along.

At that appointment, the doctor did an ultrasound to date the pregnancy.  We saw a heartbeat, but the baby was only measuring 5 weeks 5 days.  The doctor ordered blood work and scheduled me to return in one week for another ultrasound to make sure the baby was growing.  The blood work came out fine.  The ultrasound, 8 days after the first, showed the baby measuring 6 weeks 1 day with no heartbeat.  I was so sad.  I opted to have a D&C the next day, which was one of the hardest days of my life.  That was my first angel baby.

Fast forward to the next December.  After months of trying, I got another positive pregnancy test. I was trying hard to be optimistic about this pregnancy. We were traveling home for December, so we wanted to tell our families in person.  On the drive (18 hours), I started spotting.  We arrived at our destination and held off sharing the news.  The day after Christmas, I started bleeding.  That was my second angel baby.

August 26.  That was the due date of both pregnancies that I lost.

When I found out I was pregnant with this little girl, I had such mixed emotions.  I was so glad to be pregnant after months of trying.  However, I was petrified that I would lose this pregnancy.  I think that I held my breath until my first ultrasound at 8 weeks.  I walked into the office, already crying because I had convinced myself that this was not a viable pregnancy.  However, the tears quickly turned to tears of joy as we saw a beautiful heartbeat!

I continued to exercise and was thankful (mostly) every day that I had morning sickness, as that meant that I still had pregnancy hormones going through my body.  As we approached our 19 week ultrasound, I was worried that something would be wrong with the baby.  But that ultrasound showed us a healthy baby girl!

I am so thankful and feel so blessed to now be able to hold our baby girl in my arms.  It was a long journey to get here.  I hope by sharing our struggles and finally our joy, others can have hope and realize they are not alone.

Little Sister's Birth Story

This story begins a few days before Little Sister arrived.  Being the planner that I am, I had planned for several things to get done about a week and a half before little sister was due (her due date was June 19).  Monday our dog got groomed.  Tuesday she had a teeth cleaning and house cleaners were supposed to come to clean the house.  Well, the house cleaners never showed, and after talking to their office, they were rescheduled to come the next day.  So Wednesday the house cleaners came.  I decided that Little Sister could come any time now, because I had everything done that I wanted completed before she arrived.  We were all ready for her, my parents were here, and Daddy was ready for the time off work.

Little Guy and I went to the zoo a week before Little Sister arrived.

Here I am at 37 weeks pregnant, 1 week before Little Sister was born. 

About 1:00am on Thursday morning I got up to pee.  As soon as I lay back down in bed, my water broke!  I woke Daddy up, who had only come to bed shortly before.  I wasn’t feeling any contractions, so I wasn’t sure if we needed to head to the hospital yet.  Daddy stripped the sheets off the bed (wish we had a waterproof cover!), and I called the maternity center at the hospital.  When I told them my water had broken, they said I needed to come right in.  I called Grandpa and Grandma B. first, as they were closest to us, and we needed someone to come stay with Little Guy.  Then I called Grandma and Granddaddy.  They said they would head over, too. 

My hospital bag was packed and so I got dressed.  Since we had to wait for someone to get to our house, Daddy took a quick shower.  Once Grandpa and Grandma B. arrived, Daddy and I left for the hospital, arriving there at about 2:00am. We were shown to a room, and I changed into the cute hospital gown Grandma had bought me.  Once they confirmed that my water had indeed broken, I was officially admitted to the hospital.  After hooking me up to the various machines, Daddy and I actually had time to rest.  My contractions were not very strong yet, so we napped off and on.  Around 7:00am my contractions started getting stronger.  We called the grandparents and told them to come to the hospital soon, as Baby Sister might be on her way. 

My contractions were now pretty intense and I was dilated to about 8 cm, so we decided to try sitting in the big tub to relax.  I made it through 1 or 2 contractions, but then decided it was time for an epidural.  Unfortunately, that meant that I had to stay in bed from then on.  The other bummer was that it slowed down my contractions.  My doctor had come to the hospital to check on me, and had called a few times to get updates.

About 11:00am I was ready to begin pushing.  My doctor had arrived, ready for the delivery.  Baby Sister’s heartbeat was remaining strong.  The epidural had worn off slightly (earlier I could not feel my legs at all), so I had some sensation and could feel what I was doing.  My contractions were about 10 minutes apart, so I was given Pictocin to help bring the contractions closer together.  After a little more than an hour of pushing, Little Sister was born at 12:17pm! 

They placed her right on my chest and I got to hold her, with Daddy right next to me.  It was love at first sight!  She was beautiful!  When we were ready, the nurse took her and cleaned her up, weighed her (7 pounds 1 ounce), and measured her length (19 inches, but Daddy says that was being generous).  Then Daddy went to get the rest of the family.

Little Guy waiting to meet his sister (I love this picture!)

The first meeting!

Little Guy and the grandparents came into the room.  Little Guy was so excited to meet his sister.  He came and sat on the bed with me and looked at her, already anxious to hold her. Snuggles were had all around, as everyone had a chance to hold the beautiful new addition to our family.

Hello again!

Hello!

Oh my, I  know its been a while, so we have a lot to catch up on!  I guess the biggest thing is that we are now a family of 4!

We welcomed Little Sister into our family on Thursday, June 11, 2015.  I will share her birth story soon!  Here is a picture from that wonderful day!

As you can imagine (or know), our lives have changed with this wonderful new addition.  I am learning to balance a 4 year old (yup, Little Guy turned 4!) and a newborn.  While it has amazing moments, it also has difficult ones.  I look forward to sharing more soon!

Happy Valentine's Day from our growing family!

Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope you have a wonderful day, filled with joy and love (and maybe even some flowers or chocolates!)!

There are pretty big happenings around here right now.  I am happy to share that I am five months pregnant!  Come this June (right around Little Guy's fourth birthday), we are expecting to welcome a little girl into our family!

Remember all that time from November and December that I went MIA from the blog?  That was due to morning sickness, or, more appropriately, all day sickness.  Due to that fun pregnancy symptom, taking care of Little Guy and Daddy was about all I could handle, so the blog had to take a break.

We are all so excited!  Little Guy will tell you that he has always wanted a little sister, and keeps telling us all the ways that he is going to help with the baby and the things that he is going to teach her!

We are so happy to being adding another member to our family!

12 from 2014

Happy New Year!

Here is a quick review of our year in pictures!

January- All bundled up to ride his bike!

February- The beautiful Valentine's card Little Guy and Daddy made for me!

March- Napping in the car seat.

April- Happy Easter!

May- I completed my second ever 10K.

June- Little Guy turned 3!

July- Little Guy and mommy at swim lessons.

August- Hunting for bugs with Daddy at Bug Day.

September- Getting in a fire truck at Touch A Truck!

October- A family trip to the zoo!

November- Playing in the season's first snowfall!

December- Merry Christmas!

Here's to a wonderful 2015!

Preschool- Planning and Organization

If you know me, you know I am a planner.  As an elementary school teacher, that aspect of my personality helped me in many ways.  As a teacher of 1, I want to make sure that I am giving Little Guy what I gave to my students.  So I am back to planning!

To plan for our homeschool preschool this year, I wanted to make sure I was including many skills, not just the ones I remember.  I started searching for some planners.  I found this one from Homeschool Creations.  It is customizable, so that is really handy.  However, since I am planning on doing preschool only 2 days a week, I did not need a daily planner.  Then I found this one on Not Just Cute.  It is a thematic planner with lots of different aspects of a preschool curriculum.  Based on this, I created my own planner, then tweaked it even more.

This is the planner I used when planning our insects unit.  (Some of the lines show how I wanted it re-organized.)  While I created it in Excel, I found it easier to print and write on.  Not all activities were completed during our unit, but I can use it to roll ideas forward.  After this first draft, I made some modifications.

I feel like this is a very usable document for me. I can have several printed off and plan ideas for the next several units.  It will be great as I search on Pinterest to actually write down the ideas, not just pin them for later, to be forgotten.  I don't think I will fill every box for every unit, but I can use these to make sure that over time all are included.

So now that the planning was under control, I had to organize all these activities.  So I bought this cart.

I'm sure you've seen them before.  I picked my up at JoAnn's.  Its nice because it will hold 10 different activities, with a place to stack additional items on the top.  Previously, I was using some baskets that could stack together, but whenever we went to work, I laid them out on the floor, and they took up a bit of floor space (I can't tell you how many times I kicked and tripped on those baskets!).  Little Guy can easily pull out the drawer he wants and it is easy to find the activity you are looking for. 

How do you organize ideas and activities for your preschooler?

Running a 10K

Today I ran a 10K!  

This is the second time that I have run a 10K, the first being 4 years ago.  Oh my, times have changed since then.  Back then, it was pre-baby and pre-stroller when I could run (almost) whenever I wanted.  I remember frequent trips to the gym, working with a trainer, and running by myself.

Now, training is either pushing a stroller (snacks usually involved), during naptime, or after bedtime.  Little Guy is great in the stroller, but about 4 miles is our max with it.  And the gym; haven't seen the inside of one of those since I was pregnant.  Workouts now involve the stroller and Stroller Strides (which I love, and are much more enjoyable than the gym, anyway!).

Although my time was nothing stellar, I did beat my goal of 65 minutes and was only slower than my first time by 1 minute 3 seconds!  I finished in 1 hour, 3 minutes, 47 seconds.

I ran by myself for most of the race.  No headphones, no one to talk to.  And I loved it.  It gave me time to reflect.  I am amazed by this body that can run 6.2 miles. I gave thanks to God for a beautiful day.  I enjoyed the sounds of the river, the birds, the people around me.

The best part of today's race was knowing that Little Guy and Daddy would be waiting at the finish line.  As I came around a corner at about mile 6, there they were, cheering for me.  It took a lot for me to not start crying right there.  They hastily moved to the finish line and were the greatest cheering section in the world!

Approaching Little Guy and Daddy.

So happy to see my family!

I am not a pretty finisher, but I finished!

This body is amazing.  It grew a new life, it can run 6 miles, and it keeps on going.  But this race is not just about me.  Its about setting an example for my family and staying healthy so I will be here for a long time!

Being real

Remember the Olympic Rings we made during O is for Olympics in Tot School?  The pipe cleaners are all beaded, but the rings were never made.  Neither were the paper plate rings...in fact, I think only 3 out of the 5 were even painted. 

I've been thinking a lot lately about living life authentically.  Letting people see what is really there.  Sometimes (like some ideas that you can see on this blog and what I choose to share in real life), things are good.  Projects are completed, we are dressed and out of the house everyday, and the dishes get washed.  But other times things go unfinished, like the Olympic Rings.  And it isn't only in Tot School that things are left un- or half done.  I won't even tell you last the time I swept, and don't mention the bathrooms. Definitely have not been keeping up with my cleaning schedule that I made for myself. And my couponing!!!! I still haven't cut out coupons from last Sunday, and tomorrow is Sunday again!

Things I do (most of the time) are plan for Tot School, so we have learning opportunities.  I now plan for Stroller Strides, since I'm an instructor.  Dinner still gets made, and trips to the grocery store have to happen.  But other stuff, well, sometimes it goes by the wayside.

A friend recently shared that in motherhood, you draw a triangle.  On one point is "Your Sanity," another point is "A Clean House," and the third point is "Kids."  Only two of those points can happen at the same time, and since Kids are kinda non-negotiable, you can pick sanity or a clean house!  Maybe I have little of each (and sometimes I feel like its neither)!

Anyway, regardless of how clean my floors are, or if Tot School projects are completed or not, my goal is for Little Guy to feel loved, my husband to know he is appreciated (working on this one), and for me to feel like I am doing what I can to be a good wife and mother.

What are your daily goals?

A New Oppurtunity

Sometimes life just doesn't seem to go the way you think it should.  Right now, even though I am happy with my life, there are things that are not the way that I thought they would be.  Those times can give us opportunities which we would never have thought.  That is where I am today...exploring a new opportunity!

So, what is this new opportunity, you may ask?  Well, I'm glad you asked!  I recently became a Stroller Strides instructor!  I talked here about Stroller Strides and how Little Guy and I go twice a week.  Our franchise was looking for some new instructors and so here I am!

I recently traveled to receive my training (yup, that why H is for Heart and V is for Valentine merged in Tot School...I was out of town, and then recovering from being out of town!).  I did some co-teaching, and this week I taught by first class, all by myself! 

This is exciting (and a little scary)!  Leading fitness classes is something my career as an elementary teacher did not prepare me for, but I can use the fun songs and understanding of kids while I lead! 

What unexpected opportunities have you embraced?

Weekly Cleaning

As a stay at home mom (or as a person with a house to take care of), there seems to always be something to clean or straighten or wash or organize or...you get the picture.  To help me stay on top of my cleaning, I am working on a weekly cleaning schedule.  The start of a new year seems like a good time to solidify some good habits (or maybe even start them!).  While I am not the best housekeeper, I do like my house to look nice and put together, so having a schedule helps me to stay on top of the tasks.  I started out using the home management calendar from JustMommies, but found I needed to personalize the tasks based on my preferences and house.

There are things that get done everyday (like doing dishes) and things that happen once a week (like mopping).  I prefer not to do laundry everyday, but when it seems like I have a lot I wash all our clothes in one or two days. Most of my weekday tasks happen while Little Guy is napping (I don't really want him to help clean the bathroom yet).  The exception is vacuuming.  I don't like to vacuum upstairs while he is sleeping, and he actually really enjoys vacuuming! 

So, here is my cleaning plan!

Note: I know that blogging is not cleaning!  I decided to add it onto my list to give myself permission to work on my blog.  I shifted cleaning tasks away from Tuesday so they still get done, without me feeling guilty about the time I spend on the computer!

How do you organize your cleaning?

12 from 2013

Happy New Year!

Here are 12 of my favorite photos from 2013!

January- Snow day from school!

February- Bundled up to play outside!

March- What's in this egg?

April- Dressed up for Auntie L's wedding!

May- Family vacation to Hawaii!

June- Working in the garden!

July- Riding my new bike!

August- Working on Granddaddy A's bike at Speed Week!

September- Checking out the hot air balloons!

October- My first pony ride!

November- Enjoying the first snowfall!

December- Reading with Mommy on Christmas!

Praying for a wonderful 2014!