Happy 6 months babygirl!

(This should have been posted yesterday but when you read about our day yesterday, I think you'll understand why it's a day late).

My dearest Elsie,

We hardly call you Elsie Pie anymore. I'm not sure when or why we lost that nickname. It was so cute!

You are such a sweet baby. Still very happy and relaxed. We are blessed!


You've been with us for 6 months now and I still can't believe you're that old. What happened to make the time go so fast?!

You love:

To hear Daddy play the guitar and piano. This often will put you to sleep where you're at - like playing on the floor or in your bouncy seat.

To be talked to and played with. Here are Aunt Jennie and Papa Wayne talking to you!

To be played with and talked to by your big sister! You respond to Abigail like nobody Elsie. Even if you're tired or hungry, if she walks over you have a smile for her. I hope this is always the case!!

To play! You've really become interested in toys and playing. You're adventurous but also content with what is around you. A wonderful quality, darling!

Elsie I cannot describe how much I simply enjoy being around you. You have such a sweet spirit that will carry you throughout life. I enjoy hearing you talk and coo each morning, knowing that I am privileged enough to be called your mom and to spend the day with you.

Here you are waiting for your sister to be done shopping in the American Girl store! :)

Today you will be dedicated at church. This is the life verse that your daddy and I have picked out:

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

16Be joyful always; 17pray continually; 18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

This is our prayer for you! It's pretty self-explanatory really! You're already joyful . . . living up to your middle name "joy"! Pray continually - this is a big one darling! Constant communication with the one who loves you most and created you is essential! Give thanks in all circumstances - I have learned this is an essential thing to do in order to live a joyful and content life. God will bless you, even though it may not be in the way you think it will be - with material possessions, promotions, wealth, or other worldly gain!

I am having the time of my life watching you grow, little pie. Always remember that your mother loves you and is filled with joy overflowing when I see you or think of you!

Love,

Mama

Beef Enchiladas

We love Mexican food! Unfortunately so many times enchilada recipes contain cream of whatever soups. These soups are usually full of chemicals and MSG. I have searched and searched to find good enchilada recipes and I think I have finally found one so I'm going to share!

The reason why I say "I think" is because I'm always looking and recipes and have seen some other beef enchilada recipes lately. If I find one that is tastier and easier to make than this one (and I don't think I will) then I will share it!

Enjoy!

First of all, the recipe called for enchilada sauce. I didn't have any. So I decided to see if I had the ingredients to make it. I did! :)

I have never read the ingredient label on enchilada sauce so I don't know if I can recommend just buying the sauce or not. It was easy to make! :)

For the sauce:

Combine and Heat:
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon Flour

Stir together until smooth and cook for 1 minute.


Add 1/4 cup of chili powder. Seemed like a lot to me at the time but the sauce was really good!

Stir to combine and cook for 30 more seconds.

Add:

2 cups chicken stock (I used the organic swanson stuff since I didn't have any of my own made).

10 ounces of tomato paste (read the label on this carefully - sometimes the can with the added "stuff" contains High Fructose Corn Syrup - you can find it without)

1 tsp dried oregano (rub in your palm to release more flavor!)

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp salt

Simmer for 15 minutes and it's ready!

Now for the enchiladas!!

Chop the onion and add it to the pan with a little olive oil. Saute a few short minutes until the onion softens.

Add 1 lb of ground beef and brown. (Mmmmm! Yummy grass-fed, antibiotic-free beef).

Add the enchilada sauce and about 1 1/2 cups of shredded colby jack cheese. I just eye-balled it!

Spoon mixture into the tortillas. Okay, so I made these waaaaaaaay too big. The original recipe said it made 8 enchiladas and I only made four - so mine were twice as big as they should have been. Oh well!

Roll the tortillas as best you can (like I said - mine were too big!) and lay them in a 9x13 baking dish.

A word about the tortillas. . . most "regular" tortillas you purchase will have some sort of partially hydrogenated oil in them. We're trying to avoid that! So, I found these lovely ones at Meijer which are made with olive oil and whole grains.

I want to try to make my own sometime but haven't gotten around to it yet!

Sprinkle with the remaining meat/sauce mixture and cheese!

Bake for 20 minutes at 350.

Delicious!

It's not that my husband doesn't compliment my cooking - he does - but he was extra complimentary about these. He kept going on and on so . . . it's a keeper recipe!


Here are both recipes (sauce and enchiladas) in condensed form:

Easy Enchilada Sauce
Recipe courtesy of Emeril Lagasse

Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon flour
1/4 cup chili powder
2 cups chicken stock
10 ounces tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions
In a medium saucepan heat oil, add flour, smoothing and stirring with a wooden spoon. Cook for 1 minute. Add chili powder and cook for 30 seconds. Add stock, tomato paste, oregano, and cumin. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cook for 15 minutes. The sauce will thicken and smooth out. Adjust the seasonings. Serve atop your favorite enchiladas.


Beef Enchiladas

Courtesy of jaimeschechter.blogspot.com

Ingredients:
1 small onion, chopped

1 lb ground beef

16 oz Colby-Jack cheese

8 flour tortillas

12 oz enchilada sauce

salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
In medium saucepan, add chopped onions and cook until soft. Add ground beef and brown. Salt and pepper to taste. Add shredded cheese and enchilada sauce; mix well. Spoon mixture into tortillas and roll. Place in a greased 13×9 pan. Make about 8. Top with remaining meat mixture and then with the rest of the cheese. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. ENJOY!

Abigail "isms"

My sweet (sick) daughter is just beginning to really talk and come up with things on her own. I had quite a stellar parenting moment this morning. We were eating a lovely breakfast with my sister before we left Chicago. I was attempting to get Abigail to take some dramamine before hitting the road but she knows what it is and how bad it tastes.

So, being the wonderful mother that I am, I just shoved it into her mouth. Not the best idea - in hindsight - but live and learn, right?!

Anyway, she chokes, gags, and screams in a restaurant full of people. Bad mother moment.

Anyway . . .

As she is gagging on this bad tasting pill she yells out in a very loud voice (while crying):

"I need a bucket."

Meaning, she needed a bucket to throw-up in. Ha!

I have been laughing at this all day. She didn't end up throwing up but it's funny that she knows she needs a bucket to throw up in and her dramatics are still making me laugh!

Anyway, lesson learned. Do not torture your daughter in public by shoving dramamine in her mouth - wait to do that in private - ha ha!

We're Home!

I'll try to document my trip more later but for now I'll just say that we're home. I'm tired! :)

We had a great trip and the girls did great in the car, which is an answer to prayer!

Abigail does have a cold now, which seems to be settling into her chest. I hope a visit to the doctor isn't in order but if it is, we'll do it.

Andrew is still in NY until Friday.

It will feel so good to be all together again.

For now I'll just be unpacking, getting dinner for Abigail and me and getting the girls to bed.

A BIG BIG BIG thank you to my mother-in-law who took the bus up to Chicago on Tuesday to drive back with us today. She entertained Abigail the whole way home and it was spectacular!

Heading out . . .

I'm spending the day preparing for our journey to Chicago.

It's kind of a crazy trip.

We're all driving up there . . . dropping Andrew off downtown for a conference . . . then heading to my sister's house.

We're all very excited about meeting my brand new nephew, Isaac Keith!! Abigail keeps talking about going to baby Isaac's house.

Then my mother-in-law (bless her for doing this!!) is taking a bus up there on Tuesday and helping me drive the girls home on Wednesday. Andrew has to leave from Chicago to go to New York for another business trip.

I was NOT looking forward to hauling two kids home by myself.

Then home and a few days on my own before Andrew gets back.

Whew! Sounds tiring to me. :) Ha!

In other news . . . my garden seeds finally arrived yesterday . . . we'll half of them did (weird, right?!). So I planted corn, sugar snap peas, broccoli, carrots, and lettuce. I can't wait until the rest of them come. When we get home from Chicago, I'm planning on purchasing tomato, pepper, and cucumber plans for starting in the garden.

Is this what stay-at-home mom's do?

I'm enjoying spring! Is this what stay-at-home mom's do with their time?

Gardening: See my garden? My seeds haven't arrived yet but soon there will be lots of things growing.


Growing flowers: We finally mulched a bed in front of our house and I'm trying to keep the weeds out now as well as beautify with potted plants!

Hanging baskets: I looked and looked until I found something I loved! I hope I don't kill them!

My mini herb garden: I have already used it quite a bit!

Parenting an unhappy child (not all the time - mainly only when I'm taking pictures).

Parenting a happy child (not all the time - does love to have her picture taken!).

Baked Oatmeal: Recipe #1

I made Baked Oatmeal for breakfast this morning and wanted to share the recipe. I didn't take many pictures, but hopefully you get the idea.

First of all, I just wanted to share what I get to look at while I'm cooking in my kitchen every day. It doesn't really get better than this, does it?! :)



Okay, going on:

First off you start with some time of acidic medium to soak the oatmeal. If you haven't heard of soaking grains, check out this article. This was actually my first time trying this although I have heard of the health benefits for years.

I used plain Kefir to soak the oatmeal because I had it in the fridge. Abigail drinks it. Lots of it!

I soaked 3 cups of rolled oats overnight in about 2 to 3 cups of kefir.



Here is a mistake I made that you can avoid: I would not soak in a jar like this again. It took me a good 5 minutes to get the soaked grains out in the morning. I'll use a glass measuring cup with a tight fitting lid next time.


When I got up in the morning, I mixed in 2 ripe bananas (minus a small chunk that I ate - oops).


1 egg


1/8 cup of raw local honey


1 tsp baking powder


and


1/4 cup of coconut oil


The original recipe also called for some chopped nuts. That would have been delicious in this however I didn't have the motivation to search for nuts and chop them. I will next time!


Then I poured it all into a greased baking dish and baked it at 350 for one hour.


That was the hardest part . . . smelling it baking for one hour and waiting.


I would have liked to tell you that I got up early and had it ready when Abigail woke up but that's not true. Elsie is going through another bad sleeping stretch and I was up 2 or 3 times last night (don't remember) so I slept as long as possible this morning!






The final verdict . . . delicious!


The only bummer was when I calculated the weight watcher points a serving was 5 points. That is a little high for me for breakfast. I can get away with it now (since I'm breastfeeding full time) but I like to get my breakfast points under 4. Oh well just have to eat a light lunch.


Here is the recipe:



Baked Oatmeal
From jaimeschechter.blogspot.com


3 cups rolled oats
2 ripe bananas
3 cups of kefir, buttermilk, yogurt (approximately, you may need more or less)
1 egg
1/8 cup of honey
1 tsp of baking powder
1/4 cup of coconut oil
1/8 cup chopped walnuts (optional)


Soak oats in 2-3 cups of yogurt/buttermilk/kefir of your choice overnight. Then mix in the rest of the ingredients. Place in a greased baking dish and bake at 350 for one hour.


Super easy, healthy and delicious!

It would have also been good with some cooked-down berries on top but I didn't do that this time. Next time I plan to make this I'll try to have some raspberries or blueberries on hand to add as a little fruit sauce on top. It was still good without that.

Food Blogging

One of my most favorite things to do is to cook. Okay so it extends further than that. I love to cook, watch cookings shows, collect recipes, read food blogs (and on and on and on). Aren't you amazed that I've lost 26 pounds with all this food obsession! Ha!

So I do enjoy food and I was so very blessed to grow up in a home that put value on eating healthy whole foods. I haven't always done such a good job of cooking healthy in my own home but now that Abigail is eating what we eat, I am much more conscious of it. I was easily swayed by the temptation of convenience and am blessed now as a stay-at-home mom to be able to put more emphasis into what we eat.

We're certainly not perfect in the way we eat and I am hesitant to blog about this because many of our family and friends do better than we do but I figured that if there is just one person who can benefit from reading about the way we eat in our house, I might as well start to share.

So, with that in mind. . . I have no intentions of becoming a full out food blogger. I do not have the culinary or photography skills to do so but I will try to share the recipes we enjoy from time to time. Perhaps I'll even throw in a few pictures (just because those help me so much when reading other people's blogs!).

Now I have to step up my game and decide on the first recipe to share with you. Hopefully that will be coming soon!

Elsie's clothing dilemma

A few weeks ago, I added Elsie's 6-9 month clothes to her closet in addition to her 3-6 month clothes. I got half-way through hanging them up, only to realize that I was going to run out of closet space! (She can fit into almost all of the 3 to 9 month clothes right now).

It was then and there that I decided I was going to test and see how long I could go without doing Elsie's laundry! :)

It has now been 2 1/2 weeks (I do laundry on Mondays - more on that another time) and this is what her closet currently looks like.




That's not counting the onesies, pants, and sleepers still in drawers.

I thought I could go a month without doing her laundry but now I'm thinking I might be able to make it two months!

Here is the problem now. . . . Elsie's overflowing laundry basket. I may have to add another basket to the closet.

Here's my happy and joyful girl (and drooly girl!) smiling because she has so many pretty clothes to wear!

It is a blessing to have too many clothes. It makes doing laundry so much easier for me! :)

Enjoy this video from this afternoon. . .

And yes, her closet does need doors. It is only of the 1,000,000 things we decided not to originally finish before we moved in and . . . it's still not done. :)

Update . . . *Updated*

So Abigail ended up throwing up once more day (so far anyway) around 4 pm so we're thinking maybe she had a little bug instead of car sickness. This sounded all-the-more possible when I talked to my father-in-law tonight and he said that he was sick last night as well.

I'm thankful for the health that we do have (I've been healthy for a while - thankfully!!!) but I could really use a break! Just a month of no sickness. . . is it possible?!

Update:
*Just as I hit publish on this Abigail threw up in her bed - all over her pillow - all over the dolly she sleeps with - yuck - yuck- yuck! Definitely a bug - a weird one!

My head hurts . . . !

Abigail is prone to car sickness. We've known that for a while. I'm ALWAYS leery of driving her around. I always carry a puke bucket and usually a change of clothes.

I don't enjoy being paranoid but most of the time, it pays off.

This morning we had to return our final diaper trial (hallelujah!). About half way there Abigail starts to cough (sometimes a sign of throw up) and then hold her hands over her mouth which she's never done before. I handed her the bucket.

I instantly pull off the highway. I was able to catch her in the middle of losing her breakfast but instead of using the bucket she just held it and still threw up on herself. Not quite old enough to get it yet. Thankfully I had a change of clothes in the car.

Got her cleaned up and continued on our way.

Did the diaper trial thing (yahoo!!! no more diaper trial - and got paid $175) and headed back home.

Right as I am about to get on the highway she does it again . . . coughs and holds her hands over her mouth. Now . . . she had been drinking apple juice out of her sippy cup after the last "incident" so I wasn't terribly surprised to see her lose it all again.

I was debating with myself over whether or not she had a bug.

I didn't have any more clothes so she had to sit in her mess all the way home (poor girl).

I wonder how many times I will have to clean vomit from that car seat. Having my kid throw up in the car (in her carseat) is about my least favorite thing on this earth! Not such a big deal if I can catch it but I hate cleaning out the car seat.

She has had crackers and macaroni and cheese since being home and seems to be fine (knock on wood!).

I never thought I'd be the mother of such a carsick kid. Lord help me!! I'm just not cut out for this stuff.

P.S. I do not think she's ever thrown up in the car when Andrew was around. Perhaps that's why he thinks I'm paranoid!

Review of 2010 Goals

In January I set some goals for myself for 2010. I hardly ever stick to my goals so I decided to set up reminders on the 1st of every month. These reminders tell me to look at the goals and so I'm consistently reminded of them. Here are the goals that I set and how I'm doing.

Beware! I'm going to be very honest here! :)

1) Read the 1 verse a day calendar.

Well, I did well with this until Abigail got sick in March. It's no excuse, though. You'd think I could handle reading one Bible verse a day. This serves as my reminder to jump back on the horse, though. I have time. I firmly believe that moms in any season of life have time to read the Bible (I'm preaching to myself here) even if it means not being alone when you do it. I actually think this is a great thing. I have fond memories of seeing my own mother study the Bible in her blue chair in the basement and I hope to leave the same legacy for my own girls.

I'm not doing it now, though so back on the wagon I go. . .

2) Exercise 2x a week.

I haven't done this perfectly but I have probably exercised 2x a week more weeks than not. So that's good! :)

3) Spend more quality time during my quantity time with my kids.

This is a difficult one for me. I spend time with my kids - lots and lots of time. However, I'm not sure I'm consistent enough about sitting down and really playing at their level (sometimes - independent play is good too). I'd like to work with Abigail on her numbers, colors, letters, etc. I just need to set a specific time each day to do this.

4) Work through Character qualities with myself and my kids.

So I haven't done this at all. . . at least not consciously. I have been working with Abigail on manners, controlling her emotions and temper, etc but I want to have the character qualities in front of me and make them a central focus of our day.

5)Lose 20 pounds.

Well, I'm happy to say that this is the one I accomplished. I'm not sure what that says about me. :) I have been doing weight watchers since January 24th and have lost 26 pounds (as of this morning). I haven't blogged much about this for several reasons. I didn't want to blog about it and then fail (how's that for honesty) and it just seems so personal. So, there you go. I have lost 26 pounds in almost 4 months.

It's been surprisingly easy. It helps (tremendously) to have a breastfeeding baby. It also helps to be at home and not behind a desk all day. I'm much more active with two little kids and I can tell it helps.

Elsie's up from her nap so I'd better go. Have you kept up with your 2010 goals? I'd love to hear from you. Anyone? anyone?

Wife . . .

Most days I am glad that there aren't any more females in this house. It is going to get interesting around here in about 12 years! :)

But some days (like today) I wish I had my own wife to do my laundry, wash my dishes, feed my kids, clean my house, put away my clothes, clean my toilet. I guess then I'd have to go to work, huh?! :)

Our girls

They fill my life with so much joy!

Car Blues

We have had a string of bad luck with our cars lately.

In September we purchased a Mazda van. The week after the purchase we replaced the water pump.

Four months later it was back in the shop because it was leaking antifreeze from the back heater.

It's in the shop again today because it just wouldn't hold antifreeze. The diagnosis: IT NEEDS A NEW WATER PUMP! Seriously! The mechanic said that it was just a bad part. Needless to say, this will be a free repair for us!

Then on Monday Andrew's truck broke down on his way home from work.

Diagnosis: Engine is shot (not exactly sure what that means).

Then on Tuesday Andrew ran out of gas while driving his Grandma's van. Thankfully that was an easy fix! :)

So we're shopping around for another car to replace Andrew's. We need something a bit more reliable since we have two "lemonish" cars.

Andrew is looking at several options, one is a Honda Fit (used, of course - since we'll be paying cash for it).

Have I mentioned that I HATE spending this much money. Really, I can't stomach it. It is one of the qualities that my husband loves most about me, I think.

Still here

I'm still here!

I'm not sure if anyone reads this blog anymore! :)

Abigail finished a steroid treatment for her breathing on Sunday. She was fine Sunday and Monday but is having some coughing and noisy breathing. I guess we'll just watch her and see what happens. She's not really struggling to breathe like she was.

My deepest suspicion, which is not confirmed by a doctor, is that she has allergies. Mine have been terrible the last two weeks. We've been trying to give her a shower or bath before bed each night to wash away any potential allergens from her hair but we didn't because of a late night on Monday and then Tuesday morning she was worse.

I'm also giving her local raw honey to see if it helps. Even if it isn't allergies, these treatments won't hurt her. :)

The rest of us are fine. We're working on getting our garden ready and we've begun work on our front flower bed. It will be so nice to have that looking decent.

Elsie still has sleeping challenges but I'm not seriously working on anything . . . yet! :) She is my little sweet heart. I'm just soaking up every moment of her babyhood. It very well may be our last!

Hopefully I'll find time to post some Easter pictures later. I need to get to cleaning now! We have family in town and I've seriously neglected my cleaning schedule this week!

This is the day . . .

that the Lord has made. I'm trying to keep that in mind!!

I gave Abigail her third dose of steroid syrup and motrin before her nap. She slept 1 1/2 hours and has seemed to perk up. Her breathing is the same. I'm just watching her now. Trying to decide if a trip to the hospital is in the future. Taking it minute by minute. This minute it does not seem like she needs to go - so we're at home. :)

My husband is here:

http://www.thelucernehotel.com/default.aspx?pg=home&rp=gallery

Alone . . . in a hotel room . . . then working the Lincoln Center. Why does that sound like a bit of heaven to me?

I keep telling myself that one cannot die of boredom and loneliness! :) Ha! I'm going to treat myself to some mexican for dinner (I think) if I can get enough guts to put the girls in the car to drive to pick it up. I'm a little gun shy of puke in the car after yesterday.

You know you're a veteran mom when you clean puke from a car seat, high chair, van seat, from in between your toes, off the kitchen floor, and out of your daughter's shoes all in one day.

Prayer!

We're home again! The diagnosis: Abigail has either bronchiolitis or viral pneumonia . . . again. Her poor breathing is so labored and sad. I just put her and Elsie to bed.

Please pray that we would have a good night - that just one of the girls would need me at a time so I can best meet their needs! Yikes!

Pray we don't need to make a trip to the hospital and that Abigail would sleep deeply and well so she will feel better tomorrow.

Pray that her stomach feels better soon. Poor girl has a sensitive stomach and throws up if she's sick. She needs to keep down her medicine for it to work!

Pray that Elsie would not catch whatever virus this is! I'm always very careful about swapping germs between the girls but I can't watch every minute. Elsie loves to put her hands in her mouth and Abigail loves to hold her hand.

Andrew . . . come home soon!!!! (I'm sure he's really itching to get home - ha ha!)


****I am so thankful to live close to Andrew's family. It is a source of great comfort to me that they are close enough to call in an emergency. I don't know how families do it when they don't live near the grandparents! I'm so spoiled!!*****

We are NEVER alone!

Abigail started running at fever late morning so we're headed to the doctor in a few minutes. I'm just stunned that she's sick again. I've been feeling scared, sad, worried and sorry for myself that I'm going to be doing this parenting thing alone for a few days.

I checked my email a few minutes ago and found the following message. It is from a ministry that I subscribe to (their magazine) but I have never gotten an email from them before. It is amazing how our wonderful God knows when we need encouragement the most. I'm thankful that even though my husband may be gone for a few days, I am never alone in this parenting thing.

Enjoy!

------------------------------------

Dear Jaime, Jubilantly Embracing Motherhood!

How is everything in your home today? I trust you are having a wonderful day with your daughter Abigail and precious little baby.

It is the experience of life that we enjoy good days, but also difficult and challenging days. Don’t let your challenging days overpower your good days. I found when raising our children, and this same principle still works with me today, that it is not so much the circumstances of the day that really matters, but my attitude. Have you found that too?

Attitude makes all the difference!

I found that if I lived my life by how I was feeling, that I didn’t enjoy life very much. It is easy to feel depressed. It is easy to feel sorry for myself. It is easy to get into a self-pity state. But I also found out that feelings come and feelings go. Feelings are deceiving. I cannot base my life on my feelings. I found that I could live in victory as I trusted in the Word of God. It is a truth that is more real than my feelings! And it works.

Perhaps you have had a sleepless night with the baby. Or you are facing a particularly challenging situation in your life. If you look at your problem, you will be stuck in it. But if you look up to the Lord and confess that He is with you, you will begin to walk in victory.

Science has proved that our feelings will soon catch up with our actions and facial features. You may be feeling down in the dumps. Put on a smile anyway! Yes, smile, even when you don’t feel like it! Guess what? You will soon feel better! Smile at your children when you look at them. Smile at your husband. Smile at the world and you’ll soon be smiling because you actually want to smile.

Thank the Lord for His presence with you. Thank Him that He is with you in your problem. Speak to the Lord out loud…

“Lord, I thank you that you are my God. I thank you that you are bigger than this problem I am facing. I thank you that you are with me. Even though I am going through the waters I will not drown because you are right with me. Thank you, Lord.”

As you thank Him for His power and presence with you, you will face your problems in a different light. You may continue to face the problem, but you can walk with a light step because you are looking to the Lord and you know that He is in control! .

The other day I read this scripture in Joshua 12:7,8. “Joshua gave unto the tribes of Israel for a possession according to their divisions; in the mountains, and in the valleys, and in the plains, and in the springs, and in the wilderness, and in the south country (the desert).” Can you believe it? This was the Promised Land! Do you notice that even in the Promised Land they still had to face valleys and mountains and wilderness times? Life is not always easy. It is not all plains.

We have valley times – the times of weeping and troubles. We have mountains to face – obstacles where we can’t seem to see our way through! Many times we go through a dry wilderness or desert time and we don’t feel the presence of the Lord like we have before.

Dear one – don’t despair! It is all part of life. It is all part of God’s plan. If we lived on the “plain” all the time, we’d never get to know our God because we wouldn’t need Him. It is in the tough times that we learn to know Him more and prove that He is the faithful, dependable and unchangeable God. You can totally put your trust in Him. You can put all your weight on Him.

No matter what you are facing at this time, it is not too big for God. Take your eyes off your frustrations or your difficult circumstances and put your eyes upon the Lord. He has promised to carry your burden and He has promised to be your Deliverer! Remember that it is the mountain and valley experiences that cause us to mature and grow in the Lord. You’ll have plenty of them as a mother, but you can praise God, because they are working for you a “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

Thank the Lord today for the precious children He has given you. Each one is a precious eternal soul that is going to live forever. Each one has a destiny to extend the kingdom of God on this earth. And you are privileged to be their mother—to train and teach and prepare them for life and eternity. What a great career.

May the blessings of the Lord be poured upon you, your husband and your children today.

Much love in Christ,

NANCY CAMPBELL
www.aboverubies.org

P.S. Check out the latest postings on the webpage at BIBLE IN THE HOME and PRAYER IN THE HOME. You’ll find them under ARICLES AND STORIES. You will be blessed and inspired.

This week . . .

This week will be very interesting - adventurous - what have you.

I had a teacher in high school that said "what have you" all the time and I cannot say it without thinking of her. Ah the legacy teachers leave. Ha!

Okay so I'm a little slap happy or what have you (ha!) at the moment.

Abigail started coughing yesterday afternoon. It made me nervous because that is exactly how her pneumonia started, just a dry cough. My mothers intuition told me that she was catching something. I wanted to be wrong. I desperately wanted to be overreacting and paranoid.

Such is not the case.

Abigail woke up at midnight coughing and crying and sounding "croupy" so Andrew took her into the bathroom for some steam. She slept fine the rest of the night.

No fever this morning but lots of coughing and a runny nose.

Oh . . . and Elsie is sneezy and a little thick throated as well. Not sounding croupy - thankfully.

Oh . . . did I mention that Andrew is leaving today at 1 pm for a business trip until late Thursday? Yeah! Hmm!

I am so lucky to have family in the area that is willing to help me. This just makes me think of all the single moms and all of the moms who have husbands who travel a lot more than mine. I am in awe of them! I'm seriously not cut out to be a single mom. I rely on my husband for so much. Even if I don't ask him to always get up with the kids or do things, just knowing he is available gives me such comfort!

Things I love . . .

I love . . .

taking walks with me girls. I get to look at and talk to my little sweetie and carry on a wonderful conversation with my toddler. After a 30 minute walk today, Abigail said "Mommy tired!" Ha! Pushing a double stroller on a walking path with hills is quite the workout!

spring thunderstorms and watching the rain from my front porch with my sweet girls.

being a mommy and being at home!

sunshine and peach tea!

a good book.

blogging!

Easter. It might be my favorite "holiday". Being forgiven of our sins is the best thing I can think of to celebrate! (Christmas is very close - can't decide!)

my family. I'm going to be an auntie tomorrow and I'm so excited!

Here is a sneek peek of our Easter photos. Andrew didn't want me to "release" these until he had time to fix them in photoshop (mainly the backgrounds) but he's going on a business trip tomorrow (heaven help me!) and I can't wait anymore!

I had to put this one on here. Isn't this the sweetest picture of Daddy and Elsie Pie?! So precious!

This was the best one of the whole family. It's getting more difficult to get all to cooperate as they get older! :) I can see that I should have turned differently but we were using the camera remote. . . so we got what we got. Oh well!

I'll give an update on what happens with my sister and baby when I know something!

Uplifting . . .

These blogs were just what my weary soul needed to read this week.

I have found that being a stay-at-home mom to be the most challenging and yet rewarding of experiences but with it I have come across a very distinct feeling of failure that is constantly plaguing me.

Whenever my house isn't perfect - speckled with sticky finger prints - dirty dishes - dust - dirty laundry - this feeling comes to find me.

If I'm unable to do things myself - the feeling of failure comes to find me.

When I sit down to nurse my baby and my other daughter begins to throw a fit, crying and stomping away (I know it is jealousy) but the feeling of failure comes to find me.

When my babies are so sick and sad - the feeling of failure comes to find me.

When I see what other moms accomplish and aren't afraid to do in a day - the feeling of being a failure comes to find me.

This isn't a feeling that I have dealt with before. I have always thought of myself as a capable person. It's funny how adding children to life brings along changes in a person's view of themselves.

I am blessed by a wonderful husband who thinks that I'm doing a good job and tells me so. I'm also extremely blessed by a husband who is a big picture sort of chap. Which, thankfully, means he doesn't really notice the mess! Ha!

I was also blessed this week by several blogs which serve as reminders (I know this stuff - it just doesn't always stick!) that what I'm doing may not be able to be measured by something concrete (my work will never be finished) or by monetary gain (oh, how I wish it were!).

Having an eternal perspective and living in the moment . . . measuring my day by how much quality time I have spent with my lovely girls, instead of by lovely my house looks, is what it is all about.

I cannot say this any better than this blogger did (and even if I tried, it would be plagiarism) so here are the links:

http://www.ladiesagainstfeminism.com/?p=363#more-363

What to say . . .

Wow, it has been a week since I blogged.

It's not like I don't have anything to say but just wondering if what I want to share will be taken the right way. Sometimes I walk around and people know things about me and I think "how do they know that?" and then I remember that I blogged about it. Ha!!

So, until I figure that out, things will be slow here and kept on the lighter side. :)

Our family seems to be on the road to recovery. Elsie still has a nasty cough but hasn't had a fever since Monday morning - yeah! I seem to have been able to avoid all the germs (I have my secret ways) and the other two are better as well.

Loving and looking forward to a wonderful week and wonderful holiday weekend. Easter is one of my most favorite holidays. I wish I had a better focus this Easter but I guess I'll have to take what I've got!

Hopefully I'll get the chance/nerve to write again before next Wednesday!

To the hills . . .

The story goes something like this . . .

Andrew and I were watching Lost last night when Elsie woke up about 9:30 pm. Something earlier in the day told me that she was just not quite right.

She was not breathing right. Very wheezy and a barking cough. She acted like it was hard to breathe. Andrew agreed that we'd best take her to the ER. The scariest car ride of my life - I tell you - I thought she was going to quit breathing on the way there - it was such a struggle.

The diagnosis: croup. She picked up yet another cold (where?? - where, I ask you? - the only place we went all week was to a family dinner on Sunday!!) and has developed croup with it.

I was up with her - helping her fall asleep - watching her struggle to breathe - sitting in a steamy bathroom - and outside in the freezing night - until about 4:45 am.

I do not have much in my heart and soul to write this morning. I'm weary - weary of sickness - weary of worry.

This verse popped into my mind this morning - it's just for me today!


Psalm 121
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD watches over you— the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life;
8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

Internet Fasting and Food

Well, my morning of computer fasting was a little harder than I thought! I was tempted much more than I had expected but nap time is here and I survived! :)




Elsie is starting to get into a good 2-a-day napping rhythm - which is nice - because I can usually hold off on her 2nd nap until Abigail falls asleep at 1 pm. Then it get quiet around here! :)





Abigail is starting to fight the nap. She always takes one but now doesn't want to be put into her crib. She is so aware of things at this stage. I'm amazed at what she picks up on.





This morning she went to the basement door and was looking for her daddy (his office is downstairs). She came back into the living room where I was feeding Elsie and said "No dada downstairs. Dada at work." I was impressed by her knowledge of his whereabouts! :)





In other news, Abigail appetite has really returned! She ate a whole sloppy joe sandwich for lunch, 2 or 3 carrot sticks, a plum tomato, and a fruit bar. My newest food venture with her is to try to get her to regularly eat raw foods. She does well with fruit but I have sort of slacked off on the vegetables - always cooking them for her. She will willingly eat some cauliflower, carrot sticks (thinly sliced) and gobbled up the tomato today.

This makes me excited to plant my garden!

I'm going to try to give her some at every meal, so it just becomes a habit. Of course when they're on the table then I eat some too!

The girls in matching dresses from Aunt Jenny. We had to get this picture taken because the dress is getting a bit short on Abigail. She's a tall girl!

A Radical Idea

I waste a lot of my time on the internet . . . blogging . . . reading blogs. . . email . . . Facebook. You get it, right?!

I also spend a lot of my time wondering why my house isn't clean . . . why I haven't read my Bible today . . . why I can let a day go by without reading to my kids.

Time online isn't bad but it is when it takes away from human interaction. So my challenge is just for tomorrow.

I'm only going to let myself get online during nap time. That still gives me a good long while to play around (my one exception is to fill out a diaper survey, which I have to do before noon - we're neck deep in diaper trials around here).

I wonder what I will get accomplished around here.

Now it's time to put my girls to bed. We all just finished exercising together (well, Abigail and I did - Elsie watched - Andrew worked in his office).

Elsie's Got Skillz

Elsie rolled over today! Yeah!

In other news: we're having to go through a little bit of a sickness detox with Abigail's behavior now. She was used to getting certain things because she was sick and that's not going to fly now. For example:

1) She is going to eat in her high chair. If she doesn't want to eat, I let her down but if she asks to eat more later, we're going to eat the food I already made . . . in her high chair.

When she was sick I fed her wherever she would eat. Laying in my arms, on the couch, in our bed, etc. We're having to get back into a good routine with her eating.

2) She is going to eat what I made. . . not just macaroni and cheese.

Her appetite is much better now but she still prefers only to eat Macaroni and Cheese (homemade with whole wheat pasta and real cheese) but she can't always eat that. I actually fed her Easy Mac (oh the horrors) in the hospital because that was all she would eat. How are kids supposed to get better eating that junk?!

3) She can't have paci's whenever she wants.

When she was sick, I let her have a paci whenever just because she was so miserable (note the ER pictures!). It's back to the regular routine of having paci's only in bed.

4) She needs to continue to work in her patience and listening.

For the most part, she does a remarkable job of listening to me, if I make my wishes known to her (put down the camera and do not pick it up again - for example) but wanting to be picked up while I'm making lunch or changing the TV channel when she doesn't want me to is now getting big reactions from her because when she was sick, I pretty much did whatever she wanted! :)

Abigail Today

Abigail woke up happy and with a temperature of 98.2. Since then it has stayed between 99.2 and 98.2, which I would consider normal.



She is playing more today (not quite as energetic as usual) and has some of her old spunk back.



I'm so thankful!



Her eating could still improve to get back to where it was but she did eat (on her own accord) some macaroni and cheese for lunch.



I'm off to finally shower today and fold some laundry. The mountain of clean laundry is so high that I'm almost tempted to take a picture. We'll see . . .

Recovery!

Abigail got out of the hospital yesterday around 2 pm and promptly took a nap when she got here. Poor girl has really been missing some sleep lately.

She still has very little appetite but slept through the night last night without needing one of us so I hope that's a good sign. It's 8:10 am and she's still asleep.

She vomited when we got home last night (orange kefir on an empty stomach doesn't sit well, I guess) so pray that she'll feel like eating soon. We managed to get another dose of her antibiotic in her and she kept that down all night.

Another concern is that Andrew is now sick. I'm not sure how he is feeling this morning. I ended up sleeping in Elsie's room because he was snoring and coughing. I still didn't sleep very well . . . thinking about my babies and if they might need me. I'm just hoping and praying that he has what they have . . . or that he will be very cautious and not pass along any new germs to the girls . . . heaven help us!

Abigail's final diagnosis was that she does have pneumonia. The doctor was not certain if it was viral or bacterial so she is on an antibiotic just to be sure. I guess a good test will be how she is feeling and what her temperature is this morning. If she is much improved after being on the antibiotic for 24 hours, I'd tend to think it was bacteria pneumonia . . . but I'm no doctor.

Poor girl has had a fever between 100 and 104 since Friday (except for when she was drugged) so I'm praying for some relief for her there.

I have more thoughts but they need time to be thought out and written out and Elsie is awake so I'd best run.

Today is a new day!

Abigail Update

Well, yesterday Abigail got to feeling terrible. She would just cry and sit on my lap. I noticed that her breathing was shallow and fast (panting - sort of) so I called her doctor who said to start her on antibiotics. He said to call back after her nap. Well, her nap only lasted a very brief time so I called him back a few hours after that. He encouraged us to take her to the ER just to have her checked out and possibly get a breathing treatment.

We got to the ER around 5 pm. The first thing they medical staff noticed was that her oxygen saturation levels were low, around 88 or 89. It sounded an "alarm" sort of thing in our room! Yikes! Anyway, they came in and put oxygen on my poor girl. She HATES that thing in her nose.

Oh and her temp was 104 when we arrived. Here she is. . .



They gave her Motrin, which took the fever down to 102 and then Tylenol which took it down to normal. They gave her a chest x-ray (she said she had fun having her "picture" taken) which they originally diagnosed her with pneumonia and later said it was an viral infection instead of a bacterial infection (so no antibiotics were given). They did find that her left ear was starting to be infected so they gave her a one-dose antibiotic last night for that.

They ended up admitting her to the hospital because of her oxygen levels. Andrew stayed with her because I had to be with Elsie to feed her. I got a nice sized bottle pumped, however, so I'm probably going to go back in a little while to see how things are going.

Andrew said this morning "there are some stats that are not where they want them to be". . . let me interpret for you. This means that her oxygen levels aren't quite normal but he thinks she ought to come home. :)

I'll try to update later. Here is a picture of our poor girl after some fever reducers are in her body and after her iv. She was a champ! When they put it in all she did was look at me and say "mommy?". No crying or even flinching.

Long and Short of It

Brief overview of our weekend (ish):

Friday: Kids not too bad. Abigail played some and wanted to be outside. Started running the fever.

Saturday: Kids worse. Elsie so congested I tortured her by squirting "Little Noses" up her nose and sucking it out. No fever for her. Abigail not feeling good. Only wanted to sit on my lap. Temp between 100 and 104. Trip to doctor. Gave us a prescription but wanted us to wait a few days to see if it cleared up on its own. (It was Daddy's first trip to the doctor with the kids . . . ever! Amazing!)

Sunday: Kids better. Elsie's nose . . . better. Abigail running around and playing. Wanting to play lots of hide and seek. Did have a tummy ache that made her scream and cry in the afternoon but finally got her to eat peaches and prunes. Went to bed.

Sunday night: The worst night in my parenting experience. I believe I got out of bed to help Abigail 7x but I'm not sure about that - Andrew attended to her twice. She'd cough, sit up, and start crying "mommy mommy". This lasted hours! We'd go into her room and she'd say "eat food" (then wouldn't eat) or she'd say "nap" meaning she wanted to get back in bed. Oh, and I got up with a stuffy nosed Elsie 3x as well.

Monday: Kids worse. Abigail's temp is up again and her cough is dreadful. Elsie's nose is stuffed and running (no fever - thank goodness).

My heart breaks. I wish I could help Abigail (she cries and looks at me like I can). I had to force feed her some toast (she'd eat it but just cry with every bite) so her tummy didn't hurt so much. The only thing she'll eat with any acceptance is peaches. WE'RE ALMOST OUT!!!

to be continued . . .

Bicks

Just call us the "bicks" household (Abigail's name for Vicks). We've been hit by the cough and cold . . . well just the girls so far. Abigail just has a nasty cough and fever. I tell ya . . . I'd rather deal with runny nose stuff than coughs. That really keeps her up at night.

Elsie has lots of nasal congestion but doesn't seem to have a fever at this point. The most exciting news is that in the midst of all this sickness . . . Elsie slept through the night last night (technically).

I put her down at 8 pm and was still up to see her restlessly moving around her crib at 10:30 pm so I went in and fed her. I put her in her bouncy seat so she could breathe easier and she slept until I woke her up at 6:30 am! I couldn't believe it. Then she slept in her swing until 9:30 am. Wow!

So, I know she can do it.

Unfortunately, I did not sleep well. Abigail had a coughing fit in bed about once and hour until about 4 am. Then she slept soundly until about 8 am and finally woke at 9 am. Poor girl . . . must be exhausted from the coughing. I went down to help her cough once and Andrew went down once to help her cough.

The reason we were still up at 10:30 pm at night (we go to bed early!!) was because we're hooked on watching Lost. We just started season 1 and we watched 3 episodes last night. Crazy! I didn't want to watch the 3rd because I knew we'd probably not get much sleep so I told Andrew I would watch it if he got up with Abigail at night. He agreed. I was already awake and restless (from waiting on Elsie to wake up) at 3:30 am so I took the nighttime shift with Abigail anyway.

Okay, sorry this is so boring. I always promise to improve my content but never do! If the girls' health improves this weekend, perhaps I'll have a chance to do another picture post from the Kansas trip!

Sleeping at our house . . .

Well, I have finally been getting a little more sleep!

On Friday night Andrew MADE me let Elsie cry for a while. Well, he strongly encouraged me to let her cry anyway and he helped me by checking on her every 5 or 10 minutes when I'd ask.

It took a while. I think she fell asleep at 7 pm, woke up at 8 pm, cried until 9:30 pm (during which we checked, soothed, and otherwise were attentive every 5 or 10 minutes). I fed her at 9:30 pm and we laid her back down again at 10:00 pm where she cried for 10 minutes then went to sleep.

For the first time in 4 weeks she slept 5+ hours and only woke me up once!!

The next night she was asleep by 7 pm (no fuss) and I gave her a feeding at 10:30 pm and was only up once.

Last night she was asleep by 8 pm . . . slept until 1:30 am (when I fed her) . . . and slept until 7 am! Wow!

Those are the kind of nights I can live with!

Abigail got to go to the zoo today with Maggie. They had so much fun. However Abigail fell asleep in the car on the way back and now is talking and bouncing in her crib during nap time.

Do I feel the least bit guilty for making her stay in her crib by herself awake for an hour during her reguarly nap time? Nope, not one bit!

Anyone else enjoying this spring-like weather?! I sure am! I wore a short-sleeved shirt today! Yeah!

Teased by Spring

Is spring teasing us or are there really some warmer temperatures here to stay? In any case, it doesn't matter!! I took advantage of the warmer weather this morning and took the girls around to 3 different farms in the area. I had some errands that I needed to run at each farm so it worked out great. The best part was seeing Abigail get to pet some baby goats at the first farm. She loved it!

After Abigail wakes up from her nap, I plan to take the girls outside and do a little yard and garden cleaning. We still haven't taken down our garden from last year so I need to make sure the stakes are down, etc, and get it ready to take down with the lawn mower.

I'm so ready for spring and being outside with our girls. I hope it stays nice!!

Kansas Reflections, Part 1

I'm going to do this in several parts because I do not seem to be able to find the time and energy to make one big long post about our time in Kansas. Nor do I have the desire to fight with blogger on the justification of this text so . . . it will be middle justified. Sorry!

This first picture is in my grandparents basement with them spending time with my girls. They were a big reason why we made the trip. They aren't able to travel to Ohio at this time (probably anymore) and my grandpa is going through Chemo so we wanted to visit them!

It took Abigail a few days to warm up to them but many games of peek-a-boo later, she was giving them big hugs goodbye. Warms my heart!

In this picture, I believe she was pointing to my grandpa's stuffed Elk. She was pretty scared of the ole' fella right at first but by the third or fourth day visiting them she wanted to pet it as often as I would pick her up. He has a stuffed deer as well! :)

My sweet Grandma had the right touch to put Elsie to sleep, usually without much or any fuss, which is a pretty good skill! (I'm listening to her fuss right now). She put her to sleep most of the days we were there! :)

Okay . . . more later. Elsie is needing to go to bed!

Where I'm at . . .

Perhaps more blogging will be coming today . . . perhaps not. I'm just so tired. Elsie is still getting up 3x a night and it's getting to me. Last night it was 11:30, 3:30, 5:30, and awake at 7 am, acting hungry!

I'm letting her cry some (certainly to sleep if she doesn't fall asleep calmly) but I think she's too young for an all-out-middle-of-the-night cry-it-out.

Most days I wonder how I can function another day like this. So today I'm pulling out my good friend, the pump. I hope Andrew is still willing to take over one of the night feedings this weekend because I need at least one night with only two feedings, instead of three.

More pictures and interesting content to come.

Yawn!

Home!

We're home! We had a great trip, really!! I'll post more about it after I get some things around here under control.

Elsie is still getting up 3+ times a night so I'm running on very little, fragmented sleep!

Who does Abigail look like?

It is popular opinion around these parts that Abigail looks like my sister, Jenny. I found some similar pictures (amazingly so!) and will let you all decide. What do you think?

Jenny and Aunt Ronda at Jenny's 2nd birthday.

Aunt Ronda and Abigail, just after Abigail's 2nd birthday.

Jenny playing the piano.

Abigail playing the piano.


Jenny standing and looking happy (a little younger than Abigail - we think).

Abigail standing and not looking happy. 2 years old.

Double Spoiled

We had some ice and snow last night so church is cancelled this morning. It gets me out of singing, I guess! Here is what we are doing instead. . .

Kansas Cuties!

We are having a blast visiting my family! Here are a few highlights and new updates!

- We are enjoying getting to spend most mornings with my grandparents. After breakfast we load up in the van and go to their house (a mile away) and spend some time there). Abigail has had some major break-throughs. She is now petting the elk head and deer head that reside in my grandparents basement and she let my grandpa read her a book today.

Elsie is also enjoying time with her great grandparents. She always seems to be ready for a nap when we get there and I believe my grandma has rocked her to sleep 5 times now! She's getting so spoiled! :)

- Abigail's language has exploded. It definitely makes sense because she has four adults doting on her all day long. At home, it's just me and she definitely doesn't get as much attention. She's starting to talk in complete sentences and come up with some pretty funny things on her own. Here are a few examples.

• Earlier this week my dad walked past her in the dining room and she said, "Papa, big tummy!" Hilarious!
• Some of her sentences include, "Abi eat food too." and "Abi put the toys away."
• She also LOVES my dad's cats and will call them by their "nicknames" including my dad's favorite cat, Puff Daddy, which he calls Puff Dads. It's pretty cute to hear Abigail say "Puff Dads".
• She's constantly playing hide and seek. Not only does she want us to find her whole body when she hides but sometimes she'll hide her hands and say "hands go?"

- Elsie has really grown and changed a lot (it seems) in the past week as well. She has really struggled with sleep, though. Some nights I've been up 4 and 5 times feeding her. I have two suspicions as to why this may be happening.

1) She's falling asleep while nursing so I just think she's not getting a lot to eat.

and my other idea is that

3) my milk supply has dropped. I've been doing weight watchers for a month now. I read online yesterday that nursing mothers are supposed to really be careful with weight loss and not lose more than 1 lb a week. I guess it's bad that I've dropped 5 lbs since I got to Kansas (a week ago!). So yesterday and today I tried to eat a little more, but not so much that I'd gain it all back.

I'm still tracking everything but just trying to hit my points each day and not have 9+ left over, like I was doing. Poor Elsie! We'll get it figured out. She was only up twice last night so I felt remarkably well rested after being up 5x the night before! Yikes!

That's all for now. Andrew is coming out next Tuesday and then we'll head for home on Saturday (a week from tomorrow). We are certainly having a wonderful time here. I feel like if I had my husband and my bathtub, I could stay forever! :) It has certainly been nice to have a ratio of 4 adults to 2 kids, instead of the usual, which is just me with 2 kids! I've definitely been relaxing and able to do more fun things when others are around to entertain Abigail.

More another time. I have lots of pictures and videos that I'll try to put in a recap at some point.

Tomorrow is another big day. My Aunt Ronda, Uncle Dale, and Aunt Flo are coming to visit us! Yeah!

Adventures in Traveling

I never meant to go so long without writing. I guess that I'm taking advantage of all the free-time I have. I have read a book, am taking in lots of Olympics and cooking shows (my favorite!) and enjoying lots of family time.

Anyway . . .

The trip out here was full of adventure.

You know the beginning. . .

Two hours after starting our journey, Abigail got carsick. I pulled off at a bad spot (residential) because she was screaming and my brother couldn't stand the smell. We had no place to clean her up. It was FREEZING outside so I hopped in the back of the van to try to clean her up as good as I could. My parents (driving their suburban) caught up with us and my mom hopped in the drivers seat to drive us to a gas station.

Well, let's just say that on the way there we had to jump a snow bank in order to get on the right road. It was an adventure!

We got Abigail cleaned up in a very dirty gas station bathroom (yuck) and cleaned up the car seat as much as possible and continued on the way, with my mom riding in our car with a bucket . . . just in case (for Abigail).

She didn't get sick again, thankfully, but both girls were crying and fussy by the time we reaching Effingham, IL. so we decided to stop for the night.

I had been dreading spending the night in a hotel with the girls for a while. We've had BAD experiences with Abigail in the past so I wasn't sure what to expect but it wasn't terrible.

I think I figured out that I got up with both girls 5x that night. Abigail started crying at 11:30 pm and wanted food (thank goodness I travel with some) and Elsie needed fed several times. They both woke up early (6:45 am) because of the time change.

We decided that the best coarse of action would be to move Abigail's carseat to my parents vehicle so that someone could sit beside each girl and help them if necessary. This worked pretty well . . . except that it meant my mom ended up having to entertain Abigail the whole second day! Whew!

We didn't get here until about 9:30 pm and then Abigail was wound up. She kept saying "kitty cat" and chasing my parents cats everywhere! Crazy! She still loves them.

Since that time, things have calmed down somewhat. Elsie is still sleeping terribly! I'm not sure if she's growing, spoiled, bothered by her stuffy nose, etc. One night I got up 5x and last night I got up 3x with her. I might try a different sleeping arrangement tonight and see if that helps. Abigail was exactly Elsie's age when she slept through the night for the first time, so I'm expecting to have a little better sleep by this point.

Well, Elsie's hungry. More later!

V-Day

Happy Valentine's Day to my sweet husband! I miss you and love you!

Women Drivers

I will post more about our actual driving experience but I wanted to write before I forget!

Not to brag but I have had so many people comment on my driving (in a good way) the past several months so I thought I'd write my own driving principles down.

I also must give credit where credit is due. I learned a lot of good driving techniques from my husband! :)

Anyway, here it goes.

Jaime's principles for driving in traffic.

1) Be calm.

2) Use your mirrors. Takes way less effort that looking behind you. I use my mirrors all the time - so I know when cars are coming up behind me - I don't just use them when I'm changing lanes or passing.

3) Don't follow too closely. If you stay back a reasonable distance, you won't need to slam on your breaks, you can pass more easily, and you won't cause traffic behind you to break unnecessarily.

I hope you've enjoyed my advice! :)

Well . . . we're here!

We made it to Kansas . . . . many hours later! :)

I will do a longer post when I'm not about to fall asleep at the computer. Our trip started off on a very interesting note. Not two hours into the trip, Abigail got car sick . . . all over her car seat and self. It was FREEZING outside so we had to get her cleaned up as best we could inside the car. Anyway, I need sleep so I'll write more later.

The important thing is that we made it.

We're looking forward to playing with kitties, spending time with family, and relaxing. We sure do miss Daddy, though (I miss my sweetie!). It about broke my heart when Abigail would say "go home". She was okay after we explained that we were going to Grandma RoRo's home.

Night all!

Snowy Saturday

It's a snowy Saturday in Ohio. I have no plans on going anywhere today and we're nice and cozy.

Thank goodness for electricity, plenty of yummy food, a wonderful family to play with, and plenty of movies for entertainment.

Actually, I won't be able to watch a movie for a while yet. I'm in the process of making Abigail's birthday cake (s) for her party on Sunday. The cake is made but I'm going to attempt to decorate it like Elmo. I'm also baking cupcakes with a slight variation of her cake recipe, which I thought I'd share.

I'm in no way a food blogger. Maybe someday but it seems like too much work.

Instead I'll just post the recipe on here and let you try it!

My sister-in-law found this originally so thanks to her. I've made it all year! We eat it for breakfasts, without the frosting, because it is pretty healthy!

Abigail's Applesauce Carrot Cake

2 cups grated carrots
2 cups filtered water
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups maple syrup
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice
1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups spelt flour or unbleached flour (I use whole wheat if I don't use spelt)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 cup nuts of your choice (I usually use pecans)

Preheat oven to 350.

Grease pan with spray oil.

In a large pan, bring water to a boil. Add carrots and simmer for 7 to 10 minutes. Pour entire contents of pan into mixing bowl. Add the oil, apple sauce, eggs, syrup, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and salt. Stir the mixture well.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and nuts. Stir this dry mixture into the wet mixture. Don't overmix.

Pour into your pan and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Use a toothpick or wooden kabob stick to test cake.

Once cake is cool, turn onto a plate and frost.

I'm using a standard cream cheese frosting. We usually don't put frosting on it and eat these as muffins for breakfast.

Once you get the carrots grated and cooked, it's super easy.

Enjoy!

Dear 2-year-old Abigail

My darling daughter,

What an adventure our lives have become with you around. We love hearing you talk and discover new things. I always love hearing what you come up with next. Here are a few "new" things you are doing:

1) Counting! You've been saying your numbers for a while now but just recently you've started counting things and being right! I gave you a piece of bread yesterday, cut into two pieces, and you said "one", "two" - counting them perfectly.

2) Colors. You are slowly but surely getting your colors right. You now get purple every time and are really good at blue as well.

3) Caring for your sister! You are a champion at putting Elsie's paci back in. Each morning when I go into your room to get you out of bed, you say, "help Elsie". You know she's in the living room waiting to eat so we hurry out to help her. This morning you said, "Oh, hi Elsie. Hungry!" So sweet!

4) Helping Mama! You love to help me do housework. Most of the time you actually do help, but this morning I was cleaning toilets and didn't really want you to help. I explained this and you said, "Okay, Abi watch." (Yes, you call yourself Abi - crazy!).

You are our sweet little adventurous first-born. Each day is a growing experience for you and for us. We love you so much! There are times when you can be a challenge but (with the help of your daddy) I am looking at those times as great opportunities for us to teach you about becoming more Christ-like - which I hope and pray every day that you will one-day desire to do.

Your life verse is Romans 15:13 - "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Your dad and I want all those things for you. We want you to be filled with joy and peace. We want you to trust in our Lord, the maker of you and all wonderful creation. We want you to overflow with hope and be filled with the Holy Spirit!

Abigail with her new dress and her Bitty Baby's new dress.

Now let's go start our next adventure!

Love,

Your Mama

Don't Blink!

I finally figured out (or spent the time figuring out) how to change my blog. I knew it would be easy but I just never took the time to do it.

I love it!

Enjoy!

Happy 2nd Birthday Abigail!

I will try to write my sweet daughter a birthday letter but for now I just want to wish her a wonderful birthday!

She ushered in the day with a coughing fit,a forceful tantrum over what she would wear today(what is she . . . 12?!!!) and the desire to put her pee and poo in the potty! :) She hasn't actually done that yet but it was the first thing she talked about! :)

Two years ago, I was enduring a painful labor and having no clue how my life would change when that little bundle joined our family! What a wonder, joy, and adventure (and many other things) that little girl is!

Busy Week! Reflections!

I have lots of deep thoughts to write about but very little time to put them into words, sentences, and paragrahs that make much sense to anyone else.

I am very sentimental around this time - remembering what I was doing two years ago. This was the day before I became a mother for the first time and boy, I had no idea! No idea the joy, love, challenges, growth that would occur when Abigail joined our family!

We faced another challenge this weekend. Andrew caught a nasty stomach bug this weekend and was laid up for the good part of a day. He's out of bed this morning but is still at home - taking his first ever sick day (for himself anyway - he's stayed home with Abigail before). Thankfully the rest of us have been spared - at least so far. Abigail woke up coughing last night and my heart pounded for a while, thinking it was a puke cough instead of a cold cough but she's just still struggling to overcome her cold. Yeah!

My family is coming in on Friday to help us celebrate Abigail's birthday and then the girls and I will be caravaning back to Kansas for a 2 week stay, mainly so the girls can visit my grandparents. My house is in need of a good decluttering (it's fairly clean because I tried to sanitize EVERYTHING yesterday) and I need to get organized in order to pack for the long trip.

So, that brings me to my next point. If you've read this far, I'm impressed! Anyway, I need suggestions of things my toddler can do in the car. We don't have a TV and I'd probably nix that anyway, due to Abigail's tendency towards car sickness. I want to get her a lap board so she can color or read books. Any other ideas? I'm kind of desperate!

I'm nervous about traveling with her that far. Mainly because yesterday she whined and cried about being in the car for the five minutes it took us to get to Andrew's grandma's house. Yikes! Maybe I need to bring my ear buds. We'll probably have others riding with us and so they can help with the entertaining a bit.

Okay, I'd better get to work. I have tons of dishes and laundry to do and I must scour both bathrooms. I'm planning on Lysol, a mask, and rubber gloves! Ha!