I played Guess Who with Jazlyn.
Then we played Candyland.
I spent some time with my hubby before he went to work.
I chased Isaiah around the living room savoring the sound of his laugh.
I enjoyed the beautiful day while watching the kids play in the front yard.
I am learning not to take for granted this special time of being home all day with two small kids.
Everyone goes through different seasons during their lifetime. Some are in grade school, some in college. Some are expecting their first child, some have already raised theirs. Some are just starting their first job, while others are retired. The list could go on and on.
I'm loving this season in my life. There is never a dull moment with two small children in the house. Something I'm learning with two small children though is that a tidy house at all times is just not going to happen. I'm slowly learning to get balanced in this area. I have always freaked out if someone unexpectedly came over and there were toys all strewn out throughout the house. I'm learning to accept the fact that during this season in my life, there are going to be toys everywhere. If I picked up Isaiah's blocks every time he dumped them out, my family would starve. Ok maybe it wouldn't go quite that far, but you get my point. So if I know you in "real life" and you plan on paying me a visit any time soon, you have been forewarned. If their are toys everywhere when I find out you are coming, the toys are still going to be there when you arrive.
Another thing I am learning about this season of my life is that I need to enjoy and cherish it more. Jazlyn is starting school this fall so pretty soon we won't be able to spend the whole day together. *Sniff, sniff.* Before I know it, Isaiah will be the one going off to school. I know I need to spend more quality time with them while I can. In honor of quality time I might not post as much anymore. I know you are disappointed, but I am giving myself a rule. I am not getting on the computer anymore unless it is bedtime or naptime. If my kids are awake then I want them to have my attention. Someday they might not want my attention as much as they do now.
No, I'm not talking about my husband not helping me around the house. He does help me out when I demand ask him to. I'm talking about me trying to live my life without God's help.
God had to get me to this point in my life for me to realize just how much I need Him. Sure, during tragedies and disappointments, I've needed Him. It's easy to see how much I need Him during those times. What I'm learning now is how much I need Him everyday.
Leading up to my last days on my job I thought that I was about to have it made. No more getting up at 5:30 every morning. No more feeling rushed to get dinner fed to my family before starting the cycle over again the next day. I thought now that I was going to be a stay at home mom, my life was going to be easy.
Lately it was seeming as though I was struggling with everything. Every time I had to do the dishes or laundry I felt like I was having to put forth all of my effort just to do a simple five minute task. It was taking everything I had just to make it through each day. During one of my woe is me pity parties, I realized that I'm not letting God truly lead my life. I'm not supposed to do all this on my own. In John 15:5 Jesus says "for without Me you can do nothing." 2 Corinthians 12:9 tells us that God's grace is sufficient for us, and His strength is made perfect in our weakness. I was trying to do everything in my own strength instead of relying on God's strength for me each day. I need Him everyday in everything I do in order to be a good wife and mother.
I'm learning a lot during this time in my life. I feel like I've grown more spiritually in the past six months than I have in the past few years. Now that I'm not so busy, I've been able to do a lot of self examining and I'm more open to hearing what God has to say about me. His lessons are not fun during the learning process, but I'm thankful that He loves me enough to keep teaching me.
In case you are new here, my job is being a stay at home mom to my two kids, while at the same time making sure my husband is happy.
Let me clarify, to begin with, that I am not in the least bit complaining about my new job. I do still love the fact that I get to stay home with my two kids, but this is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I literally have not sat down all day except when I was nursing Isaiah and when we did Jazlyn's schoolwork. When I stopped working, I thought this was going to be a breeze. I thought it would be just like every Saturday was when I was working. Wrong.
There is an endless amount of dishes now because I cook pretty much everything we eat. I run the dishwasher at least twice a day. I know I could make that less if I would handwash something, but I do refuse. I don't want my dishwasher to think that I don't like it anymore. At least, that is my story and I'm sticking to it.
There is also an endless amount of toys. Everywhere. I find them in every space imaginable in our house. When we were away from the house five days a week, the house didn't get as messy. When I was working, if I could have the house clean by Sunday afternoon then I knew it wouldn't get too messed up during the week. Now I have to clean up the house daily.
Isaiah is spoiled. Rotten. He screams if I leave his sight. Sometimes he screams if he is not being held (like right now). If he is in a good mood I can at least put him down to do something, as long as it is in the same room. If I leave the room, he sounds like he is being tortured. Someone came over the other day and parked in the street in front of our house. She said she could hear him crying before she even got out of the car. Have I mentioned how ridiculously close the houses are in my neighborhood? So yeah, I'm pretty sure the neighbors do think he is being tortured. I'm glad they don't care.
Jazlyn is officially a teenager. That's all I have to say about that.
I do feel like I am finally getting into the groove of being a stay at home mom. The holidays messed up my routine, but I have it back now. Staying home is helping me lose weight. Booyah fat! Instead of sitting at a desk all day I am up chasing two kids around all day. It is great exercise. I might just start exercising for real and watching what I eat to get the last little bit of this weight off. The beach this summer is a good motivation for me to go ahead and start that. I'll have to check with my son first and make sure he approves since he runs things around here.
Although this life is a lot harder than I expected, I wouldn't change it for anything. Who wouldn't want to spend the whole day looking at this precious face?
Read more...
Sorry, no Not Me Monday post today. I have too many other things on my plate right now. This is the first week I am attempting our schedule. I thought it might be better if we waited until after the holidays, just in case there are two certain little ones who give me a fight. This week we are only doing sleep/nap and eating times on schedule. After we have those down, I am going to do a more detailed schedule of our whole day. I'll let you know how it goes. Hopefully our go-with-the-flow family will adjust well.
I also have another new adventure this week. Isaiah has been sleeping in the bed with us. I know, I know. That is the worst thing I could've done....I am never going to be able to get him out of our bed....Blah, blah, blah. Well, he has been sleeping with us so it's too late for all that now.What can I say? I am a sucker for cuddling. I would let Isaiah keep sleeping with me if he slept good. I think he gets hot and that causes him to wake up through the night. At least, that is what I am hoping for so he will sleep better by himself. We did put his crib in our room, so he won't be too far just in case I do have to get up multiple times during the night.
I am excited about our new schedule and sleeping arrangements. I think it will help me to manage my time better and make sure I am getting all the important things done (like blogging). Hopefully next week at this time I will do a post as a well rested Mom with a successful new schedule. :)
One more thing. Perdue's boneless skinless chicken breasts are on sale right now for $1.99/ lb at Kroger. Go stock up!
~Melissa
Psalm 37:3-5 Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.
About two years ago, while I was still working, I was feeling very overwhelmed. At the time I only had Jazlyn, but my husband was working and going to school. On top of that, our work schedules were never the same, so we hardly ever got to see each other. I also felt like I was missing Jazlyn grow up.
I laid in bed one night and was just a mess. I told God that if I couldn't stay home then I didn't want anymore kids. I'm sure He was like "Oh, really?" You know, since I have complete control over when we have kids. Seriously though, I was letting God know what my heart's desire was. Not that He needed me to tell Him, but I think God wants us to be honest with him and speak what is on our hearts. My honest truth was that I didn't want to have another child and have to miss that child's first step or first word because he or she was in daycare all day every day.
After that night I went on with my life. But you can be sure that I kept letting God know that I wanted to be able to stay home, especially when I found out about Isaiah. Don't get me wrong. I didn't have a miserable job that I absolutely hated. I actually liked my job most of the time, but I missed my family.
Once Isaiah was getting ready to make his entrance into the world, my hubby did have a different job making more money. I still didn't feel though that I could quit my job. I kept crunching the numbers trying to make it work, but I just didn't see how it was possible. I did feel, however, that God was telling me that I should quit my job. It did make some sense, since daycare would have been so expensive with two kids, but I still didn't see how it would work on one income.
Well, you probably already know that it did work. I kept praying about quitting my job to make sure that it was really what I was supposed to do. Even after Isaiah was born (I did work a couple months after he was born), I kept going over the numbers over and over again. I still didn't see how we would make it. I feel this was my first big faith test. I still felt like God was telling me to quit my job even though I didn't think it would work out. I finally listened and quit.
We have been absolutely fine. It actually hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be. I thought there would be times where we would have to live on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which I was willing to do. That has not been the case at all. God has given me wisdom on handling our finances. He has truly taken care of us. We have more food in our house than we did while I was working. We were even able to do some Christmas shopping!
My life is proof that the above verses are indeed true. Why don't you go read them again? You know you want to.
~Melissa
*Disclaimer-Let me clarify that I am not saying that God will give you whatever you want. He will give you your heart's desires in His timing, if they are in His will, and if you trust and have faith in Him.
Back to TOP
