Long overdue

My kids are growing up too fast. I never thought I'd say that because, honestly, seeing them reach new milestones is fun and exciting. But now that they are developing personalities and characters of their own, it's more apparent than ever just how important my influence is in raising them to be strong, confident, and God-honoring individuals. And frankly, that is a terrifying realization.

Shiphrah started Cubbies this year. Memorizing verses is a breeze for her but adjusting to a room full of three and four-year-olds has been a challenge. I think she might actually adjust better if I wasn't in there with her, but I didn't realize that until I had already committed to being a leader.

Kirk is our "problem child" right now. He's becoming increasingly stubborn and obsessive over getting his way. He's actually taken to saying "I don't want to behave!" or "I don't want to be good!" repeatedly when he's upset. We're struggling to come up with a good discipline structure for him. Last night something was bothering him and he cried/yelled/whined/screamed until 2:30 in the morning. Avery practically had to spank him to sleep because he kept yelling his demands "want juice, not water!" "leave door open!" "don't want to behave!" "don't want to go to sleep!" It was a frustrating night, to say the least. Avery finally gave him a vitamin and having that in his mouth calmed him down enough to fall asleep. This morning he was cheerful up until Avery got home from his off-duty job. Then he threw a fit about having to eat lunch and wouldn't stop screaming until we put him to bed for his nap.

Ronnie is your typical toddler...for a boy, anyway. He gets into everything and wants to do everything his big brother and sister do. He wears me out! He's still not sleeping through the night but usually only wakes once and goes back to sleep easily once I nurse him. He's still nursing three to four times a day, mostly after naps and at night. He's probably going to give up his afternoon nap soon but right now I can still get him to nap for about an hour around 3 or 4-o-clock.

I'm surviving, but not really able to focus on anything other than the kids these days. I try to do some extra cooking or cleaning at night after they go to bed but then I'm terribly exhausted the next morning. Still haven't figured out a really good schedule that works for all of us yet.

Trying to get back into blogging a bit though. Mostly for my own benefit...I've missed it. :)

Sundays

Sundays are rather depressing for me. The church we're attending has been without a pastor for over six months now and has been steadily declining in health for over two years. We had all but decided to leave at the end of my husband's deacon term when the pastor left suddenly a month later. Since he was the largest part of our decision to leave, we decided to stick it out a bit longer and see if the church could recover. Half a year later and still no closer to finding a new leader for our church. I think we've decided to give the church a full year and then start looking elsewhere. I'm dreading that step though because my husband is rather picky about churches and a few of the things on his list make it very difficult to find a new church. All that to say, I miss being convicted, encouraged, uplifted, and inspired on Sundays. I miss learning something new every week and having that close fellowship of other believers.

Aside from church itself, the pre and post-church experiences are stressful in and of themselves: rushing around to get ready and then rushing home so that Avery can leave for work. And then while most others I know are enjoying relaxing afternoons with their families, I'm fighting the kids to go down for their naps and then collapsing on the couch in exhaustion while the piles of unfolded laundry stare at me. Yuck.

Anyway, sorry for the pity party, I know I just need to look for fulfillment in my personal relationship with God instead of relying on a Sunday morning "high." I've just had a hard time going without that after growing up with it for nearly twenty years.

I'm tired. Ronnie is still giving me a hard time at night and I can't figure out why. He screams at the top of his lungs every time it's time for bed but yet won't let me nurse or rock him to sleep unless I let him scream first. I know he's tired but he just gets so hysterical. And last night after he woke up to nurse around midnight, he threw a major fit after I unlatched him before he wanted to let go (I let him nurse for 20 minutes when he's normally done after 5) and wouldn't calm down until I nursed him again. You'd think he was 3 months old instead of nearly one.

God is gracious

It's been so long since I've really blogged, I wonder if anyone is still reading over here. Give me a hollar if you are, so I know whether to just start posting notes on Facebook.

God is gracious and merciful. Every day he shows me more grace than I could ever deserve. That said, life is good and difficult and challenging and frustrating. And that's just in a 30-minute period.

Ronnie, who is 10 months old now, is still waking at least twice every night. Or I should say, on a good night he only wakes twice. Most nights it's at least three or four times. I'm exhausted and when morning comes I nearly always turn on a movie for the munchkins and go back to sleep for another hour or so. This is a bad habit I desperately want to break. Let's face it, it's just not good parenting to let a 10-month-old, 2-year-old, and 3-year-old have free reign of the house for that long. Just this morning my husband realized he had left his boot knife in easy reach for the kids to find. They didn't, thankfully, but it still scared me to think about what could have happened.

We started a vegetable garden for the first time this year. While I'm really excited about it, I'm realizing that tending to the garden and watering our newly established backyard is taking an extra hour every day that I didn't really have to give. Not sure what to do about that, except stay up an hour later at night, which directly affects the exhaustion issue. Speaking of gardens, how worried should I be about birds (cardinals, bluebirds, etc.) hanging out in there? I know they'll eat the caterpillars, but will they also eat my young plants and eventually my tomatoes? Right now they just seem to be playing in the water when I have the drip hose running, but that could change.

We seem to be in a cycle of sickness right now. Two weeks ago Ronnie got some kind of virus where he ran a high fever for six days. Friday the older two started running fevers. Thankfully they never seems as miserable as the baby but it's still hard to know they're feeling poorly.

I'm feeling discouraged and overwhelmed by everything I need to do but haven't gotten to. If I kept a running list it would be pages long. I get things done here and there but it seems like once I get a handle on one area (like the laundry), other things pile up. And when I get to those things, suddenly the laundry has gotten unruly again.

And Ronnie is already awake. The kid will not take decent naps anymore and he's nursing every hour and a half. Growth spurt, maybe? Whatever it is, it's only adding to the regular exhaustion.

But God is merciful. My children are nourished, clothed, and happy. My husband is the best partner I could have ever asked for. The house isn't falling apart and the dishes aren't piled higher than the top of the sink. We enjoyed a good rain last week, the first for us in 2011. God is holding my family in His arms and I am so undeserving.

Picture Post

Just a few pictures of my growing munchkins...

My beautiful 3 1/2 year old. Still not much hair but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she'll need her first real haircut by her fourth birthday.

Kirk just turned TWO. He's talking in phrases now and trying to do everything (and more) that his big sister does.

My baby is 9 months old now.  He's finally developed a taste for something other than mama's milk, although he spits out anything with much texture (other than cheerios) so I feed him a small bowl of pureed foods once or twice a day.

My handsome husband with his kiddos.

Our beautiful yard that we've been working so hard on for over a month now. Just a few final touches left!

I'm so proud of her!

Tidbits

It's embarrassing that I haven't blogged since November. Here's a little bit of what has been going on around here:

♥ My little girl turned THREE and is well on her way to being the brightest, most talkative, amd most contrary 3-year-old on the planet.

♥ My middle son turned TWO (I honestly cannot believe he's already that old!) this month and is starting to be interesting in potty training and over the course of a month has gone from speaking only a dozen words to speaking in phrases.

♥ My baby is almost 9 months old, although you wouldn't know it by how much he still nurses (all.night.long). I'm tired but he is the happiest baby on earth and loves following his older siblings around.

♥ We're using our tax refund to re-landscape the backyard. We added a paver patio and put bermuda sod down (yay for grass!). We also paid my FIL to build a shed for us. OH, and I got a new washer/dryer set!!

♥ Because of said landscaping, I am horribly behind in the housekeeping. It's impossible to start a project without letting something else pile up.

♥ I'm (surprisingly) still not pregnant. This is the longest I've gone between pregnancies and it's kind of nice. Probably has something to do with the fact that Ronnie still nurses 10 times a day and doesn't care for solids yet.

♥ Hmm...now I can't think of anything else. Mostly the same old, same old around here. Sorry for being so scarce!

Getting into a groove

So sorry for the lack of blog posts recently. But taking care of a husband, three kids under three, two pets, and a 987 sq. ft. house can be a teensy bit time-consuming. However, praise God and knock on wood, I have finally found a groove! It's not perfect by any means and things still get left by the wayside, but I seem to have figured out how to take care of almost everything without leaving kids hungry, laundry unwashed, or an unhappy husband. So may I say again, praise God!

Unfortunately this week we're all sick. Shiphrah started with a runny nose on Monday and despite hoping it was just allergies it turned into a full-blown cold a day later. Then my throat started hurting Tuesday evening and Kirk's nose started running on Wednesday. Now the three of us are a mess of snotty noses, congested sinuses, and yucky coughs. Thankfully little Ronnie seems okay so far and Daddy has mostly avoided the cold as well. I'm hoping we'll be feeling much better by Sunday because we have a friend's birthday party that I'd hate to miss.

Let's see...a few weeks ago I stepped waaay out of my comfort zone and gave a presentation for a local MOPS group. I talked for about half an hour about honoring God and family through frugal living and it went really well. The ladies were all really sweet and some seemed very interested in what I was saying. It was also a great MOPS group and if it weren't across town during rush hour traffic, I'd love to join. I still might because I really need to get plugged in somewhere, but we'll see.

I also turned 27 (gasp!) a week ago. Avery surprised me by taking a half day from work and making reservations at a nice restaurant down on the Riverwalk. His family watched the munchkins and we had a really nice evening to ourselves. He also rode his bike to Wal-Mart that morning to pick me up a dozen roses, which is what he had done for another special occasion about five years ago...the first time he said "I love you." My birthday gift was a very nice set of kitchen knives (since I constantly complain about how fast mine go dull) and my in-laws bought me a set of Corelle dishes. It was a wonderful birthday!

And now it's on to other celebrations. Shiphrah turns THREE (I can't believe it!) on the day after Thanksgiving and we're having a pancake breakfast with some friends and family to celebrate. And of course we have Thanksgiving and then a ski trip with my family for Christmas (so excited about that!).

Well, all three kids are miraculously down for a nap so I'm going to fold some laundry and then read my Bible. Have a great Friday, everyone! ♥

A month in pictures

(I promise I'm going to start blogging again soon, but in the interim, here is some of what we've been up to!)

Going to see VeggieTales LIVE!

Going bicycling as a family

Hanging out at the zoo

Spending time with Ronnie

Going camping and fishing with Daddy

(We love Daddy!)

Just having a grand old time!

Nuggets

I have a million and one things to be doing right now (especially since the littlest is finally taking a good nap) but I thought I'd share a few things we've been up to lately:

♥ I've finally gotten into the habit of packing dinners for my husband to take to work every day. This hasn't completely eliminated all the eating out he does, but now he's down to just buying drinks and snacks when he's on his break instead of entire meals. In order to expediate this process and give my husband a variety of dinners (instead of just sandwiches) I've been doing a bit of OAMC/freezer cooking (as it's known in the blog world) lately. Just a little bit after the kids go to bed, but I've successfully made my first stromboli (with ham and cheddar), whipped up a huge batch of potato salad, and made a large batch of pinto beans in the crock pot. Next up are homemade taquitos (I have the meat cooked and shredded, just need to fry the tortillas and roll them with the meat).

♥ Shiphrah is officially daytime potty-trained. Well...at least as far as pee goes. She held her #2 for three days before finally filling her pull-up this morning. Not sure how to convince her to go #2 in the potty. Nighttimes and naptimes will be hard too because she's always peed in her sleep. She does hold her morning pee until we take her to the potty though, so her diaper is only half full in the mornings. We still have to remind her to go pee a lot, but she's finally taking some initiative and telling us some of the time as well. (Unfortunately oftentimes that's every 5 minutes...)

♥ Now that she's using the potty, Shiphrah is also washing her hands constantly which has been causing some really bad excema flare-ups on her wrists. We've stopped the soap use for now...does anyone have any recommendations for some really good sensitive-skin soap?

♥ Kirk is still teething (going on four months now?) but I think we're finally nearing the end of it. He's gradually getting over the clingyness and becoming slightly more independent. He's also added a few extra words to his vocabulary: "ball," "dad-dad," (grandad) "nana," "baba," (baby) and "mama." Add those to "CAT" and "dada" and he can now say a whole SEVEN words. He'll be 18 months old next month.

♥ Ronnie is the typical newborn, but is becoming increasingly vocal and is starting to smile and laugh regularly. It's adorable! He'll be 7 weeks old on Sunday. (And as an aside...TMI warning...why am I the only woman in the world that has PP bleeding for the full 6 weeks?? My poor husband is a saint. )

♥ And a few pictures to wrap this up:

Superdad!

I don't really have much of an update (38 weeks today!) but everyone on Facebook got such a kick out of this picture, I figured I'd post it here in honor of Father's Day.

Introducing........SUPERDAD!

(And lest you think I'm the laziest pregnant mom in the history of the world, he insisted on carrying both of them this way while he mowed. Kirk was crying because he wanted to be with his daddy and then Shiphrah got jealous because she wasn't being carried around like Kirk.)

Needless to say, they were all very stinky and sweaty by the time they came in, but it was so cute while it lasted! ♥

Just some stories

After a week or so of extreme exhaustion, I seemed to have had somewhat of a breakthrough today. It was bizarre because I didn't get any more sleep than usual last night and my nap today was a fail (noisy neighbors + noisy dog + noisy kids = ugh). But somehow my body woke up around 6-o-clock this evening and I suddenly felt like conquering the world. So I put away two loads of laundry, washed two more, washed the dishes, and took a shower. Not a lot, I know, but for me it was an accomplishment.

Shiphrah actually took a nap today so she had endless energy all evening long. (Why is it that my 2 1/2 year old seems to need less sleep than I do??) She stayed up with me after I put Kirk to bed at 8:30 and was THRILLED to have some one-on-one time with Mama. Methinks I need to do that more often...she was extra-cheerful and talking my ear off about all sorts of random things. She's at such a cute age...she tells me "stories" that are just run-on sentences full of people's names and random things that happened recently. I wish I could get it on video, it's just too adorable! Anyway, I put her to bed around 10-o-clock, but I could hear her moving around in her room for another 45 minutes or so. Again I have to ask, why does my toddler seem to need less sleep than me?

Kirk is finally settling back into his happy-go-lucky self. He's still a Mama's boy and a bit clingy, but he's much easier to entertain and keep busy these days. I'm hoping all this rain we've been having is washing away all the oak pollen so the kids' allergies (and mine) will finally go away, but we've been able to do without the Zyrtec most days this week. It makes me laugh to see just how different two toddlers can be though. Shiphrah could sit in front of the TV and watch movies all day long if I'd let her (and trust me, she asks constantly) and she's been like that since she was a year old. In fact, at only 7 or 8 months old she would sit through a 30-minute baby video if I needed to keep her in one place. Kirk, on the other hand, will glance at the movie playing every once in a while, but for the most part he completely ignores the TV. He's much happier if I give him a bowl, a few cheerios, and a spoon to play with. In fact, those three things kept him busy for about two hours this evening! Usually he follows me around like my shadow, but if I can give him something new to play with, he'll actually leave me alone long enough for me to get some chores done. I'm going to rapidly run out of "new" things though.

Other than being exhausted most of the time, we had a nice weekend. Saturday morning we had made plans to meet up with Kym (XxFireXboltxX) and her family at the zoo, but the rain prevented that. Instead we met at Jim's for breakfast and hung out all morning. It was a lot of fun and Kym was just as nice as I'd hoped! Kirk and her little boy Andrew had a lot of fun sitting next to each other in high chairs and watching each other throw things on the floor. Shiphrah was a bit of a handful, but she's been a stinker lately anytime we go anywhere. Anyway, hopefully we'll try the zoo again sometime soon, but it was really neat to get to meet a fellow Xangan in real life!

Well, Avery will be home from work any minute so I'll wrap this up. 'Night, all!

Happy Easter from the Johnsons!

Kirk Turns One!

Kirk Micah's big day! (We had about 40 friends and family gather at the park around the corner from our house for some pizza, fried chicken, and cupcakes.)

The rainbow cupcakes, before icing.

Swinging at the park with Grandad.

The rainbow cupcakes!

My baby boy is all grown up!