Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Enemies

I find the below Bible passage to be one of the hardest for me to actually live out:

"But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you."
- Matthew 5:44 NKJV

I am feeling challenged by this verse as I have lately felt frustrated by people at work. I also get upset when someone is rude to me in public. Or when I feel wrongly judged.  So many situations when I want to lash out, but instead Jesus tells me to pray for those people and bless them.  So contradictory to human nature!

How about you? Do you struggle with this? What is a Bible verse that really challenges you?


Sunday, January 29, 2012

So Sleepy

This morning I woke up at 4am to catch a 6:25am flight home from Indiana. That, combined with only 5 hours of sleep and lingering pregnancy fatigue, has left me WIPED OUT. Whew.

I have a lot of things I want to do and share with this blog, but sheesh it's been hard lately. Just finding the time to sit down at the computer in the evenings seems so difficult. I also want to start working out (I've sadly done very little but a couple long walks in the past few months) to ward off the pregnancy weight gain that my suddenly ridiculous appetite is inevitably going to bring along. Oh, and I still need to edit and upload pictures from Christmas and everything since then. And read some more parenting books (my thoughts on the ones I've read should be coming in a future post). And prep the house for the new baby. So much to do, so little time to do it. How is anyone supposed to keep up with it all??

In case anyone would like to follow along, I'll be documenting most of my pregnancy at my new pregnancy blog: www.babybesidodos.blogspot.com. I may share a few pictures on this blog here and there, but the Besido Dos blog is where you'll see most of the tummy pics. I kept a pregnancy blog while preggo with Krew and recently printed it as a book, and I love it. I want to be able to do the same with this baby. So head that way if you are curious or nosy. :)

Alright I guess that's all for tonight. Just had some ramblings I wanted to get out. And now I plan on brushing my teeth and hopefully being in bed by 9pm. :). Adios.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Desktop Wallpapers - My Favs

Just something small to share:

If you're ever looking for a desktop background for your computer screen, I love the designs created by Home Made Simple. I prefer to use the calendar wallpapers, which have a different wallpaper for each month of the year.

You can check out the calendar wallpapers here:
http://www.homemadesimple.com/en-us/homedecor/pages/words-to-live-by-calendar.aspx

They've got other wallpapers you can choose from, also.  You can check those out here:
http://www.homemadesimple.com/en-us/homedecor/pages/words-to-live-by.aspx

Enjoy!

Monday, January 16, 2012

"My Brush"

Our child has a major stubborn streak. He's such an easy-going kid, yet incredibly stubborn at the same time. Seems like a strange combination, I know. You usually assume that I child is either high-strung and stubborn or easy-going and compliant. Not ours.  He likes to mix things up.

This stubbornness definitely leads to some battles of wills in our house.  I'm slowly finding ways to instill a respect for authority into him, while still showing love and patience.  It's a difficult balance.  Sometimes I let things slide.  Sometimes the situations end in tantrums or time out.  But sometimes, just sometimes, they end well.  Last night was a nice example of a battle of the wills that ended on good terms, which left me feeling like we'd both learned something.  I thank God for situations like that, when I know He was guiding me in how to be a good parent.

Krewson: Comes running from our bathroom with my makeup brush in his hand.  "My brush!" (Spoken in toddlerese, of course.)

Me: Squatted down to his level.  "Honey, that's Mommy's brush."

Krewson: Gripping the brush tightly in his little fist, grin slapped across his face. "MY brush!"

Me: "No, that's Mommy's brush."

Krewson:  "MY BRUSH!"

Me: "No, it's Mommy's brush."

Krewson: Silence, still grinning.

Me: "Whose brush is that, Krew?"

Krewson: Head bowed, grin still on his face.  "Krew brush!"

Me: "No, that's Mommy's brush."

Krewson: Silence, head still bowed.

Me: "Whose brush is that, Krew?"

Krewson:  Head still bowed, contemplative look on his face.  "Mommy."  Then his little arms reach out to me, brush in his hands, and he releases it to me without me even asking.

Me:  Heart swells.  "That's right honey, it's Mommy's.  Thank you very much for giving it to me."

Krewson:  Looks up at me, surprisingly without a hint of anger.

Me: "But you can play with it.  Mommy will let you play with it."

Krewson: Grin returns, takes the brush from me, and happily runs out the bedroom door with it back in his grasp.


It's crazy how you have to pay attention to every little situation with kids.  Every moment can be turned into an opportunity for learning.  But you don't want to overwhelm them.  You don't want them to feel like they're living under a dictatorship.  But you want them to understand that YOU are the boss, not them.  I've been reading some parenting books lately, and they all seem to mention how respect for parents' authority is the first step toward respect for God's authority.  Which makes sense.  And means we are somewhat representing how our children may later relate to God.  What an incredible, weighty responsibility.  I thank God for prayer and His guidance!




Sadly to say, our little boy stayed home sick from daycare AGAIN today. I called the pediatrician, and Dave took him in. Double ear infection. Poor kid. But we got some medication for him, so hopefully that means that we are all on our way to some full nights of sleep again. It's been a rough week, sleep-wise. But such is life with kids. :)

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Long Day

It's been a long day of running around after our little sick man, feeding him, wiping his runny nose and drool-covered chin, responding to his never-ending requests for me to read him a book or shoot hoops with him or sit next to him in his power wheels truck or color with him in his coloring book or clean up his most recent spill...

and whenever I'm not doing that, checking and responding to work email and trying to get work things done.

Did I mention he only took one one-hour nap?

Whew.

Boy am I looking forward to girls' craft night with my craft ladies!!! Props to Katie for always coming up with fun ideas for us. Can't wait for lots of creativeness and even more laughter. :)

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Sick Again

We've been fighting a lot of illnesses around here lately.  Had to pick up the little guy early from daycare today because he was running a fever.  When I got there, the heat was just radiating off of him and he was sweaty all over.  Poor kid.  Fortunately some time at home relaxing with mama cheered him up quite a bit. :)





Before long he was acting more energetic and happy than he does half the time that he's NOT sick. Crazy kid.




I'm also thinking he's started the teething of his two-year molars. Check out that runny nose and drool. Yummmmmmmmm. :)

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Accidental Resolutions

I thought to myself until today that I wasn't establishing any new years resolutions for this year.  I've got quite a bit on my plate, and many plans for the future year (I'll go into those in future posts), so I didn't want to overwhelm myself by adding unnecessary goals just because I was "supposed to".

However, I realized this morning that I did unintentionally set up two goals for myself.  It wasn't that I decided to do these things because of the new year...it just so happened that my life slowed down enough during the holidays that I was able to catch up and breathe a bit.  Then ideas of things I'd like to do started filling my mind. :)  Here are the two primary goals I've established:

1) Continue with my morning quiet time to accomplish reading the Bible in one year

2) Keep the house in its current state of cleanliness and order (or at least somewhat close) and work to make it a little better every day

And whattayaknow, two opportunities came along to help me achieve those goals.

The first is the Hello Mornings Challenge over at Inspired to Action.  This won't really add anything additional to my to-do list...it will just add a support system to encourage me to maintain my morning quiet times.  Basically, I'll be put in a group with other women aiming to have a morning devotional time, and I must check in with them at least weekly for accountability.  If you've been looking to work on or maintain your morning quiet time, you should check it out. :)  It's the last day to register for this winter session, so head on over: http://inspiredtoaction.com/resources/hellomornings/.

The second opportunity to show itself was at the blog Home Sanctuary, where Rachel Anne will be helping us to set up a home organization system that works.  I used to be an avid follower of Rachel Anne's blog, but with the birth of Krew two years ago, my life was thrown for a bit of a loop and I lost track of everything.  However, her blog is awesome, and I miss it...every day she provides you with something small to do to make your home a bit more of a sanctuary.  I look forward to jumping back in. :)

So what about you? Any plans or resolutions for the coming year?  Let me know and we can pray for one another. :)