A Sense Of Peace

     Yesterday we said goodbye to our nephew Cole. We had been interim parents to him and when we brought him into our house we didn't know exactly how long we would be in that role. Anytime anyone enters and lives in your home it is a huge adjustment for all. You each have to learn what each others "normals" are and create a new "normal" together. Having him here was a huge adjustment for me especially as I was already going through another major adjustment bringing a new baby home just four months previous. It stretched me. Kids are by nature selfish. They need to learn awareness of others and especially of those that take care of them. You can take it from a newborn. It's expected. Being thrown into being a parent of a nine year old who has not had the most stable home environment since birth is another thing entirely. Any break I might have had from taking care of my baby and my three year old was filled with a chatty nine year old. I need lots of quiet. I'm an introvert. He was/is an extreme extrovert and thrives off of interaction. It was a lot of laying down of self. It created dynamics that didn't previously exist in my home. Big Boy D was already processing a whole bunch of jealousy with a new baby in the house. He was massively jealous/crazy when Cole came. It was a constant battle of wills and patience trying to get him to understand that he was still special but the world didn't revolve around him. That is a lot for a three year old who has had Mom and Dad to himself for three years of existence to learn!

     That chapter is closed now and though I love him with my whole heart I feel a renewed sense of peace in my home. We can work on our normal again.

     This morning was spent moving bedroom furniture from Cole's room to Darrell's while making a Happy Birthday phone call to my Mom. I put baby girl down for a nap then prepared and cooked a whole chicken with roasted veggies. The house smells wonderful. When baby girl woke up we went outside and kicked a ball around with Big Boy then came back in. They both went down for another nap! I processed the chicken and started boiling the bones for some bone broth then started journaling.

     Big Boy woke up and Daddy and him are playing table hockey with a milk top. It's an exciting life we lead here ;)

Sick-O

A glimpse at my night last night:

10:30 - I put Big Boy D to bed by reading him 3 books and turning off the light.
11:15 - tried to sneak out of his bed without waking him up. He woke up peed his diaper and started crying. I changed it put him back in bed and kissed him goodnight. This time I left because I didn't want to go through that again.
12:15ish - I'm still tossing and turning wondering why I can't sleep. I open my eyes to a brighter than usual light coming from the hallway. I get up to investigate and Big Boy is in the middle of his bedroom floor hunched over a library book. I smile at the adorable/annoying-ness of the scene. I read him as many books as it will take to satisfy him and wait till the inevitable yawning starts. Once again I turn off the lamp and crawl in bed with him until he falls asleep. I stay awake cause I can't sleep in his bed. End up back in my room around 1:30
2:00am-ish - I hear muffled sobs in the hallway. I get up to investigate and find Big Boy in the hallway with his pants off, sobbing inaudible whiny words with big alligator tears pointing at his bed. There is a big pile of throw up on the bed...I knew something was off. I just turn off the lamp, shut the door and leave it till morning (sorry if that's TMI but I just couldn't deal at that point). I put him in bed with me after washing his arms and mouth off.
3:00 am - I get woken up again by big sobs. He peed out his diaper and now our bed is a mess. We change him pull the comforter off and find some other blankets.
4:00 am - get woken up again by coughing and whining.
5:00 am - Wubs gets up and takes medicine for a headache...waking me up again.
6:00 am - I give up. I'm awake and child is too. He wants my phone to watch videos on. I let him. He passes out doing so. Then baby girl wakes up.
I'm up.

     I get them all ready and out the door by 11:00 because I have to get the cupcakes we made yesterday to the school for Cole's going away/early B-day party. I didn't want to put Big Boy in the car but I did because I had to. Since I was already out I figured I would try and get the shopping done so I drove the 20 minutes to the nearest grocery store. Just as I'm getting close to it I hear noise in the back seat. Big Boy is tossing everything in his tummy all over his lap and car seat. I drive back home without the grocery shopping done leaving him to sit in it for the 20 minute ride home. Get him home, strip him in the driveway and throw him in the tub. The rest of the day was naps and baths. He loves baths and it's the only thing that stops the I'm stupid sick whining.

     My poor little sick-O. It's the saddest thing when you feel like you can't do anything but try and make them comfy.

     Two things I am extremely thankful for in all of it. Baby girl slept the entire night. Not waking once with all the racket and noise her brother was making being so sick. That is a small miracle being that just a few months ago she was still getting up at least once a night. I was relieved not have to juggle two fuss budgets. The second being my washer and drier. I cannot imagine what woman did back in the day when they had to do all of it by hand...big chunks of puke floating in the water...drain and rinse, drain and rinse. I had to pre-wash the puke stuff and it was a small work out. I was thanking God for the privilege of owning my own washer and drier and being able to just throw the endless piles in. I'm still doing it now. So so thankful for modern conveniences. Warm baths for Big Boy, lots of blankets to cycle through and most of all not having to do all the laundry by hand or haul it all back and forth to a laundry mat with two littles in tow.


FYI...my husband is more than willing to help he just sleeps through most everything and works very hard during the day so I don't like to wake him for help with the littles. Last night he did get woken up though!

Poor poor bunny :(

Goodbye Cole Birthday Cupcakes

     Today was spent baking cupcakes with my 3 year old. His cousin who has lived with us for about 6 months asked if he could celebrate his birthday with his class before he left this weekend to move back in with his mother. All my three year old heard was “cupcakes”. I have spent much of my week explaining to him that his cousin will be moving out and all I get in reply is “Are we gonna make cupcakes?” He is a typical one track minded 3 year old when it comes to sugar. He makes me laugh. I love him so. I feel mixed feelings about his cousin leaving but feel peaceful about the decision. I think it is the right decision for all but I know it will be a difficult transition for Cole.
       Big boy D ate three cupcakes that hadn't been iced yet because he couldn't wait that long. We made rainbow chip and chocolate. When the icing was completed he kept taking big finger fulls out of the bowl. I told him he had enough and was gonna get a tummy ache. There was SOOOO much excitement over the cupcakes. He is currently crashed on our bed upstairs after complaining to me that his throat hurt. I'm pretty sure he over did it on the sugar today.
      Baby girl has had a napping day which is not normal for her. I think I wore her out the past two days taking the kids out and about to get them out of the house. She didn't really have long naps and it has caught up with her. Momma is enjoying rare moment of both her littles napping. It rarely happens.
     I’ve been watching The Great British Baking Show on Netflix. I’m obsessed with this show. I want to try to make everything they make. It gives me great inspiration. I’m looking at homemade cracker recipes right now. I never thought of making my own crackers until this show! My goal is to try at least one new recipe a week. We’ll see how it goes.

Hope always wins

Ecclesiastes 11:6

Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.

     This verse has been bouncing around in the back of my brain for a while now. I feel like I need to try different things and see which one will succeed. Should I offer beginner piano lessons in a new community with lots of children? Should I start a cupcake / specialty cake business? Should I figure out a way to make $ writing? Should I open an Etsy account and try and sell little hand made banners and things? Should I become a pre-school teacher and enroll baby D. in day care five days a week? Should I do all of these and see which one succeeds. Should I do none of them and just focus on raising my baby? Are we going to have another baby any time soon? If we do what will that mean for any of the above imagined income earning goals?

     All those questions and that verse have been pummeling my mind, will and emotions of late. I have decided to take baby steps and this is one of them. I'm starting again to blog/journal about my journey. I really wish I had this past year because it has been a whirl-wind of life with a home sale, living with family, moving into an apartment, house hunting, house hunting, house hunting and finally purchasing a home. The price tag scares me but the slogan was "affordable luxury" so it's affordable right? I feel so many emotions as I always do about big purchases. I just took a stroll to the mail box to pick up a stack of bills and it started a whole new pummel process. What if we can't? What if we don't? What if, what if, what if. 

     But what if we do? What if we succeed? What if this home was just as good an investment as the last one? Hope has a way of filling in anxious cracks as long as I have the presence of mind to allow it to. 

Hope always wins.

Here it is:

     It's clean and new and wonderful. 

     Moving is going slowly but surely. My tables are covered in my dish hutch contents and my dish hutches are still in the garage awaiting muscle to help bring them in:

     Wubs has been working 10 hour days 6 days a week. He moved to a new company the Monday following the close of our home (yeah...there's been a lot of transition here). All that and he still spent his Sunday getting a whole bunch of stuff done around here including cutting the patch of grass baby D. is lost in here:

    

Love that man!!

      We bought a home with an HOA and I was wondering when they were going to tell us to mow our lawn! They didn't. It would have gotten done sooner but some gas cans got misplaced in the move and it took a few days to track them down and retrieve them from a relatives home.

      Baby D. loves watching all the work going on around us in this development. He was watching the neighbors house get painted in the picture above. :) Little sweets. 

Now you know why I'm calling my blog "come here sweets"...It's a cute name for a cup-cake business and I say it several times a day to the little nugget above!

     He rarely responds.

     I usually have to chase him.

Timothy Lake Vacation, Baby Vaccines and Jeal-y Belly

    Ten days in the woods with a newborn. That was the beginning of my month. We survived. By the tenth day I was ready to be home though. Baby did great in the woods but if it wasn't for the small heater we had in our tent I would have been one freaked out momma worrying about whether or not he was warm. It gets pretty cold at night at Timothy Lake near Mt. Hood Oregon. It was pretty hot during the day. The days were in the 80's and 90's and at night it got down to the 40's. We do this every year and were it not for the smile across Wubs face that he was finally getting to bring his little to the lake...I'm not sure I would have exposed baby to nature when he was so, well, little. We all did fine though and had a great time. Wubs Mom's side of the family takes over the lake for the first week in August. We fill up the camp ground. You think I'm joking...

Here is the family pic of the mass of us:

     Good times. Since then I've been to a niece's birthday party where I took pictures of everything but the birthday girl. I did get these gems though:

     Grandma M. photobombing the pic of the two newest cousins, Grandma S. lovin' on the munchkin' and Daddy cuddles.
    I also went to a wedding shower since my last post where again I didn't take any pics of the bride to be...but I did get another gem. A pic of Grandma M. with cousin and baby:

     Today was a major bummer. Baby got his first set of vaccines. Three big shots and he screamed bloody murder...he made momma want to cry. He's been super sleepy today and you can tell his body is working over time. Poor bunny.
     Jeally-Belly tried to help. He has been super jealous of baby and has plastered himself against my side in a desperate move for attention. Baby head or feet get a soft furry pillow when nursing.

     Kitty is a bit ridiculous...but super cuddly cute. The only thing that gets the cat to move is when baby starts to cry for longer that a minute. Kitty gets stressed and looks at me with sad eyes and saunters off but he's usually back when baby calms. Everybody needs Momma. LOL.
     My days look a lot like this:

     Pretty sweet hugh?

Baby clothes, Timothy Lake meal planning and things Mom’s made

     Today I did a bunch of shopping. On my bed. In my pajamas… whilst feeding a baby. I really really hate shopping so to have the world at my fingertips, to be able to type in exactly what I want, see a bunch of different items, price compare, all within a half an hour…sheer bliss. I LOVE online shopping and amazon prime. I don’t have to waste time walking up and down isles, driving to a bunch of different stores and walking out with things that I spent too much money on and are not exactly what I want. I am notoriously unable to make decisions. Shopping presents endless choices and decisions and makes me crazy. This way, I get to type in exactly what I want, find it and get it. Number one on the list was finding ears for my baby to wear. Babies should wear ears as often as possible. I bought these:

     We are headed to Timothy Lake again for our annual family camping trip and baby had nothing warm to wear when the temp drops at night. Hence the shopping and buying of baby clothes. I also got baby another Mr. Man mini me outfit:

     Another thing on my list of things to do was to work on pictures of things my talented Mother has created. She lives to create and has spent the past couple weeks making the following creations. She’s trying to get an Etsy board up. Her creations are so unique and were both trying to find a way to market them. Hence, the pictures. Neither of us are photographers so we’re winging it here. This is a front shot of things she’s worked on this past month.

     Decorative bottles:

     Necklace:

     Napkin rings:

     Storage bins:

     Dessert tray/stand:

     Pin cushion:

     And my personal favorite, a friendship doll garland:

     Don't you just love their itty bitty hair and faces? So precious!

Sorry brownie

     Today was a happy day.

     I got in some early morning snuggles.

     I also got to visit with a friend for about three hours today. She brought her two littles with her. The youngest is almost two and the other is barley four. They are a joy to watch and oh so stinkin’ cute. Remember the pom pom garland in my nursery from yesterdays post? Funny story about my friends youngest and that pom pom garland. At one point in today’s visit I let my friend go up to my baby’s nursery to change her little’s diaper. Her little was fascinated by the pom pom garland strung across the ceiling. About a half hour after that diaper change my friend’s  little began announcing loudly that she peed and wanted to be changed again. She hadn’t. She just wanted to go upstairs and see the pom poms again. It’s amazing how manipulative smart children can be. I giggled and brought down another garland my Mom had made with the leftover string from mine and gave it to little. 

     I didn’t get a good picture of the smile that spread from ear to ear as I handed it to her. She immediately grabbed it and had it thoroughly knotted within’ thirty seconds. But it was an adorable thirty seconds. She loved it for five minutes then got detoured by something else. Kids. They are S.O. M.U.C.H. F.U.N. 

     In other news Mr. Man left the last brownie for me.

     Well…kind of. That’s the sorriest little excuse for a brownie I ever did see.

     LOL…just LOL.