Category: that’s just life

One Unpredictable Day

Thought I’d give a little update on the boys. It’s been a few weeks of weekend visits and things are going decently enough. There have been struggles in reintroducing an environment that comes with a lot of baggage, but it was expected to say the least. It’s just like in boxing: you’re not quite sure where the blow will come from, but you know it’s coming.

Big Guy has handled it the hardest, naturally. And I am thankful for a Sunday School teacher who just plans on holding him for ten minutes of a cry the morning after his visit. The tears can be provoked by anything really, though they also stemmed from a particular stressor. And I just love his dear Sunday School teacher all the more for being willing to meet him where he is and then let go when he’s ready to move forward.

Big Guy has been enjoying school to an extent and struggling some to another extent. School has been a big transition for him. Less play. More work. Missing out on “our life” here while he’s at school. And running his own schedule. There’s the responsibilities at school that tie over into home here. And the contrast of some of the lack of responsibility while at visits. It’s complicated. And in case you’ve forgotten, Kindergarten asks a whole lot about your family in the beginning. And there’s a poster to be made. And a presentation weekly about other people’s’ families. And that keeps things on your mind a LOT. Things that you have otherwise not really been thinking about when lost in the business of your little world.  And they won’t let him run wild like he did in preschool. And it’s hard to be held accountable (let’s be honest). So it’s looked like some lying and some physical aggression to another student after being instigated. But we’re still striving to maintain his heart as his world continues to take on more layers of complication and confusion. And we’re rewarding “green days” (best behavior at school) with immediate outdoor play and attention and bikes and bubbles and roller skates and… get the picture? Yeah, he’s starting to get it too. Sure beats extra chores, eh? Yeah, we’re hoping he agrees too.

And Little Man? Yep, he’s just trucking on.  Army crawling. Mouthing everything. Trying more table food. Drooling. Smiling. Laughing. And trying his hand at a bit of traditional crawling. You know, just by fluke. He’s oblivious. And much more consistent.  It’s morning wake up. And bottle and naps. And play and the surprise of mealtime food. And just good. And happy. He doesn’t seem too taken aback about visits. His digestion system has matured more so he’s not throwing up visit food anymore. And acid reflux is gone. (HALLELUJAH!!!) And seasonal allergies are controlled. And constant sickness is WAY a thing of the past. He’s showing some normal signs of attachment, some separation anxiety when dropped off in the church nursery and pointing and whining when picked up from babysitting/nursery experiences.Oh yes, baby. I’m convinced it was terrible. I’ll take you back. 😉  But really, the baby is just a much more predictable and well-rounded (in more ways than one) little man.

We’re looking at reunification for mid to late next month. Things can still change. But we are so close. And things are moving in that direction.

Kind of odd to not know if we’ll be celebrating Little Man’s birthday or sending his present with him.  Odd to be standing on the brink of change and goodbye and yet it still being a bit far off. So one day at a time we will continue to play it. That’s the way life goes. One day at a time.

One unpredictable day. =)

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At Bat

Well many things have happened since we last spoke, dear Readers. You’ll be seeing more entries popping up again. Summer is winding down to the last little lull of revamping before the school year begins. Things are returning to schedule and routine, which is lovely for this planner of a Mommy.

Since we last spoke:

  • Matt and I took the girls on a 3 day trip away and a 1 day “just us” return.
  • The boys had a MARVELOUS time at respite (staying at another foster home – sort of like babysitting) while we were away and were spoiled as well.
  • It sort of fell into our laps to have the possibility of enrolling Big Guy in Christian private school (with Mom giving the okay) and we’ve been riding the county and scraping together everything needed for enrolment since pre-registration. [Sidenote: Dude, enrolling a kid in school is intense PLUS the whole “you can’t sign for anything” side of foster care!]
  • We’ve all managed to catch a high-fever bug and pass it amongst ourselves, with the exclusion of Matt and myself.
  • Had an awesome playdate with an old high school friend and her two sweet boys.
  • Attended another good ol’ foster care license upkeep trainings. WOOT! (NOT!)
  • Had a girls morning out to Ikea with my lovelies, a friend and her little girl.
  • Played way too much of this online facebook game…. I’d tell you the name, but then you’d play too.
  • Took the masses out to a few traveling playgrounds in the area for fun-packed outdoor play that produced strong napping tendencies.
  • And signed MY oldest up for ballet – tear. I’m working through letting go, people… but I still have until she moves out for college.
  • Oh and my dear Rachael also started Piano Lessons with our dear organ/piano player, Ms. Betty. So that’s been quite fun to sit down for 30 minutes a day and help her practice as well as watch her build in confidence in her mastery of beginning music skills.

So that’s us lately… hence the reason for the silence in blogville.

But I’m getting it back together, people. =)

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13.1

I was asked once what the cure for laziness is.

Hard work.

No really, hear me out. The complete opposite of laziness is working your butt off. So want to overcome your idleness? Pray and work hard.

A friend put up a little status update on Facebook a while back. She was biting off a big one… the Air Force half marathon. I instantly remembered my triathlon training days.

Matt and I have made it a point to place health as a priority in our household. Almost everyone takes vitamins, we try to eat balanced meals, proper portions (which goes an awful long way), be careful how much soda we drink (we don’t usually keep it in the house or buy it at restaurants). But health goes beyond just eating and drinking. We try to provide the opportunity for enough sleep (sometimes it works better than other times), knowing that a lot of our impulse eating choices has to do with a weakened self-control filter, a byproduct of minimal sleep. But then there also comes the active lifestyle piece.

We decided to try to get some 5k’s on the calendar yearly. Realistically with past pregnancies and little kids in the household doing a jogging stroller friendly event is a must. We don’t mind walking during the more “full with child” times of pregnancy, but maintaining activity and exercise in our lifestyle is important in being ready to go and do all that the Lord has for us.

Then I saw my friend’s update. I reminded Matt of my bucket-list desire. We talked it over and within 48 hours we purchased our registration spots.

That’s right… we signed up for the airforce half marathon. 13.1 miles of pain.

My goal: Survival. And no walking. It doesn’t matter how slow I jog… there will be no walking.

Matt’s goal: keeping my slow pace.

I think he’s going to have to work harder than me since his stride is almost twice of mine.

But our training looks different from most. See, when I trained for the triathlon I was not married, and certainly no kids. I stepped back from social groups a bit and found myself running and biking (canoeing wasn’t available. I did that for the first time on race day) in almost all of my spare time. I found a plan online that took me from the couch to a triathlon in 2 months, and did it for 4 months.

Today, well look to the sidebar, friends… *ahem* there’s a bit more riding on my shoulders.

So training for us looks like running at 6am. Or at 9 or 10p when the kids are sleeping. Sometimes it’s cramming in a cardio workout (thank you p90x pain) with a baby on your hip. Or taking turns stretching with a baby teething on our legs.

See, we don’t believe our family should take the back seat. Oh they certainly have to make some sacrifices sometimes because Mommy and Daddy are some seriously smelly people after running on a Sunday afternoon. But we really don’t think our fitness should be at the expense of our children. So we try hard to meet the training needs while also guarding our time with the kiddos and each other.

It’s been going decently… you know, as decently as being dragged from the tailpipe of a car… over shards of glass. But we’re rolling with it. In all honesty I think I have recently made a breakthrough. The utter and complete pain after mile 1 has subdued to a, ironically, comfortable pain that I barely notice any more… well until the next hill comes. I honestly hit a point in my running yesterday that I thought I could go on for so much further than the run’s end. And I hit a lung maturity where I actually stopped breathing out of my mouth (don’t judge) and breathed out of my nose with my fly trap shut for a whole block. I don’t expect that to ever happen again, but it was nice.

We’ll hit the halfway mark this Sunday before Matt leaves for another week of youth ministry. Then I’ll have to run alone. Or, sniff, use the treadmill of death.

I’ve been told by a few people since starting this endeavor that they could not find the motivation to push themselves into exercise. I totally agree. That’s why we were speedy to pay our registration. Cause now we’re stuck. We are running come race day, ready or not. That motivates me to get out there in the heat (sometimes) and the rain (sometimes) and the bugs (all the time). I used to joke that it’s a pride thing now… how ugly am I going to look when I cross the finish line. But it’s really a Spirit verses flesh thing. Christ. Will. Overcome. I believe I can do all things through Christ. Now it’s time to strap my belief into my running shoes.

I am no runner, people. My left knee does not like me. I look like I’ve been hit by a car at running intervals and I feel like it for most of the first and last mile. And my face doesn’t stop looking like a tomato for hours after my run. But I am confident that hard work for Christ and calling on Him in my time of need (during every run) has brought my flesh into greater control than I could ever do from the couch.

In Christ Alone… 13.1.

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I’m Back

Hello, fellow friends!

So it’s been a little busy around here, please refer to the five in the side margin. That being said, we’ve been learning and growing and overcoming much over the past weeks of posting silence.

One huge obstacle is settling on a sleep training method most effective for our little Redheaded Stubborn. We’ve carved out the most affective sleep routine and have been implementing it for 2 weeks now. It has a mixture of snuggling, singing, nursing (as needed), fussing (as needed, due to those more socially overwhelming or overly tired scheduling realities) and MUCH MORE sleeping. While there are still hiccups (we’re in the teething stage, people and we’re doing our guessing time like a pro) and off-moments. Our little Hannah is having more sleep time and less exhaustion.

A second huge obstacle we’re overcoming is Little Man’s sleeping chaos – cause people it was some serious chaos for a while. Can you blame the sick boy? But there’s also the reality that Little Man is prone to illness, so the bro needed to learn how to work through the oogies since most of his winter sleep has and will most likely be (yes, it’s Spring but the weather doesn’t seem to reflect that) oogie sleep. That being said, Little Man is sleeping much better, not quite fully to “what a child should need to sleep to be at their best” standards, but much more age appropriately. And we’re beginning night weaning too since he’s MORE than old enough and responsive enough to our love over shrieking until a bottle is put into his mouth (one of the few constants in his past).

As a result of the two above paragraphs, things are once again taking a swing back to “normal” and we’re able to apply our minds to anything other than half-hearted and exhausted survival.

Oh and did I mention that we overcame lice again? (Sigh). And sadly, Big Guy’s loveably longer hair didn’t make it this time. So sporting a shorter and more grown-up cut, we’re welcoming in the Spring and hopefully nicer weather.

Homeschooling is happening more often than not (being real). So that’s nice. Cause like Rachael’s education being put on hold due to random sickness crisis is not a good educational goal here. And once again Ms. Commentator is thriving and glowing in her schooling blooming.

We’ve also been doing some fun projects and things that you’ll see here in pictures for the next few weeks. And while I can’t promise to always post a bazillion times like I was before *ahem* having 5 kids age 5 and under… I am happy to announce that I am going to return to my documenting/sharing routine.

So with laundry being ignored, a baby on my lap, and 4 down for nap… I’d like to announce “I’M BACK!!!!”

Ok, now I really gotta go do the laundry. It must get off my couch today…. MUST. I mean afterall it’s been living there for almost a week. HA!

Thanks for checking back and sticking with me.

– Hugs!

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