Month of Gratitude: Day 30

I'm thankful we've survived this year and that we have a new one on the horizon. I started this year with a theme word, Trust. I had an inkling of how meaningful that word would prove to be, but the reality turned out to be much more (and harder) than I imagined. As I stumbled through this year, freefalling through challenges that made no sense and broke my heart, I heard that word echoed in the deep recesses of my soul. In the last few weeks, new hope has sprouted in several areas of our life. There is a glimmer of excitement for the future, or at least relief from this season. And yet I know that if 2012 continues to present trials, we are still so blessed. All I have to do is look around and my heart is so very grateful.

For the record, I'm considering different words for 2012, like Easy, Blessed, Fun. Nothing like Patience, Growth, or Strength.

Month of Gratitude: Day 29

I'm thankful for our families. We live close to almost everyone, with a few exceptions (who we miss dearly). We're fortunate to have these people in our lives, and I am so grateful that our children are close to their grandparents and even great grandparents and many uncles and aunts and a handful of cousins. This time of year becomes a bit hectic trying to figure out the logistics, but it's such a blessing.

Month of Gratitude: Day 28

I'm thankful for the season of gift giving. I love Christmas. I love celebrating Jesus and spending time with family. I also love giving gifts (it probably helps that my love language is gifts, something my husband neither shares nor really understands). I love homemade gifts, but I also like to shop. And I love a good deal, which is why I stalk Amazon's lightening deals and scour ads, because let's be honest, I'm on a tight budget here and as much as I'd like to spend hundreds of dollars on hundreds of people, that's not going to happen. I know that in some circles this is an unpopular opinion, that conspiracies swirl about the evil plans of Hallmark and WalMart manipulating us to overspend and commercializing gluttony. I get that. But, on the other hand, I think it's a really nice opportunity to give a gift that tells someone you care about them and you think they would enjoy or appreciate this thing you're giving them.

Month of Gratitude: Day 27

In light of a horrendous loss last night by our beloved Bruins (and more heartbreak from the Chargers today) I thought it would be nice to remember all the reasons I do love that place. Also, Denver was 27 degrees yesterday while we were basking in 80 degrees.

I am thankful for UCLA!

Who wouldn't love this gorgeous campus?

As I look back at my senior year of high school and college years, it is so clear to me that God had a plan for my life that included UCLA. I didn't want to go there. I didn't even really intentionally apply there. I was applying to Berkeley and since the UC application is the same for all schools, I checked the UCLA box on a whim. I wanted to go to Boston University, and my parents were somewhat against that due to the outrageous cost. I was heartbroken at the time, but now I'm glad.

I made lifelong friends at UCLA, I learned how to live alongside of people very different than me, I loved my classes (I majored in Sociology) and within a few weeks of arriving on campus, I met the man I would eventually marry. I grew so much as a person.

I am just so thankful for the years I had there, for all of the experiences, good and bad. And in 16-18 years, I'm hoping my children will be Bruins, too!

Month of Gratitude: Day 26

I'm thankful for leftovers. My baby weight, which is still clinging on for dear life six months later, is happy, too, because those leftovers mean it will be sticking around a little longer. But dang, this pie is good.

Month of Gratitude.

I've been once again slacking on the blogging, but thinking about my blessings.

November 22:
So thankful not to be one of the 42.5 million Americans travelling for Thanksgiving. We only traveled about 15 miles, and the production and schlepping  accompanying that trek was more than enough!

November 23:
I'm thankful for a holiday with healthy children. Other thank Avery working on teeth  number 3, 4, and 5, both kids were pretty good. Carter always seemed to get sick for a holiday and would be hacking or dripping snot for one of the few times our extended family got to see him. He had a cold his first Thanksgiving and several holidays after and pneumonia last Christmas. I held my breathe as the days ticked by watching closely for the first sign of a sniffle, but they made it through!

November 24:
On a day devoted to giving thanks, we had so much to be thankful for. We spent a great day with family and ate too much delicious food and even more desserts.

November 25:
I'm thankful my children and I survived Black Friday. Carter, Avery, and I went to Target, Toys R Us, Cost Plus World Market, and various stores throughout the mall, including an absolutely insane Bath and Body Works. Whew.

Six Months of Avery

Dear Avery,

Today, you are six months old. Again, I can’t believe it. As I was thinking about this letter, I could not believe I would be writing your six month letter, I kept thinking my math had to be wrong. Somehow we’ve made it through half of your first year of life.

This month you have continued to show us more of your personality. You are LOUD. Most of the time you are happy and content, but over the past few weeks you have been vocalizing your displeasure very emphatically. You do not like to be ignored (or think you’re being ignored), you do not like to sit still, and you do not like it when your food is gone.

You have much more likes than dislikes, though. You adore your brother. He gets more laughs out of you than anyone else. You like to just watch him and listen to him. You’re probably laughing wondering how one person could have so much energy, and we wonder that, too. You are rolling so fast we have had a few instances where we actually could not keep up with you. We’re slowly succumbing to the reality that we just can’t leave you anywhere ever. Yesterday we moved the coffee table, rearranged the pillows to cover up a few edges, and let you roll around with a few toys. You have never been happier! You rolled from one end of the room to the other, throwing blocks and then recapturing them, for a solid hour. You also love food. I suspected that you were ready for food for a few weeks before we really started solids, and I could not have been more correct. You get so excited when you see the spoon. You love cereal, you like sweet potatoes and pears, and you are warming up to apples. Our biggest battle feeding you is to maintain control of the spoon and trying not to let you grab it and wrestle it in your mouth as soon as possible.

You have two teeth now. They broke through last week, and even though they’re not quite visible yet, we feel them when you chomp on our fingers. You’re sleeping better, minus a little rough patch last week. We spent two nights in a row up with you at hours when the whole world should be sleeping. It was like having a newborn all over again. I’m hoping it was those teeth and not a new trend. A few nights you’ve slept from your late night bottle to about 6am, which is glorious. We’re hoping for more of that.

I made one big change to our routine this month. Previously, I had been feeding you and then getting you ready for bed, but that was just too much for you. I think you were getting too tired and then you wouldn’t sleep, and since we were putting you down in your room with your brother, his wild antics were waking you up even more. We started getting you ready for bed and then feeding you and it’s made a huge difference. Now you fall asleep in my arms while I feed you. Those moments at the end of the day are some of my favorite. I love holding your sweet, cuddly, pajama-clad body while you drift off. It’s really the only time you’ll snuggle now, so I cherish those moments and draw it out a few extra minutes before I put you down. I will remember those moments forever.

So much love,

Mama

Month of Gratitude: Day 21

Today my precious baby girl is six months old. I am so very thankful for the blessing she is to our life and how perfectly she completes our family, just the right combination of happy and sweet with enough spunk to hold her own around here. I am eternally grateful that God had different plans than ours for our family!

Month of Gratitude: Day 20

I'm thankful for garage sale finds! Growing up with my mother, garage sales were truly a way of life. No one does garage sales like she does. It seems, for better or worse, I've inherited a piece of that gene. One of my favorite things to do is go garage sale-ing with Carter. This has really only started since Avery was born. Usually I'll wake up with him, feed Avery, and when she goes down for a nap we go out on our adventure. Many Saturday mornings he wakes up saying "Mama, I wanna go on a abenture!" Sometimes we stop for breakfast, it is such precious time with him. Hearing his little voice sing "garage sales, where aaaare yoooou?" melts my heart!

This Saturday was quite successful. For less than $50 I brought home:

This Baby Eintstein play mat in brand new condition:
This tool box, complete with a not pictured work bench:

This book (and another one based on The Wild), for a quarter each!



A stroller similar to this one (it needs a little love, but for $15 I couldn't pass it up!):

Plus a few platters, more books, and clothes. Most importantly, I had a fun morning with my son.  I wish I had a picture of his face when he saw that tool bench. His eyes lit up! All morning he kept talking about the really nice lady with the tools and going on and on about how that was really so lucky. I cherish these little Carter and Mama dates.

Month of Gratitude. Many days.

I'm still slacking. This week was all kinds of busy. So here's a compilation of gratitude:


Day 16:
I'm thankful for other people being willing to be vulnerable and put their lives out in the open, even the hard parts. I think blogging has done a lot for us in that realm and hopefully helped us all realize that no one is perfect and we've all got our own junk in the proverbial trunk.

Day 17:
I'm thankful for easy dinner options. Sort of lame, I know. But I was able to microwave Gorgonzola chicken with baked sweet potatoes and a vegetable medley tonight for dinner thanks to Trader Joes and my microwave. If I had to spend 4 hours a day cooking, I don't know, stew over sticks and hot rocks, I wouldn't last very long.

Day 18:
I am so thankful for Fridays at home. I went back a little earlier than I would have like after I had Avery. It made sense for everyone, and now I get to take off Fridays for a while and use my remaining maternity benefits. It is so fantastic to have that day with just her and I, something really special, especially with a second baby. This week was not so pleasant, little miss is still working on her bottom front teeth and protesting naps, but I still enjoyed the day with her.

Day 19:
This is so strange to post, and I'm sure someday my son will hate me for this, but I'm thankful Carter actually pooped in the potty tonight. This is a big step for him, and it gives me hope that someday I won't be changing 25 diapers a day. Ah, the life of a mother with young children.

Month of Gratitude: Day 15

I didn't get around to posting last night. It was one of those days at work that I was glad when it was over, and then the night wasn't so fantastic either. In conclusion, I'm thankful for a new day. That's the beauty and curse of life, tomorrow is always a new day.

Month of Gratitude: Day 14

I'm thankful for computers and technology. It occurred to me as I was running reports and calculations yesterday that my life would be much more complicated without it and my job would probably not be very enjoyable.

Month of Gratitude: Day 13

I'm thankful for a church to call home. We've been going to theMovement for over 6 years now. If you're looking for a church in North County, we'll take you with us to check it out.

A little history (hang in there, this will hopefully come full circle)... When we first got married, I was so unsure about a few things in our life. I graduated from UCLA early, moved back to San Diego, got married, and started a new job within about two months, and there was a major knee surgery for Seth in that mix too. The hard part was I loved UCLA (more on that later) and I loved my friends there, all of whom were still there in their senior year. I loved my husband and being married, but I wondered if we should have joined Campus Crusade staff or spent a year abroad, which many of our friends were doing. I longed for more, or maybe just different. I had spent so much of college really involved in ministry and the lives of others, the pace of an 8-5 job and "normal" life was quite an adjustment.

In the midst of this wondering and longing, we searched for a church. We visited a few, honestly probably looking for what we had left. We walked into theMovement one Sunday and stayed. We started inviting others. We felt particularly called to invite Seth's cousin (hi Heather!) and her then boyfriend. They started coming and inviting more people, and then her sister came and then another cousin and another sister and eventually it was pretty much a family reunion every Sunday. It's changed a little since then (we now typically go to 8am service where we see about 7 other people who also rose with the sun) and the church has grown a lot since then, in numbers and spiritually. This really had very little to do with us, I'm sure God would have brought all of those people back to church without Seth and I even being in the same city, but we were blessed to be a part of it. If we had been at UCLA or on staff with Crusade in another city or doing ministry in South America, we wouldn't have been here, we wouldn't have started going to theMovement and we wouldn't have invited anyone along with us. It's a reminder to us that 1. sometimes things that seem less than amazing and boringly normal have a lot more going on behind the scenes, even if it's not entirely what you wanted or envisioned and 2.  family is a very important ministry.

Month of Gratitude: Day 12

I'm thankful for hot showers. It's one of the only moments I get to myself, and it's a luxury so many people don't have.

Month of Gratitude: Day 11

I'm thankful for a much needed date night. Tonight I hung up the mama hat and put the wife hat on, one that's become a bit dusty at times out of necessity. We had dinner at BJs, a place that will probably always remind us of college and the beginning of our relationship. We walked around the mall, stopped at Kohls, and filled up my gas tank. These are not terribly exciting things, some of them are pure necessities, but they were practically luxuries sans infant and toddler. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids and I actually enjoy shopping with them, but tonight I felt so independent! We talked over dinner instead of passing kids and utensils and toys back and forth and lingered leisurely. It's only the second time we've been out since Avery was born, and it's not always the easiest choice, nor the simplest proceeding to get out of the house. But it was worth it.

Month of Gratitude: Day 10

Today, I'm just thankful this week is almost over. It's been a rough one.

Month of Gratitude: Day 9

I am (begrudgingly) thankful for a new phone.

I do not like new things. I really do not like when I don't know how to do something and I dislike the process of figuring it all out. I get easily frustrated during this process, as my husband can attest. However, my old phone was basically useless when he scroll button died and I was ever more frustrated during the week it took IT to order the new one.

I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually and today I'm very thankful to actually see the texts I'm getting and be able to navigate the menus and all of those necessary things.

Month of Gratitude: Day 8

This sounds so spoiled and pretentious I almost hesitate to admit it, but I'm thankful for Starbucks, especially today.

I don't know if it's the time change or something else, but neither of my children have wanted to sleep the last few nights (this is another one of 10 million times I'm so thankful to have a husband who is an awesome co-parent who also gets up in the middle of the night, two thankfuls in one!). The past few nights, Avery has been up at least five times a night and Carter is waking up way too early and up a few times the last few nights too.

So this morning, I stopped at Starbucks. I try not to drink a lot of caffeine, and many days I don't have any. Some days I just need a little help. Plus it helps me psychologically slow down and settle into the day, even if the night didn't go as well as I would have liked.

Month of Gratitude: Day 7

I almost hesitate to say this, but I am thankful for Pinterest.

True, it can be a huge black hole of all time and energy. On the other hand, it inspires me. It makes me remember that I am a somewhat creative-ish person and I could make beautiful things if I gave myself the time. It lets me dream a little. I probably won't ever have this amazing shower or this one, but I like to know they exist somewhere. It has helped me bring new and tasty treats to the table. It has encouraged me to put some love into a home I'd already somewhat checked out of emotionally. It gives me great ideas for crafts with my artsy munchkin. I've been amused by smart products and handy ideas. Words there have spoken to my soul and made me laugh. Sometimes both. So thanks pinterest and whoever created you. You came into my life at a really good time.

Month of Gratitude: Day 6

I am so very thankful for humor. I don't think I could survive this season without humor. My husband is funny (in his own way, but it keeps me laughing), my son is the most hilarious child I've ever encountered.

Sometimes, if I didn't laugh, I think I would cry. So I'm thankful I have another option. A real life example- Friday, our For Sale sign fell over.  Even our sign is giving up on actually getting this house sold. That sign has been out there so long it was finally overcome by the elements. It was completely shattered, shards strewn across the sidewalk, post entirely up rooted from the yard. I just started laughing.

Month of Gratitude: Day 5

I had a few technical difficulties this weekend and a few more schedule conflicts, i.e. I had no time to sit down and write. But I thought about it each day, and I'll be catching catch up my posts today.

Day 5
I'm thankful for a double stroller! I agonized for months over what to buy. Actually, it was over a year. I started researching as soon as I found out I was pregnant with Avery and just couldn't take the plunge and buy it. I looked at $900 models, which is ridiculous. Seth accurately pointed out that we could probably spend less than that to pay someone to carry our children for us on the limited occasions we actually need a double stroller. I finally bought one that was a Target daily deal and one on sale at Babies R Us and we're debating between the two.

I took both kids to the mall Saturday morning, which would have been nearly impossible without a double stroller. I took the tandem stroller. I originally thought I wanted a side by side one, but after almost knocking down everything in every store, I've decided the width of a side by side is totally impractical for the mall. Then again, so are two young children... Nonetheless, it was a fun outing and I was really glad to be able to get out and have a "fun adventure" (in Carter's words) with my kids, and a fun lunch with my boy while Avery slept. He's a good date! Except that he steals my food.

Month of Gratitude: Day 4

Today I'm thankful for the weather. It's gloomy and rainy and blustery outside, a perfect fall day. After spending a day in the snow last week in Denver, I remember all the reason I like living somewhere I don't deal with snow too much. On the other hand, November 1 was about 90 degrees here and I don't like that. I just want the seasons to feel like they should, even if that's San Diego's version of a somewhat mild season.

I think a gloomy weekend snuggling on the couch watching movies would be just perfect. We'll see what my busy two year old thinks of that!

Month of Gratitude: Day 3

My job.

There are many, many days I wish I was home with my kids, but I don't want to lose sight of the blessing this job is to me and my family. It challenges me, helps me grow, keeps me interested, and is a really great company. More tangibly, it helps us keep food on the table and a roof over our heads.

Month of Gratitude: Day 2

My husband. He's just enough crazy to keep me laughing and solid enough to keep me grounded and sane. Plus he's a fantastic dad. And a million other things.

A month of gratitude.

It's no secret that 2011 has been a rough year around here. I am more than ready for a fresh start of 2012. I was talking with a friend recently about this, and she said that she feels the same way, but she also wants to enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas. That resonated with me, because I never want to find myself wishing life away. Plus, I'm slightly obsessed with Christmas and sometimes I glaze over Thanksgiving in my excitement. I thought this would be a good year to slow down and remember the blessings and reflect during this time. So, my goal (and it's a lofty one for me!) is to count a blessing each day.

I'll start with an easy one. My sweet babies, such incredible gifts.

They are reason #1 to slow down and enjoy the moment. They have taught me, more than anything else, that time stops for no one and soon enough we'll be on to the next season. They grow entirely too fast to be wishing time away.