The Great Balancing Act

I have decided that I need to do a better job of balancing my writing, playing, and cleaning. While some days I do a lot of cleaning, those days I neglect to play with my children enough. When I blog a lot, cleaning gets forgotten. On the days that I play with my daughter a lot, no blogging is accomplished. I have decided that a little structure to my day wouldn't hurt anyone. So....

Before 9:00 AM-regular chores (dishes and laundry)
9:00 AM- exercise
10:00 AM- cleaning project
11:00- Craft with kids
11:30- Lunch
12:30-Video/relax
1:30- Play with kids
3:00- Nap time for kids/Writing for me
5:00- Make supper

She's in the Crib!

Ahhh! My 5 week old is taking a nap in her crib! That is big news around here. For the past 2 weeks things have been great with her except that I have to have her strapped to me with a snuggli when she sleeps. I decided that I would start to break her of that habit starting now because she is getting pretty heavy on my aching back. Plus, it gives me real one on one time with my 2 year old. I can actually run around and wrestle with her instead of playing beside her. I really hope this becomes a habit for the little one!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

It has not stopped raining for the past week! My husband has been wanting to cut the grass for nearly 4 days and hasn't been able to due to the rain or the soggy ground. Honestly, I'm sure he's not that disappointed since it takes 4 hours to cut the grass, but he's going to have to do it eventually. I certainly can't do it during the day when the kids are home! Today it rained extremely hard in the morning, but stopped fairly quickly. It hasn't rained since, so he might have a chance to mow tonight. Ahh, poor baby, Thursday night is the good t.v. night!

A Note About Trees

Another note about trees... If you want some trees for your lawn or land, now is a great time to buy. We went to Earl May and picked up our two Crab Apples for 40% off. The maple was 25% off and that was the worst deal of all the trees there. If you don't want to spend $200 bucks on a tree, buy in the late summer apparently.

We Have Trees

My husband and I finally got some trees to go with our new house! We wanted a slow growing tree and a couple of flowering trees for the Spring. We ended up with a King Crimson Maple and two pink Flowering Crab Apples. The Maple is gorgeous year round. It has dark red leaves all year. I love how the leaves contrast all the other foliage around our house. It's absolutely beautiful!

I know my baby!

After 1 month I feel like I have finally gotten to know my new baby! It seems like the last week has been night and day different from the previous 3. She cries less and sleeps more. It has been awesome! Apparently when she was crying before, most of the time she was just tired. Now that I have learned that fact, life has been a lot less stressful.

I am finally getting used to traveling around town with my two little girls as well. Every day I try to get out of the house. It's good for me and the girls to get out into the real world for a little while each day. Today we went to the park and had lunch with Daddy. Our toddler loved it!

Sweating Bullets in Church

Have you ever heard the statement: "Sweating like a hooker in church"? Well, at church today EVERYONE was sweating! Apparently the pastor thought it would be a good idea to move everyone to the pool for the service today. Since church starts at nearly 11:00 AM, we did not beat the heat.

I cannot even tell you how hot I was sitting in the 90 degree sun trying to sign and shield my eyes from the blinding water. Wow, I hope they don't decide to have another pool service in August again! We had a 2 year old and a 3 1/2 week old. If the service hadn't been cut a bit short my husband and I would have had to leave early.

Getting into the Groove

My newest addition is 3 weeks old today! I am really feeling good about our little family now. Sleep is a little hard, but the days I spend alone with the two girls are getting much easier.

I am finally getting into my own little groove. I used to have a routine with my two year old. However, once our new daughter was born, that routine was thrown out the window. She wants to nurse almost all the time, so there is just no room for the old schedule.

This is the second day I have actually felt in control of my day. I had a list of things to do and I have already accomplished them. Maybe I AM capable of being a mother of 2 babies!

Our New Life

Two weeks ago today my husband and I were blessed to have our 2nd baby girl. Although this life change hasn't been quite the shock as our first child, it is still quite an adjustment!

I am learning the art of balancing my sanity with a personal life, marriage, toddler, and newborn. I am pleased to say that today is my second day completely alone with the two girls and things are going swimmingly! I even have both of them sleeping as I type. I know days will not always be like this, but here's to hoping!

Mom's Vacation

My mom is in town. She meant to be in town when the new baby was born, but apparently that idea hasn't worked out. The good thing is that she will be available 24/7 to watch my daughter if we do have the baby soon.

I love it when my mom is here because we have supper cooked for us every night (including desert!). She folds the laundry and occupies my little girl when I need a rest. She is a great companion for a stay-at-home mom who usually never gets adult interaction during the day.

Tonight we are having lasagna because it also freezes well. She's going to freeze the rest of the food we don't eat for when she leaves. Ahh, don't you just love moms!

Happy Independence Day!

Yes, it's the 4th of July, but that is the last thing on my mind. I am due tomorrow and I feel no sign of baby what so ever. I really expected this day to be spent laboring, in the hospital, or nursing a newborn. Now, I have to rethink all of our family activities. We weren't going to go to the fireworks tonight, but now we are. We weren't going to do anything too active today, but we've already gone to the splash pad, park, and city pool. Wow, this day is not going as planned! Although I want to go into labor, I am thankful that I got to spend this last 4th of July alone with my daughter. I will always remember the 4th of July before baby brother/sister was born.

The Traveling Pregnant Woman

I am due to have a baby in 5 days. One of my dear friends is getting married today 2 hours away from my house and 2.5 hours away from my hospital. My husband and I were trying to decide if we were going to go. Some of my friends haven't seen my 2 year old in a year! Also, it may be the last time in a while that I am able to travel easily.

When I went to my doctor appointment yesterday, the doctor told me that he wouldn't be surprised if he saw me again next week. Although I now cervical checks don't mean much, it made my case to go to the wedding all that much more inviting.

Well, my husband and I came to our final decision. We are going to travel. The chances of having this baby in the next 6 hours are highly unlikely, so here goes nothin'!

Iowa Weddings

Iowa may have crazy weather. It gets extremely cold and windy in the Winter and devilishly cold during the summer. However, when you hit a nice day, the weather is priceless. It just doesn't get better than Iowa on a nice day!

My friend is getting married today and today is one of those beautiful days. It brings me back to the day I got married about 5 years ago. When we woke up it was storming and raining. Then, about 3 hours before I walked down the isle, the sun came out, the clouds parted, and the wind died. The weather was perfect for our special day.

I wanted to Congratulate Patrice and Bryant. I hope their life together is just as beautiful as the day they got married.

Online Bill Pay: hassle or convenience?

I have no switched about half of my bills over to my bank's electronic bill pay service. This is nice because save money on stamps. Instead of paying 39 cents to send a payment, I pay 25 cents for each e-check. It's nice. However, having dial-up Internet is a hassle with electronic bill-pay!

Instead of writing a check out in 40 seconds, it takes my computer about 5 minutes per bill to submit and confirm. Granted, once I get all my accounts in the system, payment will become much simpler. There will no longer be any addresses and phone numbers to input. I'll be able to put all my payments into one screen and hit submit.

You would think that it would be easier for me to just enter all my information on all of my billing accounts at once. Wrong! You try typing with a 2 year old running around trying to type with you. Combine that with about 10 million billing accounts and you've got trouble. I've been doing a couple a month. At this point there really isn't too much left to do. I cannot wait until this e-bill system is completely up and running!

Birth day is almost here

I am due to have my baby in 1.5 weeks. At my last doctor appointment I was 70% effaced and dilated to 1. However, he said my cervix was still in an unfavorable location because it's still towards the back. He said as labor approaches it will move forward. All in all, I thought this was good news. When I went into labor with my first baby, I was only 10% effaced an dilated to 1! At least I've got a head start on this labor.

I figure I'll try some nipple stimulation to get things going. hey, it can't hurt right?!

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Luke and Linsey had their baby!

I just wanted to announce that Luke and Linsey Schuldt had their baby on Thursday evening. His name is Levi and he was HUGE!! Linsey gave birth naturally to a 9 lb 4 oz little boy. WOW! Just visiting them in the hospital made me excited for the upcoming birth of our little one. I can't wait to have two little angels running around the house!

The Sleepless Toddler

I have a little girl who will be two at the end of next month. She has been virtually sleepless for the last month or so. Don't get me wrong, she does sleep. However, she doesn't sleep as much as I thought toddlers were supposed to sleep.

Naps are now virtually non-existent. I called the doctor and he said it was perfectly fine for her to faze out her naps this young. AHHH! I need that time to unwind and do thing around the house! Then, she doesn't actually go to bed until about 9:00. We try for an hour before she actually falls asleep.

You may think that a toddler who gets such little sleep must sleep through the night. Guess again! For about a month now she gets up and comes into our room about 2 or 3 times a night. It is exhausting!

My husband and I have tried every different method we can think of for getting her to at least sleep through the night again. We have another baby on the way (my blog: http://www.vbacadventure.com) and I am very worried about how much sleep I will actually be getting in a couple of months. Oh, the woes of motherhood!

Website to Check Before Applying for a Credit Card

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The Lonely Mommy

Being a stay-at-home mom can get lonely! Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love staying home with my daughter. She brings joy to my life I never dreamed imaginable. However, there are times that I crave some adult interaction.

When my husband comes home every night I seem to cling to him. It's like my only link to the outside world has now entered the house, so I need to soak up as much of him as possible. Although he understands, it has only been going on for two years. Soon we will be having a second child and I fear I will become even more clingy.

Right now I am working on becoming more active with adults. I have joined some playgroups with the hope that my daughter will get interaction as well as me. I have also started to plan a "girl's night out" night. We'll see how long that lasts with a newborn baby this summer. I'll keep you all posted.

Thank god for my husband!

My family and I recently moved into our new house. Since we built the house in the winter we were unable to plant grass on the exposed dirt (the ground was solid). This left a problem for the spring: Muddy dirt. Now my husband and I have the fun project of grading and planting grass seed. Since we have a two year old little girl, someone has to watch the baby while the other does yard work. Thank goodness for my husband!

Yesterday I watched from the comfort of my livingroom while my husband used a shovel to dig all the rock out from our land. Apparently some of our driveway rock had gone to the wrong spot and settled into the ground over the winter. He was sweating and sore by the day's end. Although I had a tough day trying to get my daughter to eat ANYTHING, I would take a toddler battle over physical labor any day.

My husband does so much for our household that I wouldn't even image doing. If I were a single parent I would be forced to pay for much of the work he has done. Thank goodness for my husband!