Category Archives: home

faith, holidays, home, mommyhood

Christmas Eve, Y’all. 

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Time stamp: 1:49am, December 25

Santa’s presents are out. The rest of the presents are wrapped. The tree is lit, as it will be all night. The stockings are hung by the chimney with care, and sugar plums are just out of my field of vision. 

Hubby and I spent seven hours today at church, preparing for and carrying out three Christmas Eve services at our sweet church. I loved it- every moment. It was awesome to be on stage with the “all-star team” (Hey guys!) and see people from every service mingled in together. I’m a fan of church on Christmas Eve to get you in the right mindset before Santa and his BS take over. My kids are basically to young to get that gifts are because we love each other, so unfortunately (fortunately?) we haven’t bothered to worry about missing out on most of Christmas Eve, stretching bedtimes and naptimes to accommodate our crazy musical schedules and particular family dynamics. 

But in the midst of tantrum big toddlers, five-month-olds who won’t sleep, and burgeoning excitement over cookies, presents and pajamas all day, I’m pushing through my tiredness for fun. I’m going to ignore the clock, snuggle with the Hubs and just come to terms with the fact that I will be s little strung out tomorrow. 

Because it’s Christmas. And I love y’all. 

Have an amazing day tomorrow. Merry Christmas. 

When you try to go to bed but you still have a bow.
faith, home, mommyhood, My Big Jesus, women

Things a Mom Can Do When She Sleeps All Night

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This also appears on My Big Jesus!  

It’s no surprise that moms frequently don’t get enough sleep. If they aren’t woken by babies or kids or pets, they’re up worrying about why they haven’t been woken. But on the odd day that a mother wakes, all on her own, having rested fully the night before, she transforms into an amazing creature… a superhero of sorts. She can take on the world in a whole new way, and she’ll only need two cups of coffee to do it! Here are some things a well-rested mother might do if she sleeps the entire night:

1. She will wake up with her first alarm. She won’t even hit snooze. She’ll just stretch her arms wide, take a deep breath, and start her day with a smile.

2. She will cook herself a hot breakfast, and not share it with anyone. Frying eggs, brewing coffee, and toasting bread, all before her children wake up.

3. She will make pancakes, and not even be annoyed about it. Special breakfast will be no big deal, and the children will give her a cheer!

4. She will pack the children up for an outing before lunchtime. She is excited enough to hit the park AND the grocery store – in one fell swoop!

5. She will actually eat lunch! And I don’t just mean whatever her kids leave on their plates. She will fix herself a sandwich, alongside the children’s healthy meals she will patiently coax them to eat. 

6. She won’t turn on the TV. She doesn’t need background noise or distraction for the children. She is so energetic! She will become tickle monster or professional storyteller before the TV comes on.

7. She will plan a healthy and delicious dinner for her family. Since she went to the grocery store, the kitchen is her oyster as she minces garlic, chops peppers, sears steak and bakes cookies.

8. She will tackle bath time, pajama wielding, tooth brushing and story reading all in time for an early bedtime. She is fearless as she enters the witching hour fray. 

Why, oh why, can’t this well-rested woman be you? Because she’s mythical, of course – an idealized version of you when you get even six hours of sleep in a row. In other words, she is a very figment of our imaginations. Everyone knows that mothers don’t sleep!

crafts/diy, holidays, home, mommyhood

Easy Peppermint Ornaments 

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One evening, I was scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed, and saw that my friend Marcie had posted cute pictures of what looked like peppermint-swirled ornaments. Intrigued, I clicked and found out she had made them with her son! She posted some easy directions, and I filled in the blanks and made them with EK one afternoon!

I bought some Brach’s Star Brites, and EK spent several minutes taking the mints out of their wrappers…
And she was wearing only her tights. Because threenager. After we had a bowl of them ready to go…

I chose some metal cookie cutters that weren’t terribly detailed, spread them on a cookie sheet, and sprayed them down with some Pam.  
EK placed the candies flat to the pan inside the cookie cutters until she couldn’t easily fit any more. The ones that looked like they needed more mints, I broke a few into pieces and stuck them in (the snowflakes in particular). Following Marcie’s instructions, I then put them in a 300 degree oven, and waited. At first, I thought I was going to be waiting forever; nothing seemed to happen for the first 6 minutes. But when they melted, they MELTED. So I took them out!
  
(That was the ugliest. And it also broke. Yikes.)

As you can see, they melted maybe a little too much… and also, it didn’t help that my cookie sheet was warped, and the melted candy seeped out from underneath the cookie cutters. Oops. But the stuff off the edges came off easily while it was still hot (I scraped with a toothpick) and broke off easily when I hadn’t gotten it all off before it hardened. I took a toothpick and stuck it upright in each shape to be the hole for the fishing line. I waited for them to cool completely, and slid them (surprisingly easily!) from their cookie cutters. They were REALLY brittle. A few broke in the process, and I accidentally dropped two more and broke them as well. They were quite greasy, and I wiped them with a paper towel. But once the ones that had survived were strung up and on the tree, I really liked them!
I think I wasn’t watching closely enough, and let them get too hot, because they bubbled up in a few places. Watch really closely, even when it seems like nothing is happening!
  

Obviously, they’re made of sugar, so they’re a one-season type craft, but it’s so easy and cheap, I’ll do it every year! You should definitely try making them!

home, mommyhood, random thoughts, women

Why I Decided To Stop Breastfeeding (And You Can, Too)

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Breast is best. Did you know? Breast is best. Everyone tells you that. If you don’t know that, you must be totally secluded from women or parents or doctors.

But if you ask me, sometimes, breast isn’t always best.

There. I said it. For me, breastfeeding has been difficult. I have three children, and I have breastfed all of them for various amounts of time. Two nursed only a few weeks, and the rest of the time were fed with bottles of expressed milk or formula. My middle child managed to nurse for 8 months (an incredible accomplishment for both of us), and even though I was also pumping, my supply wasn’t enough for that to be his only nourishment.

I’ve taken supplements, consumed my weight in water, eaten healthfully and plentifully, done everything I could to keep my supply up… It’s just never worked. For me, no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t keep up with my hungry babies. And in my household, a hungry baby made for an angry baby, which made for stressed mom, which made for upset dad, and very little sleep for all of us. Our sanity was going out the window, so we threw “Breast is best” to the wind, and supplemented with formula. Our babies grew and grew, were happier and happier, are rarely sick and the most fun and intelligent kiddos I know.

Just this week, as my youngest turned four months old, I had a difficult conversation with Hubby. “I’m tired,” I said tearfully. “I’m stressed, and I want those two hours of my day back.” Those two hours I spend pumping. Those were two hours that I could be spending time with my children, writing, reading, showering, folding laundry, or SLEEPING were always sacrificed to the milk machine. I slaved at the pump to get less than three bottles a day for my little guy (who eats like a horse – what will I do when he’s a teenager?!) when I could be feeding him formula and actually playing with him during those times. Instead, my free moments while the kids were asleep, at school, or playing with Daddy were spent in my room getting a few ounces of what everyone told me was the best thing for my child.

So I stopped.

I stopped my supplements. I stopped charting my water intake. I stopped stressing about a schedule. I weaned myself off the pump.

Y’all, it feels great. I’ve gotten more sleep, spent more time with Hubby and the kids, and I’m less stressed about how I’m going to plan those hours into my day. Breast was only best for so long… and then it wasn’t anymore. Don’t crack under the pressure if it’s not working for you. I’m not staying don’t try – you absolutely should give it a shot. For so many, it is the best. But if it’s not, that’s okay. You’re not broken and neither is your child. There are other ways to nourish them, and certainly other ways to bond with them. You do you, mamas, however it works. That is the best.

crafts/diy, holidays, home, mommyhood, random thoughts

Currently

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Happy Monday! Christmas is in full swing around here. I’ve even wrapped two presents! Okay, fine. Those were for a Dirty Santa swap we did with our small group last night, but still. It counts! I’ve been spending time doing a little extra baking than usual, making holiday plans, coordinating who gets to attend which parties (why are so many of them on the same day?!) and still trying to find time for little things with just my five family members. It’s surprisingly tough. Anyway, I’m linking up today with Becky at Choose Happy and the other wonderful bloggers to talk about what we’ve been up to currently. Link up, comment, and join us!

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Wearing || all my favorite sweaters! It’s finally cold enough to wear a sweater without getting hot during the day, so I’ve busted out my favorites…

Crafting || with peppermints! I’ll post about this later when we’ve done it, but my plan is to melt peppermints (hard candy ones) inside metal cookie cutters to make ornaments! A friend had posted pictures of their (successful!) attempt at it, and I thought it looked like a cute and easy way to let the kids do a fun craft. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Playing || Heads Up! We’ve always loved this as a party game, but last night with our small group buddies, we played for over an hour! We really like it, and the fact that you can get new decks when you start repeating (and there are always updates) is really handy. It kills your cell phone battery, but it’s just so fun! We had a great time with the Act It Out category last night.  

   

Eating || Breakfast with Santa! EK was the only one that got to go (boys were at the doctor that morning) but she had a great time with her grandparents and cousins! She told Santa she just wanted candy canes. Ha! 

 Watching || Disney on Ice! We went with our sweet friends (who have kids almost the exact same ages as our three) to Greensboro to see it, and I’m so glad we did! It was almost too long… J got a little antsy towards the end, but we all made it through, and they were enthralled! 

    
 

Well, there is our family update. What’s been going on with you and yours?

faith, holidays, home, mommyhood, random thoughts

Slow Down.

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Y’all. Time is flying. Weather is cooling, decorations are twinkling, and the days go by so quickly! That could have a little bit to do with the fact that the sun is only up for ten hours, but eh… who is paying attention to that?

This season of waiting, of already and not yet has even more meaning this year. Not only are we celebrating the coming of Christ as a helpless babe, but we are also celebrating Christmas… a first christmas for D, a second for J (and likely his first in memory) and a fourth for EK (and she is all about the traditions since she remembers some things from last year). 

We also have parties, church services and gigs to plan for. This is all in addition to leaving town all of next weekend, and leaving the kids with my parents. Hubby’s cousin is getting married, and I am turning 30. It just seemed like the right time. But what will we be missing when we go?

EK remembers our advent calendar each day, and understands when we tell her something special is happening. For instance, tomorrow we have breakfast with Santa with Hubby’s family, followed by Disney on Ice with some dear friends. It makes for a busy day, but a wonderful time  for our kids. I am just as excited as they are! 

But there is some trepidation there. With our littles, it’s proven to be hard to get anywhere, much less on time. It’s hard to pack everything we need, feed everyone on time, and let everyone get their rest when they need it. I know this is a season, and a short one in the grand scheme, but I am lost in the details. 

I am struggling to not lose sight of the important things, as I cross off my to-do list, see my gift-buying list get shorter, and attend more events than I ever thought possible. How did I get so busy? Didn’t I decide to stay home so that life could be more simple? It just seems more hectic as we get closer to Christmas. 

I know I’m not the only one feeling this way… I can’t be. Others have full plates or young children or both. All parents balance their work and home lives, and try to make Christmas magical for the children. But as life gets crazier, I find myself pining for morning pajama dance parties, pb&j lunches and movie-watching evenings. I just want to relax and read Christmas stories with my family, and there doesn’t seem to be time. 

So here, in the eleventh hour, I choose to slow down. I’m not adding anything else to my full calendar, or looking for any other happenings. I want to watch Christmas movies more evenings than not. I want to drink hot chocolate. I want to drive around our neighborhood, looking for lights. I’ll unplug, bake cookies, take naps, and read those Christmas books over and over. My kids will love it, because they love slow time with us. They’re not begging to travel or go to events. They’re not asking for fancy toys and huge presents (yet, anyway). I will slow down and enjoy this magical time of twinkly lights, sugary treats, family and friends, and the baby Jesus’ birth. We all need it. We all need love and grace and hope that even in a busy, and sometimes scary world, there are good things. 

food, food, holidays, home, mommyhood

Currently: Thankful

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Hey everyone! Look at me getting this out on a Monday! It’s like all my kids are napping at the same time, or something… I hope everyone had as wonderful a Thanksgiving as we did. I’m linking up with Becky at Choose Happy again this week, so join us and let us know what you’re up to currently!

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Thankful for || my family. Y’all, Thanksgiving was great. It wasn’t busy, and it wasn’t the most exciting one we’ve ever had. But it was great. My parents were here for most of the week, and my brother and his girlfriend were here for a day and a night. We really loved having them in town, and a low-key Thanksgiving was just what we needed.

  
Anticipating || Christmas. As I’ve mentioned before, advent is my favorite time of year, and I’ll probably say it again. The idea of already and not yet is the beauty of the Gospel. Jesus has already come and saved us from our sins, but he’s going to come again! The opportunity to celebrate this again and again every year is exciting to me, and I would “do Christmas” every day of the year!


 Listening to || Glory in the Heights. It’s a song written by the friend of a friend, and we incorporate it in our Christmas worship services at my church. Here’s the YouTube of the story behind it. You can download it on Noisetrade! It’s SO GOOD.

Baking || sugar cut out cookies! My kids love them, and love making them. The recipe I have (I’ll try to post it this week!) is okay to freeze, so we are going to make a double batch, and freeze some dough in small chunks so we can make a few cookies fairly often. It’s hard for us to finish a whole batch of something before they’re stale, so I love to use recipes I can either half or freeze.

  

Cleaning || all of the things! I had a really productive day today, folding a lot of laundry, several loads of dishes (we were really lazy after dinner last night), cleaning the floor and counters in the kitchen, and changing sheets on every bed in the house, I was feeling like superwoman. There was a lot of coffee involved.

So now, tell me… what are you up to currently?

faith, holidays, home, mommyhood, My Big Jesus

Trimming the Tree: Thought Processes of Preschoolers

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This post also appeared on My Big Jesus!

I was so excited this year to get my Christmas decorations out and spend an evening with my family trimming the tree. Advent is my favorite time of the year and I love starting the season with music and lights and family.

I got box after box of carefully wrapped decorations from the attic, as visions of sugar plums danced in my head, and as my mother forcibly held my almost 2 year old son back from climbing the ladder after me. My 3 1/2 year old daughter, well-acquainted with the magic of Christmas, danced around the room, alternately shouting about how excited she was about the artaments and shouting at her brother to not break them.

We unwrapped the shiny, sparkly goodies and helped the first round of them get on the tree. I put the most fragile as high as I could, and let the kids do what they could reach. J quickly lost interest upon learning that actually putting the string around a branch was difficult, and resorted to pushing all the buttons on the ones that made noise (cue the off-key renditions of Disney songs and light shows that could cause seizures).

Having only broken a couple of ornaments so far, I felt like it was going well. The next day, however, as I admired our handiwork, I noticed a few things. This is what my preschoolers must’ve thought:

First of all, ornaments look best on the bottom of the tree. Either that or they didn’t bother to reach above their waistlines. Clusters of ornaments hang at my knee level and below, mostly including the “fun ones” or ones that my daughter made.

Secondly, once a kid got hooked on one branch, it had to have at least four ornaments before moving on to the next one. Branches are weighed down so heavily that I’ve moved several ornaments off to relieve pressure.

Third, similar ornaments must be hung together. If they came in a set together, they were meant to be hung near each other. Why spread them out evenly? (Close proximity of polka dot hats and silver garlic blubs – thanks Hubby for pointing that shape out.)

Lastly, the tree is not the only place for ornaments. The kitchen table, nightstands, and the middle of the floor are all acceptable places for tree ornaments to be residing. Note: if they make noise, they’re in a kid’s hand all the time.

All in all, I kinda dig it. I can have a tree worthy of Southern Living when I’m an empty-nester.

faith, home, mommyhood, My Big Jesus

He Is Secure, Even If I’m Not

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This post also appeared on My Big Jesus!  

 This weekend, unbeknownst to me, Hubby transitioned my little tiny baby J into his big boy bed.

Okay, so he’s not so tiny. But he’s still a baby, right?!

J won’t be two till just after Christmas, and even though he has an actually tiny baby brother, he himself is still a baby. A toddler, maybe, but in many ways still a baby. He needs snuggles and has warm milk at nap time and won’t use the potty and should still be contained in his crib. 

But while I was out on Saturday, Christmas shopping with my sisters-in-law and my mother-in-law, Hubby put J down for a nap in the queen-sized bed (that’s already in his room for lack of another place to put it). We had been talking about moving him into it, and letting J get used to the idea, but hadn’t made any real plan for when it would happen.

With EK, we tried to move her to a big girl bed too early. We were preparing for J’s arrival, and just couldn’t get her to stay in her big girl room, so she slept in his nursery even after he was a couple of weeks old. She wasn’t ready, and she was not going to sleep there until she decided it was time.

Now on Saturday (with no warning, may I add), I just received a picture text from Hubby of the video monitor, pointed at the bed, with a tiny spot of J somewhere near the headboard. I couldn’t believe it! Tears came to my eyes when I thought of my little baby boy, asleep in that giant bed, without me snuggling next to him. Surely he can’t be ready! He must feel so scared alone in that huge bed!

But he wasn’t scared or sad. He was ready. I was the one who wasn’t.

Upon further conversation, I learned that he didn’t go immediately to sleep, but he slept soundly once he was. He has even spent two nights and another nap in the bed, only escaping the room a couple of times before drifting off.

He isn’t even my last baby, but I’m not ready to lose the crib. What if he misses it? What if he asks to sleep there? But it’s my security blanket, not his. I’m the one that wants to hold him back. But he knows that his needs will be met, his fears will be stilled, and he can be brave because he is loved and taken care of. He is secure.

food, holidays, home, mommyhood, random thoughts

Currently

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I just can’t get my updates out on Mondays anymore. Sheesh! I guess not much has happened since my update on Thursday, but here goes anyway! I’ll link up with Becky as usual! Here’s what I’m currently doing…IMG_0614

Eating || fried eggs. Why I’ve just rediscovered their deliciousness, I’m not sure. But I cannot get enough of them! I’ve always loved eggs in basically any form, but right now, frying them (over medium) is my jam.   

  Listening || to Christmas music! Not all day, every day yet, but the local radio station has switched over, and I’m also planning my advent music at church, so it’s just been a nice transition. 

Enjoying || the lovely weather right now! We’ve had clear skies and cool (but not cold) afternoons. It’s perfect, and we’ve all enjoyed some time outside! 
Thankful for || this season of preparing our hearts for Christmas. I’d always loved advent, and just before it gets started is a great time to set our hearts in a posture of gratitude. I am blessed immensely, and I choose to be grateful for the people and things in my life. 

What are you thankful for? What are you up to currently?