Aedan: 66 Months, Week 1
Owen: 24 Months, Week 3
Sunday mornings are a little more relaxed around our house, even if we have to get ready for church. Aedan often prefers to play with Samantha, but every once in a while he chooses to play with Owen, and it makes me (and Owen) very happy. They were playing with Owen's new Paw Patrol puppies, so I was able to sneak in a picture before they noticed me.
In fact, that afternoon it was so difficult after church that we got Owen down for a nap, made Aedan lay down as well, and I wrote out these papers for Samantha to think about and write answers to. Just giving her time outs doesn't do much good, and we really want her to be thinking about her actions, how to be respectful, and why it's important to God for us to be respectful and kind in our words and actions to our family and friends. Ben and I even laid down and took a nap that afternoon because we just were tired out from a long, busy week.
After trying to have more of a relaxing day on Sunday, hoping that some rest and down time would help, Monday morning didn't go that well either. Ben leaves a little after 7:00 to get to Wilkes for his 8:00 class, so the rest of us are on our own in the mornings, which is fine, but can sometimes be a little hectic depending on how well the kids are listening. As we were sitting at breakfast that morning, I asked Aedan what his lunch number was, so that he could practice it, and Samantha just had to lean over and tell him what it was instead of giving him a chance to say it. Because she did that, she spilled her whole bowl of cereal and milk all over herself, the table, and the floor. Then, when I asked her if she was going to apologize for anything, she looked at me and said snarkily, "For what?" The day was not starting off well, and I felt so stuck with what to do to help her think about her behavior and how she is treating us. She has been acting very prideful, like talking back, always having to have the last word, correcting us and Aedan all the time, yelling at Aedan for everything he does and says wrong, and then never apologizing for when she does something wrong or hurts someone or their feelings. Sometimes I feel like I am just doing everything wrong with her lately. Ben suggested that I spend some time with her one-on-one, and we were going to go on a bike ride on Sunday afternoon, but she was being so bratty that I didn't take her, and Ben and I ended up taking a nap that afternoon, and we didn't have time to go before dinner. I just felt bad, like I have handled everything wrong with her, and I've been yelling a lot more lately, which I felt ashamed about. I don't want to be that kind of mom. I also feel like I should be able to understand her and help her more because I'm a girl, too, but I think her personality and the way she reacts to situations is more like Ben. I want to set up good communication and have a good relationship with her so that way she feels comfortable coming to me with things in the future. It's hard to know when to take a back seat and let Ben take over and have more conversations from his own experience, since his personality is more similar to hers in a lot of ways.
I have definitely been trying much too hard lately, just spinning my wheels and getting nowhere, feeling like I don't measure up in any area, feeling so tired every day, like I don't have any time to get things done that need to be done and also actually have time to spend with the family and playing with the kids, feeling like a failure at all of it, and feeling like a terrible wife and mom. I have been losing my temper a lot with the kids especially, and I hate that part of my personality, and I feel terrible after I yell at the kids. I am having a really hard time not feeling overwhelmed with life right now, and it's hard being in a new city where I don't really know anyone and don't have anyone that knows me and understands me.
I am trying to depend on God for everything and realize that I am not supposed to do it on my own. A good friend of mine reminded me that the only thing perfect is God and nothing is perfect in this life, so the more I chase perfection, the more I will find defeat. I am trying to remind myself to pray for patience and understanding so I don't lose my cool. My friend even encouraged Samantha, and really our whole family to memorize Colossians 3:12-14 which says, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothes yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." It was funny that she mentioned that because we just had our first small group meeting on Monday night, and we will be studying Colossians. We read through the whole book and talked about what stuck out to us. Those exact verses stuck out to me at small group because that's the kind of person I want to be, but I so often resort to trying to make myself that way, but then my mind was brought back to Colossians 3:2, which says, "Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things." If I were to follow that command, then the qualities of verses 12-14 would naturally flow out of my life. It's not me that has to do a work in me, but Christ that is continually doing a work in me. I was amazed at how spectacular God is by bringing these particular verses to me at just the right time, and a lot of times I have a difficult time recognizing that things like this are God's way of speaking to me, because I feel like for so long I have just explained away these times where I feel like things are just a coincidence, or I feel weird or wonder how I really know that it's something from God, rather than giving God the glory for working in situations and for answering prayers and for revealing things to me as I'm working through things in my life. God uses everything for our good and for his glory.
Even though Monday was kind of a rough day for me personally, I was determined to start Tuesday, and the new month of October off better. I want to be waking up early, like at 6:00 so that way I can read my Bible and journal for awhile, and then take a shower and be ready for the kids to get out of bed around 7:00. I also want to be doing my Pilates workout from The Balanced Life Sisterhood every day, as well as watching what I eat a little more, trying to eat healthy, and limiting the amount of unhealthy snacks I have, and especially what I eat after the kids go to bed at night. I also want to be going to bed earlier so that way I feel like I can get up in the morning and not be so tired throughout the day. I want to be more intentional about my time with the kids, too, and actually sit and play with them instead of always having something to do. I have a lot of goals, but I really want to be determined to pursue them and not give up so easily just because of one bad or hard day.
October 1st was Uncle Timmy's birthday, so we had the kids record a little video at breakfast to send to him.
That afternoon I noticed an animal across the street. It was a groundhog eating along the road, and I took a couple pictures of it because I thought the kids would find it interesting to see, even though it was far away. It's fun living somewhere where there is so much nature and wildlife around us. Our location up on the mountain surrounding Harvey's Lake is beautiful.
The letter of the week was T.
Every Tuesday Aedan gets a new book to add to his ring to practice his sight word reading. He and I went out in the living room together so he could read to me, and I convinced him that it would be okay to record him reading because he is doing so well. He's been in school a little over a month now, and I'm so glad he is learning sight words and gaining confidence in reading. I love seeing how excited he is for reading, as well as how much pride he takes in reading it to me exactly right.
And here is a spelling test of Samantha that she aced. I love that she has spelling lists each week because that was something she was definitely lacking in before coming to this school. Plus, do you see how nice her handwriting is? She was very proud of her 100%.
Tuesday night was another evening of MOPS. I enjoyed my time there, and this time I didn't eat anything beforehand so that way I could be hungry for the yummy food that everyone brings. They had someone come in to speak about car seat safety, and then we made name tags as our craft. I felt like I had more of a chance to talk to people, and it was fun to hang out with other moms without kids around interrupting conversations.
While I was at MOPS, Ben texted me and said that Owen peed in the potty for the first time! I was excited to get home and hear the story. I honestly have not even begun to think about potty training Owen, which is funny because we potty trained Samantha when she was around 25 months old. I haven't even tried to put Owen on the potty at all or talk to him about any of that stuff. I guess maybe I should start, if he's starting to show interest in it!
Wednesday morning was hard for Aedan for some reason. He was acting like he hardly slept the night before or was starting to get sick or something. Also, every day when the van pulls away, Aedan had been waving to me from the window as I go back up the hill. However, this was the second day in a row that he didn't wave to me from the van window as they pulled away. It kind of made me sad that he was too distracted by people in the van and forgot about waving to me. :(
It was going to be a warm, sunny day, and I decided to be adventurous and take Owen on a special day date to Roba's Family Farm. It has animals, pumpkins, a wagon ride, and lots of other fun areas for kids to play. I tend to not take him very many places because it's easy to just stay home or do something that only takes up our morning time, but it was a lot of fun, and I'm glad we went together.
When we first got there, Owen really wanted to stand and watch these animals sing and talk. We sat here for quite awhile as he kept pushing the button to hear them.
Since we went in the middle of the week, it wasn't very busy there, just a few families and a school group. I figured Owen would enjoy jumping on these large balloons, so after feeding the animals for awhile, he had a blast running around and jumping on this.
Of course, we couldn't pass up a ride on the wagon, and he again chose to sit way up in the front of the wagon near the tractor so he could have an up close and personal view of it. He really likes tractors right now.
Once Owen spotted the playground, there was no convincing him to go anywhere else. The playground has all kinds of different vehicles designed out of wood for the kids to ride on, climb on, and pretend to drive. He LOVES pretending to drive vehicles, and since it was just him with me, I let him play here as long as his little heart desired.
After the cow ride it was time to go home so that I could be back in time to pick the big kids up from the van. However, I did not think very intelligently when I didn't stop for gas before going to the farm because Owen fell asleep right away in the car, but I was close to running out of gas, and I really did not want that to happen. I tried to stop quickly and keep music playing to see if he would stay asleep, but he didn't. He woke up as soon as I turned the car off, and then he cried the next half and hour home and never went back to sleep, unfortunately. It was one of those things where it would have been better for him to nap longer, but there wasn't much I could do about that. Luckily, he's at the point where he can handle a day of no napping every once in awhile.
I got back home just in time to pick the kids up from the van, and then we got homework done and ate dinner. Here is some work they brought home from school that day. Aedan is learning about the letter T and the numbers 3 and 4.
Here is a Science quiz from Samantha. She did an excellent job!
That Wednesday night was the first night of AWANA for the kids in Pennsylvania. Samantha and Aedan both did AWANA for two years in Michigan, and they loved it, so we were excited to see that they had a program at a church close to our house. Plus, they have a program for 2 year olds called Puggles, so that means Owen can go as well! Everyone was excited for this night to come, and Ben and I were looking forward to having a built in date night once a week while the kids are at AWANA. This first week we had to stay for a parents' meeting to hear about how things work in Sparks and T & T, but we have plans to go out to dinner together during the next AWANA meeting. Owen loved it. He talked about going to "Anna" all day, and the teacher said he was the only one who didn't seem to mind being there. (All the other kids cried, I think.) Samantha and Aedan came home excited because there were a couple kids from their classes at school in AWANA, and they enjoyed getting back into the program, singing songs, learning a Bible lesson, and playing games. It will be good to get into this weekly routine again. I love hearing them learn and memorize Scripture, and I was glad they had a good first week.
Now that all our weekly events have started up, we are getting into a pretty good rhythm, and Thursday our routine is to go to Bible Study down in Wilkes-Barre. Owen gets to play with other kids, and I get to study women in the Bible and have uninterrupted adult conversation. It's been really good so far. I like the study, and I get a lot out of the insights that the other women share. Then, once Ben got home from campus, I went to my dentist appointment to get a filling done, before coming back home for crock pot potato soup and homemade bread. It was a good choice for dinner because my mouth was still partially numb, and it would have been hard for me to eat much of anything else.
Friday was another day that the kids were just not doing great. Samantha wasn't feeling well when she came downstairs that morning, and she was actually trying to convince me that she should stay home from school. But when I told her that meant she would have to just stay home and lay in bed and rest, and that she wouldn't be able to go to the AWANA progressive dinner, she changed her mind. However, luckily, they both perked up after breakfast. They were being a little slow getting ready, but it was okay, and I'm glad they seemed to be doing better after just getting some food in their stomachs.
Fridays are usually days that Owen and I stay home and try to do things around the house, like laundry and changing sheets and towels. This Friday I was also trying to do a little house cleaning an vacuuming as well, which sometimes is challenging with a 2 year old shadow following me (and making messes) wherever I go. While I was doing dishes, I set up Owen's sink for him to play in. He loves it so much. I even found him rinsing his banana in the sink. He often fills cups up with water and hands one to me and then leans forward as if looking out the window to hand one to Ema and Papa as well. This is definitely a fun toy to keep in the kitchen to keep him occupied while I get work done.
Fridays are usually days that Owen and I stay home and try to do things around the house, like laundry and changing sheets and towels. This Friday I was also trying to do a little house cleaning an vacuuming as well, which sometimes is challenging with a 2 year old shadow following me (and making messes) wherever I go. While I was doing dishes, I set up Owen's sink for him to play in. He loves it so much. I even found him rinsing his banana in the sink. He often fills cups up with water and hands one to me and then leans forward as if looking out the window to hand one to Ema and Papa as well. This is definitely a fun toy to keep in the kitchen to keep him occupied while I get work done.
In preparation for Tim and Pla's wedding, I decided both Aedan and Owen should get their hair cut, so after dropping Samantha off at the church to go on her progressive dinner with her T & T group, I took the boys to the hair cut place. We had to wait for a little while, but the boys did a pretty good job being patient. Aedan went first, and then Ben swung by and picked him up on his way home while I stayed with Owen while he got his hair cut. Owen was a little more unsure about getting his hair cut this time and didn't do as well sitting still. I had to do a lot of distraction and even held his head still for awhile so she could use the razor around his ears and in the back. Both boys looked so handsome afterwards and were ready for the wedding pictures.
Speaking of pictures, Samantha and Aedan came home with their school pictures that afternoon, and they turned out great! Aedan actually looked at the camera and at least did a little bit of a smile. Samantha is beautiful, like usual, and I like how they put her hair in front of her shoulder like that.
While I was with Owen getting his hair cut, Ben was back at home with Aedan, and they played outside while they were waiting for us. He took these great pictures of our backyard and the property around our house. Fall is beginning, some of the trees have started to get yellow leaves, and there are a few leaves scattered over our grass, but for the most part, everything is still green.
Ben and I decided to walk down to the Lakeside Skillet restaurant for dinner that night while Samantha was at her progressive dinner. The boys were a little crazy out to dinner, but they devoured their food, and it was nice to not have to make and clean up dinner at home. Samantha had a wonderful time at the progressive dinner, chatting Ben's ears off on the entire ride home about all the things she got to eat, and even how she got to meet a horse a someone's house. She has A LOT of food though and her stomach was quite stuffed when she got home. I was glad she had this time to get to know kids and leaders at AWANA. Each of these activities will help her feel more and more connected to people in our new area, and I am very grateful for that.
Saturday was a big day with lots of activity. Samantha had her play rehearsal from 10-12:30, Ben took Owen to a touch-a-truck event near Wilkes-Barre, and I took Aedan on a date to Knoebel's. Here are some pictures Ben took of Owen at the touch-a-truck. It was a pretty small event, but Owen was happy to sit in the vehicles and pretend to drive. Plus, he got a lot of attention from people since there weren't too many people there. He loves trucks and loves to pretend to drive steering wheels, so this event was perfect for him.
My choice of Knoebel's for my date with Aedan was mainly to allow him to play the carnival-type games as much as he wanted, and then to choose whatever rides looked good to him without having to wait on his brother or sister. Aedan doesn't get too much one-on-one attention sometimes because Samantha sometimes gets attention through working on homework together with us and just generally being more talkative, and Owen obviously demands a lot of attention from us in holding him, helping him, and being more needy. I loved spending the day with this little boy of mine. He is so sweet, so cuddly, so loving, and I can see a lot of myself in him as far as just going with what other people want a lot, so it was nice for him to have a day where he could do whatever he wanted. In fact, sometimes it was hard for him to make decisions because he's not used to being the only one around to decide things. It was a little crazy trying to get there and get parked because it was also the weekend of the covered bridge festival, but we got there shortly before lunchtime, bought tickets, played a racing game, and then went on the bobsled ride together. We just walked around together and he told me anything that looked good to him. Here we are riding on rockets that spun around in circles. (I don't do too well with spinning rides sometimes, so this was a bit of a challenge for me at times.)
Toward the end of our day at Knoebel's, we were running out of tickets, so I suggested that he ride on some of the smaller rides that were more for kids his age, so that way I didn't have to ride on them with him, then giving him more tickets to go on rides himself. He thought that was a good idea, and it was fun to stand there and watch him enjoy himself. I love that every time he went around the circle on his airplane he would wave at me and smile. :)
Here he is driving a car around a track.
And his last ride for the day was this parachute ride where they got pulled up and slowly released from the top. He was a little nervous at first, and you could tell that he was gripping the bars pretty hard, but you can tell by the smile on his face that he enjoyed himself.
(Blog about September 29-October 5, 2019
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