Home Improvement :-)

 Here are some pictures of our work in progress. :-) Seth was kinda confused by the wall going in at first.

 Helping Papa measure dry wall tape. Finally something that Seth could help with. Otherwise he just talks Papa's ear's off....... :-)

 This is going to be Seth's room, at the moment it needs a few more coats of mud and then we can repaint. Not sure if it is going to be green again or not.

Our new much bigger bedroom. :-) As you can see we still have some things to do in this room, but it is very use-able until we get around to them.

 This will be the piano room/guest bedroom. We have a little bit more trim to stain to get this finished up. I'm hoping to start piano lessons in here by next fall.

And this is our most important work in progress. :-) 33 weeks today!! 

3 Things I've Learned as a Mother to a Toddler

Maybe I haven't really learned these but I've been reminded of them many times over the last few weeks.

1. God is a Personal God ~ I've always "known" this but my Seth-boy reminds me of this all the time. He is always running to me asking me to pray for owies and food (sometimes he likes to pray over the food several times in one meal, hopefully that is not a reflection on my cooking.), or to thank God for a good potty trip, books, toys and snow. A constant reminder that I need to come boldly before the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16) for everything, not just the big things. Sometimes I get it into my head that God only wants to be bothered by the big things, I mean he has to listen to how many millions of prayers every day, does he really want to hear about potty trips and accidents? Seth-boy has reminded me that God wants to be included in every area of my life, not just the ones that I think are important enough to bother Him with, nothing is to small or to silly.

2. Find Joy in the Little Things ~  Finishing a puzzle, building a tower, putting boots on(all of which happen multiple times each day) these things fill my  boy with excitement and joy. Just as Seth finds joy in these I need to find joy in my little things. Little things like washing the dishes- we have food to eat, plates to eat off of, hot water and soap to wash with, folding laundry- I have an amazing husband who provides and cares for his family and puts up with me and I am also blessed with a little boy who loves everyone he knows and goes through many pairs of underwear. Sometimes, in reality a lot of the time, I forget all that I have and start thinking about things I would like when I need to be looking at all the things I do have, things that God has blessed me with and start being thankful and finding joy.


3. Pooping on the potty is a very, very, VERY exciting achievement that is worthy of lots of hugs, many kisses, cheering and of course chocolate chips. ;-)

What Our House Looks Like...

This is what the house looks like after 5 days of Christmas parties, never being home because your visiting family and dealing with a teething toddler and sick Daddy.

It has required 1 hour of washing dishes, 3 loads of laundry (so far), trying to find places to put all of our new stuff while also going through all of our old stuff and getting rid of boxes and bags full, coffee and really loud music and we are starting to look clean again. :-)

My Little "Big" Helper :-)

 Seth loves to help, it doesn't matter what I'm doing, he "needs" to help. :-) Which is good, because in a couple months I'll need his help.
Seth is a very good carrot destroyer as well as being an expert whisk licker.

 Seth likes to be silly in his free time.

 He wasn't quite sure what to think about the deer that Daddy got at first, but pretty soon he wanted to go shoot his own.

 Seth has watched Daddy shoot guns so he knows all about ear protection. :-)

 Seth loves pictures at any time, and it is a very good way to distract him if he is getting into to much trouble trying to help.

 "Momma, look at my tower." Seth has already become quite the architect. He loves to build towers for Momma and Daddy to knock down.

Showing Momma his helping chart. He has several different ways that he can earn stickers for his chart throughout the day, some include: helping put away laundry, most of it is unfolded by the time he is done but we are working on that, helping wash dishes, I've learned the least messy way is to strip Seth down to his diaper otherwise we need a whole new outfit, and brushing his teeth, 2 stickers are available for this, he now wants to brush his teeth all day...good oral health habits, right?

Being an Example

 Reading John 5:19-30 today for Bible study has made me think about the example that I am being for Seth and others.

 "So Jesus said to them,'Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing...'" John 5:19-20a

 Jesus did not do anything except what he seen the Father doing, he followed his daddy's example. What did Jesus see the Father doing? Jesus seen his Father show unconditional and sacrificial love, he seen his Daddy breathe life into those that were dead and give them new life. His Father did not judge even though he knew the hearts of men, his Father was waiting patiently for people to turn and believe and when they did He was there with open arms, whispering love and forgiveness to them.

 I need to be this type of example for my children. I need to be one that loves unconditionally, even to those that make it hard, one that will pour myself out for others without holding anything back. I need to withhold judgement, because I do not know the thoughts and hearts of others. I need to offer forgiveness and then forget about the offense. I need to make everything that I do honor God, make everything an offering of worship to the one who gave everything for me, I need to take every thought captive. I need to encourage others to build them up, not yell to break them down. I need to be patient with others. I need to be like Jesus, I need to be like the perfect Father. To do this I need help from the very one I am trying to emulate.

 The past few weeks I've been trying to organize other areas of our day once we got our schedule all figured out. The "schedule" is working pretty well, we only really stick to it on lesson days though, the other days are much more relaxed and more go with the flow type of days. I do like to use it occasionally on other days and sometimes we just look at it to see what we can do with our time. The other areas that I have looked at to start organizing are in the cleaning department and meal prep/how much we are spending at the grocery store.
 I did print off a weekly cleaning schedule from http://listplanit.com/, but it was to in depth for what my little house needs at the moment. I do use the schedule for ideas but most of the things on it we just do every other week instead of weekly.
 For meals I've made a 2 week menu, pre-approved by Ben with the hopes that he won't spring any ideas on me in the middle of the week on what he is expecting for dinner...like he did tonight. Good thing his mom always has the things that we don't have for what he wants. :-)
 I've planned breakfasts, except for weekends and two full weeks of dinners. This is what it looks like:

Breakfasts -we'll just repeat this for the second week:
Monday: oatmeal- baked or regular
Tuesday: some type of eggs
Wednesday: pancakes
Thursday: coffee cake, or muffins- these will most likely be baked on Wednesday night as we have to be out of the house by 7:45
Friday: cereal

Dinners:
M: Crockpot Beef  Bourguignon- I will use venison in this instead of beef
T: Garlic Lime Chicken with Cilantro Lime Rice (I like lime :-) )
W: Venison Stir Fry
T: Hoppin' John with Salad
F: Pizza
S: Chili
S: Steak, Baked Potatoes
M: Chicken Rice Soup
T: Burritos
W: Cashew Chicken with Rice
T: Spaghetti
F: Pizza
S: Nacho's
S: Chicken Legs, Potatoes and Pea's

Monday's and Thursday's I've tried to make easy dinners, because Ben has basketball practice and dinner needs to be ready when he gets home. Wednesday's I have a little more time to mess around with food since Ben works late. I've included one new recipe to try each week.
 My hope is that we only need to possibly go the store one extra time in these two weeks since we never seem to get out of Plumbs without spending at least $20. I do have a couple things that I wasn't able to get on my shopping trip that I will be getting this week, Ben's Grandma is bringing us "good" cheese from the Amish cheese house over where she lives and we need to go get some apples for snacks. Nelson's fresh apples are way better than anything Meijer or Plumbs ever has.
 Wish me luck!!

Scheduling or planning for a "Steady Day"

 We have tried 2 types of schedules the past couple of weeks. The first used specific times and lasted only 1 day, if that, because I was getting to frustrated when things weren't done by the specified time or they were done way to early. The second uses blocks of time from 20 minutes to 1 1/2 hours, and depending on the day we move blocks around. For example today we had to go to "the meat store" and if you don't get there before 11 in the morning you could be there all day, so we only used two blocks, ran our errands and then finished the others this afternoon after nap.
 So here is what we have so far. :-)

7 AM ~wake up and breakfast, depending on what we are eating that day for breakfast this can last 20 minutes or 1 hour.

30-45 minutes ~ Momma: Bible Study and coffee, possible Internet time, Seth: video.

1 hour ~Momma: clean house and start laundry, Seth: help Momma, free play.

1 1/2 hours ~Momma: walk/run/exercise DVD and shower, Seth: Grandma's/Nana's or "exercise" and shower with Momma.

20 minutes ~Momma: stuctured play with Seth (color, flashcards, read library books, play dough, etc.).

20-45 minutes ~ Play outside if the weather is good or baking time.

45 minutes -1hour ~ Momma: lunch, clean up house and dishes, nap time routine with Seth. Seth: help Momma

 I try to have Seth down for a nap right around 1, that way if he decides to sleep longer than normal he has a good two hours before lessons start at 3:30