1 year check-up!

Audrie had her one year check-up yesterday...yes, its 1 1/2 months late! When her first 1 year check-up was here, our pediatrician had a family emergency....and the next appt we could get was yesterday!

She was being silly, not screaming out of pain! Well, right then a few moments later she was screaming from pain!

She weighed 22.04 ounces (55 percentile) and 32 3/4 inches (off the charts)...

She got 5 shots, which made me sad, but she got over them real fast! 

She keeps me very busy and keeps me laughing! 

Facilitating

I got this phone call a few weeks ago. It was a woman asking me to facilitate a Bible study at our church. My first thought was I have so much going. My second thought was, I am sure they tried everyone else and  I was the only one available. I said yes, because I am one of those people that have a hard time saying no to things like that.

So here I am. First day of Bible study and 2/3 of the class are older women. Like great-grandmothers older women. Dont get me wrong, they are some of the most sweetest, loving, funny ladies. But I left, thinking, God, what are you doing?

1. I go to this huge church and you picked me to teach this? Surely you have someone more qualified? I mean, some weeks I dont even read my Bible!

2. Why in the world am I teaching a Bible Study about "idols"? I surely dont have any of those.

3. Why am I teaching these older women? I know they have much more wisdom then I do. I am sure they are thinking, what in the world is this 25 year old doing trying to teach me something about the Bible, I am sure doesnt even read her bible every week!

God replied, I chose YOU. You do have idols and I want all of you. I want you to spend time with me everyday. You have just as much to bring to these older woman as they have to give to you.

I am so humbled. And grateful. What an amazing study we had today. I definitely have learned more from them.

What I love...

How do mother's with toddlers find time to blog? I do not understand. During naps, I am cleaning, doing my bible study or taking a shower.  (Sometimes talking on the phone to a girlfriend)...then when she is down for the night, I am exhausted. Too exhausted to think, much less type what I am thinking! But i love having a toddler. Before, I was sad as Audrie got older, which I still am sometimes...but,

I love seeing her do or say a new thing everyday!

I love that she can walk to me or away from me if it is time for a diaper change!

I love that she can communicate with me even if it is through sign language or grunting.

I love that she smiles because she is happy. Not just because she can smile.

I love that when we watch The Office, she dances to the opening song.

I love that she has such a strong personality!

I love that she is silly and carefree.

I love that she holds our hands especially if she is in a new place.

And...I love that she loves her daddy so much.

Makes my heart melt. :)

Hannah House Maternity Home

A while back... In May to be exact...I posted 2 things I would like to do before I die.

You can read it here if you want to.  It not, I will give you the short version. One of the things I want to do is be a part of a pregnancy center.

God heard my prayers and listened to my hearts desires!

Here is the story:

I had been hearing rumors floating around about a maternity home coming to Longview called Hannah House. Could it be? I kept asking around about it, and got bits and pieces of information here and there. Then I saw on our church website, Hannah House ministry and the contact was a girl named Courtney Armstrong who I knew through my short time selling Mary Kay.

I emailed her and told her of my passion and degree...Long story short...Many months later...

Hannah House is here...and I get to be a part of it!

What is Hannah House?  Hannah House Maternity Home is a ministry of Promiseland Ministries, Inc., and offers a place for new beginnings for teens and young women in unplanned pregnancy situations. Hannah House is a place for hope and love to come together as each girl seeks God's plan for her life and the wisdom to make good choices for herself and her unborn child. Hannah House welcomes young women ages 13-29 years old who have no other children living with them.

You can read more about it here.

I am so excited. The Lord is so faithful.

Thoughts on Homeschooling

I know my child is only a year old. But this year has flown by so fast. I think alot about her education and our future kids education. So many things to think about...private school? public school? homeschool?

I think I want to homeschool.

I know I lost half of you at that sentence.

Here are my reasonings:

I know Audrie can get a good education in the school system. GT and I both went to private school growing up until highschool--we loved it. We wouldnt change anything about it. But I want to be in control of Audries education. I want to be able to explore things according to her interests and strengths. I want to go further than the text books. I dont want her to have to learn things just to pass a test or get high scores on a standerized test. I want to teach her to love to learn. And I want to be there for it.

I know I could do some of these things if she was attending a school. But think about it, a child is at school all day, then they come home...do homework, then more school? No. They dont want to do more school.

GT's biggest hang-up about it is the socialization. Here is a really good article from the Pioneer Woman's website about this. What I asked GT, is who did we hang out with? Church friends. Youth group. We didnt hang out with kids from school. Seriously, what socialization is learned at school that cant be learned from church groups, sports groups, play groups etc...  And we are their parents. And we are quite socialized. We arent going to keep them locked inside all day.

I am not trying to keep Audrie and our future children from the "real" world. As my friend Lyznie always says, "the real world will shows itself eventually". And I think this is very true. When people say, so you're just going to shelter Audrie? I say, yeah I am. As long as I can. She doesnt need to know what is out there right now. She will find it out. Just like I did. But we will teach her what is right. We will teach her to make good choices. We will teach her to love. She will see an example of her family doing these things. So...all that to say, I dont want to homeschool her to keep her from the real world, but if it does, I am ok with it.

I hope to start being intentional about teaching her through Tot School. Kinda like montessori, but at home. I will blog about it through our journey.

My biggest question-- How do I homeschool Audrie when I have 1 or 2 other little ones? I know people do it. I know it can be done. But whew. It makes me tired just thinking about it.

I wrote all of this to get ideas? thoughts? comments?

Cloth Diapering Road Block #1

So, I am still in love with cloth diapering. Yes. I love it. Seriously.

About a month ago, I started noticing a problem. I would wash the diapers...once on cold-normal. then one on hot-heavy (heavy is just a heavier rinse/spin cycle, then it rinses one more time in cold)... and they would still come out having an ammonia scent to them. And this grossed me out. And it was giving Audrie little rashes because I wasnt fully getting rid of the ammonia.

At the time, I was using All Free & Clear detergent. I researched on the internet what to do. In that, I found the problem. The inserts used for the cloth diapers are made out of microfiber, which is super absorbent, but it can also get build-up caught in it. That is what was happening with our diapers. The detergent we were using wasnt powerful enough to strip the ammonia.

Here is the solution: Tide (Original Scent). Tide makes a clear detergent, but it only comes in liquid. We cant use liquid detergent because we have a front loader washing machine and it makes it smell musty.

Anyway, it worked for us! Audrie has never had a sensitive bottom so it didnt matter as far the as the little scent in the Tide. It really is very minimal! And no more ammonia smell!!!!

We successfully overcame our first road block in cloth diapering!

Top 2 Characters I would play...

Today is Top 2 Tuesday! It is 2 Characters I would like to play on a TV Show/ Movie...

1. Felicity. I love this show. I think I would say it is my top 5 favorites, maybe even top 3 of all time. I used to watch it when it came on in highschool. Then my girlfriends and I watched it by the season in college. I kinda would pretend like I was her, too bad my life wasnt that complicated. And it wasnt as exciting all the time. If you have never watched it...do it. It is so good! Plus I would get to kiss Ben and Noel. :)

2. Drew Barrymoore in Ever After. Ever After is my all-time favorite chick-flick. I would love to play her character and fall in love with Prince Charming. Ok, I did fall in love with my Prince Charming, it just wasnt all fairytale. :)