Embracing This Season

I resigned from work back in November and my last day of work was technically February 4.  I am still needed to finish up a large project at work, so I am working as a contractor one day a work for now, and on an as-needed basis in the future.  I no longer have health benefits with the company, but my hourly rate has increased.

This has become a transition period for me from working 20 hours a week to becoming a full-time mom.   Life has slowed down for me in a good way.  I am such a busy-body and a task-oriented person.  I am always picking up, tidying up and finding things to do around the house all day long (though I feel like my efforts are futile because the house is still a mess!).  I love when my calendar is full.  I thrive on crossing things off my To Do lists.  But lately, I have been more relaxed and have spent more focused time with the girls. 

I am challenging myself with keeping a long-term focus on raising our two girls.  I don’t want to get caught up in just meeting their daily physical needs.  For me that is so easy to do --  my whole day can be filled with doing laundry, cooking and cleaning.  But, I want to seize learning opportunities and model a life of godly character, especially now that Karis is getting older and can understand and perceive so much.  I have to admit that I fail miserably at times in trying to accomplish these things.  When I get into a “busy” mode, I turn to the TV to babysit for me.  In the late afternoon or evenings, I sometimes feel a blanket of tiredness come over me.  I can be so short with Karis and grace is nowhere to be found.  I ask for forgiveness from Karis and God, and hope that in my weakness there is still something positive for Karis to learn.   

Serving and being involved at church has always been a part of my life.  Since Karis was born, I have not been able to do much, if anything at all.  I miss it.  I understand that in this season of my life, my kids are my ministry, but I have been struggling the past few months with wanting to do more outside the home.  It wasn’t until last week when I heard a mom of teenagers talk about when her children were very young.  She was so involved in ministry that she felt like the church nursery was raising her kids.  She pulled back and spent more time at home and now she is reaping  the benefits.   She has a close relationship with them and they “rise up and call her blessed.”  (Proverbs 31:28)  It wasn’t until I heard that, that I was really able to release my desires to do more.   I’ve been finding my own ways to serve the church body.  It’s not showing up at church to do set-up or going to planning meetings, but rather watching people’s kids or baking something sweet for someone to enjoy.  It’s my way of ministering to others.  Serving has taken on a different look for me, but it is what fits in my season of life… and I accept that. 

I’m excited for this new chapter.  I know there’s a lot more for me to learn and experience.  My kids are growing up fast and I’m enjoying all the ups and downs of motherhood.  It’s been a great ride!

Here are some random, "real" pics of the girls in action.  The first one was taken a few months ago when Makena realized she was just tall enough to grab food off Karis' tray.  She is always looking for food!

Karis hates when Makena puts a toy in her mouth and makes it "yucky."

When we hear Daddy come home, I try to take one of the girls out to greet him.  On one of the days when Makena went out, she got to check out Dad's bike.  I think she thought she was really going to go for a ride ...  check out her toes!

Spelling

For a long time, we've been using a picture book ("First 100 Words") with the items' names spelled out beneath. She's been pretty good at saying the words lately. Recently, I decided to spell the words with her repeating after each letter. Tonight, out of the blue, she started spelling words all on her own. She spelled the two in the video and then off-camera she belts out "bedtime." I love these surprises!

We're okay...

Friends, sorry it has been so long since we've posted. I made a promise to post more so that Lena wasn't shouldering all the weight.

Seems like just after the last post, Lena got sick. She never gets sick. She was sick over a week. I tried picking up the slack with the kiddos and it was a lot of work!! Her cough lasted much longer than a week but thankfully she was back in service after a week. It was about then that I then got sick. Not my normal sinus infection but more of this dry cough business. Since I'm not nearly as tough as Lena, I was out of commission for much longer. I think it was about 3 weeks before I felt good. The girls never got sick though. Praise God.

Karis has been telling us when she needs to go potty, so we decided it was time to potty train. Lena has been the major trainer and has had some good results. Only 6 pee accidents the first 2 days. She slipped a bit yesterday and had 5 accidents. Lena tells me it seems like more of an attitude change in Karis rather than not knowing her body. Hopefully she'll regain interest in keeping her big girl underwear dry while earning treats and privileges. While I'm excited for us to be less inconvenienced and to save a bit of money not buying diapers, I'm not excited in the least bit that our little girl now looks one step closer to a woman. I'd be good if she wore puffy diapers under every outfit until she was 40!

Makena is pretty adept at walking now. She'll be celebrating her first birthday next month. Karis has been working on her candle blowing skills should her little sis need some assistance. =) Makena also seems to be losing some of that stranger's anxiety. She's definitely analytical. Karis may be the one who notices the speck of dirt on the floor, Makena is the one who will stare at it from every angle seemingly attempting to figure out from where it came and how it got there. Our daycare told us how Makena examined her index figure for 10 minutes without losing interest once. I think she is looking more like Lena's side of the family.