Monday, April 30, 2012

I'm Learning

I am slowly learning to get over myself. I did not realize how selfish I was until I had kids. The more kids I have, the more I am being pulled away from the sin of selfishness that so easy entangles me.

I love to sleep. I love watching chick flicks while lying on the couch in my sweatpants. I love dressing nice and styling my hair. I love to cook and eat warm meals. I love the feeling of a clean house. I love eating dinners at restaurants with friends. I love going on dates with my husband.

I have noticed these "luxuries" are slowly disappearing. I have not had 8 hours of continuous sleep in a year. It is hard to wake up to feed a baby at 4:00am, rock her to sleep, fall back asleep, only to be awaken by another child at 6:30am. It is hard to soothe a crying baby during what use to be a relaxing nap time. It hurts to discover my clothes are shrinking after having 3 babies in 3 years. I long to wear stylish clothes and eat at fancy restaurants. There are times days have passed without having a meaningful adult conversation. It is hard to see zero results after spending days loving, disciplining, and guiding your children. It is rough to change an average of 15 diapers a day.

Being a mother of 3 small children is hard. At times I embrace motherhood. It is a calling like no other. Other times I want to run to a quiet place where I am served drinks and warm food while I relax on some random Caribbean beach.

Too many times I fall into the American way of thinking. We want comfort. We want things to go our way. We forget daily how blessed we are. One of my main goals as a parent is to grow grateful children. I do not want my kids to feel entitled to possessions and comfort. When their life is not easy or when they do not get what they want, I long for them to still know joy. I do not want them to expect their journey to go as planned. I desire for them to pour their lives into others, not themselves.

In order for them to understand true joy and selflessness, I must choose to daily give up my own desires for God and for them. I want to work tirelessly over a relaxed day. I want meet my baby girl's needs over sleep. I need to find beauty in cleaning spit-up an dirty diapers over highlighted hair or fashionable clothes. I long for God to use my tired, stretched out post-pregnancy body for His glory and not for mine.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Potty Training?

Loathe, verb: "Feel intense dislike or disgust for". I loathe potty training. Before potty training Riley, I assumed it would take a couple of weeks at the most as she "seemed" ready. It did not go well. It took months. I swore Quinn was not going to be trained until he was 3. I didn't care about any advice given to me. I didn't even care if he was ready. I thought that until last week. As I was changing Reese, Quinn came into the room. He lifted his hands and said "poop". It is a very uncomfortable feeling to be changing one child's blow out diaper and seeing poop on your other child's hands. Who do you attend to? I chose Quinn. Needless to say, everyday he has come to me with the dreaded smelly stuff on his hands. What is it with boys and their curiosity? This morning I asked Quinn if he wanted to go on the big potty. He said yes. I immediately put a princess pull-up on him. Today I took him to the potty whenever I felt like it. No rewards, no bribes, no schedule. Guess what? No accidents. His princess pull-up was still dry as of 7:00pm. Seriously? I am quite aware things can change, but of it is this easy, my boy may be potty trained soon. Below is a slightly inappropriate picture to post, but I could not resist my adorable, chubby legged boy in boxer briefs.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Picture Post

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the past year:

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Our Typical Day

Warning: This post is way to long and boring for most readers. It is for my own records. I am really bad at updating baby books.

Truth be told, no day around here is typical. People have asked me how having 3 little ones is different then 2. I guess it is what I expected. The biggest change is that there really is no "me time". I am needed from 5:00am to 10:00pm. Parenting sure takes all of the selfishness out of a person.

I love schedules. I love predictability, but I also love last minute plans. Throughout the week I also try to have friends over, attend a playgroup, Bible Study, visit Target, go to parks, and hang out with family. I especially love the occasional date nights with Mark. Below is a typical weekday in the Richard house. I do feed a baby every 2 1/2 hours, but documenting a feeding schedule is much too boring. My little girl has a big appetite!

5:00am-6:00am- Reese wakes up to eat. I unfortunately mumble and groan to myself that it is too early. I then realize I can use this opportunity for time alone to actually think, spend time in prayer, and drink a cup of coffee by myself. The day always goes better when I choose to stay out of bed.

7:00am- Riley wakes up and usually wakes Quinn up. Riley loves breakfast more then any meal of the day. She can eat 3 bowls of Total every morning. By the way, Total is one of the most bland cereals ever made, but I force myself to eat it. The kids watch PBS kids while I occasionally take a shower. Yes, it is a little scary leaving them alone, but I will not get up at 4:00am to get ready. Nothing too dramatic has happened.... yet.

8:00am- Kids get dressed and brush their teeth. I set the timer and make them play alone in different rooms. They are so used to being together that they have a hard time being alone. I love watching them be individuals. Riley usually chooses to have a tea party with her princess dolls and Quinn puts together his train. After alone time, they play together pretty well.

9:00am- Ideally Reese goes down for her nap, but she is not much of a napper. I try to keep the other 2 quiet during the next hour in order for Reese to sleep. She tends to sleep only 30 minutes in the morning. If you know our family, our kids are quite loud. Riley and Quinn have preschool time. The dollar store has some awesome workbooks for this time. Riley works on matching, letters, and numbers. Quinn draws a few lines and is done. Riley loves this time, Quinn not so much. I usually just let him play with toys. Riley recites our weekly Bible verse. She then quotes her verse to Quinn throughout the day. For example, when she wants Quinn to play with her she tells him, "Quinn, the Bible says to be kind to me."

10:00am- Reese wakes up. Riley and Quinn watch Sesame Street. I take a shower if I have not been able to yet. Don't worry, I put Reese in the bathroom with me to keep her safe.

11:00am- 1:00pm- Chaos. Use your imagination to picture these 2 hours. There seems to be an overabundance of screaming, fighting, and crying. I sometimes break a sweat making lunch.

1:00pm- 4:00pm- During these hours I do everything I can to get all of my kids to sleep at the same time for at least an hour. Since Riley and Quinn share a room, I have Riley sleep in our bed and Quinn sleep in their room. Riley usually falls asleep pretty quickly. Our room is boring. For the first hour, I put Quinn in his bed for what seems like a million times. I miss his crib. Reese and Quinn usually finally fall asleep around 2:00. Our house typically has 3 kids sleeping from 2:00- 3:00. During this time, I turn off my phone and refuse to be productive. I do things like close my eyes, eat chocolate, and read blogs. Riley wakes up around 2:30 or 3:00. She then practices using her quiet voice. It is very hard for her, so if it is nice I send her outside. I try to start dinner before the other 2 wake up.

4:00pm- 6:00pm- Ditto to the previous 2 hours of chaos.

6:00pm- 8:00pm- I hold a fussy baby. We eat dinner and spend time with daddy. I attempt to load the dishwasher and clean the house before bed. Riley and Quinn have to help clean. Chores can never start too early. The kids take baths and we read books.

8:00pm- 9:00pm- The older 2 kids go to bed, however Mark and I usually have put them back in their beds every few minutes for the next hour. Have I mentioned I miss Quinn's crib? I hope and pray our consistency some day pays off.

9:00pm- 10:00pm- Reese fights sleep. Sometimes she falls asleep, sometimes she cries the entire hour. Mark and I take turns trying to keep her happy in order to keep the other 2 asleep.

10:00pm- Reese finally falls asleep. Mark and I look at each other and wonder how in the world we made it through the day. I go to bed. I love this time. I am so thankful for the luxury of a nice warm bed at the end of a tiring day. Mark enjoys having some much needed alone time.

There you have it. I am looking forward to reading this in 5 years to see how things change with time.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Contact Deleted

Do you periodically delete all the names of those long lost friends and co-workers listed in your cell phone? Every once in a while, I delete old contacts and it brings me some relief to know my phone list is not so overwhelming. However, for almost a year, I have put off deleting a contact. It just does not seem right to delete your dad from your phone list. I have passed his name almost every time I make a call. I know he is not here, but it brought some comfort just to see the name "dad".

My dad was not much of a phone talker and it would come as a surprise when he did call to chat. I always loved hearing his voice and would make it my secret goal to keep him on the phone for longer then 5 minutes. I miss calling him. He would be first person to call when my car made "funny" noises. Many times I would hold the phone up to my car and he would recognize the sound and tell me what to do. He knew how to fix sinks and drains. He knew how to kill weeds and how to keep rain from coming through our doors. Thanks to him, I can not fix a darn thing because he always did it for me. Three days ago, I deleted that name that meant so much to me. No more calls will be made to that amazing man.

About a year ago, I stopped blogging. At that time, my dad was very sick. I was going back and forth to Michigan never knowing if it would be my last time seeing him. I was trying to take care of two little ones and my daddy. Trying to keep up with a blog was too much. You see, my dad loved reading the blogs about the kids. He would actually call when something was really funny to him. I knew reading my blog brought a smile to his face, even through his suffering. I was daddy's little girl and we always had a special connection. After he passed away, I just could not bring myself to blog. He was not there to read it, to call, to laugh.

God has taught me many lessons since dad passed away. Grieving is extremely difficult, but the process can teach us so much. As many of you know, God blessed us with new life shortly after dad's death. Her name is Reese and she fits perfectly in this family of ours. God is good and I am ready to blog about our crazy life, even if my dad is not here to read it.

Dad, you will always be on my mind when sharing stories of our little blessings. Oh how I would love for you to see how funny Riley continues to be or how cute our sweet little, active boy is. I long for you to meet our beautiful, precious little baby. I miss you more then words can express. I am looking forward to the day I can see your perfect, healthy body again. As for now, I desire to treasure the wonderful, sometimes long, hard, crazy, beautiful days here on earth.