Crimes or Cartoons? What Rachel Watches

I want to make sure everyone knows--before I launch this post--that what we do, in this regard, is primarily personal preference. I'm not advocating that all parents do exactly what we do in this area. :)

I started thinking about this issue ("What Rachel Watches") several months ago, after I turned off a popular kids' movie a couple minutes into it, because it was promoting worldly ideas that I didn't want Rachel hearing. More recently, I turned off *another* children's movie because I couldn't stand the silliness.

And yet, Rachel's watched plenty of adult TV shows, such as "The Mentalist," "Person of Interest," or "Call A Midwife," with Matt and me, in the evenings. She asks lots of questions, and Matt and I answer them--in a way she can understand, of course.



Perhaps it seems contradictory--turning off one show because of its silliness, but letting her watch murders be solved? Babies being born? People dealing with very "adult" issues?

This is why I started out with the whole "personal preference" idea. Why Rachel watches what she does, might have to do with the fact that I wasn't raised on cartoons...AT ALL. The first time I remember watching "Cinderella" was when I was in my late teens.

When Matt was working evenings, I spent many, many nights alone, and I desperately wanted some company. So this little girl became my friend! She'd stay up late with me, snuggled down in the covers, watching whatever I was watching.



All that aside, when she DOES watch kids' movies (which is often--don't get me wrong!), my favorites would include...

Horton Hears a Who
Mary Poppins
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Shirley Temple movies
a few Barbie movies



I like hearing Rachel's questions, watching the shows from her point of view, treating her like a mini-adult. So crimes or cartoons? I guess, for now, the answer would be both. :)

What We Do...

...To Make our Lives Easier--and Happier...and Simpler. How's that for a title? :)

When we just had Rachel, random people at the store would make comments like, "Oh, she's so cute!" Pretty much end of story.

After Jemima was born, I heard things like, "Your girls are soo close together in age! Well, that's the way to do it... Have 'em fast, and be done with it!"

Now that we have three children (ages 2, 1, and 3 months), I hear two comments over and over. Number #1 (by far) would be, "Ooh my, your hands are full!" To which, I generally just smile and nod. :)

But Number #2 would be, "How do you do it?"

I started wondering that to myself...how DO we do it? So I came up with a few answers...some things that we (or I) do, to make it work with three littles. Not that I'm going to stand in the grocery aisle, and actually tell people all of this! :)

#1. All three kids sleep from 7 to 7. We've been incredibly blessed with babies that sleep well through the night, and Matthias is no exception! When he was around 1 1/2 months old, he started sleeping through the night--on his own. As for the girls, we put them in bed at 7, and they're not allowed out of bed (unless Rachel has to use the bathroom or something) until the following morning at 7. I get up in the morning early enough to take a shower, and do anything else I want to do, before all three hungry children wake up!

#2. All three kids take an afternoon nap at the same time. You might think it's silly that these are my first two "points," but I can't stress enough how incredible it is to have regular nap and bed times where the kids are all asleep. I feed the girls lunch anywhere from 11 AM--12:PM, with the goal that they'd be ready for bed between 12:30 and 1 PM. Typically, the girls will play or something for a while after lunch, I'll feed Mathias, and then they'll all go to sleep for around 2 hours (most days, Matthias sleeps longer than the girls do).

#3. I take an afternoon rest-of-sorts, too! By lunch time, I am very tired. (Do I need to give an explanation of why? :)) So while the kids are asleep, I try to plan activities that are low-key. In fact, I usually make myself either hot tea or coffee to start off the 2 hours on the right foot. :) Anyway, I'll pay bills, straighten my hair, do the dishes, write a birthday card, check email, mend clothes...you get the idea. So I try to keep that time productive, but also fun and restful.

#4. I try to only take one big grocery-shopping trip per month. My favorite grocery store is Aldi, and our Aldi is a good 30 minutes away. So I've been going once a month, and meeting my sister there. I'll spend between $100 and $200, and stock up for the whole month (and then she helps me load it all into our Tahoe!). Other than that, either Matt or I go once a week, and typically buy milk, eggs, fruit, and salad. It keeps the once-a-week shopping trips easy enough so that I can all three kids with me, and it's not a big deal.

#5. We don't do many activities away from home, and we've cut the activities that we do at home. Other than Sundays and shopping trips, I rarely leave the house. Sometimes this has been hard, but because of Matt's crazy work and school schedules, and us living far away from most of our friends and family, this has just been the way it's worked out for us. But also, especially since having Matthias, I haven't been painting or decorating at all. I hardly ever even visit Pinterest anymore. The time and interest just isn't there right now. As for chores, I've figured out the basics, and I stick with those. The other day, Rachel saw our ironing board, and asked, "What's that?" :) So, yeah... some things have gotten cut! ;-)

So there's a quick answer to how we've been managing recently. I'm sure all of these aspects of life will look different in each family, depending on all sorts of factors, but this is us...at least for the present. :)

There and Back Again: A Pregnancy Tale

This is me--9 weeks pregnant with Matthias. This was the day I felt so sick, I called Hannah to please help me. I guess I didn't even feel like looking at the camera. ;)



13 weeks. My legs were already hurting, but I didn't feel like wearing stockings.



16 weeks. My nausea was finally starting to ease, probably because I was taking Zofran on a regular basis. Stockings were now a daily must.



23 weeks.



26 weeks. If it weren't for my legs, I would've been feeling absolutely great during this time! Trying to exercise every morning.



33 weeks.



37 weeks. A new maternity shirt--a Christmas present from my husband. It's so nice to wear something *new* at the end of a pregnancy!



39 weeks. I knew this baby was going to be coming soon...



One day old baby!



This photo was taken a couple days ago. Even though I'm not back to my "original" weight, it is fun to be fitting into some of my old clothes! :)



A friend of mine said to me recently, "Well, since you enjoy being pregnant so much..." I looked at her and went, "Whaaat??"

Near the end of this pregnancy, I could stand/walk around for about 10 minutes before my legs hurt so much that I needed to "put my feet up." Friends and family would sit down around my parents' dining room table, and I would have to sit on the floor, with my legs out. There were times that I'd limp from room to room, trying to shake my ankle, trying to get the blood to circulate better. I would sit sideways during church, so that I could stretch my leg out on the pew.

Mom started telling some of the people at church how difficult this pregnancy had been for me, and I burst into tears and left the room.

So, yeah. It wasn't easy.

The funny thing is, I was gathering all these photos for this blog post, and what I saw was the joy. All the pain aside, I loved being pregnant. I loved growing this little person...



I am very, very thankful that the difficult memories are slowly fading.

And hopefully, I'll be able to have some sort of procedure done on my veins, so that the next pregnancy is easier in that regard. I have several appointments scheduled, for the near future. Praying that all goes well. :)

One Mom and Three Kids (another Shopping Post)

I used to have one child. The thought of taking that one child to the store sounded completely impossible. I'm pretty sure I called in the reinforcements (one of my sisters or my mom) at least once to assist me in taking that one child out shopping.

Today, I took all three kids clothes shopping (Goodwill), and then grocery shopping (Save-A-Lot).

It's all relative, so they say, and what I say is...taking three kids takes some planning and it can be a little difficult (or very difficult, depending on the circumstances). Taking two kids isn't bad at all--especially if those two are ages 2 and 1.

Taking one child? Pretty much an afternoon of relaxation. ;-)

Here are some helpful things I've learned along the way...

1. While we're driving, I tell the girls exactly where we're going, give them seat assignments ("Jemima's going to sit in the front of the cart, Rachel's going to sit in the back, and Mommy's going to put Matthias in the snuggly"), and tell them how I expect them to behave once we're there.

2. After we finished at Goodwill, I fed Matthias in the car, in the parking lot. It kept him happy for much longer, and eliminated most of the screaming that he would otherwise perform in the stores.

3. Buying a snack for the two older kids is also fabulous. We walked in the house today (after shopping), and I immediately gave both girls a Nutri Grain bar (a very big treat for them). That way, I could sit down and feed Matthias again...and all of us were happy.

Happiness is really a big deal when you're one mom, dealing with three kiddos. ;-)

Hello there

This blog's been awfully quiet recently, and it's because (guess, guess, GUESS!!)... my house hasn't exactly been quiet. ;-)

My productivity in general has gone rapidly downhill, considering that every few hours, I'm stopping to sit on the couch for a while (Little Man needs to eat!).

Sometimes it feels like we're surviving, but not thriving... other times, I feel on top of the world, and like everything's going better than I could've dreamed (more #1 than #2 ;)).

I've giving up on some areas of life, until later (like fully potty-training Rachel), but I have "time" for other things I wouldn't have expected to (like straightening/curling Rachel's hair on Sunday mornings). Wow. Priorities, priorities...!! ;-)

Jemima's started an around-the-clock pulling on her hair, which means her hair's getting thinner, and worrying this mother. Rachel's slowly learning how to read, but she doesn't recognize most of her numbers or shapes. Matthias tends to poop a "mighty poop" right before we're about to leave our house. He has been sleeping rather well, though--only waking up once a night, which is soo nice!

I'm trying to get our insurance company to reimburse us for what we already paid for Matthias's birth, since we used an "out-of-network" provider. It's been a bit of a struggle...lots of time filling out forms, and talking to representatives on the phone. But if we receive a significant portion back, then this will all be worth it!

Rachel's grasping more and more information, which is challenging me to teach her more from the Bible. Before I had children, I wanted the Bible stories to be thoroughly cemented in my children's minds from the time they were little, but now that I have children, I'm actually having to do what I dreamed about...and that's a different story.

Really, there were many times that I thought, "My kids will do THIS!" before I had kids, that now I think about, and kind of laugh to myself. Sometimes you just have to be there
before you can plan out exactly what there will look like. :)

Anyway, that's my story for the moment. I don't know how often I'll be posting from now on. I feel like the more kids I have, the less time I have on the computer. And that's okay. :)

Motherhood, Defined

Motherhood...

Waking up in the morning and realizing (since Matt had already left for work) that if I don't get up to feed the kids breakfast, and change their diapers, then no one will.

Hearing a baby cry in the middle of the night, and rolling over, thinking, "Maybe he's not actually hungry..." and then the crying continues, and I realize, "Not only must he still be hungry, but I think he's crying for me..."

Reading a random blog post about another mother's struggles, and crying (even though I don't know her), because I could feel what she was going through...

Being a mom has provided me with some of the most difficult moments in my life, and many of the most joyous ones. And it seems that each day has a mixture of both. :)

This is Us

Most of us. One of these days, we'll manage a picture with Daddy, too.