Epic Failures and Epic Grace

I was hesitant to write this blog post today.  It isn't comfortable to say things out loud that show your weaknesses.  Sometimes it hurts.

I sent my husband an email earlier today and told him someone should take my "mommy certification" away.  I have failed in so many, many ways this week.  I told him it has been a week of epic failures.  In the last week I've fallen short daily and I step back and shake my head, wondering why on earth God gave me these three little ones (two of whom are toddlers at the same time).

I'll air some of my "dirty laundry" just to give you an idea of what has transpired this week.  These things have all happened since Sunday, so just five short days...

• I took Joshua and Grace on an errand.  I put the kids in the stroller and shopped around the store.  At some point Joshua removed his shoe and threw it on the floor.  I had no idea.  As I continued to shop a complete stranger approached me.  They'd found his shoe and sweetly looked around the store trying to locate a toddler with just one shoe.  They found me and returned the shoe--that I had no idea I'd lost.
• I've lost my temper and patience with the kids a myriad of times this week, raising my voice, becoming frustrated, speaking to them with harshness.  You know, all those unbecoming things.
• Somewhere between here and the post office I lost Grace's hair bow.  She likes to throw them out the side of the stroller and I am generally rather vigilant about this because I don't like re-making hair bows.  Well, today she got one past me.  I sure hope someone with a sweet little girl picks it up off the ground and uses it--I'd hate for it to go to waste.
• I dropped an ibuprofen on the floor without realizing it at the time.  When I DID realize it and went back to retrieve it, I discovered several clues that led me to believe Gracie Beth had eaten it.  I had to call poison control...rather sheepishly...and admit I thought my child had eaten an adult dose of ibuprofen.  Thankfully the poison control people are very nice (and non-judgmental) and sweetly told me that one pill of adult ibuprofen is basically two doses of the baby stuff.  She was going to be fine.  They told me with a baby her weight it would take about 11 pills to do any harm.  PHEW.  She certainly had not eaten 11.  Just one.
• While playing outside this morning I cleaned rocks out of Joshua's mouth twice.  You'd think after the first bunch of rocks and muddy drool, I'd know to really watch him around the rocks, but within the time of about 10 minutes he managed to fill his mouth twice.  Go mommy.  Guess we won't be surprised if we find rocks in his diaper this week....
• I attempted to clean the master bathroom while the kids were awake today.  I have to clean the master bathroom while everyone is up because Joshua still naps in the master bedroom.  No nap time cleaning in there.  While I was cleaning, Joshua managed to re-set the alarm clocks in our room and turn over the bed side lamp we have in there.  No major damage, right?
• Prior to the alarm clock and lamp incident, my very astute four year old came running into the room and told me Joshua had chemicals and was dumping them out.  WHAT?!!  I put all the chemicals up high--right?  Apparently not high enough.  I abandon cleaning to find Joshua has happily squirted toilet bowl cleaner in the hall and in the living room.  Thankfully I caught him before he managed to squirt the couch (or eat any, for that matter).
• Rather boldly I returned to cleaning the bathroom.  You'd think I'd know better, right?  Gracie happily enters the room gnawing away at something.  What is that?!  Oh dear...she's eaten half a....what IS that?  A post-it note?  Yup, it was a post-it note Chris had on his nightstand.  Sorry honey....hope it wasn't an important note because half of it is now in Grace's belly.
• Oh, I could go on and on, but I don't want to alarm you with my many failures.

I wrote to Chris and told him all that has transpired in the last week.  How I've failed and want to quit or cry--maybe both.  How I wonder why God saw fit to give us three children (two at once, even!) because I am clearly incapable.  How he should fire me from my post as the manager of our home.  How all of this would be funny in a few hours, but right in the moment I just saw failure, failure, failure.

My husband knows me so well.  He wrote back to my e-mail and sweetly said, well, this is the way life is supposed to go!  If it all went smooth, we'd think we could do it without God! Then he rather sweetly said many of my items on my list made him laugh out loud.

You know, he is SO right.  This IS how life is supposed to go because we simply cannot make it in life without God!  My utter failures this week (and who am I kidding?  This may be a list of failures from this week, but I fail every...single....day) point me to the cross.  I cannot do it alone.  I will fall short....every time.  I cannot be perfect, I cannot be super mom.  I need a Savior.  Oh, thank you Lord, that you have provided me with an answer!  Thank you Lord, for sending me your Son that I might be forgiven of: losing my patience, yelling, allowing Grace to eat random things, failing to catch Joshua eating rocks, not keeping toilet bowl cleaner in the toilet where it belongs....

Perhaps in the midst of all this God is telling me the answer to my question.  Why did He grant me the blessing of these three precious little lives?  Why did He see fit to give me TWO at once?  So that I could fail.  So I could daily find my utter dependence on Him.  To experience weeks of "epic failure" to show me how desperately I need epic grace.

Lots of Fun!

We got a super cool new toy for fun in the yard, thanks to a sweet friend from our church!  The kids have had so much fun sliding, climbing, and just having fun!  Grace and Jacob are expert sliders and Joshua...well, he just likes to play king of the mountain and take dominion over the slide platform.  He just sits, or stands, or squats, or dances a jig....  He has no interest in sliding.  Nope, he just wants full control of the slide platform.  :-)

It is nice to have outdoor fun for them this summer!

Mama Called the Doctor and the Doctor Said....

It has been an interesting ten days or so at our house!  Sickness, rashes, head injuries...you name it, I feel like we've had it!

Things got started on a Tuesday morning when I came into the babies' room and discovered Grace was head to toe in vomit and her bed had not one inch that wasn't covered.  Joshua had gotten sick in his bed, too, but not nearly as much as Grace had.  I couldn't figure out what had happened, why they were sick, or what was up, so I just cleaned everyone up and went about my business.  Late in the afternoon that Tuesday, Chris started e-mailing me from work to tell me he was starting to feel sick as well.  Several hours later he came home from work (but not until he'd already had diarrhea AND started vomitting at his work).  He crawled in the back door and went straight to our bedroom where I locked him in quarantine.  No one else had gotten sick.  The babies had thrown up that one time in the night and had eaten and acted fine all day on Tuesday.  Wednesday we got up and left Chris home in his misery and went to Bible Study Fellowship.  Again, everyone was fine, and it had been more than 24 hours since either baby had vomitted.  I really thought we were in the clear.  Then, Wednesday night, Jacob started grabbing his stomach, laying on the floor, and telling me he didn't feel good and that he had whatever Daddy had.  He's four.  He exaggerates.  He imitates.  I never know if he's really sick or not.  So, I kind of patted him on the head, told him to pull himself together, and ignored him.  Then he asked if he could go to bed at 6:30PM.  That's when I decided perhaps he was telling the truth.  Thankfully I had the foresight to put a bucket in his room, because by 7:30PM he was vomitting and continued to do so until somewhere around 3:30AM.  We are SO glad we bought our steam cleaner!  I ran that baby allllllll night long!   Hey, he's four.....at least he tried to get the bucket.  His aim needs improvement.  By Thursday morning Chris felt well enough to return to work, however, he deserted me with Jacob sick...and what I didn't know was that Joshua and Grace hadn't ever gotten completely sick either.  The diarrhea began and the throwing up lasted most of the day.  I think I did about ten loads of laundry and emptied at least one full container of hand soap.  My hands were on fire and red, but I wasn't about to fall prey to this nasty bug!  Miraculously, the clouds lifted and by Friday AM everyone was well--Mommy included!  Praise the Lord!

Monday afternoon we took the babies for their 15 month well child appointments.  They got shots and were mad and we were in the doctor's office exceedingly far too long--close to two hours.  Phew!  Needless to say, they were determined to be healthy 15 month olds.

Tuesday night I noticed Joshua developing what appeared to be some kind of diaper rash so I started putting cream on it.  Of course it started developing on Tuesday.  We were JUST at the doctor on Monday and that would have been WAY too convenient.  By Thursday afternoon the rash was just not responding to anything I put on it and was getting worse and worse.  Poor baby would cry each time I had to change his diaper.  So, back to the pediatrician we would go.  One time in one week is just not enough.  We love Dr. Warner!  Dr. Warner gave us some magic cream and things seem to be clearly up nicely now.

Saturday night we had a family gathering at Chris' aunt's house.  We took the kids outside to play and the adults were playing a rather involved game of ping pong.  I lost track of how close Joshua was to the ping pong players and sure enough, he got bumped and fell, slamming down into the concrete garage floor with his head.  He cried pretty hard and began to vomit almost immediately after the accident.  He started acting kind of weird, dazed, disoriented, and just altogether out of it, so we quickly made the decision to take him to the Emergency Room (nothing ever happens during regular business hours, does it).  During the trip to the ER he still seemed very out of it and confused.  He threw up again in the parking lot when we arrived.  Shortly after they got us settled into a room in the ER, he seemed to come out of it and was acting more and more like himself...running around the room, waving at all the nurses, dancing a little jig...all things Joshua.  By the time the doctor came to see us, he felt confident he was recovering well and that it would be okay to discharge us to go home.  He told us to watch for 24 hours for specific symptoms of a concussion, but he was fine and has been fine since it all happened.

Phew!  This mama's blood pressure is getting a bit high!  I pray things will settle down now....at least for a while!  Enjoy the pictures below of my sickie sicks...this is the stillest I've ever seen Joshua and Grace be!

Pretty Patriotic Pinwheel Wreath

I have always wanted a patriotic wreath for my front door, but I'm too cheap (frugal sounds better, doesn't it) to buy one!  Thank you, Pinterest, and my recent unusual urge to craft, we now have a cute patriotic wreath for our front door!  I love it!  I made this during the tail end of nap time one day, so I think I did it in about an hour or an hour and a half.  It was super simple.  One thing I wish I had done though was wrap the wreath in ribbon first (the instructions did not say to do this and I think it would have a much more finished look if I had).  Altogether, this cost me about $10 to make.  It could be cheaper if you are a scrapbooker and already have a lot of the pretty papers on hand.  I love that you can do anything you want with this...I'm thinking about making a bright summer themed one too!

We hope you had a great Memorial Day!

Chores are Fun!

I have no idea what has gotten into me recently, but I've been a crafting fool!  I've made several things I've been eager to post, but alas, they are gifts and must remain hidden until after the gift has been given!  I can, however, share this one with you!  I made this super simple chore chart for Jacob!  He LOVES using it and chores have taken on a whole new dynamic since we began using this!

This had to be the simplest thing ever to make!  I bought a cheap wooden door hanger at the craft store (less than $1) and let Jacob go nuts in the scrapbook paper aisle and pick out what he wanted the hanger covered in.  He loved this paper with baseballs, so we got that (about $0.30).  I used some Mod Podge I already had at home to stick it down and cover it.  Then I used stencils to do his name and the "To Do" and "Done" sections.  We bought coordinating paint and painted some clothes pins and then I just used a Sharpie to write on the chores.  In the morning I put them all on the "To Do" side and as he completes the task, he moves them over to "Done."  Let me tell you, he LOVES moving them to "Done" and wants to do it as fast as he can!  We have a basic list of chores for him right now and alternate things on different days: brush teeth, laundry, sweep, dishes, Bible verse, Mommy's helper (I get to choose something for him to help me with), Daddy's helper (Daddy chooses something for him to help with), pick up toys....  I think that is about all we have right now.  I also painted a few extras and left them blank so we can add as he gets older.

I was really concerned how this would work since he doesn't read on his own yet and wanted to try to get pictures with the words, but just couldn't get small enough pictures that would be identifiable once I got done with them, however, this has proven to be no problem for him!  At the start of the day we read them together, "brush teeth," "laundry," "sweep," "pick up toys," "Bible verse," etc.  The list is usually short enough that he can pretty much memorize it when we read through it.  Then when he does something we'll talk it over...."You just did l-l-l-laundry.  What word up there starts with the l-l-l sound?"  He is quick to find the one with the letter L first and moves it over to "done!"  Genius!  I started making this thing about a month ago and got caught up with work and household projects that I never finished it.  If I'd known the enthusiasm it would generate I would have done it sooner!! 

Just look at my enthusiastic little helper!  Lots of hands to help makes the load easier and has provided so many opportunities for me to talk with Jacob about what it means to be part of a family and how we all help each other out--and then of course expand that to our family in Christ.  We are so thankful we attend a church that really teaches what it means to live in Christian community.  The basics start here on the home level.  We pray one day Jacob will joyfully serve his Kingdom community, too!

Mother's Day Blessings!

I had a great Mother's Day and felt so loved and cherished by my husband and kids!  This year was a low key year...no big gatherings to go to, no meals to cook, etc.  It turned out to be a rather rainy, dreary day and to be honest, I am glad it was kind of low key! 

On Saturday I got these gorgeous flowers from Chris!  I love their purple sunshine happiness they bring to our home!  It was a perfect splash of color for the dreary weekend!

Then on Sunday morning I got a handmade card--SUPER cute-- from Chris and the kids.  Chris traced each of their hands and he wrote special notes from them.  I also got surprised to see I get to make a kid free trip to IKEA!  Ikea is a couple hours from here, so it will be a fun, day trip!  I can't wait (I've already started browsing online...I need to make my list!!)  :-)

We had church in the morning and all the moms were honored and given a great, gospel-centered devotional book.  I already started working through mine in the mornings and LOVE getting that great focus to the start of the day!  Chris and I had the infant nursery during our BFG time and I especially loved loving on all the babies!  We'd planned to grill out after church, but the rain changed those plans so we went to Little Caesar's for pizza (hey, I didn't cook it and that is really all that mattered to me!).  All the kids took HUGE naps that afternoon and we just lazed around the house.  It was wonderful!

I am so blessed and thankful God has entrusted me with these.  What a high and noble calling to be a mother!  Hope you had a great Mother's Day too!

Springtime Fun!

We've been having fun this spring!
 

One morning we took all three kids hiking at McConnell's Springs.  It is literally five minutes from our house and none of us had ever really gone hiking there before.  It was a short, easy loop with not a ton of super great highlights (the springs weren't bubbling like we'd hoped...too dry), however, we had some good photo ops and Jacob really enjoyed the learning center inside and the bird watching area!  It is definitely a great place for families with small kids or folks who want a small dose of nature, but not all the work of a more serious hike.

Jacob had a lot of fun!

Joshua never misses an opportunity for a danelion!



Grace had fun playing peek on a small foot bridge!

Jacob got to go spend two nights with his grandparents, so we decided to pack up Joshua and Grace and hike some at Shaker Village to a small water fall.  Shaker Village isn't too far from our house and the hike was just the right length for two 14 month olds in packs.  Grace loved putting her fingers in the water and Joshua loved riding high on Daddy's back!  It was pretty scenery and felt more like "real" hiking than McConnell's Springs did.  We will do this one again.

 

We've also been able to have some backyard fun with the sprinkler, however, the water was too cold for both Joshua's and Grace's preferences....  Jacob and Grace got into it a bit more than Joshua did.  I think Grace is too cute for words with her flip flops on!

We hope you've been enjoying your spring!  Summer is right around the corner!