Making Milestones

Today has been an event filled day of milestones. I am very excited to say Nate is successfully potty training. We had some accidents over the last few days but today he pooped in the toilet completely on his own!!! And did not wet his pants all day. He stopped wearing pull ups this week and progressively got better each day.

Yesterday, he woke up with gunky infected eyes and a cold so he's been to the doctor and now on eye drops to clear it up. And in the midst of his sickness I thought of just putting a pull up on him just in case. But after reading Potty Train Before 3 I realized it is all about the parents initiative. Duhhhh! How do I so easily forget these things. Nick potty trained earlier and easier so it just didn't seem that difficult then compared to now. So I stuck with the underwear today and it was his best day ever! We are going to beat the 3 yr cut off! I'm sure it will be a process to be completely trained but we are on our way! Yes! One less in diapers!

On a sick note, Nate's eyes are really gunky, red, and seem to hurt. I'm praying the girls don't get it! I've made a huge effort in keeping his hands clean and not letting them bathe together.

The girls are talking more and more. Their favorite words for now are No and cracker! They are also saying Uh-ho, thank you, please, cup and whatever else they can copy! I can't really think of them all right now.

The next best milestone today was a semi-peaceful, stress free time eating out. We went to our local Japanese restaurant and the girls, Joe, Nick and Nate behaved nicely. We gave the girls their own Japanese soup bowl and spoon, you know the unbreakable kind, first with some ice to play then with some noodles to eat. They were so distracted with their bowl I actually got to eat all my meal and enjoy our time together as a family. It really has been a long time since I felt that way! Although we did make a quick exit since Nate and Kate started making a couple signature screams and Nick was flinging his chopsticks through the air while stealing steak from my plate. I made a mad rush for the car with Kate, Joe brought out Ally along with some pineapple treats and the girls were content again in their car seats. Adam paid the bill inside and we were off. I only wish I would've thought to take a picture to capture this milestone moment.

Another milestone moment happened yesterday when I was lucky enough to sit down and watch Joe practice football from 6-8pm. While I did do some reading, I got to see Joe make some really awesome catches and most amazingly watch him take first place in a race relay of sprinting, bear crawling forward and backward and who knows what else at the end of practice. Now, I couldn't tell if Joe was in first since all the players wear white practice jerseys and Joe's has only a faint last name we wrote on the back. The sun was going down, it was about to get dark but as he came in he looked over in my direction, waved and I knew it was him. My heart just swelled with pride over him. He is growing up, turning into such an awesome young man and I am so very proud to be his Mom... regardless of if he comes in first or not. He did really great and it was so nice for me to finally get a moment to watch him since I am usually at home with the little ones during his football practices and games.

Our milestones may not seem like much to some but during a day filled with cooking, cleaning, going for a bike ride with 3 toddlers, homeschooling Joe, keeping him on task and all that entails, cutting Adam's hair, paying bills, reading to toddlers, putting together puzzles, disciplining toddlers, cleaning gunky eyes and wiping running noses, and whatever else it is that I do here ....
I find it a huge accomplishment and awesome transition into a new stage of life! I am continually amazed at how much one person can accomplish and delegate in one day!

And it is not of my own doing. I can only do these things through Christ who strengthens me! Really true! Thank you Lord for each of these milestone blessings, for giving me the strength each day and for sustaining me in my weaknesses!

I guess I should read my daily Bible blog verses more often. Today's is Psalm 16:8“I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”

Let me just start by saying I use this blog to vent my daily stresses. I am very thankful for everything I have, I really am. I just find this season of my life very humorous. I want to blog about it because I know I will completely forget tomorrow about today. And if I can write about it and laugh I feel much better afterwards. So...

Do you ever feel like everything in your home starts to break at the same time? Our microwave has now been broken for I think over 6 months. I have found I can survive with a toaster oven, it just takes a little longer. More recently our front window covering cord broke and I can't get it to open...ever, our dog chewed through the screened in porch the other day, the vacuum hose has a hole in it, the dishwasher has a missing part, the faucet lever won't stay on and the most annoying of all is we have somehow misplaced two cordless phones!! They have been MIA for almost 4 days now. Thank goodness I had a regular phone with a cord to hook up in the meantime. You just don't realize how helpful a cordless phone is until your without one for FOUR days! I am very thankful these are very minor repairs. I guess when I can't even keep my house clean, the broken things just seem that much more burdensome. Oh and I forgot... for the last several weeks when we get those torrential down pours the drains in the street overflow over halfway up our driveway. A little scary since we are in the middle of Hurricane season! I finally remembered to call public works. You know ...that is one of my greatest accomplishments today! I am seriously proud of myself. I also took the boys to the library and for a milk shake without the toddlers. Wow, it's so nice when your kids can buckle themselves up! So on that note.. I am also proud that I finally found where all the sippy cups had run off to... UNDER ALLY's Bed! FIVE of them! I am smart enough now to only fill the cups up with water when the girls are not in their highchairs. The girls are on a mission to toss those cups completely outta sight!
I thank God everyday for protecting us and providing for us, today is a better day! We are blessed! I learned a neat acronym to use in prayer from John Piper: IOUS
So know that before I go to bed and in the quiet times of my day I pray this over my family and friends:
For God to:
INCLINE your hearts towards Him and His truth
OPEN your eyes to His will for your lives
UNITE your hearts toward Him and not have a heart divided
SATISFY your soul completely in His truth and not be deceived by what this world has to offer.
I love it, what a great way to cover those you love in prayer!

Last week of Summer Vacation

Okay, is anyone else feeling stressed about getting ready for this next school year?? I'm having the hardest time keeping my house in order now. I don't know how I'm gonna do it while transporting Nick to school and homeschooling Joe. From football practice every night of the week 6-8:30pm to getting to school on time. I'm feeling the pressure! Then Nick starts soccer in a few weeks after school. I'm in a weird stage of disorderly mess. I'm constantly searching for my own socks in the clean pile of clothes and on a real backed up day my underwear! I can never find matching shoes for Nate! And someone always goes poop when I'm ready to leave. The dishes and laundry are a constant. I can't figure out why I continue to find random choking hazards in my house. Like the broken hangers I keep finding in the hallway. No one fesses up, it is a mystery! Why in the world does Ally have a penny in her mouth AGAIN! I just put it up... how did she get it again?? And while I'm clearing the penny from Ally's mouth Nate pulls the gate down. Nate and Kate run off to my bathroom to play with the bath faucet, trying to soak themselves or anything else they can find. I'm sitting in my half wet bathing suit perplexed at all life throws at me everyday! And most of the time I'm just not energized enough to keep up with it. My back aches every morning I wake up as I begin thinking of what is to come of the day. I must go shower and put the glass back in the cabinet door that fell out earlier and replace the hose on my vaccum. Always something!