Crazy over Christmas

You can go ahead and hate me... I am one of those people this year.

Halloween is tomorrow and I am already ready for Christmas! (Emotionally ready, not prepared ready, ha!)

Having kids makes the holidays so much fun.  Melody is old enough to begin some real traditions with her and I am excited to incorporate the twins into a few of the traditions we already have.

Also I am actually looking forward to cooking for Thanksgiving.  The beauty of having Thanksgiving at your own house is that you get to be in charge of the menu.  This will come in handy since we have some food sensitivities to work around (Melody- no peanuts, no white flour, Me- no dairy, Criag- no bananas).

BUT crazy as it may seem, I (currently) feel UP to the challenge!  From somewhere deep inside of me the energy and enthusiasm is welling up to make a yummy Thanksgiving dinner and work around all of our food challenges.

If I can wrangle my time well, maybe I can get a few things posted this year about our menu and our holiday traditions- but no promises.  (Just being honest. :) )

Okay... off to be sure Melody's Halloween costume is ready for tomorrow!


In His Grace,
Rachel

Inspire Me! Monday: Getting your children to listen

Getting your children to listen.

Am I the only person who has a child who listens pretty well to others but suddenly has selective hearing when it's time to listen to Mommy or Daddy? 

Really?!   I AM the only one?!

:)

It has been awhile since my last Inspire Me! Monday post, but I found this article online and wanted to put it somewhere that I couldn't lose it and also share it with others.

As a parent, I am constantly learning new things and searching for positive and encouraging ways to fulfill my role as a mommy.  I have read a lot of books lately and found a lot helpful information about how to work things out with my 3 year old as she becomes more and more independent, resourceful and opinionated about her activities and her time.  She is a sensitive, caring, perceptive, structure-loving (and I am not a structured mommy!) beautiful, wonderful girl.  Sometimes we are so different though (and sometimes we are so the same) that I need a little inspiration about how to navigate these young and formative years.

This article by Dr. Sears is one of the most helpful (and short!) articles I have read about speaking to your children and avoiding power struggles while still teaching your child to heed your voice!  I was excited to see there are a few things on the list that I already do (and that work!) and also to see that there were many new ideas that I can try! 

25 Ways to Talk so Children Will Listen

So what do you do to help your child become a better listener? 

Love,
Rachel

PS- Yes I know that it is Sunday, I am just ahead for Monday! :)

Still here!

I'm still here!  We've just been a bit... well, um... busy at our house these days.

Let me just state (not complain- just state)... 1 preschooler, 1 special needs baby and twin babies is hard.  

I knew that life would be hard with four kids, and I fully anticipated that.  Let me also say, that my kids are a joy.  Sometimes I walk from kid to kid, rocking, nursing, feeding bottles and singing, rubbing backs and snuggling at bed time, and in between kids I think "that was such a sweet moment... *deep breath*... let me go find the other baby/kid that hasn't settled yet and have more of them!"  It is an intensely tired kind of enjoyment that lives over here in our tiny house.

Here's what we are up to in list form (it's all I have time for).

*Peanut is pretty much down to one nap.  However, he took a morning nap today, so I guess sometimes we are still doing two? Update: didn't fall asleep for the 2nd one- so I guess one it is :)

*Craig is pulling to stand and trying to cruise.

*Melody is in preschool and loving it.

*Melody officially has a peanut allergy complete with epi-pen.

*I feel like we are fighting a losing battle with the yeast infection/white flour (melody) and eczema (craig) issues... I sense the GAPS diet looming in our future in a couple of years.

*Not having time to cook food is keeping me from introducing baby led weaning... I gave bananas- I think Craig is allergic to them (rashy eczema got worse on face and fingers after eating them), so the babies are still pretty much always breastfed (except for the bottles they get a few times a week while I teach dance or deal with milk supply issues).

*I HEART breastfeeding twins. 

*We bought the kids redskins jerseys/onesies (and I got one too!)... but this is the stinkiest season on record (in our lifetimes as fans ;) ).  Good thing we don't have much time to watch.

*I am currently still listening to baby lullabies on pandora even though the kids are down for naps.  It is soothing :)

*Besides taking care of kids, I am teaching dance twice a week and helping to put on the Nutcracker show this fall.  Those two things are pretty much all I have time for.

*And going to church on Sunday.  Church has pretty much ROCKED lately.

*Confession: I am late to church EVERY Sunday, by a LOT.  Thank you to all the really nice ushers who help us find seats late in the game :)  Feeding 3 babies (one who is a slow special needs bottle eater), dressing 6 people and showering (sometimes) 2 of us takes time.  There is no changing this right now.  I am trying really hard not to feel guilty about it and just enjoy the church I am there for. 

*My parents visited this past week end and it was a breath of fresh air!

*I am out of time to type... I hear babies :)  Yay 15 minutes of bliss :)


Prayers appreciated :)
Rachel

PS Someone told me they are praying for energy for me on Sunday (thank you!), anyone can feel free to pray for that.  And health.  We are needing some major prayer for health in our whole family over here if you are up for it.  Thank you in advance :)

Pinterest Fun

So here is a random question... When you pin something on pinterest, do you take the time to read the article at it's original source or do you just pin things based on the picture listed?

I always read the original source and I don't pin it unless I like the whole original thing.  I am a bit obsessive about "Pinterest clutter" (a concept I just made up ;-) ).  I definitely don't pin anything I wouldn't actually do or something I haven't read.  That doesn't mean I get to trying all the recipes or all the ideas, but I at least don't pin ones that I think are cool but would never do (that is what the "like" button is for). 

So what about you?  Do you pin every thing that you like?  Do you only pin a few things? Every thing?  What are your general feelings about pinterest?  Love it? Hate it?  Tell me in the comments!

Just curious ;)  Respond and later I'll add comments to the body of this post!

Love,
Rachel

Lately...

What we've been up to lately...

Getting our house ready to sell.

In the last month or so we have started thinking about moving to a home that will sustain our family of 6 long term.  We love our house now.  It is 1100 square feet and it doesn't even feel too small for us right now.  But we know that while it feels comfortably full, there is no room for growth.  NOT that we are planning to grow any time soon or anything... but we aren't ready to say we are done with having kids.  We have no idea how they may come in the future (naturally, through foster care, through adoption) but the next house we buy will need room for the possibility. 

After thinking about this (and also that we need to live in a little different neighborhood with small children), we have found wonderful houses twice.  Both times they have sold before we could make an offer.  Mostly since no offer will be taken seriously until our house is on the market.  Now that our dream houses (for the right price) are no longer out there we are still feeling motivated to move.  Even if we rent for awhile, that is okay, since owning a home is currently holding us back from being able to buy a new one (especially since we aren't interested in renting ours out and becoming landlords).

So we have been moving forward getting ready to sell.  We have lined up someone to do repairs around the house.  We are getting a new front door.  The bathroom ceiling has been repainted.  Several other rooms will be painted in the process.  We are rearranging furniture to make more sense to potential buyers... And as someone who loves to decorate and "stage", I am also having fun making the house look nice! :)

We are also still dealing a lot with Peanut's health issues.  Pray for him.  There are too many things going on with him to even list.  There is also a court date coming up at the end of May that will give us an idea of what his life holds for the next season.  Just pray for Peanut if you think of him.  Pray God's will be done.  Pray protection for his little life and for complete healing for his illnesses/complications.  Lately, it has started to make me very sad to see how delayed he really is... I am starting to feel helpless to help him improve- even doing all of the therapies, etc. it is hard to wait for improvement that comes so slowly.

Peanut started to say "Mama" this week.  My heart melts every. time.

Melody is a little girl now (she would say a big girl :)).  She is potty training.  It is going well so far.

The twins are doing great.  Craig is humongous.   I call him a "hoss".  Georgia is precious and peaceful.  Melody has started to call her "Georgie".  Sleep wise the twins are finally on a pretty good routine.  They eat around 6am, 9 or 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 6:30pm and 9 or 9:30pm- with the occasional extra feeding thrown into the late afternoon.  Then Craig has been sleeping until 5am or 6am (depending on if the last feeding is closer to 9pm or 10pm) and Georgia is still waking up once at night- usually around 3am.  I don't nurse the twins together- they are REALLY big.  It is kind of hard to juggle them both at the same time.  Not to mention it means I am stationary if I feed both together.  I need the ability to chase my other little ones around or care for them (make them meals, bottles, etc) so while I don't "Tandem Nurse" I do "Tandem Care" for my family.  I am usually nursing a baby while giving Peanut his morning bottle, or nursing a baby while I help Melody go to the potty.  I have started to use a ring sling which has seriously helped the nursing while doing something else thing. 

All in all we are insanely busy.  We are also insanely crazy thinking about selling a house/moving while we adjust to twins and care for Peanut in the midst of all of these health issues.  But it is fun.  And one day when we live in a house that we aren't going to move from for a long time and Peanut is a little bit healthier and the twins are a little older, life will feel positively easy.  Easy Peasy as I like to tell Melody.  But I'm not longing for that kind of easy at the moment.  I am loving these crazy days.  As I said on Facebook recently, this is a good kind of chaos. 

Our children are blessings.  Our life is crazy, but happy.  And again, we are so thankful to everyone who has helped us in this season.  We really are doing well because of you. 

I am off to get a few hours of sleep now.  Well... after I attempt to clean up our living room a little bit.  We moved furniture around tonight, so it needs a little help... then I will get a few winks- I promise! :)

Love,
Rachel

Twins & Peanut Update

30 minutes to myself = time to write a quick disjointed post about how things are going... please  forgive the incomplete sentences and punctuation errors that are bound to occur!

Last Wednesday the twins were four weeks old.  The last four weeks are a blur.  It is amazing how many things have changed in four weeks though...

Milk supply has gone from shaky to pretty solid...

I have gone from not sure how to handle twin feedings to starting to get a system...

I have realized that ANY system of feeding twins (breast, bottle, pumping, combination, tandem, staggered, etc) is HARD.

I like feeding the twins one at a time, but I inevitably fall asleep while feeding the second twin.

I have never appreciated the ability to nurse lying down like I have with twins.  My body gets so tired... even if I am not sleeping, lying down is SO much more restful.  Sitting up to do the burping = no fun. 

There are so many baby products that I have changed my mind about since having Melody & Peanut... Example: I was gung-ho for glass bottles with Melody... no plastic near my babies! Now I am gung- ho about Breast Flow Bottles since they mimic the breast and help keep babies' suck strong and in a correct placement while nursing.  Potato- Potahto I guess...

It is weird to me that some things work better for different babies...  Butt Paste & Pampers Swaddlers & Sensitive wipes from Wal Mart are the perfect diaper combination for Peanut (no leaks, no blow outs & diaper rash goes away in one application)...  But Balm-X & Sensitive Wipes from Target are the best for avoiding diaper rash for the twins... it is strange to me that you really can't use just any product for any baby on sensitive baby skin. 

I am waiting a little longer to begin cloth diapering with the twins.. Sometimes you can change 5 diapers in a 15 minute period with twins... I am going to wait a few more weeks before we start that adventure.  We will... just not quite yet.

I am finally to the point that I am so tired that I am okay if the twins cry a bit before they sleep.  The irony in this is that when I finally decided to let them cry until they slept (being sure of course that every other need was met) they only cried for about 2 minutes before they calmed themselves and drifted off... Oh irony... I was scared about two babies crying loudly at the same time for hours (or you know, 20 minutes or something) and it has RARELY every happened that way.  Again, ironically, the more I try to intervene to help them soothe to sleep, the longer they cry (even with me holding them)... lay them down and they are out in no time flat- even though they are LOUD for a few minutes.

Last crazy thing for today before I go have 10 minutes to myself that's NOT on the computer... Peanut had an ear nose and throat doctor appointment today where we discovered that he has partial hearing loss (meaning only hears REALLY loud noises)... He may have not heard our voices EVER in his life.  The doctor believes it is temporary caused by fluid build up behind his ear drum that will hopefully drain eventually (or we may have to help it along somehow)... I can't even write my response to how this makes me feel.  It would take hours... I just keep looking at Peanut and wanting to cry because I keep wanting to talk to him and I keep re-realizing that he can't hear me.  We have to wait a month to go back to see how his ears are doing.  It will feel like a long month...  Pray for Peanut to regain his ability to hear and for everything to resolve itself simply!

Thanks for listening to my random tangent...

Love,
Rachel

Georgia and Craig

Georgia and Craig- 3 days old

We are a six person family now.

Yesterday was our first day at home without extra help.  No moms, no nannies... just us.

This morning I am sick with some kind of cold, but yesterday was... close to perfect.

Calm.

Peaceful.

Enjoyable.

One thing at a time.

No dishes were done, no laundry was folded.  Just playing with our kids.  Taking naps.  Nursing babies.  Husband and wife talks.  Dreaming dreams for our family's future.  Making plans.

I will be thankful when my sister arrives in town tonight or tomorrow morning and when our housekeeper comes to do the deep cleaning tomorrow, but yesterday told me that we can do it!  We will eventually (keyword- eventually!) go back to being a self-sufficient family.

In the meantime thank you to everyone who has given gifts, brought food, called to check in, watched Melody and prayed for us.  We wouldn't be feeling nearly as peaceful without you.  You have been God's provision for us.

Love,
Rachel