I was visiting with a girl friend of mine last night at Mom’s night out and she mentioned to me some struggles she deals with (in regards to house and kids, time really). And I told her about how I wish I could just get my house clean, and keep it clean. Why can’t I have what so many other people have? Umph as I call it. You’d think that if I’m not spending the time cleaning than perhaps I’m spending it playing with the kids. You’d think. I do play with them. I do clean. But I don’t feel like either is enough time put towards them. I think I’m spending it online. What a horrible thing. I blog (usually while kids are napping ~ or like now pretending to nap), I go on Facebook (feels like a connection to the world outside my house), I read other blogs (check them daily even 2x’s daily), and I have other websites I visit to read whatnot on. I try to do it all only while kids sleep. But the truth of the matter is, I’m addicted and I come online more often than not. NOT GOOD.
I have one friend who blogs regularly, almost daily. Today I just read that she is now stopping her blog. It’s gone as of tomorrow morning. Danica I will miss you!! You truly inspire me and help me be a better mom. I just wish I could write as beautifully as you do. Although I will miss her stories (even philosophy Fridays), I completely understand the desire to not put so much time into blogging. I have decided I do want to keep blogging. However I’m going to cut down on all my other online endeavors. I’m going to make myself have Umph, get the house the way I want it and spend that time with my kids. They are only little for a short time. I don’t want to look back and feel like I missed out on their childhood because I was online. That’s not why we decided I would stay home with them. We decided for me to stay home to raise them, and I want to raise them right.
So while Danica moves on to other things, I too have decided to move on. I have wanted to be a certain way since I got married. I keep getting there, or almost there, then falling back behind. But I’m going to just keep on trying! Flylady was working to help me reach my goals, and now I need to press on and get back into it. What is something you’ve been putting off doing? Or something you want to do?

So we decided to test drive a minivan today… Just to see. Eventually we would like to purchase one. There is a brand, and kind that we would like(although after today will look at others). The one we test drove doesn’t have as big of an engine as we’d hoped for. However there is a Brand new (that one is used, 1year old) one that isn’t as ‘fancy’ with a bigger engine. Oye! I tell ya… SO much money.. Neither Orlund nor myself are wheeler dealers…. When the time comes to purchase we might take my dad along. The van was beautiful. I love it. I don’t love how much money everything costs. Oh and the guy pretty much slapped us in the face with the STUPID price he wanted to give us for our cars! What an insult! Definitely will be selling those privately. We can see through all his “I don’t normally do this” but we aren’t aggressive people…. sigh.. Oh well.. someday..

On another note, I’m finally getting some progress going on Joy’s scrapbook. I had laid out a ‘plan’ about a year ago of how I wanted to do everything… However whenever I went to work on it, I just couldn’t get it to work. So I finally scrapped the old idea and started fresh, and I like it! I’m getting it done! I would like to get it done this month. I started on Friday. I have 16 14 pages to do. I did one yesterday and one today. Pretty good progress I have to say, and I still feel like doing more Yipee! I don’t know why I ever thought doing a scrapbook was a good idea. Oh well. Once I have Joy’s done I’ll start on Olivia’s. Actually I don’t think I’ll really work on hers until October (just with all we have planned for summer). But I will slowly gather the pictures I want and print them off. I also still have my mom’s cross stitch to finish…

I also have this excruciating pain in my left shoulder. Right up on top of my shoulder, and when it flares up the pain is so much I usually end up crying. The pain travels up into my head making me want to vomit. It acted up tonight when I was driving and I almost pulled over, luckily the Lord relieved enough of the pain I could get home. I’m praying for it. Joy prayed for it too. What a cutie. Well It’s past my bedtime so I should head to bed. NIGHT!

Well after my last post I should write that today was a much MUCH better day Thank you Jesus!
Last night I found I couldn’t sleep. I was wide awake. WIDE awake. I haven’t felt that wide awake since before I got pregnant with Joy!! It felt great…. the only problem was it was after bedtime. I couldn’t make any noise. I couldn’t use this wide awakeness for progress. (yes awakeness is a word in Jenn Land). We went to bed at 11pm. I stayed up wide awake until 1:30am. I made a prayer list (specifically of babies, mommies and pregnancies ~ the devil sure has been attacking). I prayed over the list as a whole and individually. I spent some time with the Lord. Then surprisingly enough I was still wide awake (you know what I mean if you’ve ever tried to pray before falling asleep, you usually fall asleep before you say Amen). So I turned my computer on in hopes mom would be online. Nope. So I emailed her. puttered around online. The girls were up a bunch of times, so they also kept me going. Finally I decided I should try going back to sleep. And I did rather quickly, and slept GREAT!
This morning the girls and I went in the back yard, hoping to play in the pool ~ ice! So we came inside. I thought I had the boys at 10am, but nope, it was 11am. So I baked bread. Today was my day to take a meal to some new parents in our Church (Baby born on Tuesday! He’s so cute!). Once the boys arrived I made lunch while baking a desert (turns out using whole grain flour doesn’t work so good in squares). I gave Sol a bunch of time outs but over all it was a good day with them.
My Dad popped over just as the boys were being picked up. So I scooped his car to drop off the meal, then returned to enjoy dinner with him and the girls. (Orlund went on a hike with buddies until 10pm). Then we enjoyed a coffee and he headed home just as I put the girls down. They went down surprisingly well. Bonus! Then I went to have a bath, and decided the tub REALLY needed a scrub, so I scrubbed it. It was draining slow, so I dug out gunk from the drain. While I was doing that my mom called on the phone! It’s always an extra special treat when she calls. We visited then decided we should Skype as it’s free. So we did that, while I enjoyed a bubble bath (I know weird to do, but whatever. I needed the bath). So after a rather short soak, and a good visit with mom I decided to watch a movie. I didn’t like any of the choices I had, but decided on “how to train your dragon”. It’s a ‘kid’ show. My kids wont watch it until they are like 13, but none the less my brother gave it to me. And I like it! It’s cute! Orlund came home, he’s looking at his hiking pics, and all in all it’s been one of those days that at the end of, you wouldn’t mind repeating tomorrow…..Tomorrow will be even better!

Random, but cute. Our little helpers.

~~ I learned a few new things this week, 1- before promising a meal to someone, make sure you have the car to deliver it. 2- not everyone can be so last minute as me (which is completely okay!). 3- it’s more work than I thought to plan the meals, but I think next time I’ll be better prepared……Wish me luck! I do truly LOVE being able to bless others in this way, it’s just been a BIG learning curve for me these past few days.

Wow, the weekend is over! I got a bunch of stuff accomplished that I hadn’t planned to. And a bunch of stuff NOT done that I had wanted to. I had Friday off work, so I decided to go through the girls dressers and closet. I re-boxed all their clothing (had put in those vacuum bags, however they didn’t stay vacuumed, so had to put back into boxes). A Big job and I did it spontaneously! Hadn’t planned on doing that (although it needed to be done). That was the ‘big’ job I did Friday and I don’t remember most the rest of the day…. although it was productive.
Saturday we went to the Wildlife park. That was a lot of fun! There was a puppet play going on and Olivia thought it was the funniest thing she’d ever seen! She kept looking back at Orlund and I (she was sitting on Orlund’s lap) with a huge grin and would giggle! SO CUTE. Joy found it entertaining, but she just stared. That took up most the day, and I honestly don’t know what I did the rest of the day (geez I’m forgetful).
Sunday we went to Church (1hour early as Orlund was ushering). After Church we headed straight out to Orlund’s Brother’s house to celebrate his birthday. *Happy Birthday Virden*. Enjoyed a fabulous lunch and a good visit. Missed the hockey game (except for a few times we checked the score). I LOVE hockey right now, never really have before. We headed home after a good visit, the girls slept the drive home… as did I. We got home Olivia went for a nap and Joy refused to. I put a movie on for her and decided to take a nap of my own….. well that didn’t last long and I got up and decided to declutter my bedroom. I went through all my dresser drawers, the closet, and even the bin under my bed. I have a laundry basket full of clothes for ‘Sally-Ann’. It felt good to purge all the stuff. (Orlund was working on repairing our fence~ Thanks Honey!).
Today, Monday, I dropped Orlund off at his Dad’s place and went grocery shopping with the girls. Orlund and his dad got more wood for the fence and used their van to haul it. After grocery shopping Olivia took a nap, Joy and I put the groceries away then visited Orlund and Hugh when they arrived at the house. Joy played while I made lunch for us all, and Olivia woke just in time to eat. After lunch I put Joy down for her nap and took Olivia downstairs with me. First I went through the upstairs toys and hauled the unnecessary ones downstairs. Then I went through all the downstairs and crawlspace toys. I gathered some for a garage sale I’m helping out at, in June, and tossed a few others. Then I switched the toys around so the ones from the crawlspace are now out to play with, and vise versa. I also moved the ‘baby’ toys downstairs ~ exersaucer, baby swing etc. Oh I see another toy I forgot to move down, I’ll do it tomorrow.

Well I need to head to bed. It’s after 10pm and I have the boys arriving at 7am tomorrow! yikes. That’s early… I’m usually awake at that time, but not with rambunctious boys! ~Side story, the boys were at Joy’s birthday party and one of the mom’s that was also there asked me the other day “are the boys always like that?” (high energy, rambunctious) “YUP” I replied…. “Wow” she said “that’s a lot of work!”. it sure is.

So I should be heading off to bed right now, and Orlund is just about to shut off his computer. So I’m typing quickly, sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes (although even when not in a rush those pop up!).

So Saturday is my Baby girls 3rd Birthday! Yup. Joy is turning 3!! Where did the time go? I just told her about the party today as she kind of lets things go to her head and I didn’t want it going to her head to soon I’ve been cleaning the house ever since Olivia’s birthday party.. I mean, I’m always cleaning, but I’ve been cleaning keeping in mind I don’t want to be running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off last minute. And I”M NOT GOING TO BE! I worked two days last week, and spent one day doing errands (purchased everything I could early for the party). So every night while Orlund and I watched our TV shows I would write out a list of To-Do’s on my white board I keep on the fridge. And everyday I was sure to check everything off the list (as well as my usual chores). This week I’ve been doing the same thing, however I worked the first 3 days of the week, so kept the to do list at a minimal. Today however I flew at the chores. My plan was to get the house clean so tomorrow I can spend outside getting the yard ready for the outdoor party (although it’s predicting rain…). I found I only needed 5minutes in each room (plus vacuuming) and the rooms were done!** Now I didn’t get the Kitchen or Living rooms done as they are our most lived in areas, so they are for tomorrow (the last minute rooms). I have my list written out for tomorrow and I’m praying I feel motivated so I can get it all accomplished with time to spare. In the evening I will be decorating the cupcakes I baked today ~ SO excited!

Joy’s party starts at 11am. One of our guests and her daughter are coming at 10:30, so if we are needing to do last minute stuff she can keep the kids entertained ~ yipee! I’m hoping that we can have everything done tomorrow so that Saturday morning is spent calmly and with no need to work up a sweat… We will have setting up to do if the weather is nice enough for a back yard party, but all in all that should be about it!

Well my eyes are feeling like they might just close and not reopen here, so I guess I should head to bed!
I will post pics! Just gotta find that silly cord….. Or borrow Orlund’s….

** You might be wondering why if it only took me 5minutes per room why the entire house isn’t done, well I have two kids… two young kids… If you have kids you’ll understand. if you don’t have kids, well then…just you wait! LOL

So our Beautiful girls are growing up WAY to FAST! However it sure is fun watching them play together. Olivia is now into exploring toys and trying to play with her sister. They dance and sing together (no Olivia can’t walk yet, but she sure can bounce that bum!). They even let me leave them alone in the basement to play! (only for short times while I cook lunch etc).

Olivia has discovered that it’s loads of fun to toss her food on the floor! We skipped this step with Joy, Joy was always a neat and tidy kind of kid so that would just be to messy! Olivia isn’t like that at all! She is also at the stage where whenever we say “No” she bursts into tears and has a good cry. She is trying to talk, and her words are becoming clearer.

Joy is doing AWESOME potty training. We were at a friends the other day and even though she was in a diaper she asked to go pee on the potty. She did so at Starbucks last night too. She’s only had one successful poop on the potty, but that’s okay, it’s coming. She woke up this morning very upset, if I understand right she had gotten up and while leaving her room she went pee. So she got all upset and went back to bed having a little cry ’cause she went pee. She didn’t come see me or anything, this is just what I figured from what I heard. She was wearing a diaper so it was no big deal, but she sure was upset by it! She is also working on her words. I think it’s in part due to visiting our friend. Her daughter turns two at the end of this month and she speaks more clearly than Joy, I think Joy took notice of that and is working harder (and it’s about time too). Now she seems to pick a word out of every sentence I say to her to repeat back to me. She just said Meat a minute ago. Never heard her say that before! It’s so exciting to hear her clearly repeat a word back to me, especially since I didn’t ask her too! And to top it all off she’s putting more words together, she’s always rattled off sentences but there was only a word here or there that we could understand, now it’s becoming that we understand more of her words and just a few are still her own language.

~~ A little side note ~~
Saturday night Orlund returned from the men’s conference. After he and his dad finished unloading Orlund’s stuff and Hugh headed home I got a big surprise. I was expecting Orlund to be excited about God etc like most of us get after a conference, however what happened next I would have never expected. Orlund gave me a great big hug, and while holding me tight said “I am so Thankful that you are my wife”. SMILE. He’d done a bunch of talking I guess to people with broken families and he was feeling very thankful for our relationship etc. It was truly God’s timing. I was feeling Thankful for everything (read my last post?) and here he was feeling the same way. It made for a special evening of lots of talking and hugging.

So we have decided to try potty training…. The thing with Potty Training, once you start you can’t (shouldn’t) stop! And well I hadn’t really thought about that… I had purchased two ‘panties’ for Joy (the padded ones). Found out we needed more than that, thankfully a friend had given me some previously. Day one was great! I kept reminding her, and asking her, and she only had one oops (and one poop oops). But other than that she was good! We even made a “Joy’s Potty chart” for her to put stickers on every time she’s successful.
Day 2~ Not so good. I had the boys and she’s running a fever. We were only successful twice. sigh.
Day 3~ Today. Again not so good. Again I had the boys and she’s still running that fever. I think we were again only successful two or three times. But I’m sticking to it. She knows what’s what, it’s just a matter of her doing what she’s supposed to do. I kept asking her if she had to go, figured if I asked her then it would get her thinking about it. At one point when I was asking if she had to go, she came over to me, put her hands on my cheeks ~ holding my head so I had to look at her and said “No pee” then went on to explain in her own language that I’m bugging her and she’ll tell me when she needs to pee……..Okay dokay. She didn’t but it was cute that she held my head still to tell me what’s what.
Wish me/her luck for day 4!
Oh and one other thing I just want to share. When Olivia and I were in the hospital Joy started calling Orlund’s mom Didda. Then she called my mom Didda. So we figured that was her word for Grandma, she calls both our dad’s Poppa (although we call my dad Poppa and Orlund’s Grandpa). Then however one night Virden and Kerry were over and Joy called Kerry Didda….hmmm, perhaps it’s a way of talking to a lady…. Now however she calls Solomon Didda on a regular basis and occasionally calls Gabe Didda as well… I don’t know what it’s supposed to mean, someday perhaps she can tell us. Right now however whenever I ask her what Didda means she just starts laughing hysterically!

Here is the update on the girls I promised ~
Joy~~
~She is growing up so fast. During my time away in the hospital she’s started to say ‘real’ words more and more. It’s about time too! We’ve been keeping an eye on her speech as it seems a little bit behind.
~She goes pee on the potty every night before bed. And sometimes she’ll randomly ask to be put on the potty to pee. I think she’s ready to be potty trained, however is just to busy to bother. So I’m going to bunker down and work with her on it. (we are now trying to potty train).
~ Joy has always been a child that never got into anything! Until her sister started crawling…. I guess it’s Joy’s way of getting attention? The other day she went into the bathroom and painted her own fingernails (and ONLY got it on her fingers and nails). Then a couple days after she went into the bathroom, found my powder foundation and watered it down, I heard the water and by the time I got there she was trying to dry it off on a towel! And again two days later as we were waiting for the boys to arrive she dug in one of my plants getting soil everywhere!
~She is an instigator! We don’t allow spitting, however she taught Olivia how to ‘spit’ (tongue between lips kind of spitting), and so now she just has to put her tongue between her lips and Olivia will follow suit ~ however Olivia actually spits while Joy just does the motion, so Olivia gets in trouble not Joy…I’ve obviously caught on now.
~ Joy is going through that ‘almost 3′ attitude…..Can’t wait till it’s over!
~ Joy is 33months old!!

Joy trying things out at Walmart

Olivia~~
~ Since being in the hospital she learned to nurse when it’s not dark (and not in her bedroom). She also learned to take more than one nap a day. She went from one (or two) naps a day lasting anywhere from 15min-1hour to napping 3 times a day nap1= 1hour, nap2= 2hours, nap3= 20minutes!! LOVING THAT!
~ She’s been having a few rough nights, however now her second tooth has finally popped out! Yup she got her front right upper tooth in… so it matches her front right BOTTOM tooth…….good for chewing I guess?
~ She’s so close to attempting to walk! She walks along furniture, and is starting to let go with one hand (sometimes both hands).
~ Anywhere the action is you’ll find Olivia! She can crawl so fast!
~ Olivia has decided that she wants to eat everything we are eating. So I now feed her off my plate.
~ She has a favorite Blanket. I tried not to get my kids to have a favorite blanket or toy that they always have to pack around, however since being in the hospital she doesn’t like to sleep without her blanket… she is starting to get better, and I now don’t pack it around with us everywhere.
~ Olivia has learned how to clap, it’s a joy to watch her clapping away.
~ She is talking already too, she can say (in her own way) Mama, Dada, More, Down/Done (not sure which), thank you (said 2x only). And she points at what she wants.
~ Olivia is 10months old!

Olivia showing off her 'club' in the hospital.

Well I should be in bed. However I read a few blog updates from my favorite blogs and decided, who needs sleep ~ when you can blog….right? lol.
Anyway, Gabe the 4 year old I watch always informs me that the rules at our house aren’t the same as at his house (of course). So I thought I’d list out and see what the basic rules are, lets take a look;

1) Please respect my house ~ No jumping, standing, hanging or climbing on the couch, glass coffee table or any other furniture that is located upstairs.
2) Be nice to one another ~ no spitting, hitting, pulling, biting, pushing, pulling, ramming, shoving, punching, kicking, slapping (shall I continue?).
3) Table manners ~ No talking with mouth full. Once done eating they must remain at the table (for an understandable amount of time) until everyone is done eating. (and one day I’m sure I’ll have to add No food fights).
4) Common sense ~ If you are not siting at the table then you are to drink/eat in the kitchen.
5) Wash your hands with soap and water after going pee (and before meals).
6) Boogers are to be wiped with Kleenex NOT shirts or hands (I despise boogers).
7) If you harass the cat and she scratches you, it’s your own fault. Leave her ALONE.
8 ) ~ Added just for the boys~ No Kung Fu while the girls are up, and Girls are more fragile than boys so be EXTRA gentle.
9) Outdoor activities are to be done Outside not inside ~ Like throwing balls, kicking balls, playing tag etc…

All in all I think they are pretty basic right? All day everyday I have to remind them of some… #1+2 are the most commonly reminded. Today I had to inform Gabe (hence rule #6) that if he’s a big enough boy to stand to go pee then he’s a big enough boy to use Kleenex not his shirt. OR if he rather he can sit to pee then I’ll allow him to use his shirt instead of Kleenex………He agreed that he’s old enough to start using Kleenex. (mission accomplished!).
Good night all! God bless you!

Our year in review. (of what I can remember).

We had our second Daughter. Olivia Margaret.
I started Flylady.net. Or in other words I’ve worked my butt off at trying to get my house in the shape I want it to be in.
I’ve started Blogging more.
We started to go outside more (to the park etc) and I’m really enjoying the time as a family. We plan/hope to do it even more this year.
Orlund planted a garden, and it was beautiful. And the produce from it was scrumptious!
We switched our Mortgage to a different bank and cut off approx 6years!
I switched from looking after one little girl to watching two little boys.
We’ve already started to out grow our house, but we hope to be here for 5 years (2 years down).
We will need a mini van by the time our next child arrives (not pregnant, but we plan to have more kids eventually). Our car is already on the ‘way out’ so to speak so we would love to get a van sooner than later but will wait until we are at least pregnant.

Things I plan to accomplish this year ~

I plan to read my Bible Daily, for myself and also for the girls (aloud for them).
Don’t talk about people. I always try not to talk about others, but I find I get sucked into it and feel bad after. So I’m trying to not. It’s not easy.
I don’t want to think so negatively all the time, I find I’m constantly putting myself down.
Always have my house ready for drop-ins (as in clean).

There are a few others however they are more personal.

So that’s that. good bye 2010 and I am already loving 2011.