Boys In Motion Link UP

It's Friday again (seriously? I spent all of Tuesday feeling like it was Friday.)

Here's my action shot for the week:

I chose this one because I'm EXCITED! The fist in the air is Franklin signing "potty" to me...He's almost 22mo and lately we've been getting 95% of our pees in the potty. He's been telling us when he needs to go!! Huge steps!

Head on over to Home With The Boys to see some more awesome photos.

You Are A Flower

It sounds kind of cheesy, right? "You're a flower." Now, don't click away. It's an analogy.

Flowers need sunshine, water, and earth to grow and thrive.

Jesus was heard to say, "whoever drinks the water I give will never be thirsty. The water I give will become a spring of water gushing up inside that person, giving eternal life." (John 4:14 NCV) Just like actual flowers need H2O to grow; you need the salvation found in Jesus to thrive and grow.

God has been referred to as "a sun and shield." (Psalm 84:11 NCV) Again, flowers cannot grow in the dark (photosynthesis requires sunlight) and YOU cannot grow in your spiritual life without God.

Here's where I don't have a direct Biblical Reference...you'll just have to go with me! Think of "earth/dirt" like the Bible; in the sense that it's the base for your spiritual self. If the dirt is too loose the flowers can't take root properly. Same thing if its too hard. You have to find the right consistency for growth.


Yeah, it's a little bit silly...but you'll remember it! (I had a teacher tell me once, "silly remembers" and she did lots of silly things to drill stuff into us)

Coming Up Next!!!

Upcoming subjects:

- My journey into creating: The House That Cleans Itself

- Weekly Tot School updates

- Monthly kid/baby updates

- Weekly recipe reviews

- My thoughts on my new Bible Study: Same Life, New Story (10 weeks long) Weekly updates.

If you have any suggestions please let me know!

Tot School!

Franklin is 21.5 months old.

This week I TRIED to keep him busy. I'm still getting the hang of having a toddler and a newborn. Here are some photos of our week. Stefan's mom was here so that helped a lot.

On the "shelf" toys. (We've allocated 3-5 toys to be "downstairs" toys every week or so. It keeps the living room from being wrecked)

There are actually 10 blocks downstairs...

This started out challenging but now he can put the shapes in with little trouble...sizes are a different story.

Assorted motion things. Airplane with wheels, truck, ball to throw around...

We were blessed with warm weather so we got lots of time outside!

He ran from the fence to the house and back again.

There's construction going on that we could see and hear. He was showing me.

We did a few inside chores (Stefan's mom helped us get up to date on laundry and unpacked a bit. Franklin helped.)

We also pulled out the ice to pour!

And when it was too cold to go outside (mornings were a bit chilly) we tried to get active inside. Mommy invented a game that involves throwing a soft ball at the stairs. That's it...a ball and the stairs. It was a huge hit.

We also tried to throw it at Mommy and the camera...

I visited the Target Dollar Spot yesterday and got some sensory bin stuff. I've been avoiding it because of the potential for a huge mess...but I'm being brave and jumping in.

This next week I plan on having more activities planned.

Boys in Motion Link Up

It's Friday again! I'm sharing my motion shot!

This is why vacuuming is a two person job!

Franklin has taken to CHASING the vacuum around. So yeah, one of us has to vacuum and the other one has to corral the kid.

Linked Up to Boys In Motion Friday!

Face Lift!

The blog FINALLY got a facelift!


Thoughts?

This is why we bought the house...

THERE'S A YARD! No, there's no grass yet (which is fine by Franklin as he loves to grab handfuls of dirt pour them on Mommy)

We spent 30mins outside in the warmer weather and sunshine yesterday. And you know what? He took a nap an hour later.

Sad Note: An ant got into his shirt and stung him repeatedly. He has three stings on his shoulder. Poor kid.

He spent most of the time running from the house to the fence...

...and back again.

He'd pretend to go inside and then rush back out.

No, not inside yet.

Every stumble is a chance to pick up rocks!

Like I've said before: My son is spirited. He has a ton of pent-up energy. Living in the apartment I kept noticing that around noon his behavior would go downhill and stay there until Daddy got home. I was disciplining him constantly and not seeing any improvement. So, instead of upping the discipline (like some parenting books will tell you to do) I reevaluated the situation. What did Daddy have that Mommy didn't? Well, Mommy was big and pregnant with horrible back pain and Daddy was getting down on the floor and wrestling or chasing Frankie through the living room...things Mommy wasn't physically able to do. We (Stefan and I) concluded that it was that pent-up energy that was causing the behavior problems. However, there wasn't much we could do in an apartment with nowhere to play outside! This yard is a huge blessing. We did the best we could with the previous small space, but having a big yard to just PLAY in has been amazing.

So, if you're noticing behavior issues in your toddler (especially your toddler BOY) evaluate how much space he has to play. Are you inside a lot? Maybe there's a lot of pent up energy causing the behavior problems. If you can't get outside try a really physical inside activity. Dance like crazy, run around, exercise, etc... I'm willing to bet if you try a different tactic you'll find more success.


Linking to:

   

Gratituesday

It's Tuesday and I'm linking up to Heavenly Homemakers!

Today I'm grateful for my wonderful births! The first was a hospital birth. Granted, it wasn't perfect but it could have been worse. The second was a great homebirth.

Recently I went to a fun get-together where birth stories were shared. There were many happy stories and a few sad/disappointed ones. (They all ended with healthy babies so they're all success stories in my mind) I found myself silently thanking God that my births were good. I could have ended up with a huge tear or an unwanted c-section or my baby sent to NICU or kept from me for some reason. I didn't. My tear with Franklin needed stitches but wasn't horrible and healed fine and I barely tore with Jonathan. The only time Franklin was kept from me was when they did the "newborn assessment" (I was numb from the waist down and couldn't go) and when they circumcised him. Jonathan was never taken from me. I was able to breastfeed both immediately. We had no trouble bonding in either case. There was no birth trauma.

And I got two wonderful boys out of it!

You can tell they're brothers!

The House That Cleans Itself

I bought the book The House That Cleans Itself on Amazon (used for super cheap!) and devoured it in a couple of days!

I really think this can work for my home. I'm going to take you on this journey with me!

I'll chronicle my journey through the book on this blog. I'll TRY to get photos in as I go (a lot of it is journal work and I dont' have a scanner at the moment)

If you want to give it a try the book is fairly cheap on Amazon.

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