Making Some Changes . . . Woo Hoo!

In general, I am a happy person who tries to remember the immense blessings that God has bestowed upon me.  However for the last year or so, I have had 2 things that have been a constant distraction for me.  I am so happy to be able to say that I now have a plan to work on both!

The first one is my house.  Anyone who knows me knows that I am not OCD and that my life depends on organized chaos at some level.  As a result, I do not have the cleanest office and I am often procrastinating cleaning at home.   However, as I get older and have less time to do more things, I really need some organization; the lack of it wastes time that I do not have.  As well, although it may contradict my habits, I do love organization. I love the idea of “a place for everything and everything in its place” Now do not get me wrong, if I have a busy week and it leaves me with only a few hours to spend with Jakey or clean, I will always pick time with my little buddy.  I do not think I will ever be the kind to pick cleaning over time with him. I do, however, hope to find a better balance. 

As I have said before my life can be chaotic, as a result, I do not have time for crazy cleaning all the time. Therefore, I am so excited and thankful that my mom is going to come over this weekend to help me organize and simplify!  I have been looking forward to this for a while and am glad the day is here. We are going to find a place for everything. Some items may find a place in the house, some in the attic and some in the donation/trash pile.  I am looking forward to easily knowing where everything is and finding a place for those random items that have never had a home.

The second distraction for me has been my health, or lack thereof.  I am lucky not to have any major health problems at this point in my life, but I am also well aware that I do not always make the right choices.  I simply have not made myself a priority. Even now, I feel selfish saying it that way. However, I realize that an unhealthy me is in no way helpful to my family. So . . . I joined a gym.  I joined a gym that has hours and classes that will fit into my schedule.  I now have no excuses. I know that you do not need a gym to be healthy, but I have not been successful at doing it without one so far, and I think the gym time will also be helpful for me mentally. I love my guys, but I am kind of looking forward to the alone time while I work out. I am also looking forward to feeling good about the shape I am in.  I know it will be hard process, but I am excited to make this change that I have been thinking about for so long.

Most importantly, I am looking forward to that fact that making these two changes will mean less distraction for me and more focus for my family.  Watch world, here I come. Once I accomplish overcoming these two hurdles, who knows what I will be able to do!

Williamsburg Weekend

Jacob, Mike and I spent this past weekend with my mother-in-law, Kathy, in Colonial Williamsburg. We had a great time swimming in the outdoor heated pool, seeing the colonial sights, perusing through the little shops, petting horses, going to the Yankee Candle flagship store and eating yummy treats. The best part of it all, the family time.

Mike and I make it a priority to spend time with family. Since we live so close to my family, we seem them several times a week some weeks and we try to make the 5 hour trip to the Stafford family farm at least once every other month. However, there is something fun about experiencing something new with family. I love seeing what interests different people and what their "vacation goals" are.  For example, on a trip like this to place with lots to see and do, I am a "wake up early and go to bed late, making sure to squeeze everything you can in" type of person.  Don't get me wrong, I like a relaxing trip to the beach, but even then, I want to make sure we fit in appropriate sights. I just hate to go to a place (new or not) and miss anything it has to offer.  I was pleased to see that my mother-in-law was very accommodating to my go-and-see desires.  She is the type of person that is always on the go, so I was not surprised, but I was pleased.  Considering Mike can’t spend the day walking through sights, it was wonderful to have her along for the day with Jacob and I for company and it was wonderful to spend the extra time with her.

I am not sure Jacob learned as much on the trip as he would at an older age (well, that and the fact that Kathy and I spent much of Saturday in little local shops) but I am sure he got a great experience, and that was the point, right? In fact it was a place I would suggest anyone go. I know we have all been on the school trips, but you can get more out of it with your own itinerary. Even if you are not someone who is into history, the Yankee flagship store is fantastic. And no, it is not just candles; it is knick knacks, fudge and gourmet popcorn, a Christmas store where it snows and a place for children to dip thier own candles. There are also great little shops and restaurants and you can just sit back and listen to the drum and fife corps. We had a great trip! Thank you Williamsburg! In fact, you have inspired us to become weekend travelers more often.

A Regular Cattle Drive . . .

We went to the Stafford Family Farm in VA last weekend. As usual we were well fed and taken care of, Jacob loved being outside and we had a wonderful time.  This trip, however, we had an extra little adventure that just cracked me up.

On Sunday morning I was inside with Mike’s grandmother, Eleanor (affectionately called Erner) and Jacob, finishing up breakfast when Jacob yelled, “there are cows in your backyard.”  While there are cows on the farm, they are usually on the other side of the property gated in.   As a result of my knowing this, and Jakey’s active imagination, I just thought he was being silly.  That is, of course, until Erner shockingly replied, “There are cows in my backyard.” You see the neighbors cows had gotten out of the field that they are usually fenced in and moseyed over to the yard.  I am not sure what shocked me more, the fact that there were cows 20 feet from the house, or that fact that no one but Jacob and I seemed too excited about it. Erner calmly called the neighbor and I called Mike’s brother, Shane, to let him know they were going to the hay fields.

With Shane at the market, it left Mike and me to try to get the cows out of the fields. And thus . . . our adventure started! Although Mike has trouble with physical things, I knew I could not do this alone. Because of Mike’s back he can’t do too much walking and would have serious trouble chasing cows, so we went to get the “rhino” for some assistance.  The rhino is like a supped up, 4 wheel-drive golf cart on steroids. Not wanting to miss the action Jacob came with Mike and me on the rhino to drive through the fields and chase the cows back home.  Being near people and farm equipment quite often, the cows were not extremely concerned as we ventured toward them in the rhino. This prompted Mike to start waving his walking stick and yelling something that sounded like, “Hee-Ya, Hee-ya, go on cows.” Now imagine this in his a southern accent and a grumbley, yelling voice.  If that doesn’t, “have you tickled” as my in-laws would say, now imagine my 3-year-old son imitating this.  Oh, and to add to the humor, imagine this suburban girl (me) driving a rhino and yelling along.  I am sure to a bystander, especially one who knows me, this whole thing was rather amusing.

Eventually we got the cows back toward their property and Jacob and I went inside to get cleaned up.  As I walked in, I thought to myself how nice it is for Jacob to get such cool experiences by hanging out on the farm.  Not many kids spend several weekends a year chasing cows, feeding horses apples, planting football field-sized vegetable gardens and learning about calves while watching farmers on tractors mow the fields. And, he gets to do this on beautiful land in the mountains surrounded by family that loves him.

This weekend may have had a special added adventure, but overall most weekends at the farm are pretty cool and I love getting to watch Jacob spend time there.

This picture is not of our adventure but I just love it!

Jacob's Funny Quotes . . . Shompom, what? And sometimes things that shouldn’t be funny, just are.

It’s time again for me to think my son is the funniest thing ever . . .

Story 1: So the other night after I put Jacob to bed and I heard him yelling this made up word, “ShomPom.”  When I went in to see what he was talking about and he explained that it meant, “I want my Dad to come check on me.”  Not thinking I cracked up at his imagination which just egged him on. So now, we have a new word in our house. The problem is that sometimes he just calls Dad in so that he can say his silly word. Crazy, kid.

This pic is actually from last summer, but it makes me laugh, so i thought it fit with the topic!

Story 2: Sometimes I find that I should not laugh when Jacob says something but I just can’t help myself.  You know what I mean? Well, I had one of those moments the other day.  Jacob had eaten something messy and was hell-bent not to get his face washed. So he says to me, “if you wipe my face, I won’t invite you to my birthday.” At this point I was thrown off because his birthday was in May and because there is no way I am taking consequences from my 3 year-old.  However, instead of taking the mature road, I said to him, “Well, I make your birthday cake, so if you I do not go, you will not have a cake.” ( I know, not the right answer.) Well, as fast I responded, he turns right around and says, “That’s okay, Auntie Ria will make my cake for me.”  I should have been annoyed, but I just couldn’t help laughing. I had to walk away just so he didn’t see.  I guess I better be careful because apparently, he knows that if he doesn’t get the right answer, he will just ask his Aunts. Geez!

Mother's Prayer

I recently saw this prayer and just had to share it. Love the sentiments.

Dear Lord, it's such a hectic day,

With little time to stop and pray,

For life's been anything but calm

Since you called me to be a Mom.

Running errands, matching socks,

Building dreams with wooden blocks,

Cooking cleaning, finding shoes

And other stuff that children lose.

Fitting lids on bottled bugs

Wiping tears and giving hugs,

A stack of last week's mail to read

So where's the quiet time I need?

Yet, when I steal a moment, Lord,

Just at the sink or ironing board,

To ask the blessings of Your grace,

I see then, in my small one's face,

That you have blessed me all the while

And I stoop to kiss that precious smile.

Jakey’s Quotes of the Week

I am famous for calling family or stopping friends in the hall at work to tell them the funny things Jacob says. I admit it, I am that mom.  He is so darn funny, I just can’t help it.

In an effort to make sure the 2 people that read my blog also endure the same stories that I think are so funny, I have decided to add a weekly blog on how funny my little guy is. Unless of course he is really hilarious, than you too may have to endure the daily stories. So, here we go . . .

Story 1: Last week, Mike, Jacob and I were in the car and J was in one of his typical “why” moods.  This time it was about why it rains, to which Mike told him that it was good for the trees and flowers. After many additional questions, knowing that Jacob understands that God created all things, Mike says, with a little annoyance in his voice, “Because Jesus likes it that way.”  However, Jacob was a step ahead of his Dad.  After hearing his Dad’s short tone, Jacob wittingly replied, “Jesus doesn’t like it when you talk like that.”  It took all I could do not to laugh. Instead I just whispered to Mike, “Jesus doesn’t like it when you talk like that.” Believe you me, I have certainly gotten a short tone as a result of 10 minutes of “why” but since it was said to Mike, it was really funny!

Story 2: After my Crazy Friday in DC, my feet were killing me, so I jokingly asked Jacob to rub my feet. My sister told him to say no because “other people’s feet are gross.”  My sweet boy replied, without missing a beat, “she’s not other people, she’s my Mommy!” LOVE  . . . THAT . . . KID!

Sick Saturday and Jakey’s new bed?

Friday I had a great a day with my family (See “Crazy Friday”) but by the end of the day Jacob was saying his throat hurt and pointing to his sternum.  Thank goodness for my sister being a Physician’s Assistant because she is always there to examine Jacob and he always lets her because he is sure she is a medical genius. (Smart Kid!) Turns out he was very bloated and either on his way to a virus or a blockage. Thank goodness it was just a virus and not more serious. However, it did not make for a fun Friday night or Saturday.

The stomach flu is never fun for the patient or the caregiver.   My Friday nighttime solution was to have him sleep in the bathtub (thanks for the suggestion Holly!). Don’t worry; I put a washable blanket and some towels to make it more comfy. In fact, he looked more comfortable than I felt on the hall floor. It turned out that Jacob’s case was fairly mild and only lasted about 24hours.   In fact by Saturday evening the worst part was being stuck in the house which Jakey and I both hate.

The funniest part of it all was that Jacob loved sleeping in the bathtub so much so that he asked to sleep there again on Saturday.  Feeling bad after his last 24 hours, I gave in.  So here is my little bathtub sleeper on Saturday. Less cautious of the blankets and pillows since I knew the sickness was over, I really made it comfy. Remind me why we just bought him a new bed. This might have been a fine solution. J

Crazy Friday: Our trip to DC with my uncle, my sister and 5 kids under age 11!

My Uncle was visiting last week, and I had to work most of it, but on Friday, I had the day free to spend with him and my sister Claudette and her 4 younger kids.  We decided to go to DC at my Uncle Mark’s request. Unfortunately, I had to take Mike to an MRI first.

Because things never go as planned, the MRI place was running late and then the whole process took longer than I thought.  As a result, instead of meeting my sister at my Mom’s at 11:00 am, the appointment was over at 11, and I still had to get Mike home, get lunch for Jacob and grab snacks for the day. Needless to say, I got to my mom’s after 12:00pm and we did not leave until close to 12:30. My sister has a great new SUV that fit everybody, but we were not trying to park that big ole’ thing in DC we decided to take the metro. Eight riders later, 6 that needed tickets, we spent a whopping $48 dollars and were on our way!

 The kids loved the metro, as expected.  Jakey decided that we rode Thomas on the way there and Gordon on the way home. Love that kid! Then we headed to the US History Museum. I know, I know, the Zoo, the Air & Space or the Natural history would have made more sense with all of these kids, but, this day was about Uncle Mark, and he likes US history.  There was a cool science section, and the kids liked Julia Child’s kitchen, the trains and auto wing and the weapons in the military sections, so there were highlights. However, I would be remiss if I acted like we did not also hear our fair share of, “my feet hurt”, “can we go back to the science section”, “I do not want to hold your hand” and “I’m hungry.”  By the end of the day, we were worn out and our craziness continued by trying to find bathrooms on the mall in DC after the museums closed. Needless to say, we found the bathrooms after much search and headed to the metro.

Because it was that kind of day, we needed just a little more excitement.  As we got on the elevator to the metro, Claudette’s 8 and 5 year old boys got on first. We then tried to let a man in a wheel chair on and get in, but the doors closed. . . with just the boys inside! Thank God, Allen stayed calm and hit the “door open” button in time and all was okay. Whew! Now, we were really ready to get back to my Mom and Dad’s to have dinner with the whole family.  One metro ride and a quick drive after, we finally got there, exhausted and a bit giddy!

Make New Friends, but Keep the Old. . .

After having dinner with a newer friend this week and then spending time with some lifetime friends over the weekend, I keep thinking of the Scouts song, “Make New Friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold.”

Meeting new friends is the best.  The older I get, the more I find this to be true. This is because the more I know myself and the less time I have in my day, the more picky I find myself being about who I spend time with. I have a lot of acquaintances and I am less judgmental than I used to be, I simply have changed my definition of what I think a true friend is and what I am looking for in one.  With that said, I have some wonderful friends that I have meet over the recent years that I have a lot in common with and that I love spending time with.  However, there is something about the comfort of an old friend that is unique.

I am blessed enough to have a few friends, that I have known for more than ½ of my life, and even a few more that I have known as long as I can remember.  I had the joy of spending time with 2 of my oldest friends the other day, Nadji and Eli.  We had lunch at Panera and shopped a little after.  Our conversation was not especially deep or meaningful, but what was not said, in the silence between our words, was.  The love that I share with these ladies and the other close friends that round out our long-time group is something remarkable.  It is the at kind of friendship where you do not have to talk everyday or even every month, but still, you know that these people would be there for you no matter what.  We share some great memories and have had our ups and downs, but nothing will break us.  I have had people sound shocked that I am still friends with my High School friends, especially since we are a co-ed group. But for me, I can imagine it any other way.  

As I said above, I love all of my friends and I cannot imagine not having those that I have met as an adult, in fact, I have a feeling some of the newer ones will become life-long friends. However, I know that my “old” friends are who helped to mold who I am and have taught me about true friendship. For that I am grateful!   

Yehaw, I am Proud to be an American!

Living in a suburban area, I do not often get to experience the community and faith of a small town unless I am on a visit to my in-laws in Pearisburg, VA, a small town outside of Blacksburg. However, last night, I had the blessing of such an experience while watching my son and our family enjoy the rodeo at the J Bar W Ranch In Libertytown, MD.

 

To give you a little background, my son and one of my nephews are pretty sure that they are cowboys, and I do not mean Halloween dress-up cowboys. They are the real things! My family has been talking about getting them to the rodeo for some time and last night we went. I expected to love watching them watch the bull riders. What I didn’t expect was getting teared up over the pride I felt for my country and the men and women who serve it.

You see it was Military Night at the J Bar W Ranch Rodeo. It was night of US pride, respect for the flag and honor for the men and women who keep us free. On this night we were invited to watch a group of about 25 men and women sworn into various branches of the US Military. Having a husband who is prior active duty and National Guard and working day in and day out with these amazing people and thier families, I already have a genuine respect for these brave men and women. But even with my experiences, seeing these young people hand their life as they know it over to our country warmed my heart and filled my eyes with tears of pride in a way I wasn’t anticipating.

Beyond this pride for these young people, my heart was also warmed by the overall experience. The announcers and the crowed were so happy to be there and watch these cowboys and cowgirls do what they love, the feeling was one of family and camaraderie and everyone one who spoke showed a true faith in the Lord above. No one was worried about saying, “God” and all heads were bowed as prayed for God to keep the cowboys safe and support them as they made their best efforts. In a world where we are all so worried about being politically correct, this was wonderful to experience.

My nephew, Wyatt and my little cowboy, Jake.

On top of the national pride, the community and the faith, my night was topped off by being with the people I loved and watching my little cowboy get to be a real cowboy. We got there early for the little cowboy rodeo. Jake (Jakey’s cowboy name) and his cousins got to ride a mechanical bull, rope dummy cows, and get up close to the horses used to rope to bulls and the cowboys that ride them. Then, the main event . . . they watched bull riding! I think the first few riders went by with out a word or even a blink from Jacob. He was in such awe. After a while, he of course had to pretend he was also riding and getting bucked off by throwing himself onto the ground. I love watching Jacob just enjoy being a kid. The only thing missing in our night was Daddy. We sure hope his back gets better one day so that he can go with us.

Some extra Rodeo photos . . .

It takes a Village to Raise a Child!

In an effort to give a glimpse into my life and my tight-knit family, I will start my blog my explaining a typical week to you.  As I stated above, I work outside my house and my husband has a back injury that does not allow him to keep Jacob while I am at work, so I need some sort of daycare for my 3-year-old, Jakey. Most people would assume that I take my son to daycare;  maybe one close to my house, or maybe one on Fort Meade, where I work. But No! I am lucky to have a great family, so Jacob's schedule goes like this:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday - Jakey goes to the preschool where my sister, Holly works. Because the school hours are shorter than my work hours I drop him off and pick him up at her house. She takes him to and from school.
Tuesday & Thursday - Jakey goes to my sister, Claudette's, house where our shared nanny, Becky, watches our kids while Claudette sleeps (she works nights).
When I am in need for an alternate day care plan due to illness or some sort of other issue, Jacob can goes with my Mom and Dad or my sister, Maria.
Somehow amongst all of the craziness of his schedule, I have the most well-adjusted, loving, polite child with varying interests.   To top it all off, I get to spend extra time with my sisters at drop-off and pick up.
Most weekends I have at least one family event.  Sometimes it is a birthday or Sunday dinner at my parents and sometimes it is attending someones' child's sporting event or activity. As you see, I am blessed!


This is my sisters taking care of me when I was a baby. Lucky for me, they never stopped. Thanks, Mom and Dad for giving us the lessons of family!