Hodge Podge

I miss you all!  Life has been very busy.  Some days it seems like all I do is the stuff that needs to be repeated tomorrow or the next day-like laundry, cooking, straightening the house, and baths.  Its a good day if I get beyond these things!

I love love love making my own baby food and it is incredibly gratifying to make it for a child that will eat it.  So far AJ has had (in order) rice cereal, avocado, peas, green beans, and just yesterday we added carrots.  So far he loves them all with the exception of the avocado.  Charlie only liked sweet potatoes as a baby!  Thank goodness he has moved beyond that phase!  See, AJ even loves just the spoon :)  Of course, adding solids has increased the number of baths around here exponentially!

Another thing that added to the craziness around here is we switched around childcare.  My provider during the school year is amazing-so amazing that her whole family runs a Catholic camp all summer, which means they live there and can't do childcare.  My summer childcare provider from last year is having back surgery which means she will be out almost all summer, so I had to find new folks.  We ended up putting Charlie in preschool/daycare at our church.  He is in the 2 1/2 room and will continue through the school year  We are really excited and I know he will love it.  Today was his first day and he couldn't stop talking about the hamster, Ernie :)

AJ was a little tougher in that we had to split his days between two sitters.  That's lots of saying goodbye and collecting items, writing up schedules to train the new folks and redistributing stuff!  Just in case you still have respect for me, I should add its 2:30pm and I just realized I haven't yet pumped today-yikes!  Where does the time go?  We did have a lovely 4 day weekend (dh was off Friday) where we got stuff done, had family time, and squeezed in a date night.  I am finally feeling closer to being on top of things after last weekend-which was graduation!  Here are a few of my favorite pics.

 I went to say hi to family in their seats since I had some time and AJ was already hungry.  I must admit, I felt a little like superwoman nursing him under my gown so I made dh take a pic, lol.

 Being hooded.

 Me and my kiddos

 Favorite family pic-see I do shower and remove the glasses for special occasions! ;)

I made someone take a pic after I realized how funny it must look having a diaper bag slung over my gown!

So, its been a little nutty around here.  Add to what I already mentioned the crazy storms and tornadoes and my dh traveling a bunch for work (which both happened at the same time and were completely scary-both his city and mine were having crazy weather!)  The biggest news I saved for last-AJ slept from 6:30pm to 5:00am before eating the other day! He hasn't repeated it since, but now that I know he can, we are about to have some tough love at this house. I had recently took him down to two feedings (one before I go to bed and one in the middle of the night), but soon we are definitely dropping it down to one!

I owe you aso many posts-about baby food (thanks for so much great advice-and I still have a couple questions), and one about the pro life mother's day rosary I attended at Plann.ed Parenthood; also, I attended a Christ Renews His Parish retreat that was much needed and time so well spent!  And I had a visit with a fabulous friend that is as close to a saint as I will ever know.

p.s. I did read some of your blogs but I was unable to comment-grrrr!  I plan on catching up shortly!  You all are never far from my thoughts and prayers, especially on mother's day!

Pride

One of the hardest parts for me about IF was pride.  I know some of you carry your crosses silently, but I wanted to shout it to the world (if you knew me IRL, I am quite the talker, lol).  But seriously, it was also an issue of pride more than anything.  I wanted our marriage to show the value of children and being open to life.   When it didn't work out that way, I wanted to shout to the world my disclaimers and how looks were deceiving.  I am most in awe of St. Therese from reading Story of a Soul as it is embarrassing how much I like to be rewarded/acknowledged with a "gold star."

We were married in August 2006.  Our first son (that was carried to term) was born October 2008.  Our second son was born November 2010.  The "perfectly" spaced family, no?  And of course, some think we are done; others think we will have one more because we haven't had the girl to make our "perfect" family complete.

I am quick to dispel this myth of the "perfect family" when given the chance. "We aren't waiting for the perfect timing to start our family," I'd say. "We aren't waiting for the perfect timing to have #2."  "We don't plan on stopping our family at one or two children."  "We don't care what the gender of our child is."  "I'd like to keep going until I can't have anymore."  "Fertility is a gift."  "We lost children due to miscarriage-it seems wrong to then say no to the gift of children on our terms when God has been so gracious."  "It's about us being open and waiting for God's timing." Me and my disclaimers.  My pride, lest someone think we were contracepting, etc.

But God is so gracious!  He has used my big mouth and my pride for good, I believe.  He uses it to show the world faithfulness to the church's teaching on reproductive technologies and, in an entirely different way, he really did show those I interacted with the value of children and being open to them, just not in the way I had intended!  Isn't that usually how it works?!  I was so blessed by my prayer buddy I was praying for, Rachel from Barren Woman...Here I was praying for her, and her blog gave a book recommendation, Choosing to See by Mary Beth Chapman, that was so wonderful!  It was about how things don't always go as planned, but it's God's plan that matters.  It was perfect for my planner personality!  I feel like I have "been away" from my mission of following God's will and this was a step back in the right direction.

Another step I am taking to get back on track is a retreat my parish is hosting.  I am really excited to be attending a "Christ Renews His Parish" retreat in a couple weeks.  It is my understanding it is about discerning God's will, a favorite topic of mine that the wheelbarrow analogy represents.  It will be so good for me to be able to be contemplative for a change.  Maybe if I can quiet myself enough that weekend, I can hear God instead of doing all the talking and see where He wants me to be as a new chapter in my life closes (school).

p.s. Thank you all for the great info on making your own baby food.  I will compile what I have learned and repost.  I am very excited about this!