What do you Think?

To schedule, or not to schedule... Let me just start by saying, I am a schedule person. I love schedules. I don't like surprises. Sometimes I have trouble accepting a change in the schedule - even if it means a pedicure. Don't worry - I get the pedicure, its just hard to change gears. So - do you have a schedule? Is it written down, in your head or just jumbles. What do you find works best for your kids? How do you incorporate school/learning in your day? I will probably always be a schedule person, although I imagine that I will have to be more adjustable when I am home full-time...

Here is a look at our schedule:

4:45AM - Max's alarm goes off and by 5:10am he is out of bed and out the door. I get up when he leaves and I get ready for the day.
5:30/6:00AM - KayLynn awakens. I try to let her get up on her own because she is so much happier if I do. Some days I wake her and take her to the babysitter in her pjs - but usually she is dressed and ready for the day.
6:00AM - KayLynn gets her soy milk and toast while she watches about 15 minutes of cartoons - actually she spends this time waking up fully.
6:20AM - We pack up the car and the kid and we head to the baby sitter's house. KayLynn and I chat the whole way - she usually talks about whatever babysitter she is going to see that day, and their pets.
7:00AM~3:30PM - I work. KayLynn plays at babysitters
3:50~5:15PM - 2 days a week I Pick KayLynn up and we go play till I workout. We either go to the park, or the library, or home and I use this time as condensed playtime with her. The other days, I work out and then I get her and we go play.
5:35~6:30PM - Workout/spin class
6:45PM - Home getting dinner for KayLynn, and then afterwards she gets a bath and we read books till bedtime - she is in bed before 8pm
8:15PM - Clean up the house and get dinner for Max on. Pack our stuff for the next day, and pack lunches for KayLynn and Max.
9:45PM - Max gets home and we eat dinner. I try to wait and eat dinner with him, but sometimes I am too hungry!

Of course, Mondays are a little more complicated because I try to do Pilate's from 7:30~8:30 as well. My dad is watching K for me, in the church nursery, so that I can do it, so I should be able to be more consistent with that. Wednesdays Max is off, so I workout in the morning or afternoon, depending on how I feel, then we have family time or I get some time by myself and KayLynn gets daddy time. What do you do?

First Weekend Together

We had such a great weekend together. Saturday morning we all played on the bed together, "Where's KayLynn?" and then we went to the zoo! After the zoo we relaxed, watched movies, took cat naps, played with the baby, fought with the baby about taking a nap... Lately she has been testing who is in charge when there are more than one babysitter or parent present. Whenever there are two of us(at my house or theirs) she starts doing everything she knows she is supposed to do. So - we are spending time teaching her that, yes, she must obey everyone!Hhowever, that doesn't stop her from being adorable and sweet most of the time.
Feeding the goats at the zoo, with her palm up, just like granny taught her!

Here are some other zoo picture - not sure what happend with the formatting..

On Sunday we went to my parents for the afternoon. KayLynn took an almost three hour tour nap and we all ate pizza, pate and sausage - yes I know its weird.

All in all it was a great weekend. One of the greatest parts was knowing that we get to do it again, and again. I wan tto remind myself that these weekends are great, I don't want to get into a rut where I take it for granted that we have family time. hope your weekends were just as great.

Congrats Vangilders!!

Tidbits

~This morning my daughter asked me if we were going "bye bye" and when I responded "yes", she started naming babysitters..."Granny? Minol(Michael)? Mimi? Buddy? Daddy? Mia? Aunt Many(Mandy)?" and so on... Did you hear the dog's name in there?? Why yes you did!

~Yesterday morning I woke up to chucky my daughter staring at me in the face, with wide eyes, laughing. Psycho kid...

~Don't touch KayLynn's head - it will make you feel like you are abusive. If you even look like you are going to touch her hair, she grabs her head and says, "Ow".

~Since she has learned to say goodbye to the Krulish girls each afternoon by hugging them, she now says goodbye to Beider and the cats each morning by giving them hugs.

~Yesterday in the play area at the YMCA a mean kid dumped the kitchen over on KayLynn, 5 minutes after my workout started. 5 minutes. So I went and beat up the kid I had to leave because KayLynn was inconsolable.

~This weekend marks the first full weekend that my husband and I have ever had in our entire married life. Actually, I think I can safely say, ever. I am so excited.

What do you think Wednesday

When should our children be in church? Should we wait till they are one?two?three? Till they can recite the catechism? Till they can be quiet for more than five seconds together? I see kids younger than KayLynn in church and kids older than her in the nursery - so what do you think? And, do you think it is a black and white issue, or does it depend on the child? How did you come to your decision?

(Added)
What we do: KayLynn has been in the service, except for the sermon, the last few weeks. Due to KayLynn's likeness to her mother, she talks a lot. It is hard for her to be quiet longer than a few seconds at a time. We are working on it at home so that she can get used to the idea. Probably we will start trying to have her sit through the whole service a little at a time. However, we don't want to exasperate her by expecting something that she is not yet able to do. We do want KayLynn to love church and enjoy fellowship with the body. I firmly believe that while we are mothers/fathers sometimes the worship that the Lord expects of us, is not always listening to the sermon; sometimes it is teaching our children to worship.

What a day...

Just got back from the women's retreat (which was so great - I had a blast, and some much needed R&R), so I figured KayLynn and I could use some good play time. Yesterday, after I picked her up from Mia's (Aria), we went to the park in North Tacoma. We had a blast. We had to take about an hour break from our together time because I had to go to my spin class. However, afterwards we went home and had dinner and read together until bed time.

Sunday when I got home, we did not do a whole lot (that includes cleaning the house!). I was so thankful when I showed up at home yesterday afternoon and my house was clean. My M-I-L had stopped by to pick up the vacuum she loaned us, and while she was there cleaned the house. Actually I haven't confirmed it was her, maybe it was just the fairies!!


All-in-all a good day.

A new Babysitter and a Blessing

Well, as I told you all, the Krulishes will be watching KayLynn for us 2 days a week. This is such a blessing because KayLynn is learning how to play with other kids and all while being watched by a godly woman that I trust. From the looks of things, its going well. KayLynn loves "Buddy Bert" Wren and KayLynn just 'chillin...

Lilia likes to be KayLynn's "Mommy" and have KayLynn on her lap! Apparently KayLynn called Aria, "Mom" and Lilia was quick to remind her that she has a mommy, and its not Aria. So, Aria has been dubbed, "Mia"Praise the Lord for such a wonderful answer to prayer.

**This morning I woke KayLynn up to put on her coat and leave. She started to fuss (literally 2 seconds) and then opened her eyes, looked and me and said, "go bye bye?" and I said "Yes, we have to go to Mimi's". Her response? "Banana?" So, apparently waking early is not all bad! My resilient little girl surprises me. When we got in the car she just talked the whole way about seeing Mimi and Buddy(the dog). She is so sweet and cheerful - I could really learn a lesson from her.

What do you think Wednesday - on Thursday!

ooops I forgot what day it is, here we go...

There is so much controversy over being a housewife and mother. There are those who believe that there is no Biblical reason that a mother should work outside the home, and if you do its because your priorities are not correct. I am not going to ask you whether or not you think I should be working. Mostly because I don't think any of you would actually tell me that you think I am sinning by working - even if that's what you believe. That said, I want to let you know that Max and I are working hard so that soon I will be home, taking care of KayLynn(maybe more), our home and my husband. We are making some major progress in that direction and our original goal (to be home by the time she was 5) is being shortened with each goal we reach and now we are hoping that I will be home by the time KayLynn is 3 (Summer 2011). So, please keep praying.

On to the subject at hand...

Do you do things in the home that help ends meet financially? Do you have ideas of things that mothers could do in the home to make money to help support their families? I strongly believe that the Proverbs 31 woman teaches us that we are to be industrious and provide for the home.

I can't wait to hear your ideas.

Another KayLynn-ism

The other evening the contractor(Kris), the electrician and Max were down in the basement looking at something (you know, a pipe or a wire or something!) and I went down to look at something too. I heard loudly, "MOM!"..."MOM!" yep, it was KayLynn. i went upstairs and asked her what she needed and, I kidd you not, she said, "Mom, Where's daddy?" I told her that he was downstairs with Kris and asked her if she wanted to go downstairs. Her reply? "Yep!"

She is getting soo big.

What happened??

You know how you hear stories about kids that ask "why?" all the time. Well, I am proud to say that my daughter doesn't. She asks, "What happened?" about everything. Especially when she hurts herself, but also if you make any exclamation, she wants to know, "What happened?"

What do you Think Wednesday

As most of you know (and some have experienced first hand) I don't get out much. This means that I don't get a lot of talking time with other women/wives/mothers. To that end I am starting "What do you think, Wednesday". I will be bringing up topics of all varieties. Some, of which, will have formed opinions, others I will never have thought about before, and the rest will be in between. So, join me, and tell me what you think.

Caveat - I am not necessarily asking because I don't know what to do, or I want you to change my mind. I would like to know the different sides to the issues and how other Christian women handle them. I do appreciate honesty and good-hearted debate.

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I read an article here that said you should spend 10 minutes of quality time with your children a day. The article did say that this was the minimum, but still, doesn't this sound a little low to you? The articles talked about how watching your child play at the park cannot make up for actually getting down and playing WITH them (which makes sense), but how do you play with your kids? Do you make things up or play with things you already have? How often do you read with them? One of the things that I am not looking forward to when Max gets his new job (Monday) is that they will not have the evening giggle fests that we all have most nights now. Well, we will, it will just be up to me.

How important is YOUR toilet??

If you are saying "not very", then picture yourself driving to Albertsons at 8:30pm with your husband and daughter to use theirs. Or, planning what you will drink or eat around how fast it makes you have to use the restroom. No water beside your bed, no glass of wine before bed and no luxurious bath in the evening. Don't worry, we did pay our utilities. You guessed it, we are re-doing our plumbing so there is no water. None. Nada.

I comforted myself by caressing my beautiful new kitchen faucet. It really is so pretty. I can't wait to show you before/after pictures. Oooh and the bathroom... I am just so excited.

So this morning I went to work early and took a shower - I would have worked out at the gym and used their shower, but KayLynn had a hard night, which caused me to be very rude to my husband making the night even longer. Thankfully he is very forgiving and I was able to go back to sleep.

Please keep praying, but...

For those of you who prayed for our babysitting situation with KayLynn, thanks. It looks like the Lord found the perfect family. Aria Krulish and I are trying to work out the details now, as it looks like she and her girls will take kayLynn for me on Mondays and Fridays (Shari is switching to Tuesdays). This is such a blessing to prayer and such a lesson in handing things to the Lord to work out for me. Not only is this someone I trust, she has little girls. KayLynn will have so much fun - she wont even need me! Just kidding, I know she will always need me. :)

This is such a load off my mind. I am the kind of person who packs three weeks in advance - even if that means I wear the same outfit for three weeks before i leave (I actually did this once when I was younger!), and next Monday is when we need the first babysitter!!

For all those of you who offered to babysit on a pinch-hit basis, don't cry. I am sure that you will get your chance - I have prmised Aria that should she need a day off, or one of her girls get sick, I have many who have offered to help. Thank you, thank you , thank you.

Happy March Day!

OK that doesn't have the same ring as "May Day". Oh well. Can you believe it is March? I guess it really is true, "The days are long, but the years are short." KayLynn is now 19.5 months old - four and a half months till she is 2 years old, I can't even believe it. She has gained 2 pounds in the last six weeks, culminating in 25.6 pounds of tummy (seriously have you seen her little Buddha belly?).

I know that I am always telling you how much this girl talks, but my-oh-my. She is never quiet... Seriously, the girl rivals me. She often wants to go, 'read a look' or take a 'bah' no I didn't forget the "T" - she really says it like that and 'wash her belly'. She makes sure to 'less you' whenever you sneeze...or cough. She always wants to know, 'where's daddy?' 'where's kitty?' and, of course, after throwing something under the bed or sitting on it, 'where did it go?'

Animal Sounds: Cat, Dog, Duck, Pig, Sheep (although she still wont say sheep), she still messes up cow and lion (I don't get the confusion either).


Max has taught her her 'teeth' and 'chin' along with all the other body parts that she has learned.


Max calls me her little translator because he can't understand KayLynn all the time, and I am constantly saying, "she said____". He also says that I am "KayLynn's own Google". She is always asking me questions, whether understandable or not. I try to tell her that she can ask daddy, because hearing, "Mommy?"every five seconds...


I have told you before that KayLynn and Daddy have their 'cuddle' time every morning after I leave. I cannot sleep when KayLynn is in my arms - I am not really sure why. However, Max and KayLynn both have their best sleep when they are in each other's arms. They sleep like the dead. I now get up around 5am (a little later these days) and when KayLynn hears my alarm she comes into our room to sleep with daddy. The thing that cracks me up is that she closes the doors behind her - her door and ours! I don't know why I think that is so funny, but it is.

I HATE whining. So, being the wonderful mother that I am, I taught KayLynn to say, 'help' instead. However, if I get asked to 'helf' one more time, I might shoot myself.

She wants help with EVERYTHING. Our favorite is when she wants help doing something - that she can't do any part of. She wants me to 'helf' undress her baby. Then I must 'helf' re-dress her baby. We are making her a doll with Velcro clothes this week!