Saturday with my baby!

Saturdays are my days to catch up with Josiah. I know it is not necessarily true, but sometimes during the week here at the house, I feel as if I neglect Josiah because of all of the other kids I watch. So, having said that, Saturdays, unless urgently needed, I do not babysit. I play all day with Josiah and devote all of my time to him and our family. We usually sit in the floor for a couple of hours and play together. I also let the gates down on Saturdays and allow him to roam the house with me and go where I go. The gates have to be up with the other kids because I can't keep up with all of them in a bunch of different locations. He is really enjoying hopping up in my lap to look at a book with me, and we usually go off somewhere. Tomorrow, we have to make a trip to the store to find a new toy holder for his bath toys...the other one is not cutting it. We will recess to go walk through the park and take some time out to play and eat...one of his favorites! I love this time with my little buddy so much! Well, since I am getting ready for JoJo time tomorrow, that means I have been cleaning the house tonight...always so much fun! :-) We have some company coming and it is easier to get things done when Josiah is in bed than when he is awake, so Danny and I have been hard at work getting the house in tip top shape. Well, I am done for the night, hoping Josiah will sleep a little later in the morning and looking forward to Saturday with my baby!

First pre-natal visit

Today I had a sonogram and my first pre-natal visit for this second little one. I am so amazed at how people fail to see life growing within the womb when we have such technology that will allow us to hear a heart beat and see a heart beat 10 weeks after conception. Well, the heartbeat was great and I am measuring almost 10 weeks along, due date December 25th! What a gift! I had a lot of questions this visit that Dr Walsh was able to answer and made an important decision to go ahead with a repeat c-section because of my difficulties last pregnancy. I am happy with this decision and trust the Lord for all to go well. One thing that I am worried about is my blood pressure was elevated. I had difficulties with my blood pressure when I was carrying Josiah as well, although it did not start this early. I was very frustrated about it, so Danny and I went grocery shopping tonight and I loaded up on fresh fruits and vegetables. I told Danny we are on a five week mission to see how much weight he can lose in 5 weeks and to see hom much my blood pressure can go down in 5 weeks. I think he is motivated and I know I am! We bought strawberries, avacados, apples, bananas, kiwi, oranges, nectarines, peppers, cucumbers, onions, and we have a lot of other vegetables here at home. I am going to be fruit and veggie girl. I will report in five weeks if my blood pressure goes back down. In the meantime, you can pray for me that it will!

Fairest Lord Jesus

Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of all nature,

O Thou of God and man the Son,

Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor,

Thou, my soul’s glory, joy and crown.

Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands,

Robed in the blooming garb of spring;

Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer,

Who makes the woeful heart to sing.

Fair is the sunshine,Fairer still the moonlight,

And all the twinkling starry host;

Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer

Than all the angels heaven can boast.

This song has been on my mind for weeks as of late. I hear it two or three times a day as sung by the "veggietales" when I put Josiah down to nap or for the night. It is a beautiful song and makes me ponder our Lord and Saviour and His beautiful creation. Josiah and I were up early this morning and I decided to take him outside for a little walk. I was encouraged by the chirping of the birds and other early morning sounds to stay out much longer than we normally do. Josiah has this little toy lawnmower that we take outside with us and he walks with me up and down the sidewalk. He often stops to pick up twigs, rocks or to play with the water meter cover [one of his newest fascinations!]. While we were outside, every time we heard a bird chirp, Josiah would yell out, "Dog!", every time I was consistent in telling him, "No, Josiah, that is a bird." So, after our walk, we came back inside and Josiah went to the back door to look at our little dog, Ellie. While he was standing their, he usually starts calling her dog also, but this time I heard, "Bud!Bud!" followed by somewhat of a chirping sound. Sounded more like little mice, but I thought it was hilarious! Well, I enjoyed our morning and I look forward to more time outside when Daddy gets up. It's time to finish the flower beds in the front yard! I leave you with an outside picture of me and Josiah!

Beyond Blessed

The Lord knows the desires of our hearts better than we know them ourselves. The Lord knows how badly I want to be able to stay at home with my son and raise him myself. I also want this so badly because it is the Lord's will. A lot of you know I run a "daycare" out of my home. I am not state certified, nor do I really want to be because of all of the rules and regulations, but if you need me, I am here and I am flexible. Two of the families that I keep for have mothers who are teachers, therefore, they will not need my services in the summer. I have been asking the Lord and praying about what I should do. Being pregnant and having difficulties with my last pregnancy, I didn't really think I should seek employment outside of our home, so I stepped out in faith. I put a summer time ad for daycare in my area on craigslist.com. I immediately got two hits in my area, and just today I got another two hits. The Lord is so good. The best part is that all of the families seem to be very flexible and understanding of our situation. I started watching one of these little ones today. The family lives two blocks down on the same street. This little girl is precious and is the same age as my Josiah - 15 months. I have my legal limit today which is 5 plus my own, so we have had our hands full! I have had fun though, and everyone works well together. Over the past few weeks, I have really learned that the five year old I keep is best when she works with me, not against me, so I have turned her into my little helper. She is GREAT as a helper and takes a burden off of me when it is lunch time. She tells me what everyone is doing as I sneak to the kitchen to fix lunch. She also helps me set the table with plates and drinks. This was a handful with 5 plates to fix today!!! Well, I just wanted to say I am beyond blessed and truly feeling the Lord and His grace and mercy today. Also, did I mention I have the best husband on earth? I just wanted to throw that in there. I love you, Danny!

Starting Over

Okay, so problems with my old blogspot resulted in me making this new blogspot and hopefully no problems will occur this time. I somehow messed with the "html" and my page was not accessible by anyone and I could not make posts. I really don't know exactly what I did, but this is what I was told happened! Because of this, I gave up!

Speaking of starting over, today is Monday and we all know what that means...starting over with a new week. How do you start your new week? Do you start it with a prayer on your mind and a song in your heart? Do you start it with a cup of coffee? My Monday morning started around 6am with my dear little boy, Josiah. His "delightful" screams for "gilk! gilk! gilk!" hit me even before my alarm clock had a chance to. I laid my little sugar back down and in a hushed tone whispered it was time for "night-night" and not time for milk. This however was shortlived and mommy finally gave in and slipped the starving one a little "gilk" hoping for another hour or so of sleep for him...for me, my little charges would be arriving in about 30 minutes, so I had to scurry downstairs. Josiah did not succumb to dreamland as I had hoped he would, but his screams for "nano" [which means all things food!] began because I simply don't ever feed him so he starves. His screams of "nano" were proof of an ill-fed child. He sounded like rats were chewing on him! By this time, my new-found morning friend...my morning sickness was kicking in reminding me I hadn't eaten or had anything to drink, so I turned the baby monitor off, deciding Josiah could go back to sleep or scream for "nano" for a few minutes while I settled myself with a cup of milk. No sooner did I have my cup of milk than my dear sweet 5 year old charge busts through my front door with her non-stop chatter about this and about that and about relatively nothing. Josiah's foot is probably gone by now because the rats ate it, and I now have a 5 yr old, a 2 yr old and an 8 month old starved for attention because they don't possibly get any from their home-life. My dear sweet 5 yr old informs me that Josiah is awake...I failed to inform her that he had been for a while, and I wasn't ready to get him quite yet. While I got my little charges settled with breakfast, and had every intention of getting Josiah downstairs and into his high chair, my DH awoke because of the screams coming from our son's room. Danny brought Josiah downstairs and asked if I heard him screaming. I wanted to fain complete innocence so badly I could taste it, but instead told him if Josiah can have his milk in peace at 6am, then I could have mine in peace as well [is that why the milk was now luke-warm sitting on the dining room table?]. I never did finish that cup of milk! So, this is how my day and my week has started over. I am not complaining, I just find the happenings of the morning quite hilarious now. All of my little charges are sound asleep in their respective places and will not wake for a while. Josiah has succumbed to dream-land again which makes me so happy and I have already made my to-do list for the week, a to-do list that will be forever shattered by my morning start-overs, but I will always know that I had the best of intentions!

Well, before I close, I would like to say that today marks a wonderful day in my life. Today is the 7th wedding anniversary for me and my wonderful DH. I remember the day we were married as clear as if it were yesterday. I hardly believe it has been 7 years because they have gone by so fast and we now have a family. Josiah is such a delight in our lives as he is a bubbly 15 month old. We are so excited about our upcoming addition to the family, our little "christmas present" as he/she has been dubbed because of the 12/25/2008 rendered due date. Each day with my husband and my family grows more and more dear to me and I can't wait for the next 7 years and would be blessed if the Lord were to grant us seven times seven years together!!!