Changing my Expectations and Opting for Preschool-Mom Sanity!

changing expectations for sanity

While working on improving the blog and sifting through my old work, I came across this OLD post that I wrote in 2013. I emphasize that it’s from 2013 because I do not want any of you to get all excited and start thinking I’m expecting a baby. There’s no baby. I’m so sorry to disappoint you. Ha! I’m sharing this because I want every pre-school mom I know to read it.  Some of you are like me, and you […]

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When We Met Matthias: Story of a Military Family

I’ve kept a tiny secret from my blog audience. Well, not all that tiny…8 pounds of secret at least… No…I didn’t have another baby. I did better than that. We brought this baby home with us, but we haven’t taken leave of our senses. We brought his mama home with us too. hehehe Aren’t they precious? It was just a few weeks, a few of the fastest weeks ever. See, Emma’s husband is a friend of ours, from church, and […]

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We are not polar bears. Don’t struggle alone.

Being a mom these days feels sort of like trying to accomplish the impossible. Clean the house, feed the people wholesome well-rounded meals, wash the clothes, make fun and elaborate lesson plans, teach the children, exercise, and still look beautiful for your husband when he gets home. Or maybe those are just my issues… As a stay-at-home mom, one can even be tempted to think that she must do all of this for herself, by herself. “I have no job […]

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Will Nap Anywhere

There are many things my beautiful little boys do well. Yes, I am sorry. I said beautiful.  They are!! Handsome, if it makes you feel better, but my goodness, they look like sleeping angels to me. This is one of the things we do with FLARE. That’s right. We NAP. We are seriously great nappers. I remember one time, in Sunday school, our class was debating rest on Sundays. Who would debate that? Seriously. Don’t just agree to rest, embrace […]

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Mommy Brain: Probably the Result of Sleep Torture

Look closely. That was Dan, not JD. He was 20 months old, and he was apparently causing me to lose lots of sleep–not a good situation when you are pregnant.  (Noooooo, I’m not pregnant now. Stick with me here. This was 2012.) Daniel is 3 1/2 now. Dan was such a good baby. I did not have to ‘sleep train’ him. Yet, somehow he gradually developed a bad pattern, and we had to work on it.  What is it with […]

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Delaying Dreams When You are Busy Being Mom

delaying other dreams for the dream of motherhood

In my head, and even sometimes on paper, I always have at least 10 good ideas for things I want to write about on my blog. I even sometimes manage to write it all out in my head, exactly what I will write….if I can just get a minute…..to make that my priority. Just this week, there was a delicious 7 layer cake that I made, numerous thoughts on my first year of parenting 4 children, even more thoughts on […]

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On the Outside Looking In

On the outside looking in, we have had an amazing week: That’s us at a Washington Nationals game on Memorial Day. We love baseball games, and that was really fun. Plus, we’ve gotten to see some wonderful friends this week. Thanks for having us over, Pastor and Terri!!! Their dog is probably still recovering from what Daniel seemed to think was their ‘play date.’ Poor Annie. So good things have happened, and a few crummy things have happened, but nothing […]

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Learning to Crawl

I am proud to announce that JD finally made tiny crawl movements FORWARD today, on several occasions.  He’s been on hand and knees, going backwards, going to the sitting position, and even pulling up, for a while, but forward movement had eluded him until today. Go, JD, go! By the time we arrive in Alabama for our visit, I bet he will be all over the place. I recently mentioned that I do not have many digital baby photos of […]

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Easter: The Golden Baptist Standard

  Remember last Easter, when I was about 7 months pregnant and I totally forgot to prepare for Easter?  I joked that I had fallen very short of the “golden Baptist standard of Easter Sunday.” Well, boo-yah!!!  Look who planned ahead this year!!!!! Are those MATCHING outfits???  Why,yes, they are!  We’ve come a long way, baby. (For a refresher on last Easter, just click here.) (ahem…..that is a joke. Easter is not about clothing, of course….sometimes it may feel like […]

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How I Lose the Pregnancy Weight

  What I look like, every single time, right after giving birth:  This was a few days after I had Caleb. I weighed about 170 pounds in this photo. And this is what I normally look like: That’s a 35 pound difference.  (After all, a few pounds actually DO belong to the baby.)   This is not my favorite topic:  weight loss.  I don’t like discussing it because it often makes us feel bad. Maybe it’s just me, but when […]

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