9 to 5......I wish.

The "eye" of a tornado, or the center, is supposed to be really calm. But, its still a TORNADO you are in. This is how my life is. I try to create peace and calmness here and even still....it's a tornado.
Here's a rundown of my Monday, well lets just be honest, most days. I really do love my life..

5:00am- Mackenzie wakes up to eat, but goes back to bed praise the Lord. I half consciously feed her and go back to bed....normally I trip down the stairs or fall from stepping on a hotwheel.
8:00am- Everyone wakes up (dont worry, tim is long gone, i don't even here him) Sorry mom, no hot breakfast for him. I go and get whoever is making the most noise out of their bed first.
Feed David breakfast, Nurse Mackenzie, try to eat something also.
"poo poo rounds"- take David potty, change Mackenzie's diaper, take Holly outside to go potty.
Get everyone dressed, think about taking a shower, but put it off until later.
10:00am- Holy crap it's already 10 o'clock!
Naptime for Mackenzie, and thats when David and I spend some time together. OR, its our playgroup time, storytime, or errand time....Monday was grocery store time.
Throw on some clothes, go to the store, jump out of the car and put the kids in the cart. By the way, there is literally almost no room for food with 2 small children in the cart. As I hurry in, I glanced down for a second to notice my shirt had come half way unbuttoned and since I am a nursing mother........"busty" would be an appropriate word. I got myself fixed and avoided running into a car thankfully before I entered the store. We shop. I don't have the problem of David putting stuff IN the cart, he likes to take stuff OUT of the cart when I turn my back. awesome. thats why I always "forget" something. We always have to get a publix balloon, this is the only way he is compliant while I shop. So, on the way out the door, the wind whisks it away. He started shrieking and tears came as if it were his life long best friend. So, I 50 yard dash it across the parking lot to catch it. I amazingly caught it only to come back to find him no longer interested and sucking down a new tube of toothpaste I just bought.
So that was that errand. We are going home.
11:30- Unpack and start making lunch. Throw in some laundry.
12:00 - lunchtime. Feed David and nurse Mackenzie and the potty rituals start over. Clean everyone up. Try to squeeze in a little cleaning and have David help.... vaccuum, mop, or unload the dishwasher. Fold some laundry.
2:00-4:00 Naptime. and dont you love the advice everyone gives you, "Just nap when your kids nap honey and you will feel so rested..." People who say they that don't have kids.
This is when I: pay bills, finish laundry, clean kitchen, toilets, organize, contemplate showering, water plants, make grocery lists and menu, check email, blog, cut coupons, or work outside......i mean seriously....who's going to do all that if I nap?!
(2:45- normally have to go in one more time and firmly ask, okay i yell, at david to fall asleep and leave everything in his room alone! Yes, I wish he was still in the crib, but he jumped out at 18 months. Of course he did.)
4:15- Get David up and have him help me finish making dinner. We spend time together....go over colors, words, play with playdough, and his new favorite hotwheels. Today I heard the doorbell ring and I went to answer it and it was DAVID! Darn him! he snuck out (yes he knows how to open locks AND deadbolts) we are getting chains to put up high this weekend. Discipline for him. This is also another small window that I will sometimes run an errand or go outside before tim gets home. Or we at least finish the chores I started earlier.
5:30 - wake Mackenzie up.
6:00- tim is finally home (thank the Lord! He is super dad.) and we eat dinner. Nurse Mackenzie. Potty rituals again.
If we ever go out, which is not often on weeknights, it is after dinner.
7:45- Bath, Books, Prayers, Songs, and Bed.
8:30- clean kitchen from dinner, pick up remaining toys, finally decide to shower while tim always has a little more work to do. We spend time together or watch TV and try to have a low key evening.
10:00- go in and nurse Mackenzie and put her right back to bed.
Pack Tims lunch, iron a shirt, and run the dishwasher.
Sometimes I get a second wind and read or organize.
10:30- try to go to bed, but get awakened by some toy loudly going off in the house.
Its funny I never remember falling asleep b/c I am so tired. I do make it to the bed though.
5:00am- precious little sweet potato wakes me up to eat and we start all over.

As repetitive as it sounds, it definitely never gets boring. You see, there is always something that my little crazy does during the day to spice things up.
I think I will feel more rested when Mackenzie drops that 5 am feeding (which should be soon). But, I might sound crazy, i like it because its just me and her and the house is 100% quiet. wow, i might be losing it.

Anyway, I'd love to hear some other moms days out there. If its peace and quiet over at your house, just do me a favor and don't tell me. I like to think any mom out there could easily have their own reality show. Seriously, people can't stage this kind of stuff....

Here is one of my favorite verses:
Lamentations 3:22-23
22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

freebie

THATS RIGHT!!!
Okay, I've finally decided to blog about another passion of mine, getting stuff for FREE. ABSOLUTELY FREE. Even if you don't need it, who cares?! Its FREE! Just kidding, but here's the rundown...
I'm sure you pass these stores all the time, so instead of going out of the way...next time you pass one stop in for a FREE item :)
Whenever I find freebies I will post them so you can go grab them!! They run every month. April has not been the best month, but most months I stock up on makeup, toiletries, and skincare..... Don't worry, there is no stamps or mailing involved!!
Here are this months:

At Rite Aid....
Go in and purchase items.
Save your receipt.
Go to www.riteaid.com.
On the left hand side of the website there is a link to "Single Check Rebates." Click on it and follow directions.
All you do is enter your receipt number and address and they will mail you the check for it. Unfortunately, all they have this month left is wart remover!!!!!!...(this may just take up space in your medicine cabinet)
Offer good until 4-25-09



At Walgreens...
Its a multivitamin. Not that much money, but it's FREE!
Go to store and purchase.
Save your receipt.
Go to www.walgreens.com.
Go to middle of page and click on "Easy Saver link". Same as rite aid.....enter receipt number and address and you're good to go.
This offer only good until 4-25-09


At CVS....
Okay, here's the deal with CVS.
You go in and sign up for a "Customer Care Card."
Buy these items.....and you get the money back as a store credit....they call them "Extra Bucks."
So, say you need something......stamps, bread, copy paper, whatever.....use your newly acquired store credit (extra bucks) that you just got!
OR....
you can use your store credit to buy the following months free items.....Each month, you go in and buy the "free" items and get the money back EVERY time! I don't know if you follow me, but you can use extra buck items to buy other extra buck items so you never spend any money. FUN! These are good ones too...
This offer only good until 4-18-09

I have been doing this for almost a year and got my money back every month. I don't remember the last time I spent money on soap, shampoo, makeup, ect....its pretty awesome! I will also try and post the really good grocery deals I find. I owe my sis, Brandi, for helping me tag team deals everywhere. We may be cheap, but hey.....cut us a break.....we are stay at home moms and I consider this part of my job.
They funny part is toothpaste is generally free somewhere every month. Brandi always gets them and her husband told her they did not have room for anymore toothpaste under their bathroom sink and to lay off a few months! HA!
Hey, you can always donate the items somewhere, HAVE FUN!
and yes, its hilarious to me to find songs that match my post.

A Broken Heart Mended and Lessons on Grief

4.14.08. My sweet twins due date lost to a partial molar pregnancy.

No FHB. Thats pretty much the worst thing an expecting mother can see written across the ultrasound screen. I found out quickly that it stood for "No Fetal Heartbeat." Those initials and the silence in the doctors room were the only things I needed to know to figure out what had happened. I remember just a stinging emotion in my heart and my body just filled with heat. Minutes blurred by and everything the doctor said just bounced off me as I starred at a chair for about an hour. Tim's voice echoed in my head as he called my mother and said, "Jen had a miscarriage..."
It's weird to think that if everything had worked out that I would have a set of 1 year old twins today....
God had other plans.....you see, the day our due date passed last year, we found out 3 days later that I was 4 weeks pregnant with Mackenzie. Although, the void was not filled of losing those babies, the void of wanting to have another child was filled and I started to feel joy again. Funny how God works. Even though Mackenzie had a twin that we lost early on as well, I never once have been upset about that...you see, I have realized that I am lucky that God would bless me with just another healthy baby. What more can a mother pray for? I was not selfish to think that I "deserved" two.
I think these events over the past year have finally come full circle for me. Mackenzie technically wouldn't be here if I had carried those twins.....and now I can't imagine my life without her. As I pass a 1 year anniversary of that whole miscarriage nightmare, I sit and stare at my 4 month old baby. It's easy to see things retrospectively.
I am by no means an expert on grief, but here are some things that I personally learned grieving the loss of babies through miscarriage....

1. Say something, anything, even if it might be the wrong thing...... it hurt me more when people ignored what had happened over someone saying something maybe a little insensitive. A safe choice is always, "I am sorry for your loss." Anything acknowledging their loss is good.
2. Avoid statements like, "Everything happens for a reason" and "You'll have another baby"......I know things do happen for a reason and people will probably have another baby, but the reality is that you wanted THAT baby you were carrying and for it to work out.
3. Avoid asking people, "When are you going to have a baby? When are you going to get pregnant again?" Everyone heals at different times, and you never know....infertility is so high that it could take a while and you could also be asking someone that who has been trying for a long time.
4. Send a card, email, or call. We received 30 cards, numerous emails, calls, and meals brought by. It was so comforting to know other people cared we were hurting and were making gestures to reach out to us. One card I read over and over simply said, "Long before we're ready, we sadly say goodbye. But there are those in a far more beautiful place who are saying, "welcome home."
5. I don't know why, but music and lyrics often are healing for some. The song, "Realize" by Colby Caillat for some reason was all i listened to. Tim calls it my sad song, and I know its not even a christian song, but for some reason I loved it and it was healing.

Okay, that is all. I know there is a lot more, but those are lessons my sweet angel babies help me learn. I feel as if me sharing what I learned helps me feel as if their short little lives mattered and can somehow help others.
While I did not get to be their mommy here on Earth, they are all with their perfect heavenly Father and for that I rejoice that Jesus is the giver of life.

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you...Let not your heart be troubled." John 14:27
Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal - Thomas Moore

Last of Easter

We had a great Easter weekend...we went to the Northpoint Community Church for the Easter service on Friday night with all the tornadoes, got to sit next to Andy Stanley and his DAD was a few seats down (Dr. Charles Stanley)! No, we aren't special....we were just literally the last people in the service because we were in duck and cover in the hallway with our kids and some man came up and told us he had us some seats. Way cool. Anyway, we dyed eggs, and had lunch with my parents, dinner with tims. We had so much fun celebrating our risen Savior!

Egg Party

2 year olds Interpretation of Easter

Me: "David, we are going to church tonight to celebrate Jesus and the Easter weekend. Are you excited to go to church?"
David: "yeah..."
Me: "What are you going to do at church?"
David: "I share crayons with Jesus."
Me: "Oh, that will be nice...Is Jesus just at church?"
David:" No, he's at home."
Me: "oh, well what's he doing there?"
David looking at me like I am an idiot...."He's...he's...he's playing toys!"

Obviously, he has it totally figured out! Apparently I am the one that needs to be educated!

Happy Easter!

Here are a few pics from the past week!! Our neighborhood had a huge Easter Party for the kids so that was fun! David obviously liked the real bunny better than the Easter bunny (can you tell by his face?), but at least we had no tears like with Santa! And I had Mackenzie's 3 month picture made in her christening/baby dedication dress :) We are looking forward to a fun Easter weekend with our families.

T-R-O-U-B-L-E

The Twos: Terrific, Terrible, and TROUBLE are now the words that best describe my little Tornado! Some of you people think I make this stuff up, but I can't.....my brain is fried and I just can't even dream up some of the things this crazy little person does. Some people say that David just has "a lot of personality" and I say probably every mom out there with a little boy will somehow relate...
Okay, most of the stories I post are "cute" and about childish things he does...Not the case this week...
Here is the bad....look, I'd like to think I am a good mom.....I spend a lot of one on one time with David, we talk about Jesus, and I am very consistent when it comes to discipline....
However, this week...I don't care if you are Mother Teresa....he was all out of sorts over here. For some reason, all of the sudden, whenever he was told "no", he completely went out of control. I am talking, TANTRUM, ie: kicking, swatting, becoming limp on the floor....and would not recover from this state for about 3 minutes, which in public feels like about a week. We had to leave playgroup this week because he threw a fit and ran out of the house, at home when I told him no he threw a vase (2 ft. tall) down the stairs full of dried wheat, emptied an almost full water bottle onto my carpet in the den, and best of all...de-faced his room taking all the frames and decor off the wall. Lets just say his little tail got painted red this week and he spent lots of time in the time out chair. My motto this week with him was this : "Mama always wins."
And I did. It took about 3-4 days to get this little spell out of him, but at least now he gets it when he acts this way consequences follow....EVERY time.
Comic Relief.... One day, when I was frustrated with him I kinda muttered to him, "You need to pray and ask Jesus to help you be nice and obey Mama!" Well, that night during his prayers he said, "Jesus, help me obey Mama." Awesome, the only highlight of my week.
Mercy!....enough of that.
Our vacation was a blast with the Rein Family! It was a rainy weekend, but we became super touristy and went to the Hollywood Cars Museum and the Wax Museum, both were very entertaining....for us and the kids :) Here is pictures of what Tim says is the highlight of his fatherhood so far.....taking David on his 1st Go Kart ride......I think both had equal the fun!


I am off for a Mom's Night Out tonight......very needed after the week I've had......I keep reminding myself 2 things:
1. This too shall pass...
2. Mama always wins

FYI, David came home from a friend's house today with superglue on his face, i have no idea what happened or what to do.