Homeopathic

I know its an odd title for a blog post, but I am so excited! After taking some homeopathic nausea medicine for my 100% of the time queasy tummy I am finally perking up. I took the boys out today and we even managed some swimming! My stomach feels much better, still very upset but I have energy and don't fear being stuck without a bathroom. Drew has been running a fever since yesterday and comes in and out of himself as the medicine wears off. Gabe is still running around and doesn't seem to be catching whatever is going around.

I'm so excited that John has tomorrow off and will be home with us! I can't remember the last time he had a whole day to spend at home. He has big plans to get the many boxes I've packed into a storage unit and to get his car fixed for the third time this month. My hero just saved us 500.00 by fixing our water heater which stopped heating about a week ago. He managed to weld some part together and replace some other part and clean out some tubing and tada - I have hot water and it only cost about 50.00! Drew was daddy's big helper too and held the flashlight for two hours while daddy worked on the water heater.

I've noticed that since being pregnant I've felt so terrible that I haven't taken any pictures. I can't believe it! I'll be remedying that tomorrow. Oh there is nothing like feeling better, thanks everyone for all your prayers, today was so much better than the last week!

Quick Quotes

~ Drew and I were talking about the meaning of Easter and I asked him, "So what happens on the third day?" Drew responded, "It snowed!"

Hint: Jesus Washes our sins white as snow...... ~

~ John asked Drew, "How much do you love me?" Drew replied, "To the lamp post and back." ~

~ Tonight while cooking dinner, Drew proudly singing says, "my tummy is full, full of songs for me to sing!" ~

~ Drew commenting on something he did the day before, "Yes, I did that yesteryear!" ~

~ Drew one night before bed, "You know bats are awake all night, that is called..Nockurinal?" ~

~ Tonight I asked, "Drew, do you want me to read you a chapter from Winnie The Pooh?"
Drew's response, "No, that's not our book, our book is Stellaluna." ~
So I read him Stellaluna for the umpteenth time.

~ Grandpa Tractor, "Hi Dudley!"
Drew retorts back, "I'm not Dudley, I'm Drew Williams!" ~

~ Drew's latest epiphany - "Look, Jesus washes our sins white, just like toilet paper!" ~

~ Overheard Drew saying while playing with playdough, "Oh no, that isn't working, I need a napkin." ~

Sick

The last few days have found me knee deep in the 1st trimester yucks. I have no motivation, I feel horrible from morning till night and have a horrible headache following me around. So, my blogging, housework, & packing will have to wait until I feel a little better. I don't remember feeling this terrible with my other two, but John assures me that I just don't remember. So, please pray I get some motivation soon, the days look really long and all I want to do is sleep. Unfortunately I normally feel the worst after napping so I try and not nap if I can help it. I am praying this short little season ends very soon - especially since we have two trip to Oregon scheduled within the next month!

Summer Fun

I have no pictures from our swimming today, but thought I'd share that Gabe is our little dare devil. I'll post a few pictures from Friday just so you can see how much fun the boys are having this summer! By the end of swimming today Gabe was literally jumping into the water and submerging his entire face. He would come up smiling and laughing and then do it all over again. This is so different than Drew's reaction to water. Drew has always had trouble holding his breath so he has a huge fear of getting his face wet. Gabe is so confident that you can't take your eyes off him for a second! I need to get to the pool store and find him a bathing suit with a flotation device inside - just for my own piece of mind. Our neighbors have one and their daughter just loves it. Gabe also had his 4 back m0lars come through this past week - all 4 at once! Now he can officially chew! He still has huge gaps in teeth though, 5 front teeth and 4 back molars.

Gabe is starting to have his personality set, he is so much fun to be around. Always signing, communicating, playing and flirting with us. He loves to have his own way and is learning to share with his older brother. He can go to time out and sit on command and isn't throwing himself into tantrums too much anymore - might have been that he threw himself backwards a few weeks ago and slammed his head into the tile! Gabe is such an easy little child, he observes life's business, unlike his brother who is too busy engaging life to stop and pay attention. Gabe loves to laugh, explore and have one on one time with people. He has such an easy going personality, he rarely cries when you leave him places and fits in just about anywhere - including our walk in closet where he has been sleeping for over 10 days now!

Drew is our explorer. He loves to engage life and run from one activity to the next. Saturday was wonderful for him, he had three birthday parties in a row - he also loves sugar so the three pieces of cake where a huge hit! Drew had a blast! Drew has been swimming and playing outside daily for the past 10 days - tonight I put him to bed at 6:00 and he was asleep by 6:30. He just goes and goes until he falls apart - once he is overly tired it is so hard to get him to calm down! Drew loves to swim too, but he hates to get his face wet. He loves chatting with others at the pool and doing monkey crawls across the span of the pool.

What a blessed mommy I am to have two wonderful children. Its been great the past few weeks, they have both mastered a lot of different things, they are loving life and are listening so well! I rarely need to discipline them (which I know will change, just give it another week) and they are learning character and obedience mainly through observations. Drew and I have been having a lot of conversations lately about life and God and death. It is so interesting to watch him put things together!

Fathers Day Humor

John had a woman come into Home Depot today and ask to see the routers. She said her husband wanted a router for Fathers Day. John took her over to the routers (large molding and shaping power tool that normally sits on the end of a table saw) and she sighed, "Well, I expected it to look smaller, how does my husband plug it into his computer?"

After John stopped laughing he gave her directions to the Office Depot around the corner!

Blessing # 3 - A Valentines Baby

We've had a lot going on in our home the past few weeks! Our biggest news was finding our that we're expecting baby Williams #3! He/She is due on Valentines Day, though we'll probably end up delivering around Drew's birthday in January. Drew was due February 19th and arrived January 24. I found out while John was in Oregon and surprised him at the airport with our positive pregnancy test. I'm still a little in shock, but very excited! Last week was great I wasn't sick at all and haven't had any morning sickness. Friday I started to have cramping and a bloated feeling. So far I've just been feeling really full and nothing looks appetizing to eat - even sugar! It has been great not craving sugar - in fact I've been detesting it! I've started to get really tired just like with my last two. It should end by the second trimester though. Drew is super excited about another sibling and keeps telling me its going to be a girl - we'll see!

In other news, Drew had swimming lessons all week. He has tanned so much! He still hates putting his head under water but loves swimming in the pool every day. We've been frequenting the gym pool and our community pool all week, so both boys have been getting tons of energy out. Today we had 3 birthday parties! The boys loved them all and will sleep great tonight.


Grandma Patti and John are finishing up tiling the boys bathroom this weekend. The first time John did it in January the board he put down was too soft so all the grout eventually flaked off. John will be so glad with this tiling project is over! We've got a lot of projects to finish up before we put our house on the market July 17th!
Then it is off to a relaxing two week vacation in Oregon!

My audit was finished on Thursday, I'm so glad to be done! It was so much work! I've also been gardening and trying to keep the weeds from coming up in my garden. I'm getting ready to paint our front door black and de-cluttering the house. I think we're renting a storage unit so we can just move all the boxes out of the house, then we can stage it easier.

Well, lots of changes and upheaval in our family, but we're surviving! The boys are going to have a wonderful summer and we're so excited for our big vacation the end of July!

Weekly Review

(One of the many frogs that great me as I water each night.)

It was been a wild week! John flew to Oregon to be with his family during the passing of his grandfather, he returned home to Texas on Wednesday during tornado like weather! Luckily his was one of the few planes which was forced to land! The next day he went to a job fair and had some great interviews! The weekend was a blur of swimming and visiting with grandma Patti who is here visiting. John worked all weekend. then on Monday John has another job fair! The car broke down today so we're also dealing with that!

This week the kids and I played a lot at the pool, visited with friends, and played with Grandma Patti! Drew starts swimming lessons tomorrow and Gabe is just excited to be running around playing all day long. My garden is slipping into Summer and the bull frogs are out in abandon. I've been catching them all spring in the hopes that they would eat all the bugs in my garden!

I've been prepping for an audit the past few weeks, it begins Monday so I've anxious to have them behind me this coming Thursday. I skipped working out the first part of last week, it was hard enough to keep everyone happy, let alone drag the kids to the gym and then feel like working out. I finally made it back on Saturday and am planning to be back in the routine starting tomorrow!

Before John left for Oregon, we spent a day or so looking around the area for some property to buy. We're praying and discussing selling our house and buying an older place with some property. We found one we loved, but alas we discovered that you have to have the cash in hand to get a great deal. So, it motivated us to sell our place and then look! We've been considering a foreclosure or something older that needs a lot of work, since my handy husband can do most anything, its a perfect way to gain equity and get the kids out of the suburbs and someplace (close to our current location) where they can imagine, grow a garden, raise chickens, etc. I think mommy is the most excited about not having a busy road right outside to worry about!

Sleepless in Texas

Evidently my body loved the three weeks of getting up early and exercising. This week John has been gone so rising at 5:00 am and going to the gym isn't possible. I've been so busy managing life that even thinking about dragging the kids to the gym around lunch time makes me overwhelmed - there is a lot to be said for an early morning workout time - no excuses and silence to start out the morning. So, here I sit, my body aches from the lack of exercise and is wide is awake and won't go back to sleep (actually it was the dog wanting to go potty that woke me up!). I've been up since 3:00 am and after tossing, turning, taking a shower, praying, telling my mind to be quiet, I decided to print out some awesome organic Internet coupons and post about it. Crazy - I know! I have a few pictures of our growing frog population that I should edit and post, maybe I'll work on those instead of going to sleep?

Well, my kids will be up in a few hours so I better go back to tossing and turning in hopes of getting a few more hours of sleep!

Missing You

John left on Sunday for a brief trip to Portland to be with his family. His grandfather is very sick and his mother is returning home to Oregon after spending almost a year in China. It is so sad because she has been looking forward to coming home to spend time and care for her dad, but no one is sure if his health will make it. It was a rather unexpected trip, so I'm still trying to put my daily plans together. I sure appreciate single parents, its a hard thing knowing that relief isn't coming home to add some flavor to your day. John always lightened up the evening hours with pillow fights, sword fights, and race car play. We all miss Daddy and can't wait to see him Thursday!

Gabe has finally started to use sign language! It seems like we've been working on please forever, he has finally started! The only problem, he will say please for something I wasn't intending on giving him and then its just so darn cute that I'll give it to him anyway. Oh well!

I spent a few hours Sunday while the kids napped sucking up flies with the vacuum! There were 50-100 all over the window ledges of my downstairs. Yuck! I think I collected most of them, but left the vacuum out for round two in case more "hatched" or survived round one.

That is about it for today, please pray for us while Daddy is gone. I had a wonderful routine of getting up early, exercising and reading my bible - but not having John home means I can't work out that early. So, I've moved my working out this week to Tuesday and Thursday at 12:00 because the gym has childcare and they offer the class I like. I am excited that getting up so early in the morning makes my body think sleeping in is waking at 6:45-7:00 am! If I'm really quiet the boys won't get up until 8:00 am which will give me an hour of quiet to prepare for the upcoming day.... which is what happened today... thank you Lord for my little gift of time!

A few years Back - Helping Mommy Work

Gabe Trying to Crawl

Our Family Summed Up in 4 Minutes!

A Little Bit of Laughter

One of THOSE Days...

Sunday was one of those days where I wondered, "have I lost my mind?" First we arrived to church later than desired, the worship and message were wonderful and it challenged me for another week. I arrived home and tried to get the boys through lunch and then Gabe took his nap. This is when all the chaos started, we left for church team and arrived on time! Drew insisted that he wanted to "run out his energies" by climbing stairs close to the building so as I watched him out of the corner of my eye while I grabbing Gabe out of his seat. I took his hand and into the building we went.... very slowly because Gabe can only walk so fast and is too heavy to carry very far! Our team was great and then I collected the kids and out to our car we went, only to discover that I had left the car door wide open - for 2 hours! What a goof! Some sweet ladies had gone all over the church asking for the owner of the car, but we're in the way back of the building, so I didn't get the message until I arrived at my car. Finally, blaming my ideosity on having two kids we drove home, I was daydreaming and somehow managed to get a little lost! Once home I took the kids right in and put them in bed, then worked on getting ahead for my job Monday morning. John came home a few hours later and asked "why is the garage door open?" Oops, no explanation there either. I'm glad nothing was stollen! The next morning I went to work out, then drove to my usual Starbucks for some Bible reading and discovered my Bible was no where to be found. Then I remembered setting it on the counter after our team the night before.... the church wasn't open at 7:00 am so I had to wait until the afternoon, battle rush hour, found my Bible right where I left it (at least I remembered where it was!) and drove home -- without getting lost. I'm hoping Sunday's troubles are behind me and my brain will function better the rest of the week!

On a new note, Gabe has started telling us "no." Well, actually, he shakes his head in a really cute way insinuating "No." Drew has also been especially cute lately too, today I asked him in he wanted some water to drink for lunch and he replied, "are my insides dirty?" I was a little confused, until I remembered our conversation from the following morning. Drew had asked for juice and I told him that juice was not as healthy as water and that he only was able to have 1 cup of juice each day. He asked.... "Why?"... to which I replied that water is healthy for our bodies, it cleans out the toxins in our body and helps keep us clean inside. Drew then asked, "what are toxins?" I then explained that toxins are bad things that are in our body, the water flushes it out of our body when we go potty, Now every time Drew looks at water he has to remind me that water is healthy and we need it to keep our body clean.

Drew is now fascinated with rocks, he is always asking questions about where they come from, how they got here, what are minerals, how do we clean rocks, why can't we eat rocks, do rocks ever get soft, etc. I'm very tired from all his questions, I also need to brush up on my geology, I must confess that science was my most hated of all subjects, so I didn't pay much attention.

Thankfulness

Joy and gladness will be found in her,

thanksgiving and the voice of song." ~Isa. 51:3

511. The beginnings of fresh and productive habits (beginning of my third week, its getting tough) – “Forty-five percent of what we do every day is habitual,” posit researchers. “This is, performed almost without thinking in the same location or at the same time each day, usually because of the subtle cues.” I am on a missing to impart good habits into my life. Many would say I am a naturally disciplined person, but I think it is in all of our nature to be a “sluggard” as the Bible references throughout Proverbs. I am so grateful for the energy and motivation the Lord has blessed me with so I can change some bad habits and replace them with good ones.

512. Sunrises – with my new habits come the opportunity to watch the sunrise. I haven’t been up that early since kids came into the picture. The sunrises just speak the very nature of God to my soul.

513. Lord, thank you for this new cadence (rhythm that a lot of the spin teachers use, also my new favorite word... that and cacophony!). I finish my days well, I’ve always prayed to finish my life running strong. Each day that I finish strong is preparing for running the race of life. Lord may I run this race with endurance and finish well.

514. Gabe’s new tooth (5th) finally arrived on his 18 month birthday... finally! The next day his 6th tooth started to push through – complete with runny nose & diaper rash.

515. Quiet mornings with tea and my Bible, thank you Lord that I am able to start my day with You, the day always goes so much better and my focus is on service and not my own agenda.

516. A cool trip to the pool with the kids on a lazy Friday. I am so thankful for lifeguards, its much less stress trying to keep an eye on both kids.

517. My awesome camera lens which captures the most sharp and authentic photography, with the right light this lens captured my new favorite picture of Gabe. I can’t stop looking at it and thanking the Lord that his nose wasn’t running and there wasn’t peanut butter on his face – those are rare occurrences in this household.

518. Taking a great friend out for a birthday dinner at a quiet Italian bistro – great company, good conversations and a latte... perfect!

519. Thank you Lord for the courage to share how you’ve been working in my life with a neighbor. I pray that you would use me to water the meek seeds of faith that were planted and that your Love and Grace would shine through into their home.

520. A fellowship with believers at our home, it was so wonderful to host these ladies and share about faith, frugality, and family!

521. A sweet note from my mother in law.

522. Cuddling and rocking my children before bed while delivering prayers and words of affirmation into their hearts.


523. My wonderful husband always bringing me “flowers” and cleaning up with kitchen. What a blessing he is to us!

524. My ever growing garden, it’s such a peaceful place to sit and meditate on Your promises, poetry, & portions.

525. I’m so thankful that God’s mercies are new every morning, on those days with I didn’t have the day that I wanted, I’m blessed with another morning to begin again. I do a lot of beginning again!

526. "... Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." ~1Thessalonians 5:18. My memory verse this week – if I ever wonder what God’s will is for me, its right there in 1 Thes. 5:18!

527. Playing with the boys as they run down the street dragging their animals behind. They love imitating their parents which is incredible humbling.

528. Wonderful pre-school teachers who cultivated a love for learning in our little man. We will really miss them!

529. Another summer season, filled with time at the pool, gardening, & trips to the pond. Kitty is very excited about the trips to the pond!

530. Trip to the Zoo on rainy Saturday, quiet, peaceful, & beautiful company. The baby giraffe’s coat pattern was intoxicating!