A Camping We Will Go

Our living room is full of plastic tubs waiting to be loaded up this weekend. It's time for our big vacation of the summer and we are so excited! At least the girls and I are--S has hardly had time to think about camping he's been so busy at work. That means that I have packed us for our excursion. Should be interesting!

We are going with another family, the same family we are beginning the church with. Come to think of it, our entire church will be camping together this weekend. How many people can say that?

S especially deserves this break. He's been working 12-14 hour days for what seems like forever. It will be nice to get to know him again! We are both taking along some books to read. He'll be reading this and I'll be attempting to read this. We have to do something to help control the twitching from having no laptop for 3 days!

Speaking of twitching, Little Bit is pretty excited and her tics have escalated some, but they aren't too bad. With Tourette's, anything stressful, scary, exciting, etc can cause an increase in tics. This week she's been tucking her chin to her chest, spreading her fingers out and holding her hands in front of her with the thumbs touching and looking at her hands (kind of hard to explain that one--it's actually a quick movement) and huffing. It sounds like she's just exhaling hard in bursts of 4 or 5 breaths. We are so used to her tics they usually don't bother us. I do wonder sometimes if they are noticeable to others. It's just her.

Have I told you how much I'm loving www.hulu.com? There is one show that I watch and love. However, it's not entirely child-friendly and comes on while the girls are still awake. No problem. I just watch the show a week behind on Hulu every week---without all the long commercial breaks! What did I ever do without it? Can you tell we don't have TIVO?

And I just want to say, for no reason other than it is interesting to me, that I have 2 posts which receive hit after hit on search engines on this blog. They are this one and this one. Every single week someone googles something along the lines of "who comes first mother or wife?" or "mother comes before husband" or something like that. Obviously the order of the family is confused in our society--no shock. The other thing that gets searched all the time is "how to be a homemaker" or "homemaking skills" or "professional homemaker". Interesting...do you suppose a lot of women are as lost as I am on this whole "be groomed your whole life for career and then find yourself at home" thing?

Last of all, as my FIRL Katherine alluded to in the comments of the last post....I perhaps have not been entirely open about my nerdiness. There are certain things I am very particular about and making lists/plans is one of them. Not lesson plans, mind you....that's too mundane. But when I get excited about a project, I really get into it. Most of the time, my plans go way beyond my actual achievement level, but no matter. Lately I've been thinking of things we can do at home this summer and I intend to provide you with that completely anal/OCD-like list next week. For your viewing pleasure.

You're welcome.

Have a great weekend everyone!

I'm Tired of Waiting....Let's Talk Summer!

I just read this inspiring post at A Wise Woman Builds Her Home. It really got me to thinking about how we can spend our days this summer at home. We will be home quite a bit with gas prices like they are, and a need to be frugal anyway...so we might as well make the most of it.

I feel so blessed to be home with the girls this summer. I remember all too well the alternative from summers past (school-age daycare is scary to me!). Let me share some of my summer plans with you and I hope some of you will do the same, because I am nosy that way. Well, actually, you give me good ideas and I'm always looking for good ideas!

My sister is one of these nerd-types that makes out summer calendars and writes in all the activities before summer even gets here. Oh wait. I do that too. Well, she's still a nerd because she used to read encyclopedias for fun.

Actually my sister has a great deal to do with our summer plans because she and her kids drive an hour to come to our house each week. I live by the grandparents so she has to drive this way instead of the other way around, which I think worked out quite nicely. Tuesdays will be taken up with cousins and visiting and playing and a whole lot of screaming. Four girls ages 4-8=a lot of noise! Plus, on Tuesdays we all trek to my old city for story time at the library with our wonderful librarians. All four girls will be old enough to participate in the summer reading program so I believe reading will take up a huge chunk of time this summer. (By the way, working off of those reading lists has made ALL the difference in our book selection. They have LOVED the books I've been picking--ones that they would have never picked on their own either!)

So what about the rest of the week? Well I really need to find a balance between housework, home projects, and spending time with the girls. I know, I know, they can help with the housework. We can do it together. And we will most of the time. But I really need to be purposeful in choosing activities for them to be involved in every day that we can all do together. It's really easy to get out the water paints and leave them to paint at the table while I go do something else, but I also need to choose activities that we can all three do with each other. It all goes back to keeping their hearts and tying strings of fellowship and all that.

We are also going to have to figure out some inexpensive places to go. I am not capable of staying in this house 6 days a week. This is Texas, so soon it will be too hot to visit any parks for more than 10 minutes at a time. It's a challenge. I believe I need to do some brainstorming.

And I'm not sure you understand the level of mine and my sister's nerdiness. We are picking themes for each week and skills for each girl to work on. More on that later.

OK, what are your ideas? How do you fill the days up? And please don't write and tell me all about your vacation plans because that will not add to my contentment. :) But how do you fill up the regular ol' summer days at home? Can't wait for your ideas--you can leave them in the comments or post it on your blog if you like. Just make sure and tell me so I can go read it! I really do need ideas!

I'll leave you with some shots of last summer! Of course, I didn't take many pictures of the everyday things.

Keepin' It Real: My Stupid New Mom Moments

Welcome to the 2nd Keepin' It Real Extravaganza here at The Family Revised! Hopefully a lot of us have stupid new mom moments to share with each other. Remember, the point of these extravaganzas is to dispel the myth that we are all perfect, no matter what image we may accidentally project on our blogs. Usually only the best stuff makes it on here....today the other stuff will rear it's ugly head!


Ready?


We started off in the hospital with our first stupid new parents move--just after Sweetheart was born. I'm giving S credit along with me for this one. Two heads are not always better than one--especially when the 2 heads are new parents who have lost sleep. So Sweetheart needed her diaper changed. S rose to the occasion and decided to take care of everything for me. The hospital did not provide baby wipes, but only small squares of gauze that you were supposed to get wet. So horrible! She was dressed in a white, long-sleeved shirt from the hospital and a pair of hospital white pants as well. During the changing of the terrible newborn dirty diaper, he accidentally got poop on the pants. There were extra shirts under her bassinet, but no pants. So, I called the nurses' station.


Nurse: May I help you?

Me: Yes, we got our baby's pants dirty and we don't have another pair.

Nurse: (pause) Pants?

Me: Yes. My husband accidentally got the pair of pants she was wearing dirty. May we have another pair?

Nurse: Um, we don't dress the babies in pants.

Me: Well, she was wearing pants when ya'll brought her to us!

Nurse: Oh. Um. Ma'am? That was just a shirt turned upside down.

Me: ohthankyouverymuch


After I relayed that information to S, he said, "Oh, so that's why there's this big hole in the crotch!"


Yes. We were some smooth operating parents. Totally ready to take a baby home and be solely responsible for her. (And on a side note, the nurse had to teach me to read a thermometer before we could be released. Yes, I was really prepared, wasn't I?)


My next stupid new mom moment happened a few weeks later. I was determined not to be one of these moms that hauls around a diaper bag the size of a Metro Geo. I decided before she was even born that people just carried far too much stuff around for their children. Give me a break! I got two diaper bags at the baby shower. One was a Metro Geo bag that I decided was SURELY for when you were taking a month long vacation with baby, and the other was cute and denim and no larger than a pretty good sized purse. The first Sunday we made our big debut at church as a family of three, I naturally opted for the cute denim one. I mean, church is only an hour and a half, right? I threw in 2 or 3 diapers, some wipes, a pacifier, a burp rag, and at the last minute it seemed prudent to add an extra outfit. Not thinking I would need it, I selected a plain, white onesie.


Well, you can see where this is going, right? We set Sweetheart down in her carrier car seat and stood for singing time. She looked SO adorable in a ruffly green dotted swiss dress, matching bloomers, ruffly socks, and a pair of soft satin shoes. We were late so no one had seen her yet. On the second song she turned into the exorcist of sorts and threw up what looked like a gallon of liquid onto her dress. NEVER in the history of all time have 2 parents have been so unprepared. S and I spent the next 30 minutes in the church nursery stripping and bathing our daughter with wipes (whoops! those are all gone) and then scratchy water-resistant paper towels. We air dried her and dressed her carefully in the white onesie. So that was her lovely introduction to our friends and family at church: barefoot and wearing a white onesie with not one whit of decoration on it.


I believe it was at that point I began packing up the entire nursery in the "Geo" bag for every single outing away from our home. Live and learn!


OK--your turn! Post your stupid new mom moment on your blog and then come back here and sign up on the Mr. Linky. Remember to link to your KIR post--not just your blog in general--so people won't have to search your archives to find the right post. If you aren't sure how to do that, just e-mail me! Also, if you don't have a blog, feel free to leave your moment in the comments section!


I can't wait to read everyone else's stupidity! :)

Keepin' It Real Extravaganza--This Monday!

Are you ready? Our second Keepin' It Real Extravaganza is this Monday, May 19. The theme is Stupid New Mom Moments, but you can post whatever you like as long as it sheds some light on the fact that we are not all super women who have everything together all the time. You know how intimidating it can be to read some blogs? Well, we are going to smash that myth on Monday.

I'll have a Mr. Linky up on Sunday night. Just write your post, come back here and sign up on the Mr. Linky!

If you are not familiar with Keepin' It Real, just click the button in my sidebar to see previous posts.

The Red Pen Strikes Again!

I've said it before, I don't think we are quite through with revisions around here. Next up on the revision list: church.

S has been kicking around the idea of alternative church for a while now. He's talked about having church at a local park, having church in a home....just somehow to reach those who do not and are not going to set foot inside a church building at 9:00 on Sunday mornings. I've listened to his ideas, we've prayed...but we were really uncertain about how it could all work.

Then S got to talking with another man at our church. Turns out he has also been thinking of some of the same things. Together, we are going to begin a home church in June. This is such a blessing beginning something like this with friends (who have missions experience!) and their children (4 of them!). We have instant fellowship before we even grow. They have already had several "chance encounters" with folks they know who are not attending church anywhere and were excited to hear about the house church starting.

There is still so much to talk about, decide, and pray about. This is not easy. It is not comfortable. I told them my body will probably go into auto-pilot when it's "church time" and begin bathing and dressing children without even thinking! (Our church will start much later in the day) Thirty-seven years of habits die hard.

So we explained to the girls what was going on so they would have some time to adjust to the idea before we quit attending our other church completely. (Programs and classes are all going to be completely different beginning in June so it's good timing.) Sweetheart was very excited that we were going to be missionaries in our hometown! Little Bit doesn't really understand but when she realizes we are going to our friend's house for church--she will be very happy.

I have a feeling this is going to really change us. Except for a period of time back in late 2001 to mid 2004, we have both attended the same church our whole life. Moving outside of that is really causing us to look at scripture carefully. Looking at our whole community instead of just the folks we know is changing our view. It's a pretty big revision and I'm thankful that the Lord sees fit to work through us for His Kingdom.

Now--two other things. CONGRATULATIONS to Terry and her whole family on the birth of their 6th daughter!!! I told her that God had made her calling very clear: to raise godly women! :)

Also, Jamala over at Single Moms for God is having a contest. The whole time she has been blogging she has been doing so as a single mom for God--thus the name! Well, she is getting married soon so that will necessitate the blog name changing a bit. Go over to her contest (there is a prize) and help choose the new name. Thanks!

Have a great weekend everyone!