Mom Challenge....Day 29

Day 29: Turn off your phone, computer, or TV when your child is with you.

Oh my gosh. This has to be the hardest challenge of ever! I suck at this because I am self-admittedly addicted to my phone. Is there a 12 step group for that? Also, I use the computer A LOT! TV isn't even a problem for me at all, so no worries there, but honestly, this was hard! I actually read the challenge wrong and thought I wasn't supposed to use them when my child was with me, not turn them off, so although I didn't turn on the computer or TV all day around my kids, I did use my phone. I did do my best to not use it if they were near and I did pretty good but I guess I still failed at this one. My brain is in my phone so can I use that excuse?

Mom Challenge....Day 28/GratiTuesday

 Day 28: Teach your child a new word.

I decided my kids needed to learn an awesome new word. Annyong. If you don't know what it means, you should find out. My kids now know and can share in the awesomeness of this word. Can you tell I've been watching a lot of Arrested Development lately? Actually, the entire series in one week! I laughed so much that it hurt!!

    At the end of the day, I went the extra mile and taught them another new word. Fleeting. As we were driving home tonight we saw an absolutely beautiful sunset. I told my kids to hurry and look since I knew it was fleeting. They were like "huh?!" I explained it and told them to keep looking because it was going fast. Sure enough, by the time we got home not 3 minutes later, it was gone. It reminded me of this quote that I love by Richard Paul Evans. I savor every sunset because I know it's fleeting, just like the time with my little ones here with me,  as well as knowing that it means I survived one more day and I'm one more day closer to being with those babies of mine again.

P.S. I'm super thankful for both Arrested Development and sunsets!!!! 

3 months together, 3 months apart.

Today's the day, the 3 month mark. Today I have officially been without Reese as long as I was with him. It doesn't seem like long to me and yet it seems like forever ago that I held his sweet precious little body in my hand and gazed in awe at how perfect he was. His tiny foot was just a little smaller than the first in the picture above. Teeny, but perfect. I can still picture him just perfectly in my mind and picture just how sweetly his little hand looked resting on the tip of my finger.

With Reese, more than Gabriel, I feel like I have to keep all of my adoration and love, all of my sadness and grief, to myself. I know people wonder how I can be so sad when I only knew him for so little of a time. I know that people expect that I should have moved on from aching for him already (I've actually been told this.) I know it makes people uncomfortable for me to even bring him up and so I don't, for most people....and then I feel guilty because how can I not talk about this perfect little angel of mine...the one I prayed for, ached for, wanted for so long. The one I thought was the greatest gift because of the hope and happiness he gave me and our family when we needed it so badly. Even though he was this tiny baby that I never felt move and I never got to see take a breath, he was my perfect and very loved baby. I will never know what happened to him, why he had to leave this life before he got to live much of it, but I will strive every day to be better so I can hold him again. Like his brother before him, he has changed my life forever.

 I love you, sweet baby Reese. Sleep in heavenly peace.

Mom Challenge....Day 25, 26, & 27

The last few days have been my sickest, so I kinda combined these since I wasn't up to much. 


Day 25: Ask your child's opinion sometime today.

Skylar suggested I read a book she's been reading, Matched. It wasn't Harry Potter (which, honestly, I've never been able to get past book 1), so since, in her opinion, it was "awesome", I decided to give it a go. I've read half of it in two days. It's not too shabby!! 

Today, I was feeling a bit better, so I asked Alexis what she wanted to make for our FHE treat. She wanted brownies and brownies with frosting on them! This girl always has an opinion. We ended up making Frosted Zucchini Brownies. Yum!! God job Lex!

Day 26: Make it a point to encourage your child today.

McKade had his first soccer game of the season on Saturday. Ben's his coach this year. Since I can't go to any of his Wednesday games because of Young Women, I totally planned on being at all of his Saturday games to cheer him on. I didn't make it. Bummer. I tried my best to cheer him from home before the game and after but it still wasn't the same. I hate being sick!! 


Nick hates homework! Do you blame him? He was super bummed to be the first kid that had homework in the house, so while everyone else has been homeworkless, he has had stuff to do since the second day of school. He's been pretty good about it, considering his major dislike of it. Today, he was just was not interested at all. It took some major encouragement to get him through it. We did it!! 


Day 27: Do one thing that is good for your health. Walk 10 minutes, eat a piece of fruit, or get a good night's sleep.

This wouldn't be such a challenge if I hadn't been sick for the last week. Honestly, I'm sick of being sick!! Since I wasn't getting better, I decided I should try changing my diet drastically and see if I could get rid of my diverticulitis flare so I went to strictly liquids. I think it helped, but for the last few days I've been so weak since I wasn't eating any food. I read this was good for my health, but it sure doesn't seem like it since I've been in pain and weak. As for the tips, I did get up and walk around a bit today so I could get kids to piano and dance. It was good to see the world again!! I'm actually not supposed to eat fruit, which I miss, since I eat a ton of it usually.  And sleep? Does getting a good days' sleep count? I slept half the day thanks to a friend who took Alexis this morning. Hopefully I'm on the mend so I can do all of these things again like normal!!

Mom Challenge....Day 24

Day 24: Do not interrupt your child when he is talking.

Did. Done. Good.

Mom Challenge....Day 23

Day 23: Replace sarcasm with kindness.

Well, I'm still stuck in bed and not feeling too much like being sarcastic anyway, so it wasn't much of a problem for me today. Normally, sarcasm is something I am fond of. I was actually glad when my kids started realizing what sarcasm was and when they were capable of dishing the sarcasm banter back. I don't mean using it in a mean way, but in a funny and teasing way. I honestly wish there was a sarcastic font because I know people don't understand when the written word is dripping with sarcasm and I've been greatly mistaken many a time because of that.

Anyway, as much as I wasn't in the mood for sarcasm today and was just honestly being kind to my kids all day, I couldn't help but want to tease the heck out of Skylar when she got a phone call.....from a boy!! Yes, a cute boy who is new in her class and asked for her number the other day. Is it beginning? I hope not! I'm just hoping she was taking my advice on being super friendly to this new kid, who is a friend of a friend.  Still, when she came to me, flushed beet red, asking if she could go to his house I wanted so badly to say something in teasing or to be sarcastic, but I didn't because I knew at that moment, as nervous as she was about this whole thing, she just needed kindness. It worked good because she was able to go to a new friend's house, have fun, and not feel funny about it. There's definitely a place and a time for sarcasm and it just happened to work out that kindness was more important today.

Mom Challenge....Day 22

Day 22: How do you want your child to remember you? Be that mom today.

Well, today was not a good day. I've been stuck in bed for most of it, feeling lousy from a stupid flare up of my diverticulitis (the old person disease I have that is similar to appendicitis! Ouch!). Ugh. Needless to say, this is not how I want my kids to remember me....as the sickly mom.  Luckily, or not so luckily, Little Miss Alexis was not feeling so hot herself today. She was a little feverish again and so with the two of us feeling less than chipper we had a movie day. I guess, in a way, it was nice since we have been so busy lately that we haven't had a lazy laying around day. We got to cuddle all day long and if she remembers that I cuddled with her a lot when she didn't feel well, well, then I guess I'm glad I was that mom today.


And now, I'm caught up with blogging!