Seriously, how do you do it?

I have had one of those weeks ... admittedly, for a few weeks. One of those weeks in which nothing gets done. OK, truth be told, I did a lot of playing Farmville, and playing "throw the ball to Mama," and wanting nothing more than to sit on the couch with a cup of coffee and my new Runner's World magazine. (Yeah, forget that running business--I haven't done anything that qualifies as exercise in a full 15 days.)

Now, fortunately I have managed to keep dinner on the table every day except one (plus a time or two when we have gone to get a meal), and all our bills are paid. And our clothes are clean. And mostly put away (except for the baby's, but since it's hard to put them away when she's awake, and when she's asleep I don't want to go in her room to put them away, the clean clothes live in the hamper in the living room for a few days).

But the table ... well, do you want to see what the kitchen table looks like?

Yikes. We just push everything over at dinner time to eat off of one half of it.

And the living room:

Those are gift bags (top left) from the end of February when we did our family birthday lunch. And Sam's t-shirt(s) on the couch. And the baby laundry on the chair. And the mail on the piano bench... because there isn't any more room on the kitchen table. And cedar chips to go in the dog house outside - then why are they inside still? And the toys...... Sigh. These are small pictures, so you can't see too much in detail.

But the bathrooms have gone too long. Really, there will be no picture necessary.

So, how do you do it?
How do you keep things up? Do you budget your time? Do you say "no ____ until I finish ____"? Or maybe you have children who are done with teething and no longer eat leaves when you're not looking? Perhaps you actually have people come to your house regularly, so you have motivation more than once a month, to keep things picked up.
Of course, why would I try to pretend I keep a nice clean house for company, when I just put pictures of my disaster area online for the world to see?

Do you have secrets to keeping your sanity? Or do you have weeks like this, too?

The past week, however, has had some milestones:
On Saturday Sam, Lizzie and I went with Jessa to the vet's office, and only Sam, Lizzie, and I came back. After 14 years, Jessa had her 3rd strike, and we had to put her to sleep. It was sad, but it was the right time, and I had a peace about it. It has actually been a huge relief to us to not have to take care of her anymore. Though of course I miss seeing her around the house, sleeping like a log, and I keep thinking I can throw the odd table scrap to her, but then she's not there. Lizzie kept looking for her for about a day - Jessa used to always follow me into the room whenever I went to pick Lizzie up from a nap or go for a diaper change. So every time Liz looked down, there was the old yellow dog. She's stopped looking now.

On the brighter side, Lizzie popped 2 teeth in one day, so now she has 5! Two on the bottom, and three on the top. The top ones are slowly coming down more. I wish I could get a picture of them, but that would require her to hold still while I hold the camera, which is not a skill set we have mastered yet. Now that she can bite down into things, she loves to take her Cheerios and put them in her mouth just to hear them crunch between her front teeth. She also spent several days testing the sound her teeth made when she crunched or ground them together. I am glad that's stopped for the most part. Terrible noise.

Lizzie now throws the ball. She's actually pretty good at it!


She also dances to music or a beat. Here is a short video:



Please excuse the misspelling of the word helicopter. I don't know where the spelling brain cell went.

Isn't she fun? I do love having her around! The fun of watching her learn, play and understand is probably a fair trade for the chaos that sometimes surrounds us. Though I do hope that before long we'll have less chaos and just as much fun.

Thank the Good Lord for Coffee

This morning started too early. But it started, so who am I to complain? Besides, I have my coffee, so that helps.
And I just found this link, which leads to a "Read the Whole Bible in 2010" passage all lined up for you, so maybe I'll start that. Sure, we're 3 months in, but there's never a better time to start than now, right? And I am glad to have found it, because I need somewhere else to focus for a few minutes.

So why did the day start so early? Well, the good news is that Lizzie slept from about 7:30 PM until 5:30 AM. That was wonderful. And she is still asleep, and it's a little after 8 AM now.

The not so good news is that from the time I woke up with Lizzie, Jessa (the 14 year old, mostly blind, mostly lame, completely deaf Lab I've had since I was 15) needed to go outside. There was an urgency, because yesterday she left an unwelcome deposit on the carpet, which Sam cleaned up. This morning, by the time I put Lizzie back in bed, and disarmed the alarm, Jessa was already squatting. So between 6 and 7 AM, she was outside while I scrubbed the carpet with a half-functioning SpotBot. (The SpotBot, by the way, is probably one of the best $120 investments we've ever made, even if the only part of it that works anymore is the manual hose attachment.) And then after I cleaned the carpet, I had to scrub the dog's behind. If it's not one dirty behind, it's another, right?

We had already decided after yesterday's floor fiasco that we're on a 3-strikes-and-you're-out policy as it relates to Jessa. Well, that's 2.

OK, on to other things, because this has been somewhat depressing.

Last night, before watching the baby episode of The Office (which made both Sam and I laugh quite hard, and remember how tiny Elizabeth was when she was born), I got on the treadmill. I've been working through (sort of) the "Couch to 5K" program, and have gotten through week 3. I did week 4's first day, which involves 2 intervals of jogging for half a mile. I am pleased to say that I did it! Granted, it was a slow jog, but I sure did it!

Then we were up pretty late, working and talking through some stresses that we both were feeling. Like until nearly 1 AM. So, we haven't had much sleep. I think I'll take a nap sometime today.

Sam is getting Lizzie up now; she just started stirring, and since he's going to leave in a few minutes, this is his opportunity to spend a little time with her before this evening. I convinced him to change her diaper, too. He's a good daddy.

Oh, and I just heard her say "Mama" through the monitor! I don't know if she's actually saying "Mama" so much as saying what she always does when she gets her diaper changed. And puts Cheerios in her mouth. But I might be able to claim she's talking about me!

Here is a picture of Her Royal Cuteness:


In exciting other news, my mom, Meg Moseley, has just signed a contract and sold her novel to Waterbrook/Random House! You can read her blog here. This has been a long and sometimes seemingly unrewarding journey for her, but after about 13 years, she has finally been offered a book deal! Congratulations, Mom!

Snow Really is Coming!

At 1:45 PM - You can see the deck a little bit wet



At 2:00 PM - You can see a little bit of snow dusting the back deck





At 2:15 PM - I took the dogs out in the front yard to wander, and took a few shots out there




At 2:30 PM



At 3:00 PM (after the dog had run around out there)


Finally a panoramic at 3:40 - and it's still coming!

Snow is coming?

I'm excited to see snow, if it actually makes its way here today. But before it comes, I want to run to the store - though not to buy the traditional Southern Snow Concoction of milk, eggs, and bread (actually, come to think of it, we could probably use more eggs before the end of the week) - to buy oatmeal, baby Motrin, a Valentine's Day card (or two), another bottle that flows fast enough to keep Lizzie happy (all the ones we have now are slow), and probably some kind of frozen pizza or easy meal of some sort to put in front of Anna for when she babysits for us on Saturday.

Tomorrow night is the beginning of the big "Jubilee Celebration" for Brother John, celebrating 50 years in the ministry! It is a huge hoopla, with hours and hours worth of planning, many out of town guests, real china, and special slide show and testimony presentations prepared. I'm really looking forward to it, if anything I'm looking forward to the night out with Sam, dressed up, and without hauling the baby with us!

I can't believe that I'm actually "that mother" who has never left my baby with a sitter yet! Yes, I have left her with my mom a few times, and with her daddy plenty of times, but never with a non-family member. Granted, I'm leaving her after she goes to bed, but still, it's a "first" and I seriously thought I'd leave her long before she was 8 months old, but I have surprised myself and not parted with her yet!

While Lizzie is napping, I do need to get a few things done: have a quiet time (why does that get pushed aside lately?), make sure there will be a bottle of milk available for Lizzie in case she wakes up while Anna is with her, empty the dishwasher and wash last night's dinner dishes, and try to guzzle a whole Liter of water. If I'm really industrious, maybe I'll exercise (on the Wii Fit again, since I somehow injured my knee after pulling a muscle in my back - overcompensating, maybe? I don't know), charge the camera battery and empty the camera memory card, since we will have to get footage of Lizzie's first experience with 1"-2" of snow, right?

*Edited to add a link to the pictures in the next post of all the snow!

This kid is fun!

Here is a 45 second video of Lizzie laughing at me popping up from behind the couch:

Menu Plan Feb 8

Here's what I'm planning to make for dinners this week:

Monday: Spaghetti w/ meat sauce, veggies, bread

Tuesday: Chicken Cacciatore, pasta

Wednesday: Beef Stew w/ potatoes, carrots & onions, and TX Toast

Thursday: BLT's & Soup or leftover Stew

Friday: Salmon, Quinoa, and Fruit Salad

Saturday lunch: Rice & Beans / Saturday dinner: out! :)

Sunday: Bean & Cheese nachos and/or leftovers

Oh yeah, I forgot I have a blog!

Well, if it hasn't been 2 months since I've posted a blog entry! If it weren't for the Company Girl Coffee invitation every week, there's no telling whether I ever would have blogged again.

Since it's been so long, I will not try to update everything that's happened since then, because that would take too much time. And I think I hear Elizabeth crying. Yep, that's her.

Okay, I'll be back in a little while.

A few hours have passed and the kiddo is back asleep in her crib. She's been out for almost an hour, so I might have to do the 10 minute version here. But who wants to read the hour-long version anyway?

Lizzie (as we now call her) will be 8 months old on Monday (8th). She has accomplished quite a lot in the past 2 months:

• She is now a "speed racer" when it comes to crawling. Can't leave her alone for a second!
• She stands unassisted for several seconds at a time. In fact, she can stand longer than she thinks she can; while doing something with both hands she will stand for quite a while, but the moment she realizes that she's not holding on to something, she wobbles and sits down or grabs for support.
• She eats pretty much anything we give her. Except baby cereal; she hates that stuff. Last night she was eating small bites of chicken, rice, and sweet & sour red peppers. And loving every bite. Cheerios ("O's") and yogurt are her favorite things to eat. She drinks water/juice in a sippy cup.
• Her two bottom front teeth have come in and they're super cute. They make her smile that much more incredibly adorable.
• Lately she has taken to "growling" as her new method of communication. She woke up from her nap on Wednesday afternoon growling at the cats and dogs. Not sure where that came from, but it's downright hilarious!
• After borrowing a book from the library called "Baby Signing 1-2-3" which uses American Sign Language as the basis for teaching infants to communicate before they can talk, I have started teaching her some of the words a little person like herself would find important: milk, change, more, all done, fan (because she loves the ceiling fan), mommy, daddy, etc.
• She takes 2 good naps nearly every day. Her favorite time of day is bathtime right after dinner, and her least favorite time of day is going down for naps. We let her 'cry it out' because it's the only way she'll ever sleep. At bedtime she is very good and will sleep without any fuss.

As far as Sam and I go, things are pretty much the same.

I'm trying to figure out how to be a mom, wife, housekeeper, dog letter-outer, chef, and child of God every day. I realize that I waste far too much time on the computer doing stupid stuff like playing on facebook and my "born in June 2009" online forum. Then I complain because I didn't have time to have a quiet time or exercise or go to the store. Wah, wah.

I did come to the conclusion that I don't have to spend lots of time in "devotions," I just need to focus for a few minutes, and then have reminders through the day of that time. I also realized that I don't usually process things unless I'm writing it out. I suppose that's the way that I "meditate" or "ruminate" on what is before me. Sadly, I have hardly written anything in a long time, which kind of means that the depth of my spiritual walk has been puddle-like. But it's alright as long as I go somewhere from here.

At New Year's I decided that my "resolution" would be to run a 5K race before Lizzie's 1st birthday (in June). So far I have been able to exercise most days for the last two or three weeks. We have found a race we'll do on April 17th, Lord willing! Sam has been working out for months now, trying to get in shape and lose weight. I'd been struggling to get to the point where I could even take the 10 minutes to get on the treadmill or use the Wii Fit.

Do you know what my secret is to getting active again? I cut my hair all off. It's in a little "mom bob" now. See, the reason I wasn't working out is because I didn't want to sweat, because if you sweat, you have to wash your hair, and it takes too long to wash long hair, so it's not worth it. At least that's the way it went in my head.

Sam is working 4 days a week again at the HVAC company and we are thankful that he still has a job. He has his one last class to finish before he graduates, and then he'll never be in school again, hallelujah!

On Sunday we are hosting a Super Bowl party, and it sounds like we have a pretty good bunch of people coming over. It will be fun, and I don't know quite how we'll pull it off or where we'll all sit, but I'm glad we're doing it. I don't care anything about the game or who wins or any of that, but I do enjoy the commercials, and it's a great excuse to have friends come and snack for a few hours! With the baby, it's easier to invite people to come see us than it is to go out in the evenings when she goes to bed at 7 each night. That has lately put a damper on our social life, but we're figuring it out as we go along. It's a season, and this too, shall pass.

If I have time later I'll put up some pictures or give an update on our trip to Texas with the baby and the dog for Christmas. The short version is that it was a lot of fun and so worth the trip; it was also easier than we expected it to be - both Lizzie and Lady were excellent travelers. The grandparents were thrilled to spend a week with their little granddaughter, and we thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Sam's family.

For now, though, it's time for me to throw dinner together. This did turn into the long version, but it's a fairly good summary of what life looks like for now.