The Bible, Bibs and Boxes

This morning Alice and I enjoyed a cup of tea and read the Bible together. True, hers was a sippy and she didn't share much of the actual reading, but it was an excellent way to start our day. I think I'd like to make a habit of this with her, especially since I can't enjoy my own cup of tea without her wanting some. I figured it's probably better to just plan to share it with her and make the most of the time she sits and gulps it down. So, ask me how it's going in a few days or weeks...

Her new favorite thing is emptying the drawer of bibs and "packing" them into different boxes. Yes, we have a drawer dedicated to bibs with a few oven mitts sharing the space. I suppose Alice has seen mommy packing boxes quite a bit and wants to help. But, the bibs don't stay packed. We'll see how she likes it when they DO stay packed. I'll just have to make sure I know where they are so I can make a new bib drawer for her to discover ASAP. She's rounding out the second hour of her nap (YAY!) and I'm looking at a living room strewn with probably 30 bibs as I bounce Emma in her seat using my foot. What a life :-)

We've now got five days until the move, but really only four left to pack. Wow. Haven't thought of it in those terms until now. Today I've gotten three boxes packed. Part of the problem is the loud tape dispenser. I think I just need to put together a bunch of boxes (most of them are flat at the moment) while everyone's awake. Then I can pack while Emma sleeps and tape the boxes closed once she wakes again. In theory, that should work. We'll see how the next four days go.

Well, Alice must have sensed that I was noticing how long she'd been asleep because she's awake now. And Emma is falling asleep. I guess I won't be taping boxes just yet.

And I love this weather.

Contentment

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. Philippians 4:11

I struggle with the fact that the Lord brought me to California and seems to actually want to keep me here. Today I was talking with a dear friend and the Lord brought to mind Paul's attitude mentioned here. I wonder if Paul ever wished he had a home or a family? Did he ever wish that he had ONE local church to which he belonged and lived life with? No one is perfect, but I suspect he actually WAS content with the life God gave him.

Recently I left the girls home with my wonderful husband and took a walk by myself to clear my head. I walked for two hours and realized about 30 minutes into the walk that I was looking for a place to be alone with the Lord. Everywhere I went I saw people and cars and busyness. I finally ended up at a park where I sat and attempted to block out all the other noise around me and focus on God's creation. It was SO HARD. Discouraged and frustrated, I got up and went home.

When I first became a Christian I spent a good deal of my time in the woods behind my house in New Hampshire. I read my Bible, prayed, wrote in my journal and marveled at God. Those times were so sweet. Almost 13 years later I still remember my "spot" in those woods.

So. Now what?

Life doesn't look like that anymore. I live in southern California only miles away from Disneyland. God put me here intentionally. He knows how hard it is to find time away from the hustle and bustle, but He still wants to meet with me. He wants me to sacrifice my preferences and learn to silence the noise around me so I can become more like His Son. Right here. Right now.

Moving

As I mentioned in the last post, we're moving. It's less than two weeks away now and thanks to my wonderful husband and my awesome mom-in-law, we have started packing! Last week we finally were able to go into a two bedroom apartment at the complex we're moving to. It wasn't our apartment, but it had the same (actually mirror image) floor plan. We took measurements so I could make my graph paper, to-scale apartment drawing. Yes, I'm that cool. I do this with every apartment and have made little cut outs of each piece of furniture we own (which are also to scale) so I can "rearrange" the rooms without actually moving anything heavy. I think it's smart, but some think it's a little OCD. I'm okay with that.

The night before we measured the apartment I could hardly sleep because I was so anxious about our furniture fitting. The night after we measured the apartment I could hardly sleep because I was so anxious about our furniture fitting--it apparently didn't fit. The night after the night after we measured the apartment I could hardly sleep because I was so anxious about our furniture fitting--we might have found a way.

Three nights of interrupted, unsettled sleep is not good. Then I got two more nights of less-than-good sleep while attending our church's women's retreat. Silly me, I thought bringing Emma wouldn't be a big deal. Oi.

Today Emma got her first round of vaccines and turned into a NIGHTMARE this afternoon, fever and all. Alice was a peach too. Granted, I got more sleep last night than the whole weekend combined; but it's interesting what two screaming babies will do to a severely sleep-deprived person.

Okay. I cried.

But the Lord keeps bringing to mind Philippians 4:6-7...

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Honestly, I haven't had much peace in the past week. The retreat this weekend was all about finding Joy in the Journey. What I heard of it (when Emma cooperated) challenged me to look for the joy of each day, even when at the end of that day my head is pounding and I can't remember if I ate or drank anything at all. At the end of those days I'm blessed to have two beautiful girls who are growing and learning and giving their mommy so many reasons to smile. And I have a hard-working husband who sacrificially gives us everything he's got. So after we get both girls to bed and he's got homework to do, we decide tonight is a good night for a card game.

He's going down.

Twenty-two (Months)

It's very important when you're two months away from your second birthday to learn how to do things on your own. Alice actually discovered the importance of this before she was 22 months old, but it's really taking hold these days. This is how I found her after her nap last week. She was trying to take off her shirt. Clearly that was an unsuccessful attempt. It looks like she put her arm in the bottom and brought it out of the hole for her head. She didn't get the fact that she needs to remove her arm from the sleeve first. Sleeves are a bit much for her still.

She's also becoming proficient (ish) with using utensils. Here she was thoroughly enjoying her yogurt. I'm learning that it's best to remove her shirt (sometimes her pants as well), just so I don't freak out as much as she's learning. Is this a common strategy? I feel like the moms who leave the kids clothing on while they learn to feed themselves with utensils must have their own washer and dryer. It's just easier for me to have less food dried and crusty on her clothes. I must say, yogurt is actually fairly new-user-friendly when it comes to eating it with a spoon. Aside from the streak in her hair, she did a pretty good job keeping it generally in the same mouth-chest area.

Then of course we had a warm day and, smart mommy that I am, I decided Alice would LOVE to play in a bin of water on our balcony since we couldn't really go outside while Emma was napping. She had a blast. I filled our dish bin with water and gave her two plastic cups and her sand toys. Then I took pictures as she splashed around in it. I'm not really sure why, but it didn't occur to me that she'd dump it over her head and on herself. Seeing as how this is her favorite activity in the bathtub, it really should have dawned on me that this might happen. Eventually she picked up the whole bin and dumped it all over the place. In hindsight, that would have been a good "ending" time to her fun. Nope, I got her more water and then tried to bring her inside before she'd dumped all the water out. Bad move. Tantrum extraordinaire. Plus, it was lunch time and then nap time. She was ready for bed. But, we all survived.

Her new favorite toy is her pirate turtle sandbox, which we purchased off craigslist (ironically from a Biola grad) for $15. I call the turtle a pirate because, well, he's missing an eye. I think we might make an eye patch for him. Seems appropriate. Right now there's no sand in him, but that doesn't seem to bother Alice. We'll probably wait to get some sand until after we move in two and a half weeks!

Bunny trail... Yes, we're moving again. This will be our fifth apartment in five and a half years. Sigh. Moving is getting old. Hopefully we can stay at this one for a while. It's about a mile and a half down the street and we have some friends already living in the complex, which is really nice. We'll also save $300/month on rent, which is REALLY nice. The new apartment is a townhouse style, which means indoor stairs and first level entry! YAY! We've always lived on a second level apartment (I don't like having people above me), but it's a little harder to deal with when you have two little ones to carry up and down the stairs along with all the groceries. We'll also have a bigger patio where the sandbox should fit nicely. One bummer: no barbeques allowed. We're not sure what we'll do with ours yet, but I don't think we want to get rid of it.

Return from bunny trail... After we got the turtle (in Huntington Beach), we decided to have a picnic dinner on the beach. It was Emma's first trip to the beach. Not sure she was impressed, but her sister certainly was! It was pretty cold and getting late so we didn't stick around long, but we decided picnic dinners on the beach needed to happen more often... and earlier in the evening.

Last, but not least, more pictures of the aforementioned events have been uploaded to the web album. There's also an excellent album of Alice's Bows, which you should check out. We put EVERY bow in Alice's hair after her bath the other night. She really loves her bows. For those of you that may be inspired to purchase more bows because of this... Well, I probably can't stop you, but we don't need any more pink ones. Just saying.

p.s. Children don't understand this whole daylight savings adjustment. Alice has been "napping" (i.e. playing in her crib) for over an hour. Sounds like she might be close to napping soon...