Saturday, September 26, 2009

blogging, journaling, reading . . .

I'm trying to decide whether or not to just focus on this blog (not that I write here very much) and drop the blogs on my website that I write for my kids (which I don't really have time for either) OR try to do both. I think I'm going to try to focus more on this blog and just try to write more regularly. Maybe once a week for starters!

On another note I have been journaling again lately. I go in spurts with that too :) I've been pretty consistent w/ my time in the Word before the kids get up so it's been easy to open up my journal and write a bit before moving on to things I must get done for the day. I've been reading through "the Daily Bible" which takes you through the Bible chronologically in one year. Recently I've been in the time of the exile in Babylon and now I'm reading the psalms that were written after their release. It's been so nice to have a plan to read through because I hadn't been very consistent in my Bible reading over the last 2 years or so. The kids are finally at a place where they are both sleeping through the night and I feel like a human again in the mornings!

What have you been reading lately?

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

cracking me up

here are the kids right after In N Out.


DRIVING ME CRAZY



I drove up to Newman with the kids to visit my family this Labor Day weekend. Newman is the town I grew up in and while my parents no longer live there we have a lot of friends who still do!

The trip up there was pretty uneventful. We started out by leaving the house @ 10:30. We ran a couple of errands on the way out of town. Stopped at the grocery store, dropped off a movie at the library, got a few items (including disposable dipes for Jo) at BabiesRUs and then went did a "drive-thru" oil change on the car. The kids ate their lunches while the car got ready to go! We finally got on the road @ 12:20. Josiah fell asleep by the time we were at the grapevine . . . but woke up about 30 minutes into his nap because his ears were popping. So here I was driving down the grapevine and Josiah in the backseat screaming because he was in pain! I was throwing whatever food I could at him to try to get him to eat and pop his ears but it wasn't working too well. Finally we got down the grapevine and stopped at the first available stop! Then it was back in the car and both kids played with toys and did pretty well the rest of the way. Josiah had a few more screaming fests, my favorite being the one where both kids were screaming at each other . . . for fun.

Our time in Newman was pretty uneventful. We had a great time w/ my family. Saw some old friends on Friday evening. Went to the Fall Festival on Saturday (didn't even make it around the whole park)! Watched the Nebraska game Saturday evening and had dinner w/ the family and the friends whose house we were staying at afterwords. Put the kids to bed and then I went back to the park to meet up w/ my siblings and hang out for a bit. Sunday I took the kids to their first parade. They LOVED it. Josiah was dancing to the band and any other music he heard and Ellie was in love with all the horses. Monday we hung out with a few more friends before heading out of town @ 2pm.

Now . . . about the ride home. After a FABULOUS lunch at the Gardners home we headed out. Ellie was immediately hungry so I gave them snacks off and on as we drove. There was a lot more traffic than usual . . . end of Labor Day weekend . . . what did I expect? We stopped at a rest area where Josiah was drawn to the big trucks and dirt, Ellie to the dogs and other kids. Then we headed out again. Ellie fell asleep shortly after but Josiah took a little longer. I had to rub his feet to get him to calm down and fall asleep. He woke up right before the 5 and 405 meet . . . and all the traffic slowed down. He was screaming. A LOT. I was finally able to pull off and into an In N Out. We hung out there for an hour. I was in NO hurry to get back on the road. I gave Ellie some gum and Josiah his pacifier for the drive up the grade, put on a movie and off we went. Josiah did pretty good the rest of the way home. He freaked out a couple of times and I think I remember hearing Ellie say, "dude, don't cry" at one point! It was stop and go once we got over the hill until we hit the 210. Then we were able to move again! I was so happy to be moving . . . until Ellie said, "I've got to go pee"! We pulled over again, Ellie went in her little potty chair and Jo started to cry . . . again. I gave him a hug, put him back in his carseat and off we went. We ended up getting home at 9:20. Do the math . . . that's 7 hours of travel that only took us 5 on the way up!!

All in all it was a good trip. Would I travel alone again with the kids . . . yes, but not any time soon!