I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up!

Yes, that is me upside down in the bathtub. I realize most moms post pictures of their children in the bathtub that are cute and sweet. Well, my picture has two cute, sweet boys and one klutzy mama!

Since I am almost 30 weeks pregnant, it is uncomfortable for me to sit on my knees and bathe the boys. So, I was standing up, leaning in the bathtub to wash Wayne when the rug started slipping from under my feet. In the tub I went! I said, "Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!" Wayne pulls the hair away from my face to see my facial expression--is she really hurt or just being a Scarlet O'Hara? I just started laughing so hard. Bruce was still not totally convinced that things were okay.

Wayne and I both call for Matt to come in the bathroom to help me get out of the tub. He comes in the bathroom and is immediately laughing. He asks me how he can help. I say, "Help me out of here!" Well, he thought, "If I push down on her legs she'll just pop right out of there." So, he proceeds to push my legs down bending my legs backward. I ask him, in a rather loud voice, "What are you doing? I'm not a see saw!"

I did NOT pop out of the tub but instead kind of slithered out, as I was trying to save my knees at this point:) I turn around to see that he has an orange in his hand! I said, "Next time take the orange out of your hand and really help me!" He said, "Well, I thought I could save you and eat my orange." He was lucky I didn't have any sharp objects in my hand. We both just died laughing. It was so funny.

This actually was the third time I fell today. A new record for me! Although my belly has felt tight-not sure if it's Braxton Hicks or from all the laughing-Allison has been moving. I thank God me and the baby are fine. And, that I didn't smash my little boys in the process of falling:)

Is Candid Camera Following Me Today?

Have you ever had one of those days where you feel like Candid Camera is following you around and you are not finding it very funny! Well, Monday was one of those days for me.

It started out pretty calm. I was able to get up before the kids and have devotions peacefully. I was feeling kind of stressed over the weekend so I was going to try to take it easy on Monday.

After breakfast, the boys and I started to organize some of the girl's clothes I had bought at some yard sales. While we were doing that I had a load of clothes in the washer. Next thing I know, water is on the floor underneath the washer. "Aut Oh", I said. "There's some water. Okay boys help mom clean it up." So, I went to get some towels to soak up the water.

Our washer had not drained properly over the weekend so I knew I needed to call someone to fix it. While I was on the phone, the boys just had to fight because, as we all know, as soon as we get on the phone that's when the pestering really begins. So, I told them to go to their beds. That gave me a little peace and quiet while I was on the phone.

I had to move the washer and dryer to clean up the water. Part of the time the boys were helping me soak up the water. The other part they were climbing up on the washer. I don't mind if Wayne is up there, but I don't want Bruce and I especially don't want them both up there together. Then, I was trying to get the vent back on the dryer.....yeah, that was interesting. While I am fussing with it Wayne is explaining to me how it needs to be done.

I realized I needed some coffee so I made a half caff. (I usually just drink decaf) However, the half caff didn't feel like it was working. I thought, "Am I really that tired? Guess so."

Tried to move bookshelf-got everything off shelves and couldn't get screws out of the wall. How hard is it to figure out a drill. I mean, our husbands do it so it can't be rocket science! (haha. I totally love me SMART husband:) As I'm moving the bookshelf from the living room to the bedroom I'm thinking, "Should I really be doing this being pregnant and all. Am I going to pull something. Nah, I'm fine. I did stuff like this during the other two pregnancies." (I probably should have listened to the voices in my head because as you will read I started having Braxton Hicks contractions that night.)

Had lunch, the boys would not eat. It was even hot dogs and corn. What kid doesn't eat hot dogs. They usually love them! Next, was nap time. Bruce went down pretty easy but it was taking Wayne longer to fall asleep. Then, the guy to fix the drain called. He was coming early. "Oh great!" I thought. "Now Wayne is never going to be able to fall asleep and I will not get a nap at all. Oh well."

When the guy came to fix the drain I still had pajamas on, black makeup under my eyes and had just thrown my hair up. I looked price sensitive. So, he hurried up and only took 1 hour to fix it. So, that worked out for the budget:)

Wayne wasn't able to fall asleep until after the guy left, but I was able to lay down with him too. I slept for about and hour. Then woke up from nap time to Bruce trying to climb into the bed with Wayne and I.

Next, I set out to cook the meat for dinner while doing the dishes. I was stirring the meat and one little piece of hamburger flew out of the pot, a tall stock pot I might add. I found it on the ONLY toy in the kitchen. Now, what are the odds of that?! As Wayne and I are doing the dishes I hear a crackling noise. I thought, "What is Bruce doing in there? Oh man, is that my meat?" It was. And it was burnt.....black and serve again! So, I decided to order a pizza.

At the pizza place, the guy asked me how my day was going. I said, "One of my kids has his pajamas on, one has his shirt on backwards and I am in my 'Walmart outfit'. That's how good it's going!"

I was telling Matt about my crazy day and how I drank a half caff coffee but it didn't really affect me. He asked me how I had drank a half caff because there are no caffeinated pods in the house. (We just bought a Nespresso espresso maker earlier this summer) I said, "Well, that explains a lot. I wondered why it didn't work. My eyes were practically closing themselves by naptime."

I told Matt that evening that I would like to take all the girl clothes back out to the van. I had separated them by size so we had about 8 garbage bags and 2 boxes of stuff taking up room in our bedroom. After getting all the bags and boxes in the van, I went back outside to do something in the shed. (I don't even remember now what I was doing) I had locked myself out of the house. So here I am knocking on the door thinking, "Yup, this is the kind of day I have had. Lord, please help us get to bedtime fast."

I did get a lot of practice praying for patience and doing breathing exercises, but it was such a stressful day that I started having contractions that night. (Braxton Hicks) Oops. So, I took it easy on Tuesday. I want to hold my baby but we still have 3 months to go. I gotta calm down.

What kind of crazy day have you had lately?

Be Alert!

I felt God speaking to me a while back that I needed to stop defending myself with others. I didn't totally understand what He meant at the time. I felt Him saying that if I had a problem with something someone said or I wanted to snap back, I needed to come to Him with the issue and figure out why it was bothering me so bad or just why it made me so upset.

Recently, I realized my first form of communication is to fight, to defend myself. Some of those who know me may say, "No way. You're being dramatic." However, if you ask anyone who has ever lived in close quarters with me, most of them will agree with me. I will think through conversations and come up with my "comeback" if the other person starts to give me attitude.....as if that is going to solve the problem!

I have felt like it has been hard for me to "come into" who I am as a mom. The authority I have as the mom and wife of this house. My husband kept telling me, "You are the woman of this house." I thought I felt that way because I am much younger than him, 9 years, and still kind of felt like I was "playing house" instead of actually "living house". But my defending tendency partly stems from low self-confidence in general, something I'm working on.

This week I realized I do it in my parenting. One of my sons disobeys and my first thought is, "Oh yeah, how about this...I'll just reprimand you. And, I guess if this is what you want to do all day I can play that game." I'm realizing it's not a fight with them. I am the parent. I am in charge. I can say, "No you do not behave that way," and then discipline without getting so emotional.

Also, that form of communication puts me at odds with my kids. I get frustrated that they won't just obey so we can have a good day. When really it's the devil I am fighting because he would love nothing more than for our family to not be happy. He would love nothing more than for me to think my children are the problem. He would love for me to not gain self-confidence in who I am as their Christian mother and my husband's Christian wife.

As I journaled about this the other day the Lord brought to mind the passage in Ephesians about putting on the armor of God.


Ephesians 6:10-18 says:
¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.


Being alert. I like that.

God speaks through Duplos

Kids do and say some of the cutest things.

I remember when I was little, years ago now, I would listen to shells and try to hear the ocean. We've all done it. It's so facinating to listen to. Well, my oldest son, Wayne, went to Preschool Camp last week. They studied the ocean and were listening to some shells. On the last day of camp, Wayne showed me the shells and wanted me to listen, so I did.

The next morning, he comes to me with a Duplo (big Lego block) up to his ear. He says, "Mom, I hear Jesus." He hands the block to me so I can take a listen. I said, "Oh, what is He saying?" He said, "I don't know."

After taking his picture tonight for the blog, we were trying to get him to do a video about his "Jesus speaking to him" experience but he was doing the potty dance and didn't want to do a video. His dad said, "I think Jesus is saying, 'Wayne needs to go potty.'" Wayne looked at him as if to say, "Really? He knows I need to potty?" It was so cute!

So, if you feel like you're not hearing from the Lord, start playing with blocks. He will speak to you!

Chocolate Doesn't Solve Everything?

The other day I was stressed about a situation. After dinner I told my husband I needed a dessert-when a pregnant woman says this she means business! He mentioned that he had just had a handful of chocolate chips and maybe that would take the edge off for me. They did. We went to the store and were driving back home when I told him I still wanted something sweet. It could have just been the food yearnings of a pregnant woman, but I wanted it like my next breath depended on it.

So, we decided to have me go into the grocery store and get some frozen yogurt and whatever toppings I wanted. I was on the lookout for that Reese’s or Reese cup shell stuff. You know the chocolate goodness that hardens not too long after pouring it over your ice cream. (or frozen yogurtJ) I wanted peanut butter and chocolate.

As I was looking for the shell goodness I felt the Lord speaking to me that I really just needed to go home and pray. I felt Him saying that what I was really craving was something to fill the hole I was feeling that the stress had created. I thought, “I don’t have time for that. There is so much to talk about it will take forever for me to work through my stress.” So, I went ahead and bought the frozen yogurt. I got some fudge topping too thinking I would have that with a little peanut butter.

Well, I did put my sundae together. And, it did not taste good at all. I mean, at all. I realized I was trying to find a substitute for time with God and it was not measuring up. Sadly, I still didn’t ask for prayer time that night. My husband was getting ready for a big project at work and I didn’t want to interrupt.

However, the next morning-a Sunday, I woke up about 6am. My children do not wake up until around 7:30a. At first I thought, “Seriously. I just want to go back to sleep.” Then, I realized that this was the time I could do that praying I so desperately needed. It was great. The Lord showed me some areas of my life I was letting fear creep back in. I was on a spiritual high.

Then, I totally manipulated my husband. I hate it when that happens. I blame something on him only to figure out later that it was really all my fault. Oops. That’s why God woke me up on Monday around 6a. He knew we had more work to doJ

Thank you Lord for your wonderful grace. Thank you for loving me enough that you don't just leave me the way I am but you mold me into who you created me to be. The taste of your love is much better than chocolate. (and peanut butter)

I'm a Walmart Thief

Yes, I stole batteries at Walmart yesterday.

You might have a similar story. I was at the checkout line with both boys. Wayne spotted a piece of plastic from a bag and thought it would be funny to get down on the floor and blow on it. He proceeded to act like a dog and a frog, hopping around. With one eye on Bruce, still in the cart, I was trying to get Wayne's attention to get him back by us. He finally came back there. Meanwhile, the people in front of us got a good laugh:)

I got his attention back on our cart and helping me put things on the belt to pay. Well, because Wayne was helping Bruce decided that he needed to help. I had him in the seat of the cart. He was standing up handing me my Gas-X, something every pregnant woman needs. (Or should I say, "something everyone else hopes she is taking at least from time to time!") I took it and put it on the belt. He wanted to help more....so I put him in the back of the cart and told him to hand things to me and Wayne. Things were going somewhat smooth again.

After everything was loaded on the belt, the people in front of us were taking a while to pay. Not a big deal, I just knew the boys were not going to last much longer. Wayne was over playing with another cashier's bag holder turnaround thingy. I got him back over to our cart where he started to play with our cashier's bag holder turnaround thingy. Of course I tell him, "No, no. Let's not play on that. When she fills up the bags we can put them in the cart." So he helped me load the bags.

However, as I am putting bags in the cart I realize there are still items in the cart. I had left the cart back far enough for Bruce to pull things off the belt and back into the cart. Oops. So, I got all that stuff out and moved the cart farther down. (I thought I had gotten everything out:) But, Bruce did not want to part with the water we were purchasing. So, I had the cashier scan it so he could just hold it.

Well, seeing Bruce with the water made Wayne really thirsty. I told him we would drink some of the water after mommy paid. We would drink it on one of the benches at the front of the store. (I knew if we started to drink it right then it would be all over him and the floor.) He thought that meant, "Go to the bench right now." So, he goes over to the bench. I go retrieve him only to return to my cart with Bruce standing up again. (As I am writing this I realized that is probably why they have those little belts for that seat, DUH! I should probably use that next time!) Wayne is now frustrated and fading fast.

The cashier scans the few coupons I had and says she didn't see any batteries come through. I ran my fingers through my hair and said, "Well, they were in the cart. Maybe they fell out. If I stole them, I'll come back and pay for them." I pay for the items I didn't steal and we proceed to the bench to have some water. Poor Wayne still spilled it all over his shorts and I ended up opening one of the napkin packages we purchased to clean him and the floor.

We get to the van and as I am unloading things, with the boy's help-they are good little helpers, I find the stolen batteries. I thought, "There is no way I am going back in there today!" By the time we got home it was a 2 hour Walmart trip!

The batteries are sitting on our dryer and I will go back and pay for them. Maybe I'll do it next week while Wayne is at Preschool Camp and I'll just have one little monkey with me:)

The way a recipe should be written......

At the height of my frustration with life with 2 little ones, I would read a recipe and get so angry. Prep time: 30 minutes. Hah! Try 2 days. I was thinking, “There is no way I can get all that prepped in 30 minutes. Have these people never cooked with little ones in the house?”

Then, you read all the parenting articles that tell us to “never cook with little ones at our feet.” Really?! Do they make some sort of “don’t bother me while I’m making dinner” straight jacket for kids that I’ve never heard about? Because at my house there is no way, unless my husband is home watching the kids, I am going to get through dinner prep without one of them being at my feet at some point.

So, the other day I was making lasagna and thought it would be funny to write the recipe the way I think it should be written for moms with little ones at home….maybe even for moms with bigger kidsJ

6 lasagna noodles-get these cooking at beginning-make extra because somehow some of them turn out kind of funky

1.5 lb Italian Sausage (you can use hot or mild or a mixture…whatever you prefer)

Brown meat, drain fat-take one of the kids to the bathroom and wipe the other one’s nose. Wash hands. Replace the now BLACK meat with fresh meat….oops, it burned.

Add next 5 ingredients.

Be ready for the kids to help with the next step because when they see you getting out the measuring spoons and cups they are going to be on a chair begging to help. Which I don’t mind, but does add time to the prep.
2 or 3 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 Tbs whole basil, chopped
2 ¼ tsp salt
1.5 lbs canned tomatoes (stewed tomatoes or diced)
3-6 oz cans tomato paste

Let the older child take the paper off the cans. Wayne loves doing this. Give the little one a job because if you don’t he will be up on the chair trying to “help” which the older child will not appreciate and try to knock the smaller one off the chair. (Make a mental note to start saving for emergency room visits. We might be on a first name basis by the time they all graduateJ)

Simmer covered for 15 minutes, stirring often.

In between stirring, change a diaper, get someone a snack and referee fights over the only toy that they both want to play with at that exact time…..because there are no other interesting toys anywhere to be foundJ

While that is cooking, beat 3 eggs then add next 5 ingredients

Again, the need to help is high so this part will take a little longer.
4.5 cups ricotta or cream-style cottage cheese
¾ cup grated parmesan or Romano
3 Tbs parsley flakes
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

1 lb package fresh mozzarella cheese, slice it thin

Little one is begging at your feet for food so you feed him mozzarella as you slice it. Hopefully you slice faster than he eats. The older child comes in upset thinking he has been gypped but then remembers that he doesn’t care for cheese. So, we must get him a different snack because seeing brother eating has also made him hungry.

Assemble the lasagna
This should be the easy part. Everything is cooked; it just needs to be assembled. However, the kids are done with you doing something that wasn’t their idea so they start to fall apart. Back to them washing their hands and helping put the noodles in and layering the cheese. The constant reminder to them: “Let’s not pick our nose while we do this.” (And any other saying about other parts of the body that we really don’t want them to touch while they are assembling our dinner.)

Layers from bottom:
½ noodles
½ cottage cheese filling
½ mozzarella slices
½ meat sauce
½ noodles
½ cottage cheese filling
½ mozzarella slices
½ meat sauce

Bake @ 375 degrees for 30 minutes
Be ready for them to totally resist dinner and have a total melt down. Maybe it will look better to them at lunch tomorrowJ Probably not, but we’ll try……