Craftiness at it's Best

So I have always had a love for party planning and here lately I have been throwing baby shower after baby shower. I LOVE them! I think every baby deserves a shower, I don't care if they are the 1st or 10th child.

I told you I started a play group, and it just so happens that there is a girl in our group that is expecting her second child 2 weeks from now. I decided 2 weeks ago that we should throw a impromptu shower for her and the little one, whose name is Lorelei. (PS Love that name!)

Anyways...we decided that being a few days away from 4th of July we should do a red, white and blue theme. It turned out so cute if I do say so myself. My good friend Jenn Russell and I decided on embarking on the chore of making the cupcakes and then all the other ladies brought their food choice in red white and blue.

Here are a few pictures from the event:

Red White and Blue Cupcakes with Baby Lorelei cutouts

Homemade Strawberry Lemonade

Psalms 139 for Baby Lorelei

Desert table...cupcakes and fruit pizza

Tomato and Blue Cheese Sandwiches

Homemade Salsa with Blue Corn chips

The BEST Stuffed Cornbread ever

and Red White and Blue Salad

I think all that one needs for a successful shower is inspiration. A baby is always inspiration for me...but also I get a lot of ideas from other party planners. One great one that I like is TomKat Studios... Check her out...she's awesome!

Hope you get inspired...and if you ever need a party planner hit me up :)

Lindsey

What is your passion....

Today I was reading in my current book that I am working through for my quiet time, and a question was raised that made me stop and think.... What is your passion? What do you want to be remembered for as you take your last breath?

I am going to be honest, I am not sure what my passion is just yet because I have to narrow down my options. But, the one thing that keeps ringing in my head is my passion for each one of you out there that read this blog. My passion to relate to that first time mom who is having a rough go of it. My passion to make life a little better by writing my thoughts out in the hope that it will help one of you out there. My passion to help that barely functioning marriage find hope and the motivation to keep going. My passion for that young woman who just needs someone to relate to. I don't know all of you, but I know that there are people in Japan, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Australia, United Kingdom, Singapore, Canada and a few other places that visit this blog. I can only think that the reason anyone comes to hear my thoughts is because they find a bit of themselves in my wanderings.

My passion is writing and helping. Helping and writing. I don't know where it will all take me, or if I would ever be remembered by something I wrote...but maybe I will be remembered for being a good mom. For being honest. For being vulnerable. For stepping out and changing the status-quo. I hope that my passion most importantly brings you to a place of knowing Christ deeper and that He is in everything. He is everything and He is my everything.

So tell me...whats your passion? What do you want to be remembered for?

The Beginning of Planning C's 1st Birthday

YES... I have started planning her first birthday. We are roughly 10 weeks away and by all means there is plenty to do. I am a party planner by nature so you would have to believe that C's 1st Birthday will be nothing short of SMASHING!

So I have decided on a theme and colors...and I have most of the things I am going to need picked out. We are doing a Sweet Shoppe theme as we do have a Sweet Caroline. I also have decided that we are doing a candy buffet to go along with the theme.

So last night Chris and I were shopping online to see if we could find the best deal on some candy in bulk. As we began to look around, I started saying "I want that. I have to have some of those. These will fit perfectly with our color scheme. Oh those are too cute...we have to have some of those." I was pacing around the house cleaning as we talked, and then all of the sudden out of no where, Chris decided to play the video below...

We both started laughing as I danced around the house singing the song. Caroline (sitting in her high chair eating dinner) just smiled as she watched the craziness going on. I think it's fair to say... I might just be a little over the top!

So as I plan, I will share with you... but we are just at the beginning stages and I need to scale back already. I mean come on...she only turns 1 once! :)

The Future Miss Salt,
Lindsey

It almost brought me to tears

Tonight I had one of those moments...where it feels as though your heart is so full it might possibly just burst and there was no apparent reason for it other than the Sweetness was just being sweet.

1st of all, the evening routine is what makes my days around here. There is nothing more in this world that I love than the last two hours of the day with C. I fix her dinner (tonight she had shells and cheese with green beans, and blueberries for dessert.) and watch her enjoy food. She has begun smacking her lips when something taste good and tonight there was more smackin' going on than I could keep up with. It was too cute!

Then we go on our family walk. Since the summer has started we go every night as long as it's not raining. I love the time I get to spend with my two most favorite people in the world. Chris and I get to talk about our day and sweet C is a people watcher. I love summer nights like these.

Than we get home and it's play time before we hit the bath. Tonight though I got to have a great laugh session with Caroline, and we were both so tickled our sides were aching... although I am assuming C's did too. And then it was bath time where we played and played and played. Then as we got out I let C stand in the mirror and blow air on it to create the smoke look on the mirror. She just thought it was the funniest thing ever!

Then it was snuggle time with two of our favorite books, Runaway Bunny and My Friends. Caroline holds her bottle with one hand and touches each picture with the other. So sweet. And after I finish the books, I turned out the lights, C turned into me as the rocker began rocking both of us into a state of peacefulness. Her to a land of dreams and me staring at the beautiful child God so graciously gave. I have memorized everything about her you know...but every time I look at her while she sleeps it's as if I am seeing her for the first time again. I am mesmerized by her and desperately in love with her.

I laid sweet C in her crib, gently closed the door and walked into the living room. Shrek 3 was on, (which i have never seen) and obviously was at the end of the movie. Just as I sat down to change the channel, Shrek said these words... " You know what the best part of today was Fiona... I got to fall in love with you all over again."

This was just how I felt as I rocked my sweetness to sleep. Tears began to creep up into my eyes as I know the day will come she won't want me to rock her to sleep anymore. But for right now and every night until that day... I will fall in love with her again and again and enjoy the sweet moments I get to have with her.

Perfect evening,
Lindsey

Lets Stop Comparing

I don't need to tell you one more time that I am reading the Beth Moore book So Long Insecurity...but I am going too. :) Maybe it will spur you along to pick it up yourself and find the hope that I have in it.

But this morning I was reading and this particular chapter was the practical steps we can take to change the direction on the path of insecurity to one of God-Given Security. It was speaking volumes to me...especially when I got to the part about comparing. I am going to give you a short snipit of what she had to say, and then how I think it relates to us as moms.

" Or constant propensity to compare ourselves to the women around us is wrecking our perceptions of both ourselves and them. Most of us aren't in a public place for five minutes before we peruse the female players in the room and judge where we rank. Human nature rarely balances itself on the tightrope of equality, despite our noble claims. Far more often in our comparisons to other women, we fall headlong to one side with inferiority or swan-dive to the other side of superiority. A bloody tumble is inevitable either way."

I immediately thought about us moms. I mean, to be frank, these very statements are why I started this blog. I compared myself to all of you...and I "fell headlong" to the side of inferiority. I would walk into a room of other moms and see them all showered and cleaned and I felt terrible about myself. I was just starting to figure out how to get out of the house with a newborn and hadn't mastered how to get ready before hand. (I was lucky to find some clothes that had been washed :)) So I compared myself and fell short every time.

Here are some of the ways:

Their babies were sleeping through the night + mine wasn't= I was a terrible mom and doing something wrong

Their babies were never fussy+ mine had gas issues= their baby was better than mine

Their babies were sleeping in their cribs + my little one was a co-sleeper +A gasp from anyone I told and then a huge amount of criticism for my poor judgement = a wave of insecurity about the future of my child's sleep habits and mine as well

Either way the comparison of other moms and other babies left me and my baby feeling less than adequate. Now that I am further down the pike (if you call 9 months further down the pike) I love sitting with new moms and listening to their ups and downs. I hope in our time together, if you have learned anything about me, you know that I like to be real. So to sit with a new mom and cry with her when she is scared about being a bad mom, or to share our up all night stories, or tell her it's OK if her baby is screaming while we talk (and mean it) I find camaraderie not comparison. I find new friends not rivals. I find moms who are in the same place as I am, instead of assuming they got a better baby and mom skills that I lacked.

Galatians 5:26 from The Message says this...

"We will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original. "

Each one of us were made to be a mom, and where given exactly what we needed to help our babies thrive in this world. We are each an original as are the babies we each have in our care. Because one's sleeping or eating habits are different from another's don't translate to anything else but the originality of that baby. One's parenting skills whose are different from another's doesn't make them any worse or better, but just shows the originality of that set of parents. We can stop comparing ourselves to others because we have far more interesting things to do with our lives, like taking care of our own children and watching them develop into the person God specifically made them to be.

So let's stop comparing and start embracing and encouraging one another. I am sure that there is freedom in that.

One of you,

Lindsey

Something is Concerning Me

So in the morning, the sweetness plays in her exersaucer while I partake in a little Good Morning America and sip my coffee. It is one of the best times of the day as we are both content and happy in our own little worlds.
The other morning however, Ms. Robin Roberts was covering a story that caught me a little off guard.
If you have 6 minutes, please watch! (click on the picture)

As a mom of a little girl, and as a woman who has a life long issue with her own body image I was immediately taken aback. I am not saying that I didn't know this was happening out there, I can only remember some of the mean things said on the playground when I was a kid, but now that I am a mom my perspective is different. Not only for Caroline, but for me.

There was something that was said at the end of the clip about making sure what we say around our children encourages good self esteem, not necessarily about the children but about us. They actually asked a group of little girls what their mom's thought about themselves, and the one girls reply was "She is always saying she needs to go to the gym, because she thinks she needs to lose weight". I immediately felt bad. I am always telling my husband that I need to lose weight, that I am on a diet, that I feel ugly. (Being vulnerable here so please don't judge) I realized in that moment that I am teaching my daughter something about the way she should view herself.

If there is one thing that I am sure of in the recent weeks...is that Caroline pays attention to everything that I do. She mimics me and follows me around. Not only am I her mom, but for the next couple years I am the closest role model she will have. So what I say and do really matters. As a person who thoroughly was (working through them as we speak) engulfed in insecurity, I desperately want differently for my daughter. I want her to be secure in the beautiful person God made her to be. I want her to be secure in her talents, in her relationships and at school. I want her to be secure in herself, living a life free of insecurity!

I am not naive enough to think that she will adapt everything that I think about myself as her own issues, but I am aware to the fact I have moldable clay in my presence 24 hours a day. It's enough for me to think twice about what I say about my looks and body in front of C. This video clip has also made me realize how important it is to build your children up. There are SO many other forces in this world trying to make our children feel bad about themselves, we can at least be a sounding board of truth! So whether you have a boy, or a girl or yet to have a baby... there is always someone little watching. Show them how a confident woman looks!

Healthy and Happy,
Lindsey

Get To The Point!

So everyday I think Caroline does something new. From deciding to crawl a couple weeks ago, to clapping and waving to everyone who walks by, blowing on her food before she eats it, to saying baby... her tricks have been endless and quick lived. I was so excited when people would come over and I could "show off" her new found ability, but only for a few days because she would get tired of them quicker than she learned them.
BUT.... this new one I think tops the cake! And it doesn't seem to have the life span the others did and is lasting much longer. The first couple times she did it I would just laugh. I thought it was so cute and wondered where exactly she learned it. Then one day as Caroline was trying to climb into the fire place I yelled out her name and said "Caroline...NO!" as I pointed my index finger at her. She simply turned around, gave me a huge grin...and POINTED back at me! I have never laughed so hard! I finally knew where she had got it <3
Well now, she points at anything and sometimes will double point at you. When she comes walking into the the kitchen in her walker it's a big grin and a double point. When she is playing with her toys its a single point and a low stern voice. When she waves at you, its a brief wave followed by a "I am watching you" point. When she's eating, it's like "put some more food on my plate I am hungry" point!
You can't get the full grasp of the sweetness of this until you see it up close and personal. So the other night as we went to my father's to celebrate Father's Day they finally got to see Sweet C's new trick. I had told them I had tried desperately to get some pics of her pointing, but was always a second too late. Well my step-mom (being the photo-snapper she is) managed to get two great pics of her pointing and I hope you get a kick out of them. You even get the rare double point here too!

My gosh... I love this little girl!

Lindsey

Finally!

Well today was the day I have been waiting for, for a long time now. It was the first time my new play group got together. After struggling with isolation, I had tried a couple places to meet other moms. It never seemed like I found the right fit. So after a terrible experience the last time ( I actually got up and left the group because no one spoke to me) I decided that I knew enough first-time moms to do my own play group. So I started texting all the ones I knew and invited them to my house for a swim time for us and the kiddos.

The first time we were suppose to meet was last week but as it turned out the majority of the group was out of town. So just two of us got together and swam...here is a picture of the babies who were fast friends.

Hudson And Caroline

Anyways, this week since everyone was back in town we had a full house. There were seven of us all with little ones ranging from the age of 4 months to 18months. It was a mad house in here but it was so sweet to have so many at the same time. I was worried about how it would work out with everybody not knowing each other but I don't know why I was worried :) It was AWESOME! Not only did the kids have a great time but so did us moms. We talked about birthing stories and what we did before the little ones came along. We talked about money and trashy shows. We talked about how much our lives have changed since becoming moms. All the while our kiddos just played, talked to one another and some even snoozed during the event.

I have waited a long time to have this....9 months to be exact. There is just something about a group of moms trudging through this baby thing together, relating and encouraging one another. It made me hopeful. It made me incredibly happy. And it made me even look forward to having another baby in the future. (One of the moms is expecting her second baby in about 5 weeks)

We plan to meet weekly and there were even talks about maybe more than that. We don't have a plan, but I am excited about the possibilities. Friendships for me and maybe life long friends for C. Either way I am looking forward to the summer even more now.

Super Pumped,
Lindsey

Still Tired...but Gaining Some Energy

If there is anything that the summer does...it totally rejuvenates my soul! There is just something about the sunshine and pool that changes things for me. Seeing that I had Caroline at the end of the Summer (September) the first part of her life we were cooped up in the house. That was really hard for a summer girl like me. But now that we have opened our pool and the weather is nice we are out there everyday enjoying the beautiful weather and a cold pool.

That being said...don't let me fool you, I am still exhausted. This morning when I woke up my body and mind were screaming at me telling me that all they wanted to do was crawl back in bed. But as moms we don't get that luxury. So I yanked myself up, went and got the little one and quickly made myself some coffee. I got to thinking as I took my first couple sips...when was the last time I had a "good" night sleep? I would say 9 months ago before I gave birth to our sweet C, but that's not all together true either. Any woman who has been pregnant before knows that the last trimester you barely sleep. Not only are you uncomfortable but you have to get up a million times to go pee :)!

So needless to say it's been awhile and I am wondering when I will ever have a "good" night sleep again? As I think about my friends who just are now enjoying the first couple weeks of motherhood and the several times a night feedings, I feel as though Caroline and I have come along way. At least I get 5-7 hours of solid sleep :) But I still long for the day when she will sleep from 8pm-8am. Is that too much to ask? ( I can hear moms laughing all over the world!)

Either way the summer is shaping up to be wonderful for this family. I am in such a better mood now that we can get out and about a little. Caroline and I have a good routine of going to the gym so that I can work out and she can play in the kid zone, then coming home and getting in the pool! I am hoping that maybe (just maybe) I will wear her out enough that a straight through the night sleep isn't too far off in my future!

Exhausted but gaining some energy,
Lindsey

Temper Tantrums

SO...I am not sure when they started, or why, but if there was a dislike button for temper tantrums I would hit it like 50,000 times. Caorline on the other hand would hit the like button everyday about 30 times a day.

It really started becoming a little overwhelming a couple days ago. It started with little things like when I would get her in her seat for meals and she would start throwing a fit until the food got there. She hates to be changed (clothes or diaper) and now that she can roll over the minute that I lay her down she immediately rolls to her belly and I have to yank her back. (this really becomes a problem when there is poo involved). Then there is when I leave the room, when I put her down for a nap or for bedtime...and when we get in the car. Yesterday she even threw one when we were in Wal-Mart, which is something she never does.

Last night, she wouldn't go to sleep even. For a while now we have done our bath, read our story, drank our bottle and then we lay her down before she is asleep. This is has worked great and things on the sleeping end have gotten so much better. But last night, and for her nap this morning, she would not go to sleep with out me getting her there by holding her. Today it took me an hour to get her to go down for a nap and my last resort was to rock her. She just keeps standing up in her crib and screaming for me...

The only time its not an issue is when someone is holding her or for split seconds here and there. I am not sure what do and what disciplinary actions I should take. I say no (especially when she is doing something that she shouldn't) and I have swatted her hand before. Neither seems to do anything. I am asking for wisdom in what I need to do because I don't want to be one of "those" parents who doesn't do anything and then has an unruly child. But, I also don't want to be too aggressive with my methods and have them backfire on me later.

The problem is she is just too sweet most of the time and this popped up out of no where. She has 8 teeth now so I don't contribute it to teething any longer. I thought maybe it could be her knees hurting from all the crawling but I don't think that either. I read somewhere that when they learn a new motor skill things get thrown off because they are so excited...that could be it. But whatever the reason I just need to know what to do as a mom.

Can anyone help me out there... I just love this sweet face and don't know what to do?????

In need of some encouragement,
Lindsey

Nothing is safe anymore

So  Miss C decided last week that she was ready to crawl. I wasn't quite sure if she was going to honestly. She didn't seem much interested in it, she seemed much more interested in standing on her own. So I thought she might just skip crawling all together and go straight to walking. But in a quick day and half turn around she changed her mind and since then it has been no stopping this wild woman!

Since she started crawling though I have realized how un-baby safe my home is now. I have bookshelves to start off in the living room. EVERYTHING on the bottom two shelves has to be removed. Any thing that is plugged in ANYWHERE is looking much like candy to my new crawler. If there is anything on the floor it goes in the mouth, so I have to vaccum three times a day! Every cabinet in my kitchen HAS to be locked. And finally... there is no more taking naps with mommy in her bed (we found that out the hard way). I mean NOTHING is safe anymore.

It kind of is bitter sweet to be in this new season. I mean, to watch her little self crawl all over the place is the cutest thing ever, but at the same time I feel like its too early to be baby proofing my home. It goes by so fast and I know I have said that more than once on this blog. But I was reminded even more of that this morning as I was able to see a new little life come into this world. A very good friend of mine gave birth to a 7lb 4oz little boy almost exactly nine months after me. We laugh because she got pregnant the weekend I gave birth.

So as I am baby proofing she is baby adjusting. I feel like I was just there and yet I am already here. Nothing in this life is safe anymore... it moves to fast. I feel like I just need to hold on to my hat and pray that I remember each moment as it is.  And right now I will enjoy baby proofing my home and laugh as I watch my sweetness discover the world.

Here she is trying to crawl for the first time last weekend.

Enjoy,
Lindsey