Things I miss...

1-I miss my friends and Family. Not that I don't have friends here in Orlando, or a church "family", but I miss my old friends and my family being close. I feel like we are in no-man's-land down here in FL. We are like, at least, a 5-6 hour drive from everyone (except Justin's family who is thankfully about 1 1/2 hours away).
2-I miss being spontaneous. Yeah, this pretty much goes out the window when you have kids. It's not a bad thing, you just have to plan, plan, plan!
3- I miss going shopping. It seems before we owned a house (and had a healthy mortgage), we would go shopping every to every other weekend. Not big ticket items, but none-the-less, we would drop money for clothes, decor, whatever! We never went outside our budget, but we did in fact have a budget for luxuries. So I guess I would also tie into this one that I miss date nights with my husband, since that is also a luxury. We used to go out every Friday night and spend time together at a restaurant or the movies. Now, it's limited to when we have a gift card or free babysitting. (both of which I am SO grateful for!)
4- I miss college days. In college it seemed then that I had SO much responsibility with taking care of the house my parents bought for Joyce and I, paying bills, cramming for finals, traveling all over with Campus Choir, having a part-time job, staying really involved with my Greek Club (shout out to my DZT sisters), and maintaining relationships. My, how the word RESPONSIBILITY has changed!!

I didn't decide to write this post in a woe-is-me way, or for sympathy from my few readers, I was simply reflecting about how my life has changed in the past 4-5 years. I realize life is full of changes and I wouldn't be moving forward unless things changed, but just wanted to reflect. I DO love my life, where it has taken me. I adore my hot husband and my precious baby Judah. I DO feel we are in God's will here in Orlando. But, I DO miss all of those things. What to you miss?

Gag me

Okay, so Judah is going on 9 months old and now has 6 teeth! I can't believe it. This child seems to be growing much faster than my pregnancy went by! I can't believe we are headed towards 1 year, it kinda makes me sad. But no worries, we are not planning for another one for quite some time so I'm obviously not TOO upset about it!

I got inspired for this topic based on my fellow blogger, Lindsay Mills, who wrote about her 8 month old who has NO teeth and she's giving him table/real -people food. Now, I admit I have been very cautious about giving Judah different foods. We have just now gone to chicken and turkey baby food. He is definitely a "texture" baby which I am afraid he gets from me. As soon as I gave him ground meat that I made for the first time, he gagged to kingdom come! I went out the next day and purchased canned meats, which the thought of canned meats disgusts me to the core! Well, it went over much better. He ate it but not without a questionable face. I am gradually giving him more and more. Hopefully we can move to beef soon...eww canned beef does it get any worse than that?

So, for the past couple of weeks I have started to feel like I have babied Judah too much in this area. I took my time introducing different stages of foods to him as I thought I was supposed to...now I'm questioning my method. It seems that other children his age are eating table food and loving it. So should I push him to eat things that make him gag and hope he gets used to the texture? I also give him oatmeal with every meal still, is this wrong? I thought it would act as a filler since he pretty much eats primarily fruits and veggies. Also, I wonder when kids start eliminating their afternoon bottle (3:30)? It seems Judah is doing that (or teething), so maybe I should just put together a healthy snack for that time of day. I will say he's getting quite good at picking up foods/snacks such as Cheerios and those melty snacks, but will NOT hold his own bottle or attempt a sippy cup. Moms out there any advise?

Attitude Check

Several weeks ago I have felt a little askew. I would just come home and dread having to do all that needed to be done ie: laundry, cleaning, dinner, dishes, feed Judah, bathe Judah...the list goes on and on!!! It was almost like I was bitter about it all. Like hello Lord, I need some help here; I can't balance it all! It's not even like Justin wasn't helping because he was, all I could focus on were the things that I needed to complete and how I felt like I couldn't rest and even when I wanted to rest. I wanted a tidy home and couldn't relax until it was that way. If I asked Justin to do something and it didn't get done by the time I came home, the first words out of my mouth would be "why didn't you do this?", not "Hey babe, how was your day?".

I know part of it was I wasn't spending time in the Word and with the Lord like I should have been. To me, that was just one more chore to add to my list and if the other things didn't get finished neither would it. (sad, but true) I finally decided to pick up a book that was given to me SEVERAL months ago. It's a small devotion book for mothers. Has it ever hit home! I have come to a new realization that I need to do things as if they were for the Lord. (1 Cor. 10:31) Including changing dirty diapers!!
Before it was like I was doing all the chores around the house while murmuring and hating every minute of it and not feeling appreciated at all. Now, had I asked Justin for help, he would have gladly done it, but no, I had to do it ALL myself and I did it and with a hard heart. I mean really, who wants to be around that?! Can we say control freak? I think part of this stems from being a partial perfectionist and a bit of post-pardon hormones. I have also come to the realization that the house doesn't have to be perfect and to just relax and spend time with my family because that is what matters most. If I stay so busy, **Cough**Martha, then I will miss out on golden moments in my life.

So attitude check yourself. Is everything that comes out of your mouth negative? Do you really want to be THAT draining person who can't find anything good to say? I don't. While I may not have time for an hour-long devotion, I have decided to find God in all the small things that I do daily. While cleaning the dishes I thank God for wiping clean all the sin from my life, while feeling Judah I thank God that He supplies our every need, while making the bed I thank God that HE is my resting place, while cleaning the house, I thank God that He knows everything about me...all my nooks and crannies. While it sounds a bit cheesy, it's so easy to find God in all that you do. Try it, you might like it!