Planting seeds in my heart

"She wanted to grow in beauty and grace, so she asked God to show her the seeds she should plant in the soil of her heart."

Oh my goodness... God is definitely speaking to me right now!

I have one of those inspirational desk calendars, on my desk of course, given to me for hosting a party. It says "This little calendar is one way to add flair and inspiration to all your days. Filled with quotes & scriptures sure to lift your spirit and put sassiness in your soul, it'll equip you you to face challenges with the sophistication by the One who always puts you in the best light." How awesome is that!?! An added plus... it's zebra print! ;)

Ok so first the Blog is called the blessing is in the seedd, because on crazy days it is hard to remember that my family is a major and THE biggest blessing ever.

Second, if you've been following me at all on Facebook you know that life is just crazy right now; Steve is at NCOA, schooling for the military, in Germany for 6 weeks. The kids have been in school for a month so all the Autumn plays, PTO stuff, Bake sales, after school activities, teacher meetings, all happen this month. Also we're having some assessments done on base so I've been driving there a lot. Had a horrible, but now humerous, "explosion" incident with my child & groceries. The 2 year old has decided he wants to potty train now and scream his head off when we're in public places. Halloween is just a few weeks away. It's just been a rough week.

I feel like one of those clap-o-meters. You know those things that look kind of like a thermometer & the louder the clapping the higher the meter rises. It only takes one stupid little thing to get me all worked up. A post someone makes on FB, the kids fighting, having to repeat myself 10x in  20 minutes, cleaning up a potty training accident, having to give the kids a bath when all I want to do is lay down and read a book.

I know things can be worse and I also know that growing in beauty and grace are things I definitely need help with right now. Maybe a little bit of patience as well, but we all know what happens when we ask God for patience... 3 words... Elora, Derek, & Dylan. ;) I love my crazy seedd's, they are tremendous blessings. It's all about perspective, right?

Do mom's forget...

...that their child was once a toddler? A friend posted a vent on FB about how it was annoying to go shopping while having to listen to a kid scream the entire time & was frustrated because the parent tuned them out while the rest of the store had to listen to the kid, she ended the vent saying "have some consideration and bloody parent!" AHHHH It took EVERYTHING I had not to post a comment. After stewing for a few minutes I asked myself, does she seriously not remember what is was like when her child was a toddler? Then I came to this conclusion... They must have been through what I'm going through, and it was so traumatic that they just eventually blocked it out. ;)

Maybe this post bothers me more because I am IN this phase right now, and deal with this everyday.

Dylan is a screamer, if he doesn't like something or gets bored then he screams as loud & as high as he can. I realize that he's screaming for a reason, and will 99% of the time stop what I'm doing and ask him what's the matter to try and tell me what's wrong. Usually 97% of the time it is because he wanted something & I said no, so when I remind him "No, Sorry Dylan we aren't getting candy today." The screaming continues... if it is convenient I will just leave, usually head straight to check out or if the lines are too long I have also left my cart of stuff. But if I have to get groceries OR I made the 30 minute drive to base just to get these items then I'm going to get those items. I re-assure him that it won't be long. The re-assuring works great with Derek, who gets bored very easily with shopping, not so much with Dylan and so then I just have to grit my teeth, Smile, and bare it!!!! I apologize to everyone who makes eye contact for the screaming and try and get out as fast as I can.

It's a phase that most toddlers go through, they are learning so much at once like patience, controlling & expressing their feelings, and battling boredom!! All problems when shopping with mom.

I am getting better at just gritting my teeth and getting through it but the embarrassment is still there and while I'd like to think people understand and are sympathetic to my situation I then hear a friend blame it on the parents and other people agreeing with her, I'll admit it knocks me down a bit and as unrealistic as it is I do want to just stay home with him and not take him out. Again, I realize how unrealistic this is, especially with Steve in Germany for 4 more weeks.

I can't wait until we are out of this phase, but until then I'll just keep calm and carry on, a common phrase here in the UK that I'm sure was invented by a mom with multiple children in their early years.

Anti-Aging Solution for Couches

~~Cleaning my microfiber couches!! All you need is isopropyl Alcohol, a spray bottle, & a white rag. I poured the entire contents of the bottle into the spray bottle and went to town. It took me about 4 hours to finish the ottoman, couch, love seat, and chair.

This is what the ottoman looked like... we've had these couches for about 4 years now... so admittedly this is 4 yrs worth of sippy cup spillage & attempts of spot cleaning. 


Totally GROSS!!!!!


I was SOOO ready to just toss these & get new ones but being the realist I am and having 3 kids 6 & under... yeah no... we are keeping these couches until they move out! HAHA

This is the ottoman after I scrubbed it a good 30ish minutes and let all the alcohol dry. Which by the way, in case you didn't already know, it dries super quick.

And this is the ottoman after scrubbing a 2nd time just over the areas that still had the water rings for about 15 mins. Looks SOOO much better. Now, not every single stain is gone maybe if I scrubbed some more and put more elbow grease into it I could get them all off but after 4 hours and seeing this much improvement I was satisfied. :) They only look about 6 months old now compared to 4 years!! WOOHOO!! Anti aging for the couch, who knew!

Dylan- 2.5 yrs

Is there some rule somewhere that says the baby of the family is supposed to grow up SLOWER than the other siblings? I know, I know it's just the opposite; they see their big brothers & sisters doing things and the "baby" wants to do them also. Sigh... he isn't allowed to grow up, we jokingly call his room neverland. :)

We are ALMOST out of the baby phase, only thing left to do is potty training. The older 2 weren't interested at all until they were 3, so I'm not rushing him, however 6.5 years of diapers I'm about done. He knows what #1 & #2 are, and will tell us when he goes in his diaper, so that's step 1 in the potty training direction, but when we tell him to go on the potty, "No Tank You!"

He has definitely entered the independent stage. "No, I do it!" or the other phrase that I hear 6x a day "No stwower(stroller) I wok(walk)!" He likes to do everything himself, climbing into the car & into his seat, climbing out of the car, putting on his coat and then zipping it down to take it off, he also wants to do a lot of things that he just isn't capable of doing and he gets frustrated.

Dylan is a smart little boy, but everyone calls him a cheeky monkey, because they know he's mischievous & curious. He is talking ALL the time now, some cute things he has said (with translation):

"Dinodaur in tie oww, he eat Wego!" (Dinosaur in time out, he eat Lego!)
"No I not do it, Derdek do it, not Dynan!" -Already putting the blame on his siblings
"Odiber you cuee, Odiber oww my woom!" (Oliver you cute, Oliver out my room!)
"No I no like dat I want chocolate nilk, no I no like dat chicken!" -We've entered the picky foods stage as well.
"I wanna ride on it twactor & a digger!"

Even more confused

So my impatience got the best of me again, dang it! I posted on FB how my heart is super happy for Derek, and it is but the more I thought about it my brain is more confused.

Last week we had an appt with a speech therapist to do her assessment on Derek. After 1.5 hrs she came out and asked if I'd been working with him over the summer, and continued to say he has improved tremendously since June, he only struggles when asked to repeat a sentence, she doesn't think his scores will qualify him to be seen.

Today he had an appt with the Occupational Therapist for his assessment regarding his fine motor skills. He barely passed, only 1 or 2 points made the difference. He struggles with his grasp while holding a crayon, pencil etc. and holding scissors. The OT said "There isn't anything wrong, or malfunctioning, in his brain, it's just the muscles that need to be strengthened so I will put in a recommendation, but can also give you ideas, tips, tools and exercises to do at home." GREAT!!

So overall my heart is super happy because the things we did over summer to prepare him for going to school full time, has worked! That was very evident, he has grown by leaps and bounds which is so exciting and I'm so happy for him. However in the back of my mind, I am still left with so many questions.

I spoke with the Dr at his 4 yr checkup back in March and expressed my concerns and was immediately referred to a bunch of people within the school system. All the details are in the other blog post. Now that the assessments are done, I'm still left with mostly the same questions and concerns I had before. I know this is just one of many steps, and I'm not sure what I was expecting them to say. There is no clear answer, and they aren't medical professionals so I definitely wasn't going to receive a diagnosis, not sure if I was hoping for one.

He really has improved so much in only 6 months, so I know some of it is maturity related. He starts school full time on the 24th, right now he's only going for 2 hours a day to get him used to the classroom etc. I am still nervous for him but not as much as I was 6 months ago, that's for sure.
I can't end the blog without some pics of my handsome boy:

Women

~~~Written a while ago
Just yesterday I was driving home, and I started thinking about a friend of mine who is going through some hard things in her life and I started thinking about how through her trials and her honesty about everything; she's actually helped me through some of my own trials. Then I started to think how amazingly strong she is and how I hope some day I can be an inspiration to other women as she has been for me. I got home fed the boys some lunch, and this friend was still on my mind so I decided to write her a message telling her just how awesome she is. Her response to my message definitely brought on the water works, and I will treasure that forever. I'm not taking total credit for that, God put her on my heart for a reason, he knew she was hurting and chose me to be the one to lift her up. Perhaps it's because her and I have so much in common, and it's that common ground that I could relate to, but whatever the reason this has changed me. I got to thinking, how come we as women don't do this more often?

Why is it so hard for us to write a simple message telling a friend how they've inspired us, how awesome they are, what a great mom they are. Yet, it's so easy to be judgemental, passive aggressive on a post on Facebook, or talk about each other negatively. I also just recently experienced how cruel words can be when feelings get hurt and miscommunications happen. It's time for a change, be the change you want to see in the world. Definitely!!

~~~So not sure why this never got posted, I was cleaning up the blog a bit and saw the big orange words DRAFT next to this post. Something to add to this post though... A few weeks ago, or maybe it was a couple months a friend whom I haven't gotten to know as well as I'd like, we just started getting to know each other and then BAM orders to England, anyway; she sent me a message. Her message was so uplifting and so inspiring, definitely brought on the water works and it's definitely something every mom needs to genuinely hear. Being on the receiving end of one of these messages is so humbling! I had no clue what to say to her other than Thank You.

I have a new favorite song, because I often question why does this matter...

"You're picking up toys on the living room floor for the 15th time today. Matching up socks. Sweeping up lost cheerios that got away.
You put a baby on your hip. Color on your lips and head out the door
While I may not know you, I bet I know you wonder sometimes, does it matter at all?
Well let me remind you, it all matters just as long as you do everything you do to the glory of the One who made you, Cause he made you, To do, Every little thing that you do To bring a smile to His face Tell the story of grace With every move that you make And every little thing you do"
~~One of my fav songs from Steven Curtis Chapman

So after receiving this uplifting message, I am on a mission. I have almost 400 friends on facebook, and hopefully by the end of the year I'll have an awesome blog post to write about. No, I'm not deleting anyone, not yet anyway. I accepted their friend request or sent one of my own for a reason, so instead of "deleting" I am "messaging". :)

My Office

Since we're stationed in England and a Home Depot isn't right around the corner, things in the play room are on hold until I can find a place to get the materials I need. So onto the office... :) My office is a tiny room that leads into the master bedroom, naturally it became an office. I want to personalize this space, since when the kids are sleeping I'm usually in here on the computer and/or working on some sort of project. So I am going with black & white, since I just can't get enough of it, with a bit of pink popping out. :) The room is definitely a work in progress, but I am so excited about how it's coming along I have to share!! :)

On our trip to Ikea a couple months ago I picked up a new desk, 2 expedit bookcases, and a magnetic board for the office. I am on the search for fabric & plexi glass to go on top of the desk.

So I found pretty contact paper at a store in town and I covered the magnet board with it. SUPER CUTE!! I'm going to turn pink buttons into magnets to add the pop of pink in the pic, but I love it already.  (Can you believe I don't have a good b&w pic of Elora! Hoping to get a good one next week)

So because the magnet board worked so well I thought
 "Hey let's do the same thing to the cork board!"

BTW those are London Theatre tickets to WICKED!! Taking my 6 yr old next week to see it, can't wait!! :)











I saw on pinterest, somewhere, a picture of a bookcase with the back covered in Fabric, it made a piece of furniture look so different, so I decided to do the same thing. Instead of fabric I chose contact paper in a different b&w pattern. So much easier in my opinion than gluing fabric.

 

So here's my little corner of the office, right to the left of the book case is the door leading out to the hallway. See my pink button art, love the pop of pink.

I haven't really found the perfect set up for my bookcase, but this will do for now.I have so many tupperware bins full of craft supplies. I'm working on super cute labels, but again I was too impatient to wait so consider this an after & before picture. I got the striped boxes at Ikea, unsure how they'd look in the space, but I really like them for storing all the USB cables & electronic wires, I could actually use a couple more.



Since I ran out of storage boxes, I improvised and used boxes I had around the house, and just used the same contact paper I used for the book shelf to cover the box. Can you guess what kind of box it is....





Any guesses....

Yep!! A Diaper box!! I ran out of contact paper to cover the entire thing so I just covered the fronts for now. I have 2 of these on the expedit bookshelves next to my computer. It still looks a little blah so no pics of the whole thing yet. I'm working on it. :)

So what do ya think of my office so far? I am loving it!!