A new word "outsideable"

Today is finish cleaning the house day. Somehow it only gets done in stages when you have a 3 month old and an almost 4 year old to tend to, so I dusted on Tuesday and vacuumed today. Now I have bathrooms to tend to...woman's work is never done...even when she's at home all day. I wanted to add something from a few nights back that Jason told me I should have recorded on my blog.

Emma Grace and Jason were going out to sit on the front porch and rock in the rocking chairs one evening to watch the rain and she wanted to take her plastic play stroller with her baby. We have always stressed that her "princess shoes" are for inside play only and so are certain other toys just for outside (i.e. bubbles). So she made sure to tell him that the stroller with her "Bruiser Bear" riding in it were "outsideable". Well, how fitting...a new term that seems to fit quite nicely. Able to be outside. Yes, I think she may very well work for Miriam Webster one day!

Can we say "formula"?

Is it just me, or is my milk production slowing down? For those of you who do not know, Jase did not latch on to my satisfaction and comfort, and he was on a bilibed at home for his jaundiceness (is that a word?) caused by his ABO blood type incompatibility (not the same as mine for those of us not in the medical field) the first week or week and half of his life. Needless to say, I had nursed EG for 14 months and thought it would be a piece of cake. I guess I just became too easily frustrated this time and decided to use this here pump I have borrowed from Leanne again. So I have been just bursting at the seams most of the time, especially from my right side. (O.K. any men out there, you can go ahead and say TMI and log off now). Well, the right side was the one that caused so much problem the first 4 weeks as I had mastitis in it twice already in June and beginnings of it again in July. Just this week red, tender spots came out on the left side when he has slept past 3:30am twice this week (you'd think I'd be happy about that, but my breasts do not thank me). Now the left side is the one only squeezing (literally I sit and SQUEEZE it) out an ounce or two or maybe, just maybe 3 oz. if I drink plenty of water after a good mexican meal! I think I've skirted past having it a 3rd time just by using a hot pad and some tylenol for pain and chills. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

But now the issue is, "Do I have enough milk to keep up with Jase?" I have about 86 bags in the freezer, but at 6 oz. a bottle and 6 or 7 bottles a day, that won't last long, should I go cold turkey. So I am thinking I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and as Elisabeth Elliott says, "Do the next thing." That is until my milk is nearly gone and then I'll start mixing what's in the freezer with a bit of formula until it begins to be all formula. I have 4 cans of formula that came in the mail back when I was pregnant, and they have a shelf life until Jan 2010. I know that won't last too long either, so you all can pray that the formula will hopefully not be an issue. With my not working this year, formula has not been written in the budget, so formula will be a total trust issue (isn't all of life a trust issue--don't know why I wrote that). It's been amazing, though, how even diapers have been pretty well taken care of by sweet ones in our church family and we have not had to buy even one pack of diapers so far. God is SO GOOD!

I also want to add a sweet conversation that happened last night and continued today with Emma Grace. I was brushing her teeth last night and also letting her do it (that's the big thing now--I can do it!) and I don't remember what sparked the conversation, but it made her say, "Momma, you broke my heart." It was the saddest thing. I actually thought it was funny at the time and laughed but then today she said it again when I told her I needed the recliner to pump and she asked me to sit on the floor and I told her mommy's back hurt and I really needed to sit in the chair beside the pump and not on the floor. Not wanting to move, I told her she could move now to the couch, the floor, or her blue chair or.....receive a spanking as I move her myself. Needless to say she moved and I did not have to spank, but she reminded me that I wasn't nice and that I broke her heart. So I really wanted to know who had said those words before for her to keep repeating them and she said, "Bibbi says that when she's sad." Bibbi is my mother-in-love (Jason's mom who happens to live next door with Papa Jeep, his dad). Well, then I asked her if I needed to glue her heart back together and she said, "No, because Jesus lives in our heart and he takes care of our hearts." Well, by golly, she has been listening! Then she went on to say that Jesus is everywhere even though we can't see Him. So I of course called Bibbi and told her that this sweet granddaughter of hers is listening to every word she says. I also should have reminded her that she hears when she says in passing something about "Ripping their head off" or something about doing something to your head (my memory is bad--I can't even remember when the last bottle was---that's why I write it all down on the dry erase board!). Well, I think that's all for now.

I want to go to heaven

Having visited the funeral home last night for Mrs. Maude Timms' visitation services, Emma Grace had lots of questions about how she died, where did she go, and if we can go to heaven when we "get old". Of course I reassured her that for those who love Jesus and trust in Him, we can all go to heaven one day and see Jesus and have a new body. She wanted to know was Mrs. Maude walking around in heaven and I told her probably not...probably would be floating like the angels. She thought that was cool!

So we as parents have the daunting task of giving our children accurate information about the serious issues of life. No fluff, no ridiculous stories...just that's the way it is. Now, I didn't get into the other side of "if you don't go to heaven where do you go", but I'm sure that will one day be the topic of discussion. I don't think she saw Mrs. Maude's body laying there in the open casket, but had that occurred, I guess we would have gone down that route too, in 3 year old terms. After that, Emma Grace wanted to read her entire Little Golden Bible Storybook last night. I tried to convince her to read just one or two stories out of it, but she wasn't going to settle for that, so we did travel rather quickly through Creation, Noah, Moses, Jericho, miracles of Jesus, Last Supper, death, and resurrection. Whew!

Wal-Mart Digital Photo Center:Photo:Owned

Wal-Mart Digital Photo Center:Photo:Owned

Emma Grace-isms

I just have to post some of Emma Grace's terms she's using lately---yesterday she said for no apparent reason "To tell you the truth...". She said this while I was checking email and I don't think anything came after that statement. And she also said, "Momma, you can call me your baby; I'm still your baby." Before, she had reminded me that Jase was the baby and she is the "big girl" and now she is saying she'll always be my baby. I think we've read the book Love You Forever enough now that she knows the words "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living, my baby you'll be." Well, Jase calls to be fed, so let me log off. Maybe more later today...

Not My Will

So it takes a person, at least this person, a LONG while to realize that it's not my will that decides if my children will take a nap or not and if they will abide by MY schedule and plans. As I type, Jase has spit out his passy one too many times after just being in his bed for 10 minutes asleep and so is swinging in the swing but not batting an eye. Last night Emma Grace decided that 12:19am was a good time to go potty and then not shortly after at 1:00am, Jase decides that he is hungry. Do what? Hungry after a bottle at just 9:30pm? He has never in his 3 months of being alive (he'll turn 3 mos. tomorrow) wanted to eat at night just 3-3 1/2 hours after going to bed. I was utterly appalled. I went into his room determined that he would take a passy and be happy with it. Well, again, the Lord determines a man's steps and last night it was my turn to learn the hard lesson that children and life in general cannot be squeezed into my little mold of expectations. I guess I have always known this great spiritual truth, but I certainly do not live like it.

After a formula bottle of 4 ounces being sucked down and then 1 more breastmilk ounce at 1:00am, at around 3:30 I heard Emma Grace calling once again to be "covered up" and then Jase chimed in right after that, but seemed to have gone back to sleep after apparently his 100th round of spit up. Something in his little tummy just is not sitting right with him lately. Could it be the formula he is gets for the last bottle of the night so I don't have to pump milk 6 times a day (5 is bad enough)? I don't know, but it's got me baffled and apparently learning that it's the Lord's will which my life will follow. I must learn to be content and joyful in just obeying that place which the Lord has placed me. I pray that I will learn this lesson quickly and be able to truly be joyful as the title of this blog suggests. May the Lord give me the strength and endurance to do the things which He has called me to do.

A Way to Remember

As I begin to blog about my daily adventures as a stay-at-home mom, I want to first say that I hope to be able to look back in days and years to come and see how God has worked in my own heart and life as well as that of my family. Life is full of changes, and there seem to be many going on in my life right now. This will be a praise journal, a thinking journal, and a way to record the daily or weekly events of the Pope Family so when I'm old and gray I can remember vividly how much fun life was with 2 little rugrats. :)