St Francis de Sales, pray for us!

Today (January 24) is the feast day of St Francis de Sales.

Be at peace
Do not look forward in fear to the changes in life;
rather look to them with full hope as they arise.
God, whose very own you are,
will deliver you out of them.
He has kept you hitherto,
and he will lead you safely through all things.
and when you cannot stand it,
God will bury you in his arms.

Do not fear what may happen tomorrow;
the same everlasting Father who cares for you today
will take care of you then and everyday.
He will either shield you from suffering
or will give you unfailing strength to bear it.
Be at peace
and put aside all anxious thoughts and imagination.

Small Successes

1) Survived the stressful, unplanned, head-spinning trip to Wichita and back (thankfully the Father-in-law is ok now).

2) Paul is sleeping longer at night. He has been consistently waking up only once (unless you count the 5am waking up - but I consider that my alarm as I just stay up and exercise after re-settling him).

[Of course, we just messed his schedule all up with the recent travel and different sleeping accommodations but I'm still hopeful we can get back on track.]

3) Managed to eat somewhat healthy while traveling (I brilliantly took a bag full of apples and oranges to much while my hubby munched on cookies, crackers, candy, etc from the gas station.) Although I did not lose any weight for a couple days, I have at least maintained my current status, rather than gaining.

If you want to join in the fun of celebrating the small successes in life, click here for more details.

Whiney Wednesday

1) My baby is not on a sleep schedule really at all and it is REALLY getting on my nerves. He does not nap well or sleep all that well at night and I'm convinced it is because he is not on a schedule. The real kicker is that the schedule he seems to want does not mesh with the kids' school schedules (he likes to nap from 10 to 11:30am - but we get Samuel at 11am Mon-Thurs and he also tries to nap again at 2pm till about 4pm, but we have to get Rebekah at 3pm).

2) Paul is very needy again lately and it is making me weary.

3) Paul has taken to pinching me while nursing. OUCH!! I try to get a blanket in his hands now, as a precaution but if I'm not paying attention - oh my.

Feel free to join in the Whiney Wednesday catharsis by following the directions here.

Roar!! I am amazing :)

Yep, that is Paul on my back.

Yep, I put him there ALL BY MYSELF.

Yes, this allowed me to clean the floor and cook dinner last night.

And my husband said I don't have any survival skills. . .

(Sorry about the glare, I could not get an un-blurry picture without the flash.)

Paul and food

So, we tried to feed Paul some food. . . you can watch the video here (it was sweet potatoes - not a jar, real sweet potatoes mashed up). The video is long, the first 50 seconds or so give you his reaction to this (not so happy). So for a month or two I tried to feed him, a little here and there, but he was not real interested until . . . I put some food on his tray and let him have at it (as a - "let's hope this keeps you happy for five minutes" kind of deal while I do whatever else I NEEDED to do at that time). Well, he enjoyed feeding himself A LOT!! Hello world of food - Paul is gonna get you - with his fingers!! :)

Paul's new do

Snow Alien

Gordie took the kids out to play in the snow. This is what they came up with. (Gordie calls it a snow alien.)