Day 29: Prayer walk at the arboretum and Day 30: Finish home management binder

Day 29 was Brad's idea.  He decided early on that we should go for a prayer walk at the arboretum.  We visited the arboretum for the first time in August and loved it so much we bought a membership.  We've been looking for a chance to go back so this was perfect.  It was a bit chilly, but we bundled the boys up and set out for a nice family walk.  As we walked, Brad prayed aloud.  He told Micah what we were doing and why it was so important, then one by one he prayed for different people in our lives.  He encouraged Micah, too, to thank God for his friends and family.  We ended with a prayer for our own family.  We prayed that God would reveal himself to us and continue to lead us and show us what he wants us to do.  We prayed for the boys.  That they would grow up to love him with all of their hearts and that they would have a passion for his Word and his people.  It was a great experience, made all the better by being outside and surrounded by such beautiful creation.  I'm so glad we have this membership so that we can continue to enjoy God's creation in this way.

Day 30 was our last day (we ended a day early because of Micah's birthday and Halloween).  I finally finished my home management binder.  I finished filling in all of the paperwork and organized it in a binder.  I still have to make a cover for it, but it's definitely useable.  This is still an ongoing project, however.  As we use it more we will discover parts we need or don't need.  I will adjust it to fit what we want.  But I'm proud of the work it is right now and I'm eager to really start using it!

Well, that's it.  All of the tasks that we did for the month of October.  I'll write up a reflection soon because there was so much to process and I can't wait to share with you!

Day 27: Free day and Day 28: Read a proverb a day

We were so busy every day with our daily tasks that we decided to take a day off so day 27 was a free day and we did nothing.

Day 28 our task was to read a Proverb a day.  Brad and I know how important it is that we do some sort of daily devotional together and we go through spurts of being really good about it and being really bad about it.  Since we were trying to re-focus our whole family, we knew that we had to set an example.  It's just so hard for us to find time together to do a real devotional so we decided that we would read a Proverb every day.  There are 31 Proverbs and 31 days in the month of October so it worked out well.  We typically ended the day together reading.  It's such a nice way to end the day!  While I would love for us to start our day in this manner, it's just hard to count on it, with two unpredictable boys.  So, we make the most out of what we're given.  And we loved our time together.  I feel like our marriage is so blessed when we spend time reading Scripture together.  This is a habit we definitely have every intention of keeping, and we have currently moved on to Ecclesiastes.

6 months

This was a big month for Judah.  He has really started to come out and be more active.  He's not a passive observer anymore.  Now, he likes to be part of whatever we're doing.  He is such a smiley boy and laughs all the time.  He is very easy going, but if he doesn't like something, he'll let you know.  Judah still has a bit of a temper and if he's upset about something it doesn't take long for you to know it.  He has started to grab at everything.  If Micah has it, Judah wants it, and Micah is often willing to oblige (but it goes both ways and Micah likes to take what Judah has).  Here are some of Judah's milestones this month:

*He went to Grand Rapids with us and Mimi to see Art Prize.  Mommy wore him the entire time and he did so great!

*Judah joined us for our sixth (?) annual apple picking trip with the Lows.  The crop was terrible this year and we didn't even actually pick any apples, but we did go on the hayrack ride and played in the children's zoo.  And Judah got to watch big brother ride the moo choo train. :)

*Judah also went to a pumpkin patch.  He played in the corn pit, but was really not a fan.  Every time he touched the corn, he started to cry, but if one of us was holding him he was fine.  I'm sure that will change next year!

*We celebrated Micah's 2nd birthday with a Yo Gabba Gabba party.  Judah played in the jumper almost the entire time.  He loved people watching and was so excited to see all of big brother's new presents!

*Judah attended SHINE Fest at our church, Boo at the Zoo, and went trick-or-treating for the first time.  We didn't buy him a full costume because he's so little, but I did get him a Muno hat and mittens.  It worked out perfectly because he was so bundled up that you could really only see his head anyway.  It was chilly, but Judah loves being outside so he did great.

*We went to the Children's Museum Downtown.  This was the first time that Judah really got to play at the children's museum.  It was so neat to see him playing and interacting with the different exhibits.  I was lucky that Daddy was with us so that we could each play with one boy!

*Judah learned to roll tummy to back and he is a rolling machine!  As soon as we put him down on the floor to play, he rolls to his tummy.  If I leave him for any amount of time, he is never in the same place that I left him, he scoots and rolls all over.  He's also doing "baby push-ups."  I don't think it's going to be long before he starts getting his legs under himself and creeping on all fours.

*He also learned how to sit on his own this month.  He thinks he is such a big boy when he sits all by himself.  He's still slightly wobbly, but for the most part I am comfortable walking away from him while he is sitting.  It's obvious that a whole new world has opened up to him now that he can sit because he loves playing on the floor!

Judah is getting to become such a big boy, I cannot believe it.  We are really loving watching him grow up and just become more and more the person he was made to be, but I do wish that time would slow down.  The days go by so fast!

Annual trip to County Line Orchard with the Lows.  When we started this seven (we missed a year) years ago, there was four of us.  Wow, how we've grown!

Muno for Halloween.

Judah's first Halloween.

Playing at the Children's Museum.

In the corn pit at Konow's.

Mommy's little pumpkin!

Day 25: Clean out the kitchen and Day 26: Complete a project

The blog that I read that first inspired me to do this month has done some pretty radical cleaning out.  One thing that really got my attention was they cleaned out their entire kitchen.  They literally took everything out of their cabinets and laid it out so that they could see it all.  Then, they went through it and decided what they really needed and what they could get rid of.  Almost immediately, I knew this was something we needed to do.

We have a pretty decent sized kitchen, but I really don't like the way our cabinets space is set up.  We have a lot of drawers, which can make storing this difficult.  Also, I love to bake and host parties so we have a lot of kitchenware.  But there's also a lot of stuff that we don't use, and it was time for  us to go through it all and make that decision.  We didn't empty everything out like the blogger did (she mentioned how time consuming that was and we just didn't have the time for it), but we did go through each cabinet and got ride of several items.  The one that was hardest for me was a set of dishes.  They were cute dishes I got from IKEA years ago and like to use when I'm hosting my friends.  But the truth is I rarely use them.  Even when I'm hosting, I use my regular plates and nice serving dishes.  Plus, my taste has changed and I didn't like them as much anymore.  We also got ride of a lot of extra coffee mugs.  Brad and I don't drink coffee, although we love tea, but we had a LOT of coffee mugs.  In addition to the set of 12 that matches our everyday dishes we had probably 10 additional mugs.  Honestly, we rarely use any except for our Mickey and Minnie mugs that we got in Disney, but some of them have sentimental value, and it is nice to have some mugs for when you have guests that like coffee (or tea or hot chocolate).  We got ride of so much that we were able to condense all of our glassware onto two shelves instead of three.  Then, we moved our medicine containers (see earlier post) to the top shelf along with all of my cupcake decorating supplies (finally! a place for them!).  That left us a whole smaller empty shelf where the medicine used to be.  Of course, we have since filled it with straws and toothpicks, but I feel like my kitchen is so much less cluttered now, and I love it!  Now, my hope is that we don't try to fill it up again.

Day 26 was our last complete a project day.  Brad's project was to hang the shelf in Judah's room.  Back when it was still Micah's room, he was playing around while we were changing his diaper and he accidentally pulled it off the wall.  Ever since, it has been sitting on our dresser waiting to be re-hung.  Brad finally got around to it.  After over an hour of trying to find the right screws and dry wall anchors he finally got it on there securely.  I am so happy!  Now, his room looks a little more complete (although, if I was honest with myself I could give you a whole list of things I still want to do in both of the boys' rooms, but for now they're okay).

My project was to put together some busy bags for Micah.  Micah is a very busy little boy and he can be hard to wrangle sometimes, especially when we're in a waiting room of any kind.  I've seen so many pins about busy bags and how awesome they are I knew I wanted to make some.  I just haven't had the time.  So, I finally sat down, went through a LOT of blogs to find what I thought would work for Micah and set to work to make them.  I started with four bags, I'm hoping to add to the collection.  I made these shape builders out of pipe cleaners and straws, this pipe cleaner color match out of a puffs container (I still want to decorate the container, but it works for now), this pom pom stuffer our of poms poms and a take and toss container, and this shape/letter maker from popsicle sticks and velcro.  Micah actually has a bunch of different appointments coming up in the next few weeks so we'll get a chance to try them out.  I can't wait!

What about you?  Have you made any busy bags for your kids?  Share your favorite ideas!

Day 23: Participate in Not a Fan study and Day 24: Make a prayer picture book for Micah

For the past four weeks, our church has been participating in a church-wide study.  Through weekly small groups, Sunday sermons, daily devotional e-mails, and a weekly blog post we are reading the Not a Fan book.  When Brad and I first heard about this study we thought it was "nice," but we just didn't have time to participate.  Brad's work hours make it difficult for us to make any kind of regular commitment, plus we really hate being away from the boys on a regular basis.  So, I signed up for the weekly e-mails and called it good enough.  But a week before we started our month of re-focusing (which just happened to be the week that we really started talking about it) we watched a trailer for the study at church.  Both of us were gripped.  It seemed like this study correlated so perfectly with what we were trying to do in October.  We talked about it and decided that we could commit for six weeks.  It was obvious to me that this was something God wanted us to do as part of our month of activities.  So, even though we started the study at the beginning of the month, our task for Day 23 was to participate in Not a Fan at church.  I have to say, we loving the movie and small group discussion.  For me, personally, it has been like a punch in the gut sometimes.  God is using this study to speak to me in so many different ways.  Brad and I are both reading the book as well, but we're a bit behind.  I'm guessing that when we do truly sit down and read the book it will hit us in a new way and be the push we need to keep up all that we have learned through this challenge.

Day 24 my task was to make a prayer picture book for Micah.  A while ago I found this pin on pinterest and thought it would be great to make someday.  Micah has become more and more interested in praying for people so I thought now was the perfect time to make it.  So, I ordered some pictures of friends and family through Shutterfly and printed others off the internet of our church or organizations that we support.  I'm still working on getting them into an album, but it's definitely a work in progress, and one I'm sure we'll be using with Micah for a long time.

Day 21: Finish a project and Day 22: No TV for a week

Day 21 was another finish a project day.  I actually loved these days because stuff that needed to be done was finally getting done!  Brad's project was to organize the extra wires and cords.  You know, the camera cord, the iPod charger, the cord that you have no idea what it's for, but you're still saving it.  If you're like me you have all of these cords in one drawer and when you need one it's a big, tangled mess.  Well, I found this pin on pinterest and loved it.  So, Brad organized all of the cords for us.  Now, when we need a cord, it's nice and neat and easy to get!

My task was to organize the medicine cabinet.  Seriously, our medicine cabinet was getting out of control.  It was just a mess of pill bottles and in desperate need of some organization.  Once again, I turned to trusty pinterest and found this pin.  I bought two containers from Target and separated our medicine into two categories: preventative (vitamins mostly along with Tums and allergy medicine) and pain relief (tylenol, motrin, etc.).  The containers didn't fit into our cabinet so we did a little re-arranging when we cleaned out the kitchen (that's to come in a future post) and now they're in a different cabinet.  But it's working out great so far!

Day 22 our task was no TV for a week.  We've done this before because we felt like the TV was starting to affect Micah.  But this time it was really for everyone.  Admittedly, I got into a bad habit of letting Micah watch too much TV so that I could feed Judah or put him down for a nap.  Then, when the boys were in bed, Brad and I would veg out on the couch and watch TV for hours.  It was ridiculous.  We should have been using our time better.  Spending quality time with each other by playing games or just talking.  Many nights we go to bed and end up staying up at least another hour because we're just trying to touch base with each other.  Then, we complain about not getting to bed at a good time.  So, I tried to be really strict about keeping the TV off.  So, Brad put it downstairs in the basement for the week.  I have to be honest, we hardly missed it!  Micah did ask a couple times to "watch Boo" but then he looked at the empty space where the TV should be and went off to do something else.

We had a great week without the TV.  We went to the library and read lots of books.  We played with Micah's new train set (a LOT!).  We jumped in puddles outside and made some crafts.  Brad and I got a lot done, too.  It was a really nice week.  And I learned how to better occupy Micah while taking care of Judah.  Sometimes it was hard, but for the most part it was a pretty smooth week.  Now that the TV is back, we are really limiting Micah's TV time.  He gets to watch one show when he wakes up in the morning and one when he gets up from his nap.  It can take him a while to really wake up sometimes and he needs that slower transition.  But other than that we're encouraging a lot more play around here, and Mommy's planning a lot more crafts!  I love it because it's really quality time with my boys, which was a major goal of this month.

 

I Officially Have a 2 Year Old

How can my little boy be two-years-old already?  It was just yesterday that I was in the hospital being induced.  I wish that time would just slow down.  I am trying so hard to just soak up this time with him and cherish every minute.

Micah has brought so much joy to my life.  Not a day goes by that I don't bust out laughing at something he does or says.  Watching him experience new things is so much fun.  To see the world through his eyes is just so exciting!  The world is full of possibility.  It's no wonder that Jesus told us to have faith like a child, they just accept things and love you.  It's amazing to witness.  I pray all the time that I could be more like my son.

Micah challenges me, too.  I don't mean because he throws tantrums (which he does his fair share of), but because he challenges me to step out of my comfort zone.  He literally pulls me down to the ground to play trains with him.  He brings me a book and backs himself into my lap and tells me to read.  For the thousandth time.  He stands at the door with his shoes and asks to go for a "leetle walk."  And when we go for that "leetle walk" he stops to pick up sticks or rocks or he wants to walk through a puddle.  Or he gets mad because we're not heading in the direction of the library.  But when I stop what I want to do and spend time with him the way that he wants I experience so much more of the world.  I see things differently.  I take my time.  And it makes the day so much better.  I never regret the time that I spend with him.

I cannot believe how much Micah has grown this year.  His vocabulary (I think) is quite impressive.  He can tell you exactly what he wants.  He loves to play with his toys, too.  One of my favorite things to do is to sneak up on him playing in the toy room and just watch.  He's starting to make the toys interact and I love when Mater says to "Kacow" (Lightning McQueen) " 'Lo." and Kacow responds back, "Hi!"  But, most importantly, Micah is learning about God and how much he loves him.  When I put Micah to bed he always asks to pray for specific people (usually his cousins or uncles).  At breakfast, he reminds us to read his "Veggie book." And he loves sitting in worship with us at church.  It is my prayer that Micah will continue to grow in the knowledge and love of our savior.  We have so  much to look forward to together!

November--going for a ride in the laundry basket.

December--helping Mommy decorate cookies.

January--playing in the snow...the one day we had some.

February--enjoying a day at the Shedd Aquarium.

March--watching the parade with Oma and Boompa.

April--jumping in puddles with Daddy.

May--playing in the sprinkler with Daddy.

June--picking strawberries with Mommy and Oma.

July--4th of July shaving cream painting.

August--he couldn't decide between riding the bike and pushing the cart so he did both!

September--riding the train at the farm.

October--all dressed up for Trunk-or-Treating.