My Moving Belly

It was two years ago that I started doing a My Movie Monday segment on my blog. It only lasted a couple months - as a big-time-blogger-wannabe I was hoping it would catch on, but I didn't notice many link-ups. So I just sort of gave it up.

But as I was looking through some of those posts, and as I was thinking about some of the short little videos (movies if you will) that I had captured recently, I decided to go ahead and do one today.

<center><a target="_blank" href="http://www.chrissyrenee79.blogspot.com/"><img width="200" alt="My Movie Monday at Traveling Light" src="http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww58/mduncan2009/5531d3af.jpg" /></a></center>

So I realized the other day as I was trying to capture my belly moving via my Blackberry that I had never captured this with my other three. I'm not sure why. I don't think I had a phone even capable until I was pregnant with Gabriel, and even then, it wasn't very good quality at all (I remember posting this video of Gabriel walking for the first time, and it looked bad to me - the quality anyway). Now that I have a phone that does pretty good videos, it's been easier for me to try and record this moment!





At 12 seconds, you can see the biggest movement of the video. I honestly think she must be camera shy because my poor tummy has moved much more than this, but every time I try to record it, she stops!


Have you captured any cute moments on video lately? :)

You Sure Have Your Hands Full

I have no idea why this phrase does not offend or annoy me in the least:

You sure have your hands full!

Or in the case of the most recent time I heard it, I was at my OBGYN's office for my 34 week checkup, and a medical student saw me first. He was taking some basic information, I was trying to not act as annoyed as I felt. I know they have to learn, but after going through three other pregnancies with students (I even had an EMT student witness Caleb's birth) I think I'm just done being their example. Let first-time moms be their guinea pigs, ya know? :) Ahem. Anyway, he said something about my blood pressure, and he said maybe it was because I brought Gabriel with me to the visit.

I said, "Yeah, or that this is my forth baby coming."

He replied, "Boy, you're sure going to have your hands full!"

I smiled and continued, "Yes, I sure will."

And I didn't feel upset at all. I didn't have some prideful, uppity response ready for him like, "My heart is fuller!" or something like that (I read that somewhere once when someone was telling moms how to respond to that phrase).

Why are moms offended? I mean, usually I hear the phrase from older/wiser moms, women who have been there and know what it's like. We literally do have our hands full at times, depending on the day depends on what exactly our hands are full with! Sometimes it's a kid on the hip, but sometimes it's our hands full of diapers, wipes, sippy cups, Legos, Barbies, whatever.

And that's ok with me.

And if someone means it in a mean way, I'm oblivious.

So go ahead and say it to Chrissy. I totally won't get the jab. You'll have to jab at some other mom with her hands full. :)

One-Liner Wednesday

Life is like sending your husband grocery shopping, you never know what you're gonna get.


:)

Decluttering

A while back (like...in August...wow...farther back than I thought) I mentioned doing a Tackle it Tuesday segment on my blog. I had just found out I was pregnant four days prior, so I wonder if that was on my mind when I considered writing it/doing it. Our home had become just way too cluttered for my taste (and I would think for anyone's taste) and knowing that a new little one would arrive, it really got the wheels in my head turning.

It's funny how a house that was big at first becomes small after a while! When we bought this house, it seemed just perfect. It was back in 2005, when we were just a family of three, the proud parents of a one-year-old. Now, fast forward to 2012, and we are about to become a family of six. Having a three bedroom, 1600 square foot house just isn't the same when six people have to live in it, so big changes have to be made.

I just really wish I remembered to take before and after pictures. Bummer.

So far our accomplishments over the last couple months have been:

• "Boy room" closet completely cleaned out and organized. I went through tubs and organized them better, I am ready to donate clothes that my "last boy" has outgrown as soon as I know FOR SURE this baby is a girl (not that I don't trust modern technology, but ultrasounds have been wrong before). Once those tubs are out, that will give us even more room in the boy closet.
• "Girl room" closet also cleaned out and organized. The crib was in there, so that freed up a lot of space when we took it out, but there was also other things that cluttered up the space, and that was taken care of!
• Hall/coat closet is cleaned and organized. This doesn't affect the kids or the baby coming, but it was just annoying, so I'm glad it's done! We also kept games on the top rack, and we organized and put aside some games that we never played in our donate pile.
• Toy room converted to girl room. This was huge, it even included painting the room. We now have Sarah's bed set up in there (along with the crib), and when we get the last piece of future in there (a dresser doubled as a changing table) it will be complete. Well...sort of...it needs decorations on the walls! (This is the only room/space where before and after pictures exist. You can see more here. Wow. Almost embarrassing.)
  

A big thank you to my husband for helping me with this. A lot of it was done completely by him, and there is no way I could have done it on my own.

There are still a few projects left to be completely clutter free, and those are:

• Our bedroom closet. Holy cow. It's so bad. I need a better way to organize in there!
• Our bathroom closet. Just lots of things I need to throw out.
• Some of our kitchen cabinets. Most of them are functional, but some of them are catch all cabinets, and I can't stand it.
• Boy room needs to be painted. This is not an organization issue, just something I told Caleb we would do, and I want to do that for him!

I think we can accomplish the first three on the "to do" list next weekend. It might even be possible to accomplish all four! It would be great to be done before baby. It's really an exciting feeling to be so close to having our home just as I hoped it would be, it's that peaceful feeling I wrote about a few weeks ago. Most of our success of decluttering has been due to our ability to let things go. We have given away SO MUCH STUFF. Stuff. And I guess that's one good reason to live in a small house, I just have no room for stuff.


Are there any declutter projects on your to do list?

Perhaps I'm Overconfident

I'm 33 weeks pregnant now - technically this was taken last week at 32 weeks, but I don't think I've changed since then! :)
















This morning as my mom was on the road to see my sister - a three hour trip - we spent a lot of time talking on the phone. At some point she asked me if I had thought about what I'd like as far as help after the baby arrives.

Should she stay with me a few days?

Should my dad come over (since he's retired)?

Will Josh take off a few days?

What does my father-in-law's schedule look like (because he keeps the kids sometimes)?

And as I kept thinking about it, I just said, "You know, Caleb will be in school. Sarah and Gabriel play really well together. Gabriel is finally consistently going potty on his own and only has - usually - one poopy accident a day. I really think I'll be ok!"

I wonder if I'm overconfident about the future situation. Have I forgotten what a newborn is like? It felt like such a smooth transistion when I had Gabriel (my 3rd kiddo) that I'm just not really worried about being on my own. I wonder if I'll beg for help after my first week, or if I'm just used to this new baby thing now?

Mom said she still wanted to be there for me and would take off even if I didn't think I needed it...which is probably a good idea! I do know it's nice to have someone make food for the kids during the day or play with them if I'm tired. I know if I'm nursing and one of my kids needs me, I'll get used to that (because I did that with my others) but the first week or so it might be nice to have someone here to help in those situations.

But still...after typing all that...I feel like I'll be ok. As I've discussed with Bethany (mother of two kids, ages 2ish and 11 months), there's just something about getting the hang of having two kids, and after that, it seems like each one isn't as difficult.

I sure hope I'm right anyway.

Asking for Forgiveness

"Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent, and discerning if they hold their tongues." Proverbs 17:28


For some reason, I have a very vivid memory of my college softball experience that has nothing to do with softball. At some point during my freshman season, the coach could sense that the team was not unified off the field at all. If you've participated in athletics, you know that that can often reflect on the playing field as well. He gave us a lecture: part pep talk, part sermon (I guess) about how we needed to come clean with each other and unite. That must have struck a chord with many, because there were girls going to each other telling their true feelings and asking each other to forgive.










There we are, I'm in the second row, first person on the left.

Then there was me. I must have been oblivious or naive, because I didn't feel negatively towards anyone. But it didn't go both ways. One girl came up to me and started spilling her guts about all the horrible things she thought about me and how she really couldn't stand me.

Umm...ok.

Up to that point, I thought we were fine. I actually knew her and her family before I arrived at college, I thought we were pals actually. But she had kept a lot to herself, and up to that point, she had probably done what the Bible told her to do - and that was, to keep silent.

Right?

Or should we do what my coach was indicating we should do? I'm not sure if that's really what he meant. Maybe he meant the ones who were bickering openly should mend that hurt and yuckiness. Maybe he didn't know that others were harboring feelings like the girl who didn't like me. Did she do the right thing?

If I've had unkind thoughts towards someone, questioned their decisions or outright judged them, but I've kept all that to myself, should I go to them and ask them to forgive me for that? Or is it more wise to continue to keep it to myself?

I've actually thought of this through the years. I can't imagine going to someone who is oblivious to my judgmental thoughts and asking them to forgive me for them, when otherwise they think we are fine! I believe the Bible talks about asking for forgiveness from people who we have offended...but if I've kept silent, I haven't offended them yet.

Part of me feels like what the girl did on my softball team was just unload her own guilt. Maybe she should have asked God to forgive her for feeling that way or thinking those thoughts, but should she have asked me to forgive?

I don't know.

Have you ever experienced this? On either side?

Wordless Wednesday - Reading

Reading after school.


















Reading before bed.


















Makes me smile.

Misc. Monday - Limos, Hair Cuts, and Babies

1. On Saturday evening, we celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday. Josh's dad asked him to research limos because he wanted to surprised her with one. So Josh did some calling, and he planned for the limo to arrive at our house at 5:00. His parents arrived around 4:30 to meet us (because she knew we were going out for dinner), so keeping her contained for a half an hour was fun...ha! We blamed it on the Mizzou game. Couldn't leave while it was still on, right?!
















The look on her face when she looked outside and saw it was great! We all had a great time, but the kids probably had the most fun.


2. I finally asked a girl I go to church with to take pictures at the hospital when I have baby girl. I just decided that it would be easier to ask a non family member to do this for me since it seems like we're all wrapped up in the hype of the day when it's here! She does an amazing job, and I plan to have her take a nice family picture sometime soon after we're settled with our new blessing. Thanks, Bonnie, for saying you'd do this for me!


3. On Friday, I took the boys to get hair cuts.
















As you can see, I waited a bit too long for Gabriel.

This should be a pretty normal, mundane thing, nothing to blog about. But for some reason, Gabriel has decided to hate hair cuts (after being such a good boy the first years of his life). When we arrived, I asked the boys who wanted to go first, and of course Gabriel chimed in with his new phrase (that he says A LOT about EVERTHING lately), "I scared." So Caleb jumped up there and began his hair cut adventure, and I started wondering how on earth we were going to accomplish this feat with Gabriel.

"Look how brave Caleb is being!" I said to him. "And Kara is so nice. She does a great job!"

"I scared," he repeated to me.

So in that moment, as he cuddled up close to me, I just put my hand on his little head and started to pray. I didn't know what else to do. As simple as a hair cut seems, I recognize that sometimes things that seem simple to us as grown ups aren't simple to kids. I asked God to calm Gabriel, to allow Gabriel to trust me and trust Kara, and for him to have a peaceful spirit.

With God's help, and several dum-dums, the hair cut was a success.


















4. My best friend is in labor as I type. She's the one who has been pregnant with me all four times, and I really wish I could be in Indiana with her right now! I asked my doctor if that trip would be an ok idea, and she said she couldn't keep me at home...but wouldn't recommend it with me being 32 weeks. So I've been talking and texting her A LOT, and I expect her to text me back unless she's pushing...ha! I'm so excited for her, she's having her first girl.













Here we are with our first babies in 2004...we sure have learned lots since then, right, Kassie?!


5. I deactivated facebook for 36 hours. Is it sad that 36 hours is as long as I could last?

I Gave Up

On being a big-time blogger that is.

It didn't take long for me to realize when I started writing in 2009 how much I loved it. I loved the outlet. I loved talking about my opinions or my family. I blog hopped A LOT (that is, going from blog to blog, leaving comments or hoping they had BlogFrog so they knew I was there), and as I would read other blogs, specifically ones that had a big following and advertisements, it just seemed to me that I was every bit as able and witty and smart as those women who were making it big.

But while I was being big-headed about it, I failed to remember (and realize) a very basic business/marketing/economic concept: the market was over-saturated with blogs. By 2009, there were so many famous bloggers that there wasn't any room for new ones. I mean, unless a writer had a very distinct something that set them apart, we were all just in the same boat: mostly moms with cute kids and an occasional opinion piece. Oh...and mostly Christian.


















That did not set me apart, no matter how great I might be with words.

So by the end of 2010, after a really hard few months in my life, I just stepped back from blogging almost completely. When I look at the amount of entries I had in 2009, it reminds me how much I wanted to make it. I wrote almost every day! In 2010 I did the same until the last three months of the year, when my life was sort of a mess, and I barely had it in me to write. In 2011 I worked outside of the home for 9 months out of the year, so the time I would have spent writing was mostly gone (when I got home from work, that was the last thing on my mind).

Because of my blogging hiatus, I lost my BlogHer ads. I am completely ok with that, I didn't realize how much traffic it would take to make anything. Even when I was getting 150 - 200 hits a day, I only made about $30 over the course of six months or so (I'd say 3 of those months I was actively blogging, so I guess it's more like $30 in 3 months...but still). Making it big was harder than I thought...in many ways.

Now that I'm back to being home with my kiddos, I have committed to sticking with my blog, mostly for kid stuff. I did not set out to be a mommy blogger, but I now find myself primarily writing about being a mom...and that's ok! That's my life. My "new look" on my blog pretty much reflects that, and it also reflects that I am no longer trying to make it big. The big-time bloggers don't really go for the scrapbook look! :)

I am just along for the ride that is blogging. I love reading a few here and there, mostly my friends and a few friends I've made over the years through writing. I rarely read big-time bloggers anymore. I'm not sure why.

And even though I'm one of MANY bloggers, it's still good to have an outlet. And I appreciate the ones who stop by from time to time.

Sarah's Baby Sister

The other day Sarah was playing on her own, I'm not sure if I remember what exactly she was doing. I do remember I was in the kitchen, and from the other room I heard her say,

"Mommy...if my baby sister is brown, I will love her!"

The pure innocence of those words just warmed my heart. I understood what she meant. It was eye opening for me to hear it, realizing that at 5-years-old, she has no concept of how race works!
















She has friends of different races that she sees at church. Perhaps her comment came the day or two after playing at Graysen's house, Ashley's daughter, a family who has adopted two boys from Ethiopia. Maybe she started thinking about how kids all look different, even in the same family? I'm not sure!
















But it made me very happy. It made me glad that this is how my kids think. To not only see everyone as one big happy family, but to love them all the same.

If only everyone thought this way. If only all of us were as innocent as children and could see it the way Sarah does.