We finished off WEEK ONE of Kindergarten, and things are going pretty well. Lydia still claims she doesn't like school, but is willing to go each morning. Gideon, Lydia and I park near the school and we walk into the cafeteria together to drop her off each morning. I told her to let me know when she was ready for me to just drop her off in the front and she can walk in on her own. I really don't mind parking and walking with her. And Gideon is always up for a good stroller ride. I park and walk to the sidewalk to pick her up each afternoon. It's easier than waiting in the super long car line. And I get her faster - I get to pull her from the line as the kids walk out of the building.
The past few days Lydia has been obsessed with the song What Does the Fox Say. We have heard it over and over again in the car. And then when I'm home, I have it stuck in my head all day! We used to dance to the song on YouTube on the TV...when we could watch YouTube on the TV. Lydia loved it when we would get up and dance with her!
We have the microphone from Rock Band hooked up the the XBox360 so Lydia can sing along to the songs on the game. Unfortunately, she doesn't know any of those songs. So, now she just walks around the living room with the microphone, singing her made up songs. It's cute, and kind of annoying....she sings really, really loud.
Missed Friday's post...oh well. I spent most of the day at my parent's house swimming. Then Brian went to work a Casino Night (his co-teacher's side business), so I stayed and had dinner with my parents.
Saturday we headed out to Guadalupe State Park. We have been there at least once a year since before Lydia was born. The girls loved the water - it wasn't too cold and only had a slight current. It rained Saturday morning (it POURED), but then the weather was perfect the rest of the day. We brought our large canopy to sit under, tons of food and drinks, and stayed for 7 hours! It was super crowded, but the crowds left as it got later and later.
Sunday, our church had no running water (it's building a new sanctuary), so nursery classes were cancelled. Which meant I didn't have to work my last day in the nursery - sweet. My mom, Lydia, Gideon and I tried out the Baptist church around the corner (the same church I have my piano recitals in and know two families). Lydia did really well in her class and Gideon got to go to the nursery. It was a nice service - completely different than Oak Hills. Very welcoming and small.
Yesterday I cleaned out Lydia's drawers and organized her dresses. Then we picked out five outfits for the week (undies and undershorts included). We are practicing for when school starts. I don't want to fight the clothes battle every single morning. I also don't want to fight the hair battle. I forgot to have her pick out a hairstyle last night, so we had a mini fit this morning, but she got over it. I got up when Brian did (around 6:45). Gideon was up by 6:50 and Lydia was up by 7:00. We went on a walk with Leah, Adah and Jaron around 7:45 and then headed off to HEB by 9:30. We were back by 10:30, headed off to The Rim to pick up bows I ordered for Lydia (with her monogram) at 11:30 and then to Chick-fil-A for lunch with Leah. Busy morning.
Now I'm getting frustrated putting Gideon down for a nap. He's super tired, and will fall asleep right when I start nursing him. But as soon as I lay him down, he wakes up! Ahh! Lydia just headed over to my parent's house to swim, saying she's "giving me a break". I left Gideon in his crib to fall asleep on his own...we will see if it works. I will probably break down soon and bounce him in his bouncer.
Meal Planning Monday
1. Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps I promise I will actually make these this week! They are Brian's favorite, so I am going to make them tonight for his back-to-work dinner. They just are a lot of prep - you have to marinate the chicken...and I have to remember to do that!
2. Lasagna Another recipe I didn't make last week. I went to make it last night and I realized I had forgotten the ricotta cheese! Oops. Got the ricotta cheese today at HEB, so this will be an easy meal later this week.
3. Grilled Chicken
Brian has some chicken quarters he wants to grill at some point this week. Yummy!
Another new recipe we will try this week. I always love macaroni and cheese, but it's never Brian's favorite (he has to have meat). So maybe this will work. I will use Velveeta instead of the shredded cheese - I think it works better and tastes better.
Music Monday
A Thousand Years by Christina Perri (performed by The Piano Guys)
I had to put the Piano Guys video of this song, because I saw them in concert and they played this song. And I bought their piano book and I love to play this song (and am impressed with myself that I can actually play it - a little slower than they do, though).
This is another song that I listened to a lot during my struggle to get pregnant. It really spoke to me, especially after I found out I was finally pregnant. I was always, always hopeful that God would give me another baby. I didn't know why He was letting me struggle (and I still don't fully understand the reason). But, this song, and many others, helped me through my struggle.
"How to be brave? How can I love when I'm afraid to fall?
....One step closer"
I eventually stopped being hopeful. Why continue to have hope when my hopes were dashed every single month for 24 months? That's a long time to be hopeful. Plus, I was afraid to have fertility treatment. What if it didn't work? What if we spent all that money and did all those tests and tried everything we could...and it didn't work? But, if we didn't try, we would never know.
"I have died every day waiting for you Darling, don't be afraid I have loved you
For a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more."
When I found out I was finally, finally, pregnant...this is how I felt. Like I had waited a thousand years for that positive test. But, I had loved this baby even before I was pregnant. And I will love this baby forever.
"All along I believed I would find you Time has brought your heart to me"
Even when I was afraid to hope and started having doubts, I couldn't help but know that one day I would have another child. God granted my wish and I have my beautiful Baby Gideon.
It's been awhile. I stopped blogging for a number of reasons. But now I want to start again - mainly because I enjoyed looking back to see what life was like with Lydia. Now I have another little baby to blog about and keep up with. It's fun going back and think about how things used to be. All the things that I was worried about or excited about. And, I always liked blogging and reading other people's blogs. So here we go...again.
Meal Planning Monday
We started out the summer going to HEB on Tuesdays. Then it changed to Mondays. And then it changed to Sundays. And now we're back to Tuesdays. But, when the school year starts, I will most likely change it back to Mondays. So, Meal Planning Mondays will begin.
I did my meal plan yesterday, as I thought we'd have time to go to HEB today, despite piano lessons. But, Brian had an early morning training until 9:30 (and he got home at 10:15) and piano lessons started at 10:30. And it takes Brian a long (long, long) time to shop at HEB, so he wouldn't have had time to go in between lesson times. So, no HEB. It's a good thing we have three meals that roll-over to this week from last week. There were several times last week we either went out to eat (like on my birthday) or ate at my mom's house.
When I plan meals, I usually only plan five. I will plan more if there is a special occasion or someone is coming to visit. We almost always eat out on Thursday nights, as that is Grandkid Night at my parent's house. And more than likely we will eat out on Sundays and there will be left overs for another meal. It has worked well this way for a long, long time.
Here are the five meals for the week - in no particular order: (they will be linked to their recipes)
This will be paired with some fruit. We had this recipe two weeks ago and Brian loved it. It really is quite delicious. I didn't include the quinoa, as that's really expensive and not particularly my favorite thing. We've been trying "healthy" meals, and this was very good. Instead of using a tortilla to wrap it up, you use a lettuce leaf. This was not a favorite of Lydia - she didn't even want to try it. I didn't make her eat the chicken as the buffalo sauce was a little spicy.
This will be paired with brown rice, a salad and some fruit. We haven't tried this recipe yet, but it looks pretty tasty. I am always a fan of enchiladas. And hopefully Lydia will like them, too.
This will be paired with salad and a fruit. We actually had this recipe tonight. It was pretty good. Because it's "healthy" there really wasn't a sauce (and I am a big fan of sauces). It was really easy to put together and pretty tasty. Brian didn't pick up any turkey bacon, so there was no bacon in the casserole (which is fine by me). The avocado was kind of weird on top of the casserole, but other than that it was pretty good. I added cheese to mine, but Brian didn't like that (don't know why). Lydia loved the chicken in it, but not the pasta so much (she's not a huge fan of wheat pasta). I will definitely make this again, though.
4. Something to Grill
Brian doesn't know what he wants to grill yet, but he wants to grill. This may cause a problem when it's me who is going to HEB tomorrow....hmmm...will have to get him to go back to get something that he wants. He knows he wants to pair it with corn on the cob and beans.
Paired with brown rice and fruit. We had this recipe two weeks ago (one of my first "healthy" recipes). It was really good! Brian loved it. Lydia liked the chicken, of course. I ended up buying already made teriyaki sauce, as that was easier (and cheaper). Very yummy!
Now it's time for Music Monday!
I will post music videos of songs that (1) mean something to me, (2) I'm really into this week, (3) are funny or cute. I love musicand always try to listen to it whenever I can. I love listening to Pandora stations while cleaning the house or working on the computer. I love listening to AirOne (or is it Air1?) on the radio in the car (when I'm allowed to - most of the time we listen to the Frozen soundtrack or Lydia's made up songs). I'm always singing a song (my go-to song of choice is Do You Hear the People Sing? from Les Miz) to my kids or to myself. And I love that that has rubbed off on Lydia. She will make up songs and sing while swinging or sitting in the car. She will even perform them for us! Love it!
This weeks song is Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) by Hillsong United. Here is a brief story of why I came to love this song:
Brian and I tried for two years to get pregnant with our second child. After about 6 months of trying, I started getting upset every month when I learned I wasn't pregnant. We started using Ovulation Prediction Kits (OPKs), I started keeping track of all my "symptoms" on a get-pregnant-fast app on my phone. We went to see my doctor after a year of trying. He recommended Brian getting tested and then me. Brian's first semen analysis didn't look too good, so he had a second and it looked great. I had an HSG (where they look at my ovaries to make sure no tubes are blocked) and everything looked good. I had tons of blood work. It came back that my TSH level was too high (not good for getting pregnant) and indicated that I may eventually have Hypothyroidism. One of the main symptoms of Hypothyroidism is infertility. That, plus Brian's irregular semen quality and my irregular ovulation equals a very, very hard time at getting pregnant. So, we decided to start fertility treatment, and got into a medical study where we got a free IUI. And voila (praise God), we were pregnant! After two years of trying.
All this to say, music really helped me through my journey of infertility. The weeks and months were hard. I would be mad, then sad, then apathetic. This was one of the songs that helped me through. I started hearing it on the radio all the time. It made me cry. It made me hopeful. It made me trust God.
Here's an awesome story about why this song really touched my heart and life. I went to a preschool conference last year in Austin. The verse for that conference was Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Wow. That verse alone spoke to me. God had plans for me! Not plans to harm me (not give me a child), but plans to give me hope. I needed to hear that verse...and I heard it almost the moment I walked through the door. See, my period had come super early (like 15-20 days early)....and I had gotten it the morning I woke up to go to this conference. God knew I needed that verse that morning. He also knew I needed this song. And this was one of the first songs the awesome singers sang at opening worship. It took all that was in me to not cry in front of everyone. Wow! This song will always be special to me. When I listen to it now, I am filled with faith and hope and love. I know that God led me through a tough time and I made it through. I came out stronger (I hope) and braver and wiser and more faith-filled.
I have two miracle childrenand I will never, ever, ever, stop thanking God for them.
Some standout lyrics:
My soul will rest in Your embrace For I am Yours and You are mine
Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders Let me walk upon the waters Wherever You would call me Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander And my faith will be made stronger In the presence of my Savior
