Reflect and Release
2019 brought on a heart of change and reflection.
In the past few years we had left our church and reevaluated what to look for next time.
I had learned more about my health and focused on the strategies to understand it.
As a parent, 2019 brought up finding support and help.
Updates on Ellie include finishing Kindergarten and starting first grade. She learned how to read and learning more things every day! It's a fun age to entertain because she loves doing puzzles with me, playing games, and I can have her read to herself while she waits for me to tuck her in for bed. At the end of Kindergarten I went on the Zoo field trip with her class and she still mentions it from time to time how happy she was that I got to attend! The weekend right after school ended was her dance recital. She loves being on stage. Does that surprise anyone though?
Over the summer we spent a few days at the pool with friends and she was brave enough to go down the slides...which is huge for her since she just learned to swim without the life jacket. In October she turned seven and we celebrated with family and her BFF from school. We started a tradition of going to Center Grove Orchard around her birthday, but 2019 we decided to get season passes. It was fun to go multiple times and tell the kids we would be back again!
For Halloween she was Elsa and we were thrilled to see Frozen 2 over Thanksgiving break. Ellie enjoys singing and dancing. You can usually HEAR her singing and/or dancing during any time of the day. She also enjoys art type stuff and typical girly stuff. However you can also find her helping her Dad out with house projects and she knows most tools or pleading to help me in the kitchen. Keeping her busy is the best way to go!
Our rainbow baby Jayden is showing signs of no longer being our baby! In March he turned three years old! He switched from crib to making it toddler day bed. Then we got him his own full size bed. Works great for bedtime books and snuggles when he struggles with sleep. We also turn it into guest bed when needed.
He also attended Kindermusik which he loved (and we both miss since it ended in April!). This year it didn't work out to sign up again with our new schedule. I decided to keep Jayden home and not do three-year old preschool. I loved the idea of having one year where Ellie was in school and I just had him. We have both enjoyed that time running errands together and he loves the independent playtime. If you stop by my house you will find him building fun creations from magnatiles or mega blocks. He's also probably making sound effects for vehicles, explosions, or guns.
He stopped taking official naps but in the hard stage of could use a nap but hope he doesnt get one because that means a very late night for all of us. He has tantrums or angry fits (as I call them) when he's hungry or upset at us because he's tired. But don't mention "tired." He lives off granola bars, cereal, peanut butter crackers, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and veggies. This kid cracks me up! He will get so excited if I offer him veggies! He has sweet manners and loves to give multiple kisses at once. He tends to follow along with whatever Ellie has in mind for playing or acting out, however when needed he gets frustrated and demands space or says "no." He still wears diapers but just now here in January 2020 he has started to be more interested in trying. He prefers pull ups now because accidents made him upset.
Nothing much has changed for Jon. He still works at a company called Seymour AV where they make custom built theater screens. His title is product specialist which means emails, phone calls, and customer side of the business. He tries to keep everyone happy. This is a busy time of year for them, so I don't see much of him during the week. Jon enjoys having the kids join him in any project he's busy working on during the weekends. It's a nice break for me and I tend to run errands or stay inside to get time alone or do household stuff without the kids bothering me. Our current house projects are organizing our basement and making it more usable space and planning to get a new roof this year.
Updates for me have been all over the place this year. I still attend a dance class for adults once a week. Each month we do a different style: it can be anything from tap, ballet, hip hop, and jazz. My favorite so far has been jazz. I love getting back to choreographed dancing. It's a nice thing to get to do separate from my mom title and to be around other adults. My journey in 2019 was a long one of finding the sources of my health and seeing things that needed focused on. Which also gained insight to help finding sources for Ellie, updates on that later this year. I'm still doing the typical stay at home mom stuff. I'm the keeper of all the stuff, the organizer, the planner, the cook, the maid, the taxi, the mom doctor, and a wife. Some days you can find me hiding away to eat snacks and watch Netflix in peace (introvert here) and offering my kids snacks for dinner so they stop complaining and my kitchen stays cleaner. It's a win for everyone. Parenting has taught me to expect nothing and how to gain. My accomplishments sound like: I can do five loads of laundry in one day and clean the bathroom and no one notices...but if I skip a day it looks gross and the hampers are full. If I deep clean one area of my home another area suffers. Self care to me is more than just a relaxing bath, I literally have to refill my cup.
July we went on our first family vacation. It was fun to plan the whole thing. We have fun memories to look back on and we learned a lot about what works and what doesnt. We drove to Omaha and stayed a couple nights and came back. And by the way the saying is true, "It's not a vacation, it's a trip." We went to some museums, the zoo, and fun restaurants.
2019 brought on our first limo ride, our first family vacation, no longer needing a crib, going to the Iowa State Fair, our annual weekend at Adventureland, a delicious Thanksgiving, and busy Christmas!
So of course it would take a month into 2020 before I finished glancing back at 2019.
If you got through this thanks for reading....this is all mostly for me to keep track. Happy New Year!
Is winter over yet?
In the past few years we had left our church and reevaluated what to look for next time.
I had learned more about my health and focused on the strategies to understand it.
As a parent, 2019 brought up finding support and help.
Updates on Ellie include finishing Kindergarten and starting first grade. She learned how to read and learning more things every day! It's a fun age to entertain because she loves doing puzzles with me, playing games, and I can have her read to herself while she waits for me to tuck her in for bed. At the end of Kindergarten I went on the Zoo field trip with her class and she still mentions it from time to time how happy she was that I got to attend! The weekend right after school ended was her dance recital. She loves being on stage. Does that surprise anyone though?
Over the summer we spent a few days at the pool with friends and she was brave enough to go down the slides...which is huge for her since she just learned to swim without the life jacket. In October she turned seven and we celebrated with family and her BFF from school. We started a tradition of going to Center Grove Orchard around her birthday, but 2019 we decided to get season passes. It was fun to go multiple times and tell the kids we would be back again!
For Halloween she was Elsa and we were thrilled to see Frozen 2 over Thanksgiving break. Ellie enjoys singing and dancing. You can usually HEAR her singing and/or dancing during any time of the day. She also enjoys art type stuff and typical girly stuff. However you can also find her helping her Dad out with house projects and she knows most tools or pleading to help me in the kitchen. Keeping her busy is the best way to go!
Our rainbow baby Jayden is showing signs of no longer being our baby! In March he turned three years old! He switched from crib to making it toddler day bed. Then we got him his own full size bed. Works great for bedtime books and snuggles when he struggles with sleep. We also turn it into guest bed when needed.
He also attended Kindermusik which he loved (and we both miss since it ended in April!). This year it didn't work out to sign up again with our new schedule. I decided to keep Jayden home and not do three-year old preschool. I loved the idea of having one year where Ellie was in school and I just had him. We have both enjoyed that time running errands together and he loves the independent playtime. If you stop by my house you will find him building fun creations from magnatiles or mega blocks. He's also probably making sound effects for vehicles, explosions, or guns.
He stopped taking official naps but in the hard stage of could use a nap but hope he doesnt get one because that means a very late night for all of us. He has tantrums or angry fits (as I call them) when he's hungry or upset at us because he's tired. But don't mention "tired." He lives off granola bars, cereal, peanut butter crackers, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and veggies. This kid cracks me up! He will get so excited if I offer him veggies! He has sweet manners and loves to give multiple kisses at once. He tends to follow along with whatever Ellie has in mind for playing or acting out, however when needed he gets frustrated and demands space or says "no." He still wears diapers but just now here in January 2020 he has started to be more interested in trying. He prefers pull ups now because accidents made him upset.
Nothing much has changed for Jon. He still works at a company called Seymour AV where they make custom built theater screens. His title is product specialist which means emails, phone calls, and customer side of the business. He tries to keep everyone happy. This is a busy time of year for them, so I don't see much of him during the week. Jon enjoys having the kids join him in any project he's busy working on during the weekends. It's a nice break for me and I tend to run errands or stay inside to get time alone or do household stuff without the kids bothering me. Our current house projects are organizing our basement and making it more usable space and planning to get a new roof this year.
Updates for me have been all over the place this year. I still attend a dance class for adults once a week. Each month we do a different style: it can be anything from tap, ballet, hip hop, and jazz. My favorite so far has been jazz. I love getting back to choreographed dancing. It's a nice thing to get to do separate from my mom title and to be around other adults. My journey in 2019 was a long one of finding the sources of my health and seeing things that needed focused on. Which also gained insight to help finding sources for Ellie, updates on that later this year. I'm still doing the typical stay at home mom stuff. I'm the keeper of all the stuff, the organizer, the planner, the cook, the maid, the taxi, the mom doctor, and a wife. Some days you can find me hiding away to eat snacks and watch Netflix in peace (introvert here) and offering my kids snacks for dinner so they stop complaining and my kitchen stays cleaner. It's a win for everyone. Parenting has taught me to expect nothing and how to gain. My accomplishments sound like: I can do five loads of laundry in one day and clean the bathroom and no one notices...but if I skip a day it looks gross and the hampers are full. If I deep clean one area of my home another area suffers. Self care to me is more than just a relaxing bath, I literally have to refill my cup.
July we went on our first family vacation. It was fun to plan the whole thing. We have fun memories to look back on and we learned a lot about what works and what doesnt. We drove to Omaha and stayed a couple nights and came back. And by the way the saying is true, "It's not a vacation, it's a trip." We went to some museums, the zoo, and fun restaurants.
2019 brought on our first limo ride, our first family vacation, no longer needing a crib, going to the Iowa State Fair, our annual weekend at Adventureland, a delicious Thanksgiving, and busy Christmas!
So of course it would take a month into 2020 before I finished glancing back at 2019.
If you got through this thanks for reading....this is all mostly for me to keep track. Happy New Year!
Is winter over yet?
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