Updates

Wow, it has been a long time since I have wrote a blog! A lot has changed since December... Aaron graduated(finally), He got a job, made a temporary move to Dallas, Aaron went to Italy for two months, in the meanwhile, I bought a house( well, Aaron did, I just signed all the paper work), moved into our new house, with the help of family, Aaron finally came home, now we are just now really getting settled. Aaron is gone a lot on business. A week away, home for the weekend. It is hard with him gone so much, but I am not lacking with things to do. I have a home to keep and children and animals to tend... I really am still trying to figure out how I am finding time to write this blog...


Well, Skylar just had her third birthday and she grew up over night. She is mostly potty trained during the day, only having accidents when she is very involved in play. She has even gone a few nights in panties without a waterproof cover on... I am very happy that she has finally "Got it". Pooping in the potty is now done with little fuss as long as she is not in a diaper and she can be alone in the bathroom, Which has helped me have alone time in the bathroom as well, strangely enough. If Skylar does not want to be bothered in the bathroom she understand that mommy does not want to be bothered in the bathroom either. So now I get to use the restroom in peace, for now anyways. We still have not quite mastered toilet training when away from home yet, but we have made a first step. She will ask if there is a bathroom where we are at... so I guess she is understanding the concept. I have ventured out with her in panties with a waterproof cover on, sometimes we make it home with no accidents, other times not. I just keep a backpack with me that has a new dress in it with new panties and shoes( if needed). I am very happy to have my diaper load down, but laundry size is about the same because of accidents.



Speaking of diapers. We still fully cloth diaper our son. I bought some Snappis so now daddy does not mind as much to cloth diaper. We are even able to just use one prefold and cover at night now. You know before we were having a problem with night time leaking. Well, for a while we just used sposies at night and clothed during the day... well we ran out of sposies one night and was forced to use the cloth... lo and behold no leaks... so we did it another night... Success... after the third night we knew we did not have to use sposies anymore and I was thrilled. I have a washer and dryer of my own now so laundering the diapers is a piece of cake, for the most part. I still have to rinse off the poop on a couple a day... and I still dont have my diaper sprayer yet( I will soon though). So dunking it is until then. I have developed a system that is working for now... I just have to make sure I only have one or two to rinse at a time... four or more and my "system" would fail, lol my bucket is not that big...But it works for now anyways. I launder a load of cloth diapers at night before I go to bed with the clothes the children wore that day. Put them in the dryer first thing in the morning. In all we go through two pairs of panties, six cloth diapers, and 2-4 covers a day, plus their play clothes, and every other day, their pjs. I actually love doing laundry... I just seem to always get interrupted when it is time to put them away... I started folding them on my bed because if I did it in the living room I wouldn't want to put them away because I would have to travel so far to put them away... now I just have a few feet.. I guess I am a little bit lazy there... but less travel time, more laundry gets folded and put away. And I am sure to do it since it is on my bed... cant go to bed with laundry all over it... too far to walk to take it to the living room.


Well, I told you about Skylar and how she is doing I guess I need to tell you about Hayden and how he is doing. Hayden will be a year old in less than two weeks... hard to believe. Feels like yesterday he was born. At nearly a year he weighs or out weighs his big sister... he was this chunky thing, but slimmed down when he started to crawl. He has four teeth now. Still not walking, but he can stand on his own and has taken a step or two. He is still working on his confidence. He is my cry baby... that's as gentle as I could say that, lol... He still nurses( mostly at night, but not limited to), does not sleep through the night regularly. I can count on one hand how many nights he has sleep more than six hours straight. Though the past couple weeks have produced a more sound sleeper, going as much as nine or more hours before he wakes up to nurse. It amazes me how much this kid sleeps... bed time is at nine, his normal wake up time is 7:30-8am... breakfast and some time outside( about an hour and a half total) he is ready for a nap... Wake up from nap about an hour later, eat lunch have some inside play, and its nap time again, this time both of them go down for at least an hour and a half. They then wake up, have snack, another hour of play, and he is ready for another nap. In total this boy sleeps about 12 hours in a 24 hour period... And usually if he is not sleeping he is eating... Eating while playing... and if he is not doing any of those... he is crying... I have yet to this day have figured out why he cries so much... If I walk away he cries. If the cats walks by he cries. If Sister bumps him gently he cries... Then I pick him up in comfort and he just giggles at me... Attached to my hip, that's what it is... Nevertheless I will be so glad when he out grows this...I am starting to look more like an 'S' than a human because of how much I hold the child. But I love my babies.

but with all that sleeping it does give me and Skylar time to explore this thing called 'home school'. We have started 'home school preschool', which she loves and asks me all the time if we can "do school". Thing is I am finding it hard to keep her attention, not because she is too young for school as some would say, but because she knows all the preschool material for the most part... Colors, numbers, letters, she already knows. I am having to get into math and science and reading readiness just to keep her interested. I mean the child is smart... too smart... But I do not want public school to dumb her up... Not challenging her enough, so she gets bored, then her grades suffer... Homeschooling will always keep her challenged and there will be nothing lost during the summer months when most children are on summer break. In home school it is year round school. Tyler has a great homeschooling network that I am very excited to join when the time is right. Right now we are just try to get a feel for it while it doesn't actually count toward a diploma. I guess you can say we are playing school. That way when it is time to get busy with it we will not be overwhelmed with something new in our daily schedule. Another thing that is very appealing to home school is being able to teach the Word of God with it. There are curriculum's made to focus on teaching the Bible. Our faith is very important to us. Our lives revolve around exalting The Father and proclaiming Jesus as our saviour. And teaching our children in those ways is following the Word.


Which brings me to my previous blogs on my growing conviction on dress. After many months of conviction and prayer I have made the decision to wear modest clothing for now on( skirts, dresses at the knee or longer. No tank tops or low necklines). Dressing modestly does not have to be frumpy. Old Navy has some super cute skirts and dresses. As well as tops and cardigans. I simply love Old Navy... Skylar loves to wear dresses and skirts. They make her feel pretty, like a princess, like a girl... Which is one of many reasons, I believe, God wants us(women) to dress femininely. Many would argue that, but I am not making them wear dresses so why should it matter to them...



Well, I cannot ignore this hunger I feel, I think that has caught you up.

Perhaps I will be back soon with pictures and a silly quote from Skylar. Well, I will give you one so you can leave with a laugh... Skylar sings, " I love Sprite, It goes in my tummy"... I am trying so hard to catch that on video.. Good Night.

Another day

Well, hi all.
You know how hard it is to find a formal, below the knee, modest dress for a wedding? I refuse to wear what is 'in style' these days... Everything is like all out there. I have just a few days before a wedding and I have still yet to fins anything to wear. I am going to check Ross tomorrow. If I can find a dress there long enough I can always buy a wrap or something of the sort to cover my shoulders...But man what a hassle.
On a more cheery note. Hayden is fully sitting on his own now. No help needed from anyone or anything. Now once he gets better control we can move to the big bath tub and the kids can bath together... Man that would shave like 30 mins off any given day...30 mins I can catch up on some reading, work on my cross stitch...30 mins is an eternity when you are a mom... 30 more mins mean I could spend 30 more mins doing house work...
Speaking of house work, I got all Hayden's new diapers in today...Which means more laundry, BUT I like it. These diapers are so much better than the walmart ones we had been using...I am also learning how to sew my own diapers and diaper covers. It is fun making something that gets used regularly.
Well on the laundry note brings me to dress... I am still trying to figure out the answer to my conviction about proper dress for Skylar and I. Perhaps something will happen or someone will say or do something to answer my prayer and questions.
Well It is now time for me to go and wash diapers for tomorrow. YAY!

Updates

I have a lot going on right now and I am not sure where to start. I guess I will start with the newest. Hayden was dedicated to God yesterday. He is a blessing from God and we wanted to give him back and to promise God that we will raise him up to follow the Lord in all he does. We love our children and want to raise them in a truly Godly way. We are selective about what they watch on TV, what the hear on the radio and what hear from other people. We read the Bible to them every night, we sing songs of praise everyday, we pray at meals, bed time, first thing in the morning, anytime...We give thanks to all creation. We want all our family and friends to find their path with the Lord and walk with Him because when they walk with the Lord they are setting the example for our children that we want, that God wants...

And speaking of what God wants...Over the past several months I have been experiencing a growing conviction. When I go to get dressed in the morning I find myself folding the blue jeans back up and getting out a skirt or dress...I have been praying about this since I first felt the conviction. I am still unsure what to do. There are several places in the Bible that speaks about proper dress. I know that some of these are time period specific and do not apply to today's age. Even so my conviction continues to grow. I felt so bad when I cut my hair before Hayden was born. I miss my long hair. It made me feel pretty and covered. Same about wearing skirts and dresses. When I wear a dress I feel like a woman...like the way a female should feel. It is strange and I will continue to pray about it until I have the answer I need.

On another note about dress...Hayden is wearing cloth diapers now. We have done it for one week now and so far it is going ok. We do just fine during the day, but at night is a different story. He is a heavy wetter and soaks through his diaper. I have made him fleece covers that do good until about the last wet of the night...I already use two prefolds and a cover, and last night I added another fleece panel to wick and hold some more of the wetness. After I get my order in of prefolds and covers I am going to turn these walmart prefolds into fitted diapers and see how I like those. I may play around with AIO, AI2 and pockets to see what will be good for night time. I like cloth diapering and I can only hope that my family will support my decission. I have already gotten oposition and I hope it stops. Cloth diapers these days are just as easy as disposible diapers, but you just dont throw it away. If I had to call the oposition something I would call it laziness. I know some will call me crazy, but in fact am doing many good things. First I am protecting my baby from harmful chemicals they ot in disposible diapers. Second I am helping our finances. Cloth diapers are far cheaper than disposible and I hand wash so I am saving even more. Third and most improtant, I am helping to protect the creation of the Earth by not littering it with disposible diaper, that can take 500 years to decompose...wrap it in a plactic bag... It could take forever...God created this world and I want to do my part in keeping it green and healthy.

Well that is it for now. I need to go start cleaning my house and start getting ready for this weekend trip to Dallas.

God Blesses everyone's day
Tamra

Introductions

Howdy. Let me introduce my self. My name is Tamra. I am a stay at home mom of three, Skylar-nearly 5, Hayden nearly 3, and Bailee 13 months. I am married to Aaron. We have been married for six years now, together for 10. I am a Christian, breastfeeding, baby wearing, home birthing mommy. I am making this blog to share my feelings and struggles, joys, and triumphs on being a christian wife and mother.