The 5 Minute Rule

I have never been a believer in sending a kid to bed hungry. It just seems mean to me. Having a border-line underweight child doesn't help, I need him to get every calorie he can.

Occasionally Oliver will say he is hungry when he is getting tucked in, or even in bed already. We have the whole "but you've already brushed your teeth" conversation. I offer him a drink of water. But sometimes he's persistent.

So I created a 5 minute rule. I tell him I will check on him in 5 minutes (and let's be honest, sometimes it turns into more like 10), and if he is still hungry then I will get him something to eat.

The reasons I think this works:

- Sometimes kids just want an excuse to stay awake later
- But sometimes the body confuses tire and hunger
- If he's really just tired, he'll be asleep in 5 (or 10) minutes

- If he's hungry enough that it's kept him awake, then I figure he deserves some food

Tonight Oliver ate a good amount of dinner. He also had a cheese stick during scripture reading. So when he said he was still hungry after being tucked in I wasn't in a rush to get him a snack. But lo and behold, when I went back 5 (OK 7) minutes later he was still awake and still hungry. So I got him a yogurt tube. He felt better. I felt good about it.

I like my 5 minute rule.

A Post of Gratitude

So many of my friends have been doing gratitude posts on their blogs or on Facebook all month now. I have read these posts, and thought about doing my own daily posts... but, as in past years, I just haven't.

But I do presently feel a need to do at least one post of thankfulness.

I have been thinking about this one a lot lately.

I am so, so grateful for my friends and family and the countless and endless things they do and are for me.

I am supported, encouraged, understood, fed, clothed, diapered (well, my baby is), trusted, tolerated, listened too, given too, smiled at, laughed with, invited, helped, etc.

I am blessed to be surrounded by so many amazing people.

I am grateful for you, and for all that you do for me.

I am no good at writing thank you notes, and I know a blog post isn't really an adequate substitute, but I hope that as you read this post you know that you are included and I truly am grateful.

Identifying Self: Clothing Style

I have struggled for a while with my appearance. The deepest part of this struggle is that I have not felt confident in my appearance/myself. It took a while for me to finally put the pieces together, but I figured out that I needed to embrace "my style". I have also figured out that just because I think something is cute, it may not be my style, and it may not work for me, I may not be comfortable in it.

New clothes add up quickly. This may have been one of my biggest obstacles in taking the leap. But through a gracious alignment of the stars, I was afforded a small REI shopping spree.

Yes. REI. For years I have walked through REI loving almost all of the clothes I would see, but feeling intimidated by them. Instead I just stuck with the familiar, the same old. It seemed easier not to change. But no matter what other clothes I got, I just kept looking at those REI clothes with a sense of longing. Not just longing for clothes I didn't think I could afford. I think the real longing was for the sense of "fitting in" in my own clothes. Longing for the expression of self that happens when a persons style matches their personality. Longing for the ability to actually embrace my inner me.

Some of my favorite new clothes include...
This Skirt:

This Shirt:

and These Pants:

So there you have it, "my style". And the best part of having these new clothes... looking in the mirror and feeling like I'm looking at me, and walking in a room and feeling like I'm actually representing me.

Mama's Girl

Oliver is in gymnastics at the U.

He loves it.

I love it.

Elsie endures it.

This is how she endured it last week:

Identifying Self: These ARE a Few of My Favorite Things

My favorite color is green. This one hasn't changed in a while and I don't see it changing any time soon. There are certainly times where certain shades of green just don't work. But generally, I like it! Almost any shade, almost all the time. I also really like brown. These two colors are the base of my color pallet.

My favorite drink is.... you know it, Diet Coke! My absolute favorite flavor, and seemingly the only thing that quenches my thirst ( I discovered this the other day after drinking cups of water and still having that dry mouth feeling, finally got my dc and I felt better instantly ).

My favorite flowers are lilacs.

I truly enjoy walking. Walking to clear my mind, walking for exercise, walking with friends, walking with family, walking to challenge myself. One marathon was enough, but I really enjoy half marathons and hope to do many more. Occasionally I hate walking, but the rest of the time I love it.

My favorite Slurpee flavor is banana.

I Love Rain! Light drizzles, wild thunderstorms, a little rain or a lot of rain. Rain is magic.

As the title of this post suggests, this list is just the beginning, a few things that I knows are my favorites. Self discovery to continue later, right now it's bed time. Oo, another one of my favorite things is my bed! It is the most comfortable bed on earth ( according to me )!

Identifying Self: Introduction

Over the past few months I have struggled with my identity. At times I have honestly asked the question "What do I like?" and not known the answer. I could come up with things I used to like, but really wasn't sure if I even liked them anymore.

I'm not exactly sure when my loss of identity began. Although it seems to have become more elusive as I have settled more into the role of wife and mother. I'm sure there are many mothers out there that can identify with this struggle to an extent. I began to feel that all of my likes had been altered to "like mores" of those things my husband and Oliver like. For example, I like Dinosaur Train more than Sid the Science Kid. And I like Smashing Pumpkins more than Deadmau5.

Not all of this is bad. Nathan has challenged me over the years, and has ultimately broadened the spectrum of things I like or can at least tolerate. I have also become a more independent thinking in the last few years, and have come to realize how I really feel and what I really believe about many important aspects of life. So, I have experienced new things, learned to like new things, and made some important decisions.

Maybe the question isn't so much about what I like, but more of what I love.

What do I love?

I love being a mother, and I love being a wife. Those 2 roles are my most important ones. They are a large part of who I am. They are not in any way in question.

What is in question are the things that make me individually me. Those are the things I am trying to identify. Those are the things I feel I need to get in touch with. Because I believe that if I can better identify myself I will feel more confident in being myself.

Thus begins my quest of "Identifying Self"

Elsie Linnea

I have completely jumped the blogging ship this year. And I have a pretty good excuse, but then again she's also a really good reason to blog! Hmmm...

So, finally a post about my baby girl.

Elsie joined our family on April 1st. Yes, April Fools Day, Heaven help me! My water broke at around 5 am, Nate rushed home from work, and we got to the hospital by 5:45(ish). Luckily Oliver was already sleeping at grandma's house, so we didn't have to worry about waking him up or calling anyone to come watch him. After we'd been admitted, checked, etc. they started pitocin because I wasn't really having contractions yet. My first epidural wasn't strong enough, so I had the anesthesiologist come back and boost it with the stronger drugs. I have so many friends that have gone natural, but that's just not my cup of tea, I didn't want to feel anything (I felt more than I wanted to with Oliver). And just that happened, I couldn't feel my contractions, I couldn't feel myself pushing, I couldn't feel a bit of my delivery. IT WAS SO EASY! So painless. Loved it!

My baby girl was born at 11:54 am. She was 8 lbs and 20 inches.

Now THIS

is what Christmas should, and for the most part did look like:

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning didn't quite start out as we'd expected. Oliver stayed in his bed the whole night, a bit of a miracle, and didn't wake up until after 8 (earlier than normal, but definitely not too early for Christmas). The thing that really threw us though was that when Oliver did finally get out of bed he was crying. He came straight to our room. But he was so sad. Why? He wanted us to already be out of bed when he got up. He was sad that we weren't awake yet.

Needless to say we got up and ready as quickly as possible. We took him to the bathroom to blow his nose and wipe his tears. And we tried to get him excited to go see what Santa brought. That didn't work out so well.

Santa delivered. He brought exactly what Oliver asked for:
Chuggington trains and the Toy Story train.


But it still took a few minutes for Oliver to actually get excited about it. It was really only 2 or 3 minutes from photo #1 to photo #4, but it felt so long.

#1 - so sad Oliver on the way to see what Santa brought
#2 - not quite sure if he's ready to be excited yet
#3 - dad got right in there and started playing with the trains
#4 - the huge smile and excitement we were waiting for!

Christmas Eve

To be completely honest, Christmas Eve was a little dissapointing for me this year. I won't go into all of the reasons why, it just wasn't quite what I'd hoped for.

We usually spend Christmas Eve at Pud & Ude's house (Nate's grandparents). But this year they had the family dinner a few days early so that more of Nathan's cousins could be there.

So we ended up making dinner for my family. Overall it was good, but could have been better. The roast got cold. Why does every recipe tell you to let a roast stand before you cut it if it's just going to end up cold? But we had a good night together. That's what matters most right?

When we went home - way too late - we each opened one present. Then read the story of Christ's birth for our nightly scripture reading.

Oliver was SOOO excited when he opened his Christmas Eve present... for a minute... then he said "but I wanted a dog pillow pet." That kid! Seriously! If he weren't so cute.

Here's Oliver with his monkey pillow pet:

Pre-Christmas Fun

December 1st: Decorating & Oliver playing Santa

December 11th: Making (and licking) an ice cream cone Christmas Tree at our ward party

December 16th: Visiting Santa

He was very excited to tell Santa what he wanted!

Some of our other fun pre-Christmas activities included:

- writing to Santa

- The Festival of Trees

- the Elf Hunt at Gardner Village

- going to see the lights at Temple Square

- Jell-o Fest

- Santa Lucia Day

- and lots of Christmas movies and Christmas books!

Resolutions

For the sake of accountability I am posting my New Years Resolutions again this year. This year I plan to check in every 3 months though to review progress and to be a little more accountable.

I should be able to accomplish all of these goals. I really don't think I'm setting my sights too high, but hopefully just high enough to keep me learning, growing, and productive in general.

So here they are... wish me luck!

Spiritual:
- Read the New Testament
- Read the lesson manuals before Church (this could be a good FHE activity, then we'd have a whole week to ponder the topic before the lesson)
- Go to the Temple more often (10+ times) - I mean seriously, there's no excuse, it's close and I have lots of babysitters around!

Personal:
- Read more books. At least read the book club book each month. Plus a few more here and there.
- Sew more!
-- Finish Oliver's quilt ASAP
-- Make some pillows/shams for Oliver's bed
-- Finish the rag quilt I started cutting a couple years ago
-- Make Halloween costumes again
-- Make Oliver's stocking - baby girl will need the baby stocking this year
-- Make lots of cute hair clips and bows for baby girl!
- Try a new recipe at least twice each month
- Practice the piano at least as much as I expect my students to

Family/Marriage/Relationships:
- Have Family Home Evening every week... or at least most weeks
- Have a "date night" with Nathan once a week (this may be put on temporary hold for a few weeks this spring, but will hopefully resume quickly)
- Read more books with Oliver and add a book to the bedtime routine
- More family activities (games, walks to the park, movies, outings)
- Focus more on serving others, especially my family
- Do visiting teaching every month
- Invite friends and family over more often

Daily Life/Housekeeping:
- Get Oliver on a slightly earlier sleeping schedule (bed before 10:00 consistently)
- Cook dinner more often
- Dishes done nightly
- Stop avoiding the laundry
- Organize Oliver/Nathan's closet to make room for baby girl's clothes... hmm, maybe I should consider sharing my own closet, not likely though
- Take more/better pictures and blog more often - in other words, be better at keeping a record of our lives

Physical:
- Gain another 10-12 or so pounds
- Then lose it... plus another 30, give or take
- Train for and complete a 10K while pregnant
- Train for and complete a 1/2 marathon post pregnancy

Traditions:
- Don't Forget Swedish Waffle Day! (It's March 25th - don't forget! - unless you're in labor, then who cares?)
- Perhaps a few changes to the Advent Calendar...? But really, at least have it planned ahead