See, I had this whole big plan for my life for quite some time. I would get married at about 20, have my first baby by the time I was 22(ish), and be done having children by the time I was 30. I would be happily married to a "well-to-do" man, with a nice house, a nice car, and not a care or worry in the world financially. Hey, a girl can dream, right? Well, if you've been following my blog long enough, you know that this couldn't be farther from reality! Michael and I got married when I was 28, we had our first baby when I was 29, second at 30, and now #3 will be born at age 32. I'm still happily married, but in a modest home, with a decent car (hey, it has seating for 7!), and of course we have financial worries! Who doesn't? Michael isn't "well-to-do" per se (I mean come on...he was laid off for 9 months out of the year that we got married! lol), but he makes enough so that I can stay home with the kids, and we can still make it by OK. Do I miss work? Of course. Mainly for the adult interaction that I don't really get much of anymore. It just seems like it would be so much easier for someone with one baby (or no babies!) to come my way than for me to pack up my 8 month pregnant self and two toddlers to go somewhere else to visit, ya know? That's ok. I'm getting used to next to no one coming by, and I'm even trying to learn to enjoy the early wake ups because it's giving me more time with my two kids. The days that Justin decides to wake up at 5 am (like today), though, make it tough to really be 'happy' that he's awake, and will most likely wake his sister up with all his racket...haha!
Anyways. Back to the drive to my doctor appointment last week. I started thinking about all of this, and got pretty choked up. I have been so incredibly blessed in my life, and I'm working really hard to be thankful for what I have, and what we're doing for our family. I sat there thinking about it on my 15 minute drive, and kept going back and forth between being happy for the situation that I am in, and being crushed for friends and/or family that have struggled, and do struggle with their lives for whatever reason right now. It was really a very enlightening drive, and I'm making it a point to reflect on it whenever possible.
I've also made some changes around here. I want to have more structured days for the kids. After all, Julia will be going to pre-school next year (CRY!!!), and I want to make sure that she is ready. Justin also needs to work on some of his advancements for his age, so I made up a calendar that I'm going to do my darndest to stick to. Each day there is one developmental activity for each kid. Justin's activities are things like coloring, stacking, singing the ABC's, learning body parts...etc. Julia's are tracing letters/shapes, working on letter sounds and recognition, days of the week, and months. I've only got the calendar written up through the third week of this month, but I'm going to try to print a few more off so that they're done and available after the baby is born. If I can pull that off, Michael can help with the lessons when he gets home from work! Here is a picture of the "early stages" of the calendar. This is (obviously) just the first couple of weeks, and I have since added more.
I'm really hoping that this calendar will help *me* remain focused enough to work with the kids each day! It will be tough once the baby comes, but if I can get into the habit now, it should work out fine!
Anyways...time to go. Have a great day!
God bless,
