It's Been A While...

On the 9th, it was four months since my last post to be exact. Wow. How does that even happen?!

If blogging didn't require me to actually TYPE OUT the post, then I would have had about a million posts between my last post and this one. I have had countless things come up where I would think "Wow! I want to do a post on that!", but never took the time to sit down and write it out. (Case in point, I started typing this post on the FIRST of this month!)

I am seriously amazed by all you Mom Bloggers. Am I missing the secret? How on God's green earth do you do it?! I get up at 5:15 each day and go non-stop until I get to bed somewhere around 11:00 and get up at least once a night with Ryder. I am a zombie as is...yet, I know I am not any busier than any other Mom out there. So if I am missing some essential Mommy secret, please share!

But anyway...Bug (aka Ryder...I started calling him Bug-A-Boo in the hospital and it has become my special name for him...poor kid!) is growing like crazy! He turned 8 months old on Valentine's Day, and I seriously don't know where the two months have gone! I was dreading the 6 month mark like none other because it meant he was more than half way to no longer being a baby. His 6th month came and went so fast, it felt like I had hardly blinked. Now he is well on his way to 9 months and 20 lbs!

And is getting cuter by the day if I do say so myself! :)

At the beginning of the month, he started doing the army crawl and just yesterday he decided to try it out on his hands and knees. He says Mama, Dada, Hi, Hi Da, Ba ba and something that sounds a LOT like Ryder. Just recently he has started squealing...oh boy.

While I know he is only 8 1/2 months old, I am trying to teach him things anyway. So we try to encourage him to say his words instead of squealing/screeching/imitating a baby pterodactyl. We are also trying to teach him what not to get into. I try to not use the word no. My awesome sister did something with my niece that worked very well and helped to avoid a prolonged "no is my only word" stage with Miss Add, and I LOVE it! When Ryder is doing something he isn't supposed to do, we say "ahah ahah ah!"  He stops, looks at us and SOMETIMES he will actually stop what he is doing. And when he does, he is rewarded with estactic THANK YOUs!  Now he doesn't always stop what he is doing and we have to stay on him to stop, but he is learning what that means, and I love that he is learning the meaning of no, but hasn't even uttered the first resemblance of no.

Now, please note, that I realize the inevitable "no" stage will come. I just hope that it will be a long way off and short lived.

Anyway, back to the fun stuff. :)

(Ryder is pictured here with his good buddy, Hunter, who you may remember from a previous post is only 8 days younger than him...oh the fun that is ahead! Can you tell that Hunter's mommy is an amazing photographer??? If you are in Southern Indiana and need a photographer, she is definitely who I recommend! She did our wedding and Ryder's newborn pics, and they are AWEsome!)

We have been having a lot of fun around here. Everyone told me it would get easier and better...and it is so true! While I will always cherish those first months when he was so tiny, I also enjoy the new stages immensely! He has such a personality. He loves to smile and giggle and the expressions he makes are priceless! 

He has also started being VERY clingy and a definitely a Mommy's boy. While that isn't very fun when someone else who loves him dearly wants to hold him, and he is having none of it...I love the times when all he wants is his Mommy...melts my heart.

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully I will be back before another four months passes! Oh my...in four more months, my baby will be one! Excuse me while I weep in the corner!

When Ryder Met Leena

Ryder has been around other babies since he was just days old. Him and his friend Hunter have been near each other many times.

Hunter is the son of my good friend, Josie, and only 8 days younger than Ryder. I am sure they will grow up being buddies. So far the play dates have been more for the Mommy's than the babies though.

Ryder has usually been asleep, or falling asleep or just waking up from sleeping (see a trend?) and they haven't had their first TRUE interaction. Well, Momma needs to set up that next playdate because...

Ryder MET Leena.

Leena is the daughter of my friend Jacqui. Miss Leena was born on March 21st of this year and is absolutely gorgeous. She is also a REALLY good crawler.

Sunday morning Ryder wanted to nurse as soon as we got to church. This is nothing new. It doesn't matter if we are at our church, which starts at 10:45 or at Mom and Dad's church, which starts at 9:30, as soon as we get to church the boy is hungry. (Hopefully that will be a spiritual hunger as he grows up.:) ) So off to the nursery we go. There is a sound system set up in the nursery so I can listen to the sermon, so I don't mind too much.

After Ryder is finished eating, I sit in the floor with him and we quietly explore his hands, his feet, his love of standing and "walking", etc. while I listen to the sermon. Miss Leena is being held and looks straight at Ryder and starts talking to him. He looks back at her and responds.

Hmmm. That's never happened before.

I can't help but wonder if they can somehow understand each others' baby babble. Especially when they do this back and forth a few times.

Then Leena is put on the floor to play. At one point, she makes a bee line for Ryder. She crawls straight up to him and wants to touch him. She reaches for his leg and then his face and is staring him straight in the eye, smiling her beautiful little smile.

They start to talk and coo to each other and she is smiling to beat the band. I make a comment to the girl who is holding Leena that I wish I could see Ryder's face and this is the picture she sends me.

I LOVE the smile on his face...it perfectly mirrors Leena's. They continue to look at each other, reach for each other and talk to each other for quite a while. I can't believe it. It was like they were tiny adults becoming friends (in a language no one else in the room could understand!). It was amazing to watch.

There may or may not be a love story in the future, but I am sure there will definitely be a wonderful friendship, and I am so excited to watch it develop :)

Psst...Josie, Hunter and Ryder need to have a play date soon! I can't wait to see them interact for the first time too!

Gramma & Momma's Chicken 'n Dumplins

Fall is here my friends…and that has me thinking of my favorite fall meals. One of my favorite things that Mom would make when I was growing up was her chicken and dumplins. Later on I found out that the recipe is actually REALLY simple and easy and it came from my Momma’s Momma. (The lady had 6 kids; she had to know how to be efficient!)

So here you have it…Gramma & Momma’s Chicken ‘n Dumplins. (You can thank me later.)

Boil some water and throw in a few bouillon cubes (or five if you really like bouillon flavor like I do).

Once you have a good boil rolling, throw in your chicken. You can cut it up before you throw it in if you have a good pair of kitchen shears, but mine were stolen…SO I cook mine first and then cut it up with a knife.

After it starts to float, you can use tongs to take out your chicken if it is not already cut…if you used your shears to cut the chicken prior to boiling, just enjoy the pretty picture of chicken all cut up and scroll on down. :)

Put your chicken back in your pot and open up your biscuits. Then start tearing them apart and tossing them in. If you like big dumplins (like I do), tear each regular size biscuit into 3-4 pieces. If you like small dumplins (like Michael does), tear them into 5-6 pieces. And in a house that is divided over the issue, you do a little of both!

I LOVE dumplins! So I generally use 3-4 tubes/cans of biscuits. You can judge what would work best for your family.

As you are tossing in your dumplins they will plump up and float to the top. Make sure you stir in the new dumplins as you toss them in so that they can get done.

And tada! Quick, easy, super yummy chicken and dumplins!

And Michael wanted you all to see his adaptation of this recipe...he likes to put his over mashed potatoes.

 Here's your bonus for the day! As I was talking to Momma about this post, she was telling me how Gramma used to make all kinds of fruit dumplins. THAT perked my ears up!

I haven't had a chance to make it yet, but it sounds so yummy I just have to share it! 

The example she gave me was with blackberries.

Boil your water.

Throw in your blackberries to boil and their juices will cook up in the water.

Throw in your torn up biscuits.

Stir and wait until your dumplins are done.

And you have blackberry dumplins!

No Guarantee

Tragedy has rocked the small community I am from again. Sometimes it seems like we have more than our fair share, but living in a small country town can sometimes give you a sense of false security that nothing bad can happen. And when that false security is exposed as the fraud that it is, then it makes it feel like we have more heartache than we should.

A man I went to school with was killed in an accident at his place of employment. He was only 33. I won’t pretend that I knew him well. I only knew him as the boyfriend of a friend of mine for a while and then as a young, smitten husband and a loving dad at a church I attended years ago. I can tell you this though; I have never heard anyone ever say a negative word of him. There are not many people you can say that of in a small community.

My heart aches for his family…I can’t stop thinking about or praying for his wife and children. I can’t even imagine. It becomes hard to breathe when thinking of their pain, and it is not even me…I just can’t imagine.

My heart also rejoices for him. While this is not the timing he had planned, he is in the arms of our Savior and again…I just can’t imagine.

So my reason for even sharing about this tragedy is as a reminder…

We have no guarantee of tomorrow or even later today. So make sure you tell those you love how special they are and how much you love them…hug them a little tighter…be thankful for each day and the blessings that God gives you in those days…and if you aren’t sure where you will spend eternity, find a minister, call K-Love (an awesome radio station with pastors waiting to talk to whoever calls in) or email me.

As for me, I am going to hold Ryder a little longer and cuddle up to Michael and little closer and praise God for blessing me with them in my life.

Note: This post was supposed to go up yesterday, but Ryder needed some extra snuggles last night, and I needed some extra time in Michael’s arms. Turning on the computer to hit publish just didn’t seem as important.

Trust, Patience and Not My Timing

So God likes to teach us things...sometimes we learn the first time around, sometimes it takes getting beat over the head with it to get it through our thick skulls. Unfortunately, I am usually in the latter group. (The majority of my early to mid twenties are proof of that.)

One of the lessons I have had to learn and am still working on learning is timing. Specifically, God's timing. 

I heard a DJ on K-Love say something that has brought this lesson back to the front of my mind. He made a comment about how things are never "in the nick of time" or "last minute" but that it is in God's time...and God's timing is always perfect. 

Hmmm...it was one of those moments where I knew that God was giving me a message. He was reminding me that his time is perfect even when I don't like it. 

You see...from my most recent post, you all know that Michael and I both owned our own homes prior to knowing each other and decided to live in Michael's home, remodel my house and sell it. As everyone knows, the housing market is not a seller's market. 

We tried selling it on our own and showed it to many people who loved it only to find out that they couldn't get financing. So we made the decision in January to list it with a realtor so that we could be on the MLS listing and get our house on the market to a larger audience. About 4 months into our 6 month contract we find out that the lady we were listed with wasn't on the MLS and neither was our house. Ryder was about to be born and our contract was almost up, so we just let it go and listed with someone else as soon as the contract was up.   

This brings us up to when I was on maternity leave. That is a maternity leave without pay. Twelve weeks without pay. Just because the pay stopped doesn't mean the bills did. It was tough saving up for this, but God provided.

Then the house was shown, a formal offer was made and we accepted with a few minor clarifications. We thought our prayers have been answered the way we wanted them to be! Then we find out that the buyers could not get financing.

The house has been shown a couple more times to no avail. And now it has been robbed by use of the very key that is supposed to help us sell the house.

This is hard for me to understand honestly. From a purely worldly view, I want to throw up my hands and scream at the universe asking why things can't just go right for us with this house?! Why is it that there has been a lot of interest, but no one can actually get financing?!? Why would someone rob us?!? It is an emotional roller coaster.

Then I remember that I have a savior that saved my SOUL from eternal damnation. If He has THAT covered, then I think He knows what He is doing with the sale of my home. If it was God's will for my house to be sold right now, it would be.

Period.

God has a reason for my house not being sold yet. I just don't know what that reason is. And I don't have to know. I just have to trust in the truth that God knows what He is doing and that according Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (Emphasis mine.)

I mentioned my early twenties...let's just say that I didn't want to wait on God's time. I wanted to find someone and get married and have my family on MY time. This resulted in a string of bad relationships and ultimately in a bad marriage that ended in divorce.

When I finally gave up and decided it was in God's hands and not my own, God gave me Michael. You would think that THAT would teach me to trust God's timing.

And it has.

That lesson is just being tested again. I know that God is in control and that He has a plan for my life that is bigger than my own. Not only is it bigger, but it is better than anything I could ever dream up. So, even if it isn't patiently, I will wait. I will wait with the assurance that God knows what He is doing and what is best for me and my family. I will trust His timing and His love.

I'll leave you with this...I found this verse FOUR times in Psalms. I think it is worth memorizing and sharing...

Psalm 107:1 "Give thanks to the lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

Psalm 118:1 "Give thanks to the lord, for he is good; his love endures forever."

Psalm 118:29 "Give thanks to the lord, for he is good; his love endures forever."

Psalm 136:1 "Give thanks to the lord, for he is good. His love endures forever."

I WILL give thanks to the lord, for He is good. And I know that His love endures forever.

Violated

Michael and I both owned homes when we met. We obviously do not need two homes, so we completely remolded my house and put it up for sale.

We still go down there...this country girl likes to take advantage of her country home for as long as she can...plus, the yard is HUGE

So we are down there even more in the summer. That pretty short grass doesn't stay that way long. (I swear mine was the only yard that needed mowed constantly during the drought this summer!)

We did a lot of work to my house...pouring ourselves, our time and our money into it. I am quite proud of the end product...and one of my favorite rooms is the living room. Wouldn't you want to live here if you were shown this house?

We were down at the house last week as usual and everything looked just as you see in the above picture. Then we come down again on later in the week. This is what my pretty living room looked like.

I couldn't believe it.

I was furious.

But it was about more than just the furniture and other things they took.

Someone had come into my home...MY HOME. The place that is supposed to be my safe place...the place that is so very personal. Not only were they there without my knowledge or permission, but I can imagine them standing there deciding what to take...they had to have put some thought into it because it was the most random items that they took and they left other things...they even dumped my hamper and took it.

Almost like they were "shopping" for exactly what they needed.

It just makes you feel completely violated and vulnerable.

I am just so very grateful that we were not there with Ryder when they tried to break in. I am also grateful that they did not actually break anything to get in...it appears that they used the lock box that the realtor had on the door (which no longer has a key in it btw). The doors and windows were locked and nothing was broken.

So I will yet again think of the sign in the kitchen...Remember the day's blessings...forget the day's troubles.

I think he brightens up the room again...don't you?

Life Keeps Rolling On

We've had a lot of things going on around here. On August 13th, little Ryder decided to roll over for the first time (while Memaw was watching and Mommy had JUST left to grab something out of the other room). Even though Mommy missed the first time, I have seen countless rolls since and love every one of them.

Yes, that IS Gilmore Girls in the background...we love our Gilmore Girls around here. And please don't mind all the junk in the background...we have been living on the floor playing and such. :)

Then on August 30th Ryder found his tongue and started sticking it out at me. I have yet to catch a picture of it, but it is adorable!

We have also started sitting up in our Bumbo. Ryder likes to be upright most of his waking moments now, so we love our Bumbo...especially at story time. He loves to sit in it and watch me and his book while I read it to him.

We also helped Memaw and Papaw celebrate their 37th Wedding Anniversary last weekend. 

Then there was the great weekened we had with Aunt Cris, Uncle Mikey and Cousin Addie. Ryder and Daddy had their first trip to Uncle Mikey's hometown for Old Fashion Days...and I enjoyed spending time with my little man and his "medium" cousin. You see, little Miss Add has been a "little" cousin all her life. With Ryder's arrival, she became a big cousin. Until this weekend when she informed me that she was not a big cousin. She was a medium cousin. I asked her why she said that and she said that her cousin Taylor (who we ran into right before this conversation was had) was a big cousin, she was a medium cousin and Ryder was a little cousin. "Pick your battles" is a good thing to remember when dealing with our little debater...she is good...so medium cousin it is!

And on September 5th (Memaw & Papaw's actual anniversary) Ryder REALLY giggled for the first time! I now have a new favorite sound...sigh.

I had mentioned our new bedtime routine and Ryder starting to sleep in his crib. Well, baby boy has REALLY surprised us the last two nights. He has been in bed by 10:00 and slept through until 7:00!!! After he has been fed at 7:00, he has went back to bed and slept until about 9:45! How awesome is that?!

The first night I woke up at 6:30, looked at the monitor and he was so still, so I went flying into his room to make sure he was breathing. He was, which meant I could start breathing again.

The only problem with this? I go back to work Monday and we need to leave the house before 7:00. So, we have decided to try and roll his bedtime up an hour so that he will be able to get the same amount of sleep, but will be up around 6:00 for his feeding. Fingers crossed! (Love that wild hair in the morning!)

Speaking of...I go back to work Monday. I'm not looking forward to it. I know some Mom's do, but I'm not one of them. We have found a wonderful lady to watch Ryder, and I am perfectly confident that he will be well taken care of. I am going to miss him incredibly though. Thankfully, he will only be about 7 minutes away from where I work, so I will be able to go see him on my lunch on some days...and most likely everyday that first week! She has told me that I can come over as much as I need to. Can't beat that!

So for the next two days, I am cherishing every waking moment with Ryder. Every smile, giggle, roll, kick, cuddle, feeding time...all of it is being stored up in my heart.

I know that people make fun of people who say this...but it is true, so I will say it. I am so incredibly blessed. God has trusted me with a wonderful husband and son...and I am more grateful than words can say.