So Proud of Her

Is it a girl thing? Amberly knows how to push my buttons. We bang heads all the time. She's stubborn. She's independent. She's so darn cute. But man, she causes me the most grief and I think she loves it. This whole potty thing has been the worst thing about the whole parent world. For me anyway. Caleb was a gem, he was born to be our perfect child. Is it a girl thing? A middle child thing? I don't know. But my challenge will be raise my beautiful girl to be so loving and accepting with a joyful heart and spirit. May I honour God in how I raise her because He is the one who has given her to me as a most precious gift!
It's been 2 weeks now and Amberly is officially a toilet sitter/flusher. There is the occasional accident (like this morning when playing with her friend, she forgot and just peed!) but she's fully aware of the things that need to leave her body and when usually! At Christa's she's been working on a poop potty chart, and yesterday she reached the 10 sticker goal and was taken to the store where she could pick her prize. She was so thrilled with her reward. (We have 4 of these princesses now)


Also, I have a talented artist on my hands. Amberly did this all by herself. I'm lost for words really. The only thing Christa did was the pink circle and the purple star, and my daughter turned them into flowers, added the sky and the grass and stems. I'm just so amazed! THAT'S MY GIRL!!!

Validation

Who else watched the last show of Oprah? I admit I was a little bored at the beginning but then she started talking about validation and how it's the common thread amoung everyone. Everyone wants validation. As she was speaking about this, I began to feel how I am robbing my children of that in little bits of our days spent together. Her words "I hear you, I see you, I care about what you're saying" rang out to me. Oh how often do I ignore the "Mommy can you...." or the little stories that come from their mouths because I have something on the go or that is taking up my time at the moment? I then get frustrated and angry when they do something wrong. When all along, it was because I didn't take the time to "validate" them.

I feel this way too around people. I want to be heard and seen and yet many times I feel like I've been a wall hugger and slipped out of every one's radar. Many times I get asked a question but the asker doesn't really care for my answer, perhaps out of politeness they asked in the first place, but never really hoped for a reply. As a mom I struggle day to day to find my worth. But I'm learning that I'm worth everything to my heavenly father. I count, I matter and most graciously and amazingly I'm loved beyond my comprehension. It's now my daily prayer to ask for the grace and patience my children deserve, and now I will add on top of that, for the validation my children need.

Wow - My New Favourite!!

I LOVE this band!!! Wish I could see them, but unfortunately they are opening for Taylor Swift (ECK!) and it's sold out!

The Farm

After spending a day at Shannon's parents farm, I quickly realized that Shannon (Dave's cousin and my good friend) and I had a very similar childhood, and was also reminded how dear I hold on to my memories of the farm. (Looking back at the days with open fields and 4-wheelers to drive in them!)


Our children had a blast, with freedom to run, with many things for them to do, not once did I hear "Mommy can you...."
There was a huge swing set up in the barn, we went on a long wagon ride through a marshy bush, 4-wheeler rides, ice cream and lounging around in the beautiful sunshine.

On the wagon ride we drove through so much water and marshy land.
Once the trail stopped at some dry area, we got out and explored a little in the bush. Shannon said as children they called it something which I can't remember now, but it reminded me of the springs and waterholes that were on our farm that my brother and I used to call our secret garden.
The boys were having fun throwing things into the water.
This weekend had a mixed bag when it came to weather, but all in all, it was beautiful. I did get lots of things accomplished, and survived the 3 days without my husband. Seems like things are in full swing now that this holiday weekend has gone. Our summer on the calendar is getting full of things happening, and I'm looking forward to them all.

Half Way There

Our team, "The Fat Bottom Girls" are leading the way in this contest, I'm so thrilled about that. We're a good 1% ahead of everyone else and have lost more than 10lbs over the other teams. With 2 & 1/2 weeks to go, I hope we can keep this lead and be the winners! I think we can do it and seeing the mid point results gives us more motivation to finish off strong.

I Think We Did It!

It's been two weeks now. I decided that Amberly was just being lazy and stubborn when it came to potty training. So instead of giving her what she wanted (each morning she asked if she could wear a diaper)I put her straight into underwear. At first it was a disaster. She would constantly pee or poop and have no worries or regrets or even 2nd thoughts. I was drowning in frustration and anger. I only allowed her 2 outfits a day, so she spent half her days naked. Which she at first thought was great, but then it started to get to her that Caleb could go outside anytime, but she couldn't. The start of this week I took away an outfit only allowing one outfit a day and finally on Tuesday she was perfect all day until late afternoon in the backyard she peed. I brought her in and took her clothes off and she was so upset and cried for a while because she couldn't stay outside.
We haven't had a naked girl since then......
Granted, we had one little poop accident yesterday, but it was a easy clean and I'm o.k. with that because I know it can be harder to master that on the potty.
I'm so proud of her and I'm just over the moon! We attempted to jump the potty hurtle and this time we cleared it and we're not looking back!

Transforming

I think it's safe to say now that spring has officially arrived. The buds on the trees are starting to push out and the world is looking more green every day. I love it. It's been wonderful having the sun come and stay for a bit too.

Three weeks ago I joined a team of 5 ladies and entered into our local gym's Biggest Winner contest. It runs for 6 weeks and the goal is the team with the greatest percentile lost wins. The prize is $1500. When I stepped on the scale three weeks ago I was ashamed of myself. I went home and had a little bit of a cry. It turned out I didn't lose much of my Joel weight. So the challenge was on. It's been a rough road. I've been doing something almost every day in the form of exercise. 30 minutes and up. Anything from biking to walking and the lovely boot camps which are provided by the gym. I go to 2 boot camps a week and get my butt kicked. Between the squats and lunges, my legs are going to be whipped into shape! They are what usually hurt a day or two after! Then there comes the food. It's been really hard to change my eating habits but I have. I don't love salads, but I'm making every effort to enjoy them. Who knew my new favourite food is chili! But after 3 weeks I've lost 16 pounds! I'm so happy about that. My goal is to try and lose 25 lbs in total. So I have 9 pounds to go in the next 3 weeks. I know it's going to be extra rough, and that I'll have to work harder at getting more exercise in, but I hope I can do it. Why 25? Well this contest has run a few times already and the most lost in the 6 weeks was 24 pounds, so I want to try and beat that. I'm not going to stop at 25 either, I've got a ways to go to get to where I want to be. But I'm thankful for this contest for kick starting me! And hopefully we'll win the prize. $300 would be awesome to get new clothes with!

Celebrating 7 Years

This past Sunday Dave and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe that we've been married for that long already. We've been on this road that takes up hills and down. Around sharp corners and through vallies. Along riversides and desert. I've grown more in love with him. He is so much better than I am. (He would be gloating too if he reads this!) His patience is remarkable, his wisdom is impressive. He is so well respected amoung his co-workers, our church family and our closest friends. I love him to bits! The day he became a father, I'll never forget. Those butterflies returned to my heart when I saw him hold Caleb for the first time. He is such a great dad, I'm so proud of him.

This year we marked the occasion by going out to The Keg for a over the top yummy meal. And we've been talking about getting an iPod for some time, so we also did that and together are filling it quickly with our music and his apps!

I love my man!