Family Musings

When Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer agreed to host another Bloggy Giveaway, I wonder if she realized she would have more than 500 submissions!!! (I think I am #500 on Mr. Linky if links don't get deleted!!!) There is a lot of stuff being given away and I am so glad I get to be a part of it! I can't even guess how much time I've spent today browsing blogland and making new friends. I decided to get in on the fun and have put together my own little giveaway. Since the idea is to give something away that relates to who you are in blog land, I decided to do something about baby girls and breastfeeding. Here is what you might win (all items are new, unopened, and with tags): 1 pack of Playtex Nursing Pads 1 "Worth the Wait" message onesie (3-6 months) 1 On the Go Bottle Warmer 1 Carters Snuggle Blanket 1 Hallmark Baby's First Christmas Ornament 1 Gumdrop newborn pacifier Plus any other random things I might find! (Most of these were things I have duplicates of from ...

I've known for a couple of days that Charlotte is capable of rolling over from her back to her tummy. It's just that, she wouldn't let us see her do it. Until today. And let me tell you, once she started... she didn't want to stop! We hope you enjoy the video. Entered in the Silly Day, Silly Picture contest.

Bad too. I had no idea just how out of shape I had gotten in the last year. About 1 year and 2 weeks ago I ran the majority of a half marathon. Now? I can't even keep up with my old running buddy during her walking warm up. How sad is that? Very, very sad. I gave up after 20 minutes when she graciously directed us back to her house. I stretched and left. She's super dedicated and climbed onto her elliptical runner. A former student of mine asked me if I would go to Curves with her and while I wasn't planning to go back, I think it is much more my pace right now. I'll never be a runner, but I should be able to walk at a brisk pace without losing my breath and heaving!

You might remember a few months ago I posted about a book I wanted called Passionate Housewives. That book was published by Vision Forum and now they are offering another giveaway, via Biblical Womanhood . This time, you can enter to win a $100 gift certificate for their online store. I think this is a great giveaway and very encouraging. I browsed all over their site and decided that if I won, I would like to get Charlotte started in their Beautiful Girlhood collection. It is like American Girl, but based on moral or Christian characters. Priscilla Mullins is my favorite character.

Our little girl is growing up! She is working very hard on learning to sit up on her own. Once put into a seated position, she can stay there for several seconds occasionally and about 2-3 seconds most of the time. Charlotte is learning to hold herself up if she starts to lean forward as well. It is so cute to watch her try to balance herself when she starts to wobble. We tried reading her book again today, but she got caught eating it instead. The look on her face is priceless! Oops! I did it again! In other news, I haven't forgotten my list of goals for 2008. That post is almost done.

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We spent about 5 hours at Home Depot tonight picking out things for the Sabin Dome. We are using their bid process and will find out tomorrow how much it is going to cost us. One very exciting thing is that our kitchen cabinets have been selected. Here is a grainy picture of their sample that I took with my cell phone tonight. We also picked out sink faucets, towel bars, toilet paper holders, paint, light fixtures, flooring, and a few other items. Most of this will be stored for a few more months until we need it, but the price was too right to pass it up. Fortunately, the attic in the dome is done and we can store a ton of stuff up there.

This past weekend Charlotte started making a new noise. It is too cute to not share with everyone.

To all of my wonderful blog readers (I have about 22 a day according to Google Analytics), I have embarked on a new culinary adventure. I hope you will join me at Eating It Up . It is an exciting way for me to begin combining my desire to be more frugal and to be more creative, culinarily speaking.

Okay, so Grandma has a thing for buying hairbands for Charlotte. And, even though I think hairbands on babies are silly, I like to indulge the old lady every now and then and put one on her (Charlotte, not the old lady that is). But even I have to admit she looks uber cute sleeping in her car seat like this.

As time marches on, I learn more and more about the preferences of my darling daughter (who is now 5 months old!). My newest discovery is that she will sleep longer and more restfully if I put her on her tummy. Every day when I pick her up from nursery school I ask how she was that day. They almost always tell me about some long nap she took, so long in fact that she missed her bottle. I don't mind since her eating on a schedule isn't my preference. I'd rather they wait for hunger cues, but understand with 7 other babies in the room, they need some sort of schedule to get everyone fed, changed, and played with. Besides, it is only 2-3 bottles a day and she doesn't seem to be the worse for it. But I digress, back to naps... she is usually put down to nap on her tummy at nursery school so I decided to do it at home too. And it works. I don't have to swaddle her when she is half asleep in my arms and risk waking her up. Putting her on her tummy has an effect similar to...

I have had fun pointing the moon out to Charlotte when we happen to see it, at night or during the day. There is even a little 'thing' I say to her when we see it in daytime. It goes something like, 'Little moon, little moon, you came out too soon.' (I think I read it online somewhere.) With her middle name being 'Moon,' it makes sense that we would point it out to her often. I even made her a plate with her name on it. Tonight, I looked up in the sky and saw a beautiful waning crescent moon. Bruce pointed out that it was like Charlotte Moon (on the plate). And that gave me a wonderful idea. This is the Charlotte Moon. It is delightful to look at and I hope it will give Charlotte a smile every time she sees the moon in this phase. We will tell her that her daddy named it the Charlotte Moon, after her.

Since Scribbit made me think of it... here it is, my notes list of what I like about various blog designs. Don't laugh, this is the raw, unedited version. It isn't pretty. :-) If any of you have spare time and want to look at these as well, let me know if you notice any themes. That might make it easier for me to communicate with whoever I choose to hire. Ideas from The Blog Cafe: · I like the color palette & the layout of the graphics and title of this site – http://www.flickr.com/photos/32819938@N00/908431210/ . · I like the simplicity of the scene, though I don’t want a beach scene, and I like the toned down color palette here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/32819938@N00/906638688/ . · I like the way this scene is stylized, but not the business-y part or the bubbles of it… it would need to be of a home-setting w/ a baby on the floor. If there was a desk in my design then it should have a picture of my family in it – http://www.flickr.com/photos/328...

I have a confession... A little over a week ago I had bad thoughts when I read our church newsletter. There was an announcement that a new committee had been formed (yeah, I know that should set off bells all by itself). The purpose of this committee is to organize the church for a new directory, you know, one of those books with pictures of all the perfect church families that has their name and contact information. I am sure every other person who read this letter thought, "cool, we're doing that again." But no, not me. What upset me was realizing that every name on the list was that of an older woman in my church. Not a single young person under 50 was listed. I resented that. This is just the type of project I would enjoy working on and no one at that church had thought to ask me if I was interested. How rude! When I pointed this oversight out to Bruce and started into my usual rant about how the church doesn't take advantage of 'young people' enough, he...

Charlotte has one of the cutest habits. I just love it. Whenever we are nursing she likes to put her foot high up on my chest. I don't know why she does it, she just does it. This is just one of her quirks that we are still learning about. She also likes to do it when she sleeps, as seen in this Christmas Eve photo. Since she sleeps in bed with us, this has made trying to slip out of bed in the morning more difficult. I am getting a little better at it and discovered if I can slip my pillow in the place where I was sleeping it is easier. She has the support and she has something that smells like me. It also helps that when she reaches out, there is something for her to touch instead of air.

For Christmas, my wonderful husband bought me the gift of a professionally designed blog layout. It is not a joke when I write that I have looked at over 100 new blogs in order to figure out what I liked and what I didn't like. And I still haven't decided on a design, or even on who I want to make it. I decided to fiddle around myself and came up with what you see here. What do you think? Does it capture my blog? Is it too plain? Should I jazz it up some? I am wide open for suggestions.

We have been trying to work with Charlotte using a sippy cup instead of a bottle. I don't think we are anywhere close to making the switch, but we are getting there. This is a video of her trying to use it today. Bruce picked a time when she wouldn't be too hungry to concentrate but she was alert enough to try a new thing. I also think she is getting ready to roll over back to tummy soon because she keeps arching her back, like you'll see in the video.

Charlotte and I read every night because I want her to grow up to love books and reading as much as I do. Here is Charlotte enjoying her current favorite book, Happy Baby Words , by Roger Priddy. And this just in... I put Charlotte to bed with a new lullably sound machine she's been using since she got it for Christmas. You can't see Charlotte in this video, but boy, you can sure hear her! I just had to share this with you. The image you can see is the projection from the sound machine. We are still waiting for the translation... I think you can hear her saying 'hallelujah.' By the way, we can hear her accross the house. She is loud! Like mother, like daughter. Maybe Charlotte is singing? I hope she turns out a better singer than her momma. For your sake.

"It's a sign of mediocrity when you demonstrate gratitude with moderation." Robert Benigni , in Newsweek For the vast majority of people, Thanksgiving 2007 is already a distant memory covered up with stories about Black Friday, last minute shopping, the presents they got and gave on Christmas Day, and now their New Year's soirees. Even for me, that day, like all Thanksgivings past, has faded into obscurity. I have only a blog post to remind me. The quote above from Benigni though brought Thanksgiving day back to me and all I have to be grateful for this year. Even more so, it reminded me of most of the modern church and how we approach God. And I know deep inside of each of you is a burning desire to know how I made that connection? Well, let's break it down word by word. What is mediocrity? It is being average, lacking desire to be better, wanting nothing but the status quo for ourselves. Isn't that how most Christians approach their walk with God. Don't ...

Charlotte slept so well last night! I attribute that to the wonderful swaddling technique I am now using. It might sound obvious to seasoned moms out there, but I finally figured out how to keep her from breaking her swaddle. I left 1 arm out. Simple, I know. It took me 2 nights to figure out which arm needed to be out, but I got it. She stirred last night when she was hungry, but otherwise slept all night. I think I woke up more than she did. Yeah! This morning I did a good mommy thing and went out and got the car started a few minutes before we had to leave. As I lifted my daughter out of her exersaucer to leave, I felt a certain dampness on her backside. Yep, you guessed it… she blew out her diaper, right through her outfit. And it was a cute outfit too. It was plaid and footed with little embroidered hearts all over the peter pan collar. The hat that went with it was adorable too! Now though, I had to get her out of that outfit and into something clean, including a new diaper. It ...

Before moving on to 2008, I want to take a moment to reflect on the changes that life brought us in 2007. JANUARY - I didn't have a blog yet, but can remember that we announced our pregnancy to close friends and extended family. I also began helping direct the middle school color guard at FMSHS. FEBRUARY - Still no blog... I passed my Professional Certification exam for teaching though. MARCH - The world still had to wait one more month before getting to ready what was on my bloggy mind. I don't remember much exciting happening... except having my first Spring Break since college! APRIL - My blog, Jenn's Journal, arrives! Here's the first sentence of my first blog post : "Oh my... I've wanted to try and get into keeping a journal of my pregnancy for a few months now." Here's my favorite picture from my blog in the month of April: This is Charlotte at 28 weeks. MAY - First Sentence : "Even though Bruce thinks he is being clever by publicly sug...

As mentioned earlier, we spent some time at the Art Cafe in Hilton Head, SC. Here are pictures of some of the pieces that we made. At the top is the piggy bank that Grumpy painted for Charlotte. I must say it is most adorable! What makes this bank even sweeter is that it continues a legacy. You see, Grumpy's grandmother painted him a piggy bank for him when he was about Charlotte's age. I'll have to ask Grumpy for a picture of it to share someday. Next, is the cross that Bruce painted for Charlotte. He choose Heavenly Blue as the background as a reminder to stay focused on the reward and he chose Red as the color for the letters as a reminder of the blood of Jesus. And the large blue plate is something I made to decorate Charlotte's room. I came up with the idea a couple of months ago and am fairly pleased with how it turned out. I think it was pretty clever of me to use the moon as the 'C' in Charlotte. Finally, my mom made the most awesome Christmas ornament t...