When God Answers Prayer

The secret prayer of my heart for the last four years has been for God to provide some way for me to stay home with our kiddos. If you would have asked me in everyday conversation if I wanted to stay home I would have shrugged off an answer and said “sure, maybe. I don’t know.”  I didn’t allow myself to dwell on the possibility because it was just mostly a silent hope. 

It took having our first child for me to have a reality check that our lifestyle did not match the life we wanted to have for our family. But at that point we were too far in to be able to change things. Lance was the only person who really knew that I was no longer finding fulfillment in working full-time. It took major commitment to paying off our debt (minus the house, I always feel compelled to add that so people know we still are paying off our house) to be in a place where I am able to walk away from my 9-5 job. Four years, one major budget overhaul, two children, one bout of unemployment and two jobs later, life is about to take another radical turn. I’m leaving the full-time corporate world and starting my dream job. I’m going to work for Des Moines Moms Blog as the Sponsorship Coordinator and will start the challenge of being a work from home mom. 

Truly, this job is a God-thing. I feel like the phrase “God-thing” can be a cop-out but in this instance it really is a God-thing.  I was approached by Des Moines Moms Blog with this position because I had been on their hearts and minds. I had applied to be a contributing writer and they really only knew me through the blog and a through a mutual friend. The timing was perfect. We had just made the final payment on my student loans and were ready to explore the possibility of me finding part-time work and staying home with the kiddos. I had applied for a part-time job earlier that I thought would have been a good fit too, but it had some aspects that we would have had to figure out. But it wasn’t the job God wanted for me and He didn’t grant it to me. At the time I was disappointed but I accepted this wasn’t where God wanted me. Then this job came along and it truly was God’s hand at work.  I can’t imagine a better fit – being able to write, use my marketing knowledge and spend time with my family. God’s perfect plan.

So we are taking this leap of faith and we are going to see where this is going to go. Both Lance and I are nervous (any new job or big lifestyle change is heart stopping!) but we're hopeful. Hopeful, cautious and thankful. Thankful to be given this opportunity.

 

28 Things in February

I like and I dislike that February has 28 days. I like it in the fact that I can consistently remember that February has the fewest days out of all the months but I dislike the fact that when this February ends, it means that my maternity leave is over and that I’ve officially reentered the working world. Blar.

1.      Shereadstruth.com Lenten study

2.      Dental insurance. We would be most definitely broke without it.

3.      Pizza and conversation at friends’ house. Dinner doesn’t have to be a big production to be fun and worthwhile.

4.      Girls lunch with small group gals. Yum!

5.      Breakfast date with KlAnders.

6.      A husband who has a stronger stomach than I do. Let’s just say it involves poop and leave it at that.

7.      My super handy husband who fixed our water softener with a $2 part. Let’s not go into the fact that he could have fixed it three years ago …

8.      Lucan declared he liked mushrooms. AWESOME!

9.      Successful hip replacement surgery for my mom.

10.   Conversations on Mothering Bible study at church and getting to know more moms.

11.   Healthy 2 month well child checkup for Gracelyn.

12.   Mom playdates.

13.   5 babies born this month. FIVE!!

14.   Getting all of our Christmas cards finally organized and put away – dating back to 2010!

15.   Church scones.

16.   Molly coming over and spending time with us on her lunch breaks or on her Friday afternoons.

17.   The Bachelor and ridiculous conversations I have with my friends about the show.

18.   Crap-ton of snow. I loved it. Lucan loved it. Lance, not so much.

19.   Library storytime.

20.   Two trips to Goodwill to unload stuff we don’t need.

21.   ALDIS shopping trips. They have really upped their game lately.

22.   Gracelyn smiles and coos. She’s so smilie in the morning. Everyone always asks me if she’s this good and my answer is “yes” as long as she’s pooped recently and not confined to her carseat.

23.   Justin’s Vanilla Almond butter. This stuff is like CRACK.

24.   Downtown Abbey. So sad I have to wait until January 2016 for the next season.

25.   Lu is fully potty trained at night too. We talked about it and he decided that he wanted to be able to wear underwear to bed. Bam. Done.

26.   I’m really thankful for my 13 weeks of maternity leave. The end is really bittersweet.

27.   Mere Christianity

28.   My iphone. We got our first iphones in September and I love being able to capture life’s moments with the kiddos.

So happy!

Saturday smiles.

Lu and his stupid penguin, Pete. Do you know how often Pete gets lost resulting in a 15 minute search and find for the tiniest stuffed animal we own.

Cabin fever.

Lu's Valentine's Day box for school.

Adorable onesie baby gift from Studio B yoga.

Doctor Lu.

Recorder serenading :)

My two favorite girls.

Beloved green blankie.

Hanging out in her crib. Not sleeping.

A little taste of summer with this super easy fruit salad - a dollop of honey and a splash of vanilla!

Christmas card organization for the pinterest win!

Two tiny minions.

We let him run around on all the booths at Red Robin. It was snowing and the place was empty. The excuses we make as parents, right?

Last day of maternity leave.

Quick note: see how many sprinkles are on the cookie he's decorating with his left hand? Woah.

Cat nap at Bible study.

Earning his keep. Thanks Erika for this idea. Start them young!

Snow.

Lu wanted to take selfies.

Library storytime.

I love polka dots.

The snowman melted later that day. Sad :(

All of our kids will be roughly 9 months apart. Isaac is a sweet boy.

31 Thankful Things in August and 30 Things in September (and pictures to boot!)

1. Celebrating the life of our friend, Ron. Witnessing the family’s strength and gratitude at a sad time.
2. Not dying at the Iowa State Fair. My pregnant body cannot handle 10 hours of walking. Nope, not at all.
3. Bauders Peppermint Ice Cream bar. Every year it’s the highlight of my State Fair experience.
4. Finding fantastic furniture for Lucan’s big boy room off of Craigslist. Lance later confessed that he had some reservations about being able to reassemble it correctly as the woman had already started taking it apart when they picked it up and had thrown away the instructions. Lance always acts a little surprised when I tell him that I have zero doubts about his handy abilities.
5. Regaining some energy that was lost in the first trimester (I’m sure it will be gone again next month as I’m rounding third base for trimester three)
6. Saving $20 on an Aveda Institute haircut by finding an old, buried coupon.
7. Holy garden goodness. We were blessed to pick out of one of our friend’s gardens and they had an abundance of raspberries and tomatoes. The raspberries became homemade raspberry muffins and the tomatoes were turned into salsa. Yum!
8. Sweet ice cream deals ($1.99 for Breyers!!)
9. Discovering that Lucan likes hardboiled eggs (when did that happen?)
10. Having a friend and her son stop over for a super low key supper and playdate (that’s you Molls)
11. Lucan named our baby GIRL “Paco.” No idea where he got that.
12. Spending time with all of our immediate family (mom/dad; MIL/FIL; BIL/SIL +2 kiddos; BIL/SIL) in the timespan of 10 days. Lucan adores getting to visit all of our family members.
13. Fun evening out with Jessie and Lincoln at Urbandale’s Night Out. Note to future self: go at the start of the event and don’t wait until the end to go down the bounce house slide. They shut down promptly at 7pm.
14. Work freebies for Lance. Because my workplace doesn’t believe in freebies. Or fun.
15. God’s provision for a job for me. The client I work for did not renew their contract for 2015 but I have been promised that I’ll still have a job on another account.
16. The start of three year-old preschool. Yes, totally missed the memo that Lucan was officially starting preschool this fall. #momfail
17. Two pintrest wins – toddler glitter bottle and frozen chocolate covered banana bites! (and one fail when Lucan decided to add a gallon of water to his cloud dough and basically make glue on the deck. Lance was super pissed about the mess.)
18. Days off – one day off because Lucan had strep and two more days off just because.
19. Fun baby/pregnancy conversations with my neighbor.
20. Tons of food from Olive Garden for $25 (soup, salad, breadsticks, chicken alfredo and three baked zitis). Gotta love online specials and takeout!
21. Art projects with Lucan at home. I totally get why pintrest is awesome. He’s so enthusiastic and loves them!
22. Library books.
23. Tomatoes +basil = Kara’s everlasting love and the reason I garden.
24. Our yard looks fantastic. There’s never been a better August for our yard. Probably has something to do with the massive amount of rain we’ve had this month. Good golly pop lolly (taken from Skippy John Jones)
25. Swimming at my parents’ house.
26. Sweet toddler kisses.
27. Lance had a chance to go see the Twins powerhouse hitter play in a local game. And I didn’t have to go and sit through a baseball game. I win.
28. Lucan learned how to take a shower. That cuts a solid half hour out of bath routines!
29. Hwy 141 garage sales and making my first pink purchases
30. Last day in church nursery until baby girl makes her appearance (um, if you’ve been in our shoes, you know this is a huge thing!)
31. JD Greear ‘s Bible study, Hebrews: Christ is Better.

    

    We attended Urbandale's "Night Out" and it was a little chaotic to say the least. Advice for next year, go early. We missed the opportunity to go down the bounce house slide and Lu was disappointed. But we had fun with Jessie and Lincoln. And climbing around on the firetruck and ambulance.

    
    

    

    We have a sudden interest in "art projects." It's actually been a really good thing. As long as I take proper precautions, painting keeps him occupied for a good half hour. And make sure he's properly smocked and not mixing black paint into everything (because he's a boy)

    
    

    

    This is the magic cloud dough that we played with out on the deck. Lu and I had fun scooping it and feeling the softness.
    

    
    

    

    Lucan the proceeded to have more fun later adding water and making soup. Lance deemed this "the worse project EVER." When you mix flour, baby oil and water you get paste. Everywhere. Apparently Lance and his two brothers never made any messes as little boys ...

    
    

    

    Little boy LOVES swimming in Gramper's "big pool." Lu was the only kiddo at the family reunion so he and Lance had the pool to themselves.

    

    This boy is fearless. And loves swimming.
    

    
    

    

    Sheer delight.
    

    
    

    

    There are times (okay more than "times") when I feel bad that Lu is in daycare. But he's learning SO much and has fun. This was the present his teacher "Miss Patricia" gave all of her students on the first day.
    

    
    

    

    Okay, so I didn't get an actual "first day of preschool" picture. One day after preschool I asked Lucan to sit on the stoop so I could take his preschool picture. This is what I got.
    

    
    
    

    

    After a little prompting, I got this picture. Not fantastic, but a definite improvement. Side note: it took a magic eraser to get off my chalk marker. Not impressed.
    

    

    Lu's big boy bed. After months of searching, I found a great deal on craigslist for Lu's new bed, headboard and dresser. We've actually decided to keep him with his current dresser and give little sister the other dresser as it's bigger. I also conducted a massive online search to find a more reasonably priced version of the PB Kids quilt I was in love with. $129 is a lot to spend on a kids quilt. I do still want to purchase adorable sheets, but somehow I think Lance will be ticked at the $80 I want to spend ... but I bought the quilt and pillow sham off of craigslist aka: my new bestie.
    

    30 September Blessings
    1. The birth of a friend’s twin baby girls AND the announcement of TWO other friends who are also expecting twins in the spring! Wowzers!
    2. The birthdays of my daddy-o, my aunt, my sis-in-law and a cousin.
    3. Apples, apples and more apples. Lance’s aunt gave us a ton and Lu had fun with his first apple picking experience. Now onto homemade applesauce and canning.
    4. Finding out that my placenta issue has cleared up – huge blessing and relief!
    5. Lots of family time. Baby shower, first birthday party, family meals together.
    6. A fantastic “Favorite Things” cooking club at my house. The frantic cleaning and staying up to close to midnight 3 nights running wasn’t one of my “favorite things” but it was such a fun party!
    7. 2^nd birthday party of this kiddo.
    8. Fall weather.
    9. Rocking out my half birthday to the tune of ½ a gallon of root beer, ½ a gallon of vanilla bean ice cream (root beer floats yo!), ½ a pound of chocolate covered peanuts, ½ a pound of chocolate covered pretzels, ½ pound of Hot Tamales and ½ a pound of trail mix. My husband loves me.
    10. Getting iPhones! Hello 2014!
    11. A super fun Saturday at the Blank Park Zoo. Lucan was obsessed with wanting to ride the train (no big surprise there) while Lance wasn’t really down with wanting to spend the extra $$. But I kindly reminded Lance that these are the things in life that are really special to Lucan and won’t break the bank. But the weather was gorgeous and we ran into our friends, Nate, Molly and Isaac.
    12. The return of “Person of Interest.” Tuesday nights at 9 pm you will find me parked on my couch.
    13. Super sweet hugs from Lucan and super sweet hugs for baby Paco (Lucan’s doing, not mine)
    14. Story time at the library. Lu is at the age where he loves when Momma or Daddy spend the extra time with him there. I’m really trying to cherish our special one-on-one time with him.
    15. Our yard looks fantastic. This also means that it keeps raining. This means we have to mow. That’s a downer.
    16. An Iowa State victory over Iowa. It wasn’t a pretty game, but a W is still a W.
    17. Pregnancy leggings. They are, by far, the most comfortable maternity item I own.
    18. Fun co-workers. Work can be a drag sometimes, but fun co-workers help immensely.
    19. The end of baseball season. Baseball season is like a frickin’ triple marathon.
    20. Parenting class: Working through behavioral challenges God’s way. It’s been really enlightening and helpful. Lucan’s at a really good age for this class – old enough to realize there are things we can do better but young enough to still be moldable.
    21. Winning: a hobo bags wallet giveaway. $88 value! Score!
    22. Vintage Michael Jackson music randomly playing at work.
    23. Fruit infused water. Yum!
    24. Pintrest fails – they keep you humble.
    25. Successfully sewing a cute minky baby blanket for my SIL under tight turnaround time.
    26. Wedding invitations.
    27. Having a light bulb moment and figuring out that I can use my old tripod on my new camera.
    28. Apple cider (or Simply Apple juice that tastes like cider)
    29. Meeting a childhood friend’s son for the first time and having our similarly aged sons hit it off
    30. Air conditioning. Because I’m pregnant and hot, so I deserve air conditioning. 
    
    
    
    

    

    Swinging at the "school bus park" after story time.

    
    

    

    All decked out for the ISU versus Iowa football game.

    
    

    

    These two crazy kiddos would dance on tables if we let them. They're going to be wild children if we ever let them be college roommates.

    
    

    

    This was our last day in nursery for Lucan. I won't lie, I'm thankful.

    
    

    

    Sometimes Lance hits one out of the park. He's notorious for excellent half birthday presents. Not so much for Mother's Day. 

    
    

    

    This was my stack from the library one weekend. You can bet that I heard a lot of complaints from Lance about how heavy his bag was coming from the library.

    
    

    

    Evening walk around the block. It was some of the first truly "fall-like" weather.

    
    

    

    Such a cool cat. We're on our way to the DM zoo.

    
    

    

    Feeding the "hungry" goats. Lucan got upset when he couldn't feed the specific goat he wanted to. Mainly he wanted to feed the goats that were smaller because they were "hungry." Precious boy, none of the zoo goats are hungry!

    
    

    

    And at the same time, he wanted to feed specific goldfish and got sad when another fish ate the food.

    
    

    

    Lance was appalled by how gross the koi were.

    
    

    

    Lucan the kangaroo.

    
    

    

    Loving the train ride with daddy.

    
    

    

    Feed the birds. He wanted to feed the birds he thought were the hungriest. Of course these would be the ones farthest away.

    
    
    
    
    

    

    Family selfie.

    
    
    
    

    

    His favorite exhibit were the river otters. They would swoop down through the water and pop up. They were pretty funny!

    
    
    
    
    

    

    In true lance fashion, eyes shut.

    
    

    

    Surprise! I'm a joey!

    
    

    

    Lucan derives great joy in being "a big helper." That nights particular task was shucking corn. About 4 more ears than I had originally planned because "big helper" didn't want to stop.