Weekends are rough!

 We made it through our first weekend without Joseph and lemme just say it was rough! Thank God for my sister-in-law, who let us practically spend the whole weekend with her! I tried to keep busy and we were actually able to talk to him a lot so it wasn't horrible. It's just inevitable that I'm going to miss him.

The other very difficult part of this is having two very young children all on my own. I feel like I constantly get disapproving looks when out, like people are thinking "what the hell is wrong with this lady trying to do this herself". Then all they can think to say is "you've got your hands full". Well yes, yes I do. Please if you see someone with two young children DO NOT say this to them. We know our hands are full.... believe me. You don't need to remind us at that point when the baby is shrieking and the toddler is throwing herself to the floor during a fit.

In other news,Valentine's Day is upon us. I finished the kids' Valentines for school and they came out super cute. I got both ideas on Pinterest. The goldfish one can be found here and the fruit pouch one can be found here. They were super easy to do and perfect since Cole and Isla have a toddler class and an infant class.

We have a good amount of activities planned for the coming weeks including a visit from my parents and some play dates!  Hopefully it will keep our minds off the time and make it fly!

D-Day has come and gone...Day 1 without Daddy.

It happened.

That day we were hoping would never come, did.



Deployment day.


Yesterday, Joseph boarded a long flight overseas. I cried, he cried, and Isla gave kisses. I drove home from the airport thinking, "Man, a year is soooo long. How am I going to take care of these babies, and work, and do it all.... by myself?" The thought of it was scaring the crap out of me. Until I got home.
I spent a few hours cleaning, organizing, and getting ready for the single parent life. I let Isla skip a nap and put her down at her old normal bedtime of 7 pm thinking maybe I could get her back on schedule easily. At 2 am, she was up. Screaming. I brought her into bed with me and then she woke up Cole. So here we are, all three of us up at 2 am. I know I was missing daddy and I'm sure Miss Isla was too. Cole is partial to me at nighttime, so I know where his allegiance lied. It took about 3 hours of drum playing, crying, and feeding for the 2 of them and myself to all be asleep, semi-peacefully in the same king-sized bed. I, of course, was in the middle squished and wondering how two such tiny people could make me feel so uncomfortable in such a large bed.
But I know we will get used to it, even if every night it ends up that the 3 of us are sleeping in that bed together. And before we know it, he will be home again. I'm prepared for it to be difficult some days. I'm prepared to break down once in a while, it's inevitable. But, we will make the best of it.
This morning, we all rolled out of bed around 8am. I got the kids ready for school. Their teachers were so happy to see them and when I picked up they said they really enjoyed music class. Miraculously, when we got home, I fed them both lunch and they both went down for a nap. Then we played, watched Tangled, and had dinner with family. I almost didn't cry.


Isla and Daddy




Spending some time with Daddy before we left.




Clapping




Big Hugs :(




Right after Daddy told Cole to take care of things while he's gone!


That was until I got my camera out and looked through these pictures. I know he was so upset in them, you can see it in his face. As much as I am going through, I know he is going through it ten times more. I can not imagine being away from our sweet babies so long. He has to be so strong.

If you think of it, say a little prayer for him tonight.

I got to skype with him a few times and it was nice to check-in and know he made it safely. He's getting settled and these first few weeks will be rough for him. I know it will go quickly though and before we know it, we'll have him home again!

Southern livin'

We are officially in Georgia and all I have to say is thank goodness!! I don't know why but it has occurred to me that I am really good at setting myself up for failure. For some reason, I told myself I was going to get here and do all these fabulous things and be set-up in a day. Well.... let me just say, it certainly did not happen that way. We have been to our storage unit multiple times trying to find everything the kids and I need during our stay here. I still feel like we aren't completely organized. And our schedules? They are so out of whack that it isn't even funny. Now, we all are sick. It just adds to the fun! But really, I love it here. I love the sun and warmth despite it being winter. I love the southern hospitality. I love that no one looks at you weird when you say "No thank you, ma'am". It's just so nice!


But then there is the impending doom, the reason we are here.... because in one week, my husband, my partner, my love will be leaving, for a year. I can't even stand it. Lately, all my inadequacies have been coming to a head and I really feel like I just can't do it without him. I feel like alone, I will fail our children. Again, I'm setting myself up for failure. See a recurring theme here?

I feel like I am not the only mother that does this. I feel like there are so many of us wannabe perfectionists that think the only way to not screw our kids up is to throw together pinterest projects for every school function and make our own baby food, soap, clothes, etc. When in reality all my child really needs/wants is for me to play her the sound board on her Charlie Brown's Christmas book and give her sweets every so often. So why am I so crazy? Who knows but at least I know there are a million moms out there doing the same thing.

Anyways, we're enjoying our last week with daddy, tornado warnings, ER visits, and all....

No idea how!

Here we are in January! Where did the whole month of December go? Between the holidays and preparing for our move, things have been busy to say the least. Luckily, one of my New Years resolutions is to come here more often!

But really, tonight I felt compelled to write. I have been thinking a lot about new beginnings lately. With the start of the new year and our move, it seems like the absolute best time to turn things around. Don't get me wrong, I don't feel like a complete disaster who needs a complete 360 but I believe it's important to give yourself performance reviews every so often to see where you stand. So that is exactly what I have done. I sat down and really thought about the past year; I thought about what is most important to me, what I need to accomplish in this life, and how I want to be remembered. All this contemplation brought me to this point, this post, and these goals for this year:

1. Be a more supportive and loving wife.
While all wives should support their husbands, as their husbands should support them, military wives should support their husbands 100 more times. You can not understand or fathom the type of support that is necessary when your husband is about to leave you and his children for months at a time. You not only have to congratulate your husband's achievements at work, but help him to reach them. I can't tell you how many times I've bypassed the cookies because my husband is a week away from a pt test. This is probably one of my most difficult feats. I sometimes get selfish and forget about my role as my husband's main support system, as I'm sure many of us do. I want to work at catching my missteps and find new ways to build upon the love and support I bring to my marriage.

2. Have more patience for my children.
I have, especially lately, found myself being short with my toddler. Some days I find myself getting insanely frustrated and a slew of nos and don'ts free flow from my mouth. This is the same for my baby and his "fussy times". Parenting is no joke. Sleep is a gift, not promised and on any given day all of your belongings can be strewn throughout your house leaving you to spend all of that very short nap time, cleaning up. It's difficult and I am no super mom. I get frustrated. I can get snippy. And sometimes I need to walk away for a minute. I hope this year I can work on that. I hope I can walk away before I get into my no-fest. I want to focus on learning ways to handle my toddler's new found behaviors and help guide her to be an independent, yet respectful person. 

3. Focus on my own well being, my hobbies, and my career.
All to often, I hear mothers talking about things they want to do but never have time to do. This is me too. My children see the doctor for regular check-ups but I can't tell you the last time I had one. As mothers, we always put aside our needs and wants for our children. For the most part, this is wonderful and sometimes necessary. But it is also necessary for us to take care of ourselves, to keep ourselves physically, socially, mentally, and spiritually fulfilled. This year I want to focus on myself, even if only a little bit. I want to make a point to get my check up, to hit the gym often, to divulge in my hobbies, and get myself some gifts here and there.

4. Have a lot of fun!
I swear, I went into labor and delivery the day Isla was born laughing, having a good time, being playful with my husband, and just generally enjoying myself and then there she was. I left the hospital uptight and dare I say it, boring and UN-fun. It is no big secret that I am a tad bit type A and having children took my craziness from 0 to 60 almost immediately. My husband often tries to clue me in when I'm being too uptight about things, which is quite often. He is still young at heart and can enjoy himself often without much worry (I'm a tad jealous). While I do believe there needs to be one person who has it together, I also believe in keeping yourself from worrying constantly. With that being said, I hope that I can unbuckle my seatbelt (only metaphorically, I'm trying to be fun not dangerous) this year and stop being such a worry wart.

5. Build my spiritual relationship with God and share it with my children.
I really think this is totally self explanatory. Church, prayer, and some bible study.

6.Embrace our new surroundings and take in all the offerings.
With the changes in scenery we will be getting in the coming weeks and then again in a year, I hope to partake in everything. I want to explore eateries, museums, beaches, and antique stores. I want to meet people and see the sights. I want to just take it all in. And lets not forget collecting/creating/showcasing evidence of our travels :)

Yup, so there it is. My goals for 2013. I doubt many of you hung on through all my blabbing. If you did, I hope this motivates you :)

'Tis the Season

We have been very busy around here! Between our normal daily duties and getting ready to leave NJ, we have been up to our arms each day. It feels like the days go so quickly because they are so jam packed. We have a crap ton of stuff that needs to make it's way to new homes before we even begin to pack the things we will be taking with us. Also, if you are wondering, we still have no idea where we will be living. Our fall back is Georgia so I'm just banking on that at this point. It's so frustrating. "Hurry up and wait" is so right on!

Anyways, Christmas is upon us. We are so excited and I had Joseph get out the Christmas boxes yesterday. I have begun my Christmas shopping and we will be getting our tree right after Thanksgiving. We always get a real tree but plan on getting a tiny "Charlie Brown" tree this year as we have a toddler on the attack. I decided to attempt a pin from one of my many Pinterest boards to help keep Isla from assaulting our Christmas tree. I got lucky because my pregnancy group Pinterest board actually decided to take it on as a December challenge piece. I bought all the felt from Michael's and hung it from a command hook in the walk-way. Joseph helped cut ornaments. This is the finished product:

Isla seems to really enjoy putting all the pieces up. She seems really confused though when the ornaments won't stick to the wall or other things around the house... LOL. I actually have a ton of leftover felt and think I'm going to make Isla a felt board and a quiet book or two for Christmas :) We'll see how creative I can get with those.

In other news, Isla and Joseph have been going to swimming class together. I thought it would be good for the two of them to have a thing before he leaves in a few months. I actually went with them to the 2nd class this past Wednesday and took a ton of pictures. Cole was sleeping the whole time in the ring sling.

I snapped this picture of them while they were waiting for class to begin. Can you believe my mom got Isla that suit at Target for like $3?

 

She had a great time collecting the little play food... she even thought it might be tasty! 

Here's a couple more photos from their class: 

 Singing and twirling in the water....

 Trying to catch her ball...

 One of my favorites-- jumping into the water! 

So my Colie-Olie turned 1 month old on the 10th and I have been trying to get his one month picture... but this is what happens when I try :)

Crazy girl thinks it's all about her, all the time <3

It's been pretty yummy around here...

Alright, so I said I would let you know how this meal planning thing was working out and so far so good. Working from home, allows me some prep if I need it each day but I bulk prepped a lot of stuff the day of my shop and this past weekend. I thought I would share my menu... notice some meals are doubled during the month, this was mainly a money saving tactic on my part. Being that only 2 1/2 of us eat meals... I was able to do double servings of some meals and freeze them for later in the month. Saves time and money!!!

In other news, we're slowly getting ready for the big deployment/move! Unfortunately, we still don't know where the children and I will be moving... but we shall hopefully find out soon. Fingers crossed for Charleston or Georgia. I've been looking at houses like a mad woman and like we are going to buy one tomorrow... I'm a tad crazy. Joseph is very excited about Christmas this year, since we won't be with him for Christmas next year... so tonight he started Christmas shopping. He, of course, could not contain his excitement and I am now the owner of a brand spanking new camera, so expect a ton of photos to come :) I'm going to be a picture taking fiend, thanks to my lovely husband. I have to find a way to keep him from giving me the rest of my gifts or else I may not be opening anything on Christmas ;)

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

Things have been busy... as any of you with a newborn past or present might understand. I finally got a minute to sit down and write something. I've been trying really hard to save us money lately and get us on a good path for paying off debt and buying a house in a little over a year from now. My biggest project as of late is meal planning thanks to an awesome blogger/mommy. You can see her blog here. I am just starting out and have been using her blog and advice to help me along. I planned out the whole month of November and did my big grocery shop on Halloween. I spent $188 which included dinner for the whole month (with the exception of one eat out day), milk, some snacks for Isla, fruit, and ice cream! I figured at most we'll spend another $80 this month for milk, fruit, and other snacks. Such an awesome change to the nearly $400 we were probably spending at the grocery store each month and that doesn't even include all of our eating out! A-MAZING! When I got home from the grocery store I started doing some prepping for the month. I threw chicken breasts in the crock pot because I needed some shredded chicken for two things of chicken enchiladas this month and chicken taco soup. I also cut up some breasts to make orange chicken, floured them up, and tossed them in the freezer! I have some more prep work to do but I figured it could wait til a weekend. I'll probably finish the prepping tomorrow.

I will let ya'll know how it turns out.