Christmas Catchall

• I had forgotten that I have a sciatic nerve, until yesterday when it said, "Howdy!  Remember me?  Its been a couple years, but I'm baaaaack!"  
• As a result of the above, my body feels like lead tonight.  Going to force myself to hit up the prenatal yoga DVD before bed in hopes of some relief.  
• Complaining completed :)
• Jonathan is flipping through the channels and stopped to watch Justin Bieber performing on a Christmas special.  After a moment, he said, "I don't know why people think this kid isn't talented!"  To fully appreciate this compliment to Bieber of the Fever, you have to know that my hubby is tremendously talented in music and, thus, a bit of a music snob when it comes to pop stars.  But he's right.  If you really listen, Bieber is (in my older and wiser husband's words) a talented kid.  Although I do wish he'd bring back that cute swoopy haircut.  
• For the past four years, Jonathan and I have celebrated Christmas together with a fondue night at home.  Is there anything better than a big pot of melted cheese?  I think not.  Tonight we feasted on classic Swiss fondue with french bread, sauteed mushrooms, and roasted potatoes.  I love this little tradition of ours, and it was so fun to share it with Riggins this year.  (Who likes to say, "Dip! Dip! Dip!" as he dips his bread in cheese :)
• Jonathan just wrapped up his last day at this fall externship at the VA.  This means that he has ONE semester left in school!  That, my friends, is insane.  
• Old Navy's maternity jeggings are fantastic.  
• All these people kept mentioning homemade Chex Mix on Facebook.  Apparently this is a holiday tradition for some people?  I have never made the original homemade Chex mix, but something about all those references got a craving stuck in my head that I just couldn't shake.  I finally made some today.  I promptly ate a cup of it, straight out of the oven.  And now I'm over it.  Probably should have just bought a bag at the gas station or something.  Oh well.  Come over if you like Chex Mix.  
• I managed to keep Christmas way simple this year, and while I'm sure I'll pump it up again in the future, it has felt great to keep the holiday focused on the important stuff.  I didn't send out cards, I didn't do any crazy baking or crafting.  Jonathan and I aren't doing gifts for each other, and we stayed on a strict budget for our family members and Riggins.  Just a sweet and simple Christmas at the Poe house.  Lots of Little People Nativity scene, 24/7 Christmas music, and reflection on the beauty of Emmanuel!  (And thoroughly enjoying all the cards and treats that others are sending our way, of course!)
• And now...off my duff to tidy up and force that duff into a bit of yoga and a bath.  It is way too early in this pregnancy for me to be waddling, so I've got to take some action! :)  

19 Months

November 29, 2011

Dear Riggins,

This is the last time your age will be referred to in the teens until you hit 13!  (Which I just really can't even think about right now!)  It goes without saying that month 19 was another month of fun and growth that made us fall even more in love with you.  Here's what you've been up to:

The big news this month was that you're going to have a baby brother!  I had really hoped for another little boy, simply so that you could have a brother.  Watching your daddy with his brother and the close relationship that they share made me long for you to have that kind of lifelong friendship.  I know that you two will have your fair share of differences and arguments, and that I will probably have to break up a fist fight or two, but I am already praying that the Lord will place a bond between you two boys that will hold you close throughout your lives.

The other big event of the month was your second Thanksgiving!  Your Mama Anne, Papa Tom, and Uncle Todd made the trip from Oklahoma City and you had so much fun soaking up all of their attention.  You love singing Old MacDonald with your grandparents, so much so that we worried you might start calling them "EIEIO" instead of by their names!  Your favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal was the rolls.  You also spent a weekend with your Grammy and Grampy in Fort Smith while we went on a trip with your Aunt Merdi and Uncle Mike!

New developments this month: you can now do lots of big boy things on the playground, like climb the ladder and go down the big slide by yourself.  You can climb the kitchen chairs and on top of the table (which is not allowed, young man! ;)  You can blow kisses, wash and dry your hands, throw things away in the trash, and do all the motions to "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."  You added several words to your vocabulary, including cookie, "Oh Man!", nine, puppy, no, Weber, amen, meow, "Roar!", Emmy, and Asher (your friend from MOPS).  Your only negative development has been the advent of hitting, which we're working on.  Hands are not for hitting, buddy!  

You love Elmo, helping me cook, being outside (whether on a walk or at the playground), tractors, dogs, BSF, going on runs with Daddy and Weber, Starfall, dragging my cooling rack through the house, your orange "nigh nigh" blanket, and your Mister Rogers trolley.  You love to read, and your favorites are Prayers and Promises for My Little Boy (which you simply call, "Boy!"), Goodnight Moon, DOG, Roly Poly Pangolin, Goodnight Gorilla, Just Like Daddy, and anything by Eric Carle.  You dislike going to the nursery at church or at our women's Bible study, getting your diaper changed (a new development), and potatoes (crazy man!).

Daylight Savings Time threw you for a loop, and you spent most of this month waking up way too early.  You have finally evened back out to 7 or 7:30 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.  The morning nap is officially gone now (unless you're having a real off day and I decide to give you a cat nap before a morning outing), and you usually sleep from 12:30-3:00.  You are a typical toddler with your eating habits: shoveling everything down one day and barely eating a bite the next.  You consistently love fruit, cheese, crackers, sweet potatoes, and breads of any kind.

You have such a sweet heart and friendly personality.  You say "Hi!" and "Bye Bye!" to everyone you meet, and have never met a stranger.  We are seeing more and more of your stubborn streak coming out, but I happen to think that's a good combination for the godly leader I pray you'll become: a love for people, and firm convictions.  May God give me the wisdom to parent you in a way that cultivates these characteristics and refines them for His use and for your good!  

You're just too much fun, little boy, and your blue eyes and huge smile slay me each and every day.  I love you to pieces.

Love,
Mommy

Our Fall Bucket List...Check!

Early this autumn, I noticed a fun little free printable of a Fall Bucket List from this blog.  The idea was that we have so many grand plans for what we want to do each season, but when we don't make a list and make some plans, the season ends and we are left with thoughts of, "Oh, I meant to do that!"  

I printed out the document and placed it in a frame I had on hand.  Little by little over the last few months, we have made our way through just about everything on the list and checked it off with a dry erase marker on the glass.  It was such a fun reminder to savor the season, and it made a cute little bit of decor as well!  

Here's what we did:

• Apple Picking (Ok, I cheated on this one...by the time I got this printable, apple picking season was over in our area.  It ends on September 30th.  But my dad picked apples from his tree and brought them to us, so I counted that!  Sneaky sneaky.)
• A Hay Ride was included in our pumpkin patch visit.
• We had our Community Group from church over for a backyard bonfire party, complete with s'mores, cocoa, cider, and lots of candy corn.  It was such a fun night, and the kids especially loved it!
• We made caramel apples as a family on the Sunday afternoon before Halloween.  They were SO yummy!  
• Ok, I cheated on the Corn Maze.  We went to one last year.  And we had so much fun that I decided it could carry over to this year too :)
• We went to a Pumpkin Patch, and came away with three pumpkins and some corn stalks.  Riggins had a ball!
• We did go on two dates, but just went on the second last night so it wasn't checked off!  We went on an overnight trip to Mt. Magazine with dear friends, and last night we went out to dinner.  Jonathan's boards preparation put a damper on our dating life this fall, but we're back in business!
• We made fall cookies.  A lot.  And ate them.  A lot.  
• We took a nature walk at Shelby Forrest, and took lots of walks out at Shelby Farms and around the neighborhood.
• We took Riggins trick-or-treating for the first time, and had a blast!
• I baked pies for Thanksgiving, and a couple for Jonathan just because I'm sweet like that. ;)
• We carved a pumpkin.  Riggins made some awesome faces when touching the squishy insides!
• I drank lots of fancy Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes.
• And we took a picnic lunch when we did our hike at Shelby Farms!  

Our little family made lots of great memories together this fall, and this list definitely helped us to make the most of it!  Maybe next year I'll get to the leaf art and taking pics in a leaf pile.  Every time I found a good pile of leaves and made a mental note to take Riggins back with the camera, it rained the next day! Wasn't meant to be, I guess!  

Advent for Dudes

WARNING: If your name starts with a J and ends with an onathan, stop reading now!  You hear me, Mister? ;)  

 Don't you love it when you actually follow through and do something that you've seen on Pinterest?  I thought some of you might enjoy replicating this little Advent calendar that I made for Jonathan.  My inspiration came from here: 

Source: thedatingdivas.com via Leslie on Pinterest

The point of this project is that so much of our effort during the holidays goes into making Christmas special for our children.  In the process, we can often neglect our spouse.  So why not do something simple to make the Christmas season magical for him or her too?  

The Pinterest version, of course, was quite ornate, with scrapbooked love notes and lots of fancy date nights.  My version, on the other hand, is the thrown-together-in-an-hour-with-stuff-I-already-had version.  And even though I did the the full 25 days, it's not too late to do something similar for your special someone.  You could either start a little late, or even do a little "Twelve Days of Christmas" thing.  

Here's the scoop: I scrounged up 25 white envelopes that I already had around the house (extras from invitations/cards that didn't get used, business envelopes, etc.) and numbered them from 1 through 25 using stickers I already had from another project.  You could easily just write the numbers on yourself, of course.  

Then, I opened my calendar and a Word document, and began to type up a little something for each day of December until Christmas.  Jonathan and I are not doing gifts for each other this year, so these things are not actual "gifts," per say.  Basically, each day has some sort of act of service, treat, or fun Christmas activity.  Some days just have a note with a specific compliment or a fun Christmas memory that we share.  

For example, for yesterday I wrote a little something about how proud I am of how hard he worked to prepare for Boards, and I promised him a great back rub.  Today's card tells him that I've planned a little family outing to pick up our Christmas tree.  Tomorrow is the big OSU/OU game, so I've promised him that I'll make Seven Layer Dip (his favorite game-day food) and listed seven things I love about him.  One day has a coupon and a dollar bill for a 99 cent latte at Dunkin Donuts.  One day has a date night, complete with a babysitter (Thanks, Emily!!!).  Another day has a pizza coupon, cash, and a promise to let him choose all the toppings (we always get into the meat vs. veggies dilemma, so I have a feeling that will be a Meat Busters night!), another reminisces about our first Christmas when we were dating.  On my grocery day, the note has him tell me any dessert he wants and I promise to pick up the ingredients to make it that night.  Other days are just pre-scheduled holiday events that were already on our calendar, and others are things that I planned for us to do as a family, like baking cookies, going to see Christmas lights, and our annual fondue night.  

Once I had written a note for each day, I printed out the document, cut each day into strips, and placed each one in the coordinating envelope.  I strung up some ribbon from my stash on the mantle in our bedroom and used clothespins to attach each envelope in order.  It was a fun surprise when he came home from work on November 30th and saw a whole month's worth of fun surprises just for him!  

This was a fun, simple project that any guy would love.  And honestly, I think Jonathan will appreciate my last-minute "print it, stuff it, hang it" approach just as much as he would an elaborate scrap-booked affair!  I'm looking forward to spoiling him a bit this month, and to taking some time to invest in our marriage in the midst of a crazy season.  

Seven Thousand Days

It was a rough day at our house.  I started feeling under the weather yesterday and hardly slept last night, partially because I was congested, and partially because a certain little boy woke up in the night.  We haven't pulled the humidifier out yet and he woke up with a sore throat and needed a drink of water.  Since he never wakes up in the night, and since I had been struggling to sleep anyway, I took advantage of the chance to rock my firstborn and soak up some snuggles.  

When I awoke, the crud had hit me with full force.  My head felt like it could explode from the sinus pressure, and my mind felt completely clouded.  Add a toddler to that mix, and it just wasn't pretty.  He was testing the limits, and I was impatient and short-tempered.  I threw on my sweats and headed off to Walgreens, only to be told that pretty much every effective cold and sinus medication is off limits for pregnant women.  Tylenol and Sudafed just aren't cutting it.  

Since Riggins was fine and since I am pretty positive I just have a sinus infection, I went on to MOPS.  I figured that if I were home, I would just have a bored child to entertain, so I might as well let him play with his friends while I zoned out to our speaker.  

Of course, that's never how these things work, is it?  Our speaker was the preschool minister from a local church, and she spoke about incorporating Jesus into everyday life with our children.  After her introduction, she showed a brief video with the theme of "7,000 Days."  A sentimental song about how fast parenthood flies by played in the background as images of families flashed across the screen.  In each family, each child held a sign with a number between 6,999 and 1.  

If you average it out, there are about 7,000 days between a child's day of birth and the day they turn 18 and leave your house for college.  The number on each child's sign represented the number of days they have left in their parents' homes.  Although we will continue to influence our children after that point, the primary impact we have comes during the years they are in our homes.    

Between my lack of sleep, my pregnancy hormones, my pounding headache, and our difficult morning, the weight of the video's message was more than I could take.  My eyes were overflowing with tears, and had I not been in the presence of others I would have positively wept.  

I know not all days are going to be great.  And I know that some of them, like today, are going to be downright rough.  But gosh, I want to soak them all up and make them matter.  I don't want to waste time with my children.  The countdown is on.

We went home and my prayers for a long nap were answered.  We each slept for three hours, and when Riggins woke up we made a big bowl of popcorn and crawled into my bed to watch every Elmo video ever posted to You Tube.  When Jonathan came home, he took Riggs and Weber on a run and then to pick up dinner at Chic-fil-A.  We capped off the evening with a bath, the Advent calendar, and some stories and Christmas carols.  

So the day was redeemed.  I still feel like junk, and I expect to feel the same tomorrow.  My plate will be a tiny little saucer for the next couple of days, if you will.  But I'll be darned if I wish away any of these 7,00 days with my boys!  

And one last little tidbit that I took away from her talk: let your children see you in the Word and in prayer.  While it is great to have time alone with the Lord, it is so good for your children to see you prioritizing that time.  This was a big lightbulb for me.  Ever since becoming a mother I have struggled to figure out when to fit in my time with the Lord, since uninterrupted moments alone are few and far between.  My youth group concept of "quiet time" had made me feel like being totally alone and quiet was essential.  While those times are important, our speaker made me realize that some time in the Bible at the kitchen table as Riggins eats breakfast is still time in the Word!  It's better than nothing it will set an example for him.  

This point brought back memories of coming downstairs each morning as a child and teenager to find my dad at the kitchen table with his cup of coffee and open Bible.  He didn't pack it all up just because I was awake, and I obviously have clear memories of this priority in his life.  What is more, that priority showed in other areas of life, giving me a consistent picture of what life should look like when we live out what we read and believe. 

So there are just a couple of worthwhile thoughts that came out of a day otherwise filled with snotty tissues, Gatorade, and Tylenol!