My Dream Come True!

With many sacrifices made and many sacrifices to come, I officially get to be a stay at home Mom, starting in February!  I couldn't be more ecstatic!  I know it's not for everyone, but I really do enjoy taking care of Elijah day in and day out and doing all the other housework while Dustin is busy with his job at church.  

At the same time, it's a little scary.  There are so many unemployed people and here I am walking away from my job.  I have asked Dustin numerous times if he's nervous about this, but he's not.  We both feel confident in our decision and at the same time, it's a huge leap of faith!  

I think it's going to take a little while for this to sink in; I really never thought this day would come.  I feel like this is what I'm meant to do; it gives my life  more purpose than I've felt in a long time.  I'm so happy!  : )

Newborn Days

Even though I miss this...

Back when Eli would fall asleep when being held.

 I don't miss the newborn days, not one bit.  Yes, they're all tiny and cute and sleep most of the day, but on the other hand, they wake up every two hours at night.  I don't miss strategizing with Dustin what "shifts" we would take at night.  I don't miss not having a schedule, never knowing when baby would wake up screaming at the top of his lungs.  I don't miss carrying around all that extra baby weight that eventually comes off.

I'm not saying that the newborn days were horrible, but I enjoy these days A LOT more.  I love watching Elijah's personality develop a little more each day/week.  I love that he's content most of the day, unless he's hungry or doesn't want to go down for a nap.  I love that he has enough meat on his bones that I don't feel like he's super fragile anymore.  I love that he sleeps through the night, which started at 10 weeks.  I love listening to him talk.  I love watching him examine everything around him.  Each day gets better and better!

7 months old!

Daddy's future eagle scout!

 

Etsy!

Dustin gave me a sewing machine for Christmas, so I immediately had to start creating.  I decided that it wouldn't hurt to put a few things up on Etsy, so please check out my site here; I'm hoping to add more things soon!  I really wanted to sell some growth charts, which I showed pictures of in my previous listing, but I'm not sure how to ship something like that?

In Case My Husband Wonders What I Did Today....

This blog was written on Friday.

As Dustin was leaving for work Friday morning, he came back in the house to tell us that it had snowed!  Snow is such a rare occurrence in Tucson, but our house is out in country where the elevation is higher, so we see a light dusting of it about once a year.  Of course, Eli and I ran outside to see it.

So excited!

 Anyway, this snow put me in a great mood; I thought, "What an awesome day this is going to be".  Dustin's car was in the shop, so that left us carless, but I had great plans of the fun we could have at home.  I would put on a pot of coffee, Eli could play, I would catch up on some episodes of Parenthood. While Eli was sleeping, I would make him some baby food...we would work on sewing projects, I could clean up the house!  Most days, I probably could accomplish all those things, but today, Elijah seemed to have all the control.

Everything was going smoothly until after his morning nap.  All of a sudden, he wasn't happy doing anything.  I'd put him in his jumper and he'd whine.  Ok, I'll move him to his play mat..more whining.  Ok, I'll flip him over onto his back, he loves being on his back..whine, whine, whine.  But, as soon as I would start to play with him, he was happy as a clam (little stinker).  I guess he just wanted attention, which is fine, but it's so unlike him.  He can usually self-entertain for quite some time.

Then it comes time for his second nap of the day at about 10:45am.  We did the usual nap time routine..book, lullabies, a little rocking, put in crib.  He screamed his head off.  So, I wonder..maybe his teeth are hurting him?  I let him cry for about 15 minutes before giving him teething tablets ( I hate to just pop them in his mouth, unless they are necessary).  He stopped crying...for about 2 minutes.  Now, it was about 11:15.  I needed to pump in order for Elijah to have something to eat for lunch.  Ok, I'm going to let him "cry it out" (which I've never done), so I can go pump.  

There's a fine line between Elijah's regular crying and his hysterical crying; if you let it reach hysterics, it can be really hard to calm him down, so that's why I've never let him cry it out.  Well, I start pumping for about 5 minutes before he reaches his hysterical crying point.  Great, I stop pumping, run into his room and try to calm him down.  After about 30 minutes of crying, it's almost time for him to eat again.  So, I proceed to thaw out frozen milk and feed him.  It's now about 12:30.  I convince myself that he really needs to nap and after having a full belly, he falls asleep at 12:45.

Did I really just spend 2 hours of my day trying to calm down a crying baby?!  Once he was asleep, I knew I had to make the most use of my few minutes before he woke up.  So, I had to prioritize.  First, I have to finish pumping..done.  Then, I need to eat lunch.  Well, on the way to making lunch, I noticed that one of the dogs had peed in the living room.  So, I had to stop and clean that up.  Just as the microwave was dinging, Elijah was wide awake and crying...he slept for all of 30 minutes.

By 1:30pm, I was completely exhausted.  The rest of the day wasn't too bad, but we didn't do anything, except lay on the floor and play.

When Dustin came home from work, the house looked exactly the same as when he had left that morning, maybe even a little messier.  My hair was still in the same messy ponytail.  I didn't have any makeup on; I'm not even sure if I brushed my teeth.  Elijah was as happy now as he was when Daddy left for work.  From an outsider's perspective, it probably looked like we sat around watching tv all day, little does he know what actually happened.

The good thing about my husband is that he never questions what we did all day.  He doesn't mind if the house is a disaster.  Whereas, if I came home from working all day and the house was still a mess and Dustin hadn't gotten out of his pajamas, there would have been lots of questioning and disappointment.  

(SIGH), I guess I can't be supermom everyday; tomorrow is a new day.

Growth Chart: An Easy Tutorial

My finished product!

After seeing pictures of giant, over-sized, ruler looking growth charts on pinterest, I decided it was time to make one. I continuously pin all these great ideas, but I've never taken the time to actually make them!  Well, I finally did it and LOVE the results.  There is one pin going around that claims you can make one for $10, but the truth is, unless you have half the materials around your house, you're going to end up spending around $20-$25.  But, it is well worth the money.  So, here is my easy tutorial on how to make a growth chart.

Step 1: Go to Home Depot
I purchased a 10x6x1 board, get the cheapest one you can find.  Some of the boards cost $10 a foot...DON'T GET THOSE!  They have a cutting board/saws in the lumber aisle, use it to cut 3.5 feet off your board; I had my husband along to do the work for me!  : )

Then, head over the paint aisle, where you'll find little jars of Minwax stain.  I think the hardest part of the whole project was picking out the color of stain.  I chose Golden Pecan.  I also picked up a cheap paintbrush.  You could use a cloth.

Last, get a sawtooth hanger to hang your chart when it's all done.  They look like this:

Step 2: Stain your wood
I set my piece of lumber on two paver stones that we had in our backyard.  Since it's winter in Tucson, we can do these things outside.

I applied the first coat at 10am and the second coat around 3pm.  Each time you put on the stain, you want to let it saturate for about 5-10 minutes before you wipe off the excess with a cloth.  You can put on as many coats of stain as you like, depending on how you want it to look.

Step 3: Use a pencil to mark your lines.

I used a tape measure to make little marks, then went back and used a straightedge to make them longer.  Unless your board will be sitting on the floor, start at the 6 inch mark, then when you hang it, make sure it's 6 inches from the ground.

Step 4: Use a paint pen to go over your marks and make your numbers
I purchased my paint pen and 1.5 inch number stencils from Walmart.  

 Step 5: Attach your hanger to the back, put a nail in the wall and voila, you're done!

 
 Total cost of project:
Lumber...$8.76
Stain....$4.78
Hanger...$1.94
Brush...$1.15
Stencils...$3.77
Paint Pen...$2.44

Grand Total: $22.84!

 
 
 

Resolutions

I don't think I've ever made resolutions, or if I did, I never shared them with anyone.  Well, this year I made three of them.  Here they are:

1. Stop worrying about my weight and focus more on body fat percentage.  I admit, I weigh myself every single day, which can be a good thing and a bad thing.  Take for instance, this morning, I weighed 1.5lbs more than I did two days ago.  My mind immediately goes to: How did I do that?  Did I really eat that much?  But I worked out! Then, I immediately go to Dustin, who reassures me that it is only water weight...phew!  (even though I should know that by now!)  We used Dustin's personal training knowledge and he made a month program for us and a spreadsheet to track our weight/body percent.  I refuse to diet, so we'll see if goals can be achieved without dieting; I'm sure I'll hit a plateau at some point and have to give up my daily bowl of ice cream!

Our workout from Day 1 about killed me.

Dustin's spreadsheet

 2. Stop complaining SO much!  My mom always said: "Kristen isn't happy unless she's complaining".  Well, that's not true, but I do complain about EVERYTHING!  And I started the New Year off with a bang by complaining about how messy our house was and how I can't always do the work all by myself.  When, in fact, if I asked Dustin to nicely do something, I'm positive he would do it.  I am proud to say, I didn't complain at all yesterday!  : )  

3. Make some friends.  Dustin and I are completely different in this department.  We walked into Bashas (a grocery store) the other day, and the banker says: "Hey Dustin, how's it going man?".  Ummm, excuse me?  The banker knows you?  Dustin makes friends with everyone!  We were at Home Depot two days ago and if I weren't with him, he probably would have become friends with the stock boy, who struck up a conversation with him about Oregon. I, on the other hand, find socializing to be stressful.  I enjoy staying at home and doing my own thing on my own time.  When I meet people, I never invest the time or energy into continuing a friendship with them.  So, this is something I would like to work on.  I know Arizona would be a much more enjoyable place to live if we had some friends.

In other news, I'm working on a pinterest project that I'm really excited about.  Dustin was out in the garage sanding down the board for it last night.  I'll post pictures when done!