This Morning

This morning started off right. Right for today at least. We all slept in. Something we NEVER do.

Seriously. Almost everyone is dressed for the day. Not bad. Breakfast has been made and consumed. And we didn't forget to feed the dogs! Sydney and Calvin are working together on Starfall.com spelling words. Jaclynn and I are still plugging away at the laundry we started a couple of days ago. Yes Jaclynn is actually a very good laundry assistant. She shoves all the wet clothes into the dryer and can even clean the lint out of the clean out thingy. Now that we purchased a front loading dryer she can start it too! It is pretty simple and it beeps a little song to her so she thinks it's great! Now I just need to find a front loading washer on clearance and she'll be able to do that too! She has a small height problem at the moment to be able to complete that task. I'll give her a few years on that one! Anyway, here's to a great day! "This is the day that the lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it! This is the day! This is the day, that the Lord has made!" That's just the song that is twirling through my head at the moment!

Almost 3 months

For years everyone has always said, "enjoy this time now because they grow faster than you realize." I have always known that to be true but it still seems to sneak up on me once in a while. I am shocked as I sit back and think it has already been 3 months since Gregory was born. We are 3 months into the first year of his life and he has already changed so much! Here are just a few current pictures of our little guy.

Dinner tonight

Boneless skinless chicken thighs are on sale for $1.29/lb at Sprouts until Wednesday this week so I stocked up. Because of this great sale it is the perfect week to make a giant batch of bean, rice and chicken casserole. I got this recipe from Jessica and it is a major hit every time I've made it, especially at home group.  I also had a plethora of tomato juice and canned tomatoes as well as all the other things that are thrown into this delicious dish! So Sydney, my sous chef, and I mixed up five casserole dishes full of this great meal. Three for home group and two for giving away. This was a very low cost meal and we stretched it very far. Tonight we added some clearance rolls and a spinach romaine salad and we were set. I was even able to freeze 2 packages of chicken I originally thought I would need for tonight. Just means I have more on hand for a later time. God is so faithful. His provision is abundant. And we are so thankful.


Editors side note: Upon serving this meal tonight I realized NEVER to soak dry beans for four days and trust that they have softened enough! ALWAYS boil them and forget the soaking. As a result of this little mistake we had delicious casserole with firm beans(which took away from some of it's deliciousness). You live and you learn. Right?

It had been too long.

Gregory's first trip to my favorite place. He spent the whole time snuggled against me asleep in the wrap. He obviously doesn't understand how special a trip to the beach is!

The battle for the hearts of our children.

As I was quickly skimming the pages of the Girl Talk website I found this quote:

"Oftentimes parenting can feel like a battle. And the "enemy" is your two-year-old who's just thrown their dinner on the floor (again); or your fifteen-year-old, who's just slammed the door on you (again). But still your job is to show them what our Father in heaven is like. Yes, they need to learn to live under authority. But they also need to learn of a God who welcomes His enemies, loves His enemies and gives His life for His enemies." (Gospel Centered Family by Tim Chester and Ed Moll)

This spoke volumes to me. Unfortunately so much of what I do , think, say is conformed by the worlds perspective on parenting. We have an amazing example to follow in our Heavenly Father and I feel as if I easily ignore it. Maintaining effective control, strength and power in my decisions and a heart overflowing with love to pour over my children CONSTANTLY is what I need to remember. Thankfully we can have a personal experience of this kind of love through our relationship with Jesus Christ. For me, without this love I would be clueless as to how to begin to lovingly direct my children toward righteousness. Thanks be to God for His mercy over me.

Signs of a sleep deprived mama!

I read somewhere recently that motherhood is not for those who love sleep. Isn't that the case! I have never really been a lover of sleep but oh how hard it is to get by sometimes when you have had 3 or 4 hours of very broken sleep for 3 or 4 years!

The results of this predicament, at least in my case, have been quite hysterical at times.

For example, just this early morning, I think around 2am, I woke up surrounded by multiple small sleeping children. I rolled out of bed and picked up who I thought was Gregory. Tucked him into his crib and turned to crawl back into bed, too tired to remove any more of the sleeping bed hogs. As I slipped back into bed I realized I was snuggling back into bed with the actual Gregory. Just as I was getting back up to figure out who I had tucked into Gregory's bed Jaclynn woke up in the crib very irritated and confused. How in the world did I confuse her with a newborn?

Here are a few other examples of what my lack of sleep has done recently and in the past.

- Filling my coffee filter with oatmeal instead of coffee grinds

- Driving away from my house on the phone only to loose the call a couple houses down the street because I was on my home phone and not my cell

- Arriving at moms club one morning I was looking for my cell phone and found that I had instead packed my home phone into my diaper bag.

-Upon finding a pacifier to calm a fussy baby I quickly tried shoving it into Steven's mouth. Don't really know what I was thinking with that one!

-Cut Steven's dinner up into teeny tiny pieces and didn't realize it until I got a very confused look from him as he sat to eat dinner.

-Attempted to diaper a newborn with a size 5 diaper

But the worst so far has to be when I actually forgot my baby's name. Yes, I am very embarrassed to even admit it, but I did. Just a few days after Gregory was born I was talking to somebody at church who wanted to meet our newest little addition.

"What is his name?" she asked.

And for what seemed like an eternity I starred blankly at her with a very deer in the headlights kind of look. In my head I was thinking,"I have no idea! This is horrible!"

Then thankfully I shouted out "Gregory Mark Zuniga!"

I don't think she was expecting the full thing but since I had paused so long and felt so ridiculous that is just what came spewing out. It was obvious that for a moment I was searching my brain for what we had named our sweet new baby and she was very uncomfortable!

I can't be the only one who has done wacky things with little to no sleep right?

Question of the day.

As Jaclynn was enjoying an episode of Blues Clues, Sydney came to me with a question.

"Why does Blues Clues encourage kids to do what ever they want? That's not good." She said.

Hmm? You know the song, "blues clues, blues clues, you can do anything, that you want to do!"

Good point. I thought to myself. Not really the thing I'd like to be drilling into my wildly independent two year old. Wise six year olds can certainly give you perspective sometimes.