Day 1 of LDC (Love Dare Challenge)

The 1st day of the challenge was of course the most difficult for me. The challenge? Resolve to say nothing negative about your spouse today. (Eph. 4:2)

I'm sad to say it, but that's about as challenging for me as placing a bar of chocolate in front of me and telling me not to eat it. It can be completely irresistible and satisfying at times!

As in all relationships, there are differing views about how to do everything. The perfect example of this was the first big argument we had after getting married. The issue? Where to store the bread in the kitchen.

Yes, I'm serious.

How can that be an issue? Let me tell you...

I was raised putting bread in the bread box until that got converted into my mom's catch-all in the kitchen. Then the bread was moved to the microwave to be off the counter so it wasn't in the way of food prep. Brent was raised leaving the bread on the counter.

A few days into our marriage the bread storage became an issue. Brent was tired of taking out the bread every time he wanted to use the microwave, and I didn't like it sitting out on the small countertop. The fight ended with me in tears and us totally shocked and amazed at how the other was raised.

Back to the present now. The challenge for Day #1 was especially hard for me because of our differing views on how to discipline Train Lover.

I had resolved not to say anything negative to Brent that day, so instead of the usual demands from me to 'do it my way' or 'stop!', I kept my mouth shut and bit my tongue often. It was really difficult for me. But I noticed a change throughout the day. Brent's way of handling Train Lover became less mean (what I view his disciplining as) as the day progressed.

God gave me a tender mercy for biting my tongue all day. At the end of the day Brent came up to me looking a little bummed and he told me he didn't like how he had handled getting after Train Lover and said he was going to try and be better.

I was able to sleep that night with a little less sore tongue because of those words.

40 Day Love Dare Challenge

I miss blogging. It was fun and I was doing pretty good this year...till my life turned upside down with me trying to figure out how to juggle 2 kids with 5-6 hours of sleep every night (if I'm lucky). So here's me starting again because you can't start anything (or continue) till you take a step!


Have any of you seen the movie Fireproof? Though the acting is pretty terrible, I love the message the movie is sharing. The husband in the movie is trying to save his marriage with his wife by doing the "40 Day Love Dare Challenge" presented to him by his father. It shows the ups and downs and things he learns along the way while doing this.

I decided to take this challenge upon myself. No, Brent and I aren't struggling in our marriage. Don't worry about that. Pregnancy is long and doesn't leave you much time to be together with your spouse. After having Baby E, I was noticing more and more that Brent and I weren't as close and loving as I would have liked.

I watched the movie at night over the course of a few days while I was up nursing Baby E (watching movies is one of the only things I can do during the night to keep me up for those feedings). I decided to take the challenge on myself.

I didn't tell Brent. He'll find out when he reads the following posts to come in the next few days.

*Confession. I didn't do all 40 days. 40 days is a big commitment to make when you have a newborn. However, I did over half of the challenges and I learned a lot from them. And I haven't given up. I'm working on them when I can and repeating some of the challenges I've already done. I'd encourage anyone to do this to strengthen their marriage and love for their spouse. You can find many versions of it online and they're all great.

Train Lover vs. Baby E

Baby E is 6 weeks old and I'm amazed at the differences between him and his older brother already. I didn't think there would be many differences so soon, but there are.

Train Lover                                                  Baby E
- had lots of dark blond hair                        - has a lot of long, dark brown hair
- weighed 9 lbs. 8 oz.                                  - weighed 7 lbs. 1 oz.
- hated baths                                                - loves baths
- hated tummy time                                     - loves being on his tummy
- needed to be swaddled to sleep                - loves being free and calms himself
  and calm down                                            by touching his face
- would only nurse using a nipple               - nurses great most of the time (still working
  shield                                                           on not pinching me)
- normal tongue                                            - tongue tied and got a frenulectomy
- loved being rocked                                    - likes being still unless he can't calm down

I'm sure there will be more differences as the time passes. As different as these boys are, I love them both tremendously. They have brought me so much joy and happiness. I can't imagine life without them. I'm so glad I get to be a mommy for them!

Welcome Baby E!

Contractions started on April 1st around 10pm, only a few short hours after Brent had given me a blessing and told the baby to vacate the premises. I started timing the contractions using an app on the phone and called the birthing center after a few hours of consistent contractions to see if I needed to come in. They recommended I come in, so around 2am we drove the 20 minutes to get to the hospital. Thankfully my mom had flown in to help out so she stayed to watch Train Lover.

Once there a nurse checked me out and I was dilated to a 4. After determining I was still going to have a c-section, the nurses started getting me ready with an IV and taking some blood. A couple hours later I was wheeled to the OR while Brent stayed in the hall till they were ready to operate. I expected problems to happen like they did with the last delivery, and they did. The anesthesiologist giving me the spinal tap messed up and only half the drugs went in me. She had to give me an epidural as well, which I didn't find out about until after having the baby.

I was then strapped down to the table, my numb belly was prepped to be cut open, and the uncontrollable shaking started to happen. What a way to remember that would happen. You really do forget about the pain and unpleasantness of giving birth - the only reason people keep having babies.

The anesthesiologist started poking my arm and then my belly asking if I felt the same kind of poke/pain. I did. She was surprised and upped the drugs. This same thing repeated 3 or 4 more times. So I was very heavily drugged.

Once Brent joined me they started the operation. Thank goodness I was drugged and couldn't see anything with the curtain up. After a lot of  tugging and pressure...Baby E was born! Everyone in the OR commented on how much hair he had first. Then they held him up near me so I could see him before they took him to get checked. Brent went with to take pics and be with him.

The surgeon started putting my insides that were on my outsides back into my insides, haha. After a few minutes, pain started. I mean, PAIN. I felt them stitching me up. I said 'ouch' and once a nurse heard me and I told them I felt pain all hands working on me froze. I was then given a ton more drugs and then some meds in the IV to forget everything that was happening to me. Yeah...didn't work and I still felt a lot of pain. Again...I know I'll forget and want another baby again. Crazy huh?

After that I was taken to the recovery room where Brent was holding our little guy. I got to hold him and feed him and it was just amazing. Words can't describe the feelings moms have when holding their new baby in their arms.

I stayed in the hospital for 3 1/2 days where a lot of things happened. Recovery, breastfeeding, and trying to get some sleep when I could. Overall it was a good stay in the hospital, but I was sure glad to go home and be in my own environment again. We're doing good and I'm figuring out this having 2 kids thing one day at a time. I just have to say, I love being a mom.

Mr. Potato Head Quiet Book Page

I just got this awesome laminator in the mail yesterday. I love it! I've already laminated about 5 pages and the machine is doing great. Everything looks great and I can't wait to do more with it! This quiet book is going to come along quickly now.

I made a Mr. Potato Head quiet book page using the printable found on this website. You need to download the zip file and when you open it you'll see the 2 pages used for the potato head.

I put the printed head in a page protector. Then I cut and attached the sticky magnets using this magnetic strip. I chose to use magnets instead of velcro because I didn't want it to make too much noise during sacrament meeting. The magnets work great and hardly make any noise. I'm also using a 1/2" binder because I want to take it places. I think 1" would be too big. I'm going to rotate the pages I make to keep things interesting.

I printed the pieces for the head and then cut out each piece. Then I put the pieces in a laminator pouch and laminated the sheet. After that I cut around all the pieces. I left some space around each piece so the laminating doesn't come off. Once cut, I attached some sticky magnets to the back of each piece.

I am making many pages that have a lot of pieces, so I put all the pieces in a ziploc.

I found this 3 hole pouch sleeve at Target for 60 cents on sale. I put the pieces in there.

Train Lover loves this new activity! He did it all on his own and knew where all the pieces went without me telling him where to put them.

Tongue sticking out means he's concentrating. He had fun switching out the hats, noses, and mouths. I can't wait to get all the other pages for this book done before baby comes. It'll be a great activity book to keep Train Lover entertained at church, home, and in the car.

Number Worksheet Pages

As the previous post for Alphabet Worksheet Pages, here are some number pages I created.

You can download and print the numbers 1-10 by clicking on this link.

Alphabet Worksheet Pages

I'm working on a paper quiet book for Train lover. I have an unfinished felt quiet book I've done, but I want something I can give him soon. Especially since my time for crafting is winding down with baby #2 coming in just over 2 weeks. Yikes!

This quiet book will be great to take to church. The pages are from the Friend magazine and other resources online. There are coloring pages, mazes, and other pages that have pieces to add on with magnets. I'm going to laminate some pages and put others in page protectors. He can then color on the pages with dry erase crayons or markers.

I used the coloring pages from Crayola's website and cropped out all the stuff I didn't want. I then added some lines of each letter to practice writing. I found these great worksheets at the Twisty Noodle website. I love it because it's all customizable and you can write anything you want.

Here's a sample of what they look like

And because I'm super nice, you can print all these pages out for FREE by following this link. All the pages are in a zip file. so you will need to extract them in order to print them out.

Hope you enjoy these pages!