Missing

Lately things have been missing around our house.

Not surprising b/c Caleb has been able to open the trash can and loves to put things in. He will throw away his dirty diapers. Which is nice. However, I think that he has also thrown away a few other things. Like some of Nate's favorite cars. Oh well. I did catch him throwing away his shoe...not the cheap 5 dollar shoes...

..then Nate's crocs went missing. I thought that I didn't notice them being thrown away and that they were history.

Until I found them this morning.

In the dryer.

The load that I had washed and dried.

His shoes are very clean now.

I'm still not sure who put them in the washer. Oh well.

Park play

We decided to check out a park that was close to our house. We had a great time! There was a pirate ship where Caleb and I played hide and seek. He found me. I love this smile.

It also had some fun slides.

We did have fun, but we had forgotten the park phenomenon. For some reason being at a park makes Nathaniel poop. Unfortunately he had on underwear. Fortunately I did not throw up. However, that ended play at the park.

**This was the first accident that he has had yet! Woo hoo for potty training. Now if we can figure out how to avoid the park pooping thing we will be good!

Just like daddy

The much anticipated game. (at least for Pete) I knew that it would basically mean that Pete would desire to (but not always) play 24/7. Thankfully he beat it rather quickly. Trying to be just like daddy

And another gamer in the works.

Oh, and another hat wearer. :)

One of my favorite pictures of Caleb. He loves his daddy so much and when he comes home it is like all is finally right in Caleb's world.

Cape Girardeau

Well, not exactly in the right order....but it will tell the story anyway. We went to visit Cape Girardeau for Pete's birthday and so that I could go to a women's retreat! We stopped to let the boys run off some steam. They had a great time playing on this dump truck.

Nate reading in the library with a new friend.

And (below) Caleb ready to try whatever big brother does.

Taking a break

I have been thinking about time. How much time I have to "myself", what I am doing with "my" time. One of the things that God has shown me is that it is NOT my time. First, He has put me here to do His will. When I walk in my own strength with my own agenda I get nowhere...and sometimes I think that I actually take a few steps back. I am so thankful for His grace and for His love for me.
In order to accomplish these things I started looking at where all my time was going.
1. Sleep was one of the top things. Hopefully getting on a regular schedule of getting up early will help me to not feel to tired all the time. Getting to bed also helps. :)
2. Kids. I don't think that there is much that I can change here. Nate is still working on potty training, Caleb is still teething, and the baby is still growing inside me. I am sure that they aren't ready to be out on their own yet. However, when I am in the word my reaction to them is pleasing to the Lord and will help train them in righteousness.
3. House. This sort of goes along with the kids. Whatever I do, they undo in half the time. Discouraging. But I can make sure that under all the toys is clean. I looked at the guest bathroom today and couldn't remember the last time I cleaned it. Yuck.
4. Computer. I realized after taking a few days away from Facebook just how much time is tied up in reading about other people's lives. Yes, I care so much about these people but honestly I haven't seen many of them for over ten years. Do I really need to know that they are mowing their lawn? Or spend time looking at the 100 pictures they posted from a vacation? Really? I have also started looking at the blogs that I read and what is helpful to me and what is (like facebook) just taking up time and not really beneficial at all.
5. Reading. I could read four 300 page books in a week. (not a shocker that my bathroom wasn't clean).

As I think about the last two things that have consumed my time recently I realized that I have been using them as an escape. I still don't feel at home here in Indiana. But I think that part of the reason is that I've been living somewhere else "the Internet"..I can still feel a part of Delaware or Tennessee or Illinois or Missouri when I am facebooking. Which is nice to a point, I think that I have been living there just a little too much.
Then, when I am reading....I become that character that is facing the challenges of solving a mystery and I can forget for a time my challenges of teething toddler and boundary testing three year old.

All that to say that I am taking a break from Facebook. I am going to blog some. I feel like I can control that time better than I can with facebook. I am also *gasp* limiting myself to one book a week. I am more than halfway through the book for this week and I am already wondering if I am going to be able to keep my promise to not start another one till Sunday. Maybe I will clean my guest bathroom.

Testing

I'm just playing around with word and thinking that I can blog without really logging in. Wouldn't that be fun. J

Reasoning

Tonight Nathaniel was practicing his reasoning skills on me.

Nate: Caleb wants chocolate.
Me: Ok. (I gave Caleb a piece of wrapped chocolate)

Nate: Can I have chocolate?
Me: No, you already had some.

Nate: Caleb wants to share.

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Caleb is starting to get around. Not by crawling or rolling to his destination...he's doing a "butt scoot". He will lean way forward and scoot forward while sitting up. Creative movement!