God is Good, God is Grape

God is good, God is grape......this is how Wheeler begins all of his prayers.  I love hearing him pray.  Lately he asks to pray.  One day earlier this month, we were driving down the road, he said "let's pray for daddy's test."  John's stat final was that morning.  So I pulled to Sequoia over, and we prayed.

When we pray at dinner, we usually say the old  God is good God is great, let us thank him for our food......., but at night we all three sit together and each of us prays.  It's one of my favorite times of day.  Sometimes Wheeler goes on, and on, and on......and on, thanking God for jelly toast, ranch dressing, peanut butter and jelly, milk, juice (a lot of food!) and then he goes on to thank God for daddy and mommy, grammy and Poppa Allen.  He thanks God for all his cousins, his aunt Kelli and Uncle Scott and Aunt Kay and Uncle Randy.  And lately he ends his prayers with "I love you, Jesus.  Amen."  My favorite time of day.

Beginning of a New Year

The beginning of a new school year is exhausting!  I leave early and come home late.  I bring work home to do.  I lose my voice.  I love my job, though!  I love the kids, seeing them make new discoveries, helping them.  This year I am blessed with a wonderful class.  They are energetic, enthusiastic, and relatively well behaved!

While I am so excited about this year, I feel a bit overwhelmed.  A couple of my teacher friends and I have decided to change things up a bit, and change them up is what we're doing!  I looked over at my WONDERFUL!!!! assistant at one point today and said "tell me this'll be worth it!"  She quickly told me yes, that what we were doing, while time consuming in the beginning (to learn the routine) is one of the best things we've added in a while (love her and her encouragement!)

I can't wait to see what the year brings, and how these kiddos do. I see great things on the horizon!

Also, I have to give props to my wonderful husband.  He has taken Wheeler to school and picked him up almost every day since school started so that I could go to work early and stay late.  Even though it is in totally the opposite direction of UT.  He also makes sure everything possible is done around the house.

Life Without Internet

Life without internet stinks.  Our internet went out Monday afternoon.  We've been having all kinds of trouble with the DSL lately, so at first we weren't too concerned.  The next day I called AT&T and they scheduled someone to come out on Wednesday.  Well, long story short, we finally got internet back tonight.

I knew I relied on the world wide web a little much, but let me tell you, not being able to check my email, my favorite blogs, or just be nosy on Facebook just about killed me!  I hated it so much, that I took the laptop to Toyota Knoxville yesterday when I had to have some work done on the Sequoia in hopes of wifi access (which they had!!!!) so I could answer some emails and be my nosy self!

I honestly wonder how in the world I got along 10 years ago without all this technology, and I wonder where the technology will be in another 10 years.

The Weight of the World

The cricket outside my bedroom window doesn't seem to care that it is after midnight and he should BE ASLEEP!  I realize he is one of God's creatures, but God's creature should have some common courtesy.

I am not usually one who is bothered by noises at night, I mean for pete's sake, I teach first grade.....we are all about noise, but for some reason, tonight, this little guy is bothering me.  So as I was lying there, trying to slumber, my thoughts kept wandering to a conversation John and I had earlier.  We were talking about how the financial market in Europe isn't looking so good.  Now, I, by no means know much about all this, I am not a political type person (though I probably should know more than I know.)  My thoughts kept going to the future, and how, if things are harder every year, what's it going to be like when Wheeler is an adult.  All of a sudden I felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders.  Not necessarily something that is going wrong in our lives at the moment, but the weight of the future.  I felt suffocated.  I did the only thing I knew to do, I started praying.

I am not one who normally worries about the future at all.  I tend to think it is wasted energy to worry about what might happen later and I try to live in the present.  I started praying for God to take away the worry and to help me remember that I can't change everything, I can make good decisions for me, my family, and the world I live in.  I can try to make the world a beautiful place for those around me, including my son.  I can raise him to see the brighter side of things (which I tend to do, I think.)  I prayed that we, as parents, will make the choices and guide Wheeler in the Lord, to take care of what we have, to be grateful for what we have been given, and to cherish each other.

I truly felt better.  But that cricket kept talking.

Now I shall pray that I will be able to get some sleep, despite the cricket.

On Being Mommy

It's hard to believe we celebrated Wheeler's 3rd birthday yesterday.  Everyone says it, but seriously....where did the time go.  While trying to cherish every moment possible in our busy lives, it has all flown by so quickly.  It seems the time waiting for your little one's arrival goes soooooooo slow, even though you're busy with doctor appointments, getting the nursery ready, registering, showers, and the like.  Then when your little one arrives, time flies!!!!

I barely remember holding Wheeler for the first time.  He was five hours old before I got to hold him.  When he was born he was running a fever and they had to whisk him off to the nursery for antibiotics and to check him out. I knew he would be fine.  I knew the hospital should have started me on an IV antibiotic the night before when I came in and my water was leaking. They had made the decision to wait for my doctor the next morning, unless I progressed. After he was whisked away, I had some minor complications.  Nothing major.  I just couldn't hold him for a while.

John says this is one of his favorite pictures of me and Wheeler, when I finally got to hold him at about two in the morning.

I do remember six in the morning when the nurses brought him to me.  I remember thinking "Oh wow! He's really mine!"

We've had some great moments together over the past three years.

some not so great hair days

visiting friends

making new friends  

 hanging with Grammy and Jacob

hanging with mom

taking baths

dressing up (yes I will get mommy for this one day!)

playing outside

with daddy

my new Jeep

with mommy

with my cousins

Dollywood

Spending the holidays with family

Christmas with Mommy and Daddy at Fantasy of Trees

cooking with mom

My first surgery
 

 dressing up

going to the circus

 and I  love playing in the snow!!!!

My life has changed so much, as I know any mom's does.  I truly don't miss sleeping in, alone time, or peeing by myself.  I love the snuggles, the "I love you's" and the kisses.  I live to see his smile each day and feel his little arms wrapped around my neck.  All too soon this will all be over.   I cherish every moment with him and thank God everyday for allowing me the privilege of being his mommy.

Relaxing

Yesterday was the first day in a LOOOOONGGGGGG time I got to relax.  I took Wheeler to daycare (he goes a couple days a week over the summer to keep him a routine) and I came home.  I had nothing I HAD to do.  Sure there were things I could have done, but nothing immediate.  I didn't know what to do with myself.  I am not used to that.  I had to stay home, though, because contractors were coming to fix our master bedroom from the April hailstorms (finally).

I spent most of my day on the computer.  I have come to love reading blogs, so I checked in on some of my favorites, then I researched first grade blogs and got tons of ideas for my classroom this year.

I baked the cake for the birthday party tomorrow (it's going to take me the better part of the evening to decorate today.)

I read books with my little guy in the afternoon.

I went to bed at 9 o'clock!!!!  That hasn't happened in a long time!

It was so nice not to be multitasking all day like I am usually doing.  I think I am just wired to move all day doing at least two or more things at a time.  When I have a down day, I'm not sure what to do with myself.  It's almost as if I feel like something is wrong and I'm antsy if I don't have many irons in the fire at once.  I seem to be happiest and most productive when I'm busy.

Which is what my weekend will be! Busy!

Reading

My boy loves to rea!.  We read all the time and many different books.  He's even sat and listened to John read from The Visual History of the Modern World.  So we went to McKay's Books yesterday to get some new books.  It was the first time I had let him roam around and not stay confined to the stroller.  He had a ball picking out books.  He thought he was such a big boy because he could reach books up high.

In the end he picked out some Curious George and Clifford books.  (Mommy also brought home some Dr. Seuss books that we didn't have.)

He thought the glass elevator was so cool and we had to ride it.

And this was on the way home when we were stopped in traffic because he wanted me to take it.

What a stinker!  We had fun reading our books once we got home.  I pray this love of reading he has continues forever!