Taking it all in...

I don't even remember what I wrote about last time.........it's been so long. Oh ya! I like my salad plate. huh. Funny I wrote that then, cause right now my lil precious salad plate is starting to dip in the middle. Ok, I guess it'd have to be made of playdough to do that.

A little update on the life of the little momma that could.

Not gonna lie, life's been a challenge as of late. Linden's got seemingly endless poo issues, Jackson's got an ear infection and trying to cut ten teeth at the same time and learning that pushing buttons on everything is really fun......for HIM. Oh, he also likes to throw things. Big, small, wet, sticky, hard, soft, round, not round, if it somehow gets in his hand he'll throw it.

Jackson is at a really fun age right now; learning everything and it's all such an adventure for him. Just tonight, he was starting to go down the stairs head first so I grabbed him and turned him around. Pulling his leg down towards the next step I tried to show him how to go down backwards on his knees. I thought it was a silly attempt on my part but the little turkey got it! For the next twenty minutes he climbed up the stairs, down the stairs, up two stairs, down two, etc. The only time he got confused was when he reached the landing and had to keep going down the next set of stairs, he had nothing to hold on to so he just went head first and then sorted it out once he had a hold on something. Did I mention he just turned one last week? Yup, he's smart.

While a fun stage, it's also tiring. Mike (my husband) put it well that, to Jackson, everything is a game right now. It seems to us like he's testing us but he's not testing us...he's playing, we're just being tested by our lack of patience (paraphrase). He doesn't know he's pushing our buttons, or disobeying - he did, however, just go for the power button and stop and look back at me today - he's just playing, discovering.

Linden has an appointment with the pediatrician next week. Let me just put it this way...he's on day five of adult doses of adult laxative and he still hardly has soft poop. Any other kid would be nothing short of a fire hose......nevermind, that's rude. I feel so bad for him.

Sometimes I feel like my problems are so small in comparison other peoples. And really, they probably are. I feel like I shouldn't be stressed about things, like I should be able to handle what comes my way, that I shouldn't complain. When I hear about other people's problems I feel bad that I even feel tired or frusterated myself. I am learning, though, that my reality is my reality. Everybody goes through hard times and, yes, the pain and terrible things that some people go through far outweigh the challenges that another person may go through. But in no way at all does that cancel out the person with the lesser issue's stress and pain. It doesn't devalue your situation. So, instead of feeling bad about feeling bad about my situation because of someone else's situation (ya following? :), I can instead see them making it through their struggles and be inspired to do the same.

I apologize to you for my rants and raves lately. When I first started this blog I said in my very first post that I was always going to try to find the positive in things. That's been hard for me lately, speaking truthfully. Someone wrote to me recently and told me to value the hard times, take them in...because then the good times will seem even better. It's hard to remember that when you're lying on the kitchen floor with a 2 year old in your arms screaming cause he's scared to go to the bathroom and the 1 year old is screaming just cause he thinks it's fun. BUT, looking back at that episode from today I see how special it was. My two year old loves me and trusts me to hold him when he's in pain and my one year old thinks that screaming is fun.

Life is hard, but life is sweet. Life is tiring, but it's also so rewarding. I'm taking it all in tonight. The good and the bad. Because I know that the good times are real good if I let them be.

I borrowed "English Grammar for Dummies" from the library. I was a bit worried that my homestay students would think that I brought it home for them because I think they're dummies. They think it's funny that I have a book on learning proper english grammar and I don't think they're dummies. I'm gonna get good at english. I'm learning things I never knew. I'm in the chapter on linking verbs vs. action verbs and tenses of verbs. Did you know that in the latin language verbs have over 120 tenses? Yuck. No offence latin, but I don't want to speak you. English, I will take your six verb tenses and be happy.

Heading to the mainland for a couple of days. We're so excited to be going to the wedding of one of the girls that we had in our youth group for 5 years (I actually think it was longer). She's the gal that if we could have adopted her we would have. The only problem was that there was no problem and she has really awesome parents and they love her a lot and raised her really well. Plus she was already a teenager and it would have been weird if Mike and I, being so young and newly married, adopted a teenager who had no problems and had a great family. Mike has the honour of being the officiant at their wedding ceremony this weekend. So fun. So great to see two really awesome people get married and love God together.

Well, good night friends. May the Lord bless you and keep you, and make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, and may He give you His peace. Amen.