Carpe diem, Carpe the good ice cream...

I've been reading a lot of other people's blogs lately and I realized how much I missed writing on my own blog.  But then I was overwhelmed, feeling like, "where do I start?"  So much has happened and maybe I will write all about various events from the past several months but for now I just have to write about today.

A typical summer day for the Gregg household:

5:15am ish (I'm not sure because I'm sleeping): Jeremiah's alarm on his phone goes off.  I roll over and re-tuck the covers around me while I adjust my pillows.  It sounds mean, but there is something so wonderful about being the person who gets to go back to sleep when the other person has to get up.

6:45 ish: tap, tap, tap on my head, "Mommy, I'm hungry" and/or "Mommy, Hannah has a poopy diaper  and it smells really bad/she is playing in it."  Ugh.  The days of sleeping until 10 are such a distant memory they seem like a lifetime ago.  Well, actually they are a lifetime ago, Abby's lifetime.

Breakfast time: check blood sugar, distribute vitamins, pour cereal and glasses of milk, measure cereal and dose carbs, turn on the coffee maker - oh yes, soon I will wake up, oh man is that good coffee, clean up spilled milk, "sit down Eli," pick up Hannah's bowl and spoon off the floor, clean off sticky hands and faces.

Sometime after breakfast I hear "Moooommm, come wipe me!"  Oh yes Eli, I did tell the world.  His timing is impeccable, I'm usually in the bathroom myself or am changing Hannah's poopy diaper (yes another one, the baby eats a lot of fruit) or I am in another room as far from the door as I can get and I have to hurdle toys and clothes and couch cushions and who knows what else and I only have about 4.6 seconds to get to him before he starts going ballistic.

While I'm making my bed/sorting laundry/doing my makeup, Abby comes in to recap the episode of Full House she just watched with a real time replay only it takes longer than the actual show because she keeps getting distracted by stuff.  Hannah will toddle in and out, steal someone's water bottle and spill it on the ground.  Eli keeps begging to play Angry Birds on my iPad.

Lunch is mostly uneventful.  Sweep up bread crumbs and pb&j crusts off the table and floor.  Pick up Hannah's sippy cup.  Eli poops again, so does Hannah.  I'm serious, these kids are more regular than a Japanese commuter train.  Nap time for Hannah.  Oh this is heaven, I snuggle with her and read her a book and sing to her and she kisses and hugs me.  I melt.  Every time.

The witching hours start when Hannah wakes up from her nap.  It's then that she struggles with the little things that come between us, like molecules of air.  I'm trying to make dinner, keep Eli from running over my feet with Hannah's car that he's NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ON ANYWAY!  No Abby, you may not have a snack it is almost dinner.  You're NOT going to starve to death in 30 minutes.

I love dinner.  Eli sit down, Hannah don't throw food.  Abby tells us all about the games the neighborhood kids are playing, in detail.  Eli just try a bite before you tell me it's gross.  Clean up spilled water.  Pick up Hannah's plate and fork off the ground.

Bedtime takes forever.  Who knew three little sets of teeth needed so much maintenance, I mean, they're all going to fall out anyway.  And really, can you just put on your pjs already!?  No, don't put both legs in one hole.  Three books, eight songs and at least two, "it's time to go to sleep, yes you are tired, just stay in your bed, GOOD NIGHT"s later I get to slink down the stairs.  This is when I get to eat ice cream.  Secret ice cream, the good kind that's hidden in the freezer behind bags of peas and broccoli.  I mean, what ice cream?

By the end of everyday I am EXHAUSTED.  I am worn out, tired, finished.  I don't want to hear anyone say "Mommy" for awhile.  And yet, I wouldn't change any of this for all the money or mani/pedis in the world.  It's true.  The days are long, but the years are short.

Abby's 7!

Today is Abby's seventh birthday.  I can't believe she is already seven, and yet I can't remember life before kids.  She is my oldest kiddo, the one who made me a Mommy.  She is the trial-and-error kid, the test pilot, the leader of the pack.  She is my favorite Abby ever, the one who makes me smile, and sometimes makes me crazy.

Abby loves her little sister (and sometimes her little brother), she loves pink and purple and black.  She likes candy and frosting and requested steak for her dinner tonight.  She loves art, anything drawing, writing, creating.  She loves to play with the neighborhood gang of kids, and hates it whenever she feels like she's missing out on anything.  She is sensitive and sometimes shy and often nervous or anxious whenever she is doing something new.  And yet she is so brave and so tough I can't believe it.

I never wanted to have a baby in December, too close to Christmas and cold in the winter and everything.  Two years before Abby was born Jeremiah's mother died suddenly four days after Christmas.  It was heartbreaking and the next year Christmas was lonely and hard for the Gregg side.  When I found out I was pregnant I was elated!  We had been trying for a baby for almost a year and I was starting to get nervous, every month I would cry and think, I'll take any month, I don't care if it's winter, I just want a baby.  So, go figure, it ended up my due date with our first child was December 3rd.  Oh well, at least I got Christmas off from work!

God's timing is always perfect, and everything happens for a reason, to glorify Him.  The one month I didn't want to have a baby was the month He had chosen.  Jeremiah said looking forward to having our first child gave him a reason to like Christmas again.  And having a tiny baby made celebrating Christmas so much more special.

We found out she was a girl at the 20 week ultrasound and then tried to pick out her name.  We didn't tell anyone her name before she was born, only that it was a girl.  We chose Abigail because it was one of the only names we could agree on.  It's Hebrew in origin and depending on where you look it means "father's joy" or "gift of the father."  PERFECT!  A baby, sent from God, at Christmas time, for my husband.  Abigail in the Bible was one of King David's wives and considered a righteous woman.  Her middle name is Elizabeth, in the Bible she was Mary's cousin, the mother of John the Baptist.

My little girl, she's turning into a big girl.  I love watching her grow up and, as much as I miss her as my little tiny baby, it's wonderful to see the person she is becoming.

Happy Birthday Abby!  I love you!

Monthly Mission - New Month, New Mission

Well it's December 2nd, how did that happen so soon?  Of course we are having a hard time believing it in Colorado because it has been 60-something degrees forever.  It's hard to get into the Christmas spirit when the kids are wearing shorts.

So my mission for this month, and I'm excited about this one, is exercise.  I'm more excited about this than giving up the internet.  I have chosen Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred to torture myself with.  And I've already learned a few things about myself.

1. I am out of shape.  Really out of shape.  I was grunting and yelling in my basement today trying really hard to get through the easiest workout.  And my body hurts, a lot.
2. I don't think I'm going to like Jillian Michaels much longer.
3. I have muscles where I didn't know I had them, and they all hurt.
4. Motrin is my friend.

It's going to be a long month.

I hope at the end of this month I will be stronger, have more endurance and more energy.  I'm not trying to loose a bunch of weight, but it would be nice.  I really just want to be healthier.  I'm thinking somewhere around day 10 I'm going to want to give up, or skip a day, and it's then that I need to maintain my self-discipline and get my butt out of bed and down to the basement first thing in the morning.

Wish me luck!

Monthly Mission: Wrap Up

So my first monthly mission was to limit internet and give myself a curfew with the iPad and the internet in general.  I'll be honest, I didn't do so well.  I started out really well, not spending more than 2 hours total a day on the internet and iPad, but somewhere after the first week it started to go downhill.  And then I really kind of lost interest!  I know that's awful, but you, dear reader, probably found this boring too.

I guess I expected some major breakthrough or enlightenment regarding the amount of time I waste on the internet...but I already knew that I waste time on the internet and iPad games.  What I lack is the self-discipline to keep myself from staying up browsing on pinterest until 11:30 at night.  

Yesterday, without my asking, my husband set up some kind of internet filter that turns off my internet after 9 pm.  TURNS IT OFF!!  Like a curfew, for a kid.  At first I was insulted.  But then I realized my husband is just trying to help.  He's not always around when I'm going to bed and need someone to tell me to go to sleep.

You may not realize this, but I lack self-discipline.  Have I mentioned this already?

Somewhere in between vowing to eat only fresh fruits and veggies and organic meat and dairy with my first pregnancy with Abby, to wondering if it was okay to top belgian waffles with a chocolate donut and whipped cream when I was pregnant with Hannah I lost my self-discipline and willpower.  That's kind of what this whole project of mine is about.  Trying to teach myself how to be disciplined again while learning good new habits and getting rid of old ones.

November is almost over, December starts on Saturday.  I have a new mission planned for a new month, and hopefully a little more willpower to see this one through.

Super Saturday Six

Oh my goodness!  I completely forgot to put up my Saturday post last week and then waited until after work on Saturday to write this, but then Jeremiah needed to use the computer and I was so tired that I just decided to finish later.  Now it's Monday!  Yikes!  Anyway, my favorite things:

1. We had Eli's "kid birthday" party a few weeks ago.  I had eleven kids in my house all dressed as superheroes!  My mom made capes for all the kids and I made masks that they got to decorate.  We played "Pin Spider-Man on his web" and Superhero freeze tag and they devoured cupcakes.  Eli was thrilled!  I can't believe my little baby boy is so big.

2. Last Saturday (when I forgot to post, forehead slap!) it snowed on and off and was so cold, so the kids and I made hot chocolate and stayed on the couch watching movies.  Recently Abby has started to show more interest in "real people" movies instead of just cartoons, she says they will watch scenes from musicals in music class sometimes.  She wanted to watch The Sound of Music because she had seen parts of it in class and wanted to see the whole thing.  Eli said it was "boar-wing," and Abby wouldn't let me sing along, but it was fun to cuddle on the couch with her and she was really engrossed in the movie.  I think this year she will be ready to watch White Christmas with me.

3. On that same Saturday Jeremiah was off and we got to have dinner as a family, it's amazing how much I love that.  While we were getting everything prepared and setting the table we had the music turned up loud and had a dance party in the kitchen.  It's fun when we all get silly like that and all three kids are hoping around (well, Hannah wobbles).  It's those times that I know my kids will remember when they're older.  Plus, I have some pretty cool moves!

4. Jeremiah did a little mini-bathroom face lift a few weeks ago.  It all started with a leaky toliet and soggy carpet (who puts carpet in a bathroom! Really!)  So now we have a new floor and a fresh coat of paint on the walls and new towel racks.  I hope we can put in a glass shower door in the near future.  It wasn't the $10.000 bathroom remodel I had dreamed of, but really, I don't need that right now anyway.

5. I took Hannah to visit her cardiologist this past Monday.  She didn't want to lie still for the ECHO at all and I had to kind of restrain her a bit, it didn't matter that Elmo's Alphabet Countdown was playing on the big screen.  My favorite cardiologist, Dr. C., said that it was hard to read her ECHO, but what he could see looked like it had improved a bit.  Her tricuspid valve is still leaky, but is growing with her and that's good, her heart is not enlarged and the pressures are slightly improved.  All good news.  We go back in six months!  Six months!

6. This week is Thanksgiving!  I love Thanksgiving, the turkey, spending time with my family, the Macy's parade.  I will be spending this Thanksgiving with my work family and eating our cafeteria turkey, but then I get to come home and cuddle with my kiddos and hubby and be thankful for them, and all I'm blessed with.  God is good.  Through good and bad times, always, God is good.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Super Saturday Six

Well, Saturday is almost finished and I almost forgot to write this post.  In fact I'm having to cheat a little past my Internet curfew in order to get it finished and posted tonight.  Here goes:

1. Hannah went to the pediatrician this week.  She weighs 15 pounds at 15 months, a far cry from where her older brother and sister were at this age, but still good for Bitty Baby.  She isn't speaking words yet, only lots of gibberish, but she has really come along with walking this week.

2. Abby's insulin pump + Halloween = AWESOME!!  Really every moment with the insulin pump keeps getting better, but I really noticed it when she had a class party and was able to eat the snacks and keep her blood sugar in range.

3. It's November!  That means I get to do the Thankfulness project on facebook, where I get to write about something I'm thankful for everyday.  I did this last year too, in the midst of Hannah's surgery and it was so awesome to think about how much I had to be thankful for instead of dwell on any negative things.  Some days it's very deep and intense, like being thankful for the saving Grace of my Lord God, and some days I'm just thankful for coffee...actually, I'm thankful for both all the time!

4. Daylight Savings!  I don't know if it's ending or beginning or whatever it's called, I've never really gotten that part down, all I know is I get an extra hour of sleep tonight!  Wohoo!!!

5. Eli's birthday party is tomorrow.  That is part of the reason I'm late with this post, my mother and I spent the day sewing capes and masks and baking and getting everything ready for when my house is invaded by lots of little kids tomorrow afternoon.  He's excited, I'm excited, it should be fun.

6. I started the Monthly Mission project this week.  So far I've done okay with three days of less internet/ipad type distractions.  I've stuck to my internet curfew the last two days and am only cheating today to write this post.  It's not going to be perfect every time, but I'm always a work in progress!  I still haven't gone over my limit of 2 hours today.  I haven't been on pinterest in three days, I kind of miss it, but I've gotten a lot done in the real world!

Have a great week!

Monthly Mission: unplug (a little)

I have to hurry up and write my post because my internet curfew is coming up at 8 pm and I'm almost out of internet/ipad games time!  Today being the first of November it is the beginning of my monthly mission, you can read more about this here Monthly Mission.  I have decided this month to give up the amount of time I waste on the internet.  I'm not cutting myself off completely, but instead limiting my usage of internet and ipad games and other general time wasters.

So today I am writing to you to let you know that so far I'm doing well!  Of course we haven't hit 8 pm on the first day yet, details, details.

I'm glad I didn't choose "giving up sugar" this month.  We have oodles of Halloween candy on top of the fridge.

Of course I am also posting my reasons to be thankful everyday on facebook for this month, I started that last year and I really liked it, so I'm doing it again.

I will have to make sure I get the important work done early, like online banking, emails, blogging and of course, Pinterest.  I'll let you know how this goes, and what I do with all my extra time!