Multitude Monday

Just when things reach the peak of squeezing me (oh, so prideful me) into the image of Christ, I’m blessed with a little respite.

Sedryn sleeps a sudden 6.5 hours and holds steady at one night feeding.

Sedryn starts leaving the fussy super needy infant stage as we figure his needs/schedule out and moves into the cute but still needy stage.

Derek’s car gets fixed and mine returned to me so two stir crazy toddlers (and their momma) are no longer climbing the walls all day.

I make phone calls to Karen and get good advice/solidarity with my issues.

Tamara wordless cleans my kitchen and its floor while I fall helplessly into bed.

I invite a blog/church acquaintance over to the house on a “momma date” and find out we have a ton in common and laugh grace as our children throw tantrums or scream or eat fistfuls of brown sugar while everyone else is melting down.

I come up gasping for the air of grace and thankful that, despite my own sinful heart, there’s so much grace to breath in.

Counting 2682-2724 of these graces that I can soak in right now.

• Sedryn having a good non-fussy morning
• Getting to cvoer a box in wrapping paper with the girls
• watching them excited over stickers and crayons coloring the box
• Looking forward to them getting excited about their Leopar house (the bos) when they see it tommorow with the cage door glued on
• Visit and a meal from Amber
• All four older kids building towers together
• Syler and Bronwyn staring at each other and giving kissing
• Watching YouTube elephant, snake, and tiger videos with two excited girls
• Sedryn boy wiggling happily on the exam table at my six week check up.
• Quiet moments for us to stare at each other without fear of sisters lying on him
• Nursing laughing when I told him to ‘just spit up already’ as he got fussy, burped, and gagged down spit-up.  “You’re not a first time mom are you?” followed by laughter.
• Ruthie hanging out with the girls to make it all possible.
• FREE parent-tot swim lessons at the YMCA
• Derek able to make the Wednesday Lessons
• Childcare at the Y
• Two excited and shivery girls enjoying time with mom and dad
• Warm milk for chilly girls
• My man sandwhich cuddles with Derek and boy watching a movie
• Laughing as I looked at myself in the mirror for the first time since the Y- I looked like a crazy lady with mascara all over my face.  I can only imagine what the Y childcare ladies must have thought.
• Phyllis, the lady holding my son, not even batting an eye over my crazy appearance
• Christmas ornaments worn as earrings by little girls
• Sedryn going 6.5 hours between feedings
• Surviving a trip to the children’s museum when I’m outnumbered 3 to 1
• the girls obeying
• B conquering her fear of the elevator
• Browsing the art museum with the girls
• Them enjoying pointing out objects they know in the pictures
• Parsnip- I love them
• Soft boy mohawk brushing my cheek
• Screaming and fussing lessening as we learn his needs/routine
• Morning shopping with Sedryn
• 2 weeks of groceries for $85 simply by taking stock of the freezers
• Daddy and girls bird watching
• Derek showing me a cute video on his phone of the girls holding hands and jumping/running through thigh high leaves while shrieking in glee
• a glass of wine
• A comatose nap
• cookies and hot chocolate with Derek
• Yummy cheese crackers
• making and crossing off lists again
• catching up with Julia a little via email
• naptime
• brainstorming with Derek about putting the girls’ big girl room downstairs and moving office/crafting into their room
• waiting long and patient for my new camera body to go on sale,my old camera to sell on Craigslist, or my stroller to sell so I can buy it
• 1 (maybe 3) session in December that might cover the remaining costs.

Rare treat: two posts in one day.  But the first was actually for the last two weeks.  Here’s what I’ve recorded since last Monday.   A scant few… but all filled with His glory.

 

I’m so much better with intense experiences that have a finite end.  (unmedicated labor and birth for example)

I lose faith when the situation has no resolution in sight. (my son screaming for long stretches during the day for example)

Yesterday’s Sermon tackled James 5:13-18

I needed to hear it.  I needed to be reminded that I need grace.  I need to plead for grace.  I need to pray rather than stress.  I need to breath in his presence like oxygen.

Self: Hang on to him.  Obey.  And simply do the next thing.  Even when it’s hard.

Counting #2489-2582 of the simple graces that He gives to get me through each day.

• Doing the next thing
• Suddenly- 3 loads of laundry and cloth diapers hung
• Girls cleaning out the dregs of momma’s ice cream with their fingers
• Getting to snuggle each girl alone
• Laughing hard at the ingenuity of my daughters using a wax heart from a candle as a crayon
• Their enthusiasm in helping me clean it from the walls
• starting the time change sleep change up a week early
• my mom arriving safely
• 2 hour naps for everyone
• deciding to block feed- Sedryn’s tummy is much happier
• Showing mom how much the girls love Hobby Lobby
• Hobby Lobby and it’s vocabulary building stock
• Chick-fil-a Buy 1 get 1 free night 🙂
• Repentent girl snuggles
• chubby baby boy snuggles
• Karen calling late to answer a question in love
• certainty of a shower tomorrow
• Going to LBS with just one baby
• chatting with Tiffany in the hall
• yummy stuff at teh day old Panera bread table
• Girls and grandma really enjoying their morning
• teaching the girls to say patience with a smile on their faces
• grapes and leftovers
• overdoing it and being reminded just how dependent I am
• mustard yellow sweater
• laughing as little girls told us to put cute petti-skirts “UP!” when we asked if they’d like them
• A & B rejecting the cutes like fuschia boots with a bow
• Wishing the boots came in my size
• Finding out accidentally that I actually like Lattes: at least salted carmel mocha ones
• Half-finished owl hat
• Derek and mom teaming up for me to have a rest filled evening
• New cupcake PJs for sweet girls
• Quiet day at home
• baking muffins with the girls
• homemade water color antics
• cooking in the kitchent
• bronwyn snuggling and playing with grandma
• Aeralind sitting on my lap for a long cuddle
• Little girls climbing into brother’s crib to snuggle together
• then demanding that brother join them
• Having my mom as an extra set of hands
• wandering Target with Derek alone as a little date evening
• Sedryn in an infant gown
• Derek putting the flannel sheets on the bed
• long nap
• finally starting my Christmas tree “pants”
• quiet time at night to spend alone with Sedryn
• Derek’s grace in consoling Sedryn at night when he doesn’t have to
• Sedryn usualling only being fussy after 1 night feed instead of all
• me falling back to sleep faster after night feeds
• the keyboard/laptop that Sedryn peed on drying out and working normally- with a few new quirks
• Little Sedryn squeaks
• Block feeding working for us and my body adjusting
• opportunity to say “I’m sorry”
• a strong nursling
• having a hard time being grateful for Sedryn as he comes out of his newborn sleepy period and learns to exercise his lungs regularly
• Derek delight in little girls who squeal “Dadi!” when he comes home
• Bronwyn suddenly have a converastion with me
  “B, why did you wake up last night?”
  “Baby.  Cry.”
  “Do you need me to turn up the ocean?”
  “Ocean.” (smile)
• Bronwyn telling grandma: “I did that at church!” about a drawing she did almost 2 months ago!
• 2 hour comatose nap
• First 3.5 hour stretch at night in awhile
• Generous early christmast gift from mom: Children’s Museum pass
• Busy little girls
• Loving on the giant light peg thing
• Laughint at the crane together
• First corndogs
• Aeralind’s dainty and joyful “lay-DEE bug”
• Girls who smile and repeat me as I say “patience” when they fight over whose turn it is
• Brother loving his ERgo
• Big stars sewn for the tree pants
• Derek listening to me cry miserably about Sedryn’s multiple 2 hour fussy witching hours
• little girls devouring spinach
• needing to lift the camera more
• me having a thrift store shopping date schedule with Sedryn in the morning
• Girls headed hiking with daddy
• weekends
• Derek sending me to bed so early
• Finally some good sleep
• Derek graciously burping/consoling a screaming Sedryn at 1 am
• feeling like I can’t do it all-such grace for this independent stubborn heart!
• getting more sleep than when the girls were neworns
• block feeding putting feeding times down to 15 minutes or so
• Yummy food still being brought to us
• flannel sheets
• painting little toes blue
• girls who have strong opinions about potential footwear
• sleep-sleep at all
• doing the next thing
• sorting through counting the same numbers twice
• “dealing with defiance” parenting class coming at the right time
• Daddy and girls walking ahnd and hand
• Daddy exploring the children’s museum with his girls
• Terror of the elevator
• How parent snuggles cure elevtor fears
• being close to Love cures fears

I stayed up too late last night. 

(It was worth it though as I was talking to a dear friend and rocking an over-full fussy baby).

But that makes mornings hard.  Overwhelming.  Getting out of bed was not what I wanted to do.

Julia’s personal motto is “I can do hard things.”  I was thinking about that this morning, lying in bed just wanted more sleep.  Hard things are overwhelming for me.  It’s like looking at the whole mountain rather than grabbing on to the handhold right in front of me and getting moving.

I felt like I couldn’t do hard things.  Like this morning alone with three was well beyond my ability to accomplish.  How to keep them all diapered and fed and the laundry caught up and heaped clean in baskets?

And then Ann’s post came to mind. 
And a my heart settled on my motto for the day (maybe even a life): Do the Next Thing.

And so I rise.
I feed the baby.
I collect the laundry.
I pull out and hang wet diapers.
I toss in a load.
I soothe the fussy baby.
I change little girl diapers.
I return a phone call.
I pick up some things from the messy floor.
I do the next thing.

Suddenly, I’m halfway through the morning, writing a blog post I didn’t think I’d get to, and realizing that I’m almost halfway up the mountain by grasping one handhold at a time.

I can do the next thing.
By His Grace.

Counting the Graces of being given 2417-2488 “next things” to enjoy.

• Baby smells
• Baby noises
• Bronwyn repeating me as I exclaimed “Holy cow!” after a giant Sedryn burp
• Toddler halloween parade
• Daddy and Aeralind playing “Where’s your toes?”
• Shrieks of “Toes!”
• Little girls asking for me in the night
• Derek working half days this first week with three
• Gaining 3.5 ounces ABOVE birth weight in 8 days.
• Being comfortable snuggling with Derek once again.
• “Bye, bye, pun kin!” choruses when we leave the house.
• Derek’s help even when he’s exhausted, too
• A partner who does life with me shoulder to shoulder
• Gratitude journal fitting perfectly in my burp cloth basket for late night feedings
• 3 healthy kiddos
• soft strokable newborn hair
• Bed time prayers with the girls as we put Sedryn to bed
• Longest stretch of sleep for momma since before his birth
• Tamara coming to visit with Lydia
• Bronwyn and Lydia learning lessons in sharing
• All 3 girls gobbling down lunch
• A husband who is so helpful
• 5 days of meals delivered which the girls devoured–even the ones I thought they wouldn’t eat!
• 5 sweet ladies preparing those meals
• Carving the pumpkin
• Power drill antics
• Pumpkin Ice cream
• Roasting my first set of pumpkin seeds
• Little girls liking the pumpkin seeds almost as much as the ice cream
• Night feedings
• Chatting via email with Julia about marriage
• Long naps for me and the girls and Sedryn
• Close-up Derek snuggles
• Sedryns tiny little stretching face
• Laughing at his giant manly burps
• Almost 4 hour stretch of sleep for me and Sedryn
• Derek cuddling Sedryn until he fell asleep after I had tried get him to nurse both sides for 1 hour
• McKayla and John entertaining and caring for the girls while I did my newborn photo session with Sedryn
• Sedryn soiling 2 pairs of my pants, 4 blankets, and one laptop keyboard (it was a perfect arch!)
• Laptop keyboard drying out and functioning again
• Barb’s chili leftover
• Singing Rich Mullins with Derek on the way to the farm
• Little catnap for the girls
• Derek’s banter in the kitchen with the women
• Sedryn sleeping on Eva for over 2 hours
• Eggplant Parmesan
• Little girls on a hayride with daddy
• Sharing stories in the kitchen
• Nursing Sedryn in a quiet room free from eye pokin adoring toddlers
• Bronwyn melting down from hunger and exhaustion
• Little B tightly wrapping her arms around my neck
• Listening to Bronwyn tell me her version of the day
• Grace that the girls got on ahold of a permanent marker on the back porch and not in the house
• Aeralind consenting to sit on my lap and tell me about her day
• Girls who cleaned their plates and started on some of the other kiddos’ plates (hysterical!)
• Sedryn curled up on Nana
• Ruthie coralling and changing the girls
• Derek kisses in the kitchen
• Everyone so exhausted from Farm Days that we were all in bed by 9:30
• Gratitude journal combating the I just want to sleep blues
• Yummy chili still leftover for lunch
• Falling asleep at naptime
• Girls super excited about a halloween festival
• Not having to wait until his due date to hold Sedryn
• Laughing as the girls slid out of the bounder at the festival over and over
• Running to Target to spend generous gift cards from Tamara for the girl’s birthday and for Sedryn
• Meal from Karen where the girls gobbled down so much rice!
• Karen generously and wordlessly cleaning my kitchen after supper
• Karen and family joining us for supper rather than just dropping off a meal
• Enjoying Karen’s converastion until 11
• Sleep
• Girls loving their lacing beads and “Choo choo” purchased with Tamara’s gift card