A confession...

Hi, My name is Courtney and I struggle with time management. I just had to go ahead and get that out there. *Whew* I feel better.

I never knew that I wanted to be a Stay at Home Mom (SAHM), but we are blessed that it has all worked out this way. I LOVE it!! I would not trade it for anything in the world. I think I am pretty great at the "Mom" part, but the somewhat unwritten "homemaking" part of it is more of a challenge. I love to play with my daughter, care for her, love on her, etc.  I do not love to clean house, go grocery shopping, run errands, etc. Which, unfortunately, makes me sort of a failure of a homemaker. I have always told my husband, even when we were dating that I am really no good at the keeping a clean house and having a home cooked meal stuff. Through the past (almost) four years of marriage, I would like to think that I have learned and improved on these tasks. But, in all honesty, I don't think I have improved as much as I would like. (I am a master straightener and stacker. If it is neatly stacked and sitting parallel to the edge of the coffee table, counter top, dining room table, it is clean, right? The stacks must consist of similarly categorized items with the largest items on the bottom and the smallest on the top. I have a problem, I know.)

My usual cleaning regimen usually takes place in about 1-2 hours and involves me running around like a mad woman straightening and sanitizing as much as possible and ends just minutes before company walks through the door on Friday night. If we had company come into town every weekend, the house would be clean most of the time and I would have to recover most of the week to gear up for the next cleaning frenzy.

Today, as my sweet husband vacuumed, dusted, and mopped the wood floors while I fed E breakfast, got her dressed for church and entertained her, I realized that I need to try harder to do all of these things during the week while he is working so that we can relax and enjoy the weekend as a family even more. Aside from the guilt that I felt for not being able to do this for him, I am in total awe at the fact that he just did it. He has always amazed me with his incredible time management skills. I guess opposites really do attract! He can get more done in one hour than I could in a whole day. He is like a speed cleaning super hero. I love him and I am so blessed that he chose me to live life with.

So, on my hunt to find the perfect home management plan I have found a website that some of you fellow SAHMs and working moms, too, may find helpful.
Home Sanctuary This is an old post, but it came up in my search and I really like the "5 minute" plan. Another one from the same site.
FlyLady
A little more involved than I am ready for, but a great resource. My aunt has always been a fan.
Keepers of the Home My aunt is also a fan of this site. She leads a group in her church in OKC. I am interested in finding out more about this site as I continue my search for the perfect plan.

I am going to implement the plan that I found on the Home Sanctuary site this week. I will let you know if it was a success. If any of you, like me, have struggled with keeping your home, I hope that you find some of these resources helpful. And know that you are not alone!

Have a blessed day!
Courtney

Encouragement for Moms

In 2009 there was a baby boom in our church. Ellasyn was born right in the middle of about 18, or so, new additions. I have been blessed to be a part of the play group that was started with these precious children and their awesome mommies! Two of the moms (Krista G. and Gara H.)from this group have posted some encouragement on their blogs with the help of the other moms in the group. They joke that there should be a ENMV edition of the Bible. Exhausted New Mother's Version. The selection of verses is very uplifting and has offered peace and comfort to some, if not all, of the moms in the group. Check it out, and remember to thank your mom this Sunday, on Mother's Day.

Have a blessed day!
Courtney

Christian Service

Taken from: A Gentle Spirit: Devotional Selections for Today’s Christian Woman
Selection by: Ellyn Sanna

“With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men.” Ephesians 6:7

Our families are small communities, and within them we experience a ‘magnitude’ of opportunities for service. We are accustomed to thinking of Christian service in terms that are nobler, more dramatic, more like Mother Teresa in the slums of Calcutta or Florence Nightingale on the battlefields of Crimea, but even for women like Mother Teresa and Florence Nightengale, service boils down to simple assistance in “trifling, external things.” For us as mothers, this means things as trivial as matching socks, packing lunchs, or wiping kitchen tables. “Be faithful in little things,” Mother Teresa advises, “for in them our strength lies.”

Self-righteous, self-centered service demands visible, external rewards, but the sort of service that Jesus modeled does not concern itself with results. Instead, it is contented even with obscurity.

Jeremy Taylor’s Rule and Exercises of Holy Living, written in the seventeenth century, says that we should “love to be concealed, and little esteemed; be content to lack praise, never be troubled when thou art slighted or undervalued.”

We need to remind ourselves that our value springs from God’s love. We find our truest identities in the midst of his unmerited grace.

Fatigue

Taken from: A Gentle Spirit: Devotional Selections for Today’s Christian Woman
Selection by: Mary W. Tileston

“For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” 2 Corinthians 4:16

Let my soul beneath her load
Faint not through the o’erwearied flesh;
Let me hourly drink afresh
Love and peace from Thee, my God!
--- Richter

“In my attempts to promote the comfort of my family, the quiet of my spirit has been disturbed. Some of this is doubtless owing to the physical weakness; but, with every temptation, there is a way of escape; there is never any need to sin. Another think I have suffered loss from -- entering into the business of the day without seeking to have my spirit quieted and directed. So many things press upon me, this is sometimes neglected; shame to me that it should be so.

This is of great importance, to watch carefully – now I am so weak – not to overfatigue myself, because then I cannot contribute to the pleasure of others; and a placid face and a gentle tone will make my family more happy than anything else I can do for them. Our own will gets sadly into the performance of our duties sometimes.” – Elizabeth T. King

Ellasyn is 9 months!

Over the past month, Ellasyn has grown and changed so much. Some of the highlights are that she is now army crawling and pulling up. She is very fast and moves across the living room in a matter of seconds! Her favorite things to go after are, well, anything that does not belong in her toy basket. (ex: cell phones, remote controls, cd player, computer, Hollie, Mom or Dad's shoes left by the door, etc.) We have been practicing some baby signs so that she can communicate with us. So far, we have learned the signs for "more", "please", and "thank you". She loves to play peek-a-boo and turn pages in her books. She now has seven teeth!! There are four on the top and three on the bottom. She loves to show them off with her big smile!

Our visit to Dr. G's went well (compared to our visit last month when she had a double ear infection and a cold). She is 27 inches tall and 17 pounds 13 ounces. (She lost about a pound since she started burning more calories).

Our sweet friend, Gara, took some great 9 month pictures of Ellasyn. Here are a couple...


I can't wait to share the others with you!

Here are a few more pictures of our sweet girl...

~ 9 month rocking chair picture ~





~ New diaper cover from Honey ~ And a cute dress from Aunt Tae Tae and the Ogles ~


~ Only one shot at the Dr. today ~ She cries more when he looks in her ears :( ~


~ Enjoying her lunch ~


~ She is heading for my shoes in the next room ~


~ She was caught ~ She thinks she is really something ~ And so do I! ~

Look what I can do!

Ellasyn had a crazy day yesterday, poor girl. We were having a new HVAC unit installed, so Ellasyn and I got out of the house. We walked the mall a couple times and watched the carousel in the food court while we ate. We went to Target to look around and we bought our McDaniel nephew/cousin-to-be a surprise. When we ran out of places to go and money to spend, we spent some time with Ethan's grandmother, Nanny Susie. With no afternoon nap and being in and out of the car most of the day, Ellasyn was out of sorts, to say the least. Once she finally got home and in her own bed, she slept hard... until 11pm, and after I rocked her back to sleep she slept until 6am. Being a little out of sorts myself, and with no afternoon nap (what?) I was not about to get up for the day at 6am. So, I listened to her play with her bear and jibber jabber for another hour and a half. When I went in to get her out of bed at 7:30, this is what I found...

I guess she has been practicing a new skill set. This explains some of the sleeplessness from yesterday. :)

I was reminded this morning as I read a friend's blog... "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above," James 1:17a

No matter how much sleep, or how little sleep I get, Ellasyn is such an amazing blessing to my life. I cannot imagine living with out her. I love every moment that we are able to spend together... at home in our pjs after a crazy day, walking the mall, rocking her to sleep AgAiN. When I am in the moment, I sometimes forget that I should be soaking it up, making memories and storing them away for when she is in her "terrible twos" or coming in 20 minutes past her curfew. (yikes!)

Thank you, God. Thank you for bringing this baby girl into our lives!

Bluebonnets!

I have been waiting, a little impatiently, for the bluebonnets to come out this year. I saw them pop up in random places, neighbor's yards, fields on the side of the highway... and finally I found some in a nearby park. I dressed Ellasyn up and off we went! Ellasyn did not mind sitting in the grass. I think she kind of enjoyed it. She really wanted to pick the flowers... she even tried to taste a couple petals. Thankfully, I was close enough to catch her. It was a little overcast, so the glare kept her eyes all squinty. It was also near the road, so she was too distracted by the passing cars to smile for the camera. BUT... we got our first ever bluebonnet pictures and I think that we got some good ones. I played with some editing tools on my computer for some of these, the rest are natural.

Enjoy...





~Sooo Big!~

~Picking the flowers~





~Sweet Baby Girl (with low saturation)~

~I love her! (with high saturation)~



~I have had enough, Mommie!~


~Now you tell me! I saw this as I was getting back in the car. Ooops!~

Love, Courtney and Ellasyn

Video

Easter

I hope that you all had a beautiful Easter. We had lovely weather and enjoyed spending time with the McDaniel family. All of the McDaniel girls looked beautiful in their Easter dresses. Next year will be different with the addition of a McDaniel BOY for Stuart and Kelli.

Here are some pictures of our day...

...Opening the Easter basket...




...Easter family...

Ellasyn is 8 months!

Ellasyn is trying so hard to get moving, but she can't quite figure it out yet. A couple of nights last week she woke up crying and when I went in to check on her, she was sleep-crying up on her hands and knees. Poor baby... she is practicing in her sleep. She keeps us busy and soon will be into everything. She can already roll across the floor to reach to stereo and dvd buttons, what is next? She loves to stand up at the coffee table (with help, of course) bang her hands and pull anything off that she can reach. She loved to swing in the backyard and take walks in her stroller. I think she may be a bit of a stroller snob, though. She does not like to be bothered while she is on her walk. :)

We took her to Veteran's Park recently to take some spring pictures. She was not really interested, but we got a couple little smiles from her. The other pictures below are: our monthly rocking chair picture, playing with toys, and spring break with the Jackson cousins in AR. I also attempted to load a short video clip of Ellasyn playing peek a boo... I hope it works!









Happy Easter!
Ethan, Courtney and Ellasyn Hannah