Crockpots and the quest for balance!

I have found some balance, I credit it mostly to a crockpot. Also, frozen vegetables, pre-sliced deli-meat, paper towels, disposable diapers and hundreds of other mundane short-cuts! This is not an info-mercial for convenience products. Its an admission, for the first time, im learning that it isnt possible to do everything well. I would love to be able to cook a slow-simmered meal, with all freshly chopped meats and vegetables every night, but on weeknights when im exhausted and the little one is EVERYWHERE, taking the time and dirtying those extra dishes just isnt worth it.
Balance is a nice word, but the reality is not so pretty. I think what comes down to is what you really care about and sort of giving up on everything else. Which sounds easy, but is of course, the work of a lifetime:) Its suprisingly hard to know what really matters to you!
Some of the decisions are pretty simple, clothes are sometimes wrinkled, weeds in the yard, and the car sometimes overdue for a little TLC, but some of them are a little harder. I care about reading, cooking a good meal, and tending to friendships near and far. Everbody knows that life is a series of choices. The process of growing up is a paring away of dreams, a pinching back of sprouts of yourself that you never fully took off. For me these tend to pop up in my New Years resolutions. I will loose a bunch of weight, I will do my New York City Ballet Workout everyday, I will learn a new thing. I want these things, year after year. But i dont want them badly enough, at this point in my life, to follow through on them.
I think this is less a failure of discipline and more a failure of realism! I know whats important to me right now. Spending some peaceful time with my family, Spending time with my wonderful Creator, raising a well-mannered, God-fearing and loving daughter and keeping in touch with a small circle of loved-ones:) The way I know is that even faced with a lot constraints, these are things I chose to spend my time on. And really, thats plenty! It's easy to second guess your choices in this whole balance game. Why did I spend another evening on the couch watching Veggie Tales, when i could have gone for a run or prepped the next days meals, or gotten a headstart on laundry or taken out the old dance workout video?? But that time on the floor with my little girl is a sweet haven these days!
Sometimes I am greedy and want too much...Why cant I have the sparkling house, the clean car, the always nicely ironed clothes, and the slow simmering meals?? But, my mission these days is to stay focused on the tiny handful of things that really matter and cheerfully give up on the rest, even if it means another quick crockpot meal with frozen veggies:)

Happy 9 Months Julia Noelle!

Today my little ladybug is 9 months old! I cant believe it! Watching her grow these last 9 months has been amazing! She continues to amaze me everyday. We are so excited for the next few months. I am starting to get more serious about Julia's First Birthday, its hard to believe that its only about 3 months away! We are planning it for December 19th, so save the date:) We are very excited for the upcoming holidays, and we are contemplating new traditions now that we have Julia.

Julia is so close to walking, its starting to get a little scary for me. She is always standing and cruising along the couches and whatever she can hold onto, she can stand alone and even bend down and pick up a toy and stand back up. Yesterday she took one step forward but then grabbed onto the couch:) We are so excited for her to walk but also very sad for her to be growing so fast! She's learning more and more words everyday, and it constantly blows my mind at how smart she is:) Cant wait for whats ahead!!!

Learning New Things!

So my little Lovebug is almost 9 months now and it amazes me everyday how smart she is. Maybe I have a little bias, but oh well:)She isnt walking quite yet but she loves to walk while Mama holds her fingers:) She can stand by herself for a few seconds but then gets a little wobbly and decides sitting is the way to go!! She is VERY impatient when it comes to mealtime(sounds like her daddy), so we have been trying to get her to say MORE instead of giving an impatient SCREAM! Well the repeating paid off and she now says MORE! So now that she's got that we are trying to hook a PLEASE onto the end of that because the last thing I want is to hear my precious daughter screaming MORE from across the room:)

I think i am starting to get a small preview of what a hard time i am going to have with disciplining this little princess of mine. Yesterday my mom and i went to the grocery store with Julia and for the most part she was a good girl, but after awhile it seemed she was getting bored and trying to amuse herself, well she decided that the way to do this was to let out some loud little ear piercing screams and wait for the reaction! OH NO! So i gave her a very stern, No Julia! She preceded to laugh and do it again! So I repeated the No Julia, thats not good! Well that didnt work either, again I got a smile and another little squak! So i gave her a little tap on the mouth(not hard of course) just to scare a little and said again Julia, Mommy said NO! It definitely took her back but her response was a mad look and a errrrr noise! OMG! I am SO in for it! Haha!

This past month or so she has really been breaking my heart. She gets so sad when i leave for work and it totally crushes me. Luckily her sitter says she only cries for a few minutes and then shes fine! So great, she only does it long enough to make me feel bad?!? LOL....The welcome home reaction I get from her is awesome though. She kicks her little legs and waves her arms and yells...MAMA...MAMA!! That makes my heart ALL happy:)

OK well I guess thats all for now! I could go on and on about this little girl!