In the meantime, how about a bit of what’s about to happen? In 11 days our family will be moving to Kansas. My husband accepted a position as an assistant/youth/everything pastor there. I am excited for the move. I am very sad to leave so much behind, but so happy to be moving on. Excited for my husband that he finally has a job doing what he’s been called to do. It’s going to be a whirlwind these next 2 weeks getting packed and moving out there. Somehow I hope to do a better job of keeping up with what’s going on in our lives.

I’m trying to figure out some stuff to get done in April and have decided to do 1 thing at a time. To many of you this makes perfect sense and you wouldn’t do things any other way. To those of you who are like me, I know you are sending well wishes my way. I have some focus issues that I will fully admit to and need to work on. I have 8 weeks before Mr. Man comes home and I haven’t gotten anything done, or at least it feels that way.

So for “Start Something Saturday” I’m going to work on getting this box of paper shredded and the basket of paper sorted. I have only 1 knitting project on needles that can be worked on too. I need to have something fun to try and keep my sanity.

Here are the pictures and we will see how the week goes.

I have gotten a few projects done. I’m following Project Simplify at simplemom.net. This week the project was to organize your clothing. I almost cried. It took me until today to work on it. Thankfully it didn’t take that long. I moved all of Mr. Man’s stuff to the other side of the closet, made a donate pile, threw some stuff away, bought a spacebag box that goes under the bed, and things are looking good. I have some laundry to do so I guess I’m not 100% done, but I can finish after laundry day. Some pictures will be at the end of the post.

I also finished a scarf that I’ve been working on since 2008. That was the most exciting thing to get accomplished. Maybe tonight I’ll be able to get some sleep.

before

After

after

before

I’m so excited for this new journey in our lives. Am I excited for my husband to be gone? No, but it means that we are finally moving forward in life. This 12 week adventure is just the beginning of times that he will be gone. I’m glad that we are starting this while the kids are so young so that they won’t know any other way of life. I just wish that we were moving with him, but that will come soon enough.

Praise God that I don’t have to work while he’s gone. I might be getting involved more at church with something, but I don’t think I will go back into the “real” work world for a while!! My goal is to get this house organized while he is gone. There will be painting, cleaning, donating, and building new stuff. We will be getting on a good schedule and I will be working out. These are very lofty goals for myself, but I hope that I can get a lot done..

Don’t worry I won’t get so busy that I don’t take time for myself. I have a list of people willing to watch the kids, parent’s night out, parent’s day out, and a few other thinks to make time for myself. Knitting, sewing and watching Doctor Who will be on the top of my list.

I hope to post pictures of my cleaning/crafting adventures and show how the kiddos are growing up. Wish me luck and send prayers my way.

Mr. Man is still working on trying to become a Navy Chaplain. We went to an amazing retreat this weekend. I am so thankful for the people I met and the things I learned while there. I look forward to what lies ahead of us, but it’s been a struggle to get even here. Our biggest prayer right now is that all paperwork, interviews, and all other things needed for his Navy application get processed quickly. Once this happens we can start finding out more about training and where we might be going from here.

Along with the prayers for that, I would love for everything else to slow down a bit. Work has been miserable the past few months for both of us. We are very thankful for our jobs, but you can only take so much. With Christmas around the corner things are only going to get more stressful. So, if you are reading this and pray, please pray for these things for us.

The kiddos are growing like weeds. Ari will be 5 this month, Eli 3 1/2, and Ayden 18 months. I will get some updates in the near future. Maybe blogging will help elevate some of the stress. One can only hope that something will.

Nevertheless, I got a ton of cooking done yesterday. I had to pick up some baby food and found some great deals on some meat. The great deals meant I had to freeze it all or cook that day. I decided to cook.

Mr. Man made a burger. I was able to cook up some ground beef, chicken nuggets, chicken patties to freeze, chicken for tacos, and some beef strips. Tonight I made some muffins. I’m not so sure how the muffins are going to turn out. They are orange raspberry muffins but they kind-of turned blue-green in the oven. I’m sure they’re not bad, but it’s hard to want to eat something that looks like mold.

I was able to get a little knitting done this week. I’m working on too many projects but that’s how things always go. Here are two. One is a hat and the other is a pair of longies for Ayden. I made the longies with an extra high waist to try to keep diapers from sticking out of the back. This yarn is so wonderful I wish I would have made some mittens out of it for me. That’s about it for today. Maybe next week I’ll be able to get some sewing done.

This post is part of Steady Mom’s “30-Minute Blog Challenge”

Right now our life has been about trying to keep the kiddos healthy. Poor Ayden has been sick off an on since October. He’s had swine flu, ear infection, upper respiratory infection, something like RSV, and has a stuffy nose again. I don’t hear any wheezing yet but I wouldn’t be surprised if I hear it tomorrow. If he gets sick again we will be going to the children’s hospital to make sure something serious isn’t hiding. He was 5 weeks early and spend 2 weeks in a level 2 NICU so his lungs aren’t as strong, but this little boy needs to get healthy.

I’ve enjoyed working at Panera. It’s nice spending more time at home trying to get things organized and clean. Mr. Man has gotten down to weight to do his testing for Navy Chaplaincy. Now to get that pastoral experience.

This year for my “resolutions” I’m trying to do a few things each month rather than some grand big year goals that I will never do. For January the goals have been

• No fast food
• Get at least 7 hours of sleep
• Drink more water

I’ve done good at the no fast food. I must admit I have had the total of a whole grilled sandwich from Chick-fil-a, but I have resisted their wonderful waffle fries. Sleep comes and goes. I’ve been really bad at drinking more water too. One out of 3 isn’t bad. I’m still thinking of what February is going to bring.

I’ve been working on some crafty things and I hope to get some pictures up at next weeks 30 minutes.

God worked it all out! Mr. Man and I have been working swing shifts for about 4 years now and we have had enough. Early last week we decided that somehow we would make the money work out and I would look for a part-time job. Wednesday night after church I put in an application at Panera and Target. Since Panera is on the way to my current job I stopped by to talk with a manager. Turns out they are looking for some part-time help and she understood my reasons for leaving a full-time job, and major pay cut for better quality of life. She told me to come and talk to the general manager. I stopped by after work and was hired on the spot! In less than 24 hours I had a new job! If that isn’t God confirming what you’re supposed to do I don’t know what is.

Now starting in November I’ll be working about 3-4 mornings a week. I’ll still have to pump a bit, but it won’t be 2-3 times every day. I am so glad I didn’t stop nursing quite yet. All that said, this little boy I’m feeding turned 6 months today and his 2 bottom teeth have finally cut through. I’ve never nursed long enough for the other 2 kiddos to have teeth. I’ll just have to see how things go.

Needless to say I’m very happy to be working less and spending more time with my family. More on my grand plans for being home more to come later.

Our adventure today was going to the Tennessee Aquarium for Ari’s 4th birthday. I’ll get more pictures up later.

I want to say hi to the visitors from Small Notebook! If you haven’t visited that blog it’s wonderful.

Have a great night y’all!

Ayden is just getting over a mild case of the flu. It seems that between 5-7 months our kiddos get sick and decide they don’t really want to nurse anymore. He’s going through this right now. Plus, today I forgot my pumping flanges at home so there was no pumping at work today. Since I missed a session anyway why not stop today…right?

That’s been the big mess in my head the past few weeks. I have been trying to do some sewing but time has not allowed. Maybe next week.

Life has been uber-crazy since Ayden came into this world. Not that it wasn’t crazy before, but now there’s another person to take care of in this house. I have had plenty of blogs thought up in my head but no time or energy to type them up. There hasn’t been a whole lot going on with us lately. I’ve gotten the sewing machine out and I’m going to get my serger to work again. The kiddos need pj’s, diapers, and training pants sewn up.

The biggest news is that since graduating from seminary Mr. Man has decided to apply to be a Navy Chaplain! It’s going to take some time before this will all come together, but I’m very excited for when it does.

Right now we’re just trying to make it through one day at a time. That’s all for now!