Party On

If you didn't sing a little "I can't rise above it" move along. I joke. I've been reading James Dobson's The Strong Willed Child and it is speaking to my soul. I haven't made it super far yet, but this is so my life. This paragraph in particular I underlined twice. "It is very common for these moms and dads (of strong willed children) to feel great guilt and self-condemnation. They are trying so hard to be good parents, but the struggle for control that goes on at home day after day leaves them frustrated and fatigued. No one told them parenthood would be this difficult, and they blame themselves for the tension that arises. They had planned to be such loving parents...The difference between life as it is and life as it ought to be is distressing" (pages 11-12). I really love Eli. There are days where I feel like all I'm doing is correcting him, but I love him in the correction. There are days where every bit of me wants to throw my hands...

Sometimes my faith in humanity wavers. We went to Denver this past week to enjoy some time with my family while Josh was in Vegas for work. It was so nice to not have to catch another flight and shell out an extra $300 per person to make it to Wyoming, and it was awesome that I have such a kind family that they're willing to drive 6.5 hours to come see our kids, but in the general public sometimes I just don't know what's wrong with people. When we wrangled all our luggage (think 2 car seats, 3 carry ons, 2 huge suitcases and a double stroller with two kids) we made it to the car rental wait station and did our best to keep the (eh hem non napping) kids happy during a 20 minute wait. The tiny bus finally made it and what did people do? Push in front of us rather than wait in line. By the time we got on the bus it was standing room only. Did anyone offer their seat to me and Anias? Nope. They were fine cooing at him, but to actually give up comfort? Nope. This is so ridicu...

Y'all- it was a rollercoaster of a month. I would say so far in our marriage we've been blessed with mostly "for richer" periods of time. Sure there was the odd let's be really careful sort of month, but this month was so much harder than that. I can say if we didn't have a credit card some of our bills wouldn't have been paid  we would have had to drain our savings. So many medical bills. So many surprises (fully busted car window for example). It was unexpected and pretty stressful, but God totally took care of us. I mean, I have no idea how we paid off nearly 4k in one month, but we did! I had extra jobs I wasn't expecting. We had a random 'oh you paid too much for your mortgage' check. The list goes on. I know we aren't remotely poor and I'm not pretending we are. I'm just saying- sometimes you get put in a pinch and you get through it and I'm so glad we seemingly are. Week 31: I like to stand up from sittin...