Book Review: Coming Back Stronger

First of all, I'll admit that I'm not really into the biography genre. In fact, I don't think I've ever finished one. I have a few that I've started but haven't ever finished. I got this one on my Nook when I got it back in January and have had so much to read that I'm just now getting around to it. I'm a super big Saints fan so it was interesting to learn more about the team and players, not just Drew Brees. However, I did learn a lot about him and his struggles to get where he is today. There were two main messages that resonated throughout his book. 1. Faith in God is what gets anyone through anything...good or bad. 2. It's the struggles and setbacks that make you stronger and more prepared for the triumphs and successes. It's a good read for Saints fans and sports fans. Even though I'm not a fan of biographies, I'm glad I read it because I have a lot more respect for Drew Brees and his role with the Saints.

There's Always a Parallel

It seems like you're always able to make a parallel between anything and God/Jesus. Really, anything. A mirror, the grass, war, etc. Yesterday was a particularly trying day for me in Kaleb world. He's in the stage now where he asks us "Why?" ALL the time. Not only that, he constantly says, "You happy mama?" I feel like I tell him the same answers to the same questions over and over and over again...because I do. As I was driving back to the house last night from Jackson, I was in a not-so-patient mood. Getting close to Magee, a thought came to me. The Bible says to give thanks always. I'm gonna be honest, it's not easy to be thankful in those moments. But I mustered up what I could and thanked God that I was having these irritating conversations with my son. As soon as I said it I realized it was true. Because I was getting frustrated with the whys and the questions, it meant some stuff. One, he's alive. Even when I'm most frustrated I need to remember that some parents would do anything in the world to have their children back and to be as frustrated as I am. Two, he's inquisitive. He's developing his own thoughts and opinions. He's not afraid to ask me questions. He knows that even when I fuss with him I still love him so he isn't nervous to fuss with me. Three, he's a smarty. I'm attributing that to me.:) How will he ever learn new words and concepts if someone doesn't tell him. By answering his questions over and over again I'm helping him build vocabulary and prepare for school. These things don't stop me from becoming irritated, but they DO help me put some things in perspective.

Wouldn't it be nice if this image popped in my head everytime I got frustrated?

When I got home and went to bed I was talking to God about how frustrating it is to have to get on to him over and over for the same things, whether it's hitting, saying bad words, screaming, whatever. And how annoying (Yes, I said it - annoying) it is to answer the whys over and over. That's when the parallel hit me as if God had bonked me on the head like they do in the V8 commercials. That's EXACTLY what I do as a child of God. God loves me and wants to protect me and watch me grow up doing what he's instructed me to do, but I continuously disobey him. I lie, gossip, and think ugly things over and over again even though God has made it perfectly clear that that's not what He wants me to do. And how many times have I asked him "why?" instead of trusting Him? I feel like all I do is ask him why this happened or why that didn't happen. It's a good thing God is infintely patient because if He treated me like I sometimes treat Kaleb, I'd be in sorry shape. It's all about perspective and I really hope I can keep this one the next time Kaleb tries my patience.

Twenty Four Weeks

It's amazing how much more pregnant you look when you wear maternity clothes. I'm a week further along but look less pregnant than last week because I'm wearing a regular t-shirt. Weird
How Far Along: 24 Weeks
Size of Baby: Little Baby is about as long as an ear of corn. Apparently he's long and thing at this point and will be gaining chub later.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I'm at +6ish since my base weight.
Maternity Clothes: Pretty much exclusively
Movement: Oh yeah
Gender: It's a boy! Peyton Graham Satterwhite
Sleep: Stinking insomnia
What I Miss: I really wanted a Smirnoff one day this week after it had been a long day with Kaleb. I don't really miss alcohol, but did want one that day.
Cravings: Now that we live in Laurel I can pretty much satisfy my cravings. It's been pretty awesome.
Symptoms: No new ones this week. Same old same old - acid reflux, emotional, small bladder, insomnia...
Best Moment This Week: Finally deciding on a name and telling people. Now I can order stuff with Peyton's name on it, like his diaper bag. Or his baby book that came in today! It's just like Kaleb's but with different pictures and designs.

What I'm Looking Forward To: Hopefully getting the rest of the house done and pictures taken. Eric's gotten the main room taken care of so now it's just bookshelves, curtains, pictures, etc. It'll be nice not to have to worry about it anymore. I'm sensing a trip home in my future to take some of the stuff we need stored.

Zoo Trip

One of the hardest parts of summer is finding something to entertain yourself and your child with all day. I mean, we spend a good amount of time playing inside with trucks or watching movies, but sometimes you just have to get out. Today we decided to go to the Hattiesburg Zoo since we're only 30 minutes away now. I must say that I remember it being much better. Didn't there used to be animals there? Anyway, I brought my camera becaues I was sure I'd take pictures of us at the zoo. Yeah...don't know how those moms do it. Even with Eric there it takes all my energy to keep him walking around the zoo and we don't get to take many pictures.

This was technically yesterday, but my "cool dude" likes to wear his sunglasses this way. When I turn them around he tells me that they're upside down. Hey, whatever. Not a battle I choose to fight. Plus, it's pretty cute.

 Eric and Kaleb walking to the zoo. Kaleb has started chewing his fingers lately. Don't know what that's all about.

Waiting to board the train. He wanted to ride the train since we walked in the gate.

Waiting for the train to start. Now, I don't know what I looked like as a kid, but I imagine it was something like this...haircut and everything.

He was really excited about the train. Until the whistle blew. It was pretty loud and it scared him. He spent the rest of the ride like this. Not gonna lie. I liked it.

"Looking" at the alligator. He didn't want to let go long enough to wave and barely looked around. Oh well.

After the train we tried to go to the splash pad because he really wanted to play in the water. Once we got his shoes, socks, and shirt off he wouldn't even go in. He just kept looking at it. So that didn't really work out. Now, instead of napping away, he's in his crib talking to himself. I was sure he'd pass out, but no luck yet.

Twenty Three Weeks

Sorry for missing three weeks in a row. We were in the Smokies one week, California the next, and then moved the next week. It's been pretty busy. But here's the first picture of Little Baby in the new house.

How Far Along: 23 Weeks
Size of Baby: Little Baby is about the same size as a large mango. Still, this seems smaller than a banana. I mean, I guess stretched out and curled up makes a difference.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I'm at +5 since my base weight. I feel like I look bigger at this point of this pregnancy than I did at this point in Kaleb's pregnancy. But according to the scales, I guess not.
Maternity Clothes: Yep. I like maternity clothes.
Movement: A lot of movement since the last update. I'm starting to see Little Baby move in my belly. Eric can see kicking and a little movement.
Gender: We're super close to making a decision. First name is set and the middle name is down to two options. It's really hard not to use gender specific pronouns because we've been using Little Baby's name and pronoun so much lately.
Sleep: I'm thinking the insomnia has started to set it. It takes forever to go to sleep. Plus, this time I'm having to get up around 4 or 5 to go to the bathroom which leaves about 2-3 hours before Kaleb gets up.
What I Miss: Sleeping on my back.
Cravings: Different days, different cravings.
Symptoms: I've started experiencing acid reflux and some pain on my right side when I change positions. It's just stretching ligaments (or so I'm told) but it's no fun. Oh, and I had a kidney stone a couple weeks ago. Ugh!
Best Moment This Week: Eric has been able to see Little Baby moving around in my tummy.
What I'm Looking Forward To: I get to go to my new doctor tomorrow. I'm kinda hoping she'll want to do her own sonogram because we haven't gotten a great picture of Little Baby yet. The only one we have of his/her face makes him/her look like a panda or puppy dog. I'm thinking it's just the angle, but I'd like to know that he/she is going to be cute.

The Best Daddy A Boy Could Have

When my computer crashed (literally onto the floor) about a year ago, I lost most of the digital pictures. Luckily they're on Facebook and we printed a lot of them off. But these are some of the pictures I do have from the last year.

Kaleb loves his Daddy and whenever he's not around asks where "His Daddy" is. We're both blessed to have him in our lives.

It's Like New

Our kitchen chair cushions are pretty nasty. I blame the kid and the dog. I don't know what we were thinking getting white cushions, but we really liked the table. All of the cushions look something like this. There are juice stains, mac and cheese stains, Lucy stains, etc. Some of them are worse than others. This was just the one we started with.

Eric actually picked out the fabric. It's got a fun pattern and the colors didn't go with our old house, but we have this blue countertop so it's actually perfect now.

This is the finished covered chair cushion. It's definitely NOT perfect. My mom warned me that the corners were going to be the hardest part, and she was right. They don't look great. Hopefully they'll all look progressively better as I get better at it.



TA DA! Only five more to go!

Pizza Biscuits

This recipe is courtesy of VBS. It's fast, yummy, and cheap.
Ingredients:
1 can of biscuits
1 jar of pizza sauce
mozzerella cheese
various toppings (pepperoni, sausage, etc)

Get a muffin tin. Take apart the biscuits and flatten them out a bit so they fit in the muffin holes with a little bit hanging over. Put a spoonful of pizza sauce in each biscuit. Add any toppings and cover with cheese. Cook them using the biscuit instructions. Super easy and delicious! I'm definitely going to be packing them for lunches this year and it might save me during the summer.

Proverbs

I started reading Proverbs a couple of weeks ago since I'd never read through it all. For some reason I read it backwards, from 31 to 1. Here are the ones that stood out to me.

3:3-4 "Never let loyalty and kindness leave you!...Then you will find favor with both God and people, and you will earn a good reputation."

3:27 "Do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it's in your power to help them."

6:16-19 "There are six things the Lord hates - no, seven things he detests: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness who pours out lies; a person who sows discord in a family."

10:19 "Too much talk leads to sin. Be sensible and keep your mouth shut."

11: 13 "A gossip goes around telling secrets, but those hwo are trustworthy can keep a confidence."

11:24 "Give freely and become more wealthy; be stingy and lose everything.:

13: 20 "Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble."

16:9 "We can make our plans but the Lord determines our steps."

19:18 "Discipline your children while there is hope. Otherwise you will ruin their lives."

21: 3 "The Lord is more pleased when we do what is right and just than when we offer him sacrifices."

26: 20 "...quarrels disappear when gossip stops."

27: 2 "Let someone else praise you, notyour own mouth - a stranger, not your own lips."

27:15 A quarrelsome wife is as annoying as constant dripping on a rainy day."

28:6 "Better to be poor and honest than to be dishonest and rich."

28:27 "Whoever gives to the poor with lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to poverty will be cursed."

29:11 "Fools vent their anger, but the wise quietly hold it back."