Fun Jobs

Ok so I was thinking about this the other day NOT because I don't love my job now (it is absolutely the best!) . However, I imagine at some point in my life I may return to the workforce. I saw something on TV that got me thinking, if I could do any job in the world without any limitations or restrictions what would I want to do? Here are a few I thought of in no particular order....

Marine biologist -however I'm terrified of swimming in the ocean, go figure.

Tour guide - maybe in a museum, on a boat somewhere, around a city, not really sure where would be the most fun.

Zoologist

Education director at a museum/aquarium

Family/marriage counselor

Own a Shlotzsky's/Chik-Fil-A franchise near my house (this probably wouldn't be fun for very long...) ;)

Teach adults computer skills

Consult for businesses on boosting morale/computer skills

Game and Fish officer/Forest Service Ranger

Author

Open and run a center to help people learn workplace skills and get connected with jobs

Interior Designer

Professional Photographer for National Geographic

Again, a lot of these jobs require knowledge/training/skills that I don't have but putting that aside I think these professions would be fun!

Randomness

I've had a lot of things on my mind this week so here goes....(since these are current events I am in no way intending to direct this at any one person or cause offense to anyone, seriously, I mean that.)

Why are women so insecure in their relationships when they were designed to be more relational than men? I often find myself insecure around other women. I'm too shy to talk to them, I don't always feel like I know what to say or what questions to ask, I feel like most women have other friends in their lives that they enjoy spending time with rather then hanging out with me, I feel like my thought process is not like the rest so the conversation may be awkward....I could keep going but what's funny is when I share this with other women, they feel the exact same way!!! Well most do anyways. I like to look back at my previous relationships and try to figure out if they're to blame, because it certainly can't be anything I did (kidding of course). I certainly have had my fair share of friendships that have not survived for a variety of reasons, most recently I've felt not important enough to even get a phone call or email from a friend. In past friendships I always felt like I was the one initiating everything and so got tired of making all the calls and in a sense "bugging" them, thus leading to a friendship diminished. Now being older it seems like it's harder to make friends. I want to hang out with the women that I'm friends with now but how do I overcome my insecurities and past hurts to just do it and not think that this new friendship might end like all those in the past?

Another topic.....group dynamics. I love it and I hate it! After growing up in the church and being actively involved in sunday school, youth group and now adult life groups I've seen many good things come out of these groups and a few bad things. When I was in the youth group I saw quite a few pastors come and go as well as youth coaches. I learned a lot about church...you go for worship not the people! People will always let you down. I saw a lot of people strive to work in the ministry and come to Christ! I saw a lot of relationships strengthened, marriages included, and I even met my husband in one of these groups! Lately, I've been semi-inspired to write a book about what to do and what not to do when creating and growing life groups, to the point where I've been writing down notes. I've fallen into leadership positions (or maybe I've put myself there, I don't really know) and while I like it and feel that "pastoring" is a God-given gift I also struggle to please everyone and that soooo doesn't work in life. I feel as though I've digressed here. My point... why can't people in the kingdom of God get along without hurt or offense? Why can't there be unity where we compromise and love each other despite the outcome instead of blaming each other? Why can't we stop complaining about the wrongs done to us and start actively loving others?

A little lighter subject....parenting. I love it! It's certainly difficult at times. I do feel my opinion on certain styles/methods are a little strong sometimes and I need to be aware of my audience, although, conversely, there are times I wish other parents would have mentioned things to me while we were preparing for Hadley. It's hard to know I guess when it's appropriate to say stuff and when it's not. I think this week I came to the realization that I'm paranoid about being a paranoid parent, that's not who I am. Uggh, gotta pray about that one! Anyhow, the girl is sleeping in her crib for the first time and it was harder than I thought it would be to put her in there but I think it will be better for all of us. The good news is she fell asleep just fine!

I think that's all for now, well I know there was more but I can't remember. Comments? Questions? Concerns?

Month 3

A few days premature but oh well. This month has been so much fun! Hadley has really gotten a lot better at sleeping and is now on a great routine. She's super happy when she's awake and falls asleep easily (usually within 2-5 minutes with a little crying). We stuck with the "cry it out" method and I highly recommend it!! It's hard at first but I'd say after about 3 or 4 days the crying decreased significantly. It was a lot of work and pretty stressful for Jon and I to be walking around trying to calm her down and get her to fall asleep and we figured if she's crying anyways why should we stress ourselves out by trying to calm her down when she can do it on her own and do it faster. The first few days we'd set her down she'd cry for about 30-45 minutes and we'd just keep ourselves busy in another part of the house (with the monitor on but low volume) and she'd fall right to sleep. It not only has given me more confidence in helping her but I also feel like she's developed a shred of independence at her young age and that makes a mother proud! I think she's become an excellent sleeper (and she loves it) and it will help her in the years to come!

Some other fun developments this month: She loves playing with her tongue, smiles a ton (still waiting for a laugh), getting her fists to her mouth, waking up twice during the night at the most, and just yesterday she sat up like a big girl in her Bebe seat (with a little slouching). This has been a wonderful month so far and I am beyond excited to watch her grow! I look forward to feeding her rice cereal and making it myself, I look forward to her sitting up and rolling over! Oh so many fun things about having a baby! I know it's bitter-sweet but I really look forward to her being an independent little girl!

On a personal note, I've kept up my reading, I've been trying to read a book a month and last month I read two!! I've been into learning more about Afghanistan and Pakistan and have found a few good books that I would highly recommend. However, I really feel my ability to hold a coherent conversation has decreased greatly and my mental math abilities have also decreased (very specific I know). So I think it's about time to get started on that writer's guild curriculum so I can keep my brain sharp. We'll see! Jon and I are also talking about doing a bible study together so hopefully we can be disciplined in that!

10 mas cosas

Here we go again! (Nice espanol eh? I'm not sure if that's correct grammar but oh well...)

Reasons I am content with life......

1. I enjoy living in Tucson

2. We are financially secure

3. Our families get along with each other

4. Did I mention we have the cutest little girl?

5. We have Rock Band to keep us entertained

6. We have a washer and dryer

7. We have a king size bed (upgraded from a full)

8. We have dependable friends

9. We are trusted to be leaders in ministry

10. I have people who pray for me

Your turn...share a reason(s) you are grateful or content.

10 Reasons to be content

I often find myself looking to the future for things to come so I'm determined to be content with what God has given me...here it is.

1. I have a wonderfully loving and committed husband

2. I have a healthy daughter who is absolutely adorable

3. I have a house that keeps us warm in the winter and shields us from the blazing heat

4. I have a God who loves me regardless and lavishes His grace on me

5. I have a working car to get me where I need/want to go

6. I get to stay at home with my daughter

7. I have friends and family that I love and who love me

8. I am healthy

9. I am part of a community that loves God and serves others

10.  I enjoy laughing with people

Stay tuned...more to come.

(obviously this blog has slightly deviated from posting about my "hobbies".)

Month 2

What a difference a month makes! I heard so many people say (even the nurses when we were at the hospital) if you can make it past the first 6 weeks you'll be fine. I think I do look back and those first 6 weeks were the hardest! I saw Dave White last night and he asked me what the hardest part of being a parent was so far and immediately I answered, "having to make decisions for Hadley". While our first month was flooded with trying to get the feeding down the second month has been plagued with making decisions. Conversely, Dave asked what the best part was and I replied, "just looking at her beautiful face" and adding to that, "knowing God has entrusted us with the cutest little girl".

So what decisions were facing us this month? (as if we weren't making decisions before this), How to help our little girl be happy. Sounds like an elusive job but we were starting to notice that she wasn't sleeping well and therefore becoming very fussy as would any of us! So I began thinking that she was becoming over-stimulated throughout the day and not being able to calm herself down to sleep. Much to my chagrin, I started making things quiet around the house during the day so she could get some much needed rest. I also started putting her on her stomach to sleep (gasp!!). We had started putting her to bed around 7 or 8 each night but I was not about to try a rigid schedule where she had to eat at certain times and sleep at certain times, that didn't seem logical to me. These tricks were helping but still not as much as we needed them to

After having days of lots of crying and little sleep (and no she isn't colicky) I begin to feel frustrated, confused, overwhelemed....and mad at myself for getting so worked up over this. Why couldn't I just relax and take it in stride? That was my nature pre-baby. I thought I should watch my diet, maybe I should force her to be on a schedule, maybe something is wrong physically with her and I was just missing it....I went on and on, read so many different things on the internet until finally I had over-exhausted myself mentally and emotionally and even laughed a little at how stressed out I had gotten, "this is ridiculous," I thought. I'm actually a little embarrased to share this because I really don't like to get so worked up and stressed out about things like this that are a natural part of life. What happened to my "mother's intution"?

I had read briefly about this parenting style called "baby wise" and how you should set up your child on an eat, play, sleep routine and at the moment our routine was eat, sleep, eat, sleep, cry, cry, cry...nothing routine about it. So Jon and I talked a little about it and though I haven't read the book and could possibly be sabotaging my own efforts I decided to give it a try at least it would create some kind of consistency. I figured it sounded easy enough even though I still have some questions. I started this past Wednesday and Hadley only took about 4 2o min naps, needless to say she was not liking falling asleep without eating. Thursday was about the same, but I did my best to stick with it, letting her do some crying before I'd go in and calm her down. Thursday seemed to go pretty well as far as she was crying herself to sleep fairly quickly but again not staying asleep for very long. I think after those two days she had exhausted herself because Friday I could hardly keep her awake!

Today has been a little rough, she still isn't sleeping real well during the day but I'm keeping to the routine, even if she only sleeps for 30 mins or plays for 15 min, we're sticking to the routine. I've also cut out a lot of dairy in my diet, which is super hard because I love milk!!! If things get better within this week I may try to start adding a little dairy back in to see how things go. Finally but certainly not least, I've been praying like crazy through this whole process just for some peace and confidence that something will help. I think God is teaching me to just calm down first of all, things will be fine no matter what routine we do but using a specific routine I think we'll be learning consistency early on because once we have to start in on the discipline we're going to need some consistency!! I can tell you already it's been easier to be consistent with my own child than it ever was with my students.

To sum things up, my stress level has decreased dramatically, I feel we have a goal we're working towards and I am seeing some positive results already. Praise God!! I love my little girl and am enjoying being a mom!

Month 1

Ok so I'm a proud mother of a one month old sweet little girl and life is definitely different, not what I expected at all.  I've always thought it strange when people said they could never stay home with their kids, they'd get too bored.  What life are they living?  No offense to any readers who feel that way but holy crap, I feel like I have so much to do and so little time!  I actually got to plant a few plants today and do two loads of laundry.  Although, the little girl was fighting sleep all day so I was a little tied up.  

I've been reading through some friend's blogs and have picked up on a few things that I'd like to tryout.  Drum roll please......... since being a teacher my love for children's literature (and reading in general) was reawakened.  So I decided while staying at home with our kids I'd like to try to get at least one kids book published.  I've read about a friend trying out this Christian Writer's Guild program that is pretty much like a college course for people wanting to get their writing published.  I've looked through their website and am extremely interested, however I'm going to hold off joining for a few reasons.  Reason 1, because Hadley is still so young she still kind of needs me....A LOT (I know she'll get more energy as she gets older but at least she'll be a little more independent and on more of a schedule.).  Reason 2, I'm still adjusting to having a kid.  Reason 3, I'd like to hear from my friend how the program is before I commit.

I'm also ready to get back on the goal train.  A year or two ago Jon and I wrote down some goals and for the most part did ok accomplishing them.  But we haven't looked at them in quite some time so I looked at them yesterday and felt motivated again to get back on track with them.  Hopefully I don't overwhelm Jon with my motivation since he's got a lot going on now.  Anyway, I'm excited to have some direction while at home.

Meanwhile, on the "mom" front.  Things are going well.  I hate to say anything in fear of jinxing (sp?) it but for the last 3 nights Hadley has been sleeping well, only waking up once or twice during the night.  I'm trying to be thankful for each night it happens while maintaining a realistic outlook that she could revert back to waking up every hour or two.  I ordered a breast pump and I think we're going to try a bottle within the next week or so.  It's so weird, I've been a lot more uptight with her than I thought I would be since I'm generally a very laid back person.  I chalk it up to the fact that she's so darn cute and I love her so much that I don't want to miss a minute.  I have to confess it has been a process for me to be able to leave her (just in a different room) with anyone but Jon.  It's hard to let her cry when someone else is holding her, not because I don't think they can't handle it but because I just feel so bad for her when she cries.  I've come a long way and am a lot better with most of this, but I'm nervous about leaving her with a babysitter.  Again, not because I don't think they can't handle it, but because I don't want to miss anything with her. :)    I guess it's all a process and as she gets older maybe it will get easier.  I'm sure with the second kid, I'll gladly be handing him/her over to whoever so I can get a break.