Working On Wednesday

February 1, 2012September 30, 2015 Lindsey P. Brackett3 Comments

I thought I’d try something new. A Wednesday post about the randomness we may (or may not) be working on each week. When your home is filled with a toddler, a kindergartener, and a first grader, there’s always something to be working on. If you like it, maybe I’ll get all fancy with a linky button. ‘Course, I’ve said that before. I’m working on it.

Oh, and I picked Wednesday for the alliteration, English teacher nerd that I am.

This week we’re working on learning some new terms.

For instance, Madelynne’s first grade class is working on possessives. As in, “Mommy, you have to put a capastrophe before the s.” She doesn’t believe me when I say my teaching certificate is valid enough to help her with her homework. And why should she? I don’t know about capastrophes.

Amelia is learning terms too. Bossy ones. She recently started stringing sentences together so throughout the day, I get a lot of this:

“Mama rock!”

“Mama read!”

“Mo fru sacks peas.”

(fruit snacks for those of you who don’t speak toddler)

“No milk! Ap juice!”

The best is she can say her brother’s name almost perfectly. So while she pokes my belly button she chants, “Baby Gush, baby Gush!”

Annabelle is learning new terms too. Terms like tonsillectomy and adenoids and ENT. She’s not as fond of her terms as her sisters are of theirs.

We’re also learning to be a little nicer to each other because it will make our home a more pleasant place.

So last night we had a party for daddy to celebrate his new job. We made him a cake and Madelynne insisted on a tablecloth and everything.

Mmmm….that was good cake. Which means I am working on resisting the urge to eat more of it.

You can get the recipe here.

The girls and I started a project this morning as well. 14 Acts of Love. Brought to the Brackett house via Pinterest of course.

You can go here to get your own. Super easy, kid friendly! And no, I didn’t try to color any rice. But I could I’m sure. Maybe I’ll work on that for next week.

So what are you working on this Wednesday?

I’d love to know.

reflections · resolutions

What I Really Need

January 31, 2012September 30, 2015 Lindsey P. Brackett3 Comments

Sometimes on Monday I like to link up with Carissa over at lowercase letters. But today is Tuesday. Monday passed me by in a blur of strep throat and dishes and wrinkled shirts.

So I’m linking her to me today because I love this post. And it’s so timely for me right now. Joshua will be starting a new job in a couple of weeks, yay! He’ll be working closer to home which means more time and less gasoline charges. Hopefully we’ll go from sinking financially to treading water.

Which should be enough blessing. Like Carissa said, I’m not promised a savings account.

But too often I want to focus on my wants. Which I often mistake as needs.

As in, I need a bigger house. With a wrap-around porch and gorgeous views.

Source: whittenarchitects.com via Lindsey on Pinterest

And doesn’t baby Gus need a nursery and a nice crib and some decor that Amelia likes too?

Source: myyellowsandbox.blogspot.com via Lindsey on Pinterest

Or how about I need this outfit for next fall. It says “I may have 4 kids but I’m still cool and put together”, right?

Source: polyvore.com via Lindsey on Pinterest

But do I really need any of that to be happy? And if that item is intrinsically tied to my happiness, won’t I crumble when it falls apart?

Everyday of living within my means is a struggle for me spiritually, emotionally, physically. I think I make it harder than it needs to be. No, we don’t have any discretionary income.

But we do have Family Friday Night Pizza.

No, I can’t hire an awesome cake decorator for Amelia’s birthday.

But I can bake out of love. I’m thinking a version of this….

Source: layersoflove.blogspot.com via Lindsey on Pinterest

As we end a month of resolutions and resets, a month that seems to give permission to start over, and approach a month devoted to those people we love the most and those causes that touch us all, I pray I will be reminded that my sins are white as snow and He will clothe me more beautifully than any lily in the field.

motherhood · reflections

A Little More Margin, Please

January 26, 2012 Lindsey P. Brackett3 Comments

The irony of this post is that I only have about ten minutes to work on it because it’s almost after school time and while sometimes they are content to watch a movie or play with their dollhouses or color and let me work, the reality is that too often I get interrupted and lose my train of thought.

Sort of like right now.

For the past couple of days I have been trying to find enough time when my mind was clear and my kids were occupied and my husband was not home to write this post. But it’s hard to find that extra time in a day cluttered with errands and commitments and phone calls from “paid area solicitors” and dishes and laundry and email and did I mention I subbed two full days this week?

On Tuesday night when I was hyperventilating a little bit because I hadn’t folded the girls clothes and I hadn’t followed my own chore schedule and I hadn’t had a bath and I was just so tired and I wanted to blog but my mind was too frazzled—it hit me. I shared a tip with my MOPS girls the other Friday that I hadn’t been following myself.

Life needs margin. As in white space. Extra time. Decompression. A few moments every day to breathe. And I had overbooked myself this week and was rapidly spiraling downward into perfectionist-induced meltdown.

Insert margin. I just needed some time to be mindless. To chop vegetables or fold towels or sweep a floor or read a few pages of a book or write a blog. Just a bit of time when I didn’t feel so compressed by my not-so-need- to-do list. Time when no one was pulling on me or at me.

Then today I opened my well -worn copy of this book and read these words:

As workers for God we have to learn to make room for God – to give God “elbow room.” We calculate and estimate, and say that this and that will happen, and we forget to make room for God to come in as He chooses.

We forget to make room. Room for the Creator to remind us of all He has created that is good and perfect. Room to process how He will work even through the difficult and mundane. Room to let Him breathe into us the breath of life.

So today I found some margin. May you be blessed with some too.

amelia · favorite things · http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post · madelynne

Making It

January 20, 2012 Lindsey P. Brackett2 Comments

After my last post, I am overwhelmed by your encouragement, support, hugs (both physical and virtual), and simply by the sheer amount of folks who actually do read this random little blog. Thank you all for caring about these words and these ramblings.

I’m doing better. Nothing to do now but bumble on through to the end and try to keep my sanity intact. I hope you all are praying for my husband as well!

Today I wanted to link up with Rachel not because I want to make a list or add to my one thousand gifts journal.

Today I just want to savor some sweet moments amid all the chaos.

Like the fact that I am absolutely enthralled by Amelia. I can’t remember my big girls at this age. Those memories are clouded by the strain of two under two, a full-time job, and really bad post-partum depression brought on by my hypothyroidism. But somewhere along this journey of motherhood third time, I decided to pay a bit more attention. Suddenly she’s (finally!) stringing words together, such as, “Shoes, ‘kay?” And those shoes she put on by herself (wrong feet of course). She’s obsessed with turning lights on and off, Winnie the Pooh, and gives fabulous tea parties. This week she also informed me when I called her big girl, “NO! Baby!” Guess we’ll have to work on that.

Annabelle is my most stubborn child, but she likes rules. And systems. And boundaries. She functions just fine once she knows where the line is. She just made herself a “stoplight” to help us monitor her behavior at home. It’s just like what her teacher does in kindergarten because anything Mrs. Fry does is the only way something should be done. She’s our neat one, too, always coloring perfectly and making her bed.

Then there’s Madelynne. We figure she’ll grow up and find a job that just pays the bills so that in her spare time she can create pottery or abstract paintings or knit or rescue horses and dogs. She’s all over the place. We call her Tigger sometimes because she’s exactly like that. And thanks to Amelia, we’re all experts on that cast of characters. Her backpack is stuffed with old papers, pencils, candy wrappers, gloves, hat, scarf, a necklace, and half-eaten snacks. She can’t ever find anything, will read anything, and sometimes melts all over me.

Sometimes I think we might be a lot alike.

They’re something else these daughters of mine. I hope this baby boy comes out ready to tango with these sissy monsters.

Oh, and it’s Friday. Savor that over an icy margarita or a nice glass of wine if that’s your style. Or you can be like me and plan to eat pizza with a friend while kids twirl around in the background.

Have a great weekend!

motherhood · perfectly imperfect

Beyond My Control

January 18, 2012 Lindsey P. Brackett7 Comments

I am aware that even as I write this I have friends who are longing for a baby, a call from the adoption agency, two lines on the stick, the opportunity I’ve been given.

I pray for them and long for them and hope for them and wait with them.

And when I sit in the examining room waiting for my midwife, crying because I’ve already reached my ideal weight gain for this pregnancy and I still have sixteen weeks to go, I am racked with guilt that I am not more thankful for this blessing.

But sometimes one person’s blessing is another’s trial.

Please don’t think I’m horrible because I’m unhappy to be pregnant again. I want this baby. I really do. We’ve named him. We’re designing a nursery. His sisters kiss my belly, and I proudly tell people we’re having a boy after three girls.

But for a person who has always struggled with self-image, with weight, with being compared to everybody else, pregnancy can be a burden. People assume I’m due soon. Not really. May is three holidays, a winter storm, and lots of rain away. People assume I’m having twins. Newsflash: Ultrasounds are pretty high-tech these days. People tell me not to worry about it because it’s a boy and they’re just different. People tell me I’ll lose it after.

But I’m still crying.

I avoid pictures. I don’t feel beautiful, and since I rarely did before, 25 more pounds isn’t helping. I have no confidence in any decision I make. Eat a salad? I’ll be hungry again in an hour. Eat a cheeseburger? I’ll swell up from all the sodium.

Today I counted carbs. That actually helped a bit. At least I was aware of what is too much. At least I felt a little bit more in control.

Which is ultimately what this is about. I constantly feel like my life is out of my hands. That no matter how good a wife and mom I try to be, something is going to come around to remind me that I will never be good enough.

Linking up to Capturing Motherhood today and planning to read the article she’s linked to because clearly I’m out of sorts today and need to remember Who is on my side.