Weekend Project

Preston LOVES to read. It's the first thing he wants to do when he wakes up in the morning, and the last thing we do before going to bed. Not to mention we read books all throughout the day. He's my little book worm, and I love that about him. Occasionally I'll catch him sitting in his room, books poured all over him,  just reading to himself...or at least looking at the pictures.  Often times he'll bring me the books he wants me to read to him. So we sit and read, and I love it, because he'll sit quietly in my lap and cuddle with me. Reading is the only time he actually sits still.

I've been reading to him since the day he was born. Reading is what put him to sleep as a newborn when nothing else worked. We'd sit and rock, and read and read and read, until the sound of my voice finally lulled him to sleep.

We love to read. And everyday he gets smarter and smarter with the things he remembers, the pictures he notices, and the phrases he reads along with me. I love our reading time together.

Ever since being in our "new" house, the corner in his room where the basket of books lies, and the glider sits, has felt incomplete. I knew I wanted to do something with that corner, but I didn't know what.

And then I saw this picture online somewhere, most likely Pinterest, and I was instantly obsessed. I knew I needed the corner in P's room to turn into that exact image. And Saturday was the day to make it happen.

So, we headed to Lowes, where John got his early birthday present...a new drill...we picked out just the right wood, and set home to put our plan into action.

And moments later, this came about. And, I'm equally obsessed, if not more, with the actual image of his room now, than the inspiration I saw online. There are still a few things missing, like a picture or phrase in that empty spot on the wall, but I love how its turned out so far.

I love weekend projects courtesy of a husband who turns my ideas into reality, and I love that we have a little boy who loves to read just as much as he loves to play in the dirt and eat rocks! 

Momma's Boy

Tantrums and outburst of "bad" behavior have their moments in our home, and trying to teach a 16 month old how to be polite, and not a complete pill seems a waste a time on occasion, but then there are those moments when I hear a "please" and a "thank you" and I'm given lots of big bear hugs and the sweetest little slobbery kisses that melt my heart a million times over, and it makes me think I'm doing something right as a mother.

I'm not perfect. And some days are less than perfect. But I look in those big blue eyes, and all I see is the sweetest little boy there ever was, and I never want him to grow old.

Tonight as I sang him a few songs and rocked with him before putting him in his crib, he grasped my neck as tight as he could, and then pushed his face away from mine, lips puckered, and gave me the sweetest kiss before resting his head on my shoulder, ready to go to sleep. All he needed was that kiss before he could entirely settle down into a peaceful slumber for the night. Those kisses are his assurance that everything is right in the world. And I hope those kisses never stop.

Moments like these I will always cherish. And in my heart I hope he never tires of wanting me by his side.

Capturing Memories

I don't know how long we'll be a military family, but that will be our status for at least the next five years. I've decided that everywhere we live, I want to have family pictures taken, if for nothing more than to capture what we considered "home" for a period of our lives.

So, one whiny and humid afternoon, while Preston was throwing tantrum after tantrum, and we were a total sweaty mess, we set out in our backyard with an amazing photographer, and crossed our fingers a few would turn out.

And this is what we got....

 

 

Completely in love with these, and what I love most, is that they were taken right out our door. We love where we live. Illinois, who knew you were so beautiful?

September's Goal...

 All thoughts of goals for the month have already been thrown out the window.

At first I thought I could blog everyday, since my blogging has been less than par these days. But, here we are three days into the month and that would mean I've already failed.

Next I thought I could manage my money better and not spend any on things we don't NEED. But, we've already gone out to dinner once and I just went to World Market to buy this darling drink dispenser I've been eying for months now...but in my defense, it's my birthday this month, and I had a $10 off coupon. I haven't lived near a World Market for the last THREE years, so after three years of a wasted $10 off coupon during my birthday month, I HAD to use it, you know?

Then I thought I could go off sweets again, because May was a rejuvenating month for me, but after eating this apple cake on Sunday, and nearly eating an entire container of Talenti gelato last night, I decided a repeat goal isn't needed, and it would have been an epic fail anyway.

So, I'm back to square one.

But I've just decided that this months goal will be to use Preston's nap time wisely. Maybe a lame goal, but usually when he goes down for a nap, I do, too. Or, I waste time online, and he's up before I know it and I've done nothing. Yesterdays nap time was actually productive, so I haven't totally butchered this months goal already. So, here's to using nap time more wisely and actually checking things off my to-do list.

Suburbia

I like to think of myself as a city girl. But put me in the middle of corn fields and farmland, and I guess I'm kind of fond of the small town life, too. Who knew!? Knowing we have a big city 20 minutes west of us helps a little. But really, we're loving it here, and anytime I tell someone that, they seemed shocked. Really?! Said in a sort of confused, shocked, are you sure you heard my question, kind of way.

What's not to love? We're surrounded by cornfields, and baseball diamonds. Our Monday, Wednesday, Friday night entertainment is right out our back door, and no one loves it more than Preston, who emphatically yells "baseball!" every morning when we open the blinds and he sees right onto the field.  At night when the games are being played, there's squealing and major leg kicking going on. He wants to run right out there and join them. My dad would be so proud.

August's Goal

    

I thought I posted this way back at the beginning of August, you know, when I was in the midst of moving and didn't even have a real internet connection. Turns out, not having a real internet connection makes posting hard.  Now, nearly three weeks of being in our new home later, we finally have internet. What a nightmare that turned out to be. I semi-hate AT&T right now. After I told them that, they gladly offered us free service and dropped all fees for a few months. The things people do to win you over. It only slightly worked.

This month I set the goal to be more serviceable. Big or small, it didn't matter, just something to help brighten someones day a little bit more. So, you would have thought that this afternoon, on my drive home from lunch with John, when I witnessed bags of clothing thrown all over the highway after having fallen out of someones car, I would have kindly pulled over and offered to help clean up. Instead, I witnessed other cars pulling over, people jumping out to help quickly clean up the road, and the car in front of me pull over with his flashers on to deter oncoming traffic. What kind people I thought, as I watched this all unfold in my review mirror. 

Needless to say, this months goal isn't going so well. And we're far closer to the end of the month than we are to the beginning. Major fail. I have nine days to make up for it. Nine is better than nothing at all. Right? Sure.

Here's to thinking about others far more than I think about myself, and clearly that's a hard concept for me to grasp.

Cornfields and farmland

Life has been nothing short of crazy the last few weeks. And I mean that quite literally. I think I've gone a little crazy even, which would explain why I drove off without buckling P into his carseat today. I've lost my mind. But it's ok, because hopefully sanity will find me again after we get all settle into our new life. Our new life for the next 12 months. Our new life in Illinois...or, as I like to say, St. Louis, because no one would have a clue where I was talking about if I said we were living in Shiloh, Illinois. Google it. It's small. It's ruralish. And it's going to be amazing. 

We're here. We're back together as a family. And we're beyond happy about that. Seriously, life is good. John started his program today, which really means he started a whole lot of paperwork. So, fun times for sure. We're quickly realizing there's a lot of inefficiencies in the AF. Who are we kidding though, that's the government for you, so really, there are so surprises there. 

We're currently living in temporary housing on base. Which has been interesting. Mostly I just wasn't prepared for the wakeup call at 6am over the loudspeaker this morning. That and the garbage man coming by at 5:40am. I mean, whose working that early anyway? More importantly, WHY?

We're moving into our new place tomorrow, and despite some major setbacks/turnoffs to our soon to be living conditions, we're really excited. We met half the street tonight unexpectedly, and that was enough right there to make us feel like its really where we're supposed to be. They were all so friendly and beyond helpful, it was comforting. 

So, tomorrow begins more craziness, and then, I hope we return to our settled down, normal life. Crazy's always good thorough. Spicing things up is important. 

Oh, and did I mention John is back? How I missed that man of mine. Love him a million times over.