I Love My Job!

By the title of my post you may be thinking, "Do you have a job I don't know about?" or "When did you get a job?" My job is the same as it has been the past 18 months: a stay-at-home mom! Yesterday, I realized anew how thankful and blessed I am to stay home with Thomas.

Twice a year I volunteer and shop at consignment sales for children. I usually am able to buy all of Thomas' clothes for the next season, shoes, dvds, books, toys, etc. Yesterday, I volunteered in the morning and shopped in the afternoon. Since the sale was about 45 mins away, I was gone from 8am to 4pm and it was hard. Why? Because I missed Thomas so much! A very sweet lady from our church kept Thomas and I knew he was in great hands, but I don't like being away from him all day.

Staying home with Thomas is such a blessing and a privilege. Yes, some days are very hard and I do need a break sometimes. However, I wouldn't trade all the money or possessions in the world to be home with him. I know there are moms who work who would love to be at home and financially they cannot. I'm just very thankful that the Lord more than meets our needs through Josh's salary.

Psalm 127:3 says, "Behold, children are a hertiage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward." I can heartily say Amen!

18 Months

Tomorrow, Thomas will be 18 months! It is amazing to look at this little person and see how he has grown and changed so much in a year and a half. Sometimes I have hard time remembering him as a little baby, because he has changed so much. It is sure to be a shock when Josiah arrives and I hold a tiny baby again.

The newest change in Thomas is his desire to "talk" ALL the time. Talking usually consists of babbling, although he does have around 20 words in his vocabulary, and he babbles about everything. We were at a Mexican restaurant the other night and when the server came to the table, Thomas started talking non-stop to her. Often times he just walks around the house talking about who knows what - well, he does!

We have also discovered that he loves ketchup. If we will let him, he will just eat ketchup by the spoonful - yuck! Right now he is somewhat of a picky eater, but he will usually eat any type of meat if he has ketchup. I have even tried it with the vegetables, but he knows better!

He is slowly getting his first year molars. We see a new tooth every week and thus far, it hasn't been too painful. There was only one day that he was whiny and clingy, but most days he doesn't seem to care - I'm so thankful!

The other morning he was sitting in a rocking chair and had the cutest little expression that we had to take some pictures. Here is our big boy and soon to be big brother!

If You Like Food..

Then you are going to love this new blog that I found! If you are like me, you browse many different blogs and you aren't even sure how you got to most of them. Well, I found Bakerella's blog and it was worth adding as a favorite. She has incredible ideas and recipes for baked goods. The best part? She shows you pictures of the process and the final product. Her newest creation was a 14 layer cake - yes, 14 layers! And if I had the time or desire or a big family, I would make it, but I would rather just eat some of what she made - yummy! Did I mention her photography is amazing?

Go check it out - maybe some of you will be inspired or at least hungry!

I'm Not Creative, But....

I had a little help for Valentine's Day in being a little bit creative. On Thursday, I went to Target to find a card and box of "good" chocolate, such as Reese's or Snickers, for Josh. I picked up a card and went to the Valentine's section of the store and found an even better gift: A Scrabble Valentine's!

You may be thinking, "Scrabble is a good Valentine?," and yes, for my husband it is. Josh loves Scrabble. When we play board games he ALWAYS want to play it. He really likes words, but also likes to beat me because I rarely win. I blame it on always getting the bad letters (what can you do with 4 I's), but he reminds me it is all about skill. Anyway...I saw this Valentine and I just had to get it because I knew he would love it.

The Valentine is a game and a card. There are 100 tiles and you can use up to 25 of the tiles to form a message in the card. I wanted all the letters to connect just like a game of Scrabble and amazingly, I was creative enough to make it happen! Here are the results:

The message can read: Josh you have all of my love. Or, Josh you have all of me.

And yes, he was pleasantly surprised and delighted by his Valentine. He was amazed that I made all the words connect! Maybe it means I'm getting better at Scrabble! Oh, and I did get him a box of Reese's too. A gift isn't complete without chocolate for my husband!

A Little Bit of History

On my sidebar I have a list of books that I'm currently reading. One of those is Truman by David McCullough. Yes, the book is 993 pages of reading (not including end notes and the index). I thought it was going to take me a very long time to finish reading it, but I actually finished it yesterday afternoon! To be perfectly honest, last year I checked it out from the local library, but only got through the first 350 pages in about 6 weeks (I wasn't as committed then) and decided to return it and just buy it at some point.

Since one of my new year's resolutions was to read more and watch t.v. less, I picked up the copy I bought and started around where I left off - page 350. Until last week, I was reading around 100 pages a week, but something happened this past week and I had this incredible desire to read! Not only that, but if you have read anything by David McCullough you know that he makes history come alive. He is the author who wrote the biography on John Adams that HBO made into a 7 part mini-series.

Josh teases me that I'm a scholar on all things Harry Truman now, but while I'm no scholar, I certainly know much more about the former president and history in general from 1945 to 1952 (time period of Truman's presidency). In school, students learn history from reading a history textbook and memorizing a bunch of events and dates, but they don't understand history and 99.9% of the time fail to remember what they regurgitated on a test an hour later. When you read an intriguing biography on a great president then you understand why Truman was an incredible president and all those events make sense and you even remember when they happened - amazing!

We hope to home school our children and I'm determined that they learn history by reading it and engaging with it. There is merit to memorizing important events in history, but I think our methods should be fun, because history isn't boring! Okay, I'm getting off my soap box now!

Oh, just as an aside: since reading this book, I've been able to answer a couple of questions on Jeopardy that I wouldn't have known before - that has to count for something!

Story Time

Today, Thomas and I made a trip to the library for story time. It was for 30 minutes and for children three and under. I wasn't sure what to expect, but we had a great time! There were only 4 children - 2 boys and 2 girls. The librarians were very sweet and we all sat on the floor as one of the librarians read a book or told a story using a stuffed animal. All the kids got to look at a book as well, and while Thomas was interested in the books (he "reads" a lot at home), I think he was more interested in the other children!

I want Thomas to have a love for reading at an early age and for the library to be a place he knows well. We didn't check out any books today, because he has so many at home, but as he gets older, we will visit more frequently. Story Time lasts for six weeks and I think it will be great for Thomas and me. It gives him a chance for interaction with other children (besides at church) and hopefully I can meet some other mamas.

I'm so thankful for the public library and for free things to do with Thomas!

Profile Picture

I have been meaning to put up a picture of me pregnant, but I honestly haven't thought about even taking a picture of myself. Our camera is primarily used to take pictures of Thomas - he is the cutest one in the house! Last night we had a date night and Josh thought to take a picture of me and then we took one of us. I'll try to post at least a couple of more pictures of my expanding belly before Josiah arrives!

Finally, A Name!!

Today, on my 26th birthday, Josh revealed the name that he liked best and it was the name I have wanted all along! Thomas gave me a birthday card that said, "To: Mama, From: Her Boys." The card was signed, "Thomas & Josiah."

His full name is Josiah Edward Culbertson. I had actually mentioned this name the day we found out we were having a boy. Edward is Josh's middle name so an obvious choice. Here are the reasons we chose Josiah:

1. He was a godly leader. 2 Kings 23:25 says, "Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him."

2. He was a reformer. Second Kings 23 lists all the ways Josiah reformed Judah during his time as king. He burned down all the false gods, broke down their high places, removed all the shrines to other gods, and he restored the Passover because it had not been kept as commanded.

3. Statement of Faith. We pray the Lord would use Josh's ministry as a source of reformation. You can read about Josh's thoughts on reformation here.

This certainly wasn't a deciding factor in naming this precious boy, but his initials are the same as Josh's - JEC. My personal prayer is that both of our boys will grow to love God and his Word the way that Josh does. I'm so thankful that my boys have the example of godly dad and will learn from him how to be a godly leader and reformer.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Worse Than Labor?

Yes, I have discovered that kidney stones are worse than labor. On Wednesday night, I experienced a kidney stone for the first time in my life and hope to never repeat the experience. Around 7:30pm, right after church, I began to feel a stabbing pain on my right side. I simply assumed that the baby was positioned in a weird way and he would move soon. After taking two Tylenol and the pain only increasing I knew it was time to go to the hospital. Josh called his mom at midnight and she came over to stay with Thomas.

I got sick twice on the way to the hospital and then again at the hospital. The first thing I said to the nurse is, "Give me something for pain!" Of course, they had to check my urine, hear the baby's heartbeat, and ask me a whole page of questions before I could get anything. Thankfully, they finally gave me some pain medication around 3:00am. After drawing blood and checking it, they determined it wasn't my appendix, and most likely it was a kidney stone.

Hospitals aren't known for being quick about anything, and it wasn't until 5:30pm on Thursday afternoon that my OB confirmed I did have a large kidney stone. He thought it would pass by the morning and he was right. We were so thankful that I didn't have to endure any kind of medical procedure to remove it and when they did the ultrasound, they only saw one. The doctor still isn't sure what caused it, but he did say kidney stones sometimes occur in pregnancy.

I'm thankful for pain medication and a husband that takes great care of me when I am sick. Josh pulled an all-nighter on Wednesday night, something he hasn't done since college and he hopes he doesn't have to repeat! My ob told me on Friday morning that labor should be a breeze after going through this and I agree. Even though labor is very painful, at least there is a break between contractions. I told him maybe I didn't need an epidural after all and he said, "You deserve it after this experience."

Hopefully, the next time I visit the hospital, I'll come home with a baby!