Life with Two

I'm not going to lie or sugar coat it....life with more than one child is no cake walk, it's hard! It's chaotic and stressful, as well as rewarding. Some days I feel like I'm rocking this mom of two gig and other days I feel like I'm drowning and failing miserably.

I've had several days that I am all alone with both boys and am out and about all day. We might be running Hunter to preschool, then I run errands with Hudson, pick up Hunter, take Hudson to the doctor, etc. Those days surprisingly are the ones that I feel most confident, I feel like I can handle anything they throw at me. It's the days at home when Hudson is crying and needing all my attention while Hunter is yelling that he went poop and needs me to wipe his bottom, that's when I get overwhelmed. Or I'm dealing with a blowout diaper and Hunter is whining and asking for a snack for the tenth time in the last minute that I became tied up with a poop explosion that only a bath will fix.

But...it's so rewarding at times. I love the peaceful times when I'm nursing Hudson and Hunter is curled up under my arm. Or when Hunter and I make up nicknames for baby Hudson, like "Sir poops a lot" or "Mr. Crabby Pants", or "Little baby peanut". These boys bring me so much joy. I try to take a deep breath and remind myself of that during the stressful and overwhelming parts of the day.

I'm still adjusting to life with these two boys, hopefully it will start feeling more routine soon. Right now, I'm just trying to take one day at a time...who am I kidding, more like one hour at a time. Eventually, we will get in the swing of it and life will go more smoothly.

Debt Free Journey

Well, our family has finally accomplished a goal that we set out for a few years ago, to be debt free, expect our mortgages. We've had a few setbacks, but we finally made it and that is what has made it possible for me to stay at home with Hunter.

Four years ago, looked a lot different than today does. We had two auto loans, a few credit cards, and six student loans between the two of us. I'm going to guess our debt load was 60-70K between all those things. The first thing we paid of were the credit cards and started paying them off every month and never went back to carrying balances on them. Then we tackled the five smaller student loans on by one. We got both our cars paid off at one point and were left with only my one student loan. Then there was are setbacks... we wanted newer vehicles. We did not need them, but we did it anyways :(

I don't fully regret buying Jesse a new truck and me the SUV I had wanted forever. It means that we love our vehicles and we truly do not want or need to trade them in for a very long time. We did finance about half of each of them because we had our other vehicles paid of and we traded them in.

So our next steps were paying off his truck, my SUV, and then, just this week we paid off my final student loan. Woo-hoo! It feels so good to know that everything we own (besides our two houses) are completed paid for and we can live on a lot less income.

Why did we do it? I think the driving force really came after Hunter was born. I wasn't convinced that I wanted to be a stay at home mom, but I did know that I wanted to have that option if I wanted it. I also knew that we Jesse being in the military, we could have to move at anytime, which meant that I would be jobless for at least a period of time. It was more long term planning for the what-ifs.

We still have an emergency fund in savings, which for my sanity I need (can you tell I'm a planner? Even for the unexpected?). I'm so happy that we went down this path. I would never of dreamed that would could live on one income, much less comfortably, but here we are! I feel much more free and less stressed out and am SO blessed to be able to stay at home with Hunter and grow another little baby. I think the key is to stick with it even if you don't make all the "right" decisions along the way, it'll happen eventually!

I love to hear about other people's journey to be debt free, so feel free to share! Or if have any questions, leave me a comment or e-mail me!

Meal Planning

I am finally feeling back to my old self, no more throwing up and I have tons more energy. So, I figured it was time for the new stay at home mom to get to work with some meal planning! I've never really mastered this and usually end up just having the basics on hand to make simple dinners like stir fry, curries, and baked chicken and veggies. BORING. Well, Jesse likes it because that means it's usually Paleo diet friendly, but this pregnant lady is craving some good old carbs and comfort food these days.

So, I got to work this morning while Hunter slept in until 10am! I pulled out my "Joy of Cooking" cookbook and did some meal planning for the next week or so. Here is what I came up with:

Thursday: Chicken Enchiladas (even with homemade sauce, I'm kind of a snob about this, I don't like canned enchilada sauce)

Friday: Corned beef and cabbage with red potatoes (Gotta celebrate Jesse's Irish heritage, right?!)

Saturday: My oldest brother and his fiancé have informed us this week that they are having a spur of the moment wedding on Saturday evening! So, no cooking for me, but I did volunteer to make my yummy red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. (Want the recipe? It's over there on the recipes tab!)

Sunday: Beef Stew

Monday: Spaghetti Pie

Sometime during the week I also plan to make some chocolate chip cookies and some apple muffins to snack on. All these recipes I found in the Joy of Cooking cookbook (expect the cupcakes, I leave that to Martha).

You guys have any luck with meal planning? I'm hoping I stick with it, but I just don't know if I can keep up with it every week. Any tips for me? I'd love to hear them.

Discipline

Ugh, this has been on my mind for a little while. How do you discipline a two year old? I don't have the answers, but I can speak from our experience what has been working in our family. It's an ever changing process with Hunter. I am a big fan of changing up how you deal with things based on what works or is working at the time for your child.

A firm "no" was the first thing that we started with Hunter, about a year ago. At the time it worked well and he could tell we did not approve of his actions and would stop. After he got a bit more stubborn, that changed, he would just look at us, as if saying "Really, you think that's going to stop me?!".

So, we started using timeouts. Oh, they were my best friend for several months. Hunter would hang his head in time out and then rush over to me to apologize. We would hug and then talk about why he went to timeout. I got to the point where I wasn't physically putting him in time out, I would just tell him to go to timeout and he would. Oh those were the days!! After a couple months, nope, not working anymore. He would just sit there with no remorse and think nothing of it and then go back and do whatever had gotten him into timeout five minutes before.

So, we switched to spankings. Go ahead and judge me, that's fine. But I do believe in spankings. I've never done it out of anger nor have I actually physically caused harm to my child. Jesse even teases me that I have never really given him a "spanking" just a tap on a diaper covered bottom. Whatever. It worked. It would shock him a little at first and then it hurt his feelings. His bottom lip would stick out and he would say he was sorry. In the last month... nope no reaction, just a stare down.

So... that leads me to where we are at right now. We have moved on to taking things away for bad behavior. He hits the puppy, he gets a toy or the TV taken away. He doesn't clean up his toys when I ask them to, he's not going to get to use them for the afternoon. This has been working like a charm. I think it's just a natural progression with age, what "hurts" them the most at the time. Right now, the thought of not being able to watch the rest of Octonauts sends him into complete panic and he rushes to correct his behavior.

Call me crazy, but I like the discipline aspect of parenting. I know that it turns me into a "bad guy" at the moment, but it shaping him for the future. It's offering him guidance into becoming the man that God wants him to be. So yeah, when I see progress in his actions, words, and affection towards other, I like being the primary one to guide him. There is not doubt in my mind that being willing to discipline your child is an act of service and love for them. I love my son enough to want to mold and guide him to greatness.

Learning to Sew

So if you are my friend on Facebook or follow me on Instagram, this is old news. (If you don't follow me on Instagram, my name is doylesdays). A couple weeks ago I decided it was time that I learned to sew! So I went over to my parent's house for a sewing day with my mom. I had found a pretty simple tutorial on pinterest for a super cute baby blanket. Then later that week I made two more!


I love them! They are super soft minky dot on one side and a nice flannel on the other. I can't wait to make more for baby showers and other special babies in my life :)

Here of some pictures of the process:



And here are my three completed blankets so far.




I plan on doing a giveaway of a blanket in the next week or so, so keep a lookout! :)

Thank You!!!

I just wanted to say thank you for all the congrats and well wishes about being pregnant I have received! I really feel like this blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram has connected me with some amazing ladies and has grown into such a great community to connect with other moms in! So... THANK YOU!

Speaking of that great community, I am so super excited to be going to my first blogger's night out with about a dozen or so other local bloggers. It's tonight and I can't wait to meet so many of the faces that I've come to know through social networking! I'll be sure to share some pics and the details afterwards! :)

I know I still have a bit MIA in blogland. I promise you, I have a good reason. This pregnancy has made me so very sick. I feel extremely tired 90% of the time, nausous most of the day, and throwing up everyday as well. BUT... the good news about that is that means my body is doing what it needs to, to grow a healthy baby! Totally worth it, but in the meantime I have been pretty worthless. I've been neglecting housework, seeing friends and family, blogging, and lots more. What I have gotten really good at is playing Monopoly on the iPhone app. Hee-hee.

Beautiful Weather

If you live in the Pacific Northwest, than you already now how beautiful the weather has been here in the last several days. I'm loving the sunny mid 50's that February has brought to us!

It allowed Hunter to get some much needed outdoor time.

Here are a couple pictures from yesterday.

My Glamorous Life

Like seriously, it's a super fancy life I live these days. I don't like to leave the house. I'm going through one of those moods. I haven't been feeling too hot and dealing with the transition between super busy working mom with not enough hours in the day and being a stay at home momma to a two year old.

Having this puppy doesn't help much either. She's too little to leave in the back yard while we are gone and I feel bad putting her in her kennel for more than an hour or two. So that leaves me to stay at home.

Can I just tell you about how much poop and pee I'm dealing with in this house between Hunter potty training and a nine week old puppy?! I seriously am over it. If it's not puppy poop, or Hunter pee, than it's Hunter finding puppy poop before I do, picking it up and then trying to rub it off his hands onto his legs. Yes, true story, it's happened twice in the last two days. So yeah, I'm seriously up the my eyeballs in poop, really. Don't worry, I didn't take any pictures to share these precious moments with you all.

Oh yeah, wanna hear another funny-gross-sad story? Hunter was running around naked before bedtime the other night and playing with Lucy, the puppy. All of a sudden he is crying and running to me to be held. I asked him if Lucy bit him, he says "Yes, Lucy bite my penis!" And then proceeded to tell me that he needed mommy to kiss it. No, sir. Kids and puppies are quite the combo, let me tell ya!

Okay anyways, I don't like to write with out leaving you a picture, don't worry, some cute ones, not ones of poop or bitten toddler parts!

It's Finally Real

I AM A STAY AT HOME MOM!!! It's hit me in the last day that I really am not going back to work, that this isn't just a vacation, and guess what... it's AWESOME!

I wrote that I was a bit out of commission for a few days because I was in a lot of pain with my back, but it started feeling much better yesterday. I am feeling so much more joyful and energized. I was looking forward to Hunter's naptime and bedtime a lot while my back was hurting. Today, right now, I am totally missing my little man while he's taking his nap. I just adore that kid and I feel like the luckiest and most blessed mama ever that I get to spend everyday with such a fun and easy little guy.

He was so cute yesterday afternoon. He woke up from his nap and was on the search for his Little People "farmer" that sits in the tractor. He couldn't find it anywhere. He sadly said "Mommy, farmer gone. In car?" So I went out to the car three seperate times to find farmer. No such luck. He wasn't in the playroom, Hunter's room, or in the living room. When I told Hunter that he was really gone, he just turned around and sat in his little chair and put his head down and said "Hunter miss farmer". It was the cutest and saddest thing ever. And then I thought, let's just go find a new one!

This is when it really hit me that I am a stay at home mom. There would be no way that I would have driven to Toys R Us on a weeknight to go on a search for a toy. But now I have so much energy and am so stressfree. So, we went to the store and I quickly realized that "farmer" is part of a $40 barn set. Ugh. But then Hunter saw a Little People "cook" and exclaimed "Farmer!!" and it was only $6, perfect! We got in the car and I took farmer out of the package and into the tractor that was waiting in the car. Hunter was the happiest little boy ever when I handed it to him!

Afterwards, I took Hunter to Applebee's for a little dinner date with my favorite little guy. He sat next to me and played with his farmer and tractor with such content. Then we went home and watched Cars. My heart just about exploded with love last night in realizing that this is my new life. I love it!