What's on My Mind Monday

Linking up over here this morning:

I.  Madison totally tricked me yesterday morning.  Her sleep has been going like clockwork lately, so much so that I don't actually check the clock anymore when she wakes up.  I just go get her.  Well, yesterday she decided to wake up two full hours early.  Normally, I would go pick her up, hold her for a minute or so, then put her back down.  That works pretty much every time.  Instead, since I assumed it was time to wake up, I went ahead and got her up and nursed her, which threw off the whole schedule of the day.  I was so tired when we (Patrick and I) got her up from her first nap that I lapsed into an island tongue, with the off balance cadence, accent, and all: "If I go sleep now, you think she be okay?"  Weird, man.

II.  Big changes are a-brewing in the Philpot household!  That's right, we did change our daily breakfast.  We no longer have burritos (for Patrick) and eggs and toast (for me); we now start off our morning with bagels and cream cheese!  For those of you concerned about the nutrition trade-off, as it turns out, these bagels have more protein than the eggs/burritos that used to be our menu, and less sodium, sugar, and bad cholesterol.  Who knew?

III.  Madison has started a new thing.  Sometimes when we carry her, she'll raise either one or both hands straight above her head.  It looks like she's either riding a roller coaster or saying "Hallelujah", which was especially relevant when she did it during worship yesterday morning.  I would have taken a picture, but that might have been seen as a bit irreverent.  : )

IV.  Due to our (okay, my) former conversations with the local Jehovah's Witness missionaries, we've apparently been blacklisted.  Seriously, they'll knock on our left-hand neighbor's door, cross the street to walk past our house, then recross the street to knock on our right-hand neighbor's door, all with us in the yard trying to make eye contact/waving hello.  It's very frustrating.  Our grass, however, is apparently not off limits.  Yesterday, they parked two cars in our front ditch, then proceeded to use our front yard as a staging ground for adjusting ties and replenishing their stock of watchtower publications.  When Patrick went out to invite them inside/ask if they needed any help, they politely declined, saying that they were looking for Spanish-speaking people.  Apparently they've met their quota of English-speaking folk (or at least the ones who are born-again, once-saved-always-saved, worshipers of Jesus as God).  Wow.  That came across as incredibly insensitive.  For the record, I have nothing against these people who are trying so hard to please a God they have never met.  I'm just hoping for an opportunity to introduce them.

Sorry for the attitude.  I should have drank my coffee before writing my post.  Lesson learned.
 Happy Monday!
-Kelli

Ready for a Good Laugh?

I hope you are, because I decided to share with you guys how I'm doing with my goals.  And it ain't pretty. 

Goals for 6.22.12 (Madison's first birthday)
-Have 15 meals that work for our family- We're at five.  That's two more than we had last month.  Last month we had ten months to add twelve meals.  We added two in a month, so we're ahead of schedule!!  Yay for me.
-Throw a birthday party for Madison at our house without crying the night before because I'm mortified for anyone to see the house as-is and feel proud to show what we have done with it.- In the last month, I've added a side table to Madi's room, finished painting the dining room table, hung some art on Madi's wall, and torn our bathroom and our front door trim (more on that later) apart.  At this rate, I'll never have it done in time.  It's time to get my bottom (I'm trying to make this word part of my vocabulary; I'm not a fan of Madison saying "butt" anytime soon) in gear!
-Get dressed every day(you just think I'm exaggerating)- Moving on...
-Look in the mirror EVERY time I leave the house and/or have company. (I figure if I'm gonna submit everyone else to the view, I ought to at least get a taste myself)- This one made me laugh out loud.  Here's a shot of the only mirror in our house.  It has been here for two weeks.  I could pass myself on the street and never know it.  You know, if I could be in two places at once.

Sad side note: this picture was taken two weeks ago.  Half of that laundry is still on the bed.  The other half only moved off of the bed because we used it!

 -Bake Madison's birthday (cup)cake(s)- No progress.  I should probably at least learn how to turn on the oven soon...
-DIY something fun to give friends & fam for Christmas...Being cheap shouldn't equal being a scrooge!- We actually are kind of excited about this one, but since friends & family (are the only ones who) read this mamma-jamma, I can't share anything with you until after the fact.  Sorry!
-Find a way to serve God while being a good wife and mother.  Whoa, I don't know if I've ever called myself a "mother" before.  Crazy! - My plan of attack on this one was to work on the "while being a good wife and mother" before adding in the serving God part.  Lately I've been thinking I should rethink my strategy; I'll probably fail at being a good wife and mother anytime I put that ahead of God's will for me.  Hmmm.
-Be a good friend.  Answer the phone.  Maybe even initiate conversations, sometimes!  Listen.  Help.- Ouch.  Some of you know how badly I'm doing with this one.  You know who you are.  Thank you for putting up with me! 
-To live by Philippians 4:8-"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."- I think I've done pretty well on this, only because Madison is #1 on my mind most of the time.  And she is pure, lovely, and excellent, if I do say so myself.  She also most definitely makes me think about how worthy of praise our God is.

Tell me what you think!  Are you working on any goals right now?  Have you ever gone two weeks without looking at yourself in a mirror (other than the one on the car visor)?  Do you feel like giving me some baking lessons?  For free?  Does your folded laundry ever hang out for weeks just because you hate that final step of putting it where it belongs?  What words (other than the ones that require asterisks to spell) are off limits for your kids?

-Kelli

Like newborn infants...

...long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation.  -1 Peter 2:2.  (ESV)

Wow, that one blew me away.  Now, I know how newborn infants long for milk.  It's not a "well, this is nice" kind of thing.  No, it's more like, "it's been an hour since I've had milk, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to die!" 

I'll admit, I pulled out my copy of The Message, hoping it would say something like "you should love learning about God like babies love to suck", but it didn't.  You win some and you lose some. 

In all seriousness, this got me to thinking...as I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm terrified of Madison rejecting a feeding.  It's never happened, as you can probably tell:

My 13.7 lb baby!

Nevertheless, that is one of my biggest fears right now.  I know how good that milk is for her, and I love giving her what she needs, but I can only give it to her if she cooperates.  My guess is that's how God feels toward us.

What keeps you thirsty for God's Word?  Do you know any funny "Message" passages?  Have you ever seen such sweet baby chunkies?

-Kelli

Don't Get SMART With Me...

Actually, maybe do.  And if you don't know what I mean by SMART, check out this link.

Seeing as how I'm fairly new at this whole homemaker thing, I'm okay with admitting that I'm not very good at it yet.  I'm not okay with staying that way.  I want to become the kind of woman that I want Madison to want to become.  Phew!  Did I get that out right?  Anyway, there are a million or so things I don't know how to do at all, and about that many more that I'd like to do way better than I can now.

For instance, I'm a TERRIBLE cook.  Really.  We have about three dinners that we cycle through.  A typical night in our house sounds something like this:
 Kelli-"I'm hungry, what are you in the mood for?"
 Madison-"wa-ah"
 Pat-"I don't know, we had chicken nuggets and macaroni last night, do you want lasagna or baked sandwiches?"
So I'd kind of like to improve upon that.  What?  Oh, yeah, SMART.  Okay, I'd like to have fifteen dinners that I'm good at making for our family by Madison's first birthday.

Completing and decorating our house is probably at the top of my "wanna do" list.  Of course, that kind of depends on how much $ we're able to allocate to materials and how much time we're willing to give for projects.  With that in mind, I'm gonna make this goal a little more ART than SMART.  I'd like to have the house in a condition that doesn't embarrass me in time for Madison's first birthday party.  Shooting for the stars, I know. :)

It's also really important to me to show Madison that it's important to present herself well.  For anyone who knows me, it's pretty obvious why this would generate a goal.  For others, I guess a pic is gonna have to clue you in:

Happy side note: I just realized the blog is almost the same color as our living room/kitchen/dining.  Yay!

See the cute girl on the right?  Yeah, that's totally not me.  I'm the slob on the left with dirty stretched ankle socks and a top that majorly clashes with those almost could have been cute camo capris.    Yes, I'm quite pregnant in the picture, ergo some might be tempted to cut me a little slack.  But here's the thing.  I'm not pregnant anymore, but I do have an infant, so isn't that a good excuse?  And next I'll have a toddler.  And then, who knows-I might even be pregnant while caring for a toddler.  Do you see where I'm going yet?  (And I don't mean onto a show for TLC about me and my 37 children.)  No, what I'm trying, ever so eloquently, to say is this: I will could always have an excuse for my appearance.  But I don't want to!


Alright, already.  I can see that this is getting a bit lengthy, so I'll cut it short and just give you guys the breakdown.

Goals for 6.22.12 (Madison's first birthday)
-Have 15 meals that work for our family
-Throw a birthday party for Madison at our house without crying the night before because I'm mortified for anyone to see the house as-is and feel proud to show what we have done with it.
-Get dressed every day(you just think I'm exaggerating)
-Look in the mirror EVERY time I leave the house and/or have company. (I figure if I'm gonna submit everyone else to the view, I ought to at least get a taste myself)
-Bake Madison's birthday (cup)cake(s)
-DIY something fun to give friends & fam for Christmas...Being cheap shouldn't equal being a scrooge!
-Find a way to serve God while being a good wife and mother.  Whoa, I don't know if I've ever called myself a "mother" before.  Crazy!
-Be a good friend.  Answer the phone.  Maybe even initiate conversations, sometimes!  Listen.  Help.
-To live by Philippians 4:8-"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

Thanks for reading!
-Kelli