Hello dear friends,
You may have noticed that I haven't been around lately. It's for a rather silly reason. You see, I ran out of space to upload photos, so I have to figure out if I want to upgrade, or how to upgrade my space, so that I can continue to post photos (and I have sooooo many!!!). Any easy, inexpensive solutions to this?
Until I figure it out, I thought I'd jot down a little of what's been going on around here. Right now Cody is holed up in his den working on a take home final. We just got Seb to bed—at 10:45 gahhh—and I'm about to get back into wrapping gifts. I have a decent amount of wrapping and gift-making to do before we travel home for Christmas, but I do so enjoy it. If only I had more time! Man, one thing is certain: finals with one child is hard, but doable, but finals with two children is a whole different game.
Each day I pump myself up to do all the cooking, cleaning, christmas planning, and child-care so that Cody can spend oodles of time studying, and then it becomes very apparent, very quickly, that it's impossible to help him as much as I did the last two semesters. Bruno is very clingy, which is very sweet, but also makes it difficult to keep things together, and Seb engaged, without help from Cody. He's marvelous though, and has willingly and joyfully sacrificed a lot of study time to help me with the boys. I'm certain that all the other Div. students would be shocked at the amount of time he helps me, despite the work load that he has. Cody always says, "Mary, I'm going to help you as much as you need, because we have to trust that God is going to take care of us, and help me finish my work." And you guys... Cody hates it when I brag about how well he does in school, but you should know, he does really well. In fact, I had Cody proofread this post, and he said I needed to take that part out. But I'm not going to!
So basically, I'm very thankful for him these days, and thankful for a lot of things, really. Cody was hit by a car while riding his bike to school early Tuesday morning, and came out with only a few bruises and other minor injuries. Praise God. Our neighbors came to the rescue, barely awake, and watched our sleeping boys while I drove to pick up Cody. They then went to the store to get some big bandages and antiseptic ointment for a cut Cody got on his leg. We are so blessed.
In other news, we started potty training Seb on Saturday. We took today off because with the number of accidents he had on Saturday, we felt it might not be such a good idea to inflict that on the nursery workers. Tomorrow we'll start again, and I'm excited to see him tackling and mastering this new skill. I've been so hesitant to start because it's such a scary thing, and in so many ways, diapers seem much easier than having to race your kid to the bathroom at the mall, and clean up accidents in the grocery store. But maybe I'm being a little dramatic about what happens during potty training? We shall see, won't we?
Bruno is nearly 6 months old, which means that I really need to start him on some solids. I have been dragging my feet on this one basically as much as I have with the potty training. I mean, can't I just exclusively breastfeed this kid until he can eat a burger? The truth is, just in the last few days, he seems a little hungry after each time I nurse him, which means that he would likely benefit from a little something extra. I dug out my copy of Cooking for Baby to get me geared up for the baby food thing, but sadly, it didn't work. You know what I think would work?? A food processor! Making baby food is the worst without a food processor.
Also, I'm going to start writing. I have an idea for a book. You probably won't hear a word more about it for at least 5 more years, but suddenly I have this excitement and eagerness to do something I've been dreaming about doing since I was a kid. You know the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" My answer was always, "A writer."
Maybe this is the beginning.
In conclusion, life is hard and life is exciting, but God is faithful through all of it, and Advent is here. Isn't this season glorious? We are so enjoying singing Away in a Manger and Silent Night to Sebastian before bed, and Cody and Seb sing the most adorable Jingle Bells duet.
Who says you need photos for a blog post, anyway?
I had the SAME problem recently. I added a second "author" to my blog and use that to upload pictures to my posts. OR you can upload your photos to flickr or another free hosting site and use the "add pic from url" option. Hope one of these helps!
ReplyDeletethanks for your suggestions, alison! i think i might try flikr...
DeleteI have obviously no experience about the potty training or child rearing, BUT I can speak to the food processor. I always fins the a hassle to clean, use, expensive, etc. What you really need is an immersion blender! Same end result, but you have just blended it in whatever bowl you needed, then you pop off the end and throw it in the dishwasher. DONE. They are also fairly cheap.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck, and glad you're back!
Hannah
ooo immersion blender!? i like the sound of that. WAY less bulky than a food processor, too.
DeleteAgh, silly Blogger must have decreased the amount of free picture space they give folks, because everyyyyyone I know lost the ability to upload pictures right after Thanksgiving, me included. Like Alison said, the picture space is allowed per email, not blog, so I can still add pictures on Lu & Bop's Blogger accounts, and I went ahead and made myself another gmail account so I could add myself as another author, just to add pictures. It's kind of obnoxious, but it's free!
ReplyDeleteAnd you're right! I love this post. You don't need pics! :)
Speaking of words, where be that birth story of yours?
bah! you're right! i am currently walking the i-still-haven't-finished-my-birth-story walk of SHAAAAAAMMMMEEEEE.... it's embarrassing. i think i shouldn't be allowed to right anything until i finish it.
DeleteI just have to vouch for the food processor for a minute... If you're only going to need to blend things very occasionally, then I'd say don't get one--they do take up a lot of space and can be a hassle to pull out. And immersion blenders are great because you don't have to transfer things like hot soup to a machine. But a food processor can be one of the most versatile tools in your kitchen. It is my absolute favorite, favorite thing to use for pie crust, it makes a perfectly emulsified salad dressing, and you can't beat it for preparing vegetables and cheese (thinly sliced potatoes and cucumbers, shredded carrots, grated cheese, cabbage if you ever make coleslaw). And if you're going to make a lot of anything that's pureed (like baby Bruno food!), it is so efficient and thorough. One that's 7 or 10 cups is totally large enough, but if I had all the room in the world I'd get the Cuisinart one that comes with multiple bowls (up to 16 cups!).
ReplyDeleteCody was hit by a car??? I feel so bad we didn't know this! Ugh! And, please do write that book. I think you are a wonderful writer.
ReplyDelete