It's been a productive few weeks...

Some time to reflect on the last few weeks and share some things that have made me grateful.

No time to be depressed when you are happy for what you have.

**************************

...children leading worship.

...getting a new mattress that's super comfortable.

... tax time bringing in some extra money which in turn means less stress for me.

...getting homework done before 1pm most days.

...Mark getting a new doll kit for his birthday.

...three successful egg hunts between work and church.

...having some good craft time.

...being finished with the quilt and giving it to Randy's grandmother.

...bringing Randy's motorcycle out of storage.

... a new dress sewn.

...some pictures finally of my littles and of my husband and I from Easter. Man do they clean up good!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Easer and what are you grateful for today?

birds and hedgies {KCCO}

After searching the internet I had found 2 tutorials for needle felting a little spring bird. They gave some great instructions and inspiration and can be found here and here . Ryguy had also been asking me for some hedgehogs since our evening/bedtime song involves squirrels and hedgehogs so I decided I would try to tackle those too. Not too shabby I think!

What are  you crafting this week?

A trip out

Since my health started getting worse after Gid was born we don't take many trips out anymore. It wears me out physically and emotionally as it can be rough wrangling so many kids in and out of car seats, missing naps and delayed lunch.... well you get the idea. It often is not worth the struggle and the result of me being down for a day or so afterwards.

We decided one day that since it was so nice out that we would try to go out to one of my favorite places, the zoo. We pulled out my grandmother's old wheelchair to try to save me energy and off we went. I will say that using the wheelchair as frustrating as it is, allowed us to stay longer and me not to feel like I would collapse by the end of the day. I did still take a nap afterwards but it did not feel as extreme as it has in trips past.

Although I am young it is a huge pride thing to have to use a mobility device. However sometimes you do crazy things to see smiles on your kid's faces again...

Our together quilt

I do apologize for the lack of posts lately. Between the plague (the flu, bronchitis and pneumonia) and myself finally blowing up the engine of my little black car it’s been a hectic few weeks. Randy and I have been married over 5 years now and it seems that we always have had struggles. Between 5 moves and job changes, custody disputes with crazy exs, sensory kiddo and our own health issues it has been a very trying marriage. They always say if you can get through the first 5 years you are set... I can say at times we barely survived. It finally hit probably its worst peak since our marriage starting as now we have custody of all 7 and our changing of values. Some of the olders missed that memo and have tried straining our family life and started providing a not so good example to my littles. This of course infuriated me.

 

For a while I begged Randy to knuckle down and enforce our hard fast rules however my husband is a peacemaker. It was very stressful for me to consistently be the bad guy and sometimes kids just need to hear it from Dad vs Step-mom. I do not want to be that woman that everyone hates in the Disney movies. There are running jokes as is from their mother’s family that I only feed them seaweed and kale and I’m a hippy that practices witchcraft…. Yes. Really.

 

We finally had a discussion and really considered divorce. Not a happy conversation but one that was truly needed. We did not have a consistent rhythm and lived our life previously by the seat of our pants. We did decide some major changes had to be made but that we did want to try to save our marriage. My husband did blow me away when he did reach out to my church for help as he is not a Christian but wanted some council for both of us from people that I trust and respect.

 

We have finally started getting some major bugs worked out after a massive family meeting. Randy has really stepped up and laid down the law. Homework is now being completed and the house couldn’t look better. I am not sure how long this will all last however I’ll take what I can get.

 

We have started going through The Smart Stepfamily Marriage: Keys to Success in the Blended Family to try to continue working on communication and building our marriage back up. I do like that it is targeted and geared towards 2^nd marriages/relationships. Many marriage books I have seen were made for first marriages however they do not have some of the obstacles that we do such has blended families and exs.

 

We also started working and planning a quilt together. Randy’s grandmother taught him to quilt forever ago and now her health is on the strong decline. We decided we would try to work together on this project before she passes. It is bright, colorful and simple so I’m hoping to have it finished before Easter.

 

I am hopeful we can get this resolved and get through this rough patch so if you would like to pray for our family it would be appreciated.