My Mom

As most of you know my mom came out when Jack was born. And stayed with us a whole six weeks!! I am ever so grateful to her for coming to stay with us and helping us out more than we could have ever imagined!! She was so amazing and Sadie and Jack had so much fun with their Granny Sue!! And Clark and I had fun with Mom each night watching movies and eating cookies! Okay so we didn't do that every night but we had fun when we did!!
Thanks mom for coming to visit and we can't wait for you to come again soon!!
We love you so much and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all that you did!!

My thoughts lately

Today I was thinking about a blog post. What could I say that people would want to read? That is if there are still a few people out there reading my blog because of the infrequency in which I have time to write! :)
And so I thought, well, why not just write what I have been thinking about lately!! I know that a lot of my blogging friends are young mothers just like myself struggling to keep kids at bay long enough to have a few thoughts :)
Since Jack has been born, I have really been wanting our days to be filled with things of substance. I know, I know, that is a bit hard when you have a 20 month old and 7 week old. I just want to finish the end of my day and think this is what we have accomplished for the day. I guess what I am just saying is that I want some sort of routine.
I have been praying about it and got the idea from here about setting goals for my children. I thought what a smart idea! Every three months I want to sit down and pray through what I want to accomplish with both of my kids, emotionally/spiritually/physically/mentally. Of course I know that there will be times when we don't meet our goals but it will help me to stay focused as I am at home with them ALL day and really pour into my children. I am not sure how it will go, but I am praying that it will help me as I want Sadie to learn her ABC's, her love for Father grow admist many other things!!
Another struggle I have been facing lately as I am new at this whole mother of two thing is having time with Father everyday. Goodness gracious can that be a tough thing to accomplish!! On the same blog (I think!) I also read about a young mother who read the same book of the Bible each day. She wouldn't have to think of where to study, she would go straight to that small book and read it through many times. Sometimes, only one chapter at a time, sometimes she would have time to read the whole book. So...this is what I am attempting to accomplish as well!
And last...I struggle with meal planning!! I love to cook and I love to eat and I love to shop for the food to eat, but now with two little ones it makes it very hard to get out. I pretty much can't get out to shop for food because I can't carry it home. Therefore this leaves the shopping to Clark. Which means I need to have a list and I need to have it organized so that he will know what to get!! So, my goal is to have a meal plan for a whole month at a time. I started mid Feb. and made a plan for 2 weeks. So far it has gone well, we are done with week one. It doesn't mean that we have to have that meal on that specific night but I do know that I will have those things on hand to have it sometime that week. Here again...I will let you know how it continues to work out and if I stick to it :)
So...I have had a few minutes to get my thoughts out and now Jack needs my attention...why? Probably now reason except just because.... :)
Any thoughts from you all out there? Have you ever set goals for your children? How are your QT's going? Have you been making meal plans???

Love to hear from you!!!

Happy New Year

Some of you might be looking at your calendar thinking, it sure isn't January 1st, does she know what day it is?? Well..here in China, it is the new year! According to the lunar calendar, it's the first day of the year. In China, it the biggest holiday of the year. And boy is it a big holiday. Everything shuts down for a few days as everyone is at home celebrating the new year with their family. We went out yesterday and stocked up our kitchen so we wouldn't have to get out and are now sitting at home listening to fireworks right outside our window. Yes...fireworks. They decide to start these at about 2 in the afternoon (or at least they did here!) and they will continue for the next 12 hours. Last year, it lasted until two in the morning and I suspect it will be the same again this year. Last year we had a 7 month old who slept through the whole thing and this year, I somehow doubt our 20 month old will be sleeping. It's gonna be a long night in the Forman house.

In other news...my mom made it off safely. It was sad to see her go. We have been sitting around all day thinking, what did we do while she was here? It sure seems quiet around here...and it isn't like she makes a lot of noise :) We were so thankful to have my mom with us for the past 6 weeks. We were spoiled rotten. We had no idea what life could be like with two kids, because she helped us out tremendously. I don't think we could have done it without you mom!! And now...we are experiencing life with two kids..all by ourselves :) At least we aren't out numbered...Clark and I are a good team, so I am sure we will do just fine!! :)

And before I forget, I wanted to say congratulations to my dear friend Laura Beth on the birth of her second child, John. We have been keeping up with the updates on her blog and her mom's, Elizabeth. Please be lifting little John up, he is in NICU right now and we are praying for him to come home soon!!

I have decided that I love the invention of blogs. I have been able to keep up with some of my dear friends, like Laura Beth and her family and also so many others. It is so fun to see what is happening in their families and day to day life. It makes this 7,000 miles not seem so far away.

Well, since I am just rambling now...I should go!! :) We are having pulled pork for dinner...I know random thought again, but I am hungry and thankful to have food in my house so I don't have to get out in this freezing cold weather!!! :)

Good News for us!!

Well, we are thankful that we are wrong today...we looked at Mom's ticket wrong and thought she was going to be leaving in the morning. Clark pushed us to confirm her flight and when we did we realized she leaves Saturday morning!! So yipee, we have a whole extra day with her!! :)

I do have to share this story though...this morning we were all packed up and ready to go to a neighboring city to take the kids to the doctor (checkups) and then stay the night for mom to leave the next morning. Well, on the way there, Sadie threw up 3 times!! We are guessing it was motion sickness because she was fine after that. But this would be the one time when I packed as light as possible and didn't have any clothes for Sadie at all. We put pjs on her and then she threw up on those and then all over the clothes in mom's bag. Needless to say after the 3rd time, we headed back home!! But now, we know that it was all God's providence because Mom would have headed to the airport a whole day early!!

But I do have a question, has anyone ever had a toddler with motion sickness?

PS. I forgot to add this picture yesterday and I just loved it so much that I wanted to share it with you!! :)

More Pictures...

Just a few more pictures to share with you all!! We are headed out tomorrow to take mom to the airport and then reality will really set in with life with two children! I would say that I hope to be more consistent in writing once Mom leaves...but it might only get worse. I do hope to get better and actually share about our life here. But until then, I will leave you with pictures...enjoy!

Our attempt at a family picture...

My good friend Kelly gave me the idea for this picture! She took one of her family just last week when they had a new addition to the family. So, I thought surely we can do this too...well, needless to say a 20 month old who does NOT want her picture made and a 6 week old who is hungry didn't make for the best picture. But hey, it's a REAL picture of our family and I am okay with that.