A special thanks to our Valentine’s Day meal photographer, Rebecca Jensen. She did a great job with our photo session, and we especially loved the little noises she made to get us to smile.
By 5:30PM on Valentine’s Day I decided that the day was officially a disaster! Nothing had gone as planned. Isaiah was screaming and refused to go down at his normal bedtime. Becca was whining about supper. I had just been outside picking up after the dogs (yuck!). (We were dogsitting — more about that at the end.) Josh was going to be working late at school. PLUS it seemed like everybody on fb was having cute Valentine’s Day parties with their families . . . we hadn’t even made a single Valentine. Mommy Failure Alert!! My solution was to hide in the pantry and eat some of the cookies the O’Neils left us for house sitting. I know . . . it seems so silly to even think that way.
The main “disaster” of the day was my attitude. I wasn’t happy about house sitting the dogs. My pride was hurt that I couldn’t “compete” with all the other fun moms on fb. I didn’t want to deal with cranky children. What I had to do was stop, confess my sin, and pray for help and patience. (Something I need to do more often!) So we started over. . . I gave Becca her probiotics in a red cup with cranberry juice and told her it was Valentine’s day punch. We made heart pizzas and she got to open her present, a map-of-the-world-placemat (Becca has been really interested in maps lately).
After dinner Becca and I played and Josh texted that he had a surprise. He came home early with roses and a steak dinner for me (I couldn’t eat the pizza since it had cheese on it – milk products bother Isaiah). My sweet husband. He decided to cheer me up and come home a little early. Valentine’s day ended much better than it started. I’m thankful for the help God gave me to change my attitude about the day.
Friday night Josh made us a delicious Valentine’s meal of fried catfish, green beans, and sweet potatoes [Amy helped with the veggies so we could eat before 9pm! -Josh]. Add to that the sparkling blueberry grape juice and mint melts and you have a wonderful dinner. Even though I’d already fed Becca dinner, she decided that she was hungry again and got to join in.
Isaiah had his 9 month (a little early) well check on Valentine’s Day (hence the evening crankiness). He weighs 19lbs and 10oz and is 27.27in long. According to the growth charts he is the “perfect” baby averaging around the 50%.
We house-/dog-sat for our pastor for a week. Amber and Piper are inside dogs with schedules. At first it was almost like having extra kids for the week. Both kids enjoyed the dogs. We got to practice being grandparents . . . I’m sure we gave those dogs way more dogs treats than their parents usually do!
I definitely understand your feelings of Valentine’s Day. I also was in the envious mode of watching what everyone else was doing. Jon and I were just too exhausted to do anything overly fun. We were supposed to go out to eat Saturday for Valentine’s, but I asked if we could re-schedule simply because we were going around way too much with busy season, so we ended up with a frozen pizza. 🙂
The map will be great as you go to Cambodia, because you could put pictures of family all around the map.
Isaiah needs to show Megan how to become the “perfect” baby with her weight. She has started losing weight. Down to 14 pounds as of yesterday, but hoping that’s because she is sick. Much love!!!!
You guys are so cute. And Amy, know that you are much admired! The creativity and intentionality with which you are raising Becca and Isaiah and supporting Josh is very encouraging and (dare I say?) rebuking 😉 to me. Love you!