Twice the Speed of Life

Ever feel like life is happening all around you and you are just struggling to hang on and keep up?  That's how I feel right now.  More often than not I am feeling like I am knees buckled, white knuckled, holdin' on tight, traveling at twice the speed of life (Yea, yea, yeah, yeah....)
And to be quite honest, I don't like it.  We've always said we want to be committed to simplicity in our family.  And in one sense our move to Rock Hill has emboidied this goal well.  Our church is less than 1/4 mile from our house (also where Chris has an office), campus is a mile from our house, and my new job is 2 miles from the house.  We work and play primarily within 5 miles of our home- it is wonderful.  However, on the other hand we are learning that in order to protect "family time" we are going to have to be better about saying no as well as give some things up.  We can't do it all.  A lot of things are fun and good, but we have to evaluate each opportunity in relation to our priorities- which are first of all God, second of all our marriage, and third our family and children.

Notice what is not in that list (that easily become priorites for me)- having a clean house, having my cloth diapers washed and stuffed, meal planning, cooking a fresh-from sctrach meal each night (of course with organic vegetables), oh and the blog.  Yep, all things I've had to take a step back from and realize how they are in and of themselves good and fun, but I'm not super mom and I can't do it all.

Last week I found myself getting frustrated with Chris because I was wanting to write a blog post (which by the way I feel like I have tons of good ideas for but just not enough time to execute) after I got the kids down and dinner cleaned up.  He was out with students for the evening, but ended up geting home earlier than anticipated.  I should have been happy to see and spend time with my husband.  Yet, I found myself frustrated (at him) because I was wanting to finish said blog post which I had no chance to do earlier in the day, or the day before, or the day before that- and he was wanting to hangout.  That's when I realized I needed to take a break. Life is busy- probably twice the speed it should be.  I have a 25 month old and a 6 month old- they require A LOT of time and attention.  People say that it gets easier, but honestly right now I feel like we are in the trenches.  AND I am starting a new job this week- so schedules are about to get even crazier.
I'm having to learn to let some things go.  I can't have it all and do it all.  I just can't.  So we are stepping back from several things in order re-prioritize each other and our kids.  That means I won't be blogging as much and I won't be co-hosting this hop.  (Which by the way has some exciting changes coming up!!!)  I would love to when I can, but I feel like it has become more of a burden lately and taking away from my actual relationships that I have made covenantal commitments to.

Do you struggle with time management and finding quality time to spend with your spouse and children?  How do you juggle it all?  Is it just me or does blogging as an outlet sometimes become more of a burden at times?

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BIG NEWS!!

Due to the recent increase in other blogs having Mommy Mondays Hops, we have decided to make a few changes around here!  First of all, we are changing the hop's name to "Time for Mom" with the tag line "Share and Connect Every Tuesday."  We also have a fabulous, awesome new button, which we will share with you guys next week! (If you're on our email list or like us on Facebook you will get a sneak peek at the new button!)

As you can see, the other big change is that we are moving the hop to Tuesdays!

The idea of the hop is staying the same, share anything you want about being a mom, parenting, family, your kids, crafts for kids, recipes for kids etc!

New name, new day, same great hop!

Happy Fourth!

 
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We had a really fun forth!  I'm telling you- I love Rock Hill.  You know it is going to be a good day when it starts out with these sweet cuddles.

After a family run with the kids and the dog we headed over to a neighborhood parade and BBQ.  It wasn't in our neighborhood.  Our realtor/buying agent, who's middle child is about Phoebe's age, invited us over to watch the parade from their front yard.  We had fun meeting some new folks and even ran into several families we had previously met.  For example, the family who bought our moving boxes from our Craig's list add was there.  Yes, small town.  The parade was fun.  People decorated their strollers, wagons, bikes etc with red, white, and blue and paraded around the block chanting U.S.A.  Maybe next year we'll load up the wagon and parade around.

After everyone took an afternoon nap (yep, mommy included) we headed over to a farm for a 4th of July pig roast and fireworks.  (We had to leave before the fireworks unfortunately.  It will probably be a few years before we enjoy fireworks again...)  A family at a local church had been raising a pig named "Church Dinner" for the past year for this occasion.  They served pork and a local dish, South Carolina Hash.  It was all fabulous.  

We knew Phoebe liked dogs, but we also found out she has no fear of animals.  She went right up to the horses, chickens, and roosters- in a scary way.  If you took your eye off of her she was headed straight for the animals.

How was your Forth?  Did you do anything fun?

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RUF SuCo 2013

Every year Chris takes a group of college students down to Panama City for Summer Confrence or "SuCo".  (Remember Chris is an RUF Campus Minister?)  Anyhow, RUF hosts three weeks of SuCo each year with 600-900 students from various universities each week.  Its a big deal folks.  And if you're in college its a pretty fun week.  Heck, even the RUF campus ministers families love to go down to the beach for the week.  You can read about our trip last year, here.
It's not the nicest of accommodations- camping for the week might be a bit better- but its a great time of fellowship not only for the students, but also for the wives and kids.  Originally the girls and I weren't planning to go this year.  I just wasn't sure I could handle the travel and accommodations with a newborn and toddler while Chris was working.  (Although Chris was a HUGE help to me this year, it is still a work week for him.  It takes all the CM's to make this week happen.)  But because Haddie Grace has been such a good sleeper we decided last minute to head on down to the beach.  It was a really fun week, but it was also a little stressful for me as well.  We will be bringing a babysitter next year to help (Hannah...hint, hint)
The first thing you do when you get to Lauguna Beach Christain Retreat Center is tape up the windows.  I don't know how you people on central time handle the sun coming in your windows at 5am.  Oh wait, you probably have shades.  These rooms don't so we make due like this:

Yes, we all stayed in one (small) room.  Phoebe is in a big girl bed at home and has been since she was 17 months.  She won't sleep in a pack-n-play, so she was on an air mattress.  She doesn't know she can get out of her bed at home so it works well for us.  She does however know that she can get off an air mattress.  This made bed time and nap time a bit tricky....
We spent a lot of time at the pool because Phoebe didn't like the sand at all!  In fact, she hated it and cried if any got on her.  Not a good time folks, and certainly not worth hauling everyone and all our stuff out to the beach.
So Haddie Grace spent most of her time at the pool in the stroller in the shade while Phoebe and I played.

(P.S. Mommys- these puddle jumpers are WONDERFUL floaties for a toddler!)
One of the fun things about RUF and SuCo in general is seeing the students interact with your kids.  Our students love Phoebe and Haddie Grace; they might actually miss them more than us!  Just kidding...I think.

One night the students drew names from a hat and made each other airbrush shirts.  Classic Panama City... They even made shirts for the girls

A huge thank you to Christa for taking some great pictures while we were there!

Happy Memorial Day!  Hope you have a fun day!   We will be inside packing :(  Boo.

fridays letters & March Goals

Dear Febuary,  I can't believe you are over ALREADY!  Those 2 extra days at the end of the rest of the months make a huge difference
Dear Chris, I'm glad you got home safely from South Carolina last night and I'm glad Baby Bowen didn't decide to make a scene while you were away.
Dear Baby Bowen, You gave me a bit of a "scare" earlier this week.  I was having uncomfortable contractions and wondering if I was going to meet you soon.  I got a bit nervous, you see, because we have no place to put you.  The car seat and cradle were still in the attic.  Those are down now and I have the car seat cover washed and put together.  The cradle sheets are washed, but we do still need to put the cradle together.  I even found some the newborn diapers.  We went ahead and packed a hospital bag too, so I'm feeling a little bit more prepared now.  That being said, as much as I am ready to not be pregnant anymore, your daddy and I would really appreciate you waiting another week.  There are just a few more things we would like to get done.  Thank you.
Dear Aubra, Thank you so much for watching Phoebe yesterday while I went to the doctor!  I can't tell you how amazing it was not to have to entertain a toddler in the waiting room for an hour and then try to keep her from touching everything in the exam room (yuck!).  And I even got to have a conversation with the doctor! (This normally doesn't happen because I have a screaming toddler by the time the doctor actually comes in to see me.
Dear Phoebe, Please stop coughing and feel better soon.
Dear Ambien, You were amazing last night.  It was the first full night of sleep I've had in awhile.  I only have a few of you so I will have to ration you out, but man oh man I feel good today :)
Dear new readers, You make me very happy!  Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you stay awhile.  I really do love all your comments.
Dear Meghan,
I realize that y'all are not doing this "go for the goal" link up anymore.  I promise I will make my own button/logo for next month.  But for now I am going to use yours again.  Thanks.



February Goals
1.  Complete 2011/2012 family photo book AND pre-kids photo book.   Done!  Well I did the 2011/2012 book with My Publisher! And it looks amazing!  We love it!! I was also really impressed with the company!  It was really easy to use (easier than Shutterfly) and in my opinion gave me a superior product.  I have a 50% off coupon that expires March 7th so I might try to finish the pre-kids book in the next week to use that, but we'll see.

2.  I want to try for another DIY project.   I'm thinking liquid hand soap to fill up my mason jar soap dispensers I did it!

3. Get a pregnancy massage Chris gave me a gift certificate groupon/living social deal for a massage for Christmas.  I think it is getting time to redeem that :) I have it scheduled for Saturday, March 9th.  So again, Baby Bowen I need one more week.  I wanted to schedule it on a Saturday so Chris could watch Phoebe and this was the first Saturday that he was in town and I wasn't working!
4. Exercise- walk, walk, walk!   I'm certainly past the point of hard-sweat exercising, but I really do need to get outside and walk or get on the treadmill at the gym and walk at least three times/week. I did well with this goal for the first two weeks and then I had no more extra energy.  I started having trouble sleeping and walking sounded awful.  And then this past week I started contracting more, so I'm trying to take it easy now.
5. Slow down and enjoy more "down-time"! I would say we kinda failed here...  Whoops.  We maybe slowed down a little bit, but because I'm not sleeping as well I'm just exhausted all the time!

March Goals (all pre-baby goals.  I have no goals post-baby)
1. Wash and vacuum cars and vacuum out all the cheerio and cracker crumbs from the car seats.
2. Re-sew the Velcro tabs to my size small cloth diapers for the new baby to use (The cloth diapers I recommend are the bumGenius 4.0 One Size with snaps.  We do have a few size smalls of of the Velcro 3.0s and those are the ones I need to replace)
3.  File taxes
4. Get new tires for my car


Have a great weekend!!  

South Carolina...here we come

Yes, you read that correctly.  We are moving to South Carolina this summer.  Chris has accepted a call to become the next RUF Campus Minister at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC.  There are so many thoughts and emotions surrounding this move and next chapter of our lives.

source First of all, we really are excited.  We have no doubts that this is where the Lord is calling us right now.  Perhaps someday I will share more of the details, but for now know that this move has been a long-time coming.  When Chris and I first got married we had plans to be in Kennesaw for a year and then move.  Four years later, we are still here.  Funny how the Lord often has different plans for us.  At that time we had many different reasons for wanting to leave - most notably, that Kennesaw/Marietta just never felt like home and I was ready for a change.  (I had been in Atlanta for 7 years and was ready to live somewhere different.)  We loved the ministry of RUF, but the area wasn't where we wanted to be as a family and couldn't ever really see ourselves settling down here.  At the time we also really wanted go go somewhere together to start ministry together since he had already been at KSU for 3 years when I came into the picture.  I wanted to buy a house and decorate and settle down, (I know that sounds somewhat superficial, but its true.) but we couldn't really do that knowing we were eventually going to move. Over the past 3.5 - 4 years we have had several different job opportunities come up for Chris both within as well as outside of RUF.  It has been both frustrating and humbling as the Lord had closed every one of those doors in different ways.  We have always trusted in God's timing and knew that Kennesaw was where he wanted us for some reason, and of course we have seen Him do amazing things over the past several years, but given some of these events, we feel confident that the Lord is leading us to continue our ministry with RUF at Winthrop. All that being said, over the past four years the Lord has softened our hearts towards this area.  We've made friends that will be hard to leave.  I have found many "hidden" treasures in Marietta that I will miss.  The Lord has allowed us to see the RUF ministry at KSU flourish.  It was non-existent when Chris came here 7 years ago and now it is a thriving ministry!  We have an AMAZING group of students that we are very sad to leave behind!  Four years ago I could not have imagined the sweet students that we would have the privilege of serving today.  (Not that the students four years ago weren't amazing...I just did not know them as well.)  We will miss them dearly!  Yet at the same time we trust that God is Sovereign and will continue to care for them through another man (and possibly his family) who will come to take over the ministry here. Here is one of our students when we told her we were leaving:

Breaks my heart. We will also be sad to leave East Cobb Presbyterian Church, where Chris has been acting as pulpit support/interim pastor for the past several months.  Even in this short time the church has been such a blessing to us in ways that I cannot even begin to describe.  We knew this would be a temporary position as they are working to find a permanent senior pastor, and we pray that there would not be much of a time overlap between when we leave and when the new senior pastor steps in. 
Rock Hill, SC is about 20 minutes south of Charlotte just across the NC/SC border.  This puts us closer to my family, which we are very happy about.  Although we will be a little bit father from Chris' family, we will still be within one day's drive so we will have easier access to both families now. Not only are we excited about the university and the ministry, but we are also excited about Rock Hill.  I am sick of Atlanta.  I have been sick of Atlanta and wanting to leave since before I married Chris.  (I had left Atlanta and came back to marry him.  He is totally worth it, by the way.)  I don't like the traffic and I don't particularly care for the large sprawling metropolitan that extends and extends and extends out into even Kennesaw.  Rock Hill is a small town of about 66,000 people, and it is its own city separate from Charlotte.  (Although it is nice that Charlotte is so close.)  I really liked it when we visited - especially the lack of traffic!!  We are also very excited about the church there.  (RUF is a ministry of the Presbyterian Church in America [PCA for short] and as such each RUF ministry is associated with a local PCA church.) Over the next couple months I will be posting more about "the move" and some of our associated thoughts, excitements, sadness, and fears.  But wanted to go ahead and fill you all in on our "big news"
Linking up with Northern Belle Diaries 

Chuck E Cheese's

I think I  mentioned how we went to Chuck E Cheese a couple weeks ago for my niece's birthday party.  It really was a blast.  I don't know if I had ever been to Chuck E Cheese before and although I was a bit squeamish about all the germs running around that place, I got over it and we had a great time.

Now here is a quick tip if you ever plan on making the trip- GO EARLY!  My sister-in-law is smart so they planned the party for 9am when it opened.  The first hour was amazing because we were the only people there!  We had free range roaming around all the games and activities.  Around 10:00 more kids started coming and it started to get a little loud.  By 10:30 I had to get out of there because it was flat out load, crazy, and miserable with kids running around.  

The mini merry-go-round was Phoebe's favorite.  She could have stayed on that thing ALL day long.  Every time it stopped she said "more please" and cried whenever we tried to take her off.

Before we discovered the merry-go-round she had fun riding in the Chuck E Cheese car, riding Clifford the Big Red Dog, and climbing up the jungle gym  with Daddy.

Mommy and Daddy got to enjoy playing some games too.  I love skee-ball!  It has been forever since I've played, but I was so excited to brush up on my skills at Chuck E Cheese.  I don't know if it was the pregnant belly or what, but I really don't remember skee-ball being so hard on the back bending over to roll the ball...