2014 New Years Resolutions

Normally I don't make a New Years resolution. In fact I haven't made one ever since before I have been married. Not unless you count the single one that I made in my head at the beginning of 2013 which was have my daughter Eden! Not an easy task but it was a predictable one!

I just didn't see the point in have a list of goal for the New Year. I always figured that if you are going to make the change then do it! Why wait till the beginning of the year to start?

Well, today I made a list.

What I need to improve on.

What I need to start doing.

What I am doing now that I want to continue because they have been greatly beneficial to our family.

What is going to happen anyway and I wrote it down because I like making lists and I am weird like that. ;)

1.) Move out of our apartment. Not sure when in 2014 this will happen, but I would love to live in a home that has a fenced in yard and has more storage like a garage or shed. We are outgrowing our beloved town home.

2.) Keep up with couponing. I have been clipping and printing useful coupons for the the last several months and we have seriously saved at least a couple hundred dollars. I have been able to keep our food budget at $200 a month for a family of 4.

3.) Lose 10 or more pounds. I have been doing pretty good in the fact that I have already lost 3 pounds before the new year even started. I hope to be at my goal weight before summertime. Breastfeeding and having 2 littles has really helped with the weight loss.

4.) Get Josiah into a big boy bed. Yes, I know, this kid is almost 3 and he is being stubborn about the way his bed is. Technically he is in a toddler bed, but its turned the other way around so that the opened side is against the wall. He still likes the crib feeling. For his birthday we have decided to get him one with a frame and he can pick out his favorite bedding. 

5.) Less TV during the day. In all reality there really isn't anything on during the day. So why do I have the darn thing on? What will I do instead? Probably clean, bake, play with my kids....there is a lot that I can do before the kids go down for their nap. :)

6.) Do something active everyday. I try to do Zumba every morning. Josiah seems to really like dancing with me. When it gets closer to the warmer months we will probably engage more into outside activities.

7.) Do a daily devotional. Something that I want to keep doing. I feel that it really has helped keep my spirits up during the day.

8.) Keep up with the housework. 

9.) Eat less bread(gluten-kinda). We have been slowly cutting back on the breads and pastas. If we do eat them then we try and stick to whole wheat bread and brown rice/vegetable pastas. People are getting really great at coming up with all veggie casseroles that taste wonderful!

10.) Be a better wife, mom, friend, sister and daughter. Because we all need to strive to be better people.

That is it for my New Years resolution! Did any of you make one up for the year 2014? 

I hope that you all have an awesome New Year.

I probably won't be able to stay up till midnight. I think that I would rather go to bed with my husband and start 2014 off like that. 

;) 

Good night all!! See you next year!

Love, Jess

What's for Christmas?

Christmas with a Family of Four

Just a few of our Christmas pictures this year! Enjoy!

Christmas(What we are not going to do)

My son is getting older and he is starting to understand some things. 

This year we wanted to start traditions with our family. We are going to start having Christmas at our house, wake up in the morning. Eat breakfast. Open our stockings and gifts all together with just our little family.

But, we are going to do something a little different. Ben and I talked about it and we decided to not introduce Santa Claus to our children. We want God to be glorified in our giving and receiving, not some make believe character. 

We will still do Christmas lights, we will still do stockings and gifts. We will still decorate cookies and sing carols. This was something that I brought up to my husband. He was not too keen to the idea at first, but once I explained it to him and he talked to a few other men(annoying, isn't it?!) he now is on board with me. 

I personally think that as a Christian family that we should do this. Now, I am not saying that this is for everyone.  I am also not saying that you are a bad person or bad parent for celebrating Christmas with Santa Claus. I don't want anyone to feel guilty either. I grew up believing in Santa as a child, so I don't think that it's bad at all. It's really sweet to think of the idea that one person gives to everyone on one day of the year. 

Isn't that what Jesus did? ;)

I think that I have proved my point. 

We will also be doing this same thing with other holidays as well. We are excited to find alternative ways to celebrate holidays with God as the center of our lives. 

I have included a video below of how our Christmas is going to be this year. Things are definitely going to be different. 

Thank you all for watching/reading. I hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas. 

Love, Jess

Here is the link to my video! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0j_bf-2qlA

A Healthy Update on Josiah

Last Monday I talked about Our Small Story.

I just wanted to give you an update on how things are going with Josiah. I'll post on another page about how Eden is doing with her sleeping.

Josiah is doing much much better!
The medicine that we are giving him has been helping him a bunch. We do the daily dosage at night before bed cause it makes him drowsy. Then for emergencies if he seems to need it we do the nebulizer for breathing. Its is working out well. We still bring an inhaler for when we are out and about but so far we have not needed to use it. We went to the pumpkin patch that Wednesday and I was surprised that he didn't start coughing and wheezing. Normally with the hay and animals he would. I am so happy that his symptoms are getting better. I am going to talk to his doctor next week to let him know that everything is going well.
We will probably be doing this treatment till spring, review again, skip summer and then he will have another check up in the fall. When flu and cold season comes around that's when he gets the worse.

I am really thankful that this medication will most likely help him to play the sports that he wants without the conflict of breathing. I want him to have all options available with nothing holding him back. I think that I will be a bit more at ease when he goes to preschool next year. He won't be missing as many days.

He will more than likely grow out of this and we are looking forward to that day. :)
Thank you all for your prayers and concern on this.

-Jess

Fall Consignment Haul 2013

Check out my Fall Consignment Haul here

Although we did not get a ton of stuff. We got what we needed until the Spring!

Josiah's kitchen set was a hit and he loves the lacing beads.

I have videos and pictures on my Instagram jessicamommy22 if you want to see more! Thanks for checking it out!

-Jess

Our Small Story.

Im sleeping upstairs tonight.(hubby too)
Night #3 of doing this.
Why?
I am sleep training my daughter.
Not really my preferred method.  I actually HATE the cry it out (CIO) method. But I couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't sleep for only one hour at a time. I felt like it was making me a very mean, short tempered wife and mother during the day.
So here we are. Eden only cried twice last night and both times ended within a matter of just 5 minutes. Its getting better and im happy about it. Another thing is that when I went to get Eden up this morning she was all smiles when she saw me. That little girl still loves me even though I made her soothe herself to sleep. I don't feel as guilty(or as tired) for doing it.
Today was a crazy day, but I still was able to do more than the norm. Besides the slight backache from sleeping on the couch I felt better this morning than I have in awhile.

My children definitely keep me on my toes. We had to take Josiah to an emergency doctor appointment this morning. 

First, let me explain to you about how Josiahs sickness is. Anytime that he gets a cold he most of the time get asthma like symptoms. So resulting in that I give him everything that we have on hand at home, an inhaler, a nebulizer treatment. I try everything possible so that we don't have to go to the doctor. Most of the time it doesn't work that way. So when none of those things work we go to Urgent Care or the ER and they give us the same thing over and over again. They end up giving us steroids for him to breathe better. I hate giving him steroids. It makes him hyper and out of control. This type of thing happens a lot in the early morning. I mean like 3 a.m. in the morning. When you have to to take care of two the next day it makes it hard. Thankfully I have my husband who is so patient an awesome to take Josiah to the ER for me when this happens.

Ive had problems in the past with urgent care and the ER. We get into the room quickly cause with Josiahs sickness he is top priority.  We get what we need done but then we end up waiting 45 minutes to an hour just to be released. 
So I made an appointment this time knowing that will be taken care of by our doctor and we can discuss his problems. We are going a different route this time. I have high hopes that this treatment that we're going to try is going to help tremendously.
After the appointment we went to the pharmacy. I waited in line as usual. Of course, they told me that I have to wait at least an hour to get his medication. Which is really irritating because once they get the order in they're supposed to start on it right away. With his situation he is considered top priority. My poor little boy had the hardest time breathing already and I had to wait an hour with 2 kids. I didn't know what to do. So, I went home and we got some things  taken care of and I was able to go out again to finally get the medication and come home again.

It breaks my heart to see him struggling to breathe. I use to have to take an inhaler and everything he did, so I know exactly how it feels. But to be only 2 years old and not understand what is happening is so sad.

As of right now my house is a mess. My children are sound asleep in their beds. My husband is sound asleep next to me. I'm awake watching Dancing with the Stars. And I just think how blessed I am. I looked at the prescription that the doctor gave to Josiah and I am so happy that insurance is going to be fully covering his treatment. If it were not for this we would have an extra $129 bill to pay for his medication.

Pray that this works for us. This medication will be given to him all through the winter and then we will evaluate with his doctor in the spring to see how its working.

I am not loving the fact that he is getting medication every day. But I am loving that this may be a solution for him and reduce visits to the ER for major steroids.
He may grow out of this.
He may not.

I love my little man and seeing him today be really snuggly and sweet to me when we got home just made my heart melt.
"Thank you mommy."
Smiling I said, "I love you Josiah."
"I love you too."
Even with this stressful day he made me feel so much better.

Thank you God for my strong sweet boy. Thank you for showing me kindness through him and making me want to be a better mommy to him.