Whowhahuh?

Whowhahuh? That is the state of mind that I seem to constantly be experiencing lately. You know, along the lines of who/what/huh? Lately, I feel like I have been living a little bit of the Groundhog Day movie. Just going in a circle. Yuck.

Aside from the fact that we ALL needed more sleep, this is one of the reasons I have put my foot down with Kale and his bedtime routine! I need some time to myself. My day starts with him, then I am at work, then I pick him up...and have been his until after he goes to sleep at night. Several months ago, I asked my great husband to take over 100% bath duty during the week, just so I could have time to do things that I can't do with Kale on my heels. That, in itself, was a huge blessing he gave me. Sometimes its a five minute break and other nights its a 15 minute break. However, after bathtime, my time was over as well because Kale very much expected me to join him in bed until after he had zonked out. Then, I was left with a choice--join my husband in bed (sometimes he was already asleep) or stay up doing random things. Most nights (98%), I chose the first one due to the fact that I never knew if my night would be an 7 hour rest or a 4 hour rest (and really, I NEED 8 hours each night).

With the shift in bedtime routine last week, I have somewhat reclaimed my evenings. It hasn't been easy. In fact, Friday night was downright brutal for me. It was the first night that Kale really cried hard and called my name nonstop after I put him to bed. I ended up loosing it and bawling my eyes out as well, but I stayed out of Kale's room. I also ended up having a heated and then heart-to-heart conversation with my husband. I hope we made some progress on a few things. I am REALLY looking forward to sharing time with him to do "just us" devotionals. We plan to build them into our evenings once or twice a week. I hope its a good way for us to reconnect on some things, grow our relationship with each other, and most importantly to grow our relationships with God. Side note: if you know of a great couples or parents devotional book, let me know! I bought us a devotional book a while back, but I would like us to be able to have more than one book to use as a resource.

As for me and how I plan to spend some of my other reclaimed evening time...I would like to work more on my photography stuff and also on some sewing projects as well. I want to start walking as well as a step towards taking better care of myself and trying to shed some weight.

Kale is cooperating. Tonight, he got really sad when we told him goodnight. I offered to sit with him in the rocking chair. He liked that idea. We rocked maybe 90 seconds and he spied his milk bottle. I told him if he wanted it, he would have to get into his bed. It worked. He whimpered a bit about it, but he was ready for sleep and his milk. I heard him about 30 mintues later--he called out my name in his sleep. So yeah, Kale is cooperating. Now, if we can just get him to sleep through the rest of the night after 1:30am!

We were blessed to have my parents here this weekend. We were even more blessed to have them bring my old truck to our house AFTER they got it all "ready to run" again. That truck is 17 years old and is now on its 3rd transmition. But, she runs! We have been a little stuck on the weekends lately because we only have one personal vehicle (Ep has a work vehicle, but its ONLY for work).

We were also blessed to be visited by Uncle Brian, Aunt Wendi, and Fletcher this morning. It was great to see them and watch Kale play with his cousin.

After everyone left (or right before my parents left), we put Kale down for a nap and we enjoyed a nice nap ourselves. We were all due for it! Then, we spent some time on the deck while Ep grilled steaks. Of course, we did a little Super Bowl viewing as well.

I know this post is all over the place. Kind of fitting really, since thats how I have felt lately.