The Sensible Mom

Food, DIY, Chicago Mom Blogger

Archives for January 2012

Christmas in Pictures

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We tried to get in a few fun events in with the kids before we welcomed Elisabeth into our family. Here’s what the first part of December looked like for us.

We bought a new ornament at the mall with all of our names on it (including our baby girl) and enjoyed the Christmas decorations.


Ruben and Nathan enjoyed some father-son time at Legoland.


Isaac and David enjoyed making an ornament craft, eating candy canes, and meeting Santa at a program through our local Park District.

Actually, David was not excited at all about meeting Santa, but Isaac was curious and decided to give it a go.

Here he is not-so-patiently waiting.

We also made a couple of family gingerbread houses. We enjoy doing this activity every year.


Isaac enjoyed eating the candy just as must as he did making the house.


And finally, the weekend before the baby was born, we attended a Breakfast with Santa event where we had brunch and the kids got to do some fun activities like decorate their own Christmas cookie and create paper bag reindeer.


David was mostly interested in taking hundreds of pictures next to the many Christmas decorations.


All in all, we had a wonderful December 2011. The best part, of course, was being blessed with our baby girl just 11 eleven days before Christmas. She was indeed an early Christmas gift for all of us.

 


My Reading List for 2012

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I’m posting my 2012 reading list. It doesn’t compare to some of the other lists I’ve seen posted by other bloggers as far as the number of books are concerned, but with school starting again for me in a few weeks, a newborn, homeschooling, and daily family life to manage, I need a doable list – not an overwhelming one. So I’ve chosen to read one book a month, and so far it’s going great.

Here’s my list:

January: WordPress Web Design for Dummies (I’m already on chapter 4 and really enjoying this book.)

February: Illustrator CS4 for Dummies (Sadly, I never ended up getting past chapter 1 in this book last year, so it’s on my list to read this year and hopefully will get it entirely read next month.)

March: The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market ItselfΒ (listening to the audio version of this book)

April: Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

May: Sacred Marriage

June: The Book of CSS3: A Developer’s Guide to the Future of Web Design

July: At the Throne of Grace: A Book of Prayers

August: The Five Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts

September: Five Conversations You Must Have with Your Daughter

October: Have a New Husband by Friday: How to Change His Attitude, Behavior and Communication in 5 Days

November: The Chicken’s Guide to Talking Turkey with Your Kids About Sex

December:Β Slave: The Hidden Truth about Your Identity in Christ

What books are you planning to read this year?


My goals for 2012

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Setting goals helps me to stay focused and makes me feel like I’ve actually accomplished something when I’m able to cross it off my list. For my daily goals, I’ve been printing off a very handy printable from Ann Voskamp’s blog. It’s helping me to be intentional about setting daily goals each night for the following day. This has been working wonderfully the past 3 days, and I’m going to continue on with it.

Aside from daily goals, I know it’s important to set long-term goals as well.

Here’s my list for this year:

Personal Goals

Read 1 book each month (any more will be bonus – I want to keep this goal doable because I’ll be taking 2 college courses for the Spring semester)

Exercise 4 days a week

Continue filling out printable planning worksheet each night to accomplish both short-term and long-term goals

Lose 50 lbs. through healthy eating and exercise

Begin waking up by 5:30am after the baby is 6 weeks old (giving myself a break until then as we continue to find our night-time groove with feedings)

Be in bed by 10:30pm each night

Marriage Goals

Read 3 books on marriage this year

Go to at least 1 marriage conference

Schedule at least one home date night each month

Family Goals

Start family days back up (we took a break while we cared for our new baby girl)

Start ‘Day Out With Dad’ back up for Ruben and the kids (the kids get a one-on-one date with Dad)

Cook with the kids once a week

Go on a family vacation

Take lots of pictures

Homeschooling Goals

Start homeschooling Isaac

Do one project with Nathan each week

Do one science project with Breanna each week

Read to the children each weeknight

Business & Blogging Goals

Create office hours for my blog design business and follow them

Write 1 blog post per day

Plan blog posts at least 3 days in advance

Spend 15 minutes each day focused on my blog design business

Those are my goals for the year. How about you? Have you set goals for 2012?


Postpartum Update

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It’s almost been 3 weeks since I gave birth to our baby girl, and I’d thought I’d write a postpartum update to go along with the pregnancy updates I had been sharing before the baby’s birth. Here goes:

:: The baby is doing very well. She’s nursing well, and only lost a small amount of weight after birth – not enough to have to supplement with formula like I did with my other babies. She is sleeping well, too – definitely not sleeping through the night, but she normally wakes up and eats then goes back to sleep. What more could I ask for from a newborn? πŸ™‚ At least she isn’t sleeping all day and then up all night.

:: I’m feeling better every day since my c-section. It’s good to get my body back to myself. It’s also good to be able to bend, walk, and sleep without pain.

:: When I left the hospital, I actually weighed 4 lbs. MORE than when I went in the day of my c-section. This is AFTER I had given birth to a 7 lb. baby and lost a lot of fluid. My guess is that my weight went up after having the baby instead of going down because of all the swelling in my legs and abdomen after the c-section. By the time I left the hospital, I had MAJOR swelling in my feet and legs. I expected the swelling in the tummy area, but never the swelling like I had in my feet and legs. I’d never had that kind of swelling with any of the other kids. Anyway, the swelling is gone now and since coming home I’ve lost 26.5 lbs. I’m now 8.5 lbs. away from my pre-pregnancy weight and happy!

:: The kids adore their new sister. They’re all in love with her, but still need daily reminders of how gentle they need to be with her. All in all, everyone has adjusted very well to our new addition.

:: Breastfeeding is going exceptionally well this time around. I have had some discomfort after starting back up with Elisabeth (baby girl’s name), but not the excruciating pain that I’ve experienced in the past.

:: I’ve started walking on the treadmill again.

:: I love our new changing table, and I have no idea how I have made it through the last 4 kids without one.

:: Elisabeth is sleeping in her crib! First baby to start off sleeping in her crib from birth. You may remember that I mentioned we’ve co-slept with the other kids, but because two of the kids were regularly ending up in our bed by morning, we thought it was a good idea to put Elisabeth in a crib and purchased one just before she was born. The crib is pushed up right next to our bed so that Elisabeth is always within arms reach, and it makes it easy to nurse her this way, too.

:: I’m in love. Elisabeth completes our family. We are very blessed to be her family.

She’s just perfect.

Thank you, Lord.