What Karina and I Did Today

Karina had her puppy walk in Joseph's shoes for a while. He was more sympathetic after that.

We worked on the garden a while. (See the yellow and purple flowers? We planted them yesterday!)

This is the back bed where I work while Karina picks "flowers". Hey, even if they are weeds, they're purple and yellow and pretty, right? :)


Karina played with the chickens after I gave them fresh water and food. They ate right out of their favorite person's hands!

And we got ready to go eat dinner at the McIntyre's. :) She's ready to go.

So now I'm off to get myself ready. It'll take a bit of work to look as nice as Karina. :)

Spring is for Change

You remember hearing stories about our great-grandmothers tearing the house apart from top to bottom the moment they saw green come up from the ground; pounding mattresses on their front porch, scrubbing cabinets and dusting those hidden nooks and crannies; rearranging, renewing, bringing back to life.

Here in the Payne household, we've gone through a somewhat vestigial renewal of our own. Although I can't imagine spending my time this spring cleaning every square inch of the house, our home is going through some renewal and change.

Around the middle of February, I started our garden. I dug, potted, watered, doted, watched and lo and behold, we have lots of young green plants around the house and in the bed outside. It's wonderful! Hopefully, we'll be eating spinach, lettuce, nasturtium leaves, radishes and carrots soon. Have you ever seen a dry, hard, round thing magically produce an actual plant? To see this seedling push through the soil and grow toward the light- with part of the seed still clinging on? It really was almost like magic for me!

Three weeks ago, I came home with 5 baby girls. For Kelly McIntyre's sake, I will correct myself and (although I love to personify) admit that they weren't girls, they were female. Female chickens. We've been enjoying raising them. Today they're spending time outside in the backyard. They grow so quickly!

And almost a week ago, we brought home a real little girl. :) Our niece, Karina, will be staying with us for awhile. This week I've been cleaning out drawers, organizing rooms and rearranging furniture. We're hoping that while she's here, she'll be as comfortable as possible. Last night, she spent her first night in her and Joseph's room, in her bed. Although she was timid about it, she awoke with the good news that she had fallen asleep, and in fact loved her bed. :)

So, that's quite a bit of remaking our household. I love spring. :)

As an update on Joseph:

He's definitely "crawling". This past week (see pic below) it would seem that he was getting from point A to point B, but I really couldn't tell how he was doing it. He wasn't lunging, not necessarily scooting or crawling, but he was getting there. (Karina says he was doing push ups.) Now, you can definitely tell that he's crawling.

And yesterday I walked in to find that he had pulled up on the crib rail! His first time to pull up! But before I had time to savor the milestone, I put him down for his nap just a bit ago and he went from laying down to sitting up just like that! So, now he knows how to do that! My boy is growing so much! Maybe that's a plus when you have a smallish baby?

Spring is here

Here are a few pictures for you all.

This is from last Saturday - which could be our family's favorite day. We work together, get to spend time together, and just sit together. :)

This was on Sunday, as Joseph was waiting to go to church. He is hilarious to me! This look could mean a dozen different things. Any ideas?

I like grass.

Poor boy. This piece of grass got stuck in his hair and he couldn't figure out how to get it off! :)

Listening Time

We had success today! We just finished listening time and Joseph sat quietly on my lap for 20 minutes! I am so proud of him. I think it helped that we sat on the couch instead of at the desk. Maybe it had fewer distractions? And of course, many thanks goes to Waddles for his generosity in assisting us. ;)

Schedules or What I've Learned (Mostly from Others) Since Being a Mama

Written to a friend:
"I was thinking about it and I know you're different from me. You might be able to handle more than I can, or like it busier than I do. Which is great. But if you're exhausted, frustrated, stressed, or wondering how you're going to get everything done, it's okay to change things. In fact, women are teaching me that to be a good steward you should.

Before you go change anything, though, it's best to actually take a look at your schedule. What you're already doing, and see if you can condense, rearrange or organize your life to make it smoother. WHich is what we did today.

I've also attached two schedules I've used since being married. One before the baby came and one after. The one after the baby came was when Joseph was about 1 month, so it's about the same time you're dealing with now. This schedule was "abbreviated" - it's not what my ideal schedule/normal routine would be. But it's what I thought was semi-realistic with what I was going through then. Although our boys' schedules may look different, it might also give you an idea of what I felt I could handle. Please know that I didn't accomplish everything on my list each day. In fact, it was rare that I did. But it was nice to see that, say, if I didn't get to mopping the kitchen floor, since it was on the schedule for next Monday, I knew I could get to it then, if I was able.

My philosophy of schedules is in the making, but has transformed into something like this: This schedule exists to give me an idea of what to expect and what to do next so that I'm being orderly and efficient. If I miss something, it's okay. If I can't do something, that's okay too. The schedule helps me to pick up after I get out of whack and helps to create order in my attempts to take care of the house and my child. "

Dear friends and family, please be sure to remind me of all this when I'm not so sane or as calm as I am today. Remind me that I (myself!) actually believe these things when I'm stressed that I can actually see dust on my mantle, or that I killed another plant by starvation, or when I have to step over the laundry to get to Joseph's room. Remind me so that I don't have a breakdown, or decide that feminists aren't so crazy after all. Remind me so that I don't only hear that I'm "prone to evil and slothful in good", but also that I'm redeemed and being transformed daily by grace. It's hard to remember, so thanks a bunch.