Happy 11 Months!

my Little Foot is 11 months old today! we're teething and grumpy...teeth suck. i firmly believe teething is why we don't remember our earliest years. i don't know who's more batty...him with the teeth, or me home all day with the whines and tears and general unhappiness. can't wait until whatever teeth are trying to make their appearance are in and my happy boy is back!

i'm finally totally motivated to lose weight. i'm at pre-baby weight...but i could lose a few more pounds, and get more toned. plus i was asked a few days ago if i was pregnant :( .no. so we've been working on 2 miles a day. as long as Capt. Grumpypants isn't strapped into the stroller and can pull himself up and look around he enjoys the walks. today he's been so grumpy we've already walked 1.65 miles...and bathed. and we'll - God willing - be going back out this afternoon.

my devotional this morning - Hope for Everyday by Billy Graham - was based on Hebrews 10:22. (Hebrews is my favorite book of the Bible) "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of our faith." Mr. Graham says that we need to disregard our feelings when we come to Christ. Our feelings aren't what save us, but it's Christ who saves us. our feelings change, but He remains the same. i am SO grateful for that. for instance, i think Little Foot's teething is being made so much worse by my PMS...and i feel that i'm being awful to him because i'm so much more temperamental than normal. i'm so glad God doesn't PMS, or have mood swings, or bad days. i am so grateful for that...especially as i feel like i'm going crazy, i'm the most impatient mother ever, and i'm sad/happy/angry/tired/frustrated.

so mostly, today i'm grateful to the Father. for his unchanging love and forgiveness. for the gift of His Son so that i can be forgiven. for the beautiful little boy sitting next to me eating his beans. for my husband. my family. all of the blessings in my life - everything i don't deserve, but He has given me anyway.

~*mandy*~

One Day...

one day i'll learn how to make this blog look pretty, the way i want it to.

in the mean-time...PLEASE go visit my etsy shop :) http://www.etsy.com/shop/mandypandyrox i finally got some listings in there, and i'd love to finally make a sale, heh.

i unloaded almost an entire years worth of photo's off my iPhone yesterday. i forgot how little my baby was...just 10 short months ago!

Blogging on the Go

Got the Blogger app - yes!

We braved Hurricane Isaac's feeder bands & are getting an oil change.

Someone is also 10 months old today! Where has the time gone?

more thoughts about moms

~*here*~

just thinking about mother's day still.

my mom went to HP's swimming lesson with me today...we had so much fun. eli (my little-ist brother) came too and got to swim with his nephew. we went to DQ and then we hit BAM and browsed the child books. such small little things. but we laughed so much and talked so much and enjoyed our time so much.

tomorrow my Aunt Karen goes to put flowers on Grandma's grave...instead of picking her up from New Smyrna and bringing her here for Mother's day. this hit me really hard as i got out of the shower...and i had to have a cry-it-out really quick before my husband caught me naked, sobbing into a towel, heh.

my mom's best friend, and someone i love very much, is spending her Mother's day this year fighting breast cancer. i sent her a surprise package for Mother's day with 2 knitted wash cloths that had a ribbon and the words "hope" and "cure" on them and a pink knitted bag with the ribbon emblem on its side. i learned a lot of knitting techniques, and sent my dear friend some handmade goodies for Mother's day. she's a new grandmother this year too.

my sister-in-law Kim and my mother-in-law both spend this Mother's day without their spouses for the first time.

i really just want all mothers everywhere to have a really, really, really good day this Sunday. and that's the thought that has been stuck in my mind for the last few days. i can't stop thinking about making sure as many of the moms i know get a little ray of happiness this weekend. i'm obsessing over it. it's keeping me awake at night!

<3

~*mandy*~

Mother's Day is Sunday

i've been working on Mother's day gifts for my mom and mother-in-law and the grandmothers and great-grandmothers for about a month now. (it's really hard to accomplish anything when you have a 5/6 month old who loves you so much he just CANNOT be put down. so i started early.) i would share what i've been making...but i fear my mom might actually read this blog (which will one day look as awesome online as it does in my head) so i can't share until post-Mom's day. with all the craftiness going on, i've been spending a lot of time thinking about my mom...and motherhood in general.

my pre-teen and teen years were really rough...mostly on my mom. i was mostly rough on my mom. i look back now and realize all the resentment and anger were caused by my own selfishness - & those miserable hormones your body starts developing around that time.

i never really saw all that my mom did for my family until my senior year of high school...when my mom got pregnant with my youngest brother (yeah, oops! haha). she would work all day on her feet as an art teacher...and then she'd come home exhausted...and clean our house and do our laundry and cook our dinner. somehow i finally put together that going to school, doing homework, or band practice took no where near the same amount of energy. i had no excuse to whine...and all that she did showed me how much she truly loved me and sacrificed for me. it was then that i finally started trying to help. i know that i still whined and complained...but i was really trying to start working around the house without having to be nagged. and since the birth of my little brother, we've been the best of friends - my mom and i. because i finally saw my mother and all the work she did in perspective, through the eyes of a young woman about to head out into the world and not the eyes of a spoiled little girl.

the sad thing is that i cannot get any of those years back to do over. to make up for the snotty, terrible little brat that i know i was. luckily, my mom loves me in spite of myself. and i have all the years left to show her how much i love her. how she's truly my very best friend. how i learned what motherhood is from her, and that i want to be the caring, sacrificing, honest, Godly mother that she was to me. i learned from the best - and i want to give Hagan the same love that i was given.

it also crossed my mind that this will be the first Mother's day without my "Aunt Bobbye", who was basically my grandmother. my mom's mother - Gramme - died when i was 3, and her best friend took over grand-mothering duties for my brother and i. we called her Aunt Bobbye, but she was Grandma. she passed into Heaven the day after Christmas this year. i know that my family - especially my Aunt Karen -  are missing her so much this weekend that it probably hurts. it's hurting my heart a lot. i wanted to send a card and pictures of Hagan to her for Mother's day this year. because all the grandmothers got gifts...but the post office doesn't deliver to Heaven, lol.

i'm so glad that Hagan does have so many grandparents left though...and they're all local to him. i didn't really have many grandparents left, and those that i did have were always so far away. my baby is held by his Amaw every Sunday during church - and he plays with his Gramme and Gandalf (my dad is SO not a "pop" or "grandpa", so i named him Gandalf after his favorite book character ever!) every Sunday after church at lunch. we go visit them and spend time with them during the week, because i'm no longer working. he has great-grandparents and even one Great-Great Grandfather! i wish i could have had that, and i'm grateful to God that Hagan does.

my prayer for everyone is that this Mother's day is beautiful! that it's full of the overwhelming love i experience - both as a mother and toward my mother. that there are great gifts, great lunches, and more special memories made with those special women in our lives. (and that unlike last mother's day, i don't spend my morning puking on the side of the highway on the way to church, hahaha. i'm thinking that since this year i'm not pregnant, i won't have to worry about the puking!)

<3
~*mandypandy*~

a random thought

i once read that the older you are, the harder it is to learn new things. i say: screw that.

every tuesday night i sit at a knitting class with my mother, my niece, and some ladies old enough to be my grandmother or my mother or my best friend. and we're all learning to knit...at the same pace. we're all enjoying each other's company.

i absolutely adore the fact that i can now knit and crochet. i'm looking forward to learning to quilt this summer. my mother-in-law and sister-in-law are going to teach my mom and i to quilt. i think that's amazing.

i'm going to learn to can my own food this summer too. my mom is a teacher and will have the summer off...and i fully intend to buy some supplies, ask her to help me watch my beautiful baby boy, and we're going to can foods. (which i will put aside and later give out to family and friends as Christmas gifts - God willing that i have any skills at canning!)

so. age cannot and will not hold me back. and it doesn't seem to hold many of the people around me back. my 80-ish year old neighbor who has had so many life-threatening illnesses within the last year still gets out every day and works around his shop and yard. he hops on his John Deere tractor and bush-hogs his huge yard. he fixes things. and he enjoys his life to the fullest.

and by golly - i'm going to too. i'm thanking God for all the amazing things i've learned, and will learn in the future. and i'm glad that He has gifted me with the ability to learn and love and have so much fun. and for all the blessings He has placed in my life.

what wonderful random thoughts. what a wonderful and amazing God <3

~*mandypandy*~

it's the little things sometimes

so we've been cloth diapering for 2 weeks now. it's pretty sweet...& saving good money. the only tough spot i've run into is that i forgot to pull the diapers off the line last night before i went to knitting...and andy forgot to get them before the rain too. so now they're sitting on the line and the dew is drying off. i'm enjoying the clothing honestly. it's reducing the bedroom diaper-pail smell...the amount of garbage we throw out...and i think that the less chemicals that touch my babies' skin the better.

i'm also fighting this pet peeve of mine on Facebook. everyone has an "fb" and everyone checks theirs. but i hate this tendency we all have to make passive-aggressive angry posts on fb. to actually make your point, a person must SAY exactly what needs to be said to a SPECIFIC person. don't just throw random half-stories out there for the world to read. mostly because you will actually upset more people than you realize, and the person who you're actually angry at doesn't ever realize it's them you're talking about. i've done it too...and sometimes it makes me feel better. but ultimately, we can't hide behind our computer screens. talk face-to-face...solve the issue...move on. and don't air your dirty laundry in public.

but other than those 2 little things...life is fun and good :)

i'm having so much fun at knitting lessons. and i'm enjoying spending my time with my baby - he's wonderful. my husband and i are enjoying parenting and being best friends and loving each other so much. today i'm going to do my normal domestic duties...cleaning the house, loving and playing with my 6 month old, & mailing off some home-made Mother's Day presents to grandparents and finishing my Mother-in-Law's and Mommy's presents!

~*mandypandy*~