A Week in the Life

Today's "Show us Your Life" topic on Kelly's Korner is "A Day in the Life."  Our daily routine varies quite a bit from day to day, but our weekly routine is fairly consistent.  That's why I've decided to give a quick overview of a typical week at our house.

Sunday: We go to church.  I serve in the nursery during the first service and then attend the second.  We have started letting Kadynce go to "big church" for worship once a month.  She loves it!  Of course I know it's mostly due to the fact that she loves to hear her Daddy sing, but it's good for her to see how the adults praise the Lord.  After a quick lunch with my parents (usually Taco Bell) we head home for afternoon naps all around.  Every other Sunday we host our Lifegroup at our house.  This is fairly new for us and we have been so blessed by these families.

Monday:  Like everyone I used to dread Mondays, but recently they have been pretty low key and I have really enjoyed them.  After a busy weekend it's nice to have a relaxing pajama day with my girlies.  I usually just try to get things done around the house and do a little bit of "school" with Kadynce if she's in the mood (at 3 I'm not going to push it).  Then there is Monday nights.  Oh how I love Monday nights.  First I go to the ladies bible study at church and then I meet with some girlfriends for coffee.  It's always such good fellowship and I leave feeling refreshed and ready to take on the week.

Tuesday:  Kadynce goes to school at our church.  Lydia and I either run errands or hang out around home.  We always go to lunch at Chili's with my mom.  We have actually been so much that we have developed a relationship with our sweet server, Jen.  We pick up Kadynce  from school and bring her home for a short rest before we head to the park with friends until Daddy gets off work.

Wednesday:  Kadynce goes to her ballet and tap class.  She absolutely LOVES it and it is such a joy to watch her.  The rest of the day is spent at home.  Mom comes over for dinner and to hang out with us while Jonathan goes to band practice.

Thursday:  Kadynce goes to school.  I usually try to stay home and get the house cleaned and laundry caught up before the weekend.  Most weeks we have dinner with our wonderful friends, the Adlers.  Kadynce lives for these nights.  She loves those kids soooo much!

Friday and Saturday:  Jonathan is off these days and they tend to vary in what we do depending on the week.  One thing that is almost certain is that Kadynce stays the night with my Mom and Dad on Saturday.  This such a special time for her that she always looks forward to.

Our life is not perfect, but I love it and many days as I look around I feel like I'm living in a dream.  This is seriously all I have wanted since I was a little girl and I am so, so thankful.  I'm thankful that the Lord blessed me with a husband that values me being a stay at home mom as much as I do.  He never expects the house to be perfect and arrives home from work ready to jump in and help me with what needs to be done.  He often gets up with Lydia in the morning so I can have a little bit more sleep after being up with her in the middle of the night.

I have seen several posts on Facebook recently about how people portray their lives through social media.  Its true that what you see is everybody's best.  You don't see the messy house and the screaming children.  You see the 1 good picture that has been cropped and edited out of 100.  Since I'm sharing my day to day life in this post I decided to share some unedited and very true to life pictures.  This is real life people!

 I put this picture because this was right before she chunked the bowl into the sink splattering stuff EVERYWHERE.  At least the bowl didn't break.

Subtext

I know all 5 of you that read this blog are thinking "wow Kacie, 2 posts so far this week!"  Let's just say that the Good Lord gave me a little kick in the rear-end this weekend about how I need to keep up with this blog, so here I am.

The very first session at the Dotmom conference this weekend was about evaluating the subtext of your parenting.  This was a very convicting topic for me.  Are my actions matching up to the words that come out of my mouth?  When I tell Kadynce that she is important to me, but all she hears all day is "let me finish _____ first."  What is that really saying to her?  When I do actually put housework and Facebook aside to spend time with my children am I truly enjoying the moment or am I too busy trying to take the perfect picture of that moment?  Kids are smart little boogers and they pick up more than we give them credit for.  Housework, Facebook, and Instagram are not bad things in and of themselves.  We just need to be careful that they do not become an obsession.  I also need to say that I think it's very important not be judgmental in this area.  Just because "so and so" seems to be on some sort of social media a lot does not mean they are neglecting their children.  Is IS ok though to be jealous that they actually have time to play on the computer (just kidding, just kidding;))

As I was thinking about the topic of the "subtext" in our lives I began to think about other areas besides parenting.  Yesterday I posted a link on my Facebook page to this blog.  I found something very interesting when I posted it.  As you can see in the below screen shot the blog post received 1 "like" while the picture I posted of my daughter just about an hour later received 66.

I never post anything to see how many "likes" I can get so that's really neither here nor there.  I just thought it was interesting.  Anyway, back to how this relates to subtext.  It's not just our children that hear our actions louder than our words.  Our spouses do as well.  What is it saying to them when we  spend more time investing in someone else's life (fictional or real) than theirs?  Then there is the fact that everyone sees your every move on Facebook.  What is it saying when you post a link to an upcoming activity at your church only to turn around and post an "R" rated status about how crummy your day has been and how much you hate life.  Believe me y'all, I'm preaching to myself just as much as I am anyone else.  This is something that has been so very convicting to me and I just had to share. 

"Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth." 1 John 3:18  

Dotmom

This past Friday Heather and I loaded up the car and headed to the dotMom conference. I almost canceled at last minute because Lydia had a low grade fever and this was my first time to leave her overnight, but Jonathan talked me into going. I am sooo glad that he did. I don't know about y'all, but there are times that I feel like I'm doing everything wrong as a mommy. Especially when it comes to my extremely strong-willed three year old. I went into this conference not wanting to know how to make her listen better or to be more obedient. I wanted to know how I could be a better mommy. The main speakers were Angie Smith, John Croyle, Vicki Courtney, and Priscilla Shirer. Let me just tell you, that Angie Smith may be small, but she sure does know how to stomp on some toes... and hard! Within a matter of minutes I knew that the next 24 hours were going to completely reshape me as a wife and mommy. My hope is to share some bits and pieces here and there about things that I learned at the conference over several different posts. I'm not making any promises though ;).

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was getting the opportunity to attend the breakout session on losing a child with Angie Smith. Many of you have heard me talk about her book "I Will Carry You" about her sweet baby girl Audrey Caroline. It was such a blessing to me while I was pregnant with Isaac and after he was born. It was so neat to get to talk to her a little one on one and to thank her for being obedient by sharing her story. It was also good to hear other's stories and connect with other mommies that have lost their babies. Angie is seriously one of the sweetest, most compassionate people I have ever met. It was so important to her that she got to hear about each of our babies. You could tell that she was truly heartbroken that each one of us had gone through the same pain that she had.


I don't think I've ever felt so refreshed and equipped to be the kind of mommy and wife that my children and husband deserve. I know that I'm not going to be perfect and that I'm not alone in that, but I now have some wonderful tools to be better.

Pictures!!!

Today I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner for her SUYL picture ideas.  Like so many, I absolutely LOVE pictures.  I think that's my favorite part of social media.  I just love seeing pictures of the people I care about and their family and friends.  When I was pregnant with Kadynce my sweet husband knew that I would want A LOT of pictures of her and that I would want them to be good quality.  That's when he decided to take up photography in an effort to save us a small fortune (thanks so much babe!)  I may be a little biased, but I think he's gotten pretty darn good at capturing the priceless moments that I want to remember forever.

This was one of Kadynce's 6 month pictures. 

This is our friend's beautiful little girl Cambrya.  She's a big 3 year old now.  So hard to believe!

This is a family picture Jonathan took for our good friends, the Adlers.  

Jennifer Mckinney took this photo of Kadynce during our family photo shoot.  

Kadynce at 11 months.

Playing with the water hose this past summer.  

Kadynce at 9 months in her Texas Tech gear supporting her Uncle BooBoo.

Our two little beauties. 

My friend, Bethany's mom made this adorable hat for Lydia.  It was just perfect for pictures!

This idea totally cam from Pinterest ;)

As did this!

Lydia at 3 days old.

In Daddy's guitar case. 

6 month update

Our sweet little rainbow is now 6 months old. She had her check up today. She weighs 17 lbs 4.5 oz (75%) and is 26.25 inches long (68%). Here is what's going on with Lydia these days.

•So far she's had oatmeal, carrots, and green beans to eat and loves them all.

•She is the happiest baby and just smiles all the time, especially at sister.

•She can roll both ways and still doesn't like being on her stomach.

•Her little legs are very strong and she loves to hold our hands and stand up. She was trying to walk like this yesterday.

•Right now she's sleeping from about 10 pm to 4:30 am. She nurses for about 15 minutes then goes back to sleep until 7-7:30. She usually takes a 45 minute morning nap. In the afternoon she sleeps for about an hour on her own and then I rock her while she sleeps for another hour and a half. She usually takes a little evening cat nap as well.

•She usually nurses 5 times a day.

•She's working really hard on sitting up by herself and loves to feel like she's involved in whatever is going on around her.

•She loves to touch and grab at things and put them in her mouth.

•She has two bottom teeth.

•She is now wearing 6-9 months clothes and a size 3 diaper.