*Motivated Moms*

Let me tell you a few things about myself.

I’m a person who loves lists.
And I love how-to books.
And bullets.
And boxes to check off.
And things to strike through.
I’m the type of person who will add something I've already done to my to-do list, just to be able to cross it off.
I like the idea of FlyLady, but…It’s just too cumbersome.

So I want to share something with you, in case you’re the same way.
Motivated Moms has a printable chore list… it details a few chores to do every day of the year, and cycles through things like changing towels, cleaning the lights in your bathroom, cleaning the crumb tray of your toaster, and all sorts of things that are easy to let slide if you’re not thinking about them. Just what I need! Because each day you check your list...do your few designated chores...then RELAX! No need to feel the continual pull to do more! I love it!!! I feel like when I can keep up with everything on the list, I’ll feel like the house is “together” and in maintenance mode.

I found this site because a dear fellow homeschooling Mommy friend told me about it and knew I would love it! I’ll tell you that I immediately spent the $8 to buy the PDF download and it's one of the best things I have done for myself in a while. And I’m VERY excited about using it this year and seeing the change it makes in me and in my house. I bought the full-sized planner with Bible reading for each day. The site has several sample PDFs so you can see what you’re getting into before you pay, which I totally love because I am a very visual person! Anyway, just thought I would pass this gem along to anyone who loves this idea as much as I do :-)

Happy Easter

So maybe I'm a few weeks behind on this post...but who's counting?!?!

Easter was hard for Israel this year because he was still really trying to recover. He wasn't interested in much when it came to festivities. He watched Rachel and Jaxon color eggs for all of two minutes. He didn't hunt for eggs, but Rachel helped him find his basket. He had bubbles in it, which are his new favorite thing! We went to church...of which he slept through the whole thing. Then headed over to Jon's parents house...of which he slept most of this time too. Rachel and Jaxon, LOVED Easter! They enjoyed coloring eggs, hunting for eggs, opening their baskets, going to church and doing the big egg hunt there, and of course they loved going to Nana and Papa's house! I couldn't get much in terms of pictures, but here are a few of the best ones I got.

Recovery

Ok, so this post is coming a bit late...and for that I apologize. It feels like life has been going 100 mph!!! I think of great blog topics and compose them in my head...but actually getting/taking the time to sit down and write has been hard lately. But tonight, my husband is gone, the kids are in bed, all of my chores have been done...so I think its time for a bit of blogging :-)

Israel is doing AMAZING! Praise God! The first week was hell! The second week was ok. The third week was getting back to normal. And the fourth week was awesome! YEAH! We have our baby boy back! His tongue is completely healed and he is eating and drinking wonderfully! It has been so much fun to introduce him to new foods. So far there isn't anything he doesn't like. This week he tried bananas, strawberries, corn, green beans and pasta. I love to watch his face as he tried something new. It's usually quite a perplexed look as he decided what he thinks of it. Too cute! In addition to that, he is making all sorts of new sounds and noises as he discovers all that his tongue can do. We are so very grateful for wonderful doctors and modern technology! It has changed this little boys life forever!

(Eating a Gerber Fruit Twist...he loves these and can feed them to himself!)

Nubbins

In addition to having Israel's tongue surgery we had something else done as well, very last minute. On the end of each limb he has what we refer to as "nubbins". Basically they would have eventually turned into fingers and toes, had he developed properly in the womb. However because something stopped his growth they stopped too. They are pointless and useless. They have no bones in them and serve no purpose or function.

(Here is an example of his left arm)

I have always worried about them getting caught on something and ripping. I have also worried that they would eventually get in his way and could possibly cause pain with his prosthesis. So, we asked our plastic surgeon if she would mind just removing all of them while she was at it and he was under aways. She was wonderful and agreed. We had them removed off of all four limbs. His right side ones were smaller and the left side ones were quite a bit bigger. He had to get stitches in them, and even a soft cast on his right arm, because he sucks on it and the stitches would have dissolved to quickly. Israel is recovering well from them and doesn't seem to mind the change. He is using his arms and legs just the same. I am so glad we decided to get this done...just one less thing to think about along this journey :-)