Life at 31

Another year has gone by and our little family has changed so much this year.  Hopeful I've changed a little as well, growing in kindness, patience, grace and love.  I certainly get more opportunities to practice these disciplines with a 2 and now 3 year old. I spent the majority of this year pregnant (and tired) and now we have a second little adorable girl.   My life is more blessed than I could imagine - although we have our little daily struggles, overall life is quite easy and wonderful.   I had the idea the other day that it would be fun to go through different aspects of my life right now to be able to look back on and remember.

Relationship with God:  I feel as if my relationship with God is strong, but I lack discipline in daily quiet time.  This discipline has always been a struggle for me.  I pray and communicate and try to be sensitive to His leading - but need to spend more time in His word.  He is very much an active part of my life, but I know He has more for me and I need to go deeper.  My 3 year old gives me ample opportunities to work patience, kindness, grace and peace.  I still have much room for improvement and hope to daily share His love to my girls and teach them about His ways.

Health and Wellness:  These have always been important parts of my life.  There isn't anything huge on the eating front in the last year other than adding unprocessed Coconut oil and more seaweed to our diet (and skin).  We eat a fairly balanced diet of whole grains, fruits, veggies, lean meats and too many sweets!  My favorite foods of the year are coconut, papaya, Okinawan sweet potatoes, mango's only from Kim and Denise's trees, sushi and Korean seasoned seaweed ( I really need to get back to my island...).  I really try to make sure our food is natural and healthy. For exercise... well, I pretty much stopped all formal exercise as soon as I completed my triathlon last year.  I surfed until I was 15 weeks pregnant and did a lot of playing with Autumn in the ocean and pools.  I've done more in the last month than I have all year - swimming laps, running and lifting weights.  I'm back up to a mile jog and 12 laps in the pool.  At first my main goal was to be in shape enough to be able to go right back to surfing in February, but now I'm seriously considering a slow 1/2 marathon in March.   I've begun to use Manuka honey and oil on abrasions and coconut oil for dry skin and yeast on Autumn.  Any time I have cold symptoms I start with the Neti Pot and drinking apple cider vinegar.  

Being a Mother:  The title of mother is so sacred - it is the most amazing, rewarding, challenging, tiring, fun, thrilling, character building, privileged jobs in the whole world.  I feel like pregnancy is the most exhausting times, I have so much more energy on less sleep after they are born!  I find disciplining completely exhausting and I really struggle with patience when Autumn is in phase of overly testing the boundaries.  We are in one of those times now - and she is getting more clever about it.  I feel like the best parenting advice I've received was from my Maui mom Denise - that children's jobs are to test their boundaries and your job as a parent is to set and maintain those boundaries.  She recommended a Christian book called "Boundaries for Kids" and it worth a look. Children are relentlessly testing their boundaries (I realize mine more than others), but standing firm is much more likely to produce a responsible, healthy adult.   But I also know that it is important to be gracious and patient in this boundary setting - it is exhausting to try to get it right.  I'm so glad God is gracious to me and I hope my children are too - as I make a lot of mistakes!   My love for them is fiercely strong and deep and I pray they always know that!  We have 2 sweet girls and I thought I would only want two biological children, but I am now not sure.  We'll see what the future holds.

Wife of a Self Employed Husband: Aaron went out on his own almost 3 years ago.  We've made our finances work with me occasionally working. His clientele is growing the the income seems to be more consistent these days.  It seems to be pretty easy for me to relax about not knowing the next months income or the future.  I'm sure this is a lot easier because we have a decent savings and I can make a decent amount in a short time if I would need to as a travel OT.  I really have enjoyed the freedom in time and location we have as a family and feel like we have taken full advantage.  We've lived in 4 places and spent countless nights all over the country with Aaron able to pull his computer out and work if needed.  We've been able to enjoy weeks of working vacation this way together as a family and plenty of time without the work on vacation as well.  I think we'd both have a hard time if Aaron had to go back to corporate work.  I do admit that I do have a hard time figuring out how, when and if to approach Aaron during his work hours at home.  It is hard to pretend he is not here if I think of something I want to share with him.  But I love that if the girls are doing something exciting he can step away for a few minutes and enjoy it with me and love on them!

Living with my Parents: If you had told me 13 years ago that I would move back into my parents home for large amounts of time, I would have had a good laugh.  I did not like others rules and had a lot of work needed in the areas of grace and kindness toward my parents. Somehow now with the combination of personalities and each of us granting each other a lot of grace, love and kindness, we all really enjoy life under the same roof! We love having the help with the girls, knowing that the girls will know my parents well and we try to help get projects and chores done around the house.

Work:  I graduated OT school 6 years ago. Seems so crazy! I've never held a full time normal OT job. I've either done contract travel jobs or PRN work.  I've done OT work in home care, hospital rehab and acute, nursing home and pre-K through HS schools. I love being an OT and find helping people through creative problem solving to be very rewarding.  I also have enjoyed running my very small hat business.  It is a nice creative outlet and fun to see little ones with things on that I have made. Right now I'm hoping that a couple of bigger craft fairs on the weekends on both sides of Thanksgiving will afford us plane tickets to come home from Hawaii each Thanksgiving.  We shall see!  I haven't gotten tired of making hundreds of hats each winter and still need to use up the hundreds of yards of fabric I have!

Birthing and Breastfeeding: Two babies later I've found out what this body is truly for!  Pregnancy is completely awe inspiring! The fact that a little person grows from a spec to a baby inside of you is completely crazy!  All but 4 months of the last 4 years I've either been breastfeeding or pregnant and I assume it will be 2 more years of nursing.  I had so much pain the first 6 months of nursing with Autumn, that I was dreading the first 6 months with Abby.  I'm happy to say that there has been far less pain and no need for a shield. Autumn used to pull off almost every feeding choking and get a face full of mild from the spray.  Abby handles the sprinklers better, but spits up a lot - likely from the chugging she is doing to keep up.  However, I still need to block feed (only offer one side for 3-4 hours before offering the other) and put a large bumgenius insert in my feeding tank top to catch leakage (which I have even leaked out of before).  The lactation consultants call this oversupply and milk ejection reflex.  Fun stuff!  I have also been blessed to have two completely natural labor and deliveries. Never needing an Advil or anything.  I wanted it that way, didn't have complications and had slow labors that allowed me to rest and relax.  I feel like breathing through and relaxing during contractions is my strong point, while I could pass on the whole pushing thing!  Good thing pushing is last and not an option - just had to get it done to be able to meet my wee babies!

Friendships:  I'm so blessed to call so many wonderful women my friends!  Right now my friend face time is at an all time low and all my friends are hours away.  Blogging, facebook, texts, Skype and phone time are so valuable for me to keep in touch with those dear to me.  In Hawaii my friendships were starting to really grow and I'm excited to get back to face time with these friends! I had friends to exercise with, surf with, have playdates with...  strangely I have way more friends in Kona than anywhere else, even though I've spent far less time there than in Colorado. While back on the mainland, I feel very blessed to have gotten to spend a nice chunk of time with Kait this summer and look forward to the next time we get another chunk of time together!  I also have gotten to spend smaller amounts of time with friends and mentors here in Colorado/Utah that have been very nice!