Where are you Time?

I have had this post on my mind for awhile now but knowing it is a touchy subject with some I have steered clear of it, with that said I am not here to offend anyone.

Honestly, I write about issues and different things because I want my daughter to know who I am and my prospective on life. I think it is important for children to know their parents and not just as "Mom and Dad" but really know them. Given that we don't live in a world of certainty and the good Lord can call me home at any second, I want my daughter to know me even if heaven forbid I am not here with her every day. I never want her to wonder who her mother was? What I would say or how I would feel? I have thought many times about writing a book to her on every topic I could think of and just run with it...I might just do it, when I get the time.

I recently read the book "The Help" and I highly recommend it if you are looking for a good read. It made me think even more about a topic I have pondered on many times. Time,Women, and the our role today. Quiet time. Me time. Quality Time. Girl Time. I know I am not alone in the sea of water I thread. As most of you know I am a working mother and I often struggle with balancing my time.

Back in the day a mother, a wife had a different role than she does today. The Bible talks about the woman's role of being a wife and a mother and up until World War II this was pretty much how women functioned in the world. They were married, and known as Mrs...... or ...so and so's mother. The men provided for the household, the men worked outside of the home during the day and the women tended to house and the children. Most white women even had "help" keeping house and raising the children. Here is the touchy part: Up until about 50+ years ago most white women had a husband that worked all day, help that came to the house everyday to cook, clean and nanny to the children. What did they do what there time?!!! Organize fundraisers, go to league meetings, volunteer for this, that and the other. Then came along the War and the Civil Rights movement...women went to work in the factories and the "help" eventually found better opportunities. The men came home from war but the women continued to work. The children now went to childcare centers or stayed home alone. The Dad works all day, the Mom works all day but the house and the children are still considered to be the Mom's responsibility even to this day. The Bible has not changed and the Lord is pretty clear on what a mother's responsibility is. Are there enough hours in the day for a working mother to truly fulfill her obligations to her husband, her children, her church, her job, her house, her community, her friends, herself, her Lord!!!??? I think we all know the answer, No. There is not enough time, so what gives?

I would love to have an hour of quiet time every day to think and talk to God, I would love to have an hour every day to hang out with my husband, cook a wonderful dinner, play with my daughter without thinking of the 100+ other things that need to be done. I am just not sure how women got to this place but then again the Lord doesn't give us more than we can't handle so just maybe those of us in the category of the working mother can handle it but at who's expense? Our husband's, our children, our Lord?? Everyone fights their own battles maybe this is just one of mine.

Please let me stress here I know that stay at home moms work, raising babies all day and all night is one of the hardest jobs out there. I realize there were plenty of women who had no help. I also realize that "back in the day" women did not have a voice, they were told who they were and what to think...which is probably why I was not born back then, God knew I would end up in jail.:)

The phrase "Life is Short" is becoming more and more real. The older you get the shorter life seems.....because you don't have as much time as you once thought you did. There are so many things to do in life but when are we suppose to find the time??

Get an education, get married, balance the career, clean the house, make babies, have babies, nurse babies, drinks with friends, more drinks with friends, swimming lessons, paint the house, read a book, pray, cook, pay the bills, go to the store, travel the world, volunteer, follow your dreams, read to your children, homework, go to Disneyworld, work on the flowerbeds, get your teeth cleaned, show and tell day, bake a cake, just smile, just breathe,....this is life, this is world we live in....I am just grateful to have a family to share it with, it may be a few minutes here and a few minutes there but I try and stay focused even when the clock is going "tick tock, tick tock." The balance will eventually find me...and all in perfect time!

"Honest scales and balances are from the LORD; all the weights in the bag are of his making"

Proverbs 16:11

Storytime Live

We made a whirlwind trip to Little Rock this week to watch Storytime Live and boy was it a success! Nick was tied up with work so Nene went with us (not traveling at 10pm with me and my baby alone) and we met up with Mimi, Pop Pop and Aunt Elizabeth...we made it a family affair! Claire loved every second and poor thing cried...and I mean balled...at the end when all the characters left the stage. She is still talking about it and gets so excited..."Dora, Dora, Moose, Pets, Pets" all while smiling and jumping....and that's exactly why we went, just for her!

Potty Progress

We are making potty progress!!! Claire understands the concept, sits and uses the bathroom in the potty, tells us when she has gone...now if we can just conquer her telling us she needs to go before she actually goes, maybe we work on that this weekend! Our morning ritual, sitting on the potty picking out her stickers...look at that wild hair!

We have not documented every time but we try...i would need to invest in a sticker company if Miss Claire got one every time she sat on the potty. Plus, she wants to keep most of her stickers and not put them on her potty chart.

Oh! We love stickers...they must go on our hands, legs, and arms.

Just July

First thing first, Baby Finlee is home from the hospital and is doing wonderful!! Thank you for your prayers. She is already such a sweet blessing!

We are just having a typical July...hot, hot, hot!! We celebrated the 4th by swimming and eating lots of food and swimming some more; of course, all in the good company of family and friends.

The most amazing little girl

Meet our daughter...Miss Independent and she so super sweet!!
Freeze...Time I demand you to Stop for just a little while...she is growing too fast!

Swimming by herself...on the steps of course

Such the water bug...swim, swim, swim

With Daddy out at the farm; he was cutting a tree and when Claire saw it fall she started crying...Own a Pine Tree Farm + Cutting Trees = Crying Little Girl...not a good equation:) Maybe when she realizes that is where we get our furniture and how we get to buy her toys she might not cry anymore. All we heard (and are still hearing) is "tree fall, tree fall" and she sounds so upset.

Mimi and Aunt Elizabeth took Claire to the zoo while I visited Megan and Baby Finlee, she loved it!

Claire and the Lion....eye to eye. Mimi said they just watched each other and it was so neat!

My big girl doing her favorite chore...watering her flowers....she looks so big here:(

I love hearing all the new things she says, she is so much fun!

Random Thoughts by Claire's Momma

As I type this post, I have a 25 pound little girl with very blond hair growing longer everyday sitting to my left. She is attentively watching Baby Einstein MacDonald or "Cow" as she refers to it. She has experienced a relapse of the Baby Einstein movies in the last couple of weeks...If I had a nickle for every time I have heard "Shapes Momma, Shapes Momma" Watch Shapes Momma...for those of you that do not live in the Baby Einstein world just imagine a movie all about shapes as classical music plays in the background....just fill the excitement:) Bottom line - Miss Claire loves shapes so we watch shapes every night. I am just excited tonight she wanted to watch Cow...and there is always "Turtle" the underwater adventure.

We just had an argument because she was making a mess with her snack and I tried to clean her hands, only she wanted to "help" which meant do it herself. I won, cleaned her hands as she protested, then she got to "help" and clean them herself.

Miss Claire will be 21 months old next week and is becoming more and more independent everyday. She went through a little funk at school because her bestie "Ty Ty" transferred to another school but she is doing better now. Today one of the teachers asked me if Claire was doing some baby reading programs....I guess like the infomericals on TV....because Claire was so smart, the answer is no she is not on any program. And given that she is my first child I have no way of comparing her to another child or knowing what she should or should not be able to do. But I will take what her teacher said as a compliment. She knows her animals, points to her body parts, counts along with you to 10, knows several colors, talks in nearly sentences, answers yes or no to questions, sings along to certain songs, and even has tackled the potty many many times. She recognizes people and calls them by name....sorry, I am just a rambling proud Momma!

Given that her Momma has no fashion sense it would only make sense for her to be near obsessed with shoes and always double checking to see if I put her hair bow in. She plays in my shoes as if it is the funniest activity in the world....oh to the simple joys!!

Claire's nickname at school is "Claire Claire" so guess what....if you ask Claire her name "Claire Claire Wade" or "Claw Claw Wade" as it sounds most of the time. Last week I asked her my name "Momma Wade" and Nick was "Dada Wade".

"Claw Claw boo boo, hiss it Momma".......it can be the tiniest scratch but it gets kissed 100 times over.

Currently, getting a dish towel put on my head, the one I used to clean her hands and my hair pushed all in my face....

Since summer is here and we have been swimming, jumping off the side of the pool and diving board; jumping has become a new sport. Miss Claire wants to "jum jum jum"...even it is standing on a book on the floor we must "jum" off the book.

"I wuv you, Momma; I wuv you, Daddy"........she says them both several times a day without even being told "I love you" first.....absolutely melts my heart every time.

Claire Quote of the Week:
Last night I said....."Claire, where is Mae? (the doll)"....at church. "At church, for what?".....pray

....."read read Momma read read" have someone climbing in my lap with a book in hand, that's my little bookworm!

We can Officially say.....

WE CAN OFFICIALLY SAY...............BYE BYE Northwest Arkansas!!!!

After 18 trying, hard, months learning tons of lessons the Lord wanted us to learn we have finally sold and closed on our house in NWA!!!! I am still a little in shock to think this journey is over, it has not been fun. Even the last few months where we had a buyer and a contract has been very stressful; the contract signed on March 31 and closed on June 16, 2010. How glorious the Lord is for this prayer to be answered. Thank you for praying for us all these months!!!

It might take me a little time to shed all the "weight"...aka anxiety I have carried around all this time; its hard to lose weight over night, but I hope to be back to normal in no time!!!!!

WHAT WONDERFUL HAPPY DAY THE LORD HAS MADE!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

First ER Visit

Just a couple of pictures of my beloved little girl....she just makes my heart smile!

Let me start at the beginning. Tuesday night Claire went to bed around 8:30, I went to check on her and she was obviously running a fever, which was 102.8. I gave her tynelol and check on her several times throughout the night, fever goes down only to come back up. Wednesday morning fever is still acting like a roller coaster going up as high as 103.7 but we were always able to get it down, then the wheezing started. She saw her doctor around 2:00 that afternoon, received a breathing treatment at the office, which worked great and was given several different meds including an inhaler; being diagnosed with bronchitis. Nick and I both needed to work on Thursday so NeNe (Anna) came to keep Miss Claire on Thursday. Well as Wednesday went on the wheezing got worse so we set in the steaming bathroom, in hopes of helping her to breath easier, the inhaler was not helping. The fever kept rising and got up to 103.8...after taking two cold baths, more medicine, cool wash clothes, eating popsicles, drinking ice cold water, and even sitting in the baby pool outside (trying to make sitting in cold water fun) her fever went back down!!

Then around 1am we woke up to Miss Claire (she was in bed with me) breathing so hard and fast, her temperature was back up to 103.7....gave her more meds, tried the shower thing again to help her breath, but being very careful not to make her hotter. When Claire was 3 months old she had RSV and the doctor told me all the signs for when its time to go to the hospital...breathing fast and so hard the rib cage sticks out...well with every breath Claire took it looked like she was sucking in her tummy as much as possible. Then she threw up, temp was 103.9 about the time we got the throw up cleaned up, she threw up again. I told Nick and Anna it was time to go to the hospital...and out the door we went. They got us back immediately (there was no one else waiting) Claire's temp was 104.2 by now, they did a chest x-ray, a breathing treatment, and unsuccessfully attempted to draw blood...let me say the attempt to draw blood was a nightmare!!!! (4 adults trying to hold down a baby when a lab tech can't find a vein, thinks she does and then proceeds to sit there and dig around until Claire's arm was blue, Nick had to leave the room, me and Anna told the lab tech enough was enough and she had to stop)...all of this with my baby crying big huge tears, which led to a crying Momma! I know her fever got much higher during all this, she was so stressed. The respiratory threapist gave her a breathing treatment and compared her breathing to whooping cough. The x-ray showed her lungs were clear...thank you Lord....we feared full pneoumina had already set in. The doctor diagnosed her with a viral throat coop and bronchtis and said to continue all the medicine and sent us home. I borrowed a breathing treatment machine from a friend and we continued breathing treatments.


Fever finally went away midday Thursday and we have not done a breathing treatment since yesterday. Claire slept great last night and is wanting to play more today! Thank you Lord!


I am so thankful to have my healthy little girl back and I can't explain what a new found respect and compassion I have for the parents and grandparents of sick/special needs babies. Going through all those tests, sticks and pricks, and all along the baby not bring able to tell you what is wrong or where it hurts. My BIG prayer is that all the children's hospitals in the world will have to close there doors because there are no patients!!!! God tells us to pray BIG and that is my new BIG prayer....and of course all the workers will find jobs very easily because the Lord will provide:)