A Glimpse of "Peace" (not Quiet)

WOW SHOCKING it has been so long since I have posted. ;) Yeah, I know, I'm the worst as I am always saying. Here's a little bit of Bishop Boy updates for you who live near and far:

TYLER is now (mostly) potty trained at night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yaaaaaaay! Saving money on Pull-Ups is amazing. I am so proud of my big 4 year old. He is set to start preschool at the beginning of February! Tyler is VERY excited.... we'll see what happens when I drop him off for the first time. :)

AUSTIN is the quintessential little brother and likes to pretend he is a big brother to those around him who are smaller; yelling "NO!" in an firm voice is his favorite thing to say. He loves to run, climb, jump, dance, yell, giggle, fall and play at the coat tails of Ty. He love Thomas the Tank Engine and "Mee-mo" ("Finding Nemo").

DOUG has been busy at work and is now officially (small) part owner of Sebastopol Hardware! We are very excited to be a part of a great business and he looks forward to the future, growing the business and continuing its good reputation in West Sonoma County. He and I are taking a mini-vacation tomorrow out to Bodega Bay to relax for a night. We can't wait!

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If you don't live in the area, let me inform you of the insane rain we have had in the last 3-4 days. It's been quite the storm. Thunder woke Austin up one morning and I stumbled in the room to try and calm him back down (as it was 4:30am), only to hear Tyler say "Austin, you don't need to cry. It's just a storm." So sweet. Most the time it just seems Tyler feels like his life would be a heck of a lot better without Austin around and I am constantly referee. It's draining of energy to be a mom in the first place, but constantly breaking up fights adds to it for sure. Sometimes I feel defeated and that my efforts are going nowhere.

But I've been praying lately for a more "victorious" outlook on my every day life (as we have been going through 31 Days Of Power by Ruth Meyers in our Women's Bible Studay at church). God has revealed to me that the defeated feeling is not of Him- and since everything good is from our Almighty God, then the feelings I was having are BAD and NOT of Him; therefore, not the best He has for me OR what He intends. So, wanting to fight the enemy in this way, I have been hoping and praying to receive what has already been given to me by Christ: Victory! Now, my personal area of struggle is parenting these two Troublemakers- I love them with all my heart and soul but they are a HANDFUL- especially while not getting along. So I needed specific victory help from Jesus in this area!

This week I have already begun to feel it! God is so good. Little nuggets from Him can be so so encouraging! First, was that sweet little "storm" anectdote that I just told you about. Then, yesterday, when my dear sweet friend Brooke was flooded in at her house so we couldn't come visit, made the almost 4th day in a row at home. Going stir crazy. With a baby who I DEFINATELY wasn't about to take out it in that horrid weather (sweet Annabelle Burgess who I am blessed to watch every Wednesday when her beautiful mom goes to work). Now, going stir crazy makes me tired and worn out. Stir crazy makes the Troublemakers... crazy. BUT- yesterday, as I was trying to clean the floor and the kitchen and feed Annie and get macaroni on the table IT HAPPENED:

They played together. Nicely.

What? I know. Granted, they were running, racing, sliding on the floor and doing laps around a free standing wall in the middle of our downstairs. BUT THEY WERE LAUGHING. AND NOT FIGHTING! They do love each other!!!! And maybe sometime they will show that even more than once in a blue moon. Thank you, Lord for that moment of peace. From YOU.

And I'm okay that it wasn't quiet. :)

"In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." Romans 8:37

A Kid Centered Day (Truely)

Let's be honest- being a mom is HARD. I love it, and wouldn't trade my Bishop Boys for anything- but it is HARD. And thankless. But worth it. I'm tired of women not saying anything about the exhaustion and acting like it was all peachy keen for 18 years. You must not remember.

Lately I have been convicted of something- Tyler is in a desperate pursuit of my attention. You may be thinking, "Well, duh. He's a kid." But I have been convicted that the disobedience and violent behavior against his brother is a direct result of the lack of one-on-one attention with me. This was a VERY disheartening realization because 1. I felt terrible about it; and 2. I ALREADY WORK HARD! This is not to toot my own horn- but between the house cleaning and groceries and feeding and running and laundry and appeasing and trying raise decent human beings I am already drained at the end of the day, is what I mean- I'm not saying I do a good job at any of these. So by the time Austin goes down for a nap, Tyler finally has me all to himself and I am TOAST- or, feeling guilty that the floor is still nasty and socks need to be folded.

But really- Tyler's behavior has had us at each other's throats. And we both end up feeling terrible. SO- The Holy Spirit decided to convict me that it's time to be unselfish. Brooke and Courtney helped by encouraging me to do one day where if the house doesn't get clean, oh well. It's all about the kids. A Kid Centered Day. This is what we did:


French toast, dressed, went to Kids Party Central for two hours (indoor playground), McDonald's, Old Navy (Ty got to pick out 3 shirts), home, Austin down for nap, train tracks, cars, movie (together- I didn't fall asleep or do laundry like I normally do), Austin up, library, dinner, bath, sleep. I have documented my kitchen after the Kid Centered Day:

I DID manage to do a load of laundry- but it didn't make it past folding.

Aaaaand- I had to still clean all this up after they went to bed. God decided in a way to "bless" this day by having it be the day Doug wasn't coming home until about 11:00pm from a men's conference out at a camp in Sebastopol. So I didn't feel as much pressure to have everything clean when he came home. (Don't worry- he would not be offended by this).

Now, realistically, we can't do all those things every day. Safeway must be visited, and the house must be cleaned, the laundry done. But Tyler was in SUCH a better mood. And so was I. The challenge now is finding the balance between being unselfish for my kids and unselfish for my husband. AND fight off my own selfishness (I mean, who DOESN'T want to take a snooze during Thomas the Tank Engine??) I hope I can continue making time for Tyler in that special way. He hasn't been alone with me really in almost two years. And in two months he'll be heading off to preschool and Austin and I will be alone two days of the week. Which is wonderful and sad and strange all at once. So I guess I better build on this relationship a bit more, huh? Not that the "preschool-ness" behavior will magically end, but it's easier (not easy) to discipline and tell him who's boss when you've filled the emotional tank a bit.

Being a mom is HARD. And worth it.

And maybe someday we'll get a thank you. (I thanked my mom after I went through labor for the first time.)

Trying so very hard....

I was just telling my girlfriends last night that I think that I don't blog much because I don't find it interesting to anybody. Then I realized that Brooke does exactly the same thing (albeit way more often, she is so on it) and I read hers every day... I think HERS is interesting. So here I am again after a long thought out process of whether to keep the blog or not (by the way, I'm still not sure. I'm so fickle). Anyways, things are as well as they can be around these parts. October decided to come really fast and drastically change the weather from 102 degrees to 60 and windy. I hate the wind. (Has anyone else put flannel sheets on their bed yet? Because I'm highly considering it). I do NOT however, hate Halloween. I need to buy the boys' costumes like, yesterday... but dressing up and trick-or-treating is just precious. They have so much fun. So we're looking forward to that.

When it was still warmish outside last week or so, I took the boys outside in our "backyard". Since we decided to not buy a house for awhile, I've been trying REALLY hard to enjoy and appreciate what we do have. Our backyard that we actually own is not a yard at all... it's a storage area with bark and a 5x5 patio. So, we go outside the gate to the other "backyard"... the one we pay HOA to maintain every month??? (yeah i guess we should use it). So I let the boys run on the grass and play with their golf clubs and trucks and get out a little energy. It's a lot of effort because it's not fenced and there is a road right near the grassy knolls... but again, I'm trying really hard here to use and be grateful for what we do have..... see Austin heading for the road? I had already called him back twice at this point. There's a lot of running after children to make sure they live while we are "appreciating". :-)

The kids have a good time, they need an outlet and lets face it, cartoons just don't do it (though Imagination Movers help me to clean the floor). So seeing their little bodies run and run and run just brings joy to my soul and makes the whole thing worth it. Then daddy comes home and tries to fall asleep on the grass. Riiiiiiight. Good luck with that one, honey.

Other things that are fun and new: We went camping at Henry Cowell State Park a couple weeks ago with Mike and Michele. It was so fun and dirty as camping always is. However, Henry Cowell was super close to Santa Cruz, so not only did we go the Boardwalk (even Austin went on a ride by himself, so adorable), but also to the beach, Capitola and Roaring Camp Railroad. It was a nice last bit of summer for us.

Annabelle Lyric Burgess joined us on September 23rd! She is so beautiful and sweet you just want to gobble her up! Andrea and Brandon are doing great as new parents... Little Annie is so blessed to have them as parents. We are all so excited to have finally met her! :)

Tyler tried Brazilian Jiu Jitsu last night for the first time. I didn't get to stay and watch because the studio was all open and Austin thought it was all for him to run around on. So Doug stayed with Tyler and said afterwards he did really well; listened and did what they told him to do (fascinating, isn't it???). But the owner said for attention spans being so short at his age that we might want to wait just a couple months. Ty was the youngest in there so it totally made sense. But it was fun to start thinking about little activities for him to do on his own... big man.

They just keep growing.... and I keep trying to appreciate every moment at this age even amongst the whining, hitting, defiance and pouting. Because (as I like to tell Tyler when he asks "But whhhhhyyyyyyyy???") God put me in charge of them. And what other job would you really want than the one He gives you?