A week to remember

    This week was a busy one for sure. I gave my work my two week notice. Let me rephrase that, I gave them my, "I think I'm too large to be jumping, lifting and dancing around with 40-50 toddler for 6 consecutive hours" ...notice. I would love to say that I'm sure I'll be back teaching in June but I just don't know, I've never had two kids before. If I'm breastfeeding, I have NO IDEA how to work and feed, I don't know what my supply will be like, or if baby will take bottles well or anything like that so its hard to know if after a month I'll be able to leave my babe all day. Even typing that out gave me some anxiety. But my boss is fantastic, she's had three boys while working at Musicology so she gets it. I'm grateful for her perspective and understanding as a mother and her willingness to let it bleed into our work environment. I only have 3-4 weeks left and while I'm excited to have my Saturdays back with my family, I'll miss my Musicology kiddos so much!

    I started teaching voice and guitar this week too. I'm freaking out. I haven't taught in at least two years and never with a toddler running around but I figured if I can get Liam used to it before the baby comes, it'll be much easier to help Matix adjust. I have 9 students and room for a couple more but with just my students, working from home, 3 hours a day, 3 days a week, I'm making quite a bit more than I was at Musicology, which makes it difficult for me to see myself going back but we are in save mode so every penny counts, I'm not closing any revenue doors just yet. My students (and thier parents, which is a huge deal) are amazing, some of them have no musical experience which is fun since they are such blank slates but that means that some pose some seriously challenging obstacles...like being tone deaf, left handed guitarists and debilitating shyness. It's going to be very interesting but I'm so excited to be challenged in an area that I have so much passion for! And ALL my students want to be in lessons which makes all the difference. I can tell we're going to have lots of growth, maybe a few tears and some break-throughs' with these kiddos. And working from home has been the best this week, its so nice to know Liams a few feet away sleeping, I can switch over the laundry between lessons, I'm in complete control of the environment my students experience, I can still have dinner on the table around 6 (which I'm proud to announce has happened every night for the past 6 weeks, thank you very much!) and starting lessons again after the baby gets here is going to be so much easier when I know I don't have to leave my babe (or the comfort of my yoga pants). I was so nervous but this week has been better than I could have hoped for, it feels like home.

  Liam is getting really good at reasoning. He uses the words 'because' and 'why' a lot and has started telling us what he remembers, "I remember dat mama' and 'I've never seen dat before' are some of my favorite Liamisms lately. He has definitely been pushing his boundaries more but we've returned the favor and spent some quality time in his room "reasoning" through poor choices and trying to understand the consistency of our consequences. *Side note: Really struggling to find another, more understandable word for 'consequences', any suggestions are welcome.* He's getting it, but not without lots of repetition and the same conversations over and over. I'm loving the way he understands how feelings are connected to choices. When he makes a bad choice, he recognizes that it makes him feel sad (with me prompting him with a question, "how are you feeling") and when he serves others or does something kind for someone he always comes and tells me "how happy dat make dem". He's really starting to understand anger too...which is fun. But hearing him say "I'm so exciged" over and over when he can't wait to do something fun, makes up for any tantrums or fake crying fits that have graced our home lately.

   On Friday two big things happened, 1st, I crafted for the first time in what feels like ages (but really has only been about a year) I made some new burp cloths for baby M and some car seat cooler pads for both my boys. I love being behind my sewing machine. Making things for my home and family makes me so happy. 2nd, Chad and I got a babysitter that we aren't related to for the first time since moving here almost a year ago. This is mainly because we're cheap and we have such wonderful, willing sisters and parents. But we've got the greatest youth in our ward and each week on Sunday we get girls racing from the YW room to the nursery to see who can pick up Liam and bring him to us first after stuffing his pockets with candy. We asked one of our darling beehives to watch Liam and she was AMAZING! We were nervous but she came with coloring books, candy, movies, and crafts! She was just as excited to see Liam and he was to see her! "bye mama, you sit necka me on de couch ok?" He said as we left the door and Shayla sat next to him as ordered. We returned to a clean house, a tired but smiling sitter and a snoozing toddler...well worth the money :) Plus we got a wonderful, fun. "just the two of us" date to Tempe market place!

   Now this may not sound like a victory....frankly because it shouldn't be, but for our family, weekends are rough. Fridays, Chad should be home around 12:30 or 1 because he works over hours all week to get home to us early on the weekends and he never is (he always works over time and I don't know why but its frustrating each week, I guess I just get anxious since Friday is our only day to go out as a family since I'm working all day Saturday.) Each Saturday I come home completely beat,  so my Sundays tend to be a little less then prepared for and I hate that. But this weekend, I prepared all my singing time lessons for the months of March AND April in advance, I planned our meals, arranged for my mom to watch Liam so we could go to the temple early Saturday morning,  and still get me to work on time. Here's the kicker. We woke up on time on Sunday, we didn't forget to fast, and we made it to church on time! Huge deal! Most of the time I'm running around trying to figure out how I'm going to teach a song or trying to throw whatever is in our freezer in the crockpot so we'll have something to eat when we get home! I'm going to blame it on nesting, which is by far, my favorite symptom of pregnancy. So grateful for such a productive week...here's to at least 8 more of those before this babe comes!