Our Life As We Know It Now

Well, once again, I feel like I should get the world's worst mother award!  I have failed to take pictures practically the past year, I have failed to blog about the life of my rapidly growing child, and I have failed to keep our blogging faithful hungry for more.  So, my apologizes to my husband, son, and fans!  Haha.  Hopefully this will make up for some of the empty space on our blog.

Lately, we have been up to a lot of nothing.  Sometimes it feels like life is going at lightning speed and you're not actually doing anything.  Weird, huh?  Between business, groceries, cleaning, business, groceries and cleaning, we seem to have very little time for anything else.  I am determined however, to get on a better schedule, especially since we are adding a child to the mix.  I know that when Isaac was a baby, I was a master of schedules.  I function better on a schedule as does Isaac, and my family seems happier when I'm on a schedule.  I suppose that the old adage, "When Momma's not happy, nobody's happy," holds true for my crew.  So, that is my goal.  Isaac is quickly approaching four years old (March 24th), and I am feeling more and more pressure to work towards a more formal home preschool training.  So, I've been working on a "curriculum" that I feel will do what we need it to do.  I'm also trying to find the best time of day for school time too.  And in the midst of all the preschool clutter in my mind, I'm also trying to brush up on my Babywise knowledge getting ready for the new little sleep depriving member of the family!  Isaac was sleeping through the night by 7 weeks old, and I am praying that this next baby will be as easy to train.  We'll see!  I'm just not one of those people who can function without much sleep....unfortunately! 

As for Tim, he just turned 30, and his birthday festivities fell through (lack of planning on my part + really bad luck=bad birthday combination), so I felt bad about that, but I did get him an iPhone for his birthday, and I think he's excited about that.  I know I would be.  He is still working hard towards getting his plumbing license and is working hard every day especially lately with all the frozen/busted pipes!  Cold weather is good for business, that's for sure.  So for about the past 2 weeks, I haven't seen Tim until 7:00 at night.  He's been working about 12 hours a day, but the nice thing is that sometimes business is slow so he can hang out at home more.  It just varies. 

On a domestic note, I am obsessed with this cookbook, "Pioneer Woman Cooks" by Ree Drummond.  Oh my goodness, the butter!  I have found a new love for cooking through this cookbook.  I have made everything from steak sandwiches to chocolate sheet cakes, each being oh so inticing and yummy and oh so very bad for you.  The book itself has caused me to have a strong desire to live out in the middle of nowhere on a cattle ranch.  I have decided that cattle ranching is my calling.  Actually, let me change this...being the wife of a cattle rancher is my calling.  Hold on, actually, being the wife of a leisure cattle rancher is my calling...yeah I think that's more it. 

Well, you probably know this, but we found out that we are having a girl.  Now, I have to admit that I was secretly hoping for a little girl.  I just need a little girl to dress up.  I like hair bows way too much to have all boys.  Now, don't get me wrong, Isaac is perfect and I love my boy.  I even love the tracked-in-mud, the dirty face, the rough and tumble attitude, and my favorite...the "Mom, you're my best girl."  But, I am thrilled to have a little girl on the way.  Let me let you in on my vision of this little girl.  She's going to be girly, because you can't live with me and not be in touch with the feminine side.  Even Isaac has his opinions on colors of purses and shirts.  So, she'll be girly.  But, she'll also live with Tim and Isaac, so she certainly won't be afraid of a little mud.  She'll be right out there with them riding on the four-wheeler, stepping in mud puddles, and digging up dirt.  I picture her with a pair of rubber boots decorated with ladybugs.  We'll see.  I can't wait to meet her.  I think she's going to be fantastic.

As for Isaac's view of this new addition to the family, he is SO excited.  From the beginning, he has INSISTED that  he was having a sister.  So much so, that I was worried that if it turned out to be a boy, he would not be happy.  So, we were overjoyed when we found out that it was a sister.  He has given her a nickname already, which I'm afraid that he feels will be her name...we'll have to work on that.  He calls her "Sam-I-Am".  Anyone familiar with children's literature probably knows that this is from the world-famous Dr. Seuss book, Green Eggs and Ham.  He is so excited about buying things for his little sister, and he already has strong opinions about what she'll look good in.  It's very cute.  Very cute.  More than anything, I want a strong bond between Isaac and his sister, and I think that right now is a really important time for that, so we spend a lot of time talking about his new sister.  He spends a lot of time driving all over my belly.  Now, this reminds me of my sister, who used to drive cars on my bald head.  I'm thinking that Isaac may have the same thing going there.  I'm okay with that though.  The hours of Hot Wheels going over my head was hours of bonding between my sister and I.  Isaac has also started having a lot of sympathy pains for me.  For example, he has to sit down often because his "back hurts real bad" or because he's just "too tired to play right now."  I think it's hilarious, but it's also a wake up call for me, because I always know when I've been too complainy and not fun enough...because he'll start taking on my ailments!  It's too funny.

That's most of what's going on in the Wood family right now.  I will try to keep you more posted, but I'm not making promises.  Hopefully life will slow down enough to document it...we'll see!