Intro

We named our blog “Raising Mustard Seeds” after the famous parable in Matthew’s Gospel. We had some mustard seeds of our own laying dormant in our hearts, and finally, the year before our marriage, we began to let those seeds grow. Our journey with Christ hasn’t always been easy, but it has bore more fruit than we could possibly imagine. And through the mustard seeds He planted in our hearts, He opened them to receive little mustard seeds of our own…

While Jesus in this parable is talking about how faith and our relationship with God should grow from something very small to something mighty and powerful, it’s applicable to our children as well. It is our hope that through prayer and proper parenting, our children will grow from small and helpless (tiny mustard seeds) to being mighty in Christ, so that they will be shining lights in the world and people will come to “dwell in the branches” of their faith.

So, this is our little space in the big internet where we will share our most likely crazy experiences as we start our family and we hope those who are close to us will enjoy laughing at us and with us, and maybe even learn something new :)

Friday, September 6, 2013

10 Peeks into our Busy Week (#2)

1.  PEACHES. Fresh, local peaches from Crawford Farms. I love The Fair Market here in Tyler (Thursdays in the square 4-7 pm) because it's producers only, meaning that you can only sell what you grow, which is not the case for many markets. The peaches were picked THAT morning by the people who are selling them. Delightful. Peaches are literally the best fruit in the world. AND the best part about buying seasonal produce (as in, when peaches are out of season, I will not buy them or eat them) is you get to be excited about things like buying peaches (and they taste 134098235x better). Simple pleasures ahhh.

2. Gianna's cheeks have exploded and we aren't sure why. They are HUGE!

 See?

 Side Note: We are big fans of Sweet Potato, Carrot, and Quinoa Soap

 HAHAHAHAHA 

But seriously, this girl has got some killer eyes!

3. Did that girl just say MAMA?!?!?! Yes, yes she did. She's been babbling "dadadadada" "bababababa" for a while now, and then "bababamamababababa" also. Well on Wednesday, she woke up from her nap and started crying out "MAMAMAMA! MAMA! MAMAMA! MAMA!" At first I was still engrossed in whatever menial task I was trying to finish in the short, glorious span of nap time, but then I realized what she was saying and jumped and went running to her! She was standing up holding on to the crib rails and as soon as she saw me she stopped and smiled. My heart was literally outside my chest. I thought it might be a fluke though. UNTIL. She did it again at 2nd nap. And AGAIN when Chris was putting her down to bed (kept calling MAMA MAMA and looking at the doorway awww).

I'm loving it. Except for how she doesn't want me to leave her room and screams MAMA. Oh sweet Gianna. Please. Go. To. Sleep.



Earlier this week:
  1. "I love you Gianna, have a good nap." (Kiss on head and put down in bed)
  2. Gianna plays until she falls asleep or just turns and falls asleep. If she's being fussy, I'll scratch her legs and head
  3. 1-2 hours later: Gianna is playing in pack n play or crib, I let her play for a few minutes on her own and then naptime is over.
Now that she "speaks":
  1. "I love you Gianna, have a good nap." (Kiss on head and put down in bed)
  2. Gianna plays for .5 seconds and then starts fussing and then screaming MAMAMA MAMA MAMA until I come back.
  3. Scratch until she calms down or pick Gianna up, bounce/sit with her until she's relaxed again.
  4. Repeat steps 1-3 three more times
  5. 30 minutes later: MAMAMA MAMAMA MAMAMA MAMA
le sigh.




4. Crawling update. As I type, Gianna has crawled under the desk and is now seated under the chair. Cute. Unfortunately, giant baby is too big to sit under the chair and will hit her head. Like 5 times. Must remove her from under the seat now for the billionth time today. Also, Gianna is faster now. I can't escape her quite as fast, because she will actually get to the place I went to before she loses interest. Also, we're having some serious attachment issues and she always crawls and stands up on my leg. Which is awesome and cute (for now), except for when I trip over her and almost bust my butt.

5. Home update: Gianna officially now has her a crib and dresser in her room! It's so exciting to get her more settled and unpack all of her clothes and have places to put things. We also put up shelves in the closet and will add one more above her clothes rack. We also did a massive unpack/clean up because Father Braun came over for breakfast this week. It was delightful and there's truly nothing like company coming over to make you speed through some lazy unpacking.


6. Chris and I are going to take a legitimate NFP course so we can understand postpartum fertility at the Cathedral starting this Sunday (we previously just read the book) and I'm pretty excited. I got 2 new books, one for postpartum and the other one was about breastfeeding (the Catholic Church is very supportive of continued breastfeeding for health of the baby and way to space children naturally) and I did a cursory glance through it and noticed an appendix in the back about how to save money and eat healthier. Being the thrifty, Catholic, hippie that I am, it obviously caught my attention and made my heart happy. Some excerpts:
  • Produce in season is often less expensive. Buy asparagus in spring, etc, etc, etc
  • Locate a farmer's market in your area. 
  • Grow your own herbs, vegetables, etc.
  • Buy from bulk food (scoop) bins whenever possible.
  • Consider joining a food co-op
  • Use beans as a meat substitute (amen to that) 
(source: The Art of Breastfeeding by Linda Kracht and Jackie Hilgert)

I know that using NFP was my open door to healthier, cleaner eating, so I loved seeing some of the same principals I live by now (although I'm still just desperately trying to keep herbs alive...no veggies yet LOL) in a book about breastfeeding that's written by NFP people.

7. Gianna pulls up to stand on everything now. She finally figured out the crib and pack n play (I was hoping the mesh would throw her off for at least another week). It's like seriously cute to me, except:
  • when I want her to be napping
  • when it's pitch black in her room at 4 am (then it's just creepy)
 
 My mom bought Gianna her first pair of standing/walking shoes this past weekend at Stride Rite. She's pretty stylin' in her new kicks.



8. Gianna HATES scruff. Chris notices that when he hasn't shaved, she really avoids his face at all costs. My step dad has a beard/mustache and she avoids his faces too. I can really attribute Chris shaving more often to Gianna. Thanks, sweet child! Now I don't have to whine and beg. Bwahaha!

9. Help! Chris and I are pretty sure Gianna is almost at the "I'm aware of what I'm doing when you say no and I do it anyways" age, AKA age of discipline. Anyone know any good behavior/discipline books, in particular those that use the Bible and good sense as the basis? Y'all know my e-mail ;-)

10. Quotes of the week:

Rachel: (blah blah blah maybe our next baby will be calmer blah blah blah...) I'm so sick and tired of hearing how sweet and calm Gianna is
Chris: I wish I carried a pistol on me for people just like that.

At Mass...
Nice old man: She seems like such an easy and well behaved baby!
Chris: *smirk* Just wait.
(10 min later)
Gianna: *screaming* *laughing* *trying to escape captivity (being held)*

LOL. Seriously though. Gianna is sweet. In a non-tradition sort of way. And calm. When she's asleep. So I guess it's not so far from the truth. Love that girl. Wish I could squeeze the noise out of her sometimes, but man oh man, does she keep me laughing and smiling.



Chris and Gianna make an apology video (Chris took my garage door opener and something else that seemed important at the time...)



 




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2 comments:

  1. UnknownSeptember 8, 2013 at 10:28 PM

    Not sure about books, but Pinterest has a few great pins about discipline.
    This one had some great pointers, and a lot of her techniques produce great results, especially redirecting.
    http://hippiehousewife.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/gentle-discipline-for-babies.html

    This one also has some great pointers on establishing boundaries. From my experience with children, they LOVE boundaries. They might rebel against them every once in a while, but they like learning what is kosher and what's not.
    http://www.babble.com/baby/complete-baby-care-guide-newborn/parenting-discipline-baby-care-guide-month-ten/
    I.E. The girls I governessed knew we would not play another game until the first one was cleaned up. I would give them things to work towards as well. "If we clean up early enough, we can get cake pops from Starbucks before we hit the park" (to use all that new gained energy). I started with them later in age than Gianna (Beks was 14 months when I started working for them), but she loves it and is a super cleaner and listener. They also knew that if they cried during their naps for no reason besides being "funny," then we wouldn't get to do whatever fun activity I had planned for afterwards.

    I'll let you know if I hear of any books. Y'all are a whirlwind of activity, and love the updates!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chris and RachelSeptember 17, 2013 at 7:16 AM

      Oh Alex you had me at "hippiehousewife", Excited to look into these!

      I also adore that you used the word "governess".

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