Count Your Blessings

It's been quite a few days since I blogged (again), but now I've got my camera cord and batteries issues sorted out, so hopefully I'll be able to do a little more. Sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy now that Robert is mobile, I'm always having to try and keep one eye on him. He's teething for real now, too! He has one teeny little tooth bud that we can see in his gum when he consents to opening his mouth wide enough. It's been waking him up at night, which means less sleep for everyone. I just need to get some new time management strategies set up, I guess. That's the problem with having a baby, just when you get a routine down, they're in a new phase and everything's up in the air again! Of course, that's what keeps it interesting too, so I probably shouldn't complain too much.

Sometimes I end up feeling overwhelmed, and I just don't know how everybody else seems to manage. Sometimes I wish I had insurance just so I could maybe get onto Adderall and manage my ADD the way my mom does. Maybe then I wouldn't have such a hard time being organized. It's surprisingly easy to let myself get bogged down and depressed if I'm not careful, but I know that's silly. When that happens, it's time to count my blessings, because there are tons of them. I'm very lucky!

First and most importantly is my family! I've got my wonderful husband and beautiful baby. We're all together, we're all healthy. I'm the lucky woman who doesn't need to ask her husband to help around the house or with the baby, and Robert is the lucky baby whose father is present and affectionate and fun. M and I are the very lucky parents whose baby is healthy and on track and uncommonly adorable, to boot! He just gets cuter every day. Beyond that, we have extraordinarily supportive extended families to help us through the rough times and celebrate with us in the good times.

Just after we came back from our travels, I made an incautious move in the kitchen and broke the ceramic insert to my crockpot. Even though I was lucky that the shrapnel, which was very close to Robert and I, didn't hurt anyone, I was devastated because we cook so much of our food in the crockpot, especially in the winter. And at this time of year, we have no extra money to spare, as I've mentioned before. I posted about it on Facebook, mostly to vent, and my family came to the rescue! Not only do I have a new crock pot, I have the warm blanket of remembering that my family and M's family that's my family too now, all of them care about us and are thinking of us when things aren't going smoothly. And the new crockpot is a blessing in itself, I found it on sale at Kitchen Collection in the mall, and it's great! It's got a carry handle that a spoon buckles right into, so on Soup Sundays at church, I can just pick up the whole thing and go. With an eight month old baby, anything that increases our portability is awesome. :D

More blessings! Even though we do not have a lot of money, we still have fabulous opportunities to enrich Robert's life! There's a lot of stuff going on in this area that is great for babies. The other week, Robert and I went to Baby Loves Disco at the mall, a disco party for babies and little kids with a lot of stuff sponsored by various mall stores. We got to dance to the music, and Robert got a little plastic egg-shaped shaker, and a cute orange sock puppet. It was fun, and great exercise! The library has baby reading programs, though we can't go this semester because M needs the car on Tuesday mornings, and it's cool enough to go to the zoo now. Robert loves his baby music class, and it looks like his scholarship may be extended so he can do it in the new year as well! That would be wonderful. It's such a nice time for him to be able to socialize with other babies, and we just couldn't afford it without the scholarship help.

Robert's health is a huge blessing. Even though it bothers me to not be insured, that's nothing compared to how glad I am that Robert's health will at least be taken care of. He's a very healthy little boy, and because we have state aid, we don't have to worry about how we're going to get him his checkups and vaccinations, or about how we can take him to the doctor if he gets sick. The pediatrician practice we go to is really great, and we like all the doctors there. He has his nine month appointment coming up next week, so we will see what the doctor thinks of his crawling and his tooth and his wriggly twenty-pound self! Having WIC has been a major blessing too, and I breathe a little prayer of thanksgiving every time I look at the cost of formula. He's getting three solid meals a day, one fruit, one veggie, and one protein, but he still gets four six-ounce bottles as well. That adds up fast! WIC doesn't cover all the formula costs, but it's a big help.

I am getting healthy too! Weight Watchers is working for me, and for the moment it's even faster than last time. I think the fact is that with all Robert and I do, I get quite a bit of exercise. Now that I'm not eating so aggressively badly, my body has time to burn some of the calories. I worry about our grocery bill, but I'm still trying to combine frugality with eating right, and hopefully I can balance it somewhere in the middle. I want Robert to have a good relationship with food, and that means fixing my own relationship with it first. But I've lost 11 pounds now, and my pants are feeling noticeably looser. I'm looking forward to "shopping in my closet," and getting out all the clothes I haven't been able to wear since before the baby.

Ah, clothes, another blessing! We have a thrift store right around the corner from our house, thank God. They sell baby clothes for fifty cents an item, and now they've got their winter stuff out. I've been putting Robert into pants, and realizing that what was pants on him this spring is shorts now, when it fits at all! He's growing so fast! So yesterday we went out and bought six pairs of pants, a set of overalls, and two shirts for my little guy. They're 12 month sized, so he should be able to wear them all winter, I hope. Sure they're big now, but he's a baby, so it's cute. Looking at the price of new baby clothes, I'm doubly grateful for the thrift store. Sure it's nice to get a brand new outfit for him once in awhile, especially for special occasions, but there's just no reason to shell out that kind of money for clothes he's going to wear for three or four months.

I have lots more blessings to count, but this post is getting long, and I'm already feeling much better. It really is a good exercise to do when you're feeling a little low. Another good trick is actual exercise, so I think I may take Robert and go out and get some exercise endorphins!