Flanagan Clan

The past week has been very crazy and busy for us. I don’t have half the amount of energy that I normally have, so it’s been taking me so long to get the house clean. Normal tasks like sweeping and washing the floor take a big effort on my part, and require several breaks before the chore is completed. I even find I need to take breaks while cooking a lot more… I just can’t manage to be on my feet all the time. This baby is definitely sucking all the energy out of me!

Sammy hasn’t made things much easier for Mommy lately. He was just starting to creep around the living room when we left for Hawaii, but we came home to find him cruising around the entire downstairs!!! He’s everywhere now, and it’s taking a lot of effort on my part to make sure that we don’t drop anything or track anything into the house that Sammy might try to eat. This is much harder due to the fact that we have Patrick, who is constantly breaking things and dropping things on the floor. Sammy has also discovered the bookcase, thanks to the help of his older brother. He’s been trying to pull things off of it. When Patrick was his age, he was tearing and eating paperback books, so it’s just a matter of time, I think, before Sammy starts doing the same.

In addition, Sammy has been fussy. He’s getting his 5th tooth in, and he’s not been the happiest of little guys. However, he hasn’t figured how to pull himself up yet, and to be honest, I’m hoping that he’ll take his good old time!!! I think he’ll be a little on the late side with learning how to walk, too, but I think I’d rather keep it that way… because once he starts walking, Mommy’s job is going to get MUCH more difficult!

Today I hit 17 weeks with the pregnancy. I need to pull the pregnancy ticker back up to the top… it got buried while we were in Hawaii. For the past 11 weeks or so, I have found myself to have no motivation at all to do any of my cross stitch, sewing or crocheting. For the first two weeks after I found out I was pregnant, I was so busy working on all that stuff, but then the morning sickness started and I lost all motivation. When I was pregnant with both Patrick and Sammy, I really kept myself busy with sewing and cross stitching birth announcements for their rooms. I also had birth announcement cards designed by now, but I’m leaning heavily this time towards just buying some premade cards this time.  I have started a baby cross stitch for this one, but I haven’t gotten very far at all. It’s just been strange… usually I really enjoy doing all that stuff, but I just can’t bring myself to do any of it anymore. Most of the time, I’d much rather pass out on the couch during naptime… getting in any naps is usually pretty rare these days!

One of the things I have been able to accomplish was I was able to finally finish reading a parenting book while we were in Hawaii. It’s called “Don’t Make Me Count To Three” by Ginger Plowman. I would really recommend it. We’ve been struggling with how best to deal with our very willful little Patrick, when and how to spank him, what to expect of him, how to raise him in a Christian home, and so on. The book talks about dealing with heart issues, rather than just the outward actions of a child. We don’t want a child that obeys to avoid punishment, we want a child to obey because he loves God and wants to honor his parents, and this book talked about that a good deal. I will probably go back and reread the book again soon… I’m sure there is much that I missed the first time. I also need to finish reading “Shepherding a Child’s Heart” by Tedd Tripp… it also deals with teaching parents to work on reaching the heart of a child, and not just focusing on the outward actions. I never realized how difficult child rearing would be… and now I just pray that we learn how to be good parents to our children.

Other than that, not too much is new! I’m still just trying to catch up after coming back from our trip. Also, this weekend our neighborhood is having their annual neighborhood garage sale, so I’ve been trying to dig things up to get rid of… it’s been very cathartic to clear out our closets!