Drea Wood

Category Archives: motherhood

Flunky Cook

Written on 10/17/2011 by Dreawood in caleb, motherhood, Owen, struggles, Taite

Last week I cooked up this recipe.

It is off the Crock Pot Girls website and was a top choice of readers apparently. So I figured it be a winner in our house.

Sadly, it wasn’t.

While it wasn’t BAD… our kids wouldn’t touch it sadly :( – not even Owen.

I didn’t mind it, but the chunks of pine apple cooked in a slow cooker just had a strange texture IMO, and the red onion, which are typically a fav. of mine (esp in salad!), were just not appealing in this recipe. The carrots came out to sweet too. So yea, besides the great tasting chicken, rice and teriyaki sauce, I wont be cooking this again.

Sooooo, this is just to let those out there, who may be ladies who fail at a recipe, know they are not alone :)
In fact my neighbor (I’m ~~hoping~~ sure she doesn’t mind my revealing this) messed up a recipe this week too. And if I am super honest, I would confess that I messed up 2 3 this week. This one was HORRID… and these :( – failllll

It may of been something I did :)
Or it may be the recipe was just being a dud.
Possibly my own tastebuds? although on these it was more than just my picky pallet that turned these away.

I am at this point however that I wish I could find like 5 more great meal ideas to feed my family. I have some recipes we love… and my kids eat well, but it gets boring eating the same thing over and over… and like I told Travis the other day “Why bother…” – when he askd me “whats for dinner” – and I just sigh and say “pancakes?”, because if theres one thing my kids love to eat, its pancakes! :) Im sure I am not alone in this battle. We do encourage our kids to try the foods, and we are pretty strict at it… but it is just very unenjoyable for me to have the battle… night… after night… esp. on those nights I try and try.

So when I laid down in bed for a great sunday afternoon nap with Taite… I was watching QVC, something I NEVER DO – and saw a Cook’s Essentials 4 QT Pressure Cooker advertised… and boy did they do their job well. I wanted to order it in like 5 minutes :) – but refrained. I’m curious…

Do any of you ever use a pressure cooker like it?

How do you like it?

It looked amazing!!

This btw isnt a complaining post :) – Im just being honest with a struggle Ive had lately. Not a HUGE struggle. This isnt consuming me :) – but I think its something many moms deal with. So why not talk about it? :)

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All boys?

Written on 07/03/2011 by Dreawood in caleb, motherhood, Owen, scripture, Taite

If only I had a dollar for each time a person asked “All boys?” after seeing me out with our 3. I must say I would have a hefty savings built. I will admit when I was pregnant with Owen I secretly wanted a girl… but from the moment I found out he wasn’t, I could not of been happier.

A friend of mine passed this moms blog onto me yesterday – and I just loved the video she had up…

If you counted all those boys up, there were 7 – :) which means this mom is now pregnant with an 8th! The part I liked best was to see the excitement the other children showed. I think its even funnier how the one boy spoke up before anything was even said, guessing what the news was :)

Large families are a lot of work… and there is no doubt that I wish I had more free time to myself… but you can’t look at that video and not see the blessings this woman has in having 7 boys. It kind of gave me shivers and excitement about our future. Not that I think we will have 8 :) – but just the thought of having a large family and being a testimony and witness to those around us. Children should never be a burden… or a chore. Although there will be moments (been there). It takes sacrifice and lots of prayer… but I would not trade being the mother of 3 boys for any amount of free time or luxury around.

“Sons are a heritage from the Lord,

children a reward from him.

Like arrows in the hands of a warrior

are sons born in one’s youth.

Blessed is the man

whose quiver is full of them.”

- Psalm 127-3-5

& no… this isn’t an announcement that we are pregnant :) – we aren’t. Right now isn’t the most ideal time for us to get pregnant… we got a lot of personal things going on, but we are hopeful for more in the future – boy or girl.

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Tedious

Written on 06/29/2011 by Dreawood in ministry, motherhood, Owen, seasons, struggles, Taite

Today has been one of those days.

You know… the kind where you feel drained.

Like the life is being sucked out of you.

Where you wake up with a blemish of all days.

The type of day where your baby decides to poop in 3 cloth diapers, resulting in endless toilet dunks and diaper rash detail. To add to the never ending task of cleaning up a babies butt, add to that your 4 yr old deciding he forgot how to use a toilet, resulting in lost tempers, tub scrub downs, underwear dips and frustrated disciplining… which in the ends results in a tearful mom who is sorry, hugging her tearful child who is ashamed and confused as to why mommy snapped.

I hate days like this.

Days where you just feel like your entire sane being in rolling down a never ending hill. On weeks that you just have no idea where the Lord wants you… and wish and pray He’d just answer.

Living in a state of limbo is so hard.

… and I am struggling with it.

I know this to shall pass… its the passing part that is the biggest struggle.

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Tongue – Life and Death

Written on 06/20/2011 by Dreawood in caleb, motherhood, Owen, parenting, scripture, Taite

Today I read in a devotional this piece of scripture…

“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”
Proverbs 18:21

I had never really though about this verse in any other way besides “the death” part… and how dangerous our tongues can be. How quickly we can lash out at someone and hurt them by just a few words… how fast we can yell or loose our cool with the kids, moments later regretting what we say.

The tongue is dangerous!
The Word is so clear about this.

But have we ever thought about how powerful the tongue can be and how we can use it for good too?

I love what T. Suzanne Eller says here…

“I wanted to tell him that I remembered when he was a little boy and he offered drive-by kisses as he ran past. I desired to tell him that when I was an exhausted mother to three toddlers his lopsided smile and Kermit the Frog belly laugh made me happy to be a mom.

I longed to tell him that I remembered when he walked behind me, trying to gain my attention with “Mom, Mom, Mama!” I wanted to share that I was sorry when I wasn’t as patient as I should have been.

Most of all I wanted to let him know how proud I was of him as a man and how I saw many of the same beautiful traits of his father emerging in him.

Why do we leave such precious words unsaid? Words that heal. Words that share the way we feel. Words that become treasures one day when words are all that remain.”

This for me was so convicting today.
As I had a rough monday, what is up with mondays?!
I didn’t start my morning right… I didnt ask for the Lord to help me to be patient, and it showed.
I lost my cool with the boys a few times… and spoke to them harshly.

It got me thinking about how often times I sit and think about how proud I am of my kids, yet many times don’t tell them. For example: Caleb is such an incredible big brother to Owen! Seriously… the other day Travis and I were talking about it… and we honestly would trust Caleb totally with Owen. Not that we’d ever leave the house for him to tend to him alone… but lets say I had to step to the rest room for a moment… Caleb I have no doubt would tend to Owen with his life.

So many times Owen will do something that scares him… and he has a genuine fear and concern in his voice towards these situations. He cares for him so much. I should praise Caleb for this more often…

Im so proud of him and thankful that he has a heart to take care of others… Even though he has his moments of aggravation and testing :) – he really is such a sweet child. Why leave those words unsaid?

So as I am speaking to myself, maybe this is encouraging someone else too… to Praise our Children more…

- Devotion snippet from 31 Ministries.

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Dirty Bathroom

Written on 06/17/2011 by Dreawood in caleb, house keeping, motherhood, parenting, Taite

While in the bathroom with my two older boys, I asked them to wash their hands. Caleb had just killed a fly (with his bare hands) and Taite, well, he always needs a good hand washing :) – while in there, Caleb proceeded to tell me with a very disrespectful and ungrateful tone…

“I wish we had a different bathroom.”

I asked him “Why?”

He said “Because ours isn’t clean enough.”

Mind you, the bathroom was not bad, it had been a week since I had cleaned it, but that is because we were out of town… and well, life happens. The flesh in me wanted so badly to lash out at Caleb. His tone was so ugly towards me when he said it… that all I could think of was “You ungrateful child” and I wanted to put him in his place right there, with a sharp sentence and harsh look.

The Lord must of been working in me that very moment though… and instead of lashing out, I said “you know what Caleb… follow me” – I then proceeded to take him to our bedroom, where the computer is – and googled “Dirty Bathroom” – I asked him to shut his eyes, in fear of what images may come up with the word “dirty” in the search phrase… While him and his brother sat there with their eyes shut, I brought up a few various photos of messy toilets and bathtubs…. and then simply asked Caleb “Do you think our bathroom is dirty now?”

He looked at me and shook his head.

I then went even deeper into our conversation and began to talk to him about those who do not have homes… those who have to use the bathroom in a nearby gas station or behind a dumpster. I then googled “homeless children” and showed him and Taite countless photos of children without a home.

A photo of a child holding a blanket over his head for protection … and told them “that is his roof“… he has no home.

I talked to them about how some children don’t have beds…
No toys…
No food…
No TV…
No clean clothes….
and so on.

I stressed how blessed we are… and how we should be so very thankful the Lord has provided us with a home and a working bathroom.

Our conversation went from dirty bathrooms…
to home less, to then the amount of work it takes for me to keep a house clean.

I listed so many things I can’t even remember… I think often times children don’t realize the amount of work their mother does. I know I didn’t as a kid! I spat off so many task I even began to think “wow, how do I keep up” HAHA… its a lot!

Caleb and Taite listened very well… and were pretty much speechless… Caleb had tears welling up in his eyes, I could tell this was hitting him. I then took it to the last step, and told Caleb I wanted him to see how much work it takes to clean a bathroom… and I directed him on how to clean the bath tub and shower, the toilet and counter top/sink area. The entire time he never once complained… and did it with a very humbled attitude…

Afterwards he said “I need to tell Daddy about this.”

So… despite it taking effort to go through all of this with my kids… and the process of showing Caleb to properly clean the bathroom, was tedious and took twice as long as It would had I done it myself… I think the experience and things talked about were something they both needed to really hear.

It also helped me realize that I need to enforce chores more.

Our kids do minimal chores.

Make Beds.
Put Clothes away.
Put dishes up
Clean up toys in their room, the living room and Owens room.
Take out Trash (smaller bags)
Tidy up the School room
Feed the Cat

but that is really about it…

They could do far more!

I would love to find a good chore chart. Anyone have one?

*updated: I made a cute chore chart for the boys. Thanks Kellie for the inspiration :) – These are pdf file so I can open them in photoshop and change the chores from week to week with a click of a button. The “clip art” can also be changed if the boys want that switched up as well.

Also Valerie linked to a good list of chores for kids around age 6… I may tweak this chart a wee bit as the days pass, to see how it works – but for now I think its cute. We will use simple CHECK MARKS or sticks to put in place of it being done.*

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