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Wednesday, 09 June 2010

  • Summer Time

    It has been so long since I've blogged that Xanga changed their format!  happy

     

    Anyhow, I finally am at a phase in my life where i am starting to have some free time again.  Woohoo!!!!  The whole reason for this blog was to chronicle our lives because I have such a terrible memory so I am going to attempt to go back to doing that again.  

    I am doing great!  I am loving being a mom of two.  Some days are more stressful than others but I feel like after 10 months I have finally really adjusted.  I don't feel on the edge of an emotional or physical meltdown anymore.  I only clean houses one day a week and have been enjoying spending time with friends and family on the other days.  We just finished up a big backyard project.  We had our old deck torn down and a new one built, an above ground pool put in and we fenced in our yard.  The pool has been enjoyable and it is awesome to be able to let Isaac run around the back yard and just play and go wherever he wants.  

    Managing the cafe at church is going well.  God has blessed with sending along many people who pitch in and help and although it can be time consuming during the week it isn't so much on Sundays anymore.  I am actually able to attend our Equip Bible classes and a service and worship God.  I am so thankful for that!

    Adam is doing well.  He is back at work doing what he is familiar with and seems to really be enjoying it.  I am really proud of him and the way he is jumping into his job and helping the company out as much as he can.  One thing that is nice is they are allowing him to bring some work home so after the kids go to bed he sits at our dining room table and does some work.  I am so thankful for that because it allows him to come home at reasonable hours, spend some time with the kids yet get in some OT!  He is working now on balancing out his priorities and I am also proud of him for that.  For awhile he was stretching himself so thin and it really affected our marriage and our family.  Sometimes though it is just so hard to say no.   We have had a couple chances to have some date days...some friends/family got married so we were able to thoroughly enjoy being with each other with no kids for quite a few hours.  That was heavenly and always ended way to soon!  :)

    Isaac is growing and getting so much smarter every day!  He has such a cute personality.  One of the things I am the most proud of him for is his ability to encourage others.  Even at the age of 2 he will say to others, "you can do it!" or "good job" or "go, daddy!".  Or my favorite, "I'm so proud of you!"  I pray that that is something that is always a part of him.  Eating has gotten much better with him.  Sometimes mealtimes would be challenging but we worked on that and he  has really improved lately.  He absolutely adores his sister!  He can make her laugh like no one else and i really do believe that he is her favorite.  He has expanded his love of toys/Disney cars to Diego, Dora, Kai-lan, Thomas, trains.....I am thankful for that.   I personally was getting a little tired of the whole car theme.

    He loves going to church and loves his classes.  I am constantly amazed at how quickly he picks up his Bible songs.  He will often sing "Jesus Loves Me", "Zaccheus", or even "I'm In The Lord's Army".  It is soo precious.  One time we pulled into the parking lot at church and Addie was crying in her car seat and Isaac says, "Be happy, Addie-girl!  We are at church!  Don't be sad!"  

    He has gotten better about sleeping through the night but often wakes up about 5am and crawls into bed with us.  Wouldn't be so bad if he didn't beat us up in his sleep!  LOL!  

    Addie girls has made alot of progress.  I can't believe my baby girl is almost 11 months old.  She is definitely a little behind Isaac as far as growth accomplishments but as my SIL once reminded me....teens don't talk about at what age they started crawling or cutting teeth or walking!  She started scooching around 9 months, started crawling around 10.  Doesn't really pull herself up to a standing position yet.  Although last night in the middle of the night I went in b/c she was screaming for awhile at 4am and she was standing in her crib.  But, that is not usual.  She is still learning how to eat cheerios.  Refuses to eat anything that is not 100% pureed and watered down.  We had to go to bottles and formula around 9 months.  That was hard on both of us but we both adjusted just fine.  Around 9 months she also started sleeping from 7pm to 6am.  Lately though she has been getting up about 5am for a bottle.  YUCK!  She can handle the step in our dining room just fine.  That one surprised me!  She's a little peanut but a tough cookie.

    Well, I am going to have to cut this short.  She has woken up from her afternoon nap and crying for her bottle. Being a mother never ends!  happy 

Wednesday, 14 April 2010

  • We have weathered our storm.....

    and our seas are still!

    Exactly one week after my last post Adam was unexpectedly laid off from his job. Initially fear and panic overtook both of us when our news was fresh. Adam came home and the first thing we did was get down on our knees and talk to our Heavenly Father. Our Creator, Sustainer, Provider, Comforter, Healer, Father and Friend proved Himself to us day in and day out while Adam was without a job. We came to know Him in so many new, different and exciting ways. We had never been in a financial position where we truly needed to rely on God so strongly!

    Literally from the day Adam was laid off God started proving to us that if he is going to take care of the sparrows oh! how much more he was going to take care of the Congdon family!

    He provided for us in small and big ways! Numerous cleaning jobs came my way to help us out, friends graciously brought us food or gift certificates for groceries, he even took our normal 6 month car insurance bill from $1058 and reduced it down to $411!!!!!!

    The best encouragement I received was from my dad. When he heard the news he texted me and said, "Weather your storm until your seas are still!" WOW! That helped me countless times. Growing up I heard from my Pastor, "Never doubt in the dark what God has shown you in the light!".

    There were days when one of us would be "in the dark" but God made sure it was never both of us on the same day or same time.


    How true is Ecclesiastes 4:9-10: "Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up."

    And now our seas are still. Adam is in the 2nd week of his new job. Praise God!

    My first choice would NEVER have been for Adam to lose his job but I am SO VERY THANKFUL for the last 2 months of our lives. I have seen God in a way I have never seen Him before. I am so much more in love with Him then I was 2 months ago, I trust Him more than I did 2 months ago! Because of the last two months I have a relationship with my Heavenly Father that I couldn't have had 2 months ago.

    My God has promised to never leave me nor forsake me. He never left us or forsook us for even one second!


    He promises to never give us more than I can handle. He gave me just the right amount of strength I needed for every day!


    He promised to meet ALL my needs. Not only did He meet ALL my needs and my family's needs but He gave us so many of our WANTS!


    He promised that He works ALL things for good. Even though Adam took a pay cut with his new job we are even more financially secure today than we were two months ago.

    THAT is MY God!!!!!!

Friday, 22 January 2010

  • TGIF!

    Today has been a great day!  It is nearing the end of a great week!  :)

    Addie seems to finally be getting to a point with her feedings that I am very happy with!  She goes almost 4 hours in between feedings and two nights in a row now has cut out her late night (10ish) feeding.  Sometimes staying up for that feeding for me has been tough!  So now her basic schedule is a morning and evening feeding with breakfast, lunch and dinner in between.  I feel so much more freedom with so much time in between her feedings.  Isaac never went more than 3 hours in between feedings.

    Today I discovered that it was good to break myself in to grocery shopping with a 2 yr old and a 5 month old by going for my first time on the Friday before Christmas at 4pm.  That was a zoo!  Today I went at 9am and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was.  Our first store, Wegmans was fun for Isaac because they have a truck at the end of the cart for little ones to sit in and "drive" around in.  He loved it and was so good.  I buckled him in this time and it was great!  No more falling out of the truck on purpose to run to a shelf to pull something off it he thought he needed to have.  I realize I should have done that the first time but I was so extremely overwhelmed I didn't even realize the belt until I took him out!  But he didn't complain one time or ask to get out.

    Then we went to our next store, Aldi.  Aldi's is much smaller so they don't have fun shopping carts so Isaac needed to walk.  It was his first time walking on his own in a store.  Normally he rides in the cart or holds daddy's hand.  He was soooo stinkin' cute.  Walking around, following me, sometimes getting a little ahead of me.  He was very content to hold his box of cereal and show it to fellow shoppers.  When the people came out with boxes piled high on cars to stock shelves he would automatically come and stand by my legs or the cart and just watch them go by.  I was sooo pleased with how well behaved he was.

    Then we came home, unpacked all the groceries, gave Isaac a bath, fed him and then Addie, watched Disney's new train cartoon, Chuggington and then both of them went down for a nap around 2.  My house is straightened, all my cafe stuff is in a pile downstairs ready to get packed in the van tonight to be taken to the cafe tomorrow to be unloaded.  I am sooo excited.  Today the cooler was delivered.  Oh, and then I showered and paid bills and balanced the checking account.  I really need to give the house a good clean through and keep working on my laundry (2 loads done so far) but I remembered how it does me good to sit and rest and so that is why I am blogging.  It is my rest!  Although, I am going to leave you now to go spend some quiet time with God while my munchkins are sleeping!

Tuesday, 19 January 2010

  • Taste and See

    On my wedding day my brother Phil gave a beautiful message on love and salvation and he used the verse from Psalm 34:8 that say "O taste and see that the Lord is good."  And I have to say, I have tasted and seen that my Lord IS good. 

    Addie is almost 6 months old.  I have to admit that I did not think that having two little ones was going to be as hard as it is for me.  I have had a rough time adjusting to my new life.  It has taken an emotional and mental toll on me.   I am sure it doesn't help that our new church building is weeks away from completion and with Adam on the building committee and myself helping with our new Equip (Sunday School) hour and getting the cafe up and running our life has been busier than normal.

    Every other week I have a wonderful group of friends that meet in our Mops group.  This past week we watched a DVD from Mops that talked about bridging Planet Me and Planet Mom.  In the video Planet Me was life before kids and Planet Mom life after kids.  For me though, while watching the video, Planet Me was life with one child.

    I am very schedule oriented.  I work very well with a to-do list and for the most part have good time management.  So, when it was just the three of us I had easily settled into our routine.  Isaac slept 12 hours at a time from 3 months old and was a very easy and happy baby.  I never felt like I needed to adjust to having a child.  I felt like I was made to be a mom and loved every minute of it!  Adam and I had plenty of alone time together and with Adam's involvement in different ministries at church I also had alot of time to myself.  Also, taking one kid with you to go shopping or run errands is easy-peasy!  :)

    Then things starting picking up, I started helping out with planning our new Equip hour (to start in the new building) and I started things with the cafe.  THEN my beautiful and precious daughter arrived on July 30th.  My first 2 weeks were awesome.  I felt like being a mom of two was WONDERFUL.  I have to say I was floating on cloud 9.  Then I became pretty sick for a few weeks and then things with the new church building started really getting busy.

    I constantly felt like I was taking 1 step forward, 2 steps back.  Addie didn't sleep through the night at 3 months, or 4 months or even 5 months.  Her longest stretch would be maybe 5 hours.  Compared to the 12 I thought she should be sleeping since that was what Isaac did I was devastated.  I was worn out from the constant extreme exhaustion.

    I started thinking after a few months that something was wrong with me.  Taking care of my kids was great.  Being my husbands help meet was wonderful.  Managing my house and keeping it tidy was enjoyable.  I even loved everything I was doing for the cafe and Equip.  I even joined Weight Watchers and met my WW goal of my wedding day weight.  Put everything together though and I was miserable!  I was mentally and emotionally run down.   I only have two kids and yes I have a busy life but so does every one else and LOTS of moms have more than 2 kids!  I felt like a wimp.  I didn't understand why I wasn't happy, why I cried so often or would snap so easily at my poor husband.  I felt like I was changing and turning into a woman that I didn't like and knew that God wasn't pleased with.

    I would often struggle with thoughts of...Did my husband ever regret marrying me?  Did he wish for his old wife back?  He never EVER gave me that impression.  In fact, quite the opposite, he was always helpful and supportive.  And then that made it even worse when I would resent him for getting a full night of sleep while I got up and out of bed every hour because one of my children was crying.  It got to the point where when he would get out of the shower in the morning and come out to the living room to see me and he would tread cautiously because he didn't know if I would give him a happy and loving good morning or if I would just growl at him.

    Then on Friday I watched this Mops DVD.  And it encouraged moms to become a blend of who they were on Planet "Me" and who they are now on Planet "Mom".  I watched the DVD and became very emotional.  It was embarrassing!  I left Mops and called Adam and told him that I would love him to watch the DVD because it put to words so much of what I had been feeling the past 6 months.  Of course my loving husband quickly agreed and that night he made sure we watched it together.  I sobbed this time.  (See what I mean?) and I was able to pour my heart out to him and finally put into words what had been building up inside of me for the past 6 months.  We realized that all I needed to help settle everything was just some "me" time every once in awhile. 

    I had had thoughts of that in the past but would feel so guilty and simply push them back down.  Taking time for myself was out of the question.  This was my new job.  This was my new life.  Thankfully though Adam seemed to completely understand and even agree.  A few hours of "me" time one night a week would be inserted into our schedule come February.  (Our new building opens on Feb 7th.) There wasn't anything wrong with me!!  I just wasn't taking care of myself the best way I should have!  Even God rested on the 7th day!  :)  Momma's need their rest too!

    I am so thankful for a loving husband who cares about me and helping me be the best mom and wife I can be!

    THEN this past Monday I was finally able to let go of a terrible fear I have had for 18 years and lay it at the feet of Jesus. 

    When I was 16 my cousin died from leukemia.  From the time he was diagnosed til the time he died was 9 months.   He and I were 4 weeks apart.  He also had a sister.  And she was 2 years younger than me.  I always felt awful that she was left alone with no siblings after he passed away and I suddenly had a terrible terrible fear of having only 2 children and God taking one of them.  My husband always wanted 2 children and I wanted 4 so we "compromised' at 3.  (of course, sometimes God has other plans!)  The past 6 months it has often come up between us as to how many more children do we have?  I have clung ever so tightly to my fear.  In fact, it has compounded and became worse because in my emotional struggles over the past 6 months I often felt like I could not handle having any more physically but emotionally I was terrified to have only two.

    I have been praying about this and yesterday during my quiet time with God I was able to finally bring this fear to Him and leave it with Him, placing my trust completely in Him.  I didn't plan for that to happen.  I wasn't even really praying about that fear.  But, a man from my old church passed away on Saturday due to ALS and that same day I found out that another friend of mine had a miscarriage (That was my 3rd friend in a month that I found out had miscarried).  I was sad Saturday and Sunday and Monday morning while I was talking to God I was talking to Him about the pain of losing your loved ones.  I started thinking about how God used that man from my old church through his ALS.  I then started praying for my children and I always pray for their desire to obey, their desire to know God and follow Him all the days of their life and also their character.  I pray that God will use my children for His glory and to impact others for Him.

    When, it hit me like a ton of bricks.  I just sat there.  That man from my church brought God glory through his illness.  He and his family had an amazing testimony from the time he was diagnosed with his disease to even now.  I often pray for my childrens lives to bring glory to God.  I hope that no one reading this misunderstands what I am about to say.  But, I realized that maybe a day will come where my children would bring God more glory in their death and impact more people through that then their life.  Ultimately, it came down to faith and trust that my God will never make a mistake.  I just sat there with the tears streaming down my face.  It took me a very long time to get out the words to God that He would use my children for His glory whether in life or death.  I then told Him he would need to give me the strength to bear it.  And when I was done, my fear was gone.  I felt 100lbs lighter.  I had no idea how much that fear had been controlling me.

    Now, make no mistake about it!  I do NOT want God to take my children.  That is not the point here.  I pray that my children far outlive me!  I want to see them grow up and their children grow up and I want to be a part of their life for a long long LONG time!  I am constantly amazed at the love I have for my children and how much that love multiplies on a daily basis.  I am thankful though that I have a God that proves His faithfulness to me time and time again.  He is a God I can love and that I can trust with my life, my husbands life and my childrens lives. 

    In the past few days I have had a short burden (life with two kids) and a long burden (My fear of having only 2 children and God taking 1) lifted and I can't tell you how much better I feel.  I feel genuinely and sincerely happy for the first time in 9 months.  It is amazing how something so "little", FAITH, can be so freeing!

Tuesday, 05 January 2010

  • So..

    I just went back and re-read blog entries from when Isaac was 5 months old.  Now I wish i was more diligent in chronicling Addie's little life!  It is amazing how much you forget!  Oh well!  :)  I will attempt to do better!

CongdonFamily

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    • Name: Jenn
    • Gender: Female
    • Member Since: 1/7/2008

About Me

  • I love being a wife and a mom. I have everything I have ever wanted in life and consider myself so blessed. I have a God who has forgiven me of all my sins. I have a husband who adore me and loves me unconditionally. I have the cutest little boy ever and he makes me laugh all the time. I love my church and the way my Pastor's messages encourage me to become more Christ-like or understand the Bible better. I have an amazing group of wonderful friends and family that always support me. I have no need of anything! Praise the Lord! :)

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