The One With a Little BIt of Everything

Ok so here I am after a month and a half break from blogging:)  I guess my total of 5 blogs I have written just wore me out;)  The truth is I don't think I am that interesting of a person so sometimes I have a hard time seeing the point in writing random pointless blogs.  However I did enjoy writing the few I have so I am going to keep it up and have set a "resolution" to do a few a month haha.

So here is a quick update..  We had a great busy December with lots of family time on both sides of the family.  T and O baby got plenty spoiled for their first Christmas home (O babies first Christmas too!).  They got more toys than we know what to do with and their birthdays are next month so geez not sure what else they could possibly get but I'm sure our families will figure something out:)  We had 3 different family get togethers.  With lots of food and goodies.  The day after Thanksgiving we went and saw the movie Frozen which is now an absolute favorite in this house!  We even bought the soundtrack and you can heat T singing "Let it Go" or some other song from the movie pretty much on a daily basis.  She has now seen the move 4 times!!  Also the day after Thanksgiving we went to see Disney On Ice thanks to the kids's Grandpa A!  That was an amazing experience.  The awe and wonder in the eyes of my two favorite toddler girls (T's cousin only 3 months younger) was incredible and so much fun to experience it with them.  I wore a crown and T wore her Tinkerbell costume.  O baby was boring and didn't dress up..  What a square:p  Another exciting even for the kids was playing in the snow!  Tessa loves the snow and gets so excited.  Too bad for her I was meant to live in the South and while the snow is pretty to look at I can't stand the stuff...   Too cold and it interferes with everything.  Christmas day T was surprised with her Aunt R coming home from Savannah (to stay!).  She was beyond excited because her and R have quite the bond over their love of dancing and Justin Bieber..  Yes that is right, my almost 3 year old loves Justin Bieber... And I don't even know if I spelled his name right but oh well.  We stayed in a hotel Christmas night and T and O got to do some swimming which was lots of fun!

So it has been a pretty wonderful experience being back home around family.  Still adjusting to Civilian world though A is guard now so we aren't 100% civilian.  Living out in the country has made me a bit of hermit and we don't live super close to family which kind of stinks but we really love the country.  I am totally enjoying getting into natural living..  Thanks to Norwex and my newest obsession of Doterra oils we don't have much left in the form of harmful chemicals in the house.  Which is very refreshing!  Oh and I am doing a whole 30!  So I am only eating whole real foods and I feel great!  I'm on day 17 right now and it is going so well.  It helps I am doing it with a few friends so that support is extra helpful.  I'll probably do a post with my results and all about the whole 30 once I am finished but for now I'll just say its going great:)

I am just going to vent about the winter for a second...  So yesterday my sister-in-law and I had tickets to see Jason Aldean, Florida Georgia Line and Tyler Farr.  I like all 3 and we had 2nd row seats!!!!  We left 3 1/2 hours before the concert started and had planned on getting dinner before hand.  When we both left our houses 45 min away it was clear and sunny...  Well 15 minutes into the drive we could barely see the road!  Then we got stuck on the interstate behind and accident for 45 minutes and rerouted through another town that was out of the way and once we got through that town we were stuck on the same road for 90 minutes.  In that whole 90 minutes we made it 4 blocks!  We are not sure what the hold up on that road was or why we didn't seem to be moving.  We are guessing because of the ice there were just too many cars getting stuck.  We got stuck on a little hill and in a parking lot but managed to get through.  So we gave up on the concert all together because there was no way we would make it in time to hear more than a few songs..  So we went and got dinner and went home.  In total we spent 5 1/2 hours in the car..  So yes I am bitter and frustrated about that but I will just breathe and move on cause what can you do??  We tried to find the silver lining(but we couldn't).  My SIL even had the idea to stand outside and hand out food from the dollar menu to those stuck in traffic but it was freezing and we are smart girls who didn't even have gloves on us;)

Alright well I am off to enjoy some free time since A took the kids to play with their cousins.  I already got some tv watching, working out and a blog in!  Woo go me:)  Now for a shower and some lunch yummy whole 30 grub!  I promise my next post will be in a less than a month and a half:)

Oh and I worked out and wrote my blog to some awesome 90's music which can sure put me in a good mood!  Right now it is Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls.  The memories these songs bring back are just amazing...  I love how music does that to you..  That could make a whole new blog post so I'll end it there:) 

The one about bonding.

Last week I read an article about Kristen Bell and how she did not feel bonded with her daughter till after she was born.  Many people were shocked by this and thought it was very "controversial".  In case you don't know who Kristen Bell is she is an actress who has starred in many movies (one of my favorites is Couples Retreat) and was also the star of the TV show Veronica Mars.

"I love people the more I know them, and I didn't know her. It could've been a water bottle in my belly, that's about how connected I felt to her during my pregnancy ... But within about 24 hours after she came out, my hormones reset, and they reprogrammed my feelings about her."

"I kept saying to Dax in all sincerity during my pregnancy, "I just don't know how I'm going to like her as much as I like the dogs." I was being serious ... Because I f--king love my dogs; they are my children."

I can see why people were shocked by what she said.  Not because there is anything wrong with what she said though.  Just that she was honest about her feelings.  Many people picture pregnancy as this big glowing beautiful thing but for some this isn't the case.  The circumstances around how you became pregnant can affect your feelings and how uncomfortable you are while pregnant can also affect the bonding experience.


I have two children and two different bonding experiences.  My daughter T baby was one of those glowing beautiful pregnancies from day one.  As soon as I found out I was pregnant I was in love and couldn't wait to meet my child.  Every day was filled with thoughts of my unborn child and planning for her to enter our lives.  Having a child had been a dream of mine for many years.  I couldn't wait to be a mother.  A and I did not expect to have troubles getting pregnant but sure enough the months turned into years and finally at almost three years we were able to conceive!  I can't even go into how much it sucks to not get pregnant when you are trying.  It just plain sucks!  Not something someone can understand unless they have been through it.  So when I finally got pregnant you can imagine how blessed we felt.  We were so happy and excited!  We couldn't wait.  I researched everything like crazy from diapers to cribs.  I researched and dreamed about my plans of a natural birth.  I couldn't wait.  My pregnancy was also very easy.  I never had any major complications and was pretty comfortable (until the last few weeks because I was huge).  So with only the minor discomforts of pregnancy and then a very fast/intense labor, I couldn't really complain.  So by the time I got to hold T baby in my arms there was nothing but complete awe and the bond was already there. 

With O baby however things were a bit different..  Since T took a while to conceive we were very surprised when we got pregnant with number two in a just a matter of months.  T baby was only about 15 months old.  The first few weeks weren't so bad.  However already from the beginning I didn't have time to just sit and day dream about my new baby I was carrying.  I had a busy little toddler to take care of!  Boy did she keep me distracted from thoughts of my pregnancy!  Then of course the all day nausea kicked in and while it wasn't much different than my last pregnancy it was MUCH harder to deal with when you have another human being to take care of!  I was exhausted and so thankful I could nap with T baby pretty often.  Kudos to the moms who work outside the home!  In my first pregnancy I suffered from SPD (early release of the hormone relaxin which causes your pelvic joints to loosen as they would for child birth) but it didn't start till 34 weeks and was only really bad for about one week.  Well second pregnancy it started at about 16 weeks!  While it wasn't as intense as it was during that one week of pregnancy it still hurt and it didn't go away until I gave birth!  Just rolling over in bed was painful! No fun for sure.  The bond didn't happen right away with O baby..  I was so distracted by the discomfort and the toddler it was hard to realize there was a new beautiful baby growing inside of me.  I of course loved him but I just didn't feel much for him honestly.  We had a scare around 14 weeks when the midwife didn't hear the heart beat.  I cried because I felt so guilty that I hadn't felt more bonded with the baby..  I thought we had lost him..  They sent me for an u/s and it was such a relief to see that fast little heart beat and the squirmy little BOY!  Yes we found out very early he was a he:) 

Finding out the baby was a boy did help with making the pregnancy feel more real which actually added to my anxiety a bit.  How in the world could I handle two kids!!  I started to feel very unprepared which then added to the lack of bonding.  The bond honestly didn't really happen with O baby till he was about a week old and we finally had established breastfeeding.  I had thought breastfeeding would come pretty easily since I had only stopped breastfeeding about 5 months before but that wasn't the case.  It definitely got figured out much quicker and once I healed and we had it down the bonding began.  Now I just adore that baby boy!  He is so wrapped up in my heart words can't even express it! 

So I am glad the lovely Kristen Bell spoke out honestly about her feelings.  Mothers need to be honest and not feel bad and keep these things inside.  I think holding them in is what can cause mothers to become so depressed.  They get scared of their own feelings and question their ability to be a mother.  Instead lets all be honest and help these other mothers out:)  When did you bond with your baby? 

And for the record bonding with your baby is not the same as loving your child.  At least I don't think so.  I loved O baby very much I just didn't feel that connection like he was really mine.  If that makes sense. 

The one about sleeping babies.

Last night after O baby had already gone to bed and we were winding down in the living room I held T baby in my arms and cuddled her on the couch.  She quickly fell asleep in my arms and I couldn't help but just stare at her.  My daughter is beautiful...  During the day it is hard for me to think of her as beautiful when she is sticky with food, throwing tantrums or fits,  screaming or whining for something, making so many messes and being absolutely silly.  During the day she is my silly rambunctious toddler..  Often times getting in trouble or testing my patience in some way.  Last night though when she was sleeping in my arms so quiet and peaceful I got to just look at her and take in her beauty...  Her beautiful blonde hair, her long dark eye lashes,  her pink little lips, and her cute little nose.  Her face is so symmetrical and perfect.  She looks so sweet when she is sleeping and so peaceful.  It is those moments where I am reminded of her as a baby.  Those moments are when I get flash backs to certain points in her short little history.  Her first smile, the first time she rolled over, the first time she laughed, when she crawled, when she took her first steps and so many more little memories can come back to me.  After I snuggled her and kissed her cheek (and she even smiled in her sleep) I scooped her up in my arms to take her to her bed.  I put her blankets over her and shut her door.  I was thankful for that moment and the memories it gave me.

Not much later as I was going to bed O baby woke up..  I quickly went to get him because I didn't want him to wake his sister up since they share a room now.  I decided since I was going to bed anyway I would just bring him with me.  We nurse in the night so this works out quite well for us.  After he finished nursing he fell asleep in my arms and I got to snuggle my second baby..  He looks so much like T baby did when she was little..  He drapes his little arm over me and makes the cutest little snore sounds.  He is also very beautiful..  However he isn't quite as busy as the toddler is during the day so I catch him looking beautiful many times throughout the day.  While looking at him and how beautiful he is I tell myself to really hold onto the moment because one day he will be that busy toddler..  One day he will scream and throw tantrums when he doesn't get his way.  One day he will get in trouble (a lot).  One day he will drive me crazy and I will have to wait for him to be asleep to be reminded of his beauty.  So I kiss his head and snuggle him and fall asleep with him in my arms.  Anytime he wakes up in the night I try to remind myself of this and give the top of his head a kiss while he is nursing.. 

Earlier yesterday I had a play date at my house and I felt the little pangs of jealousy as other mothers discussed how their children sleep through the night or go to sleep on their own.  Sometimes I wish my children would do that.  T baby sleeps through the night now that she is older but sometimes will wake up and come into bed with us.  We do cuddle her till she falls asleep for the night as well.  O baby still nurses anywhere from two to four times a night so I am pretty tired when they both wake up bright and early in the morning (thankful for a husband who understands this and lets me sleep in when he can). Sometimes I wish it wasn't so much work to get my children to sleep or I wish I could get some actual sleep through the night.  T baby was the same way so I am very used to being up in the night with my children.  I don't do cry it out.  If my children cry I go to them.  I am not a fan of cry it out.  I tried it once when T baby was younger and it broke my heart.  I decided the fact that it was hurting me so much to do was a sign that I shouldn't be doing it.  Now if it were a simple let them fuss for a bit and they would go to sleep that would be different.  They wouldn't do that though..  Well I am just guessing O would be like T and get so worked up he could hardly breathe.  Maybe some children can handle it but mine just get too worked up.

Last night as I was staring at my beautiful children I reminded myself that this is just one season of my life.  This season will not last long either..  It will be short in the grand scheme of things.  So instead of getting jealous of mothers who get to sleep through the night or just leave their kids in their room when its time for bed I will be happy that I get these precious extra moments with my children.  I get to feel them fall asleep in my arms.  I get to stare at them while they sleep.  I get to admire their beauty and peacefulness.  One day my children wont want me to cuddle them to sleep..  One day they wont even live at home.  One day they could be very far away from me.  When that happens I will miss these moments but be glad that I have these moments to miss.  I wont regret cuddling my children to sleep at night.  I wont regret that for a few years of my life I didn't get as much sleep as I would have liked.  So for now I will just enjoy these moments and when others talk about how I should let them cry or how they should be sleeping in their own beds or through the night I will nod my head and smile but I wont change how we do things because I want to have these moments to remember one day.

So if you are like me and sometimes feel that jealousy of others who actually get to sleep just remind yourself how short this time of your life is.  Remind yourself that one day you wont have children in the house and then you can sleep as much as you like.  For now just enjoy your special moments with your children and remember some day they will be precious memories:)

The one about the hoarder.

Ok, ok... Maybe hoarder would be an extreme term for me.  Maybe pack rat or sentimental fool would fit a little better:)  Whatever you want to call it I tend to have a problem getting rid of things..  It started pretty young because I can find the silliest little things in my jewelry box that I am sure I was given (or found) before I was even a teenager.  Or actually jewelry boxes..Anybody else seem to get a lot of jewelry boxes from aunts as gifts when they were younger??

More recently I do have a somewhat valid reason for holding onto things.  I can't speak for that younger Gracia..  Who knows what she was thinking..  A few years ago one of my best friends passed away in a car accident.  I had a very hard time dealing with her death and soon anything I had of hers was more precious to me than any treasure in the world.  If something even so much reminded me of her I could not get rid of it.  She had drawn me this picture once and I remember it well because we were in my old room at my parents house and I had joked with her that the pattern it made looked like a drawing of a woman's reproductive system (hey I'm weird don't judge).  Well I had that drawing for a very long time but after I married A and was moving out of my apartment I threw it away.  I was so angry with myself after she died.  How could I have thrown something SHE had given me away??  Didn't that mean I didn't care enough for her??  How could I do such a thing?  Looking back I realize that is silly.  Yes she made me that drawing but that drawing wasn't her and throwing away the drawing did not mean I didn't value her.  However grief can make you irrational.

Since losing her I would say my "hoarding" has gotten worse.  I did not realize this however until our recent move from Savannah Georgia back to small town Iowa.  We moved from our home we had lived in for three years.  Up until we had moved into that home we had moved once a year since graduating.  So when we got our shipment of house hold goods to our new home here we had a TON of stuff I had forgotten we even owned.  Sure I could probably give you some sentimental reason for every item but the fact I had forgotten them in the first place tells me something..  It tells me I don't need them.. 

So recently my sister-in-law was telling me about a book she was reading that was written by a minimalist.  She even wrote a blog post about the book so if you want to learn more about the book check out her blog http://www.twosteppinmomma.blogspot.com/.  Well I'm not sure I will read the book because I don't have much desire to be a minimalist but reading her blog and her telling me a bit about the book did help me decide to go through and get rid of some things.  My biggest motivator being that I am not a very organized person.  So I figured if I have less stuff that means less need for organization right???  Well I hope that is the case.  So today I made a goal for myself.  We have six rooms in this house so I decided to get rid of ten things for each room.  So I went through each room and grabbed things that for some reason I had held onto that I knew I no longer needed.  I think I actually ended up getting rid of a lot more than 60 things so yay!  Go me!  I even got rid of my old photography binder from high school which really surprised the husband!   I did pull out the pictures though:)  I decided to call it quits on the decluttering for now.  We will have a garage sale in the spring and I will do another look through of everything when that happens but for now I feel like I made some really good progress.

One of the things I had to keep was this old bottle of beer from my 18th birthday:)  I just couldn't part with it quite yet..  So yes this beer is ten years old..

So tell me are you a pack rat??  Is there anything silly you just can't seem to part with such as my old bottle of beer??

The one about Norwex.

I just recently (last week) signed up to be a Norwex consultant! I also just started using the products as well and can honestly say I love them!  I wouldn't have become a consultant if I hadn't really liked or believed in the products.

Maybe I should explain what Norwex is now that I have told you I sell it..  That sounds logical:)

Norwex has many different products but their main focus is eliminating the use of chemicals in your home by using just high quality microfiber products with only water to clean your home! You also greatly reduce the amount of cleaning products in your home by using Norwex. There is my "sales pitch" ha or I guess their sales pitch.  That is a pretty simple description in my opinion.  They also have different health and beauty products such as make up remover cloths, tooth brushes, face creams and body washes.  To see all of the awesome natural products go ahead and visit my new website www.GraciaAbrahamsen.norwex.biz.  You can also place orders there.  Or if you would rather host a party of your own and get some FREE stuff email me and we can schedule a party!  The host rewards are great you get so many free items it is crazy!  Also if you book in November I am throwing in my own little treat that you will get the same day of your party!  Email me atgracia.abrahamsen@gmail.com.

Yesterday I had my own Norwex launch party to kick off becoming a consultant.  My norwex leader came all the way from Cedar Rapids to host and share our products with my close friends and family.  I supplied some snacks (and sangria..  can't forget the sangria) and she did the rest!  She put on a great show (It will take me a lot of practice to get to that point I'm sure) and everyone seemed to really like the products which I figured they would.  She also had several fun games we played and she even gave out FREE stuff!!  I mean really who doesn't like free stuff??  I love free stuff:)

My favorite product so far would be the mop system.  I don't have a large area of flooring but its decent and I have T baby and O baby who both make quite the collection of crumbs and spills for me to clean up.  As soon as I got the mop system I took it out of the box and used it..  Easy to put together and easy to use.  I used the dry mop pad first and swept up the kitchen and then after running the wet mop pad under just water applied it to the mop base and quickly mopped my kitchen!  So easy!  I also went to town with the enviro cloth on my counters, T baby's table (which was disgusting from all her food), my ottoman, and my own (dirty) table!  It would have seemed as if I had never cleaned them before with how much stuff I got off of them in no time:)  So yes I can most definitely say this stuff cuts down on cleaning time as well!  So yay!  Less time spent cleaning and less money spent on chemicals and paper towels that will just get thrown away.

I haven't used many products yet (my list of wants is huge though) so I will also share the product I am looking forward to trying the most right now.  I think the winner would be the cleaning paste..  It is an environmentally friendly paste that you can use to clean, polish, and protect chrome, stainless steel, aluminum, porcelain and other surfaces.  You just use the Enviro Cloth damp with the paste and it looks like it has some pretty awesome cleaning power.  I will be getting that in my next shipment and I am pretty excited to try it.  I will try to share reviews of different products as I try them or if you look through the products and there is something you want me to try and review let me know in the comments section and I will get it ordered (unless I have already ordered it) and review it here for you!  

The one with the introduction.

Hello, my name is Gracia which is pronounced Grayshuh..  I am not a fan of introductions so I will try to keep this short.  I am a 28 year old stay at home mom to two beautiful babies I will call T Baby and O Baby.  T Baby is my little girl who is just a little over 2 1/2 years old and O baby is my little boy who will be 8 months old tomorrow (wow his first year is flying by).  I decided to stay at home when my daughter was born so going on almost three years now.  Before children I worked as an LPN in a nursing home and I absolutely loved my job!

My husband (who we shall call A which is technically his name haha)  and I both grew up in Iowa.  We met in highschool and have been together for over nine years now and married for six of those years .  We moved to GA shortly after getting married because he joined the army.  So we spent five whole years in Savannah Georgia!  Now after five years in Georgia (six years for A with training) we are back in small town Iowa and we couldn't be happier!  Ok ok we are dreading the winter just a bit;)  We were lucky to find a cute little home to rent here and are trying to settle in.  Did I mention our little home is in the country??  Well it is! It is surrounded by beautiful corn fields (it is Iowa after all) and we have even come home to deer in our yard and A even saw a fox one morning!  There will be more stories of our adventure in the country later I am sure..  I already have one to share in the near future about a spider that is sure to get some laughs:)

I have decided to start this blog to share my different thoughts on many different things in my life.  I love being a mom it is my favorite thing in the world!  My children make me laugh and smile so much even when things are hard.  I'm not a perfect mother and I wont pretend to be one.  My kids (well toddler mostly) sometimes eats McDonalds and sometimes watches way too much Tinkerbell or The Little Mermaid.   I love the idea of natural and sustainable living but I'm also realistic in my personal goals so we just kind of go with the flow of what works for our family.  I love photography and I think I'm pretty good at it but my big fancy camera sometimes sits on the shelf a little too long:).  I used to love to write as well so I am hoping that comes back to me now.  I love funny things and I think I can be pretty funny..   I often tell A I am the funniest person he knows and he agrees with me so I must be right!

Alright well I am going to stop here because I don't want too ramble:)  Maybe I already have haha..  Also O Baby is starting to get hungry so I better go take care of him!

Oh and if anyone caught on by the title of my post yes I am a huge fan of the show Friends!