More than Adrift

We're back home from a very busy Easter weekend in Michigan! We had fun with my family, but it's always nice coming home. The kids are always so excited to get back to their own home, their own toys, their own space. We spent quite a bit of time with my dad, and spent one day at my mom's house visiting with my aunt, two cousins, and my grandma (one of my favorite people!)  I was also able to spend an entire afternoon/evening with my best of friends, V :-)  It was such a rare afternoon for us. She is a mom, so neither of us take "time off" too often from our kids.  So we spent the afternoon lying on the couch, watching Americas Next Top Model reruns, and drinking starbucks coffee. It was exactly how we would have spent an afternoon in college (actually, it is how we spent many afternoons in college....) But inevitably the evening came to an end (at 9 pm.... hey, that's late for us!!) and I looked forward to going home to the kids. It's funny how things h

Last week was SO incredibly busy around here. We had so much family around visiting after baby Ryan was born, and the kids' routine pretty much went out the window! So this week, armed with a fresh perspective on my priorities, I decided to make a few changes around our house. First, I decided that I was wasting WAY too much time on my computer. It had become a kind of addiction for me to connect with the outside world. With three kids, it's easy to feel isolated at home, and the computer can provide a "break" from the loneliness. I'd find myself ignoring the kids to check my email, or even caught myself telling them I was "working" when I was actually looking up a good bargain on used kids' clothes.... pathetic! So, from now, during business hours (when my kids are awake and I am the only parent home) my computer is staying off! I can check my email, and do whatever else I "need" to do when they go to sleep at 730. I also decided t

Recently, I have come face to face with some rather difficult, irritating, aspects of my personality. I won't go into too many details, but I'm really trying to change them because I know that my emotions aren't logical. And they really aren't very Christ-Like. But it is NOT easy! So, this has caused me to really think hard about how to raise my children in a way that would preclude so much self-centeredness, selfishness, impatience.... etc. There are so many theories, books, opinions written and talked about by anyone and everyone. As an example of a conundrum that I faced trying to "teach" behavior that was not self centered, and not attention seeking: Do I focus all of my attention on the kids, so that they feel secure at home, and don't "need" to seek out attention... Or does that cause them to "learn" that they should be the center of attention all of the time?   Maybe you laugh. Maybe this seems like I'm "overthinking

This week has flown by. We now have a new addition to our Formo Clan, Audrey and Matt welcomed their firstborn son, Ryan Frederich, on 4-12 at 12:11am. I can't imagine what the next few weeks will be like. A shifting of focus for my little ones. As V pointed out this morning as I worried about my kids, no one ever was worse off for learning to share some attention :-) I have a tendency to get caught up in big moments. Weddings, Funerals, Births... I feel as though it creates a tornado effect on my life, and everything else gets caught up in my high strung emotions. Gibbs asked me last night to take a step back and refocus my energy back on our own little family. It's a tough thing to do, to focus on the little things when something huge, life altering, is happening somewhere else.  I'm trying to find a balance between serving others, doing what God calls me to do for other people, and serving my own children. I want them to grow up realizing that life doesn't orb

This week K is staying with my mom in Michigan. It's a bittersweet experience every time she does this (this is her third time in the past two years) I know she LOVES the alone time with my mom. She gets a lot of attention, a lot of fun experiences that I just don't have the time or energy to do with her every day, besides my mom just has more patience with her than I usually can muster up! The bitter part is just that I end up missing her! And of course, the guilt! Guilt that I don't have time to spend with her one on one, guilt that I lose my temper with her, guilt that the boys take up so much of my time and energy, especially the littlest boy. But, I've been trying to make the best of it this week and have a LOT of fun with the boys. It's much easier to get out of the house with only two kids. Soo, here are some of the fun things we were able to do this week! I've been trying to use up our "garbage" to make fun crafts with D.  So this one is

As a "grown up" I'm never quite sure how to make real, grown up friends. We have made good relationships at church, some through Gibbs' workplace, but other than that, it's a pretty tough thing to do! We are married, with three kids, so our schedule isn't built for the type of friendships I have grown accustomed to. In high school, my group of girl friends were... well, we were almost cult-ish. We went to an all girls high school, and my girl friends were REAL friends. We spent a lot of time talking, regularly got mad at each other, expected a LOT from each other, forgave each other, and gave a lot to each other. It was just so nice and genuine, and there was rarely any pressure on us to be something we weren't. In the real "adult" world, I just think we are all trying so hard to be perfect. I see this so much in the Christian circles (more so than I did in college) and it seems that the right things are always being said, the right attitude