January Wrap Up

Cloth diapering is going great, I love it.  Elias is sporting some cute diaper covers and I am discovering the world of cloth diapers!  I wash every other day, changing a diaper takes the same amount of time as a disposable....as long I am not in a wrestling match, no leaks, less waste and  I figured out that after a few months I will break even and will begin saving money.

Potty Training is sort of on hold for now, the biggest obstacle is that Ethan doesn't want to sit on the toilet, I would say you kind of have to be ok with that, so first step is to get him to feel comfortable enough to even try!

Evan's IEP - for those that aren't familar with that acronym, it stands for Individualized Education Program.  An IEP is designed to meet the unique educational needs of one child, who may have a disability, as defined by federal regulations. The IEP is intended to help children reach educational goals more easily than they otherwise would.  So last February when the Williams Bay School did Evan's 4K evaluation, they found him to have significant speech delays (he scored at 5% intelligibility) so he qualified for Early Childhood at Lakeland School where he has been going since last May, he loves it there.  It was recently that the Occupational Therapist noticed that he might have some issues there as well so I agreed to have him evaluated.  I had the IEP meeting yesterday and he scored about a year behind.  This is all based on the average 4 1/2 year old and I am not concerned or worried.  I know he is in the best hands and that we are exactly where God wants us to be.  Evan will have 30 minutes a week of OT in addition to speech and language.  They are hopeful that he will go into Kindergarten next year but I feel like that might be pushing it so he might be better off in 4K but everyone on the IEP team says to just see what happens in the next 4 months.  So we will see!

So Happy February!

Love,
Maxine

CD and PT

The Welsh Family is about to embark on two exciting adventures - cloth diapering and potty training!

At the same time that I stop using disposable diapers and begin using cloth diapers on Elias, I will be attempting to potty train the tenacious one of the bunch!  Switching to cloth is something I have been thinking about since before Elias was born but felt overwhelmed with all of the information out there and too preoccupied with expecting baby #3.  But with the idea of having Ethan out of diapers, I began thinking about the prospect of never having to buy another box of disposable diapers again!  Overall, it will save us money and we will produce less waste.  Everything is purchased (online), when it arrives I will just need to prepare everything and get it all organized and then fill T in on what we are doing!!

cute baby in cloth...not Elias :)

Potty training Ethan should be interesting.  We will go straight into underwear and use pull-ups minimally.  Sure, we'll have messy, frustrating accidents but that's what worked with Evan so I'm going with it!

So until then, pray patience over this house!

Love,

Maxine

A Little Bit Deeper

I find that the following verses from the bible speak so much truth.  I have lived the harm that being consumed with things I need to have has on people and felt the healing and contentment that living with what we have has.

Thank you God for my house and that we have heat and water and blankets and clothes.  I pray for the people that are without these things, that they may be provided with shelter this winter and a job or whatever it may be to help them live more comfortably.  Please help me to recognize the things I just want and don't need and even be aware of this when I am food shopping.  Please help me be a good steward of our money.

God has provided my family with more than adequate living conditions, transportation, a pantry and fridge full of food etc....I want to show Him that I am so thankful and to not abuse my husband's income that he works so extremely hard for. 

Hebrews 13:5
Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have.

1 Timothy 6:7-10
For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Is It The Dead of Winter or Is It Spring?

Evan 2 1/2 and Ethan 1 on Easter morning 2010

Just a couple things today, the first one could or could not be a failed attempt at trying to be better with money.  I am already thinking ahead to Easter...yes, I am, okay?!  Two years ago I made Easter baskets for Evan and Ethan, I sewed a liner and had it embroidered with their names.  I always really love the PB Kids baskets but was trying to be thrifty but probably still spent $30 on each basket when all was said and done, I also had the time and patience and was into sewing so it all worked out and was worth every minute and penny.  Last year, I was going to make a basket for Elias, never happend, he was also barely two weeks old, couldn't find the right basket, I was still recovering from having a baby, blah blah blah  So off to potterybarnkids.com I went....this early, because they always sell out so fast, in fact the liner and the basket that I liked was on backorder already so the personalized liner will ship in February and the basket in March, which means I will pay for each item when they ship...delayed payments yet will still arrive by Easter so Yay for me!  The perfectionist side of me though is slighty disturbed that Elias's basket won't match Evan and Ethan's but it's just something I have to get over...it would have looked different anyway even if I made it myself, ugh, am I starting to have second thoughts?!  Will have to sleep on this one.

So what is with this beautiful weather?!  I love it and should really have the boys playing outside because whether I want to believe it or not, we are still going to have a winter.  If Ethan wakes up soon, those boys are going outside!  Either way, these mild days are helping the winter not seem as depressing and before we know it we'll be wearing our t-shirts on St. Patricks Day (it's always warm on St. Patty's Day!)

For the weekend:

1. Fish Fry for dinner - yessss I don't have to cook! and we don't go out for fish for those wondering where we are going - we order in from Daddy Maxwell's - do you think we are crazy to go out for dinner with 3 boys under 4 1/2?

2. Wake up early to go to my women's bible study - looking forward to getting filled with goodness.

3. Going to do a trial run for the "Saucy Ball's" cookoff I am participating in the last weekend in January - get your head out of the gutter please!  I found the recipe for the meatballs and the sauce I want to use, hoping it is good so I don't have to figure something else out, just want to run with it!

4. T's Settler's guys are coming over to play at our house Saturday night so they will taste test and critique the meatballs for me - lucky men.

5. Oh and work, yes I have work work work....yes I am still employed for those who didn't know!  I am still working for Ortho Molecular and do the end of quarter project that I was kept on to do...thankful that this has worked out actually.

Good Night and Good Weekend all!

Love,

Maxine

I Resisted the Urge!

It's not the first day of the year but it's Day One of me trying to simplify and of my journey of being less materialistic...I am trying to get into the habit of not buying things that we think we need, and it is going quite well and I am actually a little proud of myself, so don't mind if I give myself a pat on the back!  So, a somewhat normal routine of a typical weekday is to go to Target or Wal-Mart after dropping Evan off at school and again, my plan this morning was to head for Target right after I drop Evan off. 

I had been thinking to myself that I would really like an all-season wreath to hang in the spot I had my Christmas wreath.  What was hanging there pre-Christmas decorating, was something I didn't want to hang back up because it didn't really "go" with our new dining room table and chairs.  So, naturally I was going to go to Target and look and probably not find a wreath that was just right but come home with $50 (or more) worth of things that I didn't really need (do the boys really need another matching shirt?).  Rather than hopping on the highway to head into Lake Geneva, I just drove home, imagine that!  It was about an hour after arriving home, Ethan is doing his usual bouncing off the walls routine and Elias is sleeping that I started googling "natural wreaths", "all-season wreaths"....I found myself on etsy, about ready to purchase something that I just happened to remember, I actually had a wreath that my dear friend Shannon made for me several years ago out of wine bottle corks, I hadn't been using it because it had a strand of lights in it and half of the lights were out.  And for the first time it occurred to me that I can actually take the lights out, so I dashed downstairs, pulled the wreath out of the storage bin, took the lights out, ran back upstairs and immediatly hung the wreath on the wall and it's so perfect and lovely and even better it is handmade with love by my friend. 

I am just so happy right now, I can look at my wall and not feel guilty for spending twenty-some dollars on something that I really didn't need to buy and I can feel happy because I have something that means something to me and that will help me think of my friend Shannon.

I Love Me A New Year

Welcome 2012!  I love a new year to help motivate, I feel like I can start fresh.  We have the holidays behind us and I can be intentional about things I want to accomplish to put into action ideas I keep having.

The Welsh's 2011 year in review:

January - we took the boys to Build-A-Bear, Auntie Cleo had bought them each a gift card for Christmas 2009.  Evan made an owl called "Whoo" and Ethan made a dog named "Jake".  It was really fun and I look forward to doing it again in a couple years.  We also took the boys to the Shedd Aquarium.

February - We had lots of snow and we went out on Lake Geneva where friends gave Evan and Ethan rides on their snowmobiles.  We had an overnight stay at Timber Ridge Waterpark with the Hayes family, it was a lot of fun and hope to do that again!

March - For our niece Jordan's birthday we went to the Mitchell Domes, they had a train exhibit that Evan and Ethan really loved!  On March 25th we welcomed Elias Edward Welsh into the family, 3 days early!

April - Ethan turned 2 and had a Wonder Pets themed birthday cake, Grammy did an awesome job making it as always!  This spring I decided to take on Coordinator of MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers).

May - We celebrated Mother's Day and my 34th birthday and we experienced Eyrthema Multiforme (see blog entry below!)

June - T built a playhouse in the backyard, we went to the dairy breakfast and I took the boys to Downers Grove for an overnight visit at my long-time friend Emily's house.

July - we had a campout at my parents  house July 4th weekend.

August - Evan turns 4!!!  We rode the East Troy Electric Railroad for his birthday and he had a pool party to celebrate.  I took the boys to State Fair, we had a Luau and we had a fun day at Green Meadows! 

September - We celebrated T's birthday, he is a whopping 36!  We welcomed Gabriela into our family!  Late August a friend of mine announced on facebook that an exchange student, a girl from Brasil needed to be placed with a family quick!  Of course I wanted to do it right away but knew I needed to run it by the boss, to my surprise he was not against it so we discussed, slept on it and decided to host Gabi!  It has been a really positive experience and we are very happy that Gabi is with us.  Gabi will be here until late June, she is very involved with school, she was in cross country in the fall, she was in the school play "Bye Bye Birdie", and she cheers for the boys varsity basketball team. 

October - Orchard trips, pumpkin carving, the boys went fishing with Pete, Halloween party and Evan was awarded Student of the month for the Early Childhood class at Lakeland School!

November - we had a great Thanksgiving and then Uncle Nick (my brother-in-law/Cleo's husband) gave us quite the scare, after pulling the cord to his VAD, he went into heart failure and he was flown flight for life to Madison.  He had a few days of recovery and then had to have open heart surgery again to replace the VAD.  He remains on the heart transplant list and we pray that the Lord will provide a heart soon.

December - We went to the tree farm to get our tree, Gabi, my niece Dana and I went out to get in the Christmas spirit by going to Grand Geneva and we had a wonderful Christmas with our family.

We had a great 2011 and are blessed in many ways.

In 2012 I would like to focus on being less materialistic and be thankful for everything we already do have.  I want to teach the boys how to be grateful and to turn their focus away from the things they think they need.  I want us to be a God honoring family, to live the way he created us.  If I can put my own focus on Him, I know we'll do well!

Have a very blessed new year!

EM is Now a Distant Memory

Just a brief update to inform you all that I haven't seen EM on Evan in a couple days.  It seems to be behind us now and I am feeling pretty relieved as it was beginning to feel like something we would be dealing with for the rest of our life!  Maybe we will see it again but I am glad to know how long it lasted and that with each day the rash was less severe and that it didn't cause any discomfort or harm.  I will still post pictures so you can see the rash at it's near worst...unfortunately I didn't think to take pictures when it was at it's absolute worst since I was more wrapped up in what was going on.

So this concludes my blogging for the time being about Erythema Multiforme Minor but while I have this blog created you might catch me writing about random topics that I feel like sharing with you...with 3 boys, something is usually happening!

Love,
Maxine