1) Time management. Nothing so far has thrown me for such a loop as having two kids under two. I feel like I spend my days spinning my wheels, and at the end I collapse into bed with the knowledge that I get to do it all over again the next day–but what exactly did I accomplish? (Well, a lot, if I stop and think about it, but what I’m talking about is things like cleaning, sewing, regular household chores, and also “extracurriculars” like a part-time job and hobbies.) So instead of planning that I will sew a dress until I get it done (doesn’t work, I have so many interruptions and then I lose motivation to start again when I see how little I got done), I’ve started to think in half-hour increments. I’ll work on a project for half an hour as steadily as I can, and at the end, “Whee! Look how much I did!” instead of, “I’ve been working on this dress ever since Gregory is born and I’m STILL not done.” (Totally hypothetical situation. Not.) Somehow that feels more rewarding, and at least I know that I will eventually get done if I keep plugging away in half-hour increments here and there.

2) Posture. I know how school-girlish that sounds, but maybe if I’d paid attention when I was a school girl, I wouldn’t be having problems now. My back has been bothering me a fair amount lately, and a recent x-ray at the chiropractor’s office showed that I AM A HUNCHBACK, y’all. Ever since I saw it, I’ve been paying attention to posture and am surprised at how often I find myself hunched over. So here’s to better posture.

3) Documenting our family’s life with photos and writing down memories. I bought a Groupon deal for a photobook that expires in March, so that should give me some motivation to get one book put together by then.

4) This doesn’t have anything to do with the new year, but lately I’ve been feeling really low on love for the people around me . . . and even for those not around me. Sigh. My prayer these days is for God to give me the love to give away. It sure isn’t going to come from this heart of mine!

I’m curious if any of you have made resolutions for the new year. I’d be interested to hear what they are.

Gregory is growing so well. He has been an angel baby, sleeping and eating like clockwork. I can’t get over how different he is in personality from Bronwyn. Laid-back and patient are two qualities that describe him well. He hasn’t been as responsive as she was, but then he isn’t nearly as demanding either. He waited six weeks to grace us with a smile, but since then he’s made up for it with smiles, coos, and entire conversations with us.

I had him weighed and measured on Tuesday and he weighs twelve pounds and measures 23.5 inches long. Five and a half pounds is a pretty impressive weight gain; he jumped from the 9th percentile at birth to the 50th at eight weeks!

It’s hard to imagine our family without this little guy. Gabriel and he have been bonding a lot since exams are over, and it’s so good to see.

His Christmas present was this colour stacker/sorter. Bronwyn was intrigued with it. As you can see, Gregory isn’t too impressed yet.

Back to enjoying the rest of the “holidays”…ours lasts until Gabriel goes back to school. Pretty nice.

-Jennifer

I’m listening to Bronwyn sing to herself as she plays with Duplo, her Christmas present from us. I didn’t know they’d be such a hit, but she’s been playing steadily with them ever since we gave them to her yesterday. We won’t tell her that the set was a thrift store find. She’s perfectly happy with it, and so are we.

We’re planning to sleep the New Year in. Doesn’t that sound exciting? Hopefully the neighbors have similar plans or else are invited far away for their parties.

Gabriel and I have spent a lot of time rocking, walking, bouncing, or jiggling Gregory to sleep–only to discover that often he goes to sleep perfectly well by himself, in his cot. Now for a way to get him to bed earlier than 10:30pm. No matter how I try, it seems he just can’t settle before then. But then he sleeps until 6:00 or 7:00, so I shouldn’t complain.

We celebrated four years of married life by going to Newgrange with Gabriel’s parents and sister, who were visiting us from Ukraine at the time. Newgrange is a burial mound/religious site that is older than Stonehenge, purportedly built a few hundred years after the Great Flood. (This is a must-see if you tour Ireland.) Each year at sunrise on winter solstice (the day that is also our anniversary), the sun shines into the entrance to the mound all the way to the back of the chamber. You can enter a drawing to be one of the few hundred allowed in to see it at sunrise over the few days this happens. We put our names in for next year. As it was, the day was cloudy, but we still got to enter Newgrange on winter solstice, on our anniversary.

Our Ford Galaxy van, which we love so much and which has made our weekly trips to church and back so much easier, has had the clutch go out and needs extensive repairs. At least it didn’t totally go out until exams were over. As it was, the first time it happened was to me on an early morning trip to the airport, the day of Gabriel’s last two exams. I couldn’t get it into gear, so Gabriel got a taxi to the airport (5:00am is too early for city buses) and drove it to the mechanic in second or third gear. Sometimes it would let him shift, but other times he’d have to turn it off, put it into second, turn it back on and immediately GO.

I mentioned airport trips. Living close to a major airport in a city with no other Mennonites means we get a decent number of overnight visitors heading to or from the airport. We enjoy it. One of Gabriel’s friends thinks we should have our own parking bay at the airport — not a bad idea considering how often we go there.

This story made me laugh out loud.

Our baby girl is 18 months old now. So hard to believe.

Some things I want to remember about her at this stage:

• She is saying more and more words, but I would still say that speech is slow in coming. She says “bee” for airplane and blanket. Other words she says are: book, ball, Mommy, Daddy, baby, Grandpa, no, bath, drink, please, down, out, shoes, dog, duck, baa, and bus.
• She is walking better as the weeks go by, and without a limp this time around! Let me pause for a Hallelujah right here. It’s so GOOD to see. Her latest x-ray about two weeks ago showed that her hip socket is developing well. The doctor didn’t think she’d definitely need surgery in the spring after all. He wants to give the socket as much time as possible to develop on its own before intervening with surgery. Our next checkup is in four months when they’ll do another x-ray and see how the hip is looking then.
• Bronwyn has had a rough time this last month with adjusting to a new baby in the house and with teething. She is a slow, hard teether and has only two teeth on the bottom and four on the top. A few weeks ago I finally found two upper molars coming through, so at least we know all the grumpies have been for a good cause.
• She weighs 22 pounds. I don’t know how tall she is, but when she started standing a few weeks ago, we realized how much she’d grown over the summer.
• She loves taking a bath, riding her car outside, going to bed with her “bee” (blanket), wearing new clothes, her baby brother,  phones, colouring, and looking at books. Her favourite song is “Building Up The Temple.”

We love this girl to bits!

Happy Thanksgiving, you Americans.

love,

Jennifer

My mom has been here for the past two weeks. She has done laundry, cooked meals, effortlessly made delicious varieties of fresh bread, taken care of the babies, and inspired me to drive places in and around Dublin where I’ve previously been too scared to go.

I hope my children will always have memories of Grandma like this:

Unpacking (a whole suitcase of) treats from the States,

Newborn babies getting baths in the kitchen sink,

AND . . .

Big sisters learning to walk again. Seeing Bronwyn toddle around with the help of her grandma is enough to make me tear up. Thinking about my mom leaving on Tuesday is enough to make me feel like crying too, but we won’t think about that.

No, instead we’ll gaze on the miracle of a newborn and savor the smell of his skin after a bath and realize that every day he seems to look more like a Jantzi.

So on Tuesday I’ll have to get my big-girl shoes on, but until then you can believe I’m soaking up all the blessings of being a semi-spoiled youngest daughter.

Love,

Jennifer

I am so happy and thankful that I’m no longer pregnant, though. Our baby boy arrived early this past Friday morning, and we’re so in love with him already.

Gregory Shane Jantzi :: 6 lb. 5 oz. :: 19.5 in. :: 21 October 2011

So happy and thankful for our baby boy!

-Jennifer

I read that quote on a blog the other day. I think it sums up the experiences of this summer for me. At the beginning, I couldn’t imagine how I was going to care for my one-year-old while she’s in a body cast or a brace during the last four months of my pregnancy. It looked impossible, and I won’t deny there were tears and discouragement and prayers for energy to carry her up the stairs once again. But I did find grace for those days. It was there when I needed it, and it was enough. Even better, I know the Person behind the grace better than I did at the beginning of the summer.

I hope that encourages your Wednesday morning! If you want some lovely, inspirational reading, head over to the blog where I read the Spurgeon quote: www.aholyexperience.com.

This is his schedule for next week. Now, it might look manageable until you consider that for every hour spent in class he should spend two or three out of class doing homework. We’ve quit saying “maybe next semester will be easier” and changed our mantra to “in so-and-so many months we’ll be done.”

I was telling him my brilliant idea for holiday cards this year, and he wondered if he’d be put through the torture of participating in a family photo shoot. He thought maybe I could Photoshop him into a picture of our family. I said I could do better than that; we could put his picture in an oval in the corner of the photo like they do for deceased family members. Underneath it we could print, “Gabriel Jantzi, dearly beloved husband and father. We look forward to reuniting with you in about 20 months when you’re done with that ding-dang-dong vet school.”

*** *** ***

Baby is due in a week and a half, more or less. My family doctor assured me yesterday that I’ll go into labour today “at 4:00, and it’ll all be over by tea time.” He was joking, of course, but I’m pleading with this baby not to take TOO long to come out, because if it does, Mama will go OFF HER HEAD.

*** *** ***

Last night from about 11:30 to 1:00 we listened to the neighbor’s adult son as he sat in front of their outdoor fireplace, listened to loud Christmas and country music, drank beer, and shouted randomly into the fire. (I got the giggles when “Country Roads, Take Me Home” came on. Does anyone else who worked at Yoder’s Restaurant remember Moose belting that out on his gittar?)

“Is he retarded?” Gabriel wondered. “Why would you drink yourself stupid all alone on a Friday night? How could be any fun?”

I suppose someone else might look at the schedule above  and wonder how that could be any fun, too. These are the mysteries we ponder at midnight.

Two weeks in the cast:

Six weeks in the cast:

Thirteen weeks in the cast as of Thursday night:

And as of yesterday, LOOK WHO’S OUT OF THE CAST!

She’s in this brace full-time except for baths for the next four weeks, and then only at night for two weeks. We are thrilled! The surgeon did say that he will probably have to do a surgery on her hip socket in six months or so if it doesn’t form better, but he didn’t make it sound like a big deal. Anyway, it’s just so much fun to be able to hold and cuddle her better, and we’re looking forward to seeing how she learns to use her right leg again. There’s a lot of praising the Lord around here that we’re done with the cast for now!

Bronwyn is all into coloring right now. I'm not sure which she likes better: coloring on paper or eating the crayons.

A friend recently closed her email to me with the hope that I could find common things to be grateful for. I feel like there’s been an abundance of those around here:

>Clean windows (and the energy to have washed them)

>A child who’s happy even though she’s in a body cast

>A surprise baby shower (!) on Saturday, held by some of our friends from Gabriel’s class at school. Gabriel had known about it for a long time but just led me to think that we were getting together with a few of them for tea, because Bronwyn and I hadn’t seen them much since school started this fall. When we walked into the house, I saw a pile of gifts, which seemed odd, but it still didn’t register until everyone yelled, “Surprise!” I was completely shocked and still feel overwhelmed at their kindness. We had a great afternoon, full of good food, games, and fun. It was nice to get to know those girls a tiny bit better.

>While I partied, Gabriel came home and worked in our front flowerbeds. (We don’t have much landscaping around here, but what’s here has been neglected and overgrown for years.) We had started earlier in the day, and I figured that was all that would get done since I thought he’d be at this “tea” in the afternoon too. When we came home a few hours later, the flowerbeds were raked free of litter, dug up, weeded, perennials thinned out, and mulched. It blesses me every time I look out the window and see those beds. The amount of work they needed felt overwhelming to me, and I’m so grateful for Gabriel taking the time (a big sacrifice for him) from other priorities to do outside work for us.

>The fact that it’s only a matter of about four weeks until this baby comes. (Eeek!)

>The kindness of strangers. Here’s the story: I need to get a learner’s permit to drive our car, since we changed insurance policies to one that requires each driver to have at least a learner’s. (I had been driving on my Canadian license, but this company doesn’t accept that.) I’m not especially grateful for THAT, but the blessing here is how I’m getting the training CD that helps you prepare for the test. I could buy it, but I didn’t really want to spend twenty euro on it. This morning I called UCD’s library to see if they have it, hoping Gabriel could pick it up for me. The librarian I talked to said, no, they didn’t have it, but she has one at home that I can borrow. If Gabriel can come in tomorrow, she’ll bring it to work with her. !!!

I should do this more often; it reminds me just how many “common” blessings I have.

Happy Monday to you!

~Jennifer