Sleep training

I've never before realized how vital sleep is to a person until I had a new baby.  In college, we tend to pride ourselves on the fact that we can pull all nighters and still make it to class the next day.  But there is just something about constant interrupted sleep that just pulls a person down.  I recently met a great lady who recommended the book "The Sleep Lady's Good Night Sleep Tight" by Kim West.  I welcomed it during the nap-less days with my toddler son.  But with a new baby, it has been really great to help me as I train her to sleep through the night.  I was just talking to a friend who mentioned older children that she knows that still have trouble sleeping through the night because they were never taught at a young age to do so.  Last night I tried some of Kim's suggestions with my almost 3 month old.  She is breastfed and sleeps pretty well...but she still wakes 1-3 times per night to eat.  I decided to try to get her back to sleep first before rushing to feed her.  Obviously if she was hungry and signaled that she wanted to eat I was ready to feed her...but she ended up going all night without eating.  Granted, I was up every couple hours offering her paci and shushing her...but she barely cried and slept wonderfully!!!!  I hope that as she learns to put herself back to sleep, I won't have to get up as much.  And, when I was up...it was only for a minute or two.  There may be differing opinions on this...but it worked for us and I'm happy about that.  Do you have a child with sleep difficulties?  Kim West gives advice on children from birth to age 5.  She offers a gentle approach that neither spoils the child nor leaves them to scream for hours on end ;-)

Dancing

Some of my best memories of childhood took place in the kitchen.  Mom was always cooking something...or so it seemed.  I remember hearing hours of Chuck Swindoll, Charles Stanley, Focus on the Family Broadcasts, and Larry Burkett's financial show on our radio that sat on top of our refrigerator.  Very spiritual right?  Well, at night after dinner...we danced.  Yep, my brother would get the wooden spoons to play the "drums" I got the random fork or spoon to use as a microphone, and mom just bounced around on her artificial leg (my mom lost her leg to cancer).  I think my mom may have secretly devised a plan to get us to want to clean the kitchen and do the dishes...but either way, it worked.  I have often thought that these were the times when I learned to sing.  Mom and I would pick out harmonies for fun...to this day I can still do it.  Anyway, these days at my house if you happen to stop by around 4pm (cooking dinner), you will find me dancing.  It started with my cat Layla (I would play the Eric Clapton song "Layla" and we would dance to it).  Then it was Micah...any song that had a beat would send us jumping around the kitchen.  At first he would just look at me weird like he was saying "mom, please put me down and let me play...you're crazy").  But today, the music started, I danced...and he walked in with a smile and put his arms up.  My heart just melted...and we danced.

Credit Card Addiction

Why is it that every time you go to the mall and decide to buy something the cashiers insist on selling you a credit card?  I personally think that credit cards are from the pit of hell.  Seriously...it is a clear form of bondage that will lure you in, pull you down slowly, and make it feel good all the way down.  Then you wake up one day shackled to a lender for the rest of your life...or at least a long time.  My husband and I have decided to rid ourselves of credit cards.  We made some mistakes early on and got into some debt.  We bought into the lie that  you NEED a credit card in order to build your credit.  By God's grace we were always able to make the payments...so our credit didn't suffer...but we did.  Anyway, the subject of credit cards is a sore spot for me.  So when I'm bombarded with pressuring saleswomen at the store that will remain nameless for now about getting a credit card i get a little irritated.  To add to the annoyance, once I said no (for the 3rd time mind you...) I was then treated like I did something wrong.  "How are you going to pay then???" said the nasty lady.  "Um...I don't know with REAL MONEY?!" said Me.  Not cool New York and Company...(oops...did I say that?)