A church building in the making

Well we are in!! It's been less than a year since our church "broke ground", and as of last week we are in the building. I am amazed at how quickly the process went and how great the process has been. I was expecting way more drama ;-)

For those who don't know, our church had been meeting under several roofs. We had several houses on our block and different classes met in each. For our building project, we tore down our old education wing, children's house and youth house in order to add one large education and multipurpose space. It connects to our sanctuary. Being under one roof is amazing. Like tonight, I didn't have to walk thru wet grass to get to youth. Woo hoo!!! I mean, walking thru wet grass is not a huge hardship and having a space to meet in at all has been a blessing all these years, but having it all in one space is truly blessing beyond compare.

Griffin and his buddy Eli are having a blast breaking in the new nursery too!! ;-)

- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone

My trash can overflowth...

So not much being blogged around here. Basically I have been tired, busy or sick. This is our bathroom trash can right now- I am having to empty it daily. The Pates are busy right now- blowing our noses. Hopefully I'll have something fun to say soon, till then. Enjoy my trash. Ha.

From Sunroom to Playroom

Well, I have been putting off writing a post on our recent sunroom makeover hoping we would get the last "decorative" touches done. But who cares? Haha. So here is our room, with rough pictures I snapped while we actually played in it. So it ain't perfect looking, but it is super fun!

Before Pictures (these are actually from right after we moved in so it looked a little different):

Our house is only a two bedroom house, and the bedrooms are small. So there just wasn't much space to play and spread out. We have this sunroom that was really just a walk thru where we piled things, so we decided to make better use of it. I love it!!

After photos:

We got the rug at rugsusa.com for $80 (its an 8x10 and huge! we love it!). We bought a shoe cubby to put individual toys in, which I like a lot. I had been keeping toys in canvas bins and it was hard to rotate and ensure we played with all of them. Now Griffin can see all of them. We bought a taller bookshelf to put all of our games on (because you know we have just a few) and I am glad to have them all in one spot. The kid table and chairs are from big lots. Love them. Is my kid seriously that big?!!! 

Happy Playing! 

Dependent Prayer

My pastor started a series on Kingdom Prayer today. One of the comments he made was that

"if we struggle to pray, it is because we feel self-sufficient and self-made".

Ouch. And yet I believe for me this is an issue. I struggle in prayer. I do. And this is probably a big reason why. I rely so much on myself. And it is only when I fall (happens often) that I get desperate and really do some soul prayer.

Today I am striving to not strive on my own. To rely on Him and not on my broken self.

Advice welcome and needed!

***see update at bottom of post.

Ok people, here is the deal. For the most part, January was not good to us. It brought us one family death, and two deaths of people as close as family. It started with a week of waking up to a puking kid, had two ear infections in the middle, and ended with a coughing virus. What does all of this mean as a parent??? NO SLEEP!

Griffin has lost all of his good sleeping habits. All of them.

So I am appealing to the masses. Any sleeping advice is welcome!

Here is a quick rundown of Griffin's sleep deal:
- he slept thru the night till 5 months, then started waking several times a night until he was maybe 10 months old
- he has mostly sleep thru the night since then, occasionally waking once for a minute or so
- he has always been good at going to sleep. We do our bedtime routine (we read him a story, pray, kiss goodnight then I lay him in his crib awake) and he goes to sleep.
- he goes to bed at 7:30 and used to wake at 6:15ish
- he no longer uses a pacifier
- NOW he is all over the place! Some nights he won't go to sleep without one of us laying with him, other nights he goes right to sleep but then wakes up around 1am and won't go back to sleep unless we lay with him or bring him to our bed, and then some nights he goes to sleep and wakes up at 4:30 and will not go to sleep!!!
- we have tried letting him cry in the morning, but he never stopped (an hour and a half!), we have not CIO at night bc I am just worried about another ear infection and haven't taken the plunge.

So how did you get your kid to sleep? Did you CIO? (If so, how long did they cry?) Anyone just lay with them and they suddenly didn't need it anymore? Give us some advice people!


*** Update: Shortly after this post I reached my limit and decided to let him CIO. He was finally not sick and I knew he was waking completely out of habit. He woke at around midnight and I went in to assure him I was here and make sure he was fine. Then I left and he cried for 2 & 1/2 hours!! Longest night of my life. It was horrid. But I reminded myself over and over that he needed sleep too. After that he has slept thru the night like a dream! Woo hoo!