it'll be a cold day in

...North Carolina. Being northerners transplanted in the south, one of our favorite things to mock about southerners is that they freak out about snow. Not just snow, but even the threat of snow. Schools close before the skies even get cloudy, people go home early from work, and life just shuts down.

Truth be told - we mock it, but we love it. The world shuts down here because 1)Drivers are accustomed to driving in the snow/ice, and vehicles are rarely equipped for it 2)The cities don't stockpile salt or have a large team of people to plow roads like they do up north, and 3)The snow is much more likely to be a snow/ice mix, which IS more dangerous. Whatever the reason - it's kind of nice to have a good old fashioned snow day. Down here, we rarely get more than an inch, it's rarely more than once or twice a year, and it's rarely before February.

But last night, we got about four or five inches of snow goodness. And oh my goodness, has it been wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. The sleet started around 11:30 on Friday morning, and turned into beautiful, sweet snowflakes around 4:00. And it kept snowing. And kept snowing. And kept snowing. All. Through. The. Night. (I know because I kept looking out the blinds to make sure it was so).



If you're from the north, you're looking at these pictures, and reading about 4-6 inches of snow, and thinking, "big deal." Well, my friend, it IS a big deal down here. A very big deal. Oprah was preempted to cover the falling snow - and it doesn't get any bigger than that.

And so far, today has been about the most perfect thing I could imagine. Shawn actually didn't have to work today, so we had a big breakfast as a family. Then while Jude napped, Shawn and I watched Holiday Inn and sipped our coffee. After he woke up, the three of us played in the snow and made a snowman. Perfect. Absolutely perfect.

I think we're going to venture out this afternoon for some mini marshmellows and then later this evening for a Christmas party, which will be the perfect ending of a perfect day (THIS is how much I love snow, I start talking in song).

I have some super cute pictures of Jude's first time playing in the snow, but I'll get to them tomorrow or Monday. For now - I'm just going to enjoy my family and this beautiful, wonderful snow.

I hope you're enjoying yours this weekend!

one year pictures

Jenn from Photographic Memories took these, and did a fantastic job! We both really wanted to get some outside shots this time, since Jude is so much more mobile, and Old Salem in downtown Winston-Salem was the perfect spot!













We're so blessed - not just with Jude, but we're surrounded by people who love our son as if he were a part of their family, and who help and support us - even if we have nothing to give in return. If you're one of those people - from the bottom of our hearts, thank you.

a day of sheer genius

Jude woke up a genius yesterday. Well, maybe not genius...but definitely smarter. It would appear that several of the things we've been working on with him suddenly clicked - in one amazing day.

It started first thing when Shawn picked Jude up from his crib in the morning. Jude pointed to Shawn's mouth, Shawn said, "mouth," and Jude repeated. Once Jude was fed and changed, Shawn was telling me about Jude's new word, so I said, "Jude, where's Mommy's nose?" And Jude pointed to my nose. I said, "Where's Mommy's mouth?" And he pointed to my mouth (and did it again - correctly - several times during the day).

I realize these are not feats of amazement for a one year old, but these ARE things we've been repeatedly telling him while he gave us this look:



and appeared to be ignoring us. As Shawn was walking out the door for work, I told Jude to say bye-bye to Daddy, and did my goofy toddler wave as usual. And Jude copied it, and kept waving at Shawn until he closed the door (later on, Jude waved when a stranger at Babies R Us told him, "bye bye," so it looks like he really does get that the waving goes with those words).

After his first nap, Jude showed me his new skill of clapping - something he'd never previously done on his own, and walked just about everywhere he needed to go.

And then when it was time for Jude's bath in the evening, he actually said, "baf!" in glee.

You're a sneaky little kid, you know that? You act like you're totally ignoring us and like we must be the biggest weirdos of all time, when in fact....



you're paying attention and learning, aren't you?

making your own laundry detergent and jude update

In our efforts to adjust our income so that I can be a stay at home Mom, my goal has been to reduce our monthly payments as much as possible. We've done many things -big and small - to reduce our monthly bills, and lately I've been tackling our grocery budget. For the three of us, our budget is $130/every two weeks for groceries (which includes things like detergent, shampoo, toilet paper, paper towels, etc.). We do about 90% of our grocery shopping at Aldi, and the other 10% is usually at WalMart. I started couponing almost two months ago, and have been able to stretch our grocery budget even further.

One of our most expensive monthly items is laundry detergent, so when I came across a link for how to make your own, I bookmarked it and always had it in the back of my mind to try. About a week ago our store bought stuff was running low, so I figured I'd go ahead and give it a whirl. I didn't take pictures of it because I was doing it in small steps in between taking care of Jude and sewing, so I'm really sorry for not having any pictures to post. However, if you click HERE, you'll find a fantastic tutorial complete with photos. This was the tutorial I followed (the only difference being that I let the soap boil for awhile even after it had dissolved. This was pure accident - Jude had a meltdown, needed a diaper change, and had to be put down for a nap, and I completely forgot the soap was simmering). However, I actually think letting it simmer for awhile longer helped my detergent to not have any chunks and gave it the same texture as my store bought detergent - a jello-ish kind of thing.

I've used the homemade stuff for three or four loads, and it works perfectly! Since Jude hasn't shown any reactions to any of the other detergents we've used, I use it for his clothes, too. I'm hesitant to use the homemade stuff for his diapers, though - I'm afraid the Borax might be too harsh on a baby bum.

I will say though, that my skin is notoriously weird about detergents (and perfumes, actually), and more often than not they cause me to break out. This homemade stuff hasn't caused any breakouts!

If you click on the link, the author has a breakdown of how much you save per year by making your own detergent, and how much the cost of one batch ends up being. I made one batch, and put about a third of it into an empty All Free&Clear container we had. The other two thirds are in a covered bucket in our garage. It takes us about a month to go through the All detergent, which leads me to believe it'll take us about three months to go through my homemade batch. My guess would be that the ingredients will last us at least another three batches - making an entire year!

I'm so excited to be able to cross off "laundry detergent" from our grocery list AND save us some money in our monthly budget!

Now of course - onto some Jude goodness! He's walking up a storm, and is more often choosing to walk rather than crawl. He can recognize (and obey) commands like, "Can I have that?" and "Close the door, please." We're working with him to say, "More," and "Up," because when he wants more, or wants out of his high chair, he whines - and that's just grating. He responds to those words, but hasn't said them yet.

He's developing the skill of throwing a temper tantrum, and I'm developing a skill of walking away from said temper tantrum. The kid arches his back, throws his head back, and wails. Maybe this makes me a bad Mom, but I shrug my shoulders, say "let me know when you're finished," set him down safely, and walk away. Once he's stopped, I address whatever it was that was bothering him.

He's been a little under the weather, so the past couple of nights haven't been great for him sleeping, but he seems to have this "putting yourself to sleep" thing down pat. He's not even interested in us rocking him to sleep at night, he'd rather us lay him down after we pray for him, and let him get cozy on his own. Shawn and I are both really excited about this, but are also a little sad at missing out on that cuddle time with him.

The major downside of all this is trying to figure out how to get him to take naps on Wednesdays and Fridays when he's at work with us. We used to be able to rock him to sleep in our arms, and then kind of do work one-armed while he took a nap. He's refused to nap for either of us this past week - screaming his head off instead. We're still not sure what to do - pack and play in our offices, maybe (but do we really want to lug in a pack and play along with all his other stuff, and can we afford to go out and buy two more just to keep in our offices)? Shorter work days (an option I don't think our bosses would be thrilled about)? Suffering through an entire day without a nap until we can get him home and lay him down?

I honestly don't know - what would you guys do?

Jude's starting to recognize pictures of people, which is so much fun. We got a Christmas card from the Williams' a few days ago, and I was letting Jude play with it. He kept pointing to Jonah's face, and I would say, "That's Jonah! That's your friend Jonah!" Then Jude's body would spaz in joy, and he'd hit the picture with both hands, doing his little happy dance. He also likes pointing at Mommy's nose, at pictures in books, at the television, and at anything else that captures his attention.

Speaking of which - it appears a candle has captured his attention - I should probably go address that, huh?

old school sunday

I've decided that it would be fun to post pictures/videos/etc. of the pre-Jude Maurers. I was looking through some old photos on my computer last night, and felt a wave of nostalgia that I wouldn't describe as "missing the past" (because the past had no Jude in it, and well...that just won't do), but more as "fascination with the past." What did I do with all my time? How did I ever get along without sewing? What did we do with all the space in our house not filled with plastic toys? And most importantly - why, oh why didn't I take more naps?!

In my perusing of old photos, I found these two videos and watched them at least three times each. These were taken with two of my small group girls (Brittany and Sara), after we'd finished shoveling poop at a therapeutic horse barn. I think the girls were in 7th or 8th grade at this point, and we were just being goofy to waste time. As I was watching these videos, Shawn said something along the lines of, "How is that not embarrassing to you?"

To be perfectly honest, I have no good answer to that. So Brittany and Sara, I'm sorry if this is embarrassing to you, and I'll gladly take them down if that's the case. Something tells me you'll be just as amused and delighted as I was when I watched them. There's something special about those girls (and not "quit eating the paste" special. Uniquely created by God to do amazing things for Him special).

hear ye, hear ye!

After much deliberation, stressing, number crunching, number throwing out the window, and most importantly - faith - Shawn C. and Jennifer S. Maurer have jointly decided that as of (approximately) June 1, 2010, Jennifer will become a full time stay at home Mom (i.e. - work from home Mom).

Shawn and I have been discussing and working towards me staying home since we were pregnant with Jude, and finally took the leap of faith a few months ago to officially tenure my resignation. Because my job's busy season falls in line with the school calendar, the best time for me to leave (for the sake of the ministry) is the end of May. Not to mention that we're not entirely sure how we're going to pull this off financially, so a few extra months to make cuts and build savings is nice.

I feel strongly that because Shawn's in ministry (thus requiring significantly more time/energy/stress/time/time/time...did I mention time?) than the typical 40 hour/week job, the ONLY way our family will remain healthy is if I stay home. Shawn's hours and schedule varies widely from day to day, and our children and family need stability. I also want to stay home so that I can be the primary person who cares for the home (laundry, dishes, vacuum, cooking, etc.). Right now, Shawn and I split those duties somewhere around 65/35, and I hate it. Shawn works really hard during his days (and sometimes nights) at work, and I wish that his time at home could be relaxing, quality time. At the moment, his time at home is spent helping me catch up on housework, and doing church work (since he keeps Jude on Mondays and Fridays so I can work in the office).

We're both stretched to what feels like our maximum capacity right now, with life only asking more and more of us. Something has to give, and it will NOT be our marriage, our family, or Shawn's ministry.

Instead, we've chosen to sacrifice a lot of luxuries we've enjoyed up until now - eating out, nice cell phone packages, remodels on the house, and many more things that we're still trying to figure out. Shawn and I both feel, however, that those sacrifices are well worth a loving marriage, kids who don't rebel because of absent parents, and a well rounded and effective ministry at Pinedale.

While we settled on this decision a few months ago, there is still a part of me that has mixed feelings about it. The career-driven woman in me feels a little insecure that my topics of conversation will revolve around poop and sleeping habits. The girl who grew up with very little money in me is afraid of financial instability and sad at not being able to buy frivolities for myself any longer. However, the wife in me knows that someone has to take care of my husband. Someone has to minister to him and his heart, so he can more effectively minister to others. The mother in me knows that there is no other healthy option for our family.

We're both looking forward to this transition in our lives, but we're also a little scared about how we're going to pull it off. I suppose we can look at this next step as an adventure. An adventure that holds a lot of uncertanities, fear, and hopefully faith - but an adventure that we'll be taking...together.

...and he's off

It appears we have ourselves a walker here in the Maurer house. Jude can walk short distances (like between Mommy and Daddy, or from Mommy to a toy) ALL by himself! I LOVE when he's walking towards me - I think it might be one of my favorite memories of him so far. His face is full of joy, his arms outstretched, and he almost leaps into my arms. Then our sweet Jude wraps his arms around me, buries his head in my chest, and lets me kiss the top of his head and tell him how proud I am of him.

It's so sweet to watch him get more interactive, sweet, and fun. Shawn and I are both so excited about Christmas with him this year - those boxes and tissue paper should entertain him for a good three hours. :)

I also thought I'd include a couple of pictures I've been meaning to post:

on the homefront

Whew - things are hopping at the Maurer house! What with all the Christmas party attending, food baking, present buying, present wrapping, diaper sewing, snowfall hoping (accompanied by snowfall disappointment), and of course the ever vague etc. that seems to fill our time during the holidays, we have been busy!

As - I'm sure - have you, so I'll keep this short. Let's see - Jude's cuter today than he was yesterday. I haven't eaten his cheeks yet, but if he keeps getting sweeter, I might have to take a bite. He's taking two or three steps on his own right now, and will take six or seven steps between Mommy and Daddy. We've almost given up feeding him food from a spoon (except applesauce, that's still acceptable apparently), because he pretty much refuses anything that he can't feed himself. Jude's continuing to either not cry at all, or cry for less than two minutes for his naps, which is glorious.

That's all you get for now, because if you're like me, you have a gazillion things to do. And I will not be responsible for your Christmas presents not being wrapped this year. So turn off your computer, and go bake/wrap/eat/buy something.

'Tis the season, after all.

christmas gift list for people who love to sew

I read this post recently, describing a wish-list for the avid sewer (or even beginner sewer) in your life. It's amusing to me to see how much has changed in my life over a year. One year ago, I never would've found myself salivating over an adjustable dress form or vintage buttons. The phrase, "Oh gosh, that's way too expensive. I could make that for half the cost," rarely came across my lips, and there's no way I would've spent my spare time at my sewing machine. Funny how we change, huh?

Anyway - the link to this blog is NOT me dropping hints. Shawn and other friends and family do a pretty bang up job of gift giving already. I do, however, understand how difficult buying for a sewer can be when you know nothing about sewing yourself. So if you have a sewer in your life, take a peek at Gifts For People Who Love to Sew.

we interrupt this regularly scheduled blog posting

...to tell you that for BOTH of his naps today, I have laid Jude down in his crib awake, and he has fallen asleep on his own! With NO crying! NONE!

Here's the naptime routine we've established:

I take Jude back to his room, lower his crib rail, and turn on the radio static. Then I wrap him in a blanket, lay him in the crook of my arm, and sing "Baby Mine" to him. After I finish singing, I lay him down in his crib, put the crib rail back up, close the door, and leave. He's almost always awake when I lay him down, and he even watches me put the crib rail back up (I don't make eye contact - someone told me that making eye contact with a baby you're trying to put to sleep is one of the worst things you can do because it'll get them all riled up).

I started this whole thing about a week ago (we would rock him to sleep in the rocking chair before, then set him in his crib), and he cried for 30 minutes the first time. Then 25, then 20, then 10, then just a few whimpers, and now...

now, my friends! NO crying! And...AND....he slept for almost two hours for his morning nap. But I have a feeling that's just a fluke.

After one year, we finally have a baby who takes a nap without crying. Sing it with me, friends, "Oh happy day..."

christmas ornaments

Do you remember last year when we tried to have Jude "help" us hang ornaments?

Judging by his face alone - he seemed to enjoy this year much more thoroughly.
We charged Jude with hanging the sleigh bell from "Polar Express." So naturally, he flung it around, inspected it, and then hit Shawn in the face with it.
And then because his depth perception and fine motor skills are still a little shaky, Shawn hung the bell.
But we took this picture so that we can pretend that it was he who hung the bell.
At the moment, it appears that the tree is calling Jude's name. He'll be playing contentedly, stop, and just stare at the tree. Then slowly, he'll use the couch and loveseat to sidestep his way over to the tree. Once at the beloved tree, Jude stops and stares. And looks to see where I am, and if I can see him. If the coast is clear, he reaches out his pointer finger and pokes at the branches. This is usually where I catch him, and my "Jude, No!" has no affect on him. That's actually rare - he listens really well. I suppose the joy of grabbing an ornament and putting it in his mouth far surpasses risking a "no," from Mommy.

And maybe sometimes Mommy actually sees him creeping towards the tree, but thinks that his awe at the ornamented shrubbery is adorable, so maybe she sometimes doesn't tell him "no," right away. Maybe.

jude steps

I wouldn't quite say he's walking yet...but he HAS walked. Last night, Daddy was playing peek a boo from behind the couch while Jude was standing up (with me right behind him). In his excitement over seeing Daddy's fun face peeking out from the couch, he took like six or seven steps towards Daddy and did not fall down! His steps led him to the couch, where he threw his arms down on a cushion out of irrepressible excitement at seeing his Daddy. Ten minutes later, Jude also walked from me to our ottomon, which was another six or seven steps!

Like just about every milestone he's reached, he acted like it was no big deal and like I was totally embarassing him with all of my gushing. I swear, I completely expect his first full sentence to be, "Geez Mom, you're totally harshing my vibe," because that's the exact look he gives me when I get excited at his new skills.

And just as I suspected, it's the cutest little toddle I've ever seen in my life.

working like daddy

thanksgiving festivities!

With the exception of last year (when Jude was only two weeks old), Shawn and I have traveled to either Ohio or Indiana for every Thanksgiving of our marriage. Since we just traveled for Jude's birthday, we decided the wisest thing would be to stay home this year. After almost five years of marriage, it was time for me to make my first turkey ever! I used a recipe from my friend Katie, and Shawn and I both concur that it was ridiculously delicious.

Dinner for the three of us. Well, Jude ate applesauce and two green beans - so dinner for the two for the two of us:

Because we stayed home and I hadn't recently given birth, we were actually able to get our Christmas decorations up in a timely manner this year. Yay for timely manners! Our tree is up and decorated (with presents already underneath, no less!), our stocking are hung, our candles/nativity/santas/snowmen/etc. are out, the lights and garland on the outside of our home are hung, and our small tree by the front door and red chair pillows are out, too! It's amazing what you can done when you're home for Thanksgiving!

In the midst of all of that, I was also able to make a new tree skirt and stocking for Jude. Here's the tree skirt, which is actually reversible. The other side is that stripey candy cane pattern.

The tree, pre-ornamanents:
...And Jude's stocking is on the far right. I wanted to stick with the snowflake theme of mine and Shawn's and am mostly pleased with how it turned out. At the very least, it was significantly cheaper than buying a new stocking!
I hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving, and that you were able to spend time loving on your family. It's amazing to see how much more important holidays are to Shawn and I now, and I have to admit that because of Jude -this was one of my favorite Thanksgivings ever.

one year check up

Jude's weight is still in the 1st percentile, his height is in the 6th, and his head is in the 69th percentile. The doctor said (and I quote), "He's perfect. Just keep doing what you're doing."

That was said before Jude discovered how much fun the paper on the table could be. Mr. Destructo Pants can annihilate a space in forty-five seconds flat.

Jude's been pulling on his ears quite a bit lately, so I asked the doctor to check for an ear infection. His ears are perfectly clear, so it appears he's just discovered the two fun toys attached to his head.

Once we switched him from formula to whole milk, he started puking (and it was puke - not spit up) about once a day, so I asked about milk allergy. We tried lactose free milk for two weeks, but he seems to still be puking every couple of days. Any thoughts on what the deal might be? Could his stomach just be getting used to the change from formula?

And finally, Jude will sometimes hit his head (almost always when he's sleepy) on the wall, my leg, or anything else nearby. I've seen a lot of babies do this, but it concerned Shawn, so I wanted to ask. Our doctor said it's "within the realm of normal," as long as he doesn't hurt himself and continue hitting. We've found that if we mostly ignore the behavior, he'll stop.

And now I'll leave you - once again - with the words of our doctor. "He's perfect. Just keep doing what you're doing."