Preparation

Tanner and I have been married a whole three months now and we are growing at an exponential rate due to the many changes that marriage brings and through the grace of the Lord. I love Tanner and I love having so much love in our little home and with all of that love brings a greater desire to start a family and bring even more love into our home. I would not go as far as to say I am baby hungry but the thought crosses my mind much more frequently than it ever used to. However, we both feel that it is not quite time yet for many reasons. Rather it is a time for preparation!

Having studied Home and Family Living in college I was very blessed to take classes about child development, strengthening marriage and family, family finance and other great classes that I thoroughly enjoyed. During those classes I remember thinking "how could I have ever been a good mom without knowing all of this?". Needless to say, I learned a lot. However that was a few years ago and I have not been able to use all of the good stuff I learn therefore that all to famous saying "you don't use it you lose it" comes in.

My goal from now until we start our family I am going to put myself through an intensive training program. Heaven knows I will still feel like I have no clue what I am doing when that first baby comes but I want to prepare myself in ways that I know I can.

1. Learn to cook better. I love cooking when I have plenty of time and resources but cooking with not so much time and resources...not nearly as much fun. I want to learn how to! I am going to make my own cook book with a collection of recipes that Tanner and I love that are easy and delicious so I am not digging through the many cookbooks and feeling overwhelmed.

2. Get myself (and Tanner) healthy! I am not in love with junk food, but I would say my weakness is not getting as much fruits and veggies as I should. I also have a BIG weakness of not drinking the recommended amount of water that I should. I want my body to be as healthy as ever so that my body can handle pregnancy well. We have been doing pretty good at getting to the gym a couple times a week but we can always be doing better.

3. Go through my college books and relearn that many and amazing things I learned about child development, strengthening marriage and family, family finance etc.

4. Trust in the Lord. My most recent motto is "Live by faith." I often find myself letting my fears get the best of me; fear of not being able to have children, fear of not having enough money, fear of something happening to Tanner, (I will stop cause it is a terrible habit that I am breaking). I am choosing to live by faith. As I make this choice everyday it is so much easier to see the Lord's miracles in our lives. He watches over us and has His hands in all aspects of our lives. Strengthening my love and trust with the Lord is my biggest preparation to motherhood.

We are having a blast with just the two of us for now. It is such a unique time in life and we are loving every second of it!