zach n kali

I love the environment.  I am thankful for the clean air I get to breathe and for a husband who knows what's recyclable off the top of his head.  I firmly believe in conserving our earth's precious resources.  But today my kitchen sink was dirty.  Very very dirty. So today I cleaned the kitchen sink with Clorox wipes.  About 20 of them.  I could have gotten out the sponges and the vinegar and the hot water and the baking soda, but today I needed something fast and convenient.  I needed something that I didn't have to worry about spilling and I needed to be readily available to run my football helmet wearing-ball wielding-potty training toddler to the bathroom.  Or snatch a fallen Sophie giraffe for my teething infant.  Or intercept a rogue ball headed toward said infant's head. I also was running short on time and low on energy, so I decided to make a smoothie for lunch.  But the dishwasher was full and I hate doing the dishes, plus ...

A funny thing happened to me about a year ago. I found out we were pregnant! With all the joy and excitement came something commonly called Pregnancy Brain. I've mentioned this before. Where before I could spend an hour telling Zach about the latest episode of "The Biggest Loser" (sad, but true), I now couldn't remember if I had watched it. My vocabulary was turning into one syllable words. And grocery shopping? If it wasn't written down, it wasn't bought. This unfortunately left us toiletpaperless several times. So writing definitely wasn't going to happen. I would stare at my journal or the computer screen and wait for words to magically appear. But they wouldn't. So I decided to give myself maternity leave. I knew that once our baby girl was born, my brain would return and I would be so inspired by the wonder of birth and new life that the words would just flow out of me. Ah... Hindsight is not only 20/20, it's often hilarious. Peyton was born ...

Pregnancy symptoms run the gamut.  There's everything from needing to pee all the time to your fingernails growing like magic.  There's nausea, there's heartburn, there's snoring.  I've been told that peanut butter and bananas are great first trimester foods because they taste the same coming up as going down and I'm pretty sure I've woken myself up snoring.  There are the mood swings in which you watch Sex in the City and find yourself crying uncontrollably (true story).  You might wake up in the middle of the night and say to yourself, "Hm... pizza sounds really good right now!" which might lead to the weight gain.  I remember a rhyme we learned at freshman orientation in college that went something along the lines of, "My back aches, my bra's too tight, my hips shake from left to right..."  I'm pretty sure that it was written by a pregnant lady. But the one that I want to focus on today is the, for lack of a better word, ...

Every person needs to find out what their reset button is.  It doesn't matter if you're a mom, a man, a woman, single, or married, everyone has a time when they need to just reset their day.  Maybe you missed your train, or your alarm clock didn't go off.  Maybe you got yelled at or got in a fight with your mom.  Sometimes your system just starts to crash, and the only way to avoid a complete hard drive failure is to reboot.  Mine  started to crash today after I accidentally fell asleep on the couch while Matty was playing nicely in the living room.  This should be the perfect time for a tiny cat nap, right?  Toddler plays quietly with his blocks and Mommy quickly dozes.  Anyone who has ever seen a toddler knows where this is going. Toddlers have something called "stealth mode".  It gives them the ability to a.) realize that mommy or daddy isn't paying attention, even when their back is turned, and b.) gives them the power to perform a...

My blog has been on a summer hiatus.  I usually like to write about the things that I've been thinking about, so this might lead you to believe that I've been doing very little thinking over the summer.  And you're partially right.  I've been spending my summer trying to be present, live in the moment, and enjoy the blessings I've been given.  Instead of writing, I traveled, took long naps, went swimming with my family, read a few books, and gained about 15 pounds (baby wanted ice cream, what can I say?).  And these things are all great!  But you won't learn half as much from life if you don't stop and reflect.  So to catch you up to speed... On June 11, a judge declared us to be a forever family - Zach, Kali, and Matthew Sean Hocking.  I literally cannot find the words to express what that day felt like, but surrounded by our family, we felt our Father in heaven and his angels rejoicing with us.  We were so blessed to have family visit fro...

Even though the secret's out already, I thought I'd wrap up my Old Wives Tales experiment.  Here are four more that I tried to see whether or not pink or blue lay in our future: Old Wives Tale 6:   if you're carrying high, break out the pink. If your bump is low, you're carrying a boy. Gender:  I feel like this one's a little too early to tell.  It's also hard not having anything to compare it to.  So I'll consider this one a draw.   Old Wives Tale 7:  If you feel less attractive now, then you are having a girl.  The belief is that baby girls steal their mothers' beauty.   Gender: I'm going to go girl on this one!  This is definitely an interesting time!  The person in the mirror is suddenly not matching your mental picture of yourself and it takes some adjustment.  Also the hormones are not helping my skin!  Girl all the way! Old Wives Tale 8:  If you have had severe morning sickness, you're having a ...

M and I are having one of those days.  He's acting like a 1 year old and I want him to understand me like a 5 year old.  Every time I turn around, something has been pulled off a shelf.  Every time I try to do something like empty the dishwasher, M needs me with sudden clinginess.  Instead of saying please, I constantly am reminding him not to whine.  His room is covered in books, clothes that he's pulled out of his drawer, and diapers (thankfully clean!).  I'm exhausted and ready to close my bedroom door and cry.  But instead I bend to pick up the books and realize that his daily flip calendar is still on March.  So I change it to today's date, and here was the verse: 1 Samuel 1:27 (NCV) "I prayed for this child, and the Lord answered my prayer and gave him to me." Then the tears came.  I have been praying for this sweet little boy since before I knew him.  It has always been my  heart's desire to be a mother, and he has heard ...