"UN"Potty-training

There are a lot of things that I try to make my kids do. I try to get them to eat healthy, I try to get them to stop fighting with each other, I TRY to convince them that I know whats best for them at any point in time, etc. So all-in-all I'd say that I'm a pretty pro-active parent. (Smile and nod) But there are some things that I just don't do. One of those things is potty-training. I don't want the stress, I don't want to nag, I don't want to clean up pee/poo on my floor... I just don't wanna... and you can't make me! (Insert arm crossed stopping with a giant pouty face)

Now my blatant potty training defiance doesn't mean that my kids will eventually be sent off to college with a suitcase full of young adult sized cloth diapers, or that I'll receive phone calls from elementary school counselors daily because the teachers refuse to continue to wipe my kids butt. Instead, they do what all children do every day with virtually everything in life.... they figure it out.

I call my method "un"potty-training. I completely leave it up to the child. We've found that its relatively stress free for all involved when we let them handle it themselves and tell us. We keep them in diapers and take them off if they say that they want to go potty but we don't make the actual transition to undies until they are dry every day for a week. This goes for night time as well, which we've found takes several additional months for them to grasp than day time pottying. Approaching it this way keeps it easy for us. I don't mind diapers, we use cloth, it doesn't cost extra money. We almost always have a baby in diapers anyway, so it's not like getting the kids potty trained according to our own schedule would make much of a difference. The best thing is that we very rarely have to deal with accidents. In the time that they were "proving" their abilities during the "week of dry diapers" they magically figured out that they need to go potty as soon as they felt prompted to by their body, because if they didn't, they would pee where they didn't want to. (I don't know the psychology behind it, again... smile and nod). My oldest two were in undies completely around 3.5 and my third was in undies at 2.5!

I am by no means saying that this method works for everyone. Heck, it's not even a real method (I don't think, I'll live in my ignorant bliss thinking that I created it). But ultimately, the hands off, child led approach seems to work really well for our kids.

2013= Cha, cha, cha, CHANGES!

Well we've made it, this morning we all ushered in a new year. 2013! Sure to be a year of excitement and growth. But for the Dresser clan it's going to be a year of BIG changes!

If you recall several months ago I mentioned my husbands graduation from college which was coupled with the ever dreaded "finding a job" waiting game. We applied to every job we saw, every state possible, fully intending on it being a 6 month+ endeavor. Two months later, we have a job offer! However, not only do we have a job offer but we have ACCEPTED a job offer!

I would love to be able to say that the job is in Illinois and we'll be able to stay by all of our new friends and our amazing church, but unfortunately I can't. Kyle's new job begins February 4th! So that means, my diligent readers, that our family will be setting up some new roots in Scottsbluff, Nebraska!! Where, you ask, is Scottsbluff, NE? It is located smack dab in the middle of nowhere on the western line of Nebraska, 40 minutes from Wyoming and 3 hours from Denver, CO.

It is a town of about 17,000 people connected to a town (Gering, NE) of about 6,500 people or so and then not much else for about 50-80 miles in any direction! 

We're incredibly excited for this opportunity to start our lives over. While we will miss the friends that we have made, the family we have here, and our church that has changed so much in our lives we realize that this move is probably the best one that we can make. It will afford us the opportunity to get plugged in somewhere else, live the simple life that we desire SO much and experience a new GORGEOUS area. 

So what's next? Well... January 8-10th we're going to fly out to Denver (the closest major airport) and make the 3 hour drive to Gering, where Kyle will fill out his new hire paper work and we will begin the search for a place to live! Our goal is to all move out there together, but understand that if that is not possible we will move when we find a place.

I would ask that you just be in prayer for all of us. This is a big move that will come with big adjustments for all of us and that is difficult with little kids. We trust and know that God is sovereign and will not lead us where he doesn't want us, but it's still a little scary! Pray that we will have a quick and easy adjustment and that the house search is easy so we can all move together and not be separated.

Oh and if anyone has any boxes that would be AWESOME! haha....