Jen Russum

Helpful Bible Resources

July 27, 2016

Here is a round-up of helpful Bible resources I have collected over the past few years. I hope some of these articles and tools help increase your joy in God's Word... 10 questions to ask yourself on your birthday or at the start of a new year... The slacker's Bible reading plan... A two-year Bible reading plan with catch-up days built in... How to help your child study God's Word... 12 gospel passages for meditation... How long it actually takes to read each book of the Bible... A catechism for young children... Write the Word journal... My very favorite Study Bible... And a gorgeous journaling Bible... ... Read more

How {not} to potty-train…

July 25, 2016

Zianne is officially potty-trained... mostly. Except that she still has accidents a few times a week. And sometimes she goes into the bathroom to use the toilet and somehow pees all over the floor instead. And she sleeps in a diaper at night. Many moms might rave about the three-day method of potty training, but I'm here to tell you about the 63 day method... Potty-training is hard. And tiring. And I don't believe children actually potty-train in three days. Maybe yours did, but I don't think most do. We did the whole stay-at-home-for-three-days thing. It went fine. I think most children, if they are old enough, can get the hang of the toilet in three-ish days. But then we ran into a problem... I had to go places. We were taking a weekend trip to Arizona. We brought the little potty and kind of used it while we were there. Then we came back home and I still had to go places... you know, like the gym and the grocery store. We needed to eat. So then I used pull-ups for a week or two, so I wouldn't go insane. Then my mom came to visit and said pull-ups were confusing Zianne, so we stopped using them. The next day Z did her first outing in underwear... one hour at the library with grandma. It was a success. This only happened because I had extra adult assistance. Now I would say Zianne is 90% potty trained. We are done with the little potty. She can go on the big toilet by herself. She only drips pee on the toilet 80% of the time. She only pees on the floor around the toilet about once per week. She poops on the potty unless she's swimming. If we swim, there will be some kind of accident. I've actually considered writing "clean poop out of swimsuit" into my weekend schedule. Z wears underwear during her nap, but I still put her in a diaper at night. Up until this week, she was almost always dry in the morning, so I ditched the night diaper. She wet the bed. Two nights in a row. Now she is back in a diaper and it's soaking every morning. I don't know... But I do know this... anyone who says "You should potty-train before your next baby comes!" or "Won't it be so nice not to have two in diapers?" is crazy. Do you know what's much harder than having two in diapers? Potty training. Because now I have only one in diapers and that sweet little baby has to suffer through potty-training with us. She hangs out in the shopping cart by herself, while I stand in the bathroom doorway at the back of the grocery store, trying to keep my eye on both kids at once. Talitha has been set down on the floor of the public bathroom in extreme emergencies. It's a painful confession, but what else is a mom to do? I have no advice on how to potty train. In fact, what I've written here is probably everything you should NOT do. But when it comes down to it, my daughter is 90% potty trained. It only took two months, but if this were potty-training school, that would be an A-. Seems respectable enough to me... ... Read more

All By Myself

July 20, 2016

"All by myself..." That's Zianne's reply when I try to help her with anything. Getting dressed? She wants to do it herself. Climbing into her car seat. She can handle it alone. Going to the bathroom. She declines my assistance and I later find a trail of pee around the toilet. The girl is 2.75 years of age and she doesn't need me at all. Or so she thinks... I vacillate in my own opinion toward her independence. I love to see her developing autonomy, and sometimes it's very helpful when she can get things out of drawers on her own or put away her toys with little help. But at other times I find myself frustrated as I wipe urine from the floor or we are moving at a snail's pace in the grocery store parking lot. But then I remember where she most likely inherited this independent attitude... There's a good chance Kelly Clarkson wrote the song "Miss Independent" about me, because for my whole life I've wanted to do things "all by myself." I like to get things done on my own timeline according to my own plan. The word "collaboration" secretly gives me a bit of anxiety. I remember crying as I worked on my science fair project in first grade because my mom tried to help me when I simply wanted to figure it out on my own. Or take running, for example. I'm a fairly avid runner, but I typically go to the gym, get on a treadmill, and pound out my miles alone. The thought of joining a running group sounds dreadful to me. A couple of years ago, I signed up for a local run a few months after Zianne was born. I was excited to get back in running shape, so I set a pace goal for the race. The morning of the event, I woke up, drove to the race, ran 4.2 miles as fast as I could, beat my goal time by almost three minutes, got back in my car, stopped by Chick-fil-a for breakfast, and went home. The girls in my small group thought it was so funny that I wasn't running with anyone, but the thought never crossed my mind. I had a goal. I didn't need a companion. But then it happened... the one time I didn't achieve my goal. I trained for the OC Half Marathon this past spring, and the night before the race I couldn't sleep at all, and ended up running about four minutes slower than I hoped to. I felt so defeated as I crossed the finish line. Micah was at home watching the girls, and I sulked on the way back to my car. My friend, Ashlee, ran the race too. It was her first ever half, and she crushed it. She said after the race that running it with her husband by her side was the very best part. Over the next few days I kept thinking of Ashlee's smiling face in an Instagram photo at the end of the race, her husband in his race bib, standing proudly by her side. Why do I always try to do everything alone? The question lurked quietly in the back of mind. Finally, I did what I never do, and I asked Micah for help. I wanted to run another half marathon and try to PR while I was still at the peak of my training. I signed up for another event three weeks later and asked Micah, who is an amazing runner, to be my pacer. A week before the race, we did a final training run around our neighborhood. I let him take the watch, and I followed his lead. He kept us perfectly on pace. The next week we stood at the starting line of another half marathon together. We ran side-by-side for 2 hours and 8 minutes, and I achieved a new PR thanks to his help. I may still be Miss Independent by nature, but it's good to remember I don't have to do everything "all by myself." Now if I can only teach Zianne the same lesson... ... Read more