(Un)Forgetful Friday (diapers)

This was a few months ago when my oldest (now a little over 3) was still full-time in diapers because potty training had not been successful yet. I also have another one in diapers (16 months old at the time). So, needless to say, there are LOTS of diapers at our house. Braedon has been trying to drop his nap for about the past six or eight months. However, it is painfully obvious that he can't handle not having an afternoon nap. So, I have continued to try to enforce it. One day while he was supposed to be taking his nap, I heard him in there playing around. This is what I walk into (I had just finished stocking the diaper hanger full of diapers). Braedon turns around to look at me and says, "mommy, I want to sleep right here." That's my boy! As frusterating as it is sometimes, I wouldn't want him any other way. :-)

Weekly Check -Up

This was my last week of working outside the home so Tuesday was my official last day. Wow, I can't believe it. Additionally, Tuesday was the kids' last day at daycare. So, Braedon's class made him a sign...so sweet. I almost cried when I read it. As exciting as it is that I am going to be home with them full-time, transition is just always a little sad all around.

We have gotten in a bit of snuggle time and bible reading time. I also love this butterfly/flower file folder game I saw at Along The Way and had to try it out. Braedon had fun helping me put it together and playing with it.

I still need to implement the calendar time activities I talked about in the week in advance post for this week. I have made a little bit of progress. I finally got a color toner cartridge for our printer and downloaded the files. Now, I just have to print and laminate them. Getting out to do the laminating will be the tricky part since I am not getting out much these days.

We didn't start a new bible verse, we just stayed with the letter "A"...Psalm 17:8a, which says, "keep me as the apple of your eye." We reviewed it once or twice this week and Braedon can recite it to me on command. It is the neatest thing ever...he actually knows it just by going over it a couple of times.

Andrew and I talked about implementing family prayer time but are still deciding on what time of the day it makes most sense for us. We believe so much in the power of prayer and have plenty of personal prayer time. We also pray at dinner and with the kids before bed. But, we still feel like it is important to have a devoted family time of prayer. So, we are making it a priority.

Healthy Meal Idea (Tuna)

Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist. What I deem as healthy for me and my family may vary from yours depending on your family's nutrition needs. Let me also add that these meals are healthy for the most part. However, they may still contain some ingredients that aren't necessarily that good for you.

This lunch idea is a somewhat healthier twist on one of my old favorites...Tuna Salad, Whole Wheat Crackers, and Cucumber & Vinegar Salad. I can't take credit for it since it comes from my wonderful husband. I walked into this for lunch the other day and he said "I figured this could be your healthy meal idea and I even took pictures of it for you." Thanks, honey!

Tuna mix:
3 cans Tuna
1 tbs of mayonnaise
Salt
Black Pepper
Vinegar dressing to taste (from below)
Or, you could use bottled dressing, like Italian

Vegetable mix:
2 Cucumber
1/4 Red Onion
1 Pear
Apple Mint to taste (or whatever other herb you prefer)

Vinegar dressing:
12.7 oz Rice Wine Vinegar
Salt to taste
Black Pepper to taste
Sugar to taste


There are a couple of different ways this can be mixed up. We mixed the tuna mix and vinegar dressing together. Separately, we mixed the veggies with the vinegar dressing. So, as you can see from the picture it was like two salads. It could all be mixed together into one big salad but I haven't tried it that way. Or, I have also heard of a similar recipe where the Tuna is served in a sliced half of an orange or red pepper. If you don't like Tuna, don't worry just change it up with Chicken Salad or whatever else you do like.

I hope you can find the ideas useful!

Celebrating Marriage 4/24/2010

Saturday was our sixth anniversary and I can't believe it has been six years already. I truly have to say that this has been the most wonderful time of my life. Andrew loves me well and I appreciate him so much. Praise God for blessing me with such a wonderful husband! This was the neatest anniversary celebration we have had so far, I think! We have been wanting to do a bible study together...sort of like the kind that you would do in a small group but we would be our own little small group. So, we started off our date by going to Lifeway and picking out a study to do together. We had no topic in mind so we just started browsing. Soon, we decided to do a study on the minor prophits since Andrew is reading a book called "The Footsteps of the Messiah" and I thought they might compliment each other well. Also, I don't believe I have ever done a small group bible study in the old testament. So, we are looking forward to starting that soon. The rest of our date satisfied both of our desires. Andrew has a thing for 3D movies and I have a thing for dinner and talking. So, we saw Alice In Wonderland in 3D and then went to dinner at The Olive Garden. Andrew recently ran acrossed marriedlifeonline.com and The Great Date Experiment. After looking at it we decided that this was a perfect time to try out one of their "dates." It was so neat to just constantly have something to think and talk about to stay focused on each other. We had to wait for 30 minutes on a table. So, we pulled out the "date" and started talking about some of the questions and the time spent waiting was intentional...voila! I wanted so much to truly celebrate this precious gift of marriage that God has blessed us with. And, we did! It was a wonderful day. Thank you to my dear, sweet husband...the love of my life and the man of my dreams!

The Week in Advance (4/26/10)

This week, like the last few weeks, I need to be taking it easy as much as possible because of my placenta previa. Therefore, I am looking forward to lots of snuggle and reading time with my babies. Braedon is loving our new afternoon routine where we snuggle on the couch and read books until he falls asleep. Kaley is my little cuddle bug especially because she hasn't felt great lately (teeth, I think).

In addition to the snuggle and reading time, I have been itching to implement "calendar time", which I have been reading about on several different homeschool blogs. I am totally the sort of person that would put together everything I need for this entire calendar activity in one day if I had the capacity for that. But, since I can't do too much right now I have decided on two easy things I can put together and implement now. They are the days of the week and the weather activity from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

I really like the idea of incorporating a song into the days of the week lesson and I like the days of the week song she refers to. We also have one that we like that goes like this:


Every single day of the week I like to read a book
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Every single day of the week I like to sing a song
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Every single day of the week I go to bed and sleep
and when I wake up, it's the very next day,
the very next day of the week


Maybe we will use both, or one or the other...we'll see.


There is also a neat letter/bible verse cirriculum at Totally Tots. We started with "A" last week and have been reciting the verse and putting the cut out words in order to create the verse (sort of like a puzzle).

The kids and I will have some bible reading time incorporated into our snuggle time. As a family, we will continue to have family bible reading time following dinner. Andrew and I would also like to implement some intentional prayer time as a family. So, we will be discussing what this looks like for us and hopefully implementing that this week.

Lastly, this is my last week of working outside the home two days a week, which was reluctantly ok'd by the doctor just because I only have two days left. I am not quite sure what he would have said if I had been planning on keeping that schedule. But, I am glad it is a non-issue. We are so excited! Thank God so much that His plan for our lives involves me being at home full-time!

Yellow River Game Ranch

We visited a game ranch with Chris, Anna, and Zen recently. The kids loved it. Kaley kept thinking the crackers that we were trying to feed the animals were for her. It was pretty funny when we tried to get her to give an animal a cracker, she would start to hold the cracker out but then take it back and put it in her mouth! To see more pictures from our fun day, click here.

Easter 2010

We had the neatest Easter this year. All through resurrection week we played a game with resurrection eggs where each plastic egg had a prop inside of it to symbolize part of the resurrection story. You can read more about it here. Braedon LOVED playing the "egg game" and after a couple times could almost tell us the entire story. We also had daily bible readings (but we did miss a couple of days). On the Saturday before Easter, we colored eggs and had a little egg hunt in the backyard. On Easter Sunday, after a wonderful service at church, we had a great visit and great lunch/dinner with Anna's family. To see pictures from various events surrounding Easter, check out our Easter Flickr set.

Kaley Cuteness

I am not sure that words can adequately describe how much I love these pictures of Kaley. The latest thing that she loves to do is to walk a ways away from us and then turn around to face us. We put out our arms and tell her to come here. She takes off running with the cutest smile on her face and just runs into our arms. It is adorably cute and I am so glad we caught some good pictures of the action.

Braedon's 3rd Birthday

We had a little party for Braedon's 3rd birthday. We had a really nice gathering of closest family and friends, great food, and "birthday party cake"! To see more pictures from Braedon's special day, check out the Flickr set.

(Un)Forgetful Friday (bubbles)

This is one of those stories that I told a friend and she said "I am sure you were so mad in the moment but wouldn't it be fun to have a picture because now looking back it is really funny." My kids go through phases, as all kids do. It had been months since we have played with bubbles and now all of the sudden everyday for days in a row Braedon was asking for bubbles. So, the bubbles were out on the kitchen counter. Now, the bottle had the lid on it and was pushed all the way to the back of the counter. But, it was well within reach of a three year-old standing on a chair. I was on the phone with the bank so I was a little distracted and apparently not thinking too clearly. When I saw him going for the bubbles I actually had the thought, "hm, this might not be such a bad idea because he will keep himself busy for a few minutes." Everything was fine for about five minutes and then Braedon thought it would be super fun to dump the entire bottle of bubbles on our floor (not carpet, think--hard surface). Immediately thereafter, Kaley thinks the puddle on the floor looks cool and moves in for a closer look while I think Braedon was trying to get away. They both slipped and fell into the middle of the puddle of bubbles and started screaming. It took me a minute to react because I was trying to take it all in and figure out the best course of action to keep from falling myself. They both tried to get up a couple of times and kept slipping and falling back down. It really was a pretty chaotic mess for a few minutes. Thankfully none of us got hurt and after baths and the floor wiped up you wouldn't even know it happened.

Receiving Help

I have placenta previa and have been experiencing some issues that come along with that for about the last 6 weeks. At each appointment the advice was to take it easy, no heavy lifting, etc... So, I started to take it easy a little but wasn't able to take it too easy since there are two little people under 4 years old that I have to take care of. Then, at my appointment two weeks ago, the OB says, "life for you really needs to slow down and you need to be laying down about 90% of the time", to which my reaction was WHAT!?! That is obviously a doctor's order that is not manageable for us by ourselves so we had to reach out for help. However, I am reluctant to receive help from others because I want so much to be a giver; to serve others. So, I feel rather inadequate being served. And I really feel like I am being a burden to someone else if I receive help from them. But, over the past couple of weeks I totally have had to get over myself and receive help from the wonderful people that God has placed in our lives. Over the past couple of weeks, I realized that the blessings I am receiving through people wanting to help is not only serving the obvious need of taking care of me and my growing baby, but it is truly blessing my children as well. Instead of being stuck inside all day while mommy lays on the couch they are getting out of the house, having more playdates, going to new places and being loved on by others. It is also a huge blessing to my husband because his wife and kids are being loved on and cared for while he is not able to be home. Praise God for all of the wonderful people He has placed in our lives!

Vision

I was thinking of giving up this blog because I seem to never have time to update it. However, in considering that, I realized that I really just need a plan and to make it a priority. As random of a gal as God created me to be, I like to have the freedom to post whatever I want whenever I want. But at the same time, in order to actually get something posted, I need some structure. Additionally, if I am going to prioritize blog-posting then it has to glorify God. I figured one way to do that is by adding an element of practical value to my life, as well as to others. All that to say, let me introduce my new posting schedule and topics. Don’t worry, there will still be randomness but I can’t tell you about that or else it wouldn’t be random {grin}.

Monday-The Week in Advance, what is God’s purpose of this week, how can I bless my husband, how can I love on and teach my children in new and creative ways, how can we be a blessing to others, what do I really want to get accomplished this week?
Tuesday-Celebrating Differences, what about marriage or the children’s relationships can be celebrated, improved upon, or turned into learning experiences?
Wednesday-Healthy Recipe of the Week, one of the goals of our family is to eat healthier. So, I will be researching new, healthy, quick meal ideas and trying them out.
Thursday-Weekly Check Up, how has this week been purposeful?
Friday-(Un)Forgetful Friday, funny stories, accomplishments, experiences, or kid talk that I don’t want to forget
Saturday-Pictures

When will I be starting to post on this schedule? My goal is beginning on Friday because I already have a funny story for the first edition of (Un)Forgetful Friday.

Where Have I Been?

Besides a couple of recent posts, it has been about two months since I have posted anything on this blog. There are many reasons for that but none of which are that I don't have anything to share or don't want to share. I have been a little overwhelmed with lots of life's circumstances that are happening in our family right now. Nothing tragic, for which I am extrememly grateful. But, they are circumstances that have added busyness and stress to our lives. One of the many things I love about God is that He uses my circumstances to stretch me and help me grow and mature. Wow, I have certainly realized that I have MUCH growing up and maturing I need to do. Thank God that He is not finished with me yet. Over the past few months of feeling overwhelmed, God has continued to guide me to the things that are most important. My priorities have been a little out of balance and are beginning to move back to the appropriate order: 1. God, 2. husband, 3. kids, 4. others. In bringing my priorities back in line, a few things had to go away and a few new things had to be added to our daily lives. The first cut...Facebook (click here if you didn't see my post). Secondly, I considered giving up this blog. But, instead I have a new vision for it that I think will provide sanity and structure for me and bless others. Once I have the outline in place I will share it...hopefully by the end of this weekend. In making God number one in my life and the center of our family we have instituted family daily bible reading time to which we need to add prayer (baby steps). In researching homeschooling, I have been praying for God to keep me focused on Him and make Him the center of our homeschool. Through another blog I follow I found a bible verse teaching activity that I think I can introduce to Braedon now. I am excited to start that soon. Andrew and I have talked about a book/bible study we can do together but we still need to go shopping and choose a book. These are all really exciting changes to our routine that I believe will help us in responding more appropriately to the stress of life's circumstances.

Preschool Homeschool Blogs

I am having an awesome time blog-surfing preschool sites to come up with fun, creative activities for the kiddos. Not to mention, it is never too late to get prepared for homeschooling my little ones. The added benefit is that a lot of the blogs I have been surfing are having great giveaways...like this one from Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations. The Preschool Mailbox Superbook sounds like it is full of great ideas. Check out Jolanthe's blog and see her great giveaways and wonderful homeschool ideas.

No Room For Facebook

After much deliberation with myself, I have come to the conclusion that my life has no room for Facebook. I am a bit of an extremist when it comes to decisions like this...it takes me a minute to make the decision but as soon as I do I want to jump all in. Having said that, I am not one of those people who can leave their account active and just never get on...I would much rather just deactivate my account. So, at some point this evening (probably right before bed), I will deactivate my Facebook account. But not to worry, if you want to catch up with me I am keeping this blog and would love for you to visit me here anytime. I also would love to hear how you are doing so please feel free to email me or leave a comment. I have enjoyed being Facebook friends with you and hope that you are reading this post so that you don't think I just de-friended you. :-)