Ray[mond]s of Faith

Pure & Lovely

2011-08-21T22:11:00.000-04:00

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." Phil 4:8

I'm guilty of often glossing over the depth of this oft quoted verse, but today, when attending a revival at my cousin's church, I was became moved and motivated by it. I have been disobeying my God about a particular issue. Really, I've been behaving like my toddler, digging my heels in, writhing away, using that slithery "dead weight" posture that toddlers are so good at, kicking and crying, "No, no, NO!" I've been using every excuse to continue behaving in this sinful way.

"God, don't take this away from me. I love you. It doesn't hurt my relationship with you. It's totally separate from my relationship with you."

Hearing that verse from Philipians today though made me realize that I need to do what I try to get that wild toddler to do, and go to my God, repenting, and lay down this trivial, selfish little thing at his feet and walk away from it. That verse is the standard by which I should measure all of the things that I allow into my life. If anything is not beneficial to my relationship with my God, then it is detrimental to it.

IBS Update

2011-08-08T14:32:00.000-04:00

I am seven weeks into my new plan for handling the IBS that I've suffered with since I was 16. I needed to share that it is going great! I feel like a different person!

I went to the beach with my mom and the kids for a week, my hubby stayed home to work on our remodeling, and I was able to travel without worrying about where we would stop if I suddenly needed a restroom. If you are an IBS sufferer, you know how big a deal that is! Wow! Although I don't like to drink it a lot anyway, I also have been able to drink coffee (a big trigger for me) every other morning or so with no interference with my daily life.

IBS sufferers, there is hope! Keep trying until you find something that works for you!

Book Review: PrayerWalk by Janet Holm McHenry

2011-07-21T13:37:00.003-04:00

As a mother of three young children, I often find that prayer and exercise often fall by the wayside many days. When I received my copy of PrayerWalk: Becoming a Woman of Prayer, Strength and Discipline, I was interested to see how another mom built up her body and her relationship with God in this one activity.

PrayerWalk was an interesting read, beginning with the story of how the author, Janet Holm McHenry, began prayerwalking. The book is written in a friendly, conversational tone, and goes on to include useful information on such topics as the benefits of walking, strategies for making time to prayerwalk, walking safely and comfortably, and prayerwalking partners under the section heading “Part 1: Becoming a Woman of Strength and Discipline.” The second portion, entitled “Part 2: Becoming a Woman of Prayer” includes encouraging food for thought on how to pray, who to pray for and praising God, as well as a chapter detailing some prayers answered as a result of the author’s prayer walking. My favorite inclusions are at the back of the book, where you can find study questions (including scriptural references) and a 30-Day PrayerWalking challenge with a daily prayer focus and fitness challenge.

I enjoyed PrayerWalk, finding it to be very meaty for a small book and very easy to read. Ms. McHenry is a humble champion for the reader who desires to make some changes in his or her spiritual and physical lives. If you want to read about Ms. McHenry’s plan for doing just that, you can get a peek at the first chapter of PrayerWalk here or purchase the book here.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

A Tough Day Full of Blessings

2011-07-11T21:41:00.000-04:00

Today was TOUGH. A family that we are very close to is traveling this week and we are house-sitting. Because all our kids are very little, we opted to have all of us sleep in the master bedroom instead of letting any of them sleep upstairs in the kids rooms. They also have three dogs, who are wonderful, but might frighten them a little bit if they awoke to a big, lickity German Shepherd on top of them. :-) Anyhow, we brought the Pack N Play for the toddler, the crib mattress to put on the floor for the preschooler, and planned for the baby to sleep with us. (We are sometimes co-sleepers.)

The morning went something like this:

3:00am: Preschooler wets bed. (Guess what sorry Mama forgot to bring a change of sheets. Yeah, this one.)

3:30am: Hubby gets ready for work. Dogs bark. Preschooler is talking. Loudly. A Lot.

4:00am: Toddler hears preschooler talking, wakes up and starts babbling.

4:30am: Everyone is still talking. Only the baby and the dogs are asleep.

5:00am: I find my phone to call hubby. It's dead. I have no charger with me. His number is long distance from their house. Baby wakes up and I feed him perched on the edge of the bathtub while the preschooler potties and the toddler is bombarded with a never-ending chorus of "Don't touch that"'s.

5:30am: I can't call my hubby. I don't know where the dog's food is. The preschooler and toddler are STILL talking, and I let them get up and feed them a piece of cheese while I try to find the dog food.

5:45am: Still can't find the dog food. Everyone's still awake. Still can't get in touch with my hubby. I pack the kids in the van and head for home to get my charger and a few hours of sleep. I thank God on the way home that I have three little ones to keep me up at night.

6:30am: We are home. Everyone is asleep. My phone is charging. I found out from my hubby where the dog food is. I pray that everyone will stay asleep. They do, and I sleep too. (Praise the Lord!)

10:30am: I wake the kids up, feed them breakfast and give them baths because the toddler has an Unknown Sticky Gross Substance in her hair. Get them dressed, feed the baby. Discover that the baby has a tick in his scalp! Panic ensues, as I've never had to remove a tick before. Google tells me how, and the procedure is successful.

11:30am: We feed the dogs and cats, let them out and hang out for a bit. I find out from my mom that we can use my dad's boss's beach house for a week at the end of July while my hubby works on home renovations. YAY!

3:30pm: We get an unexpected check in the mail from the congregation at a friend's church where my hubby had preached in May. YAY!

6:45pm: I snuggled up with three beautiful little ones, read a devotional and half of The Lorax.

It's 9:35 now, and as I look over all that I just wrote, I am so thankful. A night with little sleep, a tick in the scalp, forgotten charger and sheets... Every day cannot be perfect, or even good, but it's so important to recognize the blessings. The check and the beach house are blessings, yes, but the real blessings are the people God has put in my life.

My IBS Cure

2011-07-06T09:21:00.000-04:00

I wouldn't really say that I'm "cured," but I will share with you, as I promised yesterday, the little regimen that has changed my life in the last few weeks.

I'll start by saying that I am not good at remembering to take medication. I am particularly good at forgetting to take medicine that tastes bad. :-) Yes, I've even forgotten many, many days to take my prenatal vitamins when I was pregnant, and almost never took them while nursing. However, I was/am tired of being a slave to this illness! Secondly, my initial IBS symptoms appeared when I was experiencing extreme stress and anxiety, and is almost always worst when I am nervous, and I often get anxious/nervous about being sick, so it's really an ugly cycle.

I'm not saying this will cure everyone, or even anyone else but me. However, if you are suffering from IBS-D and you know that anxiety is one of your major triggers, it may help. So, here are the things that I am doing:

The "meds":

Sustenex (probiotic)
St. John's Wort (2 capsules/day)
Prenatal Vitamin
B-Complex Vitamin (this is the yucky tasting one!)

The non-meds:

Walking almost every single evening with my husband and kids. Most nights it's about a mile.
Avoiding a lot of greasy foods. I still eat some occasionally, but it's really not worth the pain.

The results:

I did this for one week inconsistently (the forgetting to take pills thing) and two weeks infallably, and for the last two weeks have not had any attacks. I had not been two weeks without an attack for the last two years!

My IBS Story

2011-07-05T22:16:00.000-04:00

Since the spring of the year that I turned 16, I have suffered from Irritable Bowel Syndrome. It was triggered initially by stress (peer issues), and I spent the last 12 years enslaved to my illness. I could not go anywhere that there wouldn't be a restroom and I missed many important events because I was sick. I took Immodium for almost every single day of my junior and senior years of high school, as well as almost every day at college. I was briefly on anti-anxiety medication, to see if it helped, and it did some, but made me feel like I was not in control of my body and mind. It removed my "filter" and everything that came into my head went out of my mouth. (Not good in a business setting for sure, which is where I was at the time!)

However, three years ago, I experienced a beautiful reprieve from the pain and embarassment. Pregnancy! When I was pregnant with my first baby, Brooke, I felt amazing. It was like I wasn't sick anymore. I didn't have even a touch of morning sickness with her, and I could eat whatever I wanted (which I unfortunately did!) So, when I became pregnant with Lauren, 8 months after Brooke was born, I thought the good feelings would continue. Alas, they did not and I felt incredibly ill, morning sickness until almost mid-pregnancy, and my IBS was back in full swing. Then, four months after Lauren was born, I became pregnant with Sam, and my IBS got even worse. I rarely even made it to church in the last few months of that pregnancy, because I was so ill and didn't want to spend the service hiding in the bathroom. I also had incredibly bad morning sickness, again until around 20 weeks, and as soon as that let up, I developed some gallbladder pain.

But... I am excited to say that for the last three weeks, I've hardly been sick. I've been able to eat a few treats here and there that I wouldn't have normally been able to eat. I've been able to go to places without restrooms nearby and without needing to scope out bathrooms immediately upon arriving places. I've been able to spend time with friends without having to leave abruptly. I'm still tired, but we can blame that on the three month old. :-) Want to hear about my miracle cure? I'll tell you tomorrow!

Not A Creature Is Stirring

2011-06-30T21:58:00.000-04:00

It's quiet right now, all the children are sleeping and my hubby is off helping out a friend of ours. After a day that seemed like it would never end, it's nice to have a few moments of quiet. The day started with a preschooler who had wet the sheets, followed by a spilled mystery substance being spread around the house by tiny feet and naptime was interrupted by a toddler who has learned to remove her diaper... all before Daddy got home for dinner.

It's so easy to be thankful for the blessing of children when they're sleeping. It's not as easy when everyone is cranky, not the least of whom is Mommy, and you find yourself crying in the bathroom... while everyone else cries outside the bathroom door. (That didn't happen today, but it has!) However, we are blessed to have an awesome God, who loves us even when we are not the Mommies we want to be, or that he wants us to be. In those quiet moments, when we realize that the day was not what it could have been, and that although we want to blame the children's attitudes and behaviour, we know that ours did not help and maybe were worse than theirs, we can lay it all before our Lord and he will wash it all away. He will cleanse us and give us a fresh tomorrow. The circumstances of tomorrow may be no different than those of today, but we will be starting anew.

When we remember the love He has for us, and we try to extend that love, grace and mercy to our little ones, being attentive to opportunities to show them who God is through our behaviour and attitude, and keeping our focus on Him all throughout our day, externally and internally, we might find that when the quiet of the night comes, they were blessings all the day long.

Remember why you're doing this. It's not because you thought changing diapers and wet sheets for a dozen years would be fun. It's because you accepted the stewarship, the challenge, the fun, the not-so-fun, the reward of a child (or three.)

"Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Thank God if your day just stunk, repent for your part in making it stink and pray for the peace and energy to do it better tomorrow.

Sam is 3 Months Old!

2011-06-30T21:07:00.000-04:00

Our first little boy, a sweet, cuddly, smiley guy, is three months old today. Time does fly when you're having lots of fun and no sleep. :-)

He is hilarious and happy. He loves his sisters and they are over the moon for him!

Caprese Salad

2011-06-30T08:19:00.000-04:00

My first blog-stop on Thursday mornings, the 4 Moms, 35 Kids, is hosting a linkup for summer/picnic recipes.

To be honest, we haven't exactly been picnicing much, because it's been unbearably hot most days, and when it hasn't been that, it's been raining. But, we do have a garden that is filling ours and lots of our neighbors homes with lots of fresh produce, and I've been making this salad because it helps use some of that produce, and keeps me from having to turn on the oven in this heat. Also, because I have IBS, my digestive system cannot tolerate a lot of raw foods, but it can tolerate this (yay!) Anyway, enough about me, and on to the recipe! Oh, a warning... I don't really measure, but I included to the right of the ingredients the amount I used when we shared with a family of six (before our veggies came on), and it was enough for us as a group of 10 eaters.

Caprese Salad

Cherry tomatoes, halved (1 pkg)
Fresh Mozzerella, cut into chunks/cubes (1 pkg)
Basil, roughly shredded (10 leaves)
A drizzle of olive oil (a bigger drizzle)
Baby spinach (optional) (one bag)

Mix it all together. Eat it.

Please go here to see more recipes or share your own!

The Loot!

2011-06-27T21:52:00.001-04:00

As I mentioned, I'm excited about having gone to my first used homeschool book sale! Check out the cool stuff I found!

As far as books:

Shel Silverstein's "Falling Up"
Pattern Animals
Learning with Pattern Blocks
"Wisdom and the Millers" by Mildred A. Martin
FIAR Volume 1
FIAR Character & Bible Supplement for Volume 1
"My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
"Teaching the Trivium" by the Bluedorns
The Ultimate Homeschool Planner

And non-books:

Pattern blocks
Links
Stacking/Sorting blocks
Puzzle of US on one side, World on the other
Some picture/sight word cards (given to Brooke by one of the sellers)

I also recently picked up a copy of Marian M. Schoolland's "Leading Little Ones to God" at our library's book sale for $1!

And, because it's the MOST important part of having bought any of this, here's Brooke enjoying the pattern blocks!

A Few Blogs I Love

2011-06-27T21:32:00.000-04:00

We don't have a large family, but I love reading the blogs of a particular niche in the bloggy world, which is Christian, homeschooling mothers of many children. One day I hope that however many children we have, I can encourage others as these ladies encourage me. So, today I'm going to share a few blogs that I generally love, which fit into that niche. (I'm a lurker, so they probably mostly don't know I exist, though!)

Well, I read a really encouraging post today, and if you have lots of littles right now, or ever did, or ever think you might, you could probably appreciate this post from Kim C at Life in a Shoe. Plus, Kim clearly states that [I'll] be her very best friend if I share her blog with you. And who couldn't use more very best friends?

Three cohorts of Kim are Connie at Smockity Frocks, Kimberly at Raising Olives and the Headmistress, zookeeper at The Common Room. Together, the four of them make up "Four Moms, 35 Kids" and they weekly discuss topics of interest to moms of many, including answering the questions of readers. I read all of their blogs when I get a chance, but I try to always get a glance at the Four Moms posts. Check them out!

My First Used Curriculum Sale!

2011-06-25T21:34:00.000-04:00

A friend let me know about a used curriculum sale that was happening today, and we met up to attend it. I was expecting a few dozen people and a few hundred books, but was greatly surprised to find a few hundred tables and several thousands of books!

I went not expecting to buy anything... but... I came home with a bunch of cool stuff! I'm so excited! I just had to share! :-)

Excuses, Excuses

2011-06-22T23:54:00.000-04:00

I'm starting the 90 Day Bible Challenge, aptly named, as it consists of challenging oneself to read the entire Bible in 90 days. My reason? Today I recieved in the mail Ruth Beechick's The Three R's and Tim Kimmel's Grace-Based Parenting. Of course, I'm already reading Sally Clarkson's Ministry of Motherhood, and there's an upcoming women's study with some girls from church utilizing Lysa TerKuerst's Made to Crave. Not to mention, there's the epic adventure in reading samples, reviews and descriptions of curriculum for homeschooling, even though my oldest is not quite three.

Do you know what I haven't been reading (with the exception of the kid's daily Bible story and a Psalm at breakfast)? Or what I haven't even read all the way through? Yeah, the most important book there is. The B-I-B-L-E. So... this summer, that's the book for me! I am using the schedule posted here, in the info section. Tomorrow will be my Day 1, but I just got a jump-start and read the first four chapters of Genesis.

I'm going to try to post when something sticks out to me, and today, what stuck out was from Genesis 3.

¹² The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
¹³ Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

See what Adam did there? He blamed God and then Eve. He made excuses for why he chose to sin, for why he chose not to do what he knew was best and God-honoring. Then Eve turns around and blames the serpent for her not doing what was best and God-honoring. They knew what was expected of them, they knew the best path, but they chose to sin.

I know the best path for me right now, too, and I am going to choose to do what is REALLY best for me and my family, and that is to put all of the other books aside and read the BEST book. So my challenge to me is that I may also not read any other books, blogs or catalogs, or watch any Netflix unless I have completed my "assigned" reading for the day, and am caught up from previous days. Let the challenge begin!

Catalog Lesson

2011-06-21T22:46:00.000-04:00

Oh delight! The new Rainbow Resource catalog arrived last week, and just in time, as I had just (that very day!) mentioned to my one year old, who pretended to be very interested, that I was looking forward to a new one, as the old one was missing both covers, the entire table of contents and much of the alphabetized index in the back. I did not remind the one year old that most of those pages were torn out by her.

So, in my exuberance at having received this new, unscathed copy of the juicy, much-encompassing, descriptive, sometimes a little overwhelming (if you haven't met one, they're massive!) catalog, I sat down to dream of the next 18 years or more of homeschooling. My 2.5 year old climbed up in my comfy blue chair with me, and was not at all interested in pretending to be interested in my research. What she was interested in, was the cover, which I, admittedly, had not noticed. You can see it on their page here. It has a lovely scene of a pile of straw, a pile of sticks and a house built of (did you say bricks? Nope!) BOOKS! Very sweet.

She was delighted to listen to the story of the Three Little Pigs and narrate most of it back to me. She particularly liked the huffing and puffing portion, and I liked that we were able to enjoy some story time without even cracking the book!

Challenge to Change: Television

2011-06-06T07:21:00.000-04:00

Many months ago, we got rid of our cable. However, we still had the television in the living room, and the children still watched a fair amount of Dora, On The Farm and other shows on DVD. However, I have decided that for us, this is another time waster and another thing that detracts from, instead of enhances, our family life. I may need for them to be occupied for a few moments at a time, allowing me to do the dishes or sweep, but I don't want to use the television as a tool for distraction.

I don't know if you've noticed this, but my kids seem less attentive when they've been watching more tv. They don't seem to hear me when I talk to them. They don't seem to be able to think as well. And I can understand that issue. I used to play video games when I was younger, (well, I still play the Wii at my Mama's) and sometimes when it was really hot or cold out, I would sit there literally all day long, only stopping for food and bathroom breaks. And at the end of the day, I felt a little crazed, a little depressed and a lot dumb. Not like "I'm so dumb for sitting here all day," but unable to function at full mental capacity because of sitting in front of the tv all day.

So, in my Challenge to Change, the next thing that I Quit, is television. In fact, my husband moved it to the garage on Saturday. So today will be the first "real" day without it.. Wish me luck!

Challenge to Change: Laundry

2011-06-05T14:59:00.000-04:00

With three little ones, all under the age of three, including an infant who likes to eat all day long, at some days appears not to sleep at all, I feel like there isn't enough time in the day or enough energy left at the end of it to get anything done around the house. Most of my time is spent feeding, snuggling and playing with Brooke, Lauren and Sam. Naptime is a precious, golden time where I can lay down and rest, or read books or encouraging blogs. Or shower. However, I came to the conclusion that there *had* to be things that were wasting time, or that we could change in order to make things run more smoothly. So, I've challenged myself to spend the month of June making little changes that can make our household happier and healthier, and spend our time more wisely.

Thing #1: I quit folding laundry!

Spurned by this article at MOPS International, I asked myself what the author's friend asked her. "You still fold laundry?" Why? Within a few days of putting it in the drawer, it looks as though I just dumped it in there anyway, so why not just dump it in there? Yesterday, that's what my husband and I did. We washed, dried, DIDN'T FOLD, and put away six loads of laundry. All we did after it came out of the drier was sort it by who it belonged to. It was beautiful, and a lot better than having six loads of laundry washed, dried, still not folded and sitting in the hallway for a week. It saves time folding and guilt about not folding, and that's a change I can live with!

The Ministry of Motherhood: Grace

2011-06-02T09:19:00.000-04:00

I'm currently reading The Ministry of Motherhood, a heartfelt book written by speaker and author, but most importantly, mother of four, Sally Clarkson, about raising children up to become godly adults. I'm in the first section of the book, which is about Grace. This section has been really convicting for me, since as a tired mommy of three under three, I've been crankier than necessary with the girls of late. Sally's book has helped me remember to extend grace to them, and that by being gracious towards them, they are learning (slowly, but they're learning!) to extend grace to others.

I love that Sally is not afraid to humble herself for her readers, making mention several times of occasions when she did not want to extend grace, when she herself was a tired mommy and really just wanted to get the day over with and get to sleep. There are a lot of days when I feel like that, but with this book in hand, I've begun to overcome my grumpy, pushy, sharp-toned selfishness and give even when I don't feel like it. It's only been a few days, but I can tell you that our house is much more peaceful already, and I'm enjoying more sweet moments with my loves than I was before.

I highly recommend this book to any Mama! I'm enjoying it thoroughly.

Heart of Dakota

2011-05-30T19:53:00.000-04:00

We have started a little homeschool preschool here with Brooke, and she's enjoying it quite a bit. She LOVES "school" and we've been doing the Rod & Staff readiness series for a while, in addition to painting, playdough and Leap Frog "Letter Factory." However, I needed a little more structure to make sure that school was happening. We decided to try out Heart of Dakota's preschool program, Little Hands to Heaven. It is a really sweet program, and although Brooke knows her letter sounds, she's really enjoying it. Lauren's enjoying most of it, too.

We're doing it at half-speed to extend it until she's close to four years old. Half-speed for us means every other weekday. So we spend two weeks on each unit. I'll do a follow-up review when we are further through (we just finished the first unit) but I'm really liking it so far. It only takes about 30 minutes per day, and in tiny chunks, so if you have, say, a 15 month old and a 2 month old vying for your attention, you can put off the gluing cherrios to paper portion of the day until they are taking a nap. :-)

Introducing Samuel!

2011-05-30T10:03:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been a while since I've updated the blog, but that's mostly because I can't type quickly with one hand and with three under three, at least one hand is usually occupied. :-) In any case, I'll try to get back into the swing of blogging, but for now here's the number one reason that my hands are busy!

Samuel Timothy - pictured at just a few days old, at home on his bili-bed.

I had a scheduled ceserean, March 30th. He was 7lbs 11oz, 21 inches and looks just like his oldest sister and his daddy. The most exciting part of the delivery was that he was born screaming and after they wiped him off, they put his face to mine and he immediately stopped crying. It melted my heart. And he's continuing to melt my heart every day. Here's a heart-melting smile, just for me! :-)

He's beautiful, sweet and his sisters' sweetheart. And I'm afraid that when he's a teenager and brings friends home, his big sisters will still be calling him "Cubby."

Lauren is One!

2011-03-10T07:18:00.001-05:00

Our sweet baby girl turned one on Saturday. She is a funny, clowny, silly, sweet, loving and beautiful girl. She looks up to her sister and tries, already, to do whatever "Boo" is doing. She loves to snuggle and gives great kisses. She makes us laugh and scares me to death with her daring feats. She can't wait to be big enough to share in some of the "big girl" fun that sister is involved in. She loves music and dancing. I've never seen a baby with so many different "moves!" She also loves food. She's an enthusiastic eater and loves to make us laugh (she especially loves to make her grandmother laugh!) by making joyful noises and faces while she eats.

We had a wonderful day. Here are some pictures from her birthday!

Eating lunch before her party.

All dressed up!


Eating her cake!

I also want to share the picture I combined of Brooke and Lauren at their respective first birthday parties. Our girls are SO different, they look so much different and act so much different from one another. Brooke is the spitting image of my hubby, and she acts a LOT like him too. Lauren, on the other hand, is a little more like me in behavior and a lot more like me in looks.

Stepping Away From the Princesses

2011-02-28T13:05:00.000-05:00

There was a time, before I had kids, when I didn't consider the themes of a lot of "children's" movies. Even when I was working in a daycare, or taking early childhood education classes, I didn't look at media as dangerous. We even collected some of our favorite Disney movies in anticipation of having kids to share them with.

I am definitely not a super-strict mom, but we have really cut out most of the kids' movies. We do watch some Dora, Veggie Tales, Little Einsteins and we love the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD, but as I watch the movies that most young children are enjoying, my heart sinks.

When Tinkerbell steps out of her little house, in a sexy, short dress which gets her some attention from her fellow tinkers (males), or when Ariel chases after the Prince for a kiss that will make everything right in her world, or when Jasmine hops out of her balcony onto a magic carpet for a night of romance... I think of my sweet babies and how I want them to stay my sweet, un-sexualized babies for as long as possible, and the only man I want them to be seeking the approval of is their father. I think of how I don't really want them daydreaming of romance or even thinking much about boys until they are near the age where they might be able to marry. I don't want them to think that all of their life problems will be resolved with a kiss, or by any boy. We want them to know that their only Savior is Jesus Christ! When Lilo fights with the other kids or yells at her sister, when Ariel disobeys her father (yes, it has bad consequences, but she is not repentant and in the end she gets what she wants) I think about the character traits my kids might be learning from them. We want them to be obedient and kind, gentle and feminine. I don't think they should be doormats, and they should obey God above all else, but in order to learn to trust and obey God, they need to trust and obey their earthly father.

I do not hate all children's movies, or even all Disney movies, but I do want to develop godly character in my girls, and I don't think that they should be able to watch movies where the main characters behave in a way that we disapprove of until they are of a level of maturity where they can spot negative character traits and I can trust that they will not allow those traits to penetrate their hearts.

A-Ma-Zing Icing!

2011-02-24T13:19:00.000-05:00

If you're familiar with Publix, you might (I hope!) also be familiar with their cakes. I LOVE Publix Icing! (The Cake is good too, but I'm an icing-lover!) It's fluffy and delicious, it's basically amazing. Well, I've been searching regularly for years to find a recipe for this icing, and finally found one that tastes VERY close to the real thing. I'll admit, I just licked both of the beaters while the girls napped. It was that good.

So, now I have a frosting recipe that I will be using for the kids' cakes, starting with Lauren's next Saturday. It would be shameful not to share this delicious recipe with all of you, so here it is. A copycat of Publix Buttercream Icing!

We're All Sick... But The Baby Countdown Waits for No One!

2011-02-21T12:50:00.000-05:00

So I think all of the stuff on the sidebar says I have 47 days left. That's until my due date. In actuality, I have about 37 days left until my scheduled c-section. I have 12 days until my baby girl, Lauren, will turn one. Approximately 25 days after her birthday, she'll no longer be the baby, but a big sister!

I'm so excited to meet our little boy, and I don't remember feeling at 33.5 weeks like I'd been pregnant FOREVER like I do with this one, but it might be because Lauren and Sam's pregnancies were so close together. Anyway, what makes it feel scary scary scary??

I only have four people (five if you include a few baby things I need to wash up for Sam) to wash clothes and dishes for, but we are living in an absolute disaster right now, because at least two of the four of us have been sick for the last month. I can't keep caught up with dishes or laundry, grocery shopping and cooking good, hearty, healthy food has been almost impossible. I am so ready for us to all feel better. I need for us to feel better, or at least me to feel better so that I can get stuff done! We've got a birthday party in less than two weeks, followed by two weekends of home remodeling, followed by the arrival of our little boy! I feel like nothing is ready and all I want to do is lay down and sleep or watch tv. Blah. I really was hoping to get stuff done before I get to the point where I feel too pregnant to do anything. Now I just feel too sick. :-(

Ok, my whinefest is over. I'm going to make some chocolate milk and try to rest while the girls are napping. I will do my best to get a not-so-whiny post up this week. :-)

Something Old, Something New

2011-02-09T07:37:00.000-05:00

Many moons ago, well around a year and a half ago, we had been considering a change of location and lifestyle. However, at that time, we had not even begun to rid ourselves of the debts we accrued being frivolous teenagers and slightly less frivolous young adults. It seemed like the moment it came out of our mouths, the moment we told our pastor that we are considering this move, we realized that it was not the plan. God had work for us to do here. Not so much work to affect other people, but work to prepare our hearts for a place where we would not know a single other Christian when we arrive there. Certainly we have lots and lots of growth still to be accomplished in our relationship with God and our faith, but we are much stronger now than we were then.

Recently, we've begun to feel like soon that will be the plan. We are leaving room for God to tell us no, but we feel like we are getting confirmations at this point. We will be using our tax refund to finish the remodeling of our house and put it on the market. We will probably have at least five or six months before Tim can actually leave his job unless the house sells quickly. Once the house is sold and the last three debts are paid off, we think we will be moving a little over 500 miles away. It's a nine hour drive (before we had kids!) There are certainly negatives, but the positives far outweigh them. We will get to work together as a family!

Our First "Box Day"!

2011-02-01T13:35:00.001-05:00

So, I don't know if you would really call it a "Box Day," as that usually seems to refer to Sonlight. Also, it didn't come in a box, but in a manila envelope. In any case, today we received the first mail-ordered curriculum we have ever purchased! We ordered the Preschool Activity series by Rod and Staff from here. (We chose this site because of the free shipping!) They were mailed from Texas on Saturday and got here (SC) this afternoon, so we were happy with the quick shipment. These books look a lot gentler than the tracing book I've been using with Brooke from Kumon, giving more practice before moving forward, which will be really good for Brooke.

Here they are! The series includes the four books "About Three," "Bigger Steps," "Color, Count, and Cut," and "Doing My Best."

C-section Guilt

2011-01-29T13:10:00.000-05:00

With the girls, I had the opportunity to look forward to that exciting moment of telling my husband "it's time!" and rushing off to the hospital. Unfortunately, neither of those deliveries turned out the way I had hoped.

Brooke was breech and I went in after a few days in early labor, having slowly dilated to 3 cm, to try an external version. She was not cooperative, but my water broke while they were trying to turn her. She was showing some signs of distress, so they went ahead and did the c-section. She was born on October 3rd, at 37 weeks, weighing 6 lbs 13 oz, with her feet having been up beside her ears so long that it took several days for her not to be "v-shaped." The guilt? The doctor gave me the choice to try the version or try to deliver her in the position she was in. I was a first time mom, I didn't know anything except that I didn't want a c-section. I only had a few hours to decide. I can't help feeling that it might have gone differently if I had not tried the version.

The hospital in which Brooke was born does not allow VBACs. So I had to leave the doctor and hospital I loved to attend one. On many recommendations, I went to a larger practice to a doctor with one of the best VBAC success rates in our area. With Brooke born at 37 weeks, and literally a month and a half of seemingly endless contractions that seemed far more painful than I had anticipated, I was sure that I would go into labor early-ish. I kept telling friends and family that I was sure she was head-down but I thought she might be posterior because of the way I felt the contractions. I was wrong about going into labor early, but I was right about her being posterior. Again, I was in early labor for several days, my contractions got strong and frequent on the afternoon and evening of March 4th and my husband took me into town to the hospital. At this point, I was absolutely certain she was posterior because the back labor was excruciating. When I hit 6 cm, having had contractions every 3 minutes or less for several hours, I asked for an epidural although I had planned on not getting one. As soon as it kicked in, my labor stopped. They waited 12 hours, then broke my water. Nothing happened, except that I started crying uncontrollably when they told me I would be having another c-section. Lauren was born on the afternoon of March 5th, at 7 lbs 15 oz. The guilt? I could have gotten the doula (a free service at that hospital) to come, but instead I got an epidural. I knew it could stall the labor, but I let the pain get in the way of what I knew to be true. I thought I was far enough along that it would be okay.

This baby will be born by scheduled c-section, probably sometime the week of March 28th. I am glad to be going back to the doctor and hospital I love. However, I'm still filled with guilt and disappointment that I'll never get to experience childbirth the way God meant for it to be. I also feel guilty for wanting that so badly, scolding myself, because I should just be happy that my babies are healthy! I need to let go of the desires of my heart, trust that God's ways are better than mine, accept that I will never have a natural childbirth, that I will not be able to fill my house with children I have borne because eventually my doctor will say that I can't have any more c-sections. I need to do these things and I know it. I am praying through it, giving it to God, but right now I'm mourning the loss of a dream.

Too Much Stuff!

2011-01-29T08:00:00.000-05:00

My husband and I were helping Brooke clean her room, Lauren was playing with a toy guitar (battery operated, loud, not our favorite thing.) We looked at each other and at the same time we thought

"This is ridiculous!"

A two year old with SO much STUFF! To be certain, most of it we did not buy. Most of it has been given as gifts. Some of it is wonderful, like her play kitchen and her blocks. Some of it is overwhelming, like the 80 stuffed animals she seems to have accumulated in her short lifetime. Last night, when my husband came home, I declared to him

"We are not bringing any more battery-operated plastic junk into the house!"

Today, I am going through her toys for the second time in two months to remove things that are closed-ended, annoying, uneducational or do not hold with our personal convictions (I don't think there are any of those, but if there are, they're gone!) We are going to get fun, open-ended, not-annoying, educational toys. We're not going on a shopping spree, but I really am looking forward to bringing more GOOD STUFF into the house and getting the OTHER STUFF out of here!

Tie-Dyed Coffee Filter Flowers

2011-01-28T08:00:00.005-05:00

When I was in high school, I took classes in Early Childhood Education. I really enjoyed them, and one of the coolest things about it was that we got to spend lots of time doing crafts! Not something you usually do a lot in high school. One of my favorite crafts that we did was making these cute coffee filter flowers.

First, you take a coffee filter, flatten it and color it with markers. Your coloring doesn't have to be very precise as you can see. :-)


My filter.

Brooke's Filter

Then, you take a spray bottle and spray it well with water, setting it on a piece of paper to dry. When you remove it from the paper, it will leave a lovely imprint as well!

My filter and paper imprint.

After it is completely dried, you can set it on top of your hand, and poke the center through your thumb and index finger.

Then twist the end that you poked through your hand and fluff up the flower.

You can layer several filters together for a fuller flower and wrap a pipe cleaner around the bottom for a stem if you so choose. I would have, but did not have any pipe cleaners available.

A Few Preschool Blogs!

2011-01-27T08:00:00.003-05:00

Most of the blogs that I subscribe to do not contain much information pertaining specifically to preschoolers, but are written by people who inspire me towards the future and in my Christian walk. Tuesday, I went on a little naptime mission to find some sites pertaining specifically to preschool homeschoolers. WOW! I found some great stuff!

Here are a few of my favorites!

Lots of awesome reviews and she does a weekly meme called Tot School, which allows other homeschoolers of young preschool children to link up! A great way to get ideas for your school! Oh, and right now she has a giveaway for an Education Cubes membership!

Lots of reviews and great ideas from several different contributors!

Includes resources, printables, a weekly meme and lots more for the slightly older preschool crowd as opposed to the younger "Tots."

I can't wait to see the inspiring inclusions on these blogs and memes!

Preschool Organization and Weekly Routine

2011-01-26T08:00:00.001-05:00

I have written about our Daily Routine for preschool. And yesterday I wrote about our theoretical School Calendar. I've explained that this planning and organization may directly benefit my daughter, but it is crucial for me. I want to be successful at homeschooling, and there is no way I will be able to do that if I don't plan it. I fully believe that being able to plan well when I have to will be greatly improved by planning well now. So, I do make a plan for each school day, for each week and for each term. Now is the time to tweak and to learn what works for us, and maybe by the time we start "real school," I'll have some idea of how I want to do it!

I use a folder I picked up at Wal-mart to organize our schoolwork. They are really awesome, and although I bought them not knowing what I would do with them, they are perfect for the way we are doing school right now. There are eight pockets, including one on the inside of each cover, and each pocket has a little envelope in front of it.

So, I put the worksheets for a week in one pocket, and a note card containing the sheet numbers, the memory verse, song, Bible stories and activities we are doing that week in the envelope. I put things I will use throughout the term in the pocket on the front inside cover, and then fill up the next six pockets for the six weeks of the term. So an entire term (six weeks) of work is in the folder, planned out and ready for us.

This folder, our Bible Story book and all additional materials are kept on a shelf in my kitchen right beside my cookbooks. It's high enough that the kids can't get to them without my help and low enough that even when I'm largely pregnant (like now!) and short (like always!) I can get to the items without having to stand on a chair.

Our weekly routine consists of the daily routine, plus one activity each day that is from a different category. The categories are Chore Learning, Art/Music, Cooking, Math Readiness and Science. We do them Monday through Friday in that order. On Saturdays we try to spend as much time outside and with Daddy as we can, weather and work permitting.

An example of our weekly routine (this week) includes:
Monday - Chore Learning - Cleaning Brooke's Toy Kitchen (dusting and wiping it down)
Tuesday - Art/Music - Color coffee filters with markers, then spray them with water for a tie-dye effect.
Wednesday - Cooking - Breakfast Cookies
Thursday - Math Readiness - Patterns with Marshmallows and Cheerios
Friday - Science - Make Ice Cubes

As you can see, most of the activities are really nothing elaborate. It's just fun, with a little education on the side!

Theoretical School Calendar

2011-01-25T08:00:00.001-05:00

I have always liked the idea of schooling year-round. I am not, however, the kind of person who can just let school happen. I thrive on a plan. I also think that schooling year-round doesn't mean there can't be breaks. I think that short, rejuvenating breaks from the tedium of a normal routine can make that normal routine more appreciable and enjoyable in the long run. True, I do not yet need a school calendar. Preschool for a 2.5 year old should not be a regimented process. It should be fun for us and for them. So, why did I create a calendar and why am I implementing it?

Because I'll know if it works. I will be able to use this time when a calendar is not necessary to test the waters for a time when it will be. We have three years to play with a plan before it will become more vital to our homeschooling success. So this is a test. Only a test.

So, without further ado, here's Take One of the RACE (Raymond Academy of Christian Education) School Calendar. (Like our school name? It sounds a little long and fancy shmancy, but we like it!) The theory is that we will take six six-week terms with five two-week breaks between each term, followed by a six-week break from the week of Thanksgiving through December, starting our next school year on the first Monday in January.

R.A.C.E. 2011 School Year
Term 1: January 3 to February 11

Term 2: February 28 to April 8
Term 3: April 25 to June 3
Term 4: June 20 to July 29
Term 5: August 15 to September 23
Term 6: October 10 to November 18

Our Daily "Preschool" Routine

2011-01-24T12:39:00.001-05:00

Brooke is currently 2.5 years old and Lauren is 10.5 months old. As I have mentioned, preschool for us is mostly play-school. However, I am a planner and if I don't plan things out, they won't happen. Brooke is also a routine-lover, so we have a plan that we follow. I'll discuss our daily routine in this post.

In the mornings, we eat breakfast around 8:30am and then we clean the table off and I get the three of us dressed for the day, brush teeth, change diapers, etc. After all of those things are done, we "do school." It usually happens between 9 and 9:30 am.

First, we read a story from her "Jesus Book." The stories in "My Favorite Bible Stories for Toddlers" are just one board-book page each and include a question or two for discussion and a lift-the-flap picture which contains a Bible verse underneath the flap. Then we pray and work on a memory verse. We go over verses learned in previous weeks and then I break a verse down and have her repeat it after me several times. We spend a week on each verse, although she usually has it memorized pretty well within a few days.

After our Bible time, we do a workbook page from one of the Kumon First Step Workbooks, (I got mine at Barnes & Noble) which seem to be a great start for pre-writing skills. Right now we are on the "Let's Color" workbook, and I'm planning to use the "Let's Cut Paper" book next. (Yes, I'm going to hand my 2 year old a pair of scissors! Scary, I know.) We only do one page a day, although she often begs to do more. I allow her to color as many blank papers or coloring book pages as she wants after she completes this worksheet.

This is what today's worksheet looked like. The "hole" was blank and she was to color it orange like the orange juice. I also find this to be a good exercise in logic and/or pre-reading, as I can usually get her to tell me what color she should use to complete the picture correctly. I have not determined whether she looks at the crayon at the top or at the picture to decide, but she is figuring it out which is great!

Then we put all papers (the worksheet and any coloring pages) in her "School Bucket," ($1 from the Dollar Tree) which lives on the kitchen counter by our back door. It has lots of papers in it, and at the end of each "term" (I'll post my theoretical yearly schedule soon!) I'll sort through and pick out a few things to keep that show her skill advancement, and toss the rest.

After all of the "paperwork" and "bookwork" are done, We do the "fun stuff!" Today we did Playdoh. We also do an activity related to learning a new chore, cooking, math readiness, art/music or science, but they don't always happen in conjunction with the rest of school. Learning a new chore happens during our afternoon chore time and cooking often happens after Daddy gets home, so he can entertain Lauren while we get messy. Science and art activities sometimes happen in the afternoons if they require us to be outside, so that we are out during the warmest part of the day right now. In the summer, of course, we'll probably choose to do most of our outdoor time in the mornings.

This may sound like a lot, but it really usually takes no longer than 15 minutes for us to do all of the workbook and Bible work, then I usually let her play for as long as she wants coloring or doing Playdoh, so long as she's being obedient and doing her best to keep the art supplies off the floor and out of her sister's reach.

Motherhood as Ministry

2011-01-19T13:49:00.001-05:00

You are as much serving God in looking after your own children, and training them up in God's fear, and minding the house, and making your household a church for God, as you would be if you had been called to lead an army to battle for the Lord of hosts. -Charles Spurgeon

My wonderful hubby shared a message at our church last Sunday, entitled "Bridging the Gap" (which you can listen to here.) He's not a pastor, but he had something that God laid on his heart to share, so when there was an opening between series, he was given the chance to share it! I thought he did wonderfully, although I'm a little partial. :-)

In his message he said something that is very dear to me. He was speaking of sharing the Truth and how sometimes I (yeah, me) forget that it does not have to be me out seeking people to witness to, that this is a season in which I'm a witness to my daughters (and soon a son!) When we are at home, loving our children, teaching them to love the Lord and "training them up in the way they should go" we are SERVING. We are WITNESSING! Every time we choose the Godly path as our children watch us, we are being witnesses for the Lord. Those eyes that don't want to look at you when they're in trouble, those ears that don't seem to hear your requests, are seeing and hearing everything. They see every move you make, hear every word you speak. When you feel the tug of the Lord calling you to be at home, to love and care for your family, to serve in this way, that calling is important! You and I are raising up men and women who will, prayerfully, one day serve our Lord, and possibly in amazing ways we cannot even fathom! We are making disciples! So I urge you, and me, to "love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul!" Serving your family serves your Lord! When you are serving God with all your heart and with all your soul, they WILL see it and they WILL hear it! Fill your hearts, your minds, your lives and your households with things that are of the Lord!

"Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the Lord swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth." Deuteronomy 11:18-21

Conferences I Wish To Attend!

2011-01-18T07:55:00.000-05:00

I've been longing to attend our statewide homeschool conference for a long time. That one might actually be possible, since it's in June. However, I keep putting it off each year, thinking I should wait until I'm closer to GO time! However, there are three conferences upcoming in March and April that I read the information about and was like "Awesome! Let's go!" ... Until I saw the dates. All of these events are too close to my due date or too soon after my planned c-section. Maybe next year. :-(

The SouthEast Homeschool Convention is March 17-19. In all likelihood I could make it to this one without too much trouble. It is, however, taking place when I'll be 37 weeks and it's over an hour from home. I went into labor with Brooke at 37 weeks, so I'm a little too anxious to risk it.

The Extraordinary Women conference is March 25-26 for SC. (There are also March & April dates for OK, TN, GA and FL.) It sounds like an awesome opportunity for Christian women, and if you grew up watching Full House like I did, you might be excited to see Candace Cameron there!

The 2:1 Conference for homeschooling bloggers is April 8-10. I don't know if I qualify for this one either, but from what I see on their site, it sounds wonderful, and it would be lovely to meet the women behind the words of the blogs I love to read!

Guess what!

2011-01-13T07:36:00.000-05:00

I didn't get a picture of it, but I'm going to walk around with the camera attached to my hand today... Lauren stood up independently yesterday! She did it once from leaning with her back against a chair, then she used Daddy, who was laying on the floor to help her get up. She got so excited she started clapping and saying "yay!" and promptly fell over from imbalanced excitement!

Crunch Time!

2011-01-12T09:06:00.000-05:00

Looking at my calendar this morning, I realize that we have only seven weeks until Lauren's first birthday on March 5th! That's not very long. We're not doing a huge party but the family will join us to celebrate. We're doing a ballerina theme I think. We call her our tiny dancer, because she's baby-dancing all the time, either to music in the air or music in her head. It's pretty adorable. So, to incorporate her little personality into her birthday theme, it's dancers!

Guess what happens right after that? In just eleven weeks, we'll be bringing home a fresh baby boy! Long story short, Brooke was breech and ended up being a c-section baby, I tried to VBAC Lauren but it was unsuccessful and I got the dark mark of "failure to progress" put on my medical records. So, little Sam will be a scheduled c-section, and my doctor (whom I love and am so glad I get to go back to him this time!) will be scheduling the section between my 38th and 39th weeks, so probably the week of March 28th.

Missions:

Lauren sleeping through the night more frequently before Sam arrives.
Brooke out of diapers before Sam arrives.

Playschool and Hamburger Buns!

2011-01-06T12:57:00.000-05:00

Our "preschool" for Brooke is really mostly play-school. We color, we read a Bible story, we do a memory verse, but mostly we just do fun stuff. One of her favorite activities is painting, so we pulled out the finger paints for "art" during our first week of "school."

Isn't the french braid just adorable? She is in love with Toy Story 2 right now and calls it her "Jessie Braid."

I just love the look of concentration on her face. Peaceful, happy concentration.

I only had primary colored paints, so mixed some secondary colors on this plate for her palette. Turns out she mixed it pretty well on her own. :-)

We used the recipe from King Arthur Flour to make these "Beautiful Burger Buns." A-MA-ZING! We had them with pulled pork sandwiches, but they would make absolutely delicious rolls for sandwiches of any kind. Click the pic for the recipe!

Whiny Mama

2011-01-05T05:01:00.000-05:00

I've talked before about being convicted by things that come out of my toddler's mouth, and yesterday was a day when that happened yet again. I have been trying to remember to do all things "as to the Lord," and show enjoyment at things that I don't particularly like (such as folding laundry) in order to help develop a good work ethic in my girls. I think I've been doing fairly well at it, but I sometimes forget to even rest and communicate "as to the Lord".

Last night, after all of the work was done, dinner had been eaten, Lauren in bed and Brooke having a little milk before bed with Daddy, I sat down to rest in my big blue chair. My feet felt odd, almost like they were asleep but not quite, and I was mostly talking to myself but saying that I wonder why they felt that way. I was thinking out loud about RLS and other random things to self-diagnose through the internet, when Brooke stopped twirling her hair and pulled the sippy-cup out of her mouth. She looked at me with a pitiful, convicting look on her face and said "Oh, are you feeling whiny?"

.

Yep. I was. My husband and I both laughed until we cried. And then I just cried for a minute.

Chores for a 2 Year Old

2011-01-04T14:28:00.000-05:00

As many parents do, Tim and I have always planned for our children to get acquainted with hard work from an early age. There was a time when I wanted to have Brooke "help" but she wasn't quite physically ready, nor did she have the ability to remember a short list of sequenced activities to complete. Now, however, at 2 years and 3 months old, she is the Big Girl, capable of many helpful tasks.

One important thing that I have to remember is that she may take longer than I do and she may not do things exactly my way, but not only is she doing something productive, she's learning things she'll use for the rest of her life. We are regularly adding to the things she is learning to help with, but here are some of her regular "chores".

Table Chores

She scrapes any leftovers from her plate into the garbage and puts her plate and silverware in the sink.
She wipes the tabletop after breakfast and lunch.
She uses her little Swiffer to sweep after breakfast and lunch.

She puts away her dishes from the dishwasher or as I hand them to her from the dish drainer, into the lowest drawer in the kitchen. These are plastic dishes, so she can get them out for herself as well.
She is learning to dust with a feather duster.
I hand her wet laundry and she puts it into the dryer. She also pulls dry laundry out into a basket.
She picks up her toys from all areas of the house, sometimes with assistance if she's being particularly well-behaved and requests it politely.
She puts her dirty clothes and Lauren's in the dirty laundry baskets, and throws away both of their diapers when using disposables.

During many of my daily chores, she follows me and helps as she is able. If I'm doing something that I know she'd be capable of assisting in, I will call her to come help and teach her about that chore. Like many of my generation, my mother did not have the advantage of being at home full-time when I was young. (She is at home now, and we enjoy visiting her and learning a lot from her these days!) I didn't have the advantage of copious amounts of time spent watching and assisting in caring for a home. Whether my girls are full-time mothers and wives, or if they choose another path, I want to be assured that I gave them as much as I could give in teaching them to lovingly, happily care for a home and a family.

As an added note, it is excellent for a baby to see an older sibling learning these things as well. Even though they are not capable of doing the same tasks, a little baby sees that work is fun, work is beneficial and we all work together for the good of the family. I have found that Lauren tries to help occasionally even though she has little comprehension of what is happening. At ten months, however, she will put toys in baskets while we are cleaning Brooke's room. It is ten times more powerful for her to see Brooke do something than it is for her to see us do it. She wants to be big and just like her sister!

A New Year's Revolution

2011-01-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

One of the meanings of the word "revolution" is a drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving.

We have decided that a drastic change in our ways of thinking and behaving is necessary as we prepare for our third little one, baby Samuel, to arrive in a few months. When he arrives, the cowgirls will be 2.5 and just-turned-one. We will have three tiny people under the age of three, with a Mama who is home and a Daddy who works long hours six days a week, plus a cat and 16 chickens. So what do we need? Structure and organization.

Until now, I've been pretty content to do "fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants" kind of cleaning and organizing. Well, maybe not wholly content, but I hadn't done anything to change it. Our days were somewhat routine, breakfast at 8:30, lunch at 11:30, nap at 12:00 and baths at 7:00. However, we're starting some "preschool" with Brooke, (Bible memory verses, Bible stories and a few little activities for fun) this week (today!) and we are also hitting potty training hard. (It would be wonderful to have only two in diapers once Sam arrives!) So, our life is going to become a lot more structured, planned and organized. I have an initial schedule written out to start today, but I'm going to run with it and change it as needed before sharing what we're doing specifically.

I will say that our day begins with me waking up at 6:00, before the children. But guess what? Lauren decided to wake up at 6:15 today, so... we are off on our first grand adventurous day.

Hello 2011!

2011-01-01T12:59:00.000-05:00

We're so excited to welcome in this new year! 2010 was a good one for us, and we are hoping that 2011 will be just as blessed!

And ringing in the New Year in short sleeves (it's 68 degrees here!) are my two little sweeties! Brooke wants a braid, boots and a hat all the time. (She loves Toy Story.) The cute overalls are from their grandmother!

We Changed Our Minds...

2010-12-29T12:30:00.000-05:00

And decided to find out the gender of the baby this time. Largely it was because a friend was getting rid of all of her boy stuff from 0-9 mos and we didn't want to take a bunch of stuff that someone else might be able to use!

We told Tim's mom and sister, and my Dad shortly after we found out, but waited until our annual Christmas Decorating festivities to share the news with the rest of my family. Brooke had her bath while everyone was there and came out wearing this...

(That's my Mama holding her!)

Sooo, we are entering into uncharted territory, a place we've dreamed of but not yet been, the Land of Little Boys!!!

His name shall be Samuel Timothy. I'd like to share our little story about that. The middle name of our first son has been decided since the day of my husband's birth, as his family tradition is that the first son gets the father's first name as his middle name. My husband had, unbeknown to me, been praying that if we were ever given a son, he would dedicate him to the Lord. We did a thing at our church in the late summer which involved writing prayers on leaves and the leaves were attached to a "tree" on the wall, with the prayers against the wall so it was private. I prayed that this baby would be a boy.

If you don't know the story of Samuel in the Bible, the basic gist is that Elkanah had two wives, Hannah & Peninah. Hannah had no children, and Peninah had many. Peninah would taunt Hannah because she was barren, and one year when they go to Shiloh to make their sacrifices, Hannah cries out to the Lord and tells him that if the Lord will give her a child, she will dedicate him to the Lord. That year she gives birth to a son, and names him Samuel, which means "God has heard."

So, God heard our prayers and our promises, and blessed us with a son. We will name him Samuel!

A Cool Drink of Water

2010-11-23T07:34:00.001-05:00

First, I'd like to apologize that I've been away, and that the Babywearing for Beginners series is not yet finished. I've been dealing with colds and gallstones and just haven't had the energy to write anything. I'm hoping to get pictures done for the wrap section of the babywearing series over the holiday and get them up next week. However, I had an interesting little revelation that I want to write about, so I will!

When I was seven, my parents split up. Mom was in SC and Dad was in PA. We spent most summers with him. The going back and forth was hard on us, as was the mixed information we recieved from family members. And there was the fact that both of our parents were eventually seeing other people, (and a sweet little half-sister came along, too!) Like most children of divorce, we were seeking something to fill the gap that was left by having a forever family.

There was a family that lived in the trailer park near us, in PA, who had three young sons. One was my age, one was older, one younger. I made friends with these boys, and was thinking about them just this weekend when I realized that although they didn't fill that gap, they gave me hope for something real. I actually don't even remember their parents, but I remember that they were a family. They had to be home for dinner. They were homeschooled (which I thought was the coolest thing ever, being the shy girl who loves academics but disliked being at school with tons of crude, rude, hurtful people and teachers who hated their jobs!) They were nothing like the boys I knew from school. They were kind and warm, thoughtful and really funny. For many years, they were my favorite part of the summer. It was refreshing to be with truly good people. At the time, it didn't sink in that it was because they were Christians, but it does now as I look back. They were living out their faith, and I'm sure that they nor their parents realized that they were giving hope to a little girl who was lost in the world. To be with people with such good hearts was like a cool drink of water in the desert, they really were springs of living water. There were many more lost years for me after that, and most without a "cool drink of water" to remind me what life could be like, but the time I spent with them made a timeless impact.

I've lost touch with them for many years, but I was talking to my husband about them the other day and said "That is what I want our family to be!" I want the lost of the world, those seeking something to fill in the emptiness, to feel refreshed and renewed when they are with our family. I want them to have hope that they do not have to live forever in a pit of despair. I want someone to look back and say of my girls that they were a cool drink of water, a spring in the desert even when everything else was a confusing mess. I want them to see Christ in us. I pray that the Lord will guide our footsteps and show us how to become that family.

Babywearing for Beginners: The Mei Tai

2010-10-30T15:30:00.000-04:00

Sorry this has been delayed, but we've had some sickness and some unexpected overnight visitors. Other than still being pretty tired, we're back on track though, so here's the next post in our Babywearing for Beginners series. Today we'll talk about the Mei Tai (prounounced "may tie") Asian inspired carrier.

The carrier I'm shown using is an Infantino Wrap & Tie. I received it as the replacement product for the Infantino Slingrider which was recalled. This is a little bit different than a typical mei tai, and with a "real" mei tai you can do a hip carry that I could not accomplish with this one, although I tried!

What you can do with the Wrap & Tie is a rear facing front carry, a forward facing front carry, and a back carry. The wrap is tied the same way for the front carries, just in one you have the baby facing you, and in the other the baby faces away from you. To wear a front carry, you let the carrier hang down and tie it "inside out" to your waist, with the knot in the back. Then, you pull it up and put the straps over your shoulder, crossing them and bringing them back around to the front on the opposite sides. This creates a pocket-like place for your baby's bum. You want there to be fabric against your body at your waist, that is what ensures that your baby is going to be seated properly and comfortably. The Wrap & Tie has a couple of loops on either side of the panel of the carrier, which you thread the straps through to keep them well placed. From what I've seen, this is not true of most mei tais.

Here's a rear facing front carry.

And here is the forward facing front carry, which is a big hit with Lauren.

The other carry you can do with a Wrap & Tie mei tai is the back carry. If you've used a wrap carrier, this is similar to a rucksack carry (at least it feels like one!) You put the outside of the waistband against your back, tying it in the front. (Mine's under the baby belly, but it might fall more at your natural waist if you're not pregnant.) You pull it up and bring the straps over your shoulders, but instead of crossing the straps as you do with a front carry, you bring them back behind you. You then pull them through the guide straps and then back up front, wrapping them around your waist and tying behind baby.

I'll be honest, this is the first time I've done a back carry with the mei tai. I loved it! So did Lauren! It felt secure, comfortable and I was able to help out in the garden while wearing her!

There are several brands of carriers that you can purchase which will be similar to this. Here's where you can find a few.

Infantino Wrap & Tie (under Sash and EcoSash)
Catbird
Babyhawk

Here is a link for instructions to make your own!

Instructions for making many other carriers can be found here at Thebabywearer.com.

We'll be back soon with information about wraps and ring slings!

In Search of Community

2010-10-27T14:24:00.001-04:00

If you've been reading my Babywearing for Beginners series, don't fret, it will be back tomorrow. We're going to a Halloween-alternative Costume Party at church tonight, where I'll be wearing Lauren and have my hubby with me to help take pictures.

Today, however, I'm going to talk about something that I'm still working on figuring out, but it's something that's important to me. We're going to talk about community.

Where I live, and maybe where you live, I often feel completely isolated in my convictions and decisions. I often think "there is no one here like me." Who doesn't want some community, a place to fit in? A friend or a few, to whom you can go when the choices you've made get hard. (And as a note, just because you choose to put your faith in God for something, does not mean it will be easy! Living by faith is often the difficult road!) Who doesn't want a "kindred spirit," as Anne Shirley would say? What mother doesn't want someone who shares a similar philosophy for parenting and a similar set of beliefs to go to when that philosophy seems to be failing, or when the beliefs are threatened?

I know that I desire all of those things. I have two very close women friends, (above on either side of my grandmother, who is holding newborn Lauren!) for the last 13 and the last 5 years, whom I love deeply. I certainly can call them about anything, anytime. However, though our affection and our admiration for one another runs deep, our beliefs and styles are not the same. They are not really even similar at all. That's Okay!!! We need friends like that, too! I have been praying long and hard to find a "kindred spirit". However, I realized that I don't really put forth an effort to make that happen!

There are women who I admire greatly and whose lives I follow through their blogs, but because of my personal insecurities, they know little or nothing about me! I am a member of several different groups on babycenter.com and also am a member of the MOMYS forums, but I rarely participate, just read other people's posts. HOW ON EARTH am I to find someone to have community with, when I hide in the shadows? I won't, I can't. It is imperitave that if I desire for my prayer to be answered, to find a place where I fit in, that I must put forth the effort to make it happen! Today, I will start participating instead of watching the women I look up to from the sidelines, and perhaps I will find a friend, a kindred spirit.

So, what about you? Are you sitting on the sidelines? Are there people you want to get to know, but you are letting your insecurities get the best of you? Do you see people whom you would love to be mentored by, or befriended to, but you are too afraid to step out and be vulnerable to the possibility that it might not happen? If you have taken that step, did you find what you were looking for? If you took the step and DIDN'T find what you were looking for, does it hold you back from trying again? Do you read my blog but never comment, as I do to others? (Somebody reads it, and it isn't me! My blogger stats say so!)

Where do you find community?

Babywearing for Beginners: The Pouch

2010-10-26T21:38:00.000-04:00

One of the easiest, but probably least versatile of the carriers is the pouch. There's not a lot of frill about it, but you can buy them in many big box stores (and I see them every time I go into our secondhand kids stuff store.) There are lots of cute fabrics that I've seen them in, and they're plentiful if you're looking for them on the internet. It's also really easy to make one of your own, which means you can hand-select your fab! I have used it for a newborn up to a three year old (a big three year old!)

You can see how I made my pouch here.

There are two main carries that I use the pouch for, and I put the pouch on the same way for both carries. You want the pouch to be folded in half, so that the outer fabric is showing in front of you and also is against your body, with the inner fabric not visible until you put baby in it, and not touching your body. It will look kind of like a sash. You also want the seam positioned on the hip end of the sling, not the shoulder end. YOu also want the shoulder spread out comfortably. Here's an example.

The first of the two carries I'll show you is the cradle carry, similar to the one you can do with a ring sling. This is an ideal carry for a baby with little or no head control, and also for nursing. I could not get Lauren to cooperate to show this carry, so I'm using Brooke's doll. Notice that the "baby's" bottom is snug in the seam. For a newborn or smaller baby, you can have their feet in the area of the seam to cause them to sit higher up, but I really always felt more comfortable with the bottom or the crossed legs and bottom in the seam. Most important is that the baby's body is INSIDE the pouch, that there is fabric between you and the baby, as well as on the outside of baby.

The other carry I'll show you is the hip carry. This is good for any baby or toddler who can hold their head up well. The baby's bottom and spine should line up with the seam for a comfortable carry. The fabric should be spread out well over baby's body, so that the bottom fabric goes to the back of baby's knees and the top goes as far up the back as possible/comfortable. I'll show this carry with both Brooke (2) and Lauren (almost 8 months.)

And one more picture of this carry, show how Lauren can move well but is still secure.

If you're not wanting to make your own pouch, but would like to learn more about them and perhaps purchase one, here are a few popular companies that make them. I would also encourage you to seek out the products available that are made by other moms, SAHMS and WAHMS. I'm sure you can find plenty on Etsy. I'm sure there are also many other companies that make pouches, but these are the names I've seen a lot.

Popular commercial pouches:

Hotslings - their website is closed, but you can look here to find a retailer near you, or purchase one from one of the many web-based stores that sells them.
Peanut Shell
Rockin' Baby

I hope this has been helpful if you are considering making or purchasing a pouch, or needed to know more about one you already own. Stop by soon to check out the upcoming features in this series: woven wraps, a hybrid wrap (Baby K'Tan) and a mei tai.

Babywearing for Beginners: Carrier Pros and Cons

2010-10-25T16:51:00.001-04:00

If you are just getting started in the babywearing world, or are just curious about it, the wealth of information and vast array of products can be overwhelming at first. There is so much out there! Or, much the opposite, if you are shopping at a big box store and see a small shelf with a few carriers, you might think that's all there is. In my area, babywearing is not very common and you have to really search to find carriers outside of the Bjorn-style carriers with tons of buckles and straps. (I'm not going to write about that kind, other than to say I occasionally tried to use the Infantino Cozy Rider with Brooke and neither of us liked it.)

There are several carrier types to choose from, and amongst those, innumerable brands. I'll attempt to give you some information that may help you choose the right carrier (or two!) for you. This is based only on my own experience!

Woven Wraps
Pros: I believe these are the most versatile carriers. There are all kinds of carries for newborns, infants and toddlers, placing the baby on your front, back or hips. You can use them for any child, newborn to preschooler (and possibly beyond.) They distribute the weight of the child well because the child is so close to your body. This is my favorite kind of carrier, especially if I'll be wearing the baby for a long period of time. It's also just really a long piece of fabric, which means it is really easy to make your own if you don't want to shell out the money to buy one.

Cons: However, because it's just a long piece of fabric, it takes some time figuring out how to use it! The learning curve is pretty high. One other negative is that if you buy a wrap and you later lose or gain significant amounts of weight, it may not fit the same way. Some carries also require a shorter wrap and others a longer one. (I have usually been able to use a long wrap for short carries and just wrap the extra fabric around me further.)

Stretchy Wraps
Pros: These also have several carries and distribute the weight really well. They are particularly useful for newborns and young infants, because they cling snugly to the baby and make them feel swaddled. What infant doesn't love to be cuddled right up against Mommy? There is a stretchy pseudo wrap carrier called the Baby K'tan, which I bought from Target on the clearance rack (it had been opened and returned, they still sell the K'tan!) . It's a really neat carrier that I used it frequently when Lauren was younger, which doesn't require the same intensive wrapping as the other stretchy wraps.

Cons: Just like the woven wrap, there is some learning curve, (though perhaps not as much because you aren't going to be using quite as many different carries.) The other big disadvantage for me was that I couldn't use it with an older baby or toddler without the fabric stretching too much. Not only does it then not carry as well with future newborns/infants, it also means the baby is not as close to your body and therefore the weight is not as well distributed, which can cause some extra stress on your shoulders.

Ring Slings
Pros: The ring sling is very adjustable and it's among the easiest slings to nurse in. You can use the tail of the sling to cover yourself while nursing. It uses a lot less fabric than a wrap, so it is far more compact to put in a diaper bag. It's easy to pop the baby in and out of, and not cumbersome to wear when the baby isn't in it. When I used a ring sling, I also didn't usually carry my purse. I could tuck my wallet right in with the baby and go! The ring sling can also be used for many ages and stages of a child. I felt particularly comfortable using the ring sling with a hip carry or cradle carry.

Cons: I had a lot of trouble figuring out how to get the baby in so that I felt she was secure, and never did quite get the one I had to the point where I was really comfortable with a Buddha carry. Figuring out how to adjust the sling properly was difficult. Since it is a sling, it is on only one shoulder which can cause stress and discomfort after a while.

Pouches
Pros: Like the ring sling, I felt it was easy to nurse in. (Although maybe not quite as easy as the ring sling, and there was no tail to help cover up.) I also felt comfortable with a cradle hold and a hip carry. It is really easy to use because you just fold it, put it on and pop the baby in. It is also easy and comfortable to wear even when the baby isn't in it. It folds compactly for carrying in a diaper bag or purse. I made the one that I use, and although I am not a confident seamstress, it turned out well and was very easy.

Cons: Only a few cons. It can be a stress on your shoulder, and you may have to move the baby from one side to the other occasionally if you are out for a long time. There also are not many ways to carry baby in this, but when I won't be carrying for extended periods and need it in my purse "just in case," this is the carrier that I would pick first.

Mei Tai Style
Pros: I really like this carrier for things like trips to the grocery store. I can quickly put Lauren in it, pop Brooke in the grocery cart and shop with no trouble. It distributes weight evenly because it crosses like a wrap, but it uses much less fabric. It feels really secure and Lauren seems to enjoy being in it. You can use it with baby in front facing toward or away from you, or you can put baby on your back. I have only had this one for a short time, but I really like it thus far.

Cons: The shoulder strap is in the optimal position for an 8 month old to chew on it, but that may not be the fault of the carrier! :-) Otherwise, it does take a little learning how to tie baby up in it, and it isn't one that I want to use if I'll be carrying for a long time because if Lauren falls asleep there's nowhere to tuck her head, so it has to be held or she just flops around.

To be continued...

In the coming days, we'll discuss each of these carriers more in-depth. I'll show you some of the carries (with photo instructions!) for each one and tell you about where you can buy them. I'll also point you in the direction of some DIY carriers if you'd like to save a few bucks and make your own. Stay tuned!

To The Bottle

2010-10-19T12:58:00.000-04:00

Today marks a change that I had hoped wouldn't come for several more months. I'm now 15.5 weeks pregnant and Lauren is 7.5 months old. Supply issues with my milk have caused us to make the choice to give her formula. It is hard for me, as I had hoped to make it much closer to the one year mark, but after having her first bottle of formula earlier today, she was more content than she had been after nursing in several weeks. It saddened me to feel that I had to do it, but it makes my heart soar to see her finally feeling satisfied again.

I was surprised that she willingly took her first (and second) bottles of formula from me without any hesitation. I had expected her to hesitate to take it from me, and to only grudgingly take it from Tim. In any case, I'm happy she is taking it with no problems and that it seems to be making her happier. A happy baby makes for a happy (and less stressed) Mama.

Confessions of a Hopeful Homeschooler

2010-10-16T12:42:00.000-04:00

I have a few confessions to make, in regards to our homeschooling future...

1. I am really excited about it. I loved school, most of the time, and I'm so excited to be able to provide an atmosphere and an outlook that I hope will lead to a love of learning in my children.

2. I'm really scared. Yeah, I know, B won't be "old enough" for school for three more years, but already I'm scared that I will miss some integral skill or topic, that I'll pick the wrong curriculum, that I'll teach it wrong and they'll hate it.

3. Every few months, I get out my giant Rainbow Resource catalog and start flipping through it, dreaming and taking notes about things I want to research. That's what I've been doing now, and every time I think I have figured out what I want to start with... I see something else, or read a really bad review of what I was considering using.

4. When I start looking at History curriculum, I want to hide under a rock. History was my WORST subject in school. Geography? Cool. No problem. But start talking about dates and names and wars... my mind goes blank. So, I want to make sure I get something that is thorough enough to make up for my lack of historical knowledge, and that is interesting enough that they won't feel the way I do about "History Class". Although it's a long way off, it's driving me crazy that I can't find "The One".

5. This is the silliest confession yet... I already have our calendar planned out for B's Kindergarten year. Did I mention I'm excited??

Follower

2010-10-11T13:42:00.000-04:00

We just started doing memory verses with Brooke. I figured if she can remember every word and song to her favorite DVD, she can start to memorize something important. The word of God!

So, this week her memory verse is Matthew 4:20. "Immediately they left their nets and followed him." This is where Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee and saw Simon Peter and Andrew fishing. He told them to follow him and he would show them how to be "fishers of men." And Immediately they left their nets and followed him. I would have to say, that most of the time when I've felt God prompting me to do something, I probably didn't respond immediately. I also do not usually drop everything to obey him. Not unlike most people, most Christians, I suppose, I like things on my schedule, my timeline. When God says "Immediately" I sometimes think... Immediately after I'm finished with what I'm doing now? And the laundry?

Sometimes, even harder than "Immediately" is "Wait." We are in a society and a time when instant gratification is available for every need. God, however, is not the guy at the drive-through who will provide you with a burger "your way" in less time than it takes for you to pull your car around the building. Sure, sometimes, it feels that way. Sometimes you get an answer right away, and even the answer you wanted. Other times, though, you need to make reservations months or even years in advance, and the ovens still won't be on when you get there.

We have to be patient, but we also have to be ready to immediately stop what we are doing and obey. Still, there are also times where we have to do both. Sometimes, a very small piece of a plan is revealed, and you have to embrace that, be obedient in whatever it calls you to do, and be patient but ready as the rest of the plan is revealed. Right now that is what we are doing. We have been given a seed, a whisper of our future, but no details yet. We are being obedient in ways that we need to, but mostly that means waiting, patiently and alertly, for a foundation, a framework, a detailed plan... and trying not to share it with more people than we should at this point. It is HARD to not be bursting at the seams with excitement and fear, telling everyone everything we know (which is pretty little at this point.) Probably the hardest part of waiting is waiting silently. We do know that the rest will be revealed, it will come together, right now it is formless, but it will be molded and shaped into a beautiful thing. When it comes, we want to be ready to be like the disciples of Jesus... to immediately leave our nets and follow him.

Trust and Obey

2010-10-08T14:52:00.000-04:00

Initial disclaimer: I'm not going to tell you what I'm talking about... we're just not ready to share it yet, a lot still to be worked out and a long time left to get there... but I'm still going to talk about it. :-)

We had some grand plans. If our Plan was a game, God would be on the bench. He's still a player, he's still a part of the team, but he doesn't see a lot of the action. Our Plans? They were all about us. They were about freedom, but not true freedom. They were about a wasteful kind of freedom, where you're free to roam, free to laze around and watch tv, free to do nothing and anything. Thinking about our plans now, they seem almost sinful, although they didn't while we were making them. Our plans were selfish and they were STUPID! At the core of things, the plans themselves might not have been half bad, but we didn't involve God in them to the extent that we should have. We prayed halfheartedly to be enlightened about his will for our future. But guess what...

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps." Proverbs 16:9

We were riding home from my cousin's baptism in Charleston, talking about the speaker and whatnot. Then we started talking about our sermon on Sunday morning, and distractions that Satan uses to keep us from doing what we should, whether that be reading the Bible, praying or just being the husband, wife, parents, children, friends and servants we are called to be. I had been fighting with God over this, fighting with myself too. I knew what I was supposed to do, but I DID NOT WANT TO DO IT!!! What is it? Cut off our cable. I really love my tv shows. However, I realized I was putting that before my quiet time, before a lot of things. So, after discussion, asking for my husband's forgiveness for letting it rule so much of my time, thoughts and energy, and also seeking the forgiveness of God... we did it. We turned the cable off.

Doesn't seem like it has to do with our plans but it does. That one small (it felt big, but really, what a small thing!) sacrifice, that one concession... led to a change in our entire outlook. We started talking and praying, really praying about our future, and GOD'S PLAN for us. Do you want to know something exciting?

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 19:11

God wants us to prosper! He wants us to be happy, to be hopeful, to know we have a future!!! So, we are putting God back in the game... as the Coach, the Referee, the field, the stadium, the announcer... We're just the players! And wow are things changing. Plans are amazing when God's the one making them. We are headed down a path we never even considered before now. With the guidance and the blessing of our God! How amazing! We are starting to see things happen that will be extremely important for the success of these plans... it's awesome!! He is opening doors that no man can close!

His plans are so much better than ours, they are to prosper us and give us hope, and he will open the doors to get us there!

God is good!

Photo Update!

2010-09-14T14:22:00.003-04:00

I have been slack with the camera recently, but here is a recent pic of each girl!

Lauren is now six months old and is crawling everywhere and pulling up onto her knees.

Here's Brooke looking cool during a picnic at the lake.

Adding a Third Bedroom

2010-09-13T07:56:00.000-04:00

I was over at Raising Arrows and reading Amy's post about their plan for "where to put the baby" when it arrives and thought I'd share something we are doing this weekend. Well, something Tim is doing this weekend, because I'm going to the beach with my parents, which always gives him a chance to do some construction and/or demolition.

We currently have a room in our house that we call "The Front Room". The front door opens into this room. It houses the computer, piano and a daybed, but has no true purpose. There is a door from this room that opens into the living room, which has a little closet we keep toys in. The layout looks (something) like this, except the doors aren't this oddly shaped. :-)

With baby number three on the way and knowing there's no way we can fit three babies/toddlers into the room Brooke is currently in, we've decided to turn this room into a third bedroom. We will tear down the back wall of the closet, and possibly the side wall. Then add a wall past the front door, and turn the door around so it opens the other way. It will then look (something) like this.

We will have to sell the piano, which is fine, since none of us actually plays it. We'll have to do a little rearranging everywhere, but I'm excited to get the construction done this weekend so that when we move Lauren out of our room in the next month or so, we won't have to move her in with her sister. I'm worried that Brooke and Lauren will wake each other up, but Lauren and I are waking each other up right now, so I'm ready for a change.

The question is: Who moves into the new room? The girls' room is right beside ours, which would be ideal for Lauren, but Brooke is already there. She's not a big fan of change. Before Lauren was born, we moved a big blue rocking recliner out of her room and into the living room because it's my nursing chair. Brooke had a meltdown and cried about it off and on for days. How would she feel about changing rooms?! The new room will be so much bigger though, and when the third baby is ready to move out of our room, I'll want to put him or her in a room alone if possible, so the girls will end up bunking in the new room. Plus the new room will have so much more space for the toys of the "big girls".

So, I'm asking you, do I move Brooke out and Lauren in? Do I move Lauren to the new room, even though it's further away?

Clothing Organization for Littles

2010-09-10T12:09:00.000-04:00

Right now I'm taking a little break before the baby wakes up and its time to start making lunch. I'm taking a break from tackling the mountains of clothing in my girls' room. The mountains consist of Things They Can No Longer Wear, Things They Will Wear One Day, and Things That Are Clean & Need To Be In The Dresser.

It seemed like Brooke wore clothing for ages and ages before we changed out the sizes. Lauren, however, is changing clothing sizes at lightning-speed! She just turned six months, but is moving into 12 months pajamas because she is too tall for most of her nine months pj's. Brooke is also finally ready to discard most of her 18 months clothing and stick solely to 2T/24 months. So... I have piles of 3/6 months and 18 months clothing that have been stacking up in their room and making me cringe every time I went in there. They are now sorted completely and just waiting for Tim to bring me boxes from work to store them away.

We have also been blessed to have friends and family with little girls who give us their hand-me-downs once their girls outgrow them. We also have quite a collection of boy clothes, which is currently lent to a friend who had a son shortly after I had Lauren. In any case, it requires that we sort these clothes, shoes, undergarments and accessories for easy location when our girls reach those sizes.

So here's what we do to keep the clothing under control:

I currently store clothing mostly just by size, although I will probably start storing by season as well for the bigger sizes. I just use cardboard boxes with labels on the sides, and sometimes the Rubbermaid totes, but the boxes are free so I generally use those! :-) The label on the side will have the size and gender. For example, I'm about to box up 18 month girls clothes, so I'll write "18MG" on the side. Since we didn't find out what Lauren was going to be during that pregnancy, we also ended up with a lot of green and yellow newborn clothes, which get an "N" for neutral.

Another thing that we do is use some of those flat plastic Rubbermaid tubs to store the next size clothing under the girls cribs. It makes it really easy when they start to outgrow specific articles of clothing (like Lauren's pj's) so you don't have to get the whole box out and let it sit around until they fit into all of the clothing. We slide the boxes under their cribs when not in use, and just pull them out to find specific items as we need them. Another time we found this useful is when we were going on a trip last weekend and it required warmer clothing than was in their drawers. It was easy to pull it out and grab a few sweaters, put it back under and go.

Lastly, just because we have 50 outfits for 12 months size does not mean we have all of those outfits available at once. I try to have no more than 10 seasonally appropriate outfits for the girls, plus 5-7 pairs of pajamas, socks, stockings and a few dresses for each one in the closet/dresser. It's easier to find what I'm looking for, it cuts down on the clutter, it forces me to do laundry (which I hate!) instead of letting it pile up, and it makes it easy for my husband who can never remember where anything goes to find things quickly when there isn't as much to look through.

One day, though, I dream of a family closet. Not in this house. Closets are almost extinct here, so there's certainly no place for a family closet! One day!!

A Quarter of the Way There!

2010-09-09T14:51:00.000-04:00

One year ago, I was over 1/4 of the way to delivering Lauren! Brooke took her first steps at my Dad's friend's beach house in mid-September of last year, and I enjoyed my first Chilean Sea Bass at Bonefish Grill during that trip too! Brooke was just about to turn 1 and had just gotten her first tooth. She had weaned by this time, and I was longing to nurse our new baby.

Well, tomorrow I will be ten weeks with baby #3! One quarter of the way to my due date. (Although I know we will schedule my cesarean prior to my due date, so more than 1/4 of the way to the babe's birthday!) I have made it longer (into my pregnancy) nursing Lauren than I did while I was nursing Brooke and pregnant with Lauren. There is discomfort, there is lower production, but it is not the same. With Lauren, I had morning sickness for the first half of pregnancy and was nursing for the first two months. Each time Brooke nursed, I was in so much pain that I usually cried, and I had contractions the whole time. I am so thankful that I am not experiencing morning sickness or severe pain this time around! I really hope to be able to nurse Lauren until she is at least one, and would not be opposed to tandem nursing if she wants to continue after that.

One year from now, we will be a family of five and I will be nursing my third baby. We will actually have to utilize the back seat of our van. Brooke will be mere weeks from turning three and Lauren will be 18 months old, walking and talking and playing with her big sister and baby sibling, who will be almost the age Lauren is now (6 months).

Looking at the past, present and future, I am extremely grateful for what we have, what we have had and what we have to look forward to. I cannot wait to snuggle another little baby, and I cannot wait to see what Lauren and Brooke will be like as they grow.

I Never Thought I'd Say That

2010-08-14T12:37:00.000-04:00

There are so many things, in just the almost-two short years we've been parents, that we have laughed at as they came out of our mouths. They are just things we never thought there would be any reason to say. Recently, included in these things are:

"Brooke, please don't bite the cat's foot."
"Brooke, the cat is not a pony. Do not sit on her." ... "Neither is your sister, don't sit on her either."
"The watermelon is not a phone. Here, pretend this is a phone."
"You may take two bears to bed, but not the click-clock" (the timer for Scattergories)
"Please don't try to step on the chicken."
"No, you can't have marshmallows for breakfast."
"Please don't trap the cat with the laundry basket."

And a bonus conversation:
Me: "Did the cat bite you?"
Brooke: "yes. we bite each other."

We have a very tolerant cat.

Little Girl Fun

2010-08-11T08:19:00.003-04:00

I love the season of babyhood. Full of coos, giggles, grins and excitement about every new thing. It feels like Lauren is almost out of that phase, as she's no longer a limp noodle baby, but a scooting, sitting, cat-chasing wonder. This week, I've been revelling in the season of toddlerhood. Full of experimentation, curiousity, learning and glee. Here are some fun things we've been doing this week.

Saturday afternoon there was a baptism at the lake, and we went swimming afterwards.

Brooke took pictures of herself.

Among all the other fantastic things about a "big girl bed," is that it can be made into a tent quite easily!

And a bonus: The chickens are 4 weeks old!

Being Present & Joyful

2010-08-07T11:23:00.001-04:00

For the first time, with the exception of being in the hospital having Lauren, I spent the night away from the kids last night. Among the moms I know in "the real world," this is a luxury that most salivate over. I won't say that I didn't have fun, because I absolutely did. It was a "grown-up girls sleepover" and I got together with three other women from church, played games, ate and watched movies until the wee hours of the morning. It was a nice little break, and it was time spent with lovely, thoughtful, funny women who inspire me. When it came time to go to bed, however, I found it hard to sleep. I couldn't stop worrying that my hubby would run out of pumped milk to feed to Lauren, or that Brooke would not sleep well. I missed my husband, I missed the sweet-smelling baby cuddling next to me to nurse in the middle of the night. I missed the kisses of my toddler before bed. I was missing fleeting moments of their precious young lives. I realized that I don't like to be away from my children for prolonged periods of time.

I have friends who look forward to, and crave those times away. I think it's partially because of the time that we live in, where SAHMs are the exception rather than the rule and children are generally considered burdens rather than blessings. When we announced my current pregnancy to family and friends, there was nowhere near the excitement that was evident when we announced Brooke, or even Lauren. We even recieved comments of concern rather than congratulations from some family members, and more than a few people have said we are "crazy". I don't feel crazy. Well, maybe a little. Mostly, I feel blessed. I know people who have tried for many years to get pregnant, some who never were able to. From them, we usually get nothing but joyful, tearful hugs and congratulations, because they, more than many, realize the value of a blessing and the enthusiasm that we greet each child with.

Seeing each child as a blessing, greeting each pregnancy with excitement and enthusiasm, seeking to enjoy and appreciate every possible moment of their lives, we are joyful and thankful for each day and do not seek to waste them! In the blink of an eye, baby girls will be grown women. Even more unfathomable, and unthinkable, is that in the blink of an eye, the baby girls could be gone. And because they could be, I will choose not to be, every chance I get. It's a season, and I will look on it as a season of joy.

The Girls

2010-08-04T09:12:00.000-04:00

Here are a couple pictures of our sweeties. Brooke was 22 months yesterday and Lauren will be 5 months tomorrow.

Living Large While We're Still Small

2010-08-02T09:20:00.001-04:00

As we've begun to share the news about my pregnancy with our third child, the most frequent response is, "Where are you going to put it?" I must say that this question is a little bewildering. How much individual space does one child need? A bed, some clothing space, enough room that they can get away for a few moments of peace if needed. Do they need a whole room of their own? I don't think so, though I'm sure some people do. They will be sharing rooms with people for all of their lives. Roomates if they go to college, husbands if they marry. We also hope to have a large family, and in most large families, room-sharing is a necessity. This has me thinking about ways we are preparing to be a large family, living with a large family mentality, even though we are currently a family of four.

Here are some things we do that will be expandable as our family expands:

Room-sharing: Brooke and Lauren will share a room. Lauren is still in the Pack N Play in our bedroom, but naps in the crib in the "Girls Room." However, there is a room that will be turned into a bedroom as our family expands. There may be a time when one child has a room to herself for a period of time, but it's not a goal.
Color-Coding: We are in the beginning stages of color-coding the girls. Brooke is purple and Lauren will be yellow. They'll have cups, plates, utensils, maybe bedding, hairbrushes, toothbrushes, clothes hangers and more in their color. When we start schooling it will help organize their work and their personal items. It actually is a good way to teach them to recognize their name as well, if you write their name on a few of the items too. They already recognize that the color is theirs, so when you talk with them about it, they will quickly learn that the name belongs to them too. Brooke has a purple hairbrush with her name on it and is already recognizing her name everywhere!
Minimization: We are just starting to work on this one for the whole family. I have, as I'm sure many women do, lots of things I will probably never be able to fit into again, but they are still in my closet. I also have lots of things that are from a season of life long gone, which I wouldn't be caught dead in these days. And then there's the problem of washing clothes, putting them away, they get rifled through to find "something" and end up on the floor, and washed again without ever really being dirty! My solution to this is to limit the amount of clothing (and toys, and books) we have available at any one time. That means giving things away, repurposing them, only having seasonally appropriate clothing available. It also means picking my top 12 or so fave outfits for the girls and just putting the rest away. If you have someone from whom you get lots of hand-me-downs, you often have LOTS more stuff than they could need. A baby does not need 90 outfits, one for each day they are wearing 6 months clothes! (I dream of having a family closet, but it's not possible where we are now!)

There are a lot of ways we need to change our mentality before number three is here. Bathtime is one thing that is already too hectic with two, although it might get better once Lauren can sit up well and they can be bathed together! What do you do to make life easier as a mom?

A Few of My Favorite Things

2010-07-31T21:59:00.000-04:00

Hot pockets, sandwiches, chocolate milk. What it all comes down to is this is my fave part of early pregnancy. Let's face it, there's not a lot good to say about early pregnancy. It's the part with the most potential for illness, you don't really feel pregnant, you may or may not even look pregnant, you aren't "supposed" to tell anyone... it's the "boring trimester." So, what's my fave part of very early pregnancy? I experienced this with Brooke, and can't remember for sure with Lauren. I may have, but it may have then been overshadowed by the horrible morning sickness. Anyway, the wonderful part of the first few weeks of pregnancy for me is that everything I eat tastes like the best thing ever. I'm eating a Hot Pocket at 10 o'clock in my pajamas and it tastes like I'm dining at a five star restaraunt.

Things I Worry About with Three Under Three... Take One.

2010-07-31T07:34:00.000-04:00

So, it looks like in April we are moving from the Two Under Two group to the Three Under Three group. I didn't have a lot of trouble going from one to two. There were certainly some logistics to be worked out, like how to go to the grocery store, how everybody gets baths every day, etc. However, Lauren loves being carried in the sling, and for just about everything we do outside the house, Brooke is either walking or riding in the cart or stroller and Lauren is in the sling. So... I'm curious about some logistics for three littles. I would really like to be able to continue grocery shopping with the kids... but where do I put everybody? I'm pretty sure none of the grocery stores in our little town have the carts with two seats in the top basket part. I have used the "racecar cart" before, but whoever decided that they belonged at my store didn't do any measuring, and I have to unload the groceries, then pull the cart around because it doesn't fit through the checkout lane!! Should I go to a further-away store, so that I can use their two-seater carts?

So tell me, how would you organize a shopping trip with a 2.5 year old, a 13 month old and an infant?

If you go to a grocery store that has carts you love... what store is it?

ANd finally, what's your fave double stroller? (are there even triple strollers??)

Wanna know a secret?

2010-07-30T07:30:00.001-04:00

We found out we are having a third unexpected little blessing! I hadn't been feeling well for a few days and asked the hubby to bring me home an HPT yesterday on a whim... well the whim was correct. We should, provided all goes well, be bringing another little one into the family in early April of 2011! Yes, very close together with Lauren, but I'm okay with that. :-) Just want to shout it from the rooftops, but I haven't seen a doctor so I don't want to tell a lot of IRL people yet. BUT, I had to tell someone! So I'm telling you, my bloggy friends!

Win It!

2010-07-29T09:28:00.001-04:00

Amy, from Raising Arrows, which is among my fave blogs, is partnering with Colleen from Sweet Little Blessings, and hosting a giveaway of a Fuzzibunz OS Pocket cloth diaper!

Xenia, from Thanks, Mail Carrier! is giving away a HearthSong Super Waterslide (with pump)! She's actually having an Anniversary bash right now, with lots of cool giveaways!

Meet the Chickens!

2010-07-29T09:15:00.000-04:00

We've been enjoying our baby chicks these last few weeks. They are now 2.5 weeks old and are growing very quickly. Tim built them a roost two days ago, and some of them are already using it. Here's a couple pics of the babes at around 2 weeks.

I *think* this is two Rhode Island Red's, one Buff Orpington (top right) and one White Rock, but if we're being honest, I know nothing. lol. So they are only guesses.

This one is a mystery. :-) Everytime I think I have it figured out, I get confused again.

Mystery chicken #1, pictured again at the right, and Mystery Chick #2 (of 3) on the left. They are really pretty, but not very friendly thus far. Skittish.

And here's one of my faves. This is a Black Austrolorp, and I must admit that I wasn't too excited about this breed, not "unexcited" but it wasn't one I was looking specifically forward to. However, this is the friendliest of all 30 chickens! There are 2 of them, but one is definitely sweeter (and braver) than the other.

And I just realized I never posted a pic when they first arrived (man, I'm slacking!) but here they are as fuzzballs. Again, just guesses, the yellow ones are the White Plymouth Rocks, the red ones in the middle are RIR's, the red ones with the chipmunk stripe are Welsummers (some might be Easter Eggers) and the black ones include at least some Barred Plymouth Rock (2nd friendliest!) and Black Austrolorp. We may have had an additional breed, as two very similar looking chicks died in the first week, but a lot of them looked very similar at that age.

So, we started out with 32 chicks, we now have 30, (5 of which will go live with our cousins when we can tell who is boys and who is girls!) There are a few we are fairly certain of gender with, but we are still not 100% on anyone, for either gender or breed, lol.

Hey! What's going on?

2010-07-10T10:37:00.000-04:00

Well it's been a hectic couple of weeks, with Brooke getting sick, then we went on vacation and immediately upon arriving back home we kept our 5 year old niece for a week, which happened to be the same week as VBS at our church, for which Tim was the Rally Leader. SO, hopefully I can keep up better for a little while.

We have something very exciting going on right now. Well, exciting (or eggciting!) for us! We just ordered our first baby chicks from Meyer Hatchery. We ordered 25 straight run brown egg layer assortment (the assortment was on sale 40% off and you're guaranteed to get at least 3 breeds, which will give us the opportunity to become familiar with several breeds!) We also ordered 3 easter egg pullets, and four brown egg layer pullets for our cousins who want only a few egg layers and a roo to watch over them. (Of roos we should have plenty, having ordered a straight run!) They are heavy egg layers, which means that they can serve as a dual-purpose breed. We plan to raise most of the roos for meat and keep most of the pullets for eggs for ourselves and enough to sell a few and/or give some away each week. Anyway, I said all that to say... we're getting fuzzy baby chickens, lots of them, mid-week next week. I will probably start a separate blog for "chicken stuff".

Now, what you really want, is to know about baby girls. Brooke is doing well, just got over another mild virus (although for about a minute, we thought it might be chickenpox!) and Lauren is rolling both ways, trying to crawl, can be propped on her hands and hold herself up in a sitting position and just had her first rice cereal yesterday, which she thought was the bomb(dot)com! (B never liked cereal, except the oatmeal with raisin bedtime cereal which smelled like really yummy granola! Who can blame her really? That rice cereal has GOT to be boring!) And before I forget, Xenia asked for an update on the swallowed coin. To our knowledge, it never came out. The doctor was unconcerned as long as it's not bothering her. So in turn, so are we. If she could swallow a dime and give me two nickels, we might have to join the circus!

We also took our first not-at-home camping trip. It went great. Everyone had a blast. (Except I got a sting or bite of some kind that thereafter got infected, but it's almost all better now!) So... here's your fave part, and mine... pictures!

A Girl and A Garden

2010-06-15T11:51:00.001-04:00

Brookie had some fun water play this week. We forgot to get our pool from Mom's house, so she was playing in a plastic tupperware container!

And here's a bonus picture. Pumpkins at 14 days, post transplant.

A Little Change

2010-06-10T12:23:00.000-04:00

Nope, not change as in "to make different". Change as in the little round pieces of money.

So, here's what happened. Mama hears a coin fall and turns around. Brooke quickly swipes the coin up and puts it in her mouth. Mama says "Can I have that coin, please?"

Brooke coughs, then searches her mouth for the coin. Brooke says "Where go dollar? Mama, where go dollar?"

Yes, she's swallowed a coin of unknown denomination. She is trying to get her diaper off because she now knows it will not come back out of her mouth. And so begins our first epic journey through poop, hoping to hit the lotto.

On another note, I cut her hair last night, and I think it looks really cute. I got a sweet little shot of her trying to decorate her wall with stickers. She looks so grown up!

Winner Wednesday!

2010-06-09T13:45:00.000-04:00

Two little girls are sleeping soundly and I've just reached the first summit of Mt. Laundry, so I thought I'd check out the giveaways around the blogosphere today. There are some great ones!

Familylicious is giving away a Medela Swing Breastpump! I've had my eye on this pump for quite some time, but my single pump does the job well enough, so I haven't wanted to make the investment, buy I sure would LOVE to win it! :-)

Thanks, Mail Carrier is giving away a Lime Ricki swimsuit. They are modest bathing suits, in either one piece or tankini style, but don't think that means they're boring! These are some beautiful bathing suits!! It was very difficult to pick a favorite for entry! :-)

Have a great Wednesday!

My Muddy Girl!

2010-06-07T22:32:00.000-04:00

Today, while Daddy was working on his pumpkin patch, Brooke found a mud hole! And cousin Richard captured her on camera as she was walked back up the hill to get cleaned off.

Here she is, mud from head to toe (literally) with Daddy. (The junk around them is from working on his pumpkin patch, not our typical yard decoration, haha.)

And here's a pic of her on Memorial Day weekend, also muddy!

And one more picture... my favorite spring pic of Brookie this year thus far... it is a perfect depiction of her purely joyful personality! :-)

What Lies Ahead

2010-06-03T13:08:00.000-04:00

Two beautiful little ladies are napping at the same time. So, it certainly is a beautiful day!

Here in the Raymond household, we are abuzz with dreams and plans for the future. We've been working really hard on the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace plan, and just payed off one of our biggest credit cards! (Yay!) We have only around a year and a half left, if all goes according to plan, (haha!) before we are ready to put the house on the market and go on the long trip around the eastern US to visit all of our families. So, we are looking forward to that, to spending lots of time with Daddy.

And there are many other things that we look forward to as well. Lauren is rolling front to back, and we are looking forward to all of her upcoming milestones. She loves looking at her sister, just listening to Brooke talk makes her smile and coo. I so look forward to watching them grow together, seeing them become best friends. When fall arrives, Brooke will turn two, which is unbelievable to me. She's growing so fast, she's so sweet and funny. She's so wild and passionate. Seeing their personalities developing makes me excited about one very long-term part of our future... homeschooling. I'm sure Tim could live without hearing another word about curriculum until Brooke is old enough for us to actually buy some. lol. I watched Sarita from Sonlight give a talk on Tuesday that just lit a fire in me. I can't wait.

Giveaway Wednesday!

2010-06-02T10:13:00.002-04:00

It's Wednesday, so what are you trying to win?

Here's what I want this week! The Oreck Steam-It! They're giving one away over at The Art of Being Mom!

We actually have a wonderful steam mop that I got for my birthday. I would love to win this one for my Mama! :-)

*** I'm LOOKING FOR giveaways or free templates or good guides on how to prettify my blog. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. I'm not afraid to tackle it myself, but I don't even know where to start. ***

We LOVE Reading!

2010-06-01T11:45:00.000-04:00

Brooke loves to be read to. Lauren loves to hear people talk, so you could say she loves reading too! :-)
The other day, I caught her "reading" a Richard Scarry book in my big blue chair (the light wasn't great, but it was too cute!):

As most toddlers do, Brooke loves to read the same stories over and over. She has obvious favorites. Some of her favorites are:

1) Anything by Sandra Boynton, but especially The Belly Button Book and Barnyard Dance!

2) Five Silly Monkeys by Steve Haskamp.

3) Yellow Square by David A. Carter. (It's a beautifully made pop-up art book! Definitely one that is only read with a grown-up for safety sake!)

I only hope her love for reading continues to grow as she does, and I look forward to lots more snuggly reading in the big blue chair.

We're Back!!

2010-06-01T10:36:00.000-04:00

I'm so happy to FINALLY have a computer that is reliable and be able to get back to the blog! So, come out come out wherever you are! I'm going to start writing again! :-)

As of now, Brooke is just shy of 20 months old and Lauren is just shy of 3 months old. We are having an absolute blast! My family and my husband's mom just visited us for the long weekend and we were able to enjoy some special time with all of them, which was nice. It was the first time my dad and Tim's mom had met Lauren, so she was the star of the show!

So what have I been up to? Learning and loving having two under two. Getting comfortable with several carriers, including the Ellaroo and the K'Tan. Nursing Lauren. Cuddling Brooke. Exploring homeschooling. Working on step 2 of Dave Ramsey's FPU. Trying to make changes to my diet and exercise to combat high cholesterol. Picking squash and beans from our garden. Watching my hubby work in his first attempt at growing lots of pumpkins.

So I'm going to jump back in and make a "real" post in a few minutes. What have you been doing while I was gone?

Shopping with Two Under Two

2010-04-18T15:45:00.000-04:00

I'm double-posting today. That's what happens when I don't post for a week. :-) I'm going to share what I'm learning in some posts as I learn it... about how we're managing to get everything done and still have some fun with two under the age of two. Today, we're going to talk about shopping. Yes, I've only done a brief shopping trip, but it really went beautifully, and there is no other way I can think of that would work for us.

First, I park next to the cart corral. Yes, I know, you get dinged that way, but it means you don't have to leave anyone or anything in the car unsupervised, and you can do your duty of returning the cart to its rightful place.

Second, I am a babywearer. I put Lauren (my 6 week old) in a carrier. I use the Ellaroo Wrap and the K'tan (check it out, it works like a stretchy wrap, without the wrapping). I put Lauren in the carrier, then got Brooke out and put her in the cart, buckled in. Then we shopped. When we were done, I put Brooke in the car, unwrapped Lauren and put her in the car, then put the groceries in the car and put the cart in the corral. SMOOTH! It really was as easy as it sounded.

Third, getting the kids and the stuff inside. First, I take them both out of the car and into the house. I put Brooke in the living room which is pretty well childproofed, sometimes with a good show on, and put Lauren in the crib, closing the door so Brooke can't get to her if she's so inclined. Then I bring the stuff in as quickly as possible. And that's it!

I'll admit, it was scary, but we did it!!! You can too!!!

We Made it Through!

2010-04-18T15:34:00.000-04:00

Alright, so our computer is about totally kaput. SO, I will be trying to write on the occasions that I come to my mom's house which is usually Sundays and Wednesdays. What's been happening for us?

WE LEFT THE HOUSE!

In fact, we left home almost every day this week. Monday and Tuesday we met friends at the park. One friend is very pregnant and she mostly held Lauren while I took charge of her two children (3 & 4) and Brooke. (I wouldn't say that counts as leaving home alone, but B got to play outside and that's what counts!) On Tuesday, however, as I arrived to meet my cousins who were babysitting my sweet almost-5-year-old niece, Kyra, she had just fallen off of the playground equipment... and broken her wrist and elbow. So, I helped watch her younger brother, who is almost the same age as Brooke, while my cousin took her to the ER. So, it was a bittersweet trip. We did stay and let the kids play some, and they had a great time playing in the sand.

Wednesday, we came into town and did a little divide and conquer. Lauren and I went to small group, Brooke hung out with my parents and Tim worked with the youth on some puppetry. Thursday I had a doctor's appointment (yep, Lauren's 6 weeks old!) and then the girls and I hung out at Mom's while Tim had band practice. Friday, we stayed home and Tim went to a Creative Ministries Conference.

Here's the one I'm proud of though... Saturday, we went to the Dollar Tree. Just us Girls! And we survived. And no one cried. And no one got hurt. And we got what we needed. AND then we went to a birthday party for a one year old, stayed for two hours and with a little help from the other attendees and the hostess... we had FUN!

Maybe... (JUST maybe)... I'll go grocery shopping without Daddy this week!!

We're still here!

2010-04-08T11:31:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to let you know that we're still here. Brooke got hit with a stomach bug, which Lauren and I avoided catching, although Tim didn't. Between that and Easter, we've been a little out of sorts. So what's been happening?

Lauren is growing like a weed. Tim weighed her yesterday twice using the "subtraction method" and she weighed 11.4 lbs. I couldn't believe it. She's a month old now and starting to make some sweet little coos and near-smiles. I could swear she had a tiny little giggle yesterday when Brooke was talking to her. She looks a lot like my dad. She's still not got a sleeping rhythm worked out but we're hoping that will smooth out over the next few weeks.

Brooke had an absolute blast hunting Easter eggs at church, and now anytime I cook with eggs she gets rather upset because I won't let her play with them. She enjoys playing with her plastic eggs, opening and closing them, saying "apart" and "together" (although probably no one else would know what she's talking about.) She is talking more and more every day. Yesterday I asked her to bring me my phone while I was nursing Lauren and she said "Sure!"

As for me, I'm getting that cabin fever that tells me it is time to learn how to get out of the house with a baby and toddler. I know people do it everyday, but I'm honestly terrified of going grocery shopping with both girls. Not sure how to take Brooke to the park while wearing or carrying Lauren, since Brooke isn't able to climb on the equipment without some assistance. However, I'm determined to figure it out. There's not much of this week left, but starting on Monday I'm going to try to make brief explorations out with both girls. It must be done! I need adult interaction and fresh air and I need it soon!

Forget "Toy" Brooms!

2010-03-26T20:48:00.000-04:00

Like most kids her age, Brooke loves to mimic the activities of Mama and Daddy. One thing Mama and Daddy do an awful lot of is sweeping! Well, she loves to play with the broom and push it around, but it really wasn't accomplishing much, other than knocking things off of the tables and hitting people as she dragged it around.

Recently, we had been given a Swiffer Sweeper which I had left unopened underneath the sink. I noticed it when grabbing dishwashing soap and opened it up to try it out. Guess what! It came in five pieces. The head, the handle, and three lengths of piping to attach them to each other. The best part? You don't have to attach them ALL, so you can make it as short or as long as the pipes allow... SO, with just one pipe attaching the head and handle, Brooke now has a "broom" she can actually use comfortably. The added bonus is that unlike with a toy broom, she's actually helping to clean. And she's having fun doing it!

Tender Times with Brooke

2010-03-23T11:46:00.000-04:00

One of my absolute favorite times of day is 10 am. For some reason, this is the time that Brooke likes to nap. She can operate all afternoon if she sleeps from 10 until 11:30 or 12. Her sleeping is not my favorite part, although it does give me the opportunity to take a little break or get a few things done... or nurse and cuddle Lauren and read. No, my favorite part is the five or ten minutes before she goes to sleep.

Some would call it weakness, but I think she still needs (and deserves) some quiet one-on-one mama love. In all truth, until recently (like when our new nursling arrived!) I often wished Brooke was still nursing. In any case, at 17 months old, I heat her sippy cup of milk up for a few seconds in the microwave. As soon as I show it to her, she says "milks!" and runs to her bedroom, climbing up in the red rocking chair. Then I hold her as she drinks her milk, rock her and sing or pray or just look at her and think about how much she's grown and all the things we have yet to look forward to. She hands me the cup when she's done, kisses me and I put her in her crib. I hand her the stuffed cow that she's adopted as her lovey, and occasionally a stuffed frog as well, and cover her up. She says "bye" and rolls over on her belly with the cow under one arm. Tim goes through the same routine at bedtime with her.

The routine has changed gradually, like from me holding her cup to her now wanting to do it herself most of the time. She no longer fits in a cradle position, but leans back on one arm with her long legs across mine and her feet hanging off of my opposite hip. It's one of the most beautiful, touching, heart-wrenching times. I know that all too soon that phase of our life, at least with Brooke, will be over. I am going to miss it so much. It reminds me daily of the importance and significance of my calling as a mother. Those moments remind me that though the world may not see how meaningful that calling is, the Lord does, and I must continue to strive in making the most of these short days, loving and molding my little girls into the women that God plans for them to become. It is not a task to be taken lightly.

"I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, accepting one another in love, diligently keeping the unity of the Spirit with the peace that binds us." Ephesians 4:1-3

If you like Moe's...

2010-03-22T17:39:00.000-04:00

Leftovers at our house usually get either eaten by me and Brooke for lunch or turned into something else in the crockpot. When I use the crockpot, I generally don't use a recipe. I just throw whatever is available in a pot and I smell spices and the food to decide what to put in. So, in the spirit of trying to get back into the habit of making dinner instead of letting Tim take care of it, I grabbed a half seasoned pork tenderloin from the freezer that we had eaten a few weeks ago. I think it was something like garlic and herb seasoning. I then threw in a few other things and it turned out marvelous! As we savored it, we decided that it tasted almost exactly like a Homewrecker from Moe's Southwest Grill! So, since I don't use recipes, I don't have measurements, but I wanted to share the general, super-easy crockpot recipe with you!

Leftover meat (I think we'll try steak next time!)
Rotel Mexican Lime & Cilantro
Canned Black Beans
Water
Rice

Around 1 pm, I threw the first four ingredients in the crockpot on low heat. At four fifteen, I added some rice. At five, it was hot and yummy.

Had I known it would be so Moe's-like, I would have run out and grabbed some tortillas. We sprinkled cheese over it, and next time I'll get sour cream as well (I love cheese & sour cream!) OH it was SOOOO good!!!!!! (I'm at that point in breastfeeding where I'm hungry all the time and everything tastes amazing!)

Enjoy!

Super Hubby!

2010-03-20T12:34:00.000-04:00

My dear hubby has been working very hard to get up extra early (around 3 am) to go to work so that he can be home by 1 or 2 in the afternoon most days to help with the kids. He also takes a nap if he can, but waking up that early, I imagine he deserves one! :-) Anyway, I've been so happy that he's doing this and he's also helped a lot with the housework as I try to get used to getting things done with two littles. He also has been taking Brooke with him when he does work outside and if he goes somewhere in the afternoon, like the store. Yesterday involved just such an adventure. He took her to the store to get something special because his father was coming into town and he has strict diet restrictions. Well, he not only took her to the store... he also took her to the store in a cloth diaper! Not a bumGenius 3.0 either... an Econobum. A prefold and cover! I was so proud!

(...And I'll tell you a secret... I myself have never left home with her in cloth! She always wears sposies when we are out, mostly because I haven't been going much of anywhere since we started using cloth a lot.)

So, Go Super Dad! :-)

Wilton Giveaway!

2010-03-20T12:06:00.001-04:00

Sugar Pop Ribbons has a great giveaway going on that ends tomorrow! They are giving away a a Cupcakes 'N More 38 Count Large Dessert Stand, a Dimensions Multi-Cavity Mini Cupcakes Pan, a Princess Photo Cake Topper, 2 packs of Princess Cupcake Wraps' n Pix, 1 Princess Cupcake Combo Pack, and 2 boxes of Princess Royal Icing Decorations all from the best known name in cake decorating, Wilton! If you have any girly girls, I would recommend checking this out! It's a great giveaway!

Sugar Pop Ribbons is also giving away a Planet Wise Wet/Dry Bag!

Nursing Lauren: The First Two Weeks & Pics!

2010-03-19T11:30:00.000-04:00

Our little Lauren is two weeks old today. The first two weeks have been much easier in some ways than with Brooke, probably because I am not as nervous and I've learned how to sleep so that we both sleep well. However, I am so happy that I nursed Brooke before nursing Lauren, because I might not have made it this far if Lauren had been first. The engorgement I expected, and it did come, but so did things I had never really experienced with Brooke... cracked, sore, bleeding nipples... plugged milk ducts... and a baby who believes that if she is awake she should be eating, and thus wants to nurse almost hourly during much of the day. So... Thank God that Brooke was first and I knew it would get better. It has. I'm almost healed and it now only stings for a moment when she latches on, and really only on one side because one was affected more than the other. So, two weeks in, we're finally getting our nursing relationship right and we're both feeling comfortable.. most of the time. I'm finally looking forward to when she nurses instead of praying she'll wait another ten minutes and give my sore self a break. So, onward we trod, looking forward to many many months of nourishing her physically and emotionally at the breast. If you're just getting started nursing, and it hurts, I encourage you to stick with it! It does get better and breast really is best!

Now, here's more of what you REALLY want... Enjoy!

A picture of Me, Tim & Lauren.

The whole fam on a backyard picnic a few days after we came home from the hospital.

Big Sister Brooke hamming it up for Mom while we were at the hospital.

Me & Lauren

Daddy & Lauren

Giveaway!

2010-03-19T10:23:00.000-04:00

Yeah, it's been awhile since I was actively participating in giveaways or really in the bloggy world at all, but I saw Xenia from Thanks, Mail Carrier was giving away a Britax Blink Compact Stroller and I thought it was the perfect giveaway to get back in the game with. :-) If you don't know a lot about Britax, check out Xenia's review and the Britax website. Specifically, if you are interested in seriously safe carseats, including those meant for extended rear-facing (past 1 year and 20 lbs), Britax is one of the best brands out there. We don't have any Britax products (yet) but I have heard so many good things that I couldn't help but enter myself in this giveaway!! Enjoy!

Picture of Lauren!

2010-03-13T11:47:00.000-05:00

Here is the hospital picture of Lauren! :-) She is beautiful, wonderful and so much fun. We are really enjoying her! Brooke has had a few moments of jealousy, but for the most part is excited about her sister!

Today happens to be my 27th birthday, and I am hanging out with the girls while my dad and hubby work on some remodeling projects around the house, so I must go keep Brooke from getting too involved in their work, but I will soon provide more pics of Lauren and Brooke!

It's a GIRL!

2010-03-08T16:37:00.000-05:00

On Monday, March 1st, I had my regular doctor's appointment. They said I had not changed any, and stripped my membranes for the second time. Wednesday, in the early morning, I woke up with some menstrual like pains that were pretty far apart. I could sleep easily in between them, and they were only mildly painful, but enough to wake me up. They continued to get longer, stronger and closer together all day Wednesday and Thursday. By Thursday night, around 8:00, I had decided it was time to go to the hospital. The pains were bad and just over four minutes apart. When we arrived at the hospital, I was still the same, but they monitored me and I progressed 1 cm in the next hour, so they admitted me. By 2:30 am, I was 6 cm, and in extreme pain. I had not planned to get an epidural, but changed my mind.

Unfortunately, I stalled at 6 cm and after 12 more hours, I was still contracting, but making no progress, even after the doctor broke my water. The doctor then decided that we should do a repeat c-section because she was not descending and had not moved downward at all since the check at 2:30am. So, around 3:00pm on Friday, they started the ceserean. At 3:33pm, our second daughter was born. She weighed 7 lbs 15 oz and was 20 inches long. They laid her on my chest for a moment before taking her to the nursery. She was given a clean bill of health, was able to breastfeed as soon as I was done with surgery and is now eating like a champ. It was definitely not the VBAC I had hoped for, but when they were performing the surgery they determined that she was posterior, which was the reason for the increased back labor and probably had a lot to do with why she was not descending. She also has very broad shoulders!

We are delighted to welcome our precious addition, Lauren Elyse!

Still Waiting for Baby

2010-02-27T08:54:00.000-05:00

I have to admit, I totally believed my doctor when he said that since Brooke was born at 37 weeks, this one would probably be at the early end of "full-term" as well. 37 weeks came and went. Then 38. Now, I sit on my couch, one day shy of 39 weeks pregnant and wonder... will I still be waiting two more weeks from now? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for letting God choose the baby's birthday and not putting my own desires before the plan God has for our little one, and I'm glad to be more . HOWever... Getting my VBAC is contingent upon me going into spontaneous labor by 41 weeks, and honestly, I'm getting a little bit anxious.

I've been 2 cm dilated and "soft" for three or four weeks. I've been having contractions every day for nearly five weeks. Getting close to "overtime" might be a direct result of prayer when I started having frequent contractions at 34.5 weeks pregnant, and our church was praying that the baby would stay in until full-term, since those frequent contractions with Brooke started only three days before she was born. I keep setting dates in my head, like "March 1st is good, because it's the anniversary of my uncle's death, so it would brighten a usually sad day. If the baby is a boy, should we name him after the uncle if he's born that day?"... March 13th is my birthday, and they would probably schedule a RCS if it's any later than that... so it's kind of my "deadline".

While we wait, I'm trying to get the house cleaned up since my mom will be staying here with Brooke while we are gone to the hospital. Don't mistake this for nesting, it's forced, not craved! Of course, one of the other things I'm trying to focus on is spending special time with Brooke. However the baby comes, sometime over the next two weeks, she will no longer be the sole center of Mama and Daddy's world. She'll be sharing us for the first time and I know it won't be a completely smooth transition, but I think she'll be a good big sister once she gets used to it.

So, we'll try to keep busy, and in the meantime we just have to hurry up and wait.

She's Growing Up...

2010-02-19T07:30:00.000-05:00

Any parent knows that there are moments when you look at your child and realize they are not the baby they once were. One of those times for me is when we begin moving up a size in clothing. My 16 month old is a little tall for her 18 months clothes, and I put a 24 months outfit on her this morning... a little loose in the waist, but the length is perfect. Putting her in those clothes and seeing how well they fit made me want to cry.

an even more significant thing sometimes is realizing how well she can communicate about some things now. When she woke up this morning and I went to get her out of her crib, she said "my toes" and fussed, wiping her face. (As Mama, I know that "toes" means either toes, nose or snow) Well, she had a little runny nose happening. It made my heart leap in my chest to hear her tell me about her little ailment verbally.

My little baby girl is growing up. A year ago, she was nursing, sleeping a lot, snuggly and completely dependent. Now she gets her milk from a sippy cup, she takes one nap, does not like to snuggle except when she's tired and she wants to do a lot of things herself. I cannot even fathom how grown up she will be one year from now. (Or that we'll have another little near-toddler at that time!)

Be Still

2010-02-11T08:37:00.000-05:00

Psalm 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God."

I am meditating on this verse today. In reality it's hard to be physically still for long with a 16 month old running around, but being still and patient in my heart and my mind is something that I need to focus on at this time. I am a worrier, a nervous and even sometimes paranoid person. I have a hard time being still and I like to have quick answers. It is even harder at times to know that He is God. I'll be still for a few minutes and then decide, well, I'm kind of in a hurry... I guess I better do something about it.

That's not what God is asking of me though. He wants me to be still for as long as it takes and trust that He will give me the answer, give me what I need. I must trust God to lead me, to speak to me, to hold me and help me. And I must be prepared for it to be in His time and not mine.

So today, I am practicing being a patient and trusting child of God. I will be still, and I know that He is God!

Gearing Up for the Big Day

2010-01-29T12:30:00.000-05:00

I have been really distracted recently and obviously not posting too much. One of the major reasons is that at just under 35 weeks pregnant, I am exhausted. It's all I can do to keep the house somewhat in order and take care of my little one and my hubby, and most days there just isn't any energy left to find anything useful to say. However, for those of you who are here... we're getting close!

If you've been reading along, you'll remember Brooke was born at 37 weeks, 1 day. So, I've been trying to be prepared for this little one to get here that early as well, though I've been trying to mentally prepare myself for the baby to not come that early as well. I don't want to be sitting around, twiddling my thumbs at 38 weeks and feeling like the baby is "late" when in actuality s/he would still be "early" at that point!

On Sunday I will be at 35 weeks, and although I'm still mentally preparing myself for going all the way, my body seems to be gearing up for labor. I have been having Braxton-Hicks contractions for months and months, but in the last few days they have become a lot more uncomfortable. They are not regular but they are frequent and are sometimes strong enough to stop me in my tracks. I'm having some low back pain with them and lots of pressure when I'm walking as well. So, although I don't expect it to be in the next few days or anything, and I'm hoping s/he will hold out at least another two weeks and make it to "term," I have my bags packed and in the car and my carseat installed. So, say a little prayer for this little one, that s/he can hang in there for a little while longer!

On another note, congrats to my dear friend Madi who found out today that they are expecting a BOY! :-)

Feeding Frenzy

2010-01-27T11:32:00.000-05:00

For many weeks I was at the place where I could not eat large meals because I felt full very quickly! Now, I'm at one of the points where I'm hungry allllll the time. Maybe it's because we're down to 39 days til the EDD and the baby is fully formed and is now just maturing his lungs and putting on fat. So, possibly I'm eating for two because s/he needs the extra for fat stores. In any case, I'm trying to eat mostly good things, although the occasional Oreo does get thrown in.

I'm also thinking about post-pregnancy and hoping to lose some of the weight faster than I did with Brooke. I assumed when I had Brooke that breastfeeding full-time would trim all of that baby weight off in no time. Not true! It did help me lose weight, but after weeks of slothfulness following my cesarean, I was unmotivated and not eating as well as I should have been. I thought nursing her was all I would need to do to lose the baby weight, but when I got pregnant with #2, I still hadn't lost it all. I'm not an exercise buff, and I need things I can do with a toddler and an infant. So, my question is... what do you do to lose the baby weight?

VBAC Dreams

2010-01-23T19:34:00.000-05:00

Brooke came into the world by cesarean section at 37 weeks and one day gestation on October 3, 2008 after two solid days of having contractions three minutes apart. I had never even thought about the possibility of a cesarean. I totally ignored that part of the childbirth class, because that "wasn't us." Turns out, it was. After having those contractions for a day and a half with little progress, my doctor said something "felt funny" and did an ultrasound. Brooke was in the frank breech position, which means her bottom was in my pelvis, with her feet up near her face. He said that although it was the most favorable of breech positions to deliver vaginally, he thought it would be worthwhile to perform an external version.

So, I went in the next day, two days into these contractions, only 3 cm dilated, to have this procedure performed. They placed a cathater and an epidural, and as soon as I laid down on the OR table for the version, my water broke spontaneously. They attempted to turn her, and if they had succeeded, they would have given me pitocin in order to try to jump-start the contractions into stronger ones. It was not to be, however. She was totally uninterested in moving and began to show some signs of distress so they went ahead and performed the c-section. Even then, she was not too keen on being removed from her warm, cozy home. (I think it's because her bottom had begun to descend and was "stuck" in my pelvis.) In any case, they were able to get her out and she was beautiful, with reddish hair and blue eyes and a sweet, tiny little cry. She was 6 lbs 13 oz despite being three weeks early.

The c-section was devestating for me. It was not what I had planned and I was heartbroken. My dreams of a natural birth were shattered and I was left with an ever-present reminder - the scar. Not to mention the painful recovery. So, this time we decided, with the suggestion of our very helpful family practitioner, to attempt a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC). However, the family practitioners that we love (love love love) are unable to do VBACs because the hospital they deliver at does not allow them. Presumeably because they do not have anesthesiologists on staff 24-hours a day. So, we were forced to find another doctor. The only hospitals who deliver VBACs in our area are 40 minutes or more away from our house. We chose a doctor, and I like him alright, although his bedside manner is not nearly as comforting as that of my family practitioner.

I'm beginning to get anxious as we get closer, and every time I hear the doctor say that the baby is still head-down I feel a huge sense of relief. I am hoping, dreaming and praying that this time will be different. It's the last shot, because as far as I know, there are no doctors here who will do a VBA2C. These are my VBAC dreams...

The "Catastro-van"

2010-01-21T11:22:00.000-05:00

For several years I drove a Saturn station wagon, and I loved it. I bought it long before I had children, but I did have a reason... a dog. We had a boxer, named Kuzco for the Disney character from The Emporer's New Groove. The reason she was named that escapes me, but she was a strong-willed, loveable, mostly well-behaved dog and she went everywhere with us. When we lived in Maine, there were lots of puppy parks and the city of Portland is very dog-friendly, so she rarely stayed home except when we were at work. I chose the station wagon because I thought she could easily ride in the rear-most portion of the vehicle without bothering other passengers too much if we had more than just Tim and I in the vehicle. However, Kuzco is no longer with us. (She passed away a few years ago, and though we tried to have other dogs, there was none like her, and we have resigned ourselves to not having any pets other than our one cat, Lazer, until the kids are bigger.)

Anyway, Kuzco passed on, my neice and nephew were born, and then we had a baby of our own. We discovered that there was just about no good way to put three car seats in the back of my station wagon. It "worked," but I didn't feel right about the fact that the carseats were tensioned against each other, squeezed tightly together by the doors. So, although we rarely had all three children, we knew that we would probably be having more ourselves and began looking for a larger vehicle. Almost a year ago, we purchased a 2006 Town & Country. It is certainly bigger and I like it for many reasons, but we are simply messy people., and not only is it a larger space to put people into, but also a larger space to put STUFF into. Some of that stuff never comes out again. (For instance, I swear I bought a pair of shoes at a thrift store and put them in the van... but I have never seen them again!) There are toys, books, Cheerios and even some clothes. My husband also has a bad habit of leaving his coffee mugs in there.

I have been getting my bags ready for the hospital. (Yes, I just can't wait any longer!) However, it occurs to me that in order to put these bags into the "Catastrovan", as my husband has nicknamed the vehicle, I will have to take some of the other stuff out! It's raining, and Brooke is napping, and I am trying to convince myself to stop making excuses, go outside and do what needs to be done. Here's hoping that when I go into the catastrovan, I do indeed make it back out again!

Tantrums

2010-01-20T12:45:00.000-05:00

A recent development for Brooke, and not a development I'm thrilled about, is the tantrum. She does not have full meltdown tantrums often, but has had probably two or three in the last month. I have been relieved to read that this behavior is normal, but it certainly makes me feel abnormal. Today, there was a tantrum that lasted for probably 15 or 20 minutes, but it felt like hours. The trigger - I was carrying her and went into my bedroom to grab a bag. I did not want to put her down, because I didn't want her to play in the bedroom since I was not staying in there. She wanted to be put down, but I said no and held on to her until I had grabbed the bag and shut the bedroom door. I then put her down and she squatted, then began screaming and crying.

I employed the "ignore it" philsophy, since she was reacting to not being allowed to do something she wanted to do. At one point, I tried holding her to calm her down and talking to her about her feelings, but this just made her more angry, so I put her back down and told her that when she was feeling better she could come talk to Mama. I then went back to the work I was doing, sorting through some baby clothes. Eventually, she came over to the chair I was in, still crying, but no longer screaming and asked to be picked up. I held her, patted her back and whispered soothing words, and she fell asleep immediately. Then, it was my turn to cry.

I know that I am not a picture-perfect parent, but most of the time I think I do an okay job. However, when things like that happen, I can't help but feel inferior, helpless and unworthy of the blessing I was given when Brooke was brought into my life. It is hard to see her upset, for any reason, and it's even harder when I choose it by choosing to discipline instead of allow her to have her way. So, as I held her for a few minutes while she slept, I cried and prayed, pleading for wisdom, guidance and patience. Now I've had some chocolate and am waiting for her to wake up and have lunch with me, my heart still achy and my eyes still puffy... and hoping for a less dramatic afternoon.

bumGenius 3.0 OS Diapers

2010-01-19T10:37:00.001-05:00

I've been eyeing these dipes for a loooong time. Ever since I started considering cloth, I've wanted to try these out. I like the idea of one size, especially if you have multiple children in diapers at once, since they can share them. However, I was a little nervous about the one size aspect as well because Brooke is super skinny and has a dip at the back of her waist that is perfect for messes to escape through... (My husband calls it the poop chute, because it was the cause of many, many blowouts when she was tiny.) Back to the diaper, I bought two gently used bumGenius 3.0 diapers from Kelly's Closet and received them in just two days! Usually when I'm expecting something, I stalk the mailman, but I didn't think it would be here yet and let my husband get the mail that day... I was pleasantly surprised! (or maniacally surprised... as I proceeded to rip open the packaging and begin talking a mile a minute to my husband about diapers... receiving blank stares in return.)

I read my instructions and prepped them, even though they were gently used and probably didn't need it quite as much as a brand new diaper... I wanted to make sure these puppies were going to work. I got these diapers specifically for Brooke to wear overnight. Now that she is bigger and sleeping all night, it's hard to even find a disposable that can keep up with how much she urinates during the night. However, last night we tried the bG out overnight, with both the OS insert and the newborn insert. It held up very well and there were absolutely no leaks. I am really impressed with them! So, although I have no comparison trials, I have tried and recommend the bumGenius 3.0 OS pocket for overnights! :-) If you wash every other day, you really only need two or three, and although it was difficult for me to spend the money, not having to buy disposable overnights again will be wonderful, because they are not cheap either!!!

I'm doing this post without a pic because I am sure most of you are familiar with bumGenius diapers. However, up next is the Econobum, which I will try to provide a picture for, since it is a fairly new diaper. Enjoy!

Coming Soon...

2010-01-18T12:51:00.000-05:00

I realize I haven't written in several days, almost a week! We've been very busy, and to top it off I'm a little under the weather right now, so I'm not feeling up to making the post I *planned* to make today. So, here are some things I will be writing about soon:

Diapers!
1) I got a package of Econobums at a baby shower that my two best friends threw for me. Brooke is wearing one right now, and so far I like them!
2) I purchased two bumGenius 3.0 diapers, gently used, from Kelly's Closet. They are meant to be used mostly for Brooke overnight. She will be wearing it tonight for our first overnight attempt at CDing.
3) I also purchased a few additional items that I'll review... a Kissaluvs Super Soaker doubler, a package of bG stay dry liners and some Snappis!
4) In addition to the specific diaper and accessory information, I will be documenting our transition from disposables to cloth. (I never thought I'd be so excited about diapers!!!)

Carriers!
1) I have been working on a review of the Ellaroo wrap, and I will post it soon, once I get a pic of it being used.
2) I bought an Over The Shoulder Baby Holder ring sling at a second hand store and I'll be testing it out and writing about that soon too!

Family stuff!
1) Only seven weeks until my due date! More like four weeks if this one follows in his or her sister's footsteps! (We're planning for seven more weeks, but preparing for four!!) :-)
2) We've been living in this house for three years, and it's a lot further from the finished project we had hoped for it to be by now. My hubby is having a work party with some family and friends this weekend! Can't wait to see some of the things we've been waiting for to be finished!
3) Brooke and potty training - a long road ahead, but she's starting to tell me before she has to go to the bathroom... sometimes. :-)
4) Getting the house and the family ready for baby number 2!
5) I'll show you some pictures soon of a few REALLY cool things Brooke has been doing lately. Well, at least her Mama thinks they're really cool!
6) My VBAC hopes and if anything worth writing about, my doctor's appointment tomorrow!

Hope you're still along for the ride. Have a happy Monday!

Language Explosion

2010-01-13T10:45:00.000-05:00

My ladybug has been experiencing what I think is called a Language Explosion. A period where she is grasping and utilizing lots of new words in a short period of time... She has learned lots of new words over the last few weeks. My favorite is that she says "Tuck Tuck" and shakes her head no. Tucker "Tuck Tuck" is her cousin, a few months older than her, and "No" is probably the word he hears most often. Very perceptive of her, and funny that she makes that connection when saying his name! Another favorite, although she has been able to say Mama for a long time, until the last week she only said it when I was not there! Now, I hear it all the time. Often she corrects herself... she says "daddy..." "oh, Mama!"

In addition to learning new words, she uttered her first real phrase... the first phrase she didn't learn as a phrase... on Sunday. One of her favorite things to say is "Thank you." It means "Please," "Thank You," "I'm finished with this," and "You're welcome." lol. But she learned Thank You as a phrase. However, when we were leaving my parents house on Sunday, she started saying goodbye to everyone. Usually she just says "Bye" and blows a kiss. However, she said "Bye...Papa!" and "Bye... G'lala" (G'lala = Gramma Laura) lol. It was very sweet and of course, thrilling!!

One of our all-time favorite things that she just started doing on her own... when she's finished eating, she'll pick up her plate and hand it to me and say "Thank you." Or if she is finished but has been sitting with us happily, and I ask for her plate she will do the same thing. It's basically one of the cutest things ever! :-)

Right now she's saying "poo poo" and it smells like she's telling the truth, so it's time for a diaper change! :-) Have a beautiful Wednesday!

In other exciting news: My cousin, Elizabeth, went into labor this morning and we are expecting her little girl, Gracie, to be born soon! I can't wait to meet her! :-)

One Sick Little Lady

2010-01-12T07:48:00.000-05:00

Well, yesterday was spent at the doctor's office for Brooke's 15 month checkup, and just like almost every checkup she's ever had, we left with a diagnosis of an ear infection. This time, it's a double ear infection. If I happen to sniff her ears, I can usually smell it when she has one, but otherwise she is usually asymptomatic. Not fussy, no fever, no tugging at her ears... she is just prone to them. However, I have to say, I think this is the first time she's had one since we gave our dogs away almost six months ago. It made a huge difference!

Anyway, in addition to an antibiotic, we were sent home with a whole host of other instructions. For the rash on her cheeks, hydrocortisone .5% cream. For the rash on her stomach, (eczema), we were told to start washing her with Dove soap and give her Zyrtec daily. It is also recommended we switch to Dreft laundry detergent for her clothes.

Although I haven't changed the detergent yet, I did everything else and she slept through the night completely without making a sound for the first time in weeks. Hoping for a repeat performance of that tonight. I could use a few restful nights before the new little one comes and it's time for midnight nurse-a-thon's. :-)

My Sister's Keeper

2010-01-09T10:04:00.000-05:00

This morning, I woke up with my face a little swollen, and my eyes really puffy and sleepy feeling. The reason? Last night, my husband and I watched the movie My Sister's Keeper, based on the novel by Jodi Picoult. I had read the book quite a while back, but the emotion of it was not fresh on my mind and heart. However, I cried nearly from the beginning to the end of the movie, and then for twenty minutes after it was over.

If you don't know anything about the book or movie, the premise is that a family has two children, their daughter is found to have leukemia, but neither parents nor her brother are a match for her to give her blood/bone marrow/organs. So, the parents have a third child genetically engineered for the sole purpose of saving the other child's life. When the youngest is twelve, she seeks medical emancipation in order to be allowed to decide whether or not she will donate her body parts to her sister.

The youngest is played by Abigail Breslin, who does a fantastic job. The older daughter, the one with leukemia, is played by Sofia Vassilieva, who I best know as Ariel on Medium. The cast also includes Cameron Diaz and Alec Baldwin. It's a film full of emotional moments and that left me feeling incredibly thankful for my child's health and for her life. I curled up beside my husband on the couch and just sobbed after it was over. I wanted to go get her out of her crib and just hold her tight and cry and praise God. When she woke up in the middle of the night, I was happier than I've been in a long time to rush in and have the chance to rock her and kiss her and pray over her.

It's easy, after a year and a half of changing diapers and waking up in the middle of the night, for the joyful praise for a child's existence to fade... You see a milestone, watch them as they recover from a cold, listen as they have a language explosion and are thankful. Those things remind you to praise. However, in the everyday life of parenthood, it's not always easy to be thankful for a toddler throwing a tantrum on the kitchen floor or the cheerios being crushed underfoot and sticking to your socks. Even those moments are valuable and every single one is a moment, a teaching opportunity, an opportunity for prayer and praise that shouldn't be missed.

So I'm praising God for my little girl today, in sickness and in health, in happiness and in tantrums, in restful nights and sleepless ones. "...I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be on my mouth." Psalm 34:1 I'm going to go cuddle my girl now. She has a little runny nose, two teeth trying to come in and I can think of no better way to spend a Saturday morning. :-) Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

If you need your heart broken to remind you how precious your blessings are, I recommend you check out My Sister's Keeper at your video store. And make sure you have a box of tissues. Additionally, a musical recommendation, "Praise You In This Storm" by Casting Crowns.

My Little Helper

2010-01-08T08:14:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I had a "defining moment" as a parent. A moment when I was doing the wrong thing, realized it and changed my perspective. I was putting the dishes away. Brooke often chooses the times when I am doing something productive to *need* to be held. I griped and told her that I "couldn't" hold her while I did this. She pouted and whined "up...up..."

Then I realized I could make far better, and more meaningful, use of this task. I mentally stepped back, regrouped and put on a happy face. I picked her up and she "helped" carry and put away dishes, then she helped put silverware in the dishwasher. After that, she helped unload the dryer, move clothes from the washer to the dryer, load the washer and handed me clothes to fold. Then she went with me and played on my bed while I put the laundry away. Then I laid down on the bed with her and we played and tickled and laughed. (I was amazed at how much she actually was able to help with!)

It really didn't take that much longer, and do you know what? It was a lot more fun than doing it myself! Most importantly, it gave us a way to spend quality time together, where both of us were learning something. She enjoyed it a lot and learned the very beginning of the things she'll need to know when she is a wife, mother and home keeper one day! Sometimes it's hard to remember that all of the tasks that can sometimes seem so mundane to us are thrilling to little ones and that they are indeed things the little ones would do well to learn. And now I realize that I'm looking forward to cleaning today, with the assistance of my little helper.