Yes, I know...

Remember how I had a list of 101 goals to complete in 1001 days?  I only have 28 days left now, hard to believe!  I haven't mentioned my progress in quite some time.  Not because I've forgotten about them {actually I think of them pretty often.  And my friend here keeps making me want to just go out run a mile, #6}, but quite frankly because there really hasn't been any progress.  Gosh, life and priorities have changed a lot in the 2.5 years since when I wrote my list.  Some of the things I just don't care about anymore. I even revised many of my remaining goals to things that were still related but more current.  So yes, I know...I'm running out of time, have a lot I didn't accomplish, but you know what...who cares?!  =)

Our morning routine.

I started this schedule a week ago, and when we follow this, our day goes really well! This is mostly just up 'til lunchtime. I've been trying to be better about following it when daddy is home too, especially when he's working on projects. There aren't times on it, just a precise ORDER of events. I tried to alternate between together time and apart time, quiet times and hands-on times. But it covers all the basics: all beds made, dishes (trying to get a handle on these), Bible time, independent play, and my chores. Take a look....

First load of laundry in

Breakfast/Devotion

Dressed, Responsibility Chart, and Chores (cups in fridge, clothes down laundry shoot, everyone makes beds in which Eli helps Hannah)

Dishes. Put clean dishes away, Eli and I wash breakfast dishes

Bible Time (we all get our Bibles and read for 15 minutes or so. then I ask Eli to share what story he "read" about or I share what I read about.

Room time for kids/zone cleaning for me. about 45 minutes of this. Have learned this is not enough time to work out and shower. REALLY trying to get so I'm dressed before the kids are up so that I can just use this time for chores.

Planned activity for kids. could be a project, could be a trip to the park or library, play date, or errands, etc

Lunch.

Free play.

Nap.

Somewhere in there Carter naps, but I'm not going to try to plan around that. We'll just continue with things and he'll join us when he's up. Alrighty, so now I'm off to start our day!

Think outside the bun box

Baby splash pad = a snow disk filled with water!

Put rolled-up towels around it so it's not so tippy, and you're good to go! It's just enough water to cool off in but no big deal of baby tips over. He can sit on his own and play and splash.

Or just play with the broken handle if he so chooses. =)

Monday Meanderings - Happy Summer!

Bible Study - currently reading through 1 John

Memory Verse - 1 John 2:3-6
"We know that we have come know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did."

Husband Encouragement
* Try to get us to bed earlier. He needs more rest than he usually gets.
* This week's Love Dare: Think of an area where you struggle to show patience toward your spouse. Demonstrate love toward them by giving them more time to grow in this area. Commit this specific matter to prayer.

Train Them Up
* I came up with a morning schedule, so I want to try it out this week. If it seems to work out, I'll share it with you! =)
* slow down and make sure they do what I ask them. SO OFTEN I don't even notice that they didn't obey me!

Personal Goals (new rule: these goals shouldn't be about your homemaking or parenting. It should be something for YOU.)
* come up with a diet plan for "this week"
* work on figuring out a exercise routine - a good time of day I can commit to

New Habit of the Month
wipe down bathroom counter nightly

MUST DO
* clean off shoe shelf
* pay bills
* prepare for weekend
* purchase baby gift
* set dates for Eli's birthday parties (family and friends)
* buy new swimsuit top online (found an inexpensive, modest one, but the power went out just as I was getting ready to checkout)

Zone - living room

Menu - will get back to you on this one!

M - hot dogs and brats, potato salad, peaches
T - hamburger helper (it's been awhile since I've done any easy convenience meal like this, takin' it easy this week AKA didn't plan a menu before going to store LOL)
W - crockpot - pork and sauerkrat, mashed potatoes
Th - kabobs
F - ?
S - ?
Su -out of town

FUN Things!!
* Kevin's day off today!
* Maybe an outing on Thursday?? Maybe to the lake with the kids, since it's supposed to be our one sunny day this week.
* Possibly an all-day MOPS planning day Friday.
* Baby shower for a friend on Saturday.
* To Iowa for a friends get-together and all our babes!!

3 Things I'm Thankful For Today:
1. Sunshine after these terrible storms.
2. Kevin's day off today and hopefully getting our dining room flooring put down!!!
3. Routine. Just love it!!

Get organized. Be productive with your time. Have fun with your family. Make plans now before time passes you by! Leave your link below! Have a great week, sweet friends!!

A very sweet boy.

Happy 5 months little guy! We love you so very much!
Read his update and see more photos HERE.

Monday Meanderings

Bible Study - alternating Mission of Motherhood and Created to Be His Help Meet

Memory Verse - Matthew 12:34
"For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks."

Husband Encouragement
* have some fun time on these next four days off
* plan lunches
* cream cheese lime pie (I'm going to make something up, and I NEVER do that!)
* Father's Day something-or-other. We already have a big shindig in our town, but we should do something special here at home too, even though he's working that day.

Train Them Up
* quality time with Eli - I had a lot of fun playing Uno with him at naptime the other day and want to do more of that. Would be especially good for him because I'm the hardest on him, expect so much more of him because he's the oldest, ya know.
* be less distracted
* prepare their drinks before they ask
* work on figuring out a daily routine
* watch my tone of voice

Personal Goals (new rule: these goals shouldn't be about your homemaking or parenting. It should be something for YOU.)
* get back into my AdvoCare routine (breakfast shakes n stuff), I kind of indulge when Kevin's home and we eat breakfast together
* workout (should do more of the baby exercises I always used to do in my stroller class back in CT)
* up before kids, dressed, and quiet time
* to bed earlier

New Habit - wipe bathroom counter nightly

MUST Do
* garden care - it's a mess out there! we are so bad at gardening, seriously!
* mail package
* mow
* Carter's 5-month update and photos
* call bathroom contractor
* decide about dining room cupboards
* plan Father's Day

Zone - living room

Menu - I honestly don't know what's in store for this week--if we're having a guest this week or not or if we're going home next weekend or not. So I'll leave this blank for now!

M - grilled chicken, green beans, fruit
T - day to trip home to visit Kevin's family
W - picnic dinner with friends
Th - frozen pizza
F - home for children's festival
S - home for children's festival
Su - Father's Day picnic

FUN Things!
* Day trip home to see Kevin's family. Haven't really seen them much since Hannah's birthday in February!
* Eye appointment Wednesday - It'll feel so good to get this checked off the list of appointments I need to do for myself. Hair cut was last week, eye is this week, next needs to be DENTIST--it's been way waaay too long!!
* Go over to friends' on Wednesday evening.
* Might go home next weekend for a kids festival!
* Father's Day Sunday/our tiny town's (population 323) big BBQ

3 Things I'm Thankful For...
1. Babies that smell like sunscreen.
2. Snuggling those babies who smell like sunscreen.
3. The father who also likes to snuggle those babies who smell like sunscreen. =)

Join me, and leave your link below! Have an awesome week, dear friends!

Sunday Psalm

Psalm 86:11-12

Teach me your way, O Lord,
and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name.
I will praise you, O Lord my God,
with all my heart;
I will glorify your name forever.

Thankful Thursday

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Colossians 2:6-7" (one of my most-favorite verses!!)

It's been awhile since I've done this because I've been doing it every night in my lil' notebook. But on this cool, breezy, slow-start-of-a-day cappucino morning, I'm back. And oh so thankful....

* As much as I hate Kevin's rotating work schedule, I really love that he gets a 6-day off every month. He's just getting off his and heading into nights tonight, and we've had a wonderful 6 days this time. We've gotten SO much done on our house projects and we've done a few family fun things too.

* After all this our dining room is back in use (somewhat temporarily still while we wait on flooring) and our table is out of the middle of our kitchen, and it's sooo wonderful! I can open my cupboards without smashing the table, I can open the oven without cramming into the table, and the kids can be in the kitchen while I'm cooking without TOTALLY overwhelming me because it's so stinkin' cramped. I have my nice open kitchen back and I feel so free again!! =)

* The downstairs bathroom is soon changing from a water closet into an actual half-bath! It's mostly gutted and last night we picked out our bathroom light fixtures! It's SO EXCITING to see progress around here!

* I am thankful for my amazing, hard-working husband who has been working working on all his days off!

* I'd been noticing lately how much Carter has been outgrowing most of his clothes. I finally pulled out Eli's old 6-9 month bin of clothes and there is tons of stuff just right in there, and I didn't have to buy anything new!

* And for a little bit of change of gears here I'm thankful that my role as a parent has caused me to grow in my faith so much--challenged me to be a good example, to talk about God all throughout our day, to pray together, to study Bible verses, to recognize my own sin through my children's repetition, to practice confession and forgiveness daily, and to grow in love and patience.


What are you thankful for?? Take a break from your daily to-do's and thank God for all your blessings! And link up over at Grace Alone!

Love is patient.

I read this is in today's Love Dare devotion, Day 23, and it really struck me today, more towards my parenting than towards my marriage since that's where I'm really struggling this week. Anyway, thought I'd share...

"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." Ephesians 4:2

"...patience is one of the attributes that best defines what love is. When you choose to be patient, you respond in a positive way to a negative situation. You are slow to anger, choosing to have a long fuse instead of a quick temper. Rather than being restless and demanding, love helps you settle down and begin extending mercy to those around you.
Patience brings an internal calm during an external storm. It is the choice to control your emotions rather than allowing your emotions to control you, and it shows discretion instead of returning evil for evil. 'Bearing with one another in love' should become a motto you carry into every day..."

Monday Meanderings

(this is a sized banner now, if you want to re-save and use this one)

Bible Study - Mission of Motherhood and Created to Be His Help

Memory Verse - Isaiah 26:3-4 (doing this one again)

"You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock eternal."

Husband Encouragement

* Love Dare devotional
* Say nothing negative to or about him.
* Cook some nice meals for him before he heads into night shift and we don't have any meals together.
* Make sure I get all his jeans washed.
* Really try to find his missing sandal. For awhile we were swatting bugs left and right, so we had shoes scattered all over the place. Trying to get that back in order, but one of Kevin's sandals is MIA right now.

Train Them Up

* daily devotional (we've been forgetting lately) and personal Bible reading time with mama. Crystal does this and I love it so I want to start too. Have the kids sit and "read" in their Bibles while I read in mine for a few minutes.
* plan some sort of craft/activity this week

Personal Goals

* Get up before kids.
* Be consistent with diet.
* Exercise!

New Habit of the Month

* Clorox wipe down bathroom counter every night. (I'm already starting to get lazy with this! Need to watch it this week!)

MUST D0!

* bills out
* finish mowing the back half of the lawn
* going out of town with the kids next weekend, need to make arrangements.
* find Kevin's sandal (as mentioned before) Thanks, Eli!
* still getting caught up on laundry
* clean out Carter's 0-3 month clothes
* replant corn in garden
* clean up shoe area

Zone - dining room

Menu

M - mini pizzas on the grill

T - brats, grilled potatoes, orange

W - steaks, pasta salad, fresh peaches

Th - chicken tortilla soup, pears

F - kids nite - chicken nuggets, fries, applesauce
S - breakfast nite - eggs, sausage, banana nut muffins

Su - out of town, visiting friends!

Dessert of the week: frozen lemonade pie

FUN Things!

* MOPS playdate on Tuesday
* haircut Tuesday afternoon (it's been almost 2 YEARS, you guys! I'm excited!!)
* get-together with college friends and kids on Sunday
* Kevin's still off 'til Thursday. we're getting LOTS done around the house (see HERE) and I'm excited we still have three more days with him!

3 things I'm thankful for today:

1. watching a good movie (Blind Side) with Kevin last night
2. BEAUTIFUL weather lately, not too hot!
3. great friends

Need help organizing your week and being productive with your time?? Join me with your plans and leave your link below so I can stop by! Have a great week!

Sunday Psalm

Psalm 96

Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
Sing to the Lord, praise his name;
proclaim his salvation day after day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the nations are idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and glory are in his sanctuary.

Ascribe to the Lord, O families of nations,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come into his courts.
Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth.

Say among the nations, "The Lord reigns."
The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.
Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let the sea resound, and all that is in it;
let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy;
they will sing before the Lord, for he comes,
he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples in his truth.

Prayers for the little guy. And a worried momma.

So Carter just started rolling from back to tummy the last few days and now that's ALL he wants to do even though he gets mad when he gets there because he doesn't know yet how to roll back off of it. When I put him down for nap he rolls to his belly, and unless I were to sit next to his bed and be a Nazi about it and keep flipping him back over and making him mad, then he ends up falling asleep on his belly. Not a big deal. BUT he likes to sleep on his face. ON his face!! Nose down into the bed (pack n play still)! It's really got me nervous, I feel like I have to keep checking him all throughout his sleep time, but if I try to turn his head a little he wakes up. Arg. With fans going and his sound machine going I can't use a baby monitor to listen for his breathing. All I hear is the fan or crying.

I tried our old sleep positioner but he totally rolls out of that. I tried him in his sleep sack last night, but that didn't make a difference. He's already asleep when I put him down at night and when I feed him in the night so last night wasn't such a big deal because he does mostly stay on his back then, but throughout all his naps during the day I feel like I really have to keep close watch.
Well, I looked it up online tonight and found a mom seeking advice on a forum about the same deal--baby likes to sleep with face completely in the crib mattress! Baby's same age as Carter. And many of the replies on the forum were from other moms who could relate. In the end, they were all told that Baby can breathe and by this age Baby will move his head if he can't. It's really nice to know others have been through this same thing, but I'm still worried. I don't like this at all. It's awful worrying for your baby's LIFE. I'm hoping it's a short phase and he'll learn/grow to prefer putting his face all the way to the side.

So anyway, pray for Carter's safety. And pray for this worried momma that God would give me peace about it. Thanks, friends!

Keeping perspective.

A phrase I've been using with my kids quite a bit lately and to myself too, has been this:

If Jesus can DIE ON THE CROSS for you... then surely you can wait a couple minutes for your drink.

If Jesus can DIE ON THE CROSS for me... then surely I can wash the dishes without complaining.

If Jesus can DIE ON THE CROSS for you... then surely you can (fill in the blank).


I hope there's nothing wrong with saying that, but it helps me realize how absolutely petty the things are that we complain about. JESUS suffered even though He did NOTHING wrong. Jesus WILLINGLY gave His life for ME. Who am I to complain about ANYTHING?!

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

Answer Me This: Swords

For moms of boys, please help me! What's your take on your kids playing with swords or guns or pretending fighting?? I just don't really like it, the whole pretending to fight, violence in our home, even when it's just play. It doesn't fall into the godly life I'm trying to encourage, but at the same time I'm not very good at knowing when to just let kids be kids or if that's the girl in me that's just not interested in that stuff. We don't have guns or sword toys at our house but the kids are wanting to pretend their umbrellas are swords. So anyway, what's your take on the matter?? What do you do?

My new favorite thing

Laptop. Netflix. Instant Play. Veggie Tales....'nuff said.

A lot of the Veggie Tales on there, and they probably have all of them, are Instant Play. Awesome!

Thinking about...

...doing the "Stripped-Down Challenge" with our family sometime this summer. For our technology-loving family, this would be soo good for us. What do you think??

...how much I want to sew my skirt but really don't know how to sew very well, so I'm having troubles getting started.

...how full my heart has been lately. Carter has been napping a little better during the day and getting more playful and easier to entertain while I get things done. The older two have been so well behaved lately. I've had a good attitude with them and haven't been yelling. The house is clean. And life feels great!

...making a free photobook with Shutterfly in the next two days (promo code FREEM10) but not sure what to include in it or if I have time. Better decide quickly!

...how much I HATE bugs in the KITCHEN! They're disgusting everywhere, but especially in the kitchen, ya know, where I cook and we EAT! Ick!

...how thankful I am that Kevin put bug spray around the house so it's been sooo much better!

...how EXCITED I am about the progress on the dining room and how much we'll get done over Kevin's 6-day next week!!

What are your ideas you've been thinking about lately??