Monday Meanderings - NOV. 1

Welcome, November!  Anyone else find that hard to believe it's here already??  Just a couple weeks 'til Thanksgiving and then we roll right into Christmas and birthdays one after the next!  And my SIL's baby coming in all of that mix!  Fun fun fun!!  Oh, do you do anything to adjust the kids for the time change??  Cuz we'll set our clocks back an hour, but the kids will wake up at their same times.  For several weeks, an hour early!  Please tell me there's a way to avoid this??!  Well, then on with the week...

Bible Study... Review verses on self-control.

Memory Verse... Psalm 90:14

"Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days."

Husband Encouragement... 

♥ Get house in order.

♥ Tidy up our bedroom.

♥ Go to bed at the same time.

{Wanna know how to type hearts like that??  Type  & hearts ;  all together.  When you publish your post it'll turn to hearts. Magic! LOL}

Train Them Up... 

* Quality time with each of them, especially Eli.  I made him a Cars lapbook I can't wait to present  it to him.  And then I have to put together something for Hannah too because she'll probably be asking where hers is if Eli gets something.  =)

* Eliminate distractions.  Which will be hard since I'll have a lot of MOPS stuff to do this week.

* Library day.

* Patience, patience, patience.  And when I screw up, ask for forgiveness.

Personal Goals...  Hmm, I dunno.  Any ideas??

New Habit of the Month {NOVEMBER}
Sweep the dining room after meals.  I hate doing it again and again and again... and again in the same day. But Carter will find and eat anything that's been dropped.  LOVE the crawling stage.  Not.

MUST Do...
* Mail out.
* MOPS stuff-- postcards out, finish lesson plans, prepare crafts
* Clean out the van.
* Clean out the fridge.

Zone...
Everything.  I hate how out of control the house can get if you're out of your game for even a day or two.  And it's been at least three here.

Menu -

M -beirochs
T -chicken kiev, curried rice, fruit cocktail
W - crockpot something?
Th - out of town
F - TBD
S - TBD

FUN THINGS!
* Eli has preschool pictures Monday.
* MOPS planning meeting.
* Car shopping on Thursday maybe!!

3 things I'm thankful for today... 
1. We're all feeling better!
2. I'm super excited for the next 4 days!  Just glad to have Kevin home!
3. My new dishwasher.  Lovin' it.  I should name her.   =)

Wanna join in on the meandering fun??  Click HERE for guidelines, then come back and link up!  Have a great week!

Farmland.

I live in the middle of it.  So if you're around my blog long enough, you'll see a lot of pictures of it.  And our barn.  You're probably wondering by now how many pictures I'm going to take of our stinkin' barn!  LOL But it's on the west side of our property and that's where the sun sets, SO it gets to be in lots of my pictures.  And that's that.

I'm done talking about puke this week.  We're feeling better.  Kevin got it as well, so it should be done now with our family.  And hopefully soon full appetites will follow.

We finally got our lazy butts outside today.  And I was having an itch to be creative, so I got my camera out for some pictures.  It's amazing how fast the sun changes and before you know it the sun is gone.  But man, they don't call it "golden hour" for nothing!  It's so beautiful!  Every time.  And who knew combines could be pretty??  Well, I think so anyway.  Enjoy.

Fast and Furious (Updated)

The stomach bug hit us at our house! Carter had a tummy bug Monday night and has been slowly getting over it, but then last night it hit us hard and suddenly right after AWANA.  Eli, Hannah, and I got it at almost the same time!  Nothing like simultaneous puking!  UGH!  Kevin was staying up all night anyway in transition for his working nights tonight, so he took care of EVERYTHING.  I would hear the kids but every time I tried to get up out of bed I would start to feel nauseous all over again.  So I stayed put the best I could.  About every 30 minutes someone was throwing up!  Lots of sheets, lots of towels, lots of laundry.  Is there some sort of pillow protector, like a crib pad??  If not, there should be.  

Today's going much better, thank God.  We're all still in our jammies and have been laying around watching TV ALL day, but only Eli's thrown up again and that was this morning.  We've had lots to drink and long afternoon naps and hopefully it will be a good night and this bug go away soon!  Although now Kevin's starting to feel icky but is headed into work anyway.  Praying for him tonight!

 

Update: Kevin got it.  Got sick at work last night and came home early.  He slept well though and wasn't up any, so that's good.  It was a quiet night from the kids.  Hannah seems to have bounced back the quickest.  She says her belly hurts but she's acting just fine and is up and playing, so I think she's probably just saying that.  Eli's not looking so great this morning and is just laying on the couch again, same as yesterday's picture.  But I'm hoping once he gets hydrated he'll perk up a little.  So far today I'm feeling well, no nausea, praise God!  So I can take care of my honey!

Check out my new kitchen!

HERE!  And be sure to click the first link to see the before pictures!  Oh I love it!

Oh yes.

Kevin spent a long afternoon and evening in the city finding her, but she's in our home now.  And I welcome her with open arms.  You guys are good.  You know me well.  It is indeed... a dishwasher.  {though I would LOVE a treadmill someday and the vehicle is still in the works for sometime in the next month or so and we did have two dogs eating out of cat food dishes this very afternoon} We are shuffling around our kitchen a bit--you'll here more about that as it comes about--nothing too dramatic, we're redoing our kitchen one baby step at a time.  But for now. I am happy.  

P.S. Praying that the removal of the cupboard section and installation goes smoothly for sweet Hubby!!

Monday Meanderings - Oct. 25

Bible Study... Mission of Motherhood

Memory Verse... Isaiah 26:3

"You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you."

Husband Encouragement... 

♥ Tidiness.

♥ Positive attitude.

♥ Be a helper to projects he's working on.

Train Them Up... 

+ Room time. It's so good for them.  And me. 

+ Really spend time with them. Funny to say because I'm with them all day long but am I really WITH them? Or is my mind somewhere else? Am I busy doing busywork?

+ Gentleness and patience with them. Lord, help me!

Personal Goals... 

* Start arranging a ladies night out with my church ladies.  It's been soo long!!

New Habit of the Month...

"One load a day, washed and away." I would really like to make it my goal to get completely caught up by the end of this week.  It's going to be hard because Kevin's going on nights and I always drag when he's on nights because I don't want to disturb him while putting I'm away clothes. Anyway, it's definitely going to take more than one load a day to accomplish this, but we'll try.

MUST Do...
* Schedule Carter's weight-check appointment for next week.
* Important mail out.

Zone... Laundry.

Menu -

M - meatballs, potatoes, veggies
T - we might be out of town?
W - chicken divan, peaches
Th - TBD
F - TBD
S - TBD

FUN THINGS!
* Some projects we're getting ready to work on!  I'm feeling motivated again!
* Pumpkin patch with our MOPS friends on Tuesday.  Kevin's off so instead of messing with Carter's schedule I'm going to leave him and enjoy some time out with just Eli and Hannah.
* Kevin's off 'til Thursday night!

3 things I'm thankful for today... 
1. It's been a good couple of weeks.  A new attitude makes all the difference.
2. We got to see family this past weekend who we haven't seen in so very long!  They got to meet our kids and see our home, it really was great.

3.  Dark mornings and tricking the kids to staying in bed later.  hehe  =)  Might as well enjoy it for now because when we hit the "fall-back" time change they'll still be waking at their same times, an hour earlier! 

Alrighty, want to to join in??  Click HERE for some guidelines, then come back and leave your link below!  Have a great week!

Soon!

I'm getting excited.  I mean really REALLY excited.  Something new is coming to our house soon.  Later today in fact.  I try not to dwell on material things, but this is so wonderful it really is going to change. my. life!  Any guesses??

Brown-eyed boy

A few new ideas

Just some things the kids have been loving lately that I thought we'd share.  It's always fun to get some new play ideas, so if you have any, do share!

1. Give your kids gift bags.  I won a small present at my SIL's baby shower a couple weeks ago and when Hannah saw the bag (which was purple, pink, and white, all her FAVORITE colors) she asked immediately if it was hers!  So I said sure and she enjoyed carrying it around and filling it with things.  So I went to the basement where we keep dozens of old gift bags and found a shiny blue one for Eli cuz I knew he'd want to do the same.  They loved carrying them around, and giving "presents" and all sorts of things!  Something so simple brought so much delight.

2. Give your children a kids shoe box.  They're just their size.  Like the gift bags, they loved to fill them with "treasures", "presents", and it made a great pink "lunchbox" for our picnic yesterday!

3. A stick with string tied to it makes a great "fishing pole"!  A few weeks ago the kids played forever on our porch with their "fishing poles" dangling over the edge.  It was so cute!  But of course, no pictures.  =(

What have your kids been into lately??

Thursday Randoms.

I really shouldn't be on here.  But the kids are playing quietly, separately in their rooms and Carter's napping, so I'll take 5.  And GO!

We're beginning to prepare for winter here.  Ick.  I really don't even want to think about it.  But it will be here before we know and this year we want to be prepared.  REALLY prepared.  Cuz last year sucked.  No better word for it.  We have a tractor {which we still have to do some work to make sure it will start in the dead of winter}, Kevin and his dad are going to be putting up a/some snow fence(s) this year so hopefully we won't get a 4-ft drift over our entire sidewalk this year, and now we're looking into trading our van (sad, because I love it. so easy to drive, so much room and storage, and not a complaint about it) for something with 4-wheel drive.  Now that I have to get out almost every day for Eli's school and my errands, I would really feel more comfortable with something that has a little more ground clearance and something with 4-wheel drive.  There's just something about having kids and protecting their precious lives that changes everything.  If I were to get stuck, I can't walk anywhere for help because I can't leave the kids nor can I drag them through the snow and cold with me.  It gets treacherous out there! And sure I have a cell phone but who would I call?  So yeah, that's what we're thinking about.  Maybe a Ford Expedition, maybe a Ford Explorer, maybe something else entirely? Just something big enough for all three car seats to fit side-by-side in the same row with also (preferably) a third row so we could occasionally move the kids around or put the seats down for extra storage.  The car seats thing alone is a big deal.  Enough in fact we're considering just getting all new car seats, like these (?), because if they would fit in a smaller vehicle, like an Explorer, that would still be cheaper than buying the bigger vehicle.  Plus did you see how small they fold up? Almost makes me think we could fly again! Who knows.  We'll see.  A lot to think about.  Not to mention we can NOT go car shopping with the kids {Way too much hassle for a rather lengthy and thoughtful process} and we have ZERO more Saturdays {when family could watch them} free for the entire rest of the year.  How can that be??!

Alrighty, well, my 5 minutes is up, so that's all for now!  Happy Thursday, everyone!