Monday Meanderings - Oct 15

Bible Study... finishing up a word study on God's faithfulness

Memory Verse... Psalm 68:19-20

"Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. Our God is a God who saves."

Husband Encouragement...
♥ Choose HIM.  Especially during his Outage schedule, I'm trying to reserve his days off just for him and not my extra activities with friends. Also going to bed earlier when he goes to bed instead of staying up late doing whatever.

♥ Making sure the meals I cook will provide leftovers for him to take to work.

♥ Love Dare. I forgot about this all of last week!

Train Them Up...

* Family dinner clean-up routine. 

* Working to help Carter with independence with the potty.  Because he sits on the big potty and can't get up there on his own, I'm instructing him to push the stool over and get there himself so if I happen to be unavailable he can still get to the potty without an accident.  He's doing really well, just need to continue to be consistent!

* Reading time with Hannah in the afternoon.

* We've been doing sooo much family reading lately, I've been lacking in having ELI read. Going to add a book (of his choice) a day to his homework time.

* Still working on our Fall ABC book.

Personal Goals...

* Am going to sign-up at the gym so I can workout during preschool without having to drive all the way back home.

* Also starting a new set of "diet rules" that shouldn't be as strict as no carbs at all.

New Habit of the Month...  {october}
>> morning routine.  This sooo sets the tone for our whole day, I really need to get it set in stone.  And it starts with my quiet time at 5:45am, getting lunch packed at 6:45am, breakfast at 7am, out to bus at 7:35am. Then between 7:45 and 8:30 we have plenty of time to get most of our daily chores done. THEN we can go on with the rest of the day pretty relaxed with things in order.

MUST Do... 

* bills

Zone(s)... changing over some of Carter's and Hannah's clothes for the season

Menu - 

M - white chili

T - oven-baked ribs

W - breakfast skillet (in the crockpot?)

Th - fresh taco salad

F - pork roast

S -  TBD

Su - leftovers

FUN THINGS!

* family pictures for someone on Wednesday (possibly? I already know it's supposed to rain but we're gonna try for that anyway for now)

* No preschool Wednesday and Friday so Wednesday we'll get to enjoy Kevin's day off, and Friday I think I'm gonna take the Littles to the children's museum.

3 things I'm thankful for today...

1. God. seriously. it might be so broad and obvious, but I'm just so thankful for the peace He provides.

2. Friends. I am just so very blessed with deeply wonderful friends.

3.  Music. I know I've said this before, but it's such therapy to me.

Fall Senses

I found this idea on Pinterest but didn't see a Fall version so I created one on my own.  Simple really, sometimes I don't get why it takes Pinterest to come up with things? Anyway... the kids and I drove over to town and took a little fall walk around the neighborhood, searching for things for our ABC book (coming soon, I hope).  And after we got home we filled out our Fall words. I did one too. Then when Kevin got home I read each paper aloud and had him guess who wrote it.  Was fun and almost a little poetic. Hope to do this for every season.

Download PDF here.

Kids: Church Notes

Now that my oldest is able to find passages in the Bible, write, and spell on his own, I want to start changing what I have him do in church. So I made up this simple notes sheet for him to fill out, hoping to work towards more active listening instead of entertaining.  Write the passage reference the pastor is reading from for the day. Pick a favorite verse from there to copy. Write your own notes. And listen for keywords (this is mostly a bank of common words to help with spelling) Mom chooses for the day. It's not necessarily just the tally-mark game, but it could be.  It's just a half-sheet of paper, prints 2 per page, plus there's the blank back-side for more writing, or drawing. Simple but hopefully effective! He didn't want to do it last week, but this week I might it more of an assignment, something I want him to show me back home for us to talk about. And it's something I want to (and did last week) fill out for myself too!

You can download the PDF HERE.

And here is a sheet of the New Testament books of the Bible. Just print on cardstock and cut apart. Then select a few or select all of them and have child arrange them in order. Gaining confidence in the   order will help children be able to find Bible passages. You can do the same with Old Testament but we aren't there yet! =)

Monday Meanderings - Oct. 8

Bible Study... finishing up a word study on heart.  It's been really good! After a week of consistent morning time, I honestly do feel so much more at peace.

Memory Verse... Hebrews 12:14

"Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord."

Husband Encouragement...
♥ Choose HIM.  I often choose about anything else besides him.  Walking, 31 parties, girls night, dinner with someone, MOPS events, Bible study.  Sometimes I try hard to plan these things for when he's already going to be working, but sometimes they're things that require him for childcare, and sometimes they're things that are pre-scheduled.  Kevin is VERY supportive (He likes his time to veg too), but I just need to be more guarded of my time and what I'm choosing to participate in.  We may be fine with how we've been doing things, but maybe we're getting TOO comfortable in it.  Want us to still choose each other.  

♥ Hot breakfasts and pie. Pretty sure that's one of his love languages.  =)

Train Them Up...

* Family dinner clean-up routine. 

* Working to help Carter with independence with the potty.  Because he sits on the big potty and can't get up there on his own, I'm instructing him to push the stool over and get there himself so if I happen to be unavailable he can still get to the potty without an accident.  He's doing really well, just need to continue to be consistent!

* Reading time with Hannah in the afternoon.

* Game time or something with Eli after school.  Today we are going to have a roll-the-dice candy corn snack when he gets home.  

* Still working on our Fall ABC book.

Personal Goals...

* Schedule a hair appointment.

* Figure out new workout routine??  We were doing soo good with our walking and had even bumped up to 5 miles but with the weather changing, I just don't know if we can continue.  On Friday Carter was just so cold he was crying and we carried him the rest of the walk!

New Habit of the Month...  {october}
>> morning routine.  This sooo sets the tone for our whole day, I really need to get it set in stone.  And it starts with my quiet time at 5:45am, getting lunch packed at 6:45am, breakfast at 7am, out to bus at 7:35am. Then between 7:45 and 8:30 we have plenty of time to get most of our daily chores done. THEN we can go on with the rest of the day pretty relaxed with things in order.

MUST Do... 

* MOPS tomorrow! Just a few last-minute things to get ready

* Delivering a meal to someone Thursday

Zone(s)... changing over some of Carter's and Hannah's clothes for the season

Menu - 

M - grilled cheese

T - shrimp fajitas

W - ground beef gravy over potatoes, baked apples

Th - creamy chicken and wild rice soup

F - zuppa tuscana soup

S -  TBD

Su - leftovers

FUN THINGS!

* MOPS meeting tomorrow! Followed by lunch for a friend's birthday

* Parent-teacher conferences for Eli Thursday/no school -- should plan something fun for the morning.  

* Outage schedule at the plant starts this week so things will be slowing down for our family as Kevin will be so busy with work for the next month

3 things I'm thankful for today...

1. fall trees.  Every time I drive I can't get over how beautiful the scenery is!

2. quality time with the kids.  Those good-mom moments feel wonderful! LOVE spending time with them!

3.  morning quiet time with the Lord. life is good.

Iain {8 days}

My nephew joined our family three weeks ago!  He's perfect and sweet, and I can't wait for my kiddos to get to meet him!

I couldn't get Claire placed right next to Iain and then get back behind my camera before she was up again. So this is what I got, and ya know what, I kinda like it too. I'm all about real

 And some quiet time with just Iain. He did sooo good for me!

our grandmother made this bunny so I made sure to include it

I'd been dying to use this bucket, and it didn't work out in my last photoshoot. yay for this time!

Rebalancing

Sorry if I've been disappearing from the blog quite a bit lately.  I've been changing a few things around here lately, and now I need to rebalance.  Adding in exercise/chit-chat with friends, adding in more reading time with the kids, and now the house is starting to suffer and free time is limited.  It's been good, really good actually, but it's sooo hard to ever have it ALL under control.  Just popping in for a quick hello!  I'll be back soon with some adorable newborn pics of my new nephew!  =)

Baby Jackson {10 days}

It's pictures season!!  Two newborn photoshoots lately and senior pictures tomorrow!  Meet Baby Jackson!!

Blender solutions!

Kevin came home with this idea he got from one of the sites he browses (no, it's not Pinterest but it  could be from there!): For making single servings, fit a mason jar right on the blender, instead of using the big pitcher.  It's smaller and easier to wash, AND you can drink right from the jar itself!  

I make smoothies all the time, so I'm pretty ecstatic about this easy solution for something I didn't even realize was a problem!  lol

Awakened.

yogurt cups
string cheese
applesauce cups
applesauce squeezies
fruit cups
cookie packs
granola bars
single-serving chips
capri sun pouches
juice boxes
plastic baggies

read: packaging, packaging, packaging

That is the norm of a packed lunch box. We think we're doing better by sending kids with healthy foods, but the truth is it's all processed packaged foods that's killing our world to make and still has junk in it with ingredients we can't pronounce.

I finished reading the book 7:an experimental mutiny against excess and my soul has been awakened. To the realities of our life and the world around us, the social norms, the thoughtless habits we do on a daily basis.  It's disgusting, it's careless, and I want to change. In 7 major areas:

FOOD

.

.

.

 CLOTHES

.

.

.

 POSESSIONS

.

.

.

 MEDIA

.

.

.

WASTE

.

.

.

SPENDING

.

.

.

STRESS

I'm lending out the book right now to friends who are sort of starting a book club with me, so this won't be a full book review including all my favorite quotes I underlined.  But just some thoughts of ways I'm going to try to change...

* This school year I want to stop buying single-serving anything and find a small tackle box sort of thing for serving up lunch food into one container. If I can't find that then we'll try several small bowls and sandwich boxes but no more packaged foods and baggies.

* I hate recycling here but I'm going to try again. With everything. And maybe even read about composting.

* I want to switch to cloth napkins for family use.

* I want to start eating clean and not processed things, that even means cereal. 

* I'm trying the Pinterest trick and turned our clothes hangers backward in the closet so I can tell what things get worn and what things have stayed put for months. We will then purge the extras.

* I want to fast from spending and start living by this rule: If you think you want something, wait a month. One of three things will happen if you follow this sage advice. One: you will forget. Two: you will no longer need it. or Three: you will need it more. Most often numbers one and two will happen.

"Just because I can have it doesn't mean I should." This applies to more than just spending, it applies to food too. As Americans we are impulsive and do things without thought because we live in such bounty. 

"There are a limited number of resources in this world, and when we take more than we need, we are stealing from others."

* I want to search for ways to directly serve the poor. It's sooo not as easy here in small-town Nebraska as it may be in Austin, TX in the heart of a huge city. But "...the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor." It's so much easier to dump off our things at Goodwill and let them sort it all out and leave feeling good about ourselves only so we can go home and buy more things to fill the space.  Surely, there are ways we can still GIVE and actually SERVE, to bridge the gap between us and "them".  The church is so busy holding Bible studies, women's groups, family events, etc etc etc,  and blessing the blessed what do we do to actually live the gospel by serving the least of us?

* I want to, especially on Sabbath, observe the calls to prayer 7 times a day. Such sweet time with the Lord, "an oasis to remember the sacredness of life, who we are, how to offer God the incredible gift of our lives, and learning to be in the midst of so much doing."

Ahhh so much going on inside of me. I am awakened.

{Photo Challenge} Day 18

Day 18: Shoes

My new running shoes. Actually called Go Run by Sketchers.

Comfortable and light and bendy. 

And surprisingly fine on gravel. I wasn't so sure how they'd do with big rocks underfoot.

But I really really like them.  

They came all black, so I got hot pink laces to feminize them. 

Just right.

Coming next: 

Day 19: Something orange