Quick, before I get Sidetrack'd

1. Do the great clothing exchange – I’ve had boxes of the kids clothes out of the attic for several weeks now. This weekend I plan to go through all of the clothes in their closets/drawers and the clothes in the boxes to clean out the Summer stuff and put in the Fall/Winter stuff. I also need to sort out the stuff for Spring consignment.

2. Make pumpkin applique shirts for the girls – again, a project I’ve had everything for (except E’s shirt) for awhile now. I intended to have them ready before our pumpkin patch trip last Sunday, now I’m shooting for completing them before our Fall festival at church this Sunday.

3. Catch up on laundry – I’ve let myself fall behind this week and it’s not fun. See also #1.

4. Clean the bathrooms – enough said.

5. Cook some muffins for breakfasts next week.

What are your goals for this weekend?

Back tracking a bit here. At the end of July we celebrated E’s big 5 year old birthday. We spent the day with my parents (Bebe and Grandad) doing things E enjoys. We went to Build-a-Bear, ate lunch at Pei Wei, bought The Princess and the Frog and had cookie cake and ice cream. I think she had a great day.

To capture a bit of her five year old moment, here are a few of E’s favorite things.

Favorite book: Fancy Nancy
Favorite toy: Bebe lovee
Favorite TV show: The Busy World of Richard Scarry
Favorite playtime activity: playing school
Favorite food: ham
Favorite color: purple and pink
What I want to be when I grow up: school teacher

A couple of pretty major milestones over the last year: she learned to tie her shoe and to read

A few things I’m thankful for of late.
Part 1

11. the long awaited check that arrived in the mail the day before the hospital bill.
12. an “emergency” fund big enough to cover our medical expenses this Summer.
13. unexpected time off from work (Matt) at Christmas.
14. time spent with Matt’s grandparents last Friday.
15. friends – encouragement, accountability, fun times.
16. cooler weather (with much cooler temps headed our way).
17. forgiveness and grace.
18. contentment with our living arrangements (something I battle).
19. the weight of my baby in my arms (so many long for this)
20. new realizations of who I am and what I’m called to.

What are you thankful for today?

Believe it or not, my baby girl is two months old already! And while two months doesn’t sound like long, it feels like she’s been with us always. As tough as these two months have been, they have also been filled with blessing. Happy two months, precious baby M!

I am two months old now, and I…

…want to be held. All the time if I had my way.
…spit up like crazy (meaning puddles of the stuff).
…don’t like to go to sleep (but sleep pretty well once down at night).
…visit the doc on Friday. We’ll get stats and likely a script for prevacid.
…am beginning to outgrow my 0-3 months size clothes.
…started smiling about 3 weeks ago.
…have just discovered my hands and, boy, do they taste good!
…am getting to be a little fountain of drool.
…like to be worn (most of the time).
…have quite a fiery temper.
…am growing quite fond of my paci.
…have very good head control.
…rolled over for the first time yesterday morning!
…am doted on and smothered with love by my three siblings.

I’ve been intending to post menus on Saturday since we meal plan from Friday to Thursday, but I haven’t accomplished it thus far. Until today. So, here’s our menu for this week…

Friday – pizza
Saturday – lunch: fend (sandwiches, frozen, etc) / dinner: tacos & fixings
Sunday – lunch: taco leftovers / dinner: ?
Monday – chicken broccoli casserole & rolls
Tuesday – leftover casserole
Wednesday – meatloaf, mashed potatoes, peas
Thursday – waffles or pancakes, bacon

Have a great weekend!

My (no longer the) baby girl turned 21 months old this week! Wondering what she’s up to these days?

I am 21 months old now, and I…

…am super happy and cheerful (except when I’m not).
…have quite the little temper.
…am a bit obsessed with the fact that Elmo is on my diapers.
…am talking like crazy (although, you might not understand most of it).
…putting two and three words together and sometimes even a sentence.
…mimicking the words/sounds that I hear from my family.
…love my baby sister (mom says sometimes I love her too much).
…am obsessed with my baby sister’s paci.
…am trying my hardest to jump and get both feet off the ground.
…love to look at books.
…am a bit obsessed with Shake a Leg (Elmo board book).
…have 4 eye teeth coming in.
…love to spin in circles.
…try to do everything my big sister and brother do.
…love, love, love baby dolls.
…am still tiny (but I’m up to 21 lbs!).
…am a bit obsessed with clothes and shoes (especially shoes).
…hate the vacuum, broom, and choo-choo (they make me run and cry).
…like to color (especially on things I shouldn’t color like school books).
…bring great joy and laughter to my home (I’m a funny little bird).

I actually put together a month long menu for October! I can’t say I’ve been great about sticking to it this last week or so, but I’m still trying to get back into the swing of cooking every night. We are also dealing with a moody baby in the evenings, so that doesn’t help.

Anyway, here’s what we’re eating this week…

Friday – pizza

Saturday – out

Sunday – small group: chili dogs

Monday – leftovers

Tuesday – “grilled” chicken tenders, mac & cheese, veggie

Wednesday – fish filets, roasted red potatoes, steamed broccoli

Thursday – chicken pot pie

I’m really going to try to start blogging regularly again. I’ve realized over the last week or so that this is the only written record of our children’s lives. This is where we turn for stats, milestones, funny sayings or stories. So, I need to catch up with them. We’ll see how it plays out.

Happy Monday everyone!

Over the last 5 weeks our friends and my parents have been abundantly generous in providing food for my family. I feel overwhelmingly blessed by God’s provision! If you ever wonder if a meal you take to a new mom is appreciated, believe me, it is, more than can be expressed.

So, now it’s time for me to feed my family again, and that means back to menu planning. This is what we’re eating this week…

Saturday – lunch: fend / dinner: BBQ, fries, cinnamon apples

Sunday – lunch: leftovers / dinner: small group – breakfast

Monday – chicken broccoli cheese casserole, rolls

Tuesday – leftover casserole

Wednesday – spaghetti

Thursday – either waffles and bacon or bacon, eggs, & biscuits

Friday – pizza

Happy Monday!

While I haven’t yet read Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts I have heard great reviews of it (and do plan to read it one day soon). Inspired by the book and reviews, I want to keep a kind of thankfulness journal chronicling those every day things that so often get lost in the shuffle. So, from time to time, I will be listing a few, several, maybe just one thing that I have noticed in my days and for which I am thankful. I also plan to incorporate a list of thanks into our Fall schooling and encourage the older children to record a thanks for something each day.

Today I am thankful for…

1. the start of the Bible Study Fellowship year. The children and I were excited to get back to it this morning.

2. a toddler class at BSF so S can go to class instead of the nursery.

3. friends and family who have overwhelmed us with love and celebration as we welcome Baby M into our lives.

4. the abundance of meals that have been provided for our family the last few weeks.

5. the privilege of teaching E to read and the ability to school her at home.

6. a wonderful husband who loves, supports, encourages, and helps me. He’s the best!

7. 4 healthy children.

8. the privilege and responsibility of raising these little ones.

9. the laughter and joy that fill our house (most of the time, anyway).

10. rest time (which will begin as soon as I finish this post).

My children call fishing poles “fishing wands” and root beer “root beard”.

I wish I could record all of J’s speech right now to have when he is older. His enunciation, age-related speech “impediments”, tone of voice are just so cute (and often hilarious). I know that all too soon he will talk like a big boy and I love the way he speaks right now.

S is coming into her own in the speech department. She comes up to us and jabber, jabber, jabbers. Sometimes she points emphatically, sometimes she smiles. We know she’s telling us something, but have no clue what she’s saying. She does have a lot of words, though, including “ha-bow” (hairbow), “to-bus” (toothbrush), and the sweetest little “peese” (please) ever.

The other night after dinner we were discussing (at E’s prompting) what to do in the event of fire. J said that if your clothes are on fire you “stop, rock, and roll”.

J says “choke” when he means “joke”.

Any time a question is asked (such as, who wants dinner?) S raises both hands and says “Meeeee!”

J uses the word “usually” in place of “used to”. As in, “I usually tooked a paci when I was a baby.”

E is getting old enough that she doesn’t have many mispronounced or incorrectly used words. She often brings a smile to our faces with her phrasing or use of certain words, but most of her funny “baby speech” is long gone. It’s kind of sad. However, she currently uses the word “okay” like she’s a grown up. She will tell J or S something and then say, “okaaaaay?” in a high pitched voice.

Oh how I love “kid speak”. I’m really going to miss it in a few years when our kiddos are older, but right now I will smile, laugh, and soak it up (and record as much of it as I can).