August move to do list; take it easy!

I've been working hard for months to get our house and our family ready not just for a new baby, but for our move that is coming up in September. I've had a "to-do-list" for the last few months and have worked through just about everything on those lists! I do need to finish a bit of school planning, but that can be done from the couch or bed resting and/or recovering!

Now is the time to start enjoying the fruits of my labor! Here is my "to-do-list" for August

1. finish move prep- this is here only because this job never seems to end and I figure I'll have some nesting energy to put to good use. I don't have anything specific to do, and if I don't do anythings else that's fine too!

2. have a baby- I can't wait to meet this little guy! I'm actually looking forward to labor/delivery (for the most part), it usually goes fairly quickly and without much pain so for me this is one of the easy parts of pregnancy. The hard part is the waiting and wondering when!

3. recover- I need to have some recovery time, no matter how much we have going on around here if I don't get some good recovery time up front that could lead to bigger problems later. The plan- when I get home from the hospital I'll go to my room for a week and enjoy a bit of bed rest, after that I'll have another down week getting up a bit late and cuddling with my little guy downstairs (all of this will of course include plenty of cuddles and interaction with the rest of the family). We've been blessed with wonderful offers of help from friends and my Mom will be here for a few days too, so even if Rob needs to go into work we should be able to follow through with this plan. I'll be taking it fairly easy for the remainder of our time here in CA as well, we will be in "survival mode" doing the minimum that we need to.

4. Prep graduation stuff- Getting a PhD is a big deal, and my husband has worked hard for this. I want to make sure that between the baby and the move that his accomplishment is not overlooked and that we take the time to celebrate it well! I have some simple but special things in mind for celebrating.

I'm linking to organizing junkie this week.

Colds all around!

Last night I started writing a post about feeling ready to have this baby (even though I'm only at 37 weeks and have never had a baby earlier than 39 weeks), that was until the first report of a runny nose. Then Miss C was up quite a bit during the night, not feeling well (Thanks Rob for taking care of her). By this morning I was feeling stuffed up as well....

Who wants to go into labor sick? Not I! Who wants to bring a newborn home to a house full of sick kids? Not I! So I will wait patiently as this passes through. I hear it only lasts about 3 days (it seems to be the virus going around the area, some friends we have not seen in a while just got over something similar).

Fortunately my right hand (aka Miss E) is not sick right now (but 5 of us are). What a blessing she is to us! We will spend the next few days laying low, and I'll pull out some of my back up plans to keep the kids busy with little effort from me!

My sweet hubby picked up a supply of scones and mascarpone cream for me, so I'll be munching on those and drinking plenty of pregnancy tea while I'm taking it easy. So don't feel too sorry for me!

Quiet times for kids

While we do quite a bit of Bible reading and just family reading and discussion, we've been wanting to help our children along with developing their own relationships with Christ. We've been wanting to encourage them to do their own Bible studies, but it can be hard to find something that is age appropriate and will help them grow.

I was so excited when I got an e-mail from a friend I recently met at a church gathering asking if I would be interested in reviewing her newest Bible study for kids; it is on the Armor of God. Both my husband and I took a look at her site Quiet times for kids and were impressed with what we saw, so we agreed that doing the review would be a good idea for our family.

I was so impressed with this Bible study. Mrs Davidson does a great job of drawing the kids in and asking great questions to get them thinking. In reading through the study I was happy to see how much the kids are expected to really give thought to the scripture they are reading and also give thoughtful answers. I also love that there are activities for the kids to do. The cubes to cut out and put together are great, as well as having the kids draw pictures, and the lego diarama projects really got the attention of my boys!

I'm so excited to be having my kids do this Bible study, and we plan to purchase more of the Bible studies that Quiet times for kids offers in the future!

Quiet times for kids is offering a $2 off coupon for the Armor of God Bible study, after applying the coupon code this Bible study will cost only $6! The coupon code is 'twodollarsoff'

They are also running a Lego diorama contest through August 31st with a great prize for the winner! My kids are super excited about that!

*Though I was provided with a free copy of this Bible study to review I was not otherwise compensated for this review.

Divided the movie

Sunday School? Youth Group? Family Integrated? God's design for family and His church?

Divided the movie is about Modern Youth Ministry and how it may be dividing the church. It is a great one to watch if you have children/teens involved in youth ministry. It is available to watch here for free for a limited time.

This is also a great one to watch if you know our family and have wondered why it is that our kids are always with us in church and not in any of the children's programs.

Favorite Baby books- and a give-away!

I just posted on our Family Bible Reading. It is important to us that our little ones hear God's word from the time they are born. Allowing little ones to touch and hold Bibles and Bible stories is helpful in teaching them to love God's word.

We've found that by the time they can walk around they usually want to cary a Bible around with them! We do let them handle our regular Bibles, but take a look at this post for one of the hazards to that (and for a good laugh). We like the "My Creation Bible" by Ken Ham that Answers In Genesis puts out. We really like that though it is not scripture it shows a more Biblical account than most "baby Bibles" do. It starts with a quick explanation of what the Bible is, and who God is and then goes on to give an account of creation and the first sin; all in a nice easy to read rhyming pattern. It also gives the account of Noah and the Tower of Babel, all while connecting sin and our need for a savior (and that Christ offers that salvation)!

Answers In Genesis has generously provided a "My Creation Bible" to give away! I'll give you a few ways to win this book.

1. Leave a comment here with your e-mail address (spelling out the "dot") so that I can contact you if you win.

2. Be a follower of my blog (leave a separate comment)

3.Facebook a link to this post/giveaway (leave a separate comment)

I'm linking to Giveaway Day at Hip Homeschool Moms

Happy Birthday to me!

We celebrated my birthday this week-end! Rob and the kids made my day such a wonderful relaxing one, they are all such blessings to me! I slept in a bit and came downstairs to the smell of french toast cooking on the griddle. Miss E had offered to make breakfast for me, and Rob helped her. Breakfast was wonderful! Stuffed French toast, berries, sausage and lemon aid! YUM!
After breakfast Rob dropped me and Miss E off to get pedicures. I only get these when I'm pregnant when I get to the point that I can no longer touch my toes. I thought it would be fun to include Miss E this time, and that my birthday would be a good time to do this. We had a great time together, and even got flowers painted on our big toes!

*When we got home the little girls wanted their toes done too!

Rob made a wonderful lunch of baked brie, sausages, cheese, crackers, salami and apples for us as well as sparkling cider. What a fun lunch! While Miss E and I were getting our pedicures Rob and the rest of the kids went to get dessert; a lemon tart from Whole Foods. My favorite!
We spent the rest of the afternoon napping, relaxing, reading, and just enjoying some quiet family time. Then Rob made up Chinese food for dinner.
I had a lovely day relaxing and enjoying my family, what a blessing they all are to me!

6:15 am Family Bible Reading/ morning routine

*I'm taking a break from "Summer School" to do this post and a couple of others that go with it.

Our morning routine has come up a few times in recent weeks, so I thought I'd do a little post on what we do....

Nearly every morning for over a year and a half we have been getting up together as a family at 6:15 to do family Bible reading. Some mornings we sleep in (mostly just Saturdays), but it is still the first thing we do when we get up. Everyone just staggers down, the kids are all still in PJs, though Rob and I do try to be showered and dressed (but I have not managed that in a while). Kids bring down blankets and we all cuddle, or curl up in a chair and listen to Rob read God's word. This is not a Bible study time, it is just a time to listen to God's word. We are on our second year of going through the Bible chronologically in a year. We also read the Proverbs chapter of the day. This all takes us about 30 minutes or so.

When that Bible reading is done everyone goes about doing their morning chores of getting dressed, making beds, cleaning up rooms, making breakfast etc. At about 7:10 everyone gathers again in the living room for individual Bible reading. This is something we just started about a week ago. Right now Rob is just letting each of the kids pick what they want to read. Miss J and Miss C look at "baby Bibles" while Mr S has a comic strip style Bible that is actually fairly detailed.

At 7:30 we have breakfast together as a family. When Rob is done eating he pulls out one or two of the books we are reading at meals (right now that is "Ten Ps in a pod", Iran (from VOM), and the Screwtape Letters), and he reads out loud while everyone else is finishing. Then we all work on some scripture memorization together and catechisms.

That's how our days start nearly every day. It's really just been in the last two years that we've been doing any sort of morning family devotions, and memorization. It has been such a blessing to our family! One of the biggest blessings has been watching my husband initiate each and every one of these things, how God has directed him to lead in these areas.

***I prayed for years that God would direct my husband's heart to do something like this. There is no way I could have asked him or told him to do this. It would not have been his leading then, and his heart would not have been in it. God used some wonderful godly men to speak into my husband's heart. Ladies, prayer is powerful! God works in his own ways in his own time. Our prayers are such a blessing to our husbands and to our families. What a great lesson for me in learning to wait upon the LORD (one I'm still trying to learn though!).

I pray that if this is the desire of your heart, that you are encouraged by this post, not discouraged. Devotions and such will look different in each family. Allow your husband to lead as he sees fit. Step aside and examine your own attitude and obedience to God.

I'm linking to raising homemakers this week.

Fun friends and German food!

Last week the delightful "R family" finally came to visit us! We've been talking for months about having them down for a quick visit and incorporating a trip to a German restaurant into the visit! The open house at Rob's office provided the perfect excuse for the visit as Mr. R is a geek too, and thought it would be fun to check out all of the toys at the school. The kids got to drive boats and fly a helicopter, so they enjoyed the visit to the office as well! (did I mention that Rob is in the modeling and simulation department?).

The next day was spent just hanging around.
The kids enjoyed the time to play with their friends. Rob enjoyed our time visiting with our friends too! It was so nice to have some undivided time with this family!

We've been to this German place once before and had such a lovely time, we just had to go with Mr. R (who is German) before moving! With such a large group we had quite a wait for our dinner, but we had a great time while we were waiting and the food was wonderful!

Sewing fitted diapers!

I recently finished sewing up some fitted diapers for Mr. K. Fitted diapers are cloth diapers that do not need to be folded to be put on baby and usually have some sort of closure (I used snaps), but they need a cover as they are not water proof. I had made a bunch of these when I was pregnant with Miss C, but some were pink and I can't put those on a boy!

While I didn't really need these, I already had all of the fabric and snaps. Having a few more was going to be handy and they really did not take all that long to put together. I loved making the minky ones, Miss J and Miss C often came over to touch and kiss the soft diapers. The yellow "space" one is one I've been wanting to make for a long time. I had the fabric left over from making some PJ's and could just see it as a cute little diaper!

Worth taking a look....

My friend Rebecca just posted "What will be remembered?" on her blog. It is short and sweet, and very encouraging (convicting too?) and very much worth the read! Please take a minute to read it!

Thanks Rebecca for your wisdom and encouragement!

Summer School treats!

Add to your blog:

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Like I posted earlier, I made quite a few batches of popsicles. Along with the "everyday" popsicles with spinach in them I made quite a few "junk" popsicles to be given out as rewards.

I made chocolate covered banana pops, with the help of Mr. S
The chocolate on them is a homemade "magic shell" so we just had to pour the left overs over some scoops of icecream!
I found this great recipe for root beer float popsicles, YUM! I adapted the recipe to make orange creamsicles too!

Miss J requested rainbow popsicles, and Mr. S helped me mix up the colors (including choosing the colors for me!). I made these with vanilla pudding, and Miss J was quite pleased with the results.
Chocolate pudding pops were requested by a couple of children too, so I made up a bunch of those as well.

Now the kids just need to get going on their reading so I can start passing these out!

Please link up your fun summer treats, or just what you are up to this summer. I think I'll be posting on "do something silly" for next Tuesday.

link up!

Playing with friends

Some friends of ours from church came down for a quick visit on Friday! When making plans with them Rob let them know that we are early risers by welcoming them to show up for family Bible reading at 6:15, and they took him up on it! It was such a blessing to share our Whole day with these three siblings!

Our morning was filled with fun play around the house. Miss J really warmed up to Miss A and Miss H and it was so cute to see her interacting with them.

Miss E's giant beach ball was a big hit!

After nap time Rob pulled out an MRE to have for snack (a favorite treat for our kids!).

Then we headed off to NPS to explore the old hotel building. We had so much fun checking out staircases, the wonderful view, and the grounds too!

Dinner was clam chowder at the wharf. Fisherman's wharf is lined with restaurants and nearly all of them offer a sample of their chowder to try to entice you to come in. The plan was to try all of the samples, and then we would all pick our favorite one to get and then find a good place to sit an eat! We all ended up agreeing on two of them being the best, and ended up going into one of them to eat, we also got to check out some of the local wild life!

We followed dinner with a stop at the candy store. Miss J sweet talked her way into some cotton candy to share with everyone. We also picked up some yummy caramel apples and caramel corn too! Oh, and gum balls, those were fun too!

*Miss J trying to bite down on a much-too-big-for-her gum ball. Eventually I had to step in and do the job only a mommy could do.... bite into a gum ball that had already been in my little girl's mouth!

What a fun day! We were so blessed to have three of the "kids" from the C family come to visit us! While we had a great time doing some fun things with them, the blessing was truly in getting to know them better and watching our own children developing relationships with them as well!

July move to do list!

July is my last month of big projects and preparations for baby and our move. I managed to cross everything off of my June list (except school planning, but that was expected to spill over to July and was already on the July list too!), so I'm all set to get going on this months projects! Once these are done I will be able to know that my big jobs for the move are done, and that will make it so much easier for me to relax and enjoy my time with my new little guy!

-Finish school planning

*Right now I'm buried in these books! I've got lessons planned for Mr. S and Mr. M in the Readers, so I have Mr. R and Miss E left to go. Then I'll move on to the Math, I'm thinking that may be a bit easier to get done.

-clean out freezers

-pack trailer and tape the "last minute packing" list to the door of the trailer *My wonderful boys helped me get our cargo trailer into the garage. I need to get it packed up with everything we will need on the other end right away and things we know the movers will not take. This would normally be my job anyways, but with Rob being so busy I need to make sure it is done before Mr. K comes!

-finish de-cluttering/cleaning

-meal planning for August

-clean out and re-organize van. Move car seats around.

-pull out baby clothes and newborn cloth diapers. Get it all set up for Mr. K!

-Sewing! car seat blanket, bouncy seat cover, fitted diapers, bibs (bonus: if I'm done early I'm going to make myself a skirt!). *I've already finished most of this sewing!

As you can see I've got plenty to keep me busy this month. It is all coming together very nicely though, so I think this list is managable. I just need to be sure I'm not wasting time, and to remember to delegate when I can!

I'm linking to organizing junkie this week.

Spinach in their popsicles?

Last week I made up nearly 100 popsicles (that seems like a lot, but with six kids I'm not sure they will last very long)! About half of them were "junk" popsicles intended to be given out as rewards for meeting reading goals. The rest were "everyday" popsicles. While I don't mind making up fruit juice popsicles I wanted something a bit healthier for the kids. I decided to make up smoothie popsicles, and our smoothies often contain quite a bit of spinach!
I made up three kinds; The first kind was berry smoothie popsicles I just used the frozen berry mix from Costco a BUNCH of spinach and some milk and yogurt. YUM!
Next up was the lemon "lime" popsicles. These actually have very little lime in them, but that it is still the excuse for the green coloring!Then I swirled the two flavors together a bit to make a third choice!


These were all enjoyed by the kids

The kids are loving their popsicles, and mommy is oh so very happy to be getting some extra greens in them!