(And All My) Work Be Praise

Inspired by this blog post , found through a pin on pinterest , I gave my husband twelve dates for his birthday this year. I'm sure this is true for all of us, but we've struggled to find time to spend one-on-one time together, particularly since the birth of our third child. And when we do have some time miraculously appear, we can never decide what to do! So I researched and investigated and used old Christmas cash that never got deposited so that I wouldn't leave a credit card trail . . . and put together eleven date-night (or day) envelopes. (We already have a date scheduled for January, so I didn't make an extra one for the first month. Don't want to overuse the free babysitting from in-laws, you know.) Many of my ideas came from The Dating Divas ; some are local attractions we haven't visited yet. Around the beginning of every month (or the end of the previous month), we'll sit down with the calendar, consult the appropriate envelope, and ...

I did it: I exceeded my Christmas goal by two pounds! I'm into my smaller-size jeans, for the most part, though not yet cords or dress pants, and all of my skirts are basically wearable. Psychologically, I'm most excited that the middle digit of my three-digit weight has dropped another number. It just feels  better to be in this particular group of tens! However, I'm also done vigorously attacking my weight for a while. I found out this week (at his six-month check-up) that Silas hasn't gained any weight in the past two months. I'm positive my milk quantity hasn't decreased any, but it has me wondering if I've affected the quality  of it by restricting my calorie intake. Since Silas still refuses to take a bottle and is now rejecting the spoon, I'm his only source of nutrition. The doctor isn't worried, and Levi went through a small phase at six months as well [actually, Levi continues to weigh in in the 3-5% percentile, but that's just who he...

Obviously, I need a new way to hang stockings. I wrote last year  about our family's experiment with exchanging gifts on St. Nicholas Day (December 6). This year, my husband and I co-wrote an article for our church newsletter about the same thing.  You can read it here: http://eccfellowship.org/archives/newsletters/2012nl/201212nl.pdf   Scroll down to page six. Boys laying out blankets to sit on. Someday, I'll have a nice rug in this room. We started our morning in the German tradition with stutenkerl , man-shaped sweet bread with raisin eyes. Honestly, I think they're a little creepy.  Decapitating the stutenkerl . . .  Hey, don't I get one, too?!  After breakfast, we opened our stockings. I think the age and understanding of my children is apparent from the fact that they want to eat breakfast before opening presents. I spent the rest of the day mediating fights over the new James train .  It still feels a...

I've said it before, I'll say it again: pinterest is running my life. There I was, with my regular Christmas decorations scattered all over the house, totally content to hang the usual wreaths in the usual places. And then: oh! I have wire hangers and dozens of extra gold ball ornaments! I must  make that wreath immediately! That's pretty much what happened. Here's what happened next: It turns out I'm really bad with ribbons and bows. I'd love to make this a little neater, but I just don't know how. I also didn't have quite enough gold balls, as evidenced by the fact that you can see the wire hanger peeking through. At night, though, with the Christmas lights shining in through the glass front door, it sparkles nicely and you can't see the imperfections. (Please excuse my truly horrible picture-taking skills.) Another trick gleaned from Pinterest: to hang a wreath by a ribbon, hang a command hook upside-down on the back of the...

I've had a ton of ideas for Advent calendars and countdowns and activities and the like, but what with the busy season, visits from my extended family, and a short bout of stomach flu (just me, thankfully), I decided to keep things simple this year.  After all, Levi's really the only one of my three children to have even a little sense of what's going on, and I have plenty of years ahead for toddler and preschool activities! So yesterday afternoon, in one of the few hours I was upright and not curled up on the couch nursing peppermint tea, Levi and I made a traditional paper chain. I let him do pretty much everything: cutting the paper into strips, deciding on a color pattern (red-green-white), arranging the strips in the pattern, writing a number 1-25 on each strip, and applying glue with a glue stick to the end so I could attach them together. Levi now thinks he has to smile every time the camera is out, even if he's not looking at it. I discovered too lat...

Inspired by many variations on the same theme floating around pinterest and the blogging world, I decided to do a "thankful tree" this year. Most nights (when my husband was home) after dinner, I'd ask everyone what they were thankful for and write it on a leaf. The answers from my 2- and 3-year-old boys were sometimes odd, but I tried not to "lead" their answers too much! To make the tree, I cut up some big paper bags for the trunk and branches (which blend in with the brown wall a little too much, but I felt resourceful in doing it). The leaves started out on full pieces of construction paper, traced from a leaf I printed out as a template, but I soon realized I would run out of construction paper WAY too soon making big leaves and started cutting them free-hand out of smaller pieces instead. As it was, the momentum faltered a good 7-10 days before Thanksgiving, partly because we got busy and partly because I knew I couldn't make any more leaves witho...

I didn't post one "thankful" a day on Facebook like a lot of my friends, mostly because I like to be thoughtful about these things and I don't have time every day to be thoughtful.  (Yeah, I really feel that way.)  So, I've been working on the list -- 22 items, one for every November day through Thanksgiving -- in spurts, and here it is! 1. Levi reading books to Owen "in the corner of the house." [For reasons unbeknownst to me, they think this is super fun.  I suspect that if they knew of such things, they'd hang up a "no girls allowed" sign and declare it their clubhouse.] 2. Perfect November weather.  Cool, crisp, and dry. 3. Burt's Bees cocoa butter chapstick for when the "dry" part of #2 is too much. 4. Brothers who tackle each other in their eagerness to give hugs. [Please not that I am not  thankful for the weird angle of my face in this picture.  5. A stack of jeans growing steadily too big as I slowly...

As you may remember , the radio in my car is broken.  Approximately five years ago, a CD got stuck in the CD player. For a while, I could play the radio and that one CD. Then the CD part stopped working altogether, but the radio still worked. A year or two ago, my husband spent hours upon hours trying various methods to enable us to listen to music in the car. The Nissan dashboard is not kind to those trying to disassemble it, but Isaac attacked it at least three times, getting the stuck CD out, attaching an mp3 player to the satellite input, checking all the cords again when things stopped working. We'll probably never know exactly what happened, but after ages of the radio working sometimes and not others without any obvious reason, it finally quit completely a few months ago. Doesn't turn on at all, and even if it occasionally shows life on the dashboard, no sound comes out of the speakers. Unless we're on a longer trip and all of the boys are asleep, I really don'...

In the interest of keeping myself accountable, I offer up my first weight-loss update. It's good news: I've lost 5 pounds in 4 weeks! After the initial shock of counting calories, it hasn't been all that bad, either. I've gained real awareness of about how much I can eat at any given meal or snack and still have calories left for the rest of the day. Probably the biggest success has been (mostly) eliminating the sugary snacks I used to consume mid-afternoon. I know it's better not to eat the few hours before bedtime, but since I know I'll be nursing at least once and probably twice before breakfast, I really need something to tide me over after dinner. And if I'm going to have an evening treat, I can't spend those calories in the afternoon! For the first time, I've been reaching for cheese sticks or fruit or Triscuits more often than the chocolate chip jar. About two weeks ago, I had a real food crisis. If it had been practical, I would've gi...

I've gotten braver . . . or more in need of activities . . . or the boys have gotten older . . . At any rate, we've painted twice in the past few weeks, with minimal damage to clothing or furniture. I do have one dedicated painting t-shirt, but it's so much easier just to strip them down. With the water colors, it didn't seem necessary. First up: after reading about  Josiah , I cut two rectangles out of a large paper bag. The boys crumpled them up and flattened them back up repeatedly to "age" the paper, and then covered them in brown water color to further the effect. I quickly discovered that the activity went more smoothly if I held a little bowl of water (out of Owen's reach) and only offered it for dipping paintbrushes when necessary. Notice Silas's name has been added to the purple table.  :)  Thanks, Dad! Before painting, I wrote "Book of the Law" on Owen's paper, and then Levi copied it onto his own. He still ...

A Very Hungry Caterpillar by Owen, age 23.5 months light moon little egg lay leaf next day -- POP! next day eat two pears next day -- Wen-day eat one staw-bry next day eat  . . . wowwi-pop . . .  . . . [points to cherry pie] that . . .  . . . CUPCAKE!

A long time ago -- maybe a year? nine months? -- Levi started telling us once or twice a week at dinner that his foot had fuzz on it. This was extremely upsetting to him: he'd whine, and cry a little, and brush at his foot frantically. We'd inspect the foot for fuzz, finding nothing, and try (unsuccessfully) to reassure him that there was no fuzz on his foot. After a few minutes, he'd settle down, and we'd wonder what on earth that was all about. Finally, much more recently -- a month or two ago -- instead of saying, "my foot has fuzz on it," he used the phrase, "my foot is fuzzy," and all of a sudden I understood. He'd been sitting on his foot, and it had fallen asleep! I don't normally associate the "pins and needles" feeling with "fuzziness," but if you have no idea what's going on and a limited number of adjectives at hand, I don't think "fuzzy" is so far off.  A toddler mystery decoded! Readin...

I own a small blue glue gun. It was lost for a long time. Like, years. In July or so, I decided it was time to get a new one, so that I could do a few crafty projects for my kids. The next day -- I kid you not -- I found the old one. In a place that I was so sure  I'd looked before. Go figure. I took the new one back to Target. Armed with a glue gun and an addiction to pinterest , plus a desire to scrapbook but no time to work on a project that large, I've been hankering for little crafty projects to complete in an afternoon. Finally, a few weeks ago, my gaze happened to rest upon the Lenten-themed wreath still hanging on the closet door in my entryway. Definitely time for a seasonal update! A quick trip to Hobby Lobby confirmed my desire to "DIY" this wreath. Did you know fake floral wreaths can cost $100?! I did not. For about $15, I picked up a straw wreath, one small bunch of fake fall flowers, a cardboard letter G (for my last name), and a mini can of b...

I'm going public with my baby-based weight fluctuation.  Here's my story: While I was pregnant with Levi, I gained 45 pounds. When I got pregnant with Owen, Levi was seven months old, and I'd lost 35 pounds. While I was pregnant with Owen, I gained 35 pounds. When I got pregnant with Silas, Owen was ten months old, and I'd lost 42 pounds, putting me just three pounds shy of my pre-baby weight. While I was pregnant with Silas, I gained 65 pounds. SIXTY-FIVE. It's a little mortifying to admit. He's four months old now, and I've lost 35 pounds, but that still leaves a pesky thirty pounds hanging around. I hit up Goodwill several times for enough to get by, but I miss my non-fat clothes. Even my shoes don't fit, and I don't own a single coat I can button. A friend on Facebook has been posting about her own weight loss [notice I'm not going that  public!], using a free food- and exercise-tracker called My Fitness Pal . When she announced s...

For quite some time, my husband has been encouraging to me to make a set dinner plan (for a week, or two weeks, or even a month) and just repeat it over and over.  I've been resistant.  Even though I know it would simplify life not to be planning unique meals each week or month, I really enjoy browsing recipes and keeping variety in my meal plans. I'm beginning to cave, however.  In the busy-ness of working Sundays and the laziness of Friday afternoons, I rarely get dinner planned (and, subsequently, made) sufficiently on those two days.  And so we've instituted Spaghetti Sundays and Fajita Fridays.  Each one has its specific perks: Spaghetti Sundays: meatless and therefore cheap, quick and reliable.  The boys both eat spaghetti without complaint.  I've tried making my own sauce a few times, but I'm never happy with the taste or consistency, so I've given myself permission to buy the Ragu I love.  The jar claims to provide a full serving of ve...

Today was one of those awesome (but rare) days in which I let go of any preconceived notions about the day and just let life happen.  Technically, according to my self-imposed schedule, we should have reviewed our memory verse, completed a math lesson (Levi), made lines of yellow playdough (Owen), possibly run out to the library, and learned the silly "Father Abraham" song as a gross motor correlation to the week's Bible story.   Instead, Silas and I fell asleep nursing in bed, which made me late in getting ready for the day.  Isaac stayed home for part of the morning, in which Levi did most of the scheduled math lesson and I spent an eternity in the shower, trying to summon up the will to re-enter my chaotic life downstairs.  It did not look like today was going to be very pretty. But, rejoin life I did, and as we all snuggled on the couch for a story, things started to pick up.  The bigger boys had great fun helping Silas touch different textures in a b...

I started this post when Silas was three weeks old.  We've been just a little bit busy since then (and still are). Regardless, considerably after the fact, here I present to you three activities that were perfect in ability level (a bit challenging, but not so much as to be frustrating) for my then-35-month-old. Fishing At that time, we were reading about Jesus calling his disciples to become "fishers of men" in our morning Bible time, so I thought we should do some sort of fishing activity.  People all over the blogging world have great ideas about attaching string to a dowel rod, tying a magnet to the end of the string, creating cute little fish with magnets in their mouths to fish for, etc.  I am 1) not that crafty, 2) not that blessed with extra time, and 3) not that concerned with having my activities be cute.  In lieu of those three things, I hooked a paper clip onto a piece of string and threw our letter and number magnets in a laundry basket.  The ...

For quite some time now, I've been reading the same Bible story to the boys for a week at a time, adding in correlating projects or songs as time and/or energy permit.  Last week's story was of the Prodigal Son .  My go-to source for activities ( abcjesuslovesme.com ) suggested fingerpainting in chocolate pudding, pretending to be pigs rolling in the mud.  It's been a while since we did a messy activity, so one night after dinner I whipped up some homemade chocolate pudding  and the next morning, we dug right in!  Both of the boys tend to be a little finicky about getting their hands dirty -- Owen asks for a "hand wipe" after nearly every bite -- but once they deemed it okay (and tasty), they dug right in! The first wipe across the belly was accidental. But then Levi had to try it, too. Chocolate drool! Hey, this is kinda fun. (Not sure what happened to his plate.) Thug Owen. Happy chocolate boy.