Prayer of Hannah

New Schedule!!

2012-01-29T16:41:00.000-05:00

Hi friends! Just wanted to let you know that we have a new schedule for the spring here at Prayer of Hannah. Check out our Upcoming Topics page to learn more. Our topic for February will be Preparing for Marriage and Marriage Issues. Please take a chance to complete our survey on the right-hand side--it just gives us an idea of where you are, how we can pray, and how we can direct our blog 'conversation' over the next month. As always, we would love to hear suggestions from our readers about topics for discussion!

Link Love from Meg

2012-01-26T20:55:00.006-05:00

We are hoping to get a schedule going and get back to having a topic each month, so please let us know if there is a topic you would like us to cover. But for now, I thought I'd share a few links that I've enjoyed over the past few weeks:

Masking Anger as Justice -- Very good article for parents! Showing anger (or frustration, annoyance, etc) will not produce righteousness in your children . . . even if all your anger is directed at sin. The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God

What I Would Feed My Family on a Monthly Budget of $250 (for a family of 5) and her next post on how to improve that even more and tips on doing it gluten free, buying from Farmer's market, using a co-op, etc

The Death of Pretty -- Praying that my girls can understand the difference someday...

9 Ways To Cut Food Waste (and save time)

Don't Carpe Diem -- I love her honesty -- parenting is hard work and there are definitely moments I do not enjoy -- but it is ever so worth it!

10 Dumbest Things To Eat -- Such a great list! If you want to make easy changes in your diet, cutting out these ten things would make a HUGE difference!

What You Should (and shouldn't) Say To Someone Who Has Lost A Baby -- some good tips

BPA-Free Buying Guide -- better sources of tomatoes, coconut milk, fish and other food you might need to buy canned

You Never Marry the Right Person -- ‎"Destructive to marriage is the self-fulfillment ethic that assumes marriage and the family are primarily institutions of personal fulfillment, necessary for us to become "whole" and happy..."

"... even if we first marry the right person, just give it a while and he or she will change. For marriage, being [the enormous thing it is] means we are not the same person after we have entered it. The primary challenge of marriage is learning how to love and care for the stranger to whom you find yourself married."

Michael Pollen's Least Favorite Foods -- I'm a big fan of Michael Pollen so this was interesting to me :)

What Every Dad Should Know About His Daughter -- simple article, but true and good to think about

10 Ways to Ensure Success When Removing Sugar From Your Diet

Godly Character Trait Printables -- I want to shrink these down to make into flashcards to incorporate into our homeschooling. And The Character Journal has a great extensive listing of each character trait with related songs, scripture verses, bible stories, projects and more for each character trait!

Favorite Winter Herbal Remedies -- Colds and Coughs, Stomach Viruses, and Headaches -- some great tips!

Stingy Out Gets Stingy In -- "... an example of this would be the mess in your house (I trust that you have one). When I focus on the mess, I am aggravated by the things that do not matter at the expense of the people who do. When I consciously refuse to be upset by the side product, I am free to enjoy the people who are messing it up. Giving my own work freely does not just make me a martyr."

Chick-Fil-A Daddy Date Night -- I'm not big on fast food, but a special night for Daddy and his girls with a princess cow and dancing is a pretty fun idea!

FLASHBACK: Packing your bag and stocking your cabinet--things to know BEFORE labor and delivery!

2012-01-25T16:40:00.000-05:00

**I often send this information to friends having their first baby, so I thought it might be helpful to post it again today. This post originally ran in October 2009.**

Before my first child was born, a dear friend gave me a list of things to pack/not pack in my hospital bag. After my first child, I added my thoughts, and started giving it out to all my friends who were having babies. Hope you find this helpful!

What you DON'T have to pack in your hospital bag:
• diapers
• wipes
• baby clothes other than an outfit to bring the baby home—the hospital will provide tiny little white shirts for your little one
• baby blankets—the hospital will provide receiving blankets
• sanitary pads
• lots of underwear for you—the hospital has disposable underwear that you will, strangely enough, come to love after labor and delivery;-)
• multiple pairs of pants for you
• nursing pillow, unless you just want to have it; the nurses will assist you with helping the baby latch on using hospital pillows, etc
• bottles for the baby, unless you plan to bottle feed and want to use a particular bottle
• jewelry—you may have to take it off, and you don’t want to risk losing it
• long distance calling card—some places in the hospital say no cell phones, but the nurses do not mind you making the occasional call
• pillows—hospital has plenty!

What you DO want to pack in your hospital bag:
• hairband or clips to hold your hair back, if necessary
• anything that helps you relax for delivery and afterward—an IPod with your favorite music, a book, a scented lotion
• change for the snack machines or a bag of snacks (especially for your hubby)
• at least one nursing bra (a sleep bra is a must, and maybe another one to wear coming home)
• nursing pads—during the first few days, I would recommend Lansinoh Brand Ultra Soft Nursing Pads (Babies R Us carries them). They are more expensive, but they are the softest I have found, and when you start nursing, your breasts will appreciate the softness of those pads. You will be able to move to other pads later
• Tums if you are prone to heartburn. I was not prone to it, but had horrible acid reflux during labor. The nurses would not give me anything, but I could have taken the Tums if I had some with me
• camera, extra batteries/charger, film (each hospital has different regulations about videography during labor, so check for their policies)
• cell phones and chargers
• comfortable, loose tops or short nightgowns. Look for something that buttons down or is big enough to pull up for nursing ease. Pants/bottoms are not necessary—you will be bleeding enough after the delivery that you might mess up the bottoms anyway. A light-weight robe is nice—I used a short robe that I pulled on over a tank top, and that worked great
• moisturizing body lotion—if you should have an epidural, your skin may itch as it wears off. Lotion helps!
• flip-flops for the shower
• your favorite toiletries (i.e., scented shower gel from Bath and Body Works if you like that), your makeup, lotions and perfume—anything that will help refresh you and make you feel better
• slippers or socks—the hospital floor can get cold!
• name of the pediatrician you plan to use—they will ask you this in labor and delivery
• book/magazine (something light and fluffy) for you; book/magazine for your husband—you may need this during labor and delivery while you “wait” to dilate, or to help you relax at the end of the day when visitors and family have left
• list of people to call with their phone numbers
• outfit to bring the baby home
• outfit for you to wear when you leave the hospital—look for comfortable, loose fitting separates: you will not be able to fit back into your pre-pregnancy sizes immediately! Though it is no fun to wear them after the baby comes, maternity pants may feel the most comfortable (or something with a drawstring waist)

Coming Home from the Hospital:

Have someone fill your pain prescription as soon as you get home—taking the medication regularly will make a huge difference! The day that you leave the hospital you will feel sore—it will be the first time you have moved around so much since the baby was born, so expect to be tired, sore and emotional.

Make sure your bathroom cabinet is stocked with these items:
• sanitary pads (no tampons)
• moistened, unscented wipes *optional*(this sounds crazy, but Pampers makes a Sensitive Skin baby wipe that works great—you just cannot flush them)
• Tucks Hemorrhoid pads *optional*--Tucks pads are cooling and calming
• Pericolase medication (stool softener and gentle laxative)—helps keep you regular and prevents your bowel movements from being painful
• Spray bottle (from hospital) for cleaning yourself
• Dermaplast (also from hospital), a topical numbing spray that is such a blessing when you are sore

Your first night home from the hospital will be really rough, but you will survive! Expect to cry a lot at first. Know that every woman experiences these emotional ups and downs, and it is normal. The baby blues last through the first couple of weeks and then things stabilize—but they will suddenly pop back up at random times! It’s normal to cry, however, if you feel like your baby blues are unmanageable, or are lasting a very long time, please reach out to friends and family for help.

In your budget, you may need to plan for an additional expenditures in doctor’s co-pays (this varies according to insurance plan depending on if you have a co-pay for well-visits/maintenance visits). Your baby will visit the doctor approximately 4 times in 2 months (though this varies by office): 72 hours after discharge from hospital, 2 weeks, 1 month and 2 months. Each of these visits will cost you an office co-pay, and if you do not plan for those fees, it can catch you off guard.

Above all, relax and enjoy this time. Labor and delivery may be painful, but it is the most rewarding thing you will ever experience. It is exciting! Look forward to it with anticipation and joy, and know that your friends and family are praying for you, supporting you and ‘cheering you on’ during this wonderful time.

Being thankful for the little moments...

2012-01-19T13:42:00.002-05:00

I love being a Mom! There are, of course, moments I do not enjoy (such as when Karlie doesn't stop asking the same question for the 100th time or when Abbi wakes me up at night over and over again or when Karis insists on driving her sister crazy with her singing), but I accept those moments as part of my job and usually can manage to laugh at them later. Most days, I also have moments of bliss (I call them Mommy moments) when I manage to step back out of the craziness and my heart swells with joy and thankfulness. I decided that I really wanted to remember those precious moments so beginning with the new year, I started writing down my favorite memory of the day right before bed each night. It is usually not anything spectacular... just something simple that made me smile. I thought I would share a few of my favorite moments from the first week of the year with some pictures we took the same week:

1. Watching Karis help Abbi walk -- Karis loves to hold Abbi's hands and help her walk. She isn't very good at it and often pulls her down, but she is so sweet in her excitement about Abbi walking and Abbi just loves the attention and usually just laughs hysterically when they fall down together.
2. Karlie getting excited about feeding Abbi -- I usually just put all of Abbi's food on her tray and let her feed herself, but Karlie seems to get the biggest kick out of helping Abbi. I cannot tell you how excited she gets when I let her give Abbi food and it is so cute!

3. Karis holding her pencil correctly -- We haven't done a lot of handwriting in our homeschool yet because Karis was stubbornly uninterested. She loved dot-to-dots and mazes, but the minute I tried to teach her how to write letters and help her fix her fingers for handwriting, she would get irritated. I decided to wait until she was more interested and we tried again after Christmas. She is now very proud of herself and allowing me to help her hold her pencil correctly!

4. Doing "alphabet movement" with my girls whenever the weather isn't fit for outside time -- I printed out the fun cards and my girls have to choose the next one in alphabetical order. They think the exercises are hilarious and we laugh the entire time. So much fun!

5. In basketball class on Saturday, I suddenly realized that Karis had her arm around Karlie while they waited in line for their turn to pass the ball to the rhino. It was ever so sweet and also a bit funny to watch them try to move up in line together. I love seeing them be affectionate with each other :)

6. Smores in the backyard with my Mark and my girls. The girls LOVE it when we build a fire and were just ever so excited and happy.

7. Listening to Karis and Karlie make up songs about Mary and baby Jesus in the backseat of the van.

Ask Our Readers: When the Child Doesn't Want To

2012-01-18T10:06:00.001-05:00

We have talked a lot about teaching our children here at POH, as all of us are in the throes of teaching our children to read and write.

But what do you do if your child doesn't "want to"? As in, to quote my daughter, "Mommy, I don't want to [work on that]. Reading is HARD!" She is willing to work on our reading lessons for a brief time, but she quickly tires of it and complains that it is too hard. I have explained to her that reading is hard, but there are great rewards that come with learning to read. I am not certain how to proceed. Should I enforce a certain 'reading lesson' time limit? Should I try a different method? Should I take a break?

Just to put this in context, Georgia is five years old. We are currently working through the Hooked on Phonics workbook (given to us and recommended by my sister, an elementary school teacher). She knows her letters and their sounds very well. She can write her letters fairly well. She loves books and stories, but in general she does not like to work hard, even when there are rewards at the end of the work (I hate to use the term lazy, but she is definitely not a 'driven' child). Her lazy tendency comes naturally--I have not been regularly working with her on the reading either, but I am trying to be more diligent about that.

I would love your thoughts!

Another resource for teaching reading

2012-01-12T19:17:00.006-05:00

I thought I'd pass along another great book on teaching speech, spelling, writing, and reading. (Please know that I think this is just one of many great resources and I am just going to explain why I have found it helpful for instructing Karis; I definitely do not think that it is the only or best way! But I am excited about it...)

As I've researched homeschooling, I've become more and more convinced that a Classical Education will be the best fit for our family. I am planning to enroll Karis in a Classical Conversations co-op next fall for kindergarten and I am trying to research it as much as possible before then. While reading The Core by CC's founder, Leah Bortins, I stumbled across a recommendation for The Writing Road To Reading by Spalding and immediately knew I wanted to read it! I had already noticed that Karis could spell better than she could read at that point... every school day we played with her magnetic letters and I started asking her to sound out a few words to put on her board and was surprised that she could actually do it! She has since figured out reading a bit better so the gap is not quite as large, but back when we first started school, she could spell most short vowel-sound words I gave her but could not read at all. So I purchased The Writing Road to Reading and read through a lot of it over Christmas break. It really made sense to me. Basically, the book instructs how to teach handwriting by using spoken phonograms, which in turn teaches the child to read. As you introduce a phonogram, you explain exactly how to write it, how many sounds it can make, and any rules that go with it. There are just 70 common phonograms in the English language and after mastering those, the child can figure out how to read almost everything! A key point is that spelling should be taught from the spoken word... children who only copy words do not progress as quickly because they often rely on visual recall alone and do not have to think through the rules of spelling. With the Spalding method, new words are always learned by studying the phonetic sounds of the spoken word.

When we started back with our schoolwork after Christmas, I decided that we would learn these phonograms and their rules before proceeding on our path with The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. Karis can't really do the writing aspect very well yet (she wasn't at all interested in handwriting last fall so we are just now starting handwriting), but she loves to put new phonograms on the board and learn their sounds and rules. We have only done about 6 days of phonograms and I can already tell a great improvement with the words she can read. Because she is learning the rules for each sound a phonogram makes, she can immediately figure out most words containing those phonograms. For example, many reading programs keep children in the short vowel sounds for a while and they are limited in what they can read. After our first day when Karis learned the rules for all 3 sounds that "a" could make, she immediately could read words containing the long "a" sound as well as the "ah" sound. I found so many more words that she could read in our normal books than I did the day before. As she is sounding out words in her books, I ask her questions about the rules for the sounds and she can actually tell me. For example, I asked her why the "a" said its name instead of the short vowel sound and she could tell me that it was because it came at the end of a syllable. A bonus is that I am really learning a lot about English as I teach her! Some of these rules I never learned but they would have really helped me in school.

I still think that The Ordinary Guide to Teaching Reading is a great resource and we will probably go back to it for further reading instruction after learning the 70 phonograms, but I also plan to continue to utilize the Spalding method and its lesson plans to teach Karis handwriting and reinforce the correct rules of spelling.

Raising a Reader

2012-01-11T14:05:00.002-05:00

I have been reading Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books by Tony Reinke, and it has been very helpful in guiding me through a structure for reading. One of his last chapters is called "Raising Readers," and gives suggestions to parents for how to encourage your children in reading. I enjoyed the chapter greatly, and wanted to pass along his suggestions to our readers (Note: the main points are his, the additional "thoughts" are mine). I'd love to hear your thoughts!

1. Fill your home with books--seems obvious, but kids will learn to love books if they are around books.
2. Read to your kids :-)
3. Don't stop reading to your kids--read to them even when they are older! See The Read-Aloud Handbook for suggestions on reading aloud to your kids.
4. Read your books in front of your kids--model a habit of book reading in front of your children. Reinke even encourages you to try to read "heavy" books in front of your kids, not just "lite fluffy reading". Again, it is about modelling a love of reading to your kids.
5. Teach young children to read
6. Push entertainment to the background
7. Listen to audio books in the car--check out free classic audiobooks here
8. Hunt for the best books--ask for people to recommend books to you. Consult a literature guide like Honey for a Child's Heart or Books Children Love, and read book reviews on the blog Orange Marmalade.
9. Anticipate new books--attend book signing events, anticipate the day a new book is released, etc.
10. Celebrate the classics--find something fun to reenact or celebrate in a book. Reinke and his family celebrated Hobbit Day in the fall :-)
11. Cultivate your child's moral imagination
12. Help interpret worldviews as you read to your children--walk through tough situations with them, explaining why characters made certain choices, and help them discern the worldview presented
13. Read your favorite excerpts to your children
14. Invite your children to read to the family
15. Challenge your children to improve books--ask them what they would change about the book, or how they would improve it.
16. Most importantly, read the Bible together as a family

What suggestions do you have for cultivating a love of reading in your children? How are you cultivating a love of reading yourself?

New Year's Thoughts

2012-01-05T13:20:00.005-05:00

I'm really excited about this year. Last year was absolutely wonderful with the birth of my sweet Abbi Grace, and I am so thankful for her! It was a precious time. But with the birth of a child also comes a season of "just making it through each day." I definitely had a long stretch of never being able to get all the dishes washed, the laundry done, and the floors cleared. I was happy just to have meals made and reading time with my girls before crashing onto the couch, utterly exhausted, after putting them to bed. I don't really know what this year holds, but I am hoping to be a lot more purposeful with my time. Sometimes it seems a little silly to make a lot of New Years Resolutions because hardly anyone keeps them and what is so special about January 1st, anyways? I can make a resolution any day of the year. But I have to admit that I've been kind of excited for all the traveling to cease and for us to get back to a normal routine so that I can focus on some things that I've neglected. I thought I'd share some of my shortcomings from last year and goals for the new year with you.

1. Getting back to our budget -- We listened to the awesome Dave Ramsey CD's about a year and a half ago and made a new budget and did great with it.... for a time. But we stopped being so strict and we really need to start saving more money again. I have to admit, I'm a big fan of a good deal and have several deal blogs that I follow. But it doesn't really save me money if I keep using the money I save (and sometimes more) to snatch up the next good deal! So we are trying to get back to cash and debit-card only purchases to keep us in our budget. And I am really trying to ask myself before every purchase, "Do we really need this?" rather than "Is this a fabulous deal that my family could use?"

2. Planning a-get-away with my husband -- We were not able to do much for our 5th anniversary because I was nursing Karlie and we've been wanting to take a little trip together ever since. We have not had more than one night away from the kids since we had Karis 4.5 years ago! So this year I am determined to get away for at least a long weekend with my love once Abbi gives up nursing.

3. Throwing things away -- I am slowly going through each nook and cranny of my house and trying to throw (or give) away as much as possible. I have found that it is impossible to be organized when I have too much stuff. I have a hard time throwing away things that are given to us (even if we don't need them) and things my children make. (Even though they each make me about 10 pages of artwork a day.) We have too many clothes and too many toys. I am taking pictures of my girls' artwork and tossing most of the originals. I am going through their clothes and only keeping what will easily fit in their closet that they wear the most. Toys that don't have a good spot out of sight will be given away.

4. Going to bed earlier (so I can get up earlier!) -- My big girls are not allowed to come out of their room in the morning until their clock wakes up and my baby consistently sleeps until 8am, so I really have no good reason to not be able to get up and have my devotions and get breakfast all ready before I even see their cheery faces. Unfortunately, Mark and I have gotten into the habit of staying up too late and it makes getting up early much more difficult and I end up dragging all day. It is not worth it! We've started off our first week of the New Year by going to bed earlier and boy does it make a difference! (And it has the added bonus of having enough energy to stay awake and chat and enjoy each other rather than conking out immediately :)

5. Planning out all my meals for the month -- I used to do this regularly before Abbi was born, but I took a break and found myself scrounging for meals in a hurry. It also saves time and money to plan it for the month because I don't have to go to the store as often. So I made my plan for January and it has already made my life so much easier this week!

Links For The New Year

2012-01-04T15:26:00.000-05:00

I know that the New Year has already arrived, and I pray that many of you have already had a wonderful start to 2012! Perhaps you have already made your New Year's resolutions, have checked many things off your to-do list, and are diligently applying yourself in multiple areas. Or, perhaps, you are like me, and you are still recovering from visiting family and are just now thinking about plans for the new year. Jump on my boat, and enjoy a few links that might be helpful as we seek to focus on Christ, love our husband, and parent our children well.

Justin Taylor has a blog post outlining multiple Bible Reading Plans for 2012. What plan or method are you using to read God's Word this year?

Crystal at Money Saving Mom shares how she sets yearly goals (I so need to do this!).

When I Rise blog has seven prayers you can pray over your children throughout the day.

The Gospel Coalition is sponsoring a National Women's Conference in Orlando this June, and it will be incredible. I will be there, and want to encourage YOU, our readers, to attend as well. Are you going? Let's meet up!

What sort of resolutions have you made for the new year? How are you seeking to make the most of Christ and his gospel in 2012? How can we encourage you more?

Evaluating the first half of our school year....

2011-12-29T13:32:00.003-05:00

Now that all the Christmas festivities are coming to a close, my mind is once again focused on teaching my pre-schooler. We took a month-long break during December because we traveled a lot and I had so many fun Christmas activities I wanted to do with my girls. We really enjoyed our holiday season and I think the break was really good for us, but I am hoping that the girls have not forgotten a lot. Karis had just started sounding out words well and I am hoping that it will come back to her quickly. Here are my thoughts on the 1st half of our year:

I cannot believe how quickly this year has flown by!! We had a great fall and really enjoyed doing school together. I love having my girls home with me! But honestly, we did not do as much "school work" as I would have liked. It is really hard to fit it in with a baby and the day to day things I need to get done and I now realize that I am going to have to work really hard to accomplish what I want to do with Karis in January. (Sorry facebook and Pinterest - nap time is officially planning and housework time!) I wrote out a great schedule for the fall and followed it well at first, but once "real life" took over, I pretty much had to ditch it. It seemed like someone was always sick or fussy from teething or I was behind in my housework or we were getting ready to go out of town or had appointments or recovering from a trip and I just had a really hard time getting into a really good routine. But I'm determined to make it work and I plan to buckle down as the new year starts. We shouldn't be traveling and I am refusing to allow any morning activities outside the house (other than soccer and basketball class with Daddy one day a week) so that we can easily fall into a good routine.

Mid-way through the fall, I had to sit down and prioritize what I thought was most important to get done with the girls. At this early stage, I felt like my focus should be reading as much as possible, outside play, beginning handwriting skills (mazes, dot-to-dot, tracing,etc), and math skills (fun counting/ measuring/ number games). Our eventual schedule was to "do school" during Abbi's morning nap (Hopefully at least 90 minutes) and then all of us would go outside on a walk and play together until lunchtime. We would do more reading before and after naptime. And that was about it. I think that it is very important for kids to have time to play so I just let them do what they wanted in the morning before Abbi's nap and in the afternoons while I tried to straighten up for Mark and get dinner on the table.

In January, I am going to start Karis on some Saxon math and A Reason for Handwriting workbook. We will still focus on doing a lot of reading. We will probably continue to just "do schoolwork" during Abbi's morning nap, but of course, I know that they are learning all day long!

How did the first half of your school year go? Any tips or lessons that you learned? We'd love to hear it!

If you are thinking about homeschooling...

2011-12-27T22:11:00.000-05:00

I sat down this evening to start setting some goals for 2012 - both personal and professional (ha, ha - by that I mean things to do with parenting, housework, and homeschooling). Even though we've been "doing school" for almost 5 months, I am still looking for ways to do it better. Namely, to put a little more effort into it.

In my organizing tonight, I kept coming back to the website Homeschool Creations, created by a homeschooling mom of 4 named Jolanthe. She does so many awesome things on her blog. And I got to thinking that her blog really could be the start and finish of a great homeschool curriculum for anyone starting out with homeschooling their preschooler. She has a long list of Printable Packs that she's developed that are centered around a variety of topics - ex. Princesses, Robots, Disney Cars, etc. The idea is to print off the free Printable Pack and use it over the course of a week to cover things like pre-reading, pre-writing, shape sorting, number recognition, etc.

She has also been working on developing Literature-based Printable Packs. These are along the idea of the Five in a Row book. The Printable Pack is centered on a book - ex. Blueberries for Sal, We're Going on a Bear Hunt, etc. It would be so easy, so fun, and SO educational to just do a book a week and use her free Printable Pack.

I realize as I write this that it sounds like one big advertisement for Homeschool Creations, and I guess maybe it is. Except I don't know this lady and I'm not getting paid for it! Really, I was just thinking to share her blog here because I know there are some of you with preschoolers at home that would like to try your hand at homeschooling. So I encourage you to go check it out. Pick a book, print off the pack and see what you think.

Merry Christmas from the Carsons!

2011-12-25T10:53:00.004-05:00

Merry Christmas!

From the Carsons

2011

We pray that this Christmas Day is filled with reflection, remembrance and celebration of the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

I hope you are reminded of the GREAT love and GIFT of God,

His Son,

JESUS CHRIST
.

that came to us as a Baby and grew to be a man,

who died on the cross for mankind and
.

ROSE

conquering death and sin forever,

and giving
.

FORGIVENESS
.

and
.

TRUE LIFE.

Jesus Christ

Emmanuel

God with Us

It has begun!

2011-12-08T20:24:00.005-05:00

Have you been enjoying celebrating the advent? My little ones sure have. I thought that after giving so many fun Christmas ideas in my last post, I should update which ones we are actually doing. I definitely had to narrow down my choices to keep the sweet season of advent simple.

Last year I wanted to do the Jesee tree, but I just didn't get it together in time. But I went ahead and made the ornaments so I would be ready for this year and I was ever so glad that I did! The girls have really enjoyed the Bible stories and putting the ornaments on our tree. I love Ann Voskamp's jesse tree devotional and made the ornaments with her templates, but I also read about a Jesse Tree storybook and decided to purchase it for our girls because I knew they would enjoy the pictures and storyline a bit more. It is about a grumpy old carpenter who is carving a Jesse Tree for a church and a little boy who begs him to tell the story of each carving. The readings are a little long for Karlie, but Karis absolutely loves it.

I really wanted to do an advent calendar with random acts of kindness for each day, but I just didn't have enough time to get it together before December got here. I'm thinking about just setting aside one day each week (probably on our day to run errands) starting with the new year to do a random act of kindness with the girls. I really want them to start thinking about how to be kind to others all the time, not just at Christmas.

I am not a crafty Mama. I really want to be and I really enjoy doing crafts with my girls, but I'm not usually one to plan ahead well in that department. If we have time to do something fun, we usually end up baking! But my Karis loves "making decorations" and the fall season had me scanning Pinterest moments before she woke up, trying to find something to make with what we had on hand. I stumbled upon "Truth in the Tinsel: An Advent Experience for Little Hands" and immediately knew it would be worth the $4.99 to have something all planned out for me, using everyday household items, that would be an easy craft to point back to the story of Christ's birth. And we have loved it! We haven't been able to do our craft every single day due to a busy holiday schedule, but it has still been worth every penny to me.

I have to admit that the most exciting part of my girls' day, however, is probably opening up their daily Christmas book. I was just going to do one book each day, but they were so excited that I just couldn't make one of them wait til the next day. So yes, we will open 50 Christmas books before Christmas. Thank goodness for the library!!!! It is amazing how excited they get when they open a book, even though they might have read the book 50 times last season. What a fun tradition! I found a great list wonderful Christmas books to request at the library HERE.

Have you started any Christmas traditions this season? I'd love to hear about them!

Christmas Giveaway winner!

2011-12-06T11:00:00.001-05:00

Thanks for everyone for their comments on our Noel banner giveaway! After putting the numbers into a random number generator (a bowl filled with slips of paper with numbers on them) and picking a number at random (having Baxter stick his hand in the bowl to draw a slip of paper), we have a winner....

#4, dumplings4all !!

Your email address was not available, so if you could send us an email at prayerofhannah@gmail.com with your mailing address, we will be thrilled to mail this out to you right away.

Merry Christmas to you!

Noel Banner Giveaway

2011-12-01T13:09:00.001-05:00

It's December! Have you started your Jesse Tree/Advent Calendar countdowns? We started our today with an ornament of the Earth. It was great to hear how much of a foundation has already been laid in my boys' hearts and minds.

To celebrate the Christmas season, we are hosting a Giveaway...this lovely, handmade Noel banner created by the super talented Carol Seitz, who blogs at The Village Stamper. (if you don't know, Carol also happens to be Leah P's mom!)

You may earn an entry by leaving a comment below. I'd love to hear what your favorite Christmas decor item is in your house.

This will be a short giveaway so that the winner can enjoy their Noel banner this Christmas season. I'll close comments on Monday at midnight and announce the winner on Tuesday morning. As always, this giveaway is open to everyone - those of you here in the States as well as any of our friends overseas.

And be sure to visit my mom's blog for all sorts of great Christmas cards, gifts, and super creative ideas.

Free Jesse Tree Printable from Ann Voskamp

2011-11-30T21:57:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Money Saving Mom, I discovered the blog of Ann Voskamp today. She is the author of the book above, One Thousand Gifts. (I have not read it, but its on my wish list!)

Anyway - I wanted to share her blog with all of you as well. If her book is anything like these posts, it will be an incredible read!

Money Saving Mom posted the blog to share that she has created a Jesse Tree devotional (including printable images) and is offerring it free! I really like it and though I had printed another one to start tomorrow, I think I may use this one instead!

Enjoy!

Advent verses and ideas

2011-11-30T19:04:00.001-05:00

I hope each of you have had a wonderful November and Thanksgiving, and that you are eagerly looking forward to December and Christmas. I love the season of Advent and am hoping to spend a lot of time this season teaching my children about the king who has come to live among us! I like to use Advent readings, and am contemplating working through a Jesse Tree this December. I found this Jesse Tree printable which would be easy to use.

If you are interested, here is list of two different Advent readings for the season (I found this on a blog of a friend of a friend, so this is not original to me):

The Birth of Jesus Advent Verses
December 1 - Luke 1:30-33
December 2 - Luke 1:41-42
December 3 - Matthew 1:20-23
December 4 - Luke 2:1,3
December 5 - Luke 2:4-5
December 6 - Luke 2:6-7
December 7 - John 1:14
December 8 - Luke 2:8-9
December 9 - Luke 2:10-12
December 10 - Luke 2:13-14
December 11 - Luke 2:15-16
December 12 - Luke 2:17-19
December 13 - Luke 2:20
December 14 - Luke 2:21
December 15 - Matthew 2:1-2
December 16 - Matthew 2:3-4
December 17 - Matthew 2:5-6
December 18 - Matthew 2:7-8
December 19 - Matthew 2:9
December 20 - Matthew 2:10-11
December 21 - Luke 2:28-32
December 22 - Luke 2:38
December 23 - Luke 2:40
December 24 - Mark 1:9-11

The Coming King Advent Verses
December 1 - Genesis 3:14-15
December 2 - Genesis 22:18
December 3 - 2 Samuel 7:13
December 4 - Isaiah 7:14
December 5 - Isaiah 9:6
December 6 - Isaiah 9:7
December 7 - Isaiah 35:3-4
December 8 - Isaiah 40:3-5
December 9 - Isaiah 40:10-11
December 10 - Isaiah 42:1-3
December 11 - Isaiah 52:13-15
December 12 - Isaiah 53:1-2
December 13 - Isaiah 53:3-4
December 14 - Isaiah 53:5
December 15 - Isaiah 53:6
December 16 - Isaiah 53:7-8
December 17 - Isaiah 53:9
December 18 - Isaiah 53:10
December 19 - Isaiah 53:11
December 20 - Isaiah 53:12
December 21 - Jeremiah 23:5-6
December 22 - Micah 5:2
December 23 - Zechariah 9:9
December 24 - Luke 1:31-33

What are your Advent traditions? Please share them with us!

Happy Thanksgiving from the DeLongs

2011-11-24T20:07:00.003-05:00

We hope you all are having a wonderful holiday with your family! Here are a few things my girls have been thankful for this month:

Karis(4.5 years)

...for my own pink Bible that Laurel gave me!

... for our milk farmer who gives us milk!

... for my fish and horse, Cocoa (both imaginary)

... for my music machine (a kid's mp3 player that I found at the consignment sale)

... for my brothers and sisters: Julia, Cowgirl Kate, Cindy, James (imaginary)

...for picking the watermelon and planting the flowers!

... for my (imaginary) friends: Alysa, Maria, Jack, Her Baby's sister...

...for my purple bandage because it helps me get better!

...for my couch because it is my fire truck!

...for our magic eraser because I like cleaning the table!

... my socks that Kirstie made because I like playing with the beads!

...my babies -- My Baby and Violet

Karlie (2.5 years)

...for Abbi's pumpkin because we painted it silver!

...Myna Baby, Pink Baby, and Pup-pup

... for petting the bunny at the Farmer's Market!

...for hopping outside!

... for my frozen banana!

... for myself!

... for quinoa pancakes and syrup!

.... because I like sausage the best and yogurt the most!

... for the library!

... for my frozen banana!

... for prunes

... that I hopped in soccer!

Fun Christmas Traditions!

2011-11-17T15:06:00.007-05:00

As I wrote last year, we are trying not to go overboard with presents for our little ones at Christmas. The grandparents spoil them plenty and they don't really need anything else from us :) We also really want to try to help them focus on Christ's birth and giving to others. However, Christmas traditions are very special to me because I loved them so much as a child. My family had many Christmas traditions growing up that made the season so special. I'm really excited to start a few with my girls and Pinterest has given me so many fun ideas that I am finding it hard to narrow it down! (I keep telling myself to keep it simple!) But I thought I'd share a few of my favorites!

1. I love this idea of buying a Christmas ornament each year and writing favorite memories on it! I also like the idea of having each child decorate her own ornament each year. When Karis was born, I started making a photo ornament each year. It is so much fun to pull out the ornaments every season and see how much the kids have grown!

2. A family handprint Christmas tree skirt to remember those precious little fingers!

3. This Fisher Price Nativity set that even the smallest family members can play with!

4. The White Envelope Project -- I love the idea of giving to others instead of getting so many presents! (But I also like the idea of the kids helping to choose how to give the money so I'm not sure which one we will do yet)

5. A countdown to Christmas with random act of kindness!

6. A simple tradition of opening something special on Christmas Eve -- I like the idea of opening up special new pajamas and a board game to play each Christmas Eve!

7. Filling a shoebox each year for a needy child!

8. This Christmas Elves Holiday Tradition looks super fun!

9. I love this idea about "hope notes" in the stockings!

10. The Christmas book tradition

11. Do a family Christmas play each year -- a simple nativity or a fun play with a Christmas message

12. Jesse Advent tree

13. Advent tree of fun Christmas activities! And here are some more ideas

14. A large felt Christmas tree with decorations for the kiddos to decorate over and over and over!

15. Decorate house for Christmas and place an empty cradle/ manger near tree. Leave it empty until Christmas day and place some straw and a swaddled doll in cradle for kids to find when they wake up.

16. Candles for Christmas -- the author describes how they ate dinner in complete darkness of Dec 1st (corresponding with the Jesse tree Day one devotional) and added a candle each night at dinnertime until they had 25 candles going! My girls would love this!

17. Truth in the Tinsel -- a wonderful biblical craft advent for little ones using everyday items that you have in your house.

18. Write 25 names of God on ornaments and place one on the tree each day to help kids learn the names of God

Do you have any favorite Christmas traditions to add? I'd love to hear them!

Christmas ideas from Pinterest

2011-11-16T17:52:00.001-05:00

I try not to spend a lot of time on Pinterest...but it is so easy to do! Here are a few ideas that I saw today that would make great Christmas gifts/decoration. Hope you enjoy these!

Source: thelovelyresidence.blogspot.com via Leah on Pinterest

Source: nheilke.com via Leah on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Leah on Pinterest

Source: melskitchencafe.com via Leah on Pinterest

Gift Ideas

2011-11-15T16:30:00.001-05:00

I need to come up with a few gift suggestions for my boys to pass along to family members. I also need a few ideas for my two nieces. If you find yourself in the same position, be sure to browse through our Product Reviews. I often refer back to what we've written over the past 5 years for ideas.

Any ideas to add? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Knowing When to Take a Break

2011-11-14T12:58:00.001-05:00

This year I have been working through The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading with Samuel, my five year old. About a month ago, he and I were really struggling each time we sat down for a lesson. We were stuck on Lesson 48: ank/ink/onk/unk. Did anyone else have problems with that one? There had been rumblings leading up to this lesson, but the bottom really fell out when we got here. We tried this lesson three times in one week, each one ending with Samuel being disciplined for having a bad attitude and me needing to take a break to cool off.

I realized I was crossing over into "reading isn't fun" territory - a place I didn't want to be, especially since we're just starting and because Sam is young. BUT, I also didn't want him to think he could just give up on reading. Part of me feared rewarding a bad attitude. So I had to think of a solution that gave him an opportunity to show he could do reading with a happy heart without building a dislike of reading.

What to do? We simply started over. I had a talk with him about how proud I am of him and all he is accomplishing. I also talked about things being tough and that we can always choose the attitude we will use to approach tough work. So I told him that the focus of our reading lesson for the next two weeks wouldn't be how much he read, or getting through a lesson, but the attitude he chose to have. We would pray and ask Jesus to give him a happy heart. And then we started back at Lesson 27: Words with Short-A Vowel Sounds. It took us the next two weeks to go through all of the lessons again and for him to make it through each time with a happy heart. But we made it and it worked.

Each day I would also go over the ank/ink/onk/unk lesson with him. I just had him read the words after me each day. I was dreading that lesson like you wouldn't believe! But we made it there and we made it through. Praise God! We pressed on through a few more lessons, but then I sensed it was a good time to take a break from the book. Samuel was approaching reading time with a good attitude, so I didn't feel that taking a break now would be rewarding a bad attitude. So we're taking a break for a couple of weeks.

Now I have a collection of easy readers that he can work on each day during reading time. Our bookshelf this week includes: Go, Dog. Go! by P.D. Eastman, The Baby Bunny by Margaret Hillert, Crabby Gabby by Sue Graves, Whose Hat Is It? by Valeri Gorbachev, and Mine's the Best by Crosby Bonsall (all from the library - praise God for our library!). Here's to happy reading!

Potty Training

2011-11-11T11:50:00.004-05:00

This past Monday morning, I decided on a whim, to give potty training a whirl with my second child, Mattie, my 26-month-old little girl.

Rewind with me back to when I pt-ed my first child, Laney. I did Lora Jensen's 3-day potty training plan. It worked! It really worked, and I still love that method. I remember sharing our story with some Mommys in our Kindermusik class about how it worked all across the board with Laney. But shortly thereafter, Laney started to backtrack in the bm area.

She learned if she didn't go one day, it really hurt the next day or the day after that, and so this pattern of holding the bowels started. And she did that for a little over a year, sometimes doing good and sometimes regressing back to holding it again. It was a roller coaster ride I would never wish upon any parent.

My little Lanes is a joyful, spirited, yet determined little lady. She knew it caused her pain, and she wasn't going to do it. Thankfully, we're smooth sailing now. I would encourage all parents to help your children out by giving them things that keep them regular during the potty training days. I'll elaborate more below.
With my second, Mattie, I did a very relaxed version of Lora Jensen's plan. Seems that after you have your first child, as Mommys, we tend to relax a bit in most areas. I didn't care if we didn't master potty training in three days. Stay realistic.

Monday morning, I decided to give this potty training a whirl. She was already showing the signs of being ready. For months she has told me every single time when she has to pee pee and otherwise in her diaper. She has woken up with a dry diaper for months.
My goal was to teach her to tell me BEFORE she wet and understand how to stop the flow until she could get to the bathroom.

When I heard M waking Monday am, I whisked her to the potty since I knew she had a dry diaper and was about to open up the floodgates. I sat her on the potty and waited. We talked for a bit and nothing. She was getting figity and wanted to get down, so I told her I'd be right back, because I had to go get something downstairs. On the way back to the bathroom, I heard the peepee!! What a joyful sound to a Mommy's ear!

Throughout the day, when I'd think of it, I'd remind her to keep her panties dry and to tell Mommy when she needed to go. She quickly caught on. When she'd tinkle a tiny bit, she'd stop tinkling and tell me. I'd take her to the bathroom, me encouraging her with smile and happy attitude, all the while telling her to keep her panties dry. She'd then finish in the potty.

I couldn't believe how quickly she caught on. But then again, she was ready. She had shown all the signs of being ready, and so I think her readiness in combination with the fact that she was a second child, saw potty training modeled for her, and that she has a compliant personality, potty training just clicked for her.

I didn't go overboard with treats or bribing or anything, although I'm not opposed to those either. What did I have to lose? I was willing to go back to the diapers if she didn't seem ready. I didn't care what any article or pt-ing specialist said. I was very relaxed with the whole approach second time around.

Day one: We stayed home, and it was a relaxed day. I didn't pay her 100% attention and stop daily life. I didn't have all of our meals prepared and the house wasn't clean, so I could focus all on her. Remember, I just decided to give this a whirl one morning. She pee-peed in the potty four times that day! At the end of day one, she pooped in the potty right before her bath. I was FLOORED.

Day two: In the a.m., we left the house to go to a Book Study I'm a part of, and I was doing the childcare rotation that week, which was so timely. I brought my little potty with me. She was pretty good at communicating with me that she needed to pee pee throughout the day. We also had a lot of "false alarms" as she was trying to discern all of these new feelings and what to do with them when. I think those "false alarms" were moments when she needed to go #2. We went to the potty every time so as to stay consistent. She eventually poo-pooed TWICE that day! Needless to say, I was elated.

Day 3: I had to go into town, so I took the potty with me, and we dropped by TJ Maxx. Like I said, I had a more "let's just roll with it" attitude about the potty training this time around. If she wet her pants, who cares. :) I was going to try to teach her to make it to the potty, but if she didn't, no big deal.

Funny story: As soon as we walked into TJ MAXX, she said, "Oh, I go peepee!" I was THAT Mommy running through the clothes, with her almost 5 year old trailing behind her and holding her 34 lb, 2-year old in arms. My diaper bag bouncing off my hip and probably hitting people along the way, and having big, urgent eyes asking the employee where the bathroom was. Haha! And as we ran, saying things like "We're almost there girl. Keep your panties dry, okay? C'mon Laney. Stay with me Lanes! This way...run!! We're almost there girls!" We made it, with dry panties and all. She passed the test. I knew that she was on her way to being potty trained.

Nighttime: She goes to bed with big girl panties, and as long as she doesn't have lots to drink before bed, she normally stays dry. She did wet the bed this week two times in the night. We stayed up late with small group, and she got thirsty while running around and playing with the kids. But knowing she normally wakes up dry, I keep her in panties. I am not opposed to diapers at night though. Just do what will be best for your child or what will keep your sanity. In fact, on night one, I kept wrestling with what to do at nighttime, even though I figured she'd be fine. I opted for the diaper, and as I was putting it on her, she said, "I don't like my diaper." Right then, I knew she needed to know I had confidence in her and that she knew the difference between big girl panties and diapers. So, I put her in her panties and just prepped myself to be up at least once. But we slept all night that night and she woke up dry. You will have some pee-in-the-bed nights, and that's just part of the learning curve.

I have a big, waterproof cover to protect the mattress, but on top of the sheet, I lay down a flat crib-size waterproof pad. You can get those probably anywhere, but definitely at Babies R Us. She sleeps right on top of that little waterproof pad. The top sheet will be what I will have to replace if she does wet. I cover her up with a throw and not her twin quilt. That way, if she DID happen to pee-pee in the night, I don't have to wash EVERYTHING. Worst case scenario, I just wash the top sheet, the little waterproof crib pad, and maybe the little blankets/throws.
BM's: I've learned natural ways to keep the bowels loose, and I highly recommend you keep these on hand while you are potty training: apple cider, castor oil/honey mixture, prunes, raisins, blueberries, coconut oil

I wouldn't OD on any of these or do ALL of these at once, but just keep try one thing at a time if needed and keep it in moderation. (ex: don't give 5-6 glasses of apple cider in one day. But if I had to choose an extreme, I would rather my child poopie in her pants from having too much cider than struggle with fear and have constipation.

That's just how I see it.

No potty training experience is the same. So many factors that come into play that make up your child's potty training experience. No matter what approach you take, my greatest encouragement is to stay relaxed, positive, and realistic. There will still be hiccups, even after your child is potty trained. Use your discernment that's individualized to your own child, and be encouraged that one day, it'll just click.

Shutterfly codes giveaway winners announced!

2011-11-11T09:37:00.002-05:00

The random number generator chose Alison, Tracey, and Erin to be our winners! Congrats! I will be sending you an e-mail containing your codes when my girls go down for naps this afternoon. Enjoy your free photo book and Christmas cards!

(If you didn't include your e-mail in your comment, please send it to me @ prayerofhannah@gmail.com so I can e-mail your codes to you)

Our updated natural medicine cabinet

2011-11-10T14:23:00.002-05:00

It is that time of year... when my facebook is filled with moms complaining about sick children. Last year, I shared my top 25 favorite natural remedies for fighting off sickness. I still use them regularly and prefer them over anything store-bought. But I thought I would give a little update and share some of the more natural "medicines" I have chosen to buy to keep on hand. A lot of them are homeopathic remedies that are completely safe and effective. If you don't know much about homeopathic remedies, this post is a great one to start with and then read this this article. My girls take them as well and like them. If you are interested in starting to use some, then this kit by Hylands contains most of the basics. I also greatly recommend Naturo Kits. We have the mini first aid kit and it has really been helpful! (And once again, I am not a doctor so do your own research before buying any of this :)

Sabadil -- by Boiron for allergies

Chestal -- a homeopathic cough syrup by Boiron

Arnica Montana - any time someone falls or goes through something traumatic

Arnica gel -- for bumps and bruises

Oscillococcinum -- for flu-like symptoms

Belladonna for fevers and inflammations

Nux Vomica for nausea and upset stomach

Chamomilla for teething and irritability

Calms Forte by Hylands -- to calm down kiddos when they are up past their bedtime and to sometimes help my husband sleep when he is stressed about work

Elderberry syrup -- easy to make by just boiling elderberries in water, simmering for 30 minutes, then smashing through a strainer and adding honey. It will store in the fridge for up to 3 months. Or you can buy something like Sambucus elderberry syrup on Amazon or vitacost.

Papaya Enzymes -- these are amazing for heartburn, nausea, and acid reflux -- I used them when I was pregnant instead of Tums and use them now if I eat a lot of processed foods or just too much for dinner (HA!)

Activated Charcoal -- for food poisoning or other poisoning, stomach bug, bad bites, or stings

Netti Pot with salt water -- to relieve sinus symptoms

Be Kool soft cool gel sheets to place on forehead to help cool down a fever (Thanks, Hollie, for the great idea!) My kids have never been that cooperative with a cold washcloth, but they were excited to see these "cold bandaids" to put on their foreheads.

Little Noses Saline drops -- for stopped up nose

Wild Weed Salve (from the mini first aid naturokit) -- for bug bites, itchy, dry skin, etc -- it works really well and is the only thing to keep my girls from complaining about a bad bug bite!

What are your favorite products to keep in your medicine cabinet? I'd love to know!

Just Add a Christmas Mug (Easy Drink Mixes)

2011-11-09T08:46:00.000-05:00

Mulling Spices

I LOVE hot apple cider in the winter, so it is only natural that I started looking for mulling spices that I can give as gifts at Christmas. I started with this recipe here, but adapted it some for my preferences.

4 cups brown sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground orange peel
1 tablespoon cloves
1 tablespoon allspice
1 tablespoon nutmeg

Mix everything together, making sure that you break up the chunks of brown sugar.

Instructions for use: Add 1/2 cup of mix plus 1 cup of water to 2 cups of cider or juice. Bring to a boil and then simmer until ingredients are dissolved and all is well combined. Enjoy!
*Note: For a single serving, use 2-3 Tablespoons to 1 cup of cider*

Mocha Cooler Mix

My friend, Jeni, made this for us several years ago, and I have made it for everyone as Christmas gifts myself. It is super easy and yummy!

1/4 cup instant coffee granules
1 cup sugar
1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup powdered nondairy creamer
1/3 cup baking cocoa

With a rolling pin, crush coffee granules into a fine powder. Place in an airtight container. Add sugar, milk powder, creamer, cocoa and salt; mix well. Store in a cool dry place for up to a year. Makes 3 1/2 cups--7 batches.

Additional ingredients:
1 1/2 cups crushed ice
1/2 cup milk

To prepare cooler: In a blender, combine the ice, milk and 1/2 cup of mocha mix. Cover and process on high until smooth. Pour into glasses. Yield: 2 servings per batch. For extra flavor, add flavored creamer while blending.

Both of these mixes make a fun gift to put in a cute, inexpensive Christmas mug (check the dollar store for those)!

Practicing Biblical Hospitality: Safe Families

2011-11-06T22:24:00.000-05:00

We live in the suburbs of Chicago, IL - home of a program called Safe Families. From the Safe Families website:

Since 2005, Safe Families for Children has offered sanctuary to thousands of children, minimizing the risk for abuse or neglect and giving parents the time and tools they need to help their families thrive. The ultimate goal is to strengthen and support parents so they can become Safe Families for their own children.

Safe Families for Children strives to meet three objectives:
1. Child Welfare Deflection: Safe Families provides a safe alternative to child welfare custody, thus significantly reducing the number of children entering the child welfare system.
2. Child Abuse Prevention: Providing an overwhelmed and resource limited parent with a safe, temporary place for their child without threat of losing custody. By offering support, the goal is to avert potential abuse/neglect episodes.
3. Family Support and Stabilization: Many parents struggle because of limited social support and unavailable extended family. Many Safe Families Volunteers become the extended family that a parent never had.

Our family just joined the Safe Families movement about a month and a half ago. We received our first placement at the beginning of October. Four year old K came to stay with us because his single, pregnant mother was hospitalized with pregnancy complications and she had no one who could care for him. Her main support person, her mother, had recently passed away. She was without anyone else to support her. K spent five nights in a crisis nursery until Safe Families was mentioned to the mom as someone who could take care of her son for her. K was with us for three days before his mom was released from the hospital and he could go back home.

On Saturday, we got the call that K and mom had been in the emergency room all day and she was being admitted. K sat by himself in the emergency room lobby until someone could get to him and bring him to us. He's now back with us until mom is released from the hospital.

I love this program for so many reasons. One, it gives us a way to show Christ's love to our neighbors in a way I wouldn't be able to do without the organization. Two, it gives us a low commitment way to see how we would feel about doing foster care. Three, it gives me an opportunity to go out of my comfort zone with the relationship I am developing with K's mom. I am learning so much about her and the struggles she faces in her daily life.

The director of Safe Families spoke at our church this Sunday during a luncheon we hosted for Orphan Sunday. He shared that someone once asked him what the theology behind Safe Families was since they kids they served weren't actually "orphans" (referring to James 1:27 - pure religion to care for orphans and widows.) He said that he looks at Safe Families as a way to practice biblical hospitality - showing kindness to strangers by opening up your home to them. He started Safe Families back in 2005 because he had mothers coming to him (he works for Lydia Home Association, a ministry that includes residential programs, foster care, family services, etc) who had no support system and needed someone to take their kids for them temporarily to give them time to get back on their feet or get out of a dangerous situation. They were good parents - they didn't need DCFS to get involved. But he said his hands were tied until they became wards of the state. He then came up with the idea of Safe Families and started out with just his family. Then he asked friends to help, etc, until it bloomed into the program it is today with 800 families set up as Safe Families. Amazing.

Safe Families has now extended to 13 different states, as well as Canada and the UK. Please look to see if they are in your area and consider joining this amazing movement. You can visit their website here.

Photo Books make great presents and a GIVEAWAY!

2011-11-03T13:37:00.004-04:00

I'm a little obsessed with taking pictures of my girls and the things they do. They just change and grow so quickly and I don't want to forget a thing! So I thought that I would share one of my favorite ways of preserving memories: making photobooks! You can use any online picture service, but I like to use Shutterfly because their books are high quality, easy to make, and Shutterfly often gives out special codes and runs Groupons to make them more affordable. I've never bought a book that wasn't at least 40% off with free shipping. (And in case you are wondering, no, I am not getting anything from Shutterfly for writing this post -- I just wanted to share in case you don't already have a favorite website to make books!)

I've made baby books, thank you books for a fun vacation with the Grandparents', family photoshoot books, soccer class books, yearly scrapbooks, and a photo book celebrating 85 years of my grandmother's life.

I am currently working on 3 books: last year's scrapbook, a book of funny things my girls have said (I've been writing down their silly quotes for several years now), and a school scrapbook containing pictures of our first and last days of school, favorite art projects, educational things they have done, etc. For instance, here are a few of the things I will put in their school/ art scrapbook:

The pumpkins they decorated with glitter and sequins (of which they are ever so proud):

The fall banner they made with dots, sequins, leaf painting, and apple painting
Their thankful tree (once it is finished at the end of the month, along with a list of what they said they were thankful for)
The first page that Karis actually colored entirely

I also have 3 sets of Shutterfly codes that I can give out to 3 of our readers. If you would like to get a free 8x8 photobook, 10 free holiday cards, and free shipping, please leave a comment on this post. I'll let you know next Friday (Nov. 11) who won.

Homemade Christmas Ornaments

2011-11-02T11:36:00.000-04:00

November is the month we will be focusing on Christmas Ideas here at Prayer of Hannah (along with other things, of course). I love Christmas (doesn't everyone), and confess that I actually listened to Christmas music earlier this week. I have promised my husband I won't continually listen to Christmas music from now until January... :-)

One of my dearest friends got married at the beginning of October, and for her wedding shower I made a set of Christmas ornaments. Each ornament is specific to Kim and Eric, but the ideas can be adapted for any tree any where :-) Few of my ideas are original--you can see my inspiration and other beautiful ornament ideas (and tutorials) on my Pinterest page: Pinterest--For My Tree. I hope you enjoy these ideas, and we'd love to hear about your favorite ornament, or see a DIY Christmas ornament!

This little box has a slip of paper that said "This keepsake box is for a small memento from your mystery honeymoon". Eric did not tell Kim where they were going on their honeymoon, so this ornament was a way to remember it

I cut her lingerie shower invitation into strips and put them in this clear ornament along with ribbon. Some glitter and ribbon on the cap added the perfect touch!

C is their initial, and purple was one of the colors of their wedding, so this simple felt ornament was perfect (and EASY!)

I turned their wedding invitation into a pinwheel :-)

The groom is the worship pastor at my church, so I used Mod Podge to add sheet music to this wooden cross

He's a UGA fan, so one side of this ornament is for him...

And the other side is for her, a FL Gators fan (it's a house divided, for sure :-)

Materials needed: paper, glue, glitter, ribbon for this easy ornament!

A spin on our toddler bed

2011-10-29T00:12:00.005-04:00

A year and half ago, I bought an antique head/footboard from a lady in North Carolina. She had cut the legs off of this bed and didn’t have any side rails to go with the bed. That was fine with me because, I wanted to make a bench out of it. However, after cherishing its antiquity and doting over the detail in this bed, I could NOT entertain the thought of taking it apart and making a bench.

Plan B was now to make a toddler bed out of it. My baby was just 10 months old at the time, so I knew I had to hold onto it for a while.

When we moved, I toted it with me. DH tried to get me to get rid of it, and I looked at him like he had two heads. This bed was a work of art in my mind. I had great plans for it, and wasn’t going to keep it stashed in the garage forever. I just had to wait for the right time.

Well, today was the day! The right time had come, now that little bits was in need of a toddler bed. I wanted to use both the headboard and footboard and assemble the bed to look just as it would if I had a big, full mattress in the bed, but use a crib mattress instead. My handyman hubby did a great job building a foundation for the crib mattress to sit on, since we didn’t have side rails.

Can I just say that I LOVE LOVE LOVE how the bed came out?

Ta-dah!

We have to do a little bit more work on the bed on the sides to keep the mattress from scooting, as well as keep her from scooting upward in her sleep.

I just love it!

When she outgrows this bed, which won’t be too long, we’ll keep it in the girls’ room as a reading couch for them or put an actual full mattress in the bed instead of a crib mattress. They will love making forts/tents from the bed posts.

Can you tell the girls just love it? Big Sis wanted to sleep in it too tonight. She also loved jumping off the bed onto the floor in a “geronimo-style” fashion, like doing a "can-opener" onto carpet.

Little Bits likes to go down the white stairs on the right, but I’m sure she’ll be jumping before I can blink. We both laid down in her new toddler bed tonight at bedtime. Her smile couldn’t have gotten any bigger.

Just melts my heart.

I had thought about the girls sharing a bed at one time, but a full bed seemed a bit small for both of them, since they are both rambunctious sleepers, toss’n and turn’n every which way. A queen bed would probably work perfectly, but then again, I think I still like them having their own space since they share a room.

Any thoughts on same gender siblings sharing a bed?
I’d love to hear it!

Demanding and arguing

2011-10-27T14:25:00.002-04:00

My 4.5 year old is an absolute joy! She is the best helper I could ever wish for, she takes great delight in taking care of her little sisters, and her unbelievable imagination just fills my life with laughter. But she seems to have forgotten her manners a little and we are working hard to get her back to where we were just a few short months ago. We have two major issues that we are working on right now and I thought I'd share them and what we are doing to correct them. I'm just going to be honest and I'd love to hear your tips as well!

1. She has forgotten "please." Even before she could talk, Karis signed the word "please" when she wanted something. But lately, she has forgotten it and can be quite demanding. I think she got into the habit because she enjoys telling her little sister what to do so much, but it has transposed into telling adults what to do as well. So we are trying to quickly nip it in the bud. It is amazing how quickly a habit forms when you aren't paying attention and then it is difficult to erase!

Basically, we are refusing to acquiesce when she asks for something in a demanding way. She has to wait 3 minutes and then she may ask again correctly and we will fulfill her request. For example, if she says, "Give me more milk," then I respond, "no, you did not ask respectfully and you can try again in 3 minutes." In the car, she has a habit of wailing from the back of the van, "I can't hear the music!" So we completely turn off the music for 3 minutes and then give her the chance to ask us to turn it up respectfully. It has taken a while for her to remember, but we are definitely seeing progress. She will often start to demand something and quickly cover it up with a "will you please?"

2. She has developed good reasoning ability that has grown to arguing (otherwise known as "too smart for her own good "). Our family has always tried to implement first time obedience with a bit of grace thrown in. (And no, I have not yet read "Give Them Grace," but I would really like to. If you have read it, please comment and share your thoughts!) For instance, if Karis is reading a book and I ask her to go take her clothes to her room, she is allowed to say, "May I please finish this book first?" If she asks respectfully, we are not in a hurry to do something else, and there are not many pages left, I usually allow her to finish. But if I say no, she must immediately get up and do it. This method has worked well for the first 4 years of her life, but now she is taking it a bit to far. I ask her to do something and she says, "Well....." or, "but Mama...!" She usually has great logic that makes me laugh but the core problem is that she is making excuses instead of obeying right away. A lot of times, the things she says she needs to do first are really good things, such as helping Karlie or Abbi with something, but it is still disobedience. And often when I tell her no, that she must obey first, she begins to argue to try to explain why she is right. I don't have any great plan for this issue, other than immediate discipline and to try to always take the time to talk to her and explain why this is biblically a problem and try to reach her heart and pray with her. But boy is it difficult to find the time to do all that when my other two little ones are running around needing me!

Those are the two major parenting issues we are dealing with this week. What about you? I'd love to hear your struggles or advice!

Choosing permanent birth control

2011-10-26T07:00:00.000-04:00

The below story was emailed to me from my friend (and the wonderfully named), Leah Thomas. I hope you find her story helpful and encouraging.

I am a wife to a wonderful husband and am a mother of twoamazing little boys. One of my sons,Joseph, is 3 years old and the other one, Isaac, is 9 months old. I work from home as a wedding planner and Irun a reasonably successful wedding venue. My husband, Joe, and I are also in the early stages of planting a churchin the Central Florida area.

My husband and I have not chosen the path of permanent birthcontrol. However that is not to say wewould never. Stating that I know nowthat I will never be in a situation that might lend me to question the wisdomof having more children down the road is a statement I am not willing to make. I hope I never have to ask that question, butI will not say never. I love and amcompletely and totally smitten with my children and would potentially love tohave more.

My parents however did make that choice. I have a younger brother and it is just thetwo of us siblings. My mother beganhaving strange symptoms after I was born and they continued on through herpregnancy with my brother. She wasdiagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. MScan take many different forms and the severity is very different for everyone. My mother had an extremely progressive formof the disease and was wheelchair bound in just a few short years afterdiagnosis.

MS complications caused her very sudden death three yearsago. I say sudden because we weren’texpecting it right then. However,through most of my childhood she was in and out of the hospital and it wasalways in the back of our minds that she would die young and possibly at anytime. The uncertainty of her lifeexpectancy combined with the difficulty of living life with, for her, aparalyzing disease is one that made them question the wisdom of having anotherchild.

It was an extremely difficult decision for them, but it wasunclear what the strain of another pregnancy might do to her system and she wasin “survival mode” trying to raise two young children. So they chose a permanent form of birthcontrol. They say hindsight is always20/20 and I believe she would say she was devastated to have never been able tohave more children, but that she did best for her family.

My parents were amazing examples of how to live by faith anddemonstrated Christ centered lives. Bothof my parents believed that children are a gift from God and they also believethat God is sovereign in all things. That does not mean that there is never a time to pray and seek God’swill for your family as it pertains to planning when and if it will grow.

Natural cures for PMS and other hormonal issues...

2011-10-20T09:30:00.000-04:00

Many women take hormonal birth control to help regulate their cycles and many other women say that hormonal birth control gives them mood swings, headaches, hot flashes, etc. It is a quandary to me and (as I explained in my post last week), I've just decided to forgo hormonal birth control altogether. So I thought I'd offer up some natural ideas to help with all of those problems. Keep in mind that I am not a doctor and you should do your own research to determine what will help your particular issues. These are simply things that have helped me. Before making these changes, my time of the month was quite miserable, with extremely painful cramps, headaches, mood swings, etc. I am quite happy to report that I now hardly experience any symptoms at all. I'm not kidding! (I must admit, however, that due to pregnancy and nursing, I have only experienced a few cycles in the past 5 years. But I've done enough research to believe that those months were not flukes and to expect my good fortune to continue.)

Here are the changes I made:

1. Read this post on punctuation! You really should. It is funny and informative. I didn't really believe the author at first, but once I read all the comments in agreement, I decided to ditch my normal feminine care products and give it a try. And I was glad that I did. There is no doubt that it made a difference for me and shortened my cycle. And the cloth ones are so much softer! I'll never go back if for no other reason than that! I have to wash cloth diapers anyways, so it really didn't add any trouble for me. And if that sounds completely gross to you, there are organic disposables that will still make a difference in your cycle. That is what I plan to use if my cycle ever interferes with a beach trip. And if you still think I am crazy, then you haven't read the article... so go back and read it :)

2. Maca powder -- Maca is a root that can really help to balance hormones naturally. It has been shown to help with PMS, menopause, hot flashes, unending periods, male and female infertility, low libido, etc. For me, it made a big difference in eliminating menstrual cramps and raising my BBT to a normal level. I started out by putting it in my milk each morning, but didn't like it so much and ended up just putting it in an empty pill capsule to swallow.

Here are some articles to use for research:

The Power of Maca

Maca for Hypothyroidism, Adrenal Fatigue, PMS, Fibroids, and Menopause

3. Avoid soy-- Soy contains phyto-estrogens that disrupt your hormones and endocrine system. Unfortunately, it is in almost every processed food. Here are some links to consider:

The Dark Side of Soy

Problems with soy

Soy Alert

Between those 3 changes, my PMS symptoms were practically eliminated. Do you have any other suggestions for balancing hormones naturally? I'd love to hear them!

I'll leave you with 3 other articles that I found helpful on this topic:

Help for difficult menstruation

How to balance hormones naturally

Natural PMS relief

Love for the Big and Small by Kevin DeYoung

2011-10-20T08:00:00.000-04:00

This article is from The Gospel Coalition and written by Kevin DeYoung. My sister in law, Brandy shared it on Leah's post below. Perfect for our discussions this week, so I wanted to share! Because of the first line in his article below, I've included the entire article. You can find the original post, here. Let us know what you think!

Love for the Big and Small
by Kevin DeYoung

Feel free to make copies of this article and pass it out to your friends. Feel free to post this on Facebook, mention it on Twitter, link to it on your blog. If you are part of a church with young families I promise this essay will be relevant.

I want to talk about the size of our families. More importantly, I want to talk about loving as we want to be loved and giving each other the benefit of the doubt.

Scripture says the human race should be fruitful and multiply (Gen. 1:28; Mal. 2:15). Children are always seen as a blessing from the Lord (Psalm 127:3-5; 128:3-4). Church growth happens evangelistically and covenantally. So I like big families. My wife and I are on our way to a big family with four little ones already. In pre-marital counseling I challenge newlyweds to think through the reasons for birth control (which I am not against) instead of just assuming it. I warn against the abortifacient possibilities of taking the Pill. I try to dissuade most young couples from the notion that they have to be married for several years before they start a family. I am pro-children big time.

But this does not mean I am anti-small family. All else being equal, I’d encourage Christians to have more than two kids (keeping above the replacement rate). But all else is not equal. There are simply too many things I don’t know about other couples to even dare to judge. I don’t know how difficult it can be too get pregnant or how difficult the pregnancies are. I don’t know the financial situation, the medical history, the family pressures, the cultural expectations. I don’t know what their kids are like, their marriage, or their attitude before the Lord. I don’t know what other God-glorifying, self-sacrificing, world-serving opportunities they are praying through. So when we see faithful Christians with two kids or ten kids, we should praise God and assume the best.

And yet, any pastor paying attention to the hearts and hurts of his church, will tell you that there is a lot of tension around the size of our families. Here is an opportunity for the devil to work discord among us. But here also is a wonderful opportunity to love our neighbors as ourselves and open wide hearts and affections to families that look different than ours (Matt. 22:39; 2 Cor. 6:11-13).

Think of all the trouble we get into in the church, and on this issue in particular, because we assume the worst. Big families assume smaller families are being selfish. Smaller families assume big families are out to prove something. Parents assume their children are rejecting their choices when they make different ones. Children assume their parents would have acted like them if they were more spiritual. And everybody assumes everybody else is assuming something about them!

This is not the way of 1 Corinthians 13 love and it has to stop. Let’s assume the best of each other on this issue and not assume we’re being judged because someone else feels strongly about the way they do things.

And let’s be sensitive to the feelings of others rather than sensitive to perceived sleights and offenses. In some churches women may feel a pressure to be pregnant. Maybe the pressure is stated, maybe unstated, maybe it’s inaccurately perceived. But it is felt, so let’s be careful not to add to the pressure. In a church where literally dozens of women are bursting at the womb almost constantly and all the talk is about latching, stripping membranes, and other pleasantries we must be careful that young women who aren’t pregnant don’t feel inferior or out of place. I can just about guarantee they feel that way already, so you’ll have to go out of your way to welcome, affirm, and include.

On the flip side, there’s no good reason—certainly no biblical ones—why families with five, six, seven, ten, or fifteen kids should be made to feel strange. There’s no need for comments like, “Really, another one?” Or, “Wow, he can’t keep his hands off you!” Those comments are hurtful, and so are the eye rolls and exasperated sighs and suspicions. Let those who have eight kids not judge those who have two, and those with one child not judge those with six.

And let me throw out one other verse while I’m at it: “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15). For most Christians there is almost nothing as joyful as having a baby, and almost nothing as painful as being unable to do so. This leads to lots of awkward church lobby deliberations: “Should I tell her I’m pregnant? She’s been trying for so long, my news will just make her sad. But if I don’t tell her she’ll find out eventually and be hurt that I didn’t mention anything. Maybe I’ll tell her privately. But then that will make her feel singled out. What to do?” There is no solution to this problem. Infertility hurts and babies can make it hurt more. But a step in the right direction is God’s command in Romans 12. Let every young lady rejoice with her friend’s pregnancy and let that same friend weep when her sister in Christ hasn’t or won’t experience the same joy.

I don’t pretend to get all this baby stuff right. I’m sure I’ve been woefully insensitive at times. I’ve probably made silly “you get pregnant around here just by drinking the water” jokes that have been quietly unhelpful. I need God’s help too. But as a pastor I try to set the right tone, dial down the tensions, and encourage every man and wife to assume the best (and assume everyone else is doing the same). It doesn’t make all the tensions go away. But I’m hoping it will help us love each other’s families, the small and the big, in big ways and small.

Random thoughts on birth control

2011-10-19T16:29:00.000-04:00

Disclaimer: the big Finnlings woke up with a stomach bug this morning that laid them OUT and so my grand plans for putting together a more 'formal' blog post before they woke up didn't happen. I really should plan ahead more!Meg and Christina have already given us so much to think about, pray about, and discuss with our husbands in regards to birth control. I am grateful for Christina reminding us of this article on Desiring God's website: Does the Bible permit birth control?. After reading over it, I had to pull a few quotes that stood out to me:

The Bible nowhere forbids birth control, either explicitly or implicitly, and we should not add universal rules that are not in Scripture (cf. Psalm 119:1, 9 on the sufficiency of Scripture). What is important is our attitude in using it. Any attitude which fails to see that children are a good gift from the Lord is wrong.

Just because something is a gift from the Lord does not mean that it is wrong to be a steward of when or whether you will come into possession of it. It is wrong to reason that since A is good and a gift from the Lord, then we must pursue as much of A as possible. God has made this a world in which tradeoffs have to be made and we cannot do everything to the fullest extent... And for kingdom purposes, it might be wise to regulate the size of one's family and to regulate when the new additions to the family will likely arrive. As Wayne Grudem has said, "it is okay to place less emphasis on some good activities in order to focus on other good activities."

Although it is true that "blessed is the man whose quiver is full of [children]," we need to realize that God has not given everyone the same size quiver.

God is just as much in control of whether you have children when you use birth control as when you don't. The hands of the almighty are not tied by birth control! ...The "trust God, therefore don't use birth control" thinking is based upon the incorrect assumption that what happens "naturally" reflects "God's best" for our lives, but that what happens through human means does not.

I will be honest and tell you that Nathan and I do not have a concrete decision about the number of children we want to have. I love how as soon as one child is born people start asking if you are "done" or if you want to have more. That is not a flip decision, people:-) These things must be weighed, and prayed over (and over and over) and discussed. I am grateful that the article above reminds us God is the one in control of all matters.

A couple of other random things to point out (some very important, some not so much):
*Birth control, according to Wikipedia, is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or interrupt pregnancy. So though our brains automatically jump to "you must be talking about the birth control pill", a discussion about birth control means all methods including natural family planning.
*A decision about birth control is not essential to your salvation. Having children (be it 1 or 20) WILL NOT save you. And deciding to prevent or delay childbearing WILL NOT condemn you. We are already condemned because of our sin nature and sinful actions. We are saved through the life-giving blood of Jesus Christ that he offered for us on the cross. We do not deserve it, and can do nothing to earn our salvation--it is because of God's grace that we are saved. Remember that when engaging in discussions with friends, family members, co-workers, your spouse!
*Two negative side effects of a hormonal birth control pill that are not discussed before you start taking it: weight gain, and loss of your sex drive. Though each pill affects people differently, after talking with several of my friends, I was surprised to hear that many women gained a little bit of weight when they went on the pill--only to lose it when they came off. I was on the pill for 3 years, and the month I came off the pill I dropped 5 lbs (I am not big, and it was very noticeable when I gained it and lost it!). The biggest side effect of the pill that I did NOT know was happening was a reduction of my sex drive. Because the pill regulates your hormones, it often suppresses your natural sex drive. Trust me, you don't want this to happen! I was shocked and pleased at the difference in my desires once I came off the pill (honest truth: so was my husband :-).

These are a few of my random, unorganized thoughts about birth control. Thank you as always for reading. Please feel free to 'chime in' with any thoughts, concerns, opinions, or stories. We love to hear from you! You can see past blog posts on Birth Control under that label on the right-hand menu. And don't forget:

Would anyone like to write a guest post about what they chose as far as permanent birth control? Or why you did not choose this option? Please email us if you would like to share.

Three is enough for me!

2011-10-18T21:12:00.000-04:00

Ok, so it hasn't always been enough for me! Being content with my three beautiful babies has not come quickly or easily. The number of biological kiddos in our family was decided for me earlier this year. In some ways, I'm grateful. My pregnancies are not easy and though I desire more children, its probably best that I don't put my body through that again. But that decision isn't up to me anymore! In addition, my husband and I don't have to wrestle with considering more permanent birth control options (vasectomy, tubal ligation or newer methods like Essure). On the other hand, I've grieved a little over Anna being my last baby. This fact however, has led me to savor more moments with her as well.

(Oh yeah! Thanks for voting in my STTN poll! I should go add my vote for Anna. She has started sleeping from about 7pm-7am at 4 months old. Praise the Lord. She is still crying some at bedtime, but once she's down, she's down. And I'm much more rested as well!)

In January of this year, I had my last remaining ovary removed. My first was removed in July of 2010 when it was found to have a tumor on it. I'm not sure I ever updated, but after that first surgery my right ovary was found to have similar looking cyst/tumor on it as well. My doctors were still watching it when I got pregnant in October of 2010. They had advised against pregnancy, though in the words of my OB, "No one can tell you NOT to get pregnant." Yes, doc, we know! :)

My husband and I got to the point where we both felt very strongly that we needed to completely give this area over the Lord if we thought he might want more kids for us. I was able to conceive with just that one, tumor filled ovary. And my OB was quite shocked when I called, just three weeks after his above comment, to schedule my first prenatal appointment. :)

I had my last ovary removed when I was 18 weeks pregnant. We are so thankful that the Lord allowed that surgery to go smoothly and that he sustained the life of our sweet Anna. We were actually able to find out we were having a girl two days before the surgery. Sweet providence indeed!

I do still have my uterus, so after this last complicated delivery my OB was sure to warn me with, "Don't you even think about putting any donor eggs in that uterus!" Ha! (I'm not even sure that's possible...)

We do think this is the Lord's way of leading us to adoption at some point down the road. We will not rule out that possibility, though we aren't actively pursuing it at this time. Still praying about it and waiting to get my hands on this book! Just the other day, Adeline and I had this conversation even though I've never directly discussed any of this with her...

A: Mommy, I really want a baby brother. But you can't have one.

Me: Do you mean you wanted Anna to be a boy?
A: No, I want Anna AND a baby brother. But you can't have one.
Me: Why can't I have one?
A: Because the doctor cut your tummy and now you can't have anymore babies.

At this point, I'm wondering how much else she knows about this topic...I didn't think this conversation had to happen until at least a few years past her wise age of THREE! The last thing she added was:

"I know! I'll just get a baby brother another day!"

Maybe we just will, sweet Adeline! :)

If you're curious as to my take on birth control prior to having my ovaries removed, I wrote about it here. It includes links to a wonderful article from Desiring God concerning birth control and family size.

Now back to the bigger question that I have. Permanent birth control options (sterilization sounds so strange...but I guess that's what it is?!). I have many friends going through those decisions right now and actually most have chosen vasectomy. I'm hoping to recruit one of them to write a guest post...since as far as I know, none of the POH husbands have made a decision on that yet.

In the meantime, we wanted to ask our readers if anyone would like to write a guest post about what they chose as far as permanent birth control? Or why you did not choose this option? Please email us if you would like to share.

While we don't usually shy away from controversial topics, please remember to be respectful in your comments concerning this issue! Remember this article!! :)

October Topic: Birth Control

2011-10-13T06:30:00.002-04:00

The POH topic for October is birth control. I want to start off by saying that I know this can be a hot topic among believers and my post is not meant to stir up a lot of the rights and wrongs of birth control. I'm simply going to tell you where our family is on this issue right now and why.

When I first got married, I decided to use a hormonal pill form of birth control that was "only" supposed to keep me from ovulating each month. I researched it as much as I knew how to ensure that it would in no way cause a miscarriage/ abortion if I somehow managed to get pregnant, and then I started taking it about a month before my wedding day to make certain that I did not suffer any major side effects from it. Before I started taking the pill, my cycle was completely normal and regular with the obvious signs of ovulation. When we stopped taking the pill to try to get pregnant 1.5 years later, my cycle never went back to normal. My cycles were totally random and I was not ovulating very often, if at all. We struggled with infertility for a deeply painful, emotional, roller coaster year (I blogged about it at POH HERE) and were finally able to conceive with the help of Clomid, a drug that helps you ovulate.

Because of that struggle, I will never, ever take any form of hormonal birth control again. I am fully convinced that the pill disrupted the natural, God-given rhythm of my body. I know that birth control does not affect everyone in this way and I have friends who went off the pill and got pregnant the very next month, and even some who have gotten pregnant while on the pill. But it definitely affected me adversely and I am not taking any chances and will never take any form of birth control again. In addition, the hormonal form of birth control did cause me headaches, mood swings, and a lowered immune system. I am a much healthier person for being off the pill and I will never use it again.

So where does that leave us? After we struggled with infertility, my husband and I decided not to use any form of birth control at all for the time being. We were hoping for several children and did not want to miss any chances! Thankfully, we did not struggle with infertility again after the first baby. Because of breastfeeding, my cycle did not usually return again for almost a year, but each time we quickly got pregnant again after it returned.

How long will we continue to use no form of birth control? I honestly do not know. We are just going to continue doing what we are doing until God shows us it is time to stop. How will we know if/when it is time to stop getting pregnant? This is something I have thought about a lot and I simply have faith in God to make it clear to us. He has clearly guided us through every big decision we have made and I trust Him to do the same in this matter. I have already been praying that God will prepare my heart when it is time because I absolutely love having babies and it will be very difficult for me emotionally when it is time to stop. But when God does show us that it is time, we will simply use the natural fertility awareness method as described in the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility.

I do wonder if my physical condition will be the way God chooses to show us that it is time to stop... each pregnancy has seemed to double in difficulty and I have a few issues that grow worse and more serious with every pregnancy. It could be that the next pregnancy (if God allows another) will be my last because of those issues. I am trying to prepare myself for such a possibility.

Regardless of when my child-bearing days are over, we plan to adopt at some point and are praying for God's timing in that matter. I would love to adopt babies around the same age as my own so that they could grow up together. But we also like the idea of waiting until our girls are older (teenagers) and could really help and learn about caring for a newborn. One of the pastors at the church we previously attended adopted a baby when his daughters were in high school and their love and care for the baby was such a beautiful thing. And even with the big age difference, they are such good friends today. So we are definitely praying about when God would like us to adopt. Until then, I am just ever so grateful that God has blessed me with these sweet girls:

I hope this post hasn't been too personal or TMI. I just wanted to be completely honest and share where we are right now concerning birth control. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the topic as well.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-12T08:01:00.000-04:00

Subtitle: When you give the Finnlings some glue...

Winter the Dolphin, our first Science unit!

2011-10-11T22:09:00.000-04:00

Last year as I began to plan our homeschool year, science was one area that I struggled with what to do. Mainly for two reasons...

1. I knew it was not absolutely necessary at this age and I didn't want to spend money on it.
2. Yet, I knew that Will and I both would love it.

I opted to not purchase any set science curriculum and just go with whatever for this year. I did purchase a few books that Sonlight uses in their science curriculum. I planned to use those to base some unit studies off of. For example, the first one Will chose was this Usborne book, Under the Sea.

(All of the science books I ordered were Usborne books and I really love them.) So, we read the first few sections on different sea life. I let Will chose which creature he wanted to explore more...dolphins or sharks. He chose dolphins! (Though asked that we do sharks next. :)

Next, I started looking for more dolphin resources. My goal for each unit we do is to include:

1. At least one "experiment" where he begans to understand basic scientific principles, inquiry based investigations and basic data collection.
2. A lapbook where he can showcase what he has learned about that topic.
3. A few books in addition to our main Usborne book. I'm trying to include some readers that Will can read too in this so he's practicing his reading.
4. Any appropriate fieldtrips to local places that may reinforce what he's learned. (Day trip to the beach?? :)

After I started planning our dolphin unit, I realized that this is PERFECT timing because of the movie, Dolphin Tale!! I learned that the movie is based on the story in the book, Winter's Tail.

This was the reader I found that Will could read part of himself. He liked this book too:

I have since found a wealth of lesson plan ideas about the book, Winter's Tail.

Winter's Tail site
Winter at Scholastic
Homeschool Movie Club Dolphin Tale Curriculum (AWESOME!)

I have found PLENTY to build a solid unit around dolphins. We have done the most from the Homeschool Movie Club curriculum, including our "experiment" where we investigated sinking and floating. We've also played games at the other sites. Probably my favorite was the live webcam we found!! We got to watch Winter and friends at the Clearwater Aquarium via live webcam.

Here is a live shot I took while we watched. We think this Dolphin was Winter, though it was difficult to tell.

We still have to finish our Dolphin lapbook and of course, go see the movie! Stay tuned for pics of the lapbook. So far Will is loving science! Almost as much as I do! :)

Finding time to potty train the second child...

2011-10-06T06:30:00.002-04:00

A month before Abbi was due, I thought I'd see if Karlie would learn to use the potty... so I wouldn't have 2 in diapers at the same time. She did great (way better than I expected), but my horrible pregnancy back could not handle running her to the potty every time she realized she had to go and I gave it up after a day. I could hardly move that night. Call me a quitter if you want, but the girl wasn't even two yet and bending over was not my forte with a humongous belly!

Just one month after Abbi was born, Karlie decided she wanted to go potty. For two weeks straight, she used the potty every time Karis did. (Karis only goes 3 times a day: when she wakes up, before naps at 1:00, and before bed at 7:00) That would obviously have been the "perfect time" to officially bare her bum and get rid of diapers, but with a one month old who was nursing constantly and not sleeping much at night, I just didn't have the energy to fool with it. And I had the bizarre idea that Karis might potty train her sister all by herself so why interfere? Unfortunately, Karlie got bored with the whole thing after 2 weeks of being a potty pro and I was too tired to force the issue. I decided to wait for warmer weather.

When summertime hit, Karlie was staying dry in between diaper changes, usually filling it up only at naptime and bedtime. I knew she was ready but was amazed at the stubbornness of my two year old. She loved her new undies and kept them dry, would sit on the potty as often as I asked, but simply refused to fill it up. Treats did not matter. Food was obviously not the way to her heart as it was for Karis :) We had much traveling planned for the summer and I didn't want to fool with potential accidents or on our trips so I decided to give her until our last trip was completed and then give all her diapers to Abbi, come what may :)

We came home from our last trip two weeks ago and the very next morning Karlie gave all her diapers to Abbi. We had been talking about this exciting day that Karlie would finally be a big girl and she was ready and so excited. I had also thought really hard about what Karlie likes to do more than anything and had a major breakthrough: STICKERS! My girl will do stickers all day long if the stickers don't run out! So I ordered an awesome sticker book for her and informed her that every time she put something in her potty, she could do a whole page. After that first page, she got excited and was a pro from then on. She only had one accident the entire time and that was really my fault for forgetting to remind her to go because she had been doing so well. She is even staying dry at nap time!

So on the one hand, I feel a little guilty for making her wait so long to learn how to use the potty because the delay was really my fault each time. I just didn't have the time/ energy to persevere. But on the other hand, waiting so long made it really easy when I was finally ready to go for it! I'm so proud of my big girl!

What about you? Did your second child copy the older child and potty train easily or did you find it hard to find the time to teach him/her?

Triumphs and Struggles

2011-10-05T18:15:00.000-04:00

Parenting has an ebb and flow--there are frequent ups and downs, and when you feel like you have something under control, something new and unexpected 'pops' up. Bad habits seem to be conquered and then they reappear--good habits and tendencies look established, but then one bad day throws it all. It should continually remind us that everyone has sinned and fallen short of God's glory (Rom. 3:23), but that Christ became sin for us so that we might be made righteous in His sight (2 Cor. 5:21). We must turn to Christ and rely on him for our salvation, and for the strength to parent our children!In an effort to 'keep it real', I thought I would share some triumphs and struggles I am having with each of my children. Perhaps something my family is going through will be an encouragement to you, and we will all realize that there is nothing new under the sun!

Eleanor, age 9 months

Triumphs: Eleanor is the sweetest, easy-going baby a mom could want. She loves her big siblings, and is good natured enough to go to just about anyone who wants to hold her. After 'army crawling' for a couple of weeks and rolling around like crazy before then, she crawled a few paces last night. The world is changing for her, and that is very exciting!
Struggles: E has been battling a cold, and as such her sleep during the day and overnight have been erratic. She is still very sweet for the most part. The only other major struggle we have is that 'people food' sometimes makes her constipated. Having a little baby who struggles to poop is sad :-(

Baxter, age 3 years

Triumphs: After taking a long time to form words, Baxter's vocabulary is exploding and he can hold conversations and tell stories with the best of them. His imagination is growing, as is his appetite! Overnight it seems that he just can't get enough to eat. I am glad to see it, though, because he was a fairly picky eater who didn't consume much...and now I can't keep him satisfied! He takes in much more than I realized, as I recently quizzed him on the catechism we use with Georgia and he knew most of the answers! B is very affectionate, and loves snuggle times with Mommy and Daddy, and of course we don't mind that.
Struggles: Though he talks A LOT, he has a slight lisp which can make some words hard to understand (especially for someone who is not mom). He struggles with controlling his temper, and is entering a "being belligerent and testing parents" phase. Also, we have dealt with this several times in his life, but he has a hard time going back to sleep if he wakes up in the middle of the night. And he wakes up screaming or saying "OW!" or both. We have to put Georgia in a separate room to sleep while we help sort Baxter out. We are right in the middle of this right now, and it's exhausting. He is doing the same thing at naptime and the only time he complains about something hurting is when he wakes up from sleep OR is about to be disciplined. Pray for us to figure out what to do.

Georgia, age ALMOST 5 years (birthday Oct 21)

Triumphs: Georgia is finding great delight in being a helper to Mommy, and loving on her younger brother and sister. She plays so well with B and E both! She never minds if E pokes her face or pulls her hair (as long as it is not too hard). Her imagination is exploding, and she is making up wonderful stories and imaginary worlds and scenarios for the kids to play. G too is a loving, affectionate child who just wants Mommy and Daddy to pay attention to her and be close to her. She is asking a lot of great questions about God, Jesus, the Bible, and heaven.
Struggles: G continues to be a drama queen, especially if she hasn't slept well. Though she is exercising more self-control, she still pitches a spectacular fit if she has to be spanked (screaming, struggling and more). Her talking back has taken on a sassier tone as she has aged, and she has started throwing in some "that's not fair!" and other accusations when she does not get her way.

So that's my kids! I wanted to type up some of our triumphs because it is so very easy to be distracted by the struggles in our lives. I am always thankful for God's grace in the trenches of parenting. What triumphs or struggles are you dealing with right now?

Sleeping Through the Night

2011-10-04T16:32:00.004-04:00

Let's just make an abbreviation for this one...STTN.

Anna in her Rock n' Play. She slept well here for a while. Things went downhill when we made the move to the crib.

I will not lie. I am not one to gush over rocking my baby for hours on end, especially in the middle of the night. And this one, our third baby Anna, may have needed the most middle of the night rocking yet. She is wearing me out!

I am editing this to add that although this is tough for me, I am thankful for those times of just me and her with no siblings to interrupt. Getting to pray for her and have sweet quiet time is a blessing. Maybe she just wants the quiet time with Mommy too and I should be flattered that she is still not STTN. :)

Our first was a sleeping champ. He was the dream baby! He had a schedule from very early on and we honestly did very little sleep training. He loved to sleep and it came easily. He STTN at 12 weeks (and he was a preemie that was 7 weeks early!).

Our second was our fussiest. Sleep did not come as easily and still to this day she needs less sleep than her brother. She required the carseat on the dryer to sleep for the first several months of her life. However, after about 12 weeks or so, she would stay asleep easily at night once you got her to sleep. She also probably STTN around 3 months. (Too bad I don't have true record of this!) Eventually we had to let her cry it out at bedtime, around 4 or 5 months old. But I knew that once she went to sleep, she'd sleep through the night.

Enter the third child. Not our fussiest, but easily the one who has had the most night wakings. The longest stretch of sleep she has given us was 8 hours at about 9 weeks old. However, it happened only one time after a traumatic ER visit when she was pretty sick and feverish. It was totally a sick thing. Since then, the longest she's gone is about 5-6 hours. I know that doctors consider that STTN, but I don't. :)

The biggest problem is how long it takes her to fall back asleep after waking to eat. She is 4 months old now and one night last week I was up with her from 12-3:30am!

Let me give two key pieces of info now:

1. She still falls asleep in her swing for all sleep times. Naps are 100% in her swing (which is completely against the advice of my FAVORITE sleep book...but with the third, you really do whatcha gotta do!). Swaddle, paci, swing and she's out. At bedtime, I move her to the crib an hour or so later. She's down for the night around 6:30 or 7, but wakes between 12 and 1am and then often after that.

2. We were not ok with letting her cry too long due to the hoarse voice she has had since about 5 weeks old. We didn't want to make it worse by letting her cry for an hour at bedtime and naps (something I am totally ok with, though I know - and completely understand - that some aren't!). We think its due to reflux and she's been on a stronger med for a few weeks now.

I'm fairly certain these two things have contributed to her night waking frequency. I cannot wait for her to sleep from 6:30pm to 6:30am.

I tell you all this to preface the poll I've added to the right sidebar! Maybe this is selfish, but I think I want to know that my other two STTN on the early side and that our third is only slightly spoiled. :) Meaning, she's more average in the fact that she still hasn't STTN at 4 months. Please, tell me that is true and that I haven't ruined her sleeping habits for the rest of her life.

Since you can't vote more than once, just pick one of your children. (Maybe the one who STTN the latest?? :)

We are officially going to be crying it out at bedtime tonight. No more swing for bedtime. Once we master bedtime, then we'll move to ditching the swing for naps. She has a good routine, so hopefully this won't be too painful.

Pray for us! And offer your own stories that will give myself and others hope that babies do eventually STTN.

Giveaway Winner!

2011-10-04T16:05:00.000-04:00

Sorry this is late, but I did not forget about our giveaway! We had 59 comments and the winner was #2, Kathleen! Since you didn't leave an email address - I'll go and leave a comment on your blog! Please contact us as soon as possible so we can get this book mailed out.

Thanks to all who entered! We love doing giveaways.

Secondary Infertility(?)

2011-10-03T08:48:00.000-04:00

I'm going a little personal today, so brace yourselves!

I shared awhile back that my husband and I have been trying to have another baby. This month marks our one year of trying. I thought I would give a little update on how I'm feeling about it all and what our next steps will be.

One of the things that I frequently feel is that I have the heart and mindset of a mom of many children. I would have loved to have a "stair step" set of children, you know, 5 under 5 and all that. So when I read blogs of these moms or read stories about them, I feel like I want to relate. I used to think, "oh, that will be me someday soon." As more and more space grows between Joel (my youngest) and the possibility of another child, I feel that my family dynamic will be different. I look at the growing gap and think oh, man, I'm not even one kid behind now - I'm two kids behind! I 'should' have had one when Joel was 1.5 and another when he was 3. I'm not even pregnant now, so he will turn 4 before another baby could even be born. These are the kinds of thoughts that run around in my head!! I'm not making any claims that these are rational thoughts, but I wanted to share with you in case someone else out there feels this way. So when another mom talks to me and makes a comment on bigger families and says she could never do that, I realize that she is trying to relate to me because I have two kids just like her. It kind of takes me by surprise because I don't think of myself as a "just two kids" kind of person. But more on that in a second...

As far as the next step, we are going to see a Reproductive Endocrinologist this week. I have gone back and forth about this decision. My husband and I have said that we don't have any intentions of doing any fertility treatments (a personal decision we've reached for ourselves only) but I still feel like I want to go and at least see if we can find out what's going on. I couldn't explain why until yesterday when our pastor shared something during the sermon and I was like, "yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to say." He said that there are basically three answers to prayer - yes, no, and wait. The yeses are great, of course. The nos are tough, but at least they're an answer. The wait is the hardest because it requires us to really wait on God and trust in him (thus making it the hardest but the most beneficial! Ugh!). I guess I've been feeling that if I can't have a "yes" to having another baby, I'd rather have a "no" and move on than a "wait". Even as I type this I see that that is me choosing what is more comfortable for me than what is going to stretch me. Again, remember, I gave the disclaimer that I was going to get personal today!

So we'll head to the guy this week and see what he has to say. Ugh.

And either way, back to the bigger family thing, we are still walking down our road to adoption sometime in the future. We just joined a program here in Chicago called Safe Families, which is like Foster Care Light (we don't receive any money and the placements are for a short amount of time to provide relief for families in need without abuse or neglect). And we'll probably start our foster care classes this winter/spring on the road to Foster Adoption. We will continue to walk this road regardless of whether I get pregnant again or not. But there is still the waiting and the longing and the trying to find closure.

So, that's my super personal post for you this Monday morning!! Please share any thoughts you have - whether you have been here before or are here now. I'd love to hear what you all have to say.

Too much or too little?

2011-09-29T06:30:00.002-04:00

I really cannot believe that we have been officially doing pre-school with Karis for over a month now! It has been such a fun and exciting experience for all of us. Even when we are not "doing school," Karis is constantly asking me, "What schoolwork can I do now?" And Karlie has utterly amazed me by doing absolutely every. single. thing. that Karis does. She wants to count backwards from 20, learn to read, and do worksheets right along with her sister. The whole process has been a blessing for our family and I am so happy to be teaching them at home this year.

But I still struggle with doubts a lot. I daily go back and forth between "Am I doing enough?" and "Am I doing too much?" I know that sounds contradictory, but I just want to be honest here.

I read my friends' blogs about their children going to pre-school and all the fun crafts they are making and hands on activities and what they are learning and it just makes me want to do more with my girls. I start to second guess myself and wonder if there is an aspect of her education that I might have left out of my plan. Plus, chasing around my suddenly-crawling, short-napping almost-eight-month-old definitely limits the amount of individual instructional time I have with my big girls. We primarily try to do our school work during her morning nap because my big girls have their own rest time when she naps in the afternoon. But Abbi's morning nap used to be our best reading time and now that we have started more formal schoolwork, I am finding it hard to make time to read at other times. When Abbi is awake, she either wants our attention or wants to eat our books :) So I am finding it hard to squeeze in as much educational time into our day as I had hoped.

But on the other hand, Karis is only 4 and I want her to have plenty of time to play outdoors, pretend with her baby dolls and doll house, and make up her own artwork. I struggle between wanting to plan out lots of fun crafts and activities for her and at the same time wanting her to be free to use that wonderful, blissful imagination that God gives to 4-year olds. I want her to have time to be a kid! So at the same time that I wonder if I should be teaching her more, I often wonder if I am actually doing too much and need to just let her play more.

I would definitely say that although we have had a wonderful 1st month of pre-school, I am still struggling with balancing it all. But I love every minute of it and it is so worth it! It thrills me so much to be a part of Karis' learning and being there to see things all of a sudden "click" in her mind. I taught her how to sound out words for the 1st time yesterday and I cannot tell you who was more excited -- Karis or myself!

I've been trying to think of what I might change for our second month of school and have come up with a two main goals. They both involve personal sacrifice but will be good for me, HA!

1. I need to get up earlier! Ever since Abbi's hospitalization, she hasn't gone back to sleeping through the night again and I haven't had the heart to make her cry it out. (Yeah, I'm a wimp, but once you see your baby cry/ scream for almost 2 days straight, it is a long time before you can stand to hear her cry again!) I've used her multiple wakings as an excuse to stay in bed longer in the mornings to get as much rest as I can. But I'm going to start getting up an hour before everyone else again. I need to have time to read my Bible and start my day right, as well as get breakfast all ready and unload the dishwasher so we can jump into schoolwork more quickly and have more time later on in the day to play or read.

2. If one of my big girls does not fall asleep during nap-time, I am going to allow her to get up early to read books with me. I posted a while back about our nap-time solutions, and the plan works wonderfully as long as both of them fall asleep or both of them are awake. But it seems that a couple times a week only one of them falls asleep while the other sings and plays until Momo's eyes open. This new addendum to the plan will allow me to have special one-on-one time with one of my big girls and add in some extra reading time as well. I'll miss that 2-hour chunk of time to myself but since my girls are all usually in bed by 7 each night, I should have plenty of time to finish up my housework, blogging, e-mail, etc. after they go to bed.

How has your first month of school gone? Is there anything you plan to do differently next month?

The Dollar Store for Homeschoolers

2011-09-27T15:49:00.000-04:00

Do you live near a Dollar Tree? I LOVE our dollar store and I find so many great things for homeschooling there. Looking around our homeschool room, here are a few of the items I see that came from the dollar store:

1. Workbooks. I have an unhealthy obsession with the workbooks from Dollar Tree. They are just so great and so cheap. My boys are not coloring book kids. They don't enjoy sitting down and coloring or drawing. But I've discovered they will sit down and do a worksheet. Some of the ones we work on aren't really that challenging to them (draw a line between the two matching Care Bears, for example) but it is great pencil practice for them. And I always make them write their name at the top of each worksheet (front and back). This has been great practice for them. Some of the workbooks are more at their skill level and they enjoy cutting, writing, and doing mazes.

2. White Boards & Dry Erase Markers. I found these great framed white boards for $1/each and a 3 pack of markers for $1. We use these boards to practice writing letters and to draw Mat Man (from Handwriting Without Tears). I used white boards a lot as a classroom teacher and I can see us getting a lot of use out of them when drilling math, practicing spelling, etc.

3. Card Packs. This was a 6-pack of card games for $1. I have these in our Busy Bag Box and can pull them out when we need a fun activity to break up our school day.

4. Puzzles. Each of the boys picked out a Disney Cars 48 piece puzzle the last time we were in Dollar Tree. These also live in our Busy Bag Box for a quick activity. The boys can practice teamwork and turn-taking when working together on the puzzles.

5. Magnetic Alphabet Sheets. I found this cute sheet of alphabet magnets the other day. I bought two sets so we would have doubles. The boys worked together right away to lay out the alphabet and spell some words. Also, I didn't buy these yesterday because we don't need them, but Dollar Tree has Wooden Magnetic Letters. These would be a super cheap version of the Melissa & Doug letters.

I also love the Target Dollar Spot, especially when they put out their back to school items. Here are a few of the items I picked up this year:

Do you have any great Dollar Store items that you use in your homeschooling? Please share! I'm always looking for new ideas!

Our First Weeks of School

2011-09-27T07:00:00.007-04:00

This is Will's desk that used to belong to Jacob and his brothers. He loves it! Our table was getting too small for both him and Adeline to do work on.

I can't believe that we have completed 6 weeks of Kindergarten already! I'm relieved that our days have routine now and planning isn't taking me as long as it did in the beginning. I'm ECSTATIC that Will is actually learning and loves to do his work (most days). We have only had a few stand-offs where he did not want to do something. But he has learned pretty quickly that I'm not messing around and his school work is not optional. :)

Our days generally look like this:

7:15am - up and dressed, playtime (or tv if I'm being honest)

8:00am - breakfast

8:30am - chores and clean up breakfast

9:00am - start school!

10:00am - snack break (this has revolutionized our morning. many rough moments can be avoided if he gets a snack!)

12:00pm - lunch and read aloud time

12:45pm - finish read aloud time

1:00pm - nap for Adeline, quiet time for Will (or nap some days still!)

3:30pm - play/errands/etc until Daddy is home!

Obviously I have to stop often to feed Anna or put her down for nap. In addition, sometimes we have late mornings and don't start until closer to 9:30 or 10. Those days sometimes mean that Will and I finish up some school work during the first part of naptime. Tuesday mornings Adeline has dance, so Will and I bring some work with us to do there.

We use a drawer system (modified workboxes if you can even call it that...) with each of our tasks for the day in an individual drawer. We work through the drawers in order, so its easy to stop and start as needed. Will also knows the things he can do by himself while waiting for me to take care of Anna (color, puzzles, math games, etc.)

Sonlight is our core curriculum that covers history, read alouds, some science and bible. We add our own Language Arts (Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading, Explode the Code, Handwriting Without Tears) and Math (RightStart Math). We are also getting ready to add a few science units in and Will is very excited about that.

Here they are painting with feathers as the first people might have done inside caves long ago.

Will LOVES math. He begs for math every day. Here he is making shapes on a geoboard. This was not part of our official math curriculum, but my effort to include more math for him.

Some crafts we made! The fish was part of an art kit Will got for his birthday, but worked great when we learned about mosaics in Ancient Greece. The "coats" are from when we read about Joseph's coat of many colors.

We've also learned about the Vikings. Here is the awesome picture Will drew of a Viking Longship! The ONLY thing I drew was the very basic shape of the boat and shape of the sail. He added everything else. Do you see the anchor, the waves, the shields lining the boat, the dragon head at the front, the patterned stripes on the sail, the vikings (Will and Dad) with swords and shields...

His very first math worksheet! Our curriculum actually does very little written work at this age. He had to draw tally marks for each set of shapes. Will did a very good job but was greatly disappointed to learn about how do corrections in math. :) The sticker he earned for corrections helped his motivation somewhat.

This picture made me laugh so much! In reading, he is now reading paragraphs and short stories! But he is still learning to read with the fluency necessary to really comprehend what he read. So our reading book suggested he draw a picture of the sentence/paragraph he read. The sentence was something about a person "in the sun." Will literally drew a person IN the sun.

Here is our map where we mark all of the countries we learn about in history. So far we've learned about the Ancient Egyptians, Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece and the vikings of Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Will is also very into maps so we've had to mark a lot of other things on our map. Including where we live, where all of our family lives and many of our friends overseas. He also understands directions and the different climates (colder closer to the poles and hotter at the equator).

This is Will's handwriting book. I am so impressed with how much this has improved his letter formation. Look at that last B he wrote! We used the pre-k book last year so I'm sure that helped too, but I've seen improvement even in these few short weeks of the K book.

This is an example of what Will can read. Of course, this takes us a while and this particular story was the entirety of our reading lesson for that day. He is enjoying reading and making words!

I cannot leave out Adeline. She won't let me. :) Her "work" mostly consists of activities centered around our letter of the week. We've only made it through D so far. She has her own set of drawers that she does most days Will does school (but not all). She will often do dot markers, puzzles, sorting activities, prewriting practice, letter sound activities, etc. Some goals I have for her are to recognize the letters and know their sounds, write her name, improve her puzzle skills and increase her attention span. (I don't know which child had the normal attention span, but she can sit still for a far shorter time than Will did at age 3!)

One of the things we are doing is making her own alphabet book! She enjoys this and looking at the pages even though we have only done four.

This last picture is something Adeline did at our homeschool co-op. We've only been doing it for two weeks, but so far we love it! It's Friday mornings from 9-12. Adeline's preschool class is learning about fall - including apples. She did apple prints, tasted different apples and lots more. Will's two classes are Continents and Music. He especially love the Continents. This past week, they were in Asia and ate rice with chopsticks.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to be home with and teaching my kids. Even though there are enough difficult moments for an entire separate blog post...seeing these pictures and writing about our successes helps me see the bigger picture of how great it really is going.

I wrote this for our family blog. Not to brag about all we've accomplished because it is only by God's grace that we've accomplished anything! I wanted to remember how far we've come and document our days during this new season. Our focus in September was Back to School, so I thought I'd share here too. Whether preschool, public school, homeschool or even college or seminary...How have your first days back to school gone?

Giveaway! Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

2011-09-22T17:26:00.000-04:00

Since we're talking a lot about schooling this month on POH, we thought it would be appropriate to host a giveaway for the Curriculum Clean Out over at Homeschool Creations (one of my fav homeschool blogs).

There are LOTS of giveaways, so go check it out and let us know if you win one!

Now, about our giveaway...

We're giving away a copy of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons! Free! All you have to do is leave a comment including your email so we can contact you. We'd love to have new readers tell us a little bit about yourselves (old ones too!).

We've mentioned this book before and Leah P is going to write a post later this week comparing it The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. You can read this post to find out why I chose to use OPGTTR (that's the abbreviation I use in my lesson plans. Ha!). While we chose something else, this book is still an AWESOME choice for teaching reading and I've known many who have used it very successfully.

Remember, leave a comment with your email address so we can contact you! The giveaway will end at midnight on Friday, September 30th.

School lunch Ideas

2011-09-22T06:30:00.000-04:00

What are your favorite foods to pack for your kids? Whenever I have a picnic with my girls or have to be out around lunch-time, we usually go the "snacks for lunch" route: some combination of dairy, nut, and fruit. For instance, a lot of times we have cheese, grapes, and almonds or yogurt, apples, and pecans. The girls love it, but I've been excited to find several good articles lately about new ideas for school lunches. I thought I would share the links in case you are stuck in a lunch-time rut like me and eager for some healthy new ideas.

Balanced School Lunches for Picky Eaters

The Art of Back to School Lunches

Tips for Packing Affordable School Lunches

A free lunch box planner printable to keep you organized

Back to School with Food Allergies

Nut-free school snack list

21 ways to plan ahead for school lunches

How to pack a "real food" school lunch in 10 minutes

10 ways to switch up your kid's lunch

5 Tips to outsmart lunch menus

Breaking Down School Lunch Box Ideas

Homeschool Blindspots

2011-09-21T06:00:00.000-04:00

A friend recently linked to this post on her blog, and I am glad she highlighted it. I think the blindspots the author mentions apply to all parenting, not just homeschooling, and his thoughts deserve a read. Please take a chance to read the article and chime in with your thoughts in our comments!Homeschool BlindspotsHT:Joy

Books for the Beginning Reader

2011-09-18T22:37:00.000-04:00

Samuel is just beginning to read. We've been working our way through Wise & Buffington's The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. We just completed Section 3 "Short Vowel Words". Samuel has also been memorizing a lot of sight words by watching the Meet the Sight Words video series. Both he and Joel can pick out a number of sight words throughout the day after watching these videos. I am really glad that we have paired the two together. The combination of knowing how to read consonant-vowel-consonant words and many sight words has opened up a whole new world of reading for Samuel.

When I tried to teach Samuel to read a year ago, I used the Bob Books by Bobby Lynn Maslen. We stopped and started a number of times, but never progressed out of the first set of books. Samuel just wasn't that interested and I didn't want to push it. The appeal of the Bob Books for me was the phonemic progression and control. If you know the sounds of letters, you are ready for these books. But they are a bit dull and I can see how a child would get bored easily.

This time around, we are still building bit by bit with the Ordinary Parent's book, but the supplement of the sight words has made a big difference. I am able to pick out books from the Easy Reader section at the library that Samuel can read. He feels so good when he is able to read a whole book by himself! And it is a good encouragement to me too to persevere.

The first book he read on his own was Cats, The Sound of Short A by Alice K. Flanagan. This is part of the Wonder books series.

Another series we have read is called Flip-a-Word. The series includes titles such as Crab Cab and Quack Shack. They aren't much for stories, but they practice rhyming word families and are much kookier than the Bob Books.

The second book Samuel read on his own was The Bug in the Jug Wants a Hug. This is Book 1 of the Sounds Like Reading series. This is a great mix of sounding out and sight words. Without the sight words, he wouldn't be able to read this book. But memorizing just a handful of sight words helps so much.We are on the cusp of reading Dr. Seuss. I have had Samuel read some sections of Hop on Pop and he was successful. I think once we cover the next section of Ordinary Parent's, Two Consonant Blends, he will be even more successful.If you are in the beginning stages of reading, I encourage you to add plenty of sight words to your reading lessons. You will be pleased with the number of easy readers it will open up to you.

Are you teaching your child to read? What easy readers do you enjoy? Do you memorize sight words?

Homeschooling questionnaire

2011-09-15T06:30:00.001-04:00

My friend Krista (who has written many posts for POH) asked me to answer a few questions about our home-schooling plan for a workshop she is facilitating. I thought I would share my answers here in case it would be helpful to any of you and I would love to read your answers as well. Feel free to answer them on your own blog or in the comments if you have time!

1. What books and resources do you consider the most important/invaluable as you’ve prepared to homeschool as well as while homeschooling? The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and The Core by Leigh Bortins. They totally changed my perspective on education and I know that I will reference them over and over as we progress to higher grades. I also reference Sonlight's read-aloud list and 1000 Classics Book list each week as I request library books.

2. What fun projects, unit studies, etc. have you done (or are you planning) that will make great memories? We just started our home-schooling, but I plan to do many seasonal unit studies (like in late September we will do an emphasis on apples where we go pick apples, do apple star painting, make apple pie and apple butter, read books about apples, etc.) I tend to pick a topic that relates to our current situation and then order tons of books from the library about it (For instance, when we went to the NC State zoo, I requested a bunch of books about zoos, zoo-keepers, animals that we saw at the zoo, etc.) I don't really plan out unit studies, because we always just continue with our normal home school schedule (not a unit-study type curriculum), but I supplement a lot with library books to further study whatever is going on in our life. To make fun memories, I like to do a lot of cooking projects, art projects, and trips to fun places like museums, zoos, farms, fairs, and other outdoor destinations.

3. What websites do you use regularly? This could be blogs and other sites for you as well as kid-friendly sites you integrate in learning. I've gotten a LOT of home school ideas off of Pinterest recently -- more than from any one website. We also use You-Tube randomly for videos of whatever we are studying. My kids are younger, though, so I try to keep them away from the TV or computer as much as possible. I'd prefer to show them things in books right now. I'm sure as they grow older that we will use more student-interactive sites.

4. What curriculum are you using? Briefly, what are the pros/cons for your family?
Homeschooling preschool has been a new adventure for us but we are really enjoying it! My husband and I decided to try to save money this year, so we did not purchase a full-blown curriculum and I'm kind of just compiling my own. Next year I plan to join a Classical Conversations co-op with my kindergartner but for now, my main goals this year are to read as much as possible and get her used to holding her pencil correctly. We are primarily following Sonlight's read aloud list. I can find most of the books at our library (I can't always find all the great collections, but can usually find the individual books that are in the collections). I am also using The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading to give my daughter a solid phonetic background. We are just using some preschool workbooks that I got at the Dollar Store, Target, etc that have mazes, dot to dot, etc, so she can work on her writing skills. I bought a fun calendar at a teacher store so we have calendar time everyday and talk about the weather and also do counting with a number line. I hope to teach her to count backwards from 20 and also count by 10's, 5's, and 2's by the end of the year. We've been using Cuisinaire rods, Pattern blocks, and I'm getting ready to start Inchimals for more math development. A friend gave me the History Cards from Veritas Press so I hope to memorize as many of those as we can this year. And we have map placemats that we talk about at each meal. Other than that, I simply have some fun educational games and puzzles and art supplies that we do.
Pros: less expensive and I don't pay for parts of a curriculum that I won't use. Also, I can totally tailor it to fit my girls' interests and my goals.
Cons: I get a little carried away... since I don't have lessons plans laid out for me, I often plan more than I can accomplish. I get excited about all that I want to do with my girls and then bummed when I run out of time. And I might leave out some things that a full-blown curriculum would include

5. How do you balance home school and ministry? I view my family as my main ministry right now and therefore most of my other ministries flow from my home and include my family. I am mentoring a teenage girl who comes over to help with my girls and learn about being a home-maker. She helps my girls with their schoolwork, plays with them outside, and does art projects with them. I also cook a big dinner once a week for 3 single guys and two other couples in our church and my girls often help me fix it. I try to include my girls in all my ministry opportunities.

6. Could you share a story of a triumph or success or something fun or a creative idea or just something that works for your family? I was really excited last week to hear my daughter count to 43 all by herself and all the way to 114 with just a little help transitioning to the next ten (ex. 50, 60, etc). So far, we have only been working on counting to 20 each day and only for a few weeks, but it all of a sudden clicked for her and she understood how to go further! It was just a little triumph but was very exciting to me.

We have also been really amazed and excited about the way our 4 and 2 year old have easily memorized large portions of scripture. We are trying to learn a new chapter every few weeks (depending on the length of the chapter.) We simply add one verse each night during our bedtime routine (with motions if applicable) and recite all the previous verses. They really enjoy it and I love that they are getting the larger context of the Bible in their hearts.

Finnlings' Favorite Books (some of them :-)

2011-09-14T21:25:00.000-04:00

In the spirit of Back to School, I wanted to share a list ofsome of the Finnlings’ favorite books. This is by no means comprehensive! We donot own all of these books, but have discovered many of them at our library this summer. My children and I enjoy books with fun stories and/or rhymes, and I personally look for beautiful illustrations that add to the story rather than take away from it. You will notice that I have both 'car' books and 'princess' books--and both of my big kids love both types! Forgive me for not hyperlinking each book to Amazon—that wouldhave taken way too much time:-)

**Note: I hope to add short notes to each book as I have time over the next few days, like my own "annotated bibliography", so check back if you are curious!**

Roxaboxen –Alice McLerran ---Story of children who make up their own town with a mayor, houses, and stores. My kids played Roxaboxen for days after reading this!

Truckery Rhymes –JonScieszka ---Part of the "Trucktown" series, these are classic nursery rhymes reset to truck themes. Kids and adults love them!

The Day Jimmy’s BoaAte the Wash – Trinka Hakes Noble ---Fun story about a school field trip gone awry

Barn Dance – Bill Martin,Jr & John Archambault ---The skinny kid catches the scarecrow coming to life and leading the barn animals in a barn dance.

Sunflower House –Eve Bunting ---A home in our neighborhood has sunflowers in their yard, which my kids love. This story about a boy who plants a sunflower house resonated with my children, who know want sunflowers for our yard.

Blueberries for Sal–Robert McCloskey ---Classic story of Little Sal who eats more blueberries than she picks

One Morning in Maine–Robert McCloskey ---Or, as my kids call is "Little Sal grows up!" Sal is older and loses her first tooth.

Make Way for Ducklings– Robert McCloskey ---Another classic by McCloskey; set in Boston around the ducks :-)

Chicka Chicka BoomBoom –Bill Martin, Jr & John Archambault ---Bright colors and letters and fun rhyme make this a classic

Tip Tip Dig Dig – Emma Garcia ---Construction equipment comes together to build a playground. Baxter loves this book "with a digger we can Dig Dig Dig!"

Otto the Boy Who Loved Cars –Kara LaReau ---My son seems to be drawn like a magnet to books about cars (like my daughter finds books about princesses). This one is about a boy so obsessed with cars that he turns into one. The play on words is great (his name is Otto, his friends are Mini, Kia and Chevy, his teacher is Mrs. Dodge).

Pinkalicious—Victoria Kahn ---One of Georgia's favorites, this story is about a little girl who eats so many pink cupcakes that she turns pink!

Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin – Lloyd Moss ---A personal favorite of mine for the illustrations and the rhyming introduction to musical instruments.

Olivia –Ian Falconer ---Olivia the pig is very good at wearing people out. Sometimes she even wears herself out!

Tea For Ruby –Sarah Ferguson ---Ruby gets an invitation to tea with the queen, and has to review her manners before going to tea. The illustrations are by Robin Glasser, who illustrates Fancy Nancy and You Can't Take a Balloon to the Metropolitan Museum--they are elaborate and fun.

The Nutcracker – Susan Jeffers ---Two years ago, we saw excerpts from the Nutcracker and this book was read. Georgia was enthralled and we had to buy the book. It is a favorite year round!

If You Give a Pig a Party & IfYou Give a Cat a Cupcake – Laura Numeroff

Clifford the Big Red Dog—Norman Birdwell

There’s Wocket in My Pocket – Dr. Seuss

Fancy Nancy –Jane O’Connor

Toot & Puddle – Holly Hobbie

The Napping House – Audrey Wood

The Dress I’ll Wear to the Party –Shirley Neitzel

How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon? – Jane Yolen & Mark Teague

Bella & Stella Come Home – Anika Denise & ChristopherDenise

1 2 3 A Child’s First Counting Book –Alison Jay (Counting bookusing fairy tales—beautifully illustrated!)

Mother Goose – Mary Engelbreit

T is for Tar Heel: A North Carolina Alphabet – Carol Crane

What are some of your favorite children's books?

1st day of DeLong preschool!

2011-09-08T06:39:00.004-04:00

Since POH is focusing on "Back to School" this month, I thought I'd share about our first day of school also. I posted HERE about our "schedule" (that I follow very loosely) and my LIST of things to do with my girls this fall. I wrote a very detailed schedule to keep me on track, but I don't try to accomplish every single thing each day. If one activity is going well, we happily enjoy it for a longer period of time than scheduled and cut back on something else. Monday, August 15th was officially our "first day of school" and I had several fun things planned for the girls. So here is a glimpse of some of the ways I tried to make the first day special. I didn't take pictures of all our schoolwork, but just tried to capture the most fun parts :)

The girls woke up to new world map placemats and fingerpaints at the breakfast table! We have had so much fun with the placemats -- the girls love pointing to places and asking about everything on the map. It kind of drives Mark crazy because we have a hard time having a conversation in between questions but I love that they are learning geography without even trying! The girls love to sing the continents and tell me which color they are.

The girls had helped me make special cinnamon rolls for the first day of school and had been eagerly waiting to eat them :)

Of course Karis ate all the icing off first!
And my butter-lovin, change hatin, Karlie Sue wouldn't touch the icing but demanded butter on her cinnamon roll and ate every bite (but only after she ate the raisins first!)
We used our new chore cards to get ready for our day and then headed outside for our morning walk. And of course I just had to get our first traditional "first day of school pictures!" (Do you know what the best part about pre-school at home is? That you can have your babydolls do absolutely everything with you!!)And I have to now confess what a horrible mother I am -- my eldest is 4 years old and had not touched fingerpaint until her first day of pre-school! They had a blast painting with their fingers and have since begged to do it every single day!
We had a very special "healthy" fudgesicle snack after naps! Although usually I let the girls help me make everything, I made these while they were sleeping because if they had seen the green avocado going in the blender, no one would have touched them :)
But as you can tell, every drop was devoured with pleasure!

The girls had fun with a new animal stencil set
They also had a lot of fun stuffing shells for dinner and sprinkling on the cheese!

The read together in the living room while waiting for dinner to cook...

Daddy gave them a manicure before bed :)
And our fun day ended with tickle time!

Don't you just wish you could go back to preschool?

The Finnlings' First Day of School

2011-09-07T14:59:00.000-04:00

Our first day of school was a couple of weeks ago, but I thought I would share about our day with our POH readers (this was originally posted on my family blog).

Because Georgia's birthday falls in late October, she is not eligible for Kindergarten until next year, when she will be 5-almost-6. She is old enough now, though, to start doing some 'schoolwork' at home! It is our intention to homeschool our children at least at the beginning, and so when Daddy's classes started back yesterday, we started some homeschool activities as well. I have not invested in a full preschool or kindergarten curriculum yet, but instead am doing a variety of small structured activities to get us into some form of a routine.

After a morning walk, I took pictures of the kids on their first day of school. They had fun 'cheesing' it up!

Georgia needs to reinforce her knowledge of numbers, so I wrote out numbers 1-10 on index cards and had her put the same number of stickers on each card (thanks for that idea, Jennifer S!). It was also a good skill for her fine motor skills, because peeling off the little smiley face stickers required a lot of concentration. Baxter did this activity some as well, but not as consistently :-)

My main 'textbooks' for the first day of school: the Bible (we read Genesis 1), Big Picture Story Bible, and On the Banks of Plum Creek (we are reading a chapter in this Little House on the Prairie book every couple of days).

I wanted to document some things about the kids' lives, so we measured them, traced their hands, and I asked them a few questions. Georgia wrote her own name on the top of her paper--it is not perfect, but she is trying, and I am very proud of her!

All in all it was a great day!

Date taken: August 22, 2011

Loving the Little Years...a post from Rachel Jankovic

2011-09-06T06:00:00.002-04:00

I've heard this little book called Loving the Little Years recommended MANY times. I have not read it yet. (Stay with me...there is a point to bringing up this book!) I'm pretty sure Hollie just read it actually...Hollie? Did you like it?

Anyways...my friend Christy just sent me a link to the article I'm about to share. She thought it would be great to share with our readers and I couldn't agree more! I was very excited to realize that the blog post below was written by the author of this book, Rachel Jankovic! It's a blog written by her and three other ladies. (Sound familiar? Oh, wait...none of us have written a book. Ha! :)

I'm going to share the contents of the post below. It's titled On Women, Divisiveness, and Hobby Horses. Please, please, please go visit her blog, Femina. It seems as though it is a great read!! So, here it is. Let me know what you think!

We all know that women are pretty much the worst at getting tangled up in heated, personally charged arguments about things (things being pretty much everything pertaining to children). Someone comes along to say that breastfeeding is the way the truth and the life, and people start throwing stink bombs. Someone barges through saying that epidurals are the only answer to the problem of pain, and before you know it, churchwomen will be driving cars with “Ban Sally from Mothering” bumper stickers. Some poor woman makes a comment at a baby shower about how she is scheduling her baby’s feedings to try to get more sleep, and women will begin making pointed comments about baby wearing and co-sleeping, and when the next la leche league meeting is. People start using words that are too big for the situations and start alienating Christian sisters over whatever they have decided is a monumental issue.

But here is the real big issue: Christians are not allowed to have hot button issues which they use to stir up trouble. Sure, you may care about things. Yes, you should have reasons for why you are doing what you are doing.

But have you gotten so involved in an “issue” that you cannot fellowship with Christian brothers and sisters who think it is silly? Are you so caught up in teaching your kids phonics while they are in the womb that you need smelling salts when someone laughs about it? Does it stress you out to see a “christian” mother feeding her children easy cheese? Do you long to pelt her house with copies of Nourishing Traditions with important parts highlighted? Are you the wrath of God as pertains to birthing methods, educational systems, and nutrition?

Now here is the thing. Principles are the things that God lays out for us. Love your children. Serve the Lord. Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Children are a blessing. Be fruitful. Methods are the tools we use to try to accomplish these things.

Methods vary, even when the people involved are all following God. Do not get caught up in method camps and chisel away at the number of saints you can fellowship with every time you read a new article about that thing that has become the most important thing. Do not build for yourself an arsenal of inflammatory topics. Do not be quick to fire off heated comments.

The thing about principles and methods is that if you agree on the principle, the method is not such a big deal. But most of us know this – we understand the difference between the two, and yet we still get all wangled into madness about it. Why is this?

Here is my theory: If principles are the content of what is being said, methods are the languages used. We agree that a good principle is “love your children.” So we each say it to them in our own language. Some of us might say it in schedule feeding, and some of us might say it with a sling. The problem comes in when someone overhears someone else “talking” to their children. Quickly translating into her own language, she overhears something like, “I do not love you, and you are a fink!” Outrage ensues.

We want to hear people speaking in our own languages. We have labored over all our translation manuals, worked to have just the right accent, and so it grates on us to hear someone come say the same thing in pig latin. We often refuse to admit that it is the same thing – it just can’t be.

Now the point of this is certainly not to say that there are not objectively better ways to communicate to our children. Some people may be speaking in pig latin, some in a random smorgasbord of cliche sayings, and some only speak to their children in Italian sonnets. Some methods are better. Some methods are dumber. My point is not that we shouldn’t have an opinion about methods, but that we should be comfortable with different languages. When people speak in different languages, it ought to give us joy. The world is a crazy place. The church is a crazy place.

So, next time someone says the clearly outrageous, just remember this: there is a wrong way to be right. There is also a right way to be wrong. And there is always a greater right than being right.

Question for the readers about babies and trauma...

2011-09-01T06:26:00.001-04:00

We had quite a scary weekend with my sweet baby (you can read about it HERE if you wish) and she ended up in the ER with lots of tests and procedures. I am ever so thankful that physically she came out just fine and is completely healthy today. However, emotionally, she is still struggling a lot. It was a traumatic experience for her and she has had a really hard time allowing me to put her down for a nap or even get out of her sight. The hardest part for me is that she no longer simply fusses or even cries the way she used to -- the minute she gets tired or wants me to pick her up, she gets a heart-wrenching terrified look in her eyes and just starts screaming hysterically, just as she did in the ER when undergoing the tests. It is a cry that I had never heard from her before her trauma and it just breaks my heart. She is also still waking up every other hour at night when she used to wake only once at the most. I know this is temporary and I am just trying to comfort her as best I can and wear her in my baby carrier as much as possible, but I was just curious if other readers had experienced anything similar with their little ones. If so, how long did it last and do you have any tips for me? One friend mentioned that cranial sacral massage therapy had really helped her newborn grand-baby who went through a lot of trauma at birth. Have any of you ever heard of that? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

New Cleaning Schedule

2011-08-31T14:25:00.003-04:00

Recently the Lord has prompted my heart (through some convicting conversations with my husband) that I am not fulfilling my role as homemaker well. I love staying home and being with the kids, but at times it is more like I am the babysitter, the one who watches the kids rather than the one who is managing her home. One of the key ways this plays out is in my housecleaning (though there are several other manifestations). I don't like to clean. I make no bones about it. I like the way a clean house looks, but I can live with some clutter and dust (okay, a lot of dust) for a long time. My general M.O. is to halfway straighten up a couple of times a week, clean the house on a surface level every couple of weeks, and about once every two months (usually right before family visits) spend an entire day scrubbing everything. I know, it's shocking.

After mulling it over and praying about my attitude, I settled into forming a cleaning 'routine' that I would follow every week. I know that most of you have heard of this, and probably many of you already implement it, but I'm a little slow. Instead of overwhelming myself (and my husband, because he is often corralled into helping during the frenzied before-family-arrives-cleaning) with a big clean, I am going to attempt to clean the house every week, by doing one or two things a day. Novel, isn't it?

So here's my schedule:
Monday- Mop, Laundry and Bill payments

Tuesday- Dust and Vacuum Downstairs

Wednesday- Clean Bathrooms

Thursday- Dust and Vacuum Upstairs, Laundry

Friday- Clean Windows and Backdoor, Dust Blinds and Fans, Wash Linens

Now, ask me if I've actually completed a week :-) I have had this schedule for just a couple of weeks, and I have not yet finished each task on the day assigned. But I have finished most of them, and this schedule helps to keep me on track. If I do a little bit each day, my house shouldn't need a deep scrubbing as often!

I am not perfect, and I still don't enjoy cleaning, but I have found a few things to help me out.

1. Invite people over. Nothing is more motivating to clean than having guests

2. Find a scent that you like. I used to make my own cleaners, but I fell in love with Mrs. Meyer's All Purpose Cleaner in Basil, so I dilute that in a spray bottle and use it on everything (bathrooms, kitchen counters, etc). The smell makes me smile and makes my house smell good.

3. Involve your children. My kids love cleaning the back door. I spray water on the door, give them rags (old cloth diapers) and let them clean it off. I hope to incorporate more chores for them over time.

4. Pray for the right attitude. I do not want to be a legalistic about having a perfect home when people come over. I do not want to be a sloppy housekeeper either, whose disarray distracts from the message of the gospel. I want to be a good wife, mother and homemaker without feeling like I must meet every single qualification of the Proverbs 31 woman. I pray for grace to let go if things don't go to plan, and discipline to do my JOB though I really don't want to run the vacuum.

How do you handle your cleaning and homemaking?

Postpartum Depression

2011-08-30T16:49:00.001-04:00

It may seem hard to believe that one could be feeling depressed when greeted by this adorable smile. But, I'm hoping to shed some light on the little talked about topic of postpartum depression. This is a topic that I've intended to write a post about for 3 years now, but never have! It seemed too daunting to write. But last night, I had coffee with a friend and when she told me of another friend of hers battling with PPD, I knew I needed to share my experience.

For those that have endured long months of a colicky baby, its easy to understand how one could develop postpartum depression. In fact, a study in 2005 found a strong link between the two. After having dealt with colic with both of our daughters, I believe that it certainly contributed to the postpartum depression I experienced. (I should note, however, that if you haven't read my post about what I think caused our "colic" you should go read that.)

Before I continue - let me clarify what defines "postpartum depression." Many Moms experience up to two weeks of the "baby blues" that start immediately following delivery. (This is also not widely discussed and something I was completely unprepared for the first time around!) You know the days when you cry all the time, usually over nothing. (In my case, a Pampers commercial.) But just as quickly as it came, it disappears and you start feeling normal again. Postpartum depressions goes beyond this! With my last two pregnancies, my "baby blues" passed and I was feeling great only to have PPD creep back in over time.

Here is a GREAT (and reliable!) medical resource describing postpartum depression. Here is my experience.

Adeline was born in March of 2008 after what we now know to be our easiest pregnancy and delivery! After about a 2 week "honeymoon" - the colic started. Adeline cried every single night from 6pm-11pm. It was almost like clockwork when it would start! She was a fussy baby for sure and one that was truly colicky as defined by "more than three hours per day for more than three weeks" of crying. I often had to leave the house at night to escape the crying. (My husband could endure this much easier than I could!)

When she was 4 weeks old, I started having gallbladder attacks that were the start of an infected gallbladder, surgery and a horrible C.Diff infection afterwards. Gallbladder pain was unlike any other pain I had EVER experienced. It was the worst pain of my life. Even worse than labor! (I can say that now that I labored with Anna! :) The C.Diff infection eventually got to the point of bathroom trips 15 or more times per day. These two things in addition to the excessive crying led to some serious anxiety. I even had several anxiety attacks - which are scary themselves. This all peaked when she was around 3 months old and I finally decided to talk with my doctor.

I was surprised to realize that PPD can manifest itself as anxiety like I was experiencing. I didn't feel "depressed" - just sort of down a lot of the time and overly anxious about ridiculous things. He recommended a course of Zoloft. After some prayer and counsel, I decided to take it. (I was breastfeeding and it is considered ok.)

Before I continue, let me share this wonderful article by John Piper regarding Christians and anti-depressant use. I wholeheartedly agree with his take. (This is not intended to open a huge can of worms - though feel free to respectfully disagree!) He says,

"Just like you take aspirin to get you through a very serious back-ache, you might, for a season, take some kind of medicine that would enable you to get your bearings mentally so that you can then operate without the medicine."

I only took Zoloft at the lowest dose for about 3 months, but it was night and day when I started taking it. Until I was feeling better, I had no idea how bad it had actually been. I actually enjoyed my baby again! (Even if she did cry for hours on end!)

Fast forward a few years to our latest pregnancy and delivery. Anna is now 3 months old. Her colic has calmed much sooner than Adeline's did and we are SO thankful! She is still a fussy baby, but nowhere to extent of her sister. (I credit proper breastfeeding this time around!) However, this delivery and recovery was my toughest. The baby blues came and went as predicted and there were a few weeks that I felt normal despite her colicky days!

However, I've recently started to wonder if PPD tried to rear its ugly head again this time around. I've had some anxiety over my medical situation this time around (having had my ovaries removed because of tumors and now being in "menopause.") though not as severe as the last time. Another factor this time is the sleep deprivation. My husband works two jobs and leaves the house at 3:30am. I was very spoiled by all of his nighttime help and moral support for the last two babies. But this time, I'm on my own at night so he can sleep. This has been much more difficult that I anticipated!

The fact that I am in menopause (having no ovaries to produce female hormones) could be one explanation for the difficult days where I find myself struggling to stay joyful. I'm waiting to take any hormones I need so I can breastfeed as long as possible. Once I restore those hormones, these feelings may subside some.

I'm very thankful for a wonderful OB (or the entire group of OBs!) with whom I feel totally comfortable discussing all of this with. I've talked with a few of them on different occasions about what I was feeling and what to look out for and when to consider medication again. For now, I'm content and feel comfortable waiting. I'm so thankful that Anna is sleeping better and our days are starting to feel more normal! I'm finding that the difficult days are fewer than before! Praise the Lord!

I hope that by sharing my struggle with postpartum depression, someone else might not feel so alone! My advice is to stay open about how you're feeling. If you have any questions about whether or not what you're feeling is normal, seek out help! Be very careful not to let pride or fear of man stop you from getting the help you may need. (I struggled with this too!) Ask God to give you wisdom to know when to seek help and the humility to do so. Know that He will be faithful to bring you through this!

I would love to hear from others who may have had similar experiences. Please feel free to share as much or as little as you'd like! Thanks for reading!

Choosing to be the Peacemaker

2011-08-29T11:14:00.004-04:00

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." Matthew 5:9

Do your kids argue? Do they fight over toys or whose turn it is? What do you do? How do you approach the situation and what is your solution?

Here's an example I'm sure we can all relate to:
You are in the kitchen getting dinner ready (or, maybe even on the computer looking at Facebook!!). Your kiddos are in the other room and you hear an argument errupt. They are going back and forth with "It's my turn" "No, I had it first!" etc. When you walk into the room, they are both pulling on two ends of a toy and yelling at each other.

Approach #1: The judge.
You separate them and ask them, "who had it first?" Then you listen to each of them tell their version of the events that led up to the screaming. You have to decide which one sounds more plausible and give the toy to that kid. Queue screaming child.

Approach #2: The mean mommy.
You take the toy away and say that no one can play with it. Queue two screaming children.

Approach #3: Find the peacemaker.
You take the toy and ask the question, "which is more important - your brother or the toy?" (insight into my family: Joel always says the toy). Correct or encourage that the brother is more important than the toy. Then ask, "who is going to choose to be the peacemaker?" Someone will volunteer - I have never had neither volunteer. One always chooses to raise their hand. The peacemaker gives the toy to the other sibling. The peacemaker is praised for his choice. We even have sticker charts that say "Samuel is a Peacemaker" on top for him to give himself a sticker when he chooses to be the peacemaker.

The third approach is my choice for a number of reasons.
#1 - It's biblical. The Bible teaches us to be peacemakers.
#2 - It's realistic. As adults, arguments are best diffused by someone choosing to be the peacemaker.
#3 - It doesn't require you as the parent to know the backstory. You don't have to make a judgment between the two children.
#4 - It allows one child to have the first turn with the toy. And the child that chose to be the peacemaker receives your praise.

These ideas came from both Ginger Plowman's "Don't Make Me Count to Three" and Susan Hunt's "My ABC Bible Verses" Letter B.

As further encouragement to you, this lesson spoke to me just last night. My husband and I were not getting along so well yesterday. He took the kids to the park and I went to the grocery store. I was recounting to myself all the ways that he was in the wrong and really making me upset. (I'm sure a similar train of thought was running through his head). And then the Holy Spirit gently reminded me of this lesson. God doesn't want to hear the backstory. He doesn't want my list of why I am right and Ed is wrong. He offers us a choice: Who will choose to be the peacemaker? I knew that I couldn't walk away from that choice. I had to choose to be the peacemaker. God's grace is so awesome and His word is so true that it applies to mom just as much as it applies to child!

Strawberry Birthday Party (Pic Heavy)

2011-08-26T10:21:00.067-04:00

Last week my little turned two years old. I can't believe two years have already passed since she was born.

Mattie had a Strawberry Shortcake inspired birthday party using the colors and design of Strawberry Shortcake. Below are some of the things we did to throw her her very own Strawberry Party.

These cupcakes were the BEST cupcakes I might have ever made, maybe ever had. Seriously. Making three dozen cupcakes with a double batch of the icing was a bit laborious, but once my taste buds experienced these cupcakes, it was all worth it. I already had the cupcake stands from Laney's birthday party last year.

I got the recipe from Martha Stewart's website, but really the recipe is owned by Candice Nelson, aka Sprinkles. I changed some things in the recipe that you will definitely need to know about, like adding baking soda that was accidentally left out of the recipe (that will have to be another post). Here's also a video of Candice Nelson making these (she included the baking soda in this video)

Do you think Mattie liked them? She was putting her fingers in the icing, picking the strawberries off the top, licking the icing off of them and eating them.

Mmm. Mama these are good cupcakes.

Red-picnic Dollar Tree plates and napkins

Focal point of party!
We had the party down at the pool cabana of our neighborhood. It was so nice because it was free, there was enough seating for everyone, there were ceiling fans, and a pool for everyone to swim in after eating cupcakes. (oh and not to mention a cool fireplace for our focal point)

The morning of the party my friend, Rachelle Usher, came over to help me prep for the party. What a tremendous help she was. Rachelle came over and made the balloon banner you see above. Want to know now to make it?

Supplies for Balloon Banner:

Pack of 20 balloons in red (Party City)
Pack of 20 balloons in green (Party City)
Decorator Strip ($4.99 at Party City
Strong lungs to blow up 40 balloons

Balloon Banner How-To:

1. Blow up all of the balloons.

2. Tie two balloons of the same color together.

3. Make a cluster of four balloons total by tying together two clusters of two balloons, of the same color.

4. Stick the end of a balloon cluster (4 balloons tied together) in the hole in the decorator strip.

5. Continue to stick all balloon clusters into decorator strip until you have no more balloon clusters.

6. Reserve a little bit of the decorator strip on each end so you can hang it.

*This banner was supposed to hang straight, but it was difficult to do that at this shelter, so we did the best we could. Also, I wouldn't recommend hanging balloons next to brick. Balloons were randomly popping throughout the party and scaring us to death.

I had Dear Hubby unscrew our big chalkboard from the playroom wall,
so I could make a focus point and personal birthday sign.

I snagged Mattie's birth announcements, her first year portrait, some fake flowers from our house, and a pink chicken for decor (from our house) to add to the focal point.

Spanish Moss "M" for Mattie:

"M" at Hobby Lobby for $1.99
Spanish moss at Hobby Lobby
Spray glue (on hand)
Ribbon to hang (on hand)

Spanish Moss Letter How-To:

1. Head outside with your supplies.

2. Spray your letter(s) with spray glue.

3. Quickly bunch up and lay down your Spanish moss.

That's it.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

My friend Rachelle actually glued the Spanish moss for me the morning of the party.
She did a fantastic job!

Inspired by the Strawberry Shortcake design (but not using the Strawberry Shortcake character stuff), I bought red, plastic tablecloths from the Dollar Tree, green and white polka dot wrapping paper from Party City for $3.99, and grabbed a few things from the house for decor (strawberry bowl and glass candlesticks).

Gotta love my animated little Lanes. She's the life of a party!

For the party favors, I sewed burlap bags with red thread.

I used a scallopped paper punch and some scrap cream cardstock to make nametags

Inside bags: (pics aren't that great due to mobile phone pics at 1:30 am)

Handmade red headbands (made from an old tshirt) with burlap rosette

Trader Joes strawberry fruit leather
Organic strawberry sucker
A few pieces of Trader Joes saltwater strawberry taffy
Little plastic bags of Trader Joes crunchy chocolate covered peanuts tied with gingham ribbon

Birthday Girl in her bathing suit.
This was also a swim party, so the entertainment was built in.
Loved this.

Beautiful big sissy having a blast swimming

Celebrating with friends and family

Incredible birthday picture with Nana

Having fun with Mimi
Bye-bye!
Thanks for dropping by my Strawberry Party!

Service Project Ideas

2011-08-26T10:09:00.004-04:00

My mom is one of those people who lives in a golf-cart retirement village in Florida. But I wouldn't say that she fits the image of a blue haired Bridge player. She is very active there in all sorts of fun things. One thing she does is make BEAUTIFUL greeting cards. She teaches classes and leads stamping groups. She also volunteers at an organization that sends supplies to troops deployed overseas. She is a really talented cardmaker...I am always amazed at the cute and beautiful ideas she comes up with.

Her latest service project is to make 100 Thanksgiving cards for Thanksgiving baskets for the families of deployed National Guardsmen. She has come up with 6 designs to show the coordinator. On her blog, The Village Stamper, she shows all 6 designs and she is giving away the card with the most votes to one of the commenters. It's a fun, easy giveaway and a way to encourage my beautiful mother! :) Plus, while you're there, you can see all of the beautiful cards she makes on a daily basis!

Give Them Grace

2011-08-25T21:08:00.003-04:00

I am currently reading Give Them Grace by Elyse Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson. Though I have not finished reading the book yet, and cannot write a full book review, I highly recommend it! The authors' proposition is that anytime we try to "make" our children be good we are merely extending the law--a law that cannot and will not save them, and will instead turn them into hypocrites and rebels. What children need, what we need, is grace. We need to realize that we can do nothing on our own--we cannot even be good on our own.

There is much to process and digest in this book. I am humbled and convicted and see so many areas where I do not preach the gospel to myself, let alone to my children. I look forward to finishing this book and probably re-reading it again to fully integrate the principles inside it.

If I have not piqued your interest enough, here is a quote that gets to the heart of the matter (and the book):

We are commanded [to teach our children God's law] but not to make them good. We are commanded to give them the law so that they will be crushed by it and see their need for a Savior. The law won't make them good. It will make them despair of ever being good, and in that way it will make them open to the love, sacrifice and welcome of their Savior, Jesus Christ.

Have you read this book? If so, what did you learn from it? Do you find it true that too many times we try to make our children obey the law without pointing them to the grace of the cross, the grace that has been given to us, the grace without which we would be dead no matter how good we are?

My take on baby's first foods

2011-08-25T06:23:00.000-04:00

My sweet Abbi is now 6 1/2 months old and recently started trying out real food! Since feeding her is on my mind a lot (she begs for it anytime we are in the kitchen!), I thought I'd share my approach on feeding babies. I also highly recommend Lindsay's post on the topic: Feeding Baby Naturally, because she follows a similar thought pattern as myself and is much, much more thorough in her explanations than I am going to be. It is very interesting, easy to read, and the best simple article that I've read on the subject. I'm simply going to share what I have done with my babies, but Lindsey shares the research and reasons behind it. So if you don't have much time, read her article instead of mine because you will be much better educated. :) Another great article is Including Baby at the Family Table from the WAPF website. And if you do have time, I also highly recommend reading Nina Plank's Real Food For Mother and Baby. It is available at most libraries.

I'm all about breastfeeding if you possibly can. I know it is difficult for some people and I don't fault them for it at all. But if it is at all possible, the benefits to both Mama and baby are worth it! So I exclusively breastfeed my babies for the 1st 6 months.

Around 6 months, I usually start introducing foods to my baby. I wait until my baby can sit up all by herself, because that shows me that she is probably developmentally ready. But I don't worry about how much she eats, because at 6 months, she is still getting everything she needs from my breastmilk. I start her out on table food simply to get her used to different tastes and textures, and also so that I can eat in peace! (If she doesn't have food of her own, she is fussing and grabbing at my plate during mealtime :)

With my first baby, I pureed tons of fruits and vegetables and froze them in little ice cubes. But the 2nd time around, I totally skipped all that and was glad that I did. Instead, I just fed her whatever veggies and meat I fixed for my family for dinner. I made sure they were soft enough and would smash them with a fork if they seemed too big. I also added in a lot of butter, olive oil, or coconut oil because babies need healthy fats more than anything. I let her pick everything up and play with it and eat what she could. I didn't feed her anything with a spoon other than home-made yogurt, cod-liver oil, and a soft-boiled egg because they are just so good for her. I wanted her to develop that pincer grasp and good hand-eye coordination as well. So she mainly just fed herself. It was definitely more messy, but much less work since I did not need to puree and freeze. Plus, she was quite entertained and I could eat my dinner in peace!

I'm pretty much taking the same laid back approach with Abbi. I started giving her fermented cod liver oil around 4 months instead of the Vitamin D supplement that most pediatricians recommend. When she started acting like she wanted to eat when we did around 6 months, I first just gave her a spoonful of coconut oil or butter to chew on. Then I let her have fun with some avocado and soft-boiled egg yolks. I've also let her have plain yogurt and fresh cheese from my farmer. I will not give her any cereal because babies can't even digest it well until around a year old. I try not to let my babies have any grains until at least a year, and I'll hold off longer if possible because they need the healthy fat and protein so much more. My goal is to give my babies only real food -- not processed at all. But I'm not ridiculous about it. With Karlie, we went to visit the grandparents and Nina had bought some baby food and really enjoyed feeding Karlie with a spoon and that was fine. I knew that 90% of the time Karlie was feeding herself real food that I prepared.

I've found that around 8 months, my babies start actually "needing" to eat table food more because my milk supply can't quite keep up with their growing bodies. But that's just me. I have friends who have successfully fed their babies only breast milk until one year old. But my body just can't seem to do it. Instead of supplementing with formula, however, I just make sure my babies get enough fat and protein from real food. I continue nursing my babies every 3-4 hours during the day and give them lots of healthy, real food. I've also found that my milk supply keeps up better if I continue to wake them for a late night feeding before I go to bed even once they start sleeping through it. I know many people wouldn't want to mess up the sleep cycle, but it is worth it to me to be able to keep up my milk supply.

Eggs are truly the best food that I can give my babies. They have plenty of protein and iron and fats. They actually contain every nutrient that your body needs other than vitamin C! So I tried to make sure Karlie ate at least one egg yolk every day once she was about 8 months. (And not all eggs are created equal -- please read THIS POST to see why free range, pastured, not-from-a-store-eggs are soooo much better! Quick synopsis: to have healthy eggs you need a healthy chicken. A healthy chicken needs lots of sunlight and bugs to eat. You can't find healthy eggs at a grocery store -- you have to get them from the farm!

I also gave Karlie a lot of avocados -- a great first food for babies because of all the healthy fat. I usually mashed it up with good quality olive oil or coconut oil to give her even more healthy fats! Some times I would mix it with plain home-made yogurt because yogurt is good for her as well and I wanted her to get used to the sour taste of unsweetened yogurt. Avocados are the perfect healthy "fast food." I kept them on hand in case I sadly did not make a healthy enough meal for my family and wanted to be sure she ate real food. They were also my first choice to take for Karlie when we went out to eat because they are just so easy!

So there's my quick overview of how I approach feeding babies. I know it might not work for some children if they have a gagging problem or other eating issues, but it has worked well for my girls so I thought I would share. Feel free to ask any questions!

**And as a disclaimer -- I am not a doctor in any way and my advice should not be taken as professional. I am simply fascinated (my husband would say obsessed :) with nutrition and have read a lot about it.

Communicating with our Husbands

2011-08-22T06:00:00.001-04:00

My specific topic today deals with how much we should be sharing with our husbands. And this is probably just as much a question that I want to turn over to the readers as it is my opinion on the topic.

How much do you share with your husband? What do you do if a friend reveals intimate things to you - about herself or about her marriage? What about things going on with you personally? Do you tell him all the different things that go through your head throughout the day? Do you share areas of struggle with him? What if they involve him?

First, if a friend shares personal things with you, do you share them with your husband? I had a friend share with me that she really struggles with anger. She loses her temper at home with her kids. She shared this with me and asked me to pray for her as well as to share some ideas with her about how she could deal with her anger. Do I tell my husband about our conversation? I guess I step back and ask myself, "how would this knowledge affect my husband?"

A harder example: My friend tells me that she is worried about a relationship her husband is having with a co-worker. She shared this with me because she was really upset and feeling defeated. She poured her heart out to me. Our families are friends and our husbands interact. Do I share this secret with my husband? Did my friend tell me in confidence or did she know that I would tell my husband?

I have tried to find wisdom from the Bible on this subject. Here's where I keep coming back -

Proverbs 11:13 A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret. (NIV)

I don't think by telling your husband you are being a "gossip", but perhaps the second half of the proverb instructs us to be trustworthy and keep the secret. I asked my husband his opinion, and he said that he would rather not know these details about our friends lives if they didn't come to him directly.

Does it complicate the question if your husband is a pastor/elder? And what about communication the other way? Does your husband keep these types of confidences from you? Perhaps the wisest idea would be to settle these issues with your husbands beforehand. Talk with your husband and discuss what is appropriate to share between you and what you will keep in confidence from each other.

The second half of my questions has to deal with personal, private issues. How much do you reveal about yourself to your husband vs. how much do you filter to protect him and your marriage from unnecessary insecurity?

My first reaction is to say that husband and wife should share all things with each other. But is this the wisest course of action? Or even practical? I say that a personal filter can be helpful in your marriage. For example, let's say I find myself feeling attracted to another man. I need to deal with that between myself and God. Telling my husband may cause him to feel insecure. But what if it gets to a point where spending time with that family is causing problems for me to have victory over that sin? I need to step up and confess that sin to my husband so he can help me in it.

And what about areas that directly involve your husband? I often struggle with anger and disappointment towards my husband when I feel like he doesn't meet my expectations. (I will insert here that the problem is my attitude, not my husband "falling short.") In the past I've tried to share this with my husband because I thought I should be honest with him about how I felt. But there is a difference between communicating expectations and sharing your feelings of anger and disappointment. My confession of feelings caused a lot of insecurity in my husband. I was not building him up at all. I am learning to take things to the Lord and ask Him to refine me so that I can speak love and encouragement into my husband's life. There is a filter there to protect our marriage - definitely not a filter between me and God b/c I need to lay it all at his feet, but a filter in how much I am confessing to my husband.

Please share your feedback on this topic. I feel like I really asked more questions than I answered. And I feel like there could be a lot more biblical wisdom shed on this topic. I'd love to hear your reactions and thoughts. I am not dead set on any of the opinions I gave here, so please feel free to disagree...just so long as you give your reason why and a thoughtful rebuttal.

And the Winner of the Activity Bag Giveaway is...

2011-08-19T09:53:00.002-04:00

Of the 90 entries we received for the Preschool Activity Bags Giveaway, entry number #47 Rachael Davis is the winner!

Rachael shared in her comment - "I love that there is so much experiential wisdom here on this one blog, from so many women that I adore."

We too love to share in the Prayer of Hannah community with all of you. We learn just as much from all of our readers as you've shared that you learn from us.

Thanks so much for all of your entries. We look forward to a great fall season with Prayer of Hannah! Congratulations Rachael!

Hospitality at our house (Part 2)

2011-08-18T06:30:00.002-04:00

In my previous post, I explained how my family began a weekly routine of having others to dinner each week. Today I thought I would share a couple tips for preparing dinner for a crowd (with 3 littles running around) and some of our guests' favorite recipes.

-- Without a doubt, my biggest piece of advice is to do as much as possible ahead of time! If I have to spend an hour fixing dinner right before our company comes, my sweet little ones will inevitably choose that hour to make a big mess, get in an argument, and/or have a random accident and require Mommy's attention. It never fails. So I almost always choose meals that I can prepare ahead of time. And most of the time, I have prepped the meat a couple of weeks ago and can just pull it from the freezer. I usually get around 6 pounds of ground beef at the Farmer's market at one time. The next day I brown it all at once and season it according to my monthly meal plan. I usually make around 2 pounds of taco meat, 2 pounds of sloppy joe meat, and 2 pounds of seasoned ground beef all ready to use in my recipes. Last week we had taco night for our company and all I had to do was warm up the meat and tortillas! So easy! Our guests had offered to bring the toppings and we ended up with a fun and delicious meal that was not the least bit stressful for me.

-- Don't be afraid to ask guests to bring something. It helps with the cost of having people over each week and usually our friends truly want to do something to help. I often end up with favorite new recipes as well! Last week my friend Mandie made this awesome black bean salsa that I can't wait incorporate into our regular meal plan. Even the single college guys that I cook for often pick up things at the store that we need like buns for sloppy joes or sour cream for tacos.

My favorite recipes for feeding a crowd:

Lime Chicken Tacos -- this is hands down my favorite recipe that never fails to please! I think it originally came from this blog, but I've changed it slightly. The recipe is very forgiving and I just add more beans, corn, salsa, etc to feed more people.

1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts

3 Tbs lime juice

1 Tbs. chili powder

1 cup frozen corn

1 cup chunky salsa (we love mango salsa the best!)

1 can diced pineapples, drained

1 can black beans

12 flour tortillas, warmed

sour cream, lettuce, shredded cheese, avocado, cilantro and any other toppings you like

Place the chicken in a 3-qt. slow cooker. Combine lime juice and chili powder; pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours or until chicken is tender.

Remove chicken; cool slightly. Shred and return to the slow cooker. Stir in corn, beans, pineapple tidbits, and salsa. Cover and cook on low for 30 minutes or until heated through.

Serve in tortillas with toppings

The Best Sloppy Joes Ever -- This recipe comes from my friend Beth. Each time I make these I get rave reviews and people ask what is different about them... the cinnamon totally kicks it up a notch!

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
2 T. chopped onion
2 T. green pepper
2 T. celery
¼ tsp. garlic salt
½ cup ketchup
1 tsp. prepared mustard
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2-3 T. lemon juice
1 T. vinegar
2-3 T. Italian dressing
2-3 T. brown sugar
sprinkled cinnamon

Directions: In a medium skillet, combine beef, onion, green pepper, celery, and garlic salt; Cook and stir until meat is brown and veggies are tender. Drain fat. Stir together rest of ingredients – Spread over meat and cook until heated through.

Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos -- the sauce on these taquitos is utterly delicious and the mixture can easily be made the day before! I often double the sauce because I love i t so much and pair them with this quinoa and black beans recipe.

3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup green salsa
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice (juice from half a lime)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbsp chopped cilantro
2 Tbsp sliced green onions
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 cup shredded Mexican flavored cheese
small flour or corn tortillas
kosher salt
cooking spray

Preheat your oven to 425˚F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, mix the cream cheese, salsa, lime juice, ground cumin, chili powder, onion powder and garlic. Once combined, stir in the cilantro and green onions. Add the chicken and cheese; mix thoroughly.

(If you decided to prep this in advance, refrigerate the mixture at this point until ready to continue.)

Working with a few tortillas at a time, heat them in the microwave between two paper towels until they are soft enough to roll (about 20 – 30 seconds).

Spoon 2-3 Tablespoons of the chicken mixture onto the lower third of a tortilla. Roll the tortilla as tightly as you can.

Place the rolled tortilla seam side down on the baking sheet. Repeat with remaining tortillas until the mixture is gone. Make sure the taquitos are not touching each other. Spray the tops lightly with cooking spray and sprinkle with kosher salt.

Bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until crisp and golden.

Serve with salsa, sour cream or guacamole.

**To freeze: Before baking, chill the taquitos on the baking sheet in the fridge. Once completely cooled, wrap each taquito individually with plastic wrap. Place in a labeled freezer bag and freeze. To bake a frozen taquito (no need to thaw first): Preheat oven to 425˚F and bake for 20 minutes.

Easy Cheddar Potato Chowder -- my favorite delicious but frugal meal for the fall!

2 cups diced potatoes

½ to 1 cup diced carrots

½ cup chopped celery

½ cup chopped onion

1 ½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

¼ cup margarine

¼ cup flour
2 cups milk

2 cups cheddar cheese

½ lb. Bacon, cooked and crumbled

Directions: Boil two cups of water; add to potatoes, celery, carrots, onion, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer 10 minutes. Do not drain.Make a white sauce using margarine, flour, and milk. Cook until thickened. Add grated cheddar. Stir until smooth. Add bacon and the undrained vegetables. Simmer (do not boil) until heated through.

Breakfast for dinner! The college guys I cook for always get so excited when I make this egg sausage casserole and french toast casserole.

What do you like to make for company? I'd love to have your favorite recipes!

We go together, like a wink and a smile

2011-08-16T21:15:00.005-04:00

Don't miss the GIVEAWAY post! Click here to leave a comment and enter a giveaway for 15 preschool busy bags! Ends Thursday at midnight!

This morning there was a coolness in the air that gave me a small taste of fall. I love fall--the crispness in the breeze, the changing leaves, the apples and pumpkins and spices everywhere. And I love fall because for the Finns, fall is "courtin' weather". Nathan and I met and fell in love in the fall twelve years ago, and every fall season reminds us of that special time in our lives.

The story of how we met actually begins BEFORE we met. The summer before my senior year of college, I broke up with the guy I had been dating for a year and a half. That same summer, Nathan broke up with his girlfriend of 2 1/2 years. Both of us thought we were dating people we would eventually marry, but that summer those relationships ended. Both of us started classes in the fall determined not to date (Nathan), or certain that there was no one worthy of dating on campus (Leah).

In late August, Nathan was a junior transfer student at the college where I was a senior. Though we had been introduced briefly, we connected over dinner at the cafeteria the first night of classes. He winked at me from across the room--yes, he was a bold fellow!--and a few minutes later I sat down at his table. I swear that I was startled by his wink, didn't intend to sit by him, and was, in fact, alarmed that I ended up at his table. He declares that I was immediately charmed by him and his wink and had to sit with him. The entire table had great conversations that night, and Nathan and I ended up eating lunch together the next day. (truth--I waited for someone fun to eat lunch with because all my friends had a different lunch hour. I met up with one of Nathan's friend, ate lunch with him, talking the entire hour until Nathan came to lunch--and I was glad to see him, and stayed another hour!) I walked him to his post-lunch class because it was near my dorm, and I remember the professor (whom I knew and loved) grinning at my walking a guy to a class.

We had many mutual friends, and over the first couple of weeks of classes we spent a lot of time hanging out in groups. Nathan and I had wonderful 'talks', and I just found myself drawn to him. Though we were not dating, I had at least two different girls ask me if I had a claim on him, which I didn't. One day Nathan told me that he needed to talk to me that evening. I knew it was the inevitable "define the relationship" conversation, and I knew what he was going to say--he liked me a lot, but he did not want to be tied down, and our spending so much time together was sending the wrong signals. I prepared myself all day for the 'let her down gently' talk, and knew at the same time that I didn't want it to happen.

We started walking that evening, my dreading the conversation entirely, and...he didn't say what I expected. Instead of just wanting to be friends, Nathan poured out his heart to me, told me he was smitten with me (yes, he used that word!), and declared that he would like to pursue a relationship with me with the intention of marrying me. I was speechless. I asked to sit down-I remember my knees feeling weak. There was no bench, so we just sat down on a curb! I was startled, thrilled and excited all at the same time, and though it could have been scary and may have frightened some girls, I felt a complete peace. The rest was history. We spent many fall evenings together talking about life, theology, our future plans and goals. Our favorite place to 'hang out' was on the front porch of the BSU house on campus--it had several rocking chairs, which Nathan loves, for which we were dubbed the "rocking chair romance." We knew very early that we had met the person we were to marry! Eight months after meeting, we were engaged (April 2000) and eight months after that, we were married (January 2001).

Nathan and I on the porch where we spent so much time in our pre-marriage relationship (taken August 2010)

I am so blessed that the Lord led me to Nathan. The fall season reminds me of God's grace to us both in allowing us to share our lives together. I look forward to many more years with my best friend. Thanks for reading our love story!

Fuzzi Bunz Deal!

2011-08-16T21:07:00.001-04:00

Don't miss the GIVEAWAY post! Click here to leave a comment and enter a giveaway for 15 preschool busy bags! Ends Thursday at midnight!

So, let's be honest here. Anna has worn very few cloth diapers in her short little life. Every time I feel like getting in the groove, something throws me off! It is hard to find time for laundry with three. I'm not giving up yet and I'm considering revamping our stash.

It seems that its MUCH easier for me to rely on pocket diapers such as FuzziBunz or BumGenius. I still love both, but don't have enough of them to use pockets as my main diaper. Previously, I'd used prefolds as the bulk of our stash, but they are a little more difficult to put on and be out and about with.

When I heard about this GREAT DEAL offered by FuzziBunz, I decided it was time to sell a few diapers in order to get some more of my beloved FuzziBunz! The deal is that you get two totally free diapers when you buy 6. One is a solid and one is a never-before-seen-print!

You can get a six pack of Fuzzi Bunz at Cotton Babies in either the "perfect size" (small, medium, etc.) or the new "one size." Economy shipping is free on any order at Cotton Babies. I've never tried the one size diapers, but you can use your two free diapers to try them out! The free deal is offered in either a size medium or one size!

And if you want to sell your diapers to fund new ones, Craigslist is an easy option if you don't want to ship them. I've also used Diaperswappers for a long time now and never had a negative experience.

Is anyone else struggling with staying motivated to use cloth? Or am I the only one!? I hate purchasing disposables when I KNOW I have plenty of cloth in our drawers....so here's to sticking with cloth for the third time around!

[Closed] Giveaway: 15 Preschool Activity Bags from Prayer of Hannah

2011-08-15T00:07:00.008-04:00

Hello! Welcome to the new and improved Prayer of Hannah blog. Whether you are a long-time reader of Prayer of Hannah, or a first time visitor, please browse around and see what we are all about.

As a way to celebrate our new look, we are offering a cute little giveaway...

A set of 15 Preschool Busy Bags! The lucky winner of this giveaway will receive 15 Preschool Activity Bags, all assembled and ready to entertain your preschooler. The 15 bags come with a handy tote to keep them all stored in one place.

Here are the ins and outs of the giveaway. Please leave a comment to this post to let us know what you enjoy most about Prayer of Hannah. We will leave the comments open until 12 midnight on Thursday, August 18. At that time, we will close the comments and pick a winner at random. One entry per person. We will announce the winner on Friday and ship your Activity Bags to you. This giveaway is not limited to the United States - we will ship anywhere worldwide. We know a lot of our readers live all around the world and we'd hate to leave you out!

Thanks so much for stopping by and checking us out! Good luck!