The Coolest Bumper Sticker Ever!

One of our good friends owns the junker that sports this bumper sticker. I would like to know where he got it, so please 'fess up in the comments section and tell us all where we can get one like it!

Not because my car is a junker, but because I want to get one and secretly put it on my mom's car as a practical joke! People have been telling her to get a new car for years, especially since all three of her teens/young adults had nicer cars than herself, and my dad has offered countless times to buy her something nice, but she insists on driving a junker so she can live more simply and give more!

Cleaning Out The Freezer Week....continued...

Cleaning out the freezer has been really good for us. And while it may look like there is still a lot in there, it is mostly hamburger and frozen pumpkin and zuchinni or vegetables or frozen berries. Of course I still need to straighten and organize it so it looks nicer, but at least we're making progress (there used to be about 3 times as much in here!) and were able to eat up a lot of things I had forgotten were there. And the homemade croutons turned out very yummy! Now that the freezer is getting cleaned out it will be time to fill it again! I ordered 5# of delicious frozen peaches from our monthly food order club, and I'll get some more free elk from my Dad. If I have the space, I'd like to freeze some extra loaves of homemade bread too!

One tip I learned: Do not freeze things that you made that were weird or gross cooking experiments, like my quinoa enchilada casserole, just because you are too cheap to throw out food. If you aren't going to eat it now, you won't want to eat it later either! (Unless of course you are bulk cooking and saving meals or portions for future fast meals).

Great Activities for Kids

Little girls especially seem to love these cards which are chock full of girly little crafts!

My aunt got us these cards for Christmas this year and they are so neat! I just wanted to post them so that moms who are looking to stock up on Rainy or Snowy Day activities could know about them. Fortunately in our town, it's finally starting to feel like spring, with yesterday being in the low 70s!
I think these cards cost about $10 a pack new but you may be able to find them for less online. Not sure where she purchased them. On the back of each card are the instructions for how to do the craft/activity pictured on the front.

These cards were a gift from my friend Heather. When I have some "spare time" I plan to color them. Great way to help the kids get their wiggles out and exercise on an afternoon stuck indoors!

Shopping Therapy

What is it about shopping that feels like therapy sometimes? When I was feeling down on Saturday morning about all the little pink and brightly colored dresses that will be going to my cousin's new baby girl now, I hit some yard sales. Thankfully the one sale in town with all the baby and kid stuff had no frilly girl clothes at all, only lots and lots of little boy clothes. Score! I also found a beautiful new scrapbook, complete with some baby stickers and paper and cut-outs that will be perfect for a little guy (yellowish colored) and it was only $1! It's actually the exact same scrapbook I was given as a gift for Ali so now they will have matching books!

The thrift store also had some great deals. All their nice onesies were boy ones and were from Gap and Old Navy and there were even a couple that were brand new with tags still on them for only 25 cents! (And, I have to add, that one was even organic cotton!)

While I don't think it's healthy to look to new things to make you happy or to satisfy you, there was something fun about finding some adorable things for my new baby that I can look forward to giving him in the future, proving to myself that baby boys can be just as fun as baby girls!

Oh, and another reason I'm thrilled to be having a little boy is yesterday one of my best friends found out she is having a little boy too, her very first after two girls! She's due just a couple of weeks after me, and even though she lives far away, our boys can play when we get together for visits! Congratulations Sam and Lesley! See their blog here. (I guess they'll have to change their blog name!)

Seeing Blue in August

On Friday, we got to experience one of the neatest things ever: Our first ever ultrasound! In the past our insurance hasn't covered them and we've wondered about the safety, but I figured that since it's covered this time and everyone has them and their babies seem normal, we decided one wouldn't hurt! Wow! Now I can see why they save lives in pregnancy centers. It is so awesome to see pics of one's little tiny one and know that you aren't imagining being pregnant, there really is a tiny, fully-formed human being in there!

When we found out that our itty-bitty-belly-dweller was a second heir to the family name, to say I was shocked was an understatement! I was SO convinced it was a girl, based on lots of factors: I have NEVER been wrong before with "intuition" and I felt so sure this was a girl, I really wanted another daughter, Ali wanted a sister, the timing of conception, the pregnancy itself (my first and third felt the same; with Jer I lost twice as much weight), the fact that we had only a girl named picked out (from back when I was preggo with Jer) , all of my cousins and friends having girls this year, etc. I know it's absolutely nuts and crazy of me to build such a fantasy on what isn't actual truth, but the sad thing is, that I DID, convincing myself the baby was a daughter! I had the pink cloth diapers (only 4 thankfully) cut out and ready to sew, a nice piece of fuzzy pink blanket material I had dug out of the sewing tub ready to make into a blankie, plans for matching mommy and daughter dresses out of some floral fabric I have, little pink leather shoes in the works for our "baby girl," even the baby announcement ideas going in my head, a girly scrapbook kit I snagged brand-new at a yard sale last summer for hardly anything that would have been perfect for a baby girl's baby book, and some adorable dresses from the thrift store (which will now go to my cousin who's due any day with a girl). I also had this vision in my head of two little girls playing tea party together, giggling and sharing secrets, and wearing matching dresses occasionally. I had this idea of more than one daughter to share life with as a friend someday, going out for Girls' Nights Out and watching them grow into godly young women and get married and have babies of their own, while Jeremiah hangs out with Dad and is his right-hand man. Having never had a sister I think I always wanted for my daughter what I didn't have. Since Alathia is such a strong-willed little thing and full of spunk I was also curious to see if another girl would be more quiet and compliant. If nothing else, I wanted to prove my Dad wrong, who was SO sure that I would be exactly like my mom and have one girl followed by two boys!

Needless to say, a dream, even one formed on false premises, does indeed die hard when it dies! I was dealing with such disappointment throughout the day on Friday, wondering how I could possibly feel this way when others would just be thankful to have ANY baby and knowing in my heart that God is the author of life and HE GAVE US EXACTLY WHAT HE WANTED US TO HAVE! I kept telling myself how precious Jeremiah is to me and how I know when I hold this tiny little guy in my arms I wouldn't think of trading him for a dozen girls! I thought of my own brothers and how I wouldn't trade them for a sister for anything and how nice they have grown up to be.

My husband tried to make me feel better by pointing out all the positives of having little boys. Jeremiah is surrounded by a domineering big sis and lots of neighbor girls so he will benefit from having a boy to play with close in age. King Jo reminded me of the darling boys (now grown into young adults) whom he grew up (anyone know the Kangas clan?) and how sweet and kind they are and how much they help out with the family business and the chores. King Jo assured me that we'll probably have another girl somewhere down the line (so my dreams listed above aren't necessarily completely impossible at this point!)

What I learned from this experience is that often we as human beings lay our plans, whether in thought or in action, and we have this idea of how things should go. Sometimes those plans are founded on fantasy and not reality. Sometimes those plans are not God's plans. He has something different, and yes, better, in store for us! He knows what we need better than we do. The gifts He gives are perfect for us, designed with His glory in mind. I have learned that it was foolish of me to put so much stock in a feeling instead of just waiting to see what God had in store for us!

God knows what this little boy will grow up to be. Perhaps he will write a wonderful book, build beautiful homes for people, serve as a missionary or pastor, or save lives in his profession. No doubt, the Lord knows that we need sons since they have such a wonderful and amazing father to model and learn how to be godly men from! And my friends with lots of beautiful little daughters will need to know there are still honorable men left on the earth to marry their girls!

So, even if I felt the sting of "the death of my baby girl dream" I realized that upon the death of one dream, a new one can form. I pulled out the little boy clothes from the shed and have been looking at pictures of a tiny newborn Jeremiah to remind myself how unbelievable and precious little boys can be. As I stared at the profile of my baby's ultrasound photo last night, tears rolled down my cheeks as I thought of how healthy and perfect he is and how much I love him in spite of the shock! As I stared at my little toddler son in his crib last night, who woke up calling, "Mama!" in the night and felt his fuzzy little hair, and held his little body, clad in fuzzy blue pajamas, with a Curious George tucked under his arm, I knew that another little son would be every bit as precious as he is to us! And deep in my closet there is a beautiful blue crocheted blanket that I'd started for a cousin several years ago but hadn't finished in time. Once it was done, I tucked it away in my gift stash, waiting for a special family member to have a boy. Now I know a little boy I can give it to, with a Mama's love! (It's pictured above!)

Update: Since I wrote this post a couple of days ago but didn't publish it until all of our family members had been told, my attitude has really lifted and now it seems just natural that we're having another boy. It's funny how you can believe you are having a girl for over 110 days and then 2 days after the shock of finding out SHE is a HE, you are already dreaming of blue little clothes and little brothers that play trucks together and thinking about strapping sons to carry on the family name. Isn't it a good thing we women are so adaptable?

Mothering With Gentleness... Continued...

It's really good for me to have this emphasis and to be accountable to my blog about it. It's such a crucial time for me to learn gentleness as I have two little ones that make endless messes and have endless demands and I'm dealing with the fatigue of pregnancy which can make one very short-tempered. I've had some good days, and then some set-backs. I prided myself on keeping calm when my daughter spilled water all over a birthday check I had received, even though I was tempted to holler and started to. But then the next day when she spilled water all over some new activity cards, after being told not to play with water I was furious and really blew it on the gentleness thing! So, I'm definitely going to need to work on this area for a long time!

One thing that helps me is that even if my kids are tiny and don't always understand, I always apologize and ask their forgiveness when I know I've wronged them (been harsh with them). This is humbling but necessary.

I made a poster for my kitchen, pictured above, as a reminder to work on PATIENCE and GENTLENESS. I try to pray daily for God's help in this area when we do morning devotions and then throughout the day when I feel myself getting tense. I know my husband prays for me a lot too, which is wonderful.

One thing that is hard for me to do, but really DOES help, is to go to bed earlier than normal. Everything seems to go better and I wake up feeling ready to tackle the day with a good attitude instead of feeling like a zombie that was drug up from the grave. I'm sure good nutrition helps play a part in overall good feeling too!

Other things that have helped is consistently sticking with a routine (my binder schedule) so that the kids know what to expect in the day and not being too busy or going too many places so that I'm overwhelmed and stressed and always hurrying them along.

Another HUGE thing that has helped me in my quest to be a Gentle Mother is that every day we go through a rule of this house from our book The 21 Rules of This House by Gregg and Josh Harris. It's pretty hard to tell your kid that our rules include, "When we need to correct someone, we correct them in love" and "We speak kindly and respectfully with one another" and "We do not hurt one another with unkind words or deeds" and then to break them yourself throughout the day! Helping Ali memorize our household rules has helped ME to remember to follow them too!

It's scary to watch how much toddlers copy us! Especially little girls who want to be just like their Mamas! As I watch Ali interacting with her baby dolls or her little brother, I see her reflecting my actions and words in everything. This is extra motivation for me to be a gentle and loving mother because I want her to treat other with gentleness too!

Eating Up the Freezer Stuff

This week I took a look at my stuffed freezer and realized I don't even have a clue what lurks at the back anymore. So, I determined that we eat up as much as we possibly can this week so that we can have some room in there for any sales that come up. I'd also like to be able to bake bread once a week and freeze a couple of loaves instead of making it every few days.

So, what did I find in the freezer:
* Frozen pumpkin and zucchini from friend's fall harvest
* A few packages of veggies
* Some individual portions of lunches/soups I had been saving for a hectic day
* Lots of chopped peppers (I stocked up on a good sale and chopped them all to have on hand since normally they are way too expensive for our budget)
* Lots of hamburger (some cooked, some not)
*Bread crumbs I have been saving to make homemade croutons out of
* A few popsicles from who knows when! Obviously not the kind my hubby likes since he can eat about 10 popsicles a day in the summer if they are a kind he likes

So, what's the plan?

*I made pepper chicken for my parents on Sunday evening, a yummy dish that used up most of the peppers
*I made 3 big loaves of pumpkin spice bread (good snack for the kids and I can freeze a loaf for fellowship Sunday)
*I'm planning to make croutons today by lightly coating the crumbs with butter and garlic salt and toasting in the oven
* The kids can eat the popsicles outside for snack today (thank the Lord it's getting warm enough for them to play outside!)
*We ate up quite a few of the frozen lunches for lunch in the last couple of days
*The veggies will definitely get used with our suppers this week. It's nice that we have food to use up since this was a slim week budget-wise due to some other expensive things I had to buy: diapers/stamps, etc.
* The cooked hamburger will be added to the spaghetti sauce for spaghetti tonight. We usually eat it meatless, but my husband will consider it a nice treat to have some hamburger in it tonight. The raw hamburger doesn't have to be used up, but I'm thinking that in a week or two we should fire up the grill and have a barbecue with the Mexican neighbors and serve them American food (hamburgers, chips, potato salad, etc.)

What kind of stuff lurks at the back of your freezer?

Project Minivan Update!!!

Exciting news about our minivan project! King Jo's sis is a missionary, currently stationed at headquarters in Texas. She is heading to Asia in early June. Her van, which her folks had given her a couple of years ago, broke down this weekend and is toast. So, she was stranded without a vehicle and called her folks for advice. It would have cost them a lot to travel 18 hours down to TX to help her buy a vehicle, so they just looked online and found one on Craig's List. They saw a lot of cheap deals online, but they worried that these wouldn't be all that reliable. Since they knew we were going to have them purchase us a van in the Twin Cities this summer anyway, they decided to get a really nice one and she can drive it for 2 months and then leave it in MN with them. They will bring it out when they come out to visit us this summer! The great news is that although my father-in-law spent $5,000 on the van, he offered to sell it to us for our target price, which was $3,500!!! Isn't that awesome? Of course, if we don't want this van, my FIL will gladly take it, since they would like to eventually have a minivan again too. We are so excited since we have never had such a nice vehicle and it will be perfect for our growing family. What a fast answer to prayer! We continue to try to save and pray that God would help us raise the money to buy this van. I can't wait to tell my kids the story of how God provided it when we all ride it in together for the first time!

It's a dark blue, Chrysler Town and Country luxury edition van, 2002 model!

Announcing.....Maternity Fashion Show!

Since I've recently been pulling out boxes of maternity clothes from the shed I've noticed that although I have quite a few maternity clothes, they are mostly:

*Drab, ugly colors

*Fall/winter styles (which makes sense considering I've had 2 winter babies so far)

*Not at all in my best colors for my skin/hair coloring

*Overly low-cut and see-through (hand-me-downs from folks)

*Ill-fitting (made for bigger or smaller people)

I do have quite a few nice pair of jeans and khakis for this pregnancy, but I'm anxious to do something about the lack of cute tops and skirts. This is why I'm asking for help from my blog readers! I will be doing a maternity fashion show on here in about a week and I need YOUR pics of you wearing your cutest clothes while pregnant. So, here is your chance to show off those belly shots! If you have ever been pregnant and have between 1-4 photos of really snazzy maternity clothes/outfits, please e-mail them to me at: heyalethia (at) hotmail

They will be featured on my blog, along with your first name and the link to your blog (if you have one). For fun, let me know how preggo you were at the time of each shot. I hope I get a good response so we can all get some ideas of how to be pretty while pregnant!

Whittling Down the Grocery Budget

Anyone else noticed groceries going up dramatically? I usually buy the cheapest box of lasagna at Wal-Mart. It went up from $1 to $1.39! Both grocery stores in town have raised bananas to 69 cents a pound! I'm furious! Even celery went up by about 30%! Since I'm trying to cut out a bit of my grocery budget in order to put it towards our minivan fund, I'm finding that it's taking MORE and MORE effort than ever to whittle down the grocery budget. So here are some of my tips:

*Definitely shop around. Because both grocery stores are within 2 blocks of our home, it's well worth the minimal extra time to shop both stores each week and catch the "Loss Leaders" at each. It even pays off big time to go to Wal-Mart 2 or 3 times a month (30 miles away) because of the way lower prices in food there.

*Plan lower cost meals. I shoot for inexpensive meals, with one or two nice meals per week thrown in. Some of my low-cost favorites include: spaghetti (we like it meatless), Tuna Gravy on homemade biscuits, Roast and potatoes (elk roast free from my dad), Stir fry, Homemade pizza, homemade soups or chilis. For fun I will throw in a more expensive meal, like lasagna, fettuccini alfredo, or Indian tacos for date night or special occasions.

*If something isn't a really good price in your mind, go without. This means planning your weekly menu around the sales and not being too brand loyal to things. I refuse to buy things that are out of my target range. From now on our bananas will come from Wal-Mart (at 48 cents a pound) or we'll buy off the ripened reduced rack (39 cents a pound.) Contrary to what our culture teaches, you DON'T deserve a break today and you SHOULDN'T buy what you don't have money for.

*Splurge on one thing at a time. Every Friday I try to make sure we have something "special" for our in-home movie night together as a couple. Whether it's making sure we have ice-cream (my hubby's favorite snack food) or some peanuts or homemade cookies made up, I like to have a treat for us both to look forward to. However, I have to remind myself that ONE treat is enough. This week I wanted to buy my husband a few of his favorite snack foods and then realized it wasn't in the realm of our budget. So, he got ice-cream this week and he'll get his favorite peanuts next time!

*Quit being lazy. There is no doubt about it, laziness costs money. Our family can live off a lot less if I am making my own bread, which is more nutritious and filling and is great snack food for the kids, rather than loaves at $3 a loaf. Rinsing out cloth diapers may take a few extra minutes but it saves so much on diapers to use cloth during the day! Making your own laundry soap is a breeze and a huge relief to the budget. Being willing to cook my pizza and biscuits, and desserts from scratch and cutting up my own fruit and veggies rather than buying them pre-prepared really does cost a lot less. There are definitely seasons of life where paying extra is worth it (morning sickness or having the flu or having one of "those days") but if laziness is your usual habit, you will find your grocery budget climbing.

*Be creative about snacks. Instead of crackers, pop some popcorn on the stove and lightly salt it for the kids. A bag of raisins in bulk or on clearance makes another good kid snack. Make up a big batch of pancakes or waffles and keep them in the freezer for quick snack fixes. Use Crystal's tips over at moneysavingmom to get snacks/crackers/cereals for free with coupons.

*Plan ahead. Nothing is more tempting than hitting up the drive through if you are shopping away from home with hungry kids or you are headed home from the park and are too tired to think about making lunch. This is why I find it helpful to plan my meals ahead of time, prep for supper early in the morning if possible, and pack snacks and drinks for car trips/park trips and shopping trips out of our town. Eating out can be a fun treat now and then but it's crazy how much one family with only tiny kids can spend on just one lunch out. We prefer not to eat out too often since one meal in a restaurant could buy our family of four nutritious and delicious meals for a few days!

*Have a "Clean Out the Pantry Week." I shop the great deals and clearances to stock our pantry, so when we are having a lean week sometimes it's fun to do a weeklong challenge of trying to use up what we have in our freezer and pantry. Often there are things stuffed at the back of the freezer you have forgotten about or cans growing dusty on the shelf in your pantry.

Little Boys Love Balloons!

The highlight of Jeremiah's week is getting a free balloon at the grocery store on Saturday. I had to post these pics of him enjoying his balloon because they were so animated!

TimeSaver Tip---Taking Meals to Folks

This week I was asked to do a meal for a friend who had a baby. I got to thinking that there was another couple in our church who brought us a nice meal recently and wanted to pay them back and I also remembered that it's about time I give my bachelor brother another home-cooked meal (his b-day gift was 3 or 4 meals delivered throughout the year). So, instead of doing these things on 3 separate occasions, I killed 3 birds with 1 stone and made a huge amount of nacho fixings and divided them into fourths so that there was enough for us and the 3 other families/people. Doing it for 3 is really no harder than doing it for 1 and it's a joy to be able to bless others.

Anyone who is into bulk cooking knows that it's a time and money saver! It's a lot of work all at once, but you reap the benefits of only having to dirty the dishes once and food is often cheaper in bulk quantities.

So, if there are a couple of families you've been meaning to take a meal to, plan to do it all on the same day!

Fry Bread Delights!

This fry bread can be sliced like a bun and taco ingredients fitted inside or just pile the ingredients on top without slicing if you don't mind a thick taco!

Indian tacos are so yummy! Add all of your favorite taco fixings!

Hot and fresh fry bread drizzled with butter and powdered sugar (or honey) is a yummy treat!

If you have ever been to the fair, you have probably seen fry bread (which is sometimes called by other names). It is pricey, but delicious! That's why I was thrilled to learn how to make Fry Bread in my teens when I worked in a Deli. Then when I was in college, I took a little class from a Native Chippewa woman who demonstrated her authentic method of doing it. I was hooked and it is SO EASY and SO GOOD! And very frugal to do it yourself! Treat your family and friends to some Indian Tacos or dessert Fry Bread with this recipe:

4 C. Flour
1/4 t. salt
1/4 C. sugar
4 t. baking powder
Blend with a whisk or fork. Make a well in the center of the ingredients and add:
1 C. milk
2 C. warm water

Whisk the liquids in the center of the bowl (in the well) and gradually stir in the dry ingredients from the sides of the bowl. Add more flour as needed to form a dough that can be worked with. Knead with your hands in the bowl a few times and then put a paper towel on top and let the dough rest for 20 minutes. Pinch off lumps a little bigger than a golf ball and flatten them, work them, with your hands to resemble pancakes. Put a little hole in the middle as this helps the center cook better. Fry in hot oil (I poured about 20 oz. of vegetable oil in a regular skillet) until brown on both sides. If your oil is too hot, the bread will turn dark brown after only 20 seconds. Ideally, for the bread to cook well and not be doughy, you want to cook it about a minute or two per side. Flip with tongs and then when the fry bread is a nice golden brown, drain on paper towels.
Serve immediately. Leftovers don't taste nearly as good but they can be frozen for future use or stored in a ziploc bag for a day or two. When sliced in half, you can toast them like bagels or eat them like toast.
This recipe makes quite a bit! I think we got about 16 pieces of fry bread out of it.

Blessed to be a Blessing

The other day I was talking with a young woman who is passionate about serving God and helping battered women and women in trouble. She is a wonderful gal, but she is in difficult circumstances this summer as she is required by her Bible college to do an internship, but the internship doesn't pay. She's from a family that can't help her financially, and she is not allowed to work other jobs here because she is a citizen of her home country, in Africa. She will have literally no money left for college or for living expenses this summer, yet she feels that God wants her to work full-time with a crisis pregnancy/woman's shelter this summer for her internship. She isn't sure if she can send out support letters, and if she does, they will be non-tax-deductible. She was saying that she hardly knows any Americans to send support to, but if she sent letters to friends/churches in Africa, they would scrape and sacrifice direly-needed money and by the time it was converted to American funds it would be around $10 and hardly help her out. She also can't really take a year off of college to work since her school visa is for a set amount of time and when it's expired, that's it. Her goal is to return to her home country and be a missionary working with African women and children.

I was blessed by talking with this woman and hearing stories of how God is providing for her and what He is doing in her life. When I went home I felt God nudge me and tell me that I have been blessed in order to bless others. Being frugal and shopping the deals isn't about hoarding as much as I can for ME, and MY FAMILY and accumulating a huge stash I can brag about. I have so many things stocked in my gift box and in my pantry that I have gotten for free, or for hardly anything thanks to God's blessing. So, at God's leading, I filled a couple of bags for her of medicines, hygiene items, and non-perishable food and sent it back to her college with her. She nearly started crying when I handed her the bags. At first she said she was tempted by the enemy to think that I had thought she was begging when she was telling me her situation the other day. But then God spoke to her and reminded her that HE is the One providing and desiring to confirm HIS plans in her life and it is a gift from HIM. I hope that this small gift can in some way save her money on necessities and show her that God is taking care of her, even in the little things. I also hope we can support her financially this summer as I have a heart for pro-life ministry and yet don't always know how I can help since there isn't a crisis pregnancy center in our town and we don't have an abortion clinic nearby.
I write this story, not to brag about some good deed I did, because I honestly know it was God who laid the idea on my heart, and God who provided the stuff in the first place, but instead to share with my blog readers one way that they can use what they have to bless others. Many of you are coupon shoppers/deal shoppers and I hope those of you will be willing to share with people God brings into your life. And even if you don't have a lot, sometimes God will require to give up something that you would prefer to keep, or share something you think that you can't afford to, but He will bless you for your obedience!

Project Minivan Update

Here is an update on how Project Minivan is going. Starting in April, I will be saving $20 a week of my grocery budget for this fund. God has blessed us with tons of free food recently so I know it will be very possible to do this. One of the Mexican families here left abruptly with very little warning and before they left they gave us a bunch of stuff from their pantry and several pounds of hamburger, some frozen fish, and a whole turkey from their freezer. We were sad to see them go though! One family, the most demanding one, still remains.

Here I was looking for ideas to make a few bucks here and there, and my husband, being the financier of the family, goes and saves hundreds of dollars with the touch of a pen on the budget sheet! However, I'm not complaining! So far, the Minivan Fund is at $766 as of today! Hurray! We got a notice about the Economic Stimulus refund and we are excited about that as well as it should bring our fund up to $2,400. Our goal is $3,500-$4,000, which will buy us a decent used minivan in the Twin Cities (unfortunately the picture above is just for fun, not the actual van we hope to buy!). King Jo's folks have tentatively offered to purchase and drive out a van for us in July or August. That would be wonderful!

With no surprise emergencies, and careful spending in the coming months, we should be able to buy it for cash around the time the baby makes his/her arrival!

What financial goals do you and your family have for this summer?

Try This Recipe!

One of my favorite cooking sites is http://www.tammysrecipes.com/ Looking at the pictures of the things she makes will always make you hungry! I recently tried her homemade dessert pizza and it was yummy! I recommend it for breakfast or brunch. It takes a little time to prepare the 4 layers, but if you love to cook (or eat!) you won't mind. Definitely check out this site if you are one of the few bloggers who isn't already a fan of Tammy's. My pizza isn't that "pretty" but it tasted good anyway!

Guatamalan Gifts

Ali got a backpack purse which she proudly took to church on Easter Sunday. Notice her pink sneakers with her dress. She insisted on wearing them!

Colter sent back a Guatamalan baby carrier for me as my birthday present. Grammy models how to use it with a startled Jeremiah!

A beautiful woven wrap-around and an embroidered top to match it! I may have to save this outfit for post-pregnancy!

A pretty little coin purse with some spending money inside. Thanks Mom and Dad!

My folks spent Spring Break in Guatamala with my brother who was a missionary. They had a wonderful time and many interesting experiences. My dad, who is a business owner/carpenter/craftsman, got a kick out of the enthusiasm of the merchants in the market. They would throw candy at you and then expect you to pay for it. The merchants in the dress shop were so eager to sell my mom a dress, even though it didn't fit her, that they ripped the dress apart and re-did the seams for her so she would buy it.

To quote my brother, regarding their bus experience, 'It was jam packed and so we had to squeeze ourselves in and stand up holding onto the bar on the bus roof. They kept packing more and more people in and I kept getting forced tighter and closer to the woman behind me. At one point two large women were sitting on each side of the isle and I could barely squeeze my legs through between their thighs. It was quite a ride!" There were about 120 people on a bus built for 40!

My folks also got Jeremiah a soccer ball, Ali a little embroidered apron, Josiah a hacky sack, and our new baby some cute little woven booties.

Odds and Ends

Here's a weird question, but one I haven't found an answer to yet, so if you have a suggestion, please let me know:

Is there a "healthy" alternative to Ramen noodle soup? I get hungry for it every now and then and it's such a fast fix for lunches but I don't want my kids to grow up on MSG either! I had it a lot as a kid and like it, but was wondering if there is a better alternative?

Note to "The Momma": I appreciate all your wise advise and comments here! I've tried to comment on your blog but my computer never lets me. I was so proud of your cute shoes you posted a while back and I thank you for the tips on sugar. Even though we tried to control the Easter candy, it was a hopeless cause since everyone else gave our kids sugar and that is likely why they were so awful on Monday!

Where did I find the great books I recently posted on? I saw them in a CBD homeschoolers resources catalog and asked my in-laws to buy them. They either bought them from www.christianbook.com or www.amazon.com If you plan to homeschool, you will find yourself drooling over everything in the CBD catalog!

The Sweetest Gift

My husband really blew me away this year with his wonderful gifts! He got me a gift certificate to buy some new Crocs, which I love to wear and my old ones have all the tread worn off. He got me some dark chocolate sticks to enjoy and some money for some books I've been wanting. But the highlight of my day, and perhaps the sweetest gift he's ever given me, was a homemade puzzle he made in the shop at work. He wrote all kinds of beautiful, mushy stuff on it about the day I was born and how God has worked in my life. He had sent me out of the house on Saturday to read at the park while he and the kids worked on this present. He dipped their fingerprints in paint and had them paint the puzzle. What a special gift and something I will always treasure! Ali even managed to keep it a surprise which was shocking since she told me most of my other presents (he took the kids shopping with him!) I'm not usually emotional about gifts, but I cried when I read the puzzle! Maybe it's the pregnancy hormones!

I love my darling husband who is my best friend in the whole world!

The tulip card is so cute I had to feature it on my blog. My friend Jessie made it and I plan to copy the design!

Surprises!

Yesterday we got a surprise package in the mail from our MN friends, the Hansons! Alathia was overjoyed with the lacing book she found in there for her. Jer got a page of Thomas the Train stickers and he proudly walked around carrying them, saying, "Too, Too" (choo choo). I enjoyed the chocolate and bookmark (a bookworm like me can always use a bookmark!) What a sweet and thoughtful friend!

P.S. I realize that almost every picture of Ali is taken in this ballerina outfit. Believe me, we are sick of it! It is her favorite thing to wear and I am so relieved when it is in the wash. She has about 30 cute outfits from hand-me-downs from church but of course she has to wear the same few things over and over and over........

Great Resources for Parents

I'm so excited about my new books. Especially after my rough evening with the kids (see yesterday's post!)

I've always been a Josh Harris fan, so of course I love this book by his father, illustrated by him when he was 18. My mom had the 21 Rules on our fridge during my teen years and I think they are great! We've already started memorizing them and coloring the pages and talking about them.

The book, Hints on Child Training is a good one for me. I enjoy hearing the wisdom of older people who have been there and done it and this guy is great! H. Clay Trumbull is the great-grandfather of Elisabeth Elliot, and he was an evangelist, a Civil War chaplain, a biblical archaeologist, and Sunday school pioneer who raised 8 children of his own. He wrote this book in 1890 but it's still practical for today. I was blown away by his chapter on denying kids things because he was talking about how many things kids "nowadays" are given and how many toys they have and how many are over-indulged. I thought, "Man, what if he could see our kids in 2008!" I haven't read all of it, but I have been especially encouraged in giving my child more choices, never scolding or yelling, and one of the best points I've read so far is not trying to over-do it. I think sometimes, especially when I'm with people I want to impress or people I'm sensitive around (like in-laws) I try to over-correct and get super uptight about making sure my kids are "perfect" or that everyone thinks I'm doing a great job of parenting. I loved how Mr. Trumbull emphasized sometimes letting the child alone and not being overly conscientious at parenting, like many in our culture today seem to be. Another great point he had was not to break the child's spirit. I've seen so many hard-core books on child discipline in Christian circles and this chapter really challenged me and helped me to see that it's not about forcing them to my will all the time, but training them to choose what is right.

Mommy Teach Me is a book for moms of preschoolers and I'm anxious to read it!

This book, published by Vision Forum, is a good storybook for children, emphasizing the alphabet and stories about Christian character.

Mothering with Gentleness.....continued....

Well, after my big post about mothering with gentleness, I was really working at it and thought I was doing pretty good the past few days with the child I struggle the most with. But wouldn't you know, all kinds of scenarios have come up to test me to the limits! Plugging the toliet and overflowing it with too much toliet paper, spilling all kinds of water all over, food messes, etc.

My usually happy little guy has been a whiner and fusser and wants to be held ALL the time! He cried for half of the church service in the nursery just because he thought that I was going to leave him, even though I kept telling him that it was my week to work the nursery! He was fussy at the church Easter dinner. He is fussy sometimes at home when he has no reason to be. I'm not sure if he's teething but whatever it is, it's ANNOYING! Then my friends had a little get-together for me at McDonalds to celebrate my birthday (thanks gals!) and my daughter was being a pest and hitting other kids; kids we don't even know as well as my friend's kids. Embarrassing, but typical! Can I go crawl in a hole and come out when my kid is in elementary school? Then, when we got home my little boy was due for a bath, having smeared himself and me with my birthday cake, and I undressed him and was preparing to give my daughter her additional punishment for being naughty at McDonald's and she was screaming, he was screaming because he was scared and he began running around naked, peeing all over the carpet and the doll on the living room floor! Ahhhhgh! I threw him in his little bathtub and tried to finish up with my daughter but he was screaming like he was being tortured and kept climbing out of the shower (we don't have a big tub) and slipping and falling out of the shower and smacking his head and trying to crawl across a wet floor while slipping and sliding and screaming! I could not for the life of me understand it as he LOVES baths and jumps to take one! So here I am with a kid playing slip-n-slide in the bathroom, getting all banged up from slipping and falling, another kid screaming bloody murder and all the while trying to scrub pee up from the living room all at the same time and live through all of the insanity! I was definitely more drill sergeant-like than gentle during this whole time! I finally got them calmed down and to bed and was so weary I wanted to sit down and cry. I'm just so glad that my in-laws bought me a parenting book I'd been wanting for my birthday. I think I'll go read it right now!

....To be continued......

Mothering With Gentleness

Maybe it's the fact that I have a very strong-willed preschooler, maybe it's pregnancy hormones, maybe it's the fact that we're too much alike or that we're just human beings in general that struggle with sin, but lately I've found myself SEVERELY lacking in gentleness. As I go over the love chapter (1 Cor. 13) and review the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5) it is my hope and prayer that God would help me to exhibit more gentleness, kindness, and patience in my mothering these days. I've been less like the softspoken, wise mothers portrayed in books and movies, and more like a "Drill Sergeant Mommy." I know the reasons for this. It's because being a mom is a job that is endless, with no days off, no breaks, and duty around the clock, whether you feel like it or not. Not only that, but motherhood is physically and mentally exhausting, especially in my condition. Kids can also be frustrating. It's not just that they spilled their milk, but that they spilled their milk for the 10th time this week, and did it after smearing jelly everywhere, 5 seconds after you cleaned the whole house AGAIN and mopped the floor. It's not that they have wasted 5 minutes of your day looking for socks and shoes but that they do the stalling/dinking/whining routine about 5 times a day when you are getting ready to go out or when they want to play outside or go to the laundry room with you. It's not that you hate feeding your kids, it's just that you get sick of filling sippy cups about 12 times a day and fixing 5-6 snacks per day per child and then doing the clean-up afterward.

It's easy to see why mothers, myself a the top of the list, struggle with gentleness. We have SO MUCH to accomplish in a day, that it's hard not to feel frustrated, angry, harsh, and snappy when little someones are doing everything they can, or so it seems, to make our lives harder and more difficult as they create more and more work for us.

Which is why I decided to occasionally post on this subject, to keep myself accountable to grow in this area and to seek ideas from my blog readers on growing in Gentleness as a mother. Here are some of my ideas for getting a start on this:

1. Memorize Scriptures about Gentleness.

2. Post a few little notes around the house with verses/one-word reminders about being gentle.

3. Cut down my schedule. Every now and then I find that the boundaries I've worked hard to create have slipped again and people are taking too much of me. I need to be better about screening calls again (as I have a frequent caller who takes up too much of my time for no reason) and saying "No" to friends who invite us to playdates that will just wear me out. A less-hectic schedule means less hurrying and stressing and less being snappy with the kids.

4. Play more soft music. I had been doing this, but recently we got out of the habit. Playing classical music or soft instrumentals really sets a more peaceful tone for the home.

5. Continue to read books on rearing children and discipline. Sometimes I find myself getting all worked up and treating childish behavior like outright defiance even though it's not the same thing. I need the refreshers on how to be consistent in dealing with disobedience, but not being a harsh taskmaster that expects more out of a child then they can developmentally do.

6. Ask my husband and friends to keep me accountable to this and to check up on me and see how I'm doing in the area of Gentle Mothering.

7. Clean-up the patio and get a sandbox ready for the kids so that they can spend a lot of time outside, wearing off energy without destroying the inside of our house!

8. Me Last. Moms feel like slaves on many a day, but it's interesting how we can still be selfish in spite of our constant chores, constant service, and their constant need for us. Even if I "think" my day is all about the kids, sometimes I have to step back and realize that it's really all about me. It's about getting their needs taken care of us as quickly as I can so I can move on to tackle "my" cleaning list, "my" blogging, "my" reading, "my" agenda for the day and how it should go. I need to re-adjust my attitude so that I see each day as a chance to serve my family with a cheerful heart, realizing that some good things or desirable things may have to go or be saved for a later time when they are in bed.

Some Guidelines for my Couponing

I have gotten very strict with myself on couponing. I tell myself that just because it's super cheap or free doesn't mean I have to:

A. Eat it if it's yucky junk food loaded with preservatives or sugar
B. Stock-pile it just because I can
C. Bust my butt to get the deals when I'm tired or sick or can't make the trip to the store
D. Beat myself up over coupons I forgot or deals I missed that my friends got
E. Do every deal my friends do
F. Pay for something (even just a little bit) if it's something I would have never bought or would never use but decided to get just because of the coupon. This is tempting because sometimes I can get $5 shampoos on clearance for 50 cents or a dollar a bottle but I REFUSE to buy it knowing that I have about 5 bottles of free shampoo to use up from Walgreens and I absolutely DO NOT need to pay for more that will just sit around forever and will eventually be given away or sold at a yard sale.
G. Take freebies that are worthless to me (air fresheners, denture creams, etc.)
H. Compromise the quality of my life or my family time (not to mention wasting gas) in order to deal shop
I. Deal shop constantly and become a shop-a-holic even if I am a "non-spending" shop-a-holic

Blessings!

Thanks to blog-reader and former acquaintence in MN, Lyndi, for the 12 packages of wet wipes you sent out in response to my complaining about the prices here! It is such a blessing since Jer has major blowouts and can use up a whole tub in a week. Thank you so much! Also, thanks to my sis-in-law for sending out about 25 little boy shirts for size 3T and 4T. I hardly ever see this size at yard sales and thrift shops and this will help out a lot for Jer in the coming year! In case you're wondering why she's giving me these shirts since she has a son the EXACT same age, it's because she ended up with loads and loads in this size and was willing to share half of them! Nice!

4 Month Pregnancy Pic

Now that a little baby bump has appeared I will post monthly pics. It will be interesting to

see if I get the most enormous with #3 since I'm stretched out from previous pregnancies. It's hard to imagine being bigger than I was with Jer since he was so close to the surface and seemed to go straight out!

Cravings

I'm not a southern person nor have I been to the South in the last 18 years but lately all I've been craving is good ol' Southern cuisine like fried chicken, peach pie, and mashed potatoes and gravy. Maybe this yummy pic of my homemade peach pie will cause some of you to whip out your rolling pins and get busy making some too!

Mortification

I recently got out for a night away from the kids. My friend and I and her daughter went to a play in a nearby town at a college and saw "Beauty and the Beast." It was a wonderful performance but my cough bugged me throughout the play and I sucked tons of cough drops. My poor friend though suffered the worst. We had assigned seats and guess who she would be assigned to sit next to? Her male OB/GYN from our town! He was there with his wife and daughter. Now, don't get me wrong. He's a nice guy and did his best to make polite conversation and introduced her to his wife and child. However, there is just something incredibly embarrassing about having to sit through a 2.5 hour play next to a guy who has seen it all and then some! Especially when he asks you how your post-birth bleeding is going! And not only had he delivered her baby 2 months ago, and did the 6 week check-up but he recently did another uterine procedure on her for birth control (*she's not a Christian to those of you who think bc is morally wrong for all Christians) and she has a follow up appointment with him tomorrow. Not only did she have to sit by him, but she ended up standing near him at intermission, and we were behind them in the line exiting the building. We were also behind them entering into the large college parking lot. Just when it seemed that we would never get away from him, we discovered he was parked EXACTLY next to us in a parking lot of hundreds of cars!
I know that as you age, these things don't really matter and with each kid you have you lose a ton of modesty and personal privacy. But still......I am so thankful to have midwives!

Hubby is in Trouble!

The last time the pantry got a thorough cleaning was about a month ago when my husband accidentally knocked a bottle of cooking wine off the pantry shelf, resulting in wine and broken glass everywhere. He cleaned most of it and I finished up since he had to go to work. The pantry got another thorough cleaning on Wednesday, when the flimsy aluminum shelf we had bought for the pantry finally gave way. Once again hubby bumped into it slightly (our pantry is tiny and we have a LOT stored in it) and the shelf did a slow, twisting, crumple, resulting in this.....(see above photo.) Thankfully, nothing broke or spilled, which was amazing since we had plenty of open flour bags and noodle boxes and glass jars on it. My husband caught the shelf and I helped him unload it quickly. Then we did a most un-frugal thing and ran out and bought the first sturdy shelf we could find a few minutes before the stores closed in town, figuring we needed it right away and couldn't wait for yard saling season or a chance to get to a bigger town to shop around. I guess this will teach us that buying the cheapest isn't always the smartest! That aluminum shelf was always wobbling and tilting and looking like the shelves were going to break under the weight of canned goods. We now have a sturdy Rubbermaid shelf in the pantry that is a bit smaller, but is rock-solid and unyielding when you bump it. Our pantry holds all our extra food, our garage-type items (car jack, tools), my bread machine, the snowboard, picnic stuff, and cleaning/laundry detergent stuff, the vacuum, the ironing board, the cleaning buckets, and is only as big as a bedroom closet!

Why is it that everything breaks on the same day? My dresser knob broke, and my husband broke my dustpan accidentally all on that same day! I also want to know why it is that when your house is spotless, no one ever comes to visit or drops by unexectedly, but when it's at it's worst, that's when everyone comes, especially people you really want to impress, like your landlords, your folks, or ladies from church?

I love playing with Mom's good deals!

Since it has been pretty nice this week we walked to the grocery store a few blocks away a couple of times. Cheerios were on a great deal. I was supposed to get these 10 boxes for $3, but the cashier I went to is kind of a pain and gave me a hard time about using manufactor's coupons with Safeway coupons. Other cashiers have no problem making it work, but she didn't know how and so I was bummed, but $6.50 is still a great deal for all these LARGE boxes of Cheerios, which my kids eat like crazy, and each box has a matchbox car in it as well!