Saving on Gas--Any Ideas?

With gas prices rising, there are definitely concerns among frugal people on how we can conserve in this area. It's alarming to me how the groceries are rising, seemingly almost overnight, at our local grocery stores. Not that I should be buying donuts or anything, but since it's a major treat for me when I'm pregnant, I went in for a raised sugar donut and the price had jumped 15 cents a donut this week! It was already WAY TOO high to start with!

So, what kinds of things do you plan to do in order to save on gas? I'd love to hear your ideas and comments on this subject!

What do I plan to do? Well, with a minivan coming soon, which will no doubt get less mileage than our Honda Accord and Toyota Camry, and with another child coming to the family, I will definitely have to cut back on my trips to the town 30 miles away for shopping. It's just not practical to eliminate them altogether due to the fact that groceries can be as much as twice the price here and buying just a few things over there more than pays for the gas to drive there, especially with all of the Walgreens freebies. However, once a month trips will likely replace my three-times-a-month trips I'm sure. We'll have to rework the grocery budget so that I get most of my money all at once instead of weekly chunks for food shopping.

I plan to walk and bike as much as my big belly will allow. One HUGE PLUS to the small apartment we live in is the central location in our town. It's only 2 blocks to either grocery store, 2 blocks to either video rental place, 3 blocks to the library and thrift shop, 4 blocks to Pamida, 6 blocks to our two best friends' homes, and a little under a mile to King Jo's work and my parent's house. The two best parks in town are both within a 20 minute walk or a 5-10 minute bike ride. I can easily bike to the garage sale corner (where everyone posts their yard sale signs) and I plan to limit my garage-sale-ing this summer and try to bike more and drive less since it's possible in a small town. Ali is signed up for swimming lessons but the pool is only a half a mile away, so we'll bike if the baby belly allows and if not, we'll walk!

I hope that we can also carpool with friends in order to squeeze in a few lake trips this summer, or necessary shopping trips to make the trips a bit cheaper. The price of gas really makes me question whether I really need to go somewhere or not these days! I've decided that staying home and throwing a pool party in the yard sounds a lot easier for an exhausted preggo lady than going on multiple day-long trips to bake in the scorching sun at the nearest lake an hour away. Now for those of you MN friends with lakes in your back yard.....I envy you!

Celebrating Mom

I love these cards, that have a space for a photo and a place for a foot and handprint (or two children's handprints) on either side. You can find them through Current catalog.

Well, I had a interesting and mostly wonderful Mother's Day. Earlier in the week Ali and I had fun getting all of the Grandma's cards together and stamping her and Jer's handprints on them. I had ordered them through http://www.currrentcatalog.com/ on sale and they were a great price and really cute for all of of the 5 Grandma's and Great-Grandma's in our families. For my mom and my mother-in-law, I had ordered a little kit that includes beads and instructions for making earrings. Ali loved putting the tiny beads on the rod and I twisted the rod with plyers in a couple of seconds. It was a very cheap, easy, but touching little craft we could give as a gift that both of our moms will use. It was fun to be able to tape them to a card explaining that Ali had "made them" and chosen the colors for the earrings too!



I also gave my mom a Venus embrace razor since I've acquired a stash in my freebies and she had hinted earlier this week that she's always wanted to try one. She also has really been needing some crocheted dishrags and I keep forgetting to make them for her for Christmas and birthdays so I finally remembered and made her a couple on Sat. night while we watched a movie. We had a wonderful church service and all the moms were encouraged and given a flower to plant and got to be first in line for the cake afterwards! Then my whole family went to the local Mexican food restaurant, which my mom LOVES, (and I do too) and we had a meal together. It was NOT such a fun time when Jer began fussing and whining uncontrollably, making a scene in a restaurant packed with people we knew from around town, and refusing to be consoled due to his great fatigue. So, King Jo and I had to take turns eating and going out on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, holding the fussy little pumpkin. This is becoming a habit with Jeremiah in restaurants, but mainly because we usually end up eating out on a Sunday and because our church schedule causes him to miss his morning nap, or only get a short one, and by the time we have a late lunch, he's reached his limit and needs to sleep.



The funniest moment in my day was when little Ali walked up after Children's Church proudly holding her project and a little card for me. It was a wooden spoon that had been painted lots of wild colors and had a ribbon through the handle to hang for a decoration. The card explained a little devotional on why Mothers are like spoons. Anyhow, Ali handed me the spoon with a big smile and said, "Look Mom! I made you a spanking spoon for Mother's Day!" I got a huge laugh out of that and so did all the folks I told at church. The lady who had taught Children's Church thought that was funny, as the idea hadn't ever occurred to her when she planned the project! She did say, however, that she's learned her lesson about giving 6 rambunctious preschoolers paint all at the same time and will never do that again as they covered their clothes and the Children's Church room with paint! I guess I now have a very fancy spanking spoon!

Frugal Friday--Cheap, Easy, Versatile Gift!!!

I saw someone give these at a birthday party this last week and I was hooked! Personalized towels/beach towels are a great gift idea for birthdays, graduations, weddings, and for folks of all ages. This towel is a gift for my special cousin Ashlee who is graduating from High School in a couple of weeks. I wanted to give her something she would use, and something that would be meaningful and show her I love her, and yet didn't break our small budget. I plan to put together a gift basket of things she can use at college to go with her towel out of my Walgreens stash of freebies.

Steps to making the towel:

1. Cut letters out of cute fabric colors.

2. Trace letters on Wonder-Under, a fusible paper sold at Wal-Mart for about $1 a yard. Be sure to place the letters right side up on the rough side of the paper, then trace around with a pencil and cut out. I probably used 1/5 or 1/6 of a yard for the name Ashlee.

3. Iron the cloth letters to the Wonder-Under letters.

4. Peel the paper off the cloth letters (there will now be a sticky adhesive on the wrong side of the letters). Stick the letters on the towel in the order you want them in and iron until they are firmly attached.

5. Zig-Zag stitch around the letters. I went around each letter 3 times and was done with the towel in exactly one hour.

Tips for making them fun:

If the person has the letter "i" in their name it is cute to use a large star/flower/circle button to dot the "i." Embellish the name with ribbons/buttons/lace, etc. as you desire. You could make a "Best Mom Ever" beach towel for Mother's Day, a "Bride and Groom" set of towels for a wedding, or come up with other holiday appropriate sayings or nicknames, initials, etc. I thought about doing a matching washcloth and handtowel, but I decided to start with just the beach towel/bath towel. Now no one will accidentally steal Ashlee's towel out of the dorm laundry room!

Cute Little Boy Clothes

My friend Shiloh found these little OshKosh baby overalls at a yard sale and bought them for Justus. They are so tiny and cute! The picture doesn't really do them justice (no pun intended). I'm not sure if Shiloh realized when she bought them that they are BRAND NEW, tags still on them too! Yard sale-ing is the best! I can't wait to see my baby boy in them!

Welcoming a New Sis-In-Law-To-Be, Any Tips?

Colter has been language learning in Argentina and Guatemala for the last 8 months. Anna is a missionary in Honduras.

My brother and the young lady he is courting are going to be in town for a week and I'm so excited! We didn't think we'd get to meet her until Christmas and it just worked out that they were both in the United States this month for a missions conference with their organization and they were able to fly out West for an extra week so our family could meet her. We have lots of fun things to do with them (Colter's ideas) so she will get to experience horseback riding, snowmobiling in the mountains, and swimming in the hot springs pools. Since neither of my younger brothers has ever brought home a woman he is determined to marry, I'm not sure exactly what to do to make her feel the most welcome and accepted into our family. Do you readers have any good tips?



My in-laws always did a wonderful job of getting to know me and making me feel a part of the family, but even so, it is always such a difficult adjustment because backgrounds/expectations/mannerisms are so different among families. My dad can be a real tease too, so I feel sorry for Anna already, and she hasn't even come yet! Hopefully a week with us won't scare her away!



I plan to put together a little basket of things I have in my Walgreens stash of freebies to lay on each of their beds. Ali is busy coloring pictures for them and is beyond excited since Uncle Coco is one of her favorite people and she hasn't seen him since last fall.

What have you done to welcome future sister-in-laws into the family? Any tips on what NOT to say or do?

I promise to post lots of pictures of our adventures in the coming days! In the meantime my mom is hiring me to help clean and plan menus.

More on Scream Free Parenting

Since this subject has really hit home with a lot of ladies, I wanted to post some more on it from the book Scream Free Parenting by Hal Edward Runkel. Now that we know we need to NOT be reactionary parents, how do we implement that? (Thanks for asking Thia!)

Here are the book chapter titles of his book. I've done my best to summarize the main points of each chapter as a way to expound on the subject.

Section 1 Becoming the Cool Parent Your Kids Really Need

1. Parenting is Not About Kid, It's About Parents. Emotional reactivity is our worst enemy when it comes to having great relationships. The only way to retain a position of influence with our children is to regain a position of control over ourselves.

2. Growing Up is Hard To Do, Especially for Grown-Ups
Part of being a grown-up is enduring discomfort now for the sake of a payoff later. Whenever we give in to our anxiety, we create the very outcome we're hoping to avoid. Parenting is very, very hard but we are to never stop growing and letting the hard times cause us to grow.

3. If You're Not Under Control, Then You Cannot Be in Charge
To be "in charge" as a parent means inspiring your children to motivate themselves. Why do we continually surrender control over our emotional responses to those around us? (As I pointed out in a previous post, the "CALM ME DOWN" thing).


Keeping Your Cool Means Creating Space

4. Begin With the End in Mind, but Let Go of the Final Results
Children are not machines or pets and parents are neithter their operators or owners. When it comes to relationships we cannot ever guarantee or control that end we desire. While working toward that end, we must let go of the need to achieve it. If you want your children to become self-directed adults, you have to face the truth that you cannot do it for them.

5. Kids Need Their Room
What children need most is parents who do not need them. Quote from Edwin H. Friedman, "The children who do best are the ones least essential to our own salvation." Without space to make their own mistakes, our kids live only borrowed lives.

6. Resistance is Futile; Practice Judo Parenting
Instead of always seeing a challenge to your authority (or an exertion of the will) as an impending battle, try seeing it as your child's developing growth. He is testing you to see that you are stable and consistent. And he desperately wants you to pass. The judo model of combat and the Scream Free model of relationships are very similar. Your children will try to engage you in a test. They only become battles if we accept the challenge and engage in the fight. Judo is the art of going with another's momentum (it is called The Way of Gentleness). He gives these examples:
"I'm bored." You could get angry, anxious, or blame yourself for you kid's boredom. Or you could overcompensate to solve their problem. But, a Scream Free parent would say, "What are you going to do about it?"
"Mommy, I can't do my homework." You could orbit around your child and become a homework hoverer, but the Scream Free parent is empathetic and says, "What are you going to do about it? Who can you call in your class to help you?" Your child's homework is supposed to make them struggle. It is designed to be difficult. Calm yourself down and let them struggle. Let them invite you alongside to help them through the struggle but don't try to hover and be there for them all the time. It's their problem, not yours.

"I don't wanna do it, and I'm not gonna do it!"
While most parents would yell, "Oh yes you are and you will do it right now!" the Scream Free parent learns to keep her cool and choose not to engage in this invitation to battle. She says, "You're not going to come inside huh? You have a choice. You can come inside or (consequence). I'll be back in a few minutes to see what you've decided."

7. You Are Not a Prophet (and Neither is Grandma)
Labels are among the most powerful forces that shape our relationship with the world. Whenever we label our children, even if we think they are positive labels, we severely limit their space. What you say ABOUT your kids is more important than what you say TO them. Change your vocabulary. Instead of saying, "You're always dramatic," say, "You can be dramatic." Instead of saying, "He's always been our studious one" say, "He can be quite studious." I like this quote, "Years ago, we gave our children beautiful names; let's stop there."

Section 3: Keeping Your Cool Means Creating a Place

8. Parents Set the Table by Setting the Tone (and Vice Versa)
Boundaries are both freeing and limiting. Stability and structure are necessary components in a healthy home. There is a personal side to parenting (fun, loving relationships) and a business side (rules, authority, structure, routine).

9. Let the Consequences Do the Screaming
All of our choices have consequences. The more our children are exposed to the small consequences of their small infractions, the less they will have to commit large infractions and experience large consequences. So many parents today can't let their kids face consequences. He gives examples of parents doing their kid's homework for them, fixing their traffic tickets for them, bailing them out, letting punishments slide, etc. Calming ourselves down while we watch our children choose poorly is about as difficult as it gets. We are tempted to panic, scream, get reactive and say the 4 horrible words, "I told you so!" But we need to choose to welcome consequences in our home (you reap what you sow) and walk alongside them as they struggle and suffer. Consequences are here to help us raise our children.

10. Empty Threats are Really Broken Promises
It comes down to integrity--meaning what you say, saying what you mean, and following through with what you promise. Be consistent! Kids will see an empty threat in the same way they would see a broken promise (A promise such as "I'm going to buy you an ice-cream," and then you change your mind. A kid knows that is just not right!)

1. Don't ever set a consequence that is tougher for you to enforce than it is for them to endure. If you set an impossible consequence, you will likely end up not following through with it. (Been there, done that, got the t-shirt! How many times have I threatened that we will go home from the park if she does it one more time when I really don't want to and want to stay and chat with my Mom friends?)

2. There are no shortcuts to setting and enforcing consequences. It is exhausting, difficult, and takes ruthless consistency. Keep on keeping on.

3. Only choose consequences you are willing to enforce. Know your motivations for the punishment you've chosen. If you think you ought to be spanking your child, but don't want to, then you aren't acting with integrity. If you don't want to be a spanking parent, but you find yourself doing it, then you aren't acting with integrity and your kid will pick up on your wishy-washy mindset and think you are out of control, doing things you don't want to be doing.

4. Only choose consequences you are willing to endure yourself. He gives an example of a man who was a speeder and his son had speeding tickets too. Instead of bribing his way out of the tickets, he chose to take his fines, as an example to his son, and let his son reap the consequences of his own speeding also. I think about how I need to be willing to always say I'm sorry and ask forgiveness when I wrong my kids just as I expect them to do to each other and me.

Section Four: Putting Yourself into Practice

11. Put on Your Own Oxygen Mask First
You cannot take care of your family unless you first tend to yourself. This is not advocating selfishness. When we think of the verse, "Love your neighbor as yourself" a lot of us, if we put that into practice, would be running our neighbors into the ground, feeding them junk, and keeping them up too late, etc. We need to love ourselves for others' benefit by taking care of ourselves so they don't have to. Seek to have a healthy life and be a good steward of your body. When we take care of ourselves, we truly benefit our kids without burdening them with the need to benefit us.


12. Revolutionary Relationships
In order to have revolutionary relationships, we need to start with our own reactions, our own emotions, our own choices.

Project Minivan Update

For those of you wondering how our Project Minivan is going......

Well, we "officially" own a vehicle we haven't even paid for! My sister-in-law sent us the title and then later a form filled out by a sheriff verifying the VIN number and I was able to take it down to the County Clerk's yesterday and pay $400 for taxes and plates. So, the title of the 2002 Chrysler Town and Country minivan is in my name, even though I've never actually seen it and we haven't paid a dime for it!

April had some unexpected car repair bills so we were only able to save a couple of hundred toward PM, bringing our total up to around $1,000. However, with the extra paycheck we will get in May (since May has 5 Fridays and we get paid every Friday), my husband is optimistic that we will be able to about double that amount by the end of May. Yeah! Our economic stimulus tax is coming too this summer which will boost our total to about exactly what we need. Of course there will be insurance costs too and we'd like to pay my in-laws' gas to drive it out here, but if we sell one of our other vehicles, that will give us even more toward this project. God is so good and He gets ALL the credit for providing for this need of ours!

More Blue Cake Pics

I think by the time this photo was taken Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Joel have got the mystery figured out!
My friend Hannah did such a nice job on the cake!

Our little nephew Daniel enjoyed his piece of cake the next morning!

My sister-in-law sent me these photos of the blue cake my in-laws received. I already posted pics a couple of weeks ago of my folks eating their blue cupcakes.

Gentle Mothering---Scream Free Parenting

Well folks, I've gone through most of the book, Scream Free Parenting by Hal Edward Runkel and I can honestly say it is a very good read and I highly recommend it. While it's not a "Christian" book, he does state in the beginning that he is a Christian and that influences his thoughts on this area but the book is for ALL parents and isn't written specifically to Christians.

One statement that I found interesting and thought-provoking is that he often says in the book that we need to stop focusing on our kids and focus on ourselves more. This sounds shocking and selfish until you realize what he means. He is referring to the fact that in our child-centered culture, we tend to think we are responsible FOR our kids and their every thought, emotion, choice, etc. We need to focus on US. We are not responsible FOR them, but TO them. We need to be sure OUR emotions, choices, and actions, etc. are right towards them. So, instead of focusing on the tantrum they are throwing and letting ourselves react with frustration and anger, we need to focus on OUR actions in the situation and take control of ourselves. Not being a reactionary parent is very, very hard for me. My dad recently discovered (thanks to the book that helped save their marriage a few years ago--Love and Respect) that he came from a super reactive home and learned patterns of reacting in anger to everything. While he was better than his dad was, he still was a reactionary and so was my mom and they just spun on the crazy cycle for 25 years of reacting to each other. I'm sure that my family influence is one reason I am very reactionary too but I think we all struggle with it as human beings born in sin. It's hard NOT to react when your kids smear your lipstick all over and ruin your favorite tube or track mud on the carpet you've just shampooed after being told 100 times not to. It's hard not to screech when they pop their newborn baby brother over the head with a toy or steal toys from friends for about the 50th time at a playdate. I remember back when Ali went through a stage of taking her clothes and diaper off every day and smearing poop all over everything in her room that I would scream, yell, spank, threaten and cry to no avail. It would happen again and again and I would try every method I could think of to get her to stop and to figure out that this was a horrible thing to do! However, she probably learned, more than anything, that it was fun to watch the Mommy Show and be in control of my emotions by pushing my buttons every day! She learned that Mommy definitely couldn't handle major poop messes!

This book helped me realize that I CANNOT control my kids. I'm responsible to discipline and train them and let them reap their own consequences, but I cannot program them like robots to do what I want. I CAN take control of my own emotions and actions. So many parenting books I have read have talked about how if you do A and B you get the results of C. It has never worked and has been so frustrating for me! I really liked this book for being a little different in emphasizing that kids will make their own choices and we need to let them. Of course there still need to be rules, consequences, and authority structure, but I need to stop thinking that everything Ali does is a reflection of me as a parent and taking every naughty thing she does personally and reacting to it.

The author clarifies that screaming doesn't just mean loud vocal action. He talks about different kinds of screaming parenting, using it as a term for various ways we react emotionally. It can be raising your voice, orbiting your life around theirs, cutting yourself off, trying to control their behavior and feelings, or sacrificing yourself for your family and then resenting them when they don't appreciate it.

The biggest and best concept I got from this book is on page 44. He writes, "When you scream at your kids, when you get emotionally reactive, you communicate one single message: CALM ME DOWN! No matter what words are actually coming out of your mouth, no matter how long your tirade is, no matter how old your child is, when you scream the message is : CALM ME DOWN! Whenever you react to your child's behavior by screaming, you actually begging them to help you calm your anxiety. You are saying you just cannot handle the fact that they will not obey or listen or calm down themselves. You cannot handle this, so you flip out. You are saying, "I need you to comply or else I'm going to lose it. And when I lose it, I'm going to need you to comply so I can calm back down. All my emotional responses are up to you."

"When you put all your emotional buttons in a child's hands, you become totally focused on them. You have begun a sort of orbit around them, attaching all of your emotional responses to how they perform in school, whether they use good manners, or the choices they are making today......."

"You have to make it your number-one priority to hold your own emotional responses in your own hands!!!" (Or, I would add, to lean on God to let His Spirit fill you and control you and help you to have self-control)!

So, this week Mrs. Jo is going to make a few signs to post around the main areas of the house that say CALM ME DOWN! This will be a reminder that if I allow my voice to get louder and louder as a way of making my kids obey (or if I get really upset over their messes and bad choices), then I am really giving them the control of Mommy.

I will post a few more thoughts I learned from this book in a future post! Check it out at your library if you find yourself encouraged by this post.

Light bulb!

Thanks to all the comments from folks about my Walgreens deals. I realize my mistake, paying for a Proctor and Gamble deal with P and G RR, so I know what NOT to do next time. It totally bums me out though because I now have figured out that I could have gotten everything in the picture for around $6! Oh well, next time I will know better! Couponing is a learning process!

Hopefully Spring is A' Comin'!

I don't know about you but I am tired of these really nice days followed by really snowy days followed by nice days, followed by snowy, etc. etc. I'm hoping that today's excellent weather is a sign that spring is finally here and is ready to STAY! No wonder I've had trouble getting rid of my cough over the last 2 months with weather like this! The other day when it was cold, wet, and snowy, I took comfort in a delicious bread bowl filled with piping hot clam chowder from my favorite sub shop in town. It doesn't get much better than that, especially for only $3.41 (which includes tax!) I snuggled up under a blankie and ate chocolate chip cookies that I dunked in milk while watching a 1950s Nancy Drew movie from the library during the kid's nap time.

I will admit that one of the hardest things for me when I'm pregnant is resisting food cravings for favorite treats from favorite local restaurants! I do get better with each pregnancy, perhaps because having kids means running around town less (less opportunity) and less money!

Gentle Mothering Reminder

I posted a few days ago on the Mothering with Gentleness Support Group. Kristin asked an interesting question about whether or not mothering comes naturally. What do you think? Don't forget to read the comments on that post and look for more posts on Gentle Mothering in the future!

Meal Plan for the Week

I enjoy looking at other people's meal plans/menus for inspiration so I decided to go ahead and post again on this subject just for fun. I try to incorporate some really inexpensive meals with some fancier stuff. This menu isn't nailed in stone since I will have to see what I can find in the grocery store. None of the sales at the 3 major grocery stores in our area were very impressive this week. I did notice a lot of Mexican food on sale for Cinco de Mayo so we will definitely be having at least one Mexican meal and will be stocking up on salsa and sour cream.

Suppers for the Week:

Bean Burritos (new recipe from my new Taste of Home's 5-Ingredient cookbook) Made with salsa, rice, beans, cheese, and I'm going to throw in some canned chilis since we like them

Salmon with dill sauce and baked potatoes (new recipe from that same cookbook mentioned above) We're trying to eat more salmon since we love it and it's one of the 14 Superfoods!

Crabby Alfredo (imitation crabmeat in Alfredo sauce on top of egg noodles (also a new recipe from above cookbook) homemade breadsticks and salad

Cheesy Chicken (Chicken with cheesy crumb coating, also new recipe from above cookbook)
Vegetables and rice on the side

Tuna Noodle Casserole (Mom's recipe and one of my favorite comfort foods; easy to make too!) French bread, jell-o and fruit

Spaghetti (An inexpensive stand-by that is quick and easy and we have the stuff on hand already. I've been experimenting with making my own sauce using canned tomatoes (since I have a ton from the Safeway deal a while back), frozen green peppers, and various herbs and spices and it's really yummy!) Garlic toast and veggies or salad

Breakfasts:
Usually cold cereal or toast

Lunches:
Leftovers, homemade mac n' cheese, or PB sandwiches

Snacks:
Cottage cheese (I'm trying to get more protein for Justus's sake)
Yogurt
Pretzels
Goldfish crackers
Homemade bread
Fruit
Popcorn

Last Week's Meals

Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

Prairie Fire Chicken Strips with dipping sauce served with brown rice and sauteed zuchinni and onions

Homemade Subs! These made for a delicious weekend supper, and the leftovers made a quick lunch after church. They tasted even better than the ones at my favorite sub shop in town!

Cowboy coffee cake and spiced cider for breakfast!

Spoil King Jo week was a success! I've included a few pics of some of the treats he received this week. With leftover sub stuff and leftover bacon from our pancake meal, he was also able to get a BLT in for lunch one day.



This was the second time I made Prairie Fire Chicken Strips. Both times I've used tenders but I think they would do better with whole breasts. Both fried in oil and baked in the oven the breading tends to fall off and be really crumbly so I'd like to find a way to make them and keep the breading stuck on. They are a lot of work and I've decided that you could get the same taste if you just bought already breaded chicken tenders, and served them with grilled jalapeno slices on top with the delicious, spicy dipping sauce that is a part of this recipe.



Prairie Fire Chicken Strips

(I found this recipe in a newspaper insert and simplified it based on what I have on hand.)

Marinade:
1 C. sour cream
1 T. lemon juice
1/2 t. seasoned salt
1/4 t. pepper
2 minced garlic cloves
10 chicken tenders, halved

Breading:
1 cup cornflakes (or oats can be used)
1 cup plain granola
1 cup finely chopped pecans (I skipped these)
1/2 c. chopped pickled jalapeno peppers or hot chili peppers
1/2 t. seasoned salt

Dipping Sauce:
1/3 cup Dijon mustard
2 T mayo
1/2 cup honey
1 minced garlic clove
1/2 t. cayenne pepper (add more to taste if desired)
1/4 t. pepper
2 T. sour cream
4 drops hot sauce (or to taste)

Refrigerate chicken in the marinade overnight.

Make dipping sauce by blending ingredients in a food processer or blender.

Bread chicken and fry in hot oil until browned on both sides or bake in oven for about 40 minutes at 400 degrees.

(Perhaps dipping chicken in an egg mix before dipping in breading would help hold the breading on better.)
These are definitely unique and yummy if you're in the mood for trying something new and wild with a kick!

The Gentle Mothering Support Group

Blog reader and MN friend, Kristin, mentioned that it's too bad we don't live near each other so that we can have a "Gentle Mothering Support Group." So, I thought I would turn my posts on this subject into an online support group. When I post on this area I'm working on, please feel free to leave comments about how God is working on you in this area and any tips you might have for me.

I have had a couple of weeks where I was doing SO WELL at being a gentle mother. I'm not sure what flipped the switch but all of a sudden, I find myself back to being a pirahna Mama this week! Hence the reason I felt the need to check this book out of the library! Ali goes through spurts of being really sweet and seeming like she has left all the defiance of toddlerhood behind and then she'll have weeks like this week where she challenges me, sasses me, and tests all the limits she possibly can (while making all the messes she possibly can). Gentle Jeremiah doesn't usually involke Mommy's anger but if he's fussy all day long due to not feeling good or is whiny and wants to be held all the time it can cause my nerves to fray and me to be very easily irritated.

To those of you who want to join this informal online support group: Please join me in praying this week for God's help in having patience and gentleness with the continual demands of little ones.

My tips of the week: I notice I am sooooooo much gentler when I make sleep a priority and go to bed early or take time to nap. Also, a balance of fresh air, exercise, and activities is great when it is balanced with plenty of time at home and not too much running around.

May Day

Plopping the playdough into jars.

The baskets, waiting to be delivered.

Running a basket to Fernie and Frida's apartment

Besides being the National Day of Prayer (on your knees ladies!) today is also May Day. I'm not sure exactly where the traditions of May Day got started, but I remember making little construction paper baskets as a child and delivering them to a few neighbors, ringing the doorbell and running away. As I got older I often included tracts and Christian magazines in the baskets for my unsaved neighbors and relatives. One man caught my brother and I out the back door and was fuming with us. We didn't understand why he was so mad until we realized he hadn't seen the basket and had thought we were just ringing the doorbell and running away for fun. He went back, found his basket, and kept thanking us every time he saw us for about the next year!



I don't do something for May Day every year but I decided that it would be fun for Ali to help me make up some baskets to bless her playmates with. She had fun with every aspect of it, from measuring ingredients and stirring the homemade playdough (Kristin's recipe), to making baskets, filling them, and delivering them (or watching me deliver them and run away after I rang the doorbell).



What was in our baskets? Each child received a little jar of homemade playdough (I have a huge stash of baby food jars I keep and save for crafts or making my own baby food). We tossed in a few pieces of candy, a couple of tiny boxes of raisins, and a sidewalk chalk for each child. Nothing fancy but enough to brighten a little kid's day!

A Little Lady in the Making?

Don't be fooled! While there are times it seems our little girl is quite the little lady, there are also times we have to wonder..... Such as last week when we were in a store and she whipped down her skirt and said, "Look Mom! I forgot to put undies on this morning!" Or today when I noticed her trying to color on things in the store and said, "Where did you find that crayon?" She said, "It was in my underwear!" I said, "Ew! Put it in my pocket!" She did and then pulled out another one, saying, "I had two in there!" We were stamping May baskets today and she was doing a wonderful job, being careful not to get ink on her hands so I ran to my bedroom to find a stapler. The phone rang and she delivered it to me in my room. When I saw her, I gasped. "What happened to your face?" Apparently in the couple of minutes I was out of sight she had stamped all over her face and shirt with ink! Little did I know the phone was covered too since she had answered it and so my face got ink on it from talking on the phone! What a mess!

My husband said he is convinced the worst is behind us. When I asked him what he meant by that he said, "I don't think we will ever have another kid as challenging as Ali so it can only get better from now on!" This theory remains to be tested!

(My mom gave us a little porcelain tea seat that she and her sister had as little girls. I played with it as a little girl too. We pulled it out the other day for a very special Mother-Daughter tea time!)

More Kid Funnies

The neighbor girls were running around in ballerina outfits saying, "We're sexy." We were horrified, but we understand that their mom tells them this a lot and she merely means "pretty" when she uses the term. I told them not to say that and to say, "We're beautiful" instead. So they began running around saying, "We are NOT sexy! We will NEVER be sexy! We're beautiful!"

King Jo played soccer outside with all the kids. Whenever they would get a ball past him the neighbor girls would say, "We beat him up! We beat Jose' up!" instead of "We beat him!"
I get a kick out of their language foibles, just as they get a kick out me when I speak Spanish!

When kids talk about what schools they go to, Ali always pipes up in a bossy little tone, "I go to my Grammy's school!" She really thinks she goes to school too just because we visit Grammy's classroom about once a month.

One day we went up to Grammy's room to see her new class pet, a gerbil. She said, "Where are all the kids?" I said, "It's after school, they all went home to be with their moms and dads." She said, "They don't have moms and dads! They are big kids!"

Ali put her ear up to my belly and listened for the baby. She no doubt heard my supper being digested. She said, "I hear him! I think the baby in your tummy tooted!"

Yesterday I was singing hymns while making supper. I looked over and saw Jeremiah sitting in his high chair and he had his hands over his ears!

I have a little vibrating massager my in-laws got me for Christmas. The kids love to use it and think it's a very fun toy indeed and they love to give us massages. Jer always calls them a "soj." The funny thing is, he'll come up and try to massage me while I'm making supper, but the highest he can reach is my rear end, so I get a bum massage!

Progress!

I wish I had taken a "before" pic of my sewing corner. Just picture lots of fabric piles, patterns, pins, and needles everywhere and thread all over the floor! Yes, the sewing table is awfully small and is in fact an end table, but my cute sewing desk with drawers, that I got at a yard sale and painted up a few summers ago, is in our storage shed since there is a lack of space in our apartment. This little sewing corner is one tiny corner of our living room, which functions as a playroom, den, laundry folding area, desk and office area, sewing area, school-time area, entryway, and diaper changing station!

In the process of cleaning the paper pile on the table, I found a bunch of the artwork that Ali and the neighbor girls had made for me. Since one of our kitchen walls was bare, I decided to rig up an Art Clothesline to hold the art of the week and thus eliminate clutter from my table. It brightens up the kitchen and showcases the creative talents of the kids.







It was exciting to see the clutter and piles disappear yesterday. I accomplished everything I had hoped to, but that doesn't mean that my house was perfect of course due to the fact that I have little people running around behind me all day un-doing what I do!

Making My Home a Haven Monday

Welll, even though Biblicalwomanhood isn't hosting their usual MHHM challenge, I wanted to do a post on it because today I have been extra motivated to de-clutter and work on my trouble zones.

The day started with our normal routines of breakfast/devotions/straightening the living room/Ali's movie time while Jer naps and Mommy paid bills and mailed letters. It felt so good to get rid of lots of "emotional debt" today. You know the kind of obligations that are hanging over your head to mail this or that thank-you note or get this or that bill paid or your Walgreens' rebate forms in, etc? It felt so good to get my April rebate form mailed, our new health insurance forms done and sent off, and all of our missionary support checks and correspondence done this morning!

Next, I deep cleaned the bathroom and took some laundry down to the laundry room to start a load. The bathroom had been needing a good cleaning so I felt great when that was done.

I then tackled the dishes. It would be nice if they were done completely every night before bed, but that doesn't always happen, which is fine since I have more energy for them in the morning.

I vacuumed the living room as well as the kid's room, and swept the kitchen floor a couple of times (once after breakfast, once after lunch). I cleaned countertops down, cleaned up the kids and got them down for naps so I could take a bit of a "Mommy break" to blog. After blogging, I plan to switch the laundry, quickly mop our sticky kitchen floor, and tackle 3 major clutter zones in our home. My little sewing corner, which needs straightened, our computer desk, which always invites paper clutter, and our table, which also invites the paper piles and miscellaneous odds and ends. I also need to pop a chicken in the oven to slow roast all afternoon. After these chores are accomplished I can feel like today was a VERY productive cleaning day for us and then I hope to take my kids for an afternoon walk as it should be around 70 today.

I don't always have the motivation or energy to tackle so many cleaning projects in a day but today I am feeling great, got good sleep last night and have taken my enormous prenatal vitamins that are supposed to be packed with energy-boosters! It feels good to de-clutter and make the house orderly. I have to admit that our house will never be perfect and that's just life when you have 3 little ones and live in small quarters!

I have been embarrassed more times than I want to admit by unexpected visitors dropping by when there is too much clutter or disorganization and remembering those times serves as excellent motivation for me to get my rear in gear and at least keep things presentable, if not perfect. I agree with whoever said that keeping on top of laundry, dishes, and paper piles will go a long way toward an orderly home! I also agree that less is more and the more you own, the more you have to take care of. So, there will be a lot of purging in preparation for the church yard sale this weekend!

The GIFT STASH

Baby Gift on a Budget

The Christmas onesie (which says, "Who needs Santa? I've got Grandma!") was

10 cents on a K-Mart clearance in February. The Aveeno baby lotion, part of last week's Walgreens deals, was around $1. The cute little stuffed lamb was $2 on after-Easter clearance sales at the local grocery store. A very nice baby gift for around $3!

When a friend reminded me at church about a baby shower for a gal we know that is tomorrow, I didn't have to panick, thanks to my trusty "Gift Stash." I always keep a gift stash out of habit because my mom had one and they are so useful. My gift stash is divided into 2 boxes and 2 bags which sit on the shelf in my bedroom closet. I have one large gift bag full of used gift bags, tissue paper, ribbons, and wrapping supplies. Then I have one large gift bag full of baby gifts only. I have so many friends having babies in this stage of life that I find it helpful to separate my things. The baby gift bag is where I stash brand new baby clothes I have found on clearances or at the thrift store for a quarter. Walgreens freebies that are for babies or great deals I've gotten on wipes or other baby items also go in there. When I need a baby gift, I can whip one out in a jiffy! My other couple of boxes hold all my excess freebies, gifts I've picked up for specific people on great deals or general gifts that can be used for a variety of holidays and occasions. Even though I have a gift stash, I still try to choose gifts for friends and loved ones that are special and useful to them. I don't just give someone any random thing at the top of the box. Last Christmas, I was trying to think of things to give my bachelor brother when I realized I had lots of men's products on hand thanks to freebie deals. He was living on a very tight budget at the time and so a gift of men's shampoo/deodorant, etc. was much appreciated! My mom and mother-in-law often appreciate the quality body washes or lotions I am able to get for hardly anything by shopping the deals. I also dig through my gift boxes frequently to make missionary care packages or look for something to bless someone who is sick or having a tough day. Of course we still buy gifts specifically for special people in our lives on top of having the Gift Stash, but the Gift Stash is so nice to have on hand.

For example, one day when my Grandpa first went into the hospital, my dad planned to make an emergency drive to MN late that night to be with his dad. He stopped by our house on the way out of town and I had already packed a lovely care package for Grandpa out of my Stash. The funny thing was, just 30 minutes before he came by to get the package, we got an e-mail from some friends of ours whose little girl was having heart surgery the next day. It turned out that they were in the exact same hospital, 1,000 miles away! So, quickly I dug through my kids' gifts in the Stash and found a couple of cute little things that any 2-year old girl would love, things I keep on hand that I got on clearance for Ali's friends' birthdays. We were able to send an encouraging suprise gift to this little girl, via my Dad! There have been lots of other times I have benefitted from my Stash and it has saved me lots of money, considering that the choices in this town are few and far between and a last-minute gift could be expensive! Whether you need party favors, shower prizes, birthday presents for last-minute parties (our Mexican neighbors usually ask us to a birthday party on the day of), or little gifts for Valentine boxes, your children's schoolteachers, May baskets, or Mother's Day, it's great to have a Gift Stash!

Ribbon Hair Bows

Packs of 12 clips are really inexpensive at a discount store!

A pretty ribbon tacked to the wall is a great way to store fancy hairclips!

Buttons, flowers, and all kinds of ribbon! There are endless possibilities!

My friend Heather made the pink feather boa clip for Alathia. The only feather boa I could find in our area has really big feathers so it is less airy looking and more flouncy and dramatic. We always get comments on these clips wherever we go!

Thanks to inspiration from http://www.thehomespunheart.blogspot.com/ and also thanks to being totally frustrated with the way my daughter's hair constantly looks wild and unkempt, I decided to make up some ribbon hair clips for her and for gifts. It's so cute to see little girls in bows (Meredith of http://www.likemerchantships.blogspot.com/ always has her daughter dolled up in cute dresses and bows!) and they are super easy to make. You just take some clips, which can be purchased at most Wal-Marts or Ben Franklin stores, and hot glue a bow or snip of feather boa onto the clip. Thanks to my friend Heather for these clips, which she sent me when I couldn't find them in my own town! She also taught me, through e-mail, how to make the feather boa clips!

With the ribbon scraps I had on hand, I whipped these up today. You can get fancy and put a strip of velvet ribbon on the inner part of the metal clip to help hold very fine hair, but I didn't have any and they don't sell any in our town, so I skipped this step.



Parenting tip: If you, like me, have a wild little girl who is prone to taking her hair clips out at inopportune times and looking her worst just when you had hoped she would look her best, then perhaps you could benefit from this: I plan to plant a few of these little bows in my car, purse, and diaper bag, along with a tiny comb so that just before we go into a store, or church, or to the library, we have a back-up plan to fix those ragamuffin hair-dos!

Cute Little Boy Do-Dads

These little baby/toddler hats are reversible and were only 50 cents back in the fall when I snagged them on a clearance and stuck them in my baby gift bag. With a little puffy paint, they make excellent personalized gifts! My friend Lesley is due with Christian about 2 weeks after we are due with Justus!

This little onesie I snagged at the thrift store is going to be a favorite for our little western-boy-to-come!

Must-Post Pics!

Alathia is always saying, "He's so cute! I love my brudder!"

"Not only did I smear syrup in my hair and in my ears, but I discovered something else today Mom!"

Jer kept putting on Ali's hat and posing, saying, "Hat! Hat!"

What a Deal!

It's not often that I can say I found something

MATERNITY

SHIRT FOR THE HOT, HOT SUMMERTIME

MY SIZE

A COLOR THAT LOOKS GOOD ON ME

BRAND NEW

CHEAP

MODEST

GAP BRAND

But thanks to e-bay, I did! This shirt, which arrived in the mail today was $1! I took a pic right after I pulled it out of the package so that's why it looks so wrinkled!

The Way to a Woman's Heart

They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Well, I think the way to THIS woman's heart is through her stomach too (at least when I'm pregnant!) My darling hubby got up early on his day to sleep in, got the kids dressed, and went down to my favorite bagel shop to bring me a warm breakfast in bed, a homemade cheddar cheese bagel toasted with cream cheese! Yummy! I'm definitely in love!

Babysitting Co-op

3 boys, 3 girls, 3 blondes, 3 brunettes.....all friends! Trust me, you don't want to see the dance I had to do to get all 6 of them to look or smile at the same time!


I think my friend Shiloh gets the credit for coming up with this idea, and it's a great one! Friends Shiloh, Amy, and I decided to do a babysitting co-op on Friday nights. This means that we all take our kids to one home where one gal and her husband babysit while the other 2 couples go out. We should all theoretically watch the kids one night a month, be able to go on two free dates, and there will be one Friday night a month where we all just stay home and don't do the co-op. Sometimes with illnesses, church programs, or traveling, we will have to skip some Friday nights, but it will just pick up right where we left off in that case. Last week was my turn and since my husband was out of town most of the evening, I watched the 6 alone. They did remarkably well given our small apartment and all the energy and excitement! What a great way to go on cheap dates without having to pay a sitter or bug my parents who are exhausted on Friday nights! It will be nice to have 2 hours to just hang out as a couple. Some things that we couples have chosen to do with our time so far: Go for a drive, go out for dessert, talk, go on a dinner date, go for a walk, stay home and paint the bathroom, etc.

We all have small children who are great friends and play together constantly at church and weekly activities and oddly enough we all have one boy and one girl. Two of them are preschoolers, 2 are 2-year olds (the twins), and 2 are 1-year olds! I guess we will wreck the perfect numbers/stats of the co-op when we have our third!

My Meal Plan for the Week

It's been a while since I've done "Spoil King Jo Week" so I thought I'd do it again. However, with tightening the grocery budget in order to save for the minivan, I don't have enough flex room in the budget to plan a big, special meal every single night so I've decided to just spoil him with one meal, dessert, breakfast, or snack each day that he really likes and that we haven't had in a while. This way I can still make affordable meals and yet bless him. I always write my weekly menu down in my home management binder before I go shopping for the week. I don't like assigning days to the meals though since I like the flexibility of fixing what I most feel like eating (especially in pregnancy) or what I have the time to make that particular day.

I've highlighted in red the things that are King Jo's special foods of the day:

Roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, veggies Snack for King Jo: Jerky

Sloppy Joes, French Fries, Salad

Pancakes, Hashbrowns, Bacon

Sub Sandwiches (Spicy cajun pepper turkey with pepper jack on homemade french bread), Sour Cream and Onion Chips, Peanut Butter Cookies

Mom's Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas, Salad, Tortilla chips and salsa Breakfast: Coffee Cake

Prairie Fire Chicken Strips, Zuchinni/veggie stirfry

Snacks for the kids and I this week:

Strawberry yogurt
Grapes
Cottage Cheese
Goldfish crackers
Cheese
Homemade Wheat Bread with butter
Leftovers

Lunches this week:

Tuna sandwiches and chips
Ramen noodles, cheese, fruit
Leftover Sloppy Joes
Leftover Subs
Enchilada leftovers
Vegetable beef/barley soup (homemade)

Most of the time our breakfasts are cereal. We drink water, juice, and milk throughout the week.

The items I needed to buy for this week's menu cost around $55, which isn't bad at all for our town. However, keep in mind that I have elk hamburger on hand and things I am using from the pantry or leftovers from last week.

Where Have All the Tough Moms Gone?

I have often gotten the comment since becoming pregnant with #3 that it will be soooo hard and sooo busy and some people are always saying how they don't know how I will do it and they never could do it, etc. etc. You'd think I was having my 10th instead of my 3rd or something! This got me to thinking, "Where Have All the Tough Moms Gone?" Yes, motherhood is tough, and it is a full-time job whether you have one child or more. I'm not saying that it's a piece of cake or that kids aren't a lot of work and very expensive. Working mothers, especially, today face immense pressures. However, I can't help but think of my grandparents and think what wussies they would think we are in today's generation. My Great-Grandma Campbell raised 12 kids, on the prairie, while her husband rode around on horseback as a Presbyterian circuit preacher. I'm sure money was beyond tight but they had a happy childhood and my Grandpa grew up to be a hard-working, intelligent, kind person! My Great-Grandma Brown birthed 18 children and they lived in tar paper shacks in the woods. Her husband delivered her babies as they were too poor for medical care. They didn't have a car and so Great-Grandpa had to haul huge sacks of flour home from town on his back several miles after work. And they didn't live in the Bahamas either, they lived in Northern MN! Brrrr!
My Great-Grandma Suzie raised 9 kids and was a single mother after her husband left her. This was during the post-depression era too. She worked hard at a restaurant, bringing home the food scraps and leftovers after work for her hungry kids. Great-Grandma Metzler raised her kids on a ranch in the literal-middle-of-nowhere-WY and had to ride a buckboard wagon into town. There was no medical care and no phones, internet, stores, and next-door neighbors.

Even my Grandma, my dad's mother, had it way rougher than anyone I know today. She had 6 children by age 25 and they were very, very poor. There was a time when Grandpa was in the hospital with polio and their landlord raised her rent $1 per month and she had to leave that rental due to the inability to pay. She didn't have a dish washer, a car, and she didn't have the option of "choosing" to have kids or not have kids, she had to boil glass bottles for the babies (she couldn't breastfeed) and do cloth diapers on all of them. She took in sewing and babysat for other people to bring in extra money. Even with 6 kids of her own, she'd sometimes watch a few other babies for pay!

Our parents, too, had harder times than I've had. My mother-in-law had no choice but to work due to lack of finances, and she juggled 3 kids 5 and under while working full-time and still kept the house clean and was an amazing and loving mommy. My mom did most of the child-rearing for the 3 of us alone, and often on an incredibly tight budget as my dad poured hours and hours into starting his own business and working like crazy. We didn't have any health insurance growing up.

When I think about all that my ancestors have gone through I feel really spoiled. Why do we feel entitled to so much in our generation and why do we take so many blessings for granted? We have it ten times easier than our grandparents, and yet we are always craving more stuff or saying we are so exhausted. Sometimes I think that it is OUR FAULT that we are exhausted. Yes, there are never-ending chores and lots of expectations of mothers today, but the reality is that we all have enough time in our day to get done what really needs to be done. God won't give us more than we can handle. How is it that many homemakers can't get their laundry or housekeeping done when they have vacuums, washer, dryer, dishwasher, and all kinds of cleaning products? How is it that some stay-at-home moms think they need to eat out 2 or 3 times a week because they are too tired to cook when the reality is that there are people starving in this world who would just love to have any food at all for their children? Why is it that we think that we can only "afford" one or two kids when we have way more money and options than our ancestors had? Why do we think our kids need all kinds of stuff and need to be chauffered around to every activity under the sun from toddlerhood on?

I hope this post doesn't come across as judgemental. I'm not trying to point fingers at anyone in particular but am just pondering how easy my life is compared to the lives of my ancestors. When I stop and think about my many, many, many blessings, I am truly, truly grateful. Thanks to a program in our state, our kids have free health care and free medicine. Our third child's birth will be covered completely through that same program! The Lord is providing us with a bigger vehicle as our family grows and we have more than enough clothing. I can purchase healthy foods and feed my family delicious meals and a variety of things on our food budget. We are always warm, have running water for staying clean and we have free laundry facilities here and we can actually afford to use disposable diapers half the time (unlike my grandparents or parents). There are thrift stores in town that sell nice clothing for a quarter or less so I don't have to sew my children clothing unless I want to for fun. I've never had to wonder how I would feed the kids or whether or not we would be evicted or couldn't take my kids to the doctor in the event of illness due to lack of money. I've never had to take my kids to daycare as God has provided just enough so that I can be home with the kids. That alone is a rare and amazing priviledge in today's world where most people can't survive without dual incomes.

So, I guess this post is to encourage myself not to take my many blessings for granted and to not be lazy. I want to use my time, energy, and resources wisely and be generous with others. I want to be an example of endurance and diligence to my children, no matter what hard times come. If God gives us a very large family, then I don't fear that I will go insane or not be able to handle it. I'll trust that He will give me the strength I need for the task! Having a 3rd kid is definitely not going to kill me (unless I die in childbirth!)

As they say in WY, "Cowgirl up!"

Sharing Big News, What Do You Do?

My wonderful friend Hannah made this cake and delivered it to my in-laws!

We took a blue cupcake to my mom, Grammy, at the Christian school where she is a teacher. She had had a rough day teaching school and was suspicious about the cupcake when I was taking pictures. She actually wondered if I put laxatives in it or stuck something in it that would blow up in her face (I can't imagine why? It's not like I'm the family practical jokester or anything =) Ali had to come right out and say, "I have two brudders" before she got it.

My dad, Boppa to my kids, is also bewildered about why we told him to eat his cupcake.

He takes a big bite, asking, "What? Is this a St. Paddy's Day cupcake?" Keep in mind this is about a month AFTER St. Paddy's Day! The cupcake is also more blue than green!

"Ohhhhhhhhh!" With a little clue or two from Ali, the look of realization dawns in his eyes and he immediately gets a gloating look on his face. He was one of the few who was convinced I was having a boy. I then had to endure the "The rubber doesn't fall far from the rubber tree" Lecture which I was dreading and knew was coming. My cliche-loving Dad is convinced that people take after their parents in many ways and he was SURE I was having a boy since my mom had a girl and then two boys.

Some people like to share a happy secret quietly, some like to blurt it out loudly, and some like to announce it in creative ways. I fall in the latter category. I feel like really big news doesn't come along very often so I might as well make the most of it and make a memory! Here are the ways we announced our pregnancies to our families:



*With Ali, we got a pink and blue balloon and snuck it into my in-laws' house while they were at work and left the balloons tied to their chairs at the table, and a cute note on the table with a baby rattle on top of it that said, "Hi Grandpa and Grandma, I can't wait to meet you in 7 months!" It was their first grandchild. They were shocked and surprised! Since my folks lived 1,000 miles away I recruited my brother, who was at home then, to buy a cheap pack of diapers and write little messages all over them and he was supposed to hide them all over the house. But instead he made a trail leading out from their bedroom to all over the house and they were mystified as to why their teen boys had left diapers all over at first! It was their first grandchild too! Ironically, my frugal mom saved all the diapers and when we moved to WY, she gave them to me to use for Jeremiah!



*With Jer, both of our families were vacationing together in March at my family's cabin in the mountains for some snowmobiling. So, we had these little photo magnets in the shapes of schoolbuses because both of my in-laws are bus drivers. We put a photo of Ali in the first one and my due date with a ? next to it in the second. We all sat down to dinner and King Jo placed them on the refrigerator directly in front of the huge table, hoping the parents would notice since the fridge is bare. They didn't! In fact my parents just thought that King Jo's folks had actually brought magnets with them on vacation when they glanced up and saw schoolbuses briefly. King Jo had to open and close the freezer door many, many times to get everyone at the table to notice what he was doing and his mom was the first one to read the magnets and figure it out. My parents were sooooo surprised! It definitely takes them awhile!



*With Baby #3 we were going to be in MN for Christmas, and my parents were also going to be there visiting my dad's folks who live there. We made a little poem, rolled it up and stuck it in a tiny bootie ornament and had both our sets of parents open it on Christmas Day since we saw them both on that day at different times. To see pics of this you can read about it under my Stories About Our Family category on my blog. We also gave a bunch of our closest friends a letter to open on Christmas telling them about the baby. We snuck one into King Jo's sister's stocking and then called her on Christmas morning to tell her to check her stocking on the fire place (as they hadn't put anything else in them) and they opened it and were very surprised!



*Finding out baby's gender this time, we decided to do a cake surprise for the grandparents. So, one of my best friends from college, Hannah, is a cake decorater and she made a pretty cake and delivered it to my in-laws. They were very surprised to see a cake show up at their house all of a sudden and the top read, "Congratulations, It's a ......" They had to cut the cake to figure out the mystery. Of course the white cake mix had been dyed blue! I did the same thing with my folks here, taking them blue cupcakes the day of the ultrasound. Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, my parents have a hard time "getting" stuff. They both ate most of their cupcakes and still couldn't figure it out, even though they knew about the ultrasound being that day and King Jo's parents didn't. So, Ali had to help give them some clues about why the cupcakes were blue!



*Telling your hubby you are pregnant:



*With Ali, he was in the bathroom with me and we were both a little in shock and not sure if it was true when the test came up positive.

*With Jer, we were on our second month of "trying" (the only baby we tried for) and I was so thrilled I went WAY overboard! I look back and laugh at myself at the way it all backfired. Since I knew our baby would be born in November I cooked a HUGE Thanksgiving meal complete with EVERYTHING except turkey, as it wasn't in season, as a celebration of the little one to come in November. I made a card with a picture of a man holding a quiver of arrows and drew an arrow shooting into the quiver to join the one arrow in there. I had my camera ready. The minute King Jo walked in the door I started snapping pics and handing him the card. He'd had a bad day at work and was not in the happiest of moods and was irritated. He didn't understand the card and he was upset that I had gotten up in his face immediately with a camera. He was overwhelmed by the 10-course meal and only ate a tiny bit of it (he's not an enormous meal eater but is a big snacker, hungry all the time). I was so heartbroken I just burst into tears (pregnancy hormones) and he felt so bad he bought me flowers that night after Youth Group. He told me later that he prefers me to just come out and say it plainly than to do a big ordeal about it. He also was grumpy out of concern for me because he thought it was really early to be so ecstatic as the tests were positive a few days before my period was even due and he wasn't sure it was for real or not yet. I learned my lesson!

*With Baby #3, we went shopping together and he knew I had bought a test since I was late. Later that afternoon, I took it, and immediately e-mailed him (since he wasn't with me when I took it) a very direct-approach e-mail that said Baby #3 would be coming in August. I attached a photo of Jer to the e-mail that had a caption saying, "I'm a big brother." Needless to say, this was a much better way to break the news to him and he was excited!



I'd love to hear comments on how you share big news and some stories from you on the subject!!!