Monday Madness: Play dates, well visits, and cakes! OH MY!

As you can see from the title, we have a busy day planned! I'm trying to sneak in a quick blog update while T watches Little Bear and L takes a little nap. Today, I am taking Sweet T to play at Ikea for the first time. My neighbor said that they have a fun little play area that's free. I like free! He likes playing. We both like our neighbors so when they invited us to go with them, we couldn't pass it up :) I hope he loves it! We are leaving Ikea, grabbing lunch on the run, and heading straight to L's well visit. I still can't believe my sweet baby boy is already 6 months old!!! I didn't think it was possible for him to grow up faster than his brother did. Both kids will get a shot today. Poor kiddos. We do not follow the AAP shot schedule, so thankfully L will only get two vaccines, one of which is oral. T will get his first Hep B vaccine, which part of me thinks I should skip all together. How would a two year old catch Hep B??? But J and I decided to go ahead and start those ones now. We cannot make all of his decisions as he grows up, and although we'd like for him to wait until he's married before having sex, and stay away from drugs all together, that's a choice that he's going to have to make. Scary!!! I don't like that at all! But it's life. And if he chooses a different path than we'd like, we want him to be protected. Why do I even have to think about these things already? :( Ok, back to our day. I have a friend who recently started decorating cakes. Have I mentioned on here that I decorate cakes too? With two babies at home, I really don't have a lot of time to dedicate to a cake business. Shoot, I can barely keep up with the things I have on my plate as it is! But we talked at church yesterday and I think it'd be a lot of fun to start a business together! I wouldn't have to commit as much time to it that way but still get to have fun doing something I'm passionate about. We are hoping to get together today to talk about ideas and see if we can really make this work. We want to start off slow and small, of course. I'm excited though! As if that's not a full enough day, I also want to start tagging the clothes that I'm selling at the consignment fair. It HAS to be done by 8 tonight. Yay for procrastinating!

Friday's Looking Good: Baby Bum edition!

Ha ha! Yep, that's right! This post is about how cute my kids bums look... in their new HOME MADE cloth diapers!!!! This was my Friday project and I'm so excited about it, plus I can only talk about my looks so much. I somehow convinced my mom to help me sew (and by help, I mean she had to do 90% of the work because I can't sew) a fitted cloth diaper and a cover. I cannot tell you enough how adorable they turned out! They are far from perfect, but soooo cute! And now we know how to do them and what to change, so they will look professional next time (Ha! Mom, ready for the next one??? You know you want to...) We started with a Large cover because it said 18-36 pounds. It definitely was not the correct size for Little L. It fits T, and almost fits me (LOL!!!). It's seriously huge. We used PUL and this pattern http://www.chloetoesboutique.com/full_cover.pdf. Here's a bunny we borrowed from my sister's room to model:


After we finished the cover, I made a fitted diaper following this pattern: http://handmadebyrita.blogspot.com/2007/10/classic-rrp-ritas-rump-pocket-pattern.html
It was super easy! I actually did most of the work!!! My mom of course helped me with the hard parts, but I'm proud to say that I actually did one :) We used Batman material (flannel I think?) for the outside, and then terry cloth on the inside. CUTE! I'll edit this post with a picture once I get one. Unfortanately I don't have any baby safety pins, snappis, or snaps for this diaper, so I can't use it yet :( Oh well, I will figure something out soon because I cannot wait to try it out!

Thoroughly Clean Thursday: Time to declutter

A few times every year, there is a local children's consignment sale. This year, I'm thinking I'll try to sell some things! My kids have WAY too much stuff. I don't want them to be spoiled and there's really no need to have all of these toys. They don't even play with all of them. I also don't have room to store everything! So far, I've gone through their clothes. It's hard getting rid of some of these things. My kids wore these clothes when they were itty bitty, and now they're big and I miss the tiny little guys they used to be. I'm keeping my favorites. I don't know why it's so hard for me to get rid of these things. Some of them were never even worn by my kids but I can't help but think "This is cute! Maybe I'll actually put it on the next baby!" I wont. I'm kidding myself. Plus, now that we've switched to cloth diapers, a LOT of T's old pants will never fit L. L already has thick and chunky thighs. Add the "fluff" to his tush and there's absolutely NO WAY possible I'll get them up :) The consignment sale is next week so I really need to get a move on going through the rest of their stuff. If I can just motivate myself and get it done, I think we'd all feel a lot better. Less clutter means less mess, which means less stress! Anybody want to come over and do it for me???

Remember I told you that J sometimes describes me as a hoarder? It's moments like these that I think he may be on to something...

Wednesday's Walk with God: Part 3, Tithing

Again, I'm late on this whole blogging thing. Maybe I need to give up the days of the week part and just write? Nah, I like this even if I'm always late. It fits the rest of my life. Ha!

God has been working on my heart with regards to tithing lately. A lot. He's been dealing with me and money in general, but especially tithing. Basically, I feel like God has been saying "Trust Me." and I've been saying, "yeah, I do. But we have two kids, only one income, a house payment, a car payment, hospital bills, and so on." God replies again with "Trust Me." "yeah, yeah, yeah, I do. Really, I trust You with my life, my kids, everything. But just let me deal with the money part right now..." Arguing with God never works (and I am not saying that God verbally talks to me like I'm writing it out. But He DEFINITELY has been "telling" me this) When J and I first married, we had nothing. Literally. We didn't even have jobs (some might think we were young and stupid... we were :) and looking back I wouldn't change a thing!). But we always made sure to give God first. Of course we quickly found jobs, even if they were only part time. We didn't need much back then. But even with very little, we tithed first. And God took care of us! Somewhere along the line, things changed. While we still tithed, it wasn't necessarily with our "first fruits" and more from what was left over. God doesn't want my left overs. He wants the first pick! Everything I have comes from Him and He doesn't ask for much in return. So J and I have decided that we need to start tithing more, to give God first and trust Him with the rest. A friend once said that this is an area where God tells us to test Him, so we are. Who should we tithe to? Well I feel like that's a very personal question that we each need to decide for ourselves. Our family goes to a church with some wealthy people. The church prints out the financial needs and how much has been given and more often than not, the church's needs are met. I don't always feel led to give to them, although I know others who strongly believe you should tithe to the church. I have lots of missionary friends, whether short or long term missions. I absolutely and completely love to give to missions! I have also enjoyed putting our money toward those who don't have much. For example, at Christmas time we like to "adopt" a child to buy presents for. As the kids get older, I'd like to have them really involved with this; maybe I'll let each kid pick out a child they want to buy presents for and then have them pick everthing out (we buy clothes, toys, and wintery things like hats and gloves). The past couple of weeks, I've felt like God has been placing on my heart to give to the homeless ministry at our church, so that's what we're going to do with a good portion of next month's tithes. I haven't decided yet if I should buy the things I think they need or just donate the money to the guy who heads that ministry, since he knows their exact needs better than I (side note: did you know that homeless people do not like to keep a lot of foods on hand? Even canned and non perishables. Seemed stupid to me at first, until I learned that if they have food, even in storage containers, squirrles come and eat it. Apparently squirrles can chew through almost anything!!! Even coolers. Crazy. But if you decide to go buy tons of stuff for homeless men and women, keep that in mind :))
So now that you've read what I have to say, let's look at what God has to say. Are you tired of reading yet? Lol, I told you that God has been working on me in this area! It's given me a lot to say! I did not gather these verses on my own. I googled it and just c&p from another site to my blog :) It's cheating I know, and probably a little bit of plagerism. Here's the site I got this from :http://www.squidoo.com/biblescripturesaboutmoney

Proverbs 3:9-10

Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce; so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine.

Exodus 23:19

You shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the Lord your God You are not to boil a young goat in the milk of its mother.

Ezekiel 44:30

The first of all the first fruits of every kind and every contribution of every kind, from all your contributions, shall be for the priests; you shall also give to the priest the first of your dough to cause a blessing to rest on your house.

Genesis 28:20-22

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father's house in safety, then the Lord will be my God. "This stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God's house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You."

Malachi 3:8-10

Will a man rob God Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, 'How have we robbed You ' In tithes and offerings. "You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this," says the LORD of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.

Matthew 23:23

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.

2 Corinthians 9:7

Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Luke 12:33-34

Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys. "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Proverbs 11:24-25

There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, and there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in want. The generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered.

Galatians 6:7

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap

Tasty Tuesday: Lemon Chicken.

You may have noticed by now that I use my crock pot a lot. Probably at least half of my new recipes involve my crock pot because it's a lot easier to just throw a few ingredients in there than to spend lots of time trying to prepare a meal with two little ones at my feet (well, L is usually in his jumperoo, but he gets bored in there pretty quickly). Here is yet another crock pot recipe: Lemon Chicken! It's very good! J said that it tasted like a store bought rotisserie chicken, only better! We love rotisserie chickens, by the way. He gave it a 7.5. I'd give it an 8, or maybe even and 8.5. Yum Yum! Enjoy!

1 t dried oregano
1/2 t salt
1/4 t ground black pepper
2 lbs skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
2 T butter
1/4 c water (I ended up using a lot more than this, though...)
3 T fresh lemon juice (does the stuff you buy at the store count as fresh? If not, then I didn't use fresh lemon juice, lol)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 t chicken bouillon granules
1 t chopped fresh parsley

1. In a bowl, mix the oregano, salt, and pepper. Rub the mixture into chicken. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Brown chicken in butter for 3-5 minutes on each side. Place chicken in slow cooker.
2. In the same skillet, mix the water, lemon juice, garlic and bouillon. Bring the mixture to boil. Pour over the chicken in the slower cooker.
3. Cover, and cook on High for 3 hours, or Low for 6 hours. Add the parsley to the slower cooker 15 to 30 minutes before the end of the cook time.

Recipe from the allrecipes app on my phone :)

Monday Madness: Underwear

I know it's not Monday, but once again, I'm behind on my blogging, so you will (most likely) get three blog posts today. This one will be short though, because not a lot has changed in my kids since last week. They're both still totally amazing and wonderful and I think the world of them :) So instead of writing about them, I will just post a link to my sister's blog where she shares a story of my two year old. We are having a hard time keeping underwear on him these days. Here is what happened while she was over yesterday...

http://confessionsofa4thgradeteacher.blogspot.com/2011/02/life-with-two-year-old.html

Weekend, woo hoo!

This is a picture of Sweet T learning the family business (my mom and I bake and decorate cakes) He helped me with Daddy's birthday cake back in January.


"The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe."
Proverbs 18:10