miles allen

my heart is filled with thankfulness

to him who walks beside

who floods my weaknesses and strengths

and causes fear to fly

whose every promise is enough

for every step i take

sustaining me with arms of love

and crowning me with grace

 

--my heart is filled with thankfulness by keith getty and stuart townend

 

let me take you back about 10 months. sunday, april 29th, my pastor preached a sermon about overcoming your greatest fear. the text was out of 1 samuel. the next morning i was headed to the doctor to take the first step towards overcoming my greatest fear, going through another pregnancy. it was something i strongly wanted but scared me to death. 

 

a month later that blue plus sign appeared and i was excited yet still scared. i claimed this verse for the next nine months:

 psalm 115:1  not unto us o lord, not unto us.  but to your name give glory, because of your mercy, because of your truth.



 

i knew this pregnancy, just like the last three were in God's hand and his will would be done. my goal was to give him the glory he deserved.

 

after nine long, stressful months of doctor appointments and worry, the day finally arrived. miles allen drake was born at 9:32 a.m. (quickest delivery yet - they called the start of surgery at 9:29 and he was out 3 minutes later). i remember repeating to matt that i just needed to hear a cry. what a glorious sound it was. a nice strong, healthy cry. at that moment all i could do was cry myself and say out loud, "thank you, God". and then i was exhausted. i felt like a huge weight had been lifted and i could finally relax. seriously could have fallen asleep on the operating table had i not been trying to see everything happening with miles.

 

 

 

i was prepared for a BIG baby, 9+ pounds. that's what i had been told by the perinatologist. he would be big. his head was measuring 3 weeks bigger than his body according to the sonograms so i wasn't surprised when they pulled him out and said he was a big boy. then they weighed him and he was only 8 pounds 6 ounces. my response, "he's little!". miles was my smallest baby. everything was small and lacking the fat rolls that the girls had. it's fun to have a little guy.  look at his skinny little legs!

 

miles is a sweetheart and loves, loves, loves to be held. i wouldn't have it any other way though. it's what you do with a baby. i never want to put him down. it's a shame there are other things that must be done like laundry and meal preparation.

 

 

 

 

he is captivated by molly and sophie and loves to watch them. they love their little brother as well and always want to hold him, help feed him (little stinker quit nursing and must have a bottle now), get diapers, and play with him. they're quite the little mothers to their babies as well; mimicking all that i do. sophie keeps saying, "you so happy you have your baby". it's the cutest thing. they waited a long nine months also and watched the month-by-month pictures of baby development that were hanging in the perinatologist's exam room. at the last visit they couldn't stop talking about how when we first came he was on the three and now he had made it to the nine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

really i could go on and on about this little guy. he's precious and i am so incredibly grateful to have him. it's overwhelming the amount of thankfulness i feel sometimes. God is good all the time and i give him the glory for miles' life.



A cord discussion with Sophie

A month ago Molly's preschool did a space unit. During that time we watched several you tube videos on space shuttle launches and space travel and saw the rocket boosters fall off into the ocean. Fast forward now to yesterday or maybe the day before and Sophie was asking questions about miles cord. I explained other that it would eventually fall off. In all seriousness she looks at me and says, "in the ocean?". It was hilarious! We haven't talked about space shuttle since that week of the space unit. Amazing what her little brain remembers.

You mean bakery

I know i have bigger and more important things to blog about right now but that requires a bit more time and pictures to be uploaded on the computer. i tried out a new simple and healthy pancake recipe that I found on Pinterest tonight. Super simple - 2 ripe mashed bananas, 4 eggs, dash of cinnamon (or more if you are like me), 2 tsp of vanilla. Mix together and pour on lightly greased griddle or skillet. It doesn't make much - six 1/3 cup pancakes. We had had thawed blueberries slightly mashed poured over them. Sophie helped make them. she mashed bananas and mixed everything together. Anytime Molly or I said her name she would reply, "you mean bakery". We then had to refer to her as "bakery" and then repeat whatever we were saying. She makes me laugh. I'm really bad about taking a picture of my food so here is a picture of the second serving I had, thus the poor presentation.

Because I don't want to forget

Normally I feel my posts are pretty long. I try and get a lot in one since I'm not very consistent and like to incorporate photos as well. Today, however, I realized I should type short little posts when I don't want to forget something. My girls each said something that made me laugh today that I don't want to forget.

On our way to the doctor this morning Sophie pulls her hat off her head and has static...big time. Her hair is sticking up and clinging to her head. This is the conversation she had with Molly.

S: my hair is funky
M: yeah, you have 80s hair (she's heard this from matt)
M: do you know what 80s hair is?
S: no
M: me either

Getting ready for bed tonight Sophie asks for "vasolina" for her chapped lips.

back to college we go? kinda, but not really...

i'm sure most everyone has heard of dave ramsey's financial peace university but not many have tried it. matt and i are currently going through his nine week course during the sunday school hour at our church and loving it. FPU is a practical approach to handling money. it makes sense and it works. built on biblical principles FPU teaches you be good stewards of the money that God has intrusted to you.

FPU teaches you to zero out your budget tell your money to go somewhere that way at the end of the month or year you look at at how much you've made and say "where did all our money go?" matt and i have created several new accounts (two different savings, vacation, etc) and are enjoying this new challenge of truly living on a budget. it makes you appreciate your money a lot more and really evaluate your spending. i'm thoroughly enjoying trying to make the most of my budgeted amount for groceries and household. it's only been two weeks since i've had to stick to this and i'm happy to report that in the two weeks i've only gone over budget by $9. this is huge because i really never knew from week to week what i would be spending....i just went grocery shopping and purchased what i needed. i still do this but in a much more conscientious way. i calculate my groceries as i go through the store. i even go as far as weighing my fruit to have a more exact amount. i'm careful about what i buy and strive to make the most of the groceries i buy. reading this again, it makes me sound as if i was carefree and wasteful before; wasteful, no, but carefree, a little. because if i wanted shrimp and steak (ok, we really never eat steak because it is so stinking expensive) during the week, we'd have it. now i'm not so quick to jump out and plan more than one expensive meal.

the envelope system is something that FPU strongly recommends. in the envelope system, you allocate a certain cash amount for a category and put that money in an envelope for the month. when it's gone, it's gone. we have several envelopes for clothing budgets, baby supplies, gifts, etc. the envelope looks like a checkbook register so we can deposit and deduct throughout the month. funny story and weird experience for me was when i went to target earlier this week and had to make three different transactions in order to keep my money envelopes separate and accurate. fortunately, the store wasn't busy so i didn't mind this. had the line been backed up, i would have paid in one transaction and figured it out later. but, back to the story. i had a birthday gift, two baby outfits, and a household item. it worked wonderfully. the cashier probably thought i was strange but hey, who cares.

teaching our children about the importance of money is another area that has been discussed. matt and i decided to implement dave's idea with molly and sophie. everyday they have 5 chores to complete (in addition to picking up their toys and room). they earn $.10 per chore, so $.50 per day. doesn't sound like a lot but when you're 4 and 2 getting paid is a big deal and they love to work for money. at the end of the day we pay them their money and they keep it in a glass jar on the counter. then, at the end of the week they divide their money into three envelopes: giving, saving, and spending. at the end of the month we will have them sit in church with us until after the offering so they can give their tithe and we'll also deposit their savings. the spending money is theirs to do whatever they want with. molly is saving for american girl doll clothes. poor girl doesn't realize how expensive they really are. sophie's planning on getting more minnie mouse things. here the girls are with their jars and envelopes.

another perk of all this is my house stays so much cleaner. not because the girls are doing my work but because it forces me to stay on top of things. i can't just go sit down after lunch or dinner because one of them has to clear the table and bring me the dishes to rinse. i have to make sure the dishwasher has been ran so sophie can empty the silverware in the morning. molly vacuums the living room at night so i have to make sure it's picked up. little things that make a big difference!

FPU is a class i'd recommend to anyone. it's so practical and easy and just makes sense. if you have the opportunity to take it do. oh, and they'll even give you a cool bumper sticker for your car (we don't plan on putting ours on but it made me laugh that they sent one).

S is for Sophie

Sophie is really becoming interested in learning. She can spell her name and does a decent job for a 2 1/2 year old writing it. I do try to do different learning activities with both the girls randomly but never get too structured. Since Sophie's interest has heightened I thought I'd get a bit more structured. We started with the letter S because that is the letter she struggles with the most while writing her name. Tracing sheets are okay but Sophie is such a sensory-type girl that I thought we'd try shaving cream. She loved it and it helped because later when she was tracing she did a much better job. Of course there was time or play and getting her hands gooey!

We fixed broken snowballs by matching the appropriate number to the dots.

Playing a snowball game with number cards was a big hit...especially since she won 2/3 times.

Sophie knows most of her shapes, including the rhombus....it's not a diamond, folks. So we worked on constructing the square with marshmallows and the letter S. we did have to pause for a few snack breaks!

Finally, we worked on sequencing and built a snowman.

Blogger and I are not getting along at the moment and I'm having to do this on my iPad because I can't upload pictures from a file and I don't k ow how to move them in the app version so they're all stuck at the end....grrrr. If anyone knows how to fix this, let me know, please!

Peanut butter

I made my own peanut butter...and it is good! I found the recipe on, yep, you guessed it, Pinterest. Between peanut butter sandwiches, apples dipped in peanut butter, smoothies, oatmeal, and the occasional cookie which doesn't happen very often (but it is my go to cookie if I need one to take somewhere because I always have peanut butter), we consume a lot of peanut butter. I thought maybe I could save a little money and make my own. Turns out I really can't buying peanuts at the grocery store. Did I mention that's all you need? Peanuts and a food processor. I need to look into bulk peanuts and then see if I will have significant savings. Today I made honey roasted peanut butter. Yummy! It's a little gritty but I like a little texture. Chunky peanut butter is my favorite. I'm excited to use it in my oatmeal tomorrow morning! Here is the recipe: http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2012/07/homemade-peanut-butter.html. They suggested adding other favors in also. I see chocolate peanut butter in my near future!