Multitude Monday

Today has been such that I am now in the middle of making dinner, reminding children to clean up and typing my blessings all at once! God is so good, though - the effort is worth it!

• hearing the baby's heartbeat - nice and strong!
• getting to know the other parents whose children swim with mine
• retelling the amazing stories of God's faithfulness in the lives of our Care Group members, and even how He has preserved past generations
• a helpful homeschool review with one of my favorite people
• a fun Keepers at Home meeting, where my girls got to learn how to decoupage - and not in my house!
• taking Abi and Anna to a baby shower and seeing them learn to love serving others
• joining up to a new Bible study of Proverbs
• seeing lots of things crossed off my to-do list!
• playing Bananagrams with the girls
• reading stories with a snuggly boy

Multitude Mondays

It's been a couple of weeks since I've had the mental capacity to do more than dress myself and feed my family (and not always in that order). So, in the past couple of weeks, some of my multitudinous blessings have included:

• Toby having an enjoyable and safe trip to the UK to visit family
• watching movies with my kids
• getting up to speed with House on Hulu in the comfort of my bed
• other than a single sick kid one morning, the rest of the family remained healthy
• a snuggly morning where Dan joined me in bed and went back to sleep for an hour
• taking the kids to spend some Christmas money on fun craft projects
• finishing The Trumpet of the Swan together and enjoying the children enjoy the story
• everyone pitching in to get chores done together
• the hours they spend playing Lego and creating
• Toby's safe return!
• praying together
• roast chicken
• the new season of the BBC's Sherlock

 

Multitude Monday

Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean,
but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.

Proverbs 14:4

I need to remember this verse often. I like things to be clean, though I'm not naturally the tidiest person around. Still, to put in the effort to pick up and put away, just to find another mess can be very frustrating. It is then that I must give thanks for these mess-makers, knowing that in them and through them, a harvest of righteousness will be reaped.

 I am thankful for:

• Abigail, my beautiful, bossy eldest child
• Anna, the competitive "spit fire"
• Noah, who will have a better understanding of women because of all these girls
• Eleanor, the passionate little mommy
• Daniel, who makes everyone happy and crazy in equal measure
• the next one, who we're all looking forward to meeting this summer
• 

Loving the Little Years

Loving the Little Years is a little book about loving little people in the midst of all the "little" trials of the every day. Very sweet and encouraging (and rather funny), it doesn't take long to read and the kids like the messy kid on the cover. I liked and needed the reminders that while I am called to lovingly and faithfully parent my children, my own efforts along are insufficient for the task and I will consistently mess up and come up short if I try to do this on my own. Only the truth of the Gospel and the power of God will be enough to go beyond raising well-behaved Pharisees and instead move young hearts to want to love and serve Christ. And while I'd be lying if I said I didn't care if they behaved well in public, it's much more important to me that their hearts are bent toward worshipping the living God rather than the opinions of man. I just need to remember that during the next toddler meltdown - remind me, would you?

If Jospeh had been a girl...

...I think his father would have given him this shawl, instead of the coat...

Made from one ball - yes, one ball - of Noro Kureyon (Japanese for "crayon", apparently) sock yarn. All the details you'll need to make your own (it really is quite easy) can be found on my ravelry page.

What they love

They love coloring, preferably together...

...and camping out in the study in their new sleeping bags...

 ...and building Lego creations...

 ...and eating - always eating...



Multitude Monday

Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name;
make known his deeds among the peoples

1 Chronicles 16:8

 

• how excited kids get by little things
• kids that clean
• kids that forgive
• enjoying movie night as a family
• family story time
• most excellent Lego creations!
• my sweet husband bringing me tea and toast every morning to stave off morning sickness
• my "morning sickness" is very mild indeed
• getting along just fine on one car, while the other is in the shop
• when Toby comes home early
• the many things Toby is able to fix
• new books
• comfy shoes

 

Gadget love

Anyone who has tried to feed more than a couple of people knows it can get expensive. Most will also know that the less processed the product, the cheaper it's going to be (more often than not). So when my step-dad was talking about how useful and money-saving his Kitchen Aid Meat Grinder attachment was, I borrowed it to give it a shot.

 I bought about 3 joints of stewing beef weighing about 3lbs each. I can't remember how much they each cost, but bought at Aldi, I know they were almost $1 per pound cheaper than the ground beef. Once home, I chopped each joint into rough strips to feed through the processor, after trimming off as much fat as possible. This is another great bonus - I'm pretty sure that this ground beef turned out leaner than the supermarket "lean" for less money.

It feeds through the processor twice: once on the coarse blade, then on fine. It was supremely easy, kinda fun (even the kids could do it and enjoyed the process), and did I mention cheaper? It's also nice to know that my Kitchen Aid isn't just a one trick pony, but can actually do some real labor. I don't really have enough room in my kitchen for gadgets that don't pull their weight, and my Kitchen Aid has never let me down.

Has anyone else ever used any other attachments that have been excellent/a total waste of time? If you could get one, which attachment would you add and why?

Quynn

Abigail needed a new hat. I needed to make this very cute hat with this very lovely yarn.

So it all worked out. Details here.

Large Family Logistics

Well, I have now finished my first book of 2012. Large Family Logistics by Kim Brenneman took about 2-3 days to read, but to be fair, I did a bit of skimming at certain parts.

Overall, a good, helpful book - useful keeping the homemaking and keeping vision fresh as well as giving some great hints and tips on keeping the home running well. After reading through the kitchen section, I'll be giving my kitchen a good look over soon to determine if there are ways that I could be better organizing the way it all works. One area of particular interest, and one that many homemaking books neglect, is how to keep up through pregnancy and infancy. Wisdom says there are some essentials that need to be maintained: laundry and bathrooms being among them. Grace says not to worry about the dusting and other non-essentials - you'll catch up when you're feeling up to it. The point she repeatedly makes is to make a plan of how to keep up with things and practice self-discipline to do it. Some of the suggestions she makes and methods her family use wouldn't really work for this house, but that's okay - the point is to think through the needs and determine how you and your family will meet them.

I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who's looking to reorganize or establish some order in their home, or to anyone who's family size is growing and they are looking for a new way to operate. And when I'm done feeling nauseous, I'll be casting my eye over a few areas that could use improvement. For now, it's the essentials only for me!