Saturday Seven

It's been a while since I've posted a Saturday Seven and there's a lot to share so I'll jump right in!

1)  We've had some sort of stomach bug at our house every two weeks for the past six weeks!  And I got the bug two out of the three times!  Yuck!  I'm sneaking Tummy Tune-Up into everything to try and get lots of good guys in our stomachs so they can hopefully win the next time the bad guys attack. 

2)  It appears that Jacob is potty trained!  Hooray!  He has been dry all week wearing his underwear and is starting to tell me when he needs to go potty.

He will be three in April so he's way behind Luke and Chloe, who were trained around two.  But I take the blame for him not being trained sooner.  I wasn't consistent at all with taking him to the bathroom.  You can't expect most toddlers to start changing their ways all by themselves after they've been used to going in their diaper for two+ years!

3)  Austin's birthday was this past Monday!  He got to celebrate three times (Monday, Wednesday, and tonight) so I'm guessing he's feeling the love.  Hopefully that will make up for the fact that he's starting a downward spiral to "middle age."  :)

4)  Asher now knows how to climb down our steps and I am ever so thankful.  We have a flight of hardwood steps in our house and the kids' playroom is upstairs so he always wants to go where all the whooping and hollering is.  (Now that I think about it, there's whooping and hollering all throughout the entire house pretty much most of the day so.....)

At any rate it wasn't the going up the stairs I was concerned with; it was the getting down.  He may or may not have fallen from top to bottom once.

Okay.

So he did.  And I thought I was going to have a heart attack.  Literally.  I ran through the house yelling "Jesus, help us!"  And He did.

There was a bump on his forehead and that was it.  It hurt me more than him, I'm pretty sure.  My heart was beating out of my chest and I was shaking like a leaf.  He didn't even cry real tears (I did) and he was totally back to normal in about two minutes.  (I wasn't) By normal, I mean he was trying to go up the stairs again. 

He's now figured out how to crawl down the stairs backwards and he thinks he is hot stuff.  My nerves have settled a bit knowing he is learning how to get down the stairs on his hands and knees as opposed to tumbling down end over end.

5)  I have recently discovered how much I love thrift stores.  There is one less than a mile from the house and they have "Fill-a-Bag for $7" on Wednesdays.  I've gotten some pretty sweet deals with that.  You can cram a lot of clothes in a Wal-Mart bag when you're determined.  :)

Two weeks ago I found two pair of Tommy Hilfiger dress pants, which he really needed, for Luke for $.75 apiece!  I was so excited!

6)  Our dining room looks kind-of like Home Depot's gardening section landed in there.  We have a five-tiered wire shelf in front of our bay window with two long plant lights, two round lights, and over 100 tiny plants growing.

Austin is growing heirloom seedlings for tomatoes and peppers to plant in our garden this year.  I've learned quite a lot about growing seedlings so far.  Did you know that if you rub the tiny plants it helps them to grow stronger? 

Yeah, me neither.  Nevertheless, I've had several phone conversations that have ended with me being asked to rub the tomatoes.  I'm pretty sure "Wilt thou love, honor, cherish, and rub tomato plants" wasn't part of our vows, so who knew?

7)  I recently finished Ann's book and it was more than I expected!  I cannot recommend this book enough.  The Lord used her words, her quest for joy, to help me change my perspective on some areas in my life.  I'm thankful God uses our brokenness to minister to others.

"One Thousand Gifts" reached #9 on the NY Times best-seller list last week so it's wonderful to know that God is using her life, with all it's hurts, to be a blessing to so many.  You should definitely check it out.  It's only $8.94 right now at Amazon for a new, hardcover copy!

~Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Saturday Seven - Link Edition

I have so many blog posts or articles I've read that I would love to share with you, so I am going to occasionally use Saturday Seven to do just that!  I encourage you to read these, even if you may not be interested in the subject.  A little challenged thinking never hurt anyone!  :)

1) Large Family Myth Busters

2) I don't want my children to be happy

3) Woman performs abortion while pregnant (Mature Audience)

4)  The Pill:  Making Motherhood Better?

5)  Pros and Cons to Homeschooling

6)  Subtle Effects of the Birth Control Culture

7)  Top 5 Reasons Not to Send Your Kids to Govt. School

Saturday Seven-Quick and Condensed!

1)  We are having a birthday party for Jacob today, (his 2nd birthday is Tuesday) so I'm SUPER busy cooking and cleaning.  Thus, the quick and condensed version.

2)  My house looks like a tornado came through here.  Maybe two or three, even.  And it's a really good thing I waited to mop the kitchen floor.  I was going to mop it yesterday but decided to wait until the last minute today and it's a good thing, too.  Considering the mess after dinner last night I'm pretty sure I would've laid down in the floor and threw a tantrum!

3)  I'm listening to the song playlist from my blog as I work today.  I do that a lot.  Austin does too.  Obviously, my favorite songs are on here! So uplifting and encouraging.

4)  I'm absolutely loving the lush beauty of spring.  All the green leaves on the trees are so gorgeous.  God is the best artist! 

5)  I won a giveaway from Quinn at On Just a Couple of Acres!  She was giving away six Bible story books she had accidentally ordered duplicates of!  I'm super excited about that, seeing as how I've never won anything from all the blog giveaways I've entered! 

6)  We are now the proud owners of ten baby chicks!  They hatched a couple of weeks ago and are really cute!  Too bad they don't stay that way.  We are looking forward to having fresh eggs in a couple of months or so!

7)  We went "fancy" camping last weekend with two families from our church and had a blast. If you have a camper, electricity, or bathrooms (and not necessarily all three) then you are "fancy" camping.  It was my first time fancy camping and the kids first time camping ever.  We borrowed my father-in-laws pop-up camper, which was really nice to have.  The kids were so incredibly dirty from playing in the lake, the dirt, and even the charcoal ashes.  They could've qualified for some of those "adopt a child" commercials! 

~This post wasn't all that condensed after all!  Imagine that!  :)  Now off to conquer more of Mt. WashMore!  Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Saturday Seven

1)  I just finished making my own laundry soap.  I've been meaning to do this for about.....umm.....probably a couple of years.  Yep, procrastination is my middle name.  It seriously took me all of 20 minutes. Super easy.  It made about 2 1/2 gallons.  That will go a long way when I'm only supposed to use 1/4 cup per load!  I have to let it sit for 24 hours so I'll let you know next week how I like it.

2)  Jacob is now in a toddler bed.  We really had no choice, trust me.  It was either put the toddler rail on his crib or end up with a broken arm or other body part.  We would hear a loud thump followed by the sound of his diaper swishing as he came running down the hall.  The biggest challenge has been his lack of sleep!  The first peep of the eye and he's up and running.  I'm hoping once the newness of it all wears off, he'll not be quite as excited about getting up.

3)  To prove he's not getting the sleep he's used too......

He fell asleep eating lunch while I was writing this post.  He didn't even care about the peanut butter and honey all over his face!  Not that he normally does.

4)  Today is officially the first day of spring!  Yay!  I'm so ready for warm weather and sunshine.  The kids love playing outside so much better when it's warm!  And trust me, the boys need to get out all of that energy.  There are little holes all over the backyard where they've been digging with their shovels.  The poor swing set has taken a beating since Luke got a tool set with a hammer in it! 

5)  Speaking of back yards, Austin has decided we are going to raise chickens.  Last week he built a door in our fence that will open up into the coop. (Or whatever it is you call the place chickens lay their eggs)  I think the plan is to get about ten eggs and hatch them out.  The kids are super excited about it.  I love the idea of having my own eggs, although I'll have to get used to the fact you actually have to go get the eggs from the chickens and not the store.  Big difference. 

6)  Austin was talking to someone the other day and telling them about the chickens we're hoping to get.  The question was asked if we could have chickens because we live in a subdivision.   Austin's reply was "I own the subdivision.  I can do whatever I want with it!"  'Nuff said.  Definitely a perk for us, huh?

7)  If you didn't already know, we do in fact own a subdivision.  We bought and developed the land about two years ago and he is finishing up his fifth house now.  I am so proud of him!  He has amazed me with his determination.  He can do whatever he puts his mind to.    Not to mention, he recently got promoted to manager at his job!  His big thing now is, whenever I have a problem and he helps me out, he'll wink at me and say "I'm a manager, baby."  He's such a nut!  :)

Saturday Seven

1)  It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  The tree is up and Christmas music plays most of the day.  And we (actually Jacob) have only broken three ornaments so far this year!  The kids are really excited about Christmas this year, so we're looking forward to a lot of funI'm thinking wrapped presents under the tree are going to be a challenge for the first time.  Jacob, aka mini-destructor of all things, can tear up jack in two seconds flat.  Seriously, the child's guardian angel works overtime....he might even have two or three. 

2)  My sister and I went shopping on Black Friday.  Since we're both expecting in January, it was quite the sight to see.  I thought we did pretty well.....we were at the stores at five in the morning and shopped until about two that afternoon.  And if we had a dollar for all the comments....we could have paid for our Christmas purchases!  I did manage to get over half of my shopping done, which was great for me considering I'm the most indecisive person I know.  I think....well....no.....maybe my mom is.

3)  We're counting down to January 2, 2010!  That's the date we've scheduled for our new baby boy to arrive!  It's hard to believe I'll have a newborn again....ooh, I can't wait!  All the tinyness of an infant.....so sweet!

4) As of now we still haven't decided on a name for the baby!  We've managed to narrow it down but nothing definite.  We had Noah Jackson picked out last time, but after he was born we decided on Jacob Andrew.  So maybe we'll wait to see what the baby looks like before we decide for certain!  The kids are telling everyone we're naming him James, like the engine on Thomas and Friends.  I'm pretty sure it won't be James, but you never know.  I tell the kids it's going to be Sir Topham Hat, to which they wrinkle their nose and laugh hysterically.  (Sorry if you're not familiar with the characters on Thomas....get you some three and four year olds and you'll know all about the Island of Sodor.)

5)  I've had my fill of Pigeon Forge for the year!  Last month we went for a few days with Austin's parents and had a wonderful time.  Our cabin was nice and we had beautiful weather.  We have season passes to Dollywood so that was fun.  It's funny to experience the change from riding all the roller coasters and doing my own thing to standing outside the ride where the pigs go round and round at one mile an hour, snapping pictures with my camera.  Or the fact I was a little scared on the ferris wheel thinking about how horrible it would be if the thing broke.

6)  We came home from our mini-vacation on Monday and on Wednesday I left for Pigeon Forge (again....told you I'd had enough) with my mom and sister and the kids.  We attempted shopping on Thursday, which didn't turn out so well with tired, grumpy children. (And a tired, sick-with-a-cold me.)  We were getting ready to try it again on Friday morning when we heard a knock on our cabin door.  Who could it be???  My wonderful husband!  He had gotten up early and drove three hours to pick up the kids for me!  Isn't he the greatest?  He took the kids home with him and I had a relaxed day of shopping!  It was such a wonderful treat for me and so incredibly thoughtful of him!

7)  Looks like it's only gonna be Saturday Six today because I've gotta run and get ready to go shopping with my family!  Pray for us...shopping on a Saturday with Christmas crowds...shot nerves are sure to come.  :)

Saturday Seven

1) I finally signed up for Facebook. After months of nagging from friends, I succumbed to the pressure and joined. It's good to be able to connect with friends and family, especially those I haven't seen in a while. I love looking at every one's photos. And I love the Farmville game. If I can't have a garden in real life, at least I can get my giggles out of this virtual one!

2) I love consignment sales! There was a huge one in my hometown this week and I got lots of great stuff! It's so awesome to get expensive, name brand clothes for just a few bucks! Because I volunteered to work, I was able to shop early. I shopped for, ahem, three hours! Can you believe it? And when my work shift was over, I ran back out on the floor and grabbed a couple of things I'd missed. Craziness, but such fun!

3) My husband is a natural born athlete. Really. Last night we went over to some friends house for dinner. After dinner, the kids and daddies went outside to play roller hockey. In-line skates, hockey sticks, and a little ball on a whole bunch of concrete. Sounds like fun to me! NOT! I would so be in the hospital with a broken something if I even attempted anything like that. Anyway, I'm pretty sure Austin has never had on a pair of in-line skates but he took to them like a fish in water. He was rolling around on the concrete slapping that little ball around with the best of them. He amazes me! Oh, and his team won! Hopefully, our children have inherited his athletic nature because me......well, I have NO skills whatsoever!

4) Did I mention our friends have eleven children? Eleven. Six boys and five girls. Ages 17 to 5 months. And their mother is the sweetest, most joyful lady you'll ever meet. The children? They are SO incredibly sweet, happy, well-mannered, smart, well-behaved ...did I mention happy?.....just a pleasure to be around. They bless me so much to watch their interaction with each other and with our children. I am so thankful the Lord has allowed us to get to know them better and for our children to have such positive Christian influences.

5) Chloe has been telling everyone she's going to have 10 kids (as she holds up all ten fingers) when she gets married. Five boys and five girls. And she's going to cook for them. Today she told me she was going to live with me.....with her ten kids. I told her when you get married you live with your husband in another house. Especially if she's going to have ten kids!

6) Luke tells everyone (in his thick, country accent) "When we get some land, we are going to have some cows, and chickens, and roosters, and some bulls, and a tractor, and a bush hog, and a garden, and a hay baler, and a barn." Now that's some list! Obviously he hasn't grasped the whole "you have to have money" thing yet. If only it were as easy as making a list! Hopefully, we'll get there some day, little buddy!

7) Jacob rubs his tummy or his fingers when he's sleepy. It's the cutest thing to see. He's extremely ticklish anyway, which makes it funnier to me. At night, when I'm rocking him to sleep, he will pull his shirt up and rub his tummy really lightly with the tips of his fingers. If he's awake but getting sleepy, he will rub the fingertips of one hand over the fingers of his other hand. It's so sweet! I love it! I need to get the video camera out and capture it.....if I could only remember to charge the stinkin' battery!

Saturday Seven

1) I am now a van mom. The combination of expecting baby #4 and our Total Money Makeover has caused us to sell our SUV and buy a minivan. (Used, of course!) By doing so, we shaved off a pretty nice chunk of our debt, making us closer to our debt-free goal! I think I'm going to like being a van mom. There is so much space! And the automatic sliding doors....now that's what I'm talking about.

2) I'm thinking about changing my last name to "Nightingale." You know, like Florence Nightingale, the famous nurse. For the past two weeks the stomach flu has camped out at our house. Fun. Cleaning carpets, mattresses, forcing Pedialyte down with medicine droppers, having to get up 15 times a night, and all the rest that goes with the stomach blues. I have done more laundry and given (and taken) more baths in the past two weeks than the whole year combined. All three kids were sick; then Jacob decided he hadn't had enough, so he got sick again. He is finally feeling better and I am so ready to hang up my nursing hat.

3) Whenever I see, hear, think, etc., about the word "nightingale," I start singing the song from Walt Disney's Cinderella. You know, the part where the stepsisters are practicing their music and singing "Sing, sweet nightingale. Sing, sweet nightingale. Aahhh, aaaahhh, aaahhhh, oohhhh, ahhh, aahhh." They are singing so badly the cat leaves and then he hears Cinderella, who is scrubbing the floors, singing in her beautiful voice. And then the cat starts pouncing his dirty feet on her clean floors and she.....Is it obvious I've seen the movie a hundred times?

4) I'm blogging from my new computer! Yea! We finally broke down and bought a new laptop since our other one was about to die, or maybe fry, on us. Seriously, the kicker was when I started smelling electrical burning one afternoon while checking my email. Austin said "TURN IT OFF NOW! AND UNPLUG IT!" We figured a new computer would be a lot cheaper than a fire. Or having the computer blow up in my face.

5) Chloe is sporting a black eye. She and Luke were chasing each other last night when she fell and hit her eye on the rocking chair. She hit right under her eyebrow and immediately had a big knot. Poor thing. Today it is purple and swollen. She looks like she's been in a boxing match. Maybe we should teach her to say "Yo, Adrian."

6) I've never seen the Rocky movies. Or the Rambo movies. Is that considered un-American? I'm guessing some people out there think so. I'm not a big Sylvester Stallone fan. My parents wouldn't have let us watch them anyway. We didn't have a TV until I was eleven and then it was only the channels you could pick up by antenna. I would have to go out onto the side porch in sunshine, rain, or snow, and turn the antenna pole around slowly and wait for somebody to yell "WHOA!" Any of you have that same memory? Those were the days.

7) Apparently, I have bushy eyebrows. I was getting my hair highlighted a couple of weeks ago and I was using a new stylist. She is Asian and speaks with a thick accent. She asked me if I wanted my eyebrows waxed and I told her no. While she was trimming my hair, I was looking at my eyebrows and decided they could use a little shaping up. I never can seem to get it right with the tweezers anyway. So I asked her if she still had time to wax my eyebrows. She said, (with her Asian accent) "Good. They too bushy. Too bushy." And I'm paying for this kind of harsh criticism? Sheesh. :)

Saturday Seven -The picture edition

1) Jacob is now walking! He started walking a couple of weeks ago, around 11 months, and life hasn't been the same since. For any of us. He's into EVERYTHING! Nothing is safe around here. He thinks he's been walking for years....he practically takes off running when you put him down. He's so cute toddling around here!




2) Chloe loves junk food. Seriously, she wakes up in the morning and asks for candy. The girl is a sugar-aholic. We had an easter egg hunt and luncheon at church a couple of weeks ago and there were three trays of cupcakes. So I'm sitting there eating my hotdog when a little girl brings me this cupcake and tells me that Chloe grabbed it off the tray, licked the icing, and stuck it back. Yikes! And she had already eaten one cupcake....well, licked the icing off of it. The proof is in the picture! :)




3) Luke had a great time hunting eggs until he saw the church lawnmower. He was suddenly tired and wanted to rest....on the lawnmower, of course. Hunting eggs just takes so much out of you! All the stress of finding them and then picking them up only to have to put them into your basket. Whew! Who wouldn't need a break after that?




4) This is the best Easter Sunday shot I got of the kids. Every year Luke cries while I'm trying to take pictures for Easter. I'll post the pictures one day. It's crazy. He starts crying because he has to stand next to Chloe and touch her. And since Jacob is walking, he decided to walk out of the picture. So much for sweet family picture memories when we're all old.




5) Look at those baby blues shining! And yes, Jacob did wear shoes to church. He wore his squeaky sandals that everyone loves. And yes, I forgot to put socks on Chloe. I bought her a new pair of ruffly socks only to have them soaking wet in the washing machine. Not cool, Jennifer. Not cool.




6) Our jazzy family of five! I had to post this picture just because I spent three days looking for these outfits. Lots of stress....lots and lots of stress. See, I was so tired from shopping I couldn't even keep my eyes open for the picture. What a dud!



7) Meet Rusty! Our newest addition is a seven-week old beagle. He's adorable and the kids love him. They were having serious screaming fits whenever they got around dogs so we thought it would help if we had a dog of our own. So far, so good.

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Okay, I can't even think straight I'm so tired. I was trying to come up with a cute way to end the post but I can barely hold my eyes open. How 'bout another cute pic? That doesn't require much thought!

Saturday Seven

I love 7 Quick Takes that Catherine Wheels has on her blog on Fridays and would love to do something similar here. Since Fridays are already taken (Freebie Friday), I took it upon myself to create Saturday Seven! So here goes:

1) It struck me just now that the title I chose, Saturday Seven, is extra neat because Saturday is the seventh day of the week! Purely coincidental!

2) Don't ever, ever, ever put carpet in your house if you have children. Seriously, there should be a law that says you can't even buy carpet if you have children living at home. Hardwood, tile, or linoleum should be mandatory floor covering.

3) The suggested restriction on carpet was brought about by last nights' battle of Georgia red mud vs. beige carpet. The mud won. By flying colors. The now-orangey trail starts at the garage door, goes up two flights of stairs, down the hall, and ends in the kid's bedroom, where Luke went to get socks out of his dresser to use as gloves. I was impressed by his creativity with the socks, but not so impressed with his inattentiveness to his mud-caked shoes.

4) Speaking of socks....I'm currently wearing hospital socks and no, I'm not in the hospital. They give you these ugly brown socks with tread on them to wear to the operating room when you have surgery. Since I've had three c-sections and one hernia repair, I have a nice stash. They keep my feet really warm; so I choose warmth over style. And as we all know, style isn't our forte.

5) And speaking of hospitals, I was actually looking forward to my three day stay when I was expecting Jacob. Who wouldn't? I got to lie in bed, hold my new baby as much as I wanted, choose my food for the day, have it brought to me, have family and friends come to see us, and watch TV. It was a mini-vacation and I'm looking forward to doing it again!

6) Yes, we plan on having more children. Unfortunately, I am limited as to how many because I've already had three c-sections. The risk for complications during future pregnancies increase with each surgery. I wasn't quite as informed about my options as I am now, but we're blessed to have our beautiful babies, however they were delivered.

7) I have come to the disgusting realization that size has NOTHING to do with birthing babies. My sister, who is teeny tiny, had her baby girl here in about 15 minutes. I haven't' been teeny tiny since the third grade and I couldn't get my baby here after 11 hours.
"Miz Charlotte, I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no babies!"