Slip n Slide... or not.

Slip N Slides were on Clearance last week, so we picked one up. The manufactures suggested age was 5-12. I thought they were crazy because I was sure that my kids would love it at 1, 4 and 5...

Yeaaaaah. Notsomuch. I managed to get some smiling faces but I'm not gonna lie, there were alot of tears. Turns out, my kids aren't into sliding. They did alot of slipping, which added to the tears, and alot of splashing, but no sliding.

Justin was determined to make them like the dang thing. So he slid and won the Dad of the Year award. I decided against trying it out, because who else would take pics?!? ;)

So, the Slip N Slide was a bust this year. We'll stick to the kiddie pool, thankyouverymuch. Next year though, the Slipping N Sliding is ON!

Child Training Bible

A few weeks back, my girlfriend Myndi told me that she had found a cool Biblical training tool. So I researched it and discovered the Child Training Bible.

We follow Love and Logic's parenting style, but I thought this was a neat way to implement God's Word while teaching our kiddos.

I followed the directions on the website above, tabbing specific pages and highlighting the scripture it told me to. And because my kids are young, and the NIV translation can be a bit above their heads at times, I printed out the scripture references in the Easy to Read Version here. Then I attached them above the highlighted scripture, so that as they get older, they can read the NIV version as well.

So far, we're enjoying using this technique. We love going to God's Word to show our kids what He says about lying, not listening, etc, but we are careful NOT to use it as a form of punishment. We want our kids to WANT to see what the Bible says, so we wait until they kids are calm and the time is right to show them what it says (not in the heat of anger).

Anyway, all of that to say, you should check it out. It's a pretty cool learning tool ;)

Deck sleeping

My aunt lives nearby on a piece of property that overlooks the mountains. And it's beautiful, esp. at night. So Justin, myself, Lauren and Jake took advantage of that last weekend and had a sleepover on her deck, two stories above ground, overlooking the view.

While Miss Meg slept inside with my aunt in her cozy bed, we set up a 'nest', complete with TONS of blankets, sleeping bags, pillows, drinks, flashlight and books. We read stories, watched for 'aliens' talked about birds pooping on our heads, and tried to find the Big Dipper. Good times, those pooping conversations...



The kids slept like logs. Justin and I?? Notsomuch. I thought we had padded the deck flooring pretty well but halfway through the night, our hip bones were pretty unhappy. And in the morning, our backs were killing us... clearly we're not as young and chipper as we thought ;)

The kids had a fun time though, we had fun watching them have fun and memories were made. I'd call that successful in my book ;)

Crafty Hairbow Holder

Disclaimer: this post was written before the Pinterest fast ;)

But it was fun to make with my girl, and even cuter up on her wall, so I decided to share it ;)

Meg and markers; you know where this is goin...

Megan LOVES markers. She sneaks into Lauren's art desk and snatchs them as quickly as she can. But because she loves them so much, I often sit with her as she happily marks on her paper feet.



Thank goodness for washable markers but she still had some um, vivid feet for a while ;)

Homemade Popsicles... again ;)

It's HOT here. Crazy, sweltering, muggy, sticky hot. So the kids and I decided to make more homemade popsicles (wow, those pics were old! And my babies looked so YOUNG! sniff sniff). We make them often, but this was a really yummy combo with some ingredients laying around the house.

We added some crushed pineapple, a splash of OJ, a squeeze of honey, a cup or so of coconut milk and a banana. Then we blended it up, poured them into our popsicle molds and...

Voila! A healthy treat on a hot summer day ;)

YUM.

Reason 5,174 why...

we love this cat. He likes to be carried like a baby ;)

Crazy Milo ;)

Moving, Pinterest and fasting..

In the next few months, we'll be moving. There are still some details to work out but that's the plan. And I'm not gonna lie... I am super excited. Excited to see our new home, and fill it with love, and create memories, and decorate, and...

So I have been on Pinterest more than I care to admit the past week or so, pinning things that I planned on doing in my new house. New curtains, new bedspread perhaps, paint colors, art work to hang, etc... It's crazy how materialism creeps in. It's one of the ploys Satan uses, esp. on me, to entice Christians to take our focus off of Him.

Ugh.

And then after reading my friend Lindsay's post, I stumbled here. Not coincidental, seeing as how I've been wrestling with the idea of moving. And feeling the pull of materialism. I read the post, and within minutes, tears filled my eyes. And began to roll down my cheek, signs of conviction. And my heart broke.

How can I care so much about the things in the life that don't matter? Things that one day will not matter in the least. No one, including myself,  will look back at my life and say, 'well but she was crafty!' Or 'she bought such a nice bedspread!' That won't matter one single bit when Jesus comes back.... it will be the furthest thing in our minds. How we brought Him glory, how we loved on His poeple, will be what we, and others, remember most.

And yet, here I have been pinning while children and their families in other parts of the world live in filthy poverty.

How can I say I love the Lord with all of my heart and yet, I don't follow His commands to love my neighbor? How can I say that I will follow Him completely while I sit back and think of the home I desire more than helping my brothers and sisters around the world?

I'm not saying I have all the answers, not by any means. But I am saying that what I'm doing today is not glorifying Him by helping others. My hope and prayer, above anything else, is that God would use my husband, myself and children to share His gospel with others. That was the calling that my husband got almost 2 years ago that led him to Bible school. And hopefully, his knowledge and desire for sharing His word will send us on a long term mission. That's what my husband and I desire more than anything; to share God's love to others who don't know Him. That may be here in America, or that may be in Haiti as the blog above mentioned. But above all, we want to be used by God.

Because we haven't been called elsewhere at this point, we believe we are supposed to be here, right where God has us. And when the time is right, and if that's in his will, He will move us elsewhere. Until then though, I'm going to do the only thing I can and remove myself from distractions... namely, Pinterest.

It sounds silly to say that I'll be doing a Pinterest fast, as if that could change world hunger and poverty, but that's what God has laid upon my heart. Maybe it's so I'll focus my time and energy on praying and reading His word more. Or maybe it's because it'll free up a little time to love on others. Or maybe it's because it will allow me to take stock of the immeasurable blessings He has given us so that I won't long for more; so that I'll be 100% content in His love and not on things of this world.

Whatever it is, I want to obey. It's not serving others in a Third World nation, but it's a step in the right direction...

Just because I like to make my kids laugh..

...I got out my packet of googley eyes and while the kids were napping/playing during rest time, I went to work on some items in our house. When they woke up, I said nothing ;)

I heard laughter as they walked from room to room, searching out these little funny faces:

It was something so small, and yet, it made their day. They giggled and chuckled and laughed... and that made my heart happy to see them happy with the little things ;)

She's my last baby..

so I snuggle her as much as possible. As in, all.day.long.

LLC; Farrells Ice Cream!

Apparently July is National Ice Cream month. And how could we not celebrate such an amazing treat?

So, we turned our love of ice cream into a learning experience (or rather, we planned for it to be one but the sugar high got the best of us all, haha!) and took a field trip Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor.

We had SO much fun!

The kids were pretty stoked about their treats so while we waited, they all gave me their best 'excited for ice cream' faces:

And after all of that the craziness, a balloon artist (is there such a name?) came and made the kiddos balloons:

Jake opted for a sword (shocker!) and Lauren asked for a horse (even more of a shocker):

And finally, our treats had arrived!

So, we got to work, inhaling our ENORMOUS Ice Cream Brownie Sundae.

 And within 15 minutes, it was gone. LICKED clean. We didn't fool around ;)

We are definitely going back. They have 'Ice Cream Nachos'. WHAT?!?

Boy sleepover!

Lauren has had a few slumber parties with her BFF Grace. And last week, Jake had his first! We kept our friends sons Liam and Aidan (3 and 5), and had what they deemed a "BOY night!" (And Miss Lauren opted to avoid the testosterone-fest and stayed at Nan's that night. Smart girl!).

Before I begin though, I didn't get a ton of pics. I tried, believe me I did, but with three boys under 5, and a toddler in tow, the camera wasn't the first thing on my mind. Sanity was ;)

But, we did lots of fun things. We had some lunch,

made some crafts, went to the park,

had a sword fight, went to the mall play area, played board games... lots and lots of board games (it must be a boy thing??), had Justin teach them a Bible lesson (per Liam's request):

did some roughhousing on their 'nest',

had dinner, baths, and then a movie night... Cars 2!

And before long, I heard snoozing:

Lots of fun wore them out ;)