Baby Gizmo YouTube Giveaway - the Orbit Baby G2 Stroller

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Baby Gizmo YouTube Giveaway!

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Meditation Monday

I'm thinking: that another little GIRL will be lots of fun. Yes ... I said GIRL! =) More on the BIG reveal later.

I'm reading: same as last week ... nothing ... but my list of books is quickly growing.

I'm listening to: Madie playing house and pretending to talk on her cellphone. It's cute. And my favorite Pandora station playing.
I'm learning: that although I may have REALLY wanted something to be a certain way God has a plan that I cannot even begin to know or understand or create the way he perfectly does.

I'm watching: a slight breeze blow through the leaves of the tree outside my window ... and our usual shows.

I'm cooking: beans for most of our dinners this week cause the more we eat the ... more $$$ we save! What? You thought I was going to say something else ... didn't you? HA!

I'm buying: perhaps some chickens soon. We are seriously looking into getting some chickens! Fresh eggs would be wonderful.

I'm thankful for: this sweet baby we've been blessed with and three other beautiful children we've also been blessed with.

I'm creating: a better scheduling system for our days and a chore chart for the kids.

I'm praying: for this baby to be healthy and strong.

I'm planning: to go to the Grand Opening of Sprouts later this week. I've never been in one and I'm so excited. =)

I'm looking forward to: going to bed ... I'm tired!
A picture to share:

Meditation Monday

I'm thinking: that it's been a long time since I blogged.

I'm reading: nothing at the moment ... but I do have a few books that are waiting for me to find the time to read them. Shepherding a Child's Heart and Over the Counter Natural Cures are just two in the list.

I'm listening to: my favorite Pandora station - Adele. Currently playing is My Girl by Otis Redding. This station is weird cause it plays quite a range of musicians but I love it. For example now playing is Blessed Assurance by Third Day (LOVE THAT ONE) ... and now a Norah Jones song ... and now a Colbie Calliet song ... and now an Ingrid Michaelson song ... and now a Jack Johnson song ...  and well you get the picture ... and clearly it takes me a long time to do this!!  I'm also listening to the kids playing nearby.

I'm learning: that I need to be happy with my lot in life and not get so discouraged.

I'm watching: Jake and I watched the most recent Pirates of the Caribbean movie over the weekend. We also always watch The Office, Parks and Recreation, Parenthood and Psych if there is a new one.

I'm cooking: a roast chicken. It smells delicious and I hope Jake makes it home when it's time to carve it because I HATE doing that. =)

I'm buying/saving for: the next section to our Bible curriculum and a grain mill.

I'm thankful for: my family.

I'm creating: a few things for the reveal party this weekend.

I'm praying: for the health of this baby. God has blessed us with three beautiful and healthy children and I pray this one is as well.

I'm planning: a party for this weekend! A party where we get to find out what Baby #4 is and I'm so excited to share the news with our family and friends. =)

I'm looking forward to: Friday because that is the BIG ultrasound and I LOVE seeing the baby moving around especially their little legs. Also, on Friday we are having our first Supper for 6 dinner with two other lovely families in our church. And then of course on Saturday the BIG party! =)

This weekend: Jake sold the BMW that he's had since we were dating. :( We were both VERY sad by this but at the same time relieved to not have it hanging over us (and taking up room in our driveway). It's a fixer and Jake has fixed it many many times. We have a picture of the two of us standing in front of it when we were dating. I really wanted to take a picture of ALL of us before we sold it and I never got around to it. :( This weekend I got to hang out with the ladies in my family (my mom, sis and sis-in-law) plus a bunch of friends from "home". They all came up to celebrate my sister-in-law Sarah's b-day. First we went to a little hole-in-the-wall theatre to watch "Anne of Green Gables". It was very cute. I thought it was well done and wish I had taken the girls with me ... they would have loved it. After the play we went to the mall. My feet were VERY tired and I was VERY hungry. I managed to make it with those crazy shoppers and only spent $4. And then it was dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. YUM! All in all it was a lovely time and I was sad when everyone left to go home. It was nice having everyone come my way. On Sunday we went to our friend's house for a late lunch/early dinner. They just fixed up a super cute old house and she's crafty. Check out her blog here.

A picture to share:

Miss Madeline

November 2011

God is Good

Hopefully I didn't scare anyone with my last post. I was definitely having a down in the dumps sort of day but God is good and writing that stuff out helped a little. What helped a lot was talking to Jake and of course God.

I think I have figured out a good schedule for us. Though I will have to tweak it again soon. Zeke needs to go for walks at least twice a day so I'll need to fit that in after he's done with all his shots.  For now we are practicing walks in our yard. And trying to get him running, etc out there to get some pent-up energy out a few times a day.

I think the new schedule is going to work just fine. The old schedule looked a little like this:

Quiet Time (because the girls wake up WAY TOO early...they look at books in their room)
Straighten up books
Breakfast
Put Jude down for nap (about 15 minutes of my time...but then he sleeps for at least 1.5 hours)
Bible Time
School
Recess
Lunch
Jude's Nap
School
Quiet Time (for the girls)
Free Time (for the girls)
Clean Up (for the girls)
Dinner
Bath
Bed

This schedule left little time for me to do the dishes, laundry, sweep, clean, etc! This is the new schedule:

Quiet Time
Straighten
Breakfast
Dishes/Laundry
Jude's Nap
Bible Time
Chores/Cleaning (the girls are helping me a lot now!)
Free Time
Lunch
Jude's Nap
Quiet Time for Delia while Madie does school
Quiet Time for Madie while Delia does school
Free Time
Straighten
Dinner
Bath
Bed

So this seems to be working. This morning the girls folded the towels and even folded and put away all of their clean clothes! So extremely nice!! While they were folding towels I was sweeping. While they were putting away their clothes I was putting away mine and Jake's. Now they are playing. I think I'm liking this schedule a lot more. It definitely give me more time to do the household things I need to do and still gives me time to do the school things we need to do. And gives us all a little break too.

Day one isn't over yet.....but I'm pretty sure It's going to be a good day. =)
God is good.

I entered these three pictures in a contest for Pediped. The winner (chosen by a panel of judges) wins a $750 gift card to their store. That's A LOT of shoes! You also get to go to Las Vegas for a photo shoot. There are three runners up and this is where I need your help. The three runners up are determined by your votes. The three with the most votes win the runner up spots and their picture used in marketing, etc.

If you'd like to vote click on the links below. All you have to do is click "VOTE" once the picture comes up! You can vote once a day until Oct. 2nd. THANKS!

Delia
Madie
Jude

And...can you believe I've actually posted this much in one week!? YAY!

Life....why are you so hard?

So I finally started school with the girls this week. Originally my goal was the first week in September....but then we got sick and then we got a puppy....you get the picture.

So Monday we started and it was a no good horrible very bad day....okay maybe it wasn't that bad but it wasn't great either. The schedule I had worked so hard on just isn't working. Trying to teach a 3 year old and a 6 year old different things at the same time just isn't working. Not getting enough sleep isn't helping either. Throw in a puppy who needs some serious training with a one year old who is starting to throw fits and don't forget about the house that needs cleaning, laundry, meals, errands, etc, etc. I'm frustrated to say the least. Oh and did I mention Jake has been working overtime (60+ hour weeks) since we moved.....We're going on 2.5 months of that. Plus Jake's car(s) broke down....again. So most days I am carless....which is fine except for those days when I NEED chocolate (which is everyday) and there is NO chocolate in the house (which is often).

Lately I've been struggling with trying to balance everything. I know I am not perfect. I know my children are not perfect. But I just want to do it all and I want to do it well. I want my house to look nice and be clean. I want my children to enjoy school and be happy. I want my puppy to be well-trained. I want to exercise everyday. I want! I want! I want! I want!

Wow. I sound selfish....I am selfish. It's a fact and a truth that I don't deny. Though part of me thinks that wanting the things I listed above isn't necessarily selfish considering they are wants for good things. Things for my family. It is still a bad attitude to have.  I need to work on my attitude.

I'm trying to figure it out. I'm taking the day off from school today so I can reschedule and organize our days better. I want to glorify God in everything that I do. It is a hard thing to accomplish....I am not perfect....but I am certainly going to try to be the person God has called me to be....and hopefully someday I'll know who that person is supposed to be.

So many times other moms have told me that this time will pass. When the kids are young it's hard to get it all done. But I am determined to try at least. One thing that I'm fairly certain would help is if we didn't move so much. I constantly feel like I'm in a state of waiting. Waiting for the next move. I know it will be coming. I know it will distrupt our whole lives....again. I know it will be months of searching for a place, packing and then unpacking....only to go through the whole process again in a year or less. I'm over it and ready to put down roots. To have a house that I can decorate and paint the way I want. To have a place that is constant; where we can stay for a very long time....like TWO years! ;) ha. To have a home.

I can see us staying in this place for at least 2 years but that sort of makes me sad because the longer we stay here the more I'm going to LOVE it and the harder it will be to move on.

okay...rant over.... =)

Back to the scheduling.....You just might hear from me later this week!

Meet Zeke

Last time I blogged I mentioned that we were going to be getting a dog soon. Little did I know that we were going to get one that same evening!! A friend of mine (who (or is it whom) loves animals) was keeping her eye out and came across an ad on Craigslist. She sent it to me and I showed Jake who happened to be home because I was still getting over being sick. He told me to call and ask a few questions. You see, Jake doesn't like dogs with long hair and these puppies had australian shepherd mixed in. So he wanted me to call and find out if they had long or short hair, etc. So I did. And they did not. So we set up a time to check them out that very night. Let's be real here folks. If you are going to go "look" at a puppy you're also going to be walking away with a puppy. I mean how could you not. Especially when they are as cute as this...

This is Zeke. He is 8 weeks old in this picture. As you can see he has blue eyes which is perfect because we are a family of blue-eyes. So he fits in quite nicely. All four of his paws are white and the tip of his tail is too. I love his coloring and his freckled nose is adorable. =)

He has been a great addition to our family. The kids love him. I love him. Jake loves him. He was practically potty trained which has been oh so nice! He does have accidents but that is mostly my own fault because I am either busy or not thinking ahead enough to take him out often enough. We are getting there though...for example he only had one accident....no wait it was two....in the house today.  As I was cleaning up a potty mess from one of my children the dog decided to pee as well. At least I already had the cleaner and paper towels out....

So the people we bought him from said the mom was an Australian Shepherd/Black Lab mix and the dad was a Golden Lab. I have heard of Golden Retrievers and Yellow Labs but I've never heard of a Golden Lab. So I googled Golden Lab and sure enough it is possible. Apparentely a Golden Lab is a cross between a Golden Retriever and a Labrador Retriever. Okay. Cool. Right? Sure, but I don't see any Golden Lab in this puppy. AT ALL!

I see a little Pit Bull and sometimes Great Dane. I've been told by a few people that they see Pit as well. Someone else said Great Dane. We did get to see the mom. And she did appear to be and Australian Shepherd/Lab mix. She was well-mannered, energetic and athletic. So we just aren't 100% sure what he is. It's easier to just say he's an Aussie/Lab mix and leave it at that.

Zeke weighed about 12 pounds when we got him almost 2 weeks ago. And now at 10 weeks old he weighs about 15 pounds.

Everyone who sees him says he's going to get big. Which is exactly what we wanted. I plan to take him to the vet soon. I'm really curious what the vet thinks he is.

We are busy with the usual stuff and currently working on crate training among other things with Zeke. He definitely likes to be where we are and can often be found curled up under the kitchen table during meals and yes even snuggling on the couch in the evening....=)

He loves water. And when he wants to cool off he will most likely be found with his two front legs in the water bucket outside. Silly dog.

Here he is after cooling off in the kid's pool.

  Pictures always make him look bigger than he actually is. He's still shorter than Jude...but that won't last long!

 He's quite handsome...don't you think?

So what do you think he is? Besides the cutest dog EVER! ;)

Time! Where did you go?

Remember awhile back when I posted that piece about time and how I finally was going to get back into blogging....blah blah blah....and then I didn't. That was funny. Right? And a bit ironic....don't you think? (Sorry Alanis....I had to)

So anyways I'm "ready" to start again. We moved. Yes it was almost 2 months ago....and yes up until a week ago there were still a few boxes in the house. The house is still a mess. I still need to organize and get ready for the school year. I had originally planned to start earlier this week. But we went to the in-laws cabin for Labor Day (a much needed break!). So I decided to give myself another week to get organized, clean and plan our schedule. Then I got sick. I'm still feeling under the weather and so I'm afraid school is NEVER going to start. Too bad for the kids....WAHOO for me! Okay. I'm kidding. I'm quite excited to start....nerdy right? And my new goal is next week......or maybe the week after that. It depends on how I feel in the next couple of days and how much stuff I actually get done. I'm hoping that all this resting I've been doing will give me enough energy to accomplish my goals.

A lot has happened since the last time I posted.

-Delia celebrated her 6th birthday. And I just realized we NEVER had a family party for her! :( How sad. We had our usual (just the 5 of us) party. Which almost always falls on the same weekend we move.....Ha! Sad. But if family and close friends can't make it on the actual birthday we try to have a little something with them too. Hmmmm. I think we need to plan something.

-Jude celebrated his 1st birthday!!! It was fun and we enjoyed spending the afternoon hanging outside with the family in our BIG (it's half an acre big!) new backyard. He started taking steps a few weeks before his b-day and by the end of his 12 month he was walking everywhere and standing up without help from anything. So much fun!

-We are going to get a dog......SO EXCITED! I've been wanting one for years. And now that we have a big yard (at least for the next few months;)) we have space for one. YAY!

-There are homeless people living across the street in a big greenbelt area. Lovely.....the police know but don't seem to be doing much about it.

-Turkeys also live over there. We see them everyday. At least 9 of them come waddling over and hang out in our yard and the neighbors.

-I like our new house. There are (as always) things I wish were a little different but I can see us living here longer than usual. Like maybe 2 years! Okay. Let's not get too crazy. Let's start low.....say 18months. 2 months down.....;)

That is all I can think of for now. But soon I will be back to blogging more regularly. Seriously. I will.

Jake had to fix something on the computer and now I am no longer able to upload pictures from my camera. I can upload them to the other computer. But I'm not on that computer....so I only have access to pictures that I've taken with my phone and a few from family and friends. This one was taken by Tyler, my BIL. Love the sun flare. =) I"ll hopefully get some more pics up soon.