Book Recommendations!

I have been reading a couple of great books lately; here they are in no particular order . . .

Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp

The main difference between this book and many other parenting books I have read is that this one really focuses on your child's heart, rather than the outward behaviour. The author maintains that it is imperative that you look past the symptoms to the cause. A verse quoted in the book comes from Luke 6:45, "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks."

This is my second time through this book and I enjoy that it doesn't just tell you what the problem is, but gives practical examples and steps to correct it.

The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois

A trip by hot-air balloon is the beginning of a giant adventure for Professor William Waterman Sherman. Along the way he meets some delightful characters on the island of Krakatoa and finds himself a part of their magical world.

We probably wouldn't have picked up this book except it is part of our curriculum, and we would have greatly missed out. I usually enjoy all the Newberry Award books but have LOVED this. The kids like it too, and I have a sneaking suspicion that Ethan was getting into the story the night we caught up on a couple chapters. :)

Time and Money Saver?

I found out about a new option for groceries that we may have to try. It's called Angel Food Ministries. I've had a couple of friends try a business called Bountiful Baskets recently, and I believe that is mostly fruits and vegetables. Angel Food boxes contain meat, soups, desserts, you name it. You don't get to choose exactly what goes in the box, but I think that could be helpful to us. It would force us to eat new things. :) The claim is that it is about $65 worth of food for $30. Sounds good to me! You order online and pick up your box or boxes once a month. They also offer a gluten-free box, and that stuff is expensive. Any of you ever try this before?

Pioneer Woman Photography Contest

The last week has been strange in that I have started several posts but haven't finished one yet. I don't know what my problem is, maybe being busy or tired. That does seem to happen to us mamas!

Anyway, I just wanted to post a little note of congratulations to my awesome cousin Alisa, who was a finalist in the Pioneer Woman's photography contest. She entered a very sweet photo of her parents. I know a lot of people who read that blog, if you want to see her entry go here and look for number 10. The winning shot brought tears to my eyes; really they are all good. Have fun looking!

How I Love Them

From the title of this post you may assume that I'm speaking of how I love my sweet babes. And yes I do love them. But I also LOVE my neighbors. Most all of them.

When we bought our house a little over two years ago, I was a little bit worried. Worried because we don't live in a high-end neighborhood. Worried my neighbors would turn out to be trashy or unfriendly. But I couldn't have been more wrong. We have a master gardener next-door, who brings us fresh vegetables. The couple across the street is always out and friendly; they were the first ones to welcome us when we moved in. Another sweet lady who went to Hawaii last week brought us back some cookies. She is such a joy to talk with whenever I have the opportunity. When the weather is nice Ethan plays hockey with a bunch of the guys at the neighborhood park, while the moms chat and the kids play. Last winter when I thought for sure little Miss Calico was going to make an early appearance, one of our neighbors came over to stay with our kids at like 3:30 in the morning so Ethan could race to the hospital. I could go on and on.

The first house we ever owned was in a very nice neighborhood. I lived there alone before we got married. One night there was a peeping tom on the skylight of the bathroom. (To this day I am not into skylights.) After we had been married a couple of years, there was a shooting out in the street in front of our house. The police arrived before anyone was actually hurt, but it was still kind of crazy. We knew . . . let's see, I think we knew about three families in the entire time we lived there. People drove straight home and into their garages. It appeared on the surface to be such a idyllic neighborhood, but looks aren't everything.

A new mom to our neighborhood recently commented that she was nervous that maybe they had moved onto a "Stepford wives" street. After I finished laughing (because let's face it, I wear jeans every day and my clothes usually have some combination of peanut butter and baby drool on them), I assured her we're all just friends who like to take care of each other. And isn't that the way life should be?

Happy Birthday Calico!

Our sweet girl turned one last week and we had a little get-together for her last night. I decided to make the theme "The Birds and the Bees," totally as a joke, but you should have seen the look my mother-in-law gave me. It was too funny. (Good thing I know she likes me!)

I didn't have a cake stand, hence the lovely homemade one. Think cardboard, tinfoil, scrapbook paper, baby formula containers, and feathers. Oh yes.

Stitched up some little birdies for decoration.

Pictures of our sweet girl on display; from newborn to 12 months. We posed her next to the same doll to measure her growth.

And the dessert table. The bird in the middle wouldn't cooperate.

Hooray for our one-year-old!