He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress and for his children it will be a refuge.
Proverbs 14:26

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Happenings


We've been here, there, and everywhere the last few months.  Here's a glimpse into some of our daily happenings.  I tried to include a snippet form everyone...

Jason has played the guitar... a lot... this is a good thing.   If you haven't heard him sing you should.  He's led worship for several events one of which is our home fellowship.  Anabelle loves to sing along...


Naomi has apparently been busy taking goofy pictures of herself with my camera as I discovered when I downloaded them...

Maddie baked...

Abbey read...

(ok, so in that picture she's playing with a flower but I didn't have a reading one!)

I ate not much of anything- things like this...

so I baked things like this for my family

Mia was just as busy as any of us collecting things from around the house for her lair.  I pulled all this out from the 2x2 space she has claimed for herself under our bed.  True story.

(that would be about 20 stuffed animals- yeah, one is bigger than she is, several odd socks, a few shoes, a few plastic easter eggs- ya know, the essentials...!) Crazy dog.

Anabelle bullied her friends.  Yep that's right.  Jason, Naomi, Anabelle and I went on a trip to visit some dear friends.  Their little girl is 2 months older than Anabelle and AB pretty much bullied her- little stinker!  At one point we found Anabelle lying on top of sweet Breeley who was none to happy!  Here they are in a tamer moment... (can I say tamer?)

I'm pretty sure Anabelle also worked on those baby blues becoming just a wee bit bluer- can't you just hear her saying, "who me?"

We were able to work in a family play day in the middle of it all...



In the midst of our happenings, I'm happy to say that there are usually plenty of helping hands to help take care of Miss Anabelle.  I have discovered however that each of our big girls has a pretty unique babysitting style.  

Naomi babysits like this
(if you can't tell Anabelle is confined to a baby doll bed...)

Maddie babysits like this...
Food or...

keeping Anabelle on her person at all times

Abbey babysits like this 
(again notice Anabelle confined to a restricted space)...


Now I can't say that i totally blame them for the restriction.  Anabelle has been quite the busy lady these past few weeks too.  

She discovered this cabinet...

Yep, that's right- that's where the cheerios are...

And she found this cabinet...

(I'm thankful that when we moved in, I had a moment of clarity and arranged my kitchen in a somewhat Anabelle proof way...)

She also found this cabinet..

And this bookshelf...

She's loving discovering the world around her and (for the most part) we all love watching it happen...

Our day ended with this beautiful sunset..

I love my daily light show out my kitchen window!

So that's what's been happening in our neck of the woods... What about in yours?

Ping-pong anyone?

The girls have been talking for weeks about how one of the teachers organized a ping-pong tournament during recess for grades 5-7.  Well yesterday they brought home a note saying that they had both made it to the finals for the girls and would be playing today at 1:00 and parents were welcome to attend.  The school is in a big square built around this central open-air room.  They've had various events there throughout the year like a pizza making contest last fall.  So Anabelle, Naomi and I headed up to the school to watch the excitement.  Maddie is in the blue shirt warming up at the far table...

As soon as we walked in and sat down Anabelle started clapping and yelling- I think she liked the way her voice echoed in the room!
 The cheerleaders...



As it worked out, Abbey and Maddie played each other in the first set of games- they played best 2 out of 3.  Abbey won the first, Maddie the second, then Abbey the third...
Getting ready for the game

The players...


They both did great and had such super attitudes.  This momma was proud!  Abbey ended up winning the whole thing for the girls and they both won their own sets of ping-pong paddles and balls.  

Too bad we don't have a ping-pong table...
Oh wait- there you go!

Thanks to the creativity of Naomi (who pronounced herself the judge), they're playing at home!

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Happy Birthday Anabelle!

I can't believe our little Bella Rose is 1!!  So hard to believe that it's been a year.  We were actually traveling on her birthday so we celebrated a week later at home with a few friends from our home fellowship group.  I found what I thought would be the perfect cake for Anabelle Rose- a strawberry cake with beautiful roses all over the top.   Here's the picture from pinterest..



Here's the link for the recipe.  Beautiful right?  In hindsight I wish I'd used this strawberry cake recipe.  It's truly the best ever.  But since I was attempting the roses, I figured I should stick with the given recipe.  Anyway, I found a tutorial for making roses at "i am baker".  (different cake, same concept).  After all her talk about how easy it was, I figured I couldn't go wrong...  Well clearly I am NOT baker.  After almost an hour of fighting with my icing to come up with the beautiful roses as seen above, I decided it was not going to happen ESPECIALLY on the sides of the cake...Going with the classic theme- the pearls etc, I ditched the idea of roses all over the cake and went with a pearly decoration along with Anabelle's monogram.  

Even though it's not exactly what I was going for, I still think it turned out pretty.  I also made red velvet whoopy pies for the occasion and ended up making an extra large whoopy pie and icing it to use as Anabelle's smash cake.  So the whoopy pies ended up looking more like something for an Alabama football game (roll tide!) but the smash cake was pretty cute...


Anabelle wasn't too sure what to think about everyone singing to her...

But she loved that birthday cake (and crashed just a few hours later from a sugar high...)


Of course, big sisters were the MOST excited about the birthday party- all they could talk about for weeks was Anabelle getting her own cake...

Just in the last week it seems, Anabelle's little personality has come out more and more.  She is definitely NOT shy (though coy when she wants to be).  On a recent international trip, on more the one occasion I looked up to see her flirting with people all around her- waving, grinning.  She does not meet a stranger.  And, I'm realizing that she is quite loud.  Her chatter at full volume is pretty much non-stop and she's actually started forming quite a few words just in the past week- ma ma, da da, bye bye, thank you, milk (sounds like ma), uh oh, to name a few.  

Oh, and lest I forget, "no no" with finger waving is also a favorite.  We had a standoff the other day over Mia's dog food that ended with her swatting my hand and saying "no no" (after I swatted her hand) and me leaving the room laughing.  Anabelle 1, Mommy 0....

Of course her favorite game is to throw something down and say, "uh oh" and then to say "thank you" when you hand it back.  

And one of the most important things in Anabelle's life right now is lovey (the pink giraffe below- it's an old picture but lovey hasn't changed besides that she probably smells a lot worse from the constant slobber...).  Lovey is around for every bedtime and is held so that Anabelle can rub the little giraffe head and occasionally stuff it into her mouth...

One of her sweetest new tricks is to say "Hiiiii!" with the cutest little southern drawl (no idea where she gets that...) .  She'll crawl up to someone, stop at their feet, look up and say, "Hiiiiiii!".  So sweet.  

And she's definitely got the cell phone concept down.  Every time one of our phones rings or makes the incoming text message sound she says, "ahh-ahh ahh-ahh" as loud as she can.  I'm telling you, she's learned early that she's going to have to be loud to be heard in a house full of women!  

Oh, and a first in our parenting journey- Miss Anabelle is a feather weight!  We've never had a petite baby before!  She got her one year shots yesterday and is 30 inches tall (80th percentile) and weighs 19.1 lbs (around 25th-30th percentile!) She really didn't have much of an appetite through the winter with all of her ear infections, and just had a stomach virus last week so I'm hoping she'll bulk up a little soon!  

Her appetite has really improved a lot over the last few weeks.  She wants to eat pretty much all table food but sweet little thing is still toothless so it's a little hard...

Big sisters definitely weren't feather weights at this age!  Can you tell who's who?




Precious girl, you are adored.  And I believe with all my heart that all children are a gift from God and each is a precious miracle in their own special way, but considering our journey that resulted in you, my "gracious beauty", I truly tear up at least once a day when I think about how God blessed us with you.
  
 Psalm 119:73 says, "Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands."  
We claim this verse for you as God gave us a special glimpse into the way His hands formed you, and maybe one day I'll muster up the emotional energy to share about that journey.  As with all our sweet girls, we pray you will grow in understanding of your Creators commands and His love for you.  

And for fun, here's just a few more of that precious cheesy grin...
(and my horrible grin in this picture- yikes!)


Household organization- my "non pinteresty" system

I will be the first to admit that I am a planner.  I organize, I make lists, I have fabulous ideas for various family events, activities with the kids etc.  Trouble is- the majority of the time these things remain simply ideas.  Yeah, I'm not so good at follow through.

Implementation of said fabulous ideas seems to allude me.

I think maybe this is why the first time I looked at pinterest, I loved everything I saw on the one hand (what fabulous IDEAS) and I absolutely hated it on the other (I will NEVER follow through with these things that I see and love!)

Case in point.  My kids get an allowance.  I love the idea of teaching them about handling their money- emphasizing saving, spending, giving- helping them sort that all out.  Yeah, so my kids have to remind me every 4-6 months or so to actually give them their allowances, so in spite of all my wonderful ideas about teaching them about money, it's never actually happened.  One of these days...

Anyway, I digress.  One of the things I've been checking out on pinterest is chore charts.  I've tried various things over the years with minimal success.  (the problem being me, not the kids).  We've done sticker charts, check lists, magnets with their initials on them etc.  We are now in a season of life where chore charts have become more than being a tool to teach them responsibility and life skills (although those are great bonuses)they have become about the cleaning is too much for me and I need help!  When we lived in Lebanon, I was beyond blessed to have a precious lady who helped me clean twice a week.  Oh how I took that blessing for granted and miss it now!  It's a bit more expensive here plus I just haven't found the right person yet (probably because I haven't had time to look at all).  So I knew I needed a chore system that my implementationally challenged self could handle and, well, actually implement.  The fact that we essentially live in the desert (ok in a big city that is surrounded by desert) does not make cleaning an easy task.  In fact, it is an entirely different monster than cleaning a house in the states.  The dust here is really quite amazing.  (not in a good way).  Combine the ever present dust with the fact that in warmer times of year (now) we have to leave our windows open for airflow (no central air or heat) and the result is a constantly dusty house.

All that to say that after looking at several fabulous (and very aesthetically pleasing) ideas for chore charts on pinterest most of which used craft supplies that I either can't get or would have to pay an arm and leg for, I consulted a dear friend who I know to be very practical and down to earth (you know who you are and I mean this in the most positive way...) about how she organizes her chore charts.  As I read through her kids weekly activities I realized several things.  First, my kids have been getting off way too easy!  Second, chore charts do not have to be complicated or even cute.   A print out of a calendar works just fine.

So enter my handy dandy purple notebook (see picture above).  Yes, it is true that I still live in the dark ages of using a day planner (NOT a digital one) for my calendar and a notebook that I write in with an ink pen to organize and plan my life.  For some reason, I have not been able to translate that portion of my life to the computer.  Kind of like the kindle I think.  I need to hold a book in my hands just like I need to hold a calendar in my hands.  Some things just shouldn't be digital.  Anyway, digital calendars and home organization may work for many, not me.  So anyway, my purple notebook.  Love it, use it for lots of lists, plans etc and I'm pretty sure it was cheaper (and prettier) than the latest computer program.

So first, I made a list of all the chores that need to be accomplished in our home on a weekly basis and how often those things need to happen.  I also noted to the side things that are not necessarily regular but still need to happen and things that I want to try and do once a month like clean out the frig, a rotating deep cleaning of each bedroom etc


Then I thought about each of the girls, what would best suit them, what they needed to learn to do better and I broke down the chores into morning, afternoon and evening jobs and broke them down even more by day of the week.

Morning chores/activities are simple things like make your bed, wipe off bathroom counters, Bible time.  The afternoon chores are the most intense- vacuuming, dusting, bathrooms, balconies.  Because of the dust filled desert that we live in, between the girls and I, we vacuum and dust 3x/week, wipe down the doors and baseboards 2X, clean the bathrooms 2X etc.  I've also delegated things like breaking ice and filling ice trays (I HATE this job and no frig here comes with an ice maker so it's a constant thing especially in the summer), making lunch snacks etc.  Evening chores are mostly related to the kitchen and preparing school stuff for the next day.  

Now the idea here is that I would organize the calendar and then print it out (maybe changing things up each month or so- that way they have enough time to learn to do something well but still change things up a little).  Before I printed out the calendar, I wanted to make sure that the chores made logical sense and that they were working as far as the running of our household, so I started out by writing them on one of our dry erase boards (pink of course) left over from our homeschooling days.  Green is for afternoon, blue is for evening (morning chores are understood at this point...).  I hope to eventually actually print out a calendar but this is still what I'm doing for now since our printer died...  I actually like the flexibility it provides in case I want to change things up.


You would think that going from not having much of a chore system to a full blown, job every day kind of thing might rock their little worlds (although I've been warning them for months now that this was coming...) but that hasn't been the case at all.  I've been so pleasantly surprised by their attitudes and how they've really just jumped in ready to help.  Now don't get me wrong, of course we have our days but overall I think the increased work around the house has actually helped the general attitude.  They take more ownership for the overall appearance of our home if that makes sense.  

In the process of organizing the girls activities, I am also attempting to come up with a daily schedule for myself.  So much to do so little time, and for me it's not going to happen without at least a skeletal plan.  I'm trying to work several hours of language study into my week.  I need several hours a week to focus on finances and I'm trying to set aside time for emailing and blogging.  Also meal planning, a day to cook ahead and grocery shop etc.  Oh and there's also exercise, rotating date nights with the girls etc etc.  Things here typically take a lot longer than in the states.  I haven't really put my finger on why, it's just kind of a general rule agreed upon by anyone who has ever lived overseas, and I've found that for myself, I need somewhat of a plan if I'm ever going to get things done.  For example, if I know that Tuesday is typically my cleaning day and on the first Tuesday of the month I'm going to tackle big cleaning jobs in the kitchen, then I can organize around that.  If Sunday is my grocery/meal prep day then I can work around that.  None of this is set in stone, but for me if I just have the bare bones of a plan, then I don't find myself quite as far behind when something happens to throw off the schedule.  Since there actually IS a schedule as opposed to things happening haphazardly and without any plan.  I've tried to write out what I hope to accomplish over a given week and I am working on figuring out how all these things fit into a schedule...

My hope is that this will encourage someone else out there who is just looking for simplicity!  It can be done with a purple notebook- no fanciness required!