the petting zoo

Sienna was so excited about the little petting zoo that they set up at her school last week! I was really surprised at how easily she interacted with all the animals.....she wasn't intimidated or afraid. Instead, she simply delighted in them!! She absolutely LOVED feeding them, and petting them, and just watching them run around. She is a constant reminder of how easy it is to find joy in our lives....to take pleasure in all of God's creations.

She loved feeing the donkey and thought he was absolutely hilarious!! She took the handler's advice very seriously to hold her fingers out so that the donkey didn't mistake them for his food.

The "kitty pigs" were her absolute favorite, and she has already been asking her daddy if we can have one at home :)

summer fun

There are certain blogs that I love to read b/c they inspire me......they provide me with new ideas, activities to try out with my kiddos, relationship advice, crafting experiments, photography advice, etc.... 

Blogs have opened up a whole new world for me, but I have to be careful not to cross the line from reading and being inspired into feeling drained and intimidated by what other moms are seemingly able to accomplish in one lifetime!!

I have always loved the idea of peeking into other's peoples lives (not in a weird way): seeing how other people decorate their homes, how they display their treasures, how they organize the toys, etc... and blogs are a way of being able to do that during my own time and at my leisure.

Here are some ideas that are inspiring me this week:

1. LOVE this Summer Bingo idea over on Stacy Julian's blog

I think I am going to come up with an interpretation of this even though my kiddos are still really young.....I think it would be a good way to plan some activities ahead of time and to keep track of all the fun things we do this Summer

2. Another fun idea some of you may have already heard about is "Muffin Tin Monday"....the basic idea is that every Monday (or whatever day works for you), you serve one meal to the kiddos in a muffin tin. There are all sorts of adaptation on this idea: colors (see photo below), shapes (all food in the shape of a circle), holiday themes, food based on a favorite book......

You can read more about it and see more photos here

3. Another idea I came across (don't remember where) was to designate a small unlined notebook as a "What Color was your Day?" notebook....I have already started this with Sienna. Each day, we set aside some time to pull out the special notebook and a jar of crayons, and I simply ask her to think about what color her day felt like, she chooses that color (or several colors) and draws whatever she feels like.....then I date it and we move on. Love it!!

4. Loving this shell memory game over at The Write Start

I could definitely pull this one off!!

5. I also saw an idea recently somewhere in blogland about coming up with a theme for the day and then adapting all of your normal activities to fit within that theme: "Strawberry Day" = having strawberries as a snack, making felt strawberries as a craft, reading a story about strawberries, etc.... other themes I saw included "Pizza Day," "Down on the Farm," "A trip to the Beach," "Camp-out"...the possibilities are endless!!

EDITED: found this here

So, what are your favorite ideas/activities for Summer???

patience is a virtue

I feel a cold coming on.......you know when you can just tell?? I have that run down, yucky feeling, a scratchy throat and an overall sense that my body is trying to tell me something.

I am feeling on-edge and impatient, especially with the little ones!! Yesterday, I lost my patience with Sienna and then proceeded to beat myself up for it the rest of the night....not a good mommy moment :) This week, I am praying for more patience with everyone, to see people as God sees them. I am praying for the self-discipline to pray before I speak, before I simply react to the situation.

I started a new bible study yesterday, and I know it is no coincidence.....it is just what I need right now = to take the time to be in God's Word, to slow down and listen to what He is trying to tell me. One of the comments in the class yesterday really spoke to me. The instructor was talking about how women have so many feelings and emotions throughout the day, and although she was not encouraging us to bury our feelings or to become a door mat, she did point out that just because we have feelings doesn't mean we have to express every single one that we have.

That is a lesson I needed to hear!!

After a whirlwind weekend, I am glad to be back home and back to our normal routine!! We spent last weekend at my grandparent's farm, and the kiddos had a blast!! So much so, that on Sunday night, Grant slept from 7:00 pm until 8:30 am, and then napped from 12:30 pm until 4:30 pm yesterday afternoon!!! I guess he was a little tuckered out from the festivities and needed to catch up on his beauty sleep :)

I have been catching up on my reading over on the Simplemom blog and the last couple posts really hit home!! 

The first one was about "Using the Good Stuff" and it got me thinking about the china we received for our wedding that has been collecting dust in our china cabinet since the day we received it (the china cabinet also happens to be in our "dining room" = a room in which we "dine" maybe twice a year). 

So tonight, I have decided that we will be ordering pizza from our favorite local spot and eating off our wedding china......we may even get really crazy and wash our pizza down with a little juice from our beautiful crystal goblets!!! Why not, right???

The other post I enjoyed was all about the Clutter that fills our lives....the clutter that we can't see (time clutter, mental clutter, relationship clutter, etc...).

The take-away for me, was realizing that I need to spend my time more wisely = only looking at the blogs and websites that I find to be truly beautiful and/or useful, watching only the television shows that I truly enjoy (The Bachelorette definitely makes the list!!!) and making sure that I take time to pray, be still, be silent and to dwell on what is "true, noble, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy" (Philippians 4:8).

Sometimes, it's easy to get caught up in activities that do nothing more than suck up valuable time and energy and add nothing valuable to our days....today I vow to pay closer attention to the invisible clutter in my life!!

Thought I would share a couple more shots from Sienna and Kaleb's graduation. Sienna LOVES her cousin Kaleb!! They have a typical love-hate relationship with one another......one minute they are playing "kitchen" and serving each other from little plates and cups, and the next minute one or the other is crying and running to tattle on the other :) 

I feel incredibly grateful that they are so close in age, and that we are all blessed with an everlasting link to my little brother........they look so much alike!!

love this

Saw this over here

and thought it was such a cute, easy idea for father's day........ I am frantically looking for some ideas given that this Sunday is Father's Day which means a gift for my own father plus something original, heart warming and sweet for my hubby from the kiddos AND Sunday is also my dad's birthday....then next Wed. is my hubby's birthday which means even more creative ideas to come up with :) This year, I am going with a "Handmade from the Heart" theme. One of the goodies my hubby will be receiving is a cute little scrapbook made from the Dad kit at House of 3

I guess tonight, I will be getting out all the craft supplies for an evening of homemade card goodness :)

on my mind

This is her new face.......something wonderful she picked up at school :) She especially loves doing this when I am asking her to smile for the camera!! 

These are the silly faces that I am going to miss next month when my hubby and I take our first vacation together since our little ones were born. Is it terribly strange that I am actually dreading the trip more than I am looking forward to it?

Don't get me wrong.....the idea of one whole week away with my husband sounds divine in theory......no dirty diapers to change, no putting anyone in time out, no temper tantrums, crying fits, etc...... BUT the other part of me is missing them like crazy before we have even gotten on the plane. I simply can not imagine being away from them for that long!!! My mind begins to fill with worry and anxiety, and I must stop myself and simply PRAY. Pray that my children will have a wonderful time while we are away, pray that they will not miss us too much, pray that my husband and I will savor every minute of our time alone, pray that I will be a better mommy and wife when we return, and pray that God will take away my anxiety and simply allow me to put my trust in HIM.

I know how extremely blessed I am to even have this as a worry (poor me, stressed over taking a week-long vacation to Costa Rica), but this is a major step for me on the Mommy Journey.

oldies but goodies

After my photo scare, I have been looking back over some old pictures and feeling so grateful for this technology that allows us to freeze time........to capture memories that would otherwise be experienced and forgotten.

I was lucky enough yesterday to have over 15,000 photos recovered that would otherwise have gone to photo heaven....so my new system will be to back-up everything to an external hard drive, burn all photos to DVD, AND upload all of my photos to Shutterfly. It is a tedious process, but really so very worth it!!!

In other news, I found this new (to me) blog yesterday and thought I would share it with you. Go here to be inspired!! It is full of great ideas on encouraging your kiddos to write, to draw, to create....I love this stuff :)

status update

So....this will be a post with no photos. Why?? Because after my third trip to the Apple store today & a new hard drive on my laptop (which is less than a year old I might add), they tell me that my back up hard drive is "corrupted," and they may not be able to retrieve any of the photos in my iphoto library!! I am trying not to freak out, and instead, to put my energy into praying that they will be able to save at least some of my photos.

I am extremely frustrated, because I thought I was doing the right thing by backing up to an external hard drive.....but it never occurred to me that the back up would be corrupted. Lesson learned: have at least 2 back ups!!