Friday Flashback

Friday Flashback:

I was browsing through my pictures, and I found some from when I was dating my husband.  These are two of my favorites, taken on a trip to the lake with some friends about a month before we got engaged.  I love the expressions on our faces in this first one.  Tim is ruining yet another picture, and I am showing my obvious disapproval:

I think this one is just sweet.  I cannot remember if this was posed or candid, but I like it.  :)

I like my husband, too.  He is pretty great.  I am so thankful that I am able to be married to my best friend - a dedicated husband, an adoring father, and a giving pastor.  He is a man of integrity, and he challenges me to live for the Lord every day.  He is so much more than I ever imagined a husband could be, and I really do love him more each day.

Family Update

This has been a busy week.  The man of the house has been especially busy, with some sort of obligation every night of the week except one.  For a family that spends a lot of time at home together, this has been a bit stressful.  I know he is looking forward to a somewhat calmer and relaxing week ahead.  He does have some plans to watch football and shoot clay pigeons.

I have been feeling on top of the world.  I am 14 weeks now, and I am enjoying second-trimester bliss.  I have energy and appetite again, and I finally cooked a balanced meal again last night!  (Until now, the thought of cooked vegetables turned my stomach.)  I have been making time to work on a quilt, and I am working on reading through a book for my first official book review (coming soon).

The princess continues to entertain us daily.  I captured this picture of her one night when I had forgotten to take a pic-of-the-day.  I have a feeling she is going to be difficult to transition to a big-girl bed when the time comes:

 A lady from church knitted some outfits and gave the princess two baby dolls.  She has actually been playing with them and enjoying them, much to my surprise.  She likes to give out kisses:

 And make sure they are dressed properly:

But she stil prefers her bears and likes us to put the baby clothes on them:

And I bought her some cheap mittens for car rides - her little hands get so cold.  I tried them on her one morning, and she didn't want to take them off.  I guess they helped keep her hands warm as she held onto her orange juice!

That's it for us.  We did not even attempt Tot School this week, and I do not plan to next week either.  Hopefully we will get back into the swing of things after Thanksgiving.

Tot School: Sensory Bin, Music, and Animal Train

Our princess is currently 22 months old.

Sensory Bin

Tot school was a bit more unstructured this week than in weeks past. We spent a lot of time playing with our sensory bin. I cannot believe what a big hit this has been with the princess! I added a few Silly Bandz that we had around the house and she LOVED those. The first day I added them, she played with the Silly Bandz alone for half an hour!

Music

We sang a lot of songs and played music on one of her toys this week. This was an unintentional Tot School activity. Princess just kept gravitating towards her stuffed animals that play music. She learned motions to "The Wheels on the Bus" this week. Super cute!

Animal Train

I finally completed the Animal Train I had intended to make two weeks ago.  I got this idea from The Princess and the Tot, and the idea is originally from First Palette.  My girl loved this train...but it was off the wall and torn in pieces within 15 minutes.  :)  She still plays with the animals, and I plan to repair the train.  One thing I learned was that it would be helpful to mount the train to a background rather than directly to the wall.  That would make it more difficult to destroy, and it would also make it easier to get the animals into the cars.

 

Next Week

I really do not have any plans yet for next week.  I just realized we have not done anything to focus on Thanksgiving.  Perhaps we will make a turkey!  :)

Humpty Dumpty

I had a conversation last week with a retired kindergarten teacher.  I love talking with elementary educators.  I always walk away having learned something new, whether something to avoid with my child or something to foster.  This teacher encouraged me to work on teaching my little princess her nursery rhymes.  I will admit, this is not something I am good at.  I probably know 3 nursery rhymes off the top of my head.  So when I came across the book Humpty Dumpty (as told by Kin Eagle and illustrated by Rob Gilbert), I was very excited.

I sat down with my daughter and began reading.  I was thrilled with the flow of the words.  I knew the first verse by heart, but the other 7 verses were new to me.  In fact, I did not even know they existed until now!  The new words flowed off my tongue, and I found myself almost bouncing to the meter.  We read through once and the Princess smiled up at me and sweetly said, "More".

We also enjoyed just flipping through the book and talking about the illustrations.  I must say, the first time we read through the story, I thought the illustrations were a bit old for her.  They do not contain the usual vibrant colors we are used to.  However, the pictures seem to shimmer in a way, and we both found that captivating.  Each illustration went along perfectly with the story, but our favorite was the final page depicting the child's nursery.  This page contains so many details that are familiar to the Princess, and it is a great picture for sparking conversation.

We were very pleased with Humpty Dumpty, and I look forward to learning and teaching more nursery rhymes in the future!

The Princess Has Some News...

She is going to be a big sister!!!

(Don't you love how she and Daddy have matching dimples?  I do!)

We found out in mid-September that we are expecting another child.  I am due in late May, which means I am 12 weeks right now.  This pregnancy has already been a bit more difficult than with our princess.  I have been exhausted and nauseated - I do not remember my nausea being so intense with the princess.  My nausea seems to be subsiding, and I am beginning to ENJOY this pregnancy!  :)  I am still tired, but it is not the exhaustion I experienced the first few weeks.

I am beginning to show a bit.  Key word:  Beginning.  I am in the transition phase that every pregnant woman goes through, where she could easily be mistaken for adding a few unnecessary pounds to her belly.  Therefore, I will share photos at a later time.  :) 

Tot School

Our Princess is 21 Months Old.

Tot School was a bit lame this week.  Neither of us was feeling well, so we really only did 2 days of "school".  I will admit, we spent a lot of time in front of the TV this week.  We both seem to be on the mend, so hopefully next week will be better!

Colors

We continued working on colors this week.  We spent some time doing puzzles and finishing up the princess' color book - both activities I got from COAH.  She had so much fun with both of these activities.  Her color book is now "laminated" (I went the cheap route and just covered it with clear Contact paper), and we look through it and talk about the pictures daily.

 

Sensory Bin

I put together our first sensory bin!  I have seen these on so many other moms' sites and they all seem to be themed.  I just wanted to try one - see what the princess thought of it.  So I used what we had in the house and tried to put in a variety of textures.  Our sensory bin includes spiral pasta, dry kidney beans, pom poms, cotton balls, foam shapes, ribbons of different textures, a measuring spoon, a huge clothespin, some cutouts from scrapbooking, and two McDonald toys that she likes to fill and empty.  I was pleasantly surprised the first day when I pulled out the bin and she played for 20 minutes!  She was even cooperative about keeping everything on the blanket...for the most part.  I am excited to add this to our Tot School and am looking forward to coming up with a theme for a new sensory bin in the next few weeks.



 

Next Week

I printed out the templates for my Train I wrote about last week, and I plan to work on that in the coming week.  We will continue learning colors, and I hope to have some activities and photos to share with you next Saturday!

Friday Flashback

One year ago, we were living with my parents in Ohio.  Actually - I had just taken a travel nurse position in Columbus, and we were commuting back and forth to see family on the weekends.

One year ago, our little cutie had chubby cheeks and only 6 teeth.  She was not yet sleeping through the nights, and she was still transitioning off a bottle.

Time goes so quickly.  Look at our little priness - one year ago today.

Journibles: The 17:18 Series

My husband attended a pastor's conference about a month ago and returned with several different "Journibles".  I was intrigued.  After much coaxing, my husband graciously handed over the Proverbs Journible for me to try.                                                

A Journible is a journal designed to encourage you to copy Scripture word-for-word on the right hand page and to write notes and questions on the left.  The name "17:18 Series" is taken from Deuteronomy 17:18 - "When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests."  Verses 19-20 go on to explain the benefit of a king copying the law.  "It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left."

I love the concept of the Journible.  I have always learned and retained information better when I write it out by hand.  I am currently working through the 8th chapter of Proverbs, and I keep finding truths that I tended to glance over when merely reading the text.

I love the quality of the Journible.  This is a book that will endure much use.  The binding is strong, my ink does not bleed through the pages, and there is even a ribbon to mark my page.  (It's the little details that get me!)

Journibles that are currently available include Proverbs, Romans, John, Galatians through 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy through Hebrews, and James through Jude.  The book of Luke is coming soon!  Head on over to the 17:18 Series website to download some sample pages and listen to an interview of the author, Rob Wynalda.  Journibles are available for purchase through Reformation Heritage Books.