Conviction

Just a warning: spending time in the Word and in prayer may result in conviction during the day. I've been weak on morning devos while sick, but I'm getting back into them...for better or worse.



We've been in a bind the last few weeks. Shane's brother needed the truck he graciously lets us use almost as our own. This is only a problem on Tuesday and Wednesday each week when I need a car during the day/evening for work, kids' practices, and church. We've spent 3 weeks begging, borrowing, and stealing rides on those two days. Sometimes at night I would wake up and worry about how I'd get the girls to and from the places they needed to be. God provided, but it sure can be hard to ask for help!



Shane's been looking around for a car that gets great gas mileage for him to drive to work, freeing up my van for us while he's gone. Well, the car that became available instead wasn't exactly my type.



Shane's aunt has a Lincoln Towncar for sale. Now, there's nothing wrong with Towncars, but I associate them with grandmas. I'm trying to make a clear distinction in my life that I'm not a grandma-not even close :) So, I had a little attitude about it.



Then I read this blog entry and fell under great conviction that I'd wronged my husband and the Lord. You see, I'd told him to go ahead and get the car (for an amazing price, by the way) if he wanted to, even though he knew I wanted to stay with the fuel efficient car search. When he told me today that he'd decided to do it, I got angry. Pride has a way of bringing on anger.



Shane found a car that will fit all of us right now and will work in a pinch for most of us when the baby is here. If his mom and grandmother want to take the four girls somewhere, they can drive this car. It gives us a nice, second car. It isn't beat up, it runs well, has a/c, and is more than adequate. Yet I had to balk at his (and God's) provision.



How many other ways do we (I) turn our noses up in the air when God is giving provision? I really don't think I want to know. I know he's given me a blessing I'm struggling to accept...is that about pride, too? Probably. I'm so thankful that He continues to work in us, aren't you?

Coming out of the 1st trimester fog...

Okay, today is the last day of my 1st trimester! Although my nausea has held on for as long as a month longer during a previous pregnancy, I'm fully convinced that I won't have it tomorrow. Nausea, pack your suitcase! (If this doesn't work, I do still have a couple more of my wonder drug Zofran! Why didn't I know about this before? It doesn't make all the nausea go away, but at least I don't throw up when I use it).

I've been longing to get back to normal. Translation: to have a semi-clean house, cook real food, read to my kids, do weird things, and research more weird stuff to get into. Today, I accomplished some of that. I have a pretty clean kitchen, actually made non packaged dinner last night (hamburgers with peppered corn on the cob from the crock pot), and made butter today. I'm also researching more weird stuff. At least Matt Lauer is on board with this one (not that I like him, but he's pretty mainstream!). (That link is to the Today show report on bad plastics.)

Here's the butter making story:

First, I buy raw cow's milk for my dogs (since in Texas you can buy it for pet consumption, but not human consumption). Then I use my dog's food for butter. Hey, we're in a recession, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Actually, I read this blog post to learn how to use my Kitchenaid mixer to make butter. It has a good point about why store bought butter is so bad for us.

It's pretty easy. You start with the raw milk. See the cream on the top? I use a medicine dropper you get at the pharmacy to get it off the top and into the bowl. I started with 2 cups of cream.

I misread the instructions and set the mixer on low as I cleaned the kitchen. It was taking forever, so I set it on 4 and almost immediately it got creamy. Sorry, should have used the flash.

When it turns to butter, it's a very fast transition. I turned my back and I heard milk splashing out, ran to the mixer and found the butter stuck to the whisk and the buttermilk going everywhere.

I rinsed it like the instructions said, then drained the water. I thought it'd be great to just use my pasta strainer to strain the water, pushing the butter hard against the holes with a wooden spoon. Then I thought to look under the strainer! Remember the playdough sets that let you grow hair? Shane & I both lamented that we never had one growing up but always wanted to play with our friends'.

Oh well, no harm done. I scraped all the butter into my mason jar. I'm in the market for one of these cool butter keepers, though. Here's the finished product. I also ended up with a quart of "buttermilk" to use later or something...

Okay, and here's the weird stuff I'm looking at now. With all the plastic talk, I finally sat down and looked it up. I've used glass to drink from at home for a long time. My family liked plastic, but recently when I had an opportunity to grab a bunch of free mason jars, I did so and replaced almost all our plastic junk. Mason jars deserve their own post. They are so timeless. They say, "I am not disposable" which flies in the face of modern America. They could have been made in 2008 or 1948. Think of all the jellies, jams, canned green beans and such they could have held. All the work that went into preserving that food is represented in that jar. I love them-I love them big with a wide mouth, full of iced water, iced tea, or iced coffee!

Stainless steel bottles-sleek, in demand, and expensive ($15-$20 a pop!)

We still have a drawer of plastic sippy cups and sports bottles for when we go out to the ballpark or for the little ones. Hope & I started looking at numbers and we probably want to get rid of some or ours (darn!). I'd love to replace the sports cups and sippies with something better, but boy the stainless steel and aluminum (lined with something safe) are not cheap! I'm looking at glass but want a cover to prevent breakage...then I found these: (If you poke around on this site, you'll find more baby bottles, kids' sports bottles, and adult sized sports bottles.)

Isn't this cool? It's an Evenflo glass bottle with a silicone cover. Kinda retro. My babies never liked these nipples though, they like the wide ones...

I wish we could have a "I've been married a long time shower" or a "my kids are older and very expensive now shower". I'd register for all kinds of weird things I can't afford!

Unbelievable

A Harvard art student is creating quite a stir. Very, very sad. At least some people are opposing it, and there's a chance it was all fake. Let's hope so.

Random Thoughts

*I had to report a 14 year old pregnant client to CPS yesterday. I don't like that part of my job too much. I don't like it that we see 14 year olds either (on their second pregnancy).
*I'm thankful that it appears I'm heading out of my first trimester with much less nausea!
*I need a deep Spring cleaning at my house!
*I'm wanting to do a few things this Spring: Sew an apron, really learn our GPS for geocaching, figure out how to make Quick Books automatically update itself from my bank account, and do some major decluttering.
*The story about the guy in Ellis county who's body parts showed up floating in two different lakes freaks me out. Can you imagine swimming and a leg floats up beside you!? Reminds me of the guy they found in a barrel in our lake years ago-anyone remember that? We were kids....
*I'm reading Cheaper by the Dozen. Don't worry, it's not inspiring me!
*I'm pumped about a garage sale, fabric buying, pedicure trip I'm taking next week-whoo hoo!
*I'm really touched by my husband's new "job" as resident counselor at work. Several guys have come to him lately for advice/support and he has offered to pray with fellow officers and even an inmate who was struggling with religion recently. I love my Shane!

My Bethy

I just gotta talk about my Bethany. She's the cutest 4 year old on the planet. She has the sweetest little voice and she makes every syllable count-even if she can't quite pronounce it. I can't explain it but for those of you who know her, you know exactly what I'm talking about. She's so loving and trusting...Last week I made her believe her freckles make her sneeze-and what cute freckles they are! Can you see them in the picture above? Her freckles are so cute they deserve a centerfold spread and an entire post dedicated to them!

Bethy is a petite little thing. She is just now wearing size 5-with pins in the waist, and she has a constant habit of holding her pants up, even when they fit. She has a great sense of style. She's often seen in her pink hand-me-down cowboy boots and whatever outfit that pleases her. Yesterday it was her blue and white night gown and the boots-while playing out in the backyard all day!

Daddy and Beth having an early morning consultation about the status of the puppies. She followed him around in the yard with her hands in her pockets-just like him! Oh, and don't miss the boots!

She's our family expert. She knows, intuitively, where everyone is, where the car keys are, where the missing flip flop is and what's for dinner. Today Hope was searching for her pink and white tennis shoe and Bethany quietly says, "I know where it is, follow me." She took her on a wild goose chase that finally brought them back to the living room where Bethany mysteriously showed Hope the show--on Beth's foot.

She's just so dadgum funny. With all the morning sickness, school has taken a backseat to heaving into the toilet. I was showering and the girls were doing workbooks at the table. Shane came in and told them, "I think it's time to consider public school." Ash & Hope immediately expressed their disdain for the idea while Bethany (who really doesn't know what public school is) raised her fists in victory and said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Her big sisters quickly looked at her with astonishment and disbelief. Beth usually can't even be convinced to go to her Awana class, there's no way she'd go to school all day! By the way, Shane was just teasing them :)

She's so dramatic and makes the funniest faces-we especially love when she makes her eye brows jump up and down as if to punctuate her point (she's not doing it here, sorry!).

Bethany has so many funny stories. Her most consistent one is that she doesn't want to grow up. We had to convince her to turn 4. Cake was a good incentive. We aren't allowed to talk about "when she grows up..." because she adamantly refused to do so. I think her fear is of leaving home. She recently decided she'd get as big as Ash, but that's it. She's so cute and funny and (usually) easy, I don't want her to grow up either!

Scarborough Fair

We took a spontanious trip yesterday to this fun festival. We've wanted to go for years now but have just not done it. My brothers, cousin, and all their pals make the trek at least once a season, so we had some good tips from die hard "renners" (Rennaissance fair addicts). We knew to look for Noobler the Gnome and be prepared to sing our introduction to him-which we did!

The girls had such a good time. We brought them all and even added a daughter (Ash's best buddy). More than once we were asked, "Are all these yours?" It was funny, since no, they all weren't but I am pregnant with one more, so it all comes out the same ;)

Here are our observations after spending the entire day there:

Renners are very friendly people. They don't mind us regularly dressed people gawking at them-okay, we didn't gawk, but we did check out their costumes (I was gawking on the inside a few times!). Really, though, no one was ever rude and many people struck up conversation with us as if we were old friends.

Fairs have lots of great smells-I especially loved the smell of the Fish & Chips booth! We smelled a little pot, too...

I still like Scarborough Fair much more than Medieval Times. MT seems so touristy and fake. The tickets are more than twice the cost, too. Scarborough was much more real, with authentic craftsmen like potters and glass blowers. It did cost about the same as MT in the end though, because you have to pay to do many of the attractions. Granted, it's only a few dollars per ride or maze, but when you bring four kids with you, that adds up!

Since this is a G rated blog, I'll just say women can do amazing, unnatural things with their bossoms. I appreciate the fair goers who were modest and in costume.

I love my Ergo (and my friend's Ergo, too-Beth rode in it a little) and I love my New Balance tennies. They make a great combination, but not even NB shoes can help when you carry a 20 lb child on your back all day!

We all had different activities that we named as our favorites, which shows there's something for everyone. One thing was for sure-all the girls want to come in costume next time-they're already planning for next year!

Help me out

I found this fun site today where I was playing with making a onesie. Shane said to go ahead and buy one, but I need your help designing it. We have several ideas but none seem to be "the one".

How about:
I'm number 5
Caboose
The End

...or some combo of those?

What say you?

And...one of my favorite shops

Okay, I haven't actually been to Feather Your Nest (but Ash has and she highly recommends it!) but I do often get Christmas and birthday gifts from there. I just spent about 20 minutes browsing her very cute--and affordable--stuff online. I found the cutest aprons while reading her blog-here's a pic:






My friend Jennifer (who's getting MARRIED!) is good pals with the shop owner. I feel like I know Gina, but I guess we won't officially meet until August. (Pondering...do you "know" a person if their picture was on your fridge for 6 months???) I'll report back after setting foot in her store while I'm there for the wedding...as if she needs my analysis of the shop, she's already been in a string of magazines, including In Style. Very cool. Go check it out...and my birthday's coming up, remember, so anything from her shop would be great :)