Book plates.

 



 







I've been having fun play around with photo apps today and made up some book labels. I think they would be super cute printed out on some nice card stock packaged with a glue stick, pen, and a book mark or some washi tape. Feel free to print them out for your own use and have a great weekend!

 

** I used elements from the A Beautiful Mess app as well as a background from the Rakuga Cute app to create these.

Summer Fun

I am part of an awesome, local mom's group on Facebook. Those ladies are really some of the sweetest more helpful ladies I know. Even when we don't see eye to eye on parenting issues it is, for the most part, a low drama group of women who genuinely seek to lift one another up. The past few weeks there have been a LOT of posts about things to do with kiddos that are free or low cost.  I thought, to make life easier for them, I would compile the ideas here so there are all in one place. If you aren't local a lot of these may not work for you, but this may at least give you an idea of things to look for near you!



Low Cost:

Morning Movies at Movies Ten. Their movie list can be found here.

Morning Movies at Regal Movie Theater. Their movie list can be found here.

Free Kids Bowling at AMF bowling ally. (I have this on the cheap list since you still have to rent shoes).

Sheetz for slushies. (You can get the small ones for $0.99 with a sheets card)

 



 

Free (or close to free depending on what you have around the house)

Splash ground at Riverside Park

Interactive fountain at River Front Park.

Sprinklers in the yard.

Kiddie pool in the yard.

Squirt Gun Fight.

Make Popsicles

Construction paper, a magazine, and a glue stick will keep kids busy for HOURS!

Glow stick bath.

Play Dough out side (way easier to clean up)

Make a tent in the back yard (or front yard, or basement)

Make no bake (or preacher) cookies.

Barnes and Nobles has a children story hour every Wednesday at 11:00 am and Friday at 7:00 pm.

Go to the Library.

Pick a topic and learn everything you can about it.

Finger paint in the bathtub.

Fill up buckets with water and let them splash around/paint the side wall or deck ect.

Draw with Chalk.

Blow bubbles.

Make cards to send to family.



 

Special Occasion Ideas

If you are looking for something a bit more exciting, but still some what reasonable, most of these activities can be done for less then $10.00 per person.

Splash Valley Water Park in Roanoke.

Amazement Square in Lynchburg. (Hint check out The Clutch Guide for a 2 for 1 coupon!)

Hill Cats Game. (Their web site if FULL of discounts including kids club which allows kids to attend all 70 home games for free, as well as dollar pizza nights and Half Price Tuesdays.)

Mill Mountain Zoo.

Fun Center Putt Putt.

Funquest (Has tons of specials on roller skating, the indoor jungle gym, and laser tag all summer including a Christian Music night and $1.99 Mondays)

Bounce About.

 

*Be Sure to join Groupon. Typically you can get



 

READ!!!!

Join the Dig Into Reading program.

Read If You Give A Mouse A Cookie and make cookies.

Read If You Give a Moose a Muffin and make muffins.

Read a book about Johny Apple Seed and eat apples (or color apples or something with apples).

A great list of books to read to your daughters this summer from Virginia Sole Smith. (I must also add the Betsy Tacy books to this list if you haven't read them to your little girl yet it MUST go on your summer reading list)

Ten books to read to your 4-7 year old by Sarah Bessey.

Check out Our Cultivated Life for a tutorial on how to make you own summer reading board game!

 

Pinterest

Here are just a few links I discovered on Pinterest that sounded like fun!

Sewing Cards by Handmade Charlotte

My entire pinboard of printable paper dolls.

These Sponge Balls  by One Charming Party so sound much better than waterballons!

 

Make Your Summer Bucket List

These are few of my favorite fill in yourself bucket lists available for printing at home to fill out with your own ideas.

Bugs Bucket List

Simple Bucket List

Summer Schedule Ideas

Color Your Own Bucket List

Summer Bingo Board (Great for vacation)

 

One other thing I always do is give my kids each a note book at the start of the summer. For older kids this is a great way for them to keep track of their summer adventures. For mine (4 and 5) it turns into more of a place for them to put stickers and glue stuff, but it still helps keep them busy.

I'm still working on setting our summer schedule and bucket list. Abi just got out of school and most schools don't get out till tomorrow so I'm giving myself a week or two to figure it out. But once I do, I'll be sure to share what we are doing this summer.

 

 

 

 

 

Giving Thanks

Psalm 37:25
I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.

 


Thanksgiving ALWAYS preceded the miracle.

 


Choosing to give thanks, knowing He will provide.



Choosing to see life through the eyes of saints and poets.

Growing Babies

 

Lots going on here, but in a very quite, unassuming, growing babies kind of way.

Tacy is growing nice and big and taking up lots of room in my tummy. We have moved to doctor appointments every 2 weeks now.

Abi has lost a second tooth and is almost done with pre-school. She should be finishing ahead of where she needs to be which is so fun and encouraging.

Lots of other little things getting done. I am actually really pleased with how my 30 by 3o list is going! I'm actually already marking some things off!

We celebrated my birthday with maternity photos. I will have to share more later but these were just two of my favorites. Liz is a very talented photographer. If you live in the Central VA area you need to check her out.

Last week I participated in a busy bag swap. (Well I couldn't actually go since I was on best rest, but a friend took my bags for me). I now have a 31 Tote filled with activities for the girls. Maddie is already getting a lot of use out of it while Abi finishes up school.

So that's what we have been up to. Growing babies and growing people.

What have you all been up to?

 

30 Before 30.

 

 



So tomorrow is my birthday and I finally finished making my 30 before 30 list. It was harder than I thought. Trying to come up with 30 things I wanted to do in the next year that were PRACTICAL and DOABLE. I mean sure there are a TON of things I would love to do but for various reasons (money, baby coming this summer) it's just not possible. But eventually I did it! The interesting thing is, without meaning to I ended up picking a LOT Of things that fit well with my new years goal.

2013 Goals:

To be more intentional...

*In relationships

*In finances

*At home

*In memory keeping.

Not everything fell into one of these four categories but a lot did. So without further ado....

30 Before 30

Personal:

1. Memorize 30 verses.

2. Read, finish, or get rid of all MY unread books.

3. Fill up my half-used journals/smashbooks.

4. Sew the Super Tote pattern by Noodlehead.

5. Do one Show.

6. Make 500 things.

7.  Cook a recipe a month off of my pinterest boards.

8. Visit Bush Garden's again.

9. Submit an article to be published in a magazine.

10. Plant SOMETHING.

11. Learn How to drive stick shift.

12. Try at least 6 tutorials off of my pinterest boards.

Relationships:

13. Invite our neighbors over for a cook out.

14. See one of my far away friends again. (Missy, Amber, Mary, Andrew, Laura, Colleen)

15. Go away with Josh for a night.

16. Send 30 snail mail letters.

17. Go away with friends/sister for a weekend.

Finances:

18. Pay off 3 debts.

19. Save $1,000.

Home.

20. Establish some of my favorite childhood traditions in my family.

21. Purge 100 things from my house.

22. Plant SOMETHING.

Memory Keeping/Blogging:

23. Attend a class/seminar/conference to improve my blogging.

24. So SOMETHING with all my photos.

25. Learn how to really use my camera.

26. Post a tutorial on my blog.

27. Write/Finish a list of 1,000 gifts.

28. Spend a day taking a photo every hour.

28. Take the same photo once a month for a year.

29. Take a photo a day.

30. Blog every day for a month.

I am great at  making lists but not very good at sticking to them, so we shall see how it goes. I've actually already broken a lot of the goals down into smaller ones, like how many verses I need to memories each month and how many cards I need to write so that I don't get to next April and realize I'm really behind. As always with me one lists leads to another so I am already making a decent dent on number 3 as I make list after list.

What would be on your list for the next year of your life?

Birth

I had a couple posts planned but last week but life happened and they just didn’t. Last Sunday I sat down to write about my Birth Story  for another blog I write for. The Motherhood Collective is a great Mothering Blog. I am definitely different from most of their writers, which is one of the things I love about writing for them. I like getting to be a voice from another point of view, and love that they encourage that and seek to minister to and build up moms from all walks of life and parenting philosophies.

It was an interesting process to look back and work through what was going on in my mind that day five and a half years ago. All of that was definitely still fresh in my mind when we met with my doctor on Tuesday to discuss C-section number three. We were presented with a LOT of information on repeat c-sections and consecutive pregnancies.  There was a lot of information and suggestions to processes and I think that's what I spent most of last week doing. Most of my brain power last week was used to sort through and filter all the options.

The result of a lot of thinking is that we might actually try for a V-BAC this time. Obviously there is a chance it won't work, but this is my last chance to try, and for the sake of my health and my husband and I am willing to give it a go. Of course, it will only work if I go into labor naturally, on my own, before my scheduled c-section on August 1st. There's a lot of "ifs" involved, but it is assuring to know that whatever the outcome of it all my God is in control and so much bigger than all of this.

In the process of writing my birth story and sorting through photos to get them printed I stumbled across a bunch of pictures from the girls first weeks. They were just to cute NOT so share!

 

 

Maddie Goose.

"Teddy Bear" (as she now insists on being called)

Cannot wait to meet our Tacy Rae!

Wars and Rumors of Wars

Matthew 24:6
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.

This verse was running through my head over and over last week as facebook, twitter, and the news media were flooded with speculation and misinformation.

For most of the week I was able to avoid the chaos. I stayed in the loop enough to know what was going on, but for the most part was able to avoid the rumors and conspiracy theories. That is until Thursday, when I ended up at my husband's work for roughly 6 hours with new channels playing non stop and fellow car sales men discussing the case every free minute. The same day my facebook feed seemed overflowing with every one's opinions, thoughts, and theories.

And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.

The thing is, most of what I was reading, was RUMORS. Rumors mostly based on fear. People I know to be normally sane and reasonable were blaming every one from the media, to Russia, to our own government. And those were just the semi intelligent arguments. We won't get into the truly crazy accusations. The thing is NOTHING was based on fact, it was all rumors based on fear.

See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place,

We live in an evil world. We have since the day Eve ate the apple and we will until Christ comes again. It's a fact. Yes we should be saddened and mourn when horrific things happen like the Boston Bombing or the fertilizer plant blowing up in Texas. These are AWFUL things and we should be HORRIFIED by them. We should take time to mourn. We should demand that those responsible be held accountable. But whipping ourselves up into a frenzy over speculation helps no one and just causes more fear.

but the end is not yet.

Evil has happened for centuries and will continue to happen. WE should fit it with all our being, because, the end is not yet.  We have to hold on, and stop throwing in the towel. Yes, each generation may seem more wicked than the next. Yes things may never have looked this bleak, BUT the end is not yet. Have hope. Hold on. Have Faith. He will not leave us comfortless (John 4:18).