Friday Favorites

It's been quite a while since our last Friday Favorites and since I have a collection of random things to share with you, I thought I'd break it out! 

Pregnancy Update
I'm 32 weeks tomorrow! That means only 8 more weeks until we see the little man! I cannot wait to hold him and see what he looks like! (Actually I can wait; he needs to stay where he is.)

And you get this picture because you saw my latest belly pic yesterday!

In other pregnancy news, I had forgotten the things people say to pregnant ladies. This week, a complete stranger greeted me with this encouraging statement: "Wow, you must be completely miserable!" I have to admit that I only assumed that she said this because I was pregnant but wow! I don't think I act or look completely miserable so I decided not to worry too much about it. And be grateful that I have a better attitude than that (most of the time anyway!). 

What I'm Reading
 Discipline: The Glad Surrender by Elisabeth Elliot
GraceLaced, the blog by Ruth Simons. Love, love her Instagram too! 
2 Corinthians 9:7 (of course not just that, but I've really been thinking this verse over)

Online Favorites
Here's a few links for you. Once again I avoided sharing these on Facebook, where I really do try to be as uncontroversial as possible. 

Matt Walsh with some thoughts on spanking. 

Club31 Women with 12 lessons for boys. 

A For the Family post on infatuation, love, and weddings. 

And there's this post from The Better Mom. My favorite part is that before modern technology people didn't know all the bad news from all over the world, just the bad news they could actually do something about. That's helpful when you're feeling overburdened by all the bad in the world. 

The boys listening to Daddy's radio show! 

Kevo was a little tired after co-op last week. 

Micah got to help spray the fire truck hose at co-op this week! 

We're finished with the nursery! (Isn't that a cute photobomber?)

"Climbing a tree" and playing the harmonica!

Friday Favorites: Don't Leave Anything But Sweat?

Now did I draw you in with that title or what? Either that or I totally repulsed you, in which case you probably aren't reading this anyway. 

Life{in}grace had a beautiful post on doing your best work. And my favorite quote was this one:  Don’t wait until someone important shows up before you do your work well. Although the "don't leave anything but sweat" one was awesome too. 

So while you're pausing from your best work you can see my adorable little boys! 

Don't you just want to kiss that little face? 

Anything Micah does, Kevin has to do :) 

Happy Weekend! 

Friday Favorites: Links on Comparison

Apparently I'm not the only one contemplating how insecurity and comparison affects our lives. This is a ever-present reality for women and it's hard rooted. It takes time and effort to throw it out of your life.

photo courtesy of dan/freedigitalphotos.net

Ruth, from Gracelaced, speaks about creating and comparing yourself to others.

And there are two great articles about comparison from GirlTalk.  Because "what is it to you" what anyone else is doing?  And there is always "that woman."

Go and follow Christ wherever He has put you this weekend. He will give the wisdom and grace you need for your race.

Friday Favorites

I did a really bad job of taking pictures during our Thanksgiving celebration. Something about cooking and caring for babies and spending time with family. Anyway...here are some pictures of the past two days. We've enjoyed our days hanging out with family. 

Micah shares my love of grapefruit.

Thanksgiving food! The rolls are amazing. I used a different recipe than usual and it was amazing. Be forewarned though- the first part of the recipe is written very...strangely. Read the whole thing and make sure you understand what you're supposed to do in the right order. 

The hubs had been wanting waffles for a while so I made him a big pile this morning. He ate all but three bites. 

Enjoy your weekend! 

Friday Favorites

Woo-Hoo! I finished that second music theory book! And, of course, started the third one.

I can't figure out if this one will take me longer to finish because the songs are harder or if I've gotten better so that will even out and it will take the same amount of time.

Baby Kevin was sleepy and wanted to snuggle while we were reading. 

Micah has been helping make breakfast. I stepped out of the room and came back to this. He had definitely taken a bite out of each piece. :)

Playing with boys!! 

This boy is three and a half now. Isn't he the cutest?

Friday Favorites

1. The End of Mommy-Guilt. Let's talk about balance, shall we?

2. And we value our men...Just for my father-in-law who, after Monday's post, asked when there would be a post about men.

3. Because we do have a choice.

But most of all....I did the best thing this week. Well, last week actually. 

Are you ready? 

I deleted my Facebook app off my iPad. 

Now I still have Facebook but I only check it on my computer. At naptime and right after the boys are in bed.  
This move has several good points. 
-I'm not tempted to scroll through facebook every time I walk through the kitchen. 
-I'm more invested in what's going on in our home. 
-And...I feel like I'm more creative. I'm finding time to do other things...

Like this! 

He has a long way to go. I've only worked on it for two days and it's oil paint so I have to let it dry before I mess with it more. But I'm super excited about him! 

Happy Weekend everyone! 

Friday Favorites

1. Stacy Makes Cents chats about why they chose to homeschool. And they are such great reasons!

2. The Better Mom talks about sibling rivalry but I think the concepts also apply to general misbehavior. 

3.  The Matt Walsh Blog contemplates the work of a stay-at-home mom. (Warning: there is a cuss word in the first paragraph.)

Having a job is necessary for some — it is for me — but it isn’t liberating or empowering. Whatever your job is — you are expendable. You are a number. You are a calculation. You are a servant. You can be replaced, and you will be replaced eventually. Am I being harsh? No, I’m being someone who has a job. I’m being real.
If your mother quit her role as mother, entire lives would be turned upside down; society would suffer greatly. The ripples of that tragedy would be felt for generations. If she quit her job as a computer analyst, she’d be replaced in four days and nobody would care. Same goes for you and me. We have freedom and power in the home, not the office. But we are zombies, so we can not see that.

4. Missions Conference starts tonight! And here's the intro video

5. I "made" some new school materials for our preschool. 

We're going to start working on the days of the week. I'm not sure how much of this Micah has already grasped. He seems to be fairly up on what we are supposed to be doing each day. 

He knows his letters and now he knows these numbers. (He told them to Justin at dinner.) He's a sharp little fellow; he probably knows all of them already. 

6. There is no pinterest-worthy craft or materials idea happening here. I have grand ideas in my head but they involve time and materials that I don't always have on hand. It's better to do it  (and in decent fashion, I must say) than to never do it because I have waiting for a perfected idea. 

7. Bed Art! It's the little things. Justin has mentioned how nice it looks both days that I've done this so I'll continue. 

I just folded Micah's blankets and propped up his stuffed animals and positioned them on his bed. Justin said it looked like a fancy hotel. 

8. I've wanted to work on setting weekly goals for some time now and I found a great method that I want to try. Do. Read. Learn. Be. I think I'll try setting them sometime on Sunday for upcoming week. 

9. This week I read Son of Hamas. This is an unfathomable world to me: I cannot imagine growing up as he did. It's an excellent read and an understandable (especially to someone unversed in Middle Eastern politics and culture) explanation of events in the Middle East. 

10. And we'll end with a Chinese Proverb: "Be not afraid of going slowly; be afraid only of standing still." 

Happy Weekend! We'll be busy enjoying Missions Conference. As always, you can watch online! 

Friday Favorites

This week I've been making a concerted effort to NOT be on social media or surfing my iPad during the day. Real life is here, right now. I want to be focused on my family and my home and what God has for me now. 


We had Old-Fashioned Day at church last Sunday! It's always fun; we always have Dr. Evans as our guest speaker and I look forward to hearing him all year. You can listen to the messages here. 

Kevin's birthday party is this Saturday. We're doing a taco bar and cupcakes and raspberry sherbet. We always pick stuff that IVA- adaptable and that a crowdpleaser for everyone. Please don't look for pinterest-worthy anything from me; not going to happen. 

We're reading through the New Testament in 30 days at church for Bible Emphasis Month. We're in John so far and it's been interesting to read through the Gospels that quickly. But September means we are gearing up for my favorite weekend of the year: Missions Conference!! 

Enjoy your weekend! We'll be cooking and celebrating Baby Kevin! 

Friday Favorites

I don't normally rate Fridays as better than any other day but since Justin has worked 14 hour days this week I think Friday will top the list! 

Two links for you this weekend. 
Pursuing excellence, but not perfection.

You can give your children a gift today. 

Check out this awesome shirt! I would totally wear this but I'm not paying $25 for a t-shirt. 

Someone was helping Daddy at work! 

Friday Favorites

"A pail with a pinhole loses as much as the pail pushed over." Thank you, Ann Voskamp, for that concise and piercing explanation of time management. I've been working on that lately and that phrase will stick in my head! 

Funniest boy in the world! 

That's seriously gross!

Rearranged "the office." It's much nicer. I'm planning some more decorating for that corner. 

Baby Kevin is a stasher. If he can put something away, he does. (At what point do I have to stop calling him 'baby Kevin'?)

Seriously, he puts things away. 

He puts everything away. Even wet dirty dishrags in the bottom drawer of the bathroom or houseshoes in the diaper pail...

Playing in the water! Everything was soaked :) 

It's hard to stretch in this chair! 

Love this! 

We were racing down the road! 

We crawled all over that playset! 

Micah got in on the action. 

There were several pictures before this one. Everyone was smiling. Then Micah poked Kevin in the face. Then Kevin was hiding and then he gave Micah this face. And Micah's enthusiastically waving a whisk almost in Justin's face. ha! 

Love this! 

Happy Weekend!