New Home and New Baby (Preparation Phase)

Butterflies are fluttering in my stomach today, as the realization of buying our new house is sinking in! We have had a wonderful 6 months living with my family, but my husband and I are so excited to return to a domain of our own and to transform a new house into a delightful home for our growing family!

The home is beautiful and move-in ready, but I love adding a little personal touch, so in just a few short weeks we'll be painting. I love putting soft, bright colors on the walls and watching a room transform! But, this time, I suppose, I'll have to remove myself from the fumes, leave the painting up to my family and friends and just enjoy the end result. These are my doctor's orders and I'm sure our sweet little bundle of joy will be greatful!

And speaking of that sweet little bundle, I'm getting all of my thoughts together for her bedroom. I purchased a lovely cottage chic bedding set, found a small vintage lamp in my in-laws' basement that will be a perfect match, and am gathering many other ideas on Pinterest! There is just something so creatively exhillerating about decorating a room for a daughter. Now, that's not to say I'm not excited about Levi's Big-Boy Room! The airplane theme is in the works. I was inspired by the (somewhat large) model airplane my husband built when he was younger. It's red and white and will be hanging from the ceiling. Levi's new, handed-down twin bed will be painted red for a punch of color and will be complete with vintage airplane sheets that his nana found on sale at a discount store. I am getting so antsy about decorating not only the children's rooms, but the entire house, including creating a haven of delight in our master bedroom! (I feel like my nesting urges are kicking in early!)

I'm overjoyed to be a mommy to a baby girl (Lyla, due May 1) and a baby boy (Levi, who will be about 17 months old at the arrival of his sister)! This pregnancy is passing by very quickly, so I'm already trying to prepare myself for the crazy/sweet first few weeks with a newborn.

This time, since I'll also be caring for Levi, I know I'll have to be very diligent to stay organized. I've created a ten week menu plan, complete with a grocery list that corresponds to each week's menu plan recipes. (I'm hoping to post more on this menu plan later.) Each week I have included a meal to freeze, in hopes that I will have stocked a little over a week's worth of meals by the time Lyla arrives. Also, by contiuing to freeze meals weekly, I'll have a back up for those future days with two littles, that are just too hectic for cooking.

One more thing I'm trying investigate: Ways to keep my 17 month old entertained while nursing my newborn...especially for those first couple of weeks when nursing sessions tend to last longer. I would appreciate ANY tips you have! What has worked in your experience?

Jessica

Christmas Traditions and Decor

Today as it was snowing, I thought it to be the perfect time to share some of our Christmas traditions and decorations! Especially at Christmas time, we love to make our home a bright and beautiful place! Each year (even when we're not all in the same house) we all get together to choose our Christmas tree. It's a wonderful way to begin the Christmas season. The search for the "perfect" evergreen begins at a local tree farm. We search rows and rows before we choose the perfect specimen, while the boys intermittenly throw football. This year was particularly fun because Levi was able to enjoy the experience with the rest of us! I just love making family memories! On the hayride to our favorite spot!

Daddy showing Levi the needles and pinecones

Levi found his favorite tree!

Brittney and me standing by while the tree is cut down

Papi with the tree!

When we return home, we set up the Christmas tree and the ladies begin decorating while the men put up Christmas lights outside. I love how Christmas decorations create a beautiful glow in our home.

We love to use a lot of red in our tree to sybolize the blood of Jesus

Nana's Advent Calendar! Each date is made of a canning lid, scrapbook paper, and stickers.

On the back side of each date is one of the names of Jesus. We'll flip the date each day.


This is the "fun" area, Levi's favorite place to be!


Levi made a handprint ornament for each grandparent and great-grandparent!

While the snow was falling and I was snapping pictures, the finches came to visit!

What are some of your favorite ways to represent Christ in your Christmas decorations?

Teach Me Tuesdays

Advent Calendars and Keeping Christ in CHRISTmas

My family and I have been exploring ways to keep Christ the center of our Christmas celebration. Now that I have a child (soon to be children) of my own, I have been trying to be especially deliberate in placing the Christmas "magnifying glass" where it is meant to be.

As a child, it can be difficult to remove the gift fog that seems to blur the birth of our Savior. One thing my husband and I have decided to do to lift this fog is to give our children only three gifts at Christmas. This year, our son will be receiving a small play center, a set of Bible-based children's books, and a puzzle-type-thing that has several different latches. Starting next year, when he is two, Levi will choose three of his own toys to give to a child in need, assuming we can find a family in our community who will accept used toys. If not, he will donate his toys to a missions thrift shop nearby.

Another way we are deliberately keeping Christ in Christmas is by following an Advent Calendar, leading up to the day we celebrate His birth. I have made two calendars, and my mom will soon be completing one as well. (I'll try to post her completed project soon).

I found instructions to the first calendar on this site.

It's made of 24 matchboxes hot-glued together, with touches of scrapbook paper and sticker embellishments. I am very pleased with the quaint, wintry look of it, but I'm not sure if it will hold up through years of being packed away, since the matchboxes aren't very durable. I picked up the second calendar at Hobby Lobby in the Christmas craft section. It was plain cardboard, so I also bought red and green paint, white number stickers, and Christmas theme stickers. Everything was 50% off and I love how cute this turned out, especially for the low cost!

This will be the Advent Calendar we use with our kiddos. In each box, I placed either a name of Jesus, prophecy scriptures, or Gospel verses about Jesus' birth. Each day that has a name of Jesus in the box we will share a way that Jesus exemplifies that aspect of His being. For example, for Lamb of God, we will explain why Jesus is called the Lamb of God. For each day that has a scripture in the box we will look up the verse, read it, and discuss it.I am so excited to incorporate these ideas into our Christmas traditions to help us remember that Jesus is the true reason for celebration!

How about you? Are there any traditions your family has developed to help keep Christ at the center of Christmas?

Teach Me Tuesdays

Blueberry Muffins

I absolutely love to bake this time of year...probably too much! This evening I threw together some blueberry muffins from a Betty Crocker recipe I'd never used. The results are quite tasty and will be a nice breakfast for us at home in the morning, and also for the men who frequently eat on their way to work!

Recipe
1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg, beaten
3/4 c. milk
1/4 c. cooking oil
3/4 c. fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin pan or use paper baking cups. In medium bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl combine egg, milk, and oil. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir until just moistened. Fold in berries. Fill muffin cups two-thirds full with mixture. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes on wire rack. Serve warm with butter or margarine.

Next time, to add some extra flavor, I think I'll exchange the milk for buttermilk and oil for butter.
Hopefully we'll have enough left over for breakfast!

Jessica

We Are Thankful: Our Thankful Tree

While it is true that we should ceaslessly give thanks to the LORD throughout the year, it is wonderful to set time aside to refocus and reflect on everything for which we have to be thankful. This year for Thanksgiving (and the weeks leading up to it), we decided to do something special to highlight the many reasons we are greatful to God.

Enter "The Thankful Tree."

Yesterday, while the temperature was much warmer than today's delightful 50 degrees, we found two branches that had the perfect height, width, and overall appearance. This was surprinsingly more difficult than we anticipated! We brought in our branches and placed them in a vase weighed down with small stones. Scrapbook paper leftover from homemade wedding invitations was great for our "thankful notes." We simply cut it into squares, hole punched the top, and tied the ribbon through. Now all that's left to do is decorate each branch with thanks.

Our number one reason to be always thankful was the first on the tree: Perfect salvation through Jesus Christ

I'm excited to see all the things for which my family is thankful appear on the tree!

In our home, Thanksgiving is one of our most cherished holidays! (Especially for my Dad--also known as Papi) And since we're ALL together in the same house this year, we took great joy in decorating! Our favorite decor pieces are the floral arrangements that we used at my wedding almost two years ago. Yes, I will have been married to the man of my dreams for two years on November 28!

Oh, and I just love flipping this calendar over to the next month to see the beautiful scenery! Although we don't typically have Novembers that look like this in southern Indiana, it makes me smile with anticipation for the months ahead!

"Oh come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout joyfully to him with psalms. For the LORD is the great God, and the great King above all gods... Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker." -Psalm 95:1-3, 6

A Smoky Mountain Summer

Imagine the heat of a Tennessee summer evening tingling your skin; the rolling hills yawning with each swoop and stretch; and the insects singing a sweet summer symphony, their unassuming lullaby soothing to the soul. This is just a glimmer of what Tennessee was to hold for me, only a glimpse of the rich nourishment that was to come from this shower of blessings.

On June 18th I began my trek to the Smoky Mountain Christian Village in Sevierville, Tennessee. What this six week adventure was to hold, I had yet to discover. After about a six hour drive, I arrived at my cozy summer home. It was upon my arrival that I met the young woman who would come to be such an encouragement to me, a true lady after God's own heart: Jacquelyn.



Jacquelyn is not your typical, run-of-the-mill woman. She is feisty, inquisitive, and oh so entertaining. Her spunk and passion are contagious and she makes your heart smile. (You should check out her blog: beneathakansansky.blogspot.com)

The Lord continued to bless me with priceless friendships. Andrew and Hunter were the maintenance crew additions for the summer, and what godly men they were! They had such zeal and love for the Lord that you couldn't help but feel the fervor emminating from them. Abbie and Ruthie, two darling Kansan recruits, were like a beam of sunshine in a grey sky. They added so much pizzaz to our little quartet of femininity. I would be working side by side with those two young ladies for my main duty of the summer: kitchen staff.

We were responsible for providing meals for week-long camps for two weeks. Now, I've cooked for ten people, maybe even 12; but that is no comparison to fifty. There was quite a bit of stress and a few messes made, but the additional help we received was wonderful! The camp director, Brock Shinkle, and his wife Annie have two little girls, a little boy, and just added another little man last week. Their two daughters, Emma and Elsie, were such a big help through the weeks. They were so willing to lend a hand and always wanted to know what they could help with.

Miss Elsie

The rest of the summer staff also assisted us in our mealtime duties. I know we were SO thankful for the extra hands!

While we had many responsibilities through the week, we always made time for a little fun. Jacquelyn, in all her brilliance, planned a tea party for all the girls. It was so fun and so cute! We had an exquisite tablescape and all kinds of delicious finger foods.

Ruthie and her moustache cup :)

Emma and Elsie all dolled up for the tea party!

We also had a fun friend to add to our entertainment: Waldo. Waldo was our Japanese transportation adventure, through which I learned to drive a manual for the first time! He was our trusty truck to take us to and fro about the campus and also aided in a pretty epic water balloon fight.

Through the duration of my stay at my home away from home, the Lord opened these droopy eyes to so many vibrant truths. The girls and I did a study on the book of Ruth. We worked through the beginning of the wonderful book "Lady In Waiting." (I highly, and I mean highly, recommend this book for any single woman of any age.) God opened my eyes to idols I had hidden in my heart and renewed my spirit within me. The encouragement I received from all of my fellow servants and the friendships I gained are priceless.

A scripture I have learned to cling to is 1 Corinthians 7:27, 32-35: "Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be loosed. Are you loosed from a wife? Do not seek a wife... But I want you to be without care. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord—how he may please the Lord. But he who is married cares about the things of the world—how he may please his wife. There is a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world—how she may please her husband. And this I say for your own profit, not that I may put a leash on you, but for what is proper, and that you may serve the Lord without distraction."

My heart's desire is to have a family of my own, but I was made aware through my study of Ruth that my singleness is a blessed time, not a cursed one. God has entrusted me with this time to whole-heartedly serve Him. I have opportunities now that I will not have as a married woman and I want to be a good and faithful steward of my time. Jesus needs to be, has to be, my primary focus and the only God in my life. No man can fill that part of me and now is the time to really solidly establish Christ as the center of my life.

Words seem much too empty in comparison to the fullness I received in my six weeks in Tennessee. In its majestic mountains, its trees so tall and protective, its simplicity, calm and soothing. God is an artist of works refined, an author of words sublime, and a Father of love divine. Behold, what manner of love the Father has given unto us! This love was only deepened and magnified in my short but life-long adventure. My mission to the mountains. My Smoky Mountain Summer.

~Brittney

We Will Never Be the Same