Near's House

This is what we have been doing over the last two days--Playing with our old "My Little Ponies"

Stickers. Stickers are always a hit in Ada's world.

Taking so many pictures that Ada has learned to clothes her eyes tight when the camera comes out.

Coloring pictures of Elmo in preparation for the 2nd birthday party.
Riding my mother's old rocking horse.
Cooking meals on the toy stove. Little does Ada know that soon she will have a wooden kitchen of her very own.Playing with the original Little People toys. They don't make them like they did when I was a child.
And getting so tired of the constant photography that Ada says, "I've had it, mom."

And after her nap today, the fun moves to Mae-Mae and Pop's house. And I will take advantage of the time away from Ada to head to Huntsville and to Party City to stock up on the last minute Elmo items needed to make the party complete. (Wal-Mart was seriously lacking in the Elmo department).

I don't know if Ada is more excited about seeing Mae-Mae and Pop or cow and horsie that live in the back yard. Every time I say, "we're going to see Mae-Mae and Pop today," Ada says, "and cow and horsie?" And I assure her that yes, she will see cow and horsie. Then she says, "Yea...Mae-Mae and Pop, Yea...cow and horsie," and she claps her hands and cheers.

And then comes the Elmo party. I think Ada slightly knows what is going on because yesterday when I said, "Ada, did you know that your birthday party is on Saturday?" she replied, "Melmo?" And I said, "yes, Elmo will most definitely be there."

From Alabama

I'm checking in from Alabama.

This is the dentist morning. I have a two hour appointment, and then finally, I am done. For the price I am paying for the root canal, I could have gotten that camera I am dreaming of.

Guess who did get the camera I am dreaming of? My sister, Sarah, and I am having so much fun playing with it.

Tomorrow Ada goes to spend the night with "Mae-mae and Pop" (Scott's parents), and then Saturday is the big birthday party.

Of course, I will post pictures and give a full report on that.

Until then...

Weekly grocery post

The couponing continued this week. Publix was a huge success. Kroger was a huge flop. But you live, you learn, right?

Here's how Publix went.

2 bags of Wise potato chips
4 packs of Hefty plates (I feel guilty a/b this purchase b/c I am thinking the styrofoam plates are terrible for the environment, but washing dishes is terrible for my pregnancy exhaustion, so I decided to stock up)
1 bag of hostess powdered donuts (again, I blame this impulse buy on the pregnancy)
4 bottles of Lawry's marinade
4 cans of Bush's baked beans
4 boxes of Starkist Seasations fish (I have never had these, but they were free after coupons, so we are giving them a try)
6 kiwi
1 loaf of Arnold whole grain bread
2 bottles of Mott's apple juice

I paid 25.74 OOP
I saved 59.71

So then we headed to Kroger, and things went very down hill.

Kroger

2 4 packs of Dannon Activia
2 bags of Kraft cheese (part of buy 10, save 5)
1/4 lb of Boars Head White American cheese
1/2 lb of Boars Head honey maple chicken
3 bottles of Juicy Juice apple juice (buy 10, save 5)
1 lb of ground beef
2 bags of Kroger brand frozen chopped onions (I cannot cut up onions. My eyes burn for hours afterwards, so I just buy frozen)
2 cartons of Daisy sour cream (buy 10, save 5)
2 bags of Pepperidge Farm cookies (buy 10, save 5)
1 box of Velveeta shells and cheese
1 box of Kroger brand peanut butter and crackers
1 carton of strawberries
Oatmeal breakfast bars
Jimmy Dean frozen sausage and biscuits (buy 10, save 5)

I paid 41.88 OOP
I saved 15.43

So, 142.76 worth of groceries for 67.62.

Much of what I planned to buy was out of stock, but I needed to buy 10 of the sale items to get the 5.00 off, so I ended buying lots on impulse, which caused my total to sky rocket. Plus Ada was tired at this point, so she was whiny, and I couldn't think. It was some what of a disaster. Luckily I still stayed around my total goal price, but I wanted to spend less than that at Kroger.

Here is what we are eating

Sunday lunch= slow cooked pinto beans, corn casserole
Sunday dinner= BLT's with fresh tomatoes (yum!!)
Monday= spaghetti, bread, salad
Tuesday= chicken and rice in the crock pot, squash

And Wednesday, Ada and I head to Alabama so I can finally finish with the dental work. This also means that I officially begin second trimester on Wednesday--woo-hoo.

We will conclude the weekend with the big 2nd birthday--Elmo birthday cake, balloons, and all. Actually, the celebration will be quite small. I think Ann and I are going to take all the cousins to McDonalds (Ellie, Luke, Andrew, and Ada), and then we are going to eat cake and ice cream at Ann's house afterwards. And since they are all so young, I will be bringing a gift for Ellie and Luke so that everyone can share in the party. I actually never gave either one of them a gift on their actual birthdays, so that's what the gifts are for. And I thought it would be more fun for everyone. One big cousin celebration. Of course I will post pictures.

Ironically, I also spent my second birthday at McDonalds, followed by a Cookie Monster birthday cake (can you confirm that, mom?), so the tradition continues with the new generation. McDonalds and Sesame Street, does it really get any better for a toddler?

Oh, one last thing.

After the grocery trip on Saturday, Scott and I cleaned out and took inventory of the pantry. In doing that, I discovered that I have 13 boxes of pasta and 9 boxes of cake mix. So...does anyone have any good pasta recipes or cake mix recipes? I don't really love to just make a cake, so I am hoping for recipes that use the cake mix. Seriously, please send recipes my way.

This and That

I took lots of pictures last night and today of Ada playing around the house. She is very into "pretend" these days, and I tried to catch that on film. But, alas, when I attempted to download the pictures, the camera battery was declared dead, so I will share the pictures with you later. For now, here are a couple that I took the other day.

Please remember that we are still dreaming of a fabulous camera that takes wonderful photographs, until then, we are using one that friends generously loaned to us. In other words, my pictures just don't turn out too great.

In the picture above, Ada is showing you her new table and chairs from Ikea. She gets to sit there at breakfast and lunch, but she still sits at the regular table for dinner. That same morning I kept asking Ada to take her paci out, so that you could see her face. She did, but with much reluctance. She was not happy about it.And below is a picture of the growing belly. Please excuse how beautiful I look. This was taken after a week spent keeping the nursery during VBS. You can imagine how energized I was feeling;). I planned to not post the picture, just because of how lovely I look in it, but the size of my stomach is rather astonishing to me, so I thought I might share. My friends at church, who are moms to more than one, assure me that you show earlier with the second. I suppose that's true, but really, 9 weeks pregnant? And the belly just keeps on growing.

Other news around here? Hmmmm....

Ada has been sleeping in until 7:30 or even 8:00 some mornings. Compared to her usual 5:30 or 6:00, I am celebrating. It feels so luxurious to roll out of bed at 8 in the morning. I am so thankful. It means that her naps are later and bed time is later, but I will take it.

Her later nap time is giving us more freedom to plan activities during the day. Yesterday we hung out with a dear friend who is back in the US for a short period after doing missions overseas. She is headed back in a few weeks, so I wanted to take advantage of her being nearby. We met for lunch at Atlantic Station, and we didn't get back home until 2:30. That used to be when Ada woke up from her nap.

Then today, we spent a majority of the morning at a local consignment sale. I went hoping to find some cute fall clothes for Ada, but I think it was just too picked through. I didn't buy one article of clothing, but I did pick up a bumbo seat for 5.00!!!! I was thrilled. I am going to give it to Ann's baby Andrew until we have a need for it. With Ada, I borrowed one from a friend, so I am glad to have one of my own. I also bought a copy of A Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy and The Essential Guide to Breastfeeding. Both books were only 1.00!! So, I was happy with my purchases. I do hope to have more success in the clothing department at later sales though. I have been searching e-bay for some good buys on fall clothes for Ada, but so far I have had no luck. I have searched for Kelly's Kids and Bailey Boys items, which are all going for way more than I am willing to pay. Any advice on other brands to search for? That gives you an idea of what I am looking for. In particular I would love some fall and Christmas themed stuff. I want a cute smocked outfit for Thanksgiving if possible.

So, that's it with us. Not much to report. I continue to feel better with the occasional sickness thrown in here and there, but things are so much better than they were just a couple of weeks ago. Praise the Lord.

Happy Friday, everyone!

A Favorite Book

When I found out I was pregnant with Ada, Scott and I were very much newlyweds. We were six months into marriage, and we were still figuring out how marriage worked. Let's be honest, we are now working on our fourth year and we don't have it yet, but it sure does seem easier now.

Anyway, it was quite overwhelming for us to face the task of parenting when we felt so young and insecure. How could we, hardly knowing each other yet, learn how to parent together? God has been so very gracious to us, by the way, as Scott and I seem more in harmony than ever before, and I think it is because God has used the parenting of Ada to sanctify our marriage. It has been such an encouraging experience.

So, there we were, dealing with the reality of my first pregnancy, and I was desperate for guidance and instruction and wisdom. So, I did what I always do in desperate situations, I began to read. I didn't know much about what mothering would be like, but I knew that I so wanted this child of ours to know and love the Lord and His gospel above all else. I wanted our family to be about making His kingdom known. And so I bought the book, Raising your children for Christ by Andrew Murray. It's a good one ya'll.

I sat in our tiny, concrete, basement apartment pouring over its pages, desperate to know how to be a parent. And it was as I read this book, that I first began to question what it meant for Ada to be a "covenant child." What did it mean that the Lord allowed Ada to be born into a believing family. And by believing family, I mean she is surrounded by grandparents and aunts and uncles who love the Lord with all of their heart, soul, and mind. She clearly was a blessed child.

So, as I think about Ada's baptism (and this is not that post; that will come in a few days, I think), I return to this favorite book. And now that I am once again carrying a child inside of me, I again think about what it means to parent in such a way as to bring glory to the Lord. This book is chock full of encouraging and practical words, and it opens with this thought, that I want to share with you,

The establishment of a home of love like that in Heaven was to be the highest privilege of man. However, sin came in and brought about man's ruin. The father makes the child a partaker of a sinful nature, and the father himself feels too sinful to be a blessing to the child. Then the homes become too often the path not to heaven, but to hell. But what sin destroys, grace restores! God's grace points back to the restoration of what he intended at creation. It was God's plan for the family with its love and its training of the children to reflect the fellowship of God's home and the love of the Father in Heaven.

Every parent who is aware of his own shortcomings and longs for wisdom and grace must look to the heavenly origin of family life. The God who created it has also redeemed it and makes it new. He watches over each family with tender interest, and gives his own Father-love to every parent who desires to be the minister of His holy purpose.

If this is your desire, begin by making God's thoughts your thoughts. Begin to see the fatherhood and the family on earth as the image and the likeness of the heavenly original. Look to God as the author of your family life and count on him to give you all that is needed to make it what it should be. Let his Father-heart and his Father-love be your security. As you trust in His adoring love, the assurance will grow that He will enable you to make your home the bright reflection of His own.

(Murray, 11-12)

Thoughts on infant baptism from one who doesn't fully understand

As of late, Ada has developed quite the fondness for prayer. I think it's like a fun little game to her, but I, of course, don't discourage "the game." It's been very fulfilling to begin to talk to her about God as creator. Of course she doesn't understand the idea of creator, but I think she is beginning to understand that God is the one we thank. He is the giver of good gifts. So this is how it goes.

We are riding in the car, or playing at the park, or in the middle of dinner, and Ada says, "I want pray." And so we pray. I say, "Dear God..." and she repeats something of that sort, and then she names things that she wants to thank God for. It begins with people, all of the people who are important to her, and the list is long. All of the family on both sides, and then her different little friends, and, of course, Elmo. And I add words, such as, "thank you for Elmo. Thank you for giving us fun things that bring joy and delight to our life." Because I guarantee that Ada truly is very thankful for Elmo. She loves him so. And then we move on to inanimate objects.

We thank God for shoes and for water and balloons, anything that happens to be in sight. And then we start over with the people. God is using this little game in my life. He is using this to show me what a comfortable, easy life I live. I am thankful for shoes. That Ada's feet are protected. She has several pairs to choose from. Ada wants for nothing. Her stomach is not swollen with hunger, she is healthy and well with clean water to drink and money to pay for vaccines and medical bills. She is thankful for cars, she told me today, and I prayed and said that I was thankful for our cars also. That we have money for gasoline and that we have cars that run and take us to where we need to go.

I am thankful for quality care for this baby that is growing inside of me. I am thankful for medication to cut through the sickness and give me relief during this first trimester. The list is long, my friends. Ada has shown me that. There is much to be thankful for.

A while ago, a blogging friend of mine, Rachel, asked me to explain why we chose to baptize Ada, and if we will baptize this little munchkin on the way. That question has led me to re-visit all of the reasons why we chose to baptize Ada because you should know, my background is Baptist, not Presbyterian, so I am a believer in baptism after coming to know Christ personally. And we certainly don't believe that Ada already has a personal relationship with Christ. This new habit of praying together throughout the day, per Ada's request, has really caused me to think about what it meant when we baptized Ada.

Please know that I am no expert. In fact, before we baptized her, I searched the scriptures and I talked to our pastor and another guy on staff. I read lots of books, and I asked lots of questions, and still, questions remained. To be honest, lots of questions remained as Ada was baptized, but I stepped out on faith. I decided that for this season, the Lord has us in this church, and I will trust those in leadership, and we baptized her. In spite of those questions, there are things that I understood the baptism to mean.

I think it means things for us, the parents. It is a public declaration of thanks. We understand that to be parents is a gift, an undeserving one, and we are thankful that God is the author and creator of life. We are thankful that he created Ada's life and that he entrusted us with her. We confess in front of a congregation of God's people that we don't take that responsibility lightly. We confess that we are in no way capable of the task. We are unworthy, and we are only able to do this with Christ working his grace in us. And of course, it is a symbol of our handing Ada back to God. She is his; He is free to do what he wills with her. As her parents we are committed to knowing Him and making Him known above all else.

There is also this idea of obedience; this idea that we are commanded to baptize our children. That is where many of my questions lie. Again, it is not black and white to me. I have a heavy Baptist background, and it is hard for me to see a clear command in the scripture that we are to baptize our children. I understand where this argument comes from, but I am not sure that I 100% agree. Still, we chose to baptize Ada. Because for now, we are in a church that believes this is a command.

Because this post is getting quite long, I will post later about what we believe baptism to mean for Ada. I hope I have been clear. It is hard to write about this subject because it is one that I don't fully understand.

Tackling Kroger

Yesterday instead of our usual library trip, Ada and I decided to head to Kroger to stock up on meat for the next few weeks. I was feeling good, was showered, had eaten breakfast, had my list and coupons, and we were ready. So we pull into the parking lot, find our spot, and all of a sudden I am violently ill. Luckily I have a very messy car, so there was a leftover Sonic bag to quickly grab. So there we sat, me sick and Ada crying in her car seat, saying, "all done, Mommy, all done." I think it scares her when I get sick. The worst part was that there was a poor older women loading her car with groceries right next to me. At one point we made eye contact as I got sick. I felt so bad that she was having to witness that.

I was not to be deterred however. Once I knew my body was through getting sick, I gathered my strength, my list, and Ada, and into Kroger we went. I laughed at myself because just when I am feeling energized and not so pregnant, my body reminds me that I am not even through with first trimester yet.

But, we made it through the rest of the grocery shop uneventfully, and Ada even cooperated once she got her free balloon. Here are the numbers.

2 4 packs of Dannon Activia
1/2 lb Boars Head honey maple chicken
4 packs of Tyson split chicken breast
2 packs of Kroger bacon (BOGO + coupon)
4 cases of Diet Coke
1 carton of eggs (on sale for .59!!!)
and I forgot to buy strawberries and the ground turkey (thanks for the tip, Bethany!!!), so we will probably have to go back today.

I spent 30.15
I saved 32.18

But my fridge is good and stocked with meat for the next few weeks. It will make for some low numbers during the next few grocery shops.

And by the way, last night's "chicken pot pie" meal was a huge hit with everyone, and it was super easy.

Here is the recipe

Chicken Pot Pie Ingredients:

About a cup of pre-cooked diced chicken breast (I used cooked chicken from my freezer, leftover from the rotisserie chickens I bought last week)
1 tsp butter, margarine or olive oil
1 medium onion-chopped
2 cans of cream of chicken soup
Bag of frozen mixed vegetables (peas, carrots, etc…)
1 boiled egg -chopped (optional--I did not use)
1 -2 tsp. Tarragon (I did not add this)
salt and pepper to taste
1 box refrigerated pie crusts (2 crusts are in each box)
Saute the onion in the butter until translucent

Directions:

Add all other ingredients (except crusts) and cook until the veggies are heated and no longer frozen (approx. 5 minutes)
Place one pie crust in your pie plate (press to the sides of the pie plate leaving the top hanging over the edge of the pie plate)
Pour the filling into the prepared pie crust.
Top with the second crust and press the two pie crust edges together
Use a fork to make a few air holes in the top crust.
Bake at 375 degrees for 30-40 minutes (or until top crust is nice and golden)

We all had seconds, and there are leftovers for lunch today. This will be something I make again and again. So easy, so good.

Here is where I got the recipe.