Running With Spears

Apple

Happy Monday!!! We had our 20 week ultrasound last week and found out that Apple is a “Pink Lady.” 😀

Can I just admit something here? I’m SO ecstatic and relieved that we’re having another girl. I have no idea how I would have handled the news that Apple was a boy. I mean first of all, we’d have had to choose a different nickname. And we’d have had to buy all new clothes. He’d be riding around in a pink carseat, cause that’s just too expensive to replace. And we couldn’t find a single boy name we loved…the poor guy would’ve just been called, “He who has not been named.” 😉

But more than all of that, I just didn’t want a boy. That’s a super horrible thing to say, isn’t it? I’m 100% certain that we’d have loved a boy immeasurably…but probably not before I went through some sort of a melt down/freak out crisis.

I’m a girl mom. It’s what I know. And from the very beginning all we wanted was girls. Misteris too, I promise, he has no secret desire to keep trying so he can get “his” boy, and I’d love it if all the ~~well-meaning~~ annoying strangers would stop asking that, especially in front of my girls, indicating that somehow they must not be good enough. Anyway…it’s not that I have anything against boys because I really, truly don’t. And I’m not super girly…I’ve never been a big fan of pink, or bows, or daintiness. I just really, really love the idea of raising four girls. Four SISTERS. I’m over the moon about it.

So if anyone out there is expecting a baby and struggling with wanting a particular gender, but you feel saying so would somehow be wrong…I hear you. I get it. It was so stressful before when people would ask what I “wanted” but of course expect an answer along the lines of, “Oh we just want a healthy baby, gender doesn’t matter.” Because of course that statement is 100% true…except that emotionally I still felt like I would cry if we found out we were having a boy. Having three girls already, I could play it off a bit, “Well we’re kinda hoping for a girl because we have all the girl stuff, ya know?” Insert a casual chuckle like I don’t really even mean that very much, I mean buying new stuff, no big deal, whatever.

Artist and Boo were totally honest about their opinion, praying, “God pleeeeaaase give us another sister…pleeeeaaaase make Apple be a girl!” But I’d already spend the first twelve weeks praying fervently for us to simply NOT have another miscarriage. And incredibly grateful when we didn’t. When you’re covering your baby in prayers for protection, for health, for being knit together perfectly and not moving on to Heaven before I ever get to hold her in my arms, well, praying for a particular gender just seemed too selfish. Too unimportant. Which meant the feelings I had of being scared the ultrasound tech would say “It’s a boy!” and expect me to grin with glee (rather than holding back tears) had to be stuffed down deep inside and ignored to the best of my ability.

Hmm, yeah…that got a bit heavy, huh? I didn’t quite mean to go there this morning. Let me finally get back around to the main point I was planning to make. We are all OVERJOYED to be having another girl! We’re not going to “keep trying for a boy” (we were never trying for a boy). We’re not begrudgingly stopping at four despite the fact that we never got one of each gender. We don’t feel like our family is incomplete because we “only” have girls. We’re not scared of what it will be like when our four girls get older. Misteris doesn’t want pity over being in a house full of so many girls (I mean, he wants a house with more bathrooms before they all get too much older, but who wouldn’t? 😉 ).

We couldn’t be happier! Celebrate with us, won’t you?!?!

We love little Apple soooo much! And like I said, I’m 100% certain we’d have loved a boy, too…but please don’t feel bad for us that we have all girls! If you look up thrilled in a thesaurus, I could use every single one of the synonyms to describe how we feel about having four girls (okay, technically the only synonyms listed for thrilled are elated and atingle and I’d never use the word atingle but you get the gist!!! We are thrilled and elated…and all the excited, happy emotions! 😀

Carving out quality time this holiday season — my review of “Homespun Holidays: Fall and Winter.”

Hey there! How’s it going? 😀

So, I recently received Homespun Holidays: Fall and Winter from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine to review as part of my application to join the Schoolhouse Review Crew. This fairly short and quite sweet e-book is available to everyone in the Schoolhouse Store.

Homespun Holidays: Fall and Winter is a seasonal e-book filled with ideas from seventeen contributors for making the holidays memorable, meaningful, and fun. It includes craft ideas, recipes, family traditions, games, and more. Both the crafts and recipes range in difficulty, with the crafts in particular including ideas that are doable with all three of my littles (ages 2 – 8), as well as advanced craftery requiring far greater skill than I will ever possess. That said, I’m pretty craft deficient and way better at drinking coffee than sewing a cute scarecrow. 😉

I liked the e-book’s idea for a “Thankful Bulletin Board,” but I don’t actually have a bulletin board. Fortunately, there were a handful of suggestions for tweaking the idea to make it work for you.

We decided to make a thankful tree. Boo and Artist had a lot of fun tracing and cutting out leaves, and Smiles enjoyed playing with the pieces of paper that ended up all over the table. 😉

We wrote things we’re thankful for on the leaves, ranging from the basic, God, family, food, etc. to concepts such as encouragement and beauty. We all had a great time, and the tree is on the wall in our dining room where it serves as a great gratitude reminder. It may not be the most fantastic looking tree you’ve ever seen, but as I learned from Myquillyn Smith last year, “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.”

We had fun playing “Thanksgiving ABCs” which is a twist on the classic ABC car game (where each person names an item beginning with the next letter in the alphabet, after painstakingly trying to remember everything those before them have said). I ~~may have~~ definitely needed an extra cup of coffee to stay focused, but we enjoyed naming items we’re at least theoretically thankful for (I’m not sure how personally grateful I am for Eucalyptus trees, which was Artist’s choice for E, but hey, they’re nice and all). In any case, it ended up being my favorite version of the game ever. 😀

We also tried out the “Lentil Soup” recipe. Boo wants to be a chef when she grows up, so she always enjoys helping prepare meals. The recipe called for some celery which made her particularly happy because it’s her favorite vegetable to chop.

Honestly, it wasn’t the best soup I’ve ever eaten in my life, but it was inexpensive and filling, and not an epic fail like some Pinterest recipes we’ve tried in the past. I think the suggested cornbread waffles definitely would have kicked it up a notch, but I don’t have a waffle iron. So, yeah…a waffle iron would make a good Christmas gift for me if anyone is taking notes. 😉

Unfortunately many of the recipes contain gluten, and since that makes Misteris sick, I pretty much stick with gluten free dinners. I’m pretty sure I can tweak quite a few to exclude the called-for gluten. That said, several of the highly glutenous dessert recipes look so delicious I may have to try them when he’s not home and then hide the leftovers. Or consume every last crumb in one afternoon. Whatever.

I’ll probably try one or two of the other ideas in the fall section at some point, and will definitely be opening the e-book again after Thanksgiving to dive into the Christmas section, which fortunately includes some super simple no-bake treats, recipes for toffee and wassail that look amazing, and at least a few craft ideas that we can probably manage not to butcher (and even if we do, I’m sure my girls will have a blast trying their hand at them, which is way more important than how they actually turn out, right? If you just said, “right,” please remember this if you receive ~~mangled~~ unique gifts from us next month).

All in all, I think Homespun Holidays: Fall and Winter would likely be more appreciated by someone better than I am at, well, making stuff without it ending in disaster. If you’re one of those people, and you probably are, because I’m just exceptionally bad at all the crafty and cooky things (not to be confused with kooky things, which I’m actually rather good at), then you’ll probably enjoy the e-book. 😀

And even if you’re somehow just as untalented in those areas as I am, my favorite parts of the e-book were actually the family traditions shared and the simple ideas for spending quality time with your kids, having fun and making memories. That’s my main goal this holiday season. I want my fall and winter to be as relaxed as possible, choosing a smaller number of simple activities as opposed to cramming in tons of extravagant nonsense. I’ll never do all the things in Homespun Holidays: Fall and Winter, but I’m looking forward to giving my favorites a try…and not to be an epic tease, but it’s given me an idea for a new Christmas Eve tradition that I think my family will really love!

NaNo Again!

WooHoo! It’s National Novel Writing Month! Last November I participated in the challenge to buckle down and write an entire 50,000 word novel during the month of November! And I did it!

Since then, I also wrote the first draft of book 2, and this month I’ve committed to finishing my trilogy! And on that note, I actually have to go now and focus on that. 1,667 words a day! Wish me luck! 😀

Weed or Flower?

There’s a weed in our backyard. It’s my favorite.

I don’t know how it got there, or what exactly it is. It may even be a flower.

And that got me thinking. We label stuff. Weed. Flower. Democrat. Republican. Fat. Thin. Important. Useless.

We label others and we label ourselves. And we let those labels dictate how we think and feel about ourselves and how we act toward others. Am I a flower? Is my life meaningful enough. Is my story beautiful or rubbish? And that weed over there is exactly what’s wrong with our country, no grace for them.

We worry about labels others have given us. Weed or flower. If I try and fail, will they label me a failure? If I believe I can, and don’t give up, will they label me haughty? If I do give up, will they label me a quitter? It can be paralyzing.

But I had a few realizations.

A) I don’t care what kind of plant is in my backyard, I love it. It’s label doesn’t matter in the least.

B) It really doesn’t matter in God’s eyes whether it’s a weed or a flower. Isaiah 40:8 says, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” God’s word is what endures. If I keep my eyes on Jesus, I can see myself through the lens of His love. I can see others as He sees them too. Beautifully and wonderfully made. Not a flower. Not a weed. God’s masterpiece. 🙂

Meet Brenda!

I had so much fun being interviewed a couple months ago that I decided to share the love and start interviewing fellow bloggers once a month-ish myself! 🙂

First up is my friend Brenda. I’ve actually known her since we were both kids. We grew up in church together, then both moved away and lost touch for awhile, only to find out later that we were living within half an hour from one another, had daughters of similar ages, and both homeschooled. Pretty nifty!

She’s a super blogger as she has not one but two active blogs. At Schooling a Monkey she shares her fun homeschool adventures. She’s super practical, and shares simple tips and crafts, experiments, etc. that are actually doable by real children. (Can I get an amen?) 😉

And then Daily Mayo is one of my favorite blogs out there. In her own words, “Daily Mayo is all about having fun while reading, without rules!” One of my favorite recent posts of hers is actually an easy to follow tutorial on how to make a pumpkin out of an old book!

Well I’ve babbled long enough for a post that’s not about me. On to the hard-hitting, very serious interview.

1. What Hogwarts house do you belong in?
Ravenclaw, always and forever. I used to pretend I belonged in other houses when I was younger, but Ravenclaw is my true home.

2. What age child has been the most difficult to parent so far?
3-5 was the hardest with Monkey. She was too independent for her age then. With Bo, she has serious terrible twos, so we’ll see if it gets any harder from here. 🙂

3. What’s your fall back dinner when you can’t think of anything else to make?
Usually spaghetti. I know everyone will eat it and love it.

4. What book that your kids like you to read to them drives you CRAZY?
This isn’t a big issue here because if I don’t like a book, it mysteriously disappears. But typically, I find myself often “losing” books based on TV show characters or anything where the children are obnoxious, like Junie B. Jones. (Butting in for a second to say I’m a huge fan of “losing” certain books, too. Just, yes! -Heather)

5. What’s the hardest room in your house to keep clean?
Every room? It’s probably my bathroom though. I always leave it until last, and sometimes last is far, far behind all the other rooms.

6. Because it’s October, what’s your favorite fall snack?
We always attempt to make caramel apples every October from scratch. So far, they have yet to turn out properly, but we keep trying! I love caramel apples. (Heather again, being annoying, but I just have to add that I am totally going to try the cider recipe in the caramel apple post. Yum.)

7. Most importantly, what’s your favorite way to drink coffee?
My favorite way to drink coffee is three cups a day, regular coffee with cream. I would love to drink fancy coffee every day, but I find my caffeine needs are too high for what normally comes in a fancy coffee.

And there you have it! Thanks so much Brenda for being my first ~~victim~~ interviewee. 🙂