real food breakfast & 3 weeks

the hardest part about cooking is making myself do it... not the actual cooking.

today: sweet potatoes with rosemary, baked plums with yogurt, eggs with herbs, and toast with butter & honey.

took about 5 minutes, none of it was difficult and it was delicious and nourishing.

with some pastured butter, fresh cilantro, parsley & rosemary (perfect in the sweet potatoes), the simple 3 ingredient dishes were savory and filling.




i'm sure the day will be much better for that bit of effort i squeezed out of myself :O)

3 week pictures of the new sweetheart...






have you had a delicious breakfast lately? Share if its easy!

the calendar flips by...

time waits for no man.
growing up i can't count how many times i heard adults say that time was flying by, or that everything goes in fast forward after you have kids. It seemed to just be something everyone said and nodded in agreement about. well guess what? they were right!

it is unfathomable that next month Joel & I will have been married for 7 years. impossible that our little tiny Leland is 4 years old. outrageous that sweet pea Emmy is 2 going on 20. heartbreaking that Oliver is already 3 weeks old. My heart is full, my eyes are tired and my memory isn't sharp enough for the baby days to go by so quickly.




Today I was lamenting the lack of a quality camera to capture every newborn moment- the sleepy blue eyed gaze, the quick (gassy?) smiles that appear and disappear in a blink, dimples and wrinkles and messy baby hair. But i want to stretch myself and remember in my heart too, not just in photos- to really soak it all up, store it away.

It's been a rough week. I'm feeling pretty great emotionally. I feel more normal than i did with either of the other babies. I don't have the feeling of being hormonal and unbalanced, which is *great*, and I praise the Lord.
That having been said, there are moments where it's just incredibly overwhelming with these ages and stages. Having a bossy, ahem- *helpful 4 year old, an independent & sassy 2 year old and newborn is just that way.
When Oliver is only waking once in the night to eat, and the kids are mellow, we have a manageable and even wonderful day. When he's going through a growth spurt and eating ever 3 hours through the night, Emory has decided to hit the teenage angst period ten years early and Leland is the source of that angst, not so much :O)

So today i received a daily devotion via email which included this verse: Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Ephesians 4:29. It really struck a nerve since i've been reading Grace Based Parenting and there is a great emphasis on meeting your children's emotional/spiritual needs. I know when i'm short on sleep & patience i'm not responding in a way that builds them up according to their needs, and i cannot tell you how many times today i have bit my tongue, prayed or rephrased something after reading this scripture.

My sister is currently reading the book 1,000 Gifts by Ann Voscamp. She tweeted this quote from the book : ‎"...how long do I really have to figure out how to live full of grace, full of joy...before my mothering days fold up quiet?" It spoke straight to my heart and i headed straight to her website to devour some encouragement and help. Please do the same! There are free printable helps that i can't wait to get up on a wall. Turns out Ann is sweet soul, homeschool mom, farmer's wife, and writer. A kindred spirit for sure. This post on calming the storm is the big brother to what i've been trying with Leland in his frustrated/belligerent moments, and this post on having a home of prayer has my wheels turning. I won't even start on the literature and book lists or i'll be here all day :O)

So today has been a bit up and down. Madness one second and grace the next. I need the grace more than the kids.
Can't wait to print this out and see how God transforms our moments, days and weeks through it. Hope you are blessed too!

baby girl is 2?!

Sweet Emory turned two on saturday. I don't know why its so sad to me, but it is! It's felt like she turned two with the new year, thanks to her big talking, independence & potty training so i didn't think the official birthday would bother me.
Saturday we had breakfast brunch with Granny & Gramps and then went to cousin Adrienne's wedding in Salem with Nana & Papa.
Sunday was the birthday party/meet & greet with Oliver.

Of course, our batteries in the camera were dead (baby brain?) so we'll have to wait on pictures from Nana & Granny's cameras.
My favorite moment at a 2 year old's party is when everyone sings them happy birthday with the candles lit, and their face is full of wonder and awe over the hugeness of that attention. Leland had the same look of happy disbelief at his 2nd birthday too. love.it.
My mother made a beautiful little strawberry shortcake themed cake, i threw together some strawberry/blackberry/blueberry shortcake with homemade whipped cream and Granny brought lots of little cupcakes to go with. A special shout out to the Householder family who showed up on time and helped me with a number of things that weren't ready- including cleaning & cutting a billion strawberries!

So thankful that so many of our sweet friends & family were able to come celebrate with us- we were thrilled to see each and every one of you!
Here's Emory in her birthday tutu earlier in the week & Oliver in his wedding attire at a stop on the way home.



Emory, you are your own little person- full of ideas and smiles that are sure to get you in and out of lots of trouble. You push us to the limit but are truly heartbroken when we're upset with you. We LOVE hearing your little voice say "I need to kiss you!" and "It's my happy BERT-day!". You are always busy busy busy and enjoying every aspect of life completely- and you let us know if something is getting in the way of that ;o) You are such a good big sister/little momma already and we can't wait to see what amazing things God has ahead for you. You have our hearts, pretty baby. Happy Birthday!

Surprise Arrival!

On wednesday i was in the middle of a post apologizing for not posting- explaining i've been a lazy blogger but a busy house keeper... i typed "don't be alarmed, i haven't had the baby, definitely still pregnant. Although we did go for a practice run/ false alarm on sunday night!" But some increasingly annoying contractions kept interrupting my blogging and i finally decided i would run a bath to get them to stop. I went to the bathroom as i was filling up the tub and thought.... gee, i think this is the real deal. I'd been having contractions all week and these ones were 5 mins apart, hurting and getting closer. I was having to coach myself not to yell at Leland when he would touch my arm or try to hug me during one.... that seemed like the real thing. Poor kid didn't deserve to be a 4 year old labor coach! So i called Joel @ work, he dropped everything and rushed home, granny picked up the kids and we sped to the hospital. (which if you remember is about an hour and thirty minutes from our house.)
I was 6 to 7 cm when we arrived (at 2:40 pm), and 8 cm when i (THANK YOU LORD) got my epidural. At 6:59 pm we had our sweet baby boy in our arms! Bada bing!
I'll fill you in on the details later (such as our Dr being on vacation in FLORIDA!), but for now Oliver and the rest of the family are doing absolutely wonderfully. We came home the next night and have been getting settled as a family of 5 since.
We are completely in love with our new sweetheart and his dark hair and chubby cheeks.
He was 8 lbs (much bigger than Leland & Emory!) 19 3/4 inches and ready to eat as soon as he was born :O)
I just can't get enough of the sweet soft hair and the dimples. more soon!


















Oliver Edmund Sprenger
8 lbs 19 3/4 in
June 1st, 2011 @ 6:59 pm