hey y'all.

I miss you. I really DO! 
It's frustrating to rush to pay bills, check recipes and check in with folks quickly as I can while Joel is home with is phone/interwebs. 
But if that is the worst part of my life I have it made in the shade. 
How are you?
What's new?
anything marvelous and life changing happening?
I know Melissa & Ashley are both cooking up a little person! 
SO EXCITING!
I appreciate Annie & Cayce often checking to make sure i'm still alive and kicking.
And some sweet snail mail from Katy made my day last month.
so here's a quick and random update.


Oliver:
Hysterical, adorable, cuddly, chubby goodness.
already 9 months, just started the army crawl and can't be kept in one place. 
oh this boy. he's got my heart held fast in his pudgy, avocado covered hand.

Emory:
Precocious, tender, busy, daredevil, beauty of a girl.
incredibly close to 3 years old, such a mess and such a joy-smart as a whip and often i want to take one to her. 
Nothing better than her larger than life hugs and bright glass eyes. 

Leland:
turns.5.less.than.2.weeks.
how?
helper, watcher, ninja, feeling, all boy bolt of engery.
my first baby love. creating thoughtful works of art for each family member.
for me he drew: myself, wearing a green dress, by a little house with a green door, in the country, with a bright sun. 
the kid knows my heart. 

Joel:
gave me a night for zumba and friend conversation.
talks me into spontaneity. working his hands and heart tired for Atrium and for us.
learning in new roles, excited for true discipling. 
love.

me?
happy. tired. hungry. reading. praying. 
enjoyed previously mentioned zumba with Neely & Annie- though felt i needed to apologize to those behind me for their view of my terrible, horrible, very bad, no good, booty shake. 

reading and rereading One Thousand Gifts. this section cuts me raw:

"The world I live in is loud and blurring and the toilet plugs and I get speeding tickets and the dog gets sick all over the back step and I forget everything and these six kids lean hard and there are real souls that are at stake and how long do I really have to figure out how to live full of grace, full of joy-before these six beautiful children fly the coop and my mothering days fold up quiet?"


excited about Classical Conversations with Leland and diving further into real and traditions foods via Nourished Kitchen and the traditional food internet community- encouraged by friends reading for themselves and taking health and nourishment into their own hands.

and as i said, i miss you. so tell me:
how are You?

whatever happened to predictability...

hello friends!
just popped in to say hello and wish you a happy New Year.
as usual i don't have enough brain power for a serious or inspiring post but i do have a funny video of Emory that takes me back to the good ole' days watching Full House with the fam- one of the only tv shows we watched.

and if you are dying to hear that great theme song again HERE you go :O)

we interrupt your scheduled programing...

thanks to no internet!
sorry friends, i'm back to small bits of technology when we visit friends and familia, and since i want to spend time with those fine folks when we are there, internet time is pretty slim. here's a Halloween pic for the time being :O)

We had an amazing party for Momma, spent the weekend in OK with Joel's sister Julie & her hubby Chad and had a wonderful time, i went to an awesome Mates of State concert with Jillie, and we are coming up on my birthday so lots of fun going on that i'd love to share with you. So, we'll see what happens. Hope you are all enjoying fall weather and getting excited for Thanksgiving :O)

better late than never.../Pinned it and DID it!

I feel like sweet Emmy's birthday was a little over shadowed by Oliver's arrival and just saw something similar to this on Pinterest so i went for it :O)

She's getting over an ear infection so she's a bit whiney this week but girlfriend is growing up so quickly and is so precious. She learning all of her letters as i work with Leland (and include her:O), is speaking in full, long, complex sentences and has the sweetest manners. We are always laughing at the things she says :O)

Oh the Pins you can Pin!

I'm sure you have found Pinterest by now friends.... Hannah and Jillie had shared about it and i'd peeked a few times and decided to put it off as long as possible.... Because i knew i would get sucked in. Annie finally convinced me and here we are. (Annie just finished a great tutorial on diaper cakes you should go check it out!) Some days i'm not as obsessed and i don't pin at all... others, especially after the Facebook newsfeed changed and is less exciting/functional (sorry to bring the complaining to blogger Jaime! haha) I am a pinning fool. So! I am starting a "Pinned it and DID it!" post and board to make sure that i'm actually using Pinterest for good and not for time sucking evil. :O)

with out further ado, a Pinned it and DID it! post:

both were delicious, you can find them on my Nourish for Body board.

these are so yummy and you don't have to feel bad about eating them- totally nourishing! They have a different texture (may take some getting used to) and take longer to cook at a lower temp so using two skillets or a big griddle would be a time saver. i am popping left overs in the toaster oven in the morning so it's breakfast for two days! I used packaged coconut flour and almond flour that is kept in the freezer so it doesn't get rancid. Kids chowed down on these and loved helping :O)

this can be found on my Babes & Tots board. It's supposed to be the left foot on the right side and the right foot on the left side, and is shown on canvas... since i was doing it by myself, with big kids and right before nap time we didn't even attempt that. It was just a fun art project that the kids loved.

This i didn't find on Pinterest but am going to post there:O) Just a fun recycled egg carton counting/match game- also good for learning to skip count! we have to remake the numbers squares pretty frequently but that's okay. Would also work for counting and sorting if you used beans, buttons or something of the sort.

i think that's it for today! Have you found something you can't live with out on Pinterest? Do you have to give yourself a time limit?

new mantra

"You deserve a longer letter than this; ....

.... but it is my unhappy fate seldom to treat people so well as they deserve." — Jane Austen.

what a summer! Joel's 27th Birthday was last Wednesday. So happy to have him in my life. He's growing everyday as a leader to our family, and it just keeps getting better! It seems strange to be inching closer to 30 and be full swing into family mode. We have 3 kids! we are closer to 30 than 20! Good weird, but weird nonetheless. HIs mom took us out to Chevy's that day. It was fun and there were 4 other people there with birthdays on the same day, getting the song and dance and sombrero treatment as well.

the next night I surprised him with dinner at P.F. Chang's which is what he really wanted- i'm good like that. We ate so much DELICIOUS food and had a wonderful time, sans kids. Michelle and I appreciated our fortune cookie messages in relation to the church launch this weekend:

If you are in this area please go to Atrium Church's Facebook page or website to get some info on our events this weekend! We would LOVE to see you at our block party on Saturday or our first service on Sunday. Saturday we will be down at our building that is still being completed near the GIANT Catsup bottle.... (Twilight fans, Yes, the one mentioned in the movie;o) at the old Blues 159 Bar. There will be free burgers and hot dogs, drinks, live music, and people excited to make friends in the community! Sunday we will be on Main Street at Bert's having our first service! We will be meeting there just until the building is closer to completion. We would love to have your reactions and input on our service and hope to meet lots of new people. I am currently working on sizing down our Atrium t-shirts to fit a bunch of little people under the age of 5 so get ready for some cute if you come... and if i get them finished- ha!

We had a great time out at Bond Christian Service Camp and were so glad to have friends join us there and see old friends come back with their little kids too. Our friends John and Christin came for the weekend too with their little fella Jack (2) and newborn Charlie (2 months- just 19 days younger than Oliver).... So it was more of a survival weekend than a relaxing weekend for us Momma's. I'm so thankful for time with our friends and out in the fresh air, but it was HOT and then WET and our kids were CRAY CRAY! Emmy had on average 3 showers a day. Oh yes. this was the view on the way home, which may have been the most calming part:O)...

We started Kindergarten this week!!!! Leland was so excited that we were starting as soon as we returned from Family Camp over the Labor Day weekend. We are using My Father's World and then also doing Classical Conversations work with my Momma who is a tutor for one of the area groups.

We are having SO much fun and they are learning and soaking information up like sponges. The first section of Classical education focuses on the Grammar stage- learning information and terms (pegs) that they will build on later (hang knowledge on). It's perfect because its so easy and fun for them to memorize and repeat at this stage.Think of how often you say "STOP REPEATING THINGS!" to a 4 year old. Last week Leland was saying "glue sticks! they are fun!" over and over and over and over and over. It's much less irritating when it's knowledge being repeated. The past two weeks Leland (and Emmy!) have been sining to Oliver this little ditty " Iiiiiiiiiin, 1492.... Columbus made the first of 4 trips, to the Caribbean on 3 Spanish ships, named the Nina, the Pinta, the Santa Maria...... IN 1492.... Columbus made the..." He has 15 States and Capitals memorized and a huge chunk of the timeline... Don't worry we are doing lots of cutting, glueing, crafts, painting, letters, numbers, book reading and playing outside too. I'm not a crazy lady trying to mold my children into geniuses but it's easy to see the advantages to Classical education. Already he will see or hear something that relates to something he has memorized and make the connection. Keeping focus and making things short and sweet is really important. Last night i quickly whipped up some "letter squares" for them to sit on to help them stay where they are supposed to be when we are working together. It's definitely helped!!

Emory was so funny going to bed tonight. She kept carrying on so i went in to hush her and she popped out of bed saying "I slept all night! The sun is out! i get up!" She's continually thrilling us with her wit and silliness. And making us cringe at her new "cheese" face.

(leland looks WAY to grown up, huh? kind of hurts in my tummy a little bit.) And finally. Mr Oliver continues to be the darling of the family. He has such goofy little laughing and giggling noises, the best smiles that go straight up to his eyes and the best rolls in town. Ha!

thanks so much for your sweet comments about the pictures last week:O) just to keep it real, this is what i look like right now and most of the time:

haha.... maybe slightly less goofy. but only slightly. as you can see by the moon in the window i need to get tucked into bed before a child stirs. isn't that always the way it goes. you lie down and sigh in contentment and then someone cries. Wouldn't trade it for anything ..... i would definitely love if my hubby didn't sleep like the dead though:O) good night all!!-- woops! good early morning- happy Friday!