On the Verge...

I just found this post from more than 3 years ago about Simon that I never posted! He is hours away from turning 4, so I thought I'd post it for fun. So glad that he now sleeps through the night and eats any food that we eat. And he doesn't toss his cookies any more, for which I am veeeery grateful. ***** Simon turned 8 months on November 17th (Abram's 4th birthday). In the interest of fairness, I am doing a post for each of the kids on their recent age milestones. Here is an update on Simon's 8th month of life! Weight:  8.6 kgs (That's almost 19 lbs and the 45th percentile) and 74cm (about 29.5 inches and the 90th percentile for length). He definitely does NOT have a problem with weight gain, like he had his first few months of life. Phew! Clothing size: 9 months. Because of the length. Actually, Quinn put him in a 3 month onsie the other day and he didn't look too absurd. But sleepers are a definite 9 months because he doesn't fit in anything else. ...

I woke up this morning and did what I do almost every morning in between the, oh, 5th and 6th snooze on my alarm when I finally tell myself that I need to actually start to wake up: I browsed facebook. I want to immediately sit up and pull my Bible off my nightstand, open it and with all alertness begin to meditate on the Word of God to start my day. But it's the alertness that eludes me. So, short of having my nespresso machine on my nightstand as well, I have to do something to make my brain catch up with my desires. And facebook is always there. This  morning, I began scrolling, like any other morning. I read headlines and intentionally like, love, or ha ha, friends' pictures and posts and largely pass right by videos. This is mostly due to the fact that my husband, Quinn, is usually still asleep next to me and the sound of a facebook video first thing in the morning could probably single handedly start  his day off on the wrong foot.  But this morning, a video...

A friend asked me recently how we organized all three kids' clothes in their room since they all slept together. Since moving into our new/old house, I've had to get even more creative, but it's really worked out pretty well! So I thought I'd share what we did just in case it might be helpful for anyone else.  First of all, all three kids in one room is definitely awesome. Some people fear it and, depending on your kids, it just might not be possible for you. For us, it just worked out. We traveled so much and the kids were in all different kinds of beds and sleeping scenarios that they were pretty flexible. And now, after a year of them all sharing a room, we are able to have a pretty epic happening with one child in the room while the other two sleep right through. We will eventually give Selah her own room, but that won't be for a few years. So here we are, with three kids in an 8x10 ish room, sharing our tips with you! I knew we wanted a Kura bed from IKEA becau...

8 years ago tomorrow, I married the sweetest, kindest, most Jesus loving man that I know. A few weeks later (after our honeymoon in Idaho), we moved together into our first house.  5 years ago, this month, we made the final decision to join our friends and the work they would be starting in the UAE and began the long process of actually launching.  3 years ago, this month, we moved from Sharjah to Fujairah, where we thought we would spend many years to come. 1 year ago, today, we flew from Boise back to Austin to begin a new life here. We grieved as our friends packed up and sold our house worth of stuff in Fujairah. We said good bye to people over the internet that we had planned to be hugging in person that same day.  7.5 months ago, I heard our sweet baby #4's heartbeat for the first time and they gave us an official due date of June 14th (today).  5 months ago, yesterday, we held our sweet baby Jo in our hands after losing her at 18 weeks. We knew, if she made it...

Alright. I'm finally sitting down at the computer (whaaaaaat?!) and posting the recipe to this plantain dough I've developed. This might be similar to another recipe out there, but I haven't ever seen it, so I've been working on this for awhile and now, I think, it's ready to share! Since starting the Auto Immune Protocol diet last year, I've been searching for a good pizza dough recipe. That's where this recipe started.  With more or less coconut flour, this dough can be used for pizzas or sandwich bread (more) or muffins (less). So, here it is! Plantain Dough Preheat oven to 365. Ingredients: -1 just ripe plantain (yellow with just a little black). -2.5 tbsp coconut oil -1/4 cup coconut milk -1 tsp baking soda -1 tsp apple cider vinegar -1/4 cup coconut flour (for muffins), add 3 more tbsp coconut flour (for pizza or "bread" dough) Peel and cut plantains into large chunks. Blend with an immersion blender unti...

Up until literally today , I couldn't wait for my kids to grow up. "When he doesn't nap it''ll be so much easier!" "When she's in school, it'll be so much easier!" "When he can help with chores, it'll be so much easier!" Then today, all of a sudden, I felt this overwhelming desire to freeze time.  Today (a day I spent mostly laid up in bed) I realized: It's not ever going to get "easier". We've already discovered that there are intricacies to a five year old boy's personality that do not exist in a two year old's. e.g. lying.  So while he won't throw as many temper tantrums, he will sneak pieces of candy out of the Ikea "pick a mix" and hide it in his pocket taking little bites whenever my back is turned (Tuesday). Then a whole conversation about stealing and lying will ensue in the car with an eventual temper tantrum over the discipline I've decided to issue (not getting any of the...

When we came back to Austin from the UAE and Quinn started back at his old job and we went right back to the same church and are even a few months away from moving back into our old house, we struggled with feeling like the previous two and half years just didn't happen. Sure, we had another child, but it all felt the same as it had. Except that our hearts were completely different. God had pulled us out of our former comfort zone and opened our hearts and eyes to a people who desperately needed His love. So when we came back, we were like different people in the same life. Even though those two years were less than we had planned and the memory of them gets further and further away, He still used them to shape and transform us in ways we never could have imagined. It was like we had entered some kind of time warp where everything was the same and different all at once. Then, just a few weeks ago, when we discovered that our fourth baby, Joanna Lynn, had Down syndrome, everyth...