So much for boring...

...remember when I said that being boring for a while would be fun?

God disagreed.

We are moving from Southern California to the Pacific Northwest.

It was official yesterday and my husband's new job starts the last week of April...in 4 weeks.

If I disappear for a while you will know why!

By the way, this is a great change for our whole family!

90 Day Challenge

If you did the Read the Bible in 90 Day Challenge and did not miss a single day, you would be done today. If you used the 2 day graced period, which a week ago I had already used, you would finish on Wednesday.

The way things are looking I will finish on Sunday.

Somehow I just completely fell apart this past week with hubby gone for a business trip and 2 girls sick with colds (and sharing with Mommy) and an unexpected Tuesday evening appt that took the whole evening and kept the girls up late. And honestly, somehow my family has just not recovered from the time change with all that has been happening.

This challenge has been great for me, and I will finish it, but in about 94 days instead. Not a complete failure, but not the rousing success I had hoped for.

The good news is that a do-over starts in July....

Vocabulary

It has come to my attention that I may have to stop saying dude.

Not that I say it very often.

If I want to be a Canadian Californian I can say, "'eh, dude."

Yes, I still say 'eh after almost 11 years of living outside Canada.

But I live in Southern CA where even the most polished of women use this phrase, particularly if they have been born and raised here. It is often used by mothers when speaking to naughty children such as, "Dude, what were you thinking?" It is particularly funny to see moms dressed in their Sunday best pull this word out.

But I may need to weed it out of my vocabulary.

We will see.

What phraseologies mark your location?

Of colds and runny noses.

If you have been reading around here for a while, as in before Miss Pear's heart surgery, you know that I love a good deal, and when I see one I stock up. Plus, you know that I am a big believer in "Always be prepared." It takes a lot of the chaos and fear out of life.

A couple weeks ago we went through the medicine cabinets tossing expired stuff, but somehow with the craziness I did not refill and replace. I did not even make a list of what to look for in the sales fliers.

Wednesday Miss Pear got sick with a very bad cold. And I had no cough syrup and no vaporizer medicine. Therefore, at 6:15 PM, the worst possible time to go to CVS around here, I was at CVS buying cough syrup, vaporizer medicine and saline drops. At least the cough syrup was on sale, and I got the generic vaporizer medicine and saline drops.

Note to self: RESTOCK MEDICINE CABINET! And start watching for Children's Benedryl sale!

So I learned my lesson on that score...again.

During the night Baby got sick with the same cold! While she is teething!

And now I have 2 vaporizers going in both rooms. Lesson is, while you are stocking your medicine cabinet watch for a sale on vaporizers, apparently you really do need one for each child's room, or each room of children, however you do it.

Fortunately, I learned that lesson last year.

Busy Mom Bible Review

A few weeks ago I received a complimentary copy of the "Busy Mom's Bible: Daily Inspiration Even If You Only Have One Minute" to review. While I was given a Bible, rest assured my opinions are my own!

You might be wondering why it has taken me so long to review this? Well, mostly it is because two little girls think the two tone pink leather with a thin vertical brown strip down the center is most attractive and they like to pretend to read it....pen/pencil in hand. (However, the pen is closed and the pencil is unsharpened, they save the open pen routine for during the sermon).

First off, let's get the basics out of the way. The Busy Mom's Bible is currently priced at $16.50 at Amazon, a nice price for a leather bound Bible. It is only available in the NIV, so you do have to like that translation to like this Bible. It has no study notes, just the study guides on the insert pages and at the back. There is no cross reference within the text, but the concordance at the back is great and surprisingly robust for the size of the Bible. It also has a great, easy to read layout with room for notes.

While a great concordance may not seem like a huge deal, my current kitchen Bible does not have a great one and it annoys me when I am looking for something and cannot find it. In fact, I am fairly confident that the concordance in this Bible is better than the one in my Study Bible!

Now, on to the good stuff. I have to admit I was skeptical about how much you could get out of a study note in a minute, but I was game to try because with two littles there are days were I desperately need to drink deeply from the Word but the girls or sick, or are particularly active that day, or things just seem to be going wrong and leaving me overwhelmed, and this can happen on days when I have managed to get up early and have a solid hour or more of quiet time. Therefore I was willing to give it a shot.

The Study inserts are spread throughout the Bible with each insert page having 4 mini studies (2 on each side). Each study features a 1, 5, and 10 minute study with the 10 minute study sending you the study guide at the back of the book. And while I was initially annoyed that the note was not right by the passage, as I used the notes I found that having the key verse written out right there was great when all I had was literally a minute because I could quickly find the spot to study read. In all cases they do have a longer selection of scripture referenced for you to go read if you can, and if you have the time to go read the passage then the fact that you had to flip does not bother in the least.

Some of the studies I found to be a bit light for where I am at, some were perfect, but overall I think this makes an excellent Kitchen Bible, at least that is where I plan to keep mine for those times when I just need more. This means that in about a year I should be able to tell you how well the cover and binding hold up! Provided I can convince my daughters to let me use it too.

I would recommend this for other moms who are struggling to get enough of the Word in their every day.

Family Language

Each family has their own language, their own collection of words that are used almost exclusively within that family.

Some come from the books we read, such as "you are being a grumpus" from Winnie the Pooh.

Some books come from our families' previous generations and their languages such as "foo come ba-lah!"

But the sweetest ones come from children's misuse of words or mispronunciations. Those are the best.

Miss Pear is sick with a bad cold and asked for her fertilizer in her room.

No, she is not asking for gardening supplies, she is asking for a vaporizer.

Using Your Gifts

Often we look around us and see great teachers, great encourages, prayer warriors, phenomenal organizers, and then we look at our selves and think we have nothing to offer, or in this season of life cannot offer anything.

Want to know how I know this? That is how I felt.

The women at my church are amazing, and each has found her niche. Me? not so much.

But this past month and a half I have.

I found a sweet spot in the women's prayer gathering that is a one Saturday morning a month for an hour time commitment. And I love it!

And I found another sweet spot that was made just for me.

Each year before Easter our Church hosts a Saturday morning VBS and a volunteer is needed to bring snacks for the other volunteers. Of course I signed up for that! I made my plan of what I would make and consulted the chief organizer (a dear friend of mine). She looked at the plan and did not say much, so I asked if she thought that would be okay. She said that in the past the person who did the snacks usually bought bagels. As word is spreading that the snacks will be homemade this year volunteers are getting excited! And that makes me feel great!

With all that has happened and Mr. Pear being on a business trip Thursday and Friday this year I cannot commit to be there and do all the training. But I could do this, and use the talent God has given me to bless and encourage others.

Baking like this does not seem like a big deal to me, in fact, in light of the response I am getting I am pretty sure I will feel a bit sheepish Saturday morning as I don't see it as a big deal, but the volunteers do, and more importantly this is my offering to God this Easter season.

Monday Meanderings

Yup, I finally did it. I broke down and asked another lady at church who adores our girls if she could come over one day this week so I could attempt to get some stuff done and maybe even get a little bit caught up. She said she would love to, I was thrilled. She is coming for Friday morning.

I am trying to get my kitchen back in shape, I am not sure what happened. But so far today I have pulled out 36 empty canning jars from various places in my cupboard to make room for other stuff and have pulled out a huge stack of cookbooks to be returned to the bookshelf upstairs. My goal is to restore order to the kitchen and my desk this week. It may truly take all week.

I also did a sink full of dishes, made hot cross buns and did another sink full of dishes.

And 3 huge loads of laundry with a load of kitchen towels to still go.

Our church is having missions Sunday this weekend, and the children are taking up a special offering for a children's mission project. They are encouraging the children to earn the money themselves, so for this purpose only, I pay Miss Pear for jobs done in quarters. She is very enthusiastic and is asking me repeatedly for jobs she can do for quarters. I even paid Baby a quarter this morning for letting Miss Pear finish a big 3 part job (therefore 3 quarters) without getting in the way. Miss Pear thought that was great because it was another quarter in the jar!

I feel stuck in a rut with lunches again. I don't know why this happens a couple times a year. Do you have any ideas?

What big projects are on your to do list this week?

All Fixed

The contractor was here this morning to fix the lifting paint/tape/who knows what else around the girls bathroom upstairs, the more minor version of the same in our bathroom, and the tile counter in the kitchen. I am pleased to say that they were done in time for naps! Praise the Lord! Plus they did an excellent job.

The damage in the girls bathroom was caused by a leak in the wall which was caused by the builders not putting plumbing tape where the goose neck for the shower head goes into the wall. So every time that shower was used it leaked a little more.

That was our excitement for the day, and that was more than enough!

Tea for you, Tea for me

(This is the picture Lindsay posted of the contest goodies)

Lindsay at Passionate Homemaking is having a great giveaway for a Celestial Seasonings Wellness kit. While it contains many teas I already have in my cupboard, it also includes a sweet little sleepytime bear to match my favorite tea! And a mug, and who cannot use another tea mug?

Head on over and sign up with your favorite wellness tip. Your tea cupboard will thank you if you win!

Excellent Holy Week Craft!

Sometimes it is hard to find crafts for littles that focus on the time leading up to Good Friday.

This one is great, and we will be making it!

Thanks for the link, Alexandra!

Ummmm....

....am I the only one who somehow lost Tuesday this week?

The time change has been particularly brutal this time, Baby is teething 4 eye teeth and 3 molars at the same time to make life fun!

One thing that did help was ordering the diapers from Diapers.com rather than running to the store. I ordered Sunday during nap time (after I put the last of the night time diapers in the drawer) and despite the fact that they said the diapers would be here on Tuesday, they were delivered Monday morning! They have free shipping on orders over $50, and you can get $10 gift cards with your Pampers points now. I have ordered from them twice now, and it has been so helpful! If you decide to try them, you can use my referral code KRIS3192 for $10 off your first order, and if you are like me, you LOVE a good diaper coupon.

The other thing that helped is just putting everything in the dishwasher and running it...twice a day.

I am also working on my Rod and Staff order for next year because they having their spring sale - 10% off text books until April 15.

I have a couple other fun things to share, but that will have to be later!

Triumphant Return

I have to confess, I did not feel triumphant until I started thinking about what I was going to write.

But I did hear God's direction and voice clearly.

I know now that changes are coming for our family. Good ones, ones that will bless our family, but change is still change. But at least it is not just change for the sake of change, this is going to be really great change. That is all I can say right now, but I assure you our family will not be growing despite the fact that Miss Pear has a strong affection for puppies.

The worst of my dental visits are over, and they were fine. I still need my permanent crown and 3 fillings, but that will be fine.

Baby had her hip check and she is doing great.

My girls are healthy and are recovering more each and every day. That is a miracle. Don't try to tell me otherwise.

Areas where I needed to get my act together are not together, but I have a plan, and with 2 children and a time change that is the best one can expect.

We have a plan for homeschooling in the fall - important with the sales starting.

I know that I am God's and He is mine.
(okay, so I already knew that, but there was a new dimension learned)

Despite the craziness of life I am only 1 day behind in my Bible in 90 Days reading. I cannot recommend doing this at least once highly enough!

Did you have a good 2 weeks?

2 Weekish Break

Happy Monday.

I had a deep cleaning of half my teeth today, they are now very sore. I have root canal scheduled for Friday afternoon, and the second half of the in-depth cleaning scheduled for next Tuesday morning (and hopefully the first appt. for my cap). Baby goes in for her 18 month hip check next Tuesday.

It is crazy.

I am overwhelmed.

All weekend I was sick with a terrible tension headache.

And through it all I know that God is going to care for us and guide us. I just really feel like I need time to seek Him, to find out what He is saying. I also feel like I need to give myself a break and be gentle with myself so that I CAN do this.

There are potentially some big things going on for our family, possible changes, but we don't really know. All I do know is that God knows, and I need to be seeking His face and caring for the family He gave me as my priority right now. We feel like a pretty rag tag group right now, life has been nuts.

So I anticipate being back next Wednesday, but depending on how my dental appointments go it might be in 2 weeks.

If you think if it, could you please pray for my family?