Nothing is too small.

A little while back I posted that we had lost my son's blankie. To any of you who have a child who is very attached to something (or were when they were younger), you know how devastating this was. Well, after a few nights of finding him asleep in the hallway or on the floor in his room, he seemed to adjust. Fortunately we had several of them (they all looked different), but he was very attached to one. We prayed he would find his blankie, I had sweet friends who told me they were praying, but it seemed like blankie was gone for good. The other day I was getting a few items from the closet, when what do we find.....blankie! It reminded me that nothing is too small for God. He hears the prayers of even a two year old, and his desperate mother. God is so faithful, to hear us when we pray, not matter what is going on in Norway, Iran, Libia, or any part of the world, he hears the little desires of His children.
Matthew 10:27b
with God all things are possible.
We too often I think this about the big things, but we forget that God will hear even the smallest desires. Not is nothing too big for God, but nothing is too small for God. Even the most insignificant thing, like a little boy praying to find his blankie. Thank you God for answering our prayers!

Covers

Monkey has had a toddler bed since he was about two and a half. Since Jewel was born when he was 17 months old, we needed the crib. He was so cute, for the first 6 months he would ask, or wait until we told him he could get out of it. Right around his second birthday, he discovered that he could get out all by himself (it was nice while it lasted). Now we have a baby gate in his doorway, so he can not get up in the middle of the night and rearrange the house. His nightly routine is to get out of bed several times, and call for me from his gate. I go and tell him to get back in bed, and he will usually run over to his bed and say "Covers" meaning he wants me to cover him up. I usually give in once or twice. I am concerned about spoiling him, but all I can think of is, in a few short years he will no longer ask me in that sweet little voice to cover him back up. I have already seen in these past two and a half years how quickly they grow, and I do not want to miss a second of it. I do not want to miss an opportunity to cover him up, but at the same time I know there is a fine line between that and spoiling them. I try so hard to do what is best, while indulging them a little. I just do not want to sit at their wedding or graduation with the past 18-22 years playing through my mind and have any regrets. I love my babies and I want them to know it every second of their lives. I know if I do not cover him up one more time he will not remember, but I just seem to struggle. Does anyone else have this problem?

Hip Clicks

When I had my daughter, 11 and 1/2 months ago, I figured she would be jaundice like my son had. I had heard once you have a child with it any children after will have it as well. I was really praying my milk would come in so she would not have to spend time in the NICU under the UV lights like he did. If she did though I was prepared for that. Every morning the nurse would come take her to get checked out by the doctor, and the second morning she told me she has a little jaundice, and then she said she also has hip clicks. I had never heard of that. I listened as she began to vaguely explain she would be referring us to a pediatric orthopedic. I searched the internet, and found out a little, but anxiously awaited our appointment. The morning of the appointment we drove a little over an hour to get the the children's hospital where the doctor's office was located. We waited for 2 hours in the waiting room, the whole time all I could do was pray and thank God that she was not as bad as different children I saw. She was given an ultrasound on her hips, and the doctor looked at her and decided she would need a Pavlik harness. She would wear is all day everyday for eight weeks, before being allowed to wean from it for 3 weeks. We were so excited to see it come off hoping all was well. A couple months later we returned to only find out from a x-ray that things had not really improved, but there was a chance when she began to bear wait on her legs, it would decrease the dysplasia. Today, was latest appointment, and unfortunately there has been no improvement, so she is now in a new harness when she sleeps. Hopefully, between this harness and walking over the next six months she will get better. If not they can do a few other things, but most likely she will need surgery at four years old. We are praying for healing and thanking God that it is not something worse.

My little Jewel, isn't she beautiful!

Baby Wipes Recipe

I recently wrote about how I make my own baby wipes, but realized I still needed to post the recipe.

What you will need:
1 roll Viva paper towels
2 c water
2 Tbs baby wash
2 Tbs baby oil
clean empty 1 gallon ice cream bucket

Take paper towels, lay them on their side and cut in half. Combine water, wash, and oil. Remove cardboard from center of paper towels and place the roll in the bucket, pour mixture over roll. Cut a small X in the lid of bucket. Put lid on the bucket and let the roll soak for a couple of hours. Pull a piece of paper towel from the center of the roll through the X. Now they are ready to use. It costs about $1.20 to make one batch of wipes, which from what it costs around here save me about $.50 per batch. It may not sound like a lot of money, but with two in diapers every little bit helps.

Going Green

Ok, stay with me please! I know that sometimes this thought is not always brought up in the best light. I am not a "Mother Nature" person, but I do believe God has given us this earth and we need to take care of it. This is the last thing I will say on this blog about it, but if you are curious.........

Try this and tell me what you think

Lollipops

July 4th

I know I am a little late in posting these, but we should be patriotic all year round, right!

This is our local parade, Monkey really likes to see the "Fireshrucks."

Then after lunch and naps, we went to my in-laws for dinner and to watch the fireworks (which can be seen from their porch).

This picture was after we walked around the park looking at the vendors, and picked up our lunch provided by the local Rotary Club (I love small town life).

 She is such a girl!

Saving money

I don't know about anyone else, but we have a few grocery store near us, conveniently near us. Maybe a little to convenient, when I find myself there several times a week. My husband and I live on a very tight budget and we started realizing just how much gas we were spending just "run up the road" and get whatever it was that we needed, and usually a couple of thing we did not need. I have recently started saying "no" to this. For example, tonight I made tater tot casserole for dinner, but did not have the cream of chicken soup or the evaporated milk. I knew my kids and I liked it (my husband was not eating, because of a late lunch and not feeling well). It was also something, when I have all of the ingredients, that can be thrown together quickly. I thought, I guess I will have to run up to the store, but we were not doing that anymore, so I got onto our computer and searched for recipes and found them. I was thrilled to make the casserole, with homemade ingredients. Yes, it is more convenient to have those things on hand, but with a little preparation I can. I made too much cream of chicken soup, so I put the rest of it in a jar and put it in the fridge. I am planning of freezing it if I do not use it in the next day or two. I am actually enjoying making many of these things from scratch, it is nice to be able to pronounce everything in the list of ingredients..........

Spaghetti

Just some pictures of my children eating spaghetti, it is quite entertaining.....