Pike's Place is not a good place for me to be

Today is Teacher Appreciation Day at Starbucks. They are giving away free coffee to teachers and homeschoolers count! I was so excited as the kids drove through the drive thru for my free Pike's Place coffee.

We went home and I let each of the children have a miniscule sip (I wanted the boys to nap!) and I added a little ice cream to it and enjoyed my cup 'o joe...mmm. I'm not a regular coffee drinker, but I like it for something different. I call my self a social drinker...coffee drinker that is. Isn't that what drinking coffee is all about anyway?

I should have known something was terribly wrong when my heart started racing right after finishing my coffee. Apparently, pregnancy *can* make one extra sensitive to caffeine. I had no idea as I am not a regular caffeine consumer. Wow! It's been an interesting several hours since the initial caffeine intake. I have never actually thrown up with any of my pregnancies, but as I was leaning over the kitchen sink this afternoon, I thought my vomit-less streak was over. I was actually hoping it was over. :) But alas, the streak continues as does my headache, heart-ache, and stomachache.

Farwell, Pike, I didn't enjoy your place very much and think I shall never wish to visit again.

Out of the mouth of my babe...

Tonight I was changing Noah into his P.J.'s and he didn't want to put his arm in the sleeve. Insulted, that I would make him do something that he didn't want to do, he looked at me and said, "Mommy, my heart is broken".

Truly, putting your P.J.'s on is equal to thwarted love.

6 Random Things About Me

I've been tagged by Joy and Dawn! I'm so glad two people tagged me because I whenever I am normally tagged I read it and think "that's nice" and then totally forget to do my part! :)



Here are 6 utterly important things about me!



1. Hmm, I'm the baby of my family and the thirdborn. A great place to be in the ranks, I think!

2. I used to sleep under our full sized bed when I was little because Abbi and I wanted bunk beds. My Dad would pull me out by my legs to put me back into bed and I wouldn't even wake up.

3. Sitting still is not in my nature (wonder where Noah gets it?) and I really hope to become more of a sitting still type of person one day...you know, balance is important.

4. I baked and decorated my own wedding cake.

5. Both of my boys were born naturally (I was induced with Soph) after eating pizza the night before their deliveries. Oh, and they were both a week or more late.

6. And dum dee dum, my biggest secret is that I am a famous, gymnast, dancer, and figure skater, all on the stage of my own kitchen floor.

Such exciting facts!

I tag:

Rachel A.

Jendi

Rachel H.

Charity

Our Pastor preached an excellent message recently on The Love Chapter. It was an amazing reminder of what true Christian love should look like. How short I fall! If I remember correctly, one of the points was that 1 Cor. 13 love cannot be done on our own, we need the work of the Holy Spirit in our life to produce the fruit of true love. I jotted down several notes and definitions for the different words in the chapter. Each one is convicting and challenging, but also encouraging as I think about the love the the Lord has for me. Thank you, Lord for our church and our faithful Pastor.

Check out these verses.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

1 Corinthians 13:1-4



Here are a couple of definitions/thoughts I copied out for several of the words in verse 4. I love studying the definitions of words and then substituting them in the verse to get another angle of the meaning. Maybe that's not KJV correct, but it seems to help me. :)



4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,



Kind = Helpful, looking for a solution, service/solution oriented



Envy = Striving to get what someone else has



Vaunt = Does not have to be noticed



Puffed up = Inflated idea of yourself

Aren't we girls just so prone to not want solutions? Instead of talk out my problems, we want the other person to guess or to be miserable while we give the cold shoulder treatment. It's just such a girl thing, isn't it? Aren't we all guilty to one degree or another? :)

Don't we often want what others have? And let's not even start about the over inflated view of self. I think sometimes we don't even want to admit that we have any of these problems in our life, but isn't that just the over inflated view of one's self coming out?

Do you think thankfulness has anything to do with counteracting jealousy? Jealousy/covetousness isn't just about "stuff". It can be about a situation or a person or a lot of other intangible things. An area the Lord has dealt with me on is thankfulness. I am far less susecptible to be jealous over something or some situation if I am being thankful for what God has given me.

As far as being noticed, doesn't it seem like our society today paints the picture that if you are at home with your kiddos you aren't really "doing anything"? Do you think that we buy into that sometimes? I do, I think one way I believe that is by forgetting that changing diapers, peacemaking through the squabbles, cleaning up the vomit, dish washing, laundry, and dinner making are not worship to God (if done with the proper spirit). For me, the overflow of that mind frame is a lack of realization of how important what I am doing as a Mom really is in God's eyes.

Lord, thank you for your Word that instructs and teaches me. Thank you for reminding me of these truths tonight. Help me to serve you by loving others quietly and sweetly, in the sidelines of my home and heart, and to remember that this is what pleases you.

Thanks for reading the ramblings of a tired Momma who should be in bed. More exciting, disjointed, unimportant content coming soon! :)

Surprise!

This is our washing machine full of clean clothes getting ready to be moved to the dryer...


This is the seal of the washing machine complete with a surprise...



Apparently, a whole pocketful of frogs was in someone's pocket. :)

Odd Lot and Souvenirs

While we were on vacation the kids, of course, got their souvenirs from Odd Lot Outlet. Odd Lot is one of our most anticipated stops each year! Their treasures included: a small plastic bowling set which broke and is getting thrown away this week, a moon buggy complete with astronauts similar to plastic toy soldiers (the moon buggy was destroyed the first day....this is reel quality stuff folks!), a bow and arrow set (the arrows are gone now - oh the quality!), a couple of balls, and Sophia got her china doll back.

Last year she got a china doll at Odd Lot and through a series of unfortunate event her klassy china doll got broken. Of course, Odd Lot advertises that, "if you see it, buy it now because it may not be here tomorrow"! However, we see many of the same items year after year. I assured Sophia after the unfortunate demise of "Rose" earlier this year that, "I'm sure Odd Lot will still have another doll exactly like Rose", and we were not disappointed. Here is Sophia with Rose #2. She promises to never drop her off the loft again. :)

I thought I'd also add a few of the wonderful samplings from Odd Lot's world famous free gift bar.

Sophia at the free gift bar!




Free Gift Option #1 - a beautiful Mom's kitchen knick-knack, painted by a sweet lady in China I'm sure. Isn't it lovely and wouldn't you want to adorn your kitchn with it?




Free Gift Option #2 - a Mardi Gras bracelet. You never know when you will need one to complete your outfit!

And Option #3 - a little basketish whatcha ma callit, bauble-ish, doo-dad, trinkety, knick-knack. It's always good to have one of these on hand.



And last but not least, Extra eyelashes and eyeballs because, well, just because I guess!

There really were so many delightful choices this year, I wish I could have taken the time to show all of them to you! I am happy to report that there was one good item in the free gift bar - paper race car tablecloths! I think Elijah is going to have a race car birthday this year. The boys came home with Easter bunny plastic/cardboard airplanes and Sophia got a little plastic bird that you can balance on your finger...we got the birds last year too. The turnover of merchandise is just phenominal over at Odd Lots!

My souvenir was a beautiful, long red serving dish from my favorite pottery shop. The shop has a great nature trail with suspension bridge which is always a hit!


However, my favorite surprising souvenir was this...






This 'lil test became positive only after the allowable time limit so I wasn't sure that it was accurate and so I didn't get another test until the week after we got home (we were busy unpacking, schooling, etc), but sure enough, that one was positive too, so it looks like there will be a new kiddo at our house sometime next May. Isn't that the best souvenir of all? However, I did manage to throw this souvenir away whilst unpacking the many grocery bags that we packed to bring home - glad I took a picture of it! :)

Video Link

It looks like the videos I just posted are still "processing" on you tube so I hope they are viewable soon and I hope I didn't do something wrong! :)