S Club Mama

Oh my, it's already October tomorrow. This month has flown by! There is a lack of pictures on this post because everything is on my phone and I'm a little too lazy to upload all of that crazy (499 shots). Or I'll try...we'll see with baby girl probably wanting to nap here shortly. Moose: I am finding him adjusting to school very well. There have been several notes in his communication notebook that say things like "this didn't go as planned but he took it well." Not getting to eat lunch in the classroom because he missed one on his spelling test (we are even practicing this year!), having trouble with his iPad. I love watching him grow up and mature.  Yesterday was a great friend day. He said he played Thomas and Friends with another boy at school. I love this because I've been encouraging this friendship for many years. I know he's probably a bit too old for Thomas but I don't care. He also brought home a lovely little letter from a little

I've been a fan of Awkward Family Photos for a long time now. In fact, Squirt was almost in one of their books with this shot: The Arm Shelf I knew with a new baby I wouldn't be up for reading through a full-text book in time for a review, so I thought "Born to Be Awkward" by Mike Bender and Doug Chernack was the right book for me. Little text, great pictures, and big laughs. They delivered! What I liked: I love that this book is about babies. Being in that stage of life again made this book so relevant. And who doesn't need a good laugh during those middle of the night feedings? Pictures of babies with bad hair, screaming at Santa, hanging while in a life vest (true story). Just hilarious. image via Blogging for Books A few of the pictures even have "behind the awkwardness" paragraphs explaining what happened. This explanation makes them even funnier! The sibling rivalry pictures in the chapter "New Kid on the Block" were prob

Simple Grace is a new Christian magazine designed for women and "was created from the desire to seek God's heart on a daily basis; the core of the magazine is a short, daily devotional that addresses everyday problems we all face - plus it has content that all of us can relate to including interviews with well-known personalities and a media guide." image via the Simple Grace website What I like: I love the size of this magazine/devotional. It's small like Reader's Digest so it's easily carried around in my van or purse or diaper bag. It would be great to take this along and read it before I pick my kids up from school! I haven't done that yet but it'd be a good way to get my head on straight with the Lord before the chaos of after school erupts. I like the section about social media where an author or someone asks a question on Facebook or Twitter of their fans. In the issue I read (August 2015), Karen Kingsbury asked her Facebook fans "

OK. Seconds of quiet because I hear Princess starting to wake up. I was reading in the MOPS magazine this morning. I always read through it but this past year, they have really stepped up from shallow writing. But I don't normally love so much in the pages. This is piggy-backing on a very emotionally difficult (partially hormone driven) weekend. I was just grumpy (as if I didn't learn a dose of perspective from this blog post). So, if you are suffering from the grumps, I wanted to share some thoughts that have invaded my thoughts lately. Some are mine, some are from others and I hope it's encouraging. I've had to adjust to having a child home 24/7. Not that I don't love Princess - seriously, this girl is a charmer! BUT it's an adjustment nonetheless. An epiphany I had late late after a wonderful gathering of my girl friends was this: just accept it. I know this stage doesn't last forever and all too soon, she's going to be RUNNING to preschool. This

I've been thinking of closing the blog but I guess I haven't given up the idea of putting my thoughts out there into the abyss that is the internet. So here I go with an update that I hope to continue to do monthly for those interested (leave some comments so I know if you're interested!). I'm hoping to keep reviewing books and such (less though) and do a monthly or bi-monthly family update (my friend Kaila does a monthly update of her family much more beautifully). I'll begin with our newest member, Princess. I've gone back and forth over using my kids' names on here and really I'm too lazy to go back to change all of the Moose/Squirt names so I'll stick with nicknames. Princess was born July 20, 2015 at 10:15am by induction (with an epidural, praise God!). She was 8 pounds 10 ounces, 21 inches long, with reddish/blond hair and blue eyes. She looks SO much like Moose at birth! Her birth was really just different and special, like all births. W