S Club Mama

What I was expecting this week during Moose's stay at the EMU (epilepsy monitoring unit): - several seizures right away (big ones) - Moose sleeping a LOT - me sitting by him and petting his head as he slept - going home before Friday evening (as would happen if things happened that quickly) - strength to get through the hard seizures What I got during this week: - a few small seizures the first two days and nothing on Friday - patience waiting for the seizures - so.much.tv (I expected him to be exhausted and sleepy a lot) - Big A having to stay Friday night through Sunday - Big A experiencing his first of Moose's grand mal seizures (big, convulsing) - and his second - a completed embroidery piece (haha) - hardly sleeping This week was very different from what I had in mind. But I learned to trust in God's strength and not my own and that I cannot go into these things with expectations or very little sleep. I think Moose had the time of his life these pas

Our family is definitely known for our love of superheroes and Star Wars so when a friend and her husband were shopping for their daughter and happened upon this adorable Supergirl outfit, they got it for our Princess. Thank you Duane and Amanda! Obviously, her brothers love it, too. The past two days I've been doing laundry like crazy and packing for everyone. Moose has a 5 day EEG from Wednesday - Sunday to determine where his seizures are coming from exactly (from his malformation/birthmark on his brain, from multiple places, from somewhere we haven't pinpointed yet). I am staying with him during the week and will switch off with Big A on Friday afternoon to come home to be with my littler two. I have never been away from any of my children for 3 days so this will be odd. Moose has such a good attitude about all of this and doesn't seem stressed (doesn't probably know to be stressed). He prayed this morning for him to have seizures so they can do his test. Wh

I really like to talk. It can alleviate awkwardness, draw people closer, find common ground. However much I like to talk, I'm not great at starting a conversation or holding one on my own. Therefore, I appreciate books like "101 Conversation Starters for Families" by Gary Chapman and Ramon Presson . image via amazon.com I've tried to use these questions at supper time when conversation beyond "how was your day" or highs/lows wanes. Which, at our house, is often, to be honest. We have one who is not much of a conversationalist most times and one who is more often than not pouting and one who is still learning the art of babbling. I really like questions that dig into people - who are they, what do they love. There are some of those questions in here and some other, fluffy ones that also can help look into one's being: - If you had a magic wand and could change anything in your life right now, what would it be? (our pouty guy actually said his bad

Adult coloring is all the rage right now but why? Because who doesn't remember coloring as a kid? Maybe it wasn't your favorite thing (although I remember enjoying it), but we all did it in preschool, kindergarten and beyond. I personally remember coloring in high school and college.  image via WaterBrook Multnomah "Whatever is Lovely: A Coloring Book for Reflection and Worship" is not my first coloring book as an adult. I did one review over another and a friend bought me one. However, "Whatever is Lovely" is my favorite! Why, you ask? Because of the encouragement I get from the Scripture in it and quotes from some of my favorite authors (Emily P. Freeman's book "Simply Tuesday" is awesome!). And these are picture I could hang up in my home! Not Avengers and Batman or Hello Kitty (nothing wrong with those if you wish to hang them up in your house either, just to each your own).  I will admit, I don't have a lot of time to colo

I really enjoyed the first God's Not Dead movie and am looking forward to this one. I was at an if:local this weekend and David Platt was a surprise guest speaker at the end. One thing that really hit me was he said he was in college, talking about the gospel. A girl in the class said that he was arrogant and hateful to say that if they didn't believe what he believed about Jesus Christ, they would spend an eternity in hell. Now, yes, that could seem arrogant to say if you don't believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God sent to earth to save us from our sins through His death and resurrection that you will spend an eternity in damnation in hell. UNLESS IT'S TRUE. If it's true what I believe, what David believes, then it would be arrogant and hateful to NOT tell you that. To keep that from you would be awful. To keep the wonderful news that God loves you and made you wonderful and has saved you if only you accept Him, would be hateful. So I'm telling you

Well, if we thought 2016 would be quieter, I believe we were wrong. We started off the new year with a new van after our crash. It worked out well that friends were selling their van so win-win situation. Now we have a red van (Go Huskers!) which is basically like ours. We took the van on its maiden journey (with us) to see my parents and grandma over New Years. We will never again be staying at this hotel on NYE. People (my husband suspects the employees) ran through the halls at midnight, yelling Happy New Year and throwing confetti everywhere. Yes, it was NYE. I get it, but aren't we at a hotel where the point is so people can sleep?? Princess had an especially hard time sleeping that night (that weekend) so it was rough. She also had 5 blow outs over the weekend. Thankfully, she got clothes for Christmas. boys got cozy robes Princess got a crinkly book she loves & time with her grandpa, which she loves I love getting to see my grandma when we go home!! The f

How many parents are just overloaded with parenting books these days? I've been reading parenting book since before my children were born. Some have been excellent and some have been bad. "Strong and Kind" by Korie Robertson with Chrys Howard is excellent. image via BookLook Many parenting books have contradictory teaching methods. "Strong and Kind" does not even have a teaching method. It's basically a book telling us what we know: our kids need character! And we need to teach them (which means we really need to model it for them)! One of my favorite parts of the book is toward the end when Korie and Willie (who chimes in on every chapter of the book) discuss how differently they were raised. Willie's family life was more rough and fend for yourself while Korie's upbringing was more pampered. However, the things their parents had in common (loving God and one another) is really all we need to succeed in this parenting gig we have been blessed

This study took me FOREVER to get through! I believe I started it when Princess was under 4 months old. Perhaps 2 months old, we'll say, so this took me 4 months to get through. Please do not take this as an indication of the material. It's not, just an indication of my season of life. image via LifeWay "Armor of God" by Priscilla Shirer is NOT the study that goes with the movie "War Room." That's the "Fervent" study, which I also posted about. However, "Armor of God" may as well have been intended to go along with them both. There is much the same ideas in "Armor of God" as in "Fervent." I can't relate it to the movie because I have yet to see it. But, in fact, some of the exact same material is in both studies/books. This was part of the reason I feel it took me awhile to get through because I have a difficult time re-reading the same material. However, I am thankful to have gone through this study (ju