Especially Entertaining, Educating & Engaging

There is something I've found that entertains my kids for long periods of time, enhances their creativity, and is easily available.

Envelopes.

I save extras from stationary sets or envelopes that come with bills we pay electronically so we don't need them, I seem to have an unending free supply.

My kids love creating mail for each other, my husband, and me. Sometimes they even have treasure hunts where they hide the envelopes and have me search for them. The entertainment possibilities they come up with when given empty, unused envelopes amazes me! And it encourages them to write, draw, spell and read!



Find more Works for Me Wednesday at Rocks in My Dryer while Kristin is away.

And don't forget to follow Kristin's journey in Kenya.

From 1 to 2 to 3

One of my newest bloggy friends is Lisa from Little Writer Momma and she posed the question last week, "How was it going from 2 (kids) to 3 (kids) for you?" I used to get asked that question all the time, but now many of my in real life friends have had their 3rd (and a couple even 4th) kids so I don't hear it as much, but it is an interesting question. So before we add a 4th child with our adoption from Ethiopia and I completely forget what life was like with only 3, here are my thoughts on the transition not only from 2 to 3 kids, but 1 to 2 also.

When you have your 1st baby and you give him a bath for the 1st time in the baby bathtub, you are thinking, "Is the water too hot? Too cold? How much soap do I use? How exactly do I wash that area of his neck under his chin (the spot where the spit-up collects)? How do I get this slippery baby out of the tub? What if I drop him?"

When you have your 2nd baby and you give her a bath for the 1st time in the baby bathtub, all you can think is, "Wow, she is so tiny! I love the baby bathtub! Oh how quickly she will outgrow this!"

When you have your 3rd baby, you think, "I know I didn't give him a bath yesterday, but I'm so tired I think I'm gonna skip that bath again today. He's a newborn; it's not like he played in the sandbox or anything! I mean, how dirty could he be?"

When you have that 1st baby obviously everything is new and exciting. But it is a huge life change! Nearly everything becomes different overnight when that baby is born! Honestly it is hard for me to even remember life with zero kids but the adjustment from 0 to 1 kid has to be the hardest.

I think everybody ought to have at least 2 kids, because the huge blessing of that 2nd baby is that you enjoy them so much more. Now you know a little more what you are doing, you worry less, and you know just how quickly all those phases pass! The baby is the easy part about having a 2nd child. The big adjustment is managing the toddler/bigger kid with the baby. There is no napping when the baby naps if your 2 year old is awake! And try having the patience needed to manage a toddler when you have been up all night with a newborn! My husband used to say the adjustment to 2 kids was harder on the dads because their free time diminishes substantially. After mom has been juggling two kids all day, when her husband gets home he's either taking 1 or both those kids. The other big adjustment with having a 2nd child is the sibling fighting. In my experience, this is an issue earlier if your firstborn is a boy. From day 1 you will have to worry about him being too rough with the baby, both by accident and on purpose. I remember distinctly the first time my son hit his baby sister. Oh the conflict when your mama lion instincts see your precious baby hurt by someone but realize that someone is your beloved other child! At the same time, you get to witness the blessing of watching the sweet interactions between your 2 children, and watch their friendship grow. With the addition of a 2nd child there's also the issue of managing 2 different kid schedules. With one baby, life revolves around their nap schedule, but with the 2nd baby you will have to navigate around the older child's activities, and you'll find yourself waking up that baby to go pick up the older child at school. But as a positive, most second born kids are more easy-going as a result!

Now the transition from 2 kids to 3 brings, for lack of a better word, chaos. If you are a momma that must have your children under control, perfectly dressed, noses wiped, nobody crying, and everyone with shoes on the correct feet every time you go out, don't have 3 kids (or at least not 3 close in age to each other). Because you are 1 momma and there are 3 of them. Chances are very high that anytime you are out and about with all 3, someone will spill a drink, have a fit, get lost, fall down, or do something embarrassing. You just can't control them all, all the time. The best way I can describe having 3 kids is more life!

You have one more child and with that one more child you have more joy, more wash, more hugs, more crying, more smiles, more messes, more laughter, more teeth to brush, more dancing, more throwing up, more playing, more getting hurt, more "I love you"s, more runny noses, more kid artwork, more dishes, more memories.

More love!

Of course, the more is there with each of the transitions but it becomes more pronounced with the move from 2 to 3. For example, moving from 1 child to 2 children the noise will double in your household, so for the move to 3 children it triples, right? Wrong! Multiply the noise level by about 10! I'm not sure why it works like that but I've noticed that math is true even for playdates among non-sibling kids. A playdate with my 1 child plus 1 friend (2 kids) = rather calm and quiet but if I add another friend (3 kids), suddenly it is like a stampede of elephants have invaded my home!

I could say a lot more about this subject but this post is part of the Moms' 30-Minute Blog Challenge, so I'm out of time. Maybe I'll revisit this topic in a future post!

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Find more Tuesdays Unwrapped.

Not Enough Hours in the Day!

I'm joining up with Kelly's Korner for Show Us Your Life and her topic this week is what is your typical day like? Really I have no typical day, each day is different, so I'll just share today:

6:25 AM - alarm goes off, I hit snooze

6:30 AM - I get out of bed, jump into workout clothes and begin Jillian Michaels - 30 Day Shred workout

7 AM - done with Shred and in shower

7:15 AM - make sack lunch for 1st grader

7:20 - 8:50 AM - eat breakfast, clean up kitchen, start some wash, get 2 little kids ready for the day, read to them, get dinner started in the crock pot, finish getting dressed myself, do nebulizer treatment on my 2 year old who is sick with bronchitis

9 AM - drop off my 4 year old at preschool

9 AM - noon - toddler's cough is still too bad to go to Community Bible Study which he and I usually do every Thursday, so instead we hang out, do some chores, run by the grocery store, and the car wash.

*** Right here can I just insert that due to the bronchitis (which he gets a lot just a couple days after coming down with a common cold) my toddler is taking steroids to help his airway open up and allow him to breathe easier. But do you want to know what is even crazier than spending your morning with a toddler? Spending your morning with a toddler on steroids! I'm not at all kidding when I say that I said a lot of prayers for patience.

noon - normally I'd pick up my daughter at preschool, but my husband picked her up today so they could have a special lunch date. What did she want to eat on her date? A hot dog and Sprite! She's a cheap date! Toddler and I have lunch together on our back patio

12:45 - 1PM read stories to Toddler and do another nebulizer treatment, then he goes down for a nap

1PM - 1:20 PM read stories with my daughter, then she has rest time, today she actually sleeps, which is rare

1:20 - 2:40 PM I clean up a little, have some quiet time when I pray and read scripture, rest a little, finish wash from earlier, make the dough for a batch of cookies I'll bake later

2:40 PM wake up little kids and get them in the car with snacks so we can pick up my 1st grader at school

3:00 PM pick up 1st grader

3:10 PM home getting snack for 1st grader and talking about his day

3:45 PM begin getting kids ready to take my daughter to her swim lesson & son's baseball immediately following

4:05 PM leave for swimming

4:30 PM her lesson starts, I visit with a friend while watching her swim, entertaining toddler, and looking over 1st grader's homework

5:00 PM her swimming is over, dry her off, herd everyone into the car

5:25 PM triangulate with husband on the phone; he help's coach son's baseball and is coming from work and meeting us at practice

5:30 PM arrive at 7 year old's baseball, he discovers he left his hat at home and suggests I go get it; I lecture him on taking responsibility for his own stuff and that I need to go home and make dinner and can't bring him back his hat; I find another hat in his baseball bag; 7 year old doesn't want that hat; the other coach is there and my husband will be soon, I send my son into practice and actually use the word "hustle" at some point

5:45 - 6:30 PM finish making dinner (part of it was in the crock pot all day), bathe my 2 little kids, call my mom to check on her, clean up some stuff, recruit my 2 little kids into cleaning up a little

6:45 PM - Husband and son are home from practice, we eat dinner as a family

7:15 PM - bake cookies mixed up earlier

7:45 PM - help tuck kids into bed

8PM - 8:45 PM - Husband and I watch Survivor (Survivor and Lost are the only 2 TV shows we watch) episode from the DVR

8:45 PM - 10:15 PM - work on cooking ahead a couple recipes in the kitchen while my husband does dinner dishes, while we work we listen to a Matt Chandler sermon, and then visit about it

10:15 PM - finally time to sit down and blog

11 PM or so - hopefully bedtime!!

*** Tuesdays and Thursdays are our crazy days with my older kids having activities in the afternoon, but at least the other 3 days of the week we can spend more time at home together and not running around so much!! ****

God Bless Texas!

I'd like to share a little culture with those of you who may not be from around these parts. It's rodeo time here in Texas and I couldn't be happier to be a Texan!

To help you understand, I give you 13 things I love about this rodeo season:

1. This is the one of time of year when you do actually see horse-drawn wagons on the roads. I realize (because I've met them before) there are people who think this is how Texas is all the time, but believe it or not we do have cars!

2. At the rodeo not only can you see calf roping, barrel racing, and bull riding, but also mutton bustin' where (I'm not kidding) kids ages 5 and 6 years old attempt to ride a "mutton" or sheep the longest! At least the parents who allow their babies to hang on the back of a running, bucking sheep have the good sense to put helmets on them 1st, or maybe that's just because the event coordinators require it!

3. Rodeo season gives us all an excuse to wear western clothes and is there anything cuter than little cowgirls and cowboys?


4. Not only do they serve BBQ at the rodeo, but fried Oreos.

5. And funnel cake sundaes (because a regular funnel cake is not fattening enough, you must add ice cream and chocolate sauce and whipped cream!)

6. And chocolate dipped cheesecake

7. And all kinds of food on a stick that you never imagined could be served on a stick!

8. The livestock show is the only place I know where you can see pigs worth $140,000 and steers worth $300,000. Here's my daughter a couple years ago staring at the grand champion steer that would later auction for around $300,00. She decided she liked it so much, "Daddy, can I have him?"

9. At the livestock show my kids can see real milking demonstrations -- "so that's where our milk comes from!"

10. They also have a birthing center where you can see baby pigs, cows, sheep, horses, etc. that are just days old! So cute!

11. You can cheer on your favorite pig in the pig races!

12. The petting zoo provides all kinds of opportunities for strengthening your kids' immune systems!

13. And if all that were not enough, there is a huge carnival, too, with rides and fun houses and games that are nearly impossible to win but grown men pay tons of money to play over and over again in order to win a cheap stuffed animal!

Find more Thankful Thursday, Thursday Thirteen , Things I Love Thursday & A Thousand Words Thursday.

A Solution to Many of Your Problems

Want to know the answer to many of the problems you may be facing?

Learn about people who have less, much, much less than you.

Stare poverty in the face, eye to eye, and I guarantee your heart will leave forever changed.

Do you need help organizing your house? Have trouble getting rid of stuff? I did, too, until I saw it. And now my excess disgusts me. I used to have two pair of running shoes. But then I read accounts and saw pictures of children in Africa who have never had even one pair of shoes.

Do you ever get tired of cooking dinner for your family? I did too, until I saw the stories of mothers who had no food at all to feed their children, for days, weeks, even months at a time!

Do you ever wonder what your purpose here in this life is? Why you are important? I did, too, until I realized as long as I am living, breathing on this earth I can be a difference in the lives of people who are hurting. I can shine light into their darkness. And you can too!

Kristin from We are THAT Family is joining the Compassion International trip to Kenya and will be blogging about it. Compassion is a super way to get involved being the difference in the life of someone in need because not only do you help financially, but you write to the child you sponsor and can provide them love and encouragement they may not otherwise have. Be sure to follow along on her journey with the link below.


I can't wait! Kenya is right next door to Ethiopia (on the South side) where we are in the process of adopting a daughter. To say Africa has changed our lives would be a huge understatement! Have you heard the slogan, "I need Africa more than Africa needs me." The more I learn about Africa the more I believe that is totally true!


Find more Works for Me Wednesday at Rocks in My Dryer while Kristin is away.

A Toddler-Sized Baseball Glove

Last baseball season I was constantly chasing my toddler off the field, out of the dugout, away from the swinging bats. Oh how much he wanted to be right in the middle of it all!

This year I'm trying a new tactic for baseball season toddler management.

I bought the toddler his own baseball glove.

That's right, I give up. You are only 2, but go, play baseball with the big boys if you must. Who am I to stand in your way? Toddler-sized baseball glove . . . $14.00. My 3 guys having grounder practice in the backyard . . . priceless!

Find more Wordless or Wordful Wednesday.

Homemade Cupcake Toppers

For his recent birthday celebration at school, my son wanted Mario cupcakes (as in Super Mario Bros.). I searched the internet for some of those plastic character rings that usually top store-bought kid cupcakes, so I could simply add them to the top of the cupcakes I planned to pick up at Sam's. But I couldn't find any with a Mario theme. In fact the only Mario themed cupcake toppers I could find anywhere were on Etsy.com and homemade by a mom with a printer and some craft punches.

So, I got to thinking, I could save my $20 and make some myself.

I searched the Internet for free, printable Mario images. When I found one I liked I copied it and printed a bunch on one page of cardstock paper. Then I just cut them out and glued them onto some yellow construction paper I'd cut into rectangles with some craft scissors. Then I taped the rectangles onto some lollipop sticks I already had.

Pretty easy, free since I used all materials I already had, good enough for 1st graders, and most important -- my boy was happy!! All around a successful craft!

Check out Tackle it Tuesday & Try and Tell.