Swimsuit Season

Much to my dismay, swimsuit season is upon us. I walked through Target the other day and saw racks and racks of bikinis on display. Anything modest in the bunch? Nope.

Sad to say, it is difficult to find a swimsuit that covers adequately if you are a girl. I even have a hard time finding one piece swimsuits for Taylor. Crazy how young you can be and have our culture permeate your clothing choices. It's not even easy to find a shirt for Taylor Joy that isn't spaghetti straps these days.

There's an awesome link on the right side of this blog, called Modesty Survey under "Promote Modesty" in the Things I Do. It's a project of the REBELution, which was started by Brett and Alex Harris (Josh Harris' brothers...of Sovereign Grace...what an amazing family!). Anyway, this is a study that surveyed 1600+ guys about modesty and specific articles of clothing that women wear, including comments about those articles of clothing.

I went there before I purchased my swimsuit and browsed through what these men had to say about swimsuits in particular. I highly recommend reading the results of these before you head out to purchase your new swimsuit so that we can be mindful of the opposite sex this summer. They will appreciate our thoughtfulness too!

In case you are having a hard time finding a modest swimsuit like I was, check out these websites:

Lime Ricki
Shade Clothing
Academy (has lots of skirts you can wear as bottoms. I think the one I bought is actually a tennis skirt. I would recommend going there.)

Also, here's a series of great articles by C.J. Mahaney about modesty and what it says about the attitude of our hearts. I highly recommend reading these articles or listening to this sermon.

Anyway, I thought it might be a nice reminder to some of you to consider our brothers when we are making our summer clothing choices, especially swimsuits. Happy shopping and swimming! We are so excited about heading out to the pool!

Girly Lapdesks

I made these sweet little lapdesks for Taylor Joy and one of her friends. They were completely simple and easy to make.

1. First, Michael's carries these and often puts them on sale. I think I got these for $5 each.

2. Then, grab some cute coordinating scrapbook paper and stickers that are flat (no 3D) and some Sharpies.

3. Get creative writing the name and placing all your decorations on the lapdesk.

4. Go to town with Modge Podge. I used matte and sponged it on so it wouldn't get that streaky look to it.

Makes a great gift for someone else or for your own children. Taylor loves to use it around the house and it keeps her from having to sit at the table to color or use her markers. Beckett is actually past the point of eating crayons and is beginning to enjoy coloring so I may have to make one for him next.

Having your kids decorate their own isn't a bad idea if they are older. Then, they can take pride in what they have made and get to creating more fun stuff on it!

Preggo Update

It's been awhile and this little baby has decided to have a growth spurt and to become wildly active. Just at 26 weeks and I am enjoying the pregnancy and have been for the past few weeks.

A little more energy, a possibility that I won't have to take a nap is a wonderful thing. I've been crafting, redecorating, painting and thinking of all sorts of home improvement and decor projects that I want to undertake. Maybe this extra energy splurge is a nesting instinct that has taken over my body. I don't know.

I have also been thinking about stocking my freezer with meals like the Money-Saving Mom once I get a little closer to my due date. I'm hoping that I will only have to go to the store every 2 weeks after the baby is born. I can always send Allen if we need bananas (a staple in our home) or milk in between.

So, here's a question: Do you have an amazing meal that translates well in the freezer? If so, please let me know! Post a comment or email it to me. I want to make sure it will freeze and cook well.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Picture Update

Here are lots of pictures from the past few weeks that I have been meaning to post, including: a circus outing, hanging with Uncle Ryan and Aunt Cate when they came into town, Easter festivities, among others like bath time.

Taylor Joy has become quite the photographer these days and she LOVES doing it. She took all the pictures in the Ryan/Cate segment. It's actually nice that she can take them for us! Anyway, enjoy! I'm working on a preggo update as well.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Easter Reflections/Ideas

I know this is late coming and it's because Easter caught me a bit off guard this year. Just as we took the month of December to do our Advent activities and reflected on the birth of Jesus and what His coming into the world means for us, I wanted to spend a good part of this week reflecting on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus and what that means for us as believers.

I have recommended it before, but will do so again, Noel Piper's Treasuring God in Our Traditions has some great ideas for making Easter meaningful for both you and your children. For the past two years we have used her idea for the Easter Mountain and Taylor seemed to understand it more this year.

I wasn't able to implement this idea this year, but will definitely do it next year...Lent candles. It is the same idea that's behind the Advent candles but you snuff out a candle each week during Lent. Since we have very young children I would probably condense the time period and make it shorter. On Easter Sunday, all the candles are lit to represent the resurrection of our Lord, the Light of the world! I think this is a great idea as well.

Tomorrow we will be making the traditional Resurrection Buns. This will be a first for me, so I hope they turn out. Taylor Joy and I will be making them in the morning with me explaining each step to her and how it symbolizes the burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And then we get to eat the yummy goodness! So fun!

Also, though we've never really participated in Easter egg hunts, a few families from our church decided to do one this year that would be particularly meaningful. In addition to hiding candy-filled eggs, Resurrection Eggs will also be hidden. After the hunt is over, we will go through each egg in order and explain the real story of Easter to our children. We plan to paint crosses and have a picnic lunch as well. I am excited to share the day with other precious families in our body. I just pray it doesn't rain!

I'll leave you with a meditation from my hubby:


In preparation for this weekend’s worship service, I would encourage you to consider the gravity of the event we remember today and the significance it holds for you and me. Listen to Matthew’s description:

“Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, ‘Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?’ For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up…So, when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.’ And all the people answered, ‘His blood be on us and on our children!’ Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified” (Matt. 27:15-18, 24-26).

What a beautiful, terrible, irony. The sinless Son of God traded for the sinful Barabbas, accused of rebellion and murder. Instead of desiring justice for a known criminal, the crowd persuaded Pilate to cater to their rebellion against God and murder Jesus.

This event takes on further signifance when you understand that in Hebrew, “Barabbas” means, “son of daddy.” On Good Friday, Jesus, the sinless Son of God was crucified instead of you and me - sinful sons and daughters of sinful daddies. Truly did Isaiah prophesy: “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - every one - to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Is. 53:5-6).

Consider the Great Exchange tonight and praise God for sending his Son to assume your guilt and your punishment.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

This is too funny...

Oh, Beckett...

Oh, do I have a story to tell. For those who are mothers of boys this kind of stuff probably happens everyday, and although I have had many incidents, this was probably the most frightening. It opened my eyes to the kinds of things that may be happening in my life for the next 17 years or so.

As I was driving to H-E-B to do some grocery shopping, ironically, I was talking to my friend Janette (who lives in NC) and giving her all the necessary updates on my life, including our dear Beckett and what he has been up to. I told her that he has changed from this sweet, cuddly, content baby into a WILD man lately. He is as curious as ever, loud, angry if he doesn't get what he wants, he babbles constantly, he never sits still...and I thought he would be my easy child! He is still VERY sweet and may even cuddle you, but you would have to catch him sitting still, which is rare.

Anyway, we get off the phone and I go in to do my shopping, with both kids in tow. I am pretty much done with no major breakdowns and I head for the checkout. I begin to unload my items, pleased with the how pleasant this trip has been...no one needed to potty right in the middle of shopping, no one threw a fit when there weren't any tortillas for sampling and the chips didn't even get crushed by one of my kids. Success! Right? Wrong!

I turn around to grab some more items and I see Beckett with the Jet-Dry tipped back as he is busy "sampling" it. I pretty much freaked out. I don't know if I made any loud noises but if I did it was one of absolute horror. I grabbed the bottle from him, after which he began licking his lips to get the last of it, I suppose. I quickly turned it over and it said to drink water if ingested.

Coaching myself to begin thinking clearly, I walked straight over to the aisle where there were some sippy cups and grabbed one and then back to the register where there were cold drinks and grabbed a bottle of water. I poured the water into the sippy cup and intently watched as my little boy drank it. He seemed okay. I breathed. The lady behind the counter breathed.

My sister called at the very moment all this was happening and I told her (probably very frantically) to look up Cascade Clean Rinse and see what I need to do. She called back right after that and said I did the right thing. If he was nauseated to take him to the doctor.

Hours later I was still watching him and he was fine. He was laughing, playing, fussing, getting into everything just like normal.

So...the moral of this story is: Boys are dangerous. Beckett is one of these. I CANNOT take my eyes off this baby because he is into EVERYTHING. And that Cascade needs to get protective seals for their products. So not cool.