Party of 3

Nathan and I are excited to announce that we will soon be a party of 3! We are expecting our first child! I can't even come close to describing how excited we are to meet our first addition to our family. We are praying daily that God will prepare us to become the type of parents that he has called us to be. Pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting are uncharted waters to say the least, but we trust that God is going to fully equip us! We both love and enjoy children to the fullest and we are eager to raise this child.

So far, my pregnancy is going very well! I am around 13 weeks and am said to be due on January 2nd. I battled with a few weeks of sickness, but I am feeling much better now. We have visited our doctor 3 times thus far and we received good news with each visit. For now, Nathan and I are reading a lot of helpful books, asking for lots of advice from trusted friends, and praying. I am sure I will be posting about the things I am learning and needing advice on in the near future. We have a lot of decisions to make regarding birthing and parenting, so I figured I better start doing my research :).

Please pray for us as we take this amazing journey!

These are our latest ultrasound pictures. Our child looked like a peanut during our first ultrasound, so we were shocked when we were able to see his/her profile, body, hands, and feet. He or she was also doing flips and kicking those tiny (and I do mean tiny) feet. It was so awesome! Isn't it incredible that us ladies have the honor of carrying these precious babies. Aside from all of the pregnancy and birthing woes (I have yet to experience so many of these), it really is astounding that our bodies were made to provide the perfect environment for a child to grow and then be born into this world.

"Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward." (Psalm 127:3)

Works for me Wednesday- A Good Challenge

I really enjoy a good challenge! Whether it is training for a race or working on a weakness, I like to feel as though I am constantly improving. It is very easy to become complacent and comfortable (VERY EASY), so taking on a good challenge in order to keep growing works for me! This week, I came across an awesome challenge hosted by generationcedar.com called the 30-day Husband Encouragement Challenge for Wives.

I think it is important for us ladies to take the time to encourage one another to love and serve our husbands. We have a high calling from the King to be "help meets" to our husbands and this is not always an easy position. Much like the many other areas of our lives, it is easy for us to stop "working on" our marriages. It is always helpful for me to be challenged by other women to continue to love Nathan in the way that God intended. This week, if you are a wife, I encourage you to take the 30-day challenge for wives. If you are not a wife, I encourage you to challenge one of your weaknesses with biblical truth and daily practice for 30 days. It works for me!

"But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." (Hebrews 3:13)

Update...Summer Program Begins, Baby Celebration Dinner for Friends, and Fun with the Kids

I hope you all had a refreshing weekend. We had a great weekend with friends and the children. I have been trying to get better about taking pictures, so that I can share them with you all and this week, I actually remembered to take a few! So, enjoy a short update with some new pictures :)!

Natalie and I started our summer program at the Linc! We are so excited to be able to offer a summer program on Tuesdays and Thursdays for six children that desperately need the services. We wish we could serve all 20 of them this summer, but in order to plan for next year, we had to be reasonable with what we could handle in these short 8 (now 7) weeks.

During the summer months, we will spend the first half of the day doing recreational activities (like swimming, going to movies, etc.) and the second half of the day doing art, groups, and individual tutoring time. We are also working on one character trait/moral each week. This week we are working on not complaining and our bible verse is Phil. 2:14. I am really enjoying these weekly lessons because not only do they challenge the children, they also challenge me!

On Saturday, Geoff and Melinda hosted a baby celebration dinner for our dear friends Cani and Justin. They are expecting their first baby in a matter of weeks. We had a lot of fun celebrating with them! We can't wait to meet their precious baby boy! P.S. The sweet baby boy they are holding is our good friend April's baby Silas. Isn't he handsome?

Nathan spent most of the night holding baby Arden. He is so good with children :). She sat in his lap like a big girl as we all chatted. It is hard to believe that she is already 7 months. She is going to be walking before we know it.

On Sunday, we planned to go swimming, but due to the rain, we decided to take the boys to play basketball. They had a blast!

Summer Cleaning Schedule

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend! We really enjoyed our fun friend-filled weekend. We were able to play cards and eat with friends, and spend some time at the pool with the children. Hanging out at the pool with the children is so much fun. The look of delight on their faces as Nate chases them around the pool is just priceless. Isn't summer the best?

As I discussed in my previous post, marathon cleaning sessions do not work for me, so I have formulated a new summer cleaning schedule to help me keep my home clean and peaceful during the busy months of summer. I know that I will need to be flexible and may need to adjust the schedule, but I think this is a good starting point. In August, I plan to formulate a new schedule for the fall that will work with our fall schedule. If you have not yet done so, I encourage you to take the time this week to create a cleaning schedule that works for you!

For those of you that have children, this schedule could easily help you determine their daily chores. If you have children that are able to help, I encourage you to formulate a detailed chore chart from this schedule as well. Throughout my childhood, my mother always left us a list of chores to complete each day. The rule was that we had to finish our chores before we could go outside and spend time with our friends. I am sure it was a funny sight to see 4 children running through the house trying to get our chores done as quickly as possible so we could go have some "fun". We were not going to waste our day cleaning, so that chore list was done pretty quickly :). Just a thought.

Steps to Creating a Cleaning Schedule
#1- Make a list of the tasks you would like to complete each week.
#2- Make a list of those tasks that you complete throughout the week as you go about your business (ex. we load the dishwasher and wash any non dishwasher safe items after each meal).
#3- Make a list of tasks you would like to complete for each day of the week.

#4- Print your schedule and hang it in a visible place to serve as a reminder.

Weekly Tasks
Grocery Shopping
Food preparation

Dusting

Floors (hard woods/ carpets)

Bathrooms

Laundry(wash/dry, fold/put-away clothes)

Kitchen counter tops/tables

Dishes (load dishwasher/hand wash, unload dishwasher)

Trash

Making the bed
General clean-up

Complete Daily

Kitchen Counter tops/ tables
Load dishwasher/ hand wash

Trash

Making the bed
General clean-up

-Weekly Schedule-

Monday

Put away laundry

Tuesday
Floors

Wednesday

Wash/Dry Laundry
Dusting

Thursday

Put away laundry

Bathrooms

Friday
OFF

Saturday

Grocery Store (am)

Food Preparation for the week (am)

Sunday
Wash/Dry Laundry

Unload dishwasher

It is also a good idea to formulate a schedule for any deep cleaning ( cleaning windows, walls, fridge, etc.). I plan to formulate a monthly cleaning schedule for these items. This schedule will include those deep cleaning tasks I would like to complete during each month. I will try to post this schedule on a later date.

Enjoy cleaning your home this week :)!

Does Not Work for Me Wednesday- Marathon Cleaning Sessions

For the past 8 months, I have been blessed to have most of the day Friday to handle our household needs (grocery shopping, oil changes, etc.) and cleaning. Now that my schedule is changing for the summer, I will no longer have a day during the week to take care of our home. I must admit that even prior to the schedule change, marathon cleaning was not working for me. I would spend hours cleaning, which would leave me feeling accomplished, but also exhausted. While I think it is important for us to share things that work for us, I think it is just as important to identify those things that do not work for us so that we can seek advice and find new and improved ways to manage our homes!

A good friend of mine shared with me that she has a cleaning schedule that allows her to stay on top of her cleaning throughout the week. So, my goal this week is to come up with a personalized cleaning plan (including laundry, floors, dusting, etc.) that will work for me.

If you have found that your current cleaning schedule or lack thereof is not working for you, I encourage you to join me in formulating a schedule that WORKS FOR YOU! I plan to post my schedule in the future, so if you join me and would like to share your plan, do not hesitate to do so.

We have the great honor of being keepers of our home, so it is important that we learn how to do this in the most effective and efficient way possible. I am eager to hear tips and suggestions from you all, so feel free to send me an email or leave me a comment with your cleaning schedule tips and/or plans.

Learning...
Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. (Ephesians 15:15-17)


This is a picture from our mini get-away in Nashville over Memorial day weekend. It was such a relaxing time for us. I can't say that we did much, but that was truly the best part. We were excited to just "get-away" for awhile and simply enjoy enjoy each other.