Revewing a Recipe, Project, & Learning Toy

We are now 33 weeks pregnant... crazy!!!  I'm getting huge... I have to ask Jon to take a good belly picture for me.  At this point I don't even have one for Baby Monkey's baby book!  My weight gain has FINALLY slowly down, so while I'm still at the weight gain I was at when I had Nicholas... I've been at that point for about 3 weeks now.  It's also hitting me that we're getting closer and there is a lot we don't have yet.  There are a few big items we're still missing, but I've been asked to hold off until the shower on Saturday.  I'm looking forward to seeing people on Saturday though!  This will be the last trip we take home before Monkey comes (I believe) so I'm excited to get some girl time in!

Anyway... time to review 3 awesome things!!  First... a recipe I found on pintrest that I made last night!

Chicken Enchiladas w/Chili Sauce

These Chicken Enchiladas are absolutely delicious!  I didn't use the jalepenos because I forgot to grab them at the store (which was good for me because spicy is hard for me right now, but I know that Jon would have absolutely LOVED it with some kick), and I also just used a regular mexican blend of cheese instead of the white cheddar and monterey jack.  They were DELICIOUS!  A few things before you make them though... they took me a long time.  It was totally worth the flavor, but I underestimated how long it would take so Nicholas ended up having a PB&J roll up with apples because I didn't think he should have to keep waiting.  Though, when they WERE done, and he tried them, he liked them (so kiddo approved)!!  Also, somehow I managed to forget the one cup of water, haha... they were still really good, but they will be better next time when I have more sauce!  Definitely worth a try and it's not big on processed food at all!

Nicholas' Chore Chart



I'm definitely not trying to toot my own horn on this one, because it wasn't my idea to begin with.  If you check out Pinrest, I found a BUNCH of examples to go by and this is just what I came up with.  That being said, this has been a GREAT thing!  Nicholas absolutely LOVES it!  He knows what is expected of him, and is very proud of himself when he gets them all turned over.  I love that it reminds me to do his homework practice (because I've been saying for MONTHS that we needed to be doing that nightly, but then I got busy and forgot often) and it reminds us to practice his memory verse.  His church has a memory verse every month so, for now, we're just doing that one (Matthew 19:26 this month!)... but once he gets a bit faster at memorizing (which I expect will come soon!) we'll go to one every other week and then one a week.  I haven't found a good place to put the chore chart yet.  I had all these plans for the menu board and the chore chart before I made them, but then I realized that his chart would be too high for him to flip the cards himself.  So now I'm kind of back in "figure out a good place" mode.  But seriously... this has been a GREAT investment!  We've had all the standard chore charts when they have the grid and use the stickers and that kind of thing... but somehow this has just got him really excited and it's working way better than ALL the other methods I've tried.

Crayola Dry Erase Activity Center

I got one of these for a friend's child because she's super into school-type stuff.  While I was at it, I grabbed one for Nicholas because, while he ISN'T into school-type stuff, he NEEDS handwriting practice like nobody's business.  Love the kiddo and he's making great improvement, but kindergarten expectations are high now so I knew we needed some practice.  I have more workbooks than we can count.  I probably have 5-6 around here that go over all the preschool skills.  I'm not saying those are bad at all; in fact, I grabbed a smaller manageable sized one for Nick when I was getting all the cards for the chore chart and menu chart laminated.  But that being said, at some point I get tired of having the paper everywhere from letter and name practice.  Sometimes it's great because I can save them, but every other time it's annoying because I feel like I SHOULD save them but I can't save every little paper he writes on (trust me, his plastic bin is overflowing!).  He has dry erase handwriting boards already, but this comes with templates that are perfect and it means that I can make my own templates so he can trace new things easy before doing them himself.  The templates go through all letters, upper and lower, all numbers, games, and a few blank ones that you could write what you wanted (sight words, name, etc...).  His school just restarted their yearly sight words so I'm going to be using those as well!



PROJECTS FINISHED!

I finished the two projects I've been working on this week.  I saw some ideas on Pintrest and decided to create and modify them to fit our family.  One is a chore chart for Nicholas, and the other is a menu board.  They aren't 100% done because the hooks need adjustments (especially on the menu board) but they're done enough that I can finally clean up the living room... AND post pictures.  I never thought they would take so much time, especially making about 40-50 meal cards for the menu board.  The pictures are from my phone because I can't find the adapter for my camera (which I'm giving up on and buying a new one because Jon's poor grandma has been waiting WAY WAY WAY too long for the pictures from Christmas :( )

Nicholas Chore Chart

He has 8 "chores."  It sounds like a lot, but many of them are so basic that I don't feel guilty.  He has to put his dishes in the sink (morning/night), brush his teeth (morning/night), do his homework pages, practice his memory verse, pick up his toys, etc... As he gets older they will get modified to more difficult things like vaccuuming and dusting.

When he does something for the day, we turn the card over and it has a star that says "I did it!"

The bottom right lists the rewards he can earn.  This is something we struggled with a LOT.  Chores are his way of helping the family, which he should be doing WITHOUT reward because he's part of the family.  But we decided that the other things he does when we ask, like help with dinner, sweep the kitchen, etc... are things he needs to do because he is told to do.  The other things are things we ask of him because they will make our life easier when Baby Brother comes.  So for each day that he completes ALL the items, he gets a sticker.  5 stickers get a Jamba Juice or Yogurt; if he decides to save them instead he can earn a Hot Wheels for 10 stickers; if he has a LOT of patience and can wait for 15 stickers, he gets to go to Boomers and race the go-karts with daddy a few times.

Behind the card that tells his rewards is the blank one where we'll put his stickers as he earns them.  We let him have one sticker to get him started :)



Our Menu Chart

I was excited to see ideas on Pintrest for making the menu something that could actually look nice on a wall, insetad of something I wrote down randomly.  I also liked the idea that these could be easily changed as life changes, and that I start out with a box full of ideas to pull from.  This is adapted from about 5-10 that I found and liked, and I changed it to make it work for me.  You can see that some of the hooks aren't quite right, so I'll have to go back and fix that later.

Each hook can hold at least 2 menu cards, so I can actually use this for two week menu planning.  I always plan for two weeks so I think this will work better for me.  One of the Pintrest ideas put the ingredients on the back of each card to make a shopping list easier, but cutting out the red part, white part, gluing, laminating, etc... took enough time that I didn't want to mess with that.

The box holds the menu cards, minus the 14 that will be on the board at any given time.  I placed the sticky part higher up on the hook for this because I thought it might need a bit more stability.  I don't like that you can see the white, but I also don't want the box falling down.  Some cards are doubled because they're things I do often, especially in the summer... like I might grill chicken 2-3 times using different sauces and marinades.  I also made cards for leftover night, eating out, and date nights :)

The menu cards aren't painfully specific, because even by being vague ("veggie") I ended up with almost more cards than I could handle.



Fill-In-The-Blank Friday

It's 11:22 but I am WIDE awake.  Today was nice; I was able to get my current two craft projects nearly done.  I rarely get kind of lost in a project, but the things I'm working on now have taken up considerably more time than I anticipated.  I was able to get a lot done though, and it's all bedrest friendly (for my mom who is very concerned that I'm overtaxing myself... I promise, I'm not ;)  I also went to Norwex party tonight.  Aside from seeing the cool stuff, it was nice just to get to sit and talk with other women for a while. 

On to Fill-In-The-Blank Friday... courtesy of Kallay...

1. The last thing I ate was  a piece of toast on using bread I baked this morning... yum!

2. The last song I listened to was "There Will Be a Day" by Jeremy Camp

 

3. Using the letters in my name {Jessica} I can spell: case, ace, ice, CIA...

4. If I had to dress in one color for the rest of my life I would choose Blue... its my favorite color, I like all of it's various shades, and I live in jeans

5. If you were to look in my bag right now you’d find my wallet, my morning sickness meds (why are those still in there?), my chapstick, boxes of raisins (eww, they're for Nick), a notepad for coloring, black tea bag (huh?), my Bible, my Nook, my phone, my keys, various appointment cards for past appointments, a random check stub...

6. When I finish filling in the blanks I’m going to go to bed!  I have this weird pain at the top of my stomach that I'm hoping will get better with sleep.

7. My all time favorite song to dance to is Cotton Eye Joe?  I can't dance, but I remember Ani teaching us the dance to that song at Kodiak Jacks in Fairbanks and it was fun!

 

Sweet Dreams!

Nicholas' Answered Prayer

There are two things that we really try to teach Nicholas about God. One is that if it's important to you, it's important to Him. We want him to know he can go to God with ANYTHING that's on his heart. The second thing is that God answers when you go to Him. So today was REALLY cool! The little guy has a cough so on the way home from school (I picked him up after doc appt #2) I told him we'd get him medicine. I had wondered why he used to cry and fuss over medicine but in the last few months takes it without a single complaint. This is what he told me:

"Mommy, did you know that when I was a baby the medicine was really yucky, but now it's not yucky anymore?"
"Really?  I'm glad it's not yucky now though!"
"Yeah, it's 'cause I prayed and I asked God to please make the medicine not yucky anymore and then I had to take medicine and it wasn't yucky!! He fixed it!"

There's something so special to me about him starting to understand that God is real, God is there, and God IS listening to us!  It reminds me about a childlike faith!  His memory verse this month is about how all things are possible with God... I LOVE that he's starting to see this incredible truth for himself!!

Good news from the specialist!!!

Today was a long day... two doctor's appointments with a Subway stop at Jon's work in between!  I saw my OB and everything looks good... I'm measuring right on and baby's heartbeat was beautiful.  She also took a look at the history with the perientologist and said that, with my measurements steadily going down until I was put on bedrest, she doesn't want to mess with anything... so I'm officially off work until 6-8 weeks post-partum.  I talked to my school and district admin and I'm getting an AWESOME long term sub.  She's actually in my room this week and will just continue on now!

I also saw the perientologist and got some good news!  I'm still maintaining!  I lost .2cm, but that's no biggie at this point.  Baby is doing great.  I'm a BIT confused about how he's measuring... she said he's measuring "perfect to your due date" but then I could have sworn she said he was 4 1/2 pounds, which would be BIG at this point.  I may have misheard her though... 4 pounds would be  little closer to "normal" haha!  I'm very thankful that bedrest is working and that everything is staying good.  The peri said he has full confidence that the little guy will go to his due date, which makes me one happy mama!

I'm feel very, very blessed right now.  I'm sitting here on the couch looking around and I can't help but just want to praise God.  I have a healthy little boy who is doing great in school and learning so much.  I have an amazing husband who loves me more than anyone in the world, and SHOWS it daily.  I have a big ol' tummy because God is allowing us to raise another one of His children.  My life is FULL and I couldn't be more thankful!!

Music Monday & what "EVERYTHING" means...

Today was, to be honest, stressful.  I realized that my plan of e-mailing lesson plans daily for the sub was just going to be more trouble than it was worth... so I was determined to get the entire week planned out and ready to go... in about 2.5 hours.  For a veteran teacher, probably easy.  For a newbie like me?  Stressful.  But I managed to get 4 days of lesson plans for 3 different preps done.  I spent about 30 minutes on campus making copies and sorting everything into nice, labeled, easy-to-understand piles and gave my sub letters for the week to 2 different people to make sure everyone knew what should be happening.  AND, I was able to do it all while only needing to be on my feet for about 45 minutes.  Not bad! 

So before I post the lyrics to what's playing in my head today, I thought I'd give a quick run down of what's on my heart (because it kind of goes with the lyrics).  Yesterday at The Well, we continued in 1 Corinthians 4:1-12.  There Paul talks about what real Christian living looks like.  It doesn't mean using your status as "Christian" to build yourself up, but to become a servant.  He talked about how so many churches almost trick people into becoming believers by not really telling them what they're getting themselves into.  Yes, you gain salvation and a Redeemer... but it's so much more than than a 2 minute prayer and then you've got a fast track ticket to heaven no matter how you live.  It's not like you get to say a 2 minute prayer and God makes your life all better... at least, it SHOULDN'T be.

The quote that the teaching pastor used was "All God asks of you is one thing: EVERYTHING."  Our pastor added on to that with a question/challenge: "What does 'everything' look like?"  It's different for everyone person... and Paul even tells us not to compare our walk with God to others as a measuring stick.  We won't be measured by how much "better" we were than Sally or how much "worse" we were than Jim.  We'll be measured by how much of what we've been given we give back to God.  So are we giving our everything?  God has given us everything... including his CHILD... so is how we're living reflective of our desire to give God our everything?  Just food for thought that's on my heart.  So in that vein, here is my song for Music Mondays: "Do Everything" by Steven Curtis Chapman:

You’re picking up toys on the living room floor for the 15th time today

Matching up socks and sweeping up lost Cheerios that got away
You put a baby on your hip, color on your lips and head out the door
While I may not know you I bet I know you wonder sometimes
Does it matter at all
Let me remind you it all matters just as long as you

Do everything you do to the glory of the One who made you
Cause He made you
To do every little thing that you do to bring a smile to His face
And tell the story of grace with every move that you make
In every little thing you do

Maybe you’re that guy with the suit and tie
Or maybe your shirt says your name
You may be hooking up mergers or cooking up burgers
But at the end of the day
Little stuff, big stuff, in between stuff
God sees it all the same
While I may not know you I bet I know you wonder sometimes
Does it matter at all
Let me remind you it all matters just as long as you

Do everything you do to the glory of the One who made you
Cause He made you
To do every little thing that you do to bring a smile to His face
And tell the story of grace with every move that you make
In every thing that you do

Maybe you’re sitting in math class
Or maybe on a mission in the Congo
Maybe you’re working at the office
Singing along with the radio
Or maybe you’re dining at a five star
Feeding orphans in Myanmar
Anywhere and everywhere you are
Whatever you do it all matters
So do what you do, don’t ever forget

To do everything you do to the glory of the One who made you
Cause He made you
To do every little thing that you do to bring a smile to His face
And tell the story of grace as you

Do everything you do to the glory of the One who made you
Cause He made you
To do every little thing that you do to bring a smile to His face
And tell the story of grace with every move that you make
In every little thing you do

Current Things I'm Loving...

Everyone says that you get cravings during pregnancy... and they're right.  With Nicholas it was pizza.  The GOOD thing about it was that I only craved the kind of pizza you get at a resturant (Boston's was my favorite place in Fairbanks, AK) and because Eielson was a good 30-45 minutes away from Fairbanks and my craving usually came late at night... I wasn't able to indulge my craving very often.  Thus, I gained little weight and everything was good.  This time around I crave sweets, and being within a 2 mile radius of who knows how many stores means that I've given into that craving WAY too often and have probably gained too much weight so far.  Regardless, my latest craving is actually healthy so I figure turning it practically into a meal isn't TOO bad, right?  :P

I crave oranges, or more specifically, orange citrus (oranges, tangerines, mandarins).  I blame our CSA.  About a month ago they had tangerines on the product list so I grabbed a few pounds... and ate them all within a week... by myself.  In my defense, organically grown tangerines are little, LOL!  Then my aunt gave us a few pounds of fresh oranges... that I also ate... within a week... by myself.  It's an addiction.  The good thing is that I really am listening to my body and trying to eat only when I'm hungry... so the citrus has replaced other stuff (that probably wasn't all that great for the growing Monkey anyway).  Yesterday I got one of the 98 cent bags at Fresh & Easy... it's already gone.  Baby Monkey is getting plenty of Vitamin C :P

Another thing we're LOVING lately is one of my Christmas presents...

Please tell me that people out there remember playing this at Centennial!  Now they have it for XBox (and Wii and PS3) and it's awesome!  We played for a few hours last night with the Wanke's and had a BLAST!  If you happen to have already purcahsed Scene It for the XBox, then you can also use the buzzers for that game and it makes it easier and more fun!  You can't be easily offended, and you should probably enjoy them making huge fun of celebrities... but it's great!

I'd love to post a few more things we're currently addicted to (ahem... Pintrest... best friend of a pregnant girl on bedrest!!!), but the little guy is asking for rainbow pancakes and since all I've had today is a tangerine... my stomach is growling... time to oblige!  Rainbow pancakes it is!