The Blogging Blues

Though I've had much to write about and many pictures to share, I've been a little MIA when it comes to blogging. I've been evaluating and praying through where my time should be spent (since a cute little person seems to make productivity slightly more difficult these days....) and quite honestly, blogging is on the bottom of the list.

Being a mom has obviously been a learning experience from day 1 but I am now beginning to realize that I have to be extremely strategic as to where my time goes. This month has been very humbling, to say the least. There have been lots of bruises & goose eggs, tears & teeth...and while I know it comes with the territory of having a little one, a very active mister little one at that, I've realized that my time and energy (or lack thereof) has been a big contributor to the tears and frustration from Luke. So long are the days of mommy sitting at the computer working on bills, ministry needs & catching up on e-mails.... and a very big enthusiastic "Hello" to the days of watching Luke's every step, squeezing in short bursts of productivity, and using his nap times and bedtime to spend time with the Lord and take care of the real necessities of my family. So, while I'm figuring out this new phase with Luke and working on keeping our home sane and peaceful, here's a brief recap on the past 4 weeks. I'm not sure where blogging fits into all of this :)

Luke is walking. Er...Running. He's not so great at it, hence the bruises & goose eggs. He is very needy and clingy at this phase and I literally cannot walk 2 feet from him before he starts whining and tugging at my legs to either be carried or entertained. This exhausts me on all levels...but my biceps are reaping benefits. He is talking up a storm and is obsessed with birds, blueberries (yes, we are still obsessed), broccoli & daddy (I don't think I will ever win this one). He also has a strange fascination with tupperware and putting it back together. I've introduced him to crayons and chalk, both of which I think he could play with all day. He is beginning to remember animal sounds and body parts, and knows that the letter A is for "babal" - aka: Apple. He is very into books right now and we spend a good portion of our day reading the same books over and over again. He LOVES music and loves for me to sing his favorite songs to him with the hand motions. These songs include: My God is So Big (to which he throws his hands up in the air for BIG), Itsy Bitsy Spider, ABC's, Fingers are Wiggling and Happy & You Know It. I get a round of applause every time ;)

Billy is loving his job and we are loving having him home. The Lord has truly blessed him with a great boss and a great environment to work in. He is officially google-able :) He's been tackling lots of projects at home that he's been wanting to do for the past two years like building our garden (see below), setting up Luke's swing set - fantastic gift from my favorite family, the Pleasants, and building shelves in our bathroom. I'm so thankful for a handy hubs!

I am cooking. A lot. To say that my boys eat a lot of food is an understatement. Most days Luke consumes more food per meal than I do. To give you an idea of what I have to work with, we are averaging 2 gallons of milk/week (for Luke & I, Billy doesn't drink much), 18 eggs/week, 1 pint blueberries/week, 10 bananas/week, and I don't even know how to count the amount of broccoli Luke consumes per week. I should have invested in BJ's.

Gardening. We finally got our garden in place and I am in loooooove. Billy built up a raised bed that is 12x10 ft. So far we've planted broccoli, potatoes (red & yellow), yellow onions, radishes, carrots and red & green leaf lettuce. Everything is sprouting beautifully! Last week we purchased 3 blueberry plants & a blackberry bush. They look great in the yard and because they are already 2-5 years old we will yield a relatively large fruit production this summer. I'm sure you're noticing the connection between our garden and the amount of food we're going through each week... I'm hopeful for a lower grocery bill this spring, summer & fall ;)

Moms Sew Sassy - phew, we have been busy busy bees!! We are hosting a home show this weekend at my friend Erin's house and are excited for the turnout we are anticipating. We have done really well with our costs and are having a blast coming up with new and fun things for our kiddos. We also found out we made it into PEAK FEST!! We are so thrilled and a little shocked. The application process is very competitive and our particular category is the most popular and most challenging to get into. We are really grateful for the opportunity but this has obviously added more to the calendar for the next two months. This morning we thought it was a good idea to take both children, all of our coupons and all of our measurements to Joann's....which resulted in a 2 1/2 hour trip and two VERY fussy and annoyed children. Note to self: Don't ever do that again.

Our niece, Baby Addison! She is edible, I tell you. All 6 lbs 11 oz of her :) We had a great time visiting with Ray & Sarah and I was so thankful to be in Georgia and celebrate with them when they brought Addison home. I'm even more excited to go spend a week there when Sarah heads back to work so I can snuggle with Addison all day long... mmm babies are addicting ;)

I finally dove into my reading list that I started earlier this year with the goal of reading one book a month. While the whole one book a month thing hasn't exactly worked out, I absolutely love the book I just finished up (Fearlessly Feminine) and have loved the quiet restful time this has provided throughout my days. I just ordered the book, Faithful Women and an Extraordinary God, which follows the lives of 5 faithful missionary women throughout history.

And for the many many people that keep asking and wondering when we're going to have another baby...we are NOT pregnant, though we gladly welcome a new little one whenever that may be.

So there you have it, life with the Grimme's this past month...it's been a good one :)

A Great First Year

Well, folks. It's been a whole year since our little [er, big] man was born! I blogged about our birth story a month after we came home. While reading through that post this week and taking time to reflect over the past year I feel overwhelmingly blessed. Last night I was writing a "one year letter" to Luke and, as I wrote in my letter to him last night, I feel like from the moment Luke was born the heavens have been declaring the greatness of God. The story of Luke's recovery is a testimony of His greatness and the story of God changing and pruning Billy and I this past year is a continued story of Grace. I am so thankful for all that He has been teaching us, even though some lessons are harder to swallow than others.

Last night we celebrated Luke's birthday with some dear family and friends. Luke wasn't too fond of the cake and icing - in fact, he shivered with almost every bite. Too funny :)

Today we finished up the year with his 1 year well visit and the results are in:

Height: 32 in (97%)

Weight: 23 lbs 14.5 oz (60%)

Head Circumference: 18 3/4in (90%)

We have a very tall string bean that is now able to reach the countertops, hang on door knobs & pull things off the kitchen table. Life looks very interesting/cautious these days! He took his first solid steps on Monday and is getting the hang of walking very quickly. His vocabulary is increasing and he's now trying to mimic two syllable words. He's still sleeping relatively well, though in the past few weeks he's been waking up in the night which is very unusual for him. Hoping we'll snap out of that soon enough :) He's officially done with bottles and only drinks milk with his 3 meals a day. My not-so-picky eater has been testy lately and will sometimes sit at the table with us for half an hour before he decides to start eating. He's still obsessed with blueberries. Luke is a perfect blend of his mom and dad in all areas. Mostly in his independence/stubbornness and determination ;) He is a bundle of fun and we love having him as part of our family!! What a truly great first year of Luke's life this has been, and a great first year as parents for us! We did it!

Now, here a few pics from the last 12 months - Happy Birthday to our little man, Luke :)

Day 2

1 Month Milk Belly

2 Months, Easter

First Smiles :)

3 Months

4 Months

5 Months

6 Months

7 Months

8 Months

9 Months

10 Months

11 Months

"I'm One"

The 1 Year Old Birthday Boy

Everyday Chinese...

just so happens to be my new favorite cookbook.

For the past two years of my marriage I have learned two things. 1. my husbands love language: food. 2. His sub-love language: chinese food.

Every now and then I like a good Asian dish but it's not typically my go-to food. I try and keep our monthly menu pretty versatile but let's be honest, I've never come close to choosing to add Chinese food to the list :) One afternoon while diddling around in World Market with Billy we came across this little (literally...it's about the size of a post card) Chinese cookbook...hence the title of this post, "Everyday Chinese." At first I was a little skeptical and expecting a not-so-great attempt at this Chinese dish. But boy was I wrong! Our first dish we tried was chicken stir fry with rice & veggies. It was DE-LISH. Again, thinking maybe it was a fluke we tried another dish this weekend and I was blown away at the yumminess and authenticity found in our giant wok of food! This time we tried beef & broccoli with soba noodles...mm so good.

So if you like Chinese cuisine and have a chance to go pick up a good book, I highly recommend this $4.99 find at World Market.

Chicken stir fry with rice & veggies

I will not be silent

My heart is heavy tonight after I read a nauseating article and letter from a victim of human and sexual trafficking. She is pleading to the Super Bowl Host & National Football league to take a stand against the horrific increase of sexual trafficking that is going to take place this year. Did you know that last year during the 2010 Super Bowl, it was reported that there were tens of thousands of victims. My heart dropped to my stomach. As I continued reading her plea my soul grew angry...weary...sick and saddened for these silenced women that are being forced, abused, threatened, and even killed all for the sake of guilty pleasure. These girls are in their young teens...they are being fooled and tricked into a life of slavery. They are in our country. They are in the most populated city of the year. For what? For the Super Bowl. To be sold for sex. And the men who are visiting these women, these young girls... couldn't. care. less.

So tonight I cannot be silent. I must voice this to my KING. I must cry out to Him on behalf of these precious daughters. I must beg that He would put an end to this, that He would create a movement among these people that are receiving the letter. That they would NOT GIVE IN to promote the human trafficking industry. That redemption would be found for these girls. That the pimping industry would be NO MORE. So I ask you tonight, would you join me? Would you pray over these women and men in the coming days?

You can find the article and letter here. You can also find a prayer guide for the campaign, Traffic911 here.

For more information on human trafficking you can visit change.org or www.warinternational.org.

These children, teenagers and women need a voice....

Gotta love updates

I just love a good home update. And thanks to my ever-so-handy husband we got to do that very thing to our kitchen. Our kitchen is relatively small so counter and storage space is very limited.

Here is before:

This cabinet was a hand me down from Billy's parents which we were so grateful for. It's served us well in the past 2 years but as our family is growing (along with my cookbook collection...) we needed something more practical - storage space, counter space, display space and of course kid friendly. So how do you do this on a budget? You buy some wood from Lowe's and cut, sand, nail/screw, paint, sand, paint some more...and voila! You have this lovely gem!

(I'm sure my husband would beg to differ on the simplicity of the above process!)

Then we added some shelves above the top in order to provide the display space I was looking for. Thanks to Billy's hard work we now have 4 more feet of counter space, a longer shelf for my cookbooks, a big basket full of tupperware (Luke's distraction while I cook) and more storage space for our bakeware in the drawers. We found really fun blue knobs at World Market - a set for just $4.

So here's a big shout out to that most amazing-creative-talented-hardworking-husband of mine :)

Home Planning Notebook - Section 1

As promised, here's the first section of my Home Planning Notebook (a day early, at that!). I feel like a dork writing this...but as I said before it's been a big help to me. If you didn't read the previous post, check it out here before reading ahead. I didn't like any of the clip arts or free planning pages that I found online so I decided to make my own with some clipart I found on etsy. It's amazing what you can find on there!

The first section in my notebook, my calendar, is the smallest but for me the most important. I am very forgetful and tend to commit to something or think of something that I need to do and then forget what it was that I needed to do or who I made plans with. What am I, like 80??? It's been helpful for me to look the night before at what I have going on the next day and write down anything that needs to be done instead of starting my day wondering what's going on....

Here's the front:

This verse really spoke to my heart as I was working on this... my plans are ultimately to submit to the Lord, whatever that may look like for the day/month/year.

Next is my daily list of to-do's.

As I saw in another blog I broke it up into three sections. This was to help with feeling overwhelmed with one long list and realistically breaking it up into what will work for my day. Of course things come up and sometimes what's on my list doesn't get accomplished, but it helps having it laid out in small clusters of the day.

The last section is my monthly and yearly calendars:

I keep track of everything we have going on for the month here and reference it often. At first I thought I'd have to have separate calendars for different things - one for my notebook, one on the computer, one in my purse to schedule appts. and so on. But it just so happens that one of the perks of carrying a big purse is being able to carry my notebook with me :D So, sweet husband of mine, there is indeed a purpose to my "luggage" as you like to call it ;)

After the calendar is the rest of the year to keep up with things in coming months and then I keep blank daily to-do sheets after that.

And there's the start to my notebook, folks!

The Pursuit of Time Management

I've found a new blog called Passionate Homemaking that has inspired much needed organization in my life. I've always thought I was pretty organized as Billy gives me a hard time weekly about my obsession with baskets and bins for our spare baskets and bins :) But for many months my days have left me feeling unaccomplished and quite frazzled to say the least. My finances in one place, my coupons in another place, grocery lists in one room while family calendar in another... I found myself getting frustrated and annoyed over the little things and one day in stillness before the Lord I realized what a [negative] impact it was having on my family. The Lord has been showing me how to conquer this and I am grateful for His guidance. One of the biggest problem areas was how my week was planned (or not so planned). God has been teaching me so much about my role and how praying over and planning out my week can radically transform the tone and feel of my home.

Inspired by this lovely post, Building a Home Planning Notebook, I've been organizing my life and home little by little. At first I was skeptical thinking there was no room for spontaneity, no room for random opportunities or any flexibility. But as I've prayed through each day and each week God has proven me wrong and shown me that 1. planning ahead of time makes our home much more peaceful; and 2. God is sovereign and He leads me to people and opportunities in the midst of the daily plans. It's really been neat to see His plans for me and how getting organized has actually given me more opportunities to see Him in the midst of my day. I feel like there is a pep in my step and a little more peace in my soul!

Each Friday (hopefully) I'll post a new section of my notebook and how we got a little more organized... I hope this helps bring a little more organization into your new year!