Breech

At the moment Baby R has decided that he/she prefers sitting right-side-up. . . which in the world of pregnancy translates to wrong-side-down. The doctor said there is still room and time (a little of both) for the baby to turn but that he/she needs to do a somersault soon or we will have to begin exploring the options for delivering a breech baby, which is usually a c-section =(

Please be praying with us that God will put our little one into position soon!

Good Food/Bad Breath

Back in my college days, I lived for 3 years with a girl who posesses a set of the world's most finely tuned tastebuds. Anyone that knows her, knows that she absolutely loves good food! Even in the cafeteria, where food quality is often less than stellar, she had a knack for tweaking things. Throughout every meal, she would constantly adjust/add spices and salsas and sauces so that by the last bite one was guaranteed that whatever food it was she happened to be eating had realized its maximum taste potential. So. . .

When the Bourgeois Wife recommends a recipe, I tend to believe that it has passed rigorous testing. Check out this Creamy Garden Garlic Dip Recipe on her blog. It looks delicious, albeit dangerously potent!

Lunch with the H Family

For a mere $1.50 each, Yvette and I were able to spend an entire hour with the wonderful Howiesgal family. We met at Costco to enjoy the delicious (albeit, not so nutritious) polish sausage/soda combo in honor of our old tradition of sharing a cheap meal together before Bible Study. It was good to see the girls again, both of whom are growing up so quickly, and, reconnect with Howiesgal, the infamous redhead, self-titled "The Queen." As an added bonus, Mr. Howiesgal surprised us and joined us for lunch, too.

Hopefully, we won't wait so long to schedule our next get-together.

Luau

On Saturday we inaugurated our backyard with a big birthday/retirement luau for my parents. Since we don't have beachfront property, we set the scene with surfboards, pineapples, Hawaiian shirts, grass skirts and tiki torches. Here are a few photos from the evening.

Josh manned the BBQ for 2 1/2 hours straight without one complaint.

What a sport!

My grandma was a huge help. She came 3 hours early to help me skewer all the meat.
Thanks, Grandma!

The birthday boy and girl. You'd never guess 60 and 50!

Jordan and Luke (our neighbors and friends for a l-o-n-g time), Elizabeth (my little sister who recently discovered hair dye), and Jordan (Josh's brother)

Happy Birthday, Mom & Pop!

What is man. . .

I was sent the following pictures in a forward this morning. It immediately brought to mind the passage from Psalms 8 that reads, "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visiteth him?"

(Antares is only the 15th largest star in the sky.)

Modesty

No, this isn't a post about how short one's shorts should be or if bathing suits are appropriate. You can figure that out for yourself. This post is about another nuance of modesty: humility, the quality of having or showing a moderate estimation of one's own talents, abilities, and value.

G.K. Chesterton has an amazing quote regarding this issue. It's hard to believe that he wrote this nearly 100 years ago, so apropos is its message to today's culture. Sadly, we are no longer on the road to producing the race of men to which he refers; we have already succeeded in producing it.
But what we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction; where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. . . .We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table. We are in danger of seeing philosophers who doubt the law of gravity as being a mere fancy of their own. Scoffers of old time were too proud to be convinced; but these are too humble to be convinced. The meek do inherit the earth; but the modern skeptics are too meek even to claim their inheritance. --Orthodoxy

May God have mercy on us and restore us to true and proper modesty!

Creative Gift Giving

Tomorrow is my brother's birthday. Given that he is 27-year-old, single guy, I thought the best gift I could give would be some home-cooked food. I'm convinced this is the perfect gift because it is based on a biblical principle: single guys with growling stomachs would give just about anything for a homemade meal. Esau sold his birthright for a pot of Jacob's stew; I'm pretty sure my brother would be willing to sell his birthright, supposing he actually had a one, for one of my chicken pot pies.

Freezing is a snap, cooking is as easy as turning on the oven and clean-up only involves tossing the disposable tart pan into the trash. It's the perfect single-serving meal for a cooking-challenged guy. And, with boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale for only $1.49, it's the perfect gift for our budget, too!

Envelopes #2

At the end of June, I wrote a post about Josh's and my decision to switch over to a cash-only, envelope system. Now it is August 1st and I am happy to say that yesterday was the last day of our first month on the new system. Over all, it worked great! We made some minor adjustments to our budget mid-stream, but even that was proof that the system was working. Josh's sister from China was here for a 10-day visit, and it became apparent that with all the extra get-togethers and outings, our budget was in need of a little readjustment. Unlike our previous system, the envelope system allowed us to be purposeful about our decision to spend more on fun, and yet still keep to the budget. In the past, we would have just spent the money without thinking about where it was coming from and most likely would have blown the budget. But this month we deliberately moved a bit of money out of several different envelopes so that we could add funds to our "Recreation" and "Dining Out" envelopes. We didn't spend more than we originally planned to spend for the month because for every extra dollar we spent on fun, we spent one less dollar on something else. And the best part. . . we didn't feel deprived about it because it was a decision.

Today marked the beginning of month two and I'm excited. I may be weird, but this system makes budgeting fun. . . If it were a game, I'd call it "Beat the Budget." Every time I go to spend a dollar, I'm thinking about the best strategy and whether or not this is going to help me "win" against the envelope at the end of the month. Who'd have thought this whole budgeting thing would be so much fun!

Looking Forward to Being Home

I love cooking and cleaning and meal planning and budgeting and the whole shebang. I think I was made for it (wait. . . I WAS made for it!) I'm sure, once I'm doing it full-time, there will be moments when I'll miss the peace and quiet of the work world, when the kitchen sink is the last place on earth I want to be and when I won't care whether we're eating a balanced meal or not. But, I have faith that those will be fleeting moments.

I have always loved home economics. I got my first cookbook for Christmas when I was 6. I still remember the "gourmet" recipe for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. My grandma taught me to knead yeast bread, make pie crusts and simmer homemade spaghetti sauce for days. My mom taught me the art of stirring cookie dough by hand for a perfect soft/crispy combo and frying taco shells to perfection.

When I was about 7 or 8, I begged my friend's mom to give the two of us sewing lessons. She was a skilled seamstress and I was dying to learn. I have happy memories of the "sewing camp" she put on for us. I learned all about the basics of sewing and although the dress I made was quite a sight to see (a turqoise cotton jumper spotted with bright colored bubbles), I proudly wore it everywhere the rest of that summer.

In high school, I probably spent 3 out of 4 weekends babysitting. Several of my employers were "relaxed" housekeepers. I loved babysitting for those families because as soon as the mom and dad were out of the driveway, I would convince the kids that we were going to give their parents the best surprise ever. . . a clean house. We would race around putting away toys, cleaning bathrooms, washing up dirty dishes, and vacuuming. The kids were never disappointed by the surprise look on their parents' faces (assuming they were still awake when their parents arrived home). It was a spectacular sucess every single time.

Now I'm 28 and only a few weeks away from getting to start my life as a full-time homemaker. It took God a long time to get me here. There were several years when I wondered if all this household zeal was for naught. If I was destined to keep house and cook for one, for the rest of my life (some of you are still there. . . don't give up hope!) Thankfully, just when I was certain it was time to readjust my dreams, God brought along Josh. One minute there wasn't a glimmer of hope and the next minute I was Mrs. R. checking in for my first prenatal visit. Wow! When God decided to get the ball rolling, He gave it a big shove!

I am not planning or even hoping to get everything perfect. I'm totally comfortable feeding my ever-happy husband canned chili and boxed brownies. I don't like to iron. My shoe rack is a mess, there is dust on my ceiling fans, and I have weeds in my garden. That's life and I'm completely fine with life being less than perfect. But, I am really excited to take off this "career girl" hat and put on my apron.

I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to being home!

Blessing Box

I'm not sure where the idea came from or exactly when it started, but I have a little decorative box that has come to call my "Blessing Box." The idea behind this box is to fill it with things that I can use to bless others, but as it's turned out, this box has become a blessing to me. I've enjoyed it so much and it's been such a handy little tool that I thought I'd share the idea with you. The idea is so simple and can be personalized to suit everyone! As soon as my kids are old enough, I plan on helping them create their own blessing boxes--kids edition.

How to Build and Use a Blessing Box

1. Find a smaller sized, sturdy box. I chose a decorative one with a lid, but a plastic box would work just fine! Just be sure that it isn't too big (no bigger than a shoe box). The idea is to keep this simple.
2. Put your address book in the blessing box. I keep my address book on the computer, so I just printed out my list of addresses and put them in there. A few times a year, I make sure it's updated.
3. Fill your box with all sorts of cards--thank you, get well, just because, blank, happy birthday, etc. I have two or three varieties of the packaged cards (where you get 8 or so of the same note card) as well as favorite greeting cards I've picked up along the way. Looking through greeting cards is one of my favorite activities. . . so when Longs or Walgreens has a sale on cards, I usually go and find several favorites to add to my box.
4. Buy a book of stamps to keep on hand.
5. When you come across a little extra money, buy a few $5 gift cards from Starbucks or Jamba Juice or any other favorite treat. These are great to tuck into just-because cards as an unexpected surprise.
6. If you are financially able, keep a few extra $20 bills in there or gift cards to the grocery store or Target. There have been plenty of times when I've heard of someone in need and wanted anonymously help them out. If mailing cash doesn't seem safe, remember, not every card has to be mailed. . . some can be delivered through the grapevine or dropped off on doorsteps!
7. Keep a notepad for jotting ideas down. My husband mentioned that he loves this certain soup from a local Chinese place. In my blessing box I wrote: Surprise Josh with take-out soup. I haven't had time to implement the idea (and besides it's been too hot for soup!) but I didn't want to forget the idea. I have several other little reminders to myself in there or fun ideas I've "stolen" from someone else that are just on hold until the right moment.
8. On the other side of that note pad, jot down simple things about others that bless you. Not necessarily just things that a person does, but also include godly character qualities that you have seen demonstrated.
9. Be creative! If you love tea and that's your signature, tuck a few tea bags in to share with others. If you love homemade coupons (I do!) keep a few of pre-made coupons to fill in on a whim. Maybe you love stickers, or handkerchiefs, or. . .anything! The idea is to keep your box full of inexpensive things that can be used to brighten another's day.
10. Keep your ears open and your heart tender. Pray and ask God to help you see the needs of others around you and to help you be a blessing.
11. Set aside a time at least once a week to bless someone. If you haven't much time, write a quick card to someone who could use the encouragement and drop it in the mail. Maybe include a gift card or gift certificate. Or check in your notebook to send a thank-you-for-being-a-blessing card to someone listed there. If you have a little more time, implement one of your more elaborate ideas such as unexpectedly dropping off fresh chicken soup to a down-and-out friend. Or doorbell ditching an elderly neighbor leaving them a flower and a homemade card. You get the idea!
12. Pray daily for the person you've blessed until your next Blessing Box Day. That's where the real blessing is!