Chalkboard front Fridge

I've wanted to do this ever since my first episode of "Good Luck Charlie".

Finally got around to it and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

I googled magnetic chalkboard panels that fit a fridge and soon realized they don't seem to make them for a "top, bottom" fridge like mine... 

Which turned out to be a huge blessing because they are kinda pricey! After not finding any to fit my fridge, (and quickly deciding I did not want something as permanent as paint...) I then discovered.....

wait for it....

Chalkboard Contact Paper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, it deserves that many exclamation points.

This stuff is incredible. It is affordable, it is re-positionable, and the possibilities are absolutely endless with this stuff!

I bought mine at Hobby Lobby (btw- I'd somehow managed to never walk down the particular aisle where the chalkboard contact paper resides, and let me tell you... there is some really cool stuff there! The entire aisle is nothing but chalkboard, white board and cork board stuff. Like, stuff you've never dreamed of before... I wanted it all and ALMOST purchased lots of items I had no plans for whatsoever- BUT, I digress...)

(I had a little leftover after my fridge so I stuck it on my dishwasher. Now no one has to ask... :)

I used 2 rolls for my fridge (about $7 each- but, I, of course, bought them at 50% off ;)
The rolls are like 2'x6' and we didn't really want a pieced line down the center length of the fridge... so we decided to go horizontal working our way down from the top. I did have to piece at the bottom with what was left on each roll, but it looks totally fine. Actually, you can hardly tell the paper is even on the front of my fridge. The black just blends right on in together.

(I must give a shout out to my awesome contact-paper-installer-of-a-husband! He was so much better than me at getting the bubbles out! But don't be scared- it really is very forgiving! The whole "re-positionable" thing means you don't have to freak out if you mess up!) 

Okay. So here are some side notes:

I bought this cute eraser on the very same aisle as the paper, and was pleasantly surprised to find out it was magnetic! But, I have to be honest- I never use it. Baby wipes (which I already have in my kitchen anyway) are SOOO much better. They just catch all the dust.

The whole experience is really a lot less messy than I expected. Grant it, I do NOT leave a bucket of chalk on the floor for my kids to draw pictures as they come and go. I let them draw (usually once a day) then wipe their hands (and the floor) and put the chalk away- which is in a cute little box on my kitchen window sill. :)

I am using regular chalk right now but am super curious about this so-called "dustless" chalk they sell. Also, chalk markers.... which are a little expensive. But maybe I'll splurge and check them out.

I wouldn't recommend this on a carpeted area. But other than that, you could use this paper just about anywhere. I mean, the whole chalkboard paint thing has been all the rave for quite awhile now... but, it's so much more permanent, you know? And so much more work.... so, this stuff is my new fav! :)

8 percent

From the book I just finished...

May 7, 2008

Amazima Ministries

Katie Davis

"Amazima, in Luganda, means 'the truth'. To be honest, it was chosen quickly without much thought, because we had to provide the government with a  name for our nonprofit. God said to me, 'You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.' I opened my Bible to John 8 and it said, 'You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.' I went to church that Sunday and guess what the pastor said? Yes. 'You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.'"

Today, about a year after naming this ministry Amazima, I stand in awe of the truth with which God has presented me. In Uganda, I strive to teach my children and all children in our program and in our villages 'the truth' of Christ. I know I cannot walk into a village and tell a child that Jesus loves her. She cannot comprehend that because, chances are, she has never been loved. I have to feed her, clothe her, care for her, and love her unconditionally as I tell her that I love her. Once she can understand and see my love, I can begin to tell her about a Savior who loves her even more. That is the truth for these children- that they are loved, that they are valuable, that they will not be left as orphans but that they have a plan and a hope for the future. What a beautiful truth.

I have a young friend named Maria. The truth is that Maria had never taken a bath before I took her home and gave her one. The truth is that Maria has no one who cares for her. No one tells her she is loved. The truth is that Maria is sent from her home in the slum outside of Jinja to beg on the streets for food, and no one in Uganda wants to touch her or help her or cares that she is sick. The truth is that Maria is just like you or me. A person. Real. A child of the king.

Meet Rose and Brenda. The truth is that they are orphans. Abandoned and living in an orphanage. Now two of 143 million. The truth is that when they go to bed at night no one tucks their blankets in around them and kisses their foreheads. The truth is that when they wake up, frightened, in the dark, no one runs to comfort them. The truth is that due to someone else's carelessness, Brenda will die of AIDS.

Meet David and Bashir. The truth is that these precious little boys were child soldiers, abducted, sold as property, and forced to kill. Now that the war is winding down, they are not permitted back in their villages because they are seen as traitors, so they beg on the streets. 

And the truth is that these are only the children I know, in a very small fraction of a very small country. The truth is that there are children like this all over the world, sick, starving, dying, unloved, and uncared for. The truth is that the 143 million orphaned children and the 11 million who starve to death or die from preventable diseases and the 8.5 million who work as child slaves, prostitutes, or under other horrific conditions and the 2.3 million who live with HIV add up to 164.8 million needy children.

And though at first glance that looks like a big number, 2.1 billion people on this earth proclaim to be Christians. The truth is that if only 8 percent of the Christians would care for one more child, there would not be any statistics left. 

This is the Truth. I have the freedom to believe it. The freedom, the opportunity to do something about it. The truth is that He loves these children just as much as He loves me and now that I know, I am responsible."

Excerpt from "Kisses from Katie"

Forward Facing Bookshelves

I've been wanting to do bookshelves like these for a couple of years now... mostly for the storage space/organization... but also because it encourages kids to read more when they can see the fronts of the books. 

I saw some different ideas on Pinterest, and at first, I wasn't sure which kind I should attempt. I almost did the rain gutter version. (Click HERE to check out that project.) The gutter ones are very pretty, but since they wouldn't cut them in store for us we were gonna have to borrow a truck to carry it home.... and we were impatient :D 

We went to IKEA to buy the Spice Racks... but lo, and behold- they were on back order until August. Yeah... apparently there are lots of people like me using THIS idea for them.

So... we decided to just build them with 1x4's and L-brackets.

Finished product:

We ended up deciding the raw wood look was better for Benjamin's room anyhow, because they match his toy shelves.

These shelves are 2' wide. 

We bought 2- 8' boards and cut them in 4 equal pieces. 

We used 4 L-brackets for each shelf- 

2 for connecting the boards, 2 for attaching them to the wall. 

(If you want more support you could add 2 more in the center. 

We were fine just attaching each side since our shelves are fairly small.)

First we had to find our studs, and (working around the light switch,) 

figure out where we wanted the shelves. 

We found that spacing them 14" is plenty 

for even our tallest books. 

(We measured from the bottom of one shelf to the bottom of the next.)

We drew dots at the measured increments and then drew lines across the wall using a level so we could match our boards up. (We drew larger dots where the line intersected with the stud so we'd know where to screw in our brackets.)

I considered using the top shelf for puzzles (so they couldn't reach them all at once :) But, we had so many books we needed all the shelves for them. I plan to rotate them each week so the kids can reach different ones. All of our tiny little board books/baby books are in shallow baskets under Ben's bed. 

Total project cost was about $22. 

The wood was less than $5. The bulk of the cost is L-brackets.

I estimated the rain gutter version would have cost us about $36. (Still not bad...) and the IKEA spice racks would have been around $26 if we had used 6. (Those are 1 1/2 feet wide.)

I need to add that I looked and looked for some type of shelf to buy to make these with. As far I tell, Walmart, Target and quite a few other places around me have absolutely NOTHING like this. So I finally broke down and tackled a DIY... but it was very worth it and didn't take long at all. :)

Thanks for looking!

And then there were 5

Alright people: here's the birth story!!

***if you do not want the details just skip below the green text :)***

On Sunday afternoon, April 7th, my contractions were sporadically coming 6-10 minutes apart. I was frustrated. I'd been in early labor for days and it seemed like this baby just wouldn't come! Out of pure desperation, we decided to try Castor oil. I only did half the usual suggested dose, thinking it might just speed things up a little. Well... it did. Gabriel James was born 3 1/2 hours later. :) I wanted to make sure my contractions were really going somewhere before I called the midwife, and before I knew it things were speeding up so quickly I almost didn't make it to the birth center! 

Things went rather well during the car ride over to Nativiti, but as soon as I stepped foot out of the car, something changed. I could tell I had entered transition. Sure enough, when they finally got me in the building to check me, I was dilated 8 centimeters. The midwife told me though he was not face up- his head was turned slightly. "Aw man..." I thought, remembering how difficult my labor with Ben was when I had a similar problem. But, the midwife assured me he was coming so fast it probably wasn't going to matter. 

She was right. We were only at the center an hour and a half before Gabe made his appearance. Pushing was pretty difficult with Gabe, but at least it didn't last long: 10 minutes. And no tear!!! (Yay for that!) Nick is actually to thank for that. He was an amazing assistant to my midwife and even helped get the umbilical cord untangled from around the baby's neck. Gabriel was 9 lbs 3 oz, 22 inches long. (My largest, longest baby thus far :) Looking back, I think my labor was slow to get going because Gabe's head needed to turn. I rushed things along with the Castor oil and I sort of regret doing so, because I probably could have put the baby in distress with the whole cord issue. But, I'm just thanking God for being so merciful and allowing Gabe and I to have a safe delivery.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Baby Gabe has been here for over 5 weeks now, and things are just about back to "normal". Oh, who am I kidding? Not really. But there is a new normal for us with his arrival and we've settled into that. We've even been to the mall twice (just me and the 3 kiddos)... so I'm pretty proud of myself ;-) I've really enjoyed getting out of the house lately.

To be honest, it's not as hard of a transition for me as the other 2 were. Things do take a little more planning though.

When the kids wanted to ride the carousel at the mall I put the baby in the sling, grabbed my diaper bag and marched the kids through line with their tokens. When we got on, Ben wanted to ride the cat which was too high for me to lift him onto with baby in tow (I tried and failed), so the man in front of us offered to help. "Sure! Thanks so much!" I told him. But, as soon as the gentleman tried to lift him, Benjamin fell to the ground, did an army crawl through the man's legs and leaped a "safe" distance away from the stranger. Chuckling, the man tried to convince Ben he was harmless and even though I explained what we were trying to do, Benjamin continued to shake his head with a frightened look in his eyes & dart away from the guy when he approached. I was laughing so hard I gave up, told the man thank you and ushered Ben to a different animal. "At least you know if anyone tries to kidnap him, he's gonna put up quite a fight!" the man shouted in my direction. I just rolled my eyes and laughed at how helpless I must have looked up there all by myself with the 3 kids. That's okay though. It's a bit of a challenge- but very rewarding :)

Here's one of the changes we've made to make life easier with our new addition:

When we moved Ben's car seat to the back row of our Suburban to make room for the baby, we found we were having a difficult time leaning over Addy to buckle Ben in. It was crowded, so we decided to remove one of our middle seats.

It's 100% better! Now, the kids and I (with baby carrier in hand) can all enter one side together. (Much safer when Nick's not with us.) And I have room to do diaper changes... etc. right on the floor. It has delayed my "ich" to go trade in for a van.... for now :) I know that vehicle will be inevitable for us one day! 

Here are a few pictures of what else we've done since Gabriel's birth:

Chip and Dale birthday party for Ben and Addy at my parent's house...

we had a hay ride...

The kids got bikes as their presents from us...

And everybody surprised me by bringing diapers and gifts for the new baby at the birthday party :-)

THEN... later in the month we had a BEACH DAY in Galveston

(and had lunch at Mosquito cafe- a must try if you are looking for a non-seafood place to eat down there!! I found it on some top 10 lists and decided to try it. DON'T leave without trying their famous "Lemonade Cake"!!!)

As you can see, we've just been enjoying life lately. I of course have no projects to show you... I'm not THAT back to normal yet- ha!

Here's the fam on Mother's Day

(first picture of all of us together)

Well, that's about it for now! Hope you enjoyed!

Slow Cooker Freezer Meals

A friend of mine shared with me recently the concept of slow cooker freezer meals- something I'd never heard of but instantly wanted to try! It's 2 of my favorite dinner ideas combined- so definitely a winner!

Here are the 5 meals I put together the other day:

They are: 

1. Mom's Chili

2. Chicken Broccoli Alfredo

3. Beef and Mushrooms

4. Chicken Cacciatore

5. Cilantro Lime Chicken

I got all these recipes (plus tons more) from HERE

(A very cool blog called "Six Sisters Stuff")

(Although I did prepare a chili recipe); one thing I love about the variety of slow cooker recipes offered on this blog, is that it's not all soups, stews and chili. I think we're all tired of making those things in our crock pot. Especially since the days are getting warmer. 

These recipes are the core of your dinner- what you serve with them can be as simple or as complicated as you like. -I am, of course, going for simple after the new baby gets here. 

For example: For my Beef and Mushrooms dish, I've already put back boil-in-the-bag rice and some microwave veggie steamers. The Chicken Cacciatore will be complete with boiled pasta and my (already in the freezer) garlic bread. For the Cilantro Lime Chicken I've frozen the tortillas and toppings to make it into tacos.

Even if you don't have a baby coming, stocking your freezer with some of these meal every couple of weeks could save lots of time and $$$. :)

ENJOY!

3 Easy Outdoor Toddler activities

I just LOVE this warmer weather we've been having!! I'm definitely not a winter girl. My kids being able to play outside almost everyday has been AMAZING!!

Here are a few of our favorite outdoor activities for Spring/Summer...

#1 No doubt, is the 

Sand Box

My kids spend countless hours in this thing. It was completely worth the work I put into it last summer! (I used 1x6 boards to frame this up under the playhouse Nick built them, then layered the bottom with landscape fabric before dumping in the sand.) The Playhouse creates a great shady spot for it during the hottest months.

Yes, the bathtub has LOTS of sand in it at the end of the day, but TOTALLY worth the hours of enjoyment it provides!

BTW- if you don't have a sandbox- just give your kids some old spoons and direct them to a spot of dirt in your yard. Kids just love digging in dirt!

#2 is my favorite activity for them whenever we are in the front yard. It's the 

Garden Sensory Box 

I made this last year when we had a garden themed week in school. (I used some leftover potting soil I had laying around- very cheap by the way... but really any dirt will do :) It is absolutely perfect for when I am working in my front (non-fenced) yard or garage because it keeps them in one spot for a good length of time.

I set them up in an ant-free grassy area where I can see them, and I get my flower beds weeded with little interruption!  :) Obviously, this can also be a very educational tool as well.

And, #3 is probably the easiest suggestion anyone ever gave me for a toddler activity:

Painting with Water

This is maybe my favorite thing ever since it's ZERO mess! Cement sidewalk, brick siding, wood decking... water shows up on all of it. Just provide some brushes, sponges (cut out shapes in them if you like), and some bowls of water and WALLAH! Your kids have a painting session that will also keep them cool when it's warm out. My kids also love doing their feet and hand prints with it.

My only warning: you might be refilling their water quite a bit- unless you have something too heavy for them to dump out- which they will inevitably end up doing :) But hey, all part of the fun!

Ben is now old enough for me to trust him to refill his own bowl at the water hose out back, so that saves me some time now :)

Hope you've been having some beautiful weather like us, and hope you are out enjoying it!

Happy February!!

Just thought I'd write a little update on the fam and let you all know what we are up to here. I am almost 32 wks. pregnant now with our little Gabriel James. 

I can't wait for him to get here!!!! Well, I sorta can. :) I still have a few things to get done before he arrives. We are setting up the nursery area in our room this wk. And next wk, I'm planning to do the 3-day potty training with Addy.

She's already been introduced to the potty. But firmly tells me, "Uh-uh...no!" when I ask if she wants to use it. :) I'm afraid I have my work cut out for me AGAIN!!!

So... moving on from bodily functions....

We had a fantastic holiday season as I hope you all did as well. Here's the kids making Christmas cookies:

And... I do believe that's flour in Benjamin's ear there...  ha

We decided against doing the "Santa thing" with our kids. Don't worry- if you give my children a piece of chocolate shaped like Santa Claus, I will NOT freak out :O) We just talk about Santa like we do Mickey Mouse- reminding Ben that's He's pretend. We are trying to establish some healthy rules to keep us grounded when it comes to Christmas. It's so important to make Jesus' birth the center of attention, so we sang the "Happy Birthday" song to Jesus quite a lot in December. We also made ourselves a rule a few years ago that we would not exceed 3 gifts per child on any given year. That was hard this year- but no less enjoyable for the kids on Christmas morning!

We went on a field trip to the zoo last week with their cousin Kara:

Some of the things Benjamin is currently learning in school:

letter sounds

complex shapes & number of sides they have

counting to 50

to identify states on the US map

 Here's the craft from our "Eagle" themed day:

HERE is the template to this craft

On a different note, Nick FINALLY got on day shift!!!! Hold on just a sec while I shout GLORY HALLELUJAH!!! We've been waiting almost 5 years for this change and I'm loving it!! Finally... normal bedtimes for us and the kids, and I get to see my hubby during weekday daylight hours!! Yippee!!!

So... here's what's been happening with me personally over the last 6 months or so:

God has been so good and so faithful to us. I had a long period of severe morning sickness this time around, (even worse than the last 2 times) and then we had a huge scare around the 3 month mark. I started bleeding heavily and cramping. Having experienced 3 miscarriages in the past, I was CERTAIN that was what was going on. 

When it all stopped and nothing happened, I went in for an ultrasound and we found out that my placenta was just very close to my cervix. It wasn't previa, and the tech didn't see any tears.... so I went on bed rest for awhile just to be safe. We've had 2 ultrasounds since and everything has looked great, except for the fact that the placenta hasn't really moved away. BUT, most of the uterus growing happens towards the end, so we're hoping it has grown upwards by now. We'll have another look in a few wks.

During the 3 or 4 days when I thought I was losing the baby, the peace God gave me was so astounding. I knew I had made a break through spiritually after the 3rd miscarriage I experienced, and this was a little bit of a test for my faith. But, I know that I passed. Even though my heart was breaking, I was able to speak praises to God and say, "Lord, even if you let me lose this child, YOU ARE STILL GOOD." 

Sometimes those words are very difficult to say when you feel like something dear is being ripped away from you. But as soon as I surrendered and spoke those words, that incredible peace that passes all understanding flooded over me. I didn't feel depressed or oppressed. I was grieving, yes. But I had shut the door in the enemy's face. He couldn't lie to me while I was speaking those words. I feel like God has shown me something so huge through these experiences of loss and near loss. I don't want to ever forget the lesson. Praising God is powerful!!!

I'm so grateful that everything turned out fine and we'll have another baby boy in a short time! I've been catching up on scrap booking lately (finally got Benjamin's album done) and this page of my labor with Ben gets me so excited for Gabriel's birth!!

We'll be going to the same birth center again this time. Although, I'm thinking of turning to home births from now on since my birth center most likely will not be accepting my insurance any longer.

Bringing a new little life into the world is one of those miracles that nothing else really compares to. I'm getting excited just blogging about it!! :o)

Can't wait to meet baby Gabe!