Adding to the Bushel

It's true! Our Bushel is growing = )

We're (well, I) 12 weeks pregnant with our fourth baby. Pretty excited! The boys are thrilled and we're looking forward to the many changes this year is bringing us.

I've been down much more than normal because of morning sickness, which means my memory-keeping blog posts have been sadly put on the back burner many days. Trying to keep packing things up for moving in 3-4 weeks out of this home, and usually my "morning" sickness worsens as the day goes on, which means the time I would get on the computer after the boys go to bed is now right when I lay down!

Thankfully, it isn't quite as bad as it was with Matthias, so I'm trucking along as best as I can, and learning that everything on my list just isn't going to get done each day!

Too Fast a Two Year Old

Matthias turned two years old on Friday. Where has my baby gone? My little snuggler who didnotwanttosleepthroughthenight until almost a year old (WAAAAYYY past his brothers' better sleeping habits!), is now a little boy, who quickly decided the day of his birthday that he did not want to be two years old. "No, I five", he proudly proclaimed. He has proceeded to tell everyone else that he is five too. = ) My friend at the gym reminded me that I could tell him five year olds use the potty and do all sorts of big boy things. Hmmm, might have to pull that one!

He is talking up a storm in this house. Each day it seems he adds more words to his vocabulary, and creates longer sentences. Eli and I were talking the other night, and Matthias really is our most mischievous boy. No matter the circumstance, it seems he is looking for a way to be a little bit ornery. I have to watch him constantly, because he creatively finds ways to get into literally everything in the house. No shelf, closet, item is safe from him now! He grabs a little workbook and says "I do school" when I sit the other boys down at the table to complete their work. He has figured out to request we visit Grandma, or Aunt Didi, or Opa and Oma when he wants to get out of the house. And his favorite new phrase? "Easter Basket" = )

He makes me laugh every single day. He makes me feel like pulling my hair out every single day. And I love him to pieces.

Tonight we let the boys fill buckets of water and play outside and just get dirty and wet. He took off his shoes, and when he realized his feet had gotten muddy, ran up on the deck "I yucky!!!" he called to Eli and I - watching for our reaction. Was this okay? We shrugged and said "it is fine! Go play!" HUGE GRIN on his little face before he headed back out into the yard with his brothers.

No big parties this year because he didn't really need one! He was happy with a birthday pancake in the morning, the proclamation at the gym that it was his birthday, and then dinner with Grandma and Papa later that night. He is one busy, silly, friendly, lovable little guy.

Food Challenges

We're always in to the challenge of getting the boys to expand their palates. Reuben will typically try most things put in front of him, but the other two are an entirely different story. Sigh. Jonah's so proud of his accomplishment to try different flavors of yogurt past the strawberry flavor that he only ate for the last few years. It makes my shoulders drop in defeat when he crows over this, because it IS NOT that great of an accomplishment! Pizza? That would be, but not just a different flavor of yogurt!

I know - large injury to accompany my little chef

Thankfully, we have discovered one small way to help Matthias be more open. Letting him help cook it. This kid loves to help in the kitchen ... it might be more like obsessed with it. "Cooking? Cooking?" as he runs after me with his stool, grabbing a spatula out of the drawer. "I stir it? I STIR IT!"

But a few weeks ago, I just left him stir away on the filling for lasagna while I made the sauce and cooked the noodles. He just stirred and stirred and stirred, cheerfully chattering about his "cheese-agna" that he was making. I let him help spread the layers and sprinkle the cheese on top. (please note that this child has NEVER never been successfully bribed or forced to eat any pasta of any kind - none).

And then when it came out of the oven? Eli put some on a plate, told him all about how this was his cheese-agna that he had made with Mommy. He poked at it, looked at it ... and then started eating it!

Maybe eating lasagna doesn't sound like a victory to some - not the healthiest meal - but when you've just wanted to get him to try pasta, it was HUGE! So, I've applied this to other things a couple times, with pretty decent success. He still is nervous about meat, but I'm hoping we'll get there! One step at a time.

Contract Pending!

Look at this!

Contract pending! = ) I feel like I could CAPS this and add so many exclamation points and just let that be the entire post!

We are so excited! It's almost a year ago that we first listed the house for sale - and of course the story goes that things didn't turn out quite like we thought, and we ended up taking it back off the market last fall after nothing happened with it. Re-listed this February and now we're actually selling it!

Lots of waiting. Lots of questions/prayers/wondering what in the world was going on. And then in January - lots of  repentance as we felt that God just showed us our own selfishness in the situation. Too much focus on our hearts' desires, rather than seeking His. And when we really felt like we had surrendered it all, even saying the words to each other "If we felt Him say to stay here for years longer ... we are ready to do it", seems like a few days later we got the contract.

We've been waiting the last two weeks for all the inspections to go through, and they did as of Tuesday evening, and our realtor added the "Contract Pending" to the top of our sign today. BIG SMILE ON MY FACE

I am just so grateful. Slightly overwhelmed and shell-shocked because it still feels completely unreal. Like, I've been living in a super-clean-house-all-the-time atmosphere, constantly thinking in the back of my mind what to clean, how to get it clean enough for a showing, how to avoid it getting super dirty again, etc etc etc. Hard to switch my brain off that.

It's like a big breath of relief. We're not sure FOR REAL????" Yes, buddy, we finally made it!
exactly where God wants us to plant, and we are thankful that we have the time to decide, and that Opa and Oma are going to let us stay with them for a couple months this summer. Jonah looked at me with big big eyes today, "SOMEONE WANTS TO BUY OUR HOUSE FOR REAL???" Yes, Buddy! We finally made it = )

Hummus

The last couple weeks I've been on a major hummus streak. It all started with a teenage girl party at our church to watch the movie Frozen ... and one of my girls brought a huge container of homemade hummus and veggies as her snack contribution. Um - that is ALL I practically ate that night!

It had been quite awhile since I've made any at home - but that inspired me to pick up some chickpeas the next grocery shopping trip to make some. And, then I needed to it again this week because I finished all that I made last week = ) So easy, and when I already have a big jar of tahini in the fridge, the rest of the ingredients cost very little and the result is making my lunch selection easy each day.

My sister-in-law gave me a basic recipe a couple years ago, and it is what I follow. Loosely. I never actually measure anything (gasp!), but just shake, pour, taste, and go from there. I have heard that rubbing all the skins off the canned chickpeas would give it an even silkier texture, but I haven't found the personal drive to do that, because I like it this way and it is FAST to make!

HUMMUS 

1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained well

3 T. olive oil

2 T. lemon juice

1 T. tahini

salt and pepper to taste

1 T. ground cumin

1 T. minced garlic (or to taste)

*Throw everything in a food processor and let it blend til mixed perfectly! You can always thin it out a bit more with extra lemon juice or even some water.

March Madness

That's how the end of March felt - like madness ...

Wrapping up a month of birthday birthday birthday for Jonah and Reuben ended with eight of their friends over for a birthday party on Saturday. Went GREAT - but 10 (11 counting Matthias) boys 8 and under was pretty intense!

We got an offer on the house - still feels like a non-reality. We countered, and they accepted. And now we're waiting on the results of the inspection that happened yesterday. Trying to fight anxiety and desperately wanting to just have this.be.real. And working on that entire surrender piece. A constant for me. I like my ducks in a row, my plans in place, etc.

And somehow in the middle of that madness I feel like I've gotten behind on keeping the house clean and behind on some work prep that needs to be completed by next weekend. And feeling very very tired. Perhaps some of that comes from just doing what had to be done constantly to keep the house up to "showing" par, and when I've finally gotten a breath of fresh air, my body is screaming "hey! you've been wearing me out like crazy the past two months!". And so I've been falling into bed as early as possible, and trying to ease up on some self-imposed pushiness = )

And praying. Keeping my prayers for the right time, the perfect will, not just my own. I sure hope this is the time to finally move on and MOVE OUT, but at the same time, wanting to be at peace knowing His plan is still the best for me, for Eli, and for the boys.