What do I take to the hospital?

I remember the first time I went to the hospital to have our little girl in 2007. I remember we had our focal point, the baby's ultrasound photo in a frame, music to listen to, a back massager, and the list goes on. My bag was full of things that I thought I would need. When I got there and was induced, all I wanted was ice chips or those amazing heating pads/towels and the heat up or the air on. I never once pulled out my focal point, listened to music or even watched t.v. I focused on my breathing and was pretty quiet. When it came to pushing, I pushed with all my might but my daughter's head was stuck and her heart rate went down every time I pushed. So I was on my way to the OR to have a c-section.
With my 2nd child, you would think I would be more prepared, seeing that since I had one c-section, I was going to have another, since our small-town hospital doesn't do v-backs. It was the day before my scheduled  c-section and my daughter and I were in a car accident. We were both just fine, but totally unnoticed by me, I was starting into labor. I wasn't even going to call my doctor, because I had a million things to do: my daughter's laundry was all in the washer and dryer, I had to return a car seat at the store and get one that was right for my almost 3 year old girl, I wanted to get adjusted one more time (my husband is a chiropractor and I like being adjusted every week, especially knowing that I'll be lying on a bed for a few days before I can walk after my c-section). Well, I ended up calling my doctor and was ordered to the hospital immediately. After I got there I found out I'd be there for the next 4 hours being monitored and also found out I was having contractions every 3 minutes. I did not have a bag with me, no cameras to capture the first moments of our little guy's life, no underware or change of clothing for when we go home or pajamas. I was an emotional mess, I was not ready, but I had to be ready to deliver this baby whether I was ready or not. My sweet husband ran home and got the cameras, baby book for the footprints, etc.
Now we are onto our third little blessing that will be born here at the end of August, we think. I have found everything is in God's timing and there is only so much preparation you can do, but there are things that you need in the hospital that every mother needs to take with them. With our first blessing, I didn't know what I would need and wasn't prepared, with the second blessing, I was not ready to go, so with blessing number 3 I am going to try to at least have the essentials in a bag and ready and the rest my sweet husband will have to help with.
I have found a few good lists on Pinterest that will get you started, like here from Lay Baby Lay and think their idea of actually getting some of these items for a Mama-to-be is an excellent idea!! I have included my list below of what I need. Keep in mind I am also a cash patient, so I have to bring a lot more than what a "regular" patient who is on insurance has to bring (i.e. I have to supply my own extra strength tylenol, pads, newborn diapers).
Here is my list of the things I think I will need, I am sure there are lots of things I may have forgotten. Everyone is different and these are the things I know I will need for the hospital stay for 3 days.

True Woman | I'm Not Reading "Fifty Shades of Grey"

There is nothing that bothers me more, or I guess my biggest pet peeve (which makes me want to go back to my Senior Year in High School and rewrite and re-present my pet peeve speech) would be being completely blind-sighted by a book, film, t.v. show or other media. What I mean by this is, for example watching the trailers for an upcoming movie that looks great, nothing questionable in the trailers as far as sexual promiscuity. And then actually paying to go see the movie and then being embarrassed because I went to such movie, covering my eyes and/or leaving. That really annoys me! I specifically remember being on a date in college my junior year with a Christian guy who was planning on being a Doctor of Neurology, and he took me to see a movie about Neurology. However, as the movie began it should have been rated X, not R, for it was certainly more of a porn film. I was embarrassed because I was in there, because I was a Christian and at this particular movie and I wasn't even watching the movie. I spent the entire time starring at my popcorn. At about half way through, I couldn't take it anymore and told him "I can't take this anymore, and we shouldn't even be here". He offered to leave and take me home and I was so grateful. There have been other movies, shows, books that I have watched or read that I wish I had never had those images in my mind. For example, for as long as I can remember I have had terrible dreams, not every night, but often enough that my nights before I would go to sleep would be preoccupied by fear of what was to come in my dreams. I finally realized I had to stop watching CSI, and there is nothing wrong with that show, though it was causing me not to depend on God and be dependent on fear. God doesn't want that for me or for you. I remember sitting up many nights and praying over and over Psalm 3:5: "I lie down and sleep: I wake again because the Lord sustains me." Finally, God has given me relief in my life and dream sleep from scary dreams! I still have them, but I normally don't start crying in the middle of my sleep anymore because I rely on this great promise that I can lie down to sleep and God will sustain me! What a great promise from a great God!
So this leads me to a verse in Colossians 3:2-3 that states, "Set your mind on things above, not on things that are on the earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God." As I have grown in my faith in God and my dependence on Christ, I have come to realize that I do not want to waste my time on reading  or watching things that do not honor God or creep into my mind of images that are not things from above. I don't read too many books outside of the Christian sector, basically because I don't have time but also because I don't want nooks and crannies of my mind filled with dishonorable things. I don't like surprises of this fashion, by means of starting into a book or movie and finding out I should have never picked up this book or movie. I am taking a stand for myself, my heart, my mind, my love for my husband, my love for God and my children to stay away from these types of things. I am including this blog post from the True Woman blog for you to read at your own discretion. Our church has participated in the True Woman conference for years and last year, we even hosted one at our church! I learned so much from these women and from the awesome book Feminine Appeal that I have found that my time needs to be spent reading God's Word, and studying it. I think books can be read for pleasure reading but I can still find a lot of things that I can read that do not have to be like these books that are based completely on sexuality. I will also not be reading "Fifty Shades of Grey" nor will I go see the movie when it comes out. 
I am so thankful for this blog post on True Woman, thank you to Amy Moon for posting this on her wall on Facebook and thank you most of all to God for His continuous protection of my mind, and my heart! 
True Woman | I'm Not Reading "Fifty Shades of Grey"

Canning Season Has Begun!

A huge shout out to Wenger's Produce (especially Kara and Scott Wenger) for this post! I just spent the last 3 hours making freezer jam, strawberry freezer jam that is, and now I can say, canning season is underway. With my 5 year old gal participating in Safety Town two weeks ago, VBS at our church a week ago and last week getting caught up on life, I missed strawberry season. Strawberry season has come and gone so quickly this year, I am realizing canning season maybe a little earlier since we had such a mild winter. Since we are expecting number 3 in August, picking strawberries already makes me nauseous just thinking about it. My husband, my 2 year old little Mr. and I went on a gator ride down to the produce farm and ran into the farmers, who thought they may have one day of picking left. They so graciously picked a couple buckets of strawberries for us on Saturday. They were very ripe, but just perfect for jam, and if I would have had extra I would have made a strawberry pie, but no extra this year! I bought 3 boxes of Certa Sure-jell, 2 extra bags of sugar (I already had one). I cleaned my jars and got set to can.

For a recipe of Strawberry Jam (which I think I have on another post):
2 cups of strawberries crushed (I put them in my food processor and pulsed)
4 cups of sugar
Add the sugar to the strawberries and stir until the sugar is dissolved

Wait 10 minutes, and within those 10 minutes stir your strawberries occasionally. In another bowl put in one packet of Certa Sure-jell Pectin and 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice (I didn't have fresh lemons and used the bottled lemon juice I have on hand).

After the 10 minutes is up, stir in your Pectin mixture and stir together for 3 minutes. Add your mixture to your *favorite jars and freeze until ready to use.

I made 6 batches of strawberry jam, using 6 packets of Certa Sure-Jell or 3 boxes (there are two in each box). My two buckets of strawberries yielded exactly this amount. I mostly use small jars that I keep from pickles to caramel sauce, etc. I used 28 jars and filled them all! Each recipe allows 4 cups of strawberry jam, which would be the small half pint jars. I used about 2 and a half 5 pound bags of sugar for all 6 recipes.

Speaking of *favorite jars, I ran across some old glass JIF peanut butter ones that my grandparents used every year to make grape jelly in. A couple even still had their stickers on them with the date. One fell off as I was washing and it said GRAPE 1988 in my grandmother's handwriting! Made me miss her all the more today as I know she was the original person who taught me the value of canning and saving your food for the year ahead. I miss her!

Well go out there and get to canning friends!

Notes

I look around my home and everywhere I turn there is another sweet note, another sweet reminder that there is a little girl who loves that lives here. I LOVE MOM or I LOVE DAD is constantly written on notes and cards that are made from her enduring little hands. Beautiful fields of flowers drawn and landscaped on a paper. When I was sick a lot from this pregnancy with number three, I would awake to find a picture laid next to me of a butterfly or her and I walking together. She's only five, and her drawings are from a hand of a five year old, but to me they are but beautiful art from the hand of my child. I never worry about the use of computer paper, for to her she is coloring a masterpiece for me or her Daddy. Every picture maybe the same concept and the same color scheme, but to me they are priceless words and pictures written precisely for me. Such a beautiful display of love for another to write out your heart on a piece of white paper. But that is my girl, she loves by writing and drawing and giving. I am so thankful that I many times a day am the receiver of these sweet notes. I pray they will always continue.

Here's a teacher talking...

Being the teacher that I once was, but now continue to be in our home, summer reading is high on the agenda for summer at our house. Since our little one will be graduating K-4 tomorrow night, I am on high alert and looking for book lists of ideas to read before Kindergarten. Again, why not start at Pinterest? I found this great booklist, 100 books to read before Kindergarten from the Woodbridge Public Library in New Jersey. (http://www.woodbridge.lib.nj.us/100books.htm) The list features several sublists, for example: classic stories like The Snowy Day, one of my all time favorite story books or Corduroy, another book I remember reading with my Mom. Reading is just so important, the vocabulary boost that every child can receive just from reading simple picture books is remarkable. In one instance, my girl asked, what's dashing mean? I was able to help her figure it out by using surrounding details of the story, we talked about what handsome means and how well the man was dressed in the photo and helped her get an understanding of the word dashing.
My girl and I are making a list of all the books we are reading this summer, with the name of the book, author and date. I love lists, as you can tell and she loves getting her reading list filled in. I think we are going to do a little prize for reading 25 or 50 or 100 books, etc.
My favorite discovery so far is that there are Little House books for kids! I couldn't wait until our girl was older and start reading books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and low and behold, they have those but in a picture book form. This week we read one about the County Fair, which our daughter is going to be doing some County Fair events this summer and she got all excited about thinking about the Logan County Fair in July. I get just as excited as she does when I bring a bag home full of books we haven't read yet, even my two year old son gets excited to look at the pictures. Some will not hold his attention as long, but even just listening for awhile is so great for him.
For parents of younger children, I know I get so tired of reading the same story over and over, and it wasn't until our girl was older that I discovered at our library they even have a board book section. I would just invite you to go check out your neighborhood library. Dust off your library card or get a new one and check out books. On the agenda for summer at our house, spending as much time outside playing and reading!! I hope you and your children do the same thing!
Blessings!

Couponing--stockpiling

After a year +  of couponing, I have called it quits. Not that I would ever turn down a coupon or enjoy getting an item free, but I have found for our budget, I am going back to my old ways of grocery shopping and saving myself money and time. Each week, while couponing, I was running down to West Liberty to grab my 5 papers for 75 cents each. I'd pour through the coupons, organize them, run through the ads and find where I'd do the best at. I have found that stockpiling for me, just didn't work for our budget. I fear I ended up spending more money to receive the deal rather than saving my family money. Not only was I driving to another town to pick up my papers each week, but I was going to Wal-Mart, Kroger, CVS and Walgreens. There were times I'd drive the 45 minutes to the nearest Target just to get a deal on diapers. I probably used up the money I saved on gas to get me to each place. When I started couponing the purpose for me was doing better on diapers and wipes for my baby. I think I fared better on that and should have stuck to my guns on this idea. What I would recommend, would be to shop at ALDI. I love ALDI. They have excellent selection of produce and items. My brother-in-law used to work for ALDI and he always has said that the products are the same from ALDI as the name brand items, they are just labeled as ALDI brand. We love their chips for our lunches, the produce, I love that today I got a gallon of milk for $1.99 rather than paying over $3.50. (How often do you find a coupon for milk, and when you do, you also have to buy Oreos or Chips Ahoy, which I love, but don't need!) When there are other items we need, then we go to Wal-Mart, because they have the lowest prices. I have taken advantage of Wal-Mart's price matching, which is awesome. I would recommend taking your ads with you and they will price match to the ad. This does take some organization and you must go to a line with a representative and not the self-check out lines. I have gotten great deals price matching and using coupons and even without using coupons. I know this post would probably make every coupon blogger annoyed, but for us, we are saving more money by doing what we've always done than adding more trips to here or there and more temptations to buy those items with coupons. My goal is to do most of my shopping on the outer circle of the store, rather than all the aisles in the middle. On the outer circle of the store are your produce, dairy, meat, etc. Mostly everything else is processed foods and we don't need those in our diets, we definitely eat enough!

Please don't be offended if you are an amazing couponer and fabulous at getting deals! I always loved checking my receipt at the end and seeing all that I saved! I would get a thrill out of doing this, but as I look back on our year last year, I see all that I really did spend (especially when we were taking a financial class at our church) and realized I was spending more than our budget allowed just to get good deals and to stockpile. So the only choice was to cut the spending and minimize my trips. This has helped our budget, my time can be given in more areas, especially around our home and with our kids and we can use the extra money on things we need.

I am turning my scissors over to the other coupon divas and going back to what I know. I am still looking for deals and will use coupons when I come across them, especially on diapers and wipes. But my time is over and I will allow those who can to coupon and for me, I will save money on our budget!

Birthday Ideas

I am loving the ideas on Pinterest! I am sure many of you out there have found fun ideas. I love inexpensive ideas for kids birthday parties or anything really that's Kids Worthy. It has been really helpful to search on there for ideas and then if I can't find what I am looking for, I can search the internet and pin it to my wall. So I don't go through the wondering where that website was or checking my history for hints of my search. It's so great! For my girl's 5th birthday she wanted a Rapunzel Themed birthday, so we decided to go with this super cute idea I saw on Pinterest:

http://www.supermommoments.com/2011/01/tangled-birthday-party-invitation/

Our invitations looked nearly the same, but I found a stamp paper punch that was smaller and $7.00 cheaper than the Martha Stewart one. And since I am not an avid scrapbooker I thought I had better buy the cheaper one. What you'll need to make these invitations: 

Purple cardstock

Golden Yellow embroidery thread (I ran out of this and since we only have Wal-Mart close I used a golden yellow color of thread for crocheting--and that worked wonderfully)

Thin purple ribbon

Stamp or window-like paper punch

envelopes

Here is the end result:

This is the outside of her envelope. She decorated it with Rapunzel (this is Rapunzel when her hair is cut at the end, but the rest had long blonde hair). She wrote Kari 5 on it and then we attached these super cute "Please Deliver to..." yellow attachments from the above website.

She was really pleased by the end result.