One Thousand Gifts, 476-500

476. A clean house.
477. A long weekend.
478. Extra family time.
479. Mango lemon icebox pie.
480. Finishing another novel (Lila).
481. Starting school with Annie and Jacob.
482. Annie's enthusiasm for school.
483. Listening to Annie tell stories.
484. Cuddling with Nora.
485. Watching Nora sleep.
486. Hearing Annie and Jacob sing new songs they are learning at church.
487. Hearing Sophie sing the same songs, because she has learned them from her older siblings.
488. Nora finally sleeping straight through from 10pm-6am, at least sometimes.
489. Football beginning!
490. Winning our first game.
491. Giving away things we no longer need or use.
492. Empty storage spaces in the house.
493. Sweet pictures of my munchkins.
494. A re-stocked fridge and pantry.
495. Finally making progress on my long to-do list.
496. Fresh starts.
497. The last of the summer flowers.
498. My puppies/rascals/imps/scalawags/cuddlebugs.
499. Honey helping out with babysitting!
500. God's grace on display through His Word and our lives.

Nora: Seven Months

Baby Nora is growing up so fast! I guess she is trying to keep up with her older siblings. This month she has mastered sitting and babbling (mostly bababa but I've heard a couple of mamama and dadada, too) and has learned to pick up her food and feed herself. She loves everything I've given her. I imagine this will last until about 18 months and then she will turn up her nose at everything, a la Annie, Jacob, and Sophie. Nora is still nursing seven times a day and is not sleeping all the way through the night yet--I feed her about 10pm and she wakes around 5am to nurse again. We've been packing in the last of the summer fun--the zoo, the children's museum, the pool, and our favorite park. We went to the beach and she played in the sand. Nora is happy to be along for the ride. She is becoming interested in books and playing with all kinds of baby toys and other things we find to keep her entertained (party hats, maracas, etc). Nora loves to laugh and smile and her brother and sisters love to bring those out in her. So cute together! (When they aren't making another mess that Mama will end up cleaning up...)

One Thousand Gifts, 451-475

451. Nap time.
452. Family trip.
453. To the beach--my happy place.
454. Even if it isn't quite as relaxing as it used to be. ;)
455. Key lime pie at the beach.
456. An ice-cold coca-cola at the beach.
457. Finishing a novel.
458. Starting another novel (see me giving fiction a try again after so much non-fiction?).
459. The written word.
460. The true written Word--God's Word.
461. God's grace shown throughout His Word.
462. That we can pray.
463. That God hears our prayers.
464. Scripture scattered around the house as artwork.
465. That I have a plan to deep-clean the house this week...I just need to start.
466. Listening to Sophie sing and count.
467. Holding Nora while she naps.
468. Listening to Jacob make up story after story.
469. Watching Annie's first ballet class of the year.
470. Seeing her excitement for learning something new.
471. Reading books with my munchkins.
472. An evening at home with the Gent and no work.
473. Anticipating the joy having a clean house will bring me...must start actually cleaning soon.
474. Daydreaming about fall.
475. Finishing the laundry. For now.

Nora's First Table Food

Nora starting trying solid foods a few weeks ago. We began with sweet potatoes. So far she has tried avocado, banana, barley cereal, pears, carrots, and oatmeal and likes everything. I mean, really, really likes it. This girl can eat! She is already eating three meals a day, with two servings of vegetables, two of fruit, and two of cereal over the course of the day. She is still nursing seven times a day. I am skipping purees except for the baby cereals, which we only do because Annie and Sophie were anemic so the pediatrician suggested we go ahead and start Nora on some supplemental iron. Nora tries to feed herself first, and she is getting lots better at actually getting the food in her mouth. Then I clean out everything she dropped in the pocket on her bib and help her eat whatever is left that she still wants (generally, all of it--she wants to be a member of the clean plate club). Yum!

Not entirely sure what to do with it at first...


Mama helping out.


Trying out the cup, too.


By the third day of solids, she was definitely a fan of sweet potatoes.

One Thousand Gifts, 426-450

426. A good run at the gym to start off my week.
427. That my "tweaked" knee is better so I can exercise again.
428. A great sale at Gymboree.
429. Dinner and a concert by myself while the kids got some much needed Daddy time.
430. New favorite flower combo: dahlia, cosmos, and lavender.
431. A hairbow organizer for the girls--let's make my life a little simpler in the mornings.
432. A fun date night at one of our favorite college sandwich shops--now franchising. :)
433. Current read: Gilead.
434. Delicious new recipe for cheesecake.
435. Late-blooming magnolias.
436. An ice-cold coca-cola in a can on a hot summer day.
437. Field trips scheduled to the children's theatre, symphony, and ballet.
438. Getting my September calendar together.
439. Making a new friend and running into an old friend at our local library.
440. Squeezing in more summer playdates before school begins!
441. Helping lead worship yesterday.
442. Sweet friend keeping Nora happy in the church nursery for the first time.
443. Plans for fall-house-deep-cleaning.
444. Looking through photo albums with the munchkins.
445. Watching Jacob dance to Need to Breathe.
446. That he has a better since of rhythm than I do!
447. Sophie's first visit to the dentist.
448. Planning our end of summer beach trip.
449. Sweet baby snuggles.
450. Sophie's success in potty-training.

Diastasis Recti

After I finished my Body for Life challenge, my stomach was much flatter but it was still "mushy." I realized I had a mild separation of the abdominal muscles. Mine was two fingers right at the belly button, which is a borderline case. Here's a link to a simple test to check for diastasis recti. I have been following this exercise plan for the past six weeks (for the first two weeks I just did elevators, then added an exercise a week till I was doing all of them) and I have closed the gap to less than one finger-width, which is back to normal. Excellent! My transverse abs are in great shape now--on to targeting the upper layer of ab muscles...

Parenting in a Nutshell

Here's what I've learned four and a half years into this parenting journey (not very far yet, I know!). To be the best mama you can be:

Ground yourself in the truth of the Bible. Every day. His Word promises that His mercies are new every morning and great is His faithfulness. Truly, thank you God.

Pray. A lot. Pray more. Pray with your kids when they are having a hard time, good time, are scared, learning something new, and so on and so forth. Pray without ceasing.

Love your husband well. This is one of the greatest gifts you can give your kids--a strong marriage.

That's all I've got. My kids have been--ahem--difficult this week. Reminding myself of these truths by writing them here today!