A simple solution

I love the magazine Real Simple. Thanks to Sara I've gotten the magazine subscription for the past two years and I always find so many helpful tips in them. Here's one of my faves from this month...save old tissue boxes and use them to store plastic grocery bags. This keeps plastic bags tidy and stashed away neatly, and they're very handy when you need to grab them. It keeps them from overflowing all over your drawers. I'm doing this now and I just love it!

Some Personal Goals

Fall is coming (despite my resistance), and with the start of school I'm feeling like starting some things fresh, too.

I've been brainstorming about some goals that I have for myself, mostly to live intentionally and not let days, weeks and months just pass by. With Henry months fly by since we are counting that way (sidenote:he's 13 months today!). Also since I'm at home for most of my week I want to have direction for each day and not just get through it and then think, what on earth did I get done today. Granted, there will still be days like that. This probably seems really dorky, but I'm a big list-maker and I will get more done and feel like I've accomplished more if I have goals that I can measure.

Here's what I've come up with so far:
1. Daily quiet times
2. Keep a prayer journal. God is doing so much and answering so many prayers, it will not only help me remember who/what to pray for, but also help me to see how God is working in my life and the lives around me.
3. Weekly meal planning/weekly grocery shopping. We always grocery shop for the month and then half-way through we are running out of things and when I'm making dinner I'm always missing a critical ingredient or two...then I have to run to Jewel and it ends up adding up through the month. I'm thinking I'll plan the menu for the week and then grocery shop for the week...I also can get more fresh produce that way that we can eat througout the week.
4. Cleaning/laundry schedule. This will help me to remember to clean every room of the house every week and keep things better picked up.
5. Activities with Henry. I know, I know, he's still little, but I want to make sure we're getting out and about and doing things in the community throughout the week. Even just going to different parks and letting him play.

I'll add more if I think of any others! Mostly I'm just excited about the weekly meal planning and shopping for weekly needs. I think this is going to help me get so organized, save money, and get excited about cooking dinners again. Has anyone tried this?

Henry's excited face and smacking his lips!

Just today Henry started smacking his lips together. While I was trying to capture that on this video, he is getting really excited about the camera and doing his excited face. I'm happy that I got that on video, it's something he has done since he was a little baby (probably 4 or 5 months) and I don't know how long he'll do it..so I'm glad this video captures it.

Cousins Play at the Park

We took Henry and Gabe to a park for an early Sunday morning stroll. Here they are out of their strollers and walking around together. They are both so busy!

Henry with the sheep at the McLean County Fair

Here's a video that I finally got uploaded to google with Henry looking at the sheep. It was his first sheep experience!

More cute pictures!

Blogger only lets me post 5 at a time, so here's a few more to share...

Henry and Gabe

This weekend we went to Rockford and had the chance to visit with my Grandma and Grandpa which was great. We haven't seen them for quite a while, so it was nice to catch up and spend some time together. We also got to see my Mom and Dan, Sara and Gabe. As always it was fun to have both of the boys in the same place. Now that they're both walking, things are very busy! They still don't seem to really play "together". But they occasionally take notice of eachother and Gabe gives Henry kisses and hugs or is "nice" to him (by patting his head or arm..so sweet!). Here are some pictures from our weekend together. Sunday morning we went for an early morning walk in a park around a path. The boys were still in their pjs. They are just too cute together!

Patrick "watering" Henry

This video is from a few weeks ago when we were having a really hot spell. I was inside doing the dishes, so Patrick brought Henry outside to help him water the plants and Henry ended up getting soaking wet while he was the one being "watered" on the porch. It looks so mean, but Henry was loving it..he is a little fish!

Henry pushing his new bike

Henry's new favorite thing to do is to push his tricycle up and down the driveway. He loves pushing it and will only ride it for a few seconds, then he wants to jump off and push it some more! Here he is outside with Daddy pushing his new bike in the driveway.

Henry's First Fair

Today we took Henry to the McLean County Fair. It was his and my first Central Illinois fair experience. Henry got to see and pet cows, sheep, pigs and horses. He also got to watch lots of fair rides and was intrigued with the different games and booths. Of everything he was most fascinated by the tractors/other farm equipment on display, and as you can see, he loved sitting in the tractors and "driving" them. It was really fun to take him. Definitely much more fun than Patrick and I would have had alone! Also, we shared an ice-cream cone and Patrick and I had a lemon shake-up. It was yummy...my first one! Does anyone know what exactly is a lemon shake-up and can I make one at home?

Crazy about corn!

Henry's got farm in his blood. He is midwestern through and through. He likes corn, but he LOVES corn on the cob! Patrick's mom and dad sent some home with us from their garden and he loves to eat it right off the cob. For lunch today he had 1 1/2 ears. And we have to watch him to make sure he's rotating the ear, otherwise he'll start chewing and eating the cob. Yikes! These pics are from lunch today...

Haselhoff

Has anyone seen "America's Got Talent"?? What's up with David Haselhoff?? He is g-o-o-f-y..fun to watch. Good show though :-)

Survey about Me!

1. Elaborate on your default icon.
You guys, I'm embarrassed, but what is a default icon? If it's wall-paper background then it's a picture of Henry...one of his 9-mo. ones in the hat.
2. What's your current relationship status? Happily married...just had our 4th anniversary!
3. Ever have a near-death experience? No.
4. Name an obvious quality you have. I'm friendly
5. What's the name of the song that's stuck in your head right now? I don't know the name, but it's a song from Henry's firetruck toy he got for his b-day. Holly and Sara know it, sing it with me girls! "Here I come zooming down the street with my lights a-flashin and my tires squeak. When there's people hurt, I can't be late. When you hear my siren, get outta my way!"
6. Any celeb you would marry? I'm already married!
7. Who will cut and paste this first? Well, I was peer-pressured into doing this, I'm not sure if anyone else will!
8. Name someone with the same birthday as you. I just looked this up online and found no one's name that I even recognized except Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park...whoopie)
9. Do you have a crush on someone? Just Pat
10. Have you ever vandalized someone's private property? Well, once some friends and I took our English teacher's candidacy signs for the house of reps out of people's yards and put them in other people's yards.
11. Have you ever been in a fight? Nothing notable...minor tiffs, though
12. Have you ever sung in front of a large audience? I was in chorus in high school, and our senior class sang a song together, but definitely no solos!
13. What's the first thing you notice about the OPPOSITE sex? Maybe hair, face, clothes.
14. What do you usually order from Starbucks? Coffee Frappucino or Tall Mocha
15. Have you ever hurt yourself on purpose? No.
16. Say something totally random about yourself. I'm scared of bugs, but if I'm wearing gardening gloves I'll dig into anything.
17. Has anyone ever said you looked like a celebrity? Yes...Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen
18. Do you wear a watch? What kind? Yes, and unlike Holly I always wear one, even with a large bracelet..is that gross? I like to know what time it is.
19. Do you have anything pierced? Ears
20. Do you have any tattoos? No.
21. Do you like pain? No. Who does? Why would I?
22. Do you like to shop? Oh yes, love it, but shopping is so much more fun with a friend than alone.
23. Do you like redheads? Sure.
24. What was the last thing you paid for with cash? A small caramel iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts yesterday morning on my way to work. I'm on a MAJOR dunkin's kick.
25. What was the last thing you paid for with a credit card? I used my debit card at Target today to buy Katie a baby gift for baby James.
26. Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? Dan, his tickets got dropped! YAY!
27. What is on your desktop background? Oops, I did answer #1 wrong! You already know it's a cute picture of Henry!
28. What is the background on your cell phone? A purplish colorful splash.
29. Do you know any twins? Yes, I used to work with twins. They both taught at MCC.
30. Do you have any weird relatives? Oh don’t we all.
31. What was the last movie you watched? A Time to Kill
32. What was the last book you read? The Street Lawyer and currently The Partner, both by John Grisham..yes I'm on a kick :-)

p.s. there Holly, are you happy??

Baby James!

Katie had her baby this morning at 12:44 a.m. It's a BOY! She had a feeling that it would be a boy, and she's right! His name is James Peter. (Peter after Jean's dad, it was his middle name.) He weighed 8lbs 3 oz and is 20 inches long. Good thing he was early :-) Katie said he has lots of brown curly hair, gorgeous lips and Jean's nose. Both James and Katie are doing well. Praise God for a healthy baby! And another boy...yay! Also, their anniversary is tomorrow! I will post pics as soon as I get some!