Love it!

I think we all just want a grown-up doll house. I know I do.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Through the year I've made a point to keep everything that was slightly beautiful, and with a little imagination could be used as wrapping paper. Of course Anthropologie's catalogue didn't need much help. It will look quite nice under the tree.

12 days of Christmas redone by a mom of three.

Oh yeah, it's an original alright.

12 hours of sleeping (Umm, no.)

11 cookies missing (Umm, yes.)

10 books a waiting (on my nightstand- really want to read 'Life of Pi'- don't know when I will...)

9 people pushing (into me on all sides at the Weezer concert, it was awesome anyway)

8 days of shipping ( that favorite doll and book- sure hope it's here on time.)

7 minutes cleaning ( the lotion spilled all over the inside of my purse by a certain 3 year-old)

6 kisses from Andy (we still got it, even with no mistletoe.)

5 golden opportunities ( to reach out to a new neighbor, love on a relative, spend time with my Savior.)

4 calling parents (We love you guys)

3 Cornish hens (actually four shared with the Gliddens, thanks for a great night!)

2 anxious girlies ("Is it Christmas?" "Is it Christmas?" "Is it Christmas?")

And 1 newborn sleeping through the night!!!

Merry Christmas, Love The Warkens

Take some time.

These sermons have encouraged my walk with Christ so much! I literally want to race to my doubting or unbelieving friends and say, 'Here listen to these.' Tim Keller has a way of sharing the gospel, covering intellectual bases, debunking common arguments, and bringing me to tears all at the same time. I hope you are blessed by these messages as much as I have been. Take some time to explore these sermons and listen. Let me know which ones impact you.

Thanksgiving

We had a blast taking family hikes, game nights and lots of food. Mom made 3 pies for Thanksgiving and a red velvet cake for a birthday party, all in the same day. Lots of memories and now onto Advent.

Reminiscing.

Andy and I are coming up on 10 years together. That's a lot of life and as we were remembering, and a lot of trips. I'm happy to report that I grow more in love with him all the time. I'm happier to report that he would say the same. Needless to say this song is my favorite right now.

Creativity is flowing.

Pregnancy had put on hold something very dear to my heart, creativity. I knew in my mind that I should be reading, writing, sewing or the like, but sleep won hands-down every time. Well yesterday I sewed, blogged, and wrote until 1 am. I was so into the writing that I stayed up after the 4:30 am feeding and wrote some more. I am very tired from my creativity rant, but so excited to be back into the swing of things. I went into our backyard and cut branches for a decoration. I did watercolor paintings with the girls today and just those little things were huge gifts from the greatest Creator of all. It just feels good to be back.

Highlight of my day.

L5: Here's your present for your birthday. (Important fact to keep in mind; the present is a wrapped, old, and very used tooth brush, a wrapped, my little pony, from the basement, and 3 key chains from the junk drawer.

C2: A TOOTHBRUSH!!! (Immediately runs to the bathroom and brushes her teeth. After brushing her teeth comes back.)

C2: KEYS!!!! I love you !!!

L5: What will she do when I buy her some new gum on her real birthday?

When the kids are sick.

This is my main food group. Coffee, coffee and more coffee. I have one very energetic newborn.

It is called 'life as we know it.'

Best part of homeschooling.

"Nature study" and 'conflict resolution.'

What does Halloween mean to us?

Absolutely nothing!

















However... dressing up like fools and getting free candy, now that's a completely different story.

Fall happenings

I've started teaching zumba again. just 3x a week, but Andy gets to be Mr. Mom for a couple of hours, cloth diapers and all. Here's a picture of a fateful walk, you know the kind. Baby falls asleep before they should, wakes up before they should, wants to eat before they should. Andy decided no more walks after that.

If you're looking for a great apologetics book, look no further. Get it, read it, and discuss with a friend. What better fall activity than conversation?

Here's a great vegetarian recipe for the crock pot I found in Real Simple that was a crowd pleaser. We served it over barley and Andy, one of the biggest carnivores I know, loved it. Hope you enjoy!

Serves 6 Hands-On Time: 15m Total Time: 7hr 30m
Ingredients
4 large carrots, diagonally sliced into 2-inch pieces (about 5 cups)
2 medium turnips, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes (about 3 cups)
1 large onion, diced (about 1 cup)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 cup vegetable or chicken broth
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1 16-ounce can chickpeas, drained
Directions
1.Combine the carrots, turnips, onion, garlic, tomatoes (with their liquid), broth, salt, cumin, and pepper flakes in a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker. Cook on low heat for 6 hours, or on high for 3 hours.
2.Add the zucchini and chickpeas and cook 1 hour longer on low

Embrace it.

Our math sheets were a little crude today.

















We are dumbing down homeschooling as to avoid this.

Could it be?

Yup, I think that some creative ideas are starting to bud for my favorite time of year and my favorite people. This year's homemade Christmas is sure to be better than last year's. We're veterans now. Uncle Kurt will not be receiving one size 14 and one size 9 slippers from me this year. He'll be receiving a lump of coal because of his bad attitude, jk. Veterans don't make mistakes like that. No, I think everyone will be very pleased.

















One of my favorite things about this time of year is the baking that goes along with it. Who am I kidding I am always up for a baked good. In yesterday's cooking class we made these and there's one left. They are great in the afternoon with a cup of tea, and a game of uno.



Molasses Cookies

1 cup sugar 2 cups flour
3/4 cup softened butter 2tsp baking soda
1/4 cup molasses 1/2 tsp salt
1 egg 1/2tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger

In a large bowl combine sugar, butter, molasses and egg. Blend well. Stir in remaining ingredients and blend well. Chill dough for easier handling. Lightly grease cookie sheets. Heat oven to 375. Shape dough into 1-inch balls, roll balls in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes.

The wedding of the year.

For us at least. We have been preparing for Andy's brother's wedding for a good 2 years, so you can imagine the anticipation. We also thought of it a lot due to the fact that 4 out of 5 of us had active roles in the ceremony. God is so good! To say I was nervous about this was an understatement. Let me name a few fears and how God provided.
1. Newborn would cry through entire weekend. He didn't. He stayed on schedule and happy.
When the sang the 'Hallelujah Chorus' I took it personally... Amen
2. Feeding a newborn while being in a bridesmaid dress and having lots of places to be. We'll just say it all worked out.
3. Who would take care of the girls during the ceremony? I think they must have thought the statues all over the Catholic Church were watching them. They were great and on their own. Are we tired? Yes, but a good, had a great time with people we love, tired. So enough talk here are the pics in no particular order. Oh I tried to put them in order, but me and technology don't get along so well.

Teaser of things to come.

We are in the midst of Andy's brother's wedding mayhem. I am going to be posting way too many pictures, but check out one of the guests. He gave us a surprise performance.

That's Andy's sister and brother-in-law displaying sweet moves. More to come.

Mornings

Me, busy? nah...

Ok, it's really busy around here. Someone is always, hungry, going potty, singing, tracking in, or doing all of the above. It's awesome, and I wouldn't trade it for the world-possibly sleep--I tease. I am enjoying homeschooling and the flexibility it has offered in these early days of newborndom. Every morning the kids wake up, and climb in for cuddles. Andy fake sleeps a little longer (not a morning person), and I start handing out commands ie... iced coffee please, don't bounce the baby's head, stop putting your feet between my legs, time to get dressed. After the morning chores are under way, coffee is sipped, baby is fed we commence school. It is SO laid back and that's what I love! If you want details of our schedule, I'd be happy to share, just let me know. The weather has been gorgeous, so we are trying to be out as much as possible before winter. Andy is playing flag football, and mountain biking pretty regularly. I've also discovered the BEST hot chocolate recipe. Check it out on the Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder. I like mine with whip cream and cinnamon on top. I'm going to be teaching zumba again starting mid-October and look forward to that. Andy is going through this with the girls and it's made me cry a few times. They always want to hear more and that's exciting to us. Time to go, but I hope to update more than less. Happy Fall!

A baby story

9 days later, but better late than never. I was induced twice and really had begun to think that I would never 'go into labor' on my own. I was wrong. My due date according to dr's was Sept 10th, So when I had consistent contractions starting around 1 pm on the 2nd, I was skeptical. I would call Andy and say what do you think we should do? I decided that night to just go to bed and if this were the real thing it would wake me up. Well, at 3:30 am, they woke me up for good. I tried to be polite, tossing and turning in bed til 5 am. Anyone in labor knows how biding time in pain goes. Real fun! At 5 I hopped in the shower to see if it slowed things down or if this train was moving along. Since I had the time, I blowdried and straightened my hair. My last attempt to look decent in all those lovely pictures Andy just loves to take.

I called mom at 6 and said, you better start heading up here, it's the real thing. Yeah! I tried to wait the 3 hours for my mom to get here, an hour later we were in the car on the way to the hospital. I was contracting every 2-4 minutes, awesome 45 minute drive. God knew just what I needed! He's so good. My midwife was there which is pretty sporadic and ended up being the biggest blessing. She checked me and I was between 4-5 cm dialated. She told me we would have the baby most likely by morning sometime. I won't get into gory details, but this was my hardest labor because the baby was posterior. A comforting thought to me during labor, was Mary a young teen, in a stable, terrified, no creature comforts, having Jesus. How could I really complain? After an hour of pushing, I actually got to reach down and welcome our little boy into the world.

Andy balled, I screamed ( I'm sure politely), and we are loving our precious little guy. Even the middle of the night feedings are so special.

1. I love Coldplay's 'Viva la Vida.'
2. I really miss shaving my legs. I'm outdoorsy, but this is out of hand.
3. I hate meat right now, this is fitting quite nicely into my plan of living in the 'blue zone.'
4. I love praying for Andy and the girls and everyone and thing that God brings to my heart at 6am every morning. It could be you.
5. The book of James has been mulling in my mind. The verse that particularly stands out is 2:13b, 'Mercy triumphs over judgment.' Oh how I need to see everyone through Christ's compassionate eyes.
6. I love conversations with my 5 yr. old and cuddles from my 2 yr. old.
7. I am so excited to be in the hospital with this new baby. It doesn't get better than juice and warm towels on demand.
8. I am thankful for the unbelievably beautiful weather we've had this summer.
9 I pray daily that we will be content here as long as we need to be and we will move when He calls, and that God's will, not ours will be done.
10. I predict this baby is a boy.

Let's be honest.

I have time. As odd as that sounds as a mother of 2 little ones, I do. My oldest is playing with goats and chickens in the nature area and my youngest is sleeping. I already had a 20 minute siesta, which let's be honest again, happens VERY frequently these days. L turned 5 this week and we partied. I thought I would share some highlights of what turned out to be my favorite party I have thrown. First I'll tell you why it was my favorite and then the pictures.



1. I hardly cooked! Now I like cooking and all, but if you can remove that from an occasion where other prep has to happen, well I like that better. The b-day girl had requested salmon, avocado/tomato salad, and strawberry cake. Andy made delicious salmon, my mom made the salad and cake, and I bought Izze's and bread from Walmart. Voila'!

2. Small guest list. When I began this journey of parenting parties in my mind were bigger=better. I sit here today friends a changed woman. Keep it simple is my new stand-by. We invited close family, our best friends and the kids closest friends, and the night was splendid!

3. Make it special without the expense. My parents brought up a small patio table for the birthday girl and her best friend to sit at. I cut some zinnia's from the garden and they felt oh so grown up.

So, some lessons learned on my behalf. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the night. I should also mentioned that I had a minor breakdown when I realized my baby is 5. How did that happen?




































Here's the birthday girl's request every morning after chocolate milk. Put the Avett Brothers on

It's time.

Well not time time, but time to start kicking back a little. I've been teaching workout 3x a week up to this point and told everyone, 'I'm done.' I'm sure I 'could' keep going, but I'm just tired. So walking at 5:30 in the morning it is. That carried me through my first pregnancy and is a great time for me to pray and prepare for the day ahead. I really enjoy my walks. So here's to being 33 weeks pregnant and taking it easy (sort of).

Out of control.

L: Mom, I need new shorts these got wet.

Me: Your sister is sleeping, so you'll have to wait. How did they get wet?

L: I went potty.

Me: Where?

L: Oh, in the pine trees. Don't worry, nobody saw.

More than an old window

I picked this up for $3.oo at a yard sale and it became the perfect accent in the baby's room. I can't wait to fill the 2 empty spots with cute little newborn pictures.

What I've been up to.

Life is good. God is so good!! Very early mornings before everyone rises spent with Jesus. Middle of the day includes reading, gardening (alot of gardening), swimming, canteen runs and being outside if at all possible. After kids go to bed and Andy is running around doing official camp business, I sometimes youtube. I youtube my favorites ie... Rusted Root, Coldplay, G-Love, and a new one for me Matt Costa. I realize that he is like 'so last year', but I like him. Here's a sampling. Heads up Rusted Root has some whacky videos. They need Jesus what more can I say?

Honestly,

creativity and thinking seem to take a leave of absence for me during pregnancy. My thoughts through the day look something like; wake up, eat, wonder what I'll have for lunch, look forward to a nap after lunch, wonder what's for dinner and hope I can be in bed well before 10. Primal really. I desire to say intelligent things in conversation, but every interesting notion, thought, or sentence that was once in my head has been pushed aside to make room for thoughts of food and sleep. I don't say these things to alarm or bash pregnancy, it's great! Uncomplicated! The other night I couldn't fall asleep due to being so excited for the labor, delivery, and holding this precious baby in my arms... There is nothing better in this whole world to me then that new life, Andy and I crying joyfully, and our family growing. So I'll take the 40(cross my fingers) weeks of complete brain lapse for that awesome outcome. Cheers.

Say it with me now,

May is too busy. I mean could we pack another thing in besides Mother's day, b-days, graduations, and anniversaries? Yes we can! Our annual family camping trip. We headed up
North for some quality time before summer craziness hits our house. Highlights include but are not limited to.

a) Banana boat date with dad.

b) Wilsons- Great burgers, better ice cream. Andy surprised me with a chocolate ice cream, with hot fudge and marshmallow topping. Better than it sounds, it was awesome!

c) Having a romantic 7th anniversary while sharing a tent with a 2 and 4 year-old. Oh, and the whole 6 months pregnant thing.






















d) Campfire time and a traditional fish boil. We also enjoyed the biking, hiking and a special night out at the local drive-in movie theatre.

61 degrees and sunny.

Break out the water slide. Makes sense right? All involved were freezing and blissful, which usually don't go hand in hand. Woke up, biked to Wal-Mart for the very necessary Ovaltine and Nutella. Came back ate French toast on the back porch and then headed out on a solo walk. We can't get enough of this beautiful, spring weather.

Good for the soul.

It's so good to spend time with those who really know you. Jennie went all through school and the first part of college with Andy. We became close friends soon after Andy and I started dating (we've been together 9 years). She was our neighbor during our first year of marriage in New York and would pop over daily for coffee and living room pilates sessions. I love her and her huge heart for ministry and others, she's precious. The last time we hung out was the night our boat went down on Lake Geneva. Needless to say we were staying on solid ground last night.

We get pretty excited around here...

about babies.

We had so much fun getting a sneak peak at our latest addition last night. We also had fun watching 'Wolverine' and going out to dinner, but this is about the baby.

We don't know the gender. Andy keeps calling the baby a fella. He is in some need of male companionship among all these females. I am in my 23rd week and there is something that really troubles me. Abortion at any stage is wrong. Close to where we live in Madison, WI they recently approved 2nd term abortion, which is the 21st-28th week of pregnancy. We have to speak up and fight for those babies that don't have voices yet. We watched our baby yawn, flip, and suck their thumb. The plain truth is that Satan has deceived and the only true redemption is a life change found in Christ.