18 months and the promised video, well sort of...

Can I just tell you that our lives are NEVER dull?  They may be a lot of things, but dull or boring- nuh uh!  Miss Anabelle has definitely added her own brand of excitement for the last 18 months!  And I have to say it because she's my last- has it REALLY been 18 months?!  Wow!  I'm remembering how much fun and unique each stage is, and I really do want to treasure each one.  Even since I wrote the chatterbox post a month or so ago, her vocabulary has picked up so much.  She literally does not stop talking.  Most of it is unintelligible toddler jabber, but she does throw in a good many words and phrases too.  

So indulge this somewhat haphazard version of a milestone post (I'm not so good at the organized diaper size, clothes size, sleep pattern post...) knowing that it's especially for my memory and her family back in the states.   And I haven't forgotten that in another post, I promised a video of Anabelle singing, "Jesus".  Well people, don't think that's going to happen!  The day after I said that I started trying to get a video.  She really does sing this all the time to random baby dolls, stuffed animals.  Usually we encourage it a bit and she picks up the last word of phrases, but I promise she sings.  

At least she did until I started trying to video it..

Now she shakes her head emphatically and says, "no, no, no" or else climbs in my lap while I'm trying to video so she can "see" the picture of herself, which doesn't exactly make filming her easy!

We've rediscovered the playmobile stuff in the last few weeks and I've let Naomi leave the house set up on the little table in her room.  Anabelle has LOVED playing with it.  We have to watch her closely because there are little pieces, but she is going to be like her oldest sister in that she seems to like things very orderly, so (unless she gets frustrated as you'll see in one video), things pretty well stay in place...

This first video is also one of our many failed attempts to get her to sing

I love this one because it shows her just jabbering away....  and also a bit of her temper at the end

And one more attempt at singing...

Like I said, not very good at the milestone post- I figure I'm doing good to get a picture or 2 up every few months and say something about how I can't believe how much time has passed.  Because I can't.  And then again I can.  Know what?  I held a precious little newborn this past week and I really think it was the first time in FOREVER that I've held a baby (after my current baby is more than a year old) and haven't had the thought that I want another.  Huh.  Anyway, back to my baby.  

In summary, AB is our little peanut.  First time I've ever had a baby low on the growth charts.  She's about 25% for weight and maybe 40% for height, but I promise what she may be lacking at this point in size, she more than makes up for in overflowing personality.  So expressive this one!  But how could she not be with a house full of girls to learn from?!  

And speaking of girls- she ADORES her big sisters- Abbey, Mami, and Nomi can do no wrong in her little mind!  Looks like she's thinking WHAT exactly is happening now?!

(and I'm truly not sure what WAS happening but it sure was fun!)

If I were to ask you to pray for anything for Anabelle it would be sleep for sure.  The amazing babywise baby who started sleeping through the night at 6 weeks and was truly the EASIEST baby EVER for the first 8 months of her life had a little bump in the road as far as sleep starting last January in the form of ear infections and has never completely gotten her sleep groove back.  We're working on it though.  

We had a good spell this summer (thankfully! since we traveled so much) but got back to Jordan and started having trouble again in September.  She has not had another infection but has constant fluid on her ears so please pray this will resolve itself.  We've had about 4 good nights in a row so I'm thankful for that and hoping it will continue.  She naps very well during the day so that helps.  We just in the last month moved from 2 naps to 1 nap and most days she'll sleep for 2.5-3 hours.  Works out well and gives me a few hours just before the big girls get home and things wind up again.  

She is definitely an extrovert.  We had house group at our home on Friday and everyone was hanging out in the kitchen and she comes walking in and says, "HEWO!" then grins really big as everyone laughs at her.  Little mess.  

Favorite activities these days?  Well I mentioned the playmobile house, she also LOVES playing with Naomi's collection of Toy Story toys ("tato", Woowy, and Jessie are favorites- oh and Boos Eye and Buzz I Ear- ok she likes them all!), loves playing hide-n-seek with the big girls and LOVES "Bob and Wary".  Veggie Tales remains a favorite in our house!   Oh, and I can't forgot books.  I love how much Anabelle loves to read both to herself and being read to.  She will sit for the longest time in front of her bookshelf pulling out books and flipping through the pages usually with a running commentary of jabber.  Her favorites are Goodnight Moon ("nigh, nigh, hush"), Wheels on the Bus, anything Maisy, most any Sandra Boynton but specifically Barnyard Dance, and Brown Bear (which she can practically recite at least which animal is coming next)

I mentioned hide-n-seek.  She'll cover her eyes and "count" to 10 and then come looking.  Whoever happens to be found has to have a "tiss" and gets lots of hugs.  Then when it's her turn to hide she runs about 3 feet away and flattens herself against the wall until you open your eyes from counting.  Then she says, "Oh!  There she is, Anabelle!".  

Oh, that's another thing.  She says her name emphatically and loudly whenever she's doing something she knows she shouldn't.  Like climbing on the table (yep, she figured that one out this week), or throwing something in the trash, or picking up someone's electronic device or a remote.  Anyway, it's pretty cute and quite helpful at this stage if my eyes happened to be diverted elsewhere for that nanosecond.  Occasionally she'll even throw in a "no, no!", but usually it's just "Anabelle!".  

Here's a picture sequence of another favorite thing...

Notice the brooms in the middle of the floor and where Mia is...

Miss Anabelle loves to raid the pantry in search of cheerios!

So she cleans out the "broom closet" in order to indulge in her mid-morning snack...

In the process of playing playmobile this week and trying to get a video 58 times, Abbey noticed that she was sticking Playmobile people under her chin to walk around the table and move them from place to place...

At one point she had about 3 people and that big rocking chair (above) under her chin!

Helpful to keep her hands free in order to climb on things, I guess!
Quite innovative, this one!

Happy 18 month birthday, Anabelle!  

We love you!

Freezer cooking

So a few weeks ago I posted about my new stand alone freezer and my first attempts at freezer cooking.          So far, so good!  I've been so pleased with everything I've tried.  Jury's still out on how it's helping our budget but that's an issue for another day..  Wanted to share what I've tried, what I like, and how I'm making it work for us.

First, I'll say, that I don't think I'm going to do the whole cook one day for a whole month deal.  The logistics of buying that many groceries at once are challenging here, plus the likelihood of me having an entire day free and then desiring to spend said day in the kitchen are is very, VERY slim...

So.  I've been trying to figure out ways to work freezer cooking into our already busy schedule.  We have entered that crazy phase of life with the ages of our girls and the activities they're involved in- even overseas and with limiting them to one extracurricular.  It makes for some crazy afternoons with band pick-up, basketball practice, ballet class etc.  I want to have healthy meals for our family and not find myself at 5 o'clock wondering what in the world I'm going to cook.  So what seems to be working for me is doing a little here, a little there and gradually building up our stock of healthy food on hand.

Breakfast is a biggie for me as far as desiring to simplify.  And don't tell me to buy cereal.  It is CRAZY expensive here.  I will buy it occasionally but I try to have something hot for most days even if it's just scrambled eggs and toast.  I love these spinach/egg cups and they freeze well and are quick to throw together.  I'm trying to get in the habit of throwing together something like this while I'm in the process of fixing dinner.  Or if I bake something like muffins of some sort or a loaf bread for breakfast (I usually do that also while fixing dinner or sometimes right after the girls go to bed before I collapse for the night), I am doubling the recipe to put at least one portion in the freezer.  When fresh fruit is in season (like peaches or strawberries)- we live in a place where you usually can't get something if it's not in season, then I buy A LOT and freeze it in quart size ziploc bags and use it for smoothies.

Some other things I've started freezing that I'm hoping will both simplify the cooking process and help the budget:

• buy kilo bags of dried beans (I do red, black and white)and cook all at once and freeze in 2 cup portions- overall much cheaper than canned and better for you!
• cook whole pumpkin (I use Pioneer Woman's tips here) and freeze in 1 3/4 cup portion (same amount as canned)
• cook 2-3 whole chickens overnight in the crockpot, then shred and freeze in 2 cup portions- great for casseroles, chicken salad etc
• haven't done it yet but I'm looking for good whole wheat pizza crust and bread recipes to freeze
• this is my new fave pie crust recipe.  I followed one reader's suggestion and make 3 crusts out of it instead of 4, so I have at least 1 to freeze for later, sometimes 2
• soup, soup, soup!!  We love soup in the fall/winter because it's yummy and because it's budget friendly.   Check out my cooking blog here for some favorites like chicken tortilla soup (SO easy!), and corn and zucchini queso chowder to name a few

Moving on to crockpot freezer cooking.  I have found several websites that have kind of become my "go to" on this topic, but they are basically the same idea.  You prepare your ingredients and freeze and gallon size ziploc bags and put in the crockpot the day of.  Some have additional instructions like adding broth or additional seasonings or garnishes right before serving.  I ordered this ecookbook from the mama and baby love website for $9.99 and it has been fabulous.  So far every recipe I've tried has been great.  She uses all fresh ingredients which I love.  Ironically, she has a disclaimer at the beginning that you need to be prepared to spend a little more money on fresh ingredients but here overseas the fresh produce is actually less expensive than all the processed stuff- score!  Her recipes do have A LOT of meat (at least in my opinion).  I have reduced the amount of meat in most of the things I've done and have had great results.  

Here are some of the other websites I've come across that have had some great tips and recipes:

melissafallistestkitchen.blogspot.com 

Super helpful blog!  She goes through and gives step by step for getting several meals in the freezer at once.  She groups meals together that can be done in about 2 hours tops.  Today I prepped cilantro lime chicken (from this blog), thai chicken (from mama and baby love above), and made moroccan chicken stew (my recipe that I'll share eventually) all in the first hour of Anabelle's nap.  

everythingmom.com

I love this resource!  It's a long list of all different types of freezer meals.  Haven't tried much but I think it will be a great resource!

Here is another great resource.  I've found that a lot of these blogs link together and have similar ideas especially as far as the crockpot meals.  Seems you can kind of interchange ingredients to suit your own tastes.  

I've had fun exploring this topic and I hope I'll be able to share more ideas with you!  Would love to hear from anyone who has more tips on this topic!  

Kings and kingdoms will all pass away

That's a throwback, right?  Or maybe you've never even heard the song!  It IS a song (the title of the post I mean), but I guess I'm showing my age here!  It's Gloria Gaither and the funny thing is, it is NOT at all the kind of music that we listen to in our house.  However it's a song that Jason has sung to every one of our sweet girls as babies.  If you've never heard my man sing, well, you're missing out.  He can make even the cheesiest 70's gospel song sound amazing.  He holds them tight and sings right up in their little ears and it soothes and comforts like nothing else.

So this song is special to us.  Has been for 13 years now.  It's not a song we sing at any other moment except in our baby's nurseries at bedtime or naptime.  Not that there's anything wrong with the song.  The lyrics are actually pretty amazingly perfect.  It's just not exactly mainstream these days as far as praise and worship music goes!  Click here if you want to listen...

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus

There's just something about that name

Master, Saviour, Jesus

Like the fragrance after the rain

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus

Let all heaven and earth proclaim

Kings and kingdoms will all pass away

But there's something about that name.

Anyway, I do have a point here.  I realized the other day when putting Miss Anabelle down for her nap and singing this song that I left this little jewel out of my IVF journey posts.  (I linked to part 4 because that's where this would fall chronologically).  It was in the spring of 2010 after yet another IVF attempt had not worked and it was, well, difficult to say the least.  Jason and I traveled to a meeting that spring, and I had the blessing of spending an evening with some wonderful ladies who knew of our journey and took some time to pray for Jason and I and our hopefully growing family.  At the end of this prayer time, one of these sweet ladies began singing.  And do you know that with absolutely no prompting from me and no knowledge at all that this had been and would continue to be our "baby song" she began singing this precious song.  Be still my heart and let the tears fall!  Everyone joined in and after praying for God to give us the baby we desired, my sweet sisters lifted these words up to Him together.  This was just one more precious nugget from the Lord, that we were continue to press on in the journey.  

I guess you can see why it makes me tear up when I pick Anabelle up for naptime and she says, "Jesus, Jesus" because she loves to sing this song too.  She sings it to her babies also, and let me tell you, it's about the most precious thing on the planet.  Video to come soon...

I also couldn't help but think that it's a pretty timely reminder for me, with the elections tomorrow, that kings and kingdoms do pass away, and while it is important to cast my vote and play my part in that way, it is much more important for me to remember in my day to day life who the true King is and that my ultimate goal should be seeking to give Him glory and make His name known.  

"As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.  But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children-- with those who keep his covenant, and remember to obey his precepts.  The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.  Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word.  Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will.  Praise the Lord, all his works, everywhere in his dominion.  Prasie the Lord, O my soul. " 

Psalm 103: 15-22

"May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.  May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you.  May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples justly and guide the nations of the earth.  May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you.  Then the land will yield its harvest, and God, our God, will bless us.  God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear him."

Psalm 67

One final thing...  I mentioned to the girls when we were eating lunch today that tomorrow is elections in America so we should be praying.  Naomi responded much more enthusiastically than I would have expected saying,  "REALLY, we're getting a new president?!  You mean it's not going to be George Washington anymore?!"  

Playmobile!

With the busiest shopping time of the year approaching, I thought I'd do a plug for some of my all time favorite toys.  You wouldn't think that apartment living with 4 girls would equal me liking toys that if a bazillion little pieces but I absolutely love Playmobile sets.  They are truly fabulous.

We first discovered Playmobile almost 10 years ago when we lived in France.  There was a little suburb of Paris that had a massive Playmobile warehouse type place.  (picture the inside of Sams or Costco).  Every playmobile set in existence was set up around the perimeter with big bins of all the pieces and you could go in and let the kids play for as long as you wanted.  Of course the catch was that going in and out, you walked through the retail store with your kids who had just played with all of these amazing toys.  They had an area with refreshments for the parents to sit while the kids played and played with these super cool toys.  Pretty cook sales gimmick if you ask me.  Anyway, that Christmas we started our playmobile collection with the grocery store.  SUCH a cool toy (see pictures below).  The great part is that all the sets mix and match.  You can get the bigger dollhouse or grocery store type sets or smaller ones- ice cream parlor, beauty shop etc.  There's a ton of them really.  I know nothing about all the boy ones but I"m sure they are just as awesome as all the princess, fairy sets.

Naomi rediscovered our Playmobile house the other day and had so much fun setting it up and arranging everything just so.  Aren't all the details fun?  Down to the bottles of laundry detergent on the washing machine!

She's even got the mailman putting mail in the mailbox and if you look closely, you can see the Dad sitting in his recliner by the TV...

This has provided hours of playtime for at least 3 days in a row now- and she is only playing with one of our sets!

Not pictured are our fairy sets, princess sets (although she did use some of the princess pieces in the house), animal sets and grocery store.

Here is a post I did a few years ago that pictures more of the toys along with some of our other favorite things.  And even with a toddler in the house, I just can't say enough good things about these toys! 

Grrr....

I've had one of those cultural days where I've just been plain grumpy and it seems like the more grumpy I am, the more stuff stops working...  hmmm..  

(not gonna analyze that because it will probably make me come to the realization that I need to CHOOSE joy even when I don't FEEL joy, and well, I'm kind of in the middle of choosing to be grumpy today, thank you very much...)

So anyway.  Can I vent?  Just a little I promise.  

First of all, I get that when you are a king of a country you can kind of do what you want.  But can I just say that you can't choose to not observe daylight savings time when you are already ON daylight savings time.  You have to first get OFF of it and then not get back ON it in the spring.  Good grief.  My brain cannot function at the capacity that will help me figure out what this means for our light hours in the coming months (let's just say that Jason and I had about a 10 minute discussion about what time we should set our alarms for when we were at a meeting last week in a country that was falling back and at the end of the discussion I was so totally and utterly confused that I couldn't think straight- thank goodness for phones that reset themselves...).  Anyway,  I know that somehow not going off of daylight savings time is going to mess something up and therefore it is making me grumpy.  It's also making me grumpy because it's making my husband grumpy.  Something about all the electronic devices he has not syncing properly now- this calendar doesn't match that calendar and this iPad doesn't match that iPhone.  Whatever.  All I know is he sat in front of his computer forever last night because he had a skype call with people in 3 different countries and he originally thought it was at 9.  Then he thought it was at 8.  Nope, then he thought 9 again.  Wrong again!  It was at 10...  See the rest of the world is falling back and all of our iWhatevers think that we are too, therefore they are changing times that don't need to be changed all because the king said so!  

Moving on...

Thing #2 that I am grumpy about...  And let me preface this one by saying that this is one of those "pot meet kettle" moments that we all face (usually as parents I think).   I mean how many times have I said to my kids, "life is NOT fair and not only that but I am not TRYING to be fair"...   The funny thing is, I have a pretty intense sense of fairness and things just being RIGHT.  Possibly why I get so incredibly annoyed by the complete lack of observance of lines over here.  That, after all, is not fair.  Anyway, back to thing #2. 

Electricity bills.

We live in a place where electricity is VERY expensive.  And randomly so.  Which is why we hold our breaths every month before the bill comes.  The hard part is that there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.  At least some of the time.  Thankfully we are in the less expensive time of the year as far as electricity goes.  It's still warm enough to hang out the clothes so I don't use the dryer.  It's warm enough that we don't have to run any heaters which really sends it soaring.   The last few months we've been coasting with our electricity bill- very doable.  Which is a good thing because we are needing to save for the incredibly expensive winter electricity bills.  So yesterday when we got our bill and it was 3X what it was last month and we have done NOTHING different, well, let's just say it wasn't pretty.  So Jason headed downstairs to talk to our landlord to see if he could figure out what in the world had happened.   Our landlord explained how electricity is priced based on usage.  Let me break it down for you.  Hypothetically if you use between 0-100 (watts? volts?  whatever...) it's a certain low price, if you use 101- 300ish it's a bit more, if you use 301-600ish a bit more all the way up through if you go over 1000 then the price per watt/volt/whatever random unit it is almost triples.   So.  Here's what happened.  Since the last week of the month (when they usually come and read the meter) was during a major holiday here, they didn't come and read the meter until a week later, therefore making this pay period over 5 weeks instead of the usual 4.  SOOO, we went over the 1000 mark (BECAUSE THEY WAITED TO READ THE METER!!!) thus almost tripling our bill.  

NOT FAIR!  NOT FAIR!  NOT FAIR!  

(and in case you are wondering, NO!!!  There is no such thing as customer service here therefore no one I can call and express my "it's not fair" feelings to, and I'm pretty sure if there was such a line to call whoever I talked to would respond very nicely, "it's not a problem.  don't worry, don't worry." and then do NOTHING...)

Thing #3 that I'm grumpy about.  My house is out to get me!  I'm convinced.  And it is all this country's fault.  (simply because I need someone to blame that is NOT my husband for the sanity of my family, because let me assure you there have been far too many times that I have blamed my sweet man  because I need a scapegoat)  Not gonna do that this time.  I'm totally blaming Jordan.  How, you may ask, is it Jordan's fault that my stove lighting mechanism AND my washing machine AND our water pump that pumps water to the tank on our roof thus providing water to our home all stopped working TODAY?  Well, it just is.  It is Jordan's fault because all of those things are HERE in the country of Jordan.  Along with no daylight savings time and stupid electricity bills.   And you would be wise not to judge the sanity of such a statement as my husband just did or I might just shift the blame!  I'm pretty sure he was fairly close to launching into a logical explanation as to WHY it could NOT be Jordan's fault that the stove we bought 8 years ago in Lebanon would stop working today.  He changed his mind.  He knows there are times that logic and I don't get along...

So, I'll end with this.  There are plenty of things that I'm currently grumpy about in regards to my current country of residence.  However, I've decided I'm forgiving the good kingdom of Jordan.  

Because of this...

They are bringing me an IKEA....

A special gift

I love, love, love autumn.  Actually, I love all the changing seasons and their reflection of God's creativity, but I especially love the beauty of the fall colors.  Living where we do, it is not something we get to see very often. Well, ever...  

We do have seasons as far as temperature goes.  Summer is HOT (but thankfully not humid) and winter is oh. so. cold.  I can honestly say that I don't think I've ever been as cold in my life as I was last winter.  The outside temperature never gets much below freezing but the cold gets locked into the buildings early on and just seems to crawl under your skin and stay there!  So, anyway, we have seasons as far as temperature but that's about as far as it goes.  

Don't get me wrong, Jordan has a beauty all it's own that we are truly learning to love.  Mostly I love that when I look at the rocky hillsides and rugged beauty of the desert, I can picture the wandering Isrealites or Jesus sitting on the hillside preaching.  It's a very unique beauty.  Sometime you have to look a little harder to see it, but it's definitely there.  It's more of a rugged beauty, really.  

Jason and I had the chance this past week to travel together to a meeting in Austria.  We knew going in that there would be no time to sight see or really do much besides travel in to our meeting sight (a 3 hour drive from Vienna) and travel back to the airport at the end.   Thankfully though, the beauty of this place, was nothing that you had to strain to see.   When God made this little section of the universe, He held nothing back!   We considered it such a gift to be able to see the amazing fall colors and the beauty of the first snowfall in this enchanting little village all in one week.  Forgive my less than awesome photography skills and try to picture the beauty we saw!  

Our village was nestled in the rolling hills and the first snow was so beautiful.  I really don't know that I've ever seen the combination of snow and autumn leaves before.  So beautiful and such the refreshment that my soul needed!

This is the main street in the village where we stayed.  

Some of the village homes off the main street...

(is that picture perfect or what?!)

The sun didn't come out until our last day when we drove back to the airport but it made the drive spectacular.   And I know, for many of you, autumn leaves are something that you have the joy of seeing, well, every year, but take it from someone who can't open the back door to catch a glimpse of this type of color display, don't take it for granted!

the perfect picnic spot...

...with a castle in the background

I marveled all week at God's creativity.  From Jordan with it's brownish desert beauty that takes a bit more effort to "see" to the breathtaking rolling hills of Austria.  What an amazing God we serve!  

What we've been up to

It's been a crazy, but wonderful few weeks!  Our Nana has been here for a visit and it's been wonderful!  She was here almost 3 weeks, and sadly, I managed to get through almost the whole time with very few pictures... We got a few this morning before we took her to the airport.

Thanks to Nana's visit, I was able to get away with Jason for a full week to attend a conference in Austria.  It was wonderful and exhausting all at the same time.

One of my favorite parts of our get away was going somewhere where I was able to see the fall colors. I love autumn and well, it just is not quite the same living in the desert...  More pics on our trip later, but here's a preview...

Before Jason and I left, we had almost a full week with Nana.  Jason was pretty busy, but we still got some fun family time in.  Nana is the stocking queen and even though we're a few months early, we celebrated Christmas together one morning with our traditional cinnamon rolls and this year we added sausage balls to the mix.  The girls were plenty excited to have Christmas in October!

Anabelle loved her new slippers!  We do Christmas pajamas every year also, but like I said, my picture taking skills were somewhat lacking this week!

Maddie is super excited about her new cookbook!

AJ is all about the Hunger Games these days..

Naomi and AB opening their Christmas pajamas

Nana was such a trooper to come and take care of the girls for a whole week while we traveled.  She couldn't drive while here (and wouldn't have wanted to!) and she doesn't really know the city well enough to taxi, so we had helpers lined up for her throughout the week and a schedule of events that we went ahead and arranged transportation for.  We found out about a week before Nana arrived that the girls would actually be out of school for the majority of the time we were gone, which ended up being a good thing because they got lots more quality time with Nana.

Maddie and Nana did so much baking that they ran out of gas for the stove even though we'd replaced it right before we left.  Very thankful to our wonderful landlords for helping them figure that out!  

Sweet Anabelle got sick a few days before we got home.  Very thankful to a dear friend for making a house call and helping Nana get her started on an antibiotic.  She's pretty pitiful still but seemed to perk up a bit tonight.  She and I both had a long nap this afternoon (after a long night last night...)  Here she is on the way home from the airport this morning WAY before nap time.  

It was a fabulous visit with Nana- just way to short, like all family visits!  We've had fun re-uniting as a family today- lots of games and laughter.  So thankful for family.