you know it's going to be a good week when...

You know it's going to be a good week when:

1. Amazon accidentally sends you a box full of yummy gluten-free carbs and then tells you to keep them. :D

2. You see an animal you've never seen before in your whole life. God never ceases to amaze me. I don't know how I missed the lion monkey, but what an intriguing {and strange} little creature he is:

3. You are pushing around a stroller at the zoo with this view:

 

I remember taking Elijah to the zoo for the first time with my mother-in-law 10 years ago, and feeling my heart flutter at the realization that I'm really a mama now. 10 years and 4 more children later and I still get excited when I have a little one to push around. :)

4. And then you know it's a great week when your husband works miracles in your backyard. :) 

We had a really informal get-together for the 4th and it was so fun to relax out in the backyard! Instead of hamburgers, we had a potluck sandwich bar on the grill:

The kids loved it {and so did the flies! :P}. I didn't manage to get a picture of them all together, but in four families, we had 17 of our 18 children present! :)

5. You also know it's going to be a fun week when you get to go on a date with these guys, and get to have your very favorite salad:

6. And then when you visit the Asian food store, and they have kabocha squash in stock:

7. And then? When you get to visit Chuy's and this is fajitas for one:

I didn't eat it all, but I could have. :)

And the name of Jesus is prayed on the silverware package :D:

8. And I'm pretty sure it's an amazing week when you're on a date and your husband stops in the park to buy you an ice cream- but you know he really stopped mostly because he wanted to share the Gospel with the park vendor. :D  Oh, my heart. Thank you Father, for redeeming my husband three years ago.

The Lord has been convicting and moving us out of our comfort zone so much this year, and I can't wait to share more about it soon. :) Our God is doing such mighty things!! 

9. And that best part of the week might have been a close tie with this one- our little children wanting to learn how to share the Good News on their own:

 

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that wins souls is wise. Proverbs 11:30

And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19

Lord Jesus, may it be so in us. 

10. The good weeks and the bad weeks both come {one right after the other, in fact if your life is like mine?!}, and yet you know one thing will always be certain and unchanging:

For the LORD is good; 

his steadfast love endures forever, 

and his faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 100:5

How was your week? How has July been treating you? :)

Your favorite food lately?

I'm all in for fajitas, salads, and rare sweet squashes! At the moment, I am loving salad the most I'd say. It's so easy to eat them when it's hot outside. :P

Did you ever have a moment you really felt overjoyed to be a mama? :D

a big fat DIY fail: if it weren't so awful it might actually be funny...

Last fall my sweet friends at church used these lovely wood slices as table decor for our women's retreat:

pic from my friend Emily :) I thought they did a great job making our retreat beautiful! :)

And I've seen log slabs like them on Pinterest too- they always look fantastic as centerpiece like this one:

fabulous source: Twin Cities Wedding from the Wedding Chicks

You know how much I love simple, gorgeous decor that's nearly free like that! After seeing those inspiring tables I was on the lookout for my own {free} log slab. About a month ago, I scored one of these from a fallen tree at my mom's place, and brought it home for my very own centerpiece:

I was so proud. :) I stacked a bunch of candles on it and called it a day. {It was free and I didn't even have to chop it down myself, so I figure it really was a good day!} 

Fast forward to a month later, last weekend- when our weekend guests were here {which I plan to tell you about soon, when my computer is working again}. I asked Rob to clear the table for the food to go on...

And.this.was under the log: 

My farmhouse table is now growing a centerpiece of its very own.

I'm calling that one a DIY fail.

Just a little. ;)

{I talked to my decor-savvy log-centerpiece making friends and apparently you're supposed to polyurethane them before you use them. I guess you can't just go get any old tree and put a chunk of it on the table. Ahem.}

Have you ever had a massive DIY/Pinterest fail? Please make me feel better, LOL!

costco winners + baby transitioning questions

Monday? How are you here again already? 

I think the weekends go by 3x as fast as Monday and Tuesday do. I'm super happy when Monday and Tuesday finally pass by each week. :)

Weekends are my favorite for sure. :) On Friday night, we hit up our new friend Costco again. It had only been a month, but it felt like forever since I visited this amazing place...

It's a long trip for us, but it's more of an adventure than anything. You know you're a family who loves food when everyone gets excited about a trip to a new warehouse store. ;)

We wore little Zaner out shopping up and down the aisles:

I loved seeing everything they had. They have so many healthy options. :D You have to give them props for their gorgeous salads:

Man, I love that store. :) And I really love that our whole family can eat dinner there for $14, and I get a big salad in their cafe! {!!!!}

I pulled this new dressing out of our cart for instead of opening up the caesar. I am happy to report yet another Costco winner:

Zane was as happy about his Costco banana as I was about my salad: ;)

We ended up with quite a few items we wouldn't normally buy at Sam's- the apple chips are my absolute favorite new snack, and the ancient grains are good too {though I have to avoid the almonds for Zane}. And I love that they have large avocados for the same price as Sam's small ones:

Even though we spent hours browsing Costco, we still had an hour left before HomeGoods closed. heheh. ;) I roped the family into shopping with me here too:

And this sofa??? Oh my goodness. So cute. It looks small here, but it was a full-sized one for $800. Too bad we didn't have room in the Tahoe. ;)

The kids {usually} entertain themselves when we go shopping at places like this. They all talk to each other about everything while they follow me around, but trips with Daddy are way more fun because he asks them lots of questions about everything. :) 

Zane even found ways to keep busy while I walked around:

I wonder what he will be like when he's older. It seems like he'll be a funny guy like his brother Noah and his Uncle Josh.

The rest of the weekend was full of adventure, house remodeling, and a three hour nap {!} after a playdate with a sweet friend. It was raining outside yesterday but Rob and I still managed to drive around and go out on a little date after church. :)

This week Project ReOrganize is ON. My goal is to have a garage sale this weekend, and I'm in clean out mode again. I'm trying to simplify as much as possible so that there's less housework to do on a daily basis. Last week I cleaned out the kids drawers and left them with one drawer full of clothing... and it's been amazing already. I only had 2.5 loads of laundry to catch up this weekend!

I'm hoping to also get Zane into his own room this week so we can all get more sleep. I've done it four other times, yet I still don't want to do it. :) I know it will be good for all of us, but one of our main problems this time around is that the main bathroom we use {the only one with a shower and our 2nd toilet} is in his nursery- and the kids all need to use it multiple times at night.

I'm trying to think of other places we could have him where he would be undisturbed by six other people, but it's got me stumped for the moment! He usually sleeps in our room for naps and nighttime, but I can't sleep with him in there these days. He wakes up so many times a night, but I think it's more a habit of comfort rather than need to eat.

I'd love any transitioning tips you have for moving babies to their rooms? 

Any creative ideas on quiet places for babies with lots of siblings? 
At this point I'm almost considering moving him in the office at night. :)

Have you ever tried apple chips? What do you think? Do you love them as much as I do? {and can you make them yourself- or would it even be cheaper?}

yesterday was one of the best days of my life. :D

I still have more items to post {hopefully tonight}, but something momentous happened yesterday and life was crazy {awesome} this weekend. 

These three loves of my life were baptized yesterday!! 

They celebrated their new life by showing the world that they were born again! :D

For those of you who don't know the story, my husband was saved by faith in Jesus almost three years ago. Hopefully someday soon Rob will share his full testimony on the blog here, but he was one of the unlost, and God opened his eyes and saved him, and He really and truly made my husband a new person.

Rob with our pastor

Our boys have also confessed Jesus as Lord and believed in Him for salvation and have decided to follow Him! They've understood what salvation is and believed in Jesus for many years now, but I think their hearts really understood their need for a Savior, and they repented and made the heart decision to follow Him this year. Oh, praise the Lord God Almighty!! :D

It was a beautiful, beautiful day and I was so thankful my family was able to be there to witness this sweet occasion! :D

thank you Kaycie for the pic! 

We have been so blessed to be saved. So blessed to know Jesus and to be in a church full to the brim of people who love Him. Oh, I can't say it enough- if you don't have a real relationship with the Lord Jesus, I pray that He will open your eyes to find Him, and I pray that wherever you are you also find a body of believers who genuinely follow God by faith in Jesus Christ if you don't have one.

There is a body of believers who truly seek God to be Lord of their lives, and those are the people with whom you want to grow in grace and walk through life! :) They will encourage you to grow in your faith and to love God even more, and to follow Him with all your heart. You were meant to be part of His living body! :)

It won't be long until we see Jesus, my friends. This life is but a breath. What will you do with the hours you've been given? Will you walk with Him, and live for Him? Will you trust Him?

--------------------------

Do you remember the day you were baptized? :)

What about the day you were saved? What brought you to that? 

Are you in a body of believers who truly follow Jesus in word and deed?

weekend in pictures: a real-life mess, magic wands, and a closet sneak peek

We had a restful weekend- it was raining and nasty here, so we took it easy and it was wonderful. Here are some snapshots from the last few days... :)

Lest you think that my house is clean all of the time, I now have even more photo evidence of what life looks like around here some weeks. :) It's way more fun to take pictures of clean, beautiful kitchens, but sometimes, this is our reality... or what we call the aftermath of "mommy let us make our own lunch"...

Why yes, that is a paper plate full of salsa, soggy chips stuck to the table, a knife immersed in a bottle of mustard, and diaper rash/eczema cream right in the middle of it all.  ;)

I was feeding the baby and picking up what I could while they were eating, so lunch for me didn't come until way.too.late. for a nursing mama:

After lunch, we made bibbiddi bobbbidi boo sticks from the girls' Disney cookbook^:

And I cleaned up my desk clutter somewhere in there:

And I finally ordered a rod to hang my thrifted PB calendar on:

If you're wondering how I got the time to even do that with a 5-month-old {I would be}- it was because this little guy hung out with his dad:

On Saturday, we launched a new release of BODYPUMP at the gym, and I took a 2.5 hour nap in the afternoon. It was amazing. I haven't slept that soundly in months. :)

And we finished the weekend off with lunch with the family and a bagel run to Panera:

Yes, I was nursing a baby while we took this photo...hahaha

And this week, I hope to have a little pop-up sale! :D Lord-willing, I am going to be listing leather coats, designer jeans, a Boden coat, Lucky Brand, Cole Haan, and Frye boots, and Fossil purses. :) I'll be sharing some of my deals with you on Instagram so if you want to follow me over there my IG name is bhomemaking! :D I've never done anything like this before so I'm interested to try it! :)

Some items will be on the blog for those of you who don't do IG. :)

How was your weekend? :)

Do you ever let your kiddos make their own food too? :)

^=affiliate link

playing catch-up :: friday to-do list

Friday is usually a school day at our house, but we are only doing a half day today so mama can catch up on things around here. We've had a busy week so naturally the laundry has fallen way behind. :) {side note: I'm not sure if having so many clothes is a good thing- on one hand, less clothing means less laundry...but then again, what would they all wear on weeks I fall behind like this one? What would it be like if we only had two sets of clothes? I'm tempted to hold an experiment...wouldn't that be interesting! I think I could be okay with it... :)}

Anyway, enough dreaming... ;) On my to-do list for today: 

1. Replace this IKEA couch cover with a clean white one:

2. Light the candle. {already done!!! man, I'm fast...}

3. Learn BODYCOMBAT 58 tracks for practice at 3:30 today:

4. While multi-tasking, of course... ;)  because I have this mountain of laundry to conquer:

5. I'd also like to spend some special time with these little humans. We might go to the library and for ice cream if we can. :)

6. And hey, if you aren't playing catch-up like me today and have extra time, you might be interested in reading the Mombassadors interview I did with Abbie over at M is for Mama {you still have a few hours left to enter to win the candle/Bible giveaway}, or checking out what's on her heart this week.

7. {just because it's a good number!} wish you happy weekend, sweet friends! 

I am blessed to know you! :)