Dumpster Diving, sort of

In the past few months, we have discovered that University Hills is a great place to find free stuff for kids.  When we lived in the apartment, we found a fire engine next to the dumpster.  The kids have been enjoying playing with it, especially dinging the bell. 

Recently, another family offered up this playhouse for free, so David went over and disassembled it and reassembled it on our back porch.  The girls really like to hang out on the roof.  (Hopefully, it will be a while before Matthew and Jonathan figure out how to get up there!)

Since the boys will be in cribs for quite some time still and after that in toddler beds, I have been trying to keep my eyes open for a crib mattress.  Last weekend, another resident offered an organic crib mattress for free.  We weren't necessarily looking for one that was organic, but you really can't beat free!

One man's trash is another man's treasure!

January's Goal: Make a Blanket and Pillowcase

My goal for the month of January was to make a blanket and a pillowcase. This project was actually organized by our church. We are sending blankets, pillowcases and shoe money to an orphanage in Kenya, called Beloved International. As you may recall from when I made bibs for the boys out of old cloth diapers, sewing is not my strong suit, but I was really excited about this project.  I thought it would be a great opportunity to make something to help someone in need and also to expose the girls to the art of sewing.

Stephen and Jane Njoroge are the parents of this orphanage, which consists of their four biological children (two of which have the awesome names, Mary and Margaret) and fourteen adoptees.  You can read about all the children here.  Just reading the stories of each of the adopted children brought tears to my eyes.  There is so much sexual immorality that most of the children never knew who their father was. Most lost their mother to AIDS.  They lived in poverty.  They suffered sexual abuse.  One sibling group was even abandoned by their own father.  My heart breaks for the others like them in Kenya, who have not yet been adopted and are still suffering from abuse, neglect and poverty.  I thank God that he has given Stephen and Jane a heart for these children and is working through them to shine the light of the Gospel in the darkness.

We were asked to make a blanket for eleven year old Mary, one of the Njoroge children.  On Saturday, Mary, Maggie and I set out for Michael's with coupon and shopping list in hand.   We spent a good 15 minutes looking for the fabric in Michael's only to find out that Michael's doesn't even sell fabric!  There was a JoAnn's close by, so we went there, sadly without a coupon (a smartphone would have been helpful in this situation!)  After a lot of searching, we picked out two purplish flannel patterns and waited in line to have them cut.  My plan was just to do one pattern on one side and the other on the other side, but there wasn't enough of one of the patterns to do that, so we adjusted the plan a little.  (The girls were kind of tired of looking at fabric by this point.)  We also picked up some fabric paint and stencils and planned on painting Mary's name on white fabric for the middle of the blanket.

Well, I did try the fabric paint and it looked great, until I added some hearts around Mary's name and then it got wet and bled.  Forget the fabric paint idea.  Then, I came up with a plan to make somewhat of a quilt style blanket and stitch Mary's name in the center.  Once the top and bottom pieces were completed, I sewed three edges together and suddenly realized I didn't know how to do the last edge.  I thought hand-stitching would take me forever, and I just don't have very much patience for such things, so I ended up folding it over twice and sewing with the machine.  Voila!  My first ever blanket!

Now, the pillowcase was supposed to be a much simpler project.  Except that I had plenty of fabric, but not enough in the right dimensions.  I opted just to go out to JoAnn's for more fabric.  Guess what?  It was gone.  So, we drove all the way to a store in Orange to get the fabric (with coupon in hand, although by this time the fabric was on sale, so we couldn't use the coupon).  I ended up stitching Mary's name on white fabric and then sewed that on to the purple fabric.  I didn't want all of edges of the material to be exposed, though, so I used interlocking fell seams all around.  And voila!  My first ever pillowcase! 

My friend, Mandi, a.k.a. the crafty diva, used to say that everyone is creative because God is the Creator.  I have to say that I really think she is right.  Although this project turned out to be more difficult than I initially thought, I really enjoyed the creative process!  Please join me in praying for Mary and this orphanage as they seek to bring the light of Christ to the darkness in Kenya.  I owe my husband a big thank you for keeping the boys away from my sewing machine during this process!  That probably was just as difficult as making the blanket and pillowcase!

What We've Been Reading

Well, we have only read one chapter book since my last post, but it was a great one!


The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit has been on our reading list for quite some time, yet another timeless classic that I had never read as a child.  Similar to The Saturdays, we came across some excerpts from the book in Mary's writing assignments from The Complete Writer and decided to read it in its entirety.  This is the story of a family consisting of a mother, father, and three children, whose lives are turned upside down when the father must go away for a time due to unexplained circumstances.  Mother and the children move away from their home.  Their new home is located near a railway, where the children spend the majority of their time.  They befriend workers at the railway and even passengers on the train and encounter many adventures.  They save a train from a crash, reunite a Russian political refugee with his family, and rescue a young man collapsed with an injury in a tunnel.  In the end, the father is able to return to his family and the reasons for his departure are explained. 

I want to share one small excerpt from the book.  This was my favorite part, a conversation between Mother and Peter:

"Don't you think it's rather nice to think that we're in a book that God's writing?  If I were writing the book, I might make mistakes.  But God knows how to make the story end just right--in the way that's best for us."
"Do you really believe that, Mother?" Peter asked quietly.
"Yes," she said, "I do believe it--almost always--except when I'm so sad that I can't believe anything.  But even when I can't believe it, I know it's true--and I try to believe..."

My Goals for 2013

On our recent car trip, I was able to have some time to contemplate my goals for 2013.  I know it sounds kind of crazy that one can actually contemplate with a van full of kids, but I was able to think more clearly than I can amidst the normal mayhem at home!  Since I set 12 goals for 2012, I first thought that meant I HAD to set 13 goals for 2013.  Then, I realized that soon enough I would be setting so many goals that they would likely be unachievable or not meaningful.  So, this year, I decided to set monthly goals.  Ideally, I will have a post to track my progress, too:)

January--Make a blanket and pillowcase. 
This is actually a project for an orphanage in Kenya organized through our church.  It is way out of my comfort zone, and I would not have decided on my own to take this on!

February--Watch David install ceiling fans.
We already have the holes ready; we just need the actual fans.  I plan to help pick them out, but David is a pro at installing ceiling fans and I'll be more than huge by that time, so I think I'll be his gopher and cheerleader!

March--Birth Baby #5 at home.
Have I mentioned how excited I am to have Baby #5 at home?  I attended a Birth Details Class in November and have a list of materials to assemble for the birth.  Post-birth, I plan on to put school on hold and focus on fattening up the little one!

April--Plan our backyard landscape.
When we moved to our new house in September, the front was already landscaped.  Per our ground lease, we have one year to landscape the back.  We expect to implement the plan over several months, so this goal is just to come up with a plan.

May--Begin teaching the girls how to play the piano.
We pooled the Christmas money together last year and bought a digital piano.  Since then, I have wanted to begin teaching the girls to play.  I finally selected a curriculum (we'll be using Faber and Faber).
 
June--Put together photo albums for 2011 and 2012.
Okay, so we are really far behind in the photo department.  I plan to get us caught up in June!
 
July--Revamp our Christmas devotions.
We do an assortment of special devotions at Christmastime.  I do a daily Advent Jesse Tree devotion with the kids and David does a weekly Advent reading with them.  For one, I am not happy with the particular devotions we have been using to go along with our Jesse Tree, so I want to just write my own.  We would also like to eliminate the overlap between the different devotions and combine them somehow.
 
August--Go through My First Catechism with Mary and Maggie.
I have already gone through this with Mary, but I think Maggie is ready for it now, so I plan to go through it again with both girls.
 
September--Transfer Matthew and Jonathan to toddler beds.
In reality, this will likely be done much sooner than September, but the boys are behind at everything else, so this allows for some delay!

October--Learn to make a new dessert.
Okay, so this is not exactly specific.  I like to bake, but these days, I really need inspiration and motivation to break out and try something new.

November--Complete reading The Valley of Vision.
The Valley of Vision is a collection of Puritan prayers and devotions.  These prayers are really rich in content.  I plan to read one every day or so and complete this book by November.

December--Run a 5K.
This year, David, Mary and Maggie ran the Renegade Santa Race in Irvine.  Although I do not have any hopes of keeping up with David in the 5K, I hope to complete it!

Stay tuned for posts documenting my success/failure at achieving these goals!

Review of My Goals for 2012

Since the end of 2012 is drawing near, I thought it was time that I review the goals I set for 2012 before I set new goals for 2013.  Much to my surprise, I actually completed most of my goals for 2012, in spite of the unanticipated busyness that arose:  David began interviewing for positions elsewhere (a year earlier than planned); we put our New Orleans home on the market; we moved across the country; we moved locally; and I got pregnant with Baby #5.  It's been a very busy year, so I did not achieve all of the goals I set for 2012:( 

1. Craft a mission statement for the Mobley Homeschool.  Completed!
2. Make homemade bath salts and/or soap.  Well, I made zero progress on this and it's just not a priority to me right now.  Maybe someday in the future...
3. Read a book to Matthew and Jonathan every day.  I can't say this happened every day, but I really did try to read to the boys often.
4. Lose enough weight to fit into my non-maternity jeans.  I am considering this goal completed, although I think my non-maternity jeans fit for less than a month before I got pregnant again.
5. Teach Maggie to read.  While she is not a fluent reader, Maggie has made great strides in her reading!  She enjoys reading me bedtime stories:)
6. Read Romans: The Gospel Freedom by P.G. Mathew.  I had to put this book on hold, but I do really hope to finish it soon.
7. Help Mary and Maggie finish memorizing the 25 Scripture passages from our Advent Jesse Tree devotions.  Completed.
8. Read The Valley of Vision by Arthur Bennett.  I AM going to finish this in 2013.
9. Guide Mary in her first big savings goal: getting her ears pierced.  Completed.
10. Teach Mary and Maggie to sign the alphabet.  Completed.
11. Plan some meaningful Easter activities to teach the children about Jesus' death and resurrection.  (I'll welcome any suggestions any of you have!)  This kind of happened really last minute, but we did do some meaningful Easter activities in 2012.
12. Put all of David's summer salary (after tithing 10%) towards paying down the principal on our house.  We did this until we realized we would be moving to California.  We are still committed to living frugally and paying down our mortgage as quickly as we can.

So, that's that.  I am eating my humble pie now and hope to post my new goals for 2013 tomorrow.

What I Learned From Our Trip

We traveled to northern California to visit David's family for Christmas this year.  It was just about a ten-hour drive each way with four kids, one pregnant lady, and David.  This is what I learned on the trip:

1. There are three essentials a mama should never leave at home: a nasal aspirator, an ear thermometer, and children's pain reliever.
2. I have the BEST in-laws in the world!  They made so many accommodations to make our stay at their house comfortable and enjoyable.
3. The GPS is an excellent tool for avoiding LA traffic.  I think next time we will leave later to avoid it altogether!
4. One surefire way to get your kids up by 5 am is to plan to transfer them from bed to their carseats at 5:30 am hoping that they will sleep for the first leg.
5. One of those tools that people use to pick up trash would be really handy for passing snacks and drinks from the front to the very back of the van (or maybe even for poking the ornery child).
6. Driving in a hailstorm is scary and really doesn't help nap-resistant toddlers to fall asleep.
7. A long car trip is a rare opportunity for meaningful conversation and pleasure reading.
8. To gauge how many snacks to bring, figure out how much you think you need and then bring TWICE that amount!
9. All the kids really like traveling in the car (I know, where DID they come from?!)
10. My children need careful supervision around Christmas cookies.   Their tummies seem to say, "Yes, please," but not, "No, thank you!"

Merry Christmas from the Mobleys!