The Last of the Giants by Harry Rimmer (3/44)

For Christmas, my brother gave us the book, "The Last of the Giants".  It's a book about three evangelists that witnessed to the lumberjacks in Wisconsin and Minnesota in the late 1800's.  It tells about the type of life the lumberjacks lived, and how God used these three men to reach many of them for Christ.  Frank Higgins, John Sornberger (Jack McWilliams), and Elwyn 'Al' Channer.  Although all three of these men's stories are great, I think John Sornberger's is the most exciting and fun to read.  The author must have agreed because 55% of the book is dedicated to his story.  How he became a fighter, and then an outlaw, and was finally saved and began preaching to his fellow 'jacks'. It is crazy to think about miles and miles of trees that are 5-6 feet in diameter.  And that those men cut them all down by hand and got them out of the woods and to sawmills. 

I'm very glad that I read this book.  It helps me to be reminded that no one is too 'bad' that the Lord Jesus Christ can not save them.  It also helped to remind me that there may be people in my life that I specifically have been gifted to witness to.  Whether it's people from a similar background, or with similar experiences, or any other connection, I need to keep myself  "..ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you." (1 Peter 3:15).

This book is definitely going back on the shelf, but maybe not until after Kevin reads it because I know he would enjoy it a lot as well.

Evelyn'isms

Evelyn is really starting to be a talker.  She puts words and phrases together, and even has her own words for things.  Heard a lot around here are:

"I do that too"  Usually relating to anything Elsie gets to do, that she wants to be a part of too.
"Wat me Mama, wat me!" (watch me) Usually said when she is about to jump off of something.
"I hewp"  She is such a helper and wants to help with everything I'm doing.
"Ready Mama?"
"I get wee one toy"  She's always ready to get a toy for Elsie to play with.
"No nap"  Whenever it's time for a nap or bedtime you can expect to hear this.
"Evamin crynin"  (Evelyn crying) She usually says this when she fake cries, or pretends to cry.



Dictionary
me-me = chapstick
do-do-do = deoderant
dee da = Karissa
oyo = cereal
moee = more
tsoom = spoon
ti-ti = blanket
pank pank = spanking
cone = phone
ee ah = brushing teeth
apapa = pineapple
fasafas = applesauce
bababa = blueberry or any berry for that matter
wee one bed = the crib
nunny = bunny
peto = pretzel
oo ah ah = monkey
sak = snack
no-no = something she's not supposed to touch or do 
deedo = playdo
powdo = baby powder



Other Accomplishments
Evelyn can count to 3.  She usually repeats herself over and over 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3...
She can recognize and point out the letter 'O'
She is very good at her matching game finding pictures that match. 
Whenever we get home from being gone she takes off and hangs up her coat and takes her shoes off.
She helps empty the cart at the checkout at the store.
She's very good at 'fetching' things if I ask her to get something for me.
She helps pick up her toys or anything else she happens to spill.
She knows how to ask nicely for things: "May I have water please?"
She knows how to undress herself.

I know there are more things that she says and does, but that's all I can think of off the top of my head.  She's growing up so fast and becoming such a big girl.  Every day is an adventure.

Monday is Laundry Day

When I was younger, I would sometimes see dish towels that had the days of the week on them along with different household tasks.  For example: Monday: Laundry.  I used to always think to myself, "Who actually does the same one thing on the same day every week?  It seems too complicated to only to certain things on certain days."  Little did I know where I would be today.

I never used to do laundry only on Mondays.  I used to stretch it out as far as possible.  I would do laundry about every two weeks, and on that day(s) I would do 7-8 loads of laundry and spend more time than I'd like to think folding and putting away clothes that day.  It honestly took up my entire day.  Just recently, we started watching two kids from our church on Mondays.  Because they're here, I can't just ignore all the children and work on projects or pull out big organizing things I want to work on.  It just isn't practical, and the kids what to do fun things with me.  So, I decided that Monday would be a good day to do laundry.  It takes less than 2 minutes to put a load of clothes in the washer, or switch loads, and that leaves plenty of time to interact with the kids while clothes are still being cleaned.  I just pile all the baskets of clean laundry in one spot to be folded after they leave for the day, or during movie time.

Now that I've been doing this for a couple of months, I realized how much I like it.  We always have clean clothes.  Kevin doesn't have to wait two weeks to get his work pants clean, the hampers aren't overflowing, the dirty dishrags aren't collecting and stinking under the sink... you get the picture.  Folding and putting away take maybe 15 minutes and it's done.  And the complicated I thought it would be?  Not complicated at all.  It takes up only pieces of one day a week.  Not an entire exhausting day every two weeks.  I actually enjoy the consistency it brings to my week.  I've actually started doing other things on regular days throughout the week.

Monday: Laundry
Tuesday: Grocery Shopping
Wednesday: Cleaning
Thursday: Thrift Sales in the summer time
Friday: Free for projects
Saturday: Open day
Sunday: Lord's Day/ Family Day

I'm excited to see how my weekly schedule with change over the years with different things joining the list.  I hope that gardening day, park play day, and others will join on this summer once the weather is nicer.

Accepted Offer

Will God ever cease to amaze me?  I think not. 

This past week we found out that we have an accepted offer on our house.  We've been praying for months for it to sell, and have talked and dreamed about the day when it finally does sell.  And now it's coming together.  It's one of those awesome, amazing, joy-filling, put a smile on your face feelings that I can't say I've had in awhile. 

I just love to trust God with areas of my life and see how he answers my prayers - often in ways I'd never thought or dreamed.  I serve an awesome God! 

"Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation."  Psalm 68:19

Curly Girl: The Handbook (2/44)

Curly Girl: The Handbook by Lorraine Massey is a must read for anyone with any type of curly hair.  It goes through how to determine your type of curl, what kinds of products to use on your hair, cutting curly hair, caring for children's curls, and some ideas to style curly hair.

I guess I've always liked having curly hair.  Growing up, people would always ask me if I liked having curly hair as if I was supposed to hate it or something.  I never really understood it, but after reading the book and hearing about how a lot of people grew up not knowing what to do with their curls that just ended up looking frizzy and poofy I can see how some people would not like having curly hair.  Sure there were times that I wished I had straight hair, and I straightened my hair a handful of times growing up, but all in all I enjoyed my curls.  I came up with my own system of taking care of my hair that very closely resembles the curly girl method outlined in the book.

One of the sections that I enjoyed the most was the one about caring for children who have curly hair.  My daughter Evelyn has soft pretty curls and I want to help her keep them looking nice as she grows up.  The ideas in the book were very helpful.

This book is going back on the shelf to stay there as a reference if I need to look back at something.

Entreleadership (1/44)

Well, my list of books to read has kept growing and growing.  Along with the 44 books on my shelf, I now have at least 10 more that we've acquired that I want to read as well.  The one I just finished is Entreleadership by Dave Ramsey.

This book is written for the business man who wants to know how to better run his business.  I started reading it mostly because I was curious what it was about.  Kevin was further ahead in the book than I was and he kept telling me different concepts he was learning and different ideas he was seeing from t he book.  I wanted to better understand the context of these ideas, so I kept reading.  Then it turned into me just wanting to read the book because I was enjoying it that much.

I can't say this about a lot of books, but this book was one where when I got to the last chapter and finally finished the book, I didn't want it to be over.  I wanted to keep reading stories about Dave's business and hearing about how he chooses to run it.  And that's what is totally awesome about this book.  Dave didn't want to book to be over either.  His publishers told him to cut it off.  So... he put 5 bonus chapters online!  I've printed 3 of them off, because that's all he has on there right now.  I'm looking forward to reading those as well.

This book is a must read for anyone running their own business.  It lays out practical commonsense ways to hire employees, how to compensate them, advertising, staying out of debt in business, and many more topics.  I know Kevin and I will be able to implement many of his ideas into our business.

This book is definitely a keeper.  It will  probably never collect dust on the shelf as I have a feeling we'll be referencing it often.