6 months / 27 weeks pregnant picture

This is me and Jerod. We're both growing. :-) I'm at 27 weeks, which is 6 months. In fact, I'm due three months from tomorrow, so I guess that means I'm entering the third trimester!

It's a little funny and sad to realize that when I was pregnant with Zarya, I always knew exactly how many weeks along I was, what fruit her size was comparable to, what developmental things were happening, etc. But for poor #2 kid, this is like the third time I've had to check my calendar just to remember how far along I am, and it wasn't until writing this that I realized I've now hit the third trimester.

We'll see how I do at remembering to take pictures of him, weigh and measure him, write every first in his baby book, and all of those things that I have done so faithfully with Zarya. I was a second child and never felt like my parents forgot me or thought I was any less amazing for not being the first, so hopefully I'll follow in their footsteps, and Jerod will grow up oblivious that I didn't keep exact track of him in utero. He moves around enough these days that I certainly don't forget he's there, at least!

Kids Bible memorization music

Back in the day when I was a sharp-minded youth, I was very good at memorizing Scripture. Really, anything I memorized before age 15 is in my mind to stay, especially if I learned it to a song. Anyone can learn a song, but sometimes memorizing a passage of Scripture seems like a lot of work. I can still sing verses I learned in some Sunday school class eons ago. They are stuck in my head forever, and that's a good thing!

Our family has a morning tradition of lolling around on our king bed after Zarya wakes up. Andrew has usually been up for over an hour by that point, but even he comes back to bed to hang out with a happy, wide-awake Zarya as she drinks her sippy cup of milk, and me as I gradually become coherent after being jumped on by a toddler. Thanks to Zarya's obsession with music, we always have a CD playing (we're a little old-fashioned on this - we have iPods and listen to Pandora and all, but the technology hasn't made it upstairs yet). We started out with a little kids' Bible-based songs CD, which Zarya loved, but it kind of drove us adults batty after a while. What I didn't like is that the songs were close to Scripture, but not quite. It was like memorizing it just a bit wrong for all the verses, and the tunes were catchy... obnoxiously catchy.

And so my great search for the perfect accompaniment for our mornings began! I wanted something that was straight Bible verses, quality music that adults can appreciate, and fun enough for toddlers. Here's what I found:

This was the winning one for us. Zarya LOVES that there are kids singing the songs and saying the verses (along with Steve Green), and the tunes are a nice mix of bouncy and serious. Andrew and I recognize a lot of the songs from our own childhoods, proof that these CDs aren't exactly brand-new! But they don't sound dated, and it's not like the Bible gets old. Great stuff for toddlers on up through elementary years, and the parents don't go crazy listening to it, either. You can have a listen at: http://www.christianbook.com/steve-green/hide-em-in-your-heart-2/5099921378522/pd/CD78592?event=ESRCG

Many friends have recommended Seeds Family Worship to me. I am really impressed with what they've produced - this picture is of their "Seeds of Courage" CD, but there are also many other albums with names like Seeds of Faith, Seeds of Praise, etc. I have friends with whom I was in a Bible study, and often when we came across a verse, they'd burst into song, thanks to having listened to Seeds music. I think these albums look pretty great for families with kids who are preschool age on up, and they are definitely on my wish list for the future, when Zarya is just a little bit older. You can listen here: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_20?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=seeds%20family%20worship&sprefix=seeds+family+worship%2Caps%2C232

So if you're thinking that learning verses set to music appeals to you, that's what my research unveiled!

Side note:

Available for a mere cent here: http://www.amazon.com/Word-God-Speak-Shelter-Various/dp/B000JJS7JI/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=1-1&keywords=word+of+God+speak+Shelter

I have this album and like it, but it didn't quite fit into this blog post because it's for adults, not kids. The reviews are not amazing, but my personal opinion is that I enjoy it!

Garden Bread Recipe

It seems every time I make a Facebook post involving food, at least a few people request the recipe. And since I just wrote about baking in my new kitchen for the first time and included the detail that I made carrot/zucchini spice bread, I thought I'd better put the recipe here so I'm ready for those requests!

It's actually a recipe I call Garden Bread. As with everything I make, I use recipes as suggestions and vary them a bit every time. But this is what I generally start with as a base for my variations:

4 cups grated zucchini and carrots (whatever percentage of each you want)
2 1/2 cups sugar (sometimes I use part brown and part white, sometimes all white)
1 1/2 cups oil
4 eggs
1 Tbls vanilla
6 cups flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 Tbls cinnamon

Variations: Add 1/2 cup of cocoa, add chocolate chips, or add cloves/allspice/nutmeg (I just shake in a bit of each).

Mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients, then combine the two. Pour into three or four (depending on if you prefer bigger or smaller loaves) greased loaf pans or three dozen greased muffin tins or some combination thereof. Bake at 350 - generally it takes at least 50 minutes for loaves, and 20-something minutes for muffins.

And if you think it sounds ridiculous to make that much at once and your freezer doesn't have space for loaves to lounge around, just halve the recipe and you'll have a more reasonable amount.

New House

Making fried rice with the help of my sous chef

Not a great picture, but you can see the entire kitchen in it

Somebody got a brand-new zebra bean bag chair!

Sunset over the neighbor's backyard (and ours, up to the fence)

We have a house! We're moved in! It's a little exhausting and overwhelming, but also very exciting. We're still just kind of getting used to life in our new digs. I'm happy to report that we're almost entirely unpacked. We're down to the dregs, the "where on earth do we keep old college yearbooks/light bulbs/used batteries/etc." kind of stuff. You know, the stuff that eventually ends up in a box or closet somewhere, but we have to figure out exactly which closet and box!

We haven't quite gotten around to taking many pictures, but here are a few. We love the view out the back - the neighbor's former horse pasture (no horses anymore, just fences and grass). It's really quiet and private! After living in some pretty noisy places (Musoma, an apartment), we're thoroughly enjoying the peacefulness of our new setting.

The kitchen is a bit short on counter space, but it looks better now than it did in the pictures above, when I had just gotten home from a shopping trip and had stuff strewn all over. Then again, I suppose right now it has a breadmaker out on it and the dishes from lunch are drying on a towel on the counter, so it's still full, just with different things that don't seem quite as messy.

Zarya's favorite part of the house is her new zebra bean bag chair, particularly if Curious George is on TV. She and her rabbit (who used to be my rabbit) like to spend a little time there in the morning, if I'm feeling desperate/generous enough to let her watch a bit of Curious George. And these days, a little time to unpack without her help has been motivation enough!