The 1500 Facebook Likes Giveaway!

This giveaway has now ended.

I promised my Facebook fans that once we hit 1500 "likes" on Facebook that there would be a giveaway! I so enjoy all of my followers on Facebook, and love some of the conversations that go on there! I find it comical that about two years ago I didn't even know what Facebook was! Little did I know.... :)

To thank all of my followers for being such great fans, I wanted to do a giveaway!

I have three copies of Sarah Mae's "31 Days To Clean" E-book to give away!

(Thanks to Far Above Rubies!)

I've written about this E-book before here. Let me just say I have found this the most inspiring E-book I have ever read. I'm delighted to be able to bless three people with a copy!

I also am giving away a $15.00 coupon to Lilla Rose!

This coupon can be used on any product on the Lilla Rose website that is $15.00 or less! I'll give you a hint, the flexi clips are my favorite! I have been wearing the Princess Tiara Bobby Pins in my hair lately, and they are so pretty as well!

To enter, I'm trying out a new type of entry form! Just follow the steps below in the PunchTag. If you can't get it to work, just leave one comment letting me know what your favorite topic has been lately on The Modest Mom blog!

Frumpy To Fabulous Link Up!

Photo Credit

The week is over! I have been pleasantly surprised how much this week of going from frumpy to fabulous has blessed my marriage! It has made me focus on my husband, and think a lot more about him. I've found that there has been a lot more flirting going on between us, and the petty tension that seems to build up over nothing has been far less.

I do not plan to end this challenge, as I love the results that have come from it! So many times we feel guilty as moms to spend any time on *us* as we are so busy trying to keep up with our children, house, and husband (and normally in that order). But I've found that if I spend 10-20 more minutes each day to make sure I look extra nice, spritz on that perfume, put on a few touches of make-up, have my hair fixed nice, etc. that it makes a difference all day long! It's not just in how my husband and I relate to each other, but in how I view myself all day long. I'm not so down on myself, but more happy and confident as a woman because I'm actually taking care of myself! I think it's the same as the concept of putting on your shoes in the morning, you seem to get more done if you are fully dressed for the day.

So how did your week go? Was it a total success or a failure? I would love to have you link up and share! The linky will be up for a week, so you have time to write your post and share!

If I Could But Know HIs Heart- Frumpy To Fabulous Update

Photo Credit

Are you discovering your husband's heart through our Frumpy to Fabulous week? Once we start asking questions, and discover how he likes us to look, it does become easier to know how to please him!

Yesterday was a very busy day, with a lot of chaos happening. One child was keeping me on my toes, and it seemed as soon as I corrected this child for doing something naughty, they were off to do something else naughty! I was in the middle of shipping out orders for The Modest Mom, when in walks my husband from work. He is self employed, so I never know exactly what time he will show up.

I went to give him a hug and told him I was so sorry, that I had plans to have my hair curled, mascara on, and some tinted lip balm on before he got home but it just didn't happen. He hugged me tight and told me I looked beautiful, that I smelled good because I had taken a shower, and that he loved the color of my shirt. Awwww, talk about melting his wife's heart!

I hope this challenge is helping you not just stop and think about what your husband likes, but is also helping you fall in love with your husband even more. I know that's happening for me!

A link up is coming tomorrow, so get your blog posts ready if you want to join and tell us how your week went and what you did to go from Frumpy to Fabulous!

Frumpy Or Fabulous...An Update On Day One.

Photo Credit

To read the original post go here.

I thought I would give a quick update on how my day went yesterday. I will admit to waking up grumpy and exhausted, as I was awake past midnight trying to eat enough food to satisfy this little baby in my tummy who makes me ravenously hungry! My day was filled with errands, a supposed midwife apt. that got canceled, and a l-o-n-g drive to pick up a craigslist deal. So my husband was home before I was last night.

Obviously since I was out running errands I was already dressed nicely. While I was at the health food store, I made sure to stop and pick up some tinted chap stick. I am all out of any sort of lip stick, or lip gloss, thanks to my little girl getting into my lip stick. :) I looked through all the colors and ended up getting a Burt's Bee Lip Shimmer.

I really want to try the new Burt's Bee Tinted Lip Gloss as I read some ladies online writing how much they liked it. My health food store didn't carry it though, and the lip shimmer was a few dollars cheaper so I went with that for now. :)

Do you like to wear lip gloss, chap stick, or lip stick everyday? I'd love to hear what you prefer!

"For Beautiful Eyes, Look For The Good In Others...."

Photo Credit

Are You A Frumpy Or Fabulous Wife?

Photo Credit

Remember the days when we were courting/dating our husbands? The time we would spend in front of the mirror before he came over, making sure every speck of our hair was put together and that our outfit was just right?

We took such pains because we wanted to please him. His compliments (the seal of his approval) over our appearance were important to us.

Do we still do that? Do we still seek to win the seal of his approval?

Once you said "I Do" and the first baby came, did all thought of dressing nice vanish behind a flurry of spit rags, dirty diapers, and midnight feedings?

Just because modesty is important to us, that gives us no excuse as wives to let ourselves go. I've seen many beautiful, well kept, radiant women who are completely modest. As such, I'm sure they are a joy for their husbands to behold.

Beautiful. Well kept. Radiant. Are these the words your husband would employ in complimenting your appearance today? Or would it go sound more like, "Well, at least she's modest."

Well, that's nice and all, but I'm sure that's not quite as thrilling to your ears than if he were to comment on your appearance by saying, "You look radiant today." Suddenly, you feel like you're courting all over again : )

Shortly after we were married my husband and I went through what we now call our "radical stage" of married life :) We jumped head first with great zeal into every aspect of "Godly Christian Living", at least what we thought it to be. Since then much of our perspective has changed, but our basic principles of modesty, homeschooling, and a close knit family has not. It just looks different now.

At that point in our lives I wore a head covering. Most of them were ones that I sewed myself. It's hard to find a pattern for head coverings (at least it was back then when we didn't have internet). I made myself a head covering that was supposed to look like a snood. All of my hair was pulled up into it. The only problem was that it never looked centered on my head. Some days it would look terribly cock eyed and off center. The pictures taken of me back then are painful to look at now, because I remember my attitude about it was "I'm not supposed to care about such things - how I look and all."

How wrong I was! Even if you wear a cape dress and a head covering out of conviction, there is still a right and a wrong way to present yourself for your husband's pleasure.

When I'm pregnant I always struggle with acne due to hormones. I've really had to remember to stay on top of using my facial products I have. Yes, it does take more time, but it's important!

Every husband wants their wife to dress a certain way, and I'm not here to dictate or give suggestions as to what that might be. But ask yourself, do you try to follow it? Do the desires of your husband determine to any degree the clothes you wear, the jewelery you put on, the amount of makeup that is on your face?

My husband has made quite a few comments since I cut my hair that he likes me better without bangs. Now he wasn't demanding I grow my bangs out, and he even didn't come right out and ask me to grow out my bangs. I prefer to have bangs, but recently just decided that there was no harm in growing out my bangs. I want to give my husband pleasure in how I look. If something as simple as growing out my bangs will give him pleasure, why not do it?

Now by writing this I'm not saying to give up all of your own tastes and preferences. My husband has certain colors he likes to see on me, and I have my own colors I like to wear, so I compromise and have both colors in my wardrobe :)

This coming week, may I invite you to join me in making a conscious effort to look tidy and well kept - even radiant - when our husbands come home? No pajamas on when he walks through the door ladies! If you have an extra five minutes, curl your hair in the morning, or put on that perfume he likes. If your dress needs ironed, make sure you do that before putting it on! It's so easy to slip into survival mode as wives, and forget about our appearance.

I'll do a blog post on Friday to see how everyone did, and even add a linky if you want to blog about how you did and link up!

Winner Of The Cookbook Giveaway!

The two winners of the cookbook giveaway are:

Allison (allisonmdodge@)

And

Dr. Heidi Bencsik (drheidib@)

Congratulations! I have sent emails to both of you!

A Random Act Of Kindness

You never know who is watching you.

It could be the stranger who is amazed over the love you show your children as you are shopping pushing an overflowing cart of groceries. The baby is strapped to your back in the Ergo, the toddler swinging off the back of the cart, and you have a little line of ducklings following behind you. :)

Or it could be that you aren't having the best of days, and you find yourself snapping and growling at your children through the shopping experience.

And the stranger is still watching you.

I'm sure we can all relate to both experiences. I'm not condoning the bad shopping experience, but I can say I have done it.

Yesterday I was at Costco shopping for a few items. This has been a very stressful week (notice the silence on the blog? There is always a reason why!). Our gas was turned off Tuesday night, as I thought I smelled a gas leak. I called our gas company and they arrived here the same time my husband arrived home from a meeting. A leak was NOT discovered, but the man did a house inspection basically and found that we have copper piping going up to our appliances. That is now out of code and has to be replaced. Because he discovered the copper, he turned off our gas! I have not had a stove or hot water since Tuesday night.

Then my Mom's birthday was Thursday, she would have been 56. It was a hard day filled with tears and many thoughts of her.

Back to Costco. I was there getting paper plates since I really can't wash dishes right now. I had my four children with me. Everyone commented on how sweet they were, and it really was a good shopping trip. At the end we all got some water, and of course my three year old decided she wanted to dump her water. I told the people there was a water spill, and we headed out the door. At that point I was getting frazzled!

As we stopped to have our receipt checked at the last door, the lady who worked there handed me a beautiful bouquet of purple flowers and told me they were for me!! I was amazed! She said that a gentleman routinely buys a bouquet of flowers for mothers with children and leaves them for them to give to the mother. Gratitude filled my heart.

Normally when I go out I get a lot of raised eyebrows and amazed looks over the fact I have four children with a fifth on the way.

Here was someone who actually appreciated the fact that I was a mother to children! He also had no way of knowing that it was my mother's birthday and what a hard day I had been having.

So next time you go out shopping, beware! You just might have someone watching you to see what kind of mother you are!

Visit Our Sponsors and Affiliates!

Lilla Rose - Beautiful Hair Clips and Jewelry

Bulk Herb Store- Herbs, Salves, Books, And The Best Pregnancy Tea Ever!

Vision Forum - Godly Resources For Your Home and Lesson Time

Made On Lotion - Lotion Bars, Lip Balm, Diaper Rash Cream & More

Free Shipping at Lilla Rose!

Lilla Rose is offering FREE SHIPPING on orders of $20.00 or more! This sale runs from Friday the 22nd, through Saturday the 23rd at midnight.

Now is the perfect time to pick up a new flexi clip, or try one of the new You Pins!

When I had my long waist length hair, I was amazed over how well a flexi clip would hold up my hair all day long, and never give me a headache!

They also sell beautiful jewelry, bobby pins, o rings, headbands, and hair sticks! These are the ultimate look in femininity to me. :) I love to be girly, yet practical and these serve both purposes!

My To Do List For The Week...

The weekend left me strangely revived. I'm not sure why as Saturday was a difficult day emotionally since it was the one year anniversary of my mother's passing. I worked really hard that day to stay busy. We have house projects to do so I power washed our fence to repaint it, sorted through tubs of children's clothes and carried them all downstairs and into the garage to store there. Mind you all in the heat and me being 16 weeks pregnant. My husband kept telling me I was working to hard. I suppose he was right....

Sunday we were busy all day with church in the morning and evening, and a baby shower for a friend in the afternoon.

Somehow through all the busyness, I woke up this morning with this to do list on my mind. So these are my goals for this week.

1. To walk in gentleness before my children

2. To speak words of loving encouragement more than I speak words of discipline.

3. To be a true help meet for my husband, encouraging him if he is down, being quick to be there for his needs, and support him in his business. That includes having nice cold drinks of lemonade or juice ready for him when he comes home after a full day of lawn care. The heat is supposed to be really bad this week!

4. Take the time to focus on eating enough protein this week so I can grow a healthy baby and keep my blood sugar stable - thus in turn creating a happy mama for my children, born and unborn! This includes making sure I am fixing enough meat for lunch and dinner, eating boiled or scrambled eggs for breakfast, and making putter fingers today for a high protein snack. Also making sure I am drinking red raspberry tea daily along with my water and taking all my vitamins faithfully.

5. To try, and try again to stay on top of dishes and laundry. Those are my two biggest challenges in housekeeping! Yes I've read all the books telling me how to stay on top of it, it's just to actually do it. I also normally crash right after dinner and have a hard time finding the energy to go do the dishes then....

So there you have it!

Did you wake up with a renewed vision for your week? Do you have any special goals for this week?

I'd love to have you share them here with us!

A Cookbook Giveaway!

Whether we like to cook or not, as mothers we are in charge of planning and cooking our families dinner each night. I love to try a new recipe once in a while, but it has to be easy and family friendly. Martha Stewart type cookbooks just don't get used!

I love to look up recipes online, but I also have several cookbooks sitting on my kitchen shelf that are used often. I like recipes that are written from other moms who understand time constraints in the kitchen.

A blog reader sent me a cookbook to review that their church just recently put together as a fundraiser. I like church cookbooks, as normally the food is basic standard meals that are easy to put together. I wasn't disappointed when looking through this cookbook! There are quite a few recipes I am excited to try out.

Here is some information on the cookbook."We are growing so fast that even having three different worship services on Sunday is barely enough to accommodate all of our parishioners. It's time to build a bigger church! To meet our financial goals, we've published a beautiful hardback cookbook with full color cover and dividers featuring over 300 of the best recipes from families and friends of the St. John Vianney Latin Mass Community in Maple Hill, KS."

They even have a page of free recipes online so you can get a feel for what is in the book! Click here to see the recipes, and make sure you check out the Homemade Rice A Roni recipe. I haven't tried it yet but it's on my list to make with a variation of brown rice in it.

All proceeds from the sale of the cookbook go to help build a church, so when you buy a cookbook you are helping a group of people get a new church faster! You can order online here.

I also have two of these cookbooks to giveaway!!

To enter, simply leave a comment letting me know if you use cookbooks frequently, or if you cook from scratch without recipes.

For extra entries, follow on facebook, twitter, share this giveaway on facebook, or blog about it! Leave a seperate comment for each thing you do. Please leave a way to contact you if you win!

This giveaway ends July 22 at midnight.

*Please note, I was sent a cookbook free of charge to review. Also, by writing this review I am not endorsing any certain type of faith.*

Visit Our Sponsors and Affiliates!

Lilla Rose - Beautiful Hair Clips and Jewelry

Bulk Herb Store- Herbs, Salves, Books, And The Best Pregnancy Tea Ever!

Vision Forum - Godly Resources For Your Home and Lesson Time

Made On Lotion - Lotion Bars, Lip Balm, Diaper Rash Cream & More

Grey Nursing/Maternity Dress On Sale!

I shared a few weeks ago about a favorite dress of mine.

I looked on Amazon and saw that they are trying to clearance out the grey dress, and it's on sale for just $15.74 which is a savings of 65% off! I would snatch it up at this price. Sadly, the size small is sold out so I can't get one. :( But every other size is still available! This is a extremely comfortable dress, and for this price it's a great deal! I love how versatile it is.

Our Activity Cabinet For Children

We started our first official day of school on Monday. I still have some things to tweak in our schedule, mainly how to fit it all in and still get a nap!

Before we started school I made sure that I got our activity cabinet all straightened up. This is where I store things that I don't want the children having instant access to, as we all know that children love to mix pieces of games. These are reserved for times when Mama really needs to get something done, so I'll pull a new activity out of the cabinet. It doesn't always work, but having variety of some kind is nice.

I swiped, oops, I mean politely asked my husband for the use of this cabinet. :) He was using it in his cabinet shop but he graciously emptied it for me and put his screws and drawer glides on something different. It's just a big plastic shelf with doors. I think it's made more for a garage but it fit just right at the back of my laundry room, which is off of our dining room where we do school.

No, you may NOT see the rest of my laundry room right now! ;)

At the very top I store our GeoSafari. Growing up we had a GeoSafari and I was determined to find one for my children. We have some early phonics type games and geography games. We are working on learning all of our states this year so the USA game cards will be used a lot. My oldest is seven, and I still pretty much have to sit and supervise this game, but that's ok! I enjoy playing it with him. :)

On the first shelf I have a tub of magnext which is a popular item around here! My boys just love to play with these and I've been amazed over some of the neat creations they have built with them.

Then we have playdough (does anyone else have a love/hate relationship with playdough?) a flannel book that was mine when I was little, doodle boards, and a clothesline game in a bag that I recently made for my three and five year old to play with.

The second shelf holds our magnet boards. My Mom found these and she always would bring them along when we were running errands for the children to play with construction magnets or farm magnets. I have paint and markers (can I confess to seldom, if ever using paint around here? We love our crayons, and they don't make a mess!), a Melissa and Doug wooden Hangman game, and the capital ABC Magnatab. I purchased the Magnatab several months ago after reading about it on Timberdoodle. I have been requiring my five year old to sit on the couch when I need to work with the others and practice writing his letters with the magnetic pencil stylus. It pulls up little beads as you write, then you can use your finger to write the letter as you push them back down. Overall I like this a lot, my only complaint is that the magnetic stylus is really strong so it pulls up the magnets almost to quick. Or maybe that's my husband's complaint with it. :) They now have the lowercase and the number board out, so I may have to get those as well! My three year old daughter uses this also.

The third shelf stores a wooden puzzle. Yes, one little wooden puzzle. I finally decided that lots of the wooden puzzles for infants were driving me batty as the pieces would be dumped out and left to scatter everywhere. I purged all but one, and normally just pull it out when Olivia is sitting at the table in her booster seat.

On the rest of the shelf is our board games, which consist of Blurt, ZooLogic, Blokus (love that game!), Hot Dots Jr. (for my 3 year old) Brain Box (again, love it!), Uno, and Connect 4.

The fourth shelf holds our Rush Hour game (I found at a used book sale a few months back), Pattern Blocks and cards to build designs with, the game Trouble, and Fantacolor Junior.

And on the last shelf is our Wedgits and our Lauri Number puzzle with pegs. We go in spurts with our Wedgits, honestly right now the child who enjoys it the most is our 18 month old! She really likes stacking the blocks together, and gets the concept of how they work really well. My five year old son also likes to play with these. My three year old daughter - not so much. :) They have a lot of chunky blocks upstairs in their room so that might be part of it though. I do pull them out a lot of my youngest though. Anything to keep her happy and busy during school time is great!

I'd love to hear what activities you use to keep your little ones busy during school hours!

Visit Our Sponsors and Affiliates!

Lilla Rose - Beautiful Hair Clips and Jewelry

Bulk Herb Store- Herbs, Salves, Books, And The Best Pregnancy Tea Ever!

Vision Forum - Godly Resources For Your Home and Lesson Time

Made On Lotion - Lotion Bars, Lip Balm, Diaper Rash Cream & More

Melissa and Doug Sale Plus $10 Free Credit!

HomeSav just started a Melissa and Doug deal that I thought would interest some of you. If you use my link you will earn $10 credit when signing up, which covers the shipping of $7.95 plus a bit more. If you are looking for a gift this might help you out!

They also have a folding wooden castle my boys would love!

Maker Of The Home

Maker Of The Home

Little maker of the home,

What do you really do?

When all is said and done,

What will be said of you?

You rise each day and like the sun,

You give your life away,

And tired, you run the course again.

You need to hear Him say,

"Well done,

Oh maker of the home,

Well done!

You labour not alone.

And though your eyes may never see,

This home you live to make,

You make for Me.

Your life a shadow seems,

Compared to what others do.

But who would catch the tears

And point to Me,

If not for you?

And when they've grown,

Imprinted on their hearts will always be,

How good, how right, to give their lives,

And build a home for Me."

Lyrics by Beverly Bradley.

At a recent homeschool conference I heard Beverly Bradley sing this song, and it was beautiful! I was inspired by the song and wish I could find the music online.

Let's build homes where the Lord is the center, and He is a welcome guest! As mothers, we do not receive much praise or acclimation's for what we do. Some even despise us. But let us press on, laboring each day to stamp on our children's hearts a sense of the Lord.

Today, what will be said of you?

Visit Our Sponsors and Affiliates!

Lilla Rose - Beautiful Hair Clips and Jewelry

Bulk Herb Store- Herbs, Salves, Books, And The Best Pregnancy Tea Ever!

Vision Forum - Godly Resources For Your Home and Lesson Time

Made On Lotion - Lotion Bars, Lip Balm, Diaper Rash Cream & More

How To Physically Survive Morning Sickness

This is a sequel to my post How To Spiritually Survive Morning Sickness.

Morning Sickness can physically require so much out a woman. I have a friend who loses 20 pounds because she simply can't eat when she is going through morning sickness. I lost 10 pounds this time, and at 15 weeks I still have not regained all of it back. After having gone through morning sickness five times now, here are some tips I have learned from my midwives and friends.

*Several months before pregnancy take several capsules of milk thistle daily. This is suggested by Shonda Parker, and is supposed to help strengthen your liver in preparation. Shonda had terrible morning sickness with most of her pregnancies, but the pregnancy she took milk thistle ahead of greatly improved how she felt. I never have consistently done this before getting pregnant so I can't vouch for it. A friend says it helps her through her difficult pregnancies.

*Eat all the time! This is the most important tip. We have discovered that a lot of my morning sickness comes from my low blood sugar problems, and when I get sick and fatigued, and don't eat it makes everything 100 times worse. Once you get in the cycle of not eating though, it is very difficult to get out of it.

*Popsicles, saltine crackers, mints, and Sprite are all things that help me when my tummy is very upset. Those are all things that I rarely throw up. Nothing else makes it on the list of what I can actually keep down.

*Indulge in what you are craving. When nothing at all sounds good but that taco from the fast food place you like, just go get it. I like to eat healthy and can't stand most cheap fast food places. But when I'm going through morning sickness I have to go and get food out a lot. Thankfully this time my craving ended up at Subway a lot for a fresh sub, which is a lot better craving than it could be. Be careful of your cravings though and think through throwing it up (yuck I know). I craved Long John Silvers really bad one day, and went and got some fish. Throwing it up was the worst thing EVER. It had such a bad chemical taste to it. (Sorry!).

* Try getting out of your house. As strange as it sounds, when I'm going through terrible morning sickness I can still normally eat a little bit more if I'm at our common meal at church on Sunday, or at my sister's house, etc. Sometimes it's not much more, but anything helps. My last pregnancy this helped me a great deal, just to get out. It also lifts your spirits. This pregnancy it didn't help as much, I was just so sick.

* Try taking B6 and Unisom at night. For some woman this helps a great deal, and it is an over the counter medicine you can try. I took half a pill of Unisom with a B6 capsule. For the first few days it worked wonderfully. Then it seemed to lose it's ability to help and I went back to being sick. I also have read that this natural supplement can help morning sickness, though I doubt it would help the severe kind. The lady at the health food store I shop at told me they sell a lot of it.

* Be open to doing what it takes to get better. I never thought I would ever go on medicine for morning sickness. But this pregnancy I had to resort to going on Zofran. After losing 10 pounds and realizing I was just going to keep losing weight, and laying in bed for a month because of severe fatigue I just couldn't go on. I texted my midwife and she called me in a prescription that night. Within a weeks time I was feeling quite a bit better. I still threw up some, but not nearly as bad as I had been and it got to where I just couldn't eat dinner. That's better than not eating at all! For some woman I've read it totally takes away your nausea, others it doesn't seem to help at all. The downside of the medicine is it is very expensive. We paid $125 for 30 pills, which was supposed to only be for 10 days. I was able to stretch out the pills and not take three a day so one bottle got me over the worst of my morning sickness. I also had someone tell me that Costco sells it much cheaper through their pharmacy. Try to get a generic brand if possible. We paid that much for our generic - I can't imagine what the name brand medicine costs.

* Drink fluid of some sort. When I'm going through the worst of morning sickness, I cannot drink water. It just tastes terrible and I throw it up. Yet I crave it so badly and I know I need it. If you can get down sips of juice or natural pop from a health food store that would be wonderful. After my medicine started kicking in I really tried to get more water down, but up until about a week ago water was still difficult. I started drinking Mama's Red Raspberry Brew tea from The Bulk Herb Store and it tasted wonderful to me! I make a big pitcher full, add honey while it is still hot so it will dissolve, and chill it in the fridge. My midwife said that the tea could totally replace my water while I was still struggling getting it down if it had to. I have a water container that I carry around with me to get my liquids down during the day. My goal is to drink one container a day of the tea and one container of water. I love to put lemon in my water - it helps me get it down better!

* Ask for help! You can't do it all alone while feeling so sick. Don't feel bad about admitting that. It does not mean you a failure. It means you are incredibly busy lying there growing a baby. If you have to hire someone to help, do it if you have the funds available. If you have family or friends who can come over, let them help! My husband did all he could in the evenings and weekends, but during the day when he was at work I had to have help.

* Try and be patient with yourself. At 15 weeks I get frustrated that I still am struggling with getting sick. It's not nearly as bad, but it seems every time I go to church I end up getting sick. When people ask how I'm doing I'm getting weary of telling the truth - I don't feel good! I still look at food sometimes and have the urge to run to the bathroom. I keep telling myself this will pass at some point, even if I have to go all 40 weeks struggling with this.

And please remember that every woman is so incredibly different. What triggers my morning sickness may not trigger yours. Likewise, what helps me through may not help you. I've also learned that while I love using herbs and believe strongly in the help they can bring, sometimes medicine is in order. Please don't judge a woman if she has to go on medicine. I'm sure nobody really wants to go on medicine while pregnant, but hard choices must be made and in my case I don't regret going on the medicine one bit. Honestly my only regret is that I didn't do it sooner. My children went through a lot while I was so sick, and emotionally it was terribly difficult on our whole family. I'm still trying to play catch up on my house from when I was down. Until you have gone through a severe form of morning sickness I just don't think most woman can understand what it is really like. I *thought* I knew all about morning sickness until this pregnancy. God knows I need to be humbled :)

Review of FantaColor Junior Toddler Toy!

Timberdoodle contacted me a while back and asked me if I wanted to pick from a list of Toddler toys to review. I didn't hesitate! It was hard to choose, but I finally narrowed it down to the FantaColor Junior toy. I was attracted to the picture cards the bright plastic pieces you pop into the board!

My three year old was excited when I opened it up for her to play with it. The game comes with a clear plastic container that holds all the pegs. You slide a pattern card into the transparent board, and then pop the chunky pegs into the board to match up the colors. It's easy to pop the colors in for little hands!

The game comes with 8 different pattern cards with images on both sides. One side is color and they are supposed to match up the color pegs with the picture. The other is black and white, and they can use what colors they want.

I was intrigued by the game, and enjoyed sitting down with my daughter to play it. I found she didn't stick with it as long as I had hoped though. But my 18 month old daughter loves it!! She will sit and stick and the pegs in (of course not by the right color) and loves to handle the pegs, picking them up and dropping them in the box. It keeps her quite busy!

Timberdoodle has this as part of their core curriculum for Toddlers. I have looked at their core curriculum's several times, and they look excellent. I like the vision that Timberdoodle has for children. Keep things very hands on, with as much creative play as possible to help them learn.

If you would like to receive a free homeschool catalog, you can sign up here to get one! Also, Timberdoodle is throwing a huge online homeschool convention this Friday, complete with lots and lots of giveaways! You can read more about it on their blog here.

Winner of the Scentsy Giveaway!

The winner of the Scentsy giveaway is:

Rubiesamericana! Congratulations!

Happy 4th Of July!!

Little George Washington (my second born son!) shaking Big George Washington's hand last year at our Fourth of July gathering.

Concerning July 4th - John Adams (2nd USA President) wrote to his wife:

"It ought to be celebrated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward, evermore."

Today is one of our family's favorite holidays! We always have a huge celebration out at my Mother In Law's farm, with a large gathering of friends. We do just what John Adams wrote above, we have a time of giving solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. There is a speech given every year by a different man, historical reenactments, patriotic music, and then lots of food, fun, and fellowship!

I hope you all have a blessed Fourth of July remembering our God given freedoms that we celebrate!

New Products At The Modest Mom!

Rainbow Striped Denim Skirt. We are in *love* with this woman's skirt!

This skirt is amazing! You can wear it as a woman's skirt...

...with the panel folded over like so.

Or you can wear it as a maternity skirt....

...with the panel folded up over your tummy!!

Finally, I have discovered a modest layering shell! I am selling them in white and black.

They work really well for pregnancy, nursing, and during the regular seasons of life as well!

What is your favorite new item?

Visit Our Sponsors and Affiliates!

Lilla Rose - Beautiful Hair Clips and Jewelry

Bulk Herb Store- Herbs, Salves, Books, And The Best Pregnancy Tea Ever!

Vision Forum - Godly Resources For Your Home and Lesson Time

Made On Lotion - Lotion Bars, Lip Balm, Diaper Rash Cream & More