A contest!

Hello friends!

If you're connected to me on Facebook, you might be sick of seeing this by now, but there is a giveaway in progress through December 14th. The main prize is a complete set of The Truth Chronicles, all autographed by Tim and me. Follow the link to my Facebook Author Page and click on the "Giveaway" tab to get started. http://tinyurl.com/ongwalm Be sure to share with your friends, too.

Also, just so you're aware, my main website/blog, www.jwexperience.com, now has an active store where you can purchase the books individually or in sets (the set option will be active this week) directly from me. They make great gifts for children ages 8-12 in particular, though many younger and older children as well as adults have enjoyed them, too. Read what one mother had to say:

"My 9-year-old was sent to bed at 7pm and instead stayed awake reading by flashlight until midnight, finishing the first two books of The Truth Chronicles series in one night! He came to me saying they are some of the best books he's ever read. I made him get some sleep before starting on the 3rd book in the series. We'll be sure to leave book reviews soon! Thank you soooo much for the books!!" ~ Tammy from Washington

If you get a chance to read these books, be sure to let me know what you think.

God bless, and have a wonderful day!

Lukas: the 11th month

 

It's hard to believe that our little man has already been with us almost a year! His ready smile and giggle, his sweet snuggles and silly games - all have brought so much joy to our formerly quiet home, and we are unspeakably blessed and grateful. Even in the middle of teething, when it seems he only communicates by ear-splitting screaming. And yes, even when it comes to explosive, nasty diapers. ;)

October has been a full month for us. We took a road trip out to the Cincinnati area for a week, spending time with friends and doing some sight-seeing. We tried to limit most days to no more than 5-6 hours on the road, and Lukas did really well for the most part. I will say that we definitely learned the value of a snack-catcher full of cheerios! ;) He was a trooper the days we carried him around the Creation Museum and other sites, and he especially had fun meeting a new little friend, Drew, there at the Museum.

Four teeth are easily seen now, and the other two on top will be showing soon!

Coming back home was a bit of an adjustment for all of us. Lukas had a week or so of fussiness, likely brought on in part by teething. He had his 5th tooth pop through the last day of our trip, and his 6th one made its appearance last week (both on top, beside his front two). They're sharp little toofies, and he sure likes to use them to chomp down on anything he can stick in his mouth (watch your fingers!).

The latest and greatest thing around here is that Lukas is now pulling himself up to standing on pretty much anything that holds still long enough (and he's fast now!). It's a scary thing for this mama to watch, seeing his shaky legs and knowing how easily he could tumble - and often does. But he's finally learning that he needs to keep hanging on to things instead of trying to jump around in his excitement...and he's also getting a lot better at catching himself when he loses his balance. Cruising around the furniture has started happening just in the past week, and he's one excited little man!

Most of our photo session consisted of him "talking and/or moving towards me, LOL.
The ball provided a bit of distraction to keep him in one place.

Scooting around the floor still happens, especially in the kitchen where there's nothing he can really hang on to for standing up. Sometimes he sits down and hitches himself along with his arms, other times he does a funny sort of three-legged crawl, like a lame puppy. :) I know he'll learn to crawl for real at some point, and I'm curious to see if it happens before or after he takes off walking. So much fun to see him learning new things!

Oh, and his absolute favorite game right now is "peek-a-boo". He's started grabbing at any kind of cloth - clothing, a blanket, a diaper, my skirt - and holding it over his face, just quietly waiting for us to notice and say, "Where's Lukas?" Then he pops out with a grin and a giggle, only to repeat it a dozen times. So fun! :D

Emptying cupboards and shelves is another favorite activity. Most of the lower cupboards in the kitchen are fine for him to play in, and he has a grand time pulling out all the pans and banging them around while I'm cooking. Makes for a little bit of work cleaning up after him, but it won't be too much longer before he can start learning how to put them back, too.

Our sweet little man. <3

Several of our friends, including a couple at church, have little boys around Lukas' age. We've seen them several times in the past month, and it's amusing to see how excited Lukas gets when he sees someone close to his size. He starts up a happy, friendly babble, wants to feel their clothes and faces and fingers, and has no qualms about sharing toys or even his beloved Cheerio container. Definitely no shyness here! We're thankful for these little "friends" God has provided already, and it'll be fun to see how he continues to interact as they get older.

Lukas: Our little man at 10 months

"Little man" does seem to be the perfect name for Lukas these days, as he has grown up so much in the past month. Not only has he had a physical growth spurt, gaining 1 lb. 4 oz. and growing an inch taller, but he's acting a lot more grown up in other ways, too. Suddenly our cuddly baby has been replaced by a wiggly almost-toddler who must look and feel and taste everything in sight, until he drops from exhaustion. :)

Lukas is very gradually making strides (almost literally) in mobility. He's not very fast at it yet, but he's figured out how to scoot around on his bottom. Once in a while he'll try scooting on his tummy, usually backwards, but generally he prefers the sitting position. This has allowed him to check out all the kitchen cupboards, explore under the dining table and under Mommy's desk, and find all kinds of fun things to play with. :) It's exciting to see him checking out our home in new ways, and we are gradually baby-proofing so he can explore more freely. We feel spoiled to have gone 10 months without doing any baby-proofing at all!

 

Standing up is the latest and greatest when it comes to excitement. Oh-so-thrilling! He still needs a lot of support, but enjoys walking around the house while we hold his hands. Lately he's been pulling himself up to his knees on any available objects (Mommy's legs, a footstool, the toilet...), so it likely won't be that much longer before he makes it all the way to his feet and starts cruising in earnest. The days of pretty stuff on the coffee table are numbered! :)

All this increased activity has made naptimes more essential. The last couple weeks I've been making a point to lay him in his bed with a bottle around the same time each afternoon. Though that never satisfied him before, now he will usually go to sleep very quickly and easily, often sleeping 60-90 minutes at a time. Since he has never napped regularly before, and rarely napped more than 30 minutes at a stretch even when little, this is amazing! I've been really grateful for the chance to get a few more things done around the house in that window of time. He's still waking 2-3+ times a night for food, but as long as it's not every hour or more as it has been a few nights we can live with that. For now. :)

Communication has been an exciting area of development again. In last month's update I wrote about Lukas' fascination with the neighborhood dogs and imitating their barking. We can now ask him, "What does the puppy say?" and 90% of the time he promptly answers with his soft little "Woof-woof". So adorable! He still hasn't made the visual-audio connection yet, but we recently got several board books with lots of puppy illustrations and I'm sure he'll be enjoying them.

 

Toys continue to be a lot of fun. His favorites are a tractor and a truck - spinning the wheels occupies a lot of time! He also enjoys flipping through board books, and rolling/throwing avocado pits (clean, large ones) across the kitchen floor. :) Pretty much anything new is interesting and must be examined closely. Sure would be fascinating to know what's going on in his little mind! Oh, and he now clearly recognizes himself and both Joe and I in photos or video, which is a lot of fun. I suspect the photo books I put together for him on Shutterfly are going to be very popular reading material. :)

Lukas is enjoying his solid food a lot more these days. Oatmeal is a new favorite, along with peaches, pears, and avocado. He's especially been enjoying the miniature peaches and pears from Grandpa and Grandma's farm! We try to give him two meals most days, and he's getting more consistent about eating a fair amount each time. He's very clear when he's done, though: the lips are locked shut and he shakes his head in a definite "no". ;) Nursing is gradually tapering off as my supply continues to dwindle...an emotional thing for me, but I'm thankful we had as many months as we did.

 

This month's challenge was a couple weeks or so when Lukas was apparently testing out his lungs, subjecting us to large amounts of ear-splitting SCREAMING at the tiniest frustration or for no reason at all. This wore Mama out pretty quickly! To our relief, this past week has been much better in this regard, the turning point being...

...two new teeth popped through! He now has 2 on top and 2 on bottom, so much chomping is in order. ;) We hadn't realized they were so close to coming through, but it does definitely provide an explanation for those extra difficult two weeks! Since then he has been practically angelic, the sweet little easy-going fellow we've come to love so much. We're hoping this continues for our upcoming road trip early next month!

Book review

We may have mentioned these programs on this blog before, but Abi and I both have participated in the BookSneeze and Blogging for Books programs off and on over the last few years. These have been great ways to come across new books that we might not otherwise have seen, and the best part is that we receive the books for free in exchange for a blog and retail review.

As a writer myself, I have become increasingly aware of the need to also be reading. Some old favorites serve as inspiration, but new titles add new perspectives.

I just finished my latest review book, Greater, and you can read my review here: http://www.jwexperience.com/2013/09/17/greater/

In other news, Tim Chaffey and I are working on finishing the rough draft for the sixth installment of The Truth Chronicles. Even better, Abi, Lukas, and I will be traveling to Kentucky to spend a few days with Tim and his family in early October. One of our goals for this trip is to do some final tweaking/editing before sending the draft off to our regular editor. We are still hopeful for a release by the end of this year.

To commemorate this latest publishing, I will be putting together at least one giveaway in a couple of months, where one of the prizes will be a set of all six volumes of The Truth Chronicles, in addition to some other titles to be determined. Look forward to that, and be sure to spread the word once the raffle hits the web!

Lukas at 9 months

Nine months?! It's hard to believe that three-quarters of a year has already passed since this special little guy came into our home. We love him more every day, and can't imagine life without him. The other day he happened to be taking a longer-than-usual nap over suppertime, and it seemed so quiet and lonely to have only Joe and I at the table. So thankful for this priceless treasure God has entrusted to us!

This month Lukas' new achievements have centered around communication. He is so interactive now - both with body language (like lifting his arms when he wants to be picked up), and verbally (he likes to greet us with a loud, cheery "HA" - his version of "Hi"). I wish we were more consistent with teaching him sign language as I think he'd be catching on to it by now. "Airplane" is the only one he seems to recognize at this point, and no wonder since we have so many planes going overhead every day.

Another sound Lukas listens for is the neighborhood dogs barking. He always perks up and looks around to see where the noise is coming from, then starts making soft "Woof, woof" sounds himself. If we respond in kind, we can have a little puppy-convo. ;) He has only seen a dog a few times in person, and though I have showed him pictures and video clips I don't think he's quite made the connection yet between the audio and the visual. Probably won't be long, though!

Lukas enjoys copying and exchanging other sounds, too - especially sniffing and fake coughing. It's pretty hilarious sometimes, and a lot of fun to feel like we are having a "conversation" of sorts. Makes him seem so much more like his own little person.

Lukas also enjoys games of repetition, like peek-a-boo, or having a lightweight blanket tossed over his head, or being fanned with a pillow, or bonked on the head with a fabric block. And he is extremely ticklish in certain spots. His little giggle is so infectious!

Another major achievement this month is that his first two teeth finally popped through, after being in progress since early April. :whew: Those little shiny things are sharp, too! We've had a few rough weeks of nursing as he had to learn not to bite mama, but I'm hopeful that things will improve soon.

He's having fun using those new teeth to eat all kinds of things. Peaches continue to be the top, all-time favorite, but he's also enjoyed banana (in very limited quantities, as it still tends to make him constipated), applesauce, pears, cucumber spears, quinoa, and avocado. Oh, and of course he really likes the little puffed grain treats we purchased in desperation to keep him happy on our road trip in early August. They are sweet and fun to pick up, and he'd eat them all day if we let him. Somebody has a sweet tooth just like Daddy! ;) So they are saved as treats for staying quiet in church, or for long car rides, and always eagerly welcomed.

Sleeping through the night seems to be a thing of the past, as he now wakes at least twice (and usually countless times) every night. We are both able to get right back to sleep, thankfully, but I'm hoping to see improvements in this area soon. :yawn:

Crawling still hasn't happened - kinda hard for him to learn, when he refuses to spend any time on his back or tummy these days! But he is ever so slowly figuring out how to maneuver himself around while sitting and has fabulous balance that way, so it wouldn't surprise me if one of these days he just takes off scooting that way. I know I'll have my hands full keeping up with him, then, but it's good to see him finally growing increasingly frustrated with being "stuck" in one spot. It'll be fun to see what the next month holds!

Slightly blurry...he doesn't sit still that well these days! :)

Lukas Paul Valour: 8 months old

Lukas' 7th month was a little bumpy in some ways. After going to visit my family for a long Independence Day weekend, he spent a week on a nursing strike as well as dealing with extra teething pain and some constipation. Not a fun time for our poor little Bubby - or for Mama or Daddy! We were all super thankful when he finally started feeling better and wanted to nurse normally again. We missed our normally-smiley, easy-going little guy!

Lukas is now a full-fledged "sitter", to the point where he does not like to lay down. Don't you know that's for babies? :) He's doing really good about reaching for toys and then pushing himself back up into a sitting position, so we're able to let him sit pretty much anywhere on the floor - no need of pillows to catch him in case he tips over.

 

Toys have become a very important part of life in the past couple months. Amongst his favorites are a large tractor and dump truck that used to belong to Daddy and Uncle Kyle, a toy accordion that actually plays music (this was scary at first, but he likes it now), and a screen-mesh strainer from Mommy's kitchen. He also likes playing with Mommy's water bottle and her necklaces - special privileges that are usually reserved for church. With such distractions he does pretty good, and more often than not will stay quiet enough to sit through the entire service. We'll see how long that continues... ;)

Other new experiences this month include getting to sit in a high chair at a restaurant, and sitting in the seat of a grocery store cart. So thrilling to our big boy! Several warm days have found us out on the deck with a cake pan and some water - a great way to get soaked and cool off a bit! He also has great fun jumping wildly in his jump-a-roo, eagerly showing off to anyone who will cheer him on and applaud. And yes, his legs are quite muscular from all that activity. :D

 

Solid foods are on the menu pretty much every day now, and most of the time it's a lot of fun for all of us. Bananas, green beans, and peaches are his top favorites so far, with yellow squash, apple, and sweet potato at the bottom of the list. Peas, carrots, and cucumbers are so-so. It's interesting to see his likes and dislikes already taking shape, though we hope he'll grow up wanting to eat pretty much everything, like Daddy. :)

We live just a couple miles from an airport so many planes go overhead each day. Lukas has taken to looking around each time, trying to discover the source of the noise. We're teaching him the sign language for "airplane" and don't think it'll be too long before he makes the connection. :) He's also all boy in his interest in car and trucks that go by outside, and one of his favorite things to do each day is sit at the window and watch Daddy get in the car and drive away to work.

At his 8-month checkup July 29, our little man weighed 17 lb. 11 oz. and measured 28" - slightly above 50th percentile for height, and a bit below 25th percentile for weight. Mommy is glad he isn't growing any faster, since he's heavy enough as it is. Why don't childbirth classes include a weight-lifting regime? Seems like it'd be even more useful than Kegels and squats in the long run...anyone agree? ;)

Grocery shopping and menus, July 21-27

This week was a little different since we ended up going to more stores than usual AND though most of these items were on sale we didn't use a single coupon. Ha! I was extra busy with graphic design work deadlines and other things going on, so didn't have a lot of time to put towards menu planning based on items already in the pantry/freezer. And we needed to make several items for a church get-together. It's been ages since we've spent this much in one week! But...in the spirit of keeping it real around here - this is what a "bad" shopping week looks like for us. :)


What we bought
Aldi shopping trip

• Sour cream (16 oz) - 1.29
• Seedless grapes (2 lb) - two boxes at 1.98
• Raspberry preserves - 2.29
• Roma tomatoes, 20 oz. - 1.29
• Bing cherries, 1 lb - 1.99
• Flour tortillas, 10 count - 2 packages at 0.99
  
• TOTAL - $12.40
  

Fareway shopping trip
Peanut butter was on sale yet again this week, so we stocked up on a few more jars. Haven't seen it lower than $1.99 for over a year, and we do go through quite a bit of it. Hard to know how much to stretch the budget for stock-up items like this, but it does keep really well and we have enough now to last us quite a while.

• Fresh spinach, 9 oz. - 4 bags at 0.99 (sale)
• Peanut butter, 16 oz. - 5 jars at 1.48 (sale)
• Orange juice, 64 oz. - 0.99 (sale)
• Fresh peaches, 5.34 lb at 0.78/lb - 4.17
• Multi-grain sandwich bread - two loaves, marked down to 0.79/loaf
  
• TOTAL - $22.54
  

Hy-vee shopping trip

• Vanilla ice cream, 1 quart - 1.77 - we used to get this only when it was on sale for 0.99, but I haven't seen it that low since sometime last winter. Finally went ahead and got some with this sale to make root beer floats as a spontaneous treat. :)
• TOTAL - $1.77

Dollar General shopping trip

• A&W Root beer, 1 liter plus deposit - 1.45 - Not the cheapest price out there, I'm sure, but it was a rare treat. Summertime isn't complete without root beer floats. :)
• TOTAL - $1.45

Aldi shopping trip #2 (later in the week, with new sales)
These vegetable prices were way too good to pass up! We're grateful for the way Aldi allows us to eat a lot more produce than we could afford otherwise, and most of it is great quality, too.

• Sweet corn, 4 ears - 2 packages at 0.99
• Green peppers, pack of 3 - 2 packages at 0.99
• Snow Peas - 1.49
• Zucchini, pack of 3 - 0.99
• Onions, 3 lb - 0.99
• Penne pasta - 0.99 - We had other pasta on hand but needed to make a specific Penne recipe for a church meal and Joe's a stickler for following recipes exactly. ;)
• Yogurt, 32 oz - 1.99
• Milk, 1 gallon - 3.09 - Joe wanted to start making smoothies again, and my family doesn't have a ton of extra goat milk right now.
• Powdered sugar, 2 lb - 1.29 - To make a dessert to take to church.
• TOTAL - $16.28

Fareway shopping trip #2 (later in the week, with new sales)

• Cottage cheese, 32 oz - 3 at 1.69 - this is pretty much the cheapest it ever goes on sale for any more. I miss the days of the 0.99 sales!
• Coffee-flavored chocolate spread - 2 jars, marked down to 0.99 - a treat for Joe :)
• Romaine lettuce - 1 head at 1.29
• Bartlett pears - 0.99 lb at 0.99/lb (two) - 0.98 - these are for Lukas to try...
• Grape tomatoes, 1 pint - 1.49 - I kicked myself for getting these, as I found them slightly cheaper at Fareway. Oh, well.
• Lemonade, half gallon - 0.99 (sale)
• White sugar, 4 lb - 3 bags at 1.68 (sale)
• TOTAL - $16.85 

WEEKLY TOTAL - $71.29 - saved $0 with coupons (saved quite a bit with sales, though!)

Some patriotic-looking strawberry shortcake from a few weeks ago. :)

 
What We Ate

• Sunday: Buffalo chicken mac & cheese (one of Joe's specialties), and veggies. For supper, we went to a church potluck/picnic and took a second pan of the mac & cheese. Later that evening, root beer floats. :)
• Monday: Sandwiches (cheese, tomato, sandwich meat from the freezer), fruit
• Tuesday: Spaghetti pie, garlic toast, green salad
• Wednesday: Beans (cooked from scratch and frozen) with BBQ sauce, cornbread, fruit salad
• Thursday: Pizza Hut (with a coupon and birthday-freebie breadsticks), leftover fruit salad
  
• Friday: Tammy's Oriental Chicken Salad
• Saturday: Grilled veggies and brats, with homemade whole wheat and rye buns
• Breakfasts: Peaches, homemade yogurt, banana bread