We did a little extra school today because we were having fun experimenting. Science was always my favorite subject so it's fun to see the kids enjoy it so much. #science #condensation #experimentswothwater #ranemschoolhouse #latergram

We did a little extra school today because we were having fun experimenting. Science was always my favorite subject so it's fun to see the kids enjoy it so much. #science #condensation #experimentswothwater #ranemschoolhouse #latergram via Instagram http://ift.tt/1XqzeQs

Chocolate Chunk and Walnut Brownies

Chocolate Chunk and Walnut Brownies:

2/3 c. almond flour
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 c. salted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
1/3 c. honey
2 T. unsweetened sunflower seed or almond butter
1/3 c. dark chocolate chips (or add 1/2 t. stevia for added sweetness and omit these)
1/3 c. walnuts, chopped (I like using candied walnuts that I make at home with maple syrup)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.
In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients until well incorporated. In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, eggs, honey, sunflower seed or almond butter. Pour the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients and mix well. Add in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Pour into greased 8X8 baking dish and spread evenly. Bake for 25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Enjoy!

Sunflower Coconut Smoothie

I love smoothies and I especially love when others share their recipes, so I thought I'd share one of my new favorites.


Sunflower Coconut Smoothie

- 1 c. Whole milk (or substitute almond, coconut, or hemp milk)
- 2 T. Sunflower seed butter
- 2 T. Raw unsweetened coconut flakes
- 1 whole banana*
- 1 or 2 dashes of cinnamon and nutmeg
- About a cup of ice*

Fill your blender with the above ingredients and pulse until well incorporated and you're left with a nice thick consistency. Enjoy!

*Omit the ice if you use a frozen banana


Do you have a favorite? Share!

Oscar's Birth Story

It's pretty ridiculous how little gets written in the baby books once the third child comes along. First baby, wrote the birth story out the very next day. Second baby, maybe a week or two later. This one? Only three months. I can't imagine how much time will lapse after the births of our next kids... "Johnny's only 12, it's about time I wrote out his birth story!"

The amount of free time I have now with three very dependent babies under the age of 4 is, well, not much. Or at least not enough that on any given day I'd rather write instead of just sit in silence with a coffee in hand for those blissful 10 minutes. But, since I have at least one hand free I better get to it.

Oscar's Story

It was Thursday, December 5th, exactly 6 days past my due date of November 29. I was home with the kids doing our regular stuff and preparing for Emery's Christmas pageant that night at 7pm. I'd had Braxton Hicks pretty regularly throughout this pregnancy but this day they felt more like very mild, but real, contractions. It wasn't possible to time them but I was having at least two per hour and they'd last maybe 30 seconds at a time. Very mild, cramping, but not painful at all.

I didn't mention any of this to Dustin because we had a couple false starts throughout the previous week. A few days before I was certain labor had started so with high hopes we started filling our tub, but of course, contractions tapered off completely and that ended in lots of frustration and no baby to show for it. I didn't want to be let down again, so I brushed this off and went about the day. We all went to Emery's pageant that night, got the kids to bed around 8:30/9, and just relaxed for a couple hours. During the bustle of the afternoon/evening I don't remember having many contractions so I figured it was just another tease. But, we went to bed around 10 and I woke up about 11:30 unable to sleep because I was having definite real contractions. I figured that this was just the beginning of a long labor so I should try and go back sleep and get a little rest. That didn't work so well. The contractions weren't extremely painful yet, but they were annoying and the excitement that this might, hopefully, be time for baby to come was too much for me to get any real rest.

I woke Dustin up about midnight and told him that I thought this was real this time and that we had better start filling up our tub. We had the tub set up in our basement next to our couch, surrounded by a couple wool blankets, and a laundry basket full of birth supplies close by. Since we don't have shades on the windows Dustin decided to prop pillows up so that our neighbors wouldn't get a peek of what was going on in our basement that night. I changed into some comfier clothes that I had planned to wear for this occasion and we just started timing contractions and preparing for the birth of our baby boy. At that point, about 1:00am, contractions were getting stronger and concentrating into my low back, coming every 3-5 minutes, and lasting about a minute each.

Birth Tub

I was walking, swaying, and trying to get our little boy moving down as Dustin was timing contractions, doing his best to keep the rice pack for my back hot, checking and preparing the tub, and putting counter pressure on my back during each contraction. We called our midwife at 2:00am to let her know what was happening and told her we'd call back when we needed her to make her way over. Contractions were painful and frequent by now. By 2:30 I told Dustin to call her back. I'm a very private person, so I really enjoy being able to do most of the laboring with just the two of us and I hate to have our midwives get there too early and have nothing to do but wait.

It was a little before 3:00am when our midwife showed up, asked a few questions, listened to baby's heart beat and began setting up and preparing for his arrival. Contractions were very painful at this point and they were coming every 2-3 minutes. By the time our other two midwives arrived (about 3:15-30 I believe) I was deep in transition and in too much pain to really notice. Plus, they are all so quiet and awesome at keeping with the mood so they just snuck right in and got everything ready. During transition Dustin could tell I needed some motivation so he began talking about our boy, about holding him and about how excited the kids would be to see him. It was so helpful. Whenever I hit transition I always start to pray. I feel so helpless and I'm in so much pain at this point that I don't even open my eyes. I just pray to my Maker and the Creator of this little baby still inside. In between the deep groanings of the contractions I ask

for strength to get through. To see my baby boy. To hold him and kiss his little cheeks.

Dustin and I had settled in our bedroom, which is right off of the living room area of the basement, for the past hour. I found it somewhat comfortable to kneel on a pillow while leaning over the bed, resting my head on another pillow. Dustin had his back against the wall and was applying counter pressure into my throbbing low back through each contraction. I'm certain his arms were aching because I would let all my weight fall into his when a contraction would begin.

It was nearly 4am when I felt pressure on my cervix and the weight of baby shift. I needed to push. Dustin and my midwives led me out of the bedroom and to the tub. Very shakily, I got into the tub. Each contraction and push felt like it was taking over my body and felt more like a dream than real life. The pain. I could hear myself make these odd shaky groaning-like noises that I wasn't even aware I was making, nor did I have control over them. The time seemed to stand still through these moments and I could see my team around the tub, smiling, cheering me on. After another push I could feel my baby's head, his hair, lots of hair! Two more pushes and he was out. Slowly Dustin and my midwife pulled him up and out of the water.

 

At 4:11am, on Friday December 6, Oscar Daniel Ranem was born! Weighing 8 pounds, 6 ounces and 20 inches long. He came out, my baby, my adorable little man with already full and chubby cheeks. My little blondie with bright blue eyes. Oh the love. The amazing and miraculous love that makes your heart just leap and melt at the same time. It's always so dumbfounding to me how much pain you can be in just seconds before and yet when this little person is handed to you it is nearly forgotten, at least in that moment. God is good. He is always good!

 

Random Craft Post #4. Crib Teething Guard

I made this a few months ago but I'm finally getting around to posting about it. I wanted something simple, something that looked nice, was easy to wash and take on and off and didn't cost me $30+ to make/buy.

Materials:
2 yards fabric (you'll have some left-overs for other projects)
2 yards coordinating fabric
2 yards of batting (or an old blanket that you don't want anymore...that's what I use)
Thread, sewing machine, scissors
Snaps or velcro

Getting Started:

Wash and dry your fabric, otherwise it'll shrink up and won't fit your crib quite right.
Next, measure your crib. Measure the length of the front, both sides, then make sure to measure exactly how wide you'll need to make the teething guard by measuring from the top of the crib to where you want it to come down to. I wanted mine to be about 6 inches wide. Also, this width needs to be big enough to add a piece of velcro or snap to keep it attached to the crib.
Once you have your measurements you can take your fabric out and start cutting.
The two sides of my crib were 28 inches, the front was 60 inches, and the width I wanted was 6 inches so I doubled that (6 inches for either side) and added an inch to make up for the top thickness of the crib (so 13 inches).

Next, put the fabric you want showing on the crib rail and the batting (or old blanket) together and cut out one rectangle out for the front of the crib in the dimensions you measured and two rectangles for the two sides.

Now take the coordinating fabric that you want on the underside of your teething guard and place it underneath your freshly cut rectangles of coordinating fabric (wrong sides together). Cut this fabric out leaving a one inch margin around every side to allow for the binding/edging. 

When you are finished, each rectangle should look like this:

Top fabric (right side up), middle batting, then bottom fabric (right side down).

Now we come to the pinning stage.
You're going to fold the bottom fabric edges in half (right up to the two edges of other fabric) then in half again laying right on top of your top fabric (my white fabric here). Do this along all edges, pinning down, going from right to left...I'll show you why once you get to a corner.

Corners

Got to a corner? Good. Here's the easiest way to do the corners...

1. Fold in half, then in half again like you've been doing.

 2. Fold the other side into a triangle, lining up the edge of the triangle with the two other raw edges of fabric.

 3. Fold in half again, lining up the raw edge with the two other raw edges of fabric.

4. And now fold in half one more time, so that the raw edges are all hidden and it lays nicely on top of your three layers of fabric. You should have a nice 45 degree seam in your corner now. 

5. Pin this down securely and continue pinning all around the edges and the rest of the corners.

Each of your teething guards should look like this when they're all pinned down. Now, we're ready to sew!

You can iron down your edges (binding) so they lay flat and will be easier to sew, but it's not a crucial step. 

Sew (straight stitch) right on top of your freshly pinned binding, getting as close to the edge as you can so it lays nicely.

This is how your corners should look once completed.

Voila! The binding is sewn down on all three teething guards and we are now ready for the finishing touch.

 Closures

The final step is to add your closures so that the teething guard will actually stay put on the crib. You can do snaps like I did or if you don't have a snap press, do velcro. Super simple. I'm sorry, I forgot to take pictures of this part, so I'll do my best to walk you through it.

For snaps, you'll have to follow the directions that come with your snap press and buy the amount of snaps you'll need. You can purchase a snap press and snaps at Joann Fabrics now and they aren't a bad investment (about $25) if you do little projects like this often.

Measuring:
I chose to add three snaps (or 3 pieces of velcro if you choose) to the two side guards and four to the front one. You'll want to measure and mark each spot where you'd like a snap/velcro so you know where to sew/press it on. Remember to make sure it lines up evenly when you fold your guard in half lengthwise because this is how it will fit on your crib.

Cut squares of velcro in the number you need and measured then pin them in place. Remember to sew it onto the correct spots so your guard is facing the right way when you put it on the crib. With velcro, you'll want to straight stitch slowly around every edge of the velcro so that it won't easily come off of your fabric. Continue sewing all the pieces on until it looks just right.

Finished crib guard. It fits!

From the front

Yay, we did it! Hopefully those instructions weren't impossible to follow. It's actually a pretty quick and easy project and a great money saver!

A Schedule, Circle Time, and Starting Preschool

My goal this year was to do some kind of intentional learning every day with Emery. I wanted to keep it short and sweet since she is still little and has a short attention span and I didn't want to burn her out before more rigid homeschooling starts, but I wanted to get her in the learning mindset. Playing is extremely important and a part of learning at her age so that's what I really want her doing most of the time, but I also don't think she's too young to start memory work, reading poems, exploring art, reading short stories with me, practicing tracing, printing, counting, and other skills.

More importantly I really wanted to stick to a schedule everyday, or as often as possible, because we all do so much better when we know what the day's activities will be in advance. I've noticed that everyone seems to have a better attitude, we stay busy and focused, and everything just feels more productive throughout the day. More gets done, yes! Obviously things change, schedules aren't perfect, Declan decides not to sleep much, we all get sick, something comes up, and then it gets scrapped all together, but such is life with kids. And, admittedly, we haven't been doing this for very long yet so we'll see if things change in the future.

Another life changing addition I recently added to the schedule is daily (or at least almost daily) time outdoors. This is really wonderful! Of course we live in Minnesota so this isn't always possible, but for the most part we can dress weather appropriate (even if it means covering every inch except our eye-balls!) and head outside for at least a little bit everyday. And it's such a great way to burn off some extra toddler energy, collect fun things, explore, get dirty, learn about the weather and nature first-hand, and just have fun for a little while. Once the weather gets nicer I'm hoping to do circle time outside and spend more time exploring nature and the world God created.

Here's what our day usually looks like:

7:00-8 - Get up, dressed, beds made, laundry put away, hair done, etc.
8:30-9:30 - Breakfast + clean-up + play for a bit
9:30 - Declan takes a nap
9:30-10:15/30 - Circle Time
10:30-12:00 - Snack, pre-planned open-ended activity
12:00-1:00 - Lunch time
1:30-2:30/3 - Em has quiet time in her room with a quiet time bin and Declan naps
3:00-3:30 - Em goes outside to play
2:30-5:30 - Play with daddy, play, read, help with dinner, chores, etc.
5:30-6:30 - Dinner
6:30 - Declan goes to bed
7:00-7:30 - Wind-down time with Em (read books in bed, jammies on, brush teeth, sing songs, pray)
7:30/8 - Em goes to bed

What Circle Time looks like:

I just started calling it Circle Time because the place where we actually do the "Circle Time" is on the circle pattern in the middle of our living room rug. I wanted to stick to the same place everyday, so this is it. We sit down here together and get started.

Our Circle Time spot

1. Read a chapter in Big Truths for Little Kids (or one of the books below) and pray together.
2. Go over our catechisms, recite and sing them together (this and this are excellent).
3. Read a couple of poems or look at (or listen to) a piece of art. Discuss.
4. Review scripture memory verse.
5. Practice manners and character building with role playing.
6. Look at our calendar, move the card to today's date and talk about the date, day, how many days until certain events, etc.
7. Take a look outside and discuss the weather.
8. Review our letter and number of the week (we just use basic flash cards and keep the number and letter of the week in a pocket of our calendar).
9. Occasionally we practice printing our letters and review the ones we've already learned in our wipe-clean books. Or we'll have fun making letters with a container of toothpicks.
10. Sometimes we play a "fill the bag" game, where I have Em walk around the house filling a bag with things that are round, square, a certain color, find 5 things, 7 things, things that start with "A", etc.
11. Sing a few simple silly songs.

Some books/CD's we've read during circle time that I'd highly suggest:

-God's Wisdom for Little Girls. They also have one for boys here.
-Jesus Storybook Bible
-God's Names
-The Westminster Shorter Catechism Songs Don't even hesitate, just buy these. They are an excellent way to help memorize catechisms (both you and the kids!). We've listened to these since Emery was just born and she can sing most of them. So wonderful, I would like to personally thank Holly Dutton for putting these to song!
-The Prince's Poison Cup
-The Priest with Dirty Clothes
-Manners Can be Fun
-How to Behave and Why
-A Child's Garden of Verses
-Poems and Prayers for the Very Young (I remember having this as a little girl)
-The Big Golden Book of Poetry (No, we didn't buy it for $80+ on Amazon. Found it at a thrift store for $0.99!)
-Prayers for Children
-My Little Golden Book About God
-Arch Books I had many of these when I was little and we've grown quite a large collection of them from thrift stores.
-The Llama Who Had No Pajama (This is Emery's favorite poetry book)

Books/Other we plan to add to Circle Time:

-The Art Book for Children
-Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery, Mr. Bach Lives Upstairs, etc. (CD's)
-My ABC Bible Verses
-The Berenstain Bears' Big Book of Science and Nature
-The Church History ABC's
-Nature Friend Magazine
-God's Promises
-The Donkey Who Carried a King
-The Squire and the Scroll
-God's Little Princess
-The Princess Kiss

We don't necessarily do everything listed here at each circle time, but we stick with the most important things (i.e. prayer, scripture memory, catechisms, manners) then add some other things in. After that we move into doing some kind of open-ended activity. This takes some planning (and I'm still working on it), but I try to have the activity pre-planned and ready for the day. Then I don't have to dig around searching for the materials needed because they're all ready to go for the day. I am then able to get a few things done around the house while she plays and Declan's still napping.

Examples of open-ended activities include:

-Play dough
-Sensory bins (beans, rice, water beads, endless possibilities) - These are the best, cheapest, and Em's favorite activities!
-A craft
-Coloring
-Painting
-Felt boards
-Activity book
-Puzzles
-Stamping
-Quiet time bin
-Imaginets
-Beading (either with real beads and yarn/string or these)
-Games
-Kumon books (not quite open-ended, but fun and great learning activity nonetheless)
-Fun with a tub of water in the kitchen
-Other random creations (we consult with Pinterest often) :)
-Here's some Pinterest ideas: crafts, activities, Holiday themed

Catching up, and what we've been up to...

Wow, these last couple months have seemed like a whirlwind! Obviously I haven't blogged for quite some time because things have just been a little busy around here. Here's a little recap:

First, we moved out of our cute little home in Saint Paul. This was the home that Dustin and I first looked at on our wedding day then moved into a month after we were married. This is where we labored for 6 hours with Emery and nearly had her right in the kitchen. This home is where I gave birth to Declan. We had our first Christmas together as a married couple here, camped out in the backyard, and planted our first successful garden. This was a good house. It was tiny, I'm talking 700-800 square feet, with two bedrooms (8X8 and 8X9) barely large enough to fit our full size bed, a crib, toddler bed, a couple dressers, and book shelf, plus a cozy living room and kitchen that barely fit our tiny table, with tiny closets, and no garage. It wasn't big, but it was our home. Full of memories. I'll definitely miss our huge backyard. It was the only huge thing about that house.

Our (old) big backyard: best play area, picture place, and best place to get dirty.

But moving out means that we also moved in. Moved in to a much bigger home! One with bedrooms for each of the kids, two living room spaces, a garage, and a dining room big enough to fit Dustin's grandparents large wooden table! We are so thankful for the space, especially during these winter months, when everyone can get a bit cramped up indoors during the cold and snowy days.

So much more room to play!

And be silly, of course!

Moving with kids was not an easy task, however. It meant one of us (Dustin or I) was moving stuff while the other was watching the kids, making food, getting naps going, cleaning after kids, playing, etc. So it took a lot more work, a lot more patience, a lot more time, and a lot more help from others. Thank you family and friends!

In the midst of the moving process we were presented with a wonderful gift from my sister. She was unable to use some tickets she had purchased for Florida (plus a hotel stay at a wonderful hotel with lots of water and kids activities!) so she gave them to us and we left right then and there for a week to Florida! My parents gave me a birthday present of a couple tickets to Magic Kingdom so we spent a whole day there as well! What an unexpected and amazing blessing in the middle of a hectic and crazy time! We all had a blast!!

I think we need more family photos...

Pool at our hotel. It was so nice!

Picture with a princess :)

Having so much fun!

When we came home we continued the moving process, helped family move as well (it seemed everyone was moving at the same time!), and began to settle in.

October was insane. I don't think Dustin or I sat down for longer than a few minutes at a time when we were awake. November was much better, Thanksgiving came and went and now we're enjoying spending our first advent and Christmas season in our new place.

More catch up later!