I have been having a blast during my blogabbatical!

Sometimes a girl just needs to drive for hours with good friends with nothing to do but talk, eat far too much sugar, stay up way too late, sleep half the morning away, compensate for staying up ridiculously late with copious amounts of caffeine, cry until she laughs, and laugh until she cries.

It’s been a good week!

My dear friend Rachel and I have been taking pictures like this since 8th and 9th grade – some things just never change. :) {at Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan}

Did I mention sugar?{Pie from Grand Traverse Pie Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan}

…and still more sugar? {AMAZING pastries from Shatila in Deerborn, Michigan}

And then more driving at a much slower pace! {Holmes County, Ohio}

I’ll be back to regular posting soon! …just as soon as I do some grocery shopping and laundry. ;)

My five year old had her first quiet time yesterday. I set up the audio Bible on my laptop and got her settled with headphones on the couch. I gave her a little spiral notebook and a pencil, explained that she could listen to the Scripture, draw a picture about it or write words to help her remember what it was about. We talked about how God wanted to meet with her and how she might pray – praising God for who He is, confessing what she had done wrong, thanking Him, praying for others. She nodded eagerly.

LB and I slipped away upstairs to put BW to bed. Well, I slipped up, LB stomped up. :) He asked what AG was doing – “She’s having time with God,” I answered. “I want to play with God! Where is God?!” His reply was emphatic, on the brink of a three-year-old breakdown.

My crazy little LB… how he loves Jesus. They have a picture of Jesus holding the little children in their room. They love it. AG picked it out at P Graham Dunn and asked wistfully with wide eyes if they might get it to hang in their room. How could we say no to that? They were watching a portion of The Story of Jesus for Children the other day, and we were talking about Jesus holding the children and the picture in their room. LB smiled with a twinkle in his eye and said, “Sometimes Jesus picks me up! Because He loves me so much.” Oh yes, He does, sweet boy. And someday in heaven He will pick you up and swing you around in His arms. How He loves you.

I knew this was what he was thinking about as he looked around the room and declared, “I want to play with God!” Jesus is so real, so tangible to him. In his mind, there is no reason why he wouldn’t expect to see Jesus sitting on the couch with his sister, reading a book or putting together a puzzle. Someday his concrete little mind will understand more… for now, I know God smiles tenderly at him like I do.

AG, meanwhile, settled in with her notebook. I had set the audioBible to play the account of creation from Genesis 1. After a while she came and told me she might need another pencil… and excitedly showed me her notebook.

“See what I wrote, Mom? ‘I love God.’ And I drew a heart. There’s an elephant, and a cat, and a fish… because I was listening to the story of creation.”

Sometimes I think my heart will burst.

It was 9:00. “Do you guys want to watch Word World?” The typical excited chorus answered, and then AG paused, “but, I didn’t pray yet! Maybe after Word World.”

After their show was finished LB and I went back upstairs because AG wanted to pray. I’m certainly not going to interfere with that! After a few minutes I heard her singing. She came bounding up the stairs and said, “Do you know why I didn’t pray as long as usual? I wanted to sing. I sang “This is the Day,” and “For God so Loved the Word,” and “Jesus Loves Me.”

This little window of time yesterday morning not only cemented in my mind that I need to be consistently deliberate about walking my children to the throne… it also smacked me in the face. My children know more about abiding than I do.

My son just wants to see Jesus. To play with Him, to show Him his favorite cars! My five year old daughter spent longer in God’s presence today than most adults do. They just love Him. The thought of Him picking them up and listening to their chatter is as natural as thinking about talking to me or NP.

He is real.

He loves me.

I can spend time with Him.

…what else is there to know?

Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

Mark 10:15

My blog has been on the backburner lately. Rightly so, as this is a huge time of transition for our family and I have less time available right now to invest in frequent writing.

The lives of women have many seasons. As the snow begins to fall outside calling us to bundle up and snuggle and make our “nests” warm and welcoming for our families as we observe this season of Advent, I know that this is a season of quiet for me – a time to withdraw a bit from outside demands on my time and focus on making this time as joyous and stable for my family as possible.

So, as you have probably noticed, I will not be posting frequently for a few months. I may post here and there through the Christmas season, update you when #3 makes his arrival (hopefully SOON!), and possibly check in occasionally with devotional thoughts. I’m planning to put the Revelation series on the shelf for a bit, until I can come back and devote the attention and time that such a series demands. I’ll also be writing now and then over at Scripture Dig, so I’ll let you know when my posts are live on that site. I will also keep the facebook page updated now and then, so be sure to join us there if you haven’t already!

So, please pardon my absence as I step away to put my full attention into where it needs to be. Hopefully this season of quiet will melt away with the frost in early spring!

In the meantime, here are some posts to get you started if you’ve been wanting something to read. :)

• Ann Voskamp’s “What a Mother Must Sacrifice” – frequently on my mind as I work at home!
• I hope that you are already a subscriber to Scripture Dig – we’ll be spending the weeks of Advent focusing on Jesus together!
• Please “poke around” through old posts, series, and free downloadable resources – there are a handful of posts of Christmas reflections that I loved writing last year; you can find them listed here.

Thanks for your prayers and patience – may God richly bless you as you prepare to celebrate His first coming and look forward to His second!

Today I thought I’d take a little break from the heaviness of the Revelation judgments and give you a little update on our daily life, along with some sewing/crafting info – it’s been a long time since I did a post like this! ;)

I realized a few days ago that I never updated my blog readers on my bedrest situation. Thank you so much to those who have been praying for us – after two weeks on bedrest and no further problems, my doctor lifted all my restrictions and I haven’t had any problems since! Praise the Lord!

Since then, we’ve been in full baby-prep mode in the Stephens house (I can’t imagine how we would have been ready for #3 if I was on bedrest this whole time!). LB has moved into AG’s room and they are loving their new bunk beds. The crib and changing table have been cleaned up, organized, and prepared. Clothes have been pulled from storage, washed, folded, and put away. Bouncy seats, swings, car seats, bottle warmers, toys, the baby bathtub, and all manner of baby items have been located, washed, and de-funked from their stay in the attic. ;)

My sewing machine has been in high speed the last few days, finishing up some flannel pj’s for the big kids as well as polishing off two more items from my baby to-do list: making a slipcover for the boppy pillow and sewing some new burp cloths.

I’ve never loved our boppy pillow… but to be fair I bought it for $5 at a garage sale and it also came with some toy bars that clip onto it to make a little baby gym, so I can’t complain that I thought it was rather ugly!

After finding this great blog post with patterns and instructions for making a boppy slipcover, I found some flannel on sale for $2.99/yd and bought two yards. An hour or so of work later…

Ta-da! Much better!!

I had about a half a yard of flannel left over, so I decided to sew some much-needed burp cloths. My daughter was one of those babies who made me somewhat of an expert in burp cloths, if you know what I mean. ;) These are so EASY to make and can also be great gifts, so I thought I would give you a little tutorial.

Cut flannel pieces into rectangles – I like my burp cloths to be on the large side, so I cut them into approximately 16″x8″ pieces. [I have often used surplus receiving blankets to make these in the past... we seemed to have WAY more than we needed! They also seem to be easy to find in good condition at consignment stores, which is a cheaper way to get fabric than buying new off the bolt, usually! If you're making baby gifts, you can also purchase receiving blankets that match the bedding they registered for.]

Cut the corners to make them rounded.

I like to make these burp cloths with terry cloth on the back, which makes them both soft and extra absorbent. Again, instead of buying terry cloth off the bolt at the fabric store, I’ve found that the cheapest way to do it is to buy gently used baby towels at the consignment store – as an added plus, the terry on those towels is a finer weave and is nice and soft!

Lay your rectangle on the terry, right sides together, pin, and cut out a matching rectangle.

Sew around the two pieces with a 1/2″ seam allowance, leaving 4″ or so on one straight side open so you can turn it right side out.

Turn right-side out, fold unsewn edges in to be even with the remainder of the fabric, and top stitch all around about 1/4″ from the edge.

You’re done!

So, for about $6 of flannel, plus some terry cloth that I already had on hand, I ended up with a new boppy cover and 7 great burp cloths! Not too shabby!

But, the side effect of a day of sewing is that the house now looks like this…

Oh, well.

So, that’s what’s new with us… what’s new with you? :)