recent reads

A few recent favorites, from bottom to top:

When Elephant Goes to a Party Oh my word, I adore this book. It's all about manners and how to behave at another friend's house. I have a girlfriend who recently told me that she uses the Berenstain Bears all the time to reinforce to her kids how they are to behave/keep their room/tell the truth etc... This book is along those same lines and a great teaching book.

The Crafter's Devotional Delightful and so inspirational. My friend Shannon got me this book for my birthday and it fits me like a glove. Each day is a different creative prompt. Some days it has me writing, others making a simple craft... I will for sure have a bigger blog post about this one in the future.

The Pastor I am a fan of Eugene Peterson as a storyteller and this book showcases his gift through memoir. I loved reading about his childhood and all of the lily pads that led to him becoming a pastor.

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child Lately this has been my baby help book of choice. I like how the book is so easy to use as a resource for each age and stage of Ivar's sleep schedule.

The Power of a Praying Parent Confession: I had judged this book by its 80's looking cover. But a few weeks ago Rory and I opened it up and prayed one of the prayers over Ivar and it was a really beautiful moment. The book covers all sorts of topics to pray over your kids, things that I wouldn't necessarily think of to pray without a bit of prompting. Topics like: attracting Godly friends and role models, following Truth and rejecting lies, developing a hunger for the things of God. It's good stuff.

How about you? Read any good books lately?

hymn cards: springtime

Before Ivar was born, I made hymn cards for his nursery with the hope that having the lyrics of these important songs written in a visible place would help me sing these songs to my son. I use them all the time. So much so that I am ready to retire 'I love to tell the Story' for a long while... For the baby shower on Saturday, I was planning on giving Sarah a copy of each hymn and then decided to double the song choices. I picked eight new songs, taking all of the hymns that were sung at my friend Hildur's funeral and then added a few more of my own favorites. I packaged them with a bow and thought they made for a pretty gift.

a pysanky field trip

Three years ago, Lisa invited me over to her house to decorate easter eggs. It was a brand new art for me, called pysanky or Ukrainian Easter Egg dying. Then, I led an event out at camp for women to come and try using a kiska. And this year, Lisa brought us to the queen of Pysanky herself, Luba of The Ukrainian Gift Shop.

Lisa and her mom Zina brought Sara, Ruby, Josie, me and Ivar to Luba's shop today and it was a feast for the eyes. Her art is stunning and seemingly perfect. I love the bright colors.

And then we went to Kramarczuk's for some traditional Polish food. I saw this restaurant featured on Diners, Drive-in's and Dives and have wanted to go ever since. It was a great day...and if you live in the twin cities, I highly recommend visiting both places.

celebrating babies

My cousin Kathy hosted a baby shower for Ivar and Stella on Saturday. I've said it before, and I'll say it forever...there is nothing like getting a group together to encourage and love on new mama's as we embark and continue to figure out this whole motherhood thing. Kathy threw a

classy shower and Ivar and I both felt loved and affirmed. Ivar and Stella's great grandma Bredberg got to hold each baby. She's well-seasoned at holding babies and two at a time didn't really pose any added challenge for her. In fact she probably could have held both babies and kneaded caramel roll dough without any real problems.

Kathy made Banana Punch, a Bredberg family favorite and absolute favorite for us three girls. I remember many a family function where the three of us would just hang out by the punch bowl and refill our glasses as soon as they were empty. It's a slushy drink and super good. I'll have to put the recipe on the blog someday...

Stella was full of hugs and love for Ivar. She had been waiting for this party for weeks and had a few meltdowns before the party officially began because the suspense was just too much. Then she, too, found the banana punch and seemed to be in a better place.

Kathy assembled these stinkin cute scrapbooks for us and had everyone write a message to Stella and Ivar on the paper circles to put on each page. Adorable and so perfect.

And now here's the blog bummer... I took lots of pictures, but very few have each person in the photo looking blog ready. Somehow in each shot I got someone putting food in their mouth, someone's eyes clothes, someone's backside... so I don't have any more people pics to share! And I love everyone too much than to put an unflattering picture of them up on the internet :) But the food. The food was very photogenic and delish, so I'll share these pics to close this post.

library favorites

Before I return our library books from our last visit, I wanted to share a new favorite: Sporty Babies Wear Sweats by Michelle Sinclair Coleman. It's silly and the illustrations are adorable. Apparently there are other books in the "babies wear" series and I'm eager to see those too. I'm just happy to have found a new board book to add to my list of favorites. You can only read But not the Hippopotamus so many times.