A Week of Modest Outfits - Day 1

For Day 1 I wanted to share what I wore to church yesterday. My sweet daughter was also quite willing to share her modest outfits this week as well, so we have Maternity and Girls outfits to share with you this week!

Maternity:

Brown Layering Camisole - Online, store has since closed

Teal and Brown Shirt - Walmart

Brown Skirt - Ross

Brown Shoes - JCPenney

Girls:

White Cami with lace trim - Online Garage Sale

Yellow Top - Online Garage Sale

Cream Sweater - Target

Brown skirt - Goodwill

Black flat Shoes - Walmart

(Hidden from view) Black leggings (full length that we cut to knee length) - Zulily

And, I just wanted to share with you a proud parent moment! Abby has recently had a change of heart in her attitude towards modesty, and there are things she has herself chosen to get rid of - items of her own clothing, certain toys she was playing with, etc. that she felt were not honoring to the Lord and she brought them to me herself and told me what was on her heart. I am so proud of her and am thankful to the Lord for working in her heart in this way - and that she has a heart for encouraging others! She was so excited to get the opportunity to share her new desire for modesty with you all.

Linking Up With:

My Pregnancy Journal Link-Up, Wk 1 - 28 weeks

I am so excited to be joining in on My Joy-Filled Life's Pregnancy Journal Link-Up! For this first week I wanted to share with you a little bit about our beliefs regarding children and how we got here, and a quick run down of this pregnancy "so-far" since I'm already hitting trimester 3.


First of all, we believe that children are a BLESSING from the LORD! However, I unfortunately can't say that we have always believed this. Our faith journey is long and ragged, but its brought us to such a vastly different place than when we were young, in college, pregnant outside of marriage, Christian in "name" but not heart. I know the Lord has brought us to this place and changed our hearts, because if you knew me 10 years ago, you would not even recognize this person I am today! Praise God!!! We do not use any form of birth control, not only the pill and other contraception because of the chance of miscarriage (abortion, my heart breaks), but not even NFP or other rhythm type methods because we have now chosen to let the Lord control that part of our lives as well, and to truly give it over to Him and to receive as many blessings as God will give us. It may not always be easy, but God has NEVER failed to provide for us and our family, despite us thinking with each new child "what will we do???" God doesn't make promises he can't keep, its true!

My husband and I have been married for 9 years now, and I am SO blessed to have him. To have seen how far he has come in his relationship with the Lord and as leader of our family has been a true blessing to me, and it makes my love for him grow more and more. That doesn't mean there aren't days where I don't secretly, or not so secretly, glare at him... but that's my sin! And I'm working on it. We have 2 wonderful children so far, with our third on the way. I'll give you all the details about that here in a minute! Abby is 8, and can be best described as the girl who will play football with you out in the mud - as long as she can do it in her high heels! Immediately upon finishing the game, she will clean herself up and get right back to her regular job of mothering anyone and everyone who will let her. Will is 3, and my oh my... What a charmer he is - but look out, because behind his back is most likely a sword that you are about to get unexpectedly whacked with. That grin and curly red hair has gotten us all into that trap!

So - now, Baby number 3! A run-down on this pregnancy for you.


- I am due July 24th - but based on baby's size they are estimating July 16th.
- My other 2 kids were both born about a week before the due date, so we will see...
- I am 28 weeks along (come Tuesday)
- It's a BOY
- His name is Aaron Josiah
- I had the WORST morning sickness ever until about 14 weeks
- I knew I was pregnant because I gagged when I was brushing my teeth one day. I just KNEW.
- I still get sporadically sick, but not so bad.
- My second trimester was a breeze. I forgot I was pregnant most days.
- I now have baby body parts stabbing me in the ribs and other areas. Its beginning to be uncomfortable.
- Aaron has what is called an Echogenic Intracardiac Focus - basically its calcium deposits that can be seen in his heart via ultrasound. What does it mean? Basically nothing, really. However, children who have down syndrome have these more often than children who do not. It does not mean Aaron will have Down syndrome, its just a statistic. All other indicators seem to suggest that Down Syndrome is not likely. We of course are praying for Aaron's health, but if God chose to create Aaron with Down Syndrome, we gladly accept that and praise Him, and pray for the wisdom we would need should that be the answer. We would appreciate your prayers regarding this as well, for whatever the Lord wills!

Discussion Question:   How do you think the Bible will help you to have an easier birth?

I've been considering this today, and I think for me just knowing this pregnancy, that this child is a blessing, and reading that over and over in the scriptures, comforts me in knowing that this child is a gift from the Lord and of course I will endure all the Lord would have me endure to meet and know and love this child. When I read about women in the Bible who prayed for a child and longed for a child, and were blessed with one by the Lord and that child was used to fulfill the Lords plan, I pray that my children and my family can be used in the same way by our heavenly Father! I also think about Mary, and what she must have gone through during her pregnancy. The questions and looks from people thinking the worst of her, the disapproval of others, the rough journey she took to Bethlehem - all of this reminds me to praise God through all the bumps and pains and problems I seem to have in everyday life because of being pregnant, or people who may not approve of our having more children. I know that the Lord has blessed us with this little baby, and I offer him thanks and praise!


I also wanted to share with you, that beginning tomorrow on my blog I am going to be posting pictures of me each day this week, giving an example of a modest outfit that I would wear. My daughter is also going to let me take a picture of her everyday, because she loved the idea and wanted to encourage other children to think about modesty in their clothing as well! Sometimes I am so proud of that sweet girl. I'd love for you to come back each day and take a look. I'll be linking up tomorrow with The Modest Mom!

A Week of Modest Outfits! Coming Next Week!

Thanks to some inspiration from The Modest Mom blog, next week I will be doing a daily series where I show you 1 week of my modest outfits!

Every day I will upload a photo of my previous day's modest outfit that I wore. I am also going to try to include photos of my children (8 year old daughter, and 3 year old son) who are are trying to encourage in modesty of heart and dress as well. That will all depend on their mood and cooperation level each day though!

I'm 27 weeks pregnant, so hopefully this helps with some modest maternity outfit ideas for those of you who are also waiting on some new little blessings to enter into your family! My wardrobe right now is very limited, so I hope that I'm able to show you a week's (well, 5 days!) worth of outfits to give you some ideas, or to encourage you in your walk with the Lord regarding modesty and dress.

Remember, this is going to be modesty as for me and my house, and I pray the Lord will lead your family and your hearts to where HE is guiding you in this faith journey we are all on towards Him! Modesty begins in the heart, and our clothing is only a small reflection of that. We all may have slightly different thoughts on our modesty standards or where we are at on that path, but I know we can all be in agreement on joining our hearts and prayers together in dressing to glorify Him!

How Do You Keep Your House So Clean?!

Have you ever been asked this? Ok - so maybe not! But I actually was asked this a couple weeks ago by my husband's grandmother. She seemed quite surprised that my home was so clean when they came for a visit - especially with being pregnant and having kids running around! I was thrilled to be asked that question, because over the past couple of years it is definitely something the Lord has been helping me improve with and really been working in my heart about. I must admit - my home is not always clean. Often times if you stop by unannounced there will be dishes piled up in the sink, laundry flowing out of the laundry room, school books in stacks upon the table, and toys strewn about the floor. I think thats just part of life with children and raising a family, and that's ok. But I do believe that it is also important to strive to maintain my home in such a way, that I can offer a place to sit and chat with unexpected company, or pour a cup of coffee for a friend who needs to stop in for a few minutes, or have more time to dedicate to loving and caring for my family by keeping the house in an organized way.

So, I thought I would share a few ideas that have helped us get on track. Feel free to take, tweak, adjust, and just do what works for YOU and your family! We are all different and will have different needs in keeping our home and taking care of our families at different times. I just hope some of these ideas may offer you a jumping off point.

Laundry

This used to be completely out of control here. Now we have a system in place. I do about one load a day usually of our daily clothes (family of 4 going on 5), but could easily do more if needed, or on days when we need to do bedding or towels. The hardest part of laundry is putting it away, at least for me. Here is how I stay on top of it. Each child has their own basket. There is also a basket for any towels or folding items, and a basket for my husband and my things that need to be hung up. When the dryer is done, I grab everyone's baskets and line them up in the hallway. I take the clothes out of the dryer and immediately place them into each person's basket. When that is ready to go, the older kids baskets get dumped in their rooms for them to put away during their chore time. The 3 year old helps me do his clothes right away, and as he gets a little older and practices with me, he will be able to put his away too. I usually throw the folding basket on my bed, and put the hanging our hanging stuff basket in our closet. When I find a free moment I just run in and finish those up. Seriously, I can put laundry away in 5 minutes by doing it this way. It has saved my laundry room from complete chaos.

Dishes

Simple. Although you won't believe it. But we just started doing dishes immediately after finishing all of our meals. And we stopped using the dishwasher. Relying on the dishwasher actually made us complacent in getting the dishes clean, and we would let them pile up all day leaving a huge mess at the end that no one wanted to tackle. Doing it this way, dishes are done a few times in a day and in just a few minutes, with no piling up. My kitchen looks shiny almost all day long, and there is always a coffee cup clean for a friend or two.

Keeping it picked up

We do what we call "Quick Picks". Once in the morning, afternoon, and right before bed, I yell out "QUICK PICK TIME!!!" and everyone runs through the house grabbing anything that belongs to them and is out of place, and sets it right. If a toy is in the middle of being played with, it can stay out and be picked up next Quick Pick time, but this way all the random things that just get left sitting and forgotten throughout the day don't pile up and the house looks tidy. Quick Picks range in time from 5-15 minutes depending on how messy we have been and the time of day, but it works great!

The Nitty Gritty

We took a page from the Duggar's book (ha) and we have Jurisdictions in our house. My oldest is responsible for a jurisdiction, and we alternate which it is every week so that she can learn how to care for all areas of the home. Examples of our jurisdictions currently based on our kids ages and our needs are: Living/Dining, Kitchen, Laundry/Dishes, Bath/Hallway, Patio/Entryway. I look forward to the day when I can add in meals and lawncare! LOL! My 3 year old is too young to be responsible for a jurisdiction, so since he and my oldest usually are buddies throughout the day, he is her "assistant" and she is the "supervisor" of their weekly jurisdiction. As he gets older, he will become responsible for his own jurisdiction and they will probably each have new little buddies under them as "assistants"! My husband works out of the home all day, but he does take on one rotating jurisdiction each week. I tackle all the rest since I'm the homemaker.  Everyone is responsible for their own bedrooms, and the buddies help each other with those too. For each jurisdiction I also have a list on the wall of all chores that need to be done in each jurisdiction. There is a daily list, a weekly chore list which we do on Saturdays, and then a monthly list which we do on first Saturdays of each month. Its organized, everything pretty much gets done, and even though my oldest doesn't always clean her jurisdiction the way I would or perfectly (she is only 8, its a learning process!) I know that she will only have that jurisdiction for a week, so I am able to encourage her and praise her work, while knowing that those little things she misses that will come with time and experience, are going to be ok since I can just fix it next week!

I hope some of these ideas have been helpful to you and will bless you in keeping your home!

Swimsuit Modesty

Have a little girl? Have modesty standards that are hard to meet when shopping for a swimsuit? Its warming up, and its that time of year...

I was so excited when I found this website that offers swim dresses for women and girls! I have ordered one for my little lady, and right now the girls suits are on sale for only $25 and shipping was free!