Tomorrow, February 27th, Swagbucks is hosting a 24 hour Team Challenge to celebrate their 4th birthday!

This means some great things for us! First, if you haven’t signed up for swagbucks yet, sign up today and use the code BIRTHDAYBASH12 during the sign-up process. You’ll receive 140 swagbucks right off the bat (110 more than usual)!

After you’ve signed up (or if you’re already a member), enter to win one of FOUR $1000 prizes! Here’s how:

1. Go to this page and RSVP for the Swagbucks Birthday Bash, a 24-hr Team Challenge happening on the 27th.

2. Pick one of the two parties and RSVP for it – if you don’t have a preference, click “Surprise Me”

3. That’s it – do that and you’re entered to win! They’re revealing the 4 winners on February 27th, and until then you can invite others to join you at the party you’re attending by sharing on Facebook and Twitter.

And on top of that, tomorrow’s festivities will bring more point-earning opportunities for everyone!

Every Swag Buck you earn on Monday from Search, Special Offers/Daily Deals, SBTV, Surverys and Tasks will also count toward you party’s total. The party with the most SB earned will earn a 10 Swag Buck bonus  for each person who contributes; the other party will get a bonus of 5 Swag Bucks each.

Also, the top earner from each party will get a bonus of 100 Swag Bucks and the title of Party Animal!

AND there will be an all-day Swag Code extravaganza on Monday – 130 Swag Bucks in codes will be given out over the course of 24 hours, meaning everyone from night owls to early risers will be able to get Swag Codes!

See you there! Here’s the sign-up link again if you need it.

We’ve made strides in some areas, and tip-toed a bit in others. I outlined a few major categories for our goals in my original 2012 goals post, so I’m going to update you from here on out using the same categories.

Family Goals

Finances – Second Vehicle, CHECK! Crazy, huh?? We said we wanted to purchase it before Alex makes his appearance in July, and by God’s grace, we already have it! Some scouring of Craigslist and a generous gift from a beloved relative made it possible to purchase this beauty:

It’s a 2001 Toyota Sienna with lots of life left. In order to meet our more general financial goal of living within our means, we won’t be driving her much until we need to (hello gas prices!), but it’s already been great having the option!

We were also able to use our HSA to pay the birth center for Alex’s delivery in full ahead of time. Now we can move on to our goal of replenishing our emergency fund (which we thankfully didn’t completely deplete), and saving to fund our Roth IRA this year. PTL!

Lifestyle - Our goal has been to simplify and purge. I donated 6 large bags of everything from clothing and shoes to VHS tapes and a spice rack to Big Brothers, Big Sisters this week. Many many many (as in I’ve completely lost count) more bags went out with the trash. And Rob used a gift card to buy 10 big plastic tubs to store the misc things we wanted to keep.

After finding out Alex’s gender, I wasted no time (less than 24 hours) digging into the baby clothes and since we had nice tubs on hand, I went ahead and organized the rest of the kids’ clothes as well. The shelves we’ll use for Alex’s things are completely full, and we are abundantly blessed. :)

So now that we know that projects are our strength, I need to make it a goal to work on my endurance when it comes to regular maintenance. Hopefully I can give you a good report on that next time!

Specific Goals for the Immediate Future:

* Keep our food budget under $500 next month.
* Find a reliable source of supplemental income for after I stop babysitting.
* Make baskets for Alex’s clothing
* Establish a regular cleaning schedule (ha!)
* Finish Cora’s first year scrapbook so that I can continue with my genealogy work.

Personal Goals

Spiritual Growth – We are currently working on getting Cora to sleep through the night without me. I have had a couple (as in two) successful mornings of getting up before her to read. I’ve also tried making it a priority to spend time in reading and prayer during naps. It’s been better than before, but I have a long way to go. I’m enjoying the days that I’ve been able to read through quick Lenten devotionals.

Mothering - This has been rough. There hasn’t been a week so far this year when one or more of us wasn’t sick – and it’s mostly been me. I’ve needed more rest and haven’t done as much with the kids as I’d like. We’ve watched lots of movies and played lots of computer games. I’ve made it a priority to do lots of reading with them, and we made it through several short chapter books this month on top of our regular storybooks.

Health - We had several beautiful days in January and February and I was able to get outside and exert myself a bit. I started our raised beds for this year. We’ll be using scrap wood and garden tiles, an old wooden pallet, and anything else I can find. We hauled decorative rocks to the beds I started (one toy dump truck at a time) for the bottom layer to allow drainage.

Otherwise, my main goal is to stay hydrated and eat plenty of protein. Not very ambitious, I know, but I’m kind of pooped.

Writing – Well, I’ve increased the frequency of my posts here, and ventured to write a couple of non-family related posts. But mostly I’ve just been planning and dreaming.

Reading - I’m VERY slowly working through my list. You’d think I’d have read more considering how tired I’ve been, but it hasn’t appealed to me. I got through:

Christian Woman’s Guide to Childbirth* – Debra Evans
Angels – David Jeremiah
Active Birth – Janet Balaskas

And I’m working on Heaven by Randy Alcorn. I can tell you I’ll have rave reviews of this one when I’m done!  Christian Woman’s Guide to Childbirth was also WONDERFUL. It will be my first recommendation to pregnant moms from now on.

Specific Goals for the Immediate Future:

* Continue to establish a regular time for reading and prayer.
* Establish a time of reading and prayer with the kids (after breakfast?)
* Be more diligent about avoiding sugar (for my immune system’s sake).
* Excercise/stretch 30 minutes a day (wimpy version of this challenge).
* Write for Social Moms and participate in a blog event to boost readership.
* Catch up on my 2 books per month reading goal. Next up:  Byzantium by Stephen Lawhead

So how are your goals and resolutions going? I am definitely happy that I’ve set so many this year. Even though I haven’t met some of them as quickly as I’d hoped, my successes have been very motivating. Praying the same for you!

* All book links are Amazon affiliate links.

Today, Ash Wednesday, begins the Lenten season – the 40 days that we prepare for and reflect on the Resurrection.

Not many Protestant traditions formally practice Lent, but our family has been so enriched by our growing participation in the Church calendar, that I wanted to share some resources  that may help you decide how to observe this season as well.

Not all of these are Protestant, and some are inter-denominational. One of the things I enjoy most about celebrating the seasons of our faith is that it brings unity with followers of Christ across all lines. Thank you to friends who have pointed these resources out to me.

Printable Lent Calendar for Children

On Keeping a Holy Lent (PCA Conversations)

Journey to the Cross Devotionals

40 Ideas for Lent (Rachel Held Evans)

40 Days for Life Devotionals (pro-life focus)

Lenten Resources (mostly food related) from Kitchen Stewardship (Catholic)

Free Lent Devotional Book Ann Voskamp

Thankfully, my family is very amenable to trying new things, and since I keep the ingredients pretty simple, it very rarely comes out inedible. This masterpiece concoction was inspired by having a recently delivered 1/4 cow (local and grass fed!!!) and cottage cheese and sweet potatoes that desperately needed used up!

I did my customary google ingredient search and the most enticing thing that came up was this “Cottage Pie,” but alas it didn’t contain any cottage cheese. So… here’s what we ended up doing instead. It was delicious!

Sweet Potato Cottage Cheese Casserole

Ingredients:

1/2 large onion, diced
2 large sweet potatoes
1lb ground beef
16ozs cottage cheese (I used 4% small curd)
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
butter

Directions:

Peel, chop, and boil sweet potatoes until soft. Drain and set aside.
Sautee diced onion with butter in skillet until translucent, add ground beef and cook until done. Drain if necessary.
Combine all ingredients except cheddar in skillet if you have room, or directly in the buttered casserole dish you’ll use for baking (whatever you have that will hold it).
Transfer to buttered casserole dish if you haven’t yet, and sprinkle with cheddar.
Bake at 400 until cheddar starts to get crispy. Everything is fully cooked, so this is personal preference.

Enjoy! It’s nutrient dense and comforting, and really could hardly be easier!! It *is* a little “soupy” so if your family has texture issues, you may want to add rice, noodles, or more beef to give it some structure. If you want it to set up more like a savory sweet potato pie, I’d try adding an egg to the mashed sweet potatoes (let them cool first).

Looking for more recipes? Did you know I have tons? Click through for more or find them in my recipe tab up top.

(I’ve covered up my phone number to spare my husband’s sanity) :D

Take 25% off any order from Tiny Prints until 2/21 with the code tinyprints25.

And on an only semi-related note: what in the world am I going to do in April with Picnik officially closes down???!?

I’ve had a list of favorite baby names since Middle School. I have a baby name book that I’ve looked through so many times in the last decade that the pages are falling out. We’ve decided on a baby name within a week of finding out we’re expecting all three times.

I love naming children! I would totally name yours if you let me.

I also love themes – it’s just how I’m wired. The more layers to the meaning, the better. Now, Rob’s tastes are a bit (ha!) more simple, so he doesn’t share the same enthusiasm that I do about names, but he’s a good sport. He’s humored me for hours of brainstorming and negotiating. And he’s all for deciding names early on so that the brainstorming and negotiating can end. :D

If you know me in person, I’ve probably talked your ear off about names at one point or another, but now that we’ve revealed our name for baby #3, I thought I’d write up a post about our naming philosophy.

For our children, we’ve chosen three themes.

1. A’s for boys and C’s for girls.
2. Family Names
3. Literary Names

Aidan’s first name came from a lovely book that we read before we were married – Byzantium by Stephen Lawhead. I also have a Great Great Grandmother named Ada. His middle name is of course in honor of daddy.

Cora is named after the heroine of The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper. Cora is also the name of another of my Great Great Grandmothers. Ruth (her middle name) is Rob’s grandmother’s name.

When it came time to choose names for this baby, we had a great list already prepared that fit with our themes, and several that we liked that didn’t. I’m glad that we didn’t reveal our themes before we posted our baby name poll. It was very interesting to see what all of you thought we would choose!

Have you wondered what our girl name would have been? We really were considering them all, but the one that won out for us was Catherine “Cate” Olivia! Cate would be in honor of my little sister Catlin and the main character of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. Rob’s other grandmother’s name is Olive, as was her mother. She hates her name though, so we thought we’d soften it to a more popular version. ;)

So how about Alex?

Well, out of all of our names, Alex is the ONLY one that doesn’t fit neatly into our themes! Alexander is a family name – Rob’s French-Canadian Great Great Great Grandfather was Alexander Lonctin (later changed to Stanton – they really couldn’t say Lonctin?? *shrug*). And Ross is my father’s name.

So we’ve got themes 1 and 2 down, but 3? Number three has been frustrating. The only literary Alexanders I know are of the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day and Alex Rider variety.

It’s really been frustrating – did I mention that? But Alex has grown and gown on (and in!) me. So I guess we’re going about things a little backwards this time. I’m going to ask for YOUR help – do you know any Alexanders in literature? I’d love to be able to present him with a nice copy of a good book someday. Leave comments, please! :)

I heard from a few of you after I posted our ultrasound photo and know that there was some guessing going on based on what the image did/didn’t show. :)

After our ultrasound appointment, Rob emailed my friend Tori and let her know the gender and the name we’d chosen. Let me tell you, this woman is amazing! In less than 24 hours, she’d created the cutest baby items to surprise me with.

A generous mommy friend, Allison, let me open Tori’s gift at her kids’ birthday party today. Love my play group friends. Thank you all for being such a special part of our lives!

Allison was also kind enough to video tape me opening the gift. You ready? ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7pBcE5IaVQ

Yep! We’re having a little boy! We’re so looking forward to meeting…

Alexander “Alex” Ross

See the elbow resting on the knee? Too cute!! :D

We DID find out the gender… or at least Rob did!

My exasperating wonderful husband decided last minute that he wanted to know right away. He then emailed Tori the gender and I’ll still be surprised. :)

If you haven’t voted yet on which name you think we chose, check out our last post.

The only concern was a low-lying anterior placenta. That usually resolves itself later in the pregnancy, but we’ll now for sure if we have to be diligent about watching for placenta previa when we get the results from radiology on Monday.

So yeah, yay for healthy baby, and watch for the big gender reveal very soon! :D

We will be asking the tech to look for baby’s gender, though we will have them write the answer down instead of telling us.

Originally, I thought I might throw us a gender reveal party. Unfortunately, I’m a little partied out, and we don’t have it in the budget in any case. After some brainstorming, I decided to take my favorite elements of the party, and just do them digitally. Gotta love the internet!

Let the festivities begin!! :)

Our “party” will be posted in multiple parts. Today, come on in and participate in a little warm-up game. Fill out the three polls below to vote on what you think we’ll be revealing at the end of the party. Boy or Girl? And what name will we choose?

Make sure to vote on the names you think we chose, not on the ones you prefer. :)

Part 2 will be posted after we see our precious baby on Friday!

Part 3 will be up after our wonderful friend Tori from Monkey Stitch has a chance to see the gender that the tech writes down and has time to make us something fun to open on video. We’ll post the video here. :)

You’ve probably seen lots of your favorite bloggers chatting about getting excited for this or that blog conference. I hear most about some of the larger ones – Blissdom, Allume Social (formerly Relevant), BlogHer, Savvy Blogging Summit, etc. etc. There are also conferences for specific niches (like food blogging), and regional conferences. (Here’s a good list of conferences in 2012.)

I have yet to attend an official blog conference, though I had really hoped to travel for the Savvy Blogging Summit last year when it was in Colorado Springs! As you can imagine, blog conferences feature speakers and seminars focused on better blogging. This includes content (writing), photography, social media, and marketing/pr. With so many people earning a part time (or full time!) income blogging, it’s no wonder these are so popular.

I’d venture to guess that what draws people to them the most, though, is the community. Networking with other bloggers in person is a great way to build a support group and make the contacts necessary to do big things in the blogging world. So many bloggers have begun charity and awareness campaigns that have touched lives, and the relationships that make them possible often begin at conferences.

When I thought I might try and attend a conference last year, I created business cards for my blog. I felt a little silly at first, pretending that I was big stuff, but they came in handy as contact cards so many times throughout the year – even though I didn’t get to go to the conference as I’d hoped.

I was able to use my business cards to arrange playdates with new mommy friends, give friends and family a handy reminder of how to find us online, and yes, even do some bloggy networking!

This year, I’ve been given the opportunity to show you some of the available designs from Tiny Prints, and I’ll receive some free business cards in return. I’m happy to point out some of my favorites from this company that I’ve used and enjoyed before.

Tiny Prints offers many styles ranging from simple and classic like these:

To more whimsical and feminine styles this this one (gotta love the square!):

And the ones that have really caught my eye this year are the folded cards. A neat way to sneak more information into the card and present them with something they won’t forget:

Check out their entire selection of business cards to find the perfect match for you! Thank, Tiny Prints, for giving me the chance to be part of this promotion!