I’m home alone at the moment. Cameron took the kids to town since I haven’t been feeling great the last few days. First they went bowling, now they’re at this coffee shop in town that has a giant indoor play set, and then they’ll head on home! I really wanted to take a nice long nap, which usually isn’t a problem, but for some reason I couldn’t fall asleep. Maybe I need that little bit of “background noise” to fall asleep in the middle of the day. 😄 

Anyway, how are you? You can reply to any of these newsletters, and it goes straight to my email inbox, in case you didn’t know that.

A few updates

First up, the baby has flipped, head down. I can’t remember which direction she’s facing, or even which one is the best one, so we’ll just assume it’s the way it’s supposed to be.

I’ve been doing this Christian Hypnobirthing, as I’ve mentioned before. (Here is the Instagram page that goes along with the website. The website isn’t free, but the IG page and resources there are.) A few times a week, I will do my Spinning Babies and chiropractor exercises with my headphones in, listening to the positive affirmations or encouraging scriptures (those are in the hypnobirthing app). More on baby stuff in the next section!

Second, a house update. At one point, we were told that, if all goes well, the add-on could be done by May 1. I knew that was not going to happen because these things never go to plan. We’ve had a lot of rain, and then nothing happened for a week because the windows we needed came in damaged, and they had to be re-ordered.

There are still so many things that need to be done:

• All the sheetrock needs to be installed and mudded.

• The interior trim for all the windows has to be installed.

• The bathroom needs to be totally done, so we have to pick out sinks, a shower, fixtures, tiling, all that.

• THEN the walls will be painted and

• The floors will be installed.

• OH! And at some point (not sure when it happens) our existing walls will come down in order to connect the main house to the add-on.

It’s May 24 as of this writing. I was really hoping end of May would be the finishing date, but I don’t think that is possible. Let’s say, my new dream date is June 7, a Friday. That would give us that weekend to go buy some things for the kids’ rooms and set it all up over that weekend. But I also need to be okay with it not being done until later.

My ideal labor and delivery

Part of hypnobirthing is visualization. Plan out exactly how the labor and delivery will go. Here is how I imagine things will go this time around:

At the right time (I don’t want to get my heart set on a particular day or date), my waters will break while I am at home. [Note, for 2/3 of my other labors, my waters didn’t break until I was 9cm, at the hospital, and the other one, I was already at the hospital as well.] I won’t panic, I’ll just carry on with what I was doing.

Contractions will progress fairly quickly. I’ll begin to time them, and once they’re about 5 minutes apart, I will call one of our designated kid-watchers to come on over. I’m breathing and staying calm. Cam and I grab our things and head to the hospital.

On the ride there, I’ll put in my headphones and listen to my affirmations and scriptures, maybe some gentle music. Once settled into a room, I’ll let them check my dilation (but I don’t want to know, they can tell Cameron). I will continue to breathe through the surges. At one point, I will feel an urge to push, so I will move into whatever position feels comfortable in that moment.

I’ll reach my hand down. I can feel the baby’s head, and then I’ll let the doctor know that it’s time for her to help me catch the baby. Through low breaths and moans and just a few reflexive pushes, I’ll deliver our little one.

That’s what I imagine when I do my visualization exercises. I can’t wait to share the story once it actually happens! ❤️ 

Summer schedule

Recently on my IG story, I talked about creating a summer schedule. I first Googled some ideas. The big thing for me is that I don’t want to over-schedule anything, mostly because I don’t stick to schedules very well.

The first few days of summer were… loosy goosy. They were all over the place. And that was strange to me since our school day is just a couple of hours. I guess there’s something to be said for the bit of structure that goes along with schooling (and homeschooling), no matter how many hours. Not having any plans or routines for the start of the day made the rest of the day feel chaotic.

That’s when I decided we needed a small change. Here are my personal goals for the summer:

• My kids shouldn’t need to come to me every time they are bored.

• I don’t want them to ask me if they can have a snack all day long. (YES you can have a snack if it’s snack time! They know what snacks are appropriate without needing to ask every time.)

• I want them to be at least a little bit productive each day (and honestly, play time is productive for kids, so I’m happy with their days being mostly playing).

• I need some structure, even just a little bit, so things don’t feel crazy - they feed off of my energy, you know?

I got this first idea from my friend Emmy (@emmy_goulet): she posted a summer lunch schedule for her kids (they homeschool as well). Here’s ours:

• Mondays - sandwiches (PBJ, grilled cheese, something fancy)

• Tuesdays - pasta (mac and cheese, spaghetti, chicken parm with penne)

• Wednesdays - snacks! Charcuterie boards, basically

• Thursdays - soup (ramen noodle, chicken cabbage, chicken noodle)

• Fridays - scavenge, leftovers

Each day, I have been writing down a checklist for the kids. It includes a morning section (get dressed, eat breakfast, complete your morning chore), the lunch/dinner plans for the day, and some other ideas for them (clean room, read, make slime, do a puzzle).

They’ve each got a weekly chore, so the morning chores are something small I notice needs to happen around the house. Here are some examples:

• Strip beds, wash sheets (at least get it started)

• Tidy under your bed (their beds are lofted)

• Clean off dining table

• Pick toys up from porch

• Wipe down all the doorknobs

Another thing that’s not shown there is weekly outings. I haven’t yet figured that part out (mostly because of the baby), but I’d like to put some things on our summer calendar that we can look forward to. For example, a local museum hosts a free movie night on the lawn, once a month, this summer. The only problem is that it starts at dusk (which is around 8pm), plus the length of the movie, plus a 40 minute drive home! That’s a lot with little kids.

But I’ll do a little more digging into our local mom groups to find out some fun events happening throughout the summer. 🌞

Recipes for you to try

As usual, I’ve tried a few new recipes lately, so here are some for you to try!

1. Creamy Spinach Salmon - Someone on IG suggested this recipe to us, and we’ve made it twice now. It’s GREAT. We have had it with rice! She also said she makes it with chicken instead of salmon, which we haven’t tried yet but surely will.

   

   This is a screen grab from her TikTok video recipe! The picture on her blog doesn’t do them justice!

2. Caramelitas - These bars come together super quickly and were such a big hit. Suggestion: increase the amount of caramel sauce and decrease the amount of chocolate. Otherwise they aren’t super caramel-y, despite the name.

   

3. Enchilada skillet - Okay so I didn’t make this exactly because I didn’t have all the ingredients. And I thought the little tortilla pieces would get soggy… so I left them out 😅 thus, we ate the skillet meal with tortilla chips instead.

What we’re reading/watching

The kids have seen two movies this week: Remember the Titans and The Neverending Story. They’d never seen Remember the Titans and, frankly, were bored through 50% of it. But it’s one of my favorites, and since I think it’s got a lot of good moments, we gave it a try! It’s available on Disney+.

The Neverending Story, they’ve seen before - Annabelle requested to watch it this week, and so we did. I think we had to rent it on Prime Video? It’s sooo odd (I love it though), and I don’t quite understand the end of it - like [spoiler] does the main kid literally fly through town on the literal flying dog creature? I mean, the book is real the whole time? It makes me want to read the book with the kids this summer.

Cam is the big reader in our house. He only reads non-fiction, and the ones he picks are mostly business or self improvement. Currently, he’s reading a book called Feel Good Productivity by Ali Abdaal. He’s read several this year. If you’re interested in his list, let me know, and I’ll ask him!

I’m reading two books right now. One is M is for Mama (I should be able to finish it today): the subtitle is A Rebellion Against Mediocre Motherhood. It’s written by Abbie Halberstadt, a “Bible-believing mother of 10". She’s active on IG as well. I don’t agree with everything she

says, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this book so far.

The second book is an audiobook called Her Gates Will Never Be Shut by Brad Jersak - It is also a Christian book, specifically digging into hell and all the original language used to name and describe hell. It’s interesting, at the very least!

Somewhat related, but I got this sloth bookmark/book light a few weeks ago, and I’ve been loving it. It’s a little bit bulky as a bookmark, but it hasn’t been an issue. I got it at Barnes & Noble, but here’s an Amazon link for it (there are lots of other designs to choose from). It’s currently about $10.

TikTok roundup

1. Watch this lady sew a beautiful travel bag, start to finish!

2. I’ve heard of non-toy gift ideas, but this one takes the cake. I’d love to receive something like this! (Spoiler: it’s a cookbook plus everything needed to make one of the recipes.)

3. Oh, just a tiny owl being cute.

4. This cake artist makes a true masterpiece. I wouldn’t want to eat it!

5. I LOVE this rotating bookshelf!

True crime story of the week

I’ve listened to several stories this week, but I’d say the most interesting one was Sound and Fury from Dateline. This is such a sad story, about the murder of Tiffany Pugh. What I found really interesting about it was all the insider info about the Atlanta music scene, particularly the DJ scene.

Tiffany’s husband Andre was a DJ in the Atlanta area. I didn’t realize how much power and pull that DJs have! Her husband, and other DJs, work in these clubs (often strip clubs). And aspiring artists will pay the DJs to play their music. The DJ listens to the music and decides to play it or not. THEN, radio DJs will call up the club DJs and ask them which new songs really got the crowds excited. And those are the songs that make it to the radio.

So needless to say, a DJ can make enemies with these aspiring artists if their music doesn’t get played.

When Tiffany ends up dead, the first thought is that there must be an aspiring artist so mad at her husband Andre that they go after his family. I won’t spoil the ending - the whole thing has lots of twists and turns. Ultimately this poor woman dies, and her sweet babies were in the house when it happened. It’s a tragedy all around, as most of these stories are.

Felt!

Okay, first, a joke you can use. You touch someone’s shirt (NOTE, I don’t support touching people without permission, soooo do this with a friend!). And you say “Oooo is this felt?” And they will probably say “Um no.” And then you say “Now it is!” 😅

Now, have you heard of the app called Felt (App Store, Google Play)? It’s a way to send personal greeting cards without having to go buy one, stuff it, stamp it, and send it. Through the app, you can pick a card, either type or handwrite a message, add a photo if you want, and address it (again either typed or handwritten). Then, the app will print your card, put it in an envelope, stamp and ship it for you. As an example, I used it to send a handwritten Thank You card yesterday for $6.00. That’s more than if I’d done it all myself, but I didn’t have any cards, and I didn’t have to get up from the couch.

I like that I can save my addresses (including my return address) without having to write them each time. I also like that they have items you can put in the card; you can add stickers, confetti, temporary tattoos, gift cards, and more.

Anyway, this is not sponsored at all. I used to use this app YEARS ago, forgot about it, and just got it again. It’s going to be really handy in a few weeks when I want to send baby-related Thank You cards! I can do it, from my phone, while I’m nursing the baby, for example. Just figured I’d share, if you hadn’t heard of it!

Final notes

If you like these emails, feel free to forward this to someone else who may find it interesting or valuable!

This past week, I realized I hadn’t fed my sourdough starter in about 2 weeks. It was just sitting there on the kitchen counter. Normally, it comes back to life pretty quickly. This time, I fed it, and nothing happened. The next day, I fed it again, and nothin’. Days went by, and it just would not rise at all! This was very unusual for me and my happy little starter!

Finally, I “pruned” it… I got rid of a little bit off the top (discard, which I rarely do anymore!), then fed it just a small amount, and 12 hours later, she started to grow. By the end of the next feed, it was doubling and bubbly, pretty quickly.

So, moral of the story… keep at it. Whatever thing is giving you a hard time right now. Keep showing love and being patient.

I heard something once that’s stuck with me. In most situations, we can react out of fear or we can react out of love, and we should [try to] always choose love.

Wanna send a little something my way?

If you’d like to support me and my content, then here are three ways:

• Send along an encouraging note, here or on IG or even snail mail!

• You can “Buy Me a Coffee” - it’s a virtual tip jar!

• And finally, here is a link to my Amazon wish list! There are some baby-related items on there too. 🙂 Also, my PO Box is still open!

  • Bethany King

  • PO Box 8152

  • Shreveport LA 71148

Much love,
Bethany

PS If you want to see old emails, here’s a link to all of them!

Disclaimer: Any Amazon links here are affiliate links! That just means I get a tiny commission if you buy something through one of them; you don’t pay anything extra. (It’s JUST the Amazon ones. I don’t have any other partnerships or affiliations.)