Thank you for all those who prayed for Danika and have been following along on the Pray for Danika facebook page. It’s been an intense week for the Tibayan family and while Danika’s battle is coming to an end, prayers are still needed for all her friends and family that remain. Ben and I were with the family for just a few short hours last night at the hospital and came home feeling shocked, sad, and emotionally exhausted. This was just from a few short hours, I can’t even imagine how the Tibayan family feels pretty much living at the hospital for the whole week.

It was just 6 weeks ago, we were all together with the whole Tibayan clan celebrating my best (guy) friend’s wedding and I vividly remember watching them as they were taking their family pictures, and they were all saying they didn’t know when they would have the whole clan together again (one brother and his family lives in Hawaii and another lives in Minnesota). Little did they know how much their family would change just a short six weeks later.

As a mother, my imagination cannot even come close to what one feels when losing a child. I am sure know one can ever understand the depth of that pain unless one has lived through it. My heart breaks for Danika’s parents and  yet in this sorrow they are facing, her mom continuously declares that God is good, wise, and in control. Her faith in declaring our God is always good under the painful circumstances of losing her baby girl is an encouragement to such a young and often failing mother like me. It also encourages me to be an intentional mother to my children. This is the role I have chosen and by God’s grace, I want to do the best I am able to. Yes, there are tons of failures along the way, but I need to learn and grow as a mother and love my children more with every bit of learning I do.

Danika’s brain was deprived of oxygen for 30 minutes, but it only takes 6 minutes of deprivation to cause serious damage. That thought kind of wakes me up to how fragile life actually is. I think I go about my days so fearlessly thinking I am going to live until I’m 80 or until my kids are 80, but the truth is no one is ever promised a long life like that. Something we say over here (and in our circle of friends) is “We are thankful for our temporary health.” While it’s true, yes, we are thanking God for good health, at some point all of our healths will deteriorate (unless you find the never ending fountain of youth), it’s a natural part of life, and we must still continue thanking God even at that point. Death is never easy, but I am glad that we can trust in a God who is wise, good, and in control.

Thank you again for those who have sent prayers for Danika, but if you are able to after you read this, please also say one for her family and their continuous strength and comfort. There are no doubt some tough days ahead for all of them. #prayfordanika

“This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Chrysler. All opinions are 100% mine.”

The “Test of Ownership” for the Town & Country was pretty cool. While we don’t have it anymore, it was a pleasant experience the few weeks we were allowed to borrow it. I loved the extra space we had, though I still feel a van is just a bit too monstrous for me. I totally loved having Sirius XM Satellite Radio and that was really hard to let go of. Another feature I liked was the little triangle that would light up when someone was in your blind spot; it would then kindly beep-beep if you flipped on your indicator lights and there was someone in your blind spot. Of course, you wouldn’t rely on that solely, but I thought it was a nice safety feature. The girls also loved all the buttons they could press to make the doors close, and they especially loved the little sun shades that pulled up for their windows.

I remember the day my parents brought home their brand new minivan when I was about 10 years old. I was so excited and I vividly recall claiming the middle, left seat as my spot. And oh I raised a stink when my brother tried to take it from time to time. Well, I think I just raised a stink when it came anything to do with my brother because we fought incessantly growing up. Their van did not have any of the bells and whistles this van does, but we made lots of memories in that van and that’s how my mom toted us 4 kids around. Oh and my mom even sat on a pillow because vans are kinda big and my mom is really little. But in a modern van like this, built with the ability to adjust your seat height and angle, no pillows required!

Though we had the Town & Country for just a few weeks, I am sure the big girls will think of that time with fondness. They obviously won’t have as many memories as I did in the minivan I grew up riding (but they will have plenty in our current car), but they truly enjoyed and looked forward to riding in the van… I’m sure they’ll have some fun things to talk about when they grow up. One day they’ll probably ask, “Mom, why did we get to borrow a van for a couple weeks and where did it go?” And I’ll reply, “Well, a long time ago, there was thing called blogging…”

We’re back to normal in our car again. I love our car and I don’t feel the need to trade it out just yet, but it really was a nice little car vacation. We got to enjoy extra space in a super clean and modern car for a bit. I was talking to my friend Frances about minivans versus SUVs. She has a midsize SUV like us (and they’re soon to be a family of 6), but she was telling me she’s ready to trade out for the minivan, as she puts it, “The trunk space is sexy.” I’m not quite ready to make the jump, but I will admit, compared to my car that trunk (and other internal) space is pretty doggone sexy.

Thanks Chrysler for letting us borrow your car! The girls truly had a ton of fun in the borrowed car, so I made a quick little video for them to remember their car vacation.

I love the Story of the World program we use for history. We have been using this since last year and we love the many different suggestions they give to help further learning for each chapter. We did these masks for Ancient Egypt, in which the project was taken from the book, and sometimes they even have recipes. This particular chapter we just finished had us making some pita bread! We did a little bit of school, started making the dough, got dressed and went to the farmer’s market (while we let the dough rise), then came home, baked the bread, had it for lunch, and then continued on with school. At the market, we picked up some hummus and eating it with the pita bread made a very good lunch. We were a happy bunch that afternoon. Well, probably until the kids started fighting and then I started yelling, and so on and so forth, but I think you get the gist.

Every time I make bread, I am in awe because it is so easy and I always wonder why I don’t do it more often. I would love to if they were just a teensy bit more time in the day, but sometimes it’s easier to just buy it than make it. Don’t you agree?

Anyhow, even if you don’t homeschool, but want to do some at-home history learning with your child, I highly recommend that book. There are stories (and a cd for listening to the stories), suggested books for further learning, along with crafts and (sometimes) recipes in all the chapters. I never really  enjoyed history when I was a child, which may be due to the fact that we were just reading straight out of text books and were never really doing anything fun with it. Nowadays though, I am definitely loving it as I am learning and teaching it to my own children.

This had nothing to do with our curriculum, but I was so excited to watch The Dust Bowl documentaries on PBS and had them watch a little bit with me. I always wondered what those “Congress created the Dust Bowl” signs meant when we went on road trips and now I finally know! I finished episode 1 and now I can’t wait to watch episode 2! Yeah, I’m pretty nerdy about history stuff.

Say hello to a lovely shop named Addiah. Virginia, the owner of the shop, says Addiah is derived from a Hebrew name meaning adornment or ornament from God, which she found to be perfectly fitting as she sells lovely things that adorn the home and body. Virginia is a believer and advocate in loving what you own and encouraging others to surround themselves with that which they love. She believes the things in our lives should be beautiful, encourage us to live well, and inspire us. She started Addiah after she graduated from college and as time went on, she became increasingly more passionate about finding and celebrating awesome designs and the people making them. She wants to use her shop as a way to encourage people to live their lives well and be surrounded with beauty.

Some of her personal favorites in the shop are the wandering robe, cascade necklace, the postmug, and these simple but stunning dog leashes. I have a few of my own favorites which include the lace necklace, the Sky High, and these hand woven napkins.

One of you can win a $50 gift certificate to Addiah. You can get a little something for yourself or maybe a gift for someone you love and all have you have to do to enter is…

1. Tell me what you would pick from Addiah.
2. Blog, tweet, or facebook about this giveaway and leave separate comments to the links here.

Now, if you do all of the things mentioned above, you might even be able to up your chances by getting your name in 4 times (just remember to leave separate comments for each)! Fantastic, right? The giveaway will end at 8am PST on Monday, December 3rd and the winner will be announced via twitter (follow me on twitter here) on Monday. Good luck!

This lovely girl singing is Danika and she is 17 years old. True and Brave used to pretend they were Danika and Chicha, who is Danika’s cousin. Danika and Chicha were always together, so Brave and True would pretend they were them.

Last Wednesday, Danika had a severe asthma attack in conjunction with not knowing she had bronchitis, this dangerous combination resulted in leaving her unable to breathe and going into a coma. She is currently fighting for her life and all her friends and family are fervently lifting her up in prayer. The biggest concern is how much damage may have affected her brain, from that moment she first passed out up until she reached the hospital, her brain was deprived of oxygen. There is no brain swelling, but the prognosis is still unknown. She is having consistent seizures that they are praying will soon subside so that they can try to wake her up from her medically induced coma. We’re all praying for miracles over here.

Her uncle, PJ, who is also our pastor, wrote this… “Truths to cling to (and you need all 3 to be thankful and hopeful): God is good, God is wise, and God is in control of all things. If he is good and wise but not in control, he has good intentions and plans, but we can’t trust that they’d actually be carried out since he doesn’t control it all. If he is in control and wise but not good, then we might have a bully God who uses his power and wisdom to do us harm, not good. If he is good and in control of all but not wise, he might have good intentions and the ability to do it, but if he isn’t wise enough to plan the course of action that is best, then we have may have a mistaken God. But none of these are the God of the Bible. God is wise and in control of all, and he is good to us who are in his Son Christ Jesus. #bethankful #trustJesus”

We’re praying for Danika’s body to be fully healed, we’re praying for strength for her parents Nina and Dennis (and the rest of her family), and we’re praying for everyone’s trust in God’s sovereignty through this difficult situation. If you believe in prayer, please take a moment to pray these things for Danika and her family. Also, if you feel so inclined to share in this burden of asking for prayer, please do so. To keep with updates and to help spread the word for prayer, please “like” the facebook page Pray For Danika. #prayfordanika

Thank you friends!

Our church gatherings are held at a local recreation center and there wasn’t a teacher for them during our morning Sunday seminar class, so I spent the time outside with them swinging (well, I mostly held Glow). I love the swings. I love going as high as possible until I start to freak myself out and think that the swings are going to start wrapping around the top pole. That’s really what goes through my head as I get higher. Just yesterday, I discovered Soul really loves the swing and she’ll say, “Mommy, higher!” We put Glow on, but she wasn’g having any of it. It’s not her thing as of now, though I’m sure it will be.

This long weekend was grand and I got lots of things done with Ben home. We still haven’t decorated for Christmas, but that will come soon. Maybe today. I’ve got a few ideas of some things to make, but we really go pretty simple with decorating. I can’t believe Thanksgiving came and went and now we have Christmas to look forward to. I love this time of year so much!

Finally, the winner of the $100 gift certificate giveaway is Jody! I can’t wait to hear what shop she picks out for her gift certificate. Thank you again so much everyone. You all are such a wonderful bunch of thankful people (I seriously read each and every comment) and I’m thankful for you.

It’s Monday again and our week long vacation is over (it was so nice!), so it’s back to homeschooling today. Also, don’t forget to enter in this Misha Lulu Giveaway! Happy Monday everyone!!!