Family
My Grateful Heart
This is my greatest hope-that my faith will never falter and that my life can be a living testimony to “how GREAT is MY God”!!! Gratitude changes the way I start my day! Gratitude guards against an attitude of self centeredness and entitlement.
Colossians 4:2 tells us to be watchful with thanksgiving!!!
Psalms 9:1-2 encourages me to give thanks to God with my whole heart.
So grateful for 10 grandkids including our newest grandson, Hezekiah “Hezi” Ari Banihashemi. I have had the privilege of helping out this first week of his new life. His big sister, Sophie, is adjusting to his arrival with lots of love and enthusiasm. He is a blessing to us and his story will always be a testimony of God’s gracious compassion.
How are you being “watchful” this month so that you do not miss the things you should be thankful for?
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A Grand Adventure (Part 1)
Three weeks of my life disappeared in a blink of an eye. Time is such a unique phenomenon. When you have a “to do” list a mile long it seems to hang over your head and creates stress and tension on a day to day basis. But when you have a deadline that includes leaving the country…..you power through that list in a day or two and get everything checked off-DONE!
That sensation of being free from the day to day commitments and obligations is a vacation in and of itself. Adding to that, a long awaited, much anticipated vacation to one of the spots on your bucket list is like a dream come true. Our 40th anniversary trip to Italy last month was all that rolled into one of the best vacations we have ever taken. It was far from “relaxing” but it was a GRAND ADVENTURE!
The planning and preparation was a bit more tricky than I anticipated because in the middle of planning our trip we had the unexpected kitchen disaster that dipped into our finances. But for me-the bargain hunter extraordinaire, it was a challenge that motivated me even more. Armed with my Rick Steve’s books, our Marriott points and our United mileage plus points, I began the process of planning. My goal was to provide the best trip possible on a shoestring budget and be able to see and do all the things we had dreamt about for years. Mission accomplished.
We began our trip in Venice. A very romantic city. Wandering the streets alongside the meandering canals was relaxing and fun. Although we had to navigate around the throngs of people who were there for the Italian Film Festival being held on the island of Lido and this prevented us from seeing the Armenian …
Bringing Jesus Into Your Home — A Fun Devotional Activity to Do with Your Kids
I’m always trying to through how I will bring Jesus into our home for our family and children now and in the future – Fun activities, memorizing Scriptures as a family, devotionals. I want to start at a young age, but I know many of the more fun activities that we will all be able to do together with more of an understanding will come later when the kids are older. Today, I found what sounds like will be a really fun way to spend quality time with my kids while teaching and talking about Jesus!
“Kids crave constant activities and attention. Adults crave quiet moments of refreshment. How can we achieve both? Big and Little Coloring Devotional engages adults’ minds with appealing biblical devotionals while providing a creative outlet through coloring to diffuse stress.
Let’s have fun with our children through coloring and facilitate their spiritual growth with Scripture. Big and Little Coloring Devotional will incorporate physical, spiritual, and emotional refreshment by providing authentic faith-filled devotionals combined with therapeutic doodling for both the adult and child.”
Read more about the story of the project and preorder it from the link below
Big and Little Coloring Devotional
You can also find it at Amazon,
Lifeway Christian Bookstore, and Barnes & Noble for Pre-order.
What are your favorite ways to bring Jesus into your home with young children?
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Change…….
Change is in the air…
The weather has been changing…Indian Summer, hurricanes, heat waves 
Schedules are changing…..School has begun
Our home has been changing….the remodel is almost completely done and I am ready to get my life back. One last refinishing job in the kitchen-floors will look like new.
Over the past many months, I have had time to reflect on my life and what I want it to look like moving forward. I want to be a person who is flexible and always willing to change, to grow and to become a healthier person-emotionally, physically and spiritually. A few weeks ago, my mind was captivated by a teaching we heard at church about “hurried sickness”. How many times am I in too much of a hurry to take a bit more time to really listen to that friend? Do I ask questions that help open up that lonely heart, to connect deeper, to offer kindness and compassion. I do not ever want to miss an opportunity to help a person in need. Part of the change that I want to see happen in my own life is to SLOW DOWN and take more time to really appreciate all the blessings I have in my life. I want to finish strong, leave a lasting impression and really make an impact on others. So for me that change is going to require me to discipline my time and leave more room for margin….room for the unexpected. I actually want to plan for the unexpected so that I can be fully available for the cool opportunities God opens up for me in my life. One of the blessings of hanging out with my grandkids is watching them enjoy every second of life with awe and wonder.
Starting today, I have an opportunity …
Consistency is Key
We have officially had a toddler in our household for a few months now. And with that has come more exploring, more curiosity, and more testing. So much testing. Yes, the “terrible twos” have come early for us. The last few months have not been easy – full of a lot of “No’s”, a lot of monotonous training, and a lot of consequences. However, the key for us to see any sort of progress (some days/weeks this is very little to no progress) has been CONSISTENCY.
— CONSISTENCY IS KEY —
be consistent with your spouse – be a united front
be consistent with your rules and discipline tactics
be consistent with your patience – as much as possible
be consistent with your response – respond, don’t react
be consistent with your love
Unfortunately, consistency doesn’t automatically mean that things will get better or easier. I have had some pretty rough, exhausting days when I don’t feel like being consistent or when my patience has run basically dry from saying “No” to the same things over and over again. But, I have to keep telling myself that being consistent and calm and patient through the training will pay off in the long run. So, if you have had some rough days, weeks, months, look back at some adorable pictures of your little ones, think about or journal some gratitudes about each child, and take some time for yourself to get refreshed before a new day to be the best version of you for your kids!
Getting through Mom-Life is so much about community so we would love to hear from you!
How did you handle the terrible twos or a difficult stage your child/children went through?
What discipline tactics worked best for your family?
What blessings could you look back …
Read MoreConnecting Hearts
Our family had the privilege of hosting a dear new friend, Mary Phiri, visiting from Malawi, Africa. She is on staff with Gogo Grandmothers-a ministry that supports vulnerable children and their gogos (grandparents). We had so much fun introducing her to family and friends in our community. We took her to the Farmers Market, drove to Tilden Park to see the view of San Francisco (fog prevented the perfect view) and had an event where she was able to share her heart and passion for her ministry in Africa. Bethany and Garrett were able to be with us this weekend as well and that added to the excitement since Garrett is at such a fun age-curiosity and JOY fills every waking moment. 
I have a forever friend who has captured my heart. Her life story is amazing. Her joy for the Lord is her strength and she is a person who definitely has dedicated her life to put her love in action. She supervises all the community based childcare centers that the Gogo Grandmothers ministry supports. I can’t wait to go see first hand how she monitors and teaches all her volunteers.
Garrett loved showing Mary all his favorite things…He loves the outdoors so we went to the Farmer’s Market and we enjoyed tasting all the fresh fruits.
My mom, Gramie Rozie, joined us for the day and she was enchanted by Mary as well. Rick took them to Chick-fil-A for Saturday lunch and they had a blast.
Mary was captivated by Garrett. I think Garrett has a #1 fan!!!! She is one classy lady.
Each month the US director, Leslie Lewis writes updates about the great work going on in Malawi. Here is an except from the April update……”After 2 years of drought and hunger in Malawi, the …
Read MoreFamily Camp Re-Invented…..When your Summer Family Camp Vacation Doesn’t turn out like you had Hoped
Many of you have read about our Summer Family Camp over the years, so you know it is one of our MOST ANTICIPATED FUN FAMILY ACTIVITIES every summer. WELL….this summer we had a hiccup in our plans when our Kitchen/Living Room/Dining Room remodel was not finished in time for Family Camp. The actual target date to finish was two weeks before the family was to arrive for the July 4th weekend and suffice it to say…it is August 10th and we are still in process. We are really close to the finish line but this summer our Family Camp had to be re-invented. We told the kids that we were going to host the annual event here and they agreed that we would all pitch in to make it work. We had 13 of us here for most of the week spread out in the 4 bedrooms and play room for sleeping and for meals we ate breakfast lunch and dinner outside by the pool. We made every meal in my make-shift kitchen in the laundry room and the food was delicious and nutritious. We also hosted our entire extended family for a 4th of July afternoon of swimming and a BBQ (25 total) and everyone agreed it was one of the most fun times together ever.
We modified our daily schedule to accommodate the workers that were in our house from 9-5 each day so that meant creative excursions. Since a picture says 1,000 words, I will share about our adventures with pictures.
We spent many hours in the backyard playing games and swimming.
Water spirt guns were a hit as well as fun noodles and lots of rounds of Corn Hole.
All the girls loved practicing their swimming skills and Garrett absolutely loves water.
The Danville 4th of …
Rachel’s Summer of Adventure
This was a Summer for memories! We had such a blast traveling, enjoying the sun, swimming, and more!
We really focused this Summer on swimming. We are so blessed to have a community pool in walking distance, and we spent many of our days practicing our swim skills. Taking 3 kids to the pool is no joke, but these girls are amazing!
We participated in our library’s Summer Reading Program and this mama really enjoyed all the prizes – especially the free kid’s meals!
I didn’t burden myself with too many expectations of projects, but we did take advantage of a few fun afternoons to craft, learn, and play. We are really enjoying our Kiwi Crates – and had many days of fun with our crate all about flight!
This Summer I started a playgroup for local moms to have a chance to get the kids together to play and the moms to socialize. We had many fun events and the popsicles in the park was one of our favorites!
We took a family road trip to Gammie and Poppa’s house for the July 4th holiday and had a BLAST at “family camp.” We swam, played, BBQ’d, hiked, and even road a train! The girls are great travelers and can’t wait to do it again.
I continued to teach my classes at Fit4Mom, and I was able to fill in for many extra classes while other awesome mamas took vacations. It was fun to teach at new locations and meet all of our amazing moms!
A big highlight for me this Summer was so relaxing and fun adult time! I took a moms only trip with my favorite girls to Palm Springs!
I was invited to an exclusive leadership retreat with my Blessing in a Box team to Arizona. It …
Read MoreBekah’s Summer Update: The End of One Thing and the Start of Something(s) New
This has been quite a significant summer for us at the Bani Bungalow 🙂
We all survived intern year (Year One) of my hubby’s Pediatric Residency at UCSF Fresno. After one week off, we quickly started another year, but now we are that much closer to completing another step of this medical journey.
We found out that the newest addition to our family is a BOY.
He will be our second and are anxiously awaiting his arrival and seeing how Sophie likes being a Big Sister. This will be the 10th grandchild in our family making it a tie at 5 girls and 5 boys 🙂
We celebrated 5 Years of Marriage.
We did a mini celebration at the Underground Gardens here in Fresno (never stop exploring your home – you never know what cool adventures you will find!) and we will be doing a trip in a few weeks to Napa. Stay tuned for a post on how to do a Napa trip on a budget!
And, our happy girl continues to be HAPPY 😀
She is so curious and explorative. She loves trying new things and doing as much as she can on her own. She is a full on walker and is saying so many new words! And, she is such a girl. One of her newest favorite things is to put on her sparkly Minnie Mouse platform shoes and wear them around the house while she plays (Thanks for the hand-me-down, Cousin Mikah)!
As summer is coming to an end, always remember to CELEBRATE – big things, small things, victories, overcoming fears, trying new things and the people that you are surrounded by! Use these last few weeks of summer to not be overwhelmed by the coming year and everything you need …
Read MoreBirthday Boy on a Budget
A week ago my little boy turned 1! I can’t believe it. A year ago I was blessed beyond measure with my little baby boy, who we named Garrett and has brought an enormous amount of joy into my life. And of course, in normal mom fashion, the one year old birthday party became a thing. I set out to not make it a big deal… but I was just having way too much fun! But one thing I did stick to was my budget. I was able to throw a fairly large birthday party and not spend too much money. It took lots of lists, preparation, help, delegation, and lots of time. But I loved it!
My best advice in planning a party: Simplify. Say no to things. Do little touches of pop. You don’t need every decoration or every DIY you see. Choose a few things that you can have fun with. Don’t break the budget or break your sanity! Within reason you can have a cute, fun, creative birthday party!
A couple tips:
- Pick a theme or color
- Make a general budget
- Sale shop a little bit online
- See if family wants to contribute to the party
- Use a food favor or something people can use
- Wait to buy your baby presents until after the party and you see what they get
Decor:
- Bought plates, utensils, and napkins at the dollar store in my color
- Chose a few things on etsy that I could print out myself and make
- Got some ideas on pinterest and etsy and made them myself
- Used amazon prime for puff balls, bean bags, and bubble machine
Activity:
- Choose a few activities for kids
- Lawn games
- Music
- Food
Snacks:
- Buy kid snacks and juice boxes at Costco
- Otter pops or popsicles in the