10 Things I Am Thankful For

I just thought I would take this opportunity to jot down a few things that are swirling around it my head on this Thanksgiving eve.

1. Chai Tea which I am enjoying right now on this rainy evening.
2. My first baby who wanted to be rocked to sleep and would still prefer it at 2 years old. My second baby who just wants to be laid down in bed to fall asleep on her own... and therefore I get more done :o)
   
3. A hard working hubby. Although I struggle with all of the projects that he says "yes" to I have learned a lot from him about selflessly serving others and his "just do it" attitude.
   
4. Parents who have approximately 36 people for a sit down meal every Thanksgiving since as far back as I can remember!
5. Organizational skills which I did not get from my mother (wink, wink, just kidding mother) and the love of using them to bless others... seriously do you need anything organized? I would love to do it for you and its even better if you have a little money to spend on fancy organizational items like baskets and totes!
   
6. My funny Grandpa Neal who I have enjoyed getting to know better as an adult but can still lay my head on his shoulder or let him scratch my back :o) I love going to visit him and the rest of my moms family because it is the one place on earth I can feel like a carefree kid again. I can't wait to go up for Christmas/New years next month!
   
7. Joe's Mom who is an amazing wonder woman with so much energy and pretty much has a grandchild at her house at all times yet willingly takes on more house guests at a moments notice.
   
8. The heart that the Lord has instilled in me to teach my girls about Him and His Characteristics. Although Joe is much better at it than I am so I am thankful for a parenting sidekick.
   
9. My siblings all of them for individual and wonderful reasons. They all teach me so much about loving the Lord in their daily lives. Kelly who sums up the term "wears her heart on her sleeve" She loves the Lord so obviously and I can be so honest and real with her. Plus she is super fun to live with right now because of fun wedding plans! Donald for his hardworking servants attitude and no nonsense ways. Lauren for her strong back and brilliant mind who is always teaching me something about perseverance and discipline gratefulness to the Lord. Kris who is paving the parenting road ahead of me and constantly amazing me with her ability to teach her children at all times. I strive to be the graceful and attentive mother that she is. Kara who is everything that a big sister should be and more. She is a tough, tough person and so broken for the Lord at the same exact moment! She is so much fun and exciting and loves serving her friends and family and creating memories and doing it all in such a Proverbs 31 kind of way. This list is by far not exhaustive!
   
10. For what hair I have left because gosh darn it has been shedding like crazy in this postpartum time around and since the bible says that He knows every hair on my head I would like to take this opportunity to say "Please sweet Jesus leave just a few!"
    

"Sorry Mama"

Have I mentioned she's two?

Hard Workin' Man

Us girls have had a house guest this week. Joe took off all week to pay himself to put a new roof on our house! Sunday afternoon was spent with Nathanael taking off the old roof over the bedroom side of the house. Monday Joe scrambled along with his trusty employee Jeremy and even paid his partner Drew a few hours to get it recovered because the forecast changed to predicting rain... and rain it did! ALL DAY LONG Tuesday! But it was ok because our home was dry with the new roof over half of it! So tuesday "the day for the ducks" as Annie and I deemed it, was spent leisurely laying around in bed for an hour with the girls, then Annie and I made pumpkin waffles!!!!! LOVE!!! We then headed out into the wet to shop for blinds for the bay window and to pick up a few essential items Joe needed to install my wonderful new ceiling fan and light in the Living room!

Daddy's little helper, she was up on his step ladder as soon as he was down and begged to climb the ladder into the crawlspace above the L.R as well.

Wednesday was spent pacing the floor as it was "supposed to" stop raining in the early morning. Joe ended up getting a few things done on the roof.
Thursday was the same story with the questionable weather and finally he was able to start removing the old shingles on the second half of the roof. Today the boys are in full swing trying to catch up and I must say they are doing a "bang up" job literally as my dining room chandelier rattles away with ever nail hammered in!

"Munch"

As Annie has so wonderfully dubbed lunch. Last night I was craving a Frittata and so for lunch I decided to see if I could manage to create one. After looking up if I could put my omelet pan in the oven (I can!) I started sauteing onions and green peppers, and mixed in a huge handful of spinach along with salt and pepper. I mixed all that into 2 eggs and 1 white and some Feta cheese and let it set then transferred it to the oven for about 13 min and let it cook through! It was Sooooo good and Annie loved it too! She kept asking for "more eggs"! Ha! Eggs is the least of what was in it but I wasn't going to spoil her "munch" :o)

The picture is not all that appetizing with the plate sitting on my lap. It also looks huge here but it was only 8in and fit perfectly on a little salad plate! Best of all it was only about 6 ww points!

Lately

Just wasting some time here until my hubby calls to say he's ready to meet for dinner. Did you know that Barleycorns has a basket of chicken tenders for 96 cents on tuesdays and all of the chicken sandwiches on their menu are FREE on wednesdays! Free! No money! I have planned the first ever family movie night tonight because Target had Toy Story 3 on sale today for $15! We own the first two and I have heard rave reviews for 3 so I felt it was important to own it. So we are going to meet Daddy for a cheap dinner at Barleycorns and then head home for popcorn, halloween candy and Toy Story 3!

She might be excited ;o)

Trick or treating was fun this year. I was at a loss as to what to dress Annie as. I was uninspired by all the costumes I saw and so I was down to the wire. On thursday I googled "last minute costume ideas" and found a how to make your own tutu! It was perfect! I have quite a few elastic headbands in Amelias drawer that her father wont let her wear. So all I needed was 3 yards in two different colors of tulle which happened to be on sale for $1.39/yard! I choose purple and white because the girls could wear the sweatsuits pictured in my previous post and have a nice warm halloween costume! Now the only problem is that I have two big puffy tutu's sitting in the living room that need a home... I see a costume box in our near future :o)

Joe's mom and I took the girls trick or treating saturday afternoon at crestview hills mall where there was no less than a million kids present! But it was fun to see her amazed that they would put candy in her bucket Every Time!

Sunday night all the cousins gathered at our house for the perfect little Halloween walk! The children acquired a nice sized stash. And I actually had fun watching them all do what my siblings, the Gautrauds and I perfected as an art so many years ago! I really wanted to grab Beth and JP and say "You have to run! Don't bother with sidewalks, jump through the hedge and beat the polite little children making their way up the sidewalk! We can hit this whole town in an hour and a half if you just listen to years of trick or treating wisdom!!!" Instead I shook my head and said "its not in the plans" when JP asked if he could continue on up the street past my house.

I know I have mentioned it before but oh how I love my womens bible study group! We are really good about sticking to the subject and covering everything in our allotted time. I love the insight that the other women have about what I studied all week long. I love acquiring the knowledge about things that had me stumped during the week. We have been talking a few times lately about laziness and accomplishing things that need to get done instead of spending time on other things like FB or blogs (gasp!). I have been feeling rather convicted lately about the time that I spend on the computer, mostly because I watch shows and sit and eat during the girls naps and I have been convicted of my eating habits and I thought that probably if I cut out the TV time I would cut down on a lot of the eating too much junk. So I am currently formulating my plan to cut back and therefore loose at least 2 pants sizes! Especially because I will need to get skinny in the next 4 months!!!!!
Which brings me to my one and only little sister getting engaged!!!!!! "Oh bliss" She has a time line of getting married in February! I am so excited for her! I want to dance and twirl and watch her try on dresses and go to this really fun sounding bridal expo and historical event at the Art Museum next week!
I can't believe she is getting married to a man who she won't have known for a whole year when they say "I do"! God is good and He has shared His saving grace with Zach Lux! I love him so I know Kelly does too ;o)
Alright enough dreaming and sitting on my rump. Time to fold the laundry that sits in front of me as I type and wipe up the dust that I can see layered on my furniture :o( Yuck! To the glory of the Lord and the satisfaction of a job well done!

Stream of Consciousness

Today was one of those days that I felt the Lord pouring out blessings on me during my bible study. It was so good, one of those times you just keep going and going and looking and learning and feel really smart because you have so many "ah ha" moments but feel so minute at the same time comparing yourself to the greatness of God but then feeling so important again because you have confidence in your faith that you are one of his chosen and have an inheritance! It makes me feel like I am in an exclusive club to say that I am part of His family, and its so cool that I can tell everyone and invite them to be a part of the club to! ;o) I know I am being silly but those are my thoughts right now.
I was so encouraged by this verse when I read it and I am trying to memorize it
Malachi 3:10 Bring all your tithe to the storehouse, that there will be food in my house. Test me on this and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it!
I wasn't thinking of money when I read this verse but I learned that in the OT the people were rewarded with riches when they were faithful to the Lord. We are promised in Mark to have blessings with christian brothers and sisters, people won over for the Lord and also in persecution... thats right, we are to consider it to be a blessing to be persecuted for the Lord! I have learned that not only does it grow me in my faith but also is a complement because Satan does not bother with surfacy/superficial Christians because they are of no threat.

Just so I don't forget soon I will blog about the blessings of being poor, I know you can't wait :o)

Amelia had her 4 month check up and was 12lb & 23in long. She is in the 20% and just slightly smaller than Annie was at her age at 12'13oz and 24"long! I know I need to stop comparing them, but its just so fun :o) Speaking of comparisons do you see any here other than their purple sweat suits?

I have been sorting little girly clothes for 2 weeks now and finally finished up Mia's room this morning, moving the newborn stuff out and bringing the 3-6 month stuff for her to grow into. Next is to box up Annies 9-12 month stuff from this past summer, we have the blessing of 2 chest of drawers (and matching bunk beds in storage) in Annies room, hand-me-downs from Joes Mom in anticipation of the girls sharing a room some day. They have come in handy with the slow season change and needing all the summer clothes and winter clothes out at one time!

Candy Land

I love a good competitive game in the sunshine. Annie's first try at Candy Land proved that she is still to young however she did match all the colored cards up perfectly and I was completely proud of her!