The Peapod Four

Six Hundred Eighteen Through Six Hundred Twenty Eight

2012-01-30T21:27:00.000-05:00

Just a quick list this week. We're keeping up a busy pace that can't last much longer. We're going to have to find the brake pedal sometime over the next month I think. I am 28 weeks along and have entered the awkward stage, otherwise known as the third trimester. So far so good. Other than being incredibly tired, I seem to be holding up rather well. There are a few more house projects that need to be tackled before I'm out of commission so hopefully fewer calendar commitments (especially in the evenings) will help to make that happen.

618. watching my kids (and all the others) sing in the choir at church

619. the way Daniel rings his bell choir bell so enthusiastically

620. Brenna's 76 year old Sunday School teacher who loves teaching the kids and is so thoughtful

621. goats in the church driveway - now that will make you smile!

622. having Brenna's best buddy spend the night - and being able to throw an extra mattress on the floor for her to sleep on

623. hanging out with the just Brenna and Daniel for the evening and seeing the more grown up versions of them

624. cherry delight

625. making my brother laugh

626. successfully cutting Brenna's hair at home and saving $25.

627. that writing a letter to a hormone seems to have worked, at least for now

628. the baptismal opened and prepared, for one. Such a wonderful good thing.

Six Hundred Two Through Six Hundred Seventeen

2012-01-23T21:08:00.000-05:00

I learned a new word today. A Greek word at that! Chairein. It's a greeting and it's pronounced "chi rain". It means "Joy To You". I wish I could make it sound normal to just drop a Greek greeting into regular life. You know, show up at a friend's house and instead of saying 'Hey! How are you guys?' say "Chairein!". Somehow I don't think I can quite pull that off. It would also be a great blog name... if I didn't already have one.

So Joy To You this week! Maybe it be a week full of God's graces in your life, and may you stop and be verbally thankful to Him who delights in dropping every single one directly in your path!

602. breaks in the school calendar

603. good talks with good friends

604. surprising the kids with a movie night with friends in the middle of the week

605. hip improvement

606. three girls singing 'How Great Thou Art' in my backseat

607. less than twenty boxes left to unpack

608. sinking into a new Beth Moore study

609. talking to Michael about what I've learned in my study

610. seeing signs that we've turned the corner in potty training (please don't let that jinx us!)

611. the grown up, independent side of Daniel

612. toasted whole grain, homemade bread

613. easy dinners

614. a husband who cares so much about me and is so willing to pick up my slack.

615. finally digging back into some of my creative outlets that were boxed for so long (crochet!)

616. Carrie's delight in dresses, bracelets, hair bows, and nail polish.

617. new friends

Letter To A Hormone (I'm Clearly Losing My Mind)

2012-01-19T13:24:00.000-05:00

"What are the three toughest things about being a woman?
Number one, hormones. Number two, hormones. Number three, hormones." Esther video, by Beth Moore

Dear Relaxin,

I just want you to know that this is our last go around. We will not meet again. Perhaps you already figured that out. You're coming on entirely too strong. Or at least way too early.

I should not be 34 feeling like I'm 67 with a hip replacement in the near future. Or two hip replacements. Because I can't tell which hip you're trying harder to take out. If you get much stronger my legs are going to detach completely. And while dangling legs is funny to write, I need them in place so I can, I don't know, WALK!

I know it's your job to make sure the joints and ligaments all relax in time for the birth. But that's just the point - in time for the birth. That means you have plenty of time ahead, say thirteen weeks or so. Plenty of time. There's no good reason for my hips to be giving out now. You could certainly do your 'relaxin' over the last few weeks. Heck, this body already knows what to do. Quite well, in fact. I would think you could do your thing in the last few days without a hitch. And don't think I'm not aware of the other places you're working your "magic". I know exactly what you're up to and I'm watching every move.

So let's lay off for a while, eh? Give the old girl a break. I've got to carry this growing baby around for a while longer and it sure would be easier if my hips held weight.

Sincerely,
Julie

Advice

2012-01-17T19:12:00.000-05:00

I was working my way through a box of stationery and office supplies when I stumbled upon a stack of colored index cards. One side of each has a name and an address. The other side holds a piece of advice. They were written during the bridal shower that was held for me in Ohio, with my family and many of our church friends who knew me before we moved to Virginia.

March marks our thirteenth wedding anniversary. Funny how those years just start piling up. Slowly at first and then faster and faster. There's truly no better way to do life than to do it together.

Here are a few things folks thought I needed to keep in mind way back in 1999.

-"Don't burn yourself when cooking."

-"Always show your love and kindness for each other."

-"Have fun. Be happy."

-"Always have Michael help with the housework."

-"A family that prays together stays together."

-"Love him the most when he deserves it the least."

-"Argue only about the big things. But not for long."

-"Don't ever get a divorce or dissolution."

-"Keep a song in your hearts."

-"Don't burn his food."

-"Always be truthful and faithful to each other."

-"Talk"

-"Make sure Michael puts down the toilet seat."

-"Do all you can together and stay as happy as you are now."

-"Always talk everything out and don't go to bed angry."

On the other side I saw the names of women who have passed away since then. Women who have been through very difficult times and even divorce. Young cousins who are now grown and married too. Grandmas and aunts. Ladies I know I'm related to, but I couldn't tell you exactly how. Each name bringing memories and smiles from years gone by.

Despite my initial urge to toss these out - the addresses are old and the connections to so many are barely there anymore if at all - I think I'll tuck this little pile away somewhere. Perhaps to rediscover another decade down the road. Or maybe to pass along to my own daughters someday.

Five Hundred Ninty One Through Six Hundred One

2012-01-16T22:05:00.000-05:00

Oh my goodness what a productive day! We are finally flying through these boxes and making progress somewhere. Daniel has a nearly finished room. (pictures later in the week, hopefully.) There are no more boxes in the baby room. Each child has a bookshelf, plus the bedtime shelf in the hall. (Two of which are completely full.) We've filled two or three huge boxes of stuff to take to Goodwill, just in the last two days. Plus we took at least two boxes of trash out. There are piles all over the house, but I know what they are and where they need to go. This weekend was a big jump forward in the making-the-house-a-home category.

"A song of thanks steadies everything." (Ann Voskamp)

591. empty boxes

592. finding my sister's book, Radical

593. loaded bookshelves

594. the big white Ford pick up truck that I followed for the last twenty minutes across town to the church in the pouring rain Wednesday night. Thankful for his red tail lights to follow and just had to laugh when he, too, turned into the church.

595. that I was missed at church on Sunday (Daniel had a mild fever) and people actually wrote to see if everything was ok

596. friends to study James with

597. turkey week

598. busy days at work

599. so much encouragement and love from fb about my friends moving

600. laughing till I cry because Brenna answered 'yes mom?' after a donkey noise on a kids' CD, and Daniel read chilled peaches on the school menu as 'chihuahua'.

601. lazier mornings

Raised Eyebrows

2012-01-16T16:45:00.000-05:00

We've been unpacking boxes all day and sorting toys. Carrie has inherited some of Brenna's dolls and they were moved into her room just before nap time today.

Here's what we discovered when we got her up...

Apparently she wasn't satisfied with just snapping off the head...she had to dismember the poor thing too.

Might need to put aside some money for future counseling...

From Wednesday

2012-01-15T22:18:00.000-05:00

Whew! What a roller coaster of a day. I woke up sassier than all get out. No one in the kitchen knew quite what to make of the normally mumbling mama who had a witty retort for everything they said. With an entrance like that I thought maybe I ought to go back to bed. So I did.

When I got Carrie up at ... uh... 9, yeah, she was still laying in her bed. No books. No toys. Just laying there like she'd just woken up. And boy was she ever grumpy. I got fussed at for just smiling at her so you can imagine the scene I created by suggesting that she must put on her underwear before her pants!

Breakfast seemed to fix us both, though, and soon we were deep in the baby room sorting through the boxes and boxes of children's books. It was a most happy morning together. Carrie discovered some dolls to love on and I got a lot of work done. In fact we created a whole shelf of books we're going to call the 'bedtime book corner'. It has some of my favorite kid books along with poetry, Bible books, and chapter books for reading aloud.

The rain really picked up as the day went on. Brenna and Daniel have choir on Wednesday nights and we need to eat early in order to make it on time. We only left three minutes late tonight, but it took us nearly twice as long to get there. We were nearly twenty minutes late. Rain and traffic plus dark equals stressful!

When we finally pulled in to the church parking lot, I gave out jobs. Daniel, hold the umbrella. Brenna, unbuckle Carrie and get her out. Meanwhile, I would get the stroller. Unfortunately I soon discovered that the stroller was buried under boxes in the trunk. It took another five minutes to dislodge it, followed by one of those walk-runs to the door. When I looked at the time I wondered why we had bothered to come in at all.

Carrie and I walked the hallways twice, which was all it took to eat up the few minutes the kids were in choir. While waiting for them to finish, a friend stopped to talk and apparently that was the permission Carrie was looking for. She started out slow, pulling her legs up in the stroller. Then she was standing. Next was the snowboarding move followed by the escape. Once free, she didn't try to run away. No, instead she started a game of stroller shove, where I would hold the stroller firmly, while continuing to talk to my friend, and she would push it hard from the side to see how far it would go. And perhaps how many people she could take out in the busy hallway. Of course my attempt to stop her only led to a flat-on-the-back-I'm-not-going-anywhere-with-you-lady tantrum.

So we got in line to pick up the big kids and all went well until I dared to suggest she put on her coat. Not willing to fight that battle, I shrugged my shoulders and warned her that it was cold outside. She didn't care and only barely let me put her back in the stroller. Once outside, we hightailed it up the hill in the cold rain to the van, where I discovered that the person who parked behind me just barely left enough room for me to get my trunk open. I backed up in between the cars, pulling the stroller with me and asked Brenna to get Carrie out and help her to her car seat.

Only Carrie didn't want out. And if she was getting out, she wanted to do it all by herself, which there wasn't room to do. Did I mention that it was pouring down rain? The only way for me to get to the front of the stroller was to walk all the way around the car, because we are literally wedged between them. So I coax and I coax and finally, yes, Brenna is allowed to help her out. I sigh relief and quickly fold the stroller and start pulling boxes back down to the back.

Next fight- getting in the car seat. She won't. We are all inside the van. If she'd sit in her seat and let Brenna buckle her then no one has to get any more wet. If not, then I have to get back out, stand in the rain and wrestle her down until she's safely buckled in. We ended up with option two.

Driving home in the dark, in the rain, on the interstate, in heavy traffic just added to the stress. I blasted the kids' choir CD and prayed I was between the two white lines... because really, without those reflector things who can see the lines in conditions like that anyway? As we pulled up to our final traffic light and all I could see were streams of red and green on the road, I was so thankful to have made it through all the guess work. I had no idea where the turn lane started and by then Daniel was announcing that he was pretty sure Carrie had unbuckled.

We weren't inside the house two minutes when I asked Carrie to go upstairs and she refused. So I just lifted her football style and took her up myself. And put her straight to bed. Because, my word, what on earth had gotten into that child?!

After all that Daniel, Brenna, and I shared some sherbert and Brenna made her own lunch before they headed off to bed. Such sweet big kids they were tonight. And I told them that more than once. They even took themselves up the two flights of stairs to bed.

I decided the kitchen could wait till the morning so here I am in bed with the laptop. Ending my day back on top. Pulling into the station, glad to know the ride is pretty much over and we can start again tomorrow.

But I go to bed thankful....

2012

2012-01-11T13:08:00.000-05:00

I'm not much for New Years Resolutions. We've started all kinds of 'traditions' in Januarys past that fizzled after a year or two. I remember choosing a word for the year. That was fun until we forgot all about it by February. We tried making some kind of memory scrapbook of the previous year. Or at least talking about our memories from the previous year. Dud. Sometimes the kids come home from school with resolutions. Things like 'play outside more' or 'eat'.

So I just kind of quit making a big deal out of the new year. We have fun on New Years Eve together and anyone who can is welcome to stay up till midnight. But other than that, we just keep movin' along.

Except the other day I saw a fb post where someone said she meant to learn how to make a pie crust last year and never got around to it. She was bumping the challenge to 2012. And I got to thinking that maybe I should take on a few challenges. A few, mind you.

So here's my 2012 list of challenges. Probably here to be cut and pasted to 2013, but here nonetheless.

1. Make bread with other grains - like oatmeal and spelt

2. Train baby #4 to sleep through the night. (If this one has to be repeated to 2013, I will be in the looney bin.)

3. Finish at least two of the quilts I have in progress. (Dare I admit that there are five at quilt-top completion or further?)

4. Hang some pictures on the walls of this house (that's going to mean getting pictures of Carrie in some form other than jpg.)

5. Keep sorting and sending stuff out to Goodwill, yard sales, and the trash. (less, less, less)

6. Get to know at least one of my neighbors.

7. Wherever I am, I want to work on being all there.

Seven seems like a good place to stop. I may be crazy taking on a 'be all there' challenge with a newborn coming, but I think it's appropriate. I've got to stay in the moment for a lot of reasons this year, as I have much to cherish.

2012, I think we're now ready to roll.

I Guess I'm Going To Have To Cry

2012-01-10T16:12:00.000-05:00

It's happened before and it'll happen again. I don't know why it has to be this way. It started when I was ten and I am well aware that it won't ever end - but that doesn't make it any easier or help me hate it any less.

Put simply - One of my closest, dearest friends is moving away. A long way away.

And it's going to hurt. A lot.

I'm going to have to cry because there's just no other way to deal with a goodbye this big. Twelve years worth of memories and inside jokes. Baby learning and kid raising. Hours and hours of just being together.

Sometimes I wish I didn't attach so strongly to people. That I could put up walls around my heart and protect myself from change. I get my world how I like it and I want it to stay that way. With an iron grip that only takes into account my perspective and what's best for me. Protect me. Do things my way. Be in my life the person I expect you to be.

She came to tell me in person. Thankfully I had already guessed the truth and didn't fall to pieces right there on the couch, making things all the worse. She's right to move. It's home. It's family. It's support she doesn't have here and it's the other half of who she is. I know all the reasons and every one of them is solid. She knows all the risks and cons - all of which have been weighed heavily and crossed off the list. Doesn't help my heart, but it sure does help my brain.

This family. How do I begin to describe them to you? Perhaps a list will do.

-they open up their home to anyone in need. Including us when ours sold. Can you imagine a family of five, taking in another family of five indefinitely?

-she flew to Boston with me for five days when our firstborns were about a year old, to be with our friend whose firstborn had just died of SIDS.

-he has fixed nearly every computer issue we've ever had

-she's who I call when I'm crying

-they gathered help and spent a weekend painting and updating our kitchen in hopes the house would sell

-they lead our Bible study, the one we've been a part of for over thirteen years

-she shares her girl clothes with Brenna and Carrie

-he enjoys a good theological discussion

-she let me borrow her grain mill, and already knew what I learned this past spring

-they are our homeschool link

-when we moved to this house, we moved 8 minutes from them, driveway to driveway

-I'm not sure there is much of anything that she and I haven't talked about

Are you getting the picture? This one's going to hurt. It's going to be balanced with the logic and knowledge of it being the right thing, but it's going to hurt. I've got a lot of trusting to do. I've got to know that God's got this one and that the huge hole that's about to tear, won't stay that way forever. Nor will my nose stay red and my eyes stay wet. I'll find that peace that passes understanding and I'll cling to it, searching high and low for every blessing He pours out and every mercy he shows me in the midst of my self-focused sadness.

The timeline is very much up in the air. They have to sell their house here first. In our market, that could mean anything from a week to a year. It's wildly unpredictable. In the meantime I must keep on keeping on. No walls. No shutting down and backing away to protect myself. It has to be real for the last months, just as it has always been.

For starters, they need a moving notebook, a set of colored Sharpies, and some packing tape. And I think I know just who should be in charge of giving that gift.

Five Hundred Eighty Two Through Five Hundred Ninety

2012-01-09T22:27:00.000-05:00

582. feeling a baby move inside of you

583. reading this Don't Carpe Diem post

584. learning that Jesus appeared to his brother, James

585. starting a new Beth Moore bible study with friends

586. a picture of my nephew dressed like my grandfather

587. seeing friends face to face that I haven't seen in a while

588. juicing oranges

589. enjoying my Sunday School class

590. the much needed afternoon nap

Mulling It Over

2012-01-06T21:33:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I read something written by someone I've never heard of and something just snaps into place in my mind. It's like they've let me off the proverbial hook - that I've inevitably hung myself up on. Somewhere in my thirty four years I developed a bit of a perfectionist streak that only applies to certain parts of my life. Like the loaves of bread I sell. Or the things I sew. Or the way I am Mom. It's not that I put out a perfect product. It's that I hold myself accountable to a perfect standard and then kick myself when it never, because it can't possibly, comes out the way I think it should.

Today I read this post that a friend shared on facebook and I have been thinking about it ever since. There are two parts in particular that I am mulling over and over.

The first stems from this quote, "G, if you can't handle the three you have, why do you want a fourth?" She follows this with the reality that parenting is hard but that doesn't mean we can't/don't/shouldn't take on more responsibility. That line of logic wouldn't hold up in any other job scenario.

Many of you know that when I found out I was pregnant with #4 I went through a rough series of emotions at first. Though a part of me was happy, I knew we were essentially homeless and the timing just felt awful. Here I was pregnant and living with my parents. I was sure that other people would view this news as irresponsible and crazy. So I just didn't tell anyone, not even Michael, for weeks on end while I beat myself up and worried about it. Once the news was out, no one said anything remotely so rude as all that. In fact most people, including my parents, were very happy about it.

That helped to relieve the shame, but somewhere along the line I decided that since I was going to be having a fourth child, I could no longer complain about anything the other three did. That suddenly it had to appear to the world that I could handle it all. That's why this woman's words were so effective today. She let me off the hook. Parenting is hard. And my kids are sometimes really frustrating. And a lot of times I don't respond well. I look forward to the hours after they go to bed, when it's quiet and no one needs me. It's not all great and perfect in our peapod.

So I'm going back to being real about parenting. It wears me out and taxes my know how. Carrie is driving me crazy with the potty training. Daniel won't stop regressing to baby talk and tantrums. Brenna takes entirely too long to do homework and take showers. And I haven't figured out how to fix any of that. And that's ok.

The second thing I've been considering is the idea of chronos time verses kairos time. Or real time verses God moments. In writing my gratitude list and learning to be thankful in all situations I've begun to feel a bit guilty when I'm NOT doing those things. You may have noticed apologies at the beginning of some weeks because I didn't pay close enough attention. I got so caught up in life that I forgot to slow down and notice what God had to show me. That perfectionist thing got me again. I was aiming for finding it all and kicking myself when I couldn't live up to that.

I still want to strive toward seeing those gifts that God gives. I adore those kairos moments. They are special. But maybe they are special because the rest of the day was spent in chronos time. In reality. In this earthly living, being mom and wife. Maybe there's a place for both.Whoa.... let me just let that sink in.

It feels pretty good to be down off those hooks. I hope it lasts. I count the posting of this blog on facebook and my reading of it as a kairos moment in my day. A gift from a God who knows His children well and can reach through to their hearts even when they aren't expecting it.

Five Hundred Sixty Seven Through Five Hundred Eighty One

2012-01-03T21:28:00.000-05:00

Here's a little truth - I'm still going to have to dig deep for some of those harder blessings. Sigh.

Having our house situation ironed out does give us stability, but sometimes bad news continues to come right along with the good. Imagine that. "In this world you will have troubles". And just because a big one clears up doesn't mean that's all there is. Thankfully I learned quite a bit climbing the last mountain, so hopefully some of those lessons and truths will help me over the next one. In fact, let's not even call this one a mountain. In comparison, it's probably a big hill. And right before that 'troubles' bit, Jesus says, "... so that in me you may have peace." That's where I'll need to look and that's where I'll find it. I know I'm being vague, but I don't have permission to share just yet. I'm sure over the course of this trek, though, I'll write plenty. I'll need the emotional outlet.

All is not in the pits here, though. We're slowly but surely creating a home in this house. Lots of memories with our first Christmas season. And still much to look forward to...even if there's a day to dread. Enough already. On with the blessings before I end up saying more than I should.

567. a plethora of oranges from Christmas stockings

568. Christine's juicer! :)

569. feeling better after a cold - the body's ability to heal

570. progress in potty training Carrie - and hope that maybe, just maybe we might be able to quit the diapers someday, perhaps even by spring?!

571. empty boxes

572. a great deal on much needed furniture for the living room and Brenna's room.

573. really nice Christian people who listed furniture that we needed, painted the way we wanted, for an amount we could afford on Craigs List

574. how it all works out sometimes

575. nice people who smile

576. my grandfather's 85th birthday

577. continued good news at my baby check ups

578. surprising the kids with hot chocolate and oreos after school on our first really cold day of the season

579. friends

580. unpacking all my fabric and sewing supplies

581. whenever something I've unpacked finds a 'home' in this new house

The Light Bulb Vase

2011-12-27T21:27:00.000-05:00

Some of the best gifts to give are those that make the recipient laugh, right? I don't often run across one like that, but I did this year. Our sales manager at work is a self proclaimed 'Light Bulb Nazi'. If one goes out, anywhere on the property, she insists it be changed right away. In fact we often wonder if she has some kind of app on her phone that notifies her when a light bulb burns out.

Over the last year it's become somewhat of a joke. While it's nice to get out of the office and go for a walk among the buildings, it's also a challenge to guess which types of bulbs you'll need and how many of each. And of course if you don't have what you need, you have to come back and get it. Amy is fully aware of her light bulb issue and has begun to poke fun at herself as well. Obviously, though, the models show better if the lights are working.

I am currently on light bulb hiatis, being pregnant and all. It's hard enough to change the track lighting in the middle of a condo kitchen when you have good balance....trying to do it with a big belly would just be asking for a fall. Same for climbing on the counters in the bathrooms to get the ones above the sinks. So I'm off the hook for another six months.

Light bulbs in my world = Amy so when I saw this idea I knew I had to make one for her if at all possible. It's one of those gifts that makes a person laugh.

A light bulb vase. It's able to sit on a desk because it's mounted on a napkin ring. I bought the glitziest napkin ring I could find. Opened the top of the light bulb and broke out all the glass. Then cleaned it and filled it with water. Initially it had this poinsettia in it, but that was really too big. I settled on a red carnation. It was cute. It was cheap. And it got a laugh. Just what I was after.

Five Hundred Fifty Through Five Hundred Sixty Six

2011-12-26T21:50:00.000-05:00

Christmas for our family is an incredibly exciting, but very long, three day event. I love that it's not all over all at once. I also appreciate that each celebration has its own character and unique expectations. But darn if I'm not tired tonight. There's also that minor bit about me being twenty some weeks pregnant. I suppose we could blame the baby just a little. Tonight, though, I will be quite happy to lay down and go to sleep. I do believe I've given all I have to give.

Perhaps baby agrees - I'm getting kicked as I type.

It seems ages since last Monday. I still hope to reach a point where I am seeing the small things in each day and giving thanks right then. It makes this exercise so much more meaningful, as it was this past summer. For now, I've got to give myself a little pass and be ok with listing what I can remember.

550. going to church on Christmas day, Lessons and Carols

551. spending time with family

Daniel with Uncle Robert

Brenna and Daniel with their cousin Emma

552. my two hour nap on Christmas day

553. snickerdoodles

554. surprising Michael

Hello K-cups!

555. ordering Chinese

556. having projects to do at work

557. just plain living in this county

558. getting my hair cut - 8 inches off to donate to Pantene - beautiful lengths

559. my Ohio shaped cookie cutter

560. new glasses

561. windows of hope with Carrie's potty training

562. making it through all three days of Christmas, even if I did use Coke to prop me up

563. laughing till we cry

564. a place to call home

565. meeting my neighbors - so far everyone is so nice!

566. Carrie's hilarious monkey backpack

Dear Santa - Why Do You....?

2011-12-24T21:46:00.000-05:00

We had a tiny bit of a wild ride getting everybody settled between the time we got home from Michael's dad and step-mom's and the time Michael had to leave for the Christmas Eve Service at church. Two hours seemed like plenty of time, but dinner, clean up, pjs (which I insisted must match top to bottom tonight) potty breaks (Carrie has like 14 one right after the other at night), breakfast prep, gift locating (because we're such good hiders), final instructions for tomorrow morning (as in do not go all the way downstairs. Do not wake Mom and Dad before 7. Do not get dressed - we're taking a pj picture.) and tracking Santa via NORAD (complete with geography and culture lessons) .... well two hours stretched a tad thin.

So while much was happening all around her, Brenna took it upon herself to set out cookies, carrots and milk for Santa. And then she wrote this Santa note.

Dear Santa,
Why do you deliver toys on Christmas? On Super Why it says because it makes the children happy. I don't get it. Write your answer here.
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________

I have no idea of what I want. I like to give. I don't like to be greedy. It gets mean. Daniel - I don't know what he wants. The carrots are for Rudolf and his friends. They will need the sharper eyesight.
I can't wait for tomorrow - more today, tomorrow when I wrote this note.
Love the Peapod family
P.S. Enjoy the birth of Jesus!

Well, now. What to do with that? Especially since a few minutes later she asked me why Santa and the Tooth Fairy leave notes that have handwriting that looks just like Daddy's.

For the record, I told her that maybe they went to the school where daddy works and he taught them handwriting. ??? Well! That's what I came up with on the spot.

But the Santa letter? I sent that with Michael to church with the following instructions:
Please find someone to answer this letter. It can't be in your handwriting. Good Luck.

I do feel a tad sorry for whoever he asks.....

Visit From Santa On A Fire Truck!

2011-12-21T20:37:00.000-05:00

In our new county, Santa visits every neighborhood on a fire truck during the weeks before Christmas. Tonight was our night! We heard the sirens for nearly an hour before he got to our street. The kids were so excited and pumped with anticipation. It was great. All the neighbors from our cul de sac gathered near our driveway and stop sign to watch and wave at Santa. This year it was a relatively warm night, with a strong breeze blowing, so we were all comfortable with light jackets. They said most years it's freezing cold.

Carrie was great about holding my hand on the road, but she wanted to cover her ears so badly. She yelled her little head off for Santa Claus and then kept saying "Bye Santa!" until his truck reached the main road. Daniel and Brenna could hardly stand still and wave for all the jumping they were doing.

Definitely a fun tradition!!

Carrie covering her ears while we waited. We could hear the sirens, but this was probably 45 minutes before they got to our street.

Carrie, Daniel, and Brenna waiting for Santa

Here he comes!!

Carrie - trying to watch, wave, and cover her eyes/ears all at the same time

Santa on the fire truck!

Five Hundred Forty One Through Five Hundred Forty Nine

2011-12-19T23:06:00.001-05:00

It's five minutes til eleven and I'm sitting here trying to decide whether to put up a post tonight or try to fit it in tomorrow. The camera - with camera card - is downstairs and I'm certainly not going back down to get it. But I did get a two hour nap today and could probably stay up a little longer.

I guess let's keep the thousand gifts on Mondays and make a list. Even if it does lack pictures. Again.

541. good friends who make the yearly Christmas party both a priority and a lot of fun

542. citrus fruit

543. Adorable kids Christmas shows at church

544. making new friends

545. Christmas sugar cookies

546. sleep

547. good friends for my kids - love this one

548. signs of hope that Carrie might actually potty train

549. giving a great gift that's just perfectly funny

So Tired

2011-12-18T22:12:00.000-05:00

If only I could keep my eyes open, I have so many things to post and write about. Unfortunately, once again, I'm just too tired.

Sleep now. Write tomorrow. Or the next day.

Five Hundred Twenty Nine Through Five Hundred Forty

2011-12-12T21:40:00.000-05:00

Missing one week is ok. Miss two and everyone will start to wonder what secret I'm keeping from them! We are still in a time of adjustment around here so I have not done a great job keeping track of the small blessings. They slide on by unfortunately. I've also not taken many pictures. There is life to be lived - meals, dishes, laundry, school, meetings, Christmas, new friends, old friends, grocery shopping, etc. - and then there are still all those pesky boxes to be unloaded. We are certainly making progress, but sometimes it seems so painfully slow.

Still, gratitude is in abundance!

529. a huge moon

530. new friends

531. seeing people we know while we're out shopping

532. that no one has been seriously hurt in all of our trips and falls the last few weeks

533. making Michael laugh

534. ideas from pinterest that work out well

535. employees at the grocery story who are friendly and helpful

536. figuring out why Carrie has been so difficult the last few weeks (teething)

537. loving our new church

538. catching up with my Nana

539. snuggling up under warm blankets

540. Carrie's funny faces at dinner

If You Were Coming

2011-12-07T12:58:00.000-05:00

If you were coming to our house after school today

you'd be getting one (or two) of these little snowmen to devour!

And this is what you might look like afterwards. :)

Found!

2011-12-01T15:06:00.000-05:00

We knew opening boxes was going to feel like Christmas for the kids. Check out what Daniel got back today!

Unfortunately I'm not such a good track builder so we have a big gap in the middle. I do have the wounds to prove I tried, though. Pinched finger pads on both hands! Luckily Michael will be here soon and he can redesign the race so the car doesn't have to go off-road.

Meanwhile, Brenna is on the couch with a book called "The First Thousand Words In French"....

Cookies

2011-11-30T14:26:00.000-05:00

First cookies at the new house

Today we made chocolate chip cookies. Or tried to. I keep forgetting that we've just moved and our cupboards are not stocked quite like I think they are. For example, we always have baking soda. Or not. So today's cookies weren't quite the Chocolate Chip Cookies I set out to make.

We'll call them....Substitution Cookies. And here's the recipe, in case you find yourself in the same similarly odd situation someday.

Substitution Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 sticks of butter
1c sucanat
1/2 c of honey granules (because I coudn't find any sugar - only me, right?!)
2eggs
3tsp. of baking powder (because we didn't have baking soda)
1tsp. of salt
1tsp. of vanilla
2 1/2 c. of fresh milled whole grain flour (1 cup was supposed to be oats, but we didn't have that either)
Bag of chocolate chips

Mix wet ingredients. Then add dry ones. Stir in chocolate chips. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes.

Not exactly what I was after, but these'll do.

The Bus!

2011-11-29T16:06:00.000-05:00

These pictures speak volumes about life in our new house. The kids rode the bus home from school today for the first time. Daniel had never ridden a bus before and Brenna hasn't ridden the bus since the last day of Kindergarten.

Here they come!

Do you think he liked the bus?!

Even Brenna came off running and smiling

This county certainly gets it right. Not only did the bus stop at every crossroads and cul-de-sac to let kids off (as opposed to one bus stop for the whole area), but I did not have to show my drivers license to pick up my kids. I don't even have to be outside! The kids get off right at our house.

I think riding the bus will help our afternoon routines as well. If I can stay awake, that is. Brenna has been doing homework and Daniel's already done. This might just alleviate our over packed, impatient evenings.

Five Hundred Twenty Eight

2011-11-28T21:27:00.000-05:00

With Thanksgiving this past week, gratitude has been a big theme. I know there were many mercies and small things that I overlooked in my inattention this week. Sometimes we are so busy we just don't stop long enough to see. That was me. I may have missed the little things, but I'm still hung up on all the big things that God has so suddenly resolved in our lives as well as the process that brought us here.

So this week I want to add just one thing to my list.

528. The 33 adults and the 20 children who came by our house on Friday to help us celebrate the end of the last eighteen months and the beginning of a wonderful new season in our lives. We could not even believe the turnout. The distance driven. The gifts brought. Or the wonderful mix of friends and family. What a fabulous party!

Stocking Notes

2011-11-22T20:28:00.000-05:00

This year we do not need any more travel sized shampoos in our stockings.

However, we've nearly used up the travel sized toothpastes, so last year's ban on those is hereby lifted.

Five Hundred Fourteen Through Five Hundred Twenty Seven

2011-11-22T14:17:00.000-05:00

Last night my computer mistook itself for a three toed sloth.

It's feeling somewhat better today.

514. baking bread in our new kitchen

515. using my new mixer

516. surprises in the mail

517. celebrating a friend's new home at her open house

518. splitting up in Target, me with just Daniel and making him laugh

519. whoever invented those door knob covers - for now we can sleep

520. teacher conferences, good things to hear and constructive things to work on

521. singing Blessed Be The Name Of The Lord at church

522. ice and water in the refrigerator door

523. pilgrims and indians at the kindergarten Thanksgiving Day feast

524. getting a few minutes to catch up with Laurie

525. finishing little bits of organization, like bathroom cabinets and the space above the washer/dryer

526. for all the nights that Michael is home to help with putting kids to bed

527. seeing a license plate on the interstate that reminded me of my uncle Randy

Ready For A Trip To The Bank

2011-11-19T22:13:00.000-05:00

I am so full of giddiness right now that I can't help but write. I like to give, but I've had to learn a bit about receiving. About accepting what another wants to joyfully do for me. It's hard not to keep score and make sure I repay or give back at a later time. Fair and equal aren't always the point. Joy and gratitude sometimes significantly outweigh them. And rightly so.

I just got a phone call from Michael who is at home with the kids today. An envelope came in the mail. (See I can't even type that much without tearing up!) Inside the envelope sat a check from a very precious friend of mine who wanted to help me pay for my mixer! As if that weren't enough, what she doesn't yet know, is that she just paid it off. In full. Every penny. After the bread I sold this week, I was short exactly the amount she sent.

I almost can't breathe.

Now Michael gets to take my jar o' money right on down to the bank and replace what I 'borrowed' from the savings account to pay for the new mixer a few weeks ago!

My Yellow-Orange Tree

2011-11-15T12:03:00.000-05:00

I thought my tree was more orange than it looks today. I know it was. Must be the overcast day and the fact that so many of the leaves have already blown off of it. It's still pretty and it makes me smile.

View of the trees out of the kitchen window

backyard view from the deck, facing the road

up close to what's left - look carefully and you can see the remnants of the bright orange color

Crossing Five Hundred

2011-11-14T21:11:00.003-05:00

I'm laughing because I sat down at the computer to rest my achy feet and write up a couple blessings for this week. Thirty items later and I'm not even close to done! I can really only shake my head and laugh. It has been a wild week. The mortgage company asked for more documents at the last minute and then after we had signed all our paperwork, they were still calling us with employment questions. Incredibly stressful. But then we got possession of the house, picked up Daniel and my parents at the airport, had a celebration dinner at Olive Garden, and got about the business of moving. There was no way this week would wind down with only a short list of thanks!

Now if I could just figure out where I put the camera...

(The button code for Counting Gifts is not working for me today. If you're interested, the website is aholyexperience.com)

481. Brenna to Michael after church on Sunday "Thanks for moving us dad."

482. our new home

483. my grain mill counter

484. the orange tree in the back yard

485. over 35 people who helped us move

486. the lady from our new church who stopped in with brownies

487. the lady next door who brought over apple cinnamon bread

488. the Doug Oldham reference in sunday school

489. Blakeley who got documents together for us at the last min. for the mortgage company

490. our realtor's mom - also a realtor - who came to closing with us and kept Carrie busy

491. the queen size boxspring left to us by the sellers

492. the young girls who folded clothes and washed dishes on our moving day (7th grade and 4th grade... I know. How do you raise up young ladies like that???!!!)

493. our very nice and friendly closing attorney

494. Daniel's return home from Disney

495. friends willing to watch Carrie

496. That Carrie can gently shut the glass door on the entertainment center

497. antenae stations for the upstairs tv, including pbs for Carrie

498. the huge deli trays that we got from Kroger for our moving helpers, so nicely made

499. that moving day stories are nothing more than 'coulda been a lot worse'

500. the neighbor that pulled the moving truck out of the mud

501. the good feeling that comes with purging 'stuff'

502. empty boxes

503. when two tylenol, a snickers, and a coke can obliterate a pulsing tearful headache after a nap fails to do the job

504. that Carrie can sort the boxes of toys. "No Mommy. That Daniel's."

505. Dave, who can set up a computer in no time flat, not confused in the slightest by all the cords and plugs

506. finding my maternity clothes!

507. color coded boxes with itemized lists of what's inside

508. a mortgage payment that will be slightly less than we anticipated

509. a refund from the school district of our tuition fees (not yet here, but they sent a letter)

510. so many wonderful, amazing friends - one of life's most special treasures

511. how the congregation sings so enthusiastically/joyfully at our new church

512. the lady at church who found a way to let me know my 'side dish' of cold cuts was just fine

513. watching Daniel and John (pastor's son, age 4) interact at church

It's A New Day

2011-11-13T23:44:00.000-05:00

How many times over the last year and a half have I wondered if these decisions we were making were going to land us in a good place? How many times have I second guessed myself and feared making things worse? How many times have I searched deep, very deep, for mercies and joy in the midst of very trying and stressful circumstances?

The memories. They flow like a downhill mountain stream.

Painting house trim. Brenna throwing up in my car. Racing to prepare for a short notice showing. Friends who painted our kitchen. Tears of frustration. Reading One Thousand Gifts. Carrie sitting on packed boxes watching tv. Fretting over de-personalizing the house or making it homey. Realtor decisions. Getting the first mortgage qualification quotes. Agonizing over how the stress was affecting my kids. Putting together the hat box of instruction manuals and information for the new owners. Planting flowers that just died anyway. Wind storms that slammed the front door into the porch lights and broke them. Thinking of places to go during showings. Commuting back and forth to school. Moving in with my parents. Packing more and more toys and feeling more and more guilty. Christmas. Birthdays. Making bunk beds. Fighting hard to be content.

And it just goes on and on.

Yet tonight I write from the quiet, peaceful living room in my new home. The train is rumbling by and Pandora is playing a calming set of piano music. I'm surrounded by boxes and half finished projects. This is where I wanted to be. Here in our home. Not house. Home.

The tears flow more readily while the body is producing extra hormones for pregnancy and I've certainly let out a lot of tears in the last few months. In the last 24 hours, though, they've often become tears of joy. At least 35 people had a hand in helping us move in yesterday. What an amazing show of God's provision! This morning we sang the lyric "joy comes with the morning" and I just had to sit back in awe of that truth. Joy and gratitude.

It seems as though all is resolving at once. We are in the right home for our needs. Not our every want. Our needs. Yes there are some wonderfully special blessings that I know God threw in there just for me. The bright orange tree out back, for one. But some of where I've struggled with the compromises, are already, in less than 24 hours, becoming clear as day to be the right decision. Little neighbor girl knocking on the door and heading upstairs to play with Brenna? absolutely. Man across the street offering Michael any tool he has to use as needed? Yes. Lady two doors down that brought apple cinnamon bread? You bet. I think this neighborhood might be exactly what God had in mind.

Tomorrow is Monday and I'll be counting my blessings for the week. I doubt it's possible to count this week without shedding tears of gratitude, joy and pure awe. We serve a good God. And when he tells us that he has plans for us, plans to prosper and not to harm, hope and a future, He means it. Sometimes we have to go through fire to arrive at what's good, but it is possible to come through unsinged. With nothing but the memories. I am so excited to see what's ahead for us as we get to live, work, and worship in the same community for the first time in our lives. I'm ready to shed the weight of the last year and take on the tasks set before me: setting up a new Peapod, joining the community of women at church, reaching out to my neighbors, and becoming a more active part of my kids' school.

It's a new day!

The New Mixer

2011-11-11T11:34:00.001-05:00

Making bread requires kneading, lots of kneading. And I am much too wimpy to be doing it all by hand! Since our family has a made a life long commitment to this whole grain bread making thing, I knew I would have to get a better mixer. Both more powerful and with a larger capacity. A little research led me to the Bosch Universal.

At the blue light special price of $429.

I don't know about your family, but in ours we don't spend that kind of money lightly. In fact we usually agonize over whether or not we really need something that costs that much and it takes months to actually make the purchase. (Unless it's for the car and then you just have no choice, right?)

In this case, I already knew we needed it. Six loaves of bread dough at a time? Absolutely! Powerful enough to handle fresh milled whole grain flour? Definitely. But it still cost a lot of money. So I started saving. I sold loaves of bread and I worked for a friend at the state fair and in no time at all I was half way to my goal. In cash.

Then Bosch put the mixer on sale at $399, free shipping, with some extra add ons and I knew the time was now, money or not. So last week my brand new mixer arrived!


Doesn't it look so nice and fancy?

Of course we purchased it online, so I couldn't exactly take my jar of money all the way to Nebraska and plunk it down the counter.

In fact, truth be told, I was actually still about $100 short of the total price.

Which is why the credit card is so great, right? As of today, I'm still technically $75 short of covering the entire purchase with the cash from my bread money jar. But the mixer is here and I'm confident I'll pay the savings account back before Christmas.

And then Michael can't wait to take my money jar to the bank for a cash deposit.

Four Hundred Seventy Two Through Four Hundred Eighty

2011-11-07T13:43:00.000-05:00

The tension is building! The sellers move out tomorrow and we close on Wednesday. Moving day is Saturday. I am so organized I'm driving myself crazy. There's nothing else to plan out. We have lots of wonderful friends who are coming to help and I think I've scheduled everyone in a way that will be the most helpful. I have three crews working plus my dad and brother who will be bringing things from my parents' house.

I am truly so overwhelmed by the offers to help. I don't think I turned anyone down. In all my planning ahead for this day, I didn't anticipate being 16 weeks pregnant and not much help. So many people, from our small group, our families, our new church, Michael's band, and even an old friend from high school are all coming to help. Isn't God's blessing just amazing?! Just wait till I have pictures to show!

472. the technology of texting that is allowing my mom to send me pictures of Daniel enjoying his Disney World trip with them.

473. Carrie's thumbs

474. friends who listen when all I do is talk about me

475. meeting neighbors already, and one with a son in Daniel's class

476. how Carrie can win over an entire congregation by telling each person who asks that her name is 'Pickles'.

477. the skinny doors and giant keyholes on our new church, historic

478. The two young girls who took Brenna under their wing Sunday morning and showed her all around.

479. the joy of truly helping someone find a new home when I'm at work

480. planning and organizing for the big move this weekend.

Spending Money To Save Money

2011-11-02T21:41:00.000-04:00

My mom is out spending money to save money. I guess that's a little like "Turn right to go left" from the movie Cars. The logic isn't in the sentence, but the proof is in the result. When Lightning McQueen gives the wheel a yank to the right on that difficult turn, the car does indeed go left. In about an hour, mom will be home with her proof as well.

In our family, my parents teach the kids from the time they are little that when they turn 5, they get to go Disney World. Brenna was first and it was a huge success. Now it's Daniel's turn. He's been five for five months now, patiently awaiting his turn. Tickets have been purchased, airlines booked, a hotel room reserved and tomorrow evening the three of them will be high in the sky.

I spent today washing Daniel's clothes and packing his suitcase. I hadn't realized how many 4T items he still had in his drawer. No wonder some of his shirts look short. I think I overpacked, but I hope there are enough matches. He has everything except his toothbrush and his Winnie the Pooh, which I'm planning to throw in tomorrow morning. No toothpaste, soap, or shampoo. Those are just trouble for security and I'm pretty sure they have that stuff in Florida. After a house wide search, Brenna finally located his second pair of tennis shoes so I think that pretty much covers all our bases.

Except for the fact that my mom came in from work at 7:40 and said that his suitcase was too big. Too big? Too big for what? I intentionally packed the biggest one we had so he could bring home some fun reminders of his trip. Apparently on this airline, if they check bags it will cost them $25 for each bag, each leg of the trip. They have one connection so Daniel's bag alone would cost $50 there and $50 back. Add in mom and dad's and that's $300 just to pack a suitcase.

That is ridiculous. No really that is beyond ridiculous.

I'm aware that it's been that way for a while. Airlines keep looking for more ways to cover what they insist are the rising costs of flying. I just think that total is unreasonable.

Which brings me back to my mom - who isn't going to pay $300 to bring suitcases with them to Disney. In order to save the hundreds of dollars, she went out tonight and bought a bag that can be carried on, and not checked. She spent money to save money. And that will all make sense when they board the plane, checked baggage free.

Four Hundred Sixty Five Through Four Hundred Seventy-One

2011-10-31T15:34:00.000-04:00

I guess I'm still not finding a lot of time to write. One post and a picture this week - but it looks like that's better than the previous six weeks combined. Michael has some meetings and practices in the evening this week so I may get a little one on one time with the laptop after the kids go to bed. No promises, but it sure would be nice. I never realized how spoiled we were having two computers in the house. At night Michael would use the desk top downstairs for music, church, and school related things, while I would use the laptop in our room for writing and researching my latest obsession. Now we have to... share! (gasp!) Not that it really matters. Mostly I can't keep my eyes open anyway.

But here it is Monday and it's time to count up some blessings. I don't have a huge list for the week, but I have some pretty special ones.

465. the phone message from a DAD of four kids, telling us how excited he is for our family and how much fun we are going to have. That four kids is such a blessing and to let him know if we need anything at all.

466. all the friends who have expressed congrats and encouragement (even if they might be privately thinking we are crazy. :)

467. homemade cinnamon rolls - whole grain and relatively healthy

468. that our bodies can often heal themselves and fight off viruses. Daniel is much better.

469. sleepy little faces that showed up for breakfast when Brenna forgot to set the alarm.

470. the special way the people of our church said goodbye to us. (we start at a new one next week.)

471. getting to spend time with our friends Rick and Karen even though I had to cancel our dinner because Daniel was sick. Starbucks was a good plan B.

All Packed Up

2011-10-25T19:04:00.000-04:00

And ready to move!

My Cup Overfloweth - Four Hundred Thirty One Through Four Hundred Sixty Four

2011-10-24T11:28:00.000-04:00

When you don't blog for six weeks, a lot builds up. I didn't intentionally stop. I just didn't have the writing bug I usually feel. Holding a secret can do that to you. I also need dedicated quiet time to write, and that's hard to come by these days. It felt good to pour out this list. I'm sure I've missed many of the little blessings over the last few weeks, but when I sit still and think, I'm overwhelmed by grace. My cup truly runs over with the graces granted me through what has been a most frustrating year. May we never forget to stop and say thanks, for God has blessed us immeasurably.

Continuing to count, on my way to One Thousand and Beyond...

431. for a stomach so sick it brings tears, but provides assurance that the baby inside is growing well

432. for Brenna and Daniel who ooohhh and ahhhh over 8week ultrasound pics, saying over and over how cute our baby is. No one ever saw a cuter blob than this one. :)

433. for Daniel's laughter when I read to him from babycenter.com that the baby has begun to pee

434. for Brenna's offer to bathe Carrie with her since I'm so sick tonight

435. for McDonald's snack wraps, that calm the aching stomach (and that's saying a lot, because I don't like McDonald's.)

436. that the sickest hours have been during the day, when everyone else is gone and Carrie is napping

437. for an obgyn who is genuinely excited to have me back

438. that my mom was home to help the night Daniel threw up all over the bedroom carpet... because without her help, I surely would have doubled the mess. (also number 419, but with new meaning here, now that you know I'm pregnant)

439. that my parents offered for us stay with them and slow down the process of looking for a new home

440. that I swallowed my pride and accepted the offer

441. that God blessed that swallow

442. for Chick Fil A, forever and always

443. seeing friends at a restaurant unexpectedly, when we hadn't seen them in over a year

444. to watch events play out a slower pace than I wanted, but with a precision that amazes me

445. for the opportunity to live, work, and worship in the same community

446. for money saved toward a good mixer

447. friends and family willing to help us move - twice in a few months

448. Brenna's 9th birthday

449. that Carrie recovered quickly from her high fever sickness (that scared the living daylights out of me)

450. for friends who speak truth in my life, especially when I can't see past my fear or the mountain in front of me

451. being able to lean on my husband

452. joy

453. spending time with my grandparents

454. talking on the phone with my cousin Emily

455. new cell phones with texting capabilities

456. chairs that kick the feet up and lay back

457. quilting in the sunroom

458. taking the kids on a secret mission to get my nephew Caleb a dedication cake after church. They were so good and so excited to be part of the sneaky mission.

459. deer in the yard

460. listening to Daniel read - his teacher is working miracles where I was hitting a brick wall!

461. being able to trust Brenna and Daniel to behave in all sorts of circumstances

462. scoring maternity clothes at Goodwill, since mine are somewhere in the storage unit

463. cooler weather, but not cold weather

464. pumpkin ice cream and pumpkin bread

Four Hundred Nineteen Through Four Hundred Thirty

2011-09-12T21:49:00.000-04:00

I am thankful for the routine of school, but I do miss having everyone around. It gets awfully quiet in the house here during the day. Especially when Carrie is looking for trouble. Evenings happen quick since the alarm goes off so early. We aim for 7:30 every night. The back to school routine keeps the days marching on.

We are almost completely settled in our temporary Peapod. We got the last load taken to the storage unit on Sunday so now it's just a matter of arranging the things we've kept with us within the space we have. Little by little we're getting there. Earthquakes, hurricanes, power outages -- hopefully they are all in the past. (Although I still keep a flashlight right beside my bed, just in case.) We are especially thankful not to be panic-cleaning for showings all the time anymore. It's really nice to just relax and go house hunting!

Counting my many blessings...onward to 1000

419. that mom was home and able/willing to help when Daniel got sick all over the bedroom floor.

420. running water

421. bread that's getting less and less crumbly - I'm getting better at it!

422. settling into a predictable routine

423. Carrie's vocabulary - "holy moly guacamole!"

424. that my friend Suzanne was not seriously hurt during a bad car accident

425. homemade whole grain pasta for dinner - with homemade spaghetti sauce

426. relatives who live far away (Texas, Washington, New Jersey) and come to visit - even riding a hotel elevator over and over with the kids

427. this face

428. sending these three off to school every day and getting lots of one on one time with Carrie

429. fresh fruit

430. Daniel's first baseball game

First Day Of School - 2011

2011-09-06T21:24:00.000-04:00

Third Grade and Kindergarten. Two out, one at home. I'm going to like this.

Pancake breakfast, prepared by Papa

We are currently being drenched by the remains of hurricane/tropical storm/depression Lee, so in addition to being very early and very dark, it was also very rainy. We took pictures at the edge of the garage so everyone could stay dry.

Brenna - first day of 3rd grade

Daniel - First day of Kindergarten

All three just before they left

This was my favorite picture of the morning

Michael had a meeting after school, so I picked the kids up today. We went to Chick Fil A for milkshakes, but once we were in the drive thru lane, Daniel asked if he could have a kids meal instead of a milkshake. I guess he worked up an appetite at Kindergarten.

On the way home I asked him what they did today. He said, "We didn't really do much." (pause) "The teacher just talked a lot."

He did make a new friend and reported that someone got in trouble. Not him, of course. And not his friend.

Brenna didn't have as much to say. She had a good day and made some new friends. Mostly she's just glad to be back. So it was great first day of school for the Peapod in its temporary location. Everyone is going back tomorrow willingly and that's a huge thumbs up from me!

Three Hundred Ninety-Two Through Four Hundred Eighteen

2011-09-05T21:39:00.000-04:00

Hurricane Irene prevented me from posting last week. We lost power early in the storm, but it was restored in a little over four days time. Much better than when Hurricane Isabel went through here and my parents were without power for eleven days! Our house closed two days ahead of Irene, and we learned just how spoiled we'd been living there - with our city water and our gas water heater. Out here in the country on well water, you can't run any water and you have to manually flush the toilets. peeeyuuuuu!

School starts here tomorrow! We are thankful for a wonderful elementary school and fabulous teachers. Now if we could just find a house so we'd actually live in the district....

On to 1000.....

392. no earthquake damage - just a few drawers slid open

393. minimal hurricane damage

394. power back in 4 days, rather than 11

395. flashlights

396. being able to flush toilets

397. running water

398. visiting friends who didn't have power either

399. waving at people driving by - and making them smile

How could you not smile when this kid is waving at your car driving by?

400. pretending super-hero leaping abilities

401. two extra days of summer vacation for Michael, thank you Hurricane Irene

402. Molly, who let us take showers/baths at her house and then gave us lunch and sent us home with a cooler of ice

403. Stephen/Kristin who let us shower/bathe at their house and fixed a yummy hot homemade dinner

404. getting safely to SC - through the rain, the traffic jams, the near miss accidents, and the long hours

405. meeting my new nephew Caleb

406. sheer joy

Seriously thought his little heart might explode, he was so excited

407. a husband who will do the grocery store run

408. meeting the kids' teachers

409. the school open house felt like a reunion, so fun to see everyone

410. love our elementary school, which totally confirms our decision to move into the district

411. pulling in the driveway

412. kids who travel well

413. filling out beginning of the school year forms (yes, I know that's weird, but I like it.)

414. Carrie wearing her gnome hat playing in the sandbox

415. new school clothes

416. nap time

417. popcorn

418. regaining internet access after the hurricane

Earthquake Nephew Closing Hurricane, In That Order

2011-08-25T22:50:00.000-04:00

Confession: I did not feel the earthquake.

5.9 and somehow I missed it! We were cleaning out our house, carrying stuff down the steps, but I never felt or heard anything. Aftershocks? Missed them too. Every one. I'm kinda bummed about that. So is Daniel. He wants me to make another earthquake so he can feel it shake.

The day after the "big" earthquake, my sister had her baby! A little boy they named Caleb. Mom and Dad left Tuesday and were there for the big reveal of boy or girl. He's a cute little guy - Mom's been sending me pictures. We're anxious to go see for ourselves, though.

Amidst all that excitement, our house closed today. I expected an emotional walk down ten years of memory lane, but it never happened. Not a single tear. Maybe I cried enough over the past eleven months trying to get to this day, that I just moved on. Or maybe I'll cry next week. We are officially on the hunt for a new home and praying that God would lead us there quickly. We are happy to be in this new phase of the move, but nobody wants the interim to last long. More patience though.

And while we wait, we get to experience a hurricane, off the city grid. Meaning if the power goes out, it's probably not coming back on anytime soon. Out here on well water, we won't be able to flush. Then again, out here in the country no one will be close enough to see our makeshift outhouse either.

The forecasters can't make up their minds about how this is going affect Richmond. We've seen/heard everything from no rain (even I know better than that) to over five inches. So, if I don't post for a while, you'll know we probably don't have power.

I'd say that's enough excitement for one week...but tomorrow is Carrie's 2nd birthday. :)

Three Hundred Sixty-Five Through Three Hundred Ninety-One

2011-08-22T22:52:00.000-04:00

I think some weeks actually have ten days. And this past week was one them. We are 98% moved out of our house and that feels good! I have looked forward to this for a long time. I imagined it differently, but I'm still so glad to be here. There are a few more hurdles ahead of us, and then the focus changes to finding a new house. In the meantime, here's the list for this week.

Longest list to date.

365. Suzanne and Jeremy - who left their kids with her mom (including one with a fever) so they could both come to help us move. They brought their trailer, which we filled, and their SUV, which we filled, and helped all day long. And Suzanne was my precious friend through the day, keeping me grounded and not off on emotional tangents.

366. Wes - who helped us move our stuff out of the house, into the truck, and then into storage

367. Dave - who has offered more than our hearts can receive, who helped us move, and who has been through every step of the past eleven months with us.

368. Christine - who saved Carrie's very curious-nearly 2 year-old life by keeping her during the move out. (more on that in a later post), who has offered more than our hearts can receive, who has been through every step of the past eleven months with us, who helped me pack the kitchen and stayed to chat till nearly midnight

369. Stephen - who helped us move and set up our room at mom and dad's

370. Kristin - who helped us move, who set up our room at mom and dad's, who talked with me in my exhaustion until the guys were finished on the computer in my room and I could go to bed.

371. Mary Ann - who helped us move, who kept our kids entertained, who is keeping way more of our 'stuff' in her basement than I care to admit

372. Jim - who helped us move, who is always sure whatever it is can be done, who moved the piano down the front steps without dropping it, who is always willing to lend a hand

373. Kevin - who helped us move, who wheeled Daniel all over the yard on the dolly, who took my kids on one last bike ride around the block before their bikes went into storage (not sure any greater gift could have been given than that)

374. Robert - who helped us move

375. Cody - who helped us move, and filled his new truck with stuff from our shed #bestnephewever

376. Molly - who kept my kids this morning so we could sign papers at the lawyers office

377. Dad - who helped us move, who beat the storm to his house with our mattresses on the back of his truck, who picked up drinks for dinner, who, along with mom, made sure we've got plenty of room while we stay here in their home.

378. the sunset tonight was beautiful, Orange and purple and blue. I followed it west as long as I could because I just didn't want it to end, and I only turned off at the last possible place to avoid a u-turn in getting to my destination.

379. beginning to recognize some of God's perfect timing, and wanting that to feed my faith for what's ahead of us.

380. that my parents built a house with so many bedrooms - what foresight!

381. Kathy and Raymond - who bought our sofas, even though Raymond was in the hospital having his hip replaced

382. selling the sofas - that we were able to load them (just michael, kathy, and I) onto her pick up, get them tied securely enough with nearly nothing, that she was able to get home without them falling off, that she got them unloaded somehow while her husband was in the hospital. And that we didn't have to store them because there was NO ROOM in the U-haul!

383. the quilt I'm working on for Carrie - I haven't gotten to work on it for months, but when I pulled it out to bring with me I fell in love with it all over again.

384. I told Brenna she couldn't open her friendship bracelet kit because we were leaving soon for Molly's house, and when we walked in the door Molly's girls were working on friendship bracelets at the kitchen island. What a sweet gift for my Brenna. She was so thrilled, they did that the entire time we were gone.

385. in and out at the eye doctor = awesome.

386. Michael's band. I've only heard them play once, but I love how much joy it brings him.

387. cell phones

388. pickup trucks - we've used so many in the last few days

One of those wardrobe boxes actually fell off the truck on the interstate!

389. a good shower - especially on the day after you move

390. beautiful flowers

391. Daniel getting to ride in the moving truck.

What I'm Finding

2011-08-18T22:14:00.000-04:00

We are closing in on the last week! The kids' bunk beds have been disassembled and I spent a half an hour just laying with Brenna and Daniel on the floor talking tonight. Brenna wants her new bedroom decorated like an old professor's office. Daniel wants his painted red with race cars scenes on the wall. They think we should go to Niagra Falls or Busch Gardens for vacation next year. Daniel wants to get Carrie her own toy car for her birthday and Brenna wants to buy her a Beanie Boo. You learn a lot listening to your kids.

In other conversation, I told them we'd go shopping after my sister has her baby in a few weeks and pick out something fun to send. I was thinking an outfit or a stuffed animal. Without hesitation, Daniel said, "a baby grinder!" And then he collapsed into giggles. Perhaps we've talked our wheat grinder a little much?

They were up late watching tv. Maybe too late.

watching tv on the only couch we have left

There's been a little tv watching going on the last few days. They're still a little young to be outside unsupervised, so they have to find something to do that doesn't involve taking things back out of boxes. Or back out of piles marked for Papa's house!


When mom sells the couches, you just make do with what you've got

With all this packing going on, we were bound to come across some interesting things. I've been snapping pictures over the last week so here's a look at a few items going with us to our next house.


Discovered today along the binding of a suitcase. We've been married 12 years.

My friend Jenny's wedding - 13 years ago? and a bunch of my college friends


I found a handful of Newsweeks

Here's another

What is that?!! :)

Our bookmark collection (that we never use)

My favorite poster

Completed workbooks for one of the many premarital studies/books we did

The truth about how I got my political science degree

I can't believe the amount of stuff we're getting rid of, nor the amount we still have. I have paired down and paired down, but there are still a lot of boxes. Moving is good for you!

Bye Bye Couches!

our indoor trampoline for two days

and off they go......

Eat Like A Pig and Go Fly A Kite

2011-08-16T21:26:00.000-04:00

Tonight was the most fun we've had at home in a long time. It's hard to put into words the stress our family has been under over the months our house was on the market. Laughter seemed to disappear for long stretches at a time. I think the ideal of having a house that shows well carried so much weight we nearly crushed under it. Certainly as we've begun to look at houses to purchase, we see the standard to which we held ourselves. It was higher than average without being staged. We believed it was what we had to do to compete.

I haven't asked the kids to clean their room in weeks. There are boxes everywhere in every room. The dining room table is in the living room and the sofas are in the dining room. Chaos reigns and we love it. Carrie thinks we've built a state-of-the-art obstacle course and jungle gym just for her. She's climbing, hanging, crawling, running and scooting all over the place.

Sunday night two of my friends came over and helped me pack up the kitchen. When a job like that is overwhelming, there's no better way to tackle it than with Christine and Belinda. Not only did they empty every cupboard, they filled me up with laughs, girl talk, encouragement, and love. We're living our last week in this house, so they left us five plates, five sets of silverware, five glasses, one pot and one pan. Meaning we have to wash dishes.

When was the last time you washed dishes?

We kind of like it. In fact, we think when we move into our new house someday we're only going to keep out five of everything. If you come over for dinner, you'll have to wait while one of us goes up in the attic to retrieve a plate. Or better yet, you'll have to bring your own place setting. We came to that conclusion while I was washing, Brenna was drying, and Michael was putting dishes away.

For some reason during dinner tonight Michael told Carrie that eating her fish would make her happy and the night just went nutty from there. Or was it fishy?! No one remembers why now, but we spent most of the evening teaching Brenna about idioms. Once you start down that road it's awfully hard to stop. They just keep popping out one after the other till you're blue in the face. And of course we bent over backwards to keep them coming.

And then Carrie starts making funny faces and Daniel's carrying the plunger on his shoulder saying "Here comes the plumber". Brenna and Michael are in an idiom war and everybody's loud and laughing.

The hiccups arrive!!

Whole family laughter is the most wonderful sound and I'm incredibly thankful to have that crazy silliness back in our lives. Though I have to wonder if mom and dad know what's about to hit their house?!! :)

Three Hundred Forty-Five Through Three Hundred Sixty-Four

2011-08-15T22:58:00.000-04:00

Last Monday we were in Georgia and South Carolina so I missed my weekly list of gifts. I don't have many pictures from the last two weeks to break up the list. Packing everything you own is a daunting task and one we are wrestling with as we try to decide what's really worth moving and what we can/should do without. And as if we weren't busy enough, Carrie is potty training. I was trying to wait until we move, but she's impatient, I guess. Yay for fewer diapers!

Gifts...

345. storage unit deal - three months for the price of one

346. pasta maker - half price for a short time on Amazon and I just happened to see it ~ free shipping too!

347. safety on the road during our SC visit, despite seeing several accidents and many bad drivers

348. friends offering to come help pack

349. boxes we were able to pick up from someone who had just moved

350. Jonathan and Tara - getting to see them and their new baby (We miss them so much!)

Brenna holding Makayla. Lexie and Daniel.

351. lunch in NC with Matt, Kim and little Grace

352. the way the wind blows the leaves on the trees

353. Belinda and Christine packing up our kitchen

354. Dave keeping 5 kids (three of his and two of ours) so we could pack. Amazing!!

355. our three kids on floor watching tv, surrounded by boxes

356. kid laughter, and not just laughter but hard giggles

357. easy fix at the condo this morning

358. that Carrie eats raw onions

359. that tears release stress

360. kids who travel well, even if they don't sleep in the van

361. talking with Michael about what we're looking forward to, keeping positive

362. Belinda's phantom boxes she listed in my packing notebook

363. Being given the opportunity to slow the house buying process down and make a good decision.

364. selling our sleeper sofa and love seat so we don't have to move them

Moving?

2011-08-12T22:28:00.000-04:00

Apparently so!

Having already packed a good portion of our things over the last year, I'm surprised how much is left! It feels good, though, to be tossing and donating. Just over a week till we load out and it's all a bit surreal...

Keep praying for us to find a new home. We are trying to be patient...

Missoula Children's Theater

2011-08-12T21:48:00.000-04:00

It's amazing what these people can put together in one week's time. Day 1 is lost to auditions and organization so really in just four days they put together an incredible children's musical. This year was Snow White. They take a few liberties with the story to give everyone a part so this year Brenna was one of the bats.


Love this face

They don't allow pictures during the show, but set the kids up afterwards for group shots.

Scary bat - in character

A big thanks to Pop and Pemmy for such a fun week at drama camp!


Brenna and Pop

The actress

Pemmy, Brenna, and Pop

Three Hundred Thirty-One Through Three Hundred Forty-Four

2011-08-01T15:23:00.000-04:00

I've often wondered what number selling our house would be. Thank God it wasn't number 1000! Last week an offer came that we accepted and that definitely tops my list today. Number 331. There is much for which to give thanks this week - just not a lot of time to do it. I must be intentional as we move forward from here. Life will by busy for the next few months. I don't know how the blog will fit into our schedule, but I aim to keep my gratitude list up to date at a minimum.

331. A contract on our home

332. my friend Alison's call at just the right moment. She's the only person we know who has bought a house since the banks began to tighten up. She understands more than anyone else.

333. when our realtor says, "I'll take care of that."

334. Brenna going to drama camp

335. Michael's mom and step-dad watching the kids while we looked at houses - then taking Michael back to get the car we forgot about because we were talking so much.

336. Loan officers who answer questions all weekend long

337. the organization of my Peapod Packing Notebook

338. Daniel cracking himself up so much during bedtime prayers that no else can keep a straight face either

339. having fun at the Dragon Boat Races

340. Sharon, who recognizes things in me and helps me see them. And prays for me as we walk between locations at work

341. a signed lease

342. fun with the kids at Busch Gardens.

343. Chick Fil A

344. friends who are excited and continue to encourage us

The Shame I Reject

2011-07-31T22:37:00.002-04:00

Shame is sneaky isn't it? It comes upon you when you aren't watching and turns your shoulders down. It places bricks on your heart and tugs your forehead toward the ground. You find yourself inching backwards where just moments before you were walking ahead.

Selling our home was supposed to catapult us into a new world of dreams we'd spent years putting together. I had idyllic ideas of a large home filled with children's laughter and homemade bread. In my mind, the house looked a lot like a new farmhouse with a country front porch. Large trees in the grassy yard and the next house a good ways down the winding country road. Peace and quiet, I thought I'd get. All by myself.

I wanted to hang my clothes outside on the line. Put in a garden. Grow ivy up a trellis. Freeze corn, beans, and spaghetti sauce. I thought I'd play music throughout the house as my children played outside in a large backyard where I didn't worry about them getting too close to a busy road. I wanted to sit on the front porch and drink lemonade at night, waving at the very few cars that passed by under the starry skies.

And I wasn't going to leave. The kids would ride to and from school with Michael. They could stop on the way home for whatever we needed from the store. I would run errands, maybe once a week and go to work on Saturday, if I had to, but the only place we'd go as a family was to church.

I wanted to get out there in the country and live all by myself.

We accepted a contract on our house this past week and began talking with a loan officer about what we could afford, fully expecting to be looking for this dream house. The number she gave us is about $50,000 lower than we thought it would be. A quick search of the MLS confirmed our suspicions that we'd been locked out of buying a house like the one we imagined, if one even existed.

Severely disappointed and tearful, I asked what held our number down so low. Part of the answer is the new regulations that have followed the '08 housing crisis. They are every bit as strict as the news reports. The other part of the answer is that the entire mortgage of our condo rental property was held against us, even though we only own 50% of it.

How many times in the past two years have I wished I could undo that purchase? We bought it a year or more before real estate in our area began to slide. When it's doing well, we appreciate the benefits, but when headaches arrive, they pound. We tried this summer to sell it, but received only a little interest. Somehow, whether real or imagined, I have felt a judgement from others for having a rental property. A property we can't easily be rid of.

Shame had jumped aboard and when I learned that once again our condo was to blame I wanted to hide that fact from everyone.

These last 11 months of waiting for a contract on our house have been packed full of learning. One Thousand Gifts, Feasts of the Old Testament, Revelation, grinding grains and making bread, Radical. One after the other they challenged my life, my priorities, my status quo, my place in this mixed up world, my beliefs. Left to my own plans and dreams, I still had every intention of buying the biggest house my money could cover and isolating myself on some country road. Isolating sounds harsh, but I'm a homebody and I know full well that's what I had in mind. Facebook and email would keep me company.

One Thousand Gifts taught to me to see God's hand in my situation and to give thanks for everything, even the hard stuff. I have thanked him for the eleven months and for the contract. I have thanked him for the realtor and the loan officer. And I thank him for the condo and the new regulations in place for mortgages. The condo and the regulations in particular are helping us to live out what we were challenged to do in Radical. That is, to separate ourselves from the American dream and to choose a more humble path that allows us to help those who don't have access to all the resources that we've been blessed with.

I choose to reject the shame that drags me down. I choose to see our condo as an investment in the lives of our renters. Rather than buy a bigger better house, we get to help others create a home for a time. We get to do this and I will not be burdened by it anymore. I will see it as a privilege. A joy. (Remind me of this, though, the next time a rent payment is late or a cabinet falls off the wall!)

As Christians we're meant to be in this world. Not off by ourselves doing our own thing. It's our love people are supposed to see. Who's going to see love in me if I don't interact with folks? If I remove myself from people? Clearly no one. And that's why I think it only took about 60 minutes for Michael and I to grieve our busted dream and ask God to turn it in to something new. Something better. Something that maybe makes a lot more sense. A neighborhood. One full of families. A place where our kids can make friends and bring them to our house to play. A peaceful home that we create, not purchase. A home filled with the laughter of friends who come often because we live nearby, not 'way out there'.

The home buying process is challenging enough without me bringing shame and selfishness along for the ride. I am thankful for the opportunity to move and I thank God for every blessing and gift he has provided along this road. I want my way forward to be about love and interaction with people, not isolation and shame.

Cheers to a new dream and a new home!

Homemade Poptarts??

2011-07-26T11:58:00.000-04:00

I'm finding Heavenly Homemakers to be an incredible resource for recipes using our new grain mill. Sunday, as I was reading down through the list of breakfast ideas I came across one for homemade poptarts. As is often the case with the recipes she shares, I had all the ingredients already at home. It took a little longer than I anticipated to make them, so in the future I'd probably make these the night before... or get up and get started a little earlier than 9:30 - summer hours.

The dough all rolled out

the squares cut out

At this point, you put jelly (I used strawberry freezer jam) on one square and then place another square on top, sealing all four edges as you go.

ready to go in the oven

The over all opinion at the Peapod, is that these are pretty good. We decided we needed to call them something other than homemade poptarts so that our taste buds wouldn't expect that white flour, white sugar, processed Pop-Tart we've all had before. These are whole grain (soft white wheat), no sugar (except for in the jam) poptarts. The recipe made about 12 for us and since we only ate four, I froze the rest individually. The recipe says they can be reheated in a toaster oven. I also made one poptart with applesauce in the middle, but no one chose that one yesterday.

Many of the poptarts oozed jam while they were baking. I'd recommend parchment paper on your cookie sheet, or washing the cookie sheet as soon as possible. Hot water melted the mess rather easily.

I don't think we'll make these often, but they are a fun treat on occasion. If they do reheat well, it will be nice to have them on hand when certain school aged children have a slow moving morning and need to take breakfast with them in the car.

Carrie's cheesy grin. She ate the top off of hers, then ate the middle and rejected the edges.

Thumbs up for Homemade Poptarts as long as they get a new name!

Three Hundred Eleven Through Three Hundred Thirty

2011-07-25T16:00:00.000-04:00

It must have been a good week, because I have a long list! I'm glad to be practicing gratitude and 'eucharisteo' in what is such an uncertain time for us.

311. rain that fell in Daniel's rain gauge - almost a whole inch (He was so excited!)

312. eating at the Conch Republic with Michael because the kids were out of town

313. running into TJ and Megan at the food festival

314. free corn for dinner

315. the biggest blackberries I've ever seen

316. that Brenna, Daniel and Carrie were invited to visit Bec and Chris in SC with Mom and Dad

317. meeting Bill and Lisa

318. Going to the M Bistro for lunch on Friday, Amy's treat

319. spending two days with Mom and her friends

320. the dessert we made in cooking class

321. getting to talk about milling wheat and how easy it is

322. trying new recipes, like homemade poptarts (new post tomorrow)

323. a good night's sleep for Judi, who doesn't sleep well, while we were at Cheesecake Farms

324. smoothies

325. clear, quick answers, even when they are 'No'.

326. catching up with friends I haven't seen in a long time (Jenn, Brittney, Rick)

327. Michael's band - that it's not a huge time commitment, but that they are doing so well and having so much fun

328. Brenna's mature decision making that still so often surprises me

329. Twice this week, someone held my hands and specifically prayed for the sale of our home

330. finding Andy Stanley on tv by chance Sunday morning

Making Homemade Pasta

2011-07-24T18:33:00.000-04:00

The pasta dough is made with milled kamut flour and one egg. The food processor creates a nice dough ball.

Pasta dough

First time through the rollers

Feeding the dough through

Preparing to cut

Cut pasta

The pasta, thrown into boiling water, cooks in about 2-3 minutes.


Cooked and topped with homemade spaghetti sauce

Onions and Cheese - Delicious!

Eleven Things I Learned At Cheesecake Farms

2011-07-21T22:44:00.002-04:00

I'm fresh back from an overnight stay at Cheesecake Farms in Fredericksburg. My mom invited me to join her and eight of her friends at the bed and breakfast, followed by a cooking class the next afternoon. Cooking class? yes. Mom taking days off work in the middle of the week to go? YES! We caravaned (which is apparently not a real word) north on Tuesday afternoon and half way there I discovered that the daughter of the lady in the back seat is my neighbor. As in, she lives about five houses down on the other side of the road. And she's been living there for about a year! I wanted to turn right around and go meet her...but everyone else thought we should continue on to the cooking class. (Incidentally, as soon as I got home, Michael and I did walk right down the street and introduce ourselves. No doubt we'll be friends and only regret we lost a whole year not knowing this!)

Once we arrived and settled into our half of the barn - shared with horses not cows or pigs, thankfully - we whiled away the afternoon talking and visiting with each other.

People on the left. Horses on the right.

Dinner at the main house was absolutely delicious, every bite. Dessert, on the other hand, was ... well... unexpected, I guess. I forget what she called it, but it was essentially a wine slushy, with blackberries on top and a slice of pound cake on the side. A dessert wine, mixed with water and sugar, then frozen. Since our reservation didn't include alcoholic beverages, we found this choice a little curious. Those who like wine enjoyed it though, while the rest of us made up for it by nabbing an extra slice of pound cake.

Back at the barn, we had a short devotional and a question/answer time regarding milling your own flour. Following a fierce fight with the bugs swarming the porch lights, we said goodnight and went to bed.

The room Mom and I had

The next morning breakfast was served at the main house, where I tried homemade granola topped with fresh strawberries, blueberries, and kefir. A definite step up from Golden Grahams, even without the golden spoon. Cooking class started at 11 and when we finished eating what we'd made, we packed up and waved so long to Cheesecake Farms.

Cooking Class

Eleven Things I Learned At Cheesecake Farms

1. You do not get cheesecake at Cheesecake Farms. Not even a bite.

2. After a certain age, (50 perhaps?) women no longer feel the need to filter what they are thinking before they say it. Whatever they think, just comes out their mouth. For example: "Oh my word Elaine! Your hair! You look like Einstein!!" - actual quote.

3. You can use homemade vanilla extract (vodka and vanilla beans) within about two months after you make it.

4. Some people can't smell damp musty odors at all. Others find the smell repulsive, and say so.(See #2) And a few, like me, tolerate it well because it just reminds us of some place with lots of other memories, like the basement at Nana's house.

5. It's important to some cooks that the tiny, minuscule seeds inside seedless grapes be removed before eating. (Yes, I rolled my eyes when I wrote that sentence.) (And yes, that was my job in cooking class.)

6. I like kefir. I also like carrot soup. And sweet potatoes in potato salad.

7. My mom's friends laugh a lot, tease the living daylights out of each other, and never let a good joke die. (a tattoo for Judi, for one. That joke was apparently carried over from a previous gathering they'd had, and I have no doubt it will live for at least another ten!)

8. If you turn the fan on high and run the A/C all night, you'll never hear the horse sleeping on the other side of the wall.

9. Forgetting to pack shampoo = greasy hair all day.

10. Oil supposedly breaks down plastic, so we're supposed to be storing our oils in glass jars, in the fridge. (that's what the cook said, anyway)

11. Being accepted and included by your mom's friends, knowing your mom is proud of you for leading devotions and a discussion, and eating healthy homemade food that someone else labored over makes for a really great getaway.

Table setting after cooking class. (Carrot soup in the mug)

Dessert we made in cooking class - chocolate shell, cream filling, topped with fruit

Two Hundred Ninety Four Through Three Hundred Ten

2011-07-18T22:09:00.000-04:00

Another week with no pictures. I think there actually are pictures on the camera, but none are going to make it to the blog tonight. This was a work week for me. Unusual, but totally doable over the summer when Michael can keep the kids all day.

In unrelated news, my knees are aching. Walking into a store tonight, I was looking too hard at the store hours and didn't lift my foot high enough to clear the curb. I went down hard. Tore a huge hole in my best jeans and bloodied up my knees. I'd forgotten how bad a slam and skid on the concrete hurts. I think the kids will get a little more sympathy from mom and a little less "you're alright" the next time they take a fall.

Counting on...

294. gift cards

295. lunch at Maggianos as a family

296. kids who behave so well while we're at a nice restaurant

297. being one of only two families buying school supplies at Target and getting all but one item we need

298. grandparents who take all three kids to the beach for the day

299. four days of work - choosing to look forward to the paycheck

300. meeting my friend Alison's new baby girl

301. Spending an hour or two catching up with Alison while the kids played

302. laughing with Christine

303. calling a bunch of my friends one after the other one night, just to get to talk to everyone

304. being on the same page as my husband

305. Hanover tomatoes on sale for 99cents a lb.

306. homemade spaghetti sauce ready for the freezer

307. having a daughter old enough to help me in the kitchen - today she chopped tomatoes with me

308. The York peppermint patties on Dan's desk at work

309. Brenna's arts camp

310. that Michael's student teacher from last fall, our friend Lauren, got a job for the upcoming school year

Two Hundred Seventy Nine Through Two Hundred Ninety Three

2011-07-11T22:04:00.000-04:00

When you're late posting gifts one week, Monday sure sneaks up quick. Seems like I just made my list yesterday.

Thank you God for every good and perfect gift you send. And for never changing. Amen. (James. 1:17)

279. the farmers who grow our food

280. good friends who can follow God's lead, knowing that it will take them away from us and bring about change, perhaps even in our friendships

281. picnics

282. watermelon

283. smiles and friendly faces

284. wrestling with tough questions

285. taking Brenna on her first roller coaster ride

286. AC when the temperature is forecast to be 101, with a heat index of 115

287. hydrangeas

288. my friend Christine

289. making pasta from scratch (wish I'd taken pictures. next time...)

290. reading a book on my ipod

291. staying up late and sleeping in

292. having my priorities questioned and my perspective altered

293. driving

Ohio 2011

2011-07-09T20:26:00.000-04:00

I love Ohio.

That doesn't surprise anyone, does it? (insert giant smiley face)

We weren't planning a trip north this summer at all, but I hitched a ride with my parents and got to go anyway. Actually, Brenna, Carrie and I all got to ride along, which meant Michael and Daniel had a guys weekend. Daniel had to start his weekend at the doctor's office getting his booster shots for Kindergarten, but after that it was all fun and games from what I hear. They did Busch Gardens, Cars 2, Sweet Frog and more.

The girls went north on Friday and came back on Tuesday. Here are some pictures from our trip - since we had the camera. :)

Dad, Brenna, and Carrie looking for birds out Nana's window


Four Generations: 1. Nana 2. Mom 3. Me 4. Brenna and Carrie

Brenna, when she saw Pap W. She told me that she loves this picture.

Brenna and Grandma W.

Kalf and Carrie up at Randy's. They are probably watching the dog.

Watching fireworks at Aunt Gayle's farm


Dressed for church on Sunday morning

Brenna leaving with my cousins for a girls night

Pancake Palooza at Aunt Tina's house

Such a fun trip. We got to see almost everyone this time. The weekend flew by and the goodbyes were just as hard as ever. I wish I had taken a few more pictures.

Special thanks to Aunt Suz for the Dutch Haus creme sticks before we left Grandma's on the last day! Nobody does creme sticks like they do!

Radical

2011-07-08T22:23:00.000-04:00

Some books challenge or encourage. Some books hug. Some books thrill and some teach. Some confuse. Some humor.

And some books step on your toes.

Have you read one of those lately? If not, and you think you can handle it, try reading Radical. My sister sent it to me complete with purple underlines of all the most important and thought provoking sentences. A nice touch. :)

Radical isn't a book you can sit down and read straight through. At least I couldn't. It takes some time and some thought. Not because it's wordy or takes a lot of concentration, but rather because you can only take so much truth in one sitting. The subtitle of the book is :

Taking Back Your Faith From The American Dream

Take a deep breath. Yes those two things are very intertwined and it's definitely a toe stompin' book. Primarily because that dream promises comfort and stability. Faith in Jesus doesn't.

I don't know that every theological t was crossed and every interpretation's i dotted for me, but the point of the book was well made. I've gotten my faith mixed up with my culture and there are some definite places where I need to do some sorting out. Those areas include financial decisions, time, missions, discipleship, and how I help the poor.

My brain is a little tired and overwhelmed, just having finished reading. I'm looking forward to the discussions that will ensue as Michael gets further into the pages. I would love to read this book again with my small group and discuss how we might apply some of what we've learned as a group. Or how we might become a more effective group.

Radical - on Amazon
Radical - its own website

Two Hundred Sixty Three Through Two Hundred Seventy Eight

2011-07-06T14:23:00.000-04:00

Two days late because I was in Ohio with limited access to the internet. (more on the trip later)

263. mountains. up close. in the distance. blue. tree covered. tunneled. ear popping. steep. rocky. beautiful.

264. driving through a tunnel - specifically the Allegheny Tunnel.

265. samples of apple cider at Shawnee Springs, WV.

266. cookies and water on a long car ride

267. Brenna willingly cleaning Carrie's hands after the cookie

268. my spot in the back of the van - whole back seat

269. employers who let me take a day off with short notice

270. backyard fireworks display

271. others who are interested in milling flour

272. missing Michael less than four hours after we left and knowing that means our love is strong

273. home

274. the most beautiful bouquet of flowers I've ever received. (it came from Michael and Daniel)

275. new books to read

276. a relatively easy 5 year check up for Daniel that included shots for Kindergarten

277. Guys weekend for Michael and Daniel

278. Creme sticks

Quinoa Lasagna

2011-06-28T21:00:00.000-04:00

Quinoa is something new for our family. It was mentioned in one of the 'healthy' cookbooks I've been using and when we saw it at the store, we decided to give it a try. It doesn't have a lot of taste on its own, but because of that you can make it work with all kinds of things. Quinoa is a very nutritious food, being a complete protein and also a good source of fiber and iron.

I first found a recipe for quinoa lasagna in the cookbook Healthy Foods: an irreverent guide to understanding nutrition and feeding your family well by Leanne Ely, C.N.C. I adjusted it a little and here's what I came up with.

(First you need to know that quinoa cooks up like rice. One cup measured before you cook it is not the same as one cup measured afterwards. For this recipe, you'll want about 3 cups of quinoa measured after you've cooked it.)

Ingredients List:
15 oz. can of tomatoes, preferably with some kind of Italian seasoning
2 - 8oz. cans of tomato sauce
small jar of spaghetti or pizza sauce (optional, use if you need more sauce)
1tsp. sea salt
2tsp. oregano
1 med. onion, chopped (I use a sweet onion, like vidalia)
2 cloves of garlic, minced (more or less is up to you)
oil (I use canola)
1 lb. ground beef
3 cups of cooked quinoa (remember to measure after it's cooked)
8oz. ricotta cheese or cottage cheese (cottage is sometimes easier to spread)
8-16oz. shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Coat a skillet with oil and cook the onions and garlic until soft. Add meat and cook until browned. Drain grease. Add tomatoes, sauce, salt, and oregano. Simmer.

Spray a 9x13 dish to make clean up easier. Smear a little of the sauce mixture on the bottom of the dish. Put down a layer of quinoa, followed by 1/3 of each of the cheeses. Sauce, quinoa, cheeses. Sauce quinoa cheeses. Finish with sauce. If needed, add spaghetti sauce on top. Dust the top with Parmesan and any leftover Mozzarella. Bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes.

Two Hundred Fifty Three Through Two Hundred Sixty Two

2011-06-27T14:25:00.000-04:00

Quick list today - two showings tonight, back to back. Praying for a buyer.

253. mom's macaroni salad

254. quiet moments at home when Michael has the big kids out and Carrie is sleeping

255. every single time my dough rises

256. pictures of my friend Alison's new baby

257. going to dinner with my dad when we have to be out of the house for a showing

258. new red flowers

259. meeting our friend TJ's parents who were visiting from PA

260. lunch on the deck along the river, wind blowing, water blue and friends to visit with

261. when Christa stops in while I'm working

262. driving down 95 singing with the radio. This week it was Rodney Atkins,

"when you're going through hell,

keep on going, don't slow down,

if you're scared don't show it,

you might get out before the devil even knows you're there.

But the good news
Is there's angels everywhere out on the street
Holding out a hand to pull you back up on your feet
The one's that you've been dragging for so long
You're on your knees
You might as well be praying
Guess what I'm saying

If your going through hell
Keep on going, don't slow down
If you're scared don't show it
You might get out
Before the devil even knows you're there

Yeah, If you're going through hell
Keep on moving, face that fire
Walk right through it
You might get out
Before the devil even knows you're there"

Multi-purpose Room

2011-06-26T16:34:00.000-04:00

Heavenly Homemakers Blog

2011-06-26T14:54:00.000-04:00

My friend Sarah, who has been walking this bread road with me, came across a blog a while back that she thought I'd like. On one of my first visits, I read the ice cream post and was hooked. gross?! Slowly I began to dig into the archives and found all sorts of new ideas and conversations. I love the humor in Laura's writing and the fact that she posts so often. (How do these bloggers come up with so much to write about?)

We've been making muffins a lot now that I'm grinding my own flour, but the recipe I was using produced slightly spongy ones. They weren't bad. I just thought they could be better. There are quite a few recipes posted on the HH blog, and we really like the blueberry muffins and banana muffins. My family is now wiping out a whole batch of muffins in one breakfast.

And probably the biggest hit of all has been a link to a smoothie recipe. Most make enough for 2 or 3 servings. I halved this one and it was more than enough for all five of us! And that is why I love cookbooks and blogs written by people who have big families!

Heavenly Homemakers - Check out this page as a launch point.

Two Hundred Thirty Four Through Two Hundred Fifty Two

2011-06-20T21:00:00.000-04:00

A day of summer has already come and gone. For the first time in years, we don't have any big plans for our weeks of June, July and August. Only hopes. I want to be 'all here' this summer. I want to do crazy things like build forts with the kids and have sock fights. No expensive trips, but lots of baking in the kitchen and playing on the slip and slide in the yard. Perhaps a few visits to the farmers market and the park. A day in the mountains and one at the beach. We'll try new recipes for dinner and experiment with foods we've never had before. It's the summer to potty train Carrie and to teach Daniel how to tie his shoes. We'll play board games, wii games, and games that Carrie can do. We might squeeze our own lemonade and make our own ice cream. I think we're gonna bring back the lazy days of summer.

With only one day down, the summer is full of promise, don't you think?
Continuing to count the many gifts in my life....

234. When school is out and my whole family is home for the summer

235. Brenna's friend Ruthie

236. giving bread away

237. talking friends from Ohio into spending the evening with us rather than leaving for home at 5pm.

238. all the wonderful gifts my sister received at her baby shower

239. Carrie's phrases and exploding vocabulary - how she touches our hearts with 'dank you (slight pause) daddy' or Mommy, unprompted

240. Daniel's first tennis lesson

241. lemonade with a touch of lime

242. driving down country roads

243. grocery shopping with just Carrie, even though she yells, "Appie Saw" up and down four aisles after we pass the applesauce.

244. that Michael wasn't very far from home Sunday morning when he realized the back tire on the car was completely flat

245. a whole summer stretching ahead of us

246. a rainy morning that kept the temperatures down a bit

247. when God gives me a friend who understands some portion of my life exactly. (Heather)

248. eating popcorn on the couch with Carrie, both of us under our blankets, and watching Baby Mozart together.

249. strawberry pie with homemade whole wheat crust

250. my whole family sitting around the fire pit on my parent's patio, talking, enjoying the stars, watching the sparks, and singing (or rather listening to Brenna sing)

251. my apple apron

252. Marigolds - given to Michael by a student at the end of the year, but always bringing a smile and memory of my great-grandpa's house.

Rebecca's Baby Shower

2011-06-19T20:35:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we had a baby shower for my sister who is due at the end of August. Here are a few pictures from the fun:

Let's get this party started!

The cake, which matched the invitations

Plates and napkins

Best wrapping job ever! Paper bag and duct tape!

We liked this one so much we saved it to open last. (umbrella stroller)

Opening gifts

all the gifts

We tried to stay minimal on the games and formal stuff so that there would be plenty of time for visiting. Highlights from the day include the ham biscuits, Mrs. H's wrapping job, the cake, and some of the cutest baby items you ever saw.

So Long Second Grade

2011-06-16T15:13:00.001-04:00

I really wanted to title this one 'Hello Third Grade', but that would not be true to the day. Our sweet Brenna with the big heart, has had an emotional morning of saying goodbye.

She was tearful as she walked down the sidewalk with Michael to where Daniel, Carrie, and I were waiting. She had said goodbye to her friends and to her teacher, but she didn't want to leave the building because she was "going to miss it so much over the summer."

Seriously??

Michael had to stay for meetings, so the rest of us went to Chick Fil A in hopes of cheering Brenna up a little. While we were standing in line, Brenna spotted her best friend's dad and quickly realized that Ruthie was with him. Frowns turned upside down and the girls had ice cream together, giggling and talking one last time before the summer break. Such a sweet little gift from above.

The report card shows all A's, S's, and +'s. Reading back through the comments, I found a few that made me smile.

"I don't think I will ever have another student who when told, "Class, today we are going to make a Venn diagram," whispers, "YES! I LOVE THOSE!"

"That sunshine just never fades!"

"This class has been one of the most kind, creative and enthusiastic classes I have ever had the experience of working with."

So long second grade...

Two Hundred Twenty Five Through Two Hundred Thirty Three

2011-06-13T13:37:00.000-04:00

Now that I'm through yesterday's little temper tantrum, it's time for some gratitude. How truly appropriate that when I went to A Holy Experience to pick up the button code, I found these words,

"Give up, once and for all — give up all the fears and all that weighs heavy.

Give up the worries — and “bend the knee and be small and let God give what God chooses to give — because He only gives love.” ~One Thousand Gifts

Give up what weighs down…
Give up the worries and give thanks…

Embrace the gifts that His love gives just. right. now…"

I can only shake my head in awe as I make efforts to do just as she suggests.

225. Daniel and Carrie playing ring-around-the-rosie together

226. Carrie's soft skin the morning when she's had a bath right before bed the evening before

227. Whole grain bread with butter and strawberry freezer jam for breakfast

228. Running my hands through the bucket of wheat

229. My Dad, who was able to help us fix our kitchen circuit after mixer number two fried it.

230. blueberry muffins - homemade, and that everyone likes them

231. cooler temperatures today, less humid, a nice breeze - all helping pull the house down out of the eighties while we wait for the AC man to come.

232. birthday cupcake, given to me at the graduation party we went to on my birthday. So thoughtful!

233. riding in the car with just my husband

Being Real

2011-06-12T15:27:00.001-04:00

Can you handle a little honesty? (deep sigh)

Sometimes my faith feels incredibly thin. My heart weighs more than it should and my shoulders seem to sag involuntarily. This morning at church we sang a song with the lines "I walk by faith. Each step by faith." I felt myself stumble over those words as I have spent yet another week wondering when this is ever going to end. Another brand new stand mixer quit on me this week and a couple who looked at our home, chose one in a neighborhood nearby. Our car had to have extensive repairs to its AC and just moments ago Michael let me know that our home AC is not working either. Those last two might be overlooked if it weren't 100 degrees out with high humidity and a heat index reaching 110.

I normally take such things in stride. Stuff happens. Right now, though, I stand here looking up and asking "How much more?" How much more. The answer might be all of it. And I need to come to terms with that. I have to this point insisted that we are walking this road by faith. That what I know of God is that He will provide. Sometimes, though, all my confidence wears a bit thin. Despite my search and record of the gifts He gives, I still wonder when and if He's going to hand out the one gift I want. The one I think I need. The one that will set our lives back in balance.

We are very aware of the real estate market in our area. Not only do we have a house and a condo for sale, but I also work in a real estate office. It's tough out there for everyone. Even if you don't have a home to sell, you still have to navigate the new and much more stringent mortgage process.

So sometimes ... when I've read all the appropriate verses, prayed the prayers, heard the encouragement sermons, received the hugs of friends, held my head up day after day/ showing after showing... sometimes my faith just feels kinda weak.

Have you been there? Have you had to dig your heels in a little deeper one more time? And one more time? And one more time yet again?

The truth is I'm borrowing trouble. To this day, every need has been met. It's not comfortable to have all this unresolved and hanging over us, but every need aside from comfort has been met. I am looking ahead at what I think the path forward has to cover and I can't see anything but a mountain. And, of course, whatever I've imagined is on the other side of that mountain that I'm trying to get to. You and I both know the other side might look very different from what I think it should. Still, that mountain. It grows and shrinks.

Perhaps it might shrink a little more if I stay present in today, taking stock of where I've been and looking only up instead of out.

Giving Thanks today for past Ebenezers, that they would hold me up when I feel helpless.

Two Hundred Eleven Through Two Hundred Twenty Four

2011-06-06T09:54:00.005-04:00

It's rather quiet and a little sad here today. The day after always feels this way. We refocus and turn back to routine, but our hearts are a tad heavier. She cries each time she leaves us. I tend to the tears of my little ones. She to her own. Goodbyes never seem to get any easier. Perhaps they are harder as more memories are made and as the bond grows deeper. She comes often, two, three, even four times a year. But responsibility always pulls her home. Home to Ohio.

Today Carrie asks for 'Daff'. Daniel wonders if she's home yet. Both have had a playmate for five days and both feel the void. She tickles little tummies and sits on the floor to race cars down a track. She plays hide n seek and builds Lego trucks. She drives little birthday kids to Chick Fil A and she gets as much joy as the baby out of eating frozen yogurt at Sweet Frogs. She makes walking through Target fun and on occasion, she steps out of her comfort zone to try something new, like Greek food. She hands out new nicknames and laughs out loud at the funny faces a certain little girl presents. She drives 420 miles to celebrate a 5th birthday and see a growing little boy kick a goal for his team.

And for a niece who has a love language that falls squarely in the 'quality time' category, she listens and talks. She stays five days and then stays one more, just because she can. She gets excited about what we're learning and she likes the whole grain bread. She washes dishes and cleans up the kitchen, even after big family birthday parties. She enjoys my husband's music and is sure to tell him, visiting our church nearly every time she comes. She cleans windows and bathrooms in our home before a showing because she knows just how much we want this house to sell.

You should each be so blessed as to have an aunt like that. And those that do, should not take her for granted. She is a treasure. And we'll miss her - till next time. August is a mere eleven weeks away, when Carrie will turn two and Aunt Kalf will come back for another visit, more wii playing, and a whole new batch of memories.

211. homemade spaghetti sauce

212. my Aunt Kalf

213. Daniel's fifth birthday

214. sharing the bread I'm making

215. pineapple

216. that the car place didn't charge us to have the belts tightened

217. Carrie's delight in shoes

218. the river, its breeze and the peace it blows over me

219. beautiful handmade baby items gathered on a bed to be passed down from the generation before to the generation following

220. pictures of my cousins, Emily, Sarah and Ashley

221. when my dad laughs so hard at whatever it is that Carrie's doing

222. that Daniel seems to be settling down some, more good days than hard ones

223. yummy new recipes

224. planning summer activities for Brenna and Daniel

225. Brenna's huge success on her four Benchmark Tests last week

226. Carrie's eyes

A Daniel Week

2011-06-04T19:58:00.004-04:00

It's been a bit of a Daniel week. First his fifth birthday. Then his last soccer game of the season. Here are some highlights:

We gave Daniel a bike with training wheels for his birthday. He was very excited and we've been surprised at how quickly he learned to ride.

This was the cake he picked out. I gave him a choice between Mickey Mouse, a monkey, or a soccer ball. He chose the ball and it was actually really easy with only three colors and not a lot of surface area to cover.

This morning he played his last soccer game of the season. I can't believe it's over already! I truly enjoyed the games and practices, especially since I made some new friends. We had several really nice families and a great coach.

This is the pre-game prayer.

And this picture pretty much epitomizes the game. The other team had several kids who were really good and they beat ours pretty badly. Daniel did score a goal though. He told me later, "Mom, I kicked it right through the other guy's legs." followed by snickers. Too cute.

Thanks to all who came out at some point or another during the season to support and cheer for Daniel. He loved having you there and often talks about who came to see him play.

One Hundred Ninety Four Through Two Hundred Ten

2011-05-30T20:07:00.009-04:00

The kids have been in bed for half an hour and I can still hear Carrie in there talking. Such sweet sounds. I'm ready to wind down myself after a day of baking bread and making strawberry freezer jam. We also tried out two new recipes - one was a definite thumbs down (Asian Quinoa Salad) and the other got mixed reviews (Polenta with Spinach and Feta). It's been a busy day in the kitchen for sure.

Yesterday was a most amazing day for me. After church, we met up with several friends of mine from high school and their families. There is just something special about seeing each other as adults, as parents. Our kids had a wonderful time playing together and creating new friendships. It was so adorable and I'm bummed I didn't take pictures. Too busy talking. After the park, we met back up at the high school for a twentieth anniversary madrigals concert. Many of our former classmates participated and it was absolutely amazing. They sang the first song from the side aisles of the auditorium and the sound just blew us away. Of course it was wonderful to see every again and to catch up a little. So many memories....

I took Daniel and Brenna with me to the concert. When we first arrived at the school, Daniel had to go to the bathroom (of course). The hallway there is directly connected to the gym. I guess neither of them had ever seen a high school gym because they stood right in the doorway for the longest time not moving or talking, just in awe. I'm sure it looked huge to them. After the concert and all the goodbyes, we were driving out when Daniel informed me, "Mom, I could never go to high school here. They don't have a recess." (playground)

I had good friends in high school. Did I ever really recognize that before? This is the second reunion we've had and I wish I had appreciated them more back then. In fact, I've really been blessed with good friends throughout my life. Since I'm crossing the 200 mark in my gifts lists today, I think I'll make that an intentional marker~

#200 To all my friends throughout all my life. You rock! :)

Continuing to count the many blessings...

194. G - High School

195. reminiscing with friends from high school, laughing and confessing. Finding a thread still common all these years later and spending a wonderful day together.

196. homemade strawberry freezer jam

197. Daniel's hair cut, because he suddenly looks like a five year old. Three days early.

198. taking Daniel and Brenna out to a concert [anywhere, really] where they both behaved so well that the outing was fun and I was so proud of them.

199. feeling like I'm in my 'mommy' and 'homemaker' groove

200. All my friends, throughout all my life

201. talking and laughing with other parents on the sidelines of the soccer field

202. Lauren C. singing at church

203. drinking water - whoever thought that would make my list?!

204. the good friends that Brenna has made the last two years in her classes

205. when my chocolate chip cookies don't fall flat

206. anything that makes Daniel giggle

207. spraying the kids with the water hose

208. Popsicles

209. funny realtor business cards - especially when they don't mean to be funny.

210. quiet moments at home

211. surprise birthday gifts that change the summer outlook

The Hillbilly Waterpark

2011-05-26T13:46:00.006-04:00

Start with one cute four year old boy.

Add an adorable little sister and two popsicles.

Let the cold, cold feeling permeate your mouth

Feel the drips roll down your arms

Whew! It's hot out today. I've got two sticky kids.

I can't swim.
But..... I can operate a water hose!

The only way they're allowed to fight back - (insert evil laugh...)

Definitely going to be a fun summer at the Peapod!

Baking Bread

2011-05-24T12:45:00.001-04:00

I don't do it quite like this... but it's fascinating to watch.

In France~

One Hundred Eighty One Through One Hundred Ninety Three

2011-05-23T21:02:00.003-04:00

181. amazing cloud formations - I wish I'd taken pictures through the week. As the storms have come and moved out quickly, we've had some beautiful clouds left behind.

182. Bible study at mvbc - it has come to an end for the time being, but I've made a bunch of new friends and learned a ton! Every church should have studies like these.

183. The way sunlight hits the grass and the trees after a quick moving storm - turns them the deepest shades of green. stunning.

184. Feeling confident that our food changes are good and working. Also that it's something we are doing together and enjoying together

185. my friend Tara's 4d ultrasound

186. teaching Brenna to cook

187. my apple apron

188. walking in the door after work

189. being proud of Daniel's soccer season. And seeing that he does respect authority. He listens and follows directions. He's gotten the hang of the game. He gets along well with his teammates. Knowing that he has really enjoyed the whole experience.

190. the little surge of joy that happens when I meet someone who is from Ohio or see an Ohio license plate

191. wet heads on little ones

192. an hour on the phone with my 16 year old cousin. Missing her and wishing I could be more a part of her life

193. that Michael is so willing to come alongside me in the kitchen when I'm just about worn out and finish up a project or help me clean up.

Whole Grains Update

2011-05-19T21:05:00.006-04:00

It's been about two weeks since our initial foray into grinding wheat and making bread. Yesterday my very own mill arrived! At the moment I have no idea where I'm going to put it or what we'll do with it when we have a showing. I don't know where we're going to store the wheat either. I guess we'll figure that out when it becomes necessary. This is one of those changes you make and you just don't look back. The more I learn, the more I shake my head.

(I'm grinding my own wheat because as soon as a wheat kernel is cracked open it begins to oxidize, quickly losing the nutrients inside. Since it naturally has about 40 of the 44 nutrients we need as humans, I want as many of those as possible to still be in there when we eat it. The flour sold at the store, white or whole wheat, has lost many, or most, of these nutrients in the sifting process used to lengthen its shelf life. A few have been added back in synthetically, thus it's "enriched". Since wheat stores forever, I'm going to grind it into flour as I need it and make bread for our family.)

I have been to the healthy food stores more times in the last two weeks than in my whole life prior! We need more wheat. We need more honey. We need lecithin (to lighten the bread). We need gluten. We need more wheat. We want to try sucanat. We need more wheat. We want to try honey granules. We want to try quinoa (like rice). And what are all those grains? We are having a great time experimenting and discovering that we actually like a lot of healthier foods! Who knew?

Earlier this week we made a chicken pot pie using fresh milled whole wheat flour to make the topping. I'm not a big fan of pot pie, but this was good! Thursday night Brenna and I used several slices of fresh baked whole grain wheat bread in a recipe for meatloaf that tasted delicious! We've been so successful that I included 3 more recipes from the book in this week's dinners. Somewhere along the line one is bound to flop, but so far so good.

Speaking of flops - On Wednesday I set out to grind the rest of the wheat I had purchased so I could return Christine's mill. I decided to bake two more loaves of bread with it and freeze them so we'd have enough to last until my mill comes. I mixed some wet ingredients in my stand mixer and then began to add flour. When I turned the knob, nothing happened. I tried again and again. Used a different plug- nothing. Figuring I could still save the bread, I dumped the whole mess into the bread maker and set the dough cycle. Nothing but a goopy mess. It just couldn't form into a dough ball. The only option I had left was to pour it onto the counter and try kneading it by hand. I did that and once my hands were thoroughly coated in dough I realized it needed more flour. I called Daniel (4) into the kitchen and asked him to dump the rest of the flour from the bucket on top of my oozy mixture. He got a kick out of that and as I worked it in the dough began to take shape. It wasn't enough, though, so I asked him to grab the white flour from the cabinet and add a little more, which he did. I covered it and walked away so it could rise, fully expecting it to shrink.

Surprisingly, it did rise. I set it in the loaf pans and baked it as normal. Other than the elephant trunk-like appearance (thank you Brenna for that description), it seems to have done just fine! And it tastes great. As for my mixer, it was under warranty so Michael returned it to Sears. They quickly and without much fuss gave us a brand new one to replace it. Which means I'm good for another 5 years supposedly.

I'm getting the hang of this. Next up - a pasta maker. Or maybe a tortilla maker. Or the dehydrator.....

For All The Grandparents Out There

2011-05-19T20:02:00.001-04:00

One Hundred Seventy Through One Hundred Eighty

2011-05-16T09:12:00.008-04:00

It's quite possible, though I'm not admitting anything, that I didn't write a single gift down all week. And if that were the case, I'd be doing today's post entirely from memory. I'm just sayin....

170. stopping on the way out of the neighborhood to watch the bunny sitting in the grass

171. hearing Carrie say 'TJ' (our friend's name)

172. Brenna, dressed for a dance recital

173. Spending time with Maureen, of Mimi's Whole Wheat Bread Co., learning to bake bread

174. that Brenna cracks her teacher up - and that her teacher writes to tell me so

175. that my mom is listening to all the whole grain information I'm learning and constantly talking about.

176. that Daniel can read more than he lets on - I know this because, though he won't do it on demand, he asks questions about and mentions things he couldn't know unless he read a word or two.

177. having someone else mow our yard

178. new friends

179. spending time with just Brenna

180. that Daniel can shuck the corn (or is it husk the corn? or does it just depend on where you're from?)

Hair Cut - unplanned

2011-05-11T09:15:00.003-04:00

Carrie's first haircut -

The writing on the bag says "Carrie's 1st haircut, courtesy of Daniel. 5/10/11"

I heard the two of them on the steps and I heard Daniel say "Carrie, you look so pretty!" I probably smiled. Then I heard him say, "Mommy, I cut Carrie's hair so she'd be pretty. Doesn't she look so pretty?"

He was so proud of himself. He'd found a pair of infant nail scissors in the basket under her changing table and fixed his little sister up all pretty. Luckily he didn't decide she needed bangs. It's a section off the back and since he left about 2 inches, it does blend in with the rest of the hair most of the time.

(sigh)

One Hundred Sixty Through One Hundred Sixty Nine

2011-05-09T09:22:00.005-04:00

160. the kids excitement to bring me breakfast in bed - and how proud they were of that, telling anyone who would listen at church.

161. distractions from thinking about house selling

162. flowers

163. a visit from my parents

164. grace from the other soccer parents when I forgot that it was my turn to bring snacks after the game this week

165. cooking out with friends - and visiting till late at night and even then not wanting it all to end.

166. someone so willing to teach me about wheat grinding and bread making

167. Brenna's teacher

168. spending a few hours walking the trails at the park

169. a silly little girl trying to be like her big brother

I Was Sure By Now

2011-05-08T20:37:00.004-04:00

"I was sure by now
God You would have reached down
And wiped our tears away
Stepped in and saved the day
But once again, I say "Amen", and it's still raining"

Music has a way with me. I identify so often with the lyrics of songs and they become an absolute part of me. The first verse of Praise You In This Storm by Casting Crowns has been digging its way deep into my heart these last few weeks. It's not so much the word "storm" as it is the phrase "I was sure by now". Most days I don't consider this house-for-sale situation to be a storm. There are bigger, more devastating crises that fit that word. But for sure, there are moments when I feel the full weight of all that's hanging over us and I think those times could appropriately be called a storm.

"I was sure by now God you would have reached down ... Stepped in and saved the day." That is my heart. If it wasn't by Thanksgiving, then surely by Christmas. If not by the New Year, then surely by Spring Break. If not April, then at least by Easter.

Certainly something would have moved after our friends came in and poured themselves out in the kitchen work and the curb appeal. Surely, God just wanted me to learn to accept help.

I was sure by now... and still nothing. This real estate market is so odd and frustrating. Interest rates are low so there should be a flood of buyers. However, mortgage companies have tightened their lending practices making it more difficult to get a loan. As has been widely reported, the market is flooded with foreclosures as well. It's just a slow and strange market.

Up until this week, I had not really understood how all the foreclosures had any affect on my own situation. We had two showings last Sunday, one of which was promising. In fact, we were told that our home had made their short list, otherwise known as their top 3. We were told to be prepared for the possibility of a second showing request. We were also advised not to get our hopes up, as anything can happen. Still, you can't help but feel a little anticipation.

Monday passed. Tuesday passed. Wednesday passed. Thursday morning the phone rang. Our realtor had spoken with theirs. Turns out they are looking at a short sale - our same floor plan - for $30,000 less than ours is listed. And just this week, the bank released a foreclosure - our same floor plan- for $20,000 less than ours is listed. So clearly, as a buyer, they should consider the foreclosure, which could potentially be a quick and easy close. If it's in good condition, there's little reason to choose ours. That's the market we're in.

We estimated the other day that our house has been shown more than 40 times since it went on the market.

I was sure by now...

But the song doesn't stop there. There's a line in the chorus that goes "And I will lift my hands For you are who you are No matter where I am". How's that for someone who wants to be somewhere else? Here in this house, or the next county north, or anywhere else for that matter.

Whatever the plan He has, it's for my good. Regardless of what I see or feel. In fact He continues to bless me daily and to provide for us in new ways. He's opened my eyes to his countless gifts and He's offered me new and wonderful things to distract my mind from dwelling on the "I was sure by now..." (books, wheat, kids, work, and the list goes on)

It's a day by day kind of thing. On the darker days, I must simply "Lift my eyes to the hills, from whence cometh my help."

For now, I Will Praise You In This Storm

Who Does That?

2011-05-05T13:10:00.003-04:00

Who sets an alarm for 2AM to eat bread?

Nobody.

Ok, well, maybe us. Last night. Being completely honest, I had a terrible time falling asleep knowing we were getting back up to taste our bread in a few hours. Left side. Right side. Back. Curled up. Legs straight. Stare at the ceiling. Close the eyes and will sleep to come, which it finally did.

It's only been seven days since I first learned about the possibility of grinding my own wheat. I can't say for sure why the message of health stuck with me this time, when I so often just ignore it all and subscribe to the moderation philosophy. Maybe it was the tie in to Biblical passages. Maybe it was the science behind the explanation. Maybe I was just open to hearing.

I did not know that so much of the nutrition is stripped out when they process flour and that they only add 4 nutrients back into it - synthetically. That shocked me. I just did not know.

I did not know that whole grains can be stored indefinitely. I did not know that the kernels begin to lose their nutritional value as soon as they are cracked open, but not before. I'm not sure I even knew it was possible to mill your own flour. I did not know that whole grains have 40 of the 44 known essential nutrients that our bodies need.

I just did not know. And I thought buying wheat bread at the store was all I needed to do. It isn't. We can do so much better.

I have spent hours this week on the Bread Beckers website. I've read articles, watched videos, browsed products, and considered what they are teaching. It makes sense to me.

Whenever I jump into something, whether it's quick or slow, I usually drag somebody along with me. Michael was already on board, so I called my friend Christine, whose family contends with several food allergies. I figured if anyone would know about nutrition it would be her. She let me babble on for a good ten or fifteen minutes in all my excitement and then she dropped this bomb: She already knew about Bread Beckers. And then this one: She has a grain mill. And finally this one: I could borrow her grain mill if I'd like.

Is that confirmation or what?! So on Monday she brought her mill over, along with two kinds of wheat. Michael and I wanted to do this together, but the week has conspired against us. Not to mention the crazy that is our life right now - never knowing when we'll get a call to show our house...and not wanting to be in the middle of making bread!

Finally, last night we could not stand it any longer. After he got home from rehearsal, we hooked up the grinder and made flour. Can you believe that? We made flour! How cool is that? For our first try, I wanted to see if this could be done in the bread machine. The truth being that I'm not crazy about kneading. So we followed the directions and started it up.

That was about 9:30PM.

The time on the bread machine said 4 hours and 20 minutes.

We looked at each other busted out laughing. 2 o'clock? The middle of the night? Well, then, 2AM it is. So we watched part of a video on the Bread Becker website and then went to bed.

When the alarm went off and I smelled the aroma of that fresh whole wheat bread, I couldn't wait to get downstairs and taste it. Oh my goodness it smelled so good. We lifted the lid on the machine to discover that our loaf hadn't fully risen. Undeterred, we cut into the steaming brown bread and felt our mouths water in anticipation.

It did not taste like cardboard. I was amazed. I LOVED it! LOVED it. It was absolutely delicious bread. A little on the dense side because it hadn't risen properly, but it was so good. The butter melted immediately down into the steaming holes and it was just scrumptious.

I did not think I would like anything 'whole wheat'. So many times I have tried things that are supposedly healthy and just really disliked the taste. Not so with this bread. It was fantastic. In fact, it was so good that eleven hours later, the entire loaf is gone. The kids loved it. Carrie even asked for more.

I am still in the overwhelming beginning stages of this process. Learning. Experimenting. Researching. Reading. Networking. But I like where this is going. And I'm excited about it.

Here are some links to what I've been reading:
A book I ordered: What the Bible Has To Say About Healthy Living by Rex Russell
The Cookbook that goes along with the book (which I bought because the description included a recipe for chocolate peanut butter balls ~ Now that's my kind of healthy cookbook!)
The Bread Beckers website
Information on bread history
Information on using honey instead of white sugar

I encourage you to pick something there and just start reading. It's truly fascinating and it might change the way you eat.

(though not necessarily when you eat. 2am is a little odd. ;-)

One Hundred Forty Seven Through One Hundred Fifty Nine

2011-04-30T23:08:00.006-04:00

147. a little kitchen helper who washes potatoes

148. seeing a goose and its three babies following behind alongside the road

149. learning about a Biblical view of healthy living and about whole wheat grain mills

150. having a Bible study leader who turns out to be from Hartville, OH and actually knows where my Ohio map dot is.

151. talking to my friend Christine for an hour and forty one minutes - and thinking it felt like thirty.

152. when my brother, Stephen, said my white pants make me look skinny. And now I have a new pair of favorite pants, ha ha ha.

153. That Brenna can hold Carrie on her hip

154. My mother-in-law, Mary Ann, who is willing to stay with Daniel and Carrie on Fridays so I can pick up some extra hours at work.

155. Forgetting my cell phone on Thursday which meant I missed an important call, but also meant I stayed for the full Bible study and learned some really important things. (see #149)

156. safety during severe weather and tornado warnings

157. chick fil a - our frequent refuge during showings

158. hearing my husband's band play for the first time - though they've been together for about a year!

159. That with all the wind and weather we've had, our only property damage has been that our front porch light looks like this again .... But we also know 1. where to buy the replacement 2. which brand and model it is 3. how to fix it rather quickly, which Michael did on Saturday.

Here Come The Easter Pictures

2011-04-26T12:48:00.007-04:00

Easter 2011

The only way we could get Carrie to stay still long enough for a picture was to stand her up behind the other two.

But even then she kept messing with the big kids.

Take a guess as to who's about to get whacked here....

Family Shots
Aunt Becca with the kids

The trouble didn't end when we came inside...

But here's a glimpse into why it happens...

Carrie's new shoes - she couldn't get down off the couch fast enough to try them on.

Pretending to be angels

Carrie's first egg of the easter egg hunt.

Daniel said more than once, "You guys didn't hide these eggs very good."

Brenna was sweet enough to stop looking for a while and help Carrie find some eggs.

One Hundred Twenty Nine Through One Hundred Forty Six

2011-04-25T20:55:00.007-04:00

Is it any wonder I've begun to look forward to Mondays? I can hardly figure out what else to
post on my blog, but lists of gifts.

Over the past few weeks as I've participated in this exercise inspired by the book, I've learned a bit about writing down these gifts. It can be simply a list of happy things in my life. It can be shallow. I can be lazy about it. And sometimes all of those things happen.

Other times I take an active part in my list and it becomes so much more meaningful. During the weeks when life was hard and I was struggling to find any feelings of gratitude, my lists were more intentional. I wrote them down daily, rather than weekly. I spoke my gratitude out loud as I wrote them down, not in my head as a group. I guess in a way, I needed them more.

I suppose it's the same with any discipline. Bible study - you get more out of it, if you put the time in to it. Quiet times - five minutes is good, but thirty might be better. Fasting - giving up something you don't eat often anyway doesn't help you turn your focus toward the Giver of all. Hospitality - it isn't necessarily about how many bedrooms and bathrooms you have, but rather the thought you put into making guests feel welcome in your home.

This week's list falls somewhere in the middle. I thanked God for Brenna's joy right as she was feeding that little blue bird in the middle of the zoo. It was a beautiful moment. But many other moments I let slide by and only hoped I'd remember them, come Monday.

Perhaps a little more intentional next week.

129. Ohio sweet corn

130. watching Brenna feed the birds at the zoo

131. Mr. Bell, who cleans our building at work - always in such a good mood.

132. when Carrie mimics Brenna or Daniel

133. family movie nights

134. popcorn - made in the pot on the stove

135. gift cards for dinner - especially when we have to be out of the house for a showing over dinner time.

136. spring break

137. egg hunts

138. that we practically skipped the whole Easter bunny/ Easter basket thing this year and the kids' hardly noticed. Isn't that interesting.

139. sleep

140. Daniel dressed in a button down shirt and jeans

141. each of the kids' "Nana blankets" - the quilts my Nana made for them that they take everywhere and love to pieces, literally.

142. That 'Christ the Lord is risen today'

143. All of the Easter morning facebook messages

144. that Michael took the kids to Maymont and I didn't have to go.

145. The Master's Plan - back after more than a decade.

146. the way music can speak to the soul

Spring Break Odds and Ends

2011-04-22T20:27:00.003-04:00

Spring Break here. The week is flying by. I worked most of it - as in trying out the working mom title. Can't say I'm a big fan of it. I miss my little people. When I walk in the door, Carrie is usually in her high chair in the dining room. As soon as she hears me she starts screaming, "Mama!" "Mama!" And she continues until I come to give her a hug.

It's an interesting balance though. When I'm at work, I really enjoy being there. I like all the little projects and feeling like I'm part of a team accomplishing something important. But I come home tired and there isn't anything more to give. Two different worlds that just won't coexist for me.

I'm ok with that. I do this working thing now because I have the opportunity and the paychecks are certainly helpful. For this season of my life, though, I want to be home with the kids as much as possible anyway. A week of extra days certainly confirmed that decision.

________________________________________

In other spring break news...

Brenna has begun work on her Iroquios Native American project. Her great, great, great, great grandmother was an Iroquios Indian so she chose that tribe to research. It was sweet to hear her on the phone with my Nana, talking about our ancestors.

____

Thursday we took our annual trip to the zoo. The animals were out and pretty active, which made it all the more fun. We laughed at the monkeys and chimps swinging all around. Brenna got scared half to death by a camel that snuck up behind her. One kangaroo was sunning its belly and we, along with the rest of the people walking by, could hardly tell if it was dead or alive. I wish I'd taken a picture because I've never seen one lay on its back with its feet up like that.

By far my favorite part of the zoo trip was watching Brenna feed the birds. For $1 you can purchase a popsicle stick with bird seed on one end. Inside the bird exhibit are lots of small, very colorful birds flying around. If you hold still they will land on your stick and eat the seeds. Brenna absolutely loves to do that and when the bright blue bird landed on her stick, she nearly started to cry. Her little heart can barely hold such joy. She would stay in there all day if I let her.

____

Michael and the kids have visited Maymont park, dyed Easter eggs, grocery shopped, and done laundry. They've played the wii, played soccer, and cooked some yummy meals. Spring Break is winding down for 2011. We'll be sad to see it go and grudgingly adjust back to our normal routines come Monday. sigh.

And we'll start the count down to summer break!

One Hundred Twenty One Through One Hundred Twenty Eight

2011-04-18T15:38:00.007-04:00

"This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."(Ps. 118:24) And what a beautiful day it is too. 78 degrees and absolutely gorgeous. A bit green. But maybe He thought we needed a little extra color in our day and pollen does the trick. Daniel, Carrie, and I are just back from an afternoon at the park. We met up with some friends - 11 kids and 4 adults. The kids played. The moms talked. And life was as it should be.

Counting the many gifts and giving thanks...

121. green lights - especially consecutive ones. And maybe more especially when I'm anxious to get where I'm going.

122. an afternoon at the park with friends

123. Easter egg hunt at the home of our friends. The sweet prayer prayed over all the families. 800 eggs to find! Meeting new people. Yummy food. Friends who enjoy holding Carrie. Just being together.

124. Carrie's big curl at the bottom of her hair

125. Michael teaching Daniel. Father - Son.

126. losing track of how many friends are reading One Thousand Gifts

127. extra hours at work

128. cake pops that turned out better than the last ones. Maybe I'm learning?

Fun

2011-04-15T10:28:00.002-04:00

In case you were concerned that we weren't having enough fun around here....

I feel the VeggieTale lyrics coming on..."She had a beard... and it felt weird."

One Hundred Eight Through One Hundred Twenty

2011-04-11T13:45:00.012-04:00

I'm sitting in the kitchen, light streaming in on a gorgeous spring day. I can hear the birds singing over music that's quietly playing. We had a showing this morning. The blessing that follows is a perfectly tidy home and very few chores that need doing. Time slows down and the afternoon stretches on.

So I continue to count...

108. Good Citizenship Award for "being thoughtful and always using kind words with her classmates"

109. silly faces

110. learning about Passover

111. perspective. When I think my troubles are so big and my wants are slipping away, a little perspective is in order. I recently drove through an area of town I don't often have reason to be, and I was reminded quite firmly of what is most important in life. I'm thankful for perspective because it lifts a lot of life's pressure away.

112. playing with cousins

113. discovering family history

114. reading a book recommended by a friend. A book that details the migration of African Americans from south to north over the past one hundred years. And why they moved. The stories. So hard to read. So hard to imagine. The cruelty of the system. The people. The pain. And though it breaks my heart it widens my understanding and brings compassion.

115. playing wii resort with Daniel

116. Pop's birthday. His laughter over Daniel worrying that his [Pop's] teeth will all fall out if he gets to be a hundred.

117. the beautiful blue scarf the ladies of my Esther study gave me when we finished

118. Laura, Michael's cousin

119. visiting the dentist when - the person scheduled ahead of us is a friend from church and she offers to stay with Carrie while we get our teeth cleaned, Brenna gets a print out of her first xray, no one has any cavities (including me!), my hygienist is there (I thought she'd left), the receptionist gets so excited to see my family, and the kids are so delighted with their new toothbrushes that they open the packages on the way home just to be able to hold them.

120. A clean - on the inside - van!

Cake Balls for Pop's Birthday

2011-04-08T20:44:00.004-04:00

At least that was the plan anyway. Actually it was a little more complicated than that. These were supposed to look like golf balls.

9x13 boxed cake mix - easy enough

Crumbled in a bowl using a fork - no problem

Dump in a tub of icing...

Mix it up - yum!

Roll the mixture into little balls - so far so good...

Only I don't really know what happened after that. I melted the candy and tried to cover the balls all different kinds of ways but none worked well. Lumpy just got lumpier.

and messier.

I covered ten ~~little~~ large balls with fondant.

I put bumps all over them in true golf ball fashion... but by then I knew it was pointless. They look more like bird eggs than golf balls! Big bird eggs. Just shy of ostrich eggs, I think.

The plan is to tell Pop "Happy Birthday! We made extra-large golf balls so you could see them!" He is turning 70 after all.

Ninety-Four Through One Hundred Seven

2011-04-04T12:05:00.006-04:00

It's Monday!!

94. confident, excited realtors

95. country music

96. Two more friends who bought One Thousand Gifts (pretty soon they're going to have to start paying me for marketing this book!)

97. bare baby legs

98. Daniel's fascination with the weather channel

99. sitting in the church sanctuary while Brenna takes dance class

100. Brenna's newly begun list of gifts. Her entries are precious and she calls her notebook her "Happy Book" because it contains the things that make her heart happy.

101. open windows on a warm, breezy day

102. crossing off the last item on a list

103. huge puffy white clouds against a deep blue sky

104. the plate holder my mom bought me so I could display the plate my friend Cynthia gave me

105. an hour past bedtime of talking and laughing with Brenna, Daniel, and Michael on our bed. Did anyone else know that Daniel's a trip?

106. all the people still pitching in to help, offering to help, praying for us, and working on our behalf

107. the comedy that is four year olds playing soccer

Thank You Note

2011-04-02T21:21:00.002-04:00

Our neighbor recently had baby number three and I took them some cheddar corn chowder and homemade bread last week. Here's the note her oldest son, Ethan (about age 10) wrote me. Logan (age 7) drew the picture.

Best thank you note ever! :)

A Simple Valence - Peapod Style

2011-03-31T20:57:00.008-04:00

To make a simple valence for a standard single window:

You need one yard of fabric
Thread (to match or not is up to you)

Step 1 - Iron your fabric

Step 2 - Fold the fabric in half - inside out (Hold it up to your window to see which way you'd like to fold it. Either way works. It will just be a different length.)

Step 3 - Sew the long end shut using a consistent seam allowance (usually 1/2 inch works well)

Step 4 - Sew the short ends shut starting at the ends with the sewn seam. Stop about 3 or 4 inches from the folded edge. (leave enough for your curtain rod to slide through there)

Step 5 - Turn the curtain right side out

Step 6 - Iron the curtain, paying special attention to all the edges.

Step 7 - Tuck the 3 to 4 inch gap inside and iron it into place so that all the edges are even from top to bottom.

Step 8 - Hang your new valence.

This type of valence looks best on a pocket curtain rod like the one in this picture. They cost about $8. (Click it to go to Lowes site)

If you feel like the valence needs a little something extra, you can loop a ribbon around it in two or three places to pull it upward and give the bottom a scalloped appearance. (This one is hung on a regular curtain rod. You can see how it hangs differently. It was also probably more than one yard, which is why it's a little longer.)

Eighty-Four Through Ninety-Three

2011-03-25T12:08:00.006-04:00

Monday! Funny how a week can change an attitude. Technically there's not much different than last week in our circumstances, but now we have a direction and a plan. I do believe that's an answered prayer.

Continuing to count...

84. sneaking peeks of Carrie playing contentedly in a crib full of toys

85. Yet another friend excitedly reading One Thousand Gifts

86. how the new paint color warms my kitchen so that it feels like a hug whenever I go in there

87. Daniel's soccer coach, who is great with a bunch of 4 year olds! He still plays soccer and has a broken finger to show for a recent block of the goal.
88. the song "When I Call On Jesus" - Mountains are gonna fall!

89. Walmart - and that's a big deal coming from a girl who routinely says "If Target doesn't have it, I don't need it." But my friend Suzanne suggested I might find a new shower curtain there for cheap - and she was right.

90. sewing up a new valance, simple and rewarding

91. apple dumplings from my dad

92. extra hours at work

93. listening to the older ladies in line behind me at JoAnn's chattering excitedly about the score of the VCU game being played as we waited to check out. With 3 minutes to go, VCU was ahead by 10 or so and the women couldn't help jumping from basketball to quilting to basketball in their excitement. It made me smile and took the tension out of waiting.

Everybody Helps

2011-03-25T11:01:00.001-04:00

Daniel - changing out the door pulls on the lower cabinets

Carrie - sweeping floors

Amazing Friends

2011-03-23T13:49:00.008-04:00

Since I'm waiting for paint to dry, and watching it won't make it happen any faster, I thought I'd post a few pictures of what our small group did for us this weekend. I'm bummed I was too overwhelmed to take before pictures, but I think you'll get the idea even without them.

Painting the kitchen was by far the most intimidating item on our list. The houses that have sold (which aren't many) in our neighborhood have all had nice kitchens. We've always felt that our kitchen is an asset, but for some reason it wasn't coming across that way.

When we bought the house, the kitchen was sponge painted pink on pink. We left their baskets border up and painted the walls a pale green. Now, it's a warm tan that seems to work well with our cabinets.

This was what we really needed help with. That wall goes up really, really high!

See that? When we painted it the first time, 10 years ago, my dad said something like, "pick your color well, we're not doin' this again!"

Our friend Dave brought over this ladder along with some cool paint tools and over the course of Friday night and Saturday, the kitchen changed colors.

My dad, Dave and Michael fixed a soft spot on the floor where some water had leaked in.

Suzanne stained both sets of our front steps.

She also gave our front doors a fresh coat of paint and they now match the shutters.

We got shiny new door knobs and locks put in.

And Kristina, whose husband Peter helped do all the tedious cutting in on Friday night and Saturday morning (especially the really high parts against the ceiling and at odd angles) sent over these granola treats that were delicious!

Meanwhile, my parents kept Brenna, Daniel and Carrie overnight on Friday. Then Saturday Christine kept them for most of the day. She took them to the park, where Molly met her and together they kept track of nine little people. Christine even gave my kids baths!! With three of her own as well, that's 6 kids to bathe. Not to mention she had dinner waiting for us when we finally made it back to her house to pick up the kids at 8:30 that night.

I don't know how to describe last week other to say I literally almost lost it. It's an odd comparison but it was kind of like the last five minutes of labor with Carrie, when I had no drugs in me and I felt my eyes start to go wild. The nurse got right in my face and demanded that I look her in the eye and breathe directly onto her palm. She was kind but firm and she got me through. That's sort of what my friends did this weekend. They stepped in when they saw we were spinning out of control and they gave us back our sanity. They loved on us till it hurt, but there's a big difference between tears of relief and tears of strain and stress. They firmly took control of what they could and set us back on our feet.

We still have more work to do, particularly in the category of curb appeal. But we're well on our way and almost ready to get back in the game.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Thank you Lord for these precious friends and thank you for Your mercies which flowed from them like rain this week.

Soccer!

2011-03-22T21:58:00.003-04:00

First day of practice

Sixty-Seven Through Eighty-Three

2011-03-20T20:42:00.009-04:00

The headlines read "Want stress? Try selling your home today" and "As homes languish, seller stress soars". The doctor cited in the article says, "Today's market has created unprecedented levels of seller stress that mirror symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder."

I'd have to say this week at the Peapod certainly underscored those words. This was six consecutive terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days. So frustrating on so many levels and fronts that right now I can't even summarize it. We had house issues, scheduling conflicts, discipline problems, condo stuff, relational stress, all kinds of accidents (not car), work things, sickness, and a car that quit, just to name a few. I think I started crying on Sunday and I'm not sure I'm finished.

How interesting that in a week like that, I've been reading a book like this. Every time I wanted to make a list of all the things that were going wrong I couldn't, because I knew I was supposed to be making lists of gifts. I wanted a heart of gratitude, but my circumstances and my situation were not cooperating. When I started toward a thousand gifts I thought it was going to be fun and easy. How quickly I have found out otherwise. But I can sing the lyrics "Oh no, You never let go, through the calm and through the storm, Oh no, You never let go, in every high and every low, Oh no, You never let go, Lord You never let go of me" with more experience and more confidence now.

This week's list does not come from a light and happy feeling. It comes from the dark, crushed tear-stained recognition that God is God and even when I feel unable to move forward, He's providing new mercies and fresh blessings to see me through.

67. The policeman, just back from training in AL, who made room in his car for Michael and Brenna and brought them the last two miles home when the car broke down.

68. That the car broke down in front of a park and not on the interstate

69. Not ten minutes after I asked our Small Group for help painting the 18 ft. high wall in our kitchen, I had two emails saying yes.

70. The sense of peace that falls over me when I walk into the church building where I'm participating in Bible Study on Thursday mornings.

71. Friends who call for the sole purpose of praying with me over the phone.

72. My sister who read my list of complaints this week and offered encouragement and understanding.

73. Ohio State wins. I would have cried for sure if they'd lost.

74. lots of good finds at the Toy and Clothing Sale. All three kids got some new clothes.

75. My Small Group. I feel like I could write this one for every number from here to a thousand and it still wouldn't be enough. They have loved us this week more than I'll ever be able to put into words. It makes my eyes fill up just thinking about what they've done and how they've given and how they have worked so hard to help us carry our heavy load.

76. heavenly delight

77. the eye drop samples my sister gave me weeks ago that worked wonderfully on Carrie's gunky eyes

78. Dan, who graciously let me ride to/from work with him this week

79. Kristina's yummy granola treats

80. hope

81. TJ - who came and picked up Michael for church early this morning.

82. that guys night was this week, which gave Michael a brief respite and some laughs

83. We needed 17 door pulls for the kitchen. When we finally found one that would work (no small task) Lowes had 16 ... wait.... dig around a little... exactly 17.

I have a feeling there were many more that I missed, but I'm glad to name these and to know that last week is now officially IN. THE. PAST.

Fixing Lights and Nosy Neighbors

2011-03-15T14:43:00.005-04:00

On Sunday as we backed out of the driveway to go to church, following our "it's Open House day scramble", I saw this on the front porch.

Wind damage. I couldn't leave it like that because I didn't want people wondering what else was broken as they walked through the house. So as soon as I got the kids checked in at church, I went to Home Depot in search of a solution. Walking quickly along the length of the store, I crossed paths with a friendly employee who offered to help. I almost gave my usual "no thanks", but I knew I didn't have much time so I gave him the short version of what happened and asked him where they stock the glue. He read the packages and helped me find an epoxy that set quickly and should hold the weight of the light.

Back at home, I was standing on a chair, my gloved hands holding the light in place while I applied copious amounts of epoxy, when I heard, "I don't mean to be nosy, but what are you doing?" Now I already knew this was a stretch. I didn't need anybody watching me. But neighbors are neighbors and I guess he couldn't just stay in his own yard. Or at least offer to help.

"Our light broke and I'm trying to put it back up before our Open House this afternoon." I said and then turned away.

"Well, I don't mean to by nosy, but are you gluing it?" he asked incredulously. "Because you can't glue a light up!"

Struggling to control the embarrassment creeping up my face, I looked down at him and replied, "I know. But it only has to hold until 4 o'clock. The guy at Home Depot thought this might work."

"Oh, well if the guy at Home Depot said so - he probably recommended some pretty strong stuff."

Um, yeah ~ it's not like I was using Elmers.

"Yes, I'm hoping this will work." And I turned away. He didn't.

"Doesn't your husband know how to change those lights out? They're really easy to do."

"Yes, but he's at church right now [He's the music director.] and we don't have time to switch it out. I just need this to hold until 4 o'clock."

Shaking his head he finally walked back to his jeep and drove off. I really think he thought I was gluing a brand new light fixture to the side of the house like an idiot. The glue took longer than the time I had to set solid, so I finally went inside for twine and scissors. I tied it in place and got back to church five minutes before the end of the service.

It's been two whole days and my glue is still holding. Take that, neighbor who doesn't mean to be nosy. :)

Fifty-Five Through Sixty-Six

2011-03-14T22:14:00.009-04:00

There are two more hours left of Monday, which means it's time to name some gifts. I've been sorely tempted to skip out today. Leave it for tomorrow. Or just quit altogether. At some points during this past week, there didn't seem to be very many gifts to name. However, I've seen pictures and video from Japan and I know - without doubt - that I have much to be thankful for.

55. pizza bones - what Brenna calls the crust on pizza, and she'll gladly eat yours if you don't want it.

56. Daniel's fast stomp up the steps to proudly tell me he only got one wrong on his time4learning quiz.

57. the weight of Carrie's head on my shoulder

58. the email, offering hope, that arrived seconds after I published the post on belief

59. Another friend who has begun to read One Thousand Gifts!

60. Precious friends who hear tears, who see tears, who just know, who offer help, who walk beside, who encourage, who keep me hanging on. This week especially Christine, Jennifer, and Megan.

61. watching my dad push Brenna and Daniel on the swings, their giggles, his joy

62. the tiny little spiral-y things in the middle of a fresh picked dandelion

63. that after three no-where-even-close misses, Daniel finally made it to the trashcan to get sick.

64. pigtails

65. helpful guy at Home Depot.

66. the cobbler who fixed Brenna's tennis shoes and my mom, who took the shoes to him

It's so helpful to see these actually written out. A list in the head just wouldn't be enough this week. One day - one hour - fought hard to dominate my thoughts of the week, but those other days were full of so much more. If I had not written them down, all of that wonder would have been obscured by the ugly.

Tangrams!

2011-03-11T14:16:00.002-05:00

Belief

2011-03-09T09:48:00.004-05:00

You know what's hard? Living what you say you believe. I'm not talking about living to the interpretations someone else presents of your beliefs. I mean just the things you say you believe. Exactly as you say you believe them. When the sun has dropped behind gray clouds, it's hard.

Last summer I won a big battle with fear. I believe that "God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind."(2Tim. 1:7) Recognizing my compliance with the spirit of fear, helped me realize I could choose not to participate. When I firmly rejected fear's whisper in my ear, I slept without the torture of the irrational imagination. All was good.

I still believe that. I also know that the Bible says not to fear, not to worry, many, many times. I read "Do not worry about your life... Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?... Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matt. 6:25-34) "Do not be anxious about anything..."(Philippians 4:6) Anything. That probably includes what I see ahead.

So why am I struggling so hard with the perfect storm I see forming? And having just used that metaphor, do I not know that God can calm the storm with a word? (Mark 4:39) There might not even be a storm. I know in my head, but my heart is still troubled. And what comes to mind is "Let not your heart be troubled...". (John 14:1) So the battle of head and heart continues. I am fighting hard to squash worry and stay in the protection of "his wing". (Ps. 91:4) I want that "peace that transcends understanding to guard my heart and my mind" (Phil. 4:7) and I want it to be real through and through, not just words I speak. I don't want to "lean on my own understanding" (Prov. 3:5) either - because what I know about what I see is actually very little and that probably means I'm creating a worst case scenario.

The Bible says I am "pressed but not crushed". (2Cor. 4:8) I feel crushed. Not flat, but something more than pressed. I know that God's timing is perfect and I'd like to rest easy in that. But the truth is - I'm not resting easy. And with that, I'm not living out what I say I believe. That bothers me.

This tension. It goes away when I give thanks. When I hold myself to today and thank God for Carrie's adorable palms and her excitement to eat a banana. When I stop long enough to take in the green centers of the yellow flowers on the dining room table or the calming sounds of the birds singing outside. Even now, as I write these words the tension in my heart is easing. My shoulders are relaxing. Those bird songs are getting cuter and I find myself in a much better place. Perhaps that's why Philippians 4 says that thanksgiving comes before peace.

There's something in thanksgiving that works wonders. It forces me to be here in this house at this time - and not ahead two or three months in what is the absolute unknown, making up situations that may not be. Today, I will be thankful. Out loud. And I believe that what will follow is peace. trust. a tear-less night. joy. smiles. love. patience. perspective. and solid belief.

Does Gracie Have What?

2011-03-08T21:52:00.004-05:00

This morning as I was changing Carrie's diaper before breakfast, Daniel (4) looked over at me and said, "Mom, does {all the words ran together}?

Since I didn't understand most of the question I asked him to say it again. This is what I thought I heard - "Mom, does Gracie still have her ass?" Grace is my friend's six year old daughter.

Certain that I'd misheard, I had him repeat it. "Mom! I said, does Gracie still have her ass?" By now he had my full attention. "Does Gracie still have her what?" I asked, leaning closer to him to listen carefully.

"Her ass!" He said emphatically, and with a bit of irritation.

We don't use that word and he doesn't know that word. I take that back. He might have heard it in the song Toes by Zac Brown Band but he definitely doesn't know what it means. So I finished dressing Carrie and kneeled down right in front of him.

"Daniel, did you say 'Does Gracie still have her ass'?

"Yes, Mom! Does she?"

I told him I had no idea what he meant. No clue what he was talking about. And then suddenly, I did. I knew exactly what he was trying to ask.

"Daniel, the word is rash. rrrrash. Say it. rrrrrrash. And no she doesn't have that rash anymore."