Weekly Update

1. How do I put this well? New lessons learned on our latest Maeve gown this weekend... After paying for the hand embroidery the THIRD time, we might actually get it attached correctly. Next time, the gown gets totally finished and shipped off for embroidery ON the dress waaaaaay in advance. At least we have until the 1st. Whew.

2. In spite of that, we had a good weekend. Date night Saturday and a lazy Sunday afternoon. Love those.

3. We went to Jared Anderson's new cd recording last night. Always fun to see him play. He was playing an upright piano with the front of it removed, and they projected him playing in black and white on a white cloth behind him. Pretty cool looking... Gotta tell this story: on the fourth row from the back, there was a whole row of seats saved. We, with our kids, along with probably 100 other people were standing in the back because every seat was either saved or full. After 45 minutes, one of the women on children's staff came up to me and said we should just go move these people's stuff to the side and sit down in that row. I wasn't brave enough, so she did it and sat with us for a couple of minutes. We sat there the rest of the concert. On seriously the LAST song, a woman came up in a huff, and said to Nick, "Excuse me, these were the seats we had saved. Don't you know some people worship up front? We're missing stuff!" (Really? I mean, really? You're kidding me right now, right?) If they were missing stuff, it had happened long before we sat down. She gathered up her stuff and stalked off without waiting for a response. Moral of the story? Please don't ever act like that. :) I'm just glad it happened to us and not to a non-Christian, or someone from another church. Can you imagine?

4. Papers...do you have any brilliant advice on keeping up with them? I seriously have a one foot tall pile of them sitting in my closet to be filed. Bills, bank statements, receipts, manuals for things...somebody help! :)

5. The neighbors walked their pit bulls down the street again the other day. They are definitely back. Hmmm...wish life was simpler sometimes...

6. We found a house we're interested in. We told the owner our situation, and he said if he doesn't find someone before April 1st, he might consider holding it for us until we can move. Our lease is up the end of May, so even if someone doesn't come rent ours early, we'd still get that house. Pretty cool...it's a log house on lots of acreage...party at our house. ;) We'll see...God's got it all under control.

Teaching and other work today... Hope you have a great week!

Flash Mobs

Have you seen this?

Love and Respect

I know I always link to this guy's blog, but it's just because every entry is so well thought out and insightful! Most of us have probably heard of the Love and Respect book for marriage. Great advice there. It always fascinates me when non-Christians (making an assumption about this guy) come to the same conclusions as what the Bible says people need. If we can establish respect from people and yet show love TO people, that is the combination that seems to be magic. It inspires people to work harder, to treat themselves and you better, to believe in the vision...

I think this can be applied in so many areas. Our families - marriages AND children, businesses, friendships, anywhere we lead or influence people.

I'd love to hear thoughts on this if you take a few minutes to process it - please share!

Weekly Update: Turbo Edition

The amount of things I must accomplish this week is insane. Therefore, this will be quick! :)

1. So that we can move early if they find a new renter, our landlord is advertising our house for rent now. I'm excited about the potential to move, and my house has to be ready to show at a moment's notice. Flylady, you are my hero.

2. Maeve has another fitting Wednesday night. This one is an empire waist wedding gown, all in silk. I think it will be spectacular!

3. Looking at a house to rent tonight. If our landlord finds a renter we have to be ready to move April1st! There's one we found that we really like, but we need to have lots of options.

That's about all I got time for. Gotta get to it!

Pssst!

What are you thinking about?

Microsoft 2019

Have you seen this? It's insane!

Thankful

I'm feeling thankful tonight. I must list...

1. My check from the school of worship came two weeks earlier than I expected.

2. I was able to work 18 hours on my new job this week, which will considerably help the financial situation in the next week or so.

3. We each got a new article of clothing last night, of course I decided I don't like mine, so they get returned (a pair of shoes and shirt), but that just means I get to go shop again and find something I do like. This makes me excited. Anyone up for a shopping trip? :)

4. My kids are in bed and it's quiet, I no longer have to listen to the whining that has been almost constant from my youngest...but this is a blog about being thankful, so you didn't hear that part. ;)

5. My husband is so nice to me, and he takes my advice about music stuff, and then sounds even better, and it's, well...very attractive.

6. I have been disciplining myself to at least pick up the living room and girls' room every night before bedtime, so I wake up to a semi-clean house that I can, for example, vacuum. Or dust. Or some other such productive thing. This makes me feel much better about my house and really, life overall.

7. My church is an incredible place to be involved. I'm so honored to serve and give there.

8. Nick and I decided I need to plan to have coffee with girl friends regularly so we can actually talk without chasing children. This sounds pretty much heavenly.

9. I feel good tonight.

10. God has been teaching Nick and I SO much lately. We're always excited to share with each other what we're learning and talk about it. It's like what Pastor Brady was talking about today - seek first the Kingdom, and all these things will be added. When I focus on God, other things seem to fall into place with much less effort. "The place to start, is to believe God is good, and that you are His child..."

11. I am postponing my trip to the dentist, scheduled for Wednesday, just because I don't wanna go this week. So there. Take that!

12. Nick's going to come play with me for worship on Thursdays. Believe it or not, we actually have played together very little. God is reawakening that in both of us. Yay for the journey...

And that's about it. That's a lot... I should sleep now. Goodnight!

Flu/Pnuemonia Info

Really interesting article about the 1918 Pandemic...

Moving?

I've threatened this before and never gone through with it, but I think I'm moving to Wordpress. I'll keep ya updated...

Weekly Update

1. Hannah decided she wanted to go without the pull-up last night. I spoke positively, but had my doubts. She did it though! Totally dry. I am so excited about this. I thought this day would never come. Now that I've done a tough one, all others will be easy, right? :)

2. I got a job! I'm going to be helping improve and promote allthingsformom.com. (I'll put a real link up here soon.) Hopefully will be 10-15 hours/week. This will take a lot of the squeeze off us financially. Thank you, God... Found it on hiremymom.com. I have probably applied for 10 or 15 jobs there, or more, that I was totally qualified for. Just so you know what's involved before you go pay the $30 fee.

3. We have a Maeve (have you seen the new site?) consultation tonight. We have yet to not have one of these turn into a client, so that's good news! Lots of new gowns will be on the website in the next few months! Maybe we'll even make some money at it this year. ;)

4. I have to say, I love the book we're reading for our small group. Of course, we picked it out, so... :) It just is the way I want to parent...with the understanding of how much God loves me and how I am unconditionally loved, reflecting that to our children, without backing down on important stuff. I'm way ahead in the reading, I must confess.

5. My library books are late again. Why can I not ever get them back on time? It's silly. Does anyone else have this problem?

6. I decided that I would schedule a time and just start playing worship at the prayer center at church. I set it up as a small group so I (and anyone who wants to come...ahem!) can use the free childcare. The only time they had that worked for me was Thursday mornings, so Thursday mornings it is! 11am... I'm reeeeally rusty, but I'd love if you'd come worship when you're free. Or if you want to just bring your kids and worship with them I totally don't mind! My kids would love to roam around in there and check things out... It feels terrific to just sit at the piano and sing in that room. I have great memories of that...

This has taken faaaaarrr too long this morning. Gotta run! How was your week?

35 Random Things

Oh, alright, you twisted my arm...

34 RANDOM THINGS:

1. Do you like bleu cheese? The flavor? Yes. The fact that it does, in fact, contain gluten? No.

2. Have you ever smoked? Nope

3. Do you own a gun? Nope

4. What flavor Kool Aid was your favorite? Ew.

6. What do you think of hot dogs? Eat them regularly - all natural beef or even bison ones...yum...

7. Favorite Christmas movie? I can stomach Elf. Or the first Santa Clause.

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? waaa-terrrr

9. Can you do push ups? a few

10. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry? Whatever's new.

11. Favorite hobby? Music

12. Do you have A. D. D.? No

13. Do you wear glasses/contacts? No.

14. Middle name? Kay. It's also my mom's middle name and my daughter's middle name.

15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment: I really should quit doing this and take a shower. Audrey is carrying around a sausage while she plays. I like the sunshine today.

16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink: Water. Tea. Izze.

17. Current worry? Determined not to.

18. Current hate right now? Not having enough storage in my house...or too many things, one of the two. ;)

19. Favorite place to be? The beach in 80 degree weather sounds pretty good right now.

20. how did you ring in the new year? At my parents' house with the whole fam.

21. Where would you like to go? Pretty much anywhere sounds nice.

22. Name three people who will complete this: Jo, Bek, maybe Christina?

23. Do you own slippers? Yep, wearing them now

24 What color shirt are you wearing? My NewLifeWorship Enter shirt. I slept in it.

25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? I dunno. Get me some, I'll try it.

26. Can you whistle? Yes

27. Where are you now? Kitchen

28. Would you be a pirate? Oh yes, Arrrr....

29. What songs do you sing in the shower? Don't sing. Too busy relaxing.

30. Favorite Girl’s Name? Hannah and Audrey. I'm not telling my others! :)

31. Favorite boy’s name? See #30.

32. What is in your pocket right now? Nothing

33. What's the last thing that made you laugh? I'm sure it was something one of the girls said.

34. What vehicle do you drive? White VW Jetta, usually. Or the turquoise Jeep Cherokee. :)

35. Worst injury you’ve ever had? Last time I had a seizure, fell and hit my chin and cheekbone. My face and tongue were pretty beat up.

Ew. On that note...

Random

Have you ever seen the movie Milo and Otis? My favorite part is when the baby chick says,

"Mommy! Mommy! Chicken Mommy!"

Makes me laugh every time...

Weekly Update

1. Maeve is in full swing, making the two gowns we have for weddings in April. We try to keep all our appointments to one day/night a week, but you that have kids know that can be a lot. We have a second fitting Saturday.

2. For the past couple of months we have really been needing a vacuum cleaner. We are determined not to go further into debt, so putting one on a credit card isn't an option, and we certainly didn't have the cash to go buy one. I just prayed about it. I prayed when I got frustrated with the dog hair that our ailing vacuum didn't pick up. I prayed while I vacuumed the whole house twice and still it didn't look different. I trusted that God would meet our need, though several times I got very discouraged. A few times I borrowed my parents' Kirby, to keep up with the mess. Then one day when we went to borrow my parents vacuum, my mom mentioned they had another vacuum they weren't using. She wasn't sure it was better than ours, but we could take it. On Saturday we went to pick it up, and yesterday I bought bags for it. At least on our carpet, it works like a dream! I vacuumed the whole house, and even did all the edges with the attachment. I was so excited that I kept going and cleaned the entire house last night. It looks better than it has in a loooong time. Yay God!

3. Tomorrow night we're hiring a line dancing instructor and our small group is going to line dance together. They're all rolling their eyes about it, but really, they're excited. ;) Right, guys?

4. Been applying for jobs on hiremymom.com. So far, nothing. I did get one response from a woman who is an image consultant in San Fran, who wants someone to do advertising on social networking, and blogging for her. I could totally do that, but she's probably got 10 people that could do it. We'll see... Sounds really fun to me. I'm finding this process to be harder than I expected. I have always thought of myself as having excellent skills, but when everyone under the sun is looking for a job, that's a LOT of competition. I'm working on a profile at Elance.com. They have these skills tests that are....humbling. I remember the Office Team days when I could get 90+ on a typing test, and 95% on a Microsoft Word test...not so long ago...

5. I'm doing a new website for Maeve, using showitfast.com. I'm pretty impressed with this program. It's highly flexible, and relatively cheap. We'll finally be able to display the pictures of the gowns in a better way. It should launch in the next couple of days.

6. Go to youdata.com, sign up, and look at and click on their ads. You can literally make $1.50 in a couple of minutes, and they send it right to your paypal account within a few days. Pretty nifty. I could be wrong, but in my experience they don't even send spam.

Better go dress my kiddos and get ready to teach. Hope you had a great weekend!

I've Heard of People Like This...

OK, I gotta tell you guys this story:

Nick and I had our Valentine's date last night, and we headed down to the cheap theater that is at the other end of town. We decided to see Quantum of Solace, the James Bond movie. Got our tickets and headed into the theater. It was about 1/3 full and we got seats in the middle of the 6th row or so. So far so good. We had just sat down when a middle-aged man walked down the row and leaned right up into my face.

"You have the best seats in the place, good for you. But, I'm passionate about Bond, so...."

He then plopped himself down in the seat right next to me, draping his arm in his huge down coat across the armrest and halfway across my shoulder.

I turned to Nick and said, "Scoot down a couple seats." Then I decided that wasn't far enough from this character, and moved on the other side of Nick. I was now one seat from the end of the row. The guy, when he saw all of this, said, "COOL!!" And moved down two more seats to be right in the middle of the theater. There was one seat between him and Nick.

When the movie started, the guy proceeded to offer a complete running commentary of the movie, at times pointing at the screen, with an extended arm, to his date. Whenever someone was asked what they'd like to drink, he recited it from memory. When one of the good guys dies in the arms of Bond, he audibly wept. At the end of fight scenes, he offered, "Ow!"

I've heard of people like this, but never experienced it. So my question is, how do people get like that? Is he all there? Does he have some sort of mental disorder? Does he just not care anything about movie etiquette? Is he just oblivious and has no idea he's rude? At the very least he kept his voice down (mostly), but I'm willing to bet the only reason somebody didn't complain was we were at the $1.50 theater...

Um, ew.

Could resist passing on this little gem of an invention. Who comes up with this stuff?

Hospitality

I'm a member of this group on Facebook and really enjoying the emails she sends. The latest one was about hospitality, and it was soooo good. Since it's not posted on the site anywhere, I'll post it here. It is written by Tammy Maltby. May we all be able to see hospitality this way...

A Simple Start:
A Few Thoughts to Jump Start Your Perspective Change on Hospitality.

1. Embrace hospitality as a message you give people about their value. My friend Phyllis Stanley coined that phrase and I just love it. It is not about impressing people. It’s quite the opposite. It is about wrapping your guests with comfort and care. Giving someone a message about their value means letting them know you’ve prepared for them, that they’ve been on your mind and heart, that you truly want to serve them.  It’s being other centered rather than self-centered. That attitude takes practice, but it is well worth the investment. Not only will your guests’ lives be enriched. I promise you—yours will be too.

2. Let go of perfection. This is a point I’ll preach on again and again in this book because perfectionism it’s such a common hospitality killer—it will paralyze you every time. If you struggle with everything being perfect before you begin…you never will. Perfection is bondage—it will hold you back.

3. Convince yourself that comparison is the enemy. If your friend is amazing at entertaining, her house looks like a layout of Home and Garden, everything she touches turns to fun and beauty, and people flock to her gatherings…rejoice! She’s your friend and you can learn from her—but you are not her. I love what Emily Post had to say back in 1922: “To be a great hostess, don’t pretend to be other than what you are.” To effectively practice real hospitality, you must embrace who you are and find your own style.

4. Commit to try. Sometimes you will succeed splendidly, and other times a heartfelt laugh will be needed. It’s okay. You have no idea how many of those “attempts” I have lived through. Remember you will gain confidence with each endeavor. Nothing is ever a failure if you try and learn from it.

5. Most important, enjoy the ride. Promise yourself not to get so caught up in the business of living or even the details of hospitality that you miss the wonder of what is happening right under your nose. In all your efforts at hospitality, remember why you are doing what you are doing. You’re making memories, touching lives, doing the business of the gospel. You’re also connecting with the person you have always desired to be. You’re living with a perspective change—cherish the miracle!

Monday Update

Here I am. I've had no desire whatsoever to blog lately, but I'm easing back into it.

SO:

1. Nick and I had a wonderful overnight date this weekend while my parents watched the kids. Some wonderful friends had rented a condo in Breckenridge, and had an extra bedroom so they let us tag along. There were bunk beds in our room, and the hot tub was on our deck. We did not mind either of these too much at all. :) It was romantic and relaxing.

2. When we got home we put the kids down for naps and I slept from 3:15pm to 7pm. It felt wonderful, but I can't really recommend it seeing as how I was wide awake until about 3am this morning.

3. You can get a lot done between 10pm and 3am. I'm just sayin'.

4. I fed the girls the last two breakfast sausages this morning. Trying to decide what protein to eat for breakfast. Hot dogs? Bleck!

5. Have another first fitting Wednesday night. The last one we did, the bride took her own measurements to save her a trip here and they were about 6 inches off. Frustrating for her and us! But we got it fixed...

6. I am trying hiremymom.com. I'll let ya know how it goes. I also created another email address and started signing up to do online surveys, to see if I could actually make any money doing that. It's very dumb - many of them require you to spend money in order to make it. But I did get $3.50 in my paypal account the other day. Better than a stick in the eye, I suppose. I'll take it!

Alrighty. Gotta to get ready to teach!

I keep promising to be quiet...

But, why? Why, I ask you?

We Interrupt This Break....

I some ways, I've been glad for the timing of my break. It means I don't have to comment on Ted if I don't want to. :) But, an old Myspace friend tracked me down on Facebook this morning and asked me what I thought. I figured since I already formulated my thoughts for a reply, I'd post it here while I'm at it. So, here ya go:

I have not watched most of the publicity about Ted. Our local paper and news has had lots of stuff in the past week or so, and I've kind of half-heartedly skimmed it, wanting to be informed about what's going on at least.

What I think about all of it is summed up very well with this blog, written by a New-Lifer, and Ted's former editor. The college pastor posted it on his blog. New Life made the best decisions they could in a terrible situation. Ted's family has suffered a lot because of his sin. It's been a painful process, and I wish it hadn't all come up again. But New Life is strong, and our new pastor has provided excellent leadership and example. Pretty much everyone I know wishes the Haggards the best, but wants them to stay out of the public eye and get well. It may be money motivated - no one will hire Ted, so they may feel the need to sell their story in order to survive, which is said totally compassionately. That's a bad idea to me, to think you could profit from your sin, but it could be their reality.

Ultimately this too shall pass, and I hope that more and more Ted's actions will be seen as his actions alone, and not related to New Life any longer. No matter the actions of men, God has been and continues to be faithful to us!

So there ya go. We now return you to your regularly scheduled break. :)

I'm not really writing...it's your imagination

This totally made me laugh.

Time for a break

I'm withdrawing from the internet (mostly!) for a while. I will check email, so comment or email if you need to reach me! Ta-ta!

Bibical Descriptions of Women

I love the format of the studies this blogger does. Simple, easy to study...

Disinfecting

Good time of year for an article like this!

Um...

Weekly Update

1. Last night we got home and Nick was tired and yawning a lot. He started doing it really loudly and obnoxiously at one point, and Audrey said, "Daddy's being Karzan." (Her pronunciation for Tarzan.) Nick and I laughed like crazy.

2. Sometime this week we pick up the key for Maeve's new office. We had thought we would get an office in my dad's space, but he wound up needed all of his. Instead, we tracked down another suite to sublease in. The guy that is actually on the lease is a Dave Ramsey ELP for budget counseling. So, you can get your wedding gown made and figure out your finances all in one stop. Kidding...sort of! :)

3. It's supposed to be in the 50's here today. This makes me happy.

4. My sister Amy had her 18th birthday party last night, and my parents rented out Skate City. Her friends all came (about 40 of them!) dressed in 80's clothes. It was hysterical. One of her guy friends had bought a neon pink windbreaker track suit that was definitely made for a woman. Wow. I found out that they do a skating class for 2-6 year olds on Friday mornings, 9-10:30. It's $4 per kid. After they attend 10 classes they get a free t-shirt. You just help them get their skates on and then either go run errands or sit in the snack bar area. OK, who's coming to sit and talk with me? :) Sounds like a deal to me and my kids will love it! They actually lock the wheels of the skates for the little kids, so they just walk on their skates and don't fall as much. :)

That's about all I got today. How was your week?

Pics of our gown

Hey guys, go look at Tarah's gown on her photographer's website. It turned out incredible! :)

Wise Mamas

Hey moms - We have launched the mommy blog. Please come join us! (And *ahem* bloggers, we need some new content! :))

Contentment and Fairness

As parents, one of the pressures we often feel is to make everything "fair." I loved this post this morning. If I treated my two children exactly the same, one of them would run the household and the other would wilt under the pressure. It would never work...

On Facebook...

Came across this today. I can't help but fully agree.

Facebook becomes an addiction for me. And I don't think I'm the only one. In just minutes (more minutes than I really have!) you can get a sense of connection with people all over the world! You can see what is going on with people who you would otherwise never heard from again. I have many of the same complaints as that blogger.

-Status updates from people I used to know that deeply upset me
-A sense that I must friend anyone who knows me and asks, whether I feel particularly connected to them or not
-A promise of connection with another human being that is at best shallow, and at worst yet another way for us to feel lonely. We get the sense we're connecting, but it's just enough to make us feel like we connected and not enough to keep away loneliness or deepen relationships.
-I can't say anything serious to anyone without people with hugely differing opinions jumping to offer them. I wouldn't have had that conversation with them - I don't particularly enjoy arguing, believe it or not, and not at all over the internet. :)
-I simply cannot keep up with and be friends with everyone on there. Most people can only have a few good friends, and the others just gradually fade away. It's nothing against them, you may even really like them, but there's only so many hours in the day. I think Facebook creates an artificial pressure in this area, and I personally end up feeling sooo badly about it.

It's cute, entertaining, often funny. But is it worth it? I'm just not sure. I must confess, at times, to leaving it open with the live feed going, and reading every entry. Sick.

Thoughts?

My Secrets

Shelly tagged me for this meme, and since I did something similar on Facebook the other day, I'm more or less copying and pasting. I'm lazy, I know. :) Enjoy!

-I do not have a favorite food or a favorite color, and I feel stupid when people ask what they are, because I don't know/care.

-After going on a missions trip in Europe when I was barely 20, I cultivated a taste for plain sparkling mineral water, because I thought it was unique and classy. I still drink it often, usually with lime.

-I do not play the piano nearly as much as I want to (outside of teaching or leading worship) - sometimes only a couple of times per month.

-I am an expert organic gardener...who has not had a real garden in 5 years. I miss it!

-I Love gadgets. I am an early adapter, for sure.

-I would love to own/work on an organic farm. But I'm afraid I'd get lonely.

-I have never been able to decide if I'm an early bird or a night owl. As long as I get enough sleep, I love late nights AND early mornings!

-I occasionally entertain myself by thinking of new ways to teach some piano concept.

-The number of kids I want to have changes day to day, but I have no idea how we'll decide when we don't want any more.

-In my family, I'm often the one that says what everyone is thinking, but doesn't want to say. (Not that this shocks anyone here!)

-I love doing yoga, and I just ignore the weird spiritual stuff and pray instead. Feels SOOO good!

-I am a very fast, voracious reader, and I often read 5 or 6 books at a time and/or finish an entire book in a day or two.

-I had one child by c-section, and the next at home with a midwife. I would do 10 more homebirths before I would choose even ONE more c-section. I'm serious. No comparison.

-I am horrible about taking pictures, doing baby books, scrapbooking, etc. I like to experience the moment, not document it.

-I love to organize and can look at a pile of stuff and a space, and see exactly where everything will fit and how to do it.

-In spite of that, I still usually have disorganized closets and piles of junk on my kitchen counter.

I tag Christina, Thea, Joanna, Staci, Danielle, and Irene. Come on, it'll be fun. :)

New Look

Hey, for those of you who normally use a reader, come check out the site! My friend Wendy created a new header for me! (We're trading piano lessons for design work. :) I still want to do some sort of background on the blog, but it will have to wait, for now.

If you need any design work, let me know and I'll give you her email!

Nicknames

I was realizing the other day, just how many different nicknames I have for my kids:

Hannah
Hannah-hannah
Hannah kay
Hann
goofball

Audrey
munchkin
bebe, which gets shortened to beeb
lil' one
Au-der-ry (what she calls herself)

Does anyone else do this?

Music Party?

Maybe it's just me, but I think this actually sounds fun...

Flo Paris

Flo is a frequent commenter around here, and she just launched her new music site, complete with some really fun stuff. Check it out!

Weekly Update

1. Snow is falling yet again this morning. It seems to have taken everyone by surprise. There were no cancellations, but we have probably 3-4 inches, and the roads were a nightmare this morning. I'm glad to be in my cozy house.

2. About that cozy house - I had big plans for cleaning this weekend. We didn't do that. It's a disaster. I have students this afternoon. That's all.

3. Making this sausage this morning, minus the sage. It seems to be a hit, even for Audrey, who is being super-picky right now. This is the second recipe I've tried. The first one was too spicy for us, though very flavorful. (Does anybody use that much cayenne pepper? I halved it and it still burned our mouths. Are we wimps?) Oh, I also tried this one, which Nick and I thought was delicious, but the girls wouldn't eat, and it seriously messed with my blood sugar. Anyway, the organic turkey sausage we have been eating every day is now up to $4.59 per 12 ounce box. Ouch. A pound of free-range ground turkey is like $3.50. The difference adds up, for sure. Anyone have a favorite sausage recipe they'd like to share?

4. Maeve, oh, my goodness. Holly and I are excited about some answers to issues that fell into place over the weekend. It's gonna be good...

5. Date night tonight, if the snow clears up. We haven't had one in almost a month. It's time!

6. Contemplating putting Hannah in pre-ballet classes. She is needing something to do/think about. The class I found is on Wednesday mornings, and it's really very cheap. It's for age 2 1/2 to 4 1/2, so technically Audrey could do it too. We're going to try it out this week and see if she likes it.

Well, I better get to working. Have a great day!

Whew

This makes me feel a little better about Maeve. :)

Follow Maeve Bridal on Twitter

Hey, in case anyone is curious, I'm going to be posting Maeve updates on Twitter now...

100%

A comment I received the other day really struck me and I had some further thoughts about it:

When any of us writes or speaks of hope or peace or trust in God, that doesn't mean we necessarily feel it in our emotions 100% of the time. I think it's a miracle that we ever feel it in this world! Even Paul, in Philippians 3, says,

7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

This is what we're called to - forget where we've been, it doesn't matter, and press on to where God wants us to be. Daily. Hourly. Minute-ly. (Ha! Every minute.) But, whether or not we feel something in our emotions, doesn't cease to make it true. If we choose not to believe, we may just lose some of the benefit of something that is true anyway. But that's another post for another day.

We are the children of God, if we have faith in Christ. That means that whether or not we FEEL it, there is a deeper truth that still stands. So, when we have deep peace it's because we are coming to know Christ. When we don't feel that peace, it's not any less true. We just have to hang on to the truth, no matter what we experience.

How many times do we value our experience as more "real" than what the Word says? I don't want to live that way. If God says it's true, it's true. Not that I have been made perfect, but I press on towards this goal. Especially in our generation, I think we're afraid of being seen as "hypocritical" or phony if our emotions vary. Everyone's emotions vary some. It doesn't change the truth, which is the truth, no matter what.

Thoughts?

Completing the work

I was telling Nick last night about how strange our days have been this week with few outside the house plans. Get up, make breakfast, play a little, make lunch, take naps, play a little, make dinner, play a little, go to bed, rinse, repeat. The days seem to fly by with little purpose, little fanfare.

Then I opened my Bible last night, and at the top of the page was Jesus saying this:

"I have glorified You down here on the earth by completing the work that You gave Me to do."
John 17:4

Pretty good reminder of what it is we're supposed to be doing. I have little kids, so I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that currently, the primary work God has given me to do is raising them. We are doing that. They are thriving. We're seeing Hannah developing her gifts of leadership (and...ahem...developing them for her!). Audrey's joy is contagious.

The house isn't spotless, sometimes my kids watch too much tv, sometimes we get colds and are sick for the week, sometimes we don't sleep well and get cranky... But overall, we are learning and growing together as a family. All is well.

Dinner

Making this for dinner. (LOVE that recipe site, btw.) Cheap, quick, Nick loves dark greens, and I...need to eat more of them. :) Now to watch the kiddos figure them out.

Two-faced

Sometimes I feel a bit schizophrenic lately.

Let me explain.

In the past few years I have dealt with lots of anxiety. The kids would get sick and I would hardly sleep, listening for them to cough (or something worse). I would imagine worst-case scenarios late into the night. I would bury myself in Facebook (OK, so I still do that occasionally!). I would call my mom and cry on the phone for two hours.

In the past several weeks, we have had several difficult experiences. Friends in crisis, students quitting at the last minute when we were expecting the money they would pay for the month, a mix-up over our small group, and more. I wish I could go into detail, but I can't really. Suffice it to say, we've been doing the best we know and it hasn't seemed good enough.

I have had days when I cried...a lot. I have had many times when I haven't been kind with the kids. Nick and I have argued over stupid stuff some days. But these things used to throw me into near despair. I wasn't sure things would ever be good again.

By the grace of God, I don't feel that way anymore.

I was reading John 17 yesterday, Jesus' wonderful prayers, and heard God whisper to my heart, "You know this is real, right"? Jesus really came to earth and walked as a man. Then, He really did return to the Father having broken the powers of this earth. There is nothing here that has authority over us any longer.

So...are there painful things here on earth? Definitely. Do they have any impact whatsoever on our eternity (apart from making us more like Christ when we let God do that work)? Nope. Through faith in Christ, we can look forward to the day when things are perfect, when there is no more pain, no more frustration, when things work they way they should. And our relationship with God allows us a glimpse of that day.

It's weird, foreign, strange to me. I have been sad and overwhelmed, but I'm okay. I'm really okay. I'm emotionally weary, but still functional. And I have hope for the future. It's strange to feel such huge opposites simultaneously.

Does anybody have any clue what I'm talking about? :)

Weekly Update

I'm feeling a little cranky this morning. Whew. Spent the better part of the night with one child repeatedly wandering the house (Hannah) and the other coughing and sneezing and sniffling until I was concerned about her (Audrey). She wasn't sick yesterday...

The holidays are really over now. Gotta get back into a "normal" routine.

Blah...blah...do you ever get sick of hearing yourself talk about yourself? I sure am. I think instead of writing this post, I'm gonna go focus on my little kids this morning. What's going on in your world? I'd rather hear about yours than write about mine. :)

In Other News...

Hannah hasn't had an accident in two days! WOO HOO!!!!!!!

Looking Back...

I've had a couple people ask me if I've made resolutions this year. I have to admit, the response I want to give is, "Why? It's not time for that yet"! Um...yes it is. 2008, where did you go?

Because of this feeling, I am wanting to look back before I look forward. I think it might help. So, here it is, my tribute to 2008, in semi-chronological fashion...

January:

Though I have been a Christian my entire life, I realized I was semi mad at God, and had been for quite some time. I read some of Laine's Letters because I saw a link somewhere, and realized that I knew lots ABOUT God, but little OF Him. I have several times in my life, read through the Bible in a year. So I decided I would start it again, but asking Him to show me Himself, all throughout. I began to be amazed at what I found.

I was continually sick - like, every night at about a 7 or 8 out of 10 on a pain scale. My stomach hurt SO bad. I had no energy. I ached all over.

We started meeting with a handful of other couples as a small group. Little did we know they would become our very best friends!

February:

My mom wondered one day if I was allergic to egg. She said it seemed to bother me when I was a kid. I quit eating egg, and felt 70-80 percent better within 2 weeks. Later in the month, I began to feel sick again. Nothing like I had, but the achiness was still there and no energy.

March:

I went to Dr P and was tested for food allergies again. I already knew about dairy, corn and soy, but gluten and yeast came up too. Egg did not, weirdly enough, but I still get sick from it when I eat it. After two weeks off gluten, I knew I had found a HUGE answer to prayer. Healing from gluten is very gradual and really takes two full years, but unless I am miraculously healed, I will never go back to eating gluten. It changed my life.

Dr P also recommended taking 5-HTP and something with L-Thianine in it, because I was not sleeping well. I had symptoms very reminicent of fybromyalgia. With good sleep and a gluten free diet, the pain is gone. (A little sleep training for Audrey was in order as well! One night of two hours of crying, and she slept through the night every night after that!)

(In retrospect, I believe I had post-partum depression for 3+ years, compounded by the seizure I had in February of 2007. The 5-HTP helped the physical symptoms, and cutting myself a break and starting to feel good helped with the mental/emotional symptoms.)

April:

Hannah's 3rd birthday. I can't believe I have a 3 (now almost 4) year old. Aren't I still a 17 year old pretending to be a mommy?

May:

I actually started to feel like myself for the first time in 4 years.

My parents change churches - HARD on me, but something they needed to do.

June:

My 28th birthday, and a wonderful trip to Estes Park with my family. One of the first "real" vacations we've had together. Nick's birthday too...

July:

Fun, warm days outside in our backyard is what I remember most.

August:

Audrey's 2nd birthday, and more fun, warm days.

September:

While dreading another winter like the last two, I suddenly realized it probably wouldn't be that way this year.

October:

Among other things, a music audition that went fantastically for both Nick and me, and somehow changed our perspectives on being frustrated with where we were in life. We began to realize that God's timing was great, and we were happy where we are.

November:

Looking forward to the holidays. Nice Thanksgiving. God is incredible. Money is tight.

December:

We have several friends in personal crisis, and wish we could do more to help.

Money is still tight, but God provides a wonderful, peaceful, meaningful Christmas for us.




So, there it is. I started the year barely functional in comparison. It's interesting to me how the year starts with health stuff, and ends with God. That's not phoney - that's really how it feels to me.

And another thing: God has been faithful this year. When we only look forward to what we can't see yet, it's easy to forget what God has already done.

When I think about what I'd like to accomplish in the next year, only one thing comes to mind: Know God More. "Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you," right? When I am pursuing God with my whole heart, things fall into place because He lets me know His priorities for me. Then, the change comes from the inside out - it's real change - instead of outside forced change like I've tried to make for myself my whole life. As we experience the love of God, our whole world changes. We see ourselves and other people through the eyes of Christ. We still (and will always) have hard days, and often things weigh on me more than they should. But I cannot emphasize enough what God has done in me this year. I've been trying to do it myself for years, and when I finally let go, God has done more in a short time than I have done in my lifetime to this point.

What gets you up in the morning? Is it something fun to look forward to? Is it people? Is it work and feeling valuable? My whole life I have tried to have my reason be those things, and I always got to a point where I did not want to get up. What if we get up in anticipation of hearing from God? Of being in relationship with Him? Of carrying out what He asks of us that day? (You know, wiping noses, changing diapers, doing dishes and laundry - that stuff most of us are caretakers of at this stage in life. :) God is the only One who will never disappoint us. I'm going after Him - please come with me!!

Weekly Update

1. Still relishing Christmas a bit around here. It was really nice. Nick had 4 days off in a row. The gifts we gave and got were fun. I'm still enjoying looking at and smelling my Christmas tree. I was feeling a little down last night about it all being over, but the short week this week will be nice, and there are lots of other things to look forward to. We're running Maeve ads again, so new work is one thing I'm excited about...

2. Nick and the girls got colds after the day of candy. No big shocker there. I always feel like we're the last ones to get it, but eventually some opportunity to eat tons of sugar presents itself, and we get hit with it too. At least everyone seems better today, after a regimen of prayer and various concoctions over the weekend.

3. We made the decision last night to shut off our satellite. We've known this was needed for quite some time, and frankly I'm glad the decision is made. We get just a couple channels out here without it, but I am honestly looking forward to the quiet, and the blessing it will be to our family long-term. Is it easier to park my children in front of the tv? Yes. Definitely. Do I feel good about it? No. Absolutely not. Honestly, my kids enjoy watching princess movies and Veggie Tales more anyway...

4. We have no New Year's plans. We'll probably either end up at my parents' or just put the kids to bed and drink sparkling cider on the couch. :)

5. The cute little cottage across the street still isn't rented....know anyone who needs a place to live?

6. It's supposed to be 50 degrees here today! Backyard, here we come!

Hope you have a great day!

Waste

I've been pondering this concept for quite a while. I agree with the author of this post - God doesn't seem to care much about "wasting" things. On the one hand it's frustrating - God seems unhurried, unworried, not careful to us at times. When we have things that seem to be big problems, He takes His sweet time working out the answers.

But, if you think about it, the entire world belongs to Him. All the money that exists. All time - eternity. All love, all peace, all forgiveness...it all belongs to Him. I don't think I'd be concerned either...hmmm...I'm a child of God...maybe I shouldn't be concerned either?

Afterward

We had the nicest Christmas I remember in years. Fun church service on Christmas Eve, PF Chang's takeout for dinner, wonderful time opening presents with the girlies, wonderful time with my family at my parents, quiet afternoon, and (another) Chinese dinner with my family last night. Aside from the overtired temper tantrums when it was time to leave my parents' house, we had a remarkable shortage of arguments, falling apart, etc. It was fun and peaceful.

Now for grocery shopping, gift exchanging, paycheck depositing, and various other things that must be taken care of today. Hope you and your family had a great time!

Merry Christmas

May the peace of God guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Cute Hair Bows

I'm forever trying to figure out what to do with my girls' hair. Hair is not really my strong point. (I like to have a hair style that has something it "does" so I never have to think about it, just do the same thing every day.) But I have not been able to bring myself to give my kids that kind of hair style.

These are the cutest little bows. Let me know if you get some and how you like them!

Update

OK, so I finished writing about how my kids wouldn't go to sleep, told them one more time to be quiet, laid down on the couch, and woke up 1 1/2 hours later after a great nap. See? Life isn't so bad. :)

Stream of consciousness

-My students are 21 minutes late. Does this mean they're not coming? Maybe. Maybe not, with them. It's kinda the week to forget.
-Hannah does not want to nap today, and she's keeping Audrey up. Audrey has been crying at the drop of a hat for three days. That might have something to do with all the running around we've been doing. She's not used to it. They are quiet for the moment. Oh, I hope they will sleep!
-I made flatbread today. I figure if I can't come up with any bread that works for us, at least we can have something to eat sandwiches on. I used rice, millet, teff, and sweet rice flour, and they are crispy and just the slightest bit sweet. I had one with avocado and turkey for lunch. Yum.
-Spent the morning organizing. Our small house gets overrun with the smallest amount of excessive junk. Had to move the filing cabinet so I could put bills in it easier, clean out the drawers in the kitchen. Got rid of three piles in the kitchen, still gotta tackle two more. I don't intend for piles to gather, but they just do. Why is that? Paper multiplies in my house.
-Trying to decide what to do about excessive toys in our house. I like Shelly's idea about trading out old things for new things. We don't have space for junk, nor do they play with lots of their stuff, nor do I really want them to focus on accumulating things. But my kids will cry if I make them give their things away. Is that okay? I wish there was a more "personal" way to give things away - so they could see the faces of the children who will receive the toys, rather than just impersonally dropping them off at Goodwill. Thoughts?
-I found a pre-made frosting that we can actually eat at the health food store, and it has been sitting in my fridge just waiting for cookies all week. Have I made cookies? Nope. Are they calling to me? Yep. Maybe these with a few tweaks? I found GF sprinkles too...
-Why do I love Facebook so much? Seriously. Sara, SHUT IT DOWN!!
-Looks like the students are not coming...32 minutes late now, for a 45 minute lesson. I'm off the hook!
-Why are my kids talking again? *Sigh* Their schedule got totally out of whack this weekend.
-Tonight we have to go find more gifts. I love giving gifts, but often feel inept at picking them out. I have had many friends with this incredible knack for knowing what would be perfect, even if it's inexpensive. That is not my talent.
-Non-naptime days are SO frustrating to me. I feel like I need the quiet time in order to function, and they most definitely need it or they will fall apart all evening. I have always said that even when my kids were done taking naps, I would continue to do quiet time every day because I need it and they need it. My mom used to lay down with us when we wouldn't settle down. I find with Hannah that makes it worse. I love her determination. God made her that way. But she is more stubborn that I am. It is so hard for me to outlast her, and trying to avoid the conflict doesn't seem to work either. I get really sad about it some days.
-Whew. Must be time to go spend some time with God. Well, I was due for a "real" post, I suppose. :) Most days go well, some do not.

Microbusinesses?

I often read business-related blogs. I figure I'm running a business with absolutely NO formal business training - I better learn anything I can! I came across this today, and thought of all of us stay-at-home moms. Do you have something you can sell? Etsy is one place you can set up handmade products stores, with no up-front cost. I'm pondering this...

Love this

Weekly Update

Whew. We are a bit groggy around here. This week was, frankly, insane, and full of events which will never make it to the blog. But we made it. God is faithful. We're still standing.

1. My mom watched the girls Friday night so we could have a date. I love spending time with my husband. We went to dinner, and hit a couple of stores and Starbucks before heading back. I have been wanting a Nativity set since we got married, but they are always so pricey! Well, at Kirkland's, we found this beautiful ceramic set for $11. Love it. They had SO many of these and other really inexpensive ones. It was very exciting. :)

2. Saturday my sister and brother-in-law watched the girls so we could Christmas shop. We braved Toys 'R' Us, which was a madhouse. We found cute things that I think the girls will love. I'm excited. I also saw all kinds of toys without BPA, phalates, or lead paint. They also are selling unfinished wooden cars and blocks. Maybe soon we will all have the ability to buy safe toys without expensive catalog ordering?

3. Nick and I gave each other our gifts already. It was funny - we knew what we got, and we both really wanted to have our gifts, so we lasted a few hours and finally just said OK, HAND IT OVER! Our self-control is incredible, I tell ya. Nick got some accessories for his phone that will allow him to put his schedule on there and use his phone as an MP3 player, and I ended up getting a parallel Bible (KJV, Amplified, RSV, NIV together-I love reading the Bible this way!) so far, with something else to come.

4. Sarah, one of my best friends from high school, is in town for Christmas. I don't think we've seen each other since graduation. She and her husband Matt have an adorable baby girl named Sophie. It looks like we're getting together tomorrow! Sarah and I were the main student accompanists for our (award-winning, I might add) concert choir, although Sarah could run circles around me classically. :) Because we were both learning to read all 4 staves of the SATB music, she usually played the women's parts, and I usually played the men's parts - sitting side by side on the bench. We would often smash each other's fingers, or end up all tangled up. I have such fond memories of that, although I remember some tears over accompanying as well. Anyway, excited to see Sarah.

5. Oh. My. Goodness. It is COLD! I'm thankful for boots, gloves, coats, and warm Christmas jammies. The heat has been running so much that we're running a humidifier nonstop and it barely keeps up. It gets dry up here! At least a dry 2 degrees feels better than a humid 2 degrees...right?

6. Maeve wedding this weekend - Tarah's dress turned out beautiful! Here's a sneak peak - thanks, Megan for the pics!


Alrighty, time to go tackle the dishes and house. I figure with Christmas on Thursday, and a half day of work for Nick on Wednesday, we're halfway through a normal Wednesday already this morning. Did you follow that? Ha. Merry Christmas!

Raw Milk Vote

On Obama's website there is a whole list of suggestions people have made--issues for Obama's administration to work on. One of them is to legalize the sale of raw milk. Now, some of you could educate ME on raw milk, but here's what I know:

1. Raw milk contains the enzymes that make digestion easier, pasturization kills these enzymes.
2. There is very little danger (if any!) in drinking raw milk (many people do it every day!) if you get it from places that keep their equipment clean. In fact, the milk itself is somewhat sterilizing, if I understand correctly.
3. Many, many people get around the law by selling "shares" of their animals, in exchange for a certain amount of milk per week. We bought a share for a while after I had to wean Hannah early. So it's actually happening anyway...just not in stores.

Anyway, if you're interested in voting, here's the link. It only needs 111 more votes to make it to the second round...

Um, yuck!

Please tell me this is a joke...

Oh good grief...

Christmas Party

We had our small group Christmas party last night. These are not great pictures, but they actually capture the chaos rather well. :) We did a gift exchange for the kids, and a good time was had by all...with a few minor meltdowns toward the end. :)

wordle.com

Check this out - it creates an image of the most frequently used words in the last page of your blog. Pretty nifty! Interesting to see what I've been talking about most. :P (Click to see it larger)

Weekly Update

Christmas Shoes

I don't feel like doing this today. Not sure why. Maybe I'll figure it out?

1. My Gramma is here this weekend from Southern CA. We've been having fun hanging out and eating out. It's been a long time since we've seen her. Wish Grampa could have come too. She bought the girls their Christmas outfits, and even got me a pair of warm boots. I'm very grateful!

2. We finally got the tree and decorations up this weekend. It feels a lot more like Christmas. Getting the tree up was an adventure in and of itself...the trunk of the tree wouldn't fit in the stand we had, so Nick had to go back to Walmart (a 30-40 minute roundtrip) and get another one. By the time we got it all up, it was...later than I care to admit. The girls were very tired Sunday, as Hannah lately gets up at 7:15 no matter what time she goes to bed. (Why do kids do that?) Like I told one friend, life provides much better material than movies...

3. I keep searching for a bread recipe we can eat. I have another one I'm going to try. It will have to be more like quick bread because of no yeast, which just doesn't have the sandwich bread consistency I wish we could find. Our health food store no longer seems to carry the one brand of bread we could eat, so we're going without. I miss my toast and almond butter - one of my favorite snacks!

4. We had our first real business crisis on Saturday. At what should have been her final fitting, the bride tried on the dress and the seamstress who put the zipper in had made the dress too small to zip up. I looked over at Holly as she was trying to get it to zip and my stomach dropped when I saw the look on her face. This bride's wedding is this coming Saturday. It can and will be fixed in time, but with several hours of work. We usually aim to be finished with gowns a month in advance, but did this dress in two months total, because of their short engagement. Whew. Stress? Just a little. I'm just glad it can be fixed...

5. We have two Christmas parties this week, both with (lots of) kids. I think the goal is at least partially organized chaos...if we hit that for an hour, we have succeeded. :)

6. The cottage across the street from us is for rent again. It is 700 sq ft, 2 bed 1 bath for $600 a month. It has a fenced yard, and looks (from the outside) like they take pretty good care of it. Somebody who's not a weirdo, please come rent this! :)See how cute it is?

OK, I think I'm done for today. Just feeling a little burnt out and tired. Maybe I'll go cuddle my kiddos and watch Little Einsteins for a while... :)

More on Giving Yourself a Break

Another great post I saw today...

Cutting Yourself a Break

David and Becky Grothe, the marriage and family pastors at church, came to our small group to visit last night. We had been wanting some older couples around to encourage us, and they so graciously volunteered to come, even during the busy Christmas season! As we talked with them, I had to ask a question that has been bugging me for months.

"What do you do when you're too tired to be nice anymore?"

Everyone chuckled a bit, as I expected. What parent of young children has not felt that way?

Their response surprised me.

I expected a long speech about asking God for strength, taking a minute to pray, reading your Bible more... What Becky said was to relax the expectations on yourself. She started telling stories about just sprinkling Cheerios on the carpet for her twins to pick up, because they would end up there anyway; about her feeling of shame over her small house and old furniture. She said having peaceful happiness is more important than a clean house. Don't do more house-keeping (or other stuff!) than allows you to be kind and happy with your children.

Then, I opened up my reader today and saw Kim's post about the same thing.

I have been concerned about the habits our children form, based on what they see while growing up. Obviously we don't want to raise our kids thinking it's okay to live like pigs. However, personally, when my kids are grown I would much rather their houses be messy than constantly tense, overworked, unhappy, and tired. Striking the balance between an appropriate level of cleanliness and not overworking ourselves is a tough thing, but I'm grateful for the "permission" to have a messy house. Thoughts?

Noise, Again

More wisdom from Seth Godin today...

I have noticed that when I get the most stressed, feel the most overwhelmed, the most discontent, and am the most mean to my kids (um, yesterday comes to mind-bad afternoon/evening for us); is when I am reading everything I can get my hands on, on the internet. Our brains are not meant to process as much information as is available to us. So how do we make it stop? Do we go on internet fasts? Do we give ourselves time limits (that we will inevitably break)? Do we do away with the internet altogether (not really an option, I don't think)?

Thoughts?

Noise

Love this quote from Seth Godin: "And most of all, get straight on who you are trying to please, and why."

Hebrew vs. Greek Thought

I found this fascinating. Some of it is probably somewhat biased, but it's not intended by the author to be an objective reporting. The things that are most important to know are different between Hebrew thought and Greek thought. Many homeschoolers are moving back toward Hebrew ways of teaching their children, for obvious reasons.

Weekly Update

Story behind this one: the girls played outside yesterday while Nick put the Christmas lights on the house, and when I looked out the window this is what I saw. That's what we get for being too lazy to put the top back on the sandbox during last week's snowstorm...Audrey sure thought this was fun. It was ICY water...she's nuts! :) (Don't worry, I cleaned her up and got her warmed up right after I took this. :)

1. Nick and I got to have a date night last night! It had been nearly three weeks. We like to try for weekly, but we've been missing our piano lesson/babysitting exchange because our babysitter needed to take a break from lessons for the holidays. We split dinner at PF Chang's, and then went to Starbucks and then wandered around Barnes and Noble for a while. It was really nice. I like my husband...a lot. :)

2. Potty Training. Whew. Hannah has continued to resist training, and it's obvious she's ready. Plus she'll be 4 in April. So finally the other night I looked up potty training resistance, and found an entire school of thought on the psychology behind potty training. They say that when it becomes a power struggle (as it has) that the best way to end it is to drop out. Quit talking about it, quit reminding, and just make them clean up the mess (of course that's only their perception - really you help clean up, but make them take off wet pants and put on dry ones). So, we're trying it. They say that since the parents don't control their children's bladder, you have to make the child responsible for it. She really doesn't like having to change her wet pants herself (which is weird because she'll walk around in a wet diaper most of the day if I let her), so at this point she just holds it all day (I still make her go at bedtimes) and has about three BIG accidents. It's been two days. I Guess this is improvement? We'll try it for a week and see how it goes...

3. We had a fitting for Maeve on Saturday. It went really well - the dress is going to be the best one yet! And we got a pleasant surprise last week - a free office! My dad moved his small business out of his basement and into an office space last week, and there is a tiny closet of an office in his suite that he's letting us use for free. It gets us out of Holly's basement, and gives us a place to meet clients. Works for us! From a basement to an office, even a small one, definitely a move up! Final fitting on that gown is next Saturday!

4. Saturday was quite the day for us. After the fitting, I ran home and got the girls down for an early nap, then we went to a late lunch for my brother's birthday. When we got home it was almost time to get ready for the Christmas Tree Lighting. By 8pm I was fried, big time. What do you do when you get too tired to be nice anymore? Ideally, I think we would avoid getting that tired and quit while we're ahead, but there are some days it can't be avoided. I'm really interested in thoughts on this one...

Oh, and we got cute pictures at the Christmas thing, in spite of the bad light in the building...


And it was so fun to see some of our small group friends there! I tried to get pictures of them but none of them turned out.

4. On Thursday my Grandma ("Gramma") arrives to visit from SoCal. I'm excited to see her and to have my kids hang out with her. We're going to drive up to the airport with my mom to pick her up.

5. Finished a shirt for the stuffed bunny last week...hopefully I can get more done this week. It's cute so far!

6. I tried this bread recipe this weekend, in my never-ending quest for bread we can eat. It's not my favorite. It has that sandpapery texture from LOTS of rice flour, and I haven't yet figured out how to keep it from burning in the toaster. One good thing about it - it doesn't get that gooey center that so many GF breads get. Yuck! And it is free of gluten, dairy, soy, egg, and yeast...although all that potato starch isn't the best idea either...

7. Keeping my house clean: I have always appreciated FlyLady, but my complaint has been that my days are never the same. I don't get to go through the same routine every day, and I certainly can't follow a schedule. So, I was reading this the other day, and came upon an idea. What if I could combine the best parts of flylady with her list idea? So, I made a basic daily list for myself. On it I have the things that I need to do each day, along with places to write in two cleaning chores for the day, and a project from my list of projects to be done around here. So, my morning list looks like this currently:
Breakfast
Dishes
Feed Animals
Shower
Dressed
Hair & Makeup
Girls Dressed
Girls Hair
Make Beds
Exercise
Chore:
Chore:
Project:
Then I have some blank lines at the bottom to add more things. (Or else to write down things I've had to do and cross them off to make me feel good...come on, you know you do it too!)

So far this has been working better than anything I've ever tried. Between the kids' needs, I have a hard time staying on task to finish what I need to. When I have a list I can say, "Where was I? Oh yes..." and be right back on task. And, I can tailor it to what I want done the most. Last week my dirty windowsills were bugging me, so working on them with the magic eraser made the list. That would never come up in the flylady daily assignment, and often that assignment either does not need to be done in my house, or it's something that is low on the priority list to me. Without sounding so domestic that it's goofy, I've actually been wearing an apron over my clothes and keeping the list in my pocket. I remember I'm at work (without wearing shoes - another thing I rebel against with flylady :), I have a place to carry things, and my clothes don't get dirty while I clean. Heh...listen to me going on and on. I'm kind of excited about this. Enough about that.

I should probably go get started on my list, come to think of it. This is LONG today... Hope you had a great weekend!

It's Everywhere!

You know how when God is teaching you something, suddenly everywhere you look, there the message happens to be? Came across this today. Read it. It's wonderful.

And then read The Search for Significance.

And then read or listen to The War is Over. (He's on TV, teaching about that right now at like 6 in the morning too.)

And then...well, you missed it. The pastor at the tiny Presbyterian church I play for talked about it a couple weeks ago.

And read Hebrews 9 and 10. And Ephesians.

And listen to Pastor Brady's Sermon on the Older Brother Syndrome.

I'm still not sure what to say, and I've been processing all of these for 6 months. I have spent all of my life as the older brother from the parable, thinking I had to do a list of things in order to be accepted, and still was not. I couldn't understand why life was so hard when I had done everything right. I found myself punishing people around me for their shortcomings, but it was only because of my acute awareness of my own shortcomings. At times, the guilt and shame I had over my sin was almost suffocating. Good thing I never feel into real rebellion - it might have killed me not just spiritually but emotionally and physically too!

I have been and am still being changed from the inside out by the truth of who God is. Jesus' sacrifice is complete - it wiped out all my sin, forever. I am, as Search for Significance says, "Deeply loved, completely forgiven, fully pleasing, totally accepted, and complete in Christ." Truly, I'm in awe of Who God Is. God wants that for all of us. Let's allow Jesus' sacrifice to set us free as He intended, so we can reach out to others with that message. Do it with me. Come on, it'll be fun...and exciting! This is what gives meaning to life...

Audrey Nicole

Hannah's been taking pictures of Audrey, and her smile is so precious that I have to post them!

Thansgiving Dinner

Daddy and his girls

 

 

Snow Pics

Nick said Toby actually had drool icicles. Ha!

Because I would much rather do this than the list of other stuff today...

Bunny and Kitty

 

Here they are - still faceless and clothing-less. :) They are both about 12" from the top of the head to the toe, and the bunny's ears make her a bit longer. The patterns are super cute and easy!

Weekly Update

1. Man, did we get a lot of snow. Somewhere between 18-24". Hard to tell exactly. The thing is, our street is one of the first to get plowed, and our neighbor did our driveway for us, so we went out to run errands tonight anyway. It was nice to get out of the house after being here two days. Yay for our Jeep! And Nick gets to work from home in the morning. :)

2. The Mom Blog is temporarily set to private (only contributors can see it) until we get a name figured out and the site designed. This is shaping up to be a great team of moms! If you'd like to be involved, please let me know! I think it's going to be really great.

3. Thanksgiving was fun around here. We did our meal on Friday, which actually turned out just so-so. My heart wasn't really in large amounts of food for the second day in a row, so I didn't pay attention like I have in the past. The turkey was just a little dry, the green beans undercooked, the stuffing not good at all...oh well. We ate it anyway, and it was nice to have all the leftovers. I'm going to make turkey pot pie with some of the turkey this week - yummy!

4. I finally figured out the gluten free sourdough bread! Unfortunately, the yeast still seems to upset Hannah and my stomachs. (Somebody tell me how to fix the grammar in that sentence...SaraW?) Anyway, anyone who wants the info about it, feel free to email or comment and I'll get it to ya.

5. Thursday night we came home to the biggest disaster of a house I think I've ever seen. It was just the way we left it. Honestly, I sat down on my kitchen stool and cried. After I was done doing that, Nick decided he would take over doing the dishes. He has done them all weekend, and I have been so amazed at the difference. I actually have time to get to other things! Thanks so much, hon. We're also more actively working with the kids to train them to pick up after themselves. This will obviously be a long process, but we needed a course correction, and we're correcting.

6. The girls and I made a paper chain yesterday, to entertain ourselves. I bought some glue sticks and cut strips of construction paper. You'd think I had created the coolest project ever. :) We hung it in front of our living room window, and the girls keep looking at it and talking about it.

7. I found some free patterns online for stuffed animals, and finished the animals this week. Now I just need to embroider their faces and make them some clothes. I also found these little plastic rings and some really soft fabric, perfect for making little ring slings for the girls to carry their dolls in. Yay for Christmas presents that cost...oh...less than $5? :)

8. Welcome to December!!!!