Music and Munchies...there's nothing sweeter

 This morning Emma had a cough so I kept her in bed to take it easy.  I know it was just a little cough...she didn't have a fever or anything (well I guess she did have a touch of a stuffy nose) but to tell you the God's honest truth I am terrified of any of my children getting H1N1 and dying.  I know that sounds extreme but, show up with a little cough and I am putting you in bed.  Just be warned :)

 Anyway, I had a doctor's appointment this afternoon so cough or no cough, the kids had to go to their art classes.  Before we left though we stopped to have a little jam session...Emma on the electric guitar and Cal on the drums.  They got really hot and heavy into it when I went out to warm up the car. When I came back in you would have thought they were acoustically torturing something :)

 two, three, four...In case your noticing, yes I still have the price tag on our drums...don't judge  :)

 And Emma on the guitar..strumming away on the stand, silly girl.  She had to squeeze in next to all of the cookies we are selling for Girl Scouts :)

Anyway, as mentioned earlier I had a doctor's appointment.  It was my annual exam..."the lady one" as my husband says :)  I hate those appointments, don't you?  I have no earthly reason why but the week coming  up to it I am terrified for no apparent reason. I think I am always scared they are going to find breast cancer or ovarian cancer, or tell me I have a week to live.  Something awful like that.  But no lumps were found and no one said "ewww" when the sheet was lifted so I think up to this point I am in the clear :)

In honor of that I picked the little goofies up from art and then proceeded to snuggle up with a chocolate piece, a giant cup of coffee, and a teachers catalog.  A successful appointment calls for a little celebration right?  And besides they might call tomorrow with news of the death outcome so I'd guess I'd better enjoy things while I can, right?  :)

Seize the day, folks, seize the day!

Just Another Manic Monday...

Well it's 8:30 here on Monday morning and the kiddos are still sleeping.  Yes I know I should wake them up, but if they are sleeping their little bodies must need the rest, right?  I'm going with that...

As I struggle to wake them up I thought I would give a little update on what we were up to last week and still are :)  

 This is Frank.  He's our new tape dispenser.  Cute, right?

 This is our my method of sharpening all of the oodles of pencils we go through.  I think it might be time to invest in an electric pencil sharpener.

 Last week when we had the snow bonanze come through we were treated to an ice show on our windows.  So beautiful to see God's patterns and designs in our lives.

 This was one of those weeks that we didn't get through as much as we should have.  So I'm trying really hard to not freak out about it like I usually do.

 Emma's cursive.   While it's still a little too up and down for cursive, she is doing amazing with it!!!  I had oodles and oodles of people ask me how she does with this so I thought I'd give an update!  Here she is writing out her spelling words.  

 After we read our history lesson I will often have Emma narrate it back to me, I'll write it out and then she copies it.  Which is what we had done here.  I love her interpretation of the 95 theses of Martin Luther.  "You don't have to do a bunch of funny stuff to have God love you."  Amen sister!

Emma's Math!  Grrr!  This girl is phenomenal at math but HATES doing it.  It definitely is a weird combination but I'm happy she is good at it.

Hope you all have a Happy Monday!!!! :)

Mommy's Back to School Shopping

I am so thankful for a husband who believes that the teaching Momma needs supplies too.  So in addition to the crayons, markers, notebooks, and gym shoes, I got some things too!


Nick bought me this cup at the Henry Ford Museum.  I  really do love history so this is the absolute best mug for me.  It was the last one and I was over the moon to be able to snatch it up!  I still can't tell if Nick got it for me to tease me or not, but I love it either way.

He also treated me to these beauties!  They are  Crocs!  So comfy!  I love that I can wear them with jeans and only the toes show and they just look like shoes.  But they are cozy and light enough to just wear around the house.  Perfect for me staying home and running out around town.  Plus they are the navy and pink I love!  

Last but not least I wore my new necklace Nick bought for me on our Anniversary trip.  It's a bubble necklace and I love it!  The colors are all the jewel tones of fall!  

So those were the things I looked forward to yesterday on our first day of school...it was hard to get up at 4 in the morning!  But it was worth it to get myself around, get dinner in the crockpot, laundry in the machine, and feel ready to go by the time I had to wake the littles.  

A Saturday Morning Retreat

Happy Labor Day to you all!  

We are camping the great wide unknown of Michigan this week.  Hope you all are enjoying time with your family!  

This past weekend I had to get ready for camping.  Camping for my first time to be more precise.  It was Cray-Z-ness!  

Saturday morning I was knee deep in about 8 loads of laundry, trying to make lists of items we would need, and suddenly I realized that the Pioneer Woman was about to come on.  

Screech to a halt the madness.  

I needed this.  

 So I ran upstairs to my haven...our bedroom...doesn't it look serene?

 I got some iced coffee...

 And scrounged around for the muffin I had gotten in Nashville, Indiana the week before and had managed to hide from the masses...

And sat in front of our teeny-tiny television to watch the show...

Ahh, heaven.  I was alone for an entire half hour while the children were downstairs doing their thing.  I don't think they even knew I was gone :)

May you find a soft place to hide and rest and destress amidst the craziness of life, sweet friends!

Our Weekend

As I mentioned in the last post, this weekend we celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary!  So exciting!!!  But I think what may have been even more exciting was...

 The finding of the old legos!    Nick has been asking his mom for the past three years to look for the legos he had when he was a kid.  They are in Portland on vacation right now so he seized the opportunity and stormed their basement for his toys.  He said he found them in about half an hour.  Three years of waiting for these makes for some very, very exciting children!

 How cute are these vintage legos?

 The kids have been having so much fun with them!  His mom kept the boxes and instructions and everything...they are so cute and fun!

 Our little boy is in heaven!  Sunday Nick sent me out for milk after supper and when I got back this was here...

 A wedding cake!  A real, live wedding cake!  In eloping we didn't have one and Nick surprised me with having this made!  A cake for 30 people for the four of us makes for a lot of leftover cake!  He remembered  the cake I had planned for our wedding, the color and everything...isn't he just the sweetest thing ever?

I was so shocked and I am so in love with him!

Awful picture but after cake Emma thought dancing was appropriate. Aren't they just adorable?

So those were the parts of our weekend you hadn't heard about yet.  I'm loving our life! Up next is our anniversary get away!  Packing and cleaning and preparing for that.   :)

10-year Anniversary!

 10 years ago we stood on a grassy shoreline shadowed by Diamond Head and said simple words with eternal meaning...

 10 years ago I had the privilege and honor of marrying this man (swoon!)

 10 years ago I was a young 21 year old woman with no clue on how to be a wife, but Nick loved me anyway :)

 Fastforward 10 years to this...our family.  Our mission in life that God has given us.  We feel so blessed by God for this life He has given us.  A life that 10 years ago would have taken my breath away and still does...it all is just better than I could have possibly imagined.

And 10 years later we have this kind of love.  We fight and make up every day.  We joke, we stay tease.  We tickle, we poke.  And last night after 10 years of marriage we still stayed up all night talking.  About everything.  About nothing.

Still so in love.  In love more than I ever could have dreamed.  Thank you so much Nicholas for making me your wife.  For leading our family in your calm and gently manner that is so characteristic of you.  You are the man God made for me and I love reminiscing on my favorite quote ever that you said: "You can''t thank me for being with you.  I didn't choose to be with you.  I'm stuck with you.  And you with me.  God made us for one another and that's that."

I'll be stuck with you anyday, Wit!  Till death and then beyond!  :)  Love you!

The Ugly Side of the Classroom

I've been reading this book called

"No More Perfect Moms"

by Jill Savage which encourages Moms to be real with one another and to dispel the myth that we need to have it all together to be a good mom.

In going along with that I thought I would be totally legit and show you how my homeschool room looked sans cleaning.  Yikes, it's embarrassing and part of my feels crazy showing you this.

My friend Heather came over the other day and our house was trashed.  I mean, horrid, horrid trashed!!  But I bit the bullet and had her over without cleaning anything.  Part of me was mortified.  The other part just tried to laugh it off and explain this is what our life is really like.  She laughed with me and said it made her feel better about her house and made her think that maybe I'm not as perfect as I seem.  I was shocked...

me?  perfect!  Ha! 

But apparently I somehow exude that in areas of my life and I don't want to seem that way at all.  I don't want to make other Mama's feel bad about themselves by how I run our home.

So anyway, there's a little background in deciding to show you what is really going on around here...

 junk!  Wow!  A random shoe, clothes for Goodwill, Storage containers, school supplies purchased for this room.  Wow, wow, wow.  This is at the top of the stairs so this has become a veritable dumping grounds over the summer.

 Eek!  A broken plate, a no longer used computer monitor, stacked books, junk, junk, junk!

 A nice cleaned off desk with iced coffee is the calm in the storm I guess.  Yeesh.  The kiddos have been having friends over this summer and they love to play school which has caused most of this.

 Just utter chaos to me.

 This are is our reading corner.  It is tucked behind the stairs in a dormer and the reading corner is just about the only thing this area could be.  I had tried a matress in this area but couldn't find one that fit just right so we had extra blankets folded up there to make a cushion.  It actually worked really well, was comfy and basically was a way to store all of the extra comforters and bedspreads I wasn't using.  Well this summer when the power was our for four days I forgot I had washed Emma's Hello Kitty bedspread and it stayed in the washing machine for 4 days.  Uh, it was so disgusting I had to send it to my Mother in law for remidiation and in the meantime I had to pull this thing apart to find an old purple comforter I had for her to use.  While I was in there I found a long lost duvet cover I had been looking for for Cal's bed.  Anywho, long story short, this is the finishing product of me running up to grab things...now it needs put back together after washing everything.

This may be the saddest part of all...my desk.  Skewed lampshades and empty glasses around pretty much sums it up.  

So this is the long and short of the horrid looking room.  I figured that if I showed you this room 1) you would see if you ever did think I was perfect that you are wrong :)  and 2) this can serve as a sort of incentive for getting it in tip top shape.  :) After I took the pictures we got to cleaning and it is already looking better even.  

I'll be sure to post the after pictures so you can see what it looks like for real.  And if I can ever figure it out I will try to make a video tour of our classroom to show you around a bit...I'd love to show you how I store things and what I have.  I get so many questions about stuff like that so I'll try to figure it out :)  

Pardon Our Mess...

Monday night is when we take the kids to my mom and dad's and then we go out for grocery shopping/date time.  Monday night we went to a little local burger joint on the river.  We sat outside, had our meal and a beer, then went on our way.  It seemed so peaceful.  We then went to Target.  We had heard during the drive there about some rain coming.  No biggie it seemed.  When we were in Target we could hear the thunder and the rain and it did seem to be raining pretty hard but by the time we got out (I got some killer clearance curtains by the way!) it was barely drizzling.  We went to get the kiddos at my parents house.  As it turned out my parents had had a power surge and the fire department was checking it out as a precaution.  

If only that had been the only excitement that night...

A couple blocks from our house I noticed it seemed awfully dark.  Then we came to an intersection where the light wasn't working so we knew there was no power.  When we came to turn on our street police tape stopped us.  

Uh-oh.  

It was terrifying knowing something had gone on but it was so dark we couldn't see what it was.  All we could really do was pray.   In the morning this is what we saw.  You'll forgive me if some of these pictures are hard to make out...

Here's a tree lying over our street.  Squashed two cars.  Our neighbors house is on the right hand side of the picture.  The tree was 4 feet from his windows.  

 There's a squashed Mercedes in there somewhere...

 Here's my 6 foot 4 inch husband next to the root system of the upheaved tree.  He's not yelling by the way :)

 This branch is lying on our roof which you can partially see in the right corner.  The power lines look all helter skelter because the branch basically scooped them up in two different places and twisted them all around.

Here's our tree in the back of the house snapped in half.  Yikes.  

 We don't know the progression but we think our tree snapped this electric pole in half.  When our tree came down it grabbed up everyone's wires and then ripped everyone's meter boxes off of their houses.  Just lovely.

We live in a Nationally Registered Historic district which means everything is really old and really close together.  Our block is a triangle block where all of our backyards touch.  To have these huge trees come down and have no one hurt is just amazing to me.  God's hand was definitely on our house.  Nick was just shaking his head saying the tree behind our house defied gravity and defied physics by not falling into our house.  But that's how God rolls.

All of this happened Monday and it is now Sunday.  We were without power until Thursday when it came back on (thank the Lord!).  We still have some huge chunks of wood to get rid of but other than that we are business as usual here.

Now I just have piles of laundry to catch up on.  I'll take that any day though :)

Hope you all survived the storms safely!  God is good, all of the time!

5 AM

This morning I woke up at 5 am to make cookies for an event because I forgot to last night. 

Nothing like starting the day trying to get caught up with junk you forgot to do, right? 

But in the quiet minutes of waiting for cookies to bake, I sit and have the quiet time. 

Be still and know that I am God...

So often I take these tasks of motherhood as that, tasks. 

I make them into these dumb, mundane jobs that have to be done.  Nothing fun about them, right?

And when I think of it that way, life seems to become lackluster. 

Be still...

And in the stillness I pray...

And I feel the tension melt away.  He restores my soul, quite literally and I can see through my blessings glasses this life I was given. 

So rather than: We have this dumb party.  Yeah.  Up making stupid cookies.  Who cares.  This is so pointless. 

I am choosing to think: I get to go to Emma's Christmas party with her!  It will be so fun to see her with all of her little friends, celebrating together.  I'm going to make special cookies for her special day  so she will know she can always count on me. 

I'm choosing to think this way because 1) if I don't I may just lose my mind.  and 2) Because I've made the commitment to step up to the plate when I am stressed/tired/fatigued and/or grumpy and boldly come before the throne and be straight up with God.  I cannot do this alone.  I need your help.  I need your power. 

And he delivers.  Of course he delivers!  He is God for crying out loud!!! And in the stillness I know that.  I know that He's here to help.  I am not alone. 

And I am aware of all he has blessed me with. 

What are your blessings today?  Do you have your blessing-glasses on or are you muddling through life griping about all you have to do? 

A little shift in perspective can turn your whole world around friends. 

Happy Friday!  My love you you all :)

A Perfect Autumn Afternoon

Isn't it nice on those rare days when the stars align and you somehow find yourself in the ideal situation: a house full of new books to explore, a quiet afternoon to relax, and a fresh pot of coffee all to yourself.  

I think that is just about the closest thing to heaven.  

 Fresh from the library, I managed to coerce the children to read quietly while I flew through the adult section, frantically throwing books into my library bags...these are what I managed to come away with.  I threw my coffee in there for effect...you want to be here with me, don't you?  Snuggling under down comforters on either end of the couch and showing each other neat-o ideas we find in the books.  So fun!  Come on over...

 I've gotta tell 'ya, I am not much of a fiction reader.  I absolutely adore The Mitford Series and read those repeatedly.  Other than that I am not too much into the stories.  I seem to find myself gravitating to books on organizing, cleaning, cooking, and all things Christmas.

 This is one of the books that I absolutely adore.  It's "The Farm Chick's Christmas".  You can check it out here.    The book has so many ideas for decorating and cooking and gift giving.  And the pictures are gorgeous.  It's just fun, ya know?

 Here are some of the pictures...

 And this one...this looks like the easiest thing in the world but so stinkin' cute.

 And an old typewriter with a festive Christmas message.  See?  It's so fun!  Go out and buy this book!  Borrow it from your local library...do something to get this book!!!!

Can't wait to crack this book open.  Those are cake pops on the front...how adorable do those look?

So that's how I'll be spending the afternoon.  I hope you can find some time to sneak away and enjoy a yummy cup of coffee and a stack of good books.

Enough is Enough

Sometimes I think I am becoming obsessed with the computer...does anyone else ever feel this way?  Surely it can't just be me.

In this day and age (gosh I sound like old people) with the computer such a part of our lives, it becomes so easy to just wile a day away in front of the laptop. 

I am lowering my head in shame and raising my hand to tell you, I am guilty of this. 

Well, not a whole day. 

But some of it. 

I was the woman/wife/mother/girl who would sit down on the couch with the computer to "check facebook/yahoo/blog/plan lessons" do something and before I knew it the entire afternoon would be gone.  An entire naptime of the children's had suddenly disappeared and I had nothing to show for it. 

Before we went on vacation I was doing this a lot. 

I didn't realize it until during vacation when I was unplugged.  I remember I saw the laptop in the hotel room and instantly thought "I HAVE to check facebook".  But then I stopped. 

No I don't.  There is no earthly reason why I HAD to check it.  No one was trying to get a hold of me.  I was not a part of anything that needed tending. 

And so I didn't.  It felt Mauvelous! 

The week and a half that we were gone really helped me get over me dependency on the computer.  Today I am sitting down to write this, keeping an eye on the clock to see when the 15 minutes I've alloted myself is over. 

And I am going to try to keep this up.  Because truth be told, no matter how lonely and without adult interaction I may feel during the day, facebook checking isn't going to solve anything.  Neither will pinteresting. 

If anything it was making me kind of jealous of people.  And not in a way of "oh I wish I had those shoes" kind of way.  But in a weird, back door way.  Like, if someone posted something they did with their kids that was fun, I would suddenly be envious of so-and-so that she always comes up with the most creative ways to spend time with her family while I always have to copy people.  Ugh, I want to be like that I moan, and then I look some more.  And then so and so is talking about how their husband is amazing and then I secretly wish MY husband was amazing (which he already is, duh!)

If I see someone on Pinterest posting things, I secretly wonder how they even FIND the neat things to post on pinterest and then I wish that I had that much time to search for things and wish my brain would think of the right search words to type in that generated those things to re-pin. 

In short, I completely understand if you now think I am out of my mind nuts, but I am guessing there are a few of you who completely understand what I am saying here. 

Over our time away I realized that I don't need to want someone else's creativity or cute boots or dorky awesome husband, or anything else anyone has.  Because I have what God gave me.  He's pretty great you know, and looking around I see that I have it pretty great too. 

So I guess what I am trying to say is that I am going to try to stop living up to the expectations I put on myself by idolizing what everyone else has or does on the computer.  I am going to do that by not spending so much time on the computer.  Which in turn will help me to have more time around the house and get things done and use my brain to be crafty awesome in my own right which will in turn help me to be happy with myself. 

It's a full circle around here, folks.  Full Circle. 

Our Monthly Grocery Shopping Trip

Well I think I've mentioned it in passing.  We've talked about it.  But I thought that I would finally write and tell you all about our monthly shopping trip. 

 

We started this at the beginning of the year.  When food prices were jumping and that horrid business of that gross pink stuff being in your ground beef came up. 

 

There had to be a better way. 

 

Just had to Jerry.  Just had to. 

 

We are HUGE proponents of shopping local.  We love it.  We live it.  We try our best.  But we live in a big city.  One where fresh food doesn't just jump out at us.  Sure we have Farmer's Markets but not a lot of people hacking up cows for us to buy. 

 

So we decided to visit the Amish.  Or the Amo's as I like to call them :) 

 

Please understand that this is not a "run out and grab something" kind of trip.  For us, this is an all day trip.  One that means we are driving a lot.  We try to make the most of it...meaning we do our best to arrange our shopping on a day when Nick's mom can take the kids.  It's just a lot of shopping for them.  What kid wants to go grocery shopping?  Let alone a trip where you are shopping for nothing but groceries at several stores that require a lot of driving. 

 

I've had people ask me this so I think it's only right...we do go shopping other times.  But we do this shopping at the beginning of the month (or preferably at the end of the previous month) so we're ready to rock and roll.  In this shopping trip we are getting the main portion of our groceries.  Think frozen foods, meats and cheeses that can be put in the freezer, canned goods, and cleaning supplies.  We also buy some produce but just for the week we are in.  Every week we still run out and spend about $20.00 on fresh fruits and veggies, milk, and oj.  But this monthly shopping makes things so much cheaper and easier.  I can somewhat plan for a month of cooking based on what is in my freezer.  And it is so easy to break out the stand mixer and make something with the kiddos on a rainy day if I know I have a huge stash of baking supplies ready and waiting. 

 

So onto our trip...

 

The first store we always go to is Rentown.  Sorry I forgot to take pictures.  It's between Bremen and Nappanee if you need to get there.  There are signs...drive around and I'm sure you'll find it :)

 

They have cheese and other products but the thing we go there for the most is cheese.  Is it worth it you ask?  Well, here's my thinking.  They usually have at least 2 or 3 cheeses on sale for 1.99 per pound.  That's cheaper than the kraft bags you buy and those are 8 ounces if you are lucky!  So trust me on this, it is worth it.  Things I also like to buy there are brown eggs (usually on sale for .99 a dozen), butter (1.99 a pound), peanut butter (10.00 for 6 pounds).  Nick really likes their ham salad and german bologna if you are lost in everything that they have to offer.  They also sell Lehman's mints that are our FAVORITE!!!   and they are a pretty good price.  In these stores you have to look at EVERYTHING!!!  They are always changing prices.  Sometimes you'll get a good deal here on one thing...other times it's best to just let it go.  Also, they have mixes of all kinds of stuff.  While I've never tried too many of them, I do get their cake donut and raised donut mixes.  My one key tip is to get the pamphlet on the shelf with it about how to use it.  Otherwise it's a little hard to figure out! 

 

We usually grab a soda and a snack and then settle in for our drive to...

 

 

 Martin's Butcher in Wakarusa.  This is off of 19 and again, there's a big sign.  This is the front of the butcher...

 And here's the back of the butcher.  See?  I told you...fresh.  :)  Just don't think about it!

 Here are some pictures of the price boards.  I am in no means saying that they have the cheapest prices in the world, but I am saying that they are VERY comparable to the super market.  But here you are getting grain fed beef, that is local and without chemicals.  And trust me, the taste is amazing!  There is definitely a difference.  If you decide to come here all of the time because you love it, you can pick up their business card.  It has an email address and you can email them your order so it will be ready for you...easy-peasy!

 I love stores that without appology's serve our King.  Love!

 While on this jaunt we see a lot of buggy's.  I love the Amish people and their simple ways of life. 

 They have the biggest gardens!  I love these flowers!

 I took this picture as Nick was driving about 70 miles down the highway, so I missed the house that the other side of the clothesline is hooked up to.  A pretty impressive system if you ask me :)

After driving we arrive in a whole new county!  In Shipshewana!  Here's the flea market

I love how you drive a while from home and you find different kinds of houses...cabins...whatever

Shipshewana has charming little shops all clustered together...love that!

I love tree canopied little places to walk between buildings...so secretive and fun.

In Shipshewana we go to this place, E & S Bulk foods.  We LOVE this place!

Throughout the entire store there are these little toys up on shelves above that they collect...so cute and nostalgic.

Check out the truck with the boat pull along behind Nick.  Here you can see Nick checking out the bulk foods.  I didn't take any other pictures inside because there were Amish everywhere!  And Amish people do not like having their pictures taken.  So out of respect I didn't pull the camera out anymore.  If you go to E & S, you need to know that you never know what you are going to find.  This time I didn't find everything that I was looking for.  Last month I found a case of greek yogurt for $3.00. I think it made it .17 a container!  For a long time they had Starbuck's coffee for $3.78 a bag!  Can you believe it???  This was the first month they didn't have any, and I gotta tell you, my heart sunk a little.  But oh, well.  That's the name of this game.  Maybe sometime they'll have it again...

On the way to go get the kiddos from Nick's mom we stop at this place that sells eggs.  It's the back of an Amish Family's house.  See the cute sign?

Here are those hard working chickens!  The first time we went here it kind of scared me to go here...I didn't want to just walk into someone's house!  But it's okay.  They have a little room with eggs, money, and cartons.  You just fill up however many cartons you want.  Then you pay on an honor system and write how many you are buying...they have scratch paper for math which I think is super cute!

Here's my husband filling up our cartons.  They have honey and other things too.  I love this because it so exemplifies a Proverb's 31 woman.  This sweet amish woman is selling eggs and honey on the side to help her family.  How awesome!

And this has nothing to do with anything except that I'm still trying to figure out the new camera...eek!  Boy do I love this man!  So glad I get to be his girlfriend.  He's so cute!  He'd look super tough if he could ever manage to not have a little smirk on those big lips :)

 

So there it is.  If you have any questions I didn't answer, feel free to ask!  I'd love to help with whatever you need :)

A New Me, Technelogically Speaking

This weekend Nick did something weird. 

Out of the ordinary. 

For him at least. 

Phenomenal. 

Can you tell I am still a little shocked? 

This weekend he went out and bought me a new laptop!  Eek! 

And not just a new laptop, but a new camera too! 

A Canon Rebel t3i to be exact. 

I am in love!  With Nick and with the fun new products! 

I have to feel bad about getting such nice new things, but they were definitely needed.  Our laptop is about 5 years old and was progressing to go down hill...fast!  It was taking me half an hour to get to one website...needless to say, if you have bee wondering why I haven't blogged much in the previous months, this is your reason right here. 

Our camera has always been a point and shoot.  And I've always felt kind of weird not having a better camera.  I could take the kids pictures for so many things if I had a nicer camera.  My pictures from here would look so much better.  But I never could justify it...in a way I still am having a hard time with it.  But it was a gift and our point and shoot has just died.  Of course it is right outside of the warranty period but the camera has a lovely dark grey blur in the picture.  Nice.  The repair on it was going to be more than just buying a new camera.  So Nick decided to upgrade me. 

Isn't he so sweet? 

He's been laughing all weekend that he didn't buy me a new camera, he bought me a new hobby.  And I think he might be right! 

So watch out world...this lady' got a new camera and a new laptop...trouble is sure to ensue!

Our Lord's Day

Greetings everyone!  I know I have been but a distant memory to ya'll lately.  Life has been so crazy busy.  So crazy busy that I've neglected to even be taking pictures of my kiddos. 

Do you ever get into one of those slumps? 

It all just seems so boring and mundane that I think "there's nothing to even take a picture of" and "boring, people, this is all so boring". 

But then it hit me one day that I am simply letting life pass me by, for it is in the small and simple moments that our life is formed and created.  And I know that one of these soft days I will look back and wish I had cared more about what was going on...that I would have stopped and breathed it in, and memorized every aspect.  For one day it will be gone. 

Today is one of those days I hope I never, ever forget.  Not that it was anything special or anything particulary momentous occured.  But rather it was a simple Sunday.  A day to rest and rejunvenate our souls as the Lord commands us to do. 

So here are some of the things that happened here during our Lord's day:

Napping.  Lots and lots of napping.  Isn't the feeling you have when you wake up from a nap transplendent?  I just don't think there's anything better than a good ole' Sunday afternoon nap. 

This little guy insisted he didn't need a nap.  Apparently he surrendered in a losing battle.  This picture will always and forever make me want to scoop him up and cuddle him.  And then tuck him in. 

Here I am...Happy in the Lord!  Sunday afternoons when we come home from church we change into our sweaties and I put my hair into a ponytail.  There's nothing better than changing out of Sunday morning pantyhose into nice warm sweat pants and thick socks...except maybe a nap.  :)

I always try to make a big dinner for our Sunday Supper.  Something that has to cook a long time in a big pot.  Tonight it was Chicken Cacciatore with crusty bread.  I was worried the kiddos wouldn't like it...

But it was a hit!

 Our Lord's Day also involved making a lot of Star Wars Lego creations and just spending time as a family.  I hope you are rested and rejuvenated after this Sunday as well.  May the Lord fill your hearts and spirits with new energy for the coming week. 

God Bless You All!