Confession Thursday: Coffee

I love coffee. I love it way way to much and have consumed entirely to much in the last 11 weeks but man it's good. It all started when I was 16 but then there wasn't a big craze like now, we didn't have Starbucks on every corner and I had never heard of a cappuccino. Fast forward 15 years later and I am all about Starbucks it is a treat for me. I drop the kids off at Mother's day out and get me a big 'ole caramel macchiato or white chocolate mocha. I really do have to use self control because I could easily drink more than one. I need to join a CAA( Coffee Addicts Anonymous) group. I do think when I get to heaven God will greet me with a huge coffee and remind me all the calories won't be going to my hips anymore.

Snow Snow Snow!

yes Micah wears pink

She was a girl in love

She was 20 and beautiful. She loved music and poetry. A very quiet and introverted girl and very much in love with love. She awaited the arrival of her Prince and had him all picked out. The tall, dark, and handsome type with chocolate colored hair and eyes. She got swept away in dreams of him for she knew one day he would arrive and take her away. Many often wondered what was so bad she needed to escape. She prayed and prayed for her Prince. She knew he was out there. One day she finally spotted him only to her surprise he was not what she had picked for herself. He was not tall and his hair and eyes were not the color of chocolate. Her prince was a fine looking follow from many miles away. He was short and had hair the color of night and steel blue eyes. He had the most beautiful heart she had ever known. A great love for his Savior and a great love for her and when asked if she would come be his princess she went without hesitation.

1 Samuel 16:7
But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

Amazon Gift Card DEAL!

Living Social a site similar to groupon is having a special for a $20 Amazon.com Gift card for only $10 combine this with your Swagbuck Amazon GC's and think of the possibilities! I love a good deal and this one is WAY to good to pass up. Just like that I have given you a few of my favorite websites :D

Meal Plan Tuesday

I am behind what else is new right? Seriously I think this has been the roughest weekend we've spent as a family in quite some time so it is no wonder I haven't gotten much done. I must say I love allyou and the allyou website. They have a meal plan 1 list 5 meals on their website you can get and download the shopping list. It is so easy and the recipes are simple and usually cheap and tasty which is a must. I like that most of the recipes I used last week had a lot of things that a kitchen normally has so you didn't have to buy a whole lot. My total shopping list including this list totaled $117 now that total included all my other items I needed for the week as well like baby items, toiletries, etc. and I didn't use coupons so that made me pretty happy. I am sticking to once a week or twice a week budgeting for groceries as I think it works better for our family. I am also keeping a log to help me keep track and see where things are going. I am almost at the point where I am ready to go to the envelope system but I haven't made it totally out of my comfort zone yet.

So knowing it is Tuesday already my meal plan for this week looks sort of like this.
Tuesday-Chicken and Brocolli soup since we are still fighting flu around here :(
Wednesday- Pork Loin from the Allyou website
Thursday- Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
Friday- Beef Stew and Cornbread
Saturday- If everyone is feeling well we will have breakfast. Pancakes, Eggs, Bacon such a treat!

As soon as I commit to something

It goes out the window. Friday met us with Micah coming down with a tummy illness, Saturday I got it, Sunday Kerith came down with it and Titus started having congestion and cough all the while Grace and Jonah started to come down with the croupy coughs,runny noses etc. the only well one in the house this weekend has been Eric. These are the times where living close to family is sorely missed. I sure would of loved to call up my Mom or Dad and say hey can make a trip to the store for me. These times always make me thankful for the time I do have with my family and also thankful that I have a very wonderful husband who takes care of everything while I am unable to. I spent around 18 hours in bed door closed something I haven't done in ages, I knew in order for me to stop the madness I needed to get rest and try to get liquids to stay down. Here it is Monday things are finally on the upswing I think, I hope, I pray. It was a holiday weekend we had hoped to spend some quality family time together and I guess we did just with some lovely unwelcome visitors who we hope don't come back for a long while.

Old McDonalds

I always thought Old McDonald had a farm e-i-e-i-o according to Jonah it is a place to eat. On Thursday Titus had his well baby visit and the other kids got to tag a long which has led to Micah having a stomach virus but that is another story. I am so easily distracted. Jonah was well behaved and it was lunch time so I took him to get a happy meal something we rarely do and he was SO SO excited. When Eric got home from work Jonah exclaimed "Dad Mom took me to Old McDonalds today!" we have been trying to correct him but he will not have it. It's Old McDonalds to him. This is also the child who only loves his Mother on Monday,Tuesday, and Fridays and just told me he wants to watch the weather. I really look forward to watching him grow up his four year old philosophies are very interesting.

Confession Thursday: Coupons

Thursday's have now been dubbed Confession Thursday but I am sure you realized that :D. I have to tell you I haven't used coupons in quite some time and have felt a lot of guilt because of it. I subscribe to many coupon blogs, websites, and clipping services and read how these ladies are spending $15 for $150 worth of food. It does happen and I have learned all the tools to make it happen for my own family and I really thought I was failing until I started to put two and two together and realized a couple things. 1) I really don't enjoy coupons all that much except for the products we actually use which isn't much since I cook a lot from scratch. 2) I will never be a saving tons off my grocery bill because I don't have a store that doubles coupons over .40 cents. The ladies I have read about have stores that double coupons up to a dollar and some even triple! I am ok with never being a super saver because you know what I am doing my best for my family. If I am only able to save $10 off my grocery bill at one trip to Super Walmart IT IS OK! I need to repeat this IT IS OK! I have a tendency to do way to much then feel guilty when I don't accomplish much. We are working on that this year(we as in Eric is helping me). I love when my husband is proud of even the little bit of savings like $10 off our Walmart visit it gives me the warm and fuzzy feelings. He is also helpful in letting me know that he would rather I spend my few hours I have while the kids are in school doing something I enjoy like soap making or card making rather than focusing on going to several different grocery stores to spend a little less. I married an angel I tell ya but that is a different post. So if he is ok with it I should be as well but again I am the queen of I can do it all syndrome but God isn't finished with me quite yet praise the Lord!

Me and my mind...

I love the days when I send Grace off to Kindergarten and Jonah, Micah, and Kerith off to Mother's day out. I have 5 hours of time just with myself, well not really Titus is here too but he doesn't say much. This week I have been so grateful for the time I've had since I am fighting this cold sore throat thing. On my drive home from dropping off the kids this morning I had all these great thoughts on what to write about but some where between turning onto our street and pulling in our driveway I lost all my thoughts. I hope on the drive to pick the kids up my thoughts will return to me. I have this issue with grocery lists as well. I can make a list in my mind at 2 am but as soon as I have pen and paper in my hand everything is out of the brain. So because I am apparently brain dead this afternoon I am going to take a nap and hope something comes back to me.

Snow

I love snow. This morning we woke up to a blanket of white and I took Jonah, Micah and Kerith out to play. Our play time did not last long as the wind started to whip up making the wind chills in the single digits and the kids got cold. We came in and enjoyed some hot cocoa.

Titus eight weeks!

Fun Photos

I'm sick today so my blogging will be posting some of my favorite photos of our Christmas trip to Texas.

The Sisters. Mine of course ;)

 A rare smile caught on camera.

 Can you tell Jonah loves his Paw-Paw?

The Thanksgiving Miracle

I know God does things for certain reasons and when Jake went missing I wasn't sure what his reason might be. My pets are one step down from being a child in my house and Jake is one of my best buddies. So the day he went missing I was in a panic and sad the weeks that followed. I asked people to pray and many replied to have hope that he just may turn up on your doorstep one day. I scoffed in my mind at those comments I mean seriously Jake would just come home without any help? In my mind I was saying "Yeah right!". In Church the sermon series was on prayer and one of the sermons they brought up the acronym PUSH(Pray Until Something Happens) so Eric, I and the kids prayed before bed that Jake would come home.  The week he went missing the weather was very Spring like and we actually had bad storms and tornadoes and all I could think about was that Jake was out there a lone. We put up flyers, asked neighbors, talked to local vets and checked the pet shelters and nothing. No calls, no information, nothing. I was positive Jake would never be found and my heart was broken.

A week after Titus was born it was an overcast damp day. I had just come back inside from getting the mail when a few minutes later I heard scratching at the door. My first thought was that Bo or Taylor had followed me out and I hadn't noticed. I glanced out the window and there he was, it was Jake! He was skinny but clean and SO happy to see everyone. I was in disbelief and I cried. There is now a joke that surrounds my reaction to Jake coming home. I never cry at the important events in my life such as my on my wedding day or the birth of my children but I cried the day Jake came home. I am not sure why. I think it has a lot to do with what God was doing in my spiritual life in showing me how much unbelief I had hidden in my heart. Much like my experience after I  miscarried. I had so much doubt in my grief. So much mistrust. I knew God could bring Jake back if he chose to but I didn't know if he would. Just like after I lost my baby I knew God could help me conceive and have a child again but didn't know if he would. I look back and can see how God used these events in my life. Both were painful but both have brought me closer in my walk with Christ.

 And by the way I am not saying a lost dog is as big of a deal as losing a baby. For me though these two events have brought me closer to Christ in similar ways and I hope that message is conveyed.

Throughout the day I kept thinking this must be a little of what Christ feels when one of his children makes his way back to him after straying. I have a better understanding of the prodigal Son now. It always amazes me how God uses events in my life to make me understand him and his word better. Sometimes I have a hard head and it takes heartache to show me exactly what I am to learn. I praise God for the heartache for out it I am much more richer and closer to my Savior.

the flat tire

So already the 21 days to make blogging a habit is proving challenging. I guess it is not surprising with all that goes on in my life day after day. Yesterday was a unique day in that Grace was in school, Jonah, Micah, and Kerith were in mother's day out and Eric had a flat tire. So after Titus and I got done with a little shopping excursion to Target, Eric called and said there was a two hour wait for the car to get fixed and his boss let him have the day off so I chose to spend a few hours with him with only one kid. It was a unique day and one that doesn't happen to often. We have to seize these moments! We decided to go home have lunch and watch a movie before getting in the van again and making the 1 hour and 30 minute trip to pick up all the kids from school. I wish I was exaggerating but not so it really takes that amount of time just ask my Mom she found out a few weeks ago when she was here to help me recover from surgery. It is one of the downfalls about living in a more rural area but one we wouldn't trade.

I am pretty sure God constructs the day with unexpected days off and a few hours of peacefulness so Eric and I stay sane with each other and actually get to talk without shouting at each other over the noise level. Visit us between the hours of 4-6 pm if your are curious on how loud it is ;). The groupies are getting restless so I better wrap this one up. I hope I can find some moments in today to seize. It's a little easier to find moments when all chaos isn't breaking loose.

21 days of blogging...

I am not the best at keeping records of my kids. Sad but true. I had the hardest time writing our Christmas letter/update this winter because I couldn't remember things. Thankfully I found an app on facebook that had all my statuses from the last year, I can write about my favorite things in my facebook status but fail to write about them anywhere else. So when I heard about the 21 day blog challenge I thought it would be a good way to start keeping track of the fun memories my kids and I are making. 21 days makes a habit hopefully I will make blogging a habit so I can share all these wonderful memories of my family with everyone and hide them in my heart.

Happy 2011!

Where has the time gone?
My goal to read 2 books a month fizzled out around October. Seemed the closer I got to having Titus the less time I had. This year I will try again. I must say things have been absolutely crazy since my Mom left. Eric finished up his semester of school. This time he was actually going to class two nights a week. We are thankful it is over and this semester his class will be online. I think dealing with PPD(postpartum depression) just adds to the stress that is my life. Thankfully God never gives more than I can handle. I have questioned him a time or two on that one, ok a lot more than a time or two.
We are a family of 7 now and most days I am the care taker of 5 children 5 and younger. Some how this year I must find the balance of my walk with Christ, healthy mind and body, laundry, cleaning, budgeting, shopping, business, relationships and many more things. I look at my list and find it quite overwhelming so I am TRYING to take it one day at a time which is hard for me because I usually jump in full speed and burn out pretty fast. January goals will be focused on three things my spiritual walk(devotions), my cooking(meal planning again), and my physical activity(exercise). Oh yeah cutting back on coffee too. I welcome any encouragement to help spur me on, your prayers are appreciated as well.