Normalcy

Today I'm feeling very thankful. Thankful that things are a nice normal pace. Sometimes it seems a bit boring, but you know what? Boring is good because it means there isn't anything crazy happening.

~Nobody broke any bones or came down with sickness.

~Our house is still standing, vehicles running, we have food in our bellies and a/c to cool us down.

~My kids are playing nicely this morning. They were inspired by a box of new crayons and created their own coloring contest, which occupied them for over an hour.

~The library let me renew our overdue books to avoid any fines.

Now, don't get me wrong here, there are plenty of fights and bickering and spilled drinks but right at this moment I don't care. The moments of laughter and fun, running and playing are what I'm thinking of.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
1 Chronicles 16:33-35

And the winner is.....

Sarah!!

Please email me and let me know which prize you want and your mailing info so I can get it to you!

Congrats :)

Birthday Contest!!

My birthday is coming up at the end of this week so I thought I'd try to have a bit of fun and host a giveaway!




All you have to do to enter is to answer one of the following questions in a comment, easy no?

Here's what I want to know:

1) What was the most helpful/practical baby shower gift you were ever given?

-OR-

2) What was the best birthday gift you ever received?

You don't have to have a blog to enter, just make sure you leave your name & email so I can reach you if you win!!

Now, onto the prize.

The winner will get to choose a $15 gift card to either:-OR-
Sometime between now and Friday at 12:00 p.m. (noon) leave me a comment, then I'll stick all the names in a hat and pick one. :) Good luck!

Favorite things

I was reading a blog yesterday where the lady made a list of 10 things that were guaranteed to lift her mood. I thought it was a good idea and it helped me get to know her better. So, now I'm going to take a stab at it.

Here are ten things that lift my mood.

1. Upbeat music. Praise music is good but I also like country, particularly Sugarland. Fun music can make so many things more enjoyable....like folding laundry.

2. A good book. I don't read that often, it usually comes in spurts, but when I do I LOVE it.

3. Games. I grew up playing games a lot with my family and now I like to play them with my kids & Ian. Board games. Dice. Card games. Online scrabble :)....I enjoy it all. (except strategy games like Risk or Stratego, I'm not any good at those!)

4. Finding a good bargain. I like to shop at thrift stores, garage sales and discount stores but the fun doesn't end there. Like this week for instance, there was a coupon online for $1 off water bottles and walmart had 6 packs priced at $1. I printed off 4 coupons (that was the limit) and got (4) 6 packs of lemon flavored water FREE! How could that not lift your mood?

5. Waking up to a clean house. This one requires that I actually clean it the night before and I'm sad to say that it doesn't happen often enough. But, when I do it and get to wake up and make breakfast in a clean kitchen...walk down the hallway without avoiding toys....stuff like that, well it's just refreshing.

6. Date night!! I love my kids, I love being around my kids. Some times though, I need to be without them. I need time with just Ian. Period.

7. Projects. This is another one that happens in spurts. I get the itch to change things or be creative, or it comes out of necessity (like the chairs I just re-did).

8. Watermelon. You might say this is a pregnancy craving right now, but a juicy slice of watermelon?? Watching little ones eat it.... *smiles* that's what it brings.

9. Newborn babies. I love babies. (Duh?) Not just my own either. I get really excited when other people have babies. Sometimes even people I've never met...like Jessica. Or a few months ago Melissa... I LOVE IT!

10. Sunshine. Getting outside and enjoying nice weather is a sure fire mood lifter.


How about you?? What puts you in a better mood and gives you a smile??

Happy Birthday Jessica!

Today my sweet little girl turns 5!!!

We're planning a fun day at the water park. The sun is shining and it's supposed to be a nice 80 degrees and not too humid....should be fun! :)

Lots of pictures and another project

We were outside playing around the other night and Ian decided to take some pictures. After looking through these I think I've decided that he should be the designated photographer from now on!




Here I am at 32 weeks along (quite the belly, eh?)




An honest smile out of Jessica. This is a treasure to me, she doesn't give me much other than the cheesy grin.





Josiah was looking over at me in this one. I'm not sure what it is about this I love, I just know I love it.




Noah crawling through the grass.





This chair is another freebie we acquired and before bringing it inside the kids had lots of fun spinning each other around.




Another great one of her!




Abram looks much older from this angle.




Josiah my little Blondie.




Ian made a swing for the kids in the tree out front and it has gotten so much use, they all love it.




And now for the project....

When we were getting furniture for the house here these two stained and ugly chairs came with the kitchen table. They are hideous, I'm ashamed to admit we use them and have had guests use them...they are gross!




Motivated by the fact that I know we are having company over later this week (and a 2nd cup of coffee perhaps?) I decided to change them up.

I removed the fabric covered parts, sanded them down and gave them some new paint. Then I recovered seat & back with new fabric and reattached them.


Here's what they look like now:




Much better!!

Bowling, bowling, bowling....

A couple of weeks ago our neighbor invited us to go bowling. I don't think we've ever taken the kids before. So with the exception of Amanda, who bowled with her AWANA's group, this was their first time.

I'd seen (and played) with bumpers over the gutters before, but this ramp for toddlers was a new thing to me. It made it so the toddlers could play to and they sure thought it was fun!


Now that we know everyone likes to play we'll have to go back more often! I even bowled a 159 which I didn't think was too shabby. :)

Summer Calendar

I really like it when I have things to look forward to. I don't really like to have a tons of things planned, but to have something on the schedule for every couple of weeks is nice. It's like the carrot dangling out in front of me motivating me to keep plodding along. Between now and when the baby is due (less than 60 days now!) there are things on the calendar like:


~the 4th of July (Ian gets a 3 day weekend!)
~My daughter's 5th birthday
~My birthday
~a friend coming & a trip to six flags while he's here
~My oldest daughter's 9th birthday
~oodles of dr.s appointments (why are there so many??)


I think that looks like just enough to fill the time, yet not so much to seem overwhelming, because you know there's still other things to do like making meals, cleaning, changing diapers....