Naps

Sometimes a mom can just tell when her preschooler needs a nap... 

 No matter how much he insists otherwise.

Blessings

Because I have been given much,

I too must give;

Because of thy great bounty Lord,

Each day I live;

I shall divide my gifts from thee

With every brother that I see

Who has the need of help from me.

Because I have been sheltered, fed

By thy good care;

I cannot see another’s lack and I not share;

My glowing fire, my loaf of bread,

my roof's safe shelter overhead

That he too may be comforted.

Because I have been blessed by

thy great love dear Lord;

I’ll share thy love again

According to thy word;

I shall give love to those in need,

I’ll show that love by word and deed;

Thus shall my thanks be thanks in deed.

The words to this hymn ran through my head the other day as Noah and I dropped off our monthly sack full of clothing and household donations to the local free exchange place.  As we were leaving we picked up an armful of free bread, offered to the community for the taking from a local grocery store. 

We've been acutely aware of the many blessings the Lord has given us lately.  And it seems that the more we recognize our blessings and share our bounty freely, the more our blessings always seem to be redoubled back to us again.

Loving Life

Trying out new birthday clothes.

 Cleaning the house... creatively.

 Remembering old stuffed friends.

 Preparing for the 2nd grad craft fair.

 Sharing a good book.

 Haircuts, shots and cake with my big girl. 

Trying to fight a bug with my little girl.

 She fought good and hard- and won!  Sweet baby.

Just loving a slow January life.

An Icy Tradition

It may be subzero temperatures for most of the winter, but there is one thing we always love doing on the rare warm days. 

Ice skating!

In our own backyard. 

 The ice was thick and black. 

 And the snow was perfect for throwing.

So we stayed out a good long time, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine.

And just about the time some other neighborhood kids wandered over to check out the ice, I realized that it was incredibly dangerous and that I did NOT want to be responsible for anyone else's kids falling into the frozen water.  So I shooed everyone off and we headed home again... until next year!

Babes

This boy still needs a nap (and occasionally wears a thug dress up chain around his neck!).

 This girl has been studying hard!

 And bundling up for school.

And enjoying the payoff of her hard work! 

 This boy is getting ready for the Cub Scouts Pine Wood Derby 

This girl is learning how to sew!

A Laughable Laundry Room

Over Christmas break I convinced a puttering Jason to transform my laundry room from this- 

into this!  And I love it!  He dragged his feet at first ("You're the only one who ever goes in there!" TRUTH) but fancy-ing it up makes me all the happier about that fact.

The whole idea started with this Fresh Linens sign.  Inside joke of ours, if you haven't heard the story be glad!

This room is TINY.  But it makes me smile to be in there.

I call it a laughable laundry room because there were a few hiccups along the way to getting it done.  Let's just say that when I backed our car into a big concrete yellow pole, Jason got over it more quickly than I did when I saw that my beloved washer and dryer hadn't been protected as well as they should have been mid construction.  

It took a day or two of mental fuming and wondering if I really loved some inanimate object that much to start laughing about the whole thing.  But eventually I did laugh.  It's just stuff.  A house that's nearly five years old is going to start showing signs of life at some point.  

And I definitely love Jason- who is always willing to say yes in an attempt to make me happy- more than any thing.

Sleep Robber

We've called Noah the Sleep Robber for years now.   Any given day or night, he's plotting ways to torture me in my sleep.

"Emma!  After we get back from the Disney Cruise Daddy is going to be working really hard in Mexico and I'll get to sleep in Mommy's bed for so many nights!"

In prayer- "Please bless that I'll be sleeping in Mommy's snuggy warm bed... or maybe not.... but maybe."

In the middle of the night he usually helps himself to the middle of the bed by way of the bench.  One night he stood by the side of the bed until I picked him up and put him in the bed.   The next morning he claimed he had nothing to do with it.  "Mommy!  Why did you put me in your bed last night??"

After he climbed into my bed another night, I said, "Buddy, you need to go get in your own bed."  To which he responded "Oh!  ...  no thank you."

One night Jason came to bed and found him already tucked into his place.  He scooped him up and put him in his own bed.  Noah said, "Daddy!  What is this?  NO!!!" and darted around him and back into our bed.  Jason just followed him.

Early one morning I was in the middle of the bed.  Noah appeared and took over my spot, snuggling down and declaring, "Ahh!  This is all mine!" 

Any hour, day or night, Noah looks in my eyes and says, "Mommy, I just love your snuggy warm bed."

Sigh.  It's a phase.  It's a phase.  It's a phase. 

2 of 4

A few months ago I challenged myself to drastically reduce our grocery bill for the month in favor of making a bonus payment to part 2 of 4 of our final student loan.  I listed off some of the meals we would be eating- black bean soup and quesadillas, tuna cakes with carrots, and minestrone soup to those who were wondering.

Jason commented, "This sounds an awful lot like graduate school."

To which I replied, "Well, we're using the money saved to help pay off our student loans, so it basically is like graduate school all over again!"

And that's the trick of student loans (or any debt, really).  You spend the money once but you have to keep paying for it for a really, really long time.  Sure, we could continue to drag out the payments for the next 30 years, but I've felt very strongly that we need to get these darn loans nipped in the bud once and for all.  And Jason has been kind enough to agree.  Even if it means eating rice and beans once in a while.

And I actually like black bean soup, so there!

Bonus update- we paid off 2 of 4 last month in celebration of Jason not losing his job.  Numbers 3 and 4 are set to be obliterated in the next two or three months, and then we'll be debt free (except the mortgage, aka, the next mountain to climb)! 

We've taken a winding road to get there, and of course there are only 1,200 things I'd do differently if we could do it all over again.  Oh, the lessons we've learned along the way.  Hindsight is a crystal clear 20/20, but that's the beauty of growing old, I suppose.  You gain wisdom along the way.  Oh, how I hope that our babies will be smart enough to learn from our life lessons. 

Look at Noah!  He looks smarter than his parents already.

Happy New Year!

 There was no question about it- New Year's Eve was a perfect day to stay inside and have some fun!  We usually get together with our neighbors, but this year we were on our own and we loved it.  We watched all three Night at the Museum movies over the break, and ended with the last one on New Years Eve.  

 We dressed Truman up for the new year.

 And played with Jason's new dice.

We officially celebrated the new year at 11 PM

 and toasted to the many adventures that are headed our way in 2018!

And then some of us went to bed and some of us danced and partied up until the official midnight hour.

We can't wait to see what 2018 has in store for our family!