Gratituesday

I'm back!! I guess I've been sort of back since Friday. I say "sort of" because right after we unloaded the car we headed over to my mom's house because my grandparents came to town on Friday. They actually got here from NM before we did! No one is shocked, believe me! We're glad that they came for a visit!

On Saturday morning we did get to have a lazy morning. The kids slept in until NINE! Talk about a gift!! We did pretty much nothing in the morning. In the afternoon we went to a 4th of July pig roast with other members of our congregation. Yummy food. Who knew that you could rent a smoker big enough to fit a whole pig?!?! We stayed to watch the firework display, both of the kids(both big and small) in attendance and the one by the local golf course.

On Sunday after worship services the girls and I headed out to join my grandparents at a cabin they rented about 45 miles from here. They wanted to go "camping". Now please understand that we were in no shape or form "roughing it". Unless you consider using a charcoal grill "roughing it". Later in the afternoon my aunt's family plus quite a few of their friends met us up in the mountains as well. It was fun when it wasn't raining. We played volleyball, ping-pong, ate some delicious steaks, roasted marshmallows and played Chinese checkers. It had been a LONG time since I had played that game! My poor Honey had to work on Sunday, but he did join us later in the evening. He didn't want to miss out on good food!

We had a great vacation in New Mexico! I am so thankful that we were able to go!! We were able to listen to some great speakers. I loved the class that we chose to go to. It was talking about how we need to be intentional parents. Meaning that the here and now isn't and shouldn't be our main focus. Heaven is our destination and as parents we need to be using every minute to make sure that our children know that that's what we are striving for! Oh it was so good!!

Being able to visit with our friends was really nice too. I really enjoy their company. It's nice to be able to discuss spiritual things and know that you are of the same mind!

And now that this has gotten incredibly long I want to wrap up by asking for prayers for my little Sugar Plum. I think VBS and vacation so close together was too much for her little body. We are thankful that I am writing this from the comfort of our home and not a hospital room. She started having issues last week. Last night it turned into wheezing issues. By the time we got back into town this morning I think it was a full blown asthma attack! The doctor let us come home because Sugar Plum is what she called borderline. If she gets worse tonight I have to take her to the ER. Right now we're praying that the nebulizer treatments and PRAYER will improve things!! Unfortunately asthma is a very chronic condition in my husband's family. It wasn't really a question of if, but more of when. I know that God is in control. Maybe He will spare us and we won't have to deal with this health issue. But even if not I just pray that he comforts my little baby.

Whew! If you made it to the end, Congratulations!!! Now you can reward yourself by going to Heavenly Homemakers and checking out other Gratituesday posts!! Most of which are probably shorter than mine!

Distractions vs. Life

Sometimes I think I should sit down and post something and then I get distracted! I'm very easily distracted. The bad part is that I forget what I was doing before the distraction. I know many would say that that is just part of being a wife and mother. I would say that yes, that is partly true. However I think I'm kind of on the extreme end of the spectrum. Plus this was going on way before we had kids. I like to blame my lack of blogging on life and it's distractions. But the truth is, I just can't focus long enough for a thought to make it's way out of my brain!
Can you say ADD? I certainly hope that is not the problem, but you just never know.

Lately I've really been tired. It doesn't matter if I get eight hours of sleep or six hours of sleep. I thought I was getting to much sleep so I cut back. When I decreased the amount I slept at night, that was worse than the eight hour. Some days I could barely make it through an afternoon without a nap. This is not the norm for me and it is really bugging me!

This next week is going to be a very busy week. We will have VBS in the morning everyday. I'm sure Sugar Plum will not be too happy. She is not old enough to participate yet. She really doesn't like being left in the nursery. Hopefully it won't be too traumatic. Because on Friday evening right after Honey gets off of work WE LEAVE ON VACATION!!!! I am SOOOO excited and so ready for a break! I wish we could leave earlier, but Honey's boss will be out of town. Since Honey is second in command he has to stay and hold down the fort! But what's an extra five hours, right? I'm sure that by Friday it will seem like forever! Please pray that I can make it through next Friday!

I had wanted to be able to get a laptop before we left, just so I could keep up on Facebook and all the different blogs that I frequent. I don't think that is going to happen though. It might be a good thing though. I don't need a laptop. I don't need to read blogs. I don't need to farm on Farm Town. Oh that game! That game is the exact reason why I can't drink, gamble or do drugs! I get too addicted way to easily. That and they're also pretty destructive behaviors! Sorry! There's the distraction problem I mentioned a minute ago!

I guess all this is to say that if I'm M.I.A. for the next couple of weeks you'll know that VBS wiped me out and I'm having a great time on my vacation. Maybe I'll list all my favorite blogs to visit. You can visit them for me and give me a summary when I return... Okay I won't make you all do that. But if you come across some great, must have recipes please leave me the link. Please?

Til' Next Time,

Mia

Gratituesday-Remembering

This week I've been thinking about my two friends that died last year. I was thinking about all the fun times we had together.
I was telling some other friends about the time that we went to Applebee's and we all had to wait for my husband to finish 3+ baskets of riblets. I can't remember exactly how many. I'm sure Kim would have remembered. She was great at remembering everything!
There was the time that Gary went skiing with us and and a few other friends. He was a trooper! He took lessons in the morning and skied on his own in the afternoon.
On another ski trip Kim went along and we went to Taos. It was a horrible day to ski!! They took their lessons and Gary hurt his knee. Oh I felt so bad!! We were supposed to ski for three days. Kim and Gary decided that they'd rather go sight seeing. Maybe that's when their relationship began... That was a fun trip!! Even though we ended up having to have the car towed and wait for hours for it to be repaired.
I went to a wedding this weekend and was reminded of the day that Kim helped me tie cute little ribbon around those small bottles of bubbles. I don't know how many we did, but there were A LOT of boxes.
Then there was the time that we went camping. It was Labor Day weekend. I had never cooked over an open fire before. I cooked some potatoes for breakfast and they stuck, BAD!! Afterwards Gary was like "you needed to season the pan". I'm like if you knew this why didn't you mention it before!! He was in charge of helping with the cooking from then on!
Kim's mom recently gave me a couple of pictures that Kim had taken at the hospital the day after Pumkin was born. She found out that we were going to be induced with Pumkin and ditched work so she could hang out at the hospital. What a friend!!
Gary was always eager to hold Pumkin! That was until the day they sat behind us in church and Pumkin spit up. :) Kim said she was proud of him for not throwing up himself! He still liked to hold the kid, he just kept her facing forward!

I thought that when I stopped at their graves in November it would make things a little more real. It didn't! Every once in a while I'll think that maybe they'll be coming to town soon. Or if I see a red car like Gary's or a silver one like Kim's I wonder for a split second if it's them.

Honey and I recently bought the movie Twister. I used to like that movie. I realized that I haven't watched it since before they died. I really had a hard time with it. It made me think too much about what they might have gone through while in that tornado. Those are images that I don't need in my head.

So aside from the latter I am thankful for all the happy memories I have of times that were spent with them. There are so many more times along with these that I will always cherish. I am so thankful that I was able to be a part of their lives for the time that we had. I am so thankful that they are able to enjoy Heaven together!!

Head on over to Heavenly Homemakers and check out all the others that have shared what they are thankful for! And I guess while you're there you can drool over Laura's strawberries!

Life is, well Life!

I've decided that I'm not going to make anymore promise of consistent blogging. I know everyone says that in order to build readership you have to blog on a consistent basis. UH-OH!!! Guess I'll have to work on that part!

I really am needing to work on managing my time better. I also need to work on making a menu plan every week. I am probably the least organized person I know. Well okay the second. The other person I know doesn't care that their life is disorganized! Anyhoo, this isn't working for me anymore! I need to change!!! A friend of mine is helping me get together a cleaning schedule. I need to try and get up earlier, but I've dealing with some insomnia issues lately. Getting up early is not easy when I'm still awake at 12 or 1. As for the menu planning, I'm just not a planner! I made a list of meals that I make thinking that that would help. I realized that a lot of the meals on there are winter foods. Oh I wish I had the "cooking gene" that it seems the rest of my family was born with! Any tips for any of the above? Any meal ideas? Any are welcome!

Since my last post my Honey and I celebrated our fifth anniversary! I can't believe that we've been married that long. At the same time it seems longer in some ways, not in a bad way though. He says it's the kids, they must add time! All kidding aside we have had a very good marriage! He is a very kind, hardworking and attentive husband and dad. I am so blessed!!

Here is a picture of the flowers that he bought me for our anniversary.









As for my gift I'm waiting to find a good deal on a laptop. I saw one recently that I might want, but I don't know. Any suggestions on what to look for?

I was trying to upload a picture of the girls. But I realized that most of my pictures are not on my computer, but on my mom's! Oh bother!

Last week we finished up our last week of Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University! I enjoyed the classes, but it was a L-O-N-G thirteen weeks. We need to get into gazelle intensity mode! Oh what it would be like to be debt free! I keep lamenting the fact that I/we didn't have this information years ago! I just need to get over that fact and work at applying it to our lives NOW!!

I know this post is filled with a lot of random stuff, but that's me!!

Absolutes...

On Friday evening I went for what was supposed to be a relaxing girls night out with some other mom's that have kids my age. Most of the moms are within a couple years of my age. This should be a fun night, right? Well it turned into a night of thought, at least for me anyway.

Something you should know about me, I'm a pretty conservative person. I know that the conservative view is not the popular one these days but it served people of old well. If it worked for them, why not today? I don't like grey areas. I like for things to be black and white. I like to know where the line is so I'm sure to stay for from it.

Anyway the conversation turned to raising kids. One of the moms was talking about how she didn't know how to handle her daughter. The daughter is soon to be four! The mom wants this small child to make good choices, on her own. She wants for her daughter to not feel forced into doing what's right but to choose the right path for herself. Umm, SHE'S FOUR!!! She can barely make the right choice when choosing her clothes for the day! Unless a child is pointed in the right direction, how can they know the way! No wonder our society is falling apart! No wonder churches are being founded on the principals of "it feels right for me". Do they ever stop to think that maybe being nailed to and hung on the cross didn't feel all that great? Do they ever think that maybe leaving a wonderful place like Heaven to come to this crummy earth was as from a vacation as you could get?

I absolutely believe that it is my responsibility to train my children up in the ways of God. It is my responsibility to make sure that they grow up knowing that is better to give than to receive, that it is better serve than to be served, to show kindness to all, to love their family, to treat others with respect. These principals alone will not guarantee that my children will grow up and be perfect members of society. Neither does all this training guarantee that they will be Christians when they are old enough to make that decision for themselves. All this doesn't even promise that my kids will behave themselves now! But if I cannot take the time to teach them right from wrong, good and bad, acceptable and unacceptable behavior, who will?

Remember when I said I wasn't going to vent??? :) I wonder if there are others who struggle with all of this? I can think of a million things that I should have said to that mom. But I let fear hold my tongue.

My challenge to those that struggle as I do would be to be BOLD!!

Yes, I'm Still Alive!

It's just been so nice here that we've been getting out a lot. Along with that things have a little distressing. There for a few day I thought that we were going to be adding to our family. At some point in time I would like to have more children, just not right now. Whew!! I love babies! I'm just very, very glad that I will not be having one in nine months.
Also sadly, Facebook has now become an addiction! I miss blogging. I know that if I could find a balance I could do both Facebook and blogging. In an effort to do just that, I've gone through and deleted some blogs that were bookmarked. For you see, I am a people watcher. I could spend hours at the mall watching people go by. In a sense that is what I was doing with blogs. Somehow I'd come across one, and there I'd be, lurking. And instead of updating my blog I would see if others had updated their blog. There is still a list of ones that I frequent, in addition to the ones over on the side. But there are some that I just couldn't not let go. It's nice to see how others live there lives. It's nice to be able to learn new recipes and take comfort in the fact that there are others learning or the same lessons that you are. It's nice to see that there are others that have gone through the same season that I am currently in and they made it through!

I keep thinking that I would like to be able to offer more on here. I have an idea that's been running through my head on something that I would like to try. I just don't know if I'm brave enough to take the first step. We'll see... I am getting ready to teach the Wednesday night Bible study for 4 & 5 year olds at church. I know that's going to take up some of my time for the summer. We will also be taking our annual trip to Red River in June. Maybe I'll shoot for the end of summer to launch my idea. That will give me a couple of months to try and get my act together.

I guess the bottom line is to please bear with me.

Gratituesday

As I was putting my girls to bed tonight I was thinking about bible class on Sunday morning. The teacher made the point that we are quick to point out all the things that we seem to be lacking. At the same time we are slow to count our blessings. I know that at times this is especially true of me. I could give you mountains of lists of things that I feel that I want or need or arrogantly feel I am entitled to. How selfish of me! If I would only stop and truly take time to be thankful for all that I do have.

For starters I have air in my lungs! I don't even have to think about putting it there! It is there because of the marvelous way God created us! I have a roof over my head. I have a wonderful husband(who BTW is being nominated for Manager of the Year!!) that works hard so that we can have the things that we do. I am also able to stay home because of his hard work. I have two beautiful, healthy girls. They are a handful at times, but I wouldn't trade them for anything. Goodnight hugs and kisses are quite possibly the best!! We have some minor health issues, but compared to others there is no room for complaining. I live in a country where we are still free to worship God. We are free to worship whenever we choose. Yes, we are continually falling away from being the nation that was founded on godly principals by God-fearing men. But, we are still FREE! And if ever worse comes to worse I have the hope of something more to come, because this world is not my home! God blesses us while we journey HOME! He provides all that we need! How could complaining ever come into the picture(I'm still working on that one!)?? Let me know if anyone has it figured out!

The greatest blessing of all is that I have the promise and hope of Heaven. No matter the troubles of this life, there IS more to come. There IS more than just this life!

God is GOOD! What a blessing it is that He chooses to bless us!!

Head on over to Heavenly Homemakers where you'll find others that are sharing what they are grateful for this week!