Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for HEALTH. Seems funny to say that since this week my whole family has been sick ... but this is my train of thought ...

Yes, we have had sickness
Yes, we have had colds
Yes, we have even had a few minor ear infections and strep throat
Yes, I have had a couple trips to the ER (a few yrs back - long stories!)

(NOT ALL THIS WEEK! JUST IN GENERAL)

But despite all that, we have been very blessed by good health. None of us have suffered any ongoing conditions, none of us have suffered lengthy, difficult sicknesses in which we required meds and/or Dr's visits.

So many people I know have children with ongoing or recurring illnesses. I feel so bad for these parents! It's so hard to see your kids when they aren't well. And it's so hard to parent when everyone is not getting enough sleep.

I know that life offers no guarantees. I know that at any moment any one of us could be diagnosed with something serious, or could suffer a bad illness. I know this, but I choose not to dwell on those thoughts and I choose to be thankful and grateful for the good health that we are all enjoying right now.

Thank you Lord for good health! Thank you for protection from serious illnesses and for keeping me healthy this week so I could care for my sick loved ones. Thank you for your constant care and concern for each and every one of us. Please be with those who are hurting or suffering at this very moment. In Christ's name, Amen.

I {LUV} Land's End

I love everything about this company ... I love their clothes, I love their shoes, I love their children's clothes and shoes ... I love that even though they are a little pricey, they have such high quality products that you know you are getting your money's worth!

I just ordered a few things for myself since we are heading south next week and I needed some summery things to wear ... I felt like a kid in a candy store when the box arrived through UPS today! It was like getting a really awesome present in the mail ... even if I did have to pay for it myself! :) .... Good thing I worked all those hours around Valentines day ...

In my box came a catalog for their kids clothes too and I have to tell you ... I am ready to order EVERYTHING! I have done a little looking around for kids swimsuits and think that I will now order from LE ... they had the most adorable, comfortable, modest, and SPF of 50 swimsuits for little girls. I have a couple of their suits myself and let me tell you, they really do last so much longer than other companies!

And how cute is this Easter dress????
Oh how I love Land's End!!

Patience

I will admit, I have a real lack of patience when it comes to my kids. I often find myself shouting at them to 'hurry up and get in the car!', 'hurry up and get dressed!', or 'hurry up and get eating your breakfast!'.

It's not that we are running late, it's just that I have this need to be in control at all times, and to have everyone else follow my agenda for the day. I often find myself getting frustrated and impatient when the kids don't do things exactly as I want and when I want.

This morning while doing our Bible time I saw my faults staring me right in the face ... our subject for the day was, you guessed it, PATIENCE!

Last night I was busy doing something when H kept bugging me about watching a TV show, she nagged and nagged and nagged until I finally yelled at her to 'BE PATIENT!!'

So this morning as we read in our Bible lesson about patience, I felt such guilt over my own lack of patience. I feel as though I fail my kids so many times when it comes to modeling good behaviors and self control. After all, how can I expect them to be patient when I myself can't control my own impatient attitude?

Being a parent is definitely a real eye opener. Daily I am faced by my own inadequacies and guilt over the many ways I have messed up. I'm truly thankful that my kids forgive me, time and time again. Even more, how much more does God forgive me ... and He knows all the hidden thoughts and faults that no one else even sees!

This week, my prayer and my mission, is to work on being more patient with my kids. Our verse this morning was from Lamentations 3:26 "It is good to wait quietly". I wrote it out on some index cards and posted it in several places in my home ... it will be my daily reminder to watch my impatient attitude.

5 years ago ...

My heart grew by another mile. My second daughter was born. We'd never expected to have another baby so soon, but 17 months after H was born we were at the hospital again welcoming another little baby girl into our family.

I was doing some scrapbooking tonight and looking through some old photos -- because of course I'm VERY far behind in my scrapbooking! And it just struck me how fast life moves ... especially after having children! Scrapping some pictures from 2 years ago I kept feeling like the events had just happened ... how could it be that they actually happened 2 whole years ago??!!

Somehow these thoughts had me looking back into my photo files on the computer where I came across some pictures of J when she was a newborn. These were pre-digital days so forgive me if the photo quality isn't that great ... hope you enjoy some before and after pictures of our sweet little J.

Also, my niece Rebekah was born just 8 days before J. Over the years we have always liked to take their pictures together to see how much they have grown and changed. At the bottom you will see a picture from when they were newborns (all snuggled together) and then a recent picture from Becca's birthday last week.

J, about a week old.

The photo I took to use for her birth announcement.

And look at me now! I like Hannah Montana and bowling. I'm a great swimmer. I can draw a self portrait on the chalkboard.
Becca and J, Becca was 2.5 weeks old, J was 1 week old.
Becca and J now ... both turning 5 years old!

We love you J and Becca!!

Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for ... my life! I know, I know, seems way too generic. But I was really thinking today about how truly blessed I am in many, many areas of my life.

One of the most important things that I cherish is the fact that I get to be at home with my girls (almost) full time. I say almost because I have been working more hours at the flower shop the last couple of weeks. I had a great talk with my DH and then with my boss today and decided to go back to only working a very limited amount of hours. I love my job, but am so excited at the thought of more time at home with my DH and my girls. I love being home. I love keeping my home. I love caring for my DH and my girls. I am so blessed!

Thank You Lord that I am so blessed. Thank you for a wonderful, supportive hubby who works so hard so that I can be at home. Thank you for two healthy, happy little girls that I have the privilege of raising and teaching. Thank you for my home, my family, and my life!!

My little sweeties

I haven't forgotten about my two little sweeties. My girls are so special to me, and I love them dearly with all of my heart. They bring so much joy and laughter into our lives.

When I was a child I remember that my Mom always did something special for us on Valentines day. Usually, she would leave some special candies for us in our rooms so that when we got home from school we would have a special surprise.

So I have carried on the tradition of doing something special for my two sweeties. This year I was kind of sad because I had to go to work at 7am and missed seeing the girls when they woke up and discovered their special treats. But they both told me how much they loved them and how excited they were. Here is what they found when they woke up ...

A new "Love Frog" webkin, cute pink mailbox, piggy bank, bubble bath, note pad, love notes from Mommy, and chocolate .... Gotta love the Target dollar aisle!!
Sweetheart J ...
Sweetheart H girl ...
I love you my sweet girls!!

Where do you homeschool?

Inspired by "The Heart of the Matter" which is a fabulous homeschool website ... I am going to introduce you to where we homeschool ...

Keep in mind that we homeschool in many others places too. Learning takes place everywhere we go from the grocery store, to the backyard, to field trips at the kids museum, and on and on we go. But for now, I'm just posting pictures of our 'space' that we use in our home for school purposes. Well, actually as you'll see, we use this space for many things ... computer station, craft area, scrapbooking, family room, kids playroom, etc... (I think I promised these pictures a while back when we moved the school downstairs ... but I'm just now getting around to posting them!)

One of our school mottos ...
Another motto to live by ...
The girls using the easel, it has a chalkboard on one side and a white board on the other...
Yes, I am the teacher. :)
Doing Bible time together ...
A look inside our craft closet ...
Our work area ... the wall says "Blessed are the children ... for theirs is a world of wonder."
Dr. Suess themed alphabet and world map ...
More Dr. Suess ...
A real clock and a learning clock ...
Computer area ...
Toy shelf ... The family room side ...
Supplies, books, coloring supplies and curriculum ...
Looking from the family room to the school side ...

And that's about it. Thanks for visiting our schoolroom!!

My sweet Valentine ...

I know this is a little late ... but I had to post about my sweet Valentine. He is the love of my life, my soulmate, and my best friend in the whole world.

For Valentines day he bought tickets for us to go to a Toby Keith concert and stay at the casino hotel for a night (and even lined up someone to babysit the kids overnight)... the event is in a couple of weeks so we haven't enjoyed the gift yet, but I know it will be great!!

What a rockin' husband I have! Who needs flowers and chocolate?! :-D

A busy week

Valentines week proved to be one of my busiest weeks since leaving the full time work force 6 & 1/2 years ago. When you work at a flower shop, Valentines is your biggest time of year. I ended up doing about 40 hours in 4 days, and that was continuous working on my feet, rarely getting a moment to sit. But it was fun and fast paced and I learned so much and actually got pretty good at making really beautiful arrangements in a very short amount of time.

We were busy all week, but on Thursday alone we made 164 arrangements ... and that's pretty good for such a small flower shop with only 3 people doing the flowers and 2 people handling the phone and walk-ins. My kids were shuffled all around with Daddy and my MIL stepping in to help most of the time. I truly appreciated them helping so much so the kids had a good week too, even with Mommy gone so many hours.

I didn't have much time to take pictures, but did manage to snap a few, so here they are:
The cooler was FILLED with tons of finished arrangements:
LOTS of people order a dozen red roses ...
We had roses in a lot of beautiful colors ...
A basket arrangement that I made:
"Jewel of my heart" arrangement ... the vase was a beautiful purple color ...

Indescribable

We sang this song this morning in church and it was such a blessing to my heart. I bolded certain parts that I particularly love.

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea
Creation's revealing Your majesty
From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring
Every creature unique in the song that it sings
All exclaiming

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go
Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow
Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light
Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night
None can fathom

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God
You are amazing God

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God

All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God

Inconquerable, unchangeable
You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same
You are amazing God
You are amazing God

Thank you Lord that you see the depths of my wicked heart and love me just the same!