Catching up

Whew, where has March went!!!!!!!!!!  It seemed to just have flown right on by!  But I am so enjoying the lovely sunny weather today!  It is beautiful out! 

There really hasn’t been much to post about lately…  Let me try and recount this past month’s events.    So the first weekend as I mentioned previously, we got away for the night/day for our anniversary.  It was wonderful!  Once you are married with children, you really cherish the time you and your spouse has together, just the two of you.  The next weekend we were at my mom’s the whole weekend.  On Thursday my husband bought an older pickup truck from someone his mom works with.  They had bought it brand new 18 years ago and then approx 3-4 years ago it started giving them some trouble so they parked it and hadn’t touched it since.  Don’t get me wrong, there is some rust and rough spots but for the most part it is a very decent truck for that old!  So that weekend hubby and bro in law went thru it.  Spark plugs, oil change, new tire, new brakes and lines,etc and got it running!  He was so happy!  Corbyn was too.  He thinks it is cool his dad has a truck now, he just isn’t fond of the rust but Andy is hoping to paint it later this year.  His parents paint and restore classic cars so all he would need to do is buy the paint.  So we will see!  The weekend of the 19^th we had no plans!  Yeah!  I kept my 7 mos old niece Friday night and Saturday, we had breakfast at Steak and Shake and ended up running into some of my husband’s family that lives in the area that we had never met!  That was neat!  Then we were just home!  The weather was awesome that weekend as well!  Last weekend we had a fellowship meeting at one of our church’s in Ohio.  We had a great service and fellowship!   (Hubby preached a good message on being “Fully Persuaded” in our walk with Jesus Christ.)  This weekend, once again we are doing NOTHING!!!!!!  I am so siked.  I am actually wanting to tear into the house and do some mega cleaning if possible.  Hopefully I can check some things off my list! 

So there you have it!  Our eventful March that went by way too quickly!  Next looking into April…

1. Shipshewana day with my dad and step-mom next weekend
2. Flying to Washington the next weekend to visit my sister and brother that lives out there
3. No plans as of now for the 23^rd
4. Fellowship meeting at our home church on the 30^th .  I take care of the kitchen so that means, delegating dishes and making sure everything runs smoothly.

My big concern and the thing I am stressing over right now is the Washington trip!  I am so excited but at the same time so nervous.  Neither the children or I have ever flown!  We are flying at night and our first layover is 28 min!!!!  Yikes!  Also, I am traveling with 2 children so it is a little more work than if it was just me.  Thankfully Jocelyn is not 2 yet so we didn’t have to purchase a ticket for her but that means she is in my lap the whole flight!  Ugh!  I know how church services go and that isn’t even sitting the whole time!  Oh well,… I am sure it will all be fine and go smooth. (I pray!)  I am just excited to see my sister and brother and their families!  If any of you have advise as far as the flying for the first time thing, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!  I am taking any and all suggestions!

Hope everyone had a wonderful March and God Bless!

My new discovery…..

First of all I want to start off by saying how much I love my husband!  God knew what he was doing when he had Andy slam the door in my face on that cold day in February 11 years ago!  I am truly blessed! 

I work the first four days this week and then am off till after the first of the year.  Hubby has these whole two weeks off so while I work this week he and the kids are just home.  I walked into my home yesterday and the heat from the wood stove and the smell and heat of the pork roast in the oven greeted me.  Along with my happy children.  The floors were swept and some were mopped, dishes done, laundry done, house picked up, children bathed (did I mention they were happy?).  I loved the atmosphere I walked into, very peaceful and happy!  Within 20 min of me being home, supper was on the table and I didn’t lift a finger!  I had the luxury of cuddling with my 16 mos old and listening to my 7 year old tell me about his day.  We had a wonderful dinner together as a family.  Afterwards I helped clear the table and then did the dishes (it was the least I could do!)  Hubby and children were in bed by 9 and then came my discovery….

All day a nice hot bath was sounding wonderful!  This is coming from someone that really does not care for baths at all.  I think the most baths I have ever taken were while I was in the end of my pregnancies and was trying to alleviate some of the aches and pains.  Other than that, I don’t care for them.  Hubby on the other hand really enjoys them, especially in the winter.  This weather reeks havoc on his skin; especially feet so the nice, warm bubble bathes help soothe them.  Anyway, I decided, since the house was quiet, I would give it a try.  I lit some candles and turned the lights off in the bathroom and drew a nice, hot bubble bath and then I sank into heaven!  J Not really but oh my goodness, I don’t know if it age or what but I have been noticing lately that there are things that I treasure or things I value or desire that was never there before and baths is now one of them!  I loved it!  It was like everything just melted away!  Very peaceful…  It will definitely be something that I make time for in the future.  I have been thinking of things lately that would add more “me” time to my schedule b/c I feel I am lacking that majorly and I feel it is important to regroup and for me to be the mother and wife I need to be.  I think late night baths might be something to invest in!

So sorry for my rambling on about baths, it was an exciting day for me J  Hope everyone is enjoying their CHRISTMAS season!  ( I think we might go tobogganing on Friday, I will keep you posted!)

The Saga continues…

Ok, here is an update as far as what has been going on lately.  So I thought I got the flu bug last week and was done for the season….wrong.  Woke up feeling yucky Tuesday morning along with hubby.  Both tried going to work but ended up at home by midday, hubby in the bathroom every hour and me on the couch….  We drug ourselves out of the house to get the kids and then were home the rest of the night.  I picked up chicken noodle soup and tomato soup at the dollar store and that was supper, first thing I had eaten all day.  Next day woke up feeling some better but not 100% but made myself go to work.  Sipped sprite and ate some oatmeal and by noon was feeling a lot better.  Went and got Jocelyn from sitters after work and her eyes were all gunky and matted.  They said green junk poured out all day and she acted blah.  In the meantime hubby never went to work, still having stomach issues.  By the time I got home Jocelyn was sleeping (only slept 45 min all day) and her eyes were matted shut.  Andy washed them out with a warm wash cloth and I decided to go ahead and take her to after hours clinic before it got too bad with the wedding and pictures this weekend!  They diagnosed her with Acute conjunctivitis and prescribed eye drops for the next 7 days.  Today hubby is doing better and went to work, except for he went to get in the car this morning and it wouldn’t start L So now we need to figure out if it is just the cold, dead battery or something further…  It is 7 years old so I guess it is probably time for a new battery and probably a tune up along with my car when we have the extra money. Ha!

In the mean time, we are now 2 days away from the wedding, pretty much everyone in Manchester has been sick one way or another, my mom’s washer finally quit (it was one that we had given her that Andy used when he first moved out on his own that was given to him by his grandparents.  It was ancient!)  So they are in the middle of trying to figure out what they are going to do while they have 9+ people living there this week!   Also my sister’s fiancé’s brother and his wife are on their way from Washington for the wedding, got to Montana last night, hit ice and totaled their car!  Thank God they are ok but are stranded in Montana in a hotel, no clue how or when they will arrive here and he is the one and only best man/groomsman!  So needless to say there is a lot of stress where that is concerned.

Whew!  I think that pretty much covers it.  I really want to sit down and blog more, I have so much going thru my head and so many ideas but time seems to be racing…never enough of it!  Hopefully when January comes things will slow down a bit and I can regroup!  Hope all is well out there!

Excitement and Thanksgiving

The blog title pretty much sums up my thoughts lately….This time of year is always exciting.  It’s almost like God puts something in the atmosphere to get us excited!  Corny, I know.  On top of the normal Holiday excitement, my sister is getting married next weekend and I am so excited for her!  I try and remember back to the week before my wedding (yes it has been a few years J ) and my oh my was it exciting.  If I think about it, I was really just a kid getting married!  It is crazy, you feel and think of yourself as so much older than what you are.  It is fun to look at pictures and the wedding video and reminisce about those times.  It is nuts how much things change in just 10 years!  Anyway, so it is a very exciting time in our family.  On top of that, my brother and my sister’s fiancé were able to come home for Thanksgiving (live in Washington)!  They do commercial farming and got a huge snow storm therefore they were able to leave 1 ½ weeks early to come home.  It was so nice to have them at our Thanksgiving celebration on Saturday.  Therefore, I am very thankful!  This time of year makes you realize how thankful you are for your family and those that are close to you.  It also makes you realize who really matters and , well, who doesn’t.  I am not trying to be mean but there are times that you come to realize that people you call family or that you view as being close to, really are not what you thought they were.  That they are not positive influences in your or your children’s life, they are selfish and only think of themselves.  This past weekend really opened my eyes to that and made me think.  Who do I invest my time in?  Who do I surround myself with?  How do I feel around those that I call family or friends?  How do I feel about my children being around those that I call family or close friends?  It is good to have a reality check once in awhile and to reevaluate your priorities and who you make time or go out of your way for and who you don’t.  With that said, I am very Thankful for my family, my husband, children, parents, siblings, in-laws…  I feel very blessed to have the family that I have with my blood and the ones I have inherited when I married my husband.  We are all very close and even though we may not see each other as often as we would like, we are all there for each other in a heartbeat.  Yes we are different people and have different opinions and beliefs but we respect each other and love each other for our differences.  We don’t tear each other down or leave each other hanging when in need.  Those qualities in what I call FAMILY, I have become very thankful for and cherish!

Hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving!   

Weekend Recap

Ahhhh!!!!!!!  What a weekend!  Everything seemed to go well!  My sister got a lot of nice stuff from her bridal shower.  I am so happy for her!  The surprise birthday party went really well on Saturday!  I think Mom really enjoyed herself!  It was good to see people I haven’t seen in awhile and to meet people that I hear about but have never met.  There were quite a few people that had RSVP’d that were not able to show so needless to say we had a TON of food!!!!!  Instead of trying to divide it up and it going bad in our refridgerators, we decided to donate to a local homeless shelter.  That felt really good!  Yes it was a lot of money spent on preparing food, but it would have gone to waste if we would have tried to take it home and this way we were able to entertain and have a good time and help out people in need as well.  Very good feeling!  Sunday I made a ham, cheesy potatoes, corn casserole, dinner rolls (leftover from party) and apple crisp (leftover from party).  My sister and hubby and daughter came up after church for dinner.  It was very nice and relaxing and felt good to fix a good meal on a Sunday!  Needless to say after that weekend I was exhausted!  Hubby wasn’t feeling the greatest and daughter was so cranky!!!!  Hubby decided to stay home with sinus pressure and headache Sunday evening and it was so tempting to join him but I had this still small voice in my head saying I needed to press thru and go to church, God had something for me.  So after my sis left, I finished cleaning up the kitchen, got the kids dressed, diaper bag packed and off we went!  Boy was service amazing!!!!  Our pastor taught an awesome message on King Saul titled “Decay of a man, loss of a crown”.  It was so good and so much needed for my soul!  I soaked up everyword that I could while still taking care of a cranky 15 mo old.  Altar service was amazing as well.  I was able to pray thru and lay some of my heavy burdens down that I have been carrying around for the last several months.  Believe me, I am no where near perfect and like the song states that I heard yesterday, “ I may not be over the mountain, but I can see the other side”.   So far this week, I feel so refreashed, like I got that cool drink of water in a very dry and barren land.  I am so thankful that I didn’t give in to the flesh that day, I pushed thru and heeded what the Holy Ghost was trying to speak to me.  It made me think back to a post I read about a week ago.  I believe it was titled “Moving…when the flesh doesn’t want to.  There was a lot of encouragement in that post and I believed it helped me in that situation!

Anyway, that is a recap of my busy, exhausting but very rewarding weekend!  Hope you have a good week!  Comments are welcome! J

Happy November!!!!!!

I am getting ready to walk out the door this morning with my daughter to go to babysitter/work, when my loving husband calls out from the next room: “Hey Stephanie, Do you know what today is?  It is November 1^st which means they will be starting to play Christmas music on the radio!!!!!!”  and then he start belting out a Christmas song….sigh.

Is it really that time of year again?  The temperature this morning tells me yes it is.  Don’t get me wrong, I am very thankful October is over.  I love the season, the weather, leaves changing, cool crisp mornings, hay rides, bon fires, etc… but I HATE Halloween and everything it stands for. (Just speaking it plain)  Even before I was serving the Lord, I never really cared for it.  I wasn’t raised celebrating it, I was raised knowing that it was celebrating evil and we didn’t do that.  I now know more of the meaning of the holiday which makes me despise it even more. Halloween isn’t just about dressing up and getting candy, it is a very evil holiday!  It definitely makes me think, why I celebrate each holiday we celebrate.  Is it just tradition or do I know what it stands for and the true meaning behind each of them…  Anyway, enough of that…

I still can’t believe that it is the Holiday season again!  It is always a bittersweet time for me.  I get so excited; I love making huge meals, the smells, candles going, decorations, buying and wrapping gifts, the joy on my children’s faces, playing in the snow, Christmas music, hot cocoa or hot cider, etc…. But then it is over and we have 3 more months of winter before warmer weather L  It seems like our Holidays are so busy and rushed, we have so many get together’s to go to (divorced parents and all their parents have get together’s).  This year we both want to make our own traditions and meals.  Even if it is just us 4,  I want my kids growing up with memories of their own home, not going everywhere else.  Growing up, we never celebrated Thanksgiving or very rarely and Christmas’s were so packed with going to Grandparent that we really didn’t do anything special at home.  I want different for my children.  Corbyn is 7!  Time is moving too quickly!  Sorry for the long Monday post.  Lot going thru my head.

What are your traditions you have started with your families?  How do you juggle the hustle and bustle of the Holidays and still take time to enjoy it with your own family?  What do you say no to?