Somebody pinch me!

My man…

There are so many reasons he won my heart. I could go on and on. But I won’t right now. I will tell you that one of the reasons I love him so….is that he GETS me. He understands how I am wired. Even when I don’t always get me.

He knows that I need time alone. From time-to-time, I need time to focus on a project…kid-free; sleep without one ear open for a “Mommy cry out”; read or just sit in silence and think; or even go potty by myself. That’s just the way I’m wired.

So guess what my hunk a burnin' love did for me?! This very weekend he is giving me about 28 hours….ALONE. Let me say it again…it’s almost too hard to believe….

I am spending 28 glorious hours alone this weekend.

Yep, I think I even heard myself correctly. Now I will pinch myself.

But actually, it’s not alone per se….but it’s doing whatever my heart desires. I will set out on Saturday AM (8:00, to be exact) and hit the garage sales, with a Venti coffee in hand. Then I’ll have lunch with my friends, Amy and Pam. Then I’ll do a little bit of necessary family deal-shopping and such, since it’s Saturday, my usual shopping day, and I can’t shirk ALL responsibility. Then I meet another friend for coffee at 4:00.

But THEN, I will land here for the night:

Ahhhhh......

This is what my night will look like:

I will watch the tv shows of my choice…or none at all.

I will read my books…or not.

I will catch up on magazines...or go ahead and throw them in a recycle bin somewhere because free time to just look and read is so rare...and I know they won't ever get read.

I will sleep or maybe listen to music.

But my main objective is to work on this:

I will come home with a fully functional and organized set of recipe books. Alas, I have time to do this project that has hung over my head for almost 5 years now! Let me pinch myself again.

I also hope to come home well-rested, and ready to take on the second half of summer with two toddler boys! Amen.

A tribute to the Dads in my life...

This man has been a powerful influence my entire life:

strength
example
courage
persistence
faith
generosity
absolute unconditional love
faithfulness
incredible patience
kind
self-controlled
great character
integrity
...My blessing, my Daddy.


This man is the joy of my life and the king of my heart:

encourager
faithful
persistent
gracious
strong
affectionate
loving
peaceful

kind
good
fun
great sense of humor
wonderful communicator
gentle
great character
integrity
discerning
leader
My best friend
...The proud Daddy of our two boys and my gift from God.

Thank you both for your remarkable presence in my life.
Happy Father's Day to both of you!

Summer squash

My sweet friend, Colleen, gave our family some yummy fresh squash out of her garden. The squash was wonderful...and the gesture was beautifully appreciated. Thanks for sharing your garden goodies with us!

The FIRST "official" day of summer vacation

Official=no school, no end-of-school parties or presentations...and the pool is open!

Here's how this day went:

7:15 am -- Kid "A" (name withheld to protect the "innocent") spills coffee onto his Bible, my paperwork, down the kitchen cabinets, all over the floor.

7:16 am -- Mom cleans it up.

7:18 am -- Mom feels a trickle of liquid on my foot, wondering what that could be, seeing as said coffee has been cleaned up. Mom discovers that Kid "B" (who is supposedly recently fully potty-trained, and of course, whose name is withheld to protect his "innocence"), has tee-teed on himself, the bar stool his bottom is planted on, Mom's floor and Mom's foot.

7:19 am -- Mom cleans it up.

7:25 am -- Temper tantrum #1 for the day occurs. Nameless child wants Mom's homemade cereal for breakfast, but Mom has just prepared some applesauce bread and cut-up fruit. Said child and Mom disagree on the menu. (Mom wins, by the way...but who is keeping score?!)

9:00 am -- Mom puts a check in an envelope for the yard guys coming to the house today to mow the lawn. While licking the envelope to seal it, Mom's tongue is sliced. Paper cut from hades.

9:20 am--While exiting the car to go to the gym, Mom gently opens the door to let Nameless child out. Nameless child proceeds to push the door open more forcefully, slamming the car door into unknown person's BRAND NEW black, beautiful car parked next to ours. Of course, leaving a nice souvenir.

11:30 am-- Temper tantrum #2 for the day occurs. The same nameless child who threw the first temper tantrum of the day decides to throw another one. I can't even remember what it was about. (And I can't even remember who won this one!)

5:00 pm-- Temper tantrum #3 for the day occurs. The SAME nameless child who threw temper tantrums #1 and #2, throws another one...larger than the first two. Said child does NOT want to leave the pool. (Mommy is beginning to lose...patience....grace....energy.)

5:20 pm -- Temper tantrum #3 finally ceases.

7:00 pm -- Nameless child "B" (mind you, the newly potty-trained one), poops in his 'big-boy' pants. Mom is happy....NOT.

7:10 pm -- Nameless child "B" crushes his cupcake into a million...no...make that a zillion...little, tiny, annoying pieces on the kitchen counter. And then he decides to rub his hands quickly across the counter to see the crumbs fly.

7:10 pm -- Mom leaves the house. (Nameless kids are in Dad's care...Mom didn't abandon them :)

9:15 pm -- Mom returns home. Mom kisses my unbelievably precious, Nameless kids, while they sleep soundly and sweetly in their beds.

We'll do it all again tomorrow...hopefully yielding different results.
Happy Summer-ing to you!

Few words

I just haven't had much to say lately.

My focus has been here:

And here:

And most definitely here:

(nothing sexier than a man in the Word!)

I know I talk a lot about having a simple life. Or at least the desire to have one. So THAT is where I am focused. I've really tried hard lately to evaluate HOW that can play out in my life.

This is a couple of ways I've come up with:

(1)We, at home, are getting organized and cleaning out. We don't want unnecessary clutter to crowd our lives or our limited space together.

(2) As a family, our focus is getting out of debt. Being motivated by April at Coal Creek Farm, I will start chronicling those adventures. There are plenty! I may even start keeping you abreast of our monthly progress. You never know...it depends on how transparent I feel on any given day! :) This is honestly a full-time job! It demands our constant attention.

Debt payoff has been an interesting journey. Simplicity and frugality don't always tie in together. For example, it's not necessarily more simple to make foods from scratch, but it's definitely more healthy and more frugal. But then, on the other hand, making foods from scratch represents a simpler time in the world. Interesting, huh? (No wonder the concept of "simplicity" is so hard to wrap my mind around!)

(3) But mainly, we are just spending time together. Focused time.

And we're enjoying the people outside our family that God has given us in friendship.

Have a great weekend. Come back on Sunday, so I can introduce you to the most wonderful and infuential woman in my life!

Perfect Imperfection!

Easter was beautiful yesterday. Not only for the most obvious of reasons….Christ is Risen!!
But also, we have some incredible friends that we were blessed to have in our home.

Look at these! Aren’t they lovely??














These are the incredibly thoughtful gift of my dear friend, Connie…and her big-lug husband, John, of course. What a special treat!!!

Look at these! Aren’t they fun??














These are the sweet and thoughtful Easter gift of my dear friend, Colleen, for our kids. What could be better than hot wheels and “Super Chicks” (as they’ve so rightly been named)?! An additional blessing is to have friends that love our kids well.

These ladies, husbands and families are what helped to make our family Easter PERFECT.

The IMPERFECT part was this:
My spiral cut ham, although tasty, was luke warm.
My deviled eggs were horrendous! (Note to self…stick to Mom’s recipe…don’t try new recipe)
My homemade ice cream never “iced”….something went dreadfully wrong.
My house was not spotless clean…in fact, it was quite the opposite!

But in spite of all the hospitality faux-pas, the day was lovely…just BEING with friends. It so didn’t matter. All that mattered was conversation and sweet fellowship.

I did, however, make two really great recipes, shown below.

Have a perfectly imperfect week, full of love and real friendship!

Lemon Bread

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 T lemon juice
1 T grated lemon peel
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 cup milk
GLAZE:
2 T lemon juice
1/2 cup powdered sugar

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, lemon juice, and lemon peel. In small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to batter, alternatively with milk. Pour into greased loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until toothpick in center comes out clean. Combine glaze ingredients and drizzle over loaf while still warm.














Recipe courtesy of Lynn. Thanks, Lynn!

Strawberry and Spinach Salad*
3 T sesame seeds
1 T and 1 1/2 tsp poppy seeds
1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup and 2 T balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 T and 1 1/2 tsp minced red onion
15 ozs. fresh spinach, rinsed, dried and torn into bite-size pieces
6 cups strawberries, cleaned hulled and sliced
1/4 cup and 2 T almonds (or walnuts)
crumbled feta
Red onion slices (for top)

In a medium bowl, whisk together the sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sugar, olive oil, vinegar, paprika, Worcestershire sauce and onion. Cover, and chill for one hour.

In a large bowl, combine the spinach, strawberries and almonds. Pour dressing over salad and toss. Refrigerate 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

*the quantity here is a lot...can reduce ingredients.

Connection over coffee

I had the absolute PLEASURE of having coffee with a friend of mine this morning, whom I haven't seen since my wedding almost 7 years ago! She and her family lived across the street from me when I was growing up. Now, many years later, we connected again and met for coffee.

What an amazing "God thing" it was!

It's really fun to see God connect people, at just the right time.

We are two women who each:

(1)Love the Lord

(2)Want to serve him wholeheartedly

(3)Are both praying fiercely for something we know only God can provide

My prayer: Release from burdensome debt! God has immensely blessed her family in financial ways. Her story is amazing! God intervened in a rare and mighty way to help them out of a financial crisis. It happened in the blink of an eye! Something I haved dreamed about and can only hope and pray for. And something I can very easily be jealous of, if I'm not careful.

Her prayer: A child. God has richly blessed my family with two gorgeous boys. My story may not be magificent, but my children are God's gifts. She has been unable to conceive. I have something that she dreams about and hopes and prays for. And something she can very easily be jealous of, if she's not careful.

I wonder why God has reconnected us for such a time as this? Perhaps we can understand the depth of each other's longings. Maybe we can show compassion at a level others may not understand. Or maybe we can be a reminder to the other of God's blessings that are so easily taken for granted.

Whatever the reason may be...and I trust Him that there is one... I'm sure it will be something that teaches us more about Him. And I thank Him for the gift of friendship.

Conversation with God

I have a friend who I truly enjoy being with, when I get to see her. I've discovered that I hear from her predominantly when she is in need of something. Friendship-wise, there's not much depth. But when I'm with her, I enjoy her.

Now she's not feeling well...and hasn't been for a little while. I haven't been a great friend. I haven't called to check on her. I KNOW I need to.

Here's my conversation with God this morning about it:

Me: God, I know I need to call her and check on her, but she never calls ME to see how I'm doing. I don't want to call her. I guess I'm a little mad.

God: You need to call her.

Me: But God...she's really dropped off the face of my planet...unless I fit neatly into her plans for that day. My friendship is not a priority to her.

God: You need to call her.

Me: But we obviously don't have the friendship that I thought we did. She doesn't need me. I'm okay with that. OBVIOUSLY she's okay with that!

God: Call her.

Me: Why? I know you have a reason. I know I'm being proud. But WHY? Honestly, it feels better pouting about it...or ignoring her altogether.

God: What if my Son had only loved people who were warm and fuzzy to Him? Or what if He only cared about those that loved Him first?

Me: Point made. I'll call right now.

Relationships...Connecting...Learning to Love....

I began to think and marvel today at all the different connections of people there are in my life.

Family, immediate and extended.
Close “inner-circle” friends.
General friends.
Acquaintances.
Work peers.
People I want to get to know.

And then today, I began looking at blog comments I am receiving. I KNOW I’m a baby blogger…and I have a very unsophisticated blog (when compared to the “big blog world”). But I am beginning to see how connections with others through blog posts can be tremendously encouraging and maybe even friendships can be formed down the line.

And then I began to think about how I interact with each of these types of people in my life.

Am I being REAL? Am I connecting at the deepest possible level?

Even when the other person really has nothing in common with me, do they feel loved by me? Do I truly seek to KNOW them as well? Am I entering into their world…and taking advantage of whatever opportunity for love and growth the Lord is giving us both?

To be honest, there are people in my life the Lord has placed there…and I’m not sure why. But my hope and prayer is that I love them well and I don’t miss ANYTHING the Lord has in store.

Think about all your many relationships.

Are YOU keeping it real?