Thinking About The Holidays

This is my favorite part of the year! I love the fall holidays! Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas! They are just so much fun. Kyle, Tom and I have the added bonus of having birthdays during this time as well which makes it even more crazy!

For Halloween this year my kids are going to dress up as candy corn. My mother-in-law is making their costumes. Megan will be a regular one, and Kyle will be a chocolate one. I can't wait! They are going to be so cute! I enjoy planning coordinating costumes for them. Last year Megan was an Indian and Kyle was a cowboy. Next year we are considering Dorthy and the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz.

I've already decorated my house for fall with pumpkins and silk mums and cute little scarecrows. I'll leave these things up through Thanksgiving and then shortly after Thanksgiving I'll tear it all down and put up all my snowmen and Christmas decorations. Though I won't be decorating for Christmas until then, I have started other Christmas preparations. I've got quite a bit of my Christmas shopping done, and I've been listening to Christmas music already. Some people say it's too early to listen to Christmas music, but I personally think it's appropriate to sing about the joy of Christ's birth all year long! Christmas is especially exciting now that I have kids of my own to share it with. We have decided to get Megan the Fisher Price Loving Family Doll House as her one and only gift this year. I cannot wait to see her reaction when she opens it. I know she is going to love it. We haven't decided what to get for Kyle. I think we may need to take a stroll around Toys R Us to get some ideas.

And of course who can forget the amazing food that we get to enjoy, and share with friends and family! My personal favorites are Baklava, and pumpkin pie, and the homemade dinner rolls that my mom makes, and of course the turkey! YUM! It makes my mouth water just thinking about it! Of course the challenge is to enjoy the food, without overdoing it and putting on those holiday pounds. Some years I definitely do better than others.

Thankful Thursday

1. I'm thankful for my little mommy's boy, Kyle! He's such a daring rambunctious little guy. He loves cars and trucks and any other motored vehicle. Some days he has so much energy he just runs back and forth in between the living room and the kitchen, not for any reason except that he thinks running is fun. He likes to sit on my lap when I'm typing on the computer, and he has to give mommy, daddy, and Megan goodnight kisses before going to bed. Whenever either Tom or I get home after being gone a few hours he greets us in the most excited voice, "Hi Mama!", or "Hi Dada!"

Snuggling with his lovies. His blankie and his little blue bear were both gifts from his Grandma.

Looking at his favorite book. Anytime someone suggests reading stories he automatically grabs this book, and don't even think about not reading it because he would be devastated.

Kyle thought this baby snake was such a fun toy! Megan, on the other hand, wouldn't even touch it!

Kyle is such a typical boy. He loves all the normal boy stuff : Cars, balls, snakes, getting dirty, being rough and tumble, etc.

2. I'm thankful for my Bible study group at church. What a blessing it is to study God's word and to have kindred spirits to share what I've learned.

3. I'm thankful for my handy husband who is able to fix just about anything and everything. That is such a valuable trait!

4. I'm thankful for the hand-me-down couches that my parents gave us to replace our really OLD hand-me-down couches that we had previously!

5. I'm thankful I was able to get save my pictures before my computer went haywire.

My Boo Boo and Mommy Ponderings

Over the weekend I burned my arm on a hot pan on my stove. It's not a big burn and doesn't hurt anymore, but every time my kids see it they both "Oohhhh" over my boo boo and insist on kissing it. It's such a sweet gesture! I just swell with love and pride at my two caring little ones every time! It's moments such as these that make all my long days as a SAHM totally worthwhile!

One lovely duty of homemaking is periodically cleaning out from under the couch. I do it about every six months, though I really should do it more often. I picked up a small mountain of toys that had been living under there for weeks or months including half of Kyle's matchbox car collection. My vacuum cleaner clogged several times on the piles of stale cereal and crackers which I was able to fix by shoving a long screw driver up the nozzle, but I did have to enlist my husband's help when I accidentally vacuumed a C battery which got lodged in the nozzle. He ended up having to take the hose and nozzle apart in order to get the battery out. So it ended up being quite a lengthy chore. I'm just glad it's done for the next six months!

I have been very busy today. I've done dishes twice, vacuumed, mopped, balanced the checkbook and ran errands to pay some bills, made and canned 3 batches of applesauce, and cleaned up afterwards. I'm also babysitting Olivia today. Often I keep myself so busy with housekeeping and mommy-ing and wife-ing that sometimes my time left to sit at the feet of my Lord is scant. This passage is a good reminder to reconsider my priorities. . .

Luke 10:38-42 Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

I've been busy!

As of today it has been a week since I have gotten a chance to blog. I've been busy! Being a mom is a big job all by itself, but when you add in there babysitting another 2 year old, and getting ready for a weekend away which included baking pies, plus the fact that I was absorbed in 2 very good books. Well, it just leaves little time left to be online.

The books that I just finished were the first two books in The Mark Of The Lion trilogy by Francine Rivers. Really awesome books about the life of a Jewish Christian who becomes a slave in a Roman family after the fall of Jerusalem. The slave-girl, Hadassah, falls in love with the very lost family who has come to own her and over and over tries to share the good news of Jesus Christ, despite the danger it puts her in. I haven't had a chance to read the third one yet. On Wednesday I plan to return the second book and check the 3rd book out of our church library.

Now it's time for me to get back to the ever-present pile of laundry that needs to be washed, dried, folded and put away. Though my body is crying out for a nap. Oh to be able to give in to such pleasures! LOL!

The Ordinary Things

"We are not built for the mountains and the dawns and aesthetic
affinities, those are for moments of inspiration, that is all. We are
built for the valley, for the ordinary stuff we are in, and that is where we
have to prove our mettle."~ Oswald Chamber~

It is so easy to get caught up in wanting big things for our life that we miss the blessings in ordinary things of life. King Solomon of the Old Testament lived his life looking for big things in wisdom, in wealth, and in pleasure but he finally concluded at the end of his life that all is vanity (Ecc. 12:8). Those things, in and of themselves, are not bad, but it is when we are doing what God has purposed for us that we find fulfillment. God does not desire a hero. He desires his people to love and obey Him.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

Matthew 22:37-38 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.

To read more Tuesday In Other Words visit Laurel Wreath Reflections.

Our Hearts Desire

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus,Look full in HIS wonderful face,and the
things of earth will grow strangely dim, by the light of His glory and grace."~ Helen Limmel ~

People are searching for their heart's desire. Everyone is looking for something that will give them lasting satisfaction and contentment. They try to find it in their latest shopping trip, the new car, the big house, the money, adventure, children or a spouse, and even religion only to be disappointed and find that their longings are only temporarily quenched. God is the only one who can give us our hearts desire because He IS our hearts desire. Nothing in this world compares to Him. Once we become a child of God by accepting Jesus Christ's death and Resurrection as our gift of salvation, we also receive the joy of communing with Him through prayer and reading His Word. Only then we find the thing in life that is more precious than gold and silver, and sweeter than honey, and even the greatest riches in this world pale in comparison to HIM!

Psalm 37:4 Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Psalm 144:15b Happy is that people whose God is the Lord

Psalm 145:16, 19 Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing. . . He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.

To read more Tuesday In Other Words visit http://allyouhavetogive.blogspot.com/.

The Fair And Babysitting

Yesterday after church we all went to visit one of Tom's friends and then we took our kids to a fair/car show not too far from his house. It was such a beautiful autumn day, perfect for fair-going. The fair was very tiny and wasn't all that exciting, but Kyle was in AWE of all the cars. He is so much like his daddy it is not even funny! He wanted to climb in and drive them which made it a little frustrating continually trying to keep him away because those car show people don't like getting fingerprints on their shiny fancy cars. We ate some yummy fair food and browsed the displays. Towards the end we came across a booth that had these little orange blow up monkeys and my kids both wanted one. They were 2 bucks each and definitely not worth 2 bucks, but worth the excitement they gave my kids so we gave in and bought them each one. Amazingly enough my kids have been playing with those silly monkeys all day. They were having a blast wrapping them around their bellies and then running with the monkeys dragging behind. They were belly laughing like crazy which is contagious and got me going as well. It quite funny!

Today has been a very busy day. This week and next I am babysitting a little girl named Olivia. Olivia is the same age as Kyle, she will turn 2 just a couple weeks after him. She is an easy little girl to babysit. Much less rambunctious than my two crazy little things. So this morning I wanted to get the bulk of my cleaning done that way I wouldn't have to worry about trying to do that while watching another little one. So I washed dishes, vacuumed, scrubbed the kitchen floor, and started laundry. Olivia got here just before 1 p.m., so I took the kids down the street to the playground for a while before nap time. They are all sleeping peacefully right now, and I'm hoping they will continue to sleep for at least another hour. I'm still working on the laundry, and I need to figure out what to do for dinner. Olivia will be here through dinner, until 7:30 tonight, so that aught to make for an interesting evening.