Month of Thanksgiving: Day 4

Today I am thankful for my little ball of 3 year old energy and spunk ... Miss Kathryn Elena. She is such a Mama's girl. This little girl can get me to smile and laugh with the flash of her cute little face, but can get my blood boiling with her stubborn defiance. At the end of the day, she is a very smart, independent, three year old. Her personality shines so bright. I love how she looks up to her sister and wants to do everything she does; but in the same breath, she demonstrates just how different her desires and sense of style are from her sister's.
I have been blessed with the opportunity to raise sisters who are close in age. It is so fun to see each of them blossom as an individual. This journey is probably one of the most challenging ones I have ever encountered. I yearn to raise them to be daughters of Christ, who are able to make the right choices even when society is screaming for them to follow a different path. I have been blessed in more ways than I can count as I am traveling along this journey - even if I have many moments I want to scream (and in the heart of this 3rd year of Kathryn's life, she has made me want to scream more times than I am proud of).
But my heart is so full when she is overwhelmed with excitement or pride that her reaction is to squeeze my neck tight and kiss me. Her love language is, without a doubt, touch. She loves to cuddle with me, touch me, hug me, kiss me, run her fingers through my hair, or just sit close to me. Her go to phrase (mostly when she doesn't want to sleep in her own bed) is "I need you." As much as I want her to sleep in her own bed, I know that as a small three year old, that phrase is so true. She truly needs me. And as her mom, I am honored to satisfy her needs. To just hold her and love on her. To simply cherish these moments before I blink and find a young woman standing before me. I love this fiery little girl with all my heart.
When I was pregnant with her, it was hard to imagine loving another child as much as I loved Carissa. But now, I couldn't imagine life without her. I thank God for her and for what she adds to our family.
I love you, Kathryn!

Month of Thankfulness: Day 3

Today I am thankful for my firstborn ... Miss Carissa Hope. A little over 5 years ago she made me a mommy - a title I hold with the greatest honor. I cannot even begin to explain the overwhelming joy that comes with knowing I have been entrusted with such a precious being, someone to raise, to teach, to take care of, to love.

My heart melts every time she runs and hugs me, or kisses my face all over. I absolutely love when she asks me to snuggle with her - knowing it won't be long before those snuggles become fewer and fewer. 

Watching her grow into a big girl who is thoughtful towards others, whose heart is bigger than she is, and who finds joy in being a silly girl is one of my greatest privileges. 

Helping her learn how to think thru the choices she makes to grow into a girl after God's own heart is one of my greatest responsibilities.

As much as I want to keep her a little girl in my arms forever, I do look forward to watching her grow. My heart is so full!

I love you, Carissa! <3

Month of Thankfulness: Day 2

Today I am thankful for my amazing husband! I can look around and easily see many divorces or relationships that are struggling, but then I look at our marriage and I KNOW that I am blessed! Over 13 years ago I met this boy when we were still young, silly teenagers. Only God could have ordained something so beautiful to begin when we were so young and to carry us to where we are now. 

I look at how much we have both grown up and changed over these last 13 years - and sometimes I laugh to think he stuck with me when I was so immature. But boy am I glad he did. 

I love that we have a relationship that is securely founded on God, and that thru Him we have been able to learn the lessons we need to continue growing together. 

Over the last 13 years we have learned how to communicate (not just talk to or at each other). We have learned a lot about the balance it takes to run a household and raise children. We have helped each other grow as individuals, as a couple, and as parents. We have encouraged each other to be the best we can be, and supported one another's goals and desires. We have walked ups and downs together ... not just the easy times. And all these lessons and more we are committed to continuous learning as we fulfill our vows to one another.

I thank God for this man! I simply cannot imagine my life without him in it, and I wouldn't want to.

I am very thankful for these last 13 years and I am ever so thankful for the years to come as we spend the rest of our lives together! 

I love you, David!

Month of Thankfulness: Day 1

I am first and foremost thankful for my God who was and is and is to come. He has great plans for me and my life; and as I reflect on my life thus far, I have no doubt whatsoever that He has used all for the purpose of good to bring me to where I am now. I know that if He has guided me this far, then the greatness He has for me in the future is beyond what I can fathom. I cannot imagine life without having my God who loves me enough to care about the intimate details of my life! How incredible!

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. (Romans 8:28 NLT)

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. (Ephesians 3:20 NLT)

Dora Lapbook

Over the last 3+ years, God has been tenderly kindling a growing desire in me to homeschool my children. So often I think about what all that means, and I can quickly become overwhelmed or feel inadequate. However, the older the girls become, the  stronger this desire becomes; which ultimately leads to more motivation to "get my act together." I will totally have to learn as I go, but I figure now is a good time to start laying some foundations and getting us all used to learning together. As I am embarking this mission, I have found I am not alone. Thankfully, there are so many moms who have gotten off the ground successfully and have decided to share the wisdom and resources with moms like me who are just getting started!

  

I have decided to start with making lapbooks/packs.

Here is my first one!

All of my printables came from 1+1+1=1 Tot School

 I printed everything out, let the girls help me color some things, laminated it all, cut all of that out, and then put it all together on a file folder.

There is a Color Matching envelope. It has little squares inside. Each with a picture of Dora printed completely in one color. The English word of the color printed below the Dora. There is a matching one that has the Spanish word of the color printed below.

 

There is also a pocket that is for ABCs.
There are squares with 2-3 letters each.

One set has capital letters,
and one set has lower case letters

so they can match the capitals with the lower case letters.

We have a color book ... Each page has Dora colored a specific color, with a sentence below that says "Dora is ___" (the blank is filled with the word of a color that has been printed in that same color). The back page of the book is hot glued to the folder. All the pages have been hole punched and tied together with ribbon.

 

This accordion book has pictures of Dora and Boots doing things, and below the actions there is a sentence that says what they are doing.

The girls really enjoyed playing with the pieces as I was putting it together! I am anxious to see how they like using this one ... and I can't wait to make more! :)

Habits of 2012

The New Year is upon us. Many people will make New Year's Resolutions. In the past, I've always thought of something at the last minute that I could do better. But never had any real driving force behind it, and generally those resolutions never went anywhere. So the last couple years, I've just not bothered (of course it's easy to "not bother" when my husband reminds me every year that years ago he made a resolution to never make a resolution again .... :-\ ) ....
However, I feel like I am progressively covering ground on this journey for self-improvement as a mother, wife, woman, housekeeper, professional, Christian, etc and want to use the upcoming year to be intentional about improving myself and my family. I have decided to plan 12 Habits I want to create and 12 Habits I want to break in 2012. Each habit has been assigned to a month. During each month I will focus primarily on creating and breaking the given habits. The goal (based on the definition of "habit") is to have 12 things become a natural part of my routine that will bless us, and 12 things that were not beneficial to our family that I no longer do.
I made my list tonight. I have a few months that I need to still fill in some habits to break, but I figure as the year goes on, I am sure I will be able to reevaluate my life and fill in the blanks when I get there. I will also try to blog about my progress as I go!

Here is my list.... to keep me motivated and on track!

January
*Create - Get up before the girls to have special time with God.
*Break - Stop snoozing my alarm.

February
*Create - Plan and execute weekly individual time with each girl and my husband.
*Break - Stop saying "in a minute" or "I'm busy"

March
*Create - Finish 1-2 books in a month (Read everyday, individually and with the girls)
*Break -Don't leave the TV on throughout the day.

April
*Create - Go for daily walks with the family
*Break -Don't spend too much time on the phone/comp/facebook

May
*Create - Drink at least 20 oz of water every day
*Break - Don't rely on caffeine to get my thru the day

June
*Create - Plan meals
*Break -Don't let the girls "munch" thru the day

July
*Create - Go to bed no later than midnight
*Break -Don't turn on the TV as I am getting into bed

August
*Create - Blog at least 2-3 times a week
*Break - Don't be impatient with girls and David

September
*Create - Call family members at least a couple times a month
*Break -

October
*Create - Try a new food every week
*Break -

November
*Create - Intentionally be thankful for something every day
*Break - Don't complain

December
*Create - Intentionally take advantage of opportunities to do random acts of kindness often.
*Break -

"Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anyone else expects of you." - Henry Ward Beecher

A Year in a Blink

I closed my eyes for just a second and when I opened them an entire year had passed.
Well, that's how it feels anyway.
Shamefully, I neglected this blog this past year. So much has changed from a year ago, that I always felt I couldn't just "pick up where I left off" ... it needed some segue, so I procrastinated. (What else is new?)
So here I am to try and pick back up, ready for a New Year.

In 2011, we moved to Virginia from North Carolina. We now live with David's grandmother (we help her with the cooking and cleaning and such :)) in the house that David's parents own. We have been so blessed with this living arrangement because we have been unsuccessful with selling or renting our North Carolina house.
In 2011, we joined the church that David went to as a youth - the church that took him to World Changers back in 2000 when we met :) ... It is such a wonderful place to worship God without feeling like it has become a duty, rather it is a delight. I have joined the choir, and ensemble, and help lead the Preschool choir. The girls are enjoying their classes as well. Carissa loves preschool choir, Sunday school, and Mission Friends. And David is a member of the Hand Bell choir. We very much enjoy our young marrieds' Sunday school class, and have made wonderful new friends. Such a blessing!
In 2011, David FINALLY got a job with his degree - making about what we were both making combined in 2010. He enjoys his job and is currently studying to work on getting certifications so he can continue to move up in his field! What an answer to prayers!
In 2011, I developed a love (and discovered a talent) for sewing! I started out with sewing (and selling) cloth diapers! I learned a lot from that experience! Biggest lesson was that if I am going to run a WAHM business, I have to make it fit my family - not make my family fit my business. I began by taking custom orders, only to realize how huge the demand was! I absolutely could not keep up! My poor children and the condition of my home were neglected miserably, and I was so stressed trying to get all the diapers finished in a timely manner for customers. On top of all of that, I hit a few bumps along the way with the functionality of the diapers that I had to fix and ended up replacing diapers. Yow! Can you say OVERWHELMED? I had to take a huge step back. I attempted to get caught up and then create a stock. I had a lot of people anxious for me to "reopen" so I set a date for them, only I wasn't ready in time. I worked round the clock and stressed myself out to get a decent stock made (and still didn't finish what I'd hoped to), and half of what I did finish sold almost immediately. But whenever I pushed myself to make a lot of diapers to meet a deadline, I crashed and burned and the idea of sewing more diapers did not appeal to me. So I took another step back, and have pretty much just set that business aside - temporarily.  I started sewing other things for fun to rekindle my love of creating. I have decided that I do not want to limit myself to just sewing cloth diapers. I want to be able to enjoy making a variety of items - at my own pace. So now I plan to SLOWLY work on building a "boutique" of sorts - and I will open ONLY when I am completely satisfied with my available stock, and have my patterns and kinks worked out. (Check out my sewing blog for the latest on my projects: Sewtastic Fun )

In 2011, I became a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant. While I thoroughly enjoy my sewing businesses, I have to put in a lot of time to make much of a profit right now. Some pieces of the puzzle came together and this opportunity opened up for me. I really enjoy this! It has been slow going for me as of yet (but I truly don't want to burn out on something else on my plate). I am working on getting things organized and ready to make the most of 2012 - and hopefully start having consistent events so that I can start adding to our family's income.

In 2011, we celebrated Kathryn's 1st Birthday and Carissa's 3rd birthday! My how they are growing up SO quickly!!! Both of them are extremely talkative - really ... I don't have any idea where they could have picked that up ;) .... Hmm. They are super sisters. They truly love each other and are always thinking of the other. I will have to post future blogs to highlight their development and personalities because I could write a lot about them! They are my pride and joy for sure! :)

In 2011,  God had taught me one major lesson: I need to stop trying to leave the season of life God has me in, because He has me here for a reason. Instead, I need to step back and see Him at work. I have seen countless accounts of God showing me the reason we are where we are. This was not what we had planned by any means, and it was not the best of circumstances that headed us down this path. But all of 2010, I ignored what I knew in my gut God was telling me to do, and I was miserable. Allowing Him to take the reigns and just trusting that He will provide has proven to be the best thing ever. Our life is 100x better this year than it was last year, and I owe Him all the praise! I know we are still on a journey. But I feel my trust, my faith, and my patience have all grown a lot in the last year! I know God has big things in store for us! And I am anxiously looking forward to all that 2012 has in store for us!! :)

"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." - Jeremiah 29:11