I can do this!!

So it's day two of being alone.  And much like I thought, I'm singing a different tune today.  The loneliness has faded and the fun has begun.

I set out to do a project.  Let me share this with you first.  My youngest son is a disaster.  We call him "pig pen" and it fits.  You may also call him the tazmanian devil.  He is very scatter brained.  But to his defense, he lives in the moment.  Good or bad.

Well, for someone who tends to be a "neat freak" his messiness can be very difficult for me to deal with.

Here are some pictures of his room.

This is a good day.  Usually you can't see the floor.

So, the project was to purchase some shelves and put them together.  Then use them in his closet.

Here's what I got.

Around here Andy usually does the building and the tool using.  But, I thought I could handle this myself.  So I did.

I did it.  I got them put together.  Woo hoo!!

I got busy and did some organizing.  It feels good.  I love to clean and organize.   So, an hour and a half later here are a few pictures of his room/closet all done.

Ah, much better.  The pictures really don't do it justice.  Boy was it fun and is he going to be surprised when he gets home.  Now, I only hope he keeps it clean.   ; ]



Alone

It all began last Thurs. when I drove my parents to the airport for a 10 day trip to Arizona.

Sure, I can handle my parents being gone.  No problem.  Piece of cake.  After all, I'm a married woman and a mother of two.  Right?! 

Well, everything was fine and dandy until Monday morning when my husband left town for 4 days.  To top things off, it's spring break this week and my kids were off school.  That's right.  Not only did my parents leave, now my husband is gone and I'm alone with the kids. 

Don't get me wrong, I love my kids and I love having them home.  It's just hard when you don't have anyone to share the load.  But, have no fear, my mother-in-law arrived late Monday to help out.  And was she ever a help.  It was nice having her here.

So, today she took them away with her for the weekend.  I must admit I was a little looking forward to it.  I know, I'm a bad mother.  But I digress. 

Andy returned today from his trip only to unpack his suitcase and repack it for the weekend away at his parents.  He was home long enough to tease me and he was gone again.  That's right, gone.  I couldn't go along because I have previous obligations.   So, that leaves me alone.  No kids, no hubby, no parents to hang with.  Just me.

Every mothers dream.  Right?...Wrong.  I miss them already.  I ate dinner at Burger King by myself and went for ice cream at Dairy Queen by myself.  (We'll talk about my diet another time!)  ;\

It was weird.  Oh, and by the way, did you know that the fish that are sold at the pet stores are actually delivered in a truck?  Yeah, I didn't know that either.  Never really thought about it, but it made me chuckle.  And again, I digress.

So, here I am all alone.  And feeling a little blue.  I know I should be happy and enjoying myself, but it would be easier if my peeps were with me.

Now, tomorrow I may be singing a different tune.  I might be jumping for joy and praying that the time will never end.  But for now I'll just sit here (alone) and be reminded how much I love my family and how truly blessed I am.

Spring has sprung!!

It has been so beautiful here the past week or so.

I don't know about you but I am certainly not ready to see it come to an end.

Tonight we had the priveledge of seeing both of our boys perform in a school program.  The theme of the program was a jungle.  It was quite cute.  Well, one of the songs was about the animals giving praise to God through their sounds.

It struck me in that even the animals know to Whom the praise is due.  That is amazing.  All of it just makes this creation so much more beautiful.  If that is possible.

We mowed the lawn for the first time today.  I love the sound of the mower and the smell, oh, the smell of fresh cut grass.  Don't you?  Nothing says summertime like the sound of the mower.

One thing I have learned is to enjoy each season as it comes.  Not to constantly be looking for the next season.  So, I wasn't quite ready for spring to come.  I wanted to soak up as much of winter as I could.  Especially since we didn't have one this year.  But, I must admit, now that we have had this taste of summer, I am afraid there is no going back.  I don't want the cold to return.  But if it does I will try my hardest to just enjoy it.  No. Matter. What.

And remember to Whom the praise is due!!

Special Delivery

We had a great weekend.  God has truly been blessing us with beautiful weather.  What a gift.  We spent a lot of time on Saturday working in our yard.  The previous owners planted several beautiful trees and plants and shrubs, but they did it right in the middle of our yard.  Beautiful, but not practical.  So, out it came.  Well, some of it.  There are still some things remaining.  Eventually we will get it to where we want it.

We were just about done working for the day when the doorbell rang.  It was our neighbor with a dump truck load of wood.  FREE WOOD!!  A whole tree!!!!

To some this may not be exciting, but it certainly was to us.  One of the reasons we liked this house was because it has a fireplace.

The other benefit of our house is that it is one-story.  We installed a wood burning stove shortly after we moved in and because of that we are able to heat our entire house using the wood stove.

So, you can imagine how thrilled we were when our neighbor approached us about this tree.  Did I mention it was FREE?  How often can you heat your home for free?

There was so much it was rolling down the hill onto the street.  HA!  I guess we made a spectacle of ourselves as passers by stopped to watch.  :]

You may wonder why I chose to share this.  Well, the answer is that I know this was truly a gift.  One we didn't even ask for.  A need that God chose to fill through the kindness of a neighbor.

Whenever I look out my kitchen window I can see our wood pile.  Ever shrinking, ever growing.  But it always reminds me that God provides.  Sometimes we have to do our part and search it out, other times it just comes knocking.  It also reminds me how much I love my home.  Another gift.

S. O. S.

Andy has been out of town since early Monday morning so, I have been playing single parent all week.  Needless to say it has been a long week.  I love my boys very much.  So much so that I've gone and expected them to do chores and homework, get along with each other and put others first, to use words that are pleasing to others and to God all the while doing it with the right attitude.

They mistake my actions for mean-ness.  How could their mother love them if she expects these things from them?  To do things the first time they are told.  Oh, pure mean-ness!!  To have their homework done neatly without being told.  Gasp!!!  Oh, and not watching a movie on a school night!  You might as well lock me up!!

Well, tonight I found myself sending up a prayer.  A cry for help.  Hope.  A glimmer of hope that what we as parents have been telling them is sticking in their heads.  Something.  Anything to let me know that I'm on the right track.

I know we all go through times like these and I know in my heart of hearts that we are getting through to them.  I know this because my God loves them more than I ever could.  They are His children and I just get to be their mom.  Even on days (or weeks) like this.

So, I'll go to bed tonight with hope.  And a prayer of thanks to God for reminding me in this very moment to just love my kids even though it can be hard.

I just found out about this.

Woo Hoo!!  I'm excited about this.  I've been searching for a photo editing sight and found this.  Thanks to Becky at Farmgirl Paints.  I have had so much fun playing with this.  Take a look at one of my creations.

This is the before.  Kind of dull, lacking a little color.

So, I played around a little and this is what I came up with.

Not exactly perfect, but definately less dull.

I must warn you, if you go to their sight, you might not leave for hours.  It's too much fun.

Just wanted to share it with ya.

Happy Monday.

More Treasures

I finished transferring all of our pictures to our current computer.  Many a smile was brought to my face in seeing our old memories.  I didn't realize just how much my boys have changed over the last few years.

I found this picture of Collin.  This was his first day of Kindergarten.

He had his whole life ahead of him in that moment.  I can't believe he is now in 5th grade.  5TH!  Where has the time gone?

I think he is just handsome.  Oh how I miss that age.

Here is he is on his last birthday.  Sigh.  My firstborn.

When I was expecting our second child Britt, I didn't know how I would love another child.  But the truth is, you love each child in different ways.  Not one more than another, your heart just growns bigger and wider that sometimes it feels like it will burst.

Children are a treasure from the Lord.  (Even though it doesn't always feel that way.)

Writing this post brought tears to my eyes.

Finding treasures

Today I set out to tackle the family desk.  UGH.  It's been in the forefront of my mind and I've been wanting to do it for quite some time.  No, this is not a before/after of an amazing desk transformation.  The truth is, I'm still in the middle of finishing it.  It's mostly done, just some loose ends to tie up.  One being removing the dinosaur computer from the area.  But, before we can do that one of the things I had to do was transfer all of our pictures from that computer onto our current one.  Well, that gave me the opportunity to look through them.

I love to do that.  It's like freezing time and heading backwards for just a bit.  In my travels I found one of my favorite pictures of our son Britt.

This was back in 2006.  He was almost 3 at the time.  This makes me smile because he can still be seen today wearing a cowboy hat and all of the trimmings and that same crazy smile.

See what I mean?  This one is from just last year.

I also managed to dig up a picture of my sweet Sadie.

Isn't she a beauty?  I'm not sure how I managed to get this picture.  She is deathly afraid of the camera.  But hey, I'll take it.

Taking a trip down memory lane is always fun.  It can be bittersweet at the same time.  God has richly blessed my life and looking through the photos was a great reminder to me.

I will have to even the score with my other son Collin.  I wouldn't want him to feel left out, so as I find some more pics I'll give him his just due.

Nope, didn't find any of me!!  ;]

I hope you will find some time to take a stroll down memory lane.   You'll be glad you did.

Visiting

Yesterday I had the great privelege to visit with my friend Bevy.  I wanted to talk to her about this beast.

You see, she is a talented and fabulous sewer.  I knew if anyone could help, Bevy could.  She was very helpful.  However, I still have a lot to learn about her.  (the sewing machine that is)

Well, as with any great friend our conversation soon drifted from the sewing machine to other more important and fun things.

I enjoyed my visit with her immensely.  It's always so nice to catch up with an old friend.  Well, she's not old, just long-standing.  During our conversation she referred to me as a "comfort food" sort of friend.  I chuckle at that still.  Some may not get this, but her sweet comment felt good.  It's exactly how I wish to be thought of.

She gave me a great gift.

This book is great.  I've only begun to mark my pages and already I see it's value.  What struck me right off the bat was this:  we are in a society of people who want to entertain guests, when what we really need to do is show our guests (and those we pass throughout the day) hospitality.  There is a big difference between the two and I am excited to delve ino the pages and really learn what those differences are.

I am not one who has guests in our home often.  I am very self-conscious and our home is on the smaller side.  But, it's a home none-the-less and it's beautiful ( I think) and God has truly blessed us with this home.  It just fits.  You know, like those old ratty sneakers that you throw on when you want to be comfortable.  That's home.  So, in practicing hospitality... would you like to come to our old ratty shoe for an evening of fun?

In this crazy, busy, ratrace life, I hope you find time to visit with a great friend such as I did.  Make some coffee, pull up a stool, put a movie on for the kids and just...talk.


               ************************************

thank you Bevy for a great visit

Homemade Creamer

I don't know about you, but this warm beautiful weather puts me in the mood.  The mood to clean, open the windows, sit on the porch and read (got a great new book today, I'll tell you about it tomorrow.  Promise.), and spend some time in my kitchen.

I've been making my own creamer for a short time and I've been enjoying it.  Thanks to pinterest I've found a great easy peasy recipe.  I thought I'd share it with you.  You brew the coffee while I make the creamer, ok?!

So, here it is.  I'll share the real recipe from pinterest at the end.

You will need:
1/4 c of brown sugar
1 TBL of pure vanilla
2 c of half and half




Forgot to put the half and half in the first picture.  :)

Melt the brown sugar and vanilla over the stove being careful not to burn it. 

Turn off the burner and slowly whisk in the half and half.

When you're done it will look like this:

Just poor into your favorite glass container and store in the fridge.  Voila!  It's that easy.

If you are into coffee for the creamer, this might not be for you.  However, I am one such person and I have found this to be enjoyable.  Plus, I think it's better for you since it doesn't contain all of those extra ingredients that are found in flavored creamers.

Here is the recipe that I followed.  She does a much better job with it, but trust me if I can make a.n.y.one can make it.

So, try it and let me know what you think.  Oh, and it costs less too!!

Enjoy spring today, for it shall not last.