What will today bring?

Reminders

Employment

Today I'm grateful my husband is employed, working a job he enjoys.  

60 minutes

I came across this a few weeks ago. It was posted by a friend of a friend on Facebook. 

2013 has not been the brightest of years. In fact Fall of 2013 has been doozie. The good news is that as quickly as our family challenges blew in, they are blowing out. The clouds have parted. The sun is shining again. 

And I'm grateful the darkest hour truly is only 60 minutes. 

The Kitchen

Last night I had the opportunity to host a pizza/video game party for my 9 year old son and some of his friends. It was loud. It was silly. No blood or broken bones resulted from the evening. Overall, it was a success. 

My favorite part came an hour before when I was running around the kitchen like a crazy woman and my oldest daughter was helping me. We had a moment carved out of the craziness to talk, laugh, and get a little teary. Life is good. I love that girl and the amazing young woman that she is. 

Today

I am thankful for job interviews. Prayers and happy thoughts for my hubby today. 

Bigger Than Myself

I've been thinking about the whole concept of family. How it's evolved and enlarged through the years. I realized this past summer that my family is large and vast and extensive and that a lot of my friends are now a part of my family. With cousins and in-law marriages, I think my kids are now related to half of the Inland Empire. 

One of the reasons we moved to Texas was to diversify the gene pool for our grand kids. 

That being said, I am proud of my extensive family and grateful to be connected to so many strong, amazing people. 

Fall Comes Softly

November usually blows in a real change of weather. Although we don't experience real Fall, it's nice to feel a cold breeze on my face. I've come to realize that Fall comes softly to south Texas.

Texas Sky

Because no matter how big my problems appear to be, I can look outside my window and see a sky that is much bigger. 

Pay It Forward

Yesterday was a huge day of blessings and tender mercies. And in the middle of receiving, I was given an opportunity to give back. Even in the midst of life's darkest storms, we can still reach out to others as they are weathering theirs. In the process of lifting others, our own storms will calm. 

Meanwhile, a year later...

Wow! 1 year since the last post. Nice!

Where to even begin????

In the words of Inigo Montoya...

Let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up...

Our family has increased by one adorable little boy, Little Man A. He came to us through foster care and we will be officially adopting him no later than September. He is a feisty, active, adorable 2 year old and we can't imagine life without him. It would certainly be boring. The other little peeps are a year older, wiser, and funnier. The oldest peep is looking forward to the last 2 years of high school.

Time is racing forward and with high hopes of being faithful to my little blog, I take up the cause again of documenting some of our family's favorite recipes, adventures, and overall awesomeness. I hope at some point to fill you in on the happenings of the past year - it's been a crazy roller-coaster ride.

Coming Changes

As the summer approaches, our family is gearing up for fun in the sun! We are also getting ready to foster-to-adopt. My niece, Jessica, has gone through the process and eloquently documented it on her blog. It's something I have been considering for over a year, and the Hubby and I feel that now is the right time to add to our family. We're excited about who will be coming to join our family and I'll be giving occasional updates. Stay tuned....

A Month of Thanks

So, a lot of my facebook friends are posting something they're thankful for each day in November. I consider myself a generally positive, grateful person. But, my focus will be a bit different this year. This past year has brought tremendous changes to me and my family. I am so grateful for the changes! Hard does not even cover it, but it has been worth it. I've emerged with a clear picture of who I am.

But I digress...

Today I am grateful for the moment when I tuck my kids into bed and ask them what their favorite thing about the day was.

National Adoption Month

I love this! It addresses something that's been nagging at me for the last couple of months. Everytime I make a mistake - whether personal, parenting, or cooking fiasco - I doubt my ability to be a good mamma to children other than my own. We are still 6 months or so away from starting our foster to adoption journey, but I'm already mentally gearing up for it. I'm not sure if that's an entirely good thing...

This one helps ease my mind a bit:

Happy National Adoption Awareness Month!

The Business of Motherhood

Every once in a while something happens that makes me sit back and say, "Wow! I really am glad to be involved in the business of motherhood."

A few days ago, my son and I were talking about snow. He suddenly says, "I really miss Susanville."

To which I replied, "What do you miss about Susanville?"

He then said, "I miss making snowmen with you."

A little backstory: A few months after our youngest was born, I got involved in learning the business of multi-level marketing of life insurance and annuities. This took tremendous amounts of time in addition to having a newborn taking up tremendous amounts of time. (Looking back, I have NO idea what I was thinking! A sleep deprived brain is not a good brain for making decisions.)

Anyhow, it was on a particularly time consuming day that my then 3 year old son comes up to me and asks me to help him build a snowman outside. It was more like begging with high pitched whineyness, which I normally have no tolerance for.

But, instead of snapping at him to use his "Big Boy Voice" and ask politely, I heard a little voice in my brain say, "stop." So I stopped. The little voice then said, "he will remember this day." And that was it. End of conversation.

So then I asked myself, "what do I want him to remember about this day?"

I'm still blown away by this experience and grateful that I have the opportunity once again to be in the business of full-time motherhood. As the kids are getting older, there are more and more days that they will remember, and I'm grateful to be a part of that.

Thinking about this...

Those who think of life as a personal ministry tend to be less lonely, less likely to feel that life has spun out of control, more inclined to have a gentle heart, more filled with purpose.

Sheri Dew

Laundry

Source: etsy.com via Melissa on Pinterest

Create

Goals

I've often wondered why we set goals. Most of the time I have grand ideas ("delusions of grandeur" to quote Han Solo). These grand ideas seem perfectly attainable at the time, but somehow the more I live with the idea, the more impossible and laughable it seems. Why do I do this to myself?

Anyway, I attended Time Out for Women about a month ago. The theme of the tour was Choose to Become. I've spent a lot of time thinking about this idea. It's so easy for me to get caught up in the moment and loose sight of the overall picture. As I've focused on Becoming rather than doing, it has helped me keep my focus. Goals are supposed to help track our progress towards whatever we're Becoming. So, I'm trying to change my grandiose goals to more trackable, realistic accomplishments. Right now I'm focusing on reading and writing.

• Goal #1: Write everyday. It can be a letter, email, blog entry, or journal entry. Thoughts must get out of my head and onto paper or computer.
• Goal #2: Read everyday. Scriptures first, good literature second. It doesn't have to be great literature, just something that fills my soul (apart from the spiritual feast the scriptures provide).
• Goal #3: Develop a talk or lesson weekly. I teach RS once a month, so that takes care of one week. Fill the rest of the month with lessons or talks that can be pulled at the last minute.

Goodbye 2010...