Starting fresh for 2013

Loved the reflection of the light off of the new mirror.

There is something about this time of year that always brings fresh hope.
Hope that this coming year will be better.
Hope that I have learned from my lessons in the past year.
Hope that I can just simply be better.

This past few weeks have been interesting to say the least.
December was hard for me in many ways.
We were supposed to have our home visit and that was going to really kick off the foster to adopt front. When that got postponed as hard as I tried to not let it affect me it did.
I went into a funk and had a terrible time trying to climb out of it.
I was snippy with my hubby and my kids.
I didn't want to be around anyone.
I barely did my bible studies.
Basically overall I let Satan win.

The last few days have been a time of severe reflection for me.
2012 was a year of huge change.
Hubby changed his job and as of it we still don't know if it is the right spot for him.
We changed our income. (Although unfortunately the bills did not change. :( )
We made the huge step forward in the foster to adopt front. We told our families and received interesting feedback.
I made some huge changes in my faith.

However no matter how much I have changed I still keep falling back into the old patterns.
I tend to slip into a huge funk. To borrow a phrase from one of my amazing blog friends. "I am a huge hot mess".
This week I decided I like that. Because only through that will I constantly be needing Him. Only through hitting rock bottom will I find Him there.

So for 2013 I decided to reflect and make a goal word for the year.

Diligent!
Do you like?? lol

I plan to be more diligent on many fronts.
On parenting!
On being the wife my amazing hubby deserves.
On housecleaning.
On making sure we manage our budget and pay down our debt.
On staying faithful and working hard on my bible studies. (I know I need to grow so much more)
On remembering that I am a hot mess. Everyone stumbles and no matter what HE is always there for me.

What are you plans for 2013?  Do you have a word that you want to focus on this year?

Merry Christmas!

Yep that's right I am alive!
I turned on my computer tonight for the first time in a few weeks.
I have been absent so much I think people were getting prepared to send a search party.
To be honest, I have been right here.
I have been busy, but also I have been lazy daisy too.

Yesterday I took down all our Christmas decorations. This is a first for me. I usually take them down on the 1st of January and then I am really sad about it. This year I couldn't wait to get them down and put away.
I think mostly because of the loss of control I felt with them up. I wasn't enjoying them the way I normally do. Now don't get me wrong. I had a pretty darn good Christmas. Hubby as usual was amazing as well as I was thoroughly spoiled. However this year something was off. I think for a good chunk it was stress. Hubby and I had an awesome talk a few days before Christmas. Alright talk might have been an exaggeration  I fell of my mental tight rope and he picked me up, dusted me off and put me back on again. I knew I had married a great man. :)

I had such plans for December and it didn't go the way I wanted.
I felt loss of control and it put me in a funk.
After cleaning up the Christmas decorations and today we hauled the trees to the dump and cleaned up outside it really helped. Again I would be at a loss without that man I married.

However something still wasn't right. Not until this evening. Tonight hubby went to town to have coffee with a friend of his and I decided to stay home. As soon as he walked out the door I knew what I needed to do. I needed to pull out my bible study that I had been missing all week. I had been doing it up until Monday, but this week it got pushed by the wayside.

When I read those words in James 3 I knew. I knew that was my problem. I was relying on myself again. I needed to rely on HIM. Only through Him can I managed anything and everything.
Now James 3 (in the beginning of this chapter) is talking about our tongue and what poison it can be. However it also said something profound to me in verse 2:  'we all stumble in many ways...' 
Man I needed to read that. I am not perfect. This I already knew, but why am I so hard on myself because I am not. Only HE is perfect.

I tend to put too much on my own shoulders thinking that I need to carry it all. I need to take the burdens from my husband and my children and carry them. What I really need to do is take them and then lay them at HIS feet.

HIS grace will carry me. HIS grace will hold me up. HIS grace will be there when I need it most.

I am so happy that I decided to open my bible tonight and focus on HIM once again.

I am so happy that HE has blessed me in so many ways.

I am so happy that HE has helped remind me what is important.

I may will stumble, but I know that HE is right there helping me up.

Hi everyone I am back. :)

Another month bites the dust....

I can hardly believe that it is the first of December. I have no idea where this year went. I pretty much chill axed this week. (Code for being lazy. :) )
November goals:
1. Totally and completely clean my kitchen. The walls need washed, the cupboards need cleaned out and sorted through. I have 2 pantry cupboards in the hallway that I want to condense down into one. Oh yea and the ceiling needs washed as well. LOL

Finished. Just need to maintain. Hubby even fixed the one pantry cupboard in the hallway so that we can have food in there again. I just need to get a couple of child proof locks.

2. I would love to get all or at least most of my Christmas shopping/making down this month. I have some gifts I am making and I really want to get all the other stuff bought. I would love to focus on the meaning behind the holiday during the month of December. I know I probably will not get my baking done and I am totally ok with that. Something for Sarah and I to bond closer with in December. :)

Well the sewing machine and I had a date yesterday and I was able to sew 4 gifts. I still have 3 to go, but those will work up really fast. I would say I am about 85% done. I still need to wrap everything but man does it feel good to be this close to finished. I will also carry this one on to next month for obvious reasons. LOL

3. Our spare room. This needs cleaned out in the worst way. This will be the room that our foster children go into and possibly our future children. (SQUEAL) I really want to get this done by December 1rst so that hopefully we can get our home inspection started then. Fingers crossed.

Nope not done. :( I will be carrying this over to next month. Although I went in  there today and managed to get quite a bit emptied out. However we still have a long way to go and somehow somewhere I need to find a place to store all the stuff that was in that room. :(

I thought I would also post my December goals on here today as well being that it is the first of December.

1. Have Christmas presents all bought, wrapped and ready to go by the middle of the month. 

Since I am almost done this one should be pretty easy.

2. Have the house ready for the inspection by next Friday. 

OK this one I am being a bit lenient on. If I don't get a good chunk of it done by Monday then I am going to call and reschedule the first appointment. I would rather have the checklist that they gave us done so that they possibly won't have to make another trip. I realize that means that I will be pushing back everything so I am hoping to work hard this week at getting it done.

3. Enjoy December for what it is: The birth month of Christ.

This means that I plan to try and relax most of the month. Do some baking. Spend tons of quality time with Sarah and just enjoying life before we get crazy busy again. I also want to spend some time just Sarah and I being lazy, bonding. I realize there is a very good chance that soon she will have more children in the house and I want her to know that we love her just as much as we ever have.

4. I am throwing a 4th one in,but it is an easy one as well. Make sure the house is kept clean as we are hosting Christmas and I don't want to have a mad rush the week before trying to get everything ready.

That's it. 

Tonight is Rob's Christmas party so I have to run and get ready. I also want to do some more sorting of all our scrapbooking/craft supplies. They all need to find another safe home. :)

I am linking up today with Aurie. Oh and by the way I promise I will take pics and show you the room if we manage to get finished in time. :)

Wednesday's Walk

Well it sure has been a while since I have wrote about this. I am not sure why although I think someone has been trying awful hard to prevent me from furthering my walk.

Things have been so tumultuous here. I mean on the surface it all looks good. Rob and I are still doing really well as a couple even though the stress of finances are getting stronger. Our kids are doing fantastic and everything is moving along as it should be on the foster to adopt front.
However it's me.
 I am in turmoil.
I am a the edge where I need to push farther on my walk. I need to shout it out just how much I love the Lord.
Yet something holds me back.
I fear...
I fear losing friends.
I fear discrimination.
I fear disappointment. Me disappointing others.
I fear what it means to completely follow Him.

I am a cross roads.

I have been here many a time before and I always turn back to.

I want to push on.
I desire to push on.
I WANT to grow stronger in my walk.
I NEED that deeper relationship with God.

I have an amazing support group with my Good Morning Girls.
Without that group I would be lost.
I would be right back where I started.

I also have you guys. My readers.
I value your input.
I love hearing your comments.
I love to be able to sit down and write something from the heart and know that it is being heart and maybe just maybe has touched someone else.
Do you ever feel that way?

I often wonder if I am the only one swinging around in the wind.

I am asking now if you would pray for me. Pray that I find the strength to grow.
Thank you.

I am linking up today with Mary Beth. Come over and encourage others in their journey.

Chilly walk closer to the finish end

This week the temperatures have dropped. Last night we were -25C before the wind chill. It makes for mighty chilly evenings. These are the nights I just want to stay home cuddled before the fireplace with a good movie. But alas we were out and about for dance. Oh well pretty normal around here.

As for my 3 in 30 this week, it was another fairly productive week.

1. Totally and completely clean my kitchen. The walls need washed, the cupboards need cleaned out and sorted through. I have 2 pantry cupboards in the hallway that I want to condense down into one. Oh yea and the ceiling needs washed as well. LOL

I'm completely done this!! I love walking into my kitchen and knowing that it so clean. Well if I could manage to always keep the counters clean it would be. Hahahaha.

2. I would love to get all or at least most of my Christmas shopping/making down this month. I have some gifts I am making and I really want to get all the other stuff bought. I would love to focus on the meaning behind the holiday during the month of December. I know I probably will not get my baking done and I am totally ok with that. Something for Sarah and I to bond closer with in December. :)

I went out Wednesday night Christmas shopping and I got tons done. I still need to make a few gifts and buy about 5 more but then I will be finished. I am hoping this one will all be done by next weekend. Next Friday Sarah leaves for Calgary to do Christmas shoe boxes so Friday I will be sewing up a storm. I need to sew 3 blankets, some pj pants and a scarf. It will be busy but she leaves about 7:30 am and I have no where to be that day so I should manage to get most of it done.

3. Our spare room. This needs cleaned out in the worst way. This will be the room that our foster children go into and possibly our future children. (SQUEAL) I really want to get this done by December 1rst so that hopefully we can get our home inspection started then. Fingers crossed.

Getting closer on this one as well. I can hardly wait until next week and I can hopefully post pictures of a clean room. Fingers crossed that I can finish this one. It needs to be completely done by December 7 as both our foster care worker and our adoption care worker are coming out for the first part of the home inspection. Getting nervous.

We are going to have a busy weekend. Tomorrow Sarah has dance practice in town and then Rob and I got invited out with friends. Sunday both Sarah and I work at the church and then I am hoping to be able to get the tree up and it's Grey cup. That means at kick off I better have the appies out and enjoy some football with my hubby. 

I hope you all have a great and safe weekend.

I am linking up today with Aurie.

The odd couple

This past weekend we were at friends for a early Christmas party.
It was fun and a ton of laughs were shared, even though our hostess was sick.
However I noticed that night something that I have been noticing a lot more lately.
I noticed that my hubby and I are rare.
Wait a minute. I don't mean as rare as in meat rare.
I mean rare as in hard to find.
Again we are right here.
Ok, ok I digress. LOL

What I am trying to saying is we have a rare marriage.
We love to be together.
We miss each other when we are apart, even if it is only for a day or so.
I love laying down in bed and having him beside me. (even if he is snoring like a freight train)
I love that he wants to cuddle or that he wants to have me beside him.
I love looking at him.
I love the way he makes me feel.
I appreciate him so much.

Yet when I look around me even starting right with my immediate family I realize that we are a rare couple. My parents fight on a regular basis. My sister's complain about their husbands, my friends about their spouses.
Now don't get me wrong we can disagree with the best of them. There are times when he drives me batty and I AM positive that I do the same to him.
But yet over all I let the small annoyances go and just enjoy him. Since he hasn't throttle me yet I will assume he does the same thing. LOL

This is also not to say that we haven't had our difficulties cause of boy have we more than have had our share.
We have had pre-marriage pregnancy.
We have had 3 miscarriages.
We have had separations.
We have had where he has had to be away for work for weeks at a time.
We did that for years.
We were married when I was 19 and he was 20.
We were way too young.
We made stupid mistakes.
Yet through it all we managed to make it work out.

We have choose to stay together.
I chose him everyday. Every hour, every minute.
It's an easy chose.
We have more than love.
We also have compatibility.

I want to do things with him. Even if I didn't/don't understand/enjoy his interests. Little did I know some of them would fast become my greatest interests.

We have made it work, and let me tell you sometimes it is work. However like any work well done, the rewards are boundless.

I am happy that I am in a rare marriage.
I am thrilled that we have and still are beating the statistics.
I can express enough how much I am ecstatic that we are spending our life together.

I am sad for those that are not as happy or who are just living in their marriage, not thriving in it.

I thank God that I am not one.

1 done!!

It has been a interesting few weeks around here as I am sure you can tell from my lack of posts. I have just been in a funk and have had no real desire to connect with the outside world. 

However during that time I have been really busy at home.

1. Totally and completely clean my kitchen. The walls need washed, the cupboards need cleaned out and sorted through. I have 2 pantry cupboards in the hallway that I want to condense down into one. Oh yea and the ceiling needs washed as well. LOL

DONE!!! DONE!!! DONE!!! I am so happy about this!! Finally every cupboard is cleaned.Ceiling is done, floor was swept and then hand washed so the baseboards were also cleaned. Oven is done, Fridge is cleaned. All in all it looks great!!

2. I would love to get all or at least most of my Christmas shopping/making down this month. I have some gifts I am making and I really want to get all the other stuff bought. I would love to focus on the meaning behind the holiday during the month of December. I know I probably will not get my baking done and I am totally ok with that. Something for Sarah and I to bond closer with in December. :)

Not a lot done on this. I have 3/4 of a Christmas list from one boy and one gift from another. So this one has been pretty stagnant.

3. Our spare room. This needs cleaned out in the worst way. This will be the room that our foster children go into and possibly our future children. (SQUEAL) I really want to get this done by December 1rst so that hopefully we can get our home inspection started then. Fingers crossed.

Well I have actually been tackling this room now. We can actually walk in there. That is huge. We still have tons to go through but I am not overly worried. Although we actually have our social workers coming out on December 7th so it has to be done by then. Plus the house has to be kid-friendly by then as well. So we need to get a move on. LOL

Tomorrow we are off to friends for an early Christmas party. I am so looking forward to it. 

What about you? Do you have big plans for this weekend??

I am linking up today with Aurie. Come encourage some other 3 in 30 ers. LOL  

Step by step

What a week it has been.
Wednesday we had a snowstorm. Not near as bad as a couple hours east of us, but we had rain which turned to snow (about 4-6 inches) which made a huge mess of things. Thankfully dance was cancelled that day so we got to stay home and not try and venture out.
Yesterday hubby and I went in for our physicals. Right day this time. :)  It all looks good. Our doctor spent two seconds filling out and signing our paperwork and then handed it back to us. We are really lucky as he never charged us a dime and it could have cost us upwards of $400. Happy happy campers we were.
So then off to social services to drop off our doctor forms and our forms that both of us had to fill out. We are getting closer and closer!!!

Well I actually didn't have to bad of a week goal wise.

1. Totally and completely clean my kitchen. The walls need washed, the cupboards need cleaned out and sorted through. I have 2 pantry cupboards in the hallway that I want to condense down into one. Oh yea and the ceiling needs washed as well. LOL

The ceiling is washed and 3/4 of the cupboards are gone through and cleaned and re-organized. I also cleaned out the fridge and cleaned the oven. That was a bit of an undertaking to get that oven sparkling. However now it is done and supper is cooking away in it. 
I am hoping to finish this early next week. I know when hubby is off for the weekend we will be focusing on other things.

2. I would love to get all or at least most of my Christmas shopping/making down this month. I have some gifts I am making and I really want to get all the other stuff bought. I would love to focus on the meaning behind the holiday during the month of December. I know I probably will not get my baking done and I am totally ok with that. Something for Sarah and I to bond closer with in December. :)

I read this blog this week and I thought what an amazing idea. First things are a bit more financially tricky with Rob's new job. Plus we are trying to save up for a few big purchases and plus now that the boys are out of the house we are having a harder and harder time trying to decide what to buy them.

So I talked to Rob and he thought it was a good idea. I changed it up a bit. So we have asked for a list of 4 things each from these 4 categories. 

Something you want...
Something you need...
Something to do...
Something to wear...

I let them know we would only be getting them 4 gifts out of that. I am also making each of them a gift this year so I will actually be 5. 

I know this is going to save us soooooo much. So much time, so much energy and so much wasted gifts. I would also like to say to give me something that they would like a donation to. Then we would make a donation in their name. I will be asking Rob about that one as well.

3. Our spare room. This needs cleaned out in the worst way. This will be the room that our foster children go into and possibly our future children. (SQUEAL) I really want to get this done by December 1rst so that hopefully we can get our home inspection started then. Fingers crossed.

Never even worked on this one at all. I am kinda hoping that this being a long weekend I will be able to convince hubby to help me on the room this weekend but we will see. I know he also wants to work on the shed and being as how that will also benefit me, well I will be helping with that as well.


So what have you got planned for this weekend? Between the bedroom, shed and hanging out I would also really like to get my windows covered in plastic so that it will stay warm in my house this winter. Other than that, also hoping to sneak in a date night. :)

I am linking up today with Aurie. Please take a moment to go and encourage some other ladies this week.

Movember

Yesterday was the start of hunting season around here and something called Movember. If you are not familiar with it, basically many men shave their faces November 1rst and let it grow all month long. Many raise funds for prostate cancer.
I teased hubby yesterday about shaving his mustache off. (He has only shaved it off about 3 times in the 22 years I've know him) Low and behold he does. It is kinda weird looking at a face I know and love so much and it has so drastically changed. Really weird kissing him without it as well. However I still love every square inch of him, mustache or no. LOL

Anyway today is the start of a new month of goals. I gave a ton of thought to what I wanted to do this month and this is what I came up with.
I am so hoping to get this all done this month.

1. Totally and completely clean my kitchen. The walls need washed, the cupboards need cleaned out and sorted through. I have 2 pantry cupboards in the hallway that I want to condense down into one. Oh yea and the ceiling needs washed as well. LOL

2. I would love to get all or at least most of my Christmas shopping/making down this month. I have some gifts I am making and I really want to get all the other stuff bought. I would love to focus on the meaning behind the holiday during the month of December. I know I probably will not get my baking done and I am totally ok with that. Something for Sarah and I to bond closer with in December. :)

3. Our spare room. This needs cleaned out in the worst way. This will be the room that our foster children go into and possibly our future children. (SQUEAL) I really want to get this done by December 1rst so that hopefully we can get our home inspection started then. Fingers crossed.

 I wanted to share the pics of the room so that I could be held accountable for it. I maybe just maybe will share pics of the kitchen next week. LOL
Hopefully by the end of the month this room looks amazing and empty. :)

I am linking up today with Aurie

November, snow and yet so thankful

We have snow, freezing rain and ice pellets today. Let I am so thankful
Hubby and I headed into the city which is about a 45 minute drive for medicals today, (for our foster to adopt paperwork), only to find out that I had the dates wrong and it is actually next Thursday that we were supposed to be there. Oops. I don't think I was too popular.
However I am still thankful.

I am thankful that yesterday my beautiful daughter and I took some time and carved pumpkins together.

I am thankful that we made great memories, laughed and played around together.

I am thankful that when I had to be in town for dance, hubby was able to make it home to help with the kids coming to the door.

Yep I'm carving them in pj bottoms. :)

I am thankful that although I messed up on the date for the doc appointments. My handsome hubby and I got to spend some rare time together. I even managed to buy some fabric for Christmas presents.

I am thankful that the roads were good this morning and afternoon. All around has terrible weather. Snow warnings and tons of freezing rain.

Love the look of concentration on her face.

 I am thankful this week for a wonderful phone call from a great Good Morning lady.

I am thankful that she is allowing to crash with her and another fantastic friend of mine for Break Forth!

Must save those pumpkin seeds. We season and roast them. Huge hit in our family.

I am thankful that piece by piece we are slowly inching closer to having our paperwork done so that the home inspection can take place.

I am thankful that we got winter tires and rims on my truck today. It cost a small fortune, but worth every penny. So looking forward to driving confidently on those roads again.

Sarah's is on the left, Angry birds is mine.

I have a great life and I am learning to be so grateful for it.
My mantra this week has been. For Him, Always for HIM!

I am linking up today with Lisa today.

Happy Halloween!

 Happy Halloween!

Our pumpkin in training. LOL

Sarah's on the left. Mine is on the right. BTW her idea for the puking pumpkin.

Here is mine at night. Sarah's doesn't show up to well with just a candle in it. I made this in honor of my handsome hubby who loves angry birds.

I hope everyone had a safe, enjoyable Halloween.

A point to ponder

These past few weeks have been fairly topsy turvy.
So much going on in our lives right now.
We have had some news that hits pretty close to home lately.
We are busy with the paperwork for the foster to adopt.
We have been busy every weekend doing something or the other.
Life just doesn't seem to slow down.

Here is my girl getting ready to go on her weekend teen retreat. I had wanted to take many pictures of her while she was leaving. Partly to post on her, partly for her scrapbook and mostly because I was going to miss her.

In the midst of it all my bible studies have really grounded me. They are keeping me focused on what is important. HIM!!

You can tell by her beautiful expression how sick she is getting of me taking her picture.  

This past week I have noticed a large change in me. I am calmer, I am happier, (even with all the stuff that is not so happy in my life), I am much more open about being a Christian. I am slowly starting to live the life I know God wants me to live.

In the midst of it all my family is reaping great rewards. Me being calmer and happier has to be a huge blessing to them. I am slower to anger. I love deeper and stronger. I am letting go of my old hurts one by one. I am learning to love Him and let Him into my life so much more.

Here is that beautiful smile that I love so much.

It is amazing what something so simple as letting Him into my life more and more fully can do for everyone around me. Imagine what it will be like when I finally let go and let Him in totally. Now imagine if we all did that. What a world it would be.

Sparkly Spiderwebs

This month I was committed to making several crafts. Since hubby and I went out to the shed and was unable to find my Halloween decorations I thought I would peruse Pinterest to see what I could find. I showed how I made my dryer vent pumpkins here.
Well I saw this I knew I had to try that. This is a very inexpensive craft.
All you need is some glue and some glitter. I found white school glue to be the best, although I also used some gel glue. It made thinner webs.
Also something to put them on. A piece of wax paper works great.

Start by drawing out whatever pattern you want with the glue. We made webs, 'Boo', and a couple misshapen ghosts.

For the webs I drew circles around each other. Each one a bit bigger. I simply eyeballed this, but if you wanted more perfection you could easily print something off of the computer and put it under the wax paper as a pattern.
I then drew lines through the circles.

Next came the dollar store glitter. This went a long way. We made 5 webs, 3 Boo's, and the two ghosts and only used about 1 and a quarter of the glitter bottles.

Then sprinkle it all over the glue. Make sure to cover all of the glue as this is what makes it sparkle and stay together better.

The directions say to let it sit for 24 hours and then shake the glue off and then let it sit for another couple of days. But I will be honest I was impatient so I started picking at the first one within 12 hours. I never did shake the glitter off until I removed all of them. It is best to let them sit for at least 2 to 3 days. The middle of some of the webs was still sticky after even that long.

I then used some white thread as that was all I had on hand. I wanted fishing line, but hubby was away and I wanted them up.

We then hung them in the window.

I think they turned out really cute.

This is such an easy craft. And very inexpensive for all 10 items we made it maybe cost two dollars. Maybe.

If you decide you want to try your hand in these I would love a link back to be able to see how they went.

Is it really that time already?

What a emotional roller coaster this week has been. I must say I am rather glad that for the most part it is over.

As far as my goals this month...

1. Continue to work on our outside chores and all the inside ones that are needing done before winter.
Well we didn't work on this at all this week. But this why.

Isn't it pretty. Needless to say we didn't get any more work done. But for the most part we were done anyway so this is not a big deal. I steal want to plastic my windows but that can be done anytime.

2. We had our first visit with our foster care support worker yesterday and as I said before she left a ton of information and a ton of paperwork for us to do. So this month I plan on working on that. The sooner we can get that done the sooner we can get our home study started. She figures over two months for the home study so I need to get on it. :)

Well no course this weekend. Our criminal record checks didn't come back in time. However we are for sure signed in for the next one. Unfortunately it is not until February, but not a lot we can do about it. The good news is that when we met with our social worker yesterday she told us if we can get the paperwork in for her my next Thursday she should be able to start some of the home study work. So I am excited about that. So needless to say these next few days will be filled with lots of questions answered. 
She also informed us that if we have everything else done by our training in February that we should be able to be ready for a placement!! Whoohoo!!

3. Working on crafts. I am hoping to get a lot of Christmas crafts/gifts done this month. This one is a bit more of the hopeful. LOL

Well I showed you all how to do beach glass and next week I will show you about the sparkles. Just in time for Halloween. 
I have to say I made quite a few crafts this month. It has been a great feeling to feel crafty again and be inspired.

I already have a couple ideas for next months goals. What about everyone else??
I am linking up today with Aurie.

Wednesday's Walk

Wow it has been a while since I did one of these posts.
As I said yesterday I was feeling pretty melancholy. The rather funny part about today is my oldest son came and talked to me for a little over an hour. Mostly about his life and what is happening. I guess I am still needed in some way. :)

Anyway I decided today to go and take a walk and try and capture the beautiful snow fall that we had yesterday.

Please forgive me I am not a photographer.

Anyway as I was out and about I was thinking about my walk lately. How Jesus is transforming my life. He is bringing people into that He knows that I need during this time.
That got me to thinking again if what I was doing was enough.
Yesterday my cyper friend Lynette wrote this post, and it really had the wheels churning in my head. For many many years I thought that I was not good enough, that I wasn't living, breathing, understanding the word as so many of my Christian friends were.

I was not doing it all. I was not the perfect Mom, far from the perfect wife, and even farther from the perfect Christian. I wanted to make fabulous homemade meals every night. (ok if my husband is reading this he is rolling over laughing right now. Cooking is far from my strong suit. )
I wanted to never get angry, always have patience galore. (Now if my children are reading this they are rolling over in laughter).
I always wanted to attend church as a family every Sunday. I wanted what I thought was the perfect life.

Then I woke up. I have a great life. A life God has blessed me with. It hasn't been easy and I know we still have many road bumps along the way but HE is letting me see that I am special. I am worthy, I am His!!

I still fail. Daily I still fail. I often lose my patience. I am so not fond of making suppers so I tend to cheat a little there. I like my sleep so I am not an early riser. However now when I do rise, before my daughter I spend that time with the Lord. We have our time before the world starts.

It amazes me how much I need it. How much I was missing out on.

This week Monday I failed big time. I knew starting my day that I was not in the right frame of mind. I had had a bad dream (one that I can't remember) and the feeling was staying with me. I thought for a moment about asking for prayer and then decided against it. I thought I could do this, I could conquer this on my own. Boy did God teach me a lesson that day. I just got angrier and angrier. I swore, I lost my patience numerous times, I was to wrapped up in my feelings and emotions to realize exactly what was happening around me. In the evening I broke. I realized what was happening. I prayed.

This week has been a week of challenges. Emotion and spiritual challenges. I know that no matter what is happening in my life I need to turn to Him. I need to lean on Him and not think that I can do this on my own. I am far from perfect. I am a sinner. I fall short regularly. But I am HIS. He loves me no matter what. He made me perfect for me. Even when I act sometimes like a spoiled brat He is still there holding me and loving me.
For that I must thank HIM!!

I am linking up today with Mary Beth.

I am a little of my rocker.

I'm feeling a little off kilter tonight.
Today is our son's 21rst birthday. The night he came into the world was very similar to what the weather today was like. Cold, blowy and snowy. In fact the night before hubby and I went to go get some clothes from our house (we were staying at my sister's in town) and we had to go 4x4ing in the snow as we got stuck. Anyway I digress. Our healthy boy came into the world at exactly 2:32 am weighing in at 8lbs 7.5 oz.

He is now far from that weight. LOL We have had many ups and downs in our raising of this wonderful young man. Mostly during his teen years. We learned that he has some learning challenges and was diagnosed with ADD. However when I look at the man he has become I can not help but be filled with pride.

This picture of my boys was taken this past August. Matthew is the one with the sunglasses on his head.

So with all this wonderfulness of today you would think that I would be euphoric. I am sorta. It feels weird. He is spending the day with his girlfriend. Which is awesome. She is a really nice young lady and both Rob and I like her. However for the first time I will not see him on his birthday. My baby is growing into a man. I am not sure when that happened. What was I busy doing?? His girlfriend said the smallest innocent thing on Sunday. She told me she was baking him a cake. That should not mean much right? Except to me it did. It meant that he no longer is in need of me to do that for him. I now officially know what my Mother in law feels like. It kinda stings. I am really really happy for him. But for a moment I am taking a bit of time to weep for the boy we no longer have, even while I rejoice over the man that with God's help we raised.

Then to add a bit to my melancholy  to day, I received news this morning that we didn't make the deadline to go to our foster to adopt parenting course this weekend. The next one is not until February. I am sad. I wanted to get this process on the road. Although I know this isn't the worst thing, it just feels like such a delay. Oh well not much we can do about it. In the mean time we will be busy getting all our paperwork done and our house ready so we can start with the home inspection process. That could take up to two months anyway so really if we have everything done by the parenting course we could still be on time for Feb/March possibly receiving some children.

So I guess it all boils down to asking for prayer. I am feeling a little weird during this season in my life.
Thank you so much.

Beach glass

I saw this really cool idea on Pinterest a while ago and I just knew I had to try it.
For one I am really loving teals and turquoises at the moment. Well any moment to be honest. I am much more of a blue person than a pink one.
When I saw how easy it appeared I knew I had to try it out right away. I had nothing really to try other than an old cooler bottle and a pickle jar. But I tried it out anyway.

All you need is some white glue, water, dish soap, food coloring, a brush and something glass to paint.

Please ignore all the junk in the background. I decided to try my hand at a bunch of different crafty things that day.

To start with I got a small container and mixed about 3 parts glue to 1 part water. I will fully admit that I did not measure this at all I only eye-balled it, then add about 2 drops of dish soap. Then I added a few drops of blue and green food coloring and stirred until I got the color I was looking for. You could totally do this any color at all. Oranges and reds for fall, Reds and greens for Christmas, anything your imagination takes you.

Now get ready to paint.

This is really easy to do. As you can see from the pictures though it is really runny so you do need something to protect your counters. After I painted them I just left them to drip dry on the cardboard. It didn't take long at all. In some places it was a bit streaky so I just added another coat.

When the jar was finished I added some beach rock and a flower.

I decided I liked it so much I wanted to actually try it on stuff that I would keep as decorations around the home. By the way so far it cost me per pennies as I had everything. The glue would have cost me a $1 for the entire bottle and the rest I recycled in this bunch.

Then I went to the dollar store and spent 4 dollars on a couple of vases.

Again I painted these with the same leftover glue mix I had from before.

Left them to dry and then add the accents.

I love how they came out.

By the way the mirror is what I was talking about in this post. I found this mirror at Home Hardware. The original price tag said $54.00 The sale because it was pretty banged up had it marked down to $15.00. So I grabbed it. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it when I saw it. Hubby I think thought I was a little crazy. LOL  I wish I had taken before pictures. But all I did was rough sand it. It was already done in dark brown so I just added a couple coats of dollar store turquoise paint, let dry, sanded a bit to let the brown show through and Voila I have a much loved mirror. Now to find the perfect place for these. LOL

So what do you think. If you decide to make some I would love a link back here so that I could see what you had done. :)

Homeschool Mothers Journal.

This is a first for me, but I thought I would give it a try and see how it went.
So here is my week in a nutshell. LOL

In my life this week: Well as usual it has been crazy. We had to run up to a town about an hour away to take my quad to the doctor because it had an oil leak. It is finally fixed and hubby is picking it up tonight!! Just in time to go out again tomorrow!!

In our homeschool this week: It was a pretty nice week. I decided to not school on Wednesday and instead Sarah and I went to town. We window shopped around and bought some groceries. It was kind of nice to have a skip day.
Her math program is finally up and running so she is back on that. A test in social and studying for a test in science combined with all her other subjects kept her busy.

I'm inspired by: My husband. He works hard, he never complains. He just works harder and harder to provide for us. When I asked him how I could make this home more a refuge for him he just told me it already is. He loves just coming home to us he told me. I love that he is always willing to help others. Often puts his needs way on the back burner to be there for his family.

Places we're going and people we're seeing: Well as I said we are off quadding with friends tomorrow. (Praying for decent weather) Then on Sunday Rob and Sarah are off to a Swedish smorg. with his parents, uncle and brother (and his family). I have a meeting and since I am Gluten Free anyway I decided it would easier if I just skip it this time.

My favorite thing this week:

Was definitely finding this on my meds this week. I love my daughter.

I'm grateful for: A hubby and a daughter who stood up and helped out when I was hurting this week.

I'm praying for: That these bible studies continue to help me grow stronger in my walk. That I always put HIM first.

A photo, a video, a link, a quote to share: 

What I saw when I was relaxing on our quad ride this past Saturday.

I am linking up today with Homeschool Mothers Journal.

So much accomplished.

We had a great productive week here. Not to mention we through in a ton of fun activities as well. Last Saturday Rob and I went quading with friends while Sarah went to an Unhindered concert. It was tough who had the better time. Lol

This week I was hurt so I will admit I was a bit lazy, but now I am feeling almost 100% again so house cleaning was on the agenda for today. Not much fun, but very necessary.

As far as my 3 in 30 this month so far we have done a fair amount.

1. Continue to work on our outside chores and all the inside ones that are needing done before winter.
We managed to get most everything done outside. The only thing left is to take down the top of the gazebo. As far as inside we still have to plastic windows and a few other things but all in all I think that we just might manage to pull this one off. 


2. We had our first visit with our foster care support worker yesterday and as I said before she left a ton of information and a ton of paperwork for us to do. So this month I plan on working on that. The sooner we can get that done the sooner we can get our home study started. She figures over two months for the home study so I need to get on it. :)

Ok so the visit wasn't yesterday now, it was a few weeks ago but the goal is still the same. This week I actually managed to work on some of the forms. I went through them again today and realized there is still the ones that Rob and I have to fill our separately so I am hoping maybe this coming week we can get that finished. Next weekend is our course so I would like to get as much done as possible before then.

3. Working on crafts. I am hoping to get a lot of Christmas crafts/gifts done this month. This one is a bit more of the hopeful. LOL

As I mentioned last week I did some already. I showed my pumpkins on Monday.

 Have I got you intrigued yet? The top two are done and the bottom two I am just waiting to be able to go and get a couple supplies and then they will be done as well.

I can hardly wait! Squeal!!

This one is what was left over when I had done a particular craft. I also have another one I did this week that involves a mirror and some paint. I love it. I wish I had remembered to take before pics. :( 

I promise that I will keep you all involved in all these. So far I am really happy with them. 

*Edited to add the link up for the Beach glass craft. 

Well that sums up my week. A tad on the crazy side but happy to have so much accomplished.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

I am linking up today with Aurie.