Hello again

 

It feels like it's been ages since I've opened my blog. (My grandmother says "ages" when she refers to it being a long time. She has a sweet little Texan accent, so it sounds more like "aaay-ges." I like saying it like that when I read this). I can't remember conciously making the decision to stop writing, it just kind of happened one day and it felt right, so I just went with it.

 

 

The cherry blossoms outside our house have come and gone and it's beginning to feel like spring.

 

 

It's been almost 2 months since I've written a post and it was a nice break, but now I feel like I need to do a picture catch up!

 

 

We've been trying to enjoy all the nice weather we've been getting lately by spending time outside. One of the things I love about living in the north east, is that you get four real seasons. When we lived in the south, it was either hot or cold.

 

 

The honey and I are always pointing out amazing things we see each season- things we find difficult to take for granted.

 

 

Rose colored trees...cherry blosooms...it's the norm for them. The beauty that surrounds us is part of their home. I love that it's their norm. I think the boys are beginning to look around and appreciate the beauty of God's creation, especially our oldest. You can hear it in their voices when get to go hikin' and look for treasure.

 

 

Unfortunately, the pollen or a cold has caught the better of us- at least for the honey and I. We just can't shake this crazy cough. I'm hoping this dreary Monday drizzle we're getting will clean the air, so we can be well again.

 

Wish us creativity today :)

 

Come Unto Me

Jesus Calling

 

God speaks so clearly to us through our devotionals, doesn't He? The Word is living. If sometimes we'll just be quiet, listen, and find our rest in Him.

 

Bollocks

 

Have you seen the British TV show, "Kitchen Nightmares," with Chef  Gordon Ramsey? It is hilariously crazy. Granted, my kitchen is nothing like the ones I've seen on their shows, which can be described in one word- nastiness. But, it could be better. I'm always cleaning the counters, cabinets, and floor. With 3 sticky-fingered kids running around, it's a must. Not to mention, my boys have a gluten allergy. I feel like I'm super alert to cross contamination.

My kitchen is super tiny and with five people in the house, it needs to hold quite a bit. Little by little, I've started clearing out space, selling or giving away what we don't use anymore. It's freed up quite a bit of space, but not enough. I think that may be the way it is, until I get my dream kitchen :)

via

 

 

After watching the show, I could hear Chef Ramsey cursing at me in his pretty, vulgar, inspiring British accent. One thing that I often neglect to clean is the inside of my fridge. I have it labeled, so that my gluten foods are kept in the lowest drawer only, leaving the remainder of my fridge a g-free safe zone. I can honestly say that I have never, in my three and a half years of living here, have I ever personally taken apart every drawer and every shelf and washed them with soap and hot water. Wiped down, yes- washed, no. The honey informed me, that he has done this. I thank him :)

 

I think I've told myself that I just didn't have the time, but to be honest, it really didn't take that long and look at this little beauty...it's sparkling! It was totally worth it. (It also made me realize that we love creamer. I'll have you know, at the present moment, there are 6 creamers in our fridge.)

 

 

Do it. Do it now.

Last night

 

 

I don't know about you, but I usually remember my dreams. I suppose it's because someone is usually waking me up during REM. Anyway, I had a dream last night that I've been replaying over and over in my head. I dreamt that we had a house fire. It felt so real.

 

I've read about people who have lost every thing to a house fire and I've been on the scene as friends were surveying their home after such a tragedy. Having a house fire has always been a fear of mine. I suppose it's common. Everything gone in the blink of an eye. I just happen to be an incredibly sentimental person, which has trickled down to be eldest, to a degree that exceeds my own, so the thought of nothing but the memories of my possessions left, brings an ache to my heart.

 

Something that I've found myself doing, in the past, is scanning my house for those special things I would grab, if we had a fire, as I rushed out the door with my family. The computer...the special family photos...the kids' keepsake boxes, the honey's grandfather's medals, my pearls, the paintings honey did for me... I can picture myself now, with full arms. Feels disgraceful to me. I had the house fire dream twice. In the first dream, I frantically gathered up our special possessions, while the 5 of us rushed out the door. And in the other dream, I took nothing, just my family. In the last scenario, where I took nothing but our family and the memories in my heart, I felt no need to look back. Everything that mattered was right beside me and the sadness for my stuff just didn't matter because we were all safely together.

 

Thankfully, that was just a dream. To be honest, in my heart, I'm not to the point of that second scenario. Maybe I would surprise myself in the moment, but I know me and I would be hurting... With that said, I have some work to do on where my treasure is.  

 

The sermon, yesterday, was about Lot and how greed drove his life to utter pain and destruction. I would have to say that my greed is the stuff that makes up my home. It's all comforting to me and fills my soul with memories and that makes me happy. On mine and honey's 1 year anniversary, he painted me a picture of our first home. It's so special to me. It hangs in our bedroom today. On the back of the painting, he wrote, "You will always be my home." :)

 

Lately, I've been feeling like God is refining me. The process hurts, but I'm learning so much along the way.

 

 

 



Day 18

Day 18:

nature

 

It was too cold yesterday and the little girl's nose was running, so we didn't go outside and play yesterday. A parking lot sunset was as close of a "nature" picture that I could get. It's no Texas sunset, but it'll do.

 

 

 

Today is day 19- gift.

Pie tastes good.

 

Last night the honey asked me what I was having for dinner and I said, "Pie." It's been one of those weeks where pie for dinner and Russell Stover chocolate for breakfast just makes sense. So I say, bon appetit :) Today's a valley, tomorrow's a mountain. I'll eat carrots on the mountain. 

Psalm 62: 11-12

 

"One thing God as spoken,

two things I have heard:

that you, O God, are strong,

and that you, O Lord, are loving."

Days and days worth

Ok, so I'm several days behind on posting about my February challenge for a photo of the day. I've been instagraming them, but here ya go :) 

 

day 12:

bad habit

...was my pile of laundry resting on the sofa. We have 5 people in our house and somehow everyone wears an insane amount of clothes. Once you get behind, you're up a creek. A couple of weeks ago, our dryer broke, so I had to hang up every piece of clothing to dry. You could only do as much laundry as you had hangers and space to hang. It was crazy. Thankfully, my honey watched a YouTube video and fixed it. Yay! Oh how I appreciate having a dryer again!

 

 

day 13:

the color red...

my hair :)

 

 

day 14:

my one true love...

A picture of my husband, with scruff. 

I picked one from 2004, when we were dating. I love looking back at those pictures of us- when we, so quickly, fell head over heels in love. Nothing else mattered but each other. It was like we had blinders on, with our eyes wide shut to anything else. It was a beautiful time when our love was just starting out. I didn't understand, back then, how a love that felt so deep at the time, wasn't anything compared to the depth of our love now. We were so young. I wish I could have whispered in our ears back then.

 

 

day 15:

the first thing I see in the morning...

Pictures of my babies :) I roll over to turn off my alarm, put on my glasses, and these little beauties come into focus. These pictures are of me and them when we first came home from the hospital. They're raw love.

 

 

day 16:

what's in my bag...

My purse is just a glorified diaper bag. I stopped exclusively carrying my diaper bag pretty recently. I found this purse on sale at H&M, just before my trip to FL and I fell in love with it. It's a dark plum color, which happens to act as a neutral and go with just about anything. My daughter doesn't need much, so I can easily stick her things in my purse. Not lugging around a diaper bag is so nice. I feel like I graduated.

 

 

day 17:

something sweet....

I took a picture of my son eating milk and cereal for dinner...He begged for it. He's also a lefty, which makes it even cuter. The spoon is still quite big for him and to see how careful and intentional he is, not to drop any milk, just makes me want to squeeze him.

 

 

Day 18 is soon to come. The topic is "nature" and it's just too cold to enjoy nature right now :)