Christmas in 10

In trying to get ready to celebrate Christmas this year I feel like I've done so much. I really was trying to focus less on the secular end of it and focus more on the part that really matters. I was all set to do The Jesse Tree devotions with my family. The kids were not too receptive. Combine that w. a few missed night due to parents being out and then a weekend away and it has not worked. I bought a book for me to read during advent. Got around yesterday to reading the introduction. Love my nativity scene, i keep it our year round. Christmas is in 10 days and I have two more gifts to buy, lots to wrap, 9 dozen cookies to bake for a Cookie Swap on friday night. Made 36 cookies for a cookie swap today. I need to find time to slow down a bit and really reflect on Christmas. At my MOPS group today our leader shared some bad news with us about another Mom in our group. I know this Mom from high school and my heart breaks for her. Just heartbroken for her and her husband and two little boys. There have been things going on in our lives that are taking away from Christmas. We have lots of questions about why certain things are happening. But are they really pulling us away from Christmas? Maybe away from the hustle and bustle, away from the menu planning, and Christmas Card sending. But closer to God perhaps. All these questions and things that come up in life that we must bring before God in prayer. We are closer to God because of the time we NEED to spend with Him so that we can make some sense of the world around us. To make sense of things we hear about. Things that affect those we care about and those we love. I don't go back and edit as I write. I just am putting thought to paper. I just felt so called to really do something extra this year. . . maybe I just chose the wrong thing. Maybe it didn't need to be so complicated. Maybe I just need to spend the extra time praying for all those that need it. And not worry about creating traditions or moments for my family. I think those might happen all by themselves.

Just a thought. . .

How come it only takes about 10 seconds to 3 minutes to make a mess but so long to clean it up??? if it took as long to make the mess as it does to clean it up, it might actually be worth it. From a mommy who is sick of cleaning all day long (or so it seems).
Is laundry considered done once it is clean and dry or does it have to be folded and put away too?

invitations for a party I would like to host in the future!

Cool Cocktails Christmas Invitation

Make a statement with custom Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

It's the most wonderful time of the year. . .

The Square Stationary Card

below one of the photocards I created:

Invitation for my future party

5 x 7 photocard with room for 5 pictures

Today was the first Sunday of advent. Usually I am pretty much done with Christmas Shopping by Thanksgiving but this year I am behind. I am involved with a few more things, have three kids, have a husband who is involved with a few more things, I have three kids. The candle that was lit at church today represents HOPE.

One of my favorite FAVORITE favorite things about Christmas is sending Christmas cards. I am getting close to sending 100 of them this year! Via my friend's blog I found out that Shutterfly is hosting a give way to bloggers that blog about their Shutterfly Christmas Cards. (Are you a blogger? Click here for your chance at 50 free cards!!! http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/)

I've used Shutterfly for many kinds of cards in the past. I love their Christmas Photo Cards. I always choose designs that you can put more than one card on. I love taking pics of my kids and then sending them on the people around the world! http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards . I messed around a designed a few of those as well.

This year I started looking at these beautiful stationary cards they are offering. I've never ordered in large quantities because of the price but they are gorgeous! I designed a few. You can see them at the top of the post.

I've been wanting to make a http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars calendar for sometime now but have not done so. This might be the year I stare at my own flowers instead of buying a calendar with someone else's photograph's in them.

I've always wanted to host a Christmas Cocktail party for adults only. Not sure when I will get to realize my dream but Shuterfly has the perfect invitation for me to use. It too is at the top of the post. Check out all the Christmas Invitations that Shutterfly has to offer herehttp://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-invitations

Just to be clear. . . there will be no party this year but I can dream about a party for adults in cocktail attire! How fun would that be!!

Merry Christmas to all! If you are on my list of just under a 100. . . look out for our card this year you might just be getting a shutterfly card in your mailbox!

Still Tired

Where does time go? I am never sure. Today is one of those days that I woke up tired b/c I had two kids in bed with me most of the night and no husband. I just don't sleep well anymore with my babies touching me all night long. I need space. Everyday I love them more and everyday I realize that I need my own space. Even if it is just while using the bathroom. Don't always get to go to the bathroom by myself. I wish my house didn't look like a bomb went off even when I spent a bunch of time cleaning today. I even took my kids to play with their friends for a few hours and till not enough. I am tired. I need sleep. I need a break. Just a few moments here and there to steal away so I can regroup. When no one naps that is hard. I feel like I spin in circles. i am making dinner tonight and bringing some to someone from my church. I love to cook but not with all the help I sometimes am forced to take. It is my son's 4th b-day on saturday. I am excited b/c I love to throw a party. He is also having a party with some friends from school the weekend after. I love a good theme! this year Ben 10 for my very own ben 4! i love my kids. I just wish they didn't come with so much drama. Also why do they have ears. . . they don't really seem to use them. Ok enough for one day. I could go on and on. But I must be thankful! Always remember all the good in my life and all the God has blessed me with!
From Colossian 3:
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

having three kids make me tired!

WOW- I have been so tired the last week or two. With school starting again and all the running around that comes with that. And our busy life. How did life get so busy that one or both of us have had somewhere to be every night for about 2 weeks now. Even if that place was entertaining friends in our backyard. It has been busy and I am feeling like I need more sleep. Cali was diagnosed with a double ear infection a week ago and has been very good at taking her antibiotics. However, the night before we went to the pediatrician, she slept about 3 hours, which means I slept less! She woke up for the night before I went to bed and then slept with me holding her in bits and pieces. It was not fun. We are working with our oldest to build good habits in doing her school work, cleaning her room, and being a good listener. All these things make me tired. I love my kids dearly. Sometimes I wish they would all behave at the same time instead of all misbehaving at the same time. I get to go scrapbooking tonight and that is always fun for me. Hope to get some stuff done.

September 13 -already

The month of September is flying by. This week especially is very busy for us. . . We came of on Labor Day from a lovely weekend away. We visited with dear friends and their 2 lovely daughters. Since then we have been busy with something every night. Starting with Sept 7 one person in our family has/had to be somewhere for some amount of time 13 out of 14 nights. . .(I realize that some of those days are still coming). Looking further another week. . . it gets a bit better. . . 3 out of 7. Just trying to plug through these busy nights. Trying to plan meals that kind of make themselves. Nothing too involved or anything that takes too long. At dinner time I am tired. . .I know what I want to eat, sometimes it is just too complicated to make for a weekday. I am trying to feed my family a good dinner that EVERYONE will like. Also, something that might make a nice leftover lunch for my daughter at school. Tomorrow my best friend celebrates her b-day and I don't have a gift yet. She'll get it late because I have to mail it to her. Need to go make some lists of things to do. . . need to change the laundry and also clean out a closet. This fall I really want to clean out a lot of the closets in my house. They are a mess. Can't find anything anymore. Ok time to go be productive. First, another cup of coffee.

not sure

Not sure what is up with my blog. Can't get the background to appear. I noticed it a while back and tried to fix it but with no luck. I am so html illiterate that I have not a clue what to do to fix it. so sorry for the boring background. I am trying my best.

on another note. . . my 9 year old had a session w. a professional photographer and the preview pics were awesome. I am so excited and can't wait to order prints for my home and to give to family and friends.

The same 9 year old started 4th grade today. . . my 3 1/2 year old is going to Pre-K next week. so much excitement. Glad to get them split up but I don't do well with a schedule but I'll learn.

Hitting the pool later today since it is hot hot hot and humid humid humid here!

Making ribs, baked potatoes, and salad for dinner. Should be yum, have to start working on it soon b/c I smoke/barbecue the ribs for several hours on the grill. I think I hear my son who should be napping walking. . . might have to go sing some songs to him.

that's it for now.

Oh, yeah- - ben says all his sugar princesses are also his friends and he is not going to marry one of them. He can't wait to be a daddy and play with his kids.
:-) He also says, when he is a daddy. I'll be a grandma. . . yup that is right kid. He says so many cute things.

Meal plan for the week

As the summer weather seems to be staying around for a while I am challenged to plan meals for my family. Without central air conditioning I do not like to turn on the oven or boil water as it makes the whole kitchen too hot. My microwave is broken so meal planning becomes a challenge. I love to grill but always have to plan since we have charcoal. I love charcoal but there is nothing quick about it.
So this is the plan for the week.

Tues: Grilled Chicken, Tuna Noodle, Broccoli Slaw
Wed: Burritos filled with rice, beans, chicken, advocado, salsa, tomatoes
Thurs: kids only - Tim & Cell out for 10th anniversary - Brats and kraut and snicker salad
Fri: at Denekamps (tentative)
Sat: Great Adventure!
Sun: Breakfast - bacon, eggs, toast
Lunch - 524 Hopper Ave
Dinner - kids only - chicken nuggets, baby carrots
Mon: Timmy & kids only - cell out w. E-Beth to celebrate b-days
sloppy joes

that's what I have planned for now. This warmer weather is harder for me. I am looking forward to doing some ribs soon and also some sate.

Remedy Drive at Unity CRC

So last week our Youth Group hosted the
Christian Rock Band Remedy Drive. Check them out at http://www.remedydrive.com/. They were awesome. We had a great time
hanging out with them. here are some pictures from the night we spend with
them.

Here is the band and
their sound guy with the youth group leaders kids.

Eating dinner together.
During the show

Our youth group with Remedy Drive:

Lilac Garden

At the Botanical Gardens about 30 minutes from here they have the most amazing Lilac Garden we usually go on Mother's Day to see the flowers and have a picnic. We ended up going a week early because of the warmer weather all the flowes were blooming early. It was a HOT day. We had a great time as we asked our friends to come along and join us for this adventure. Here are some pics from our day at the gardens. See you next year.

Puzzle Soup

So some time ago my son made puzzle soup. He dumped pretty much every jigsaw puzzle we own into the bin and mixed all the pieces together. Lets count:
Ten 24 piece puzzles
Two 100 piece puzzles
Three 49 piece puzzles.

He did it at a time when I could not deal with cleaning it up in a proper manner so I put it all in the bin and put it high and dry. I think it was the day of Calista's first birthday party or some other time when I was having people in my house. We are now spending time together sorting the puzzles. He remembers better than I do which pieces go with what puzzle. Mind you most of the puzzles are boxless because they have been destroyed by Ben the distructobot.

It is a lot of pieces, give or take. I hope that they are all complete. We will not be testing all the puzzles today. But we are going to give a few of them a whirl. I however, am missing one puzzle. It is a Melissa & Doug one that has a wooden tray it sits in. . .I know we have it. It is a 48 piece of an underwater scene with lots of fish. I wanted to do that one with Ben today but it seems to have grown legs or maybe had some help from another adult that lives in this house finding a new home.

Happy puzzling everyone.

My Dinner Plans

So once of the blogs I follow has been sharing their weekly mealplan a few times now. I thought I would follow suit and share mine here on my blog. I need something to share here. I am not very creative with my posts so I need all the help and inspiration I can get.
Monday: Spaghetti and Meatballs
Tuesday: Porterhouse Steaks and Salads
Wednesday: Braciole, Salads, Bread
Thursday: Chicken Enchiladas with Advocados and cilantro
Friday: out
Saturday: fried rice w. chicken and eggs.
Sunday: I only make breakfast on Sundays

I enjoy meal planning for the most part. I try to buy what is on sale at the grocery store and make sure we balance our proteins. If I don't watch out it tends to get very heavy with beef. I try to sneak in some fish here and there but no shrimp. My hubby is watching his cholesterol intake so we are trying to be veggie heavy. It is not an easy change since my kids are getting picky. Cali is terrible. She won't eat much these days. She likes cereal, cream of wheat, cereal bars, yogurt drinks, some fruit, minimal veggies, and snacks. She loves good bakery items like scones, croissants, and muffins. She is making me nuts with her lack of eating. She loves french fries and still has to meet a cookie she does not like. Junk food junkie at age 15 months. But she won't eat whipped cream. We tried. We thought she would like it since it is sweet. We liked it because it is high in calories. No Go! We'll keep chugging along.

Officially Sick of Snow!

I am fed up with the snow! Another snowday for both my kids. My plans to go shopping with a friend out the window. Another day in the house with my kids. Hopefully they won't fight too much. They are already fighting over the tv. So I am carefully having to manage the shows that are selected. I am supertired. My 1 year old woke up around midnight again, screaming. I nursed her she fell asleep and I put her back only to hear louder screaming just a few minutes later. I let her "cry it out" for a while but no end in site. I think I dozed on and off for a bit. Then around 3 a.m. I took her to the living room where i nursed her again and fell asleep on my couch with my feet on the coffee table at some point. I woke up around 6 or 6:30 when my husband got up. I am spending too much time on the couch with that little girl. For someone who is very happy during the day, was on her 5ht night of sleeping thru the night, the last few night have been bad. I am so tired!
Add that to having the kids home for a snowday, my ruined plans, and not yet having all the ingredients for tonight or tomorrow nights dinner, makes for a cranky mommy. I have no idea what we will eat. there is food in my house, don't get me wrong just nothing that "goes" so if I serve eggs for dinner tonight b/c I bought 2 dozen yesterday b/c they were on sale please don't tell anyone. We are also supposed to have friends over for dinner tonight, but as this snow is just supposed to keep going I don't think that will happen. Especially since he plows when it snows. So hopefully, they will play outside longer than it takes to put on all the snow gear. Cali does not do well outside, she loves it but gets cold fast still. it is barely 8 a.m. and I already feel defeated by today. Hopefully I'll get some cleaning done and also some laundry but for now I'll have a pity party in my cup of coffee. I'm allowed right? So now my errand list just got really huge for tomorrow and I'll have to do it with two kids instead of one. And it might still be crappy weather. Please bring on spring. Now.

The Weekend

Ah the weekend. Whereas most people like weekends best I have to count myself among the people that don't. Is it because my job is 24/7? Or that the weekend finds 5 people in my house for long streches of time? Or the fact that any where you go there are so many people. Come on, do all those people really need to be at the store at the same time as me?? I do get things done on the weekend. I try to focus on laundry. I try to do errands without kids leaving them in Daddy's hands while I zip in out of places stroller free. I enjoy that. I don't enjoy going out on friday night for a date with my husband and having every restaurant we try to go to at 8 p.m. have a wait of at least 15 minutes. Madness. In theory weekends are great opportunities for parties, getting stuff done, and general resting. In reality the whole world is trying to get stuff done!! I am blessed to be able to do a lot of stuff during the week. I will keep doing that and online shopping never hurt anyone.

Happy Birthday Calista Eden

So as yesterday we celebrated Cali's 1st birthday and today we host a party in her honour I reflect on the year past. WOW what a year! Cali is such a tough cookie - -she has been thru so much. I have lost track of the numbers but it goes something like this: 1 heart surgery, 2 catheterizations, 3 ear infections, 1 nebulizer, 2 very expensive shots agains RSV, countless visits to her cardiologist, pediatricians, 10 -15 visits to a lab for bloodwork, about 50 EKGS, probably about 25 echocardiograms, 6 - 8 prescriptions, 1 purple blanket, 1 luckie hat, 1 lucky lion, 1 big sister, 1 big brother, lots of cheerios, lots of hawaiian delight, 1 vacation at the beach, 1 baptism, a few scares, 1 visit to an orthopedic doctor, 7 nights at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York, in the fist week of life managing to visit 3 hospitals, my first christmas, more hugs than we can count, more kisses than we ever thought imaginable, tears to go with all of it and many friends made along the way. The most amazing thing about it all is how God has been there thru it all. Not all that amazing I guess, since that is what He does. But we've seen the power of prayer. How truly amazing it can be to part of God' family. How those who share in our burdens and joy do so fullfold. So here I sit praising God for the life HE has given to my daughter, for the support HE put into place for us, for the goodness HE has shown, for the blessings I don't even realize are there. GOD IS GOOD! So Happy Birthday Cali, let's make the next year less eventful please!