Sunday ramblings

I don't have much to say...I was just on changing my background. What do you think? I love how it's elegant and wintry. Our thanksgiving was wonderful this year. We started off with breakfast at my mom and dad's house then moved on to lunch at Jerod's aunt's house. After that, we joined our friends the Tuttles and Talbotts and ate more food. :) There was dancing, laughing and just hanging out having fun. Then on Friday, Cindy, her two girls and I went shopping. We didn't even hit our first store until 9am so I wouldn't call us Black Friday shoppers. We were just four people taking advantage of a day off and enjoying spending time together. The girls shopped and me and Cindy walked and talked. Her wonderful husband offered to keep my kiddos so I could have some grown-up time and it was just the refreshing morning I needed. Then we picked up Princess after lunch and hit a few more stores before calling it a day. I think I bought two Christmas gifts and two things for myself. Hey...at least I can now say I have 'started' Christmas shopping.

I want to do something different this year on my gifts. I would really love to find a way where most if not all of my gifts benefits someone other than the person receiving it. For example: I found a website with "fair trade gifts" that looks like a big possibility. What happens is that when I buy something, the money goes to someone who made it by hand in a third-world country that needs these purchases to make money for their family. Does that make any sense? If I can't find just what I'm looking for that way, I hope to find the rest at the two upcoming craft shows I'm doing before Christmas. I just feel that buying from people who spend their efforts, talents and time making beautiful things is better than buying from a huge corporation that is already getting billions from everyone else. Maybe I just have a soft spot in my heart for those who make things by hand. (Gee I wonder why :)) Anyway, that's my goal so we'll see how it goes.

Well, for not having much to say I sure got a lot on this page. I am just enjoying being curled up with a blanket, drinking my hot cider, watching football and admiring the lights on my Christmas tree. It's a good, relaxing night before another busy week starts. We have a big thing going on this week but I don't want to blog about it until we're done. Oh, the suspense! Good night!

Thankful

Thanksgiving is just three days away and I wanted to share something I've very thankful for. There were 5 referrals last week!! Can you even believe it? :) That puts us at number 29. It's great to know that we are moving up the list.

Yesterday in church we had a guest speaker and he talked about how the first pilgrims stopped and thanked God before even getting off the Mayflower. That amazed me. They had not even stepped foot onto the new land that would be called their home and they were already thanking God. They had no idea what trials and hardships they would face but they were thanking God. They didn't know where their next meal would come from, if there was even enough natural supplies to build shelter for all of them, or if the land would produce good enough crops to be able to feed them and help them store up during the winter, but they were thanking God.

Do we follow in their example? Do we thank God when we have no idea what the hardships are going to be? Do we thank Him when we don't know if all our needs are going to be met or do we tell Him all about how we should have more? Do we thank Him for the everyday things that we think are mundane but to someone across the ocean seem huge?

I have been reading through Ann Voskamp's "One Thousand Gifts" and it has been very eye-opening, humbling, and exciting to see what God did in her life and think about how if I followed her example, what He could do in mine. I have tried to be very conscious about thanking Him in all things...the little and the big. And I have tried to be even more aware of the great blessings He has bestowed upon us that we take for granted.

I don't know if I'll get back to blog more before Thanksgiving...we are taking our "sabbath week" from school this week and I have several projects that I want us to work on before we begin again. Plus, we are celebrating Thanksgiving in several ways this year and I plan on spending a lot of time in my kitchen. But I wanted to leave you with the passage from the service yesterday. I pray that you will let the words sink in and speak to your heart. It's the passage that those pilgrims prayed all those years ago but they are still so relevant today. May you be blessed today!

Psalm 100

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth

Worship the Lord with gladness;

come before Him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God.

It is He who made us and we are His.

We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and

enter His courts with praise;

give thanks to Him and praise His name.

For the Lord is good and His love endures forever;

His faithfulness continues through all generations.

Metal Mouth, Milestones and Pottery

Wow, the days keep flying by don't they? Wasn't it just mid-July and I was complaining about how hot it was? Now we are smack in the middle of November and winter is right around the corner. I was looking at Princess this morning as she told me a story and I swear I was looking at a teenager instead of a 7 year old. She is quickly moving from little girl to young woman. Time is flying.

Yesterday was a milestone of sorts for several reasons. First off, my Little Man had the first step of many for some major orthodontic work. His little mouth is just that...little. He has teeth that have been out for over a year and are not coming in because they have nowhere to go. We can see one that is coming in and it's completely sideways...not a good thing. So we are going to try to expand his jaw and make more room for these adult teeth. This contraption they put in yesterday is quite the sight. They cemented it to two of his molars and we will go in every three weeks and they will tighten it so it spreads apart and expands his jawline. Then in a few weeks we will put one on the bottom jaw for the same reason and then we will add brackets to some majorly crooked teeth on the top. Lots of changes taking place and lots of sore days ahead I know. We are stocked up on the jello and pudding for sure!

Then, yesterday marked one year from when we turned in our first application to adopt. It's so funny to think about that because when we turned it in, I remember honestly thinking we'd have a child home with us by now. God has been so good to show me that this journey is NOT on my timeline but on His. :) He has taught us so much during this process and we find ourselves being drawn into Him more and more. I told my Bible study girls not long ago that I feel like I just want to drown myself in His word. I can't get enough. We have grown in Him not only individually but as a family and I am so thankful for that. There are things in my life that are so different than they were a year ago. I've lost friendships, turned a hobby into a fundraising effort, talked to people about things I never dreamed of, been bold enough to go to my Father's throne and beg for movement and then watch as less than a month later He answered, had new friendships brought into our lives and on and on. I don't want to change anything that's happened over the last year if it means that we wouldn't be where we are today. My mantra still stands: God is so good!

Another thing that marked yesterday as special was it was my mom's birthday! It wasn't a big milestone birthday number but we celebrated just the same. Our local paint-your-own-pottery place was having a girls night out and so me, my mom and Amanda went and made some really fun Christmas tree plates. We really wanted my sister to come too but she didn't want to get the baby out in a crowd and my dad isn't quite ready to keep all four of hers by himself. :) That and he's really afraid of dirty diapers. So the three of us enjoyed a nice quiet dinner and then went and let our creative juices flow. She was missed but we will be doing again. I am blessed to have my mom close and blessed to have a mom who is also one of my very best friends. I can count on her to help me keep my head on straight and knows me better than I think I know myself sometimes. She loves me and my family and does anything she can to help make our lives easier. She is always giving of herself for others and loves her grandbabies! I love you mom!!

October in the Rear View Mirror

Happy Saturday! Well I finally decided to sit down and catch up my blog. :) I have been debating on even continuing this blog because it was feeling so "me-centered" but I decided that that is exactly what it is and that's what I wanted it to be in the first place. It is a place for family to come and see what's going on with us, what we've been up to, and see pictures of the kiddos as they grow up. If someone doesn't like that, then they don't have to read it. :) Besides, it's the closest thing I'm gonna get to scrapbooking right now!

Anyway, let's start way back at the beginning of October. We had Little Man's birthday very impromptu. We called the neighborhood kids together, asked if they wanted to go with us, and away we went. We also called my niece so Princess wouldn't be the ONLY girl.

We played putt-putt

Tried out the batting cages...

And ruled at the go-kart races

A few weeks later, I hosted a table at a local fundraiser. I did this same fundraiser last year and had just about as much luck so I don't see me doing it next year. So...if you're interested in a cross, I have about 30 in stock right now. :) I do have three upcoming craft shows I'm doing before Christmas so hopefully I can knock out some of my inventory.

Princess and I got up VERY early the day after the craft show to watch about 10 hot air balloons lift off. It was fantastic.

Then we went to the ranch with some great new friends that have moved down the street from us. They moved to Texas from Georgia and both work for our church. God truly blessed us by putting them in our lives. We all click very well and we share a love of adoption. They adopted their son from Latvia two years ago and will be a great support when we get our child(ren) home. I hope they fall in love with Texas and don't want to go anywhere for a LONG time!

We had such a great time and Cindy, the mom, is an awesome photographer and caught our time together perfectly.

The entire family feed Tex by hand...I was very impressed!

Everyone had to have a cowboy hat...it's not a true Texas experience without one!

I just put this in here because I love it. I like him a lot and I really like him in a cowboy hat.

Drool.....

Little Man and Aleks enjoyed riding the 4-wheelers more than anything else.

Me and Cindy...we took this ourselves and could not see the camera..this is my excuse for looking so goofy.

The "big girls"...they are so good to make Princess feel like she's as big as they are

Then before even Halloween, our weather decided to go bi-polar on us and snow 4 inches. The kids wanted to make their first snowman of the season and it is such a perfect picture of how quickly things change. His eyes are green tomatoes that we picked the day before and his nose is a milk dud from our hand-out candy. He didn't last 24 hours because the next day, it was in the 50's and he was completely melted by lunch. I just hope snow this early isn't a sign of a really bad winter.

The snow and whacked out weather put me in the mood to try something I've never made before...they were yummy!

The day before Halloween, we had a very exciting and proud moment as parents. Princess got baptized!! Most of our families got to attend the event and then we had a huge celebration lunch at our house. Nothing could have made the day better! :)

Then on Monday, my sis took my newest nephew to the doctor and after some testing, it was learned he had pyloric stenosis and needed surgery to fix it. So my parents and I took all the kids trick or treating and then to trunk or treat at our church. It was fun but we all had Lil' P on our minds.

Princess found her match at trunk or treat...yeah maaan!

This year we had a hippie, big foot, Hiccup, and a light-up something or other

Then early Tuesday, we got an email saying our agency had given out a referral the previous day. Yee-haw!!! We were so excited! So between baby surgery and referrals given out, it's been a little bit of a roller coaster week. :) Then yesterday we learned they gave out another referral! Four months of referral drought and then two in one week!! I hope this is the beginning of a huge avalanche.

Thursday night was our annual homeschool living museum. This is where the kids pick someone from history, learn all about them and then present themselves as that person in front of their peers.

Princess was Cleopatra...isn't she beautiful?

Little Man was Neil Armstrong...isn't he so cool? :)

So here we are. Already in November...already getting ready for the holidays and trying to give Thanksgiving it's due respect and place in time. May the fall season find you happy, healthy, and surrounded by people who love you.