The Simple Woman's Daybook for November 9th

Outside my window.... Its sort of cloudy today. But still a beautiful fall morning. There's a hint in the air of warming up today!

I am thinking.... about the upcoming Thanksgiving season, and why we have a "season" of Thanksgiving, when in reality, we should be thankful at all times. :)

I am thankful for.... the health of my children, even though we have in the last three weeks fought H1N1, strep, infections and chicken pox. Oh and stubbornness. Is that an ilness??

I am wearing.... well, you got me there. I'm still in my pjs. :) My most favorite, comfy grey pants and a FiberNet T-shirt.

I am remembering... what our services use to be like in the old white church years ago.

I am going.... nowhere today. But lots to do on the list! Hopefully at the end of the day, there will be a clean van, less laundry, and a painted cabinet.

I am reading.... my KJV Bible, and debating on starting "The Shack".

I am hoping.... to get my schedule lined out for my CCCA gym classes and Christmas play practice.

On my mind... Oh my, lots today. Thinking about my mom, who is going today for a Dr's appointment to talk about the brain surgery to alleviate the symptoms of Parkinsons.

From the learning rooms.... not much yet. But I see play-doh and paint in the next few hours.

Noticing that.... it's already warm enough in here to turn off the furnace and open the windows for the day.

Pondering these words.... My favorite verse... Ps. 56:13. SURELY thou will keep my feet from falling.... cause He knows I sure can't do that myself.

From the kitchen... Im thinking maybe burgers tonight. We haven't done that in a while.

Around the house... more straigtening up after my three whirlwinds, disinfecting, and continuing my spree of organizing like a maniac.

One of my favorite things... when one of my children randomly just comes up to me and hugs me. Absolutely thrills my heart and soul. :)

From my picture journal....

Joy

Time Change

Well, the time has changed. It is light at 6:00 am now and dark at 6:00 p.m. Personally, I cant stand this time change. I'd rather have the daylight in the evening... it makes for such a long evening cooped up inside for the kids. We have had such a beautiful fall though, seems like the last few years weren't this beautiful. The leaves just turned brown and fell off. But this year, wow! Every day has been beautiful. The contrast of colors from God's palate is absolutely amazing. There are no two colors that you can pick from nature that don't go together. We've had a wonderful season, with fall celebrations and parties. Now its on to the Holiday season - my favorite time of the year! Well, right now it is anyways. A couple of months ago, Fall was my favorite time of the year. In about 6 months, Spring will be my favorite time of the year! I'm so glad I have the ability to change my mind! :) Hope everyone has a beautiful and wonderful day today! God Bless!

Harvest Season!

Well. Again, it has been quite a while since my last post! I am starting to think that late summer/ early fall is our busiest season! Although I didn't get to be in my garden nearly as much as I had planned this summer, we still had an abundance of pattypan squash, yellow squash, the bumpy crookneck kind of squash, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers! I had so much squash that I didn't know what to do with it! We had it fried, baked, plain, in casseroles, in soups, etc. I finally started shredding it up and putting it in the freezer for casseroles later on this winter. I made 42 quarts of tomato juice for soups, chili, and spaghetti. I also canned some dill pickles, 17 pints I think. Something new I tried this year, peach jam and grape jelly. The absolute BEST grape jelly I've ever had. Beats anything you buy in a store! Oh and also, there's countless bags of sliced peaches, golden delicious apples, and gala apples in the freezer! I love harvest season ...

In the midst of it all, my big boy started second grade and my Angel Adah started Pre-school. (pictures soon.) She is doing very well.. I completely expected the whole crying and "mommy please don't go" thing... but she just walked in and started playing and did fine! Now she gets mad when its not her day to go to school! She loves it! I am so blessed.... At the moment, I am listening to the girls sleeping on the monitor, my window is open and I can feel the warm breeze with the hint of fall in it, and the bugs buzzing and birds chirping... God could not have blessed me any more.

Already?!

Really? Summer is over already?! Bailey starts school day after tomorrow. My Adah will start preschool a week from today. Where in the world did the summer go? It was filled with so many activities... (NONE of which i have posted about!!) Seems like school let out, we had Bible school, a beach trip, and now its over. Wow. So on to the task at hand, catching up. Will I ever really catch up? Will there EVER be a day that there is absolutely NO laundry that needs done? Probably not. But thats ok... I'm going to enjoy my kids today... Laundry will be there tomorrow. My kids.... just like summer, today isn't long enough.....

I'm still here!

Ok, so its been a month or more since I've posted anything at all! This past month has been crazy with dr's appointments, church activities, weddings, funerals, planning for vacation, etc! I promise I'm not giving up blogging.... hopefully after our next weeks vacation (5 days till the beach!) I'll be able to catch bak up. There have been so many events that I've wanted to share on here... so many summer activities that our family has enjoyed! It feels like I'm behind on everything... blogging, scrapbooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. Someday! (maybe!) Hope everyone has a great week.. its VBS week here! So I'm off to clean, and begin packing today.... will post again soon!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

The rest of my Birthday

Ok, so I'm a little behind on my blogging!  Have so much to catch up on!  First of all, I wanted to finish my post about my birthday present from Darius...  I knew we were going to a Steven Curtis Chapman/ Michael W. Smith concert, but had no idea that he had sold our tickets, won front row seats on an online auction and backstage passes.  He didn't tell me till dinner right before the concert!  He kept it a secret for about two weeks!  

Meeting Steven was amazing.  His music has been such an inspiration to us.  You just know from his lyrics, how deeply they flow from his soul, that he spends time in the Word.  He talked a lot about Maria that night.. his little girl that tragically died last year.  Anyone interested in learning more about adoption please go to www.showhope.org.  

Front row seats!

We had such a great time... Thank you honey for the best birthday of my life! :)

My Birthday

This was the absolute best birthday of my life! My husband worked for weeks on my surprises for me! He started on Monday (my birthday was Wednesday.)  On monday morning he gave me a docking station that would play my IPhone so I could listen to it here at home.  On Tuesday, he gave me some candles, and a primitive sign!  He knows my style very well.  

Tuesday evening we had a board meeting scheduled at the school.  It was also ladies volleyball night, so we went down a little early at 6:30.  Bailey came running back out of the gym and said, "Somebody's having a birthday party!"  My hubby had snuck out of work early, bought me a cake, and stopped and decorated the gym to have me a surprise get together with cake and ice cream!  He had a little help getting everything ready, thanks to Ashley, who ALSO kept secrets from me for about 2 weeks... LOL.  I love you girl! 

Adah was happy.  There was icing.  

Wednesday morning, he had planned to serve me breakfast in bed, and had taken the day off without me knowing it.  However, Adah got up at 6:30 that morning and got in bed with us!  But he fixed me breakfast anyways!  We had a great day together, and had planned to go to the Steven Curtis Chapman and Michael W. Smith concert that night. (Pics from that in the next post) He had purchased tickets about halfway back in the auditorium.  That evening at dinner, he surprised me and told me he sold our tickets, and had got front row seat tickets and backstage passes.  That was my final and biggest surprise.  What a wonderful birthday, and what a wonderful, thoughtful, loving, caring, amazing husband! :)  I love you so much, baby! 

Thanks to everyone else who make my day so special.  I love each one of you, and am blessed with the best friends and family on earth.  Thank you Jesus, for another year of life!  

Easter 09

So, yeah, I'm late.  What else is new? LOL!  I haven't even had time to post on here recently!  I'll just try to catch up by posting a few of the major events of the past month or so.  The first one being Easter!  What a joyous holiday!  Our family had great opportunities to spend time together and make memories with our children! 

Mamaw helped the kids with their yearly tradition of coloring eggs.  Did you know that a three year old apparently does not understand what the words "drop it in EASY" mean??  I think 5 of Adah's 9 eggs were broken by the time it was over.  But she had a great time!

So here they are, the products of an imaginative 8 year old boy, and a wild 3 year old girl!  Bailey even made one of his into a submarine... and of course half of Adah's had to be "PANK!" - cause thats my favorite color. 

So we had a wonderful Easter with our friends and family, celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior!  Thank you, Jesus, for all you have done for us....

My girls are One and Three!

Happy Birthday to my girls, who are now one and three.  Adah's birthday was March 31, which also happened to be my Grandma Simpson's birthday.  Adah turned a whopping three years old...and has all the attitude of a 14 year old girl.  Selah's birthday was April 2, and my baby girl is now a year old.  Where does the time go?  I can't believe how big they are....

We had a party for the girls last Friday night at the gym.  It was so much easier to have it there than at home!  Much less stress! Of course it was a princess party. Pink EVERYTHING.  We had friends and family attending... some that we hadn't seen or visited with in a while.  It was so nice!  We had hot dogs, chips, and of course, cake and ice cream.  

Adah was all about her cake - especially the icing!  Selah, however was a different story.  She usually loves her food, so I was thinking she would really dive in to the little cake especially for her.  But she didn't, she seemed more afraid of it than anything!  So, no good cake-covered baby pics for her.... :)

We had a butterfly pinata as well... all the kids loved hitting it with the little plastic bat.... it was full of toys and candy.  Everyone went home with lots of goodies - sorry, parents! 

The girls got a ton of presents.  They got lots of nice clothes, and of course lots of toys!  Lots of PINK toys... pink is slowly overtaking our house... but I wouldn't have it any other way! 

Thanks again to everyone for your help!  Thanks to my wonderful husband for his patience (lol), to my mom for the chili, baked beans and potato salad, to Ashley for helping me set everything up, and to everyone for all the nice presents and cards.  Thank you for making my girls feel so loved.  We love you all!  

And to my girls, my beautiful angels, I love you with all my heart.  You are my joy.  Your poor brother has a rough time ahead of him.... protecting the two of you..... I love you too, Bailey! Thank YOU for being such a good big brother! 

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

A Day at the Lake

There is a lake about 10 minutes from our house called Wallback Lake.  (It actually has another name, but everyone just calls it Wallback lake for its location.)  It is a very small man-made lake, but so nice to have close by.  There is a trail that goes all the way around the lake, and if its not a mile long, its very close.  We took the kids there this past Saturday for some MUCH-needed fresh air and exercise!  It was a beautiful day!

Adah was so excited to see the ducks...

The love of my life and our three beautiful children enjoying the fresh air and sunshine!

Walking on the trail - half of the trail is gravel and the other half on the other side of the lake is paved.  The gravel half is really too bumpy for a stroller, but we took one anyways to have going up and down the hill on the paved side!  There is a shooting range at the lake as well.. and of course they started shooting right as we walked past the range!  Scared the girls to death...

Isn't it wonderful to be a child and be so easily amazed?  To them, this lake is HUGE... having the perspective of a small child is amazing.  I remember thinking how big things were when I was little, only to revisit those places as an adult and think..."Wow, this isn't nearly as big as I remembered..."   I hope this was a day my children will remember for years to come.  It wasn't anything grand or spectacular, but it was an amazing day just spent together! 

Success

You can use most any measure

When you're speaking of success;

You can measure it in fancy homes, 

Expensive car, or dress.

But the measure of your real success

Is the one you cannot spend.

Its the way your kids describe you

When they're talking to a friend.

Martin Buxbaum

Dreaming of Summer

Yesterday's storm brought warm weather and high winds for us to enjoy for a bit. It was a perfect opportunity for the kids to finally get out of the house and breathe some fresh air! After the last two weeks filled with illnesses, backaches, and just general "crud", we were all thankful to be outside!

It was Adah's first time flying a kite. She was totally amazed. She did pretty well, considering. There were enough winds that really all she had to do was stand there, and hold on for dear life!

Bailey wasn't so lucky, though. He had a hard time getting his kite to stay up in the air, and got frustrated very quickly.

We had a wonderful time, though, enjoying God's creation. I absolutely can't wait until the weather warms up and I can leave my windows open all the time! One of my favorite places to be is on my porch swing, overlooking the farm. Maybe some spring cleaning today will help, although its dark outside again.

I'll leave you with a picture of my new nephew, Logan Rayne Cochrum. He looks just like his mommy, Tabitha! Another one of God's miracles....

Easy Chicken Pot PIe

Ok, this is for the moms who don't feel guilty about cutting corners sometimes when you're in a hurry! One of my favorite things is leftover roast chicken. You know the kind that you can pick up at the grocery store, already cooked, warm and waiting! Just be sure to check the time on the label, and don't get one thats been sitting there all day. Anyhow, if you do have enough chicken left over after the first meal of, well, roast chicken, here's an idea. Super Easy Chicken Pot Pie!

Ingredients:

1 to 2 cups shredded chicken
2 pre-made refrigerated pie dough crusts
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 can of peas and carrots
1 can of sliced potatoes (cuts down on the cooking time)
2 tablespoons of whole or canned milk

All you do is put your first crust in a greased pie dish. Layer the chicken, drained peas and carrots, and drained potatoes in the pie. (you can salt and pepper to taste now, if you wish.) Spread the cream of chicken soup over the top. (It will run down in between as it cooks... mmm) Take your other pie crust and lightly flour your counter. (or board, whatever.) I just use a pizza cutter and cut it into strips and basket weave it onto the top of my pie. Brush with 2 tablespoons of milk, then bake at oh, say 350 for 30-40 minutes.

Not everyone will appreciate this recipe, using canned veggies and pre-made pie dough... but trust me, when it comes down to a quick meal (in preparation anyhow) and your choice is this or chicken nuggets? I'll take the pie.

Enjoy! :)

We miss you, Mamaw and Papaw! :)

This video is for Mamaw and Papaw.

Love, Bailey and Adah

Selah's New Dance

This is a video of Selah's new sounds and moves... Enjoy!

The Joys of Parenting

Yes, this is my bathroom.  Well, more accurately  the kids bathroom.   This is what it looks like after Adah has been in there for all of two minutes.  Trust me, this picture does not do it justice at all! :)  She is such a whirlwind!  We've been stuck in the house since last Sunday night.  So far, Adah's the only one that hasn't been sick. 

 

Bailey had some sort of a stomach bug for a couple of days, and now Selah has the croup and a low temperature.  They are running out of things to do ~ we've played with play-doh, watched movies, etc.  This morning  was interesting as we (THEY) had to clean up the mess they made last night.  Seems they thought it would be a good idea to empty the money from the Monopoly and Life games, and throw it all over the basement floor.  Took us about an hour to get it all sorted back out!  All this being said, I have about lost my mind this week being snowed in.  But you know what?  I wouldn't change it for the world...I love my kids more than anything and spending time with them is my most favorite thing. 

 

I've learned a lot this week too.  I believe that one reason God gave us children is to teach us more about our relationship with Him.  I can just hear Him saying the same things I say to my kids.... 

"If you had just listened to me, you wouldn't be in trouble now."  

"Trust me, I've been there, and I know what's best for you" 

"I love you more than anything, but some things you have to learn on your own."

So as I grow, as my children grow, and as we learn from each other during the process, I pray that I can be the parent God designed me to be.  I pray that I can be patient through the messes, kind when I'm frustrated, be more gentle in speech (ahem), and most of all, showing them love like the Father shows me.

Thank you, Lord, for the blessings of these children. 

Psalms 19

vs. 1  The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork.

Romans 1

18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.  

19 Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.  20 For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.  21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.  22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man - and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. 

The Truth Project that we are doing at church has proven to be an awesome experience.  It is a study put out by Focus on the Family considering fundamental questions such as Who is God?  Who is man?  Where did evil come from?  What IS evil? It all comes down to the question made to us.... Do we really believe that what we believe is really REAL?  Last night's lesson focused more on the creation vs. evolution battle that we face daily.  Isn't it amazing how God made it PLAIN (romans 1:22) to us that there is a creator, and a designer.  Yes, it does take faith, but I choose to put my faith towards what is PLAIN to me.  Down to the chemistry of a single cell, it is plain that this world is not random.  Even Charles Darwin said toward the end of his life that looking at the eye gave him shivers.  Looking at a peacocks tail made him utterly sick. Because even the proprietor of the theory of natural selection KNEW that there was a Creator.  It was PLAIN to him.  Wow.   "The Heavens declare the glory of God....."

Adah-isms

Well, Adah is at the age now where she is a constant source of entertainment for us.  The other night she was getting ready for bed, and like most children, totally flip out if their routine is changed in the least bit.  She laid down and realized she had forgotten her chapstick.  This, of course, was a major deal.  Daddy convinced her that she could wait until after Bible story and prayers to get her chapstick.   As our little angel started to pray, she asked God to "please help my lips not crack from not having any chapstick."   My dh had the hardest time trying to not laugh! She is just at that really fun age where she is constantly changing and learning.  She is infatuated with the moon, is constantly singing or dancing, lives on strawberry milk, and has the wildest hair of any child I have ever seen.  

I am so thankful for each of my children, God has blessed me more than I could ever deserve.  "Blessed is the man who hath his quiver full....."  Darius says his quiver only holds three!  We'll see!  :)  

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Today was Darius' 37th birthday.  We didn't do anything extra special, just spent the day together, went to the grocery store, and out to eat.  We had our annual business meeting this evening at church, and had sort of a surprise party afterwards for him.  (just cake and coffee!)  I am so thankful for my husband, he is a wonderful provider for our family.  He spends time with each of our children and genuinely is interested in their little lives.  They have no idea how lucky they are to have him for a father.  I know that I am blessed and that God brought us together... we knew from the moment we met that we would spend our lives together.  I'm so thankful I get to grow old with him.......  Happy Birthday, honey! :) 

Catching up :)

So I think I'm finally getting the hang of this blogger thing.  Now that the Holidays and rush seems to be somewhat over (ha! is it ever over, really?) I hope to post on here more.  We had quite a busy season, with family coming to our house for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.  Bailey got sick and missed his first two days back to school, but he seems to be doing better now.  Thank God for prayers!  I am trying to clean up from the aftermath of the past few weeks.  There is laundry piled higher than me, floors that need cleaned, rooms that need organized, a kitchen that is in desperate need of my attention, a clingy baby, and a host of other things.  Lord, please help me find joy in the mundane tasks that seem to overwhelm my days.  Let me be an example to my children of how to find your joy in the everyday!