A Giggle A Day...

Today

2012-02-14T11:58:00.000-08:00

"I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy."

- John 16:20

What Our Future Holds

2012-02-13T16:10:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow (Valentines Day) would have been the due date of our daughter Joy. When we first lost her it seemed so hard to believe, almost impossible, that I wouldn't be holding her in my arms on Valentines Day. And now, oddly, it seems almost as hard to believe that I could have been having a baby tomorrow. And either way my life is not what I would have expected if you asked me a year ago. I was thinking about that this evening and remembering once again that I don't know what my future holds. As much as I love to plan and hope and dream I am a fool to think that I am ultimately in control of my future. Sure, God has given us much freedom and I have much influence and responsibility over my life but I am not the one who controls it or guides it's course. I am grateful that a year ago I didn't know what the year would bring. And now, as much as I would love some direction and to know the course of our future I have to trust that still to the Lord. I can, and should, make plans and prepare so long as I hold those plans loosely with an open hand. This could be a big, eventful year for us- but truth be told I don't really know. But I know the One who does.

One Fish, Two Fish, 3,4,5...and Six

2012-02-12T18:15:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went ice fishing with friends of ours- the same ones that we went ice fishing with last year (I think we must make it a tradition)! It was so much fun. Eli was excited from the moment he and Joe brought home the bait the night before- he just loved watching the fish swim around in the bucket. The morning we went though got off to a rough start when we discovered that Joe's ice auger was at a friend's house- which meant a lot of extra driving. The road leading to the pond was horrible and icy and took twice as long to drive as it should have- so long that Eli fell asleep on the way there. And once we got there is was windy and brisk. When the family fishing next to us said they hadn't caught much I sure had my doubts about how well our ice fishing trip with the kids would go. But we did have our portable ice shanty with a heater (a must, I think, when doing stuff like this with little ones), and our box of munchkin doughnuts (also a must)! And despite our initial doubts this turned out to be our best ice fishing trip yet! All of the kids were really excited about every step in the process from watching the holes be drilled, to scooping the ice from the holes, to helping pull the lines. The cold didn't really bother them at all and they happily came running whenever an orange flap popped up! Of course they also enjoyed running around the pond, being pulled in the sled, climbing up the hill, warming up in the shanty, and eating doughnuts- but I really think they loved the excitement of catching the fish the best. Lily reeled in the first fish and it didn't take much convincing to get her to hold her fish this year (Eli, on the other hand was interested but also a little scared of the fish flopping around on the ice)! And each of the kids (Eli included) got a chance to reel in a fish! After a couple of hours out on the ice (yes, they made it that long) we caught 6 beautiful brook trout and I think we easily could have kept catching more! And in the end Eli did touch one of the fish! Our trip ended with a little sledding down the hill and fish in the freezer for dinner another night!

The Superbowl, Editing & My Toe

2012-02-10T10:02:00.000-08:00

So, as I'm sure you well know, the Patriots lost the Superbowl. It was sad. They did not play well. And in case you are wondering, I WAS cheering for the Patriots (they are my husband's team after all)- and as long as they aren't playing the Packers I will cheer for them. But it didn't help. And it wasn't a pretty scene around here...Joe was not impressed that they lost to the Giants again...in much the same way that it was the Giants again that essentially knocked us out of a Superbowl with the Patriots. Maybe it was just the Lord trying to protect our marriage!:)

And while the game may not have been super enjoyable to watch (at least the end was painful) we did have a great time celebrating the big game at our friend's house- and enjoying the incredible spread of food that Steph put on!

And on that note....I snapped this picture while in the process of taking another picture of the football cupcakes I made for the party. Isn't she beautiful?

The picture is SOOC (straight out of the camera)- with no editing.

But...right now I'm taking an online photography editing class (it was my Christmas gift from my parents). I am enjoying the class and learning a lot, but it's sort of kicking my butt (in a mostly good way, but most of the time I feel like I have steam coming out my ears)! So, here is the edit I did of this picture last night for my class...

And here's one more I did for the class...the picture is of the road going down Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park (which, by the way, is incredibly fun to bike down)...it's a more subtle edit.

SOOC

Final (subtle) edit

And as I sit here posting these photos I have my feet up. That's because I had toenail "surgery" this morning. The doctor said it went well, but it sure wasn't very pretty (though towards the end even I was able to watch a bit). The worst of it was the nerve block in my toe- I was thankful for it but it hurt more than I was expecting. And now I'm just nervously waiting for the nerve block to totally wear off! I am happy that it's over and hopeful that this will be the last of it and I'll be totally back on my feet very soon. In the meantime Joe is taking good care of me and the kids (even managing to make some homemade bread while he's at it)! Happy weekend...I'm going to sit here and rest some more!

Nifty & Thrifty in 2012: Laundry Time!

2012-02-08T11:25:00.000-08:00

As you can see from the picture above my laundry "system" was non-existent. In fact, the corner of our basement devoted to laundry was a total disaster (to match the rest of our basement). It's a small thing, but I knew that if I could get organized that I could probably save us a little bit of money in our pusuit of clean clothes!:) Thank you so much to those of you who sent me messages, emails, and comments on Facebook to let me know of all your money saving laundry tips. I couldn't help but smile every time I got one of them! So now I want to share the wealth. I'm not using every one of these tips yet, but here are some of the great ways that I have found (or you have found for me) to save a little bit of money on laundry:

Get Organized: The very first thing I did was to get organized. That meant doing A LOT of laundry and finally catching up on the many piles I had going on (I had things that had been waiting a very long time to be washed). Then I cleaned the whole area, cleaned the machines, and got everything ready. Now it might be very far from my dream "laundry room" but for now this little nook in my basement (with old machines and random laundry baskets) will have to do.
Less Laundry To Do: Let's face it, no matter what I do there is always a lot of laundry to be done. Some days it feels like Eli goes through at least 3 outfits! The laundry pile just builds and builds. But I've started to cut back on that pile just a little bit. Now instead of just automatically throwing the days clothes in the laundry (or picking them up off the floor 2 days later and throwing it in the laundry) I am inspecting them all at the end of day to see if any of them can be worn again. And I'm not ashamed to say that we are trying to get as much wear out of our clothes as possible. So if you see one of us in the same clothes you saw us in the day before don't be alarmed, we're just trying to save money!:) And it's working- it really is cutting back on the laundry mass. In the past the kids used to wear a new pair of pajamas pretty much every night, but now most of the time I can get at least two wearings out of a pair for Eli and more for Lily. And the other day I was able to save Eli's whole outfit to be worn another day...crazy! Now that's not normal, but for that day it was great! And Joe and I are making the same effort with our clothing...and it's working!
Sorting: Okay, I confess that I really wasn't a laundry sorter before. Colors, whites...everything just got thrown in together as I grabbed it and away I went. Now I am sorting them into four baskets: whites, fleece and other lightweight fabric, items that can be washed in cold water, and items that I think need to be washed in warm water. This is helping me because...
Cold Water Works: I read that much of the cost of doing laundry comes from heating the water. Back before we had kids I did most of our laundry in cold water, but since having the little ones I sort of got in the habit of washing everything in warm water (because that seemed to help get their very messy clothes clean). But now that I am actually sorting our clothes I can determine which clothes really need to be washed in warm water and everything else (about 3 out of 4 loads) is being washed in cold water!
Homemade Detergent: And really this is where it all started for me. I was intrigued by the idea of making my own laundry detergent which got me wondering if there were other ways to save money doing laundry. So with the help of my mom I have started making my own detergent. Here's what I'm using:
2cups Borax
2cups Washing Soda
16oz shredded laundry soap (my mom is a soap maker and I am using hers)
Mix and store in a container and use between 1-3TBSP per wash (I've been using 2 level tablespoons)
So far I am really enjoying the homemade laundry detergent. It seems to be getting our clothes clean just fine. The only problem I've been having is that when I wash in cold water it tends to leave a few little white balls on our clothes (I think it's from the laundry soap). It all seems to shake off in the dryer just fine so I don't think it's too much of a problem, but I'm trying to figure out how to solve it (so I get the most out of my homemade detergent rather than leaving little bits of it on our clohtes). If any of you have any advice on this I would love to hear it.
Also, this is another, very similar, recipe I have heard that many use for homemade laundry detergent (in case your mom doesn't happen to be a soap maker):
1 bar Fels Naptha Soap- grated
1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda
Mix and store in a container.
Hold The Dryer: I knew that one of the biggest ways I could save a few bucks doing laundry would be to cut way back on how much I use our dryer. During the warm summer months I do hang some of our laundry to dry out on our laundry line, but the rest of the year (and even somewhat during the summer) our dyer is going full speed. I knew that had to change. And it has!!! I never really thought that I could dry laundry indoors on a line during the winter, much less in our basement, but I am!

Joe hung up a few rows of hooks in our basement ceiling so that I could hang clothes to dry.

And he hung a line in the basement so that I can hang small things like socks and rags. Isn't my husband great? But anyway...

Since our basement isn't heated I assumed that it would take forever for clothes to dry down there and I really expected that I would line dry maybe one out of every 4 loads. But actually it's been working much better than that...most loads take about a day to dry. I also separate out my fleece and other quick dry fabrics into one load and those usually take much less than a day to dry. In a week and a half I have only put one load of laundry in the dryer for the full time- incredible! Everything else I hang dry for a day or so and then toss in the dryer for about 15 minutes to soften and remove a few wrinkles.

Lint: Even though I am using the dryer a lot less I am making it a point to empty the lint tray every other load...I've heard that this helps the machine run better (and maybe saves a penny or two in the process). Not a big saver, but hey- everything adds up!

Fabric Softner: I haven't tried any of these ideas yet (because I'm still trying to use up a box of fabric softner sheets we have), but when I do I plan on replacing those sheets with a homemade fabric softner:

Put 1/8th to 1/4th cup white vinegar in a Downy Ball (or add to your rince cycle) and add a few drops of essential oil. Add to your wash.

I'm going to try this one first, but another one I found is:

Mix 6c Hot Water with 2c Suave Refreshing Waterfall Conditioner

Add 3c Vinegar.

Put about 2TBSP in a downy ball or add to your rince cycle.

You could also use a mixture like this and make your own fabric softner sheets. Just cut up some old fabric into squares and layer them in a used diaper wipe container. Cover with the homemade fabric softner and let soak. Throw one in with each load in the dryer. And you can reuse them over and over again by re-soaking!

Ban the Static: We live in Maine and in the winter the static is INSANE. Part of this is because we have a wood stove in our living room than runs almost all of the time during the fall/winter/spring. It makes for some pretty dry air and tons of static in our clothes. Drying my clothes on the line and not in the dryer the whole time is helping with this, but it's not enough. I'm hoping that the homemade fabric softner will also help with this. But I'm not stopping there. As soon as the dryer sheets run out I'm planning to pin safety pins to a couple of old (missing their match) socks and throw about 3 of them in with each load of laundry in the dryer (even if it's just 15 minutes). I've heard that this cuts the static charge and works really amazing. I've also heard that balling up some tin foil and throwing it in the dryer does the same thing. And finally, I've learned that wool dryer balls also really help with fabric softning and removing static (you can buy them online or make your own by felting wool into a ball). I'm going to start with the socks and move from there!

So, I know that this might seems like a lot, but I have been slowly incorporating some of these tips over the last couple of weeks and really in the end it isn't a whole lot more work. I also know that in the end it isn't going to add up to big money, but I'm really looking for lots of small changes that we can incorporate and really make part of our daily life. It makes me feel so good to know that I'm doing my part to be wise with the way we spend what God has given us. I want to be a good steward of all of our resources...even if it just starts with laundry!:) So there you go....I hope that this might give you an idea or two (and if you have any more please feel free to continue to share). Time to do some laundry!:)

Making the most of this winter...

2012-02-06T11:15:00.000-08:00

As you know, I really love snow. And thus it's been sort of a sad winter for me. But over the last year I have really been feeling God call me to live a life of joy. And that means choosing joy each day...even if I don't really enjoy the circumstances (whether that be something especially hard or something very quite little like not having much snow during the winter)! So, we are choosing to make the most of this winter. What is there to do outside in the cold, you might ask, without snow? Well, we've learned that cold, snow-less weather is perfect for ice skating! And actually I have to say that this worked out quite well since we were wanting to teach Lily to ice skate this winter anyway! So shortly after Christmas we got Lily skates and Joe built her the skate-training-device thing you see in the pictures. This was her first time skating and we had a blast. We invited some friends and the conditions were absolutely incredible. I've never skated outdoors on ice so perfect- and the creaking sounds the ice made from freezing were unreal (an older couple out skating said they had never heard the ice so loud in all of their lives)! Once though the ice cracked right under me- it didn't split and it wasn't dangerous, but it was a little scary none-the-less! Eli wasn't quite ready for skates but Joe fashioned some cleats onto the bottom of his boots and his did quite well with them (he even shuffled along like he thought he was skating)! And it turns out that we may have a little hockey player on our hands- Eli really loved trying to hit the ice with the hockey stick! Joe took the kids out once since then, but I think that we need to go at least a few more times this winter!

An Update and Cookie Dough

2012-02-03T16:10:00.000-08:00

So, it appears that our little man shares our fondness for cookie dough! Life is slowly returning to normal around here...and with it comes some baking and cookie dough...and Eli wasted no time making his way over to the mixer when I left it unattended!:)

Happily we seem to be on the mend. Eli still has some gunk in his chest, but little by little it seems to be improving and it doesn't seem to bother him much anymore. We are now just nebulizing him as needed (maybe every other day at this point).

I have been feeling much better since about Tuesday. I went to the doctor yesterday and my ear infection is almost all cleared up (just a bit red and still a bit congested)- hopefully a few more days and that will be all gone. I am OFF antibiotics for the first time in a few weeks and that is very nice. The bummer is that my poor little toe isn't doing quite as well. I am schedule to have part of the toe nail removed (as in cut out) next Friday morning. Fun times. Anytime they have to use a nerve block it just doesn't seem like a good thing. But hopefully that will take care of the problem and I can start using P90X with my hubby like I promised before just walking around became painful!:)

Yep, I think we are on the mend (and now I wish I had some cookie dough on hand)!

Sick Daysssssss

2012-01-27T18:23:00.000-08:00

These pics of Eli enjoying a snack while watching one of his favorite PBS shows (Curious George I believe) pretty much summarizes our last two weeks. Eli I are still sick. Still. Ironically Eli went for his "well child" checkup a few days ago right about the time he took another turn for the worse. He sounded just awful that day and sure enough the doctor confirmed that he had a lot of junk in his chest- so much that his oxygen levels were at 94%- no good. Generally you want oxygen levels to be between 100%-98% and at around 90% (I believe) is where you would need supplemental oxygen. So, Eli was somewhere in the middle (not needing to be hospitalized, but not good). Thankfully he responds very well to his nebulizer treatments and we have been doing them daily ever since. He is thankfully already sounding much better but Eli and I just can't quite seem to shake this darn virus. And thus there has been a lot of laying around and watching train videos and Curious George (and he is mostly in pretty good spirits as you can see)! We sure would appreciate your prayers that we might get well very soon.

Head to Toe

2012-01-22T06:58:00.000-08:00

Some of you might remember that last summer my big toenail was ripped off while playing with the kids- it was horrible! Well, ever since then the nail has been growing back pretty nicely until a few weeks ago. Now the nail is ingrown and it got quite bad while I was away at our winter conference. I waited until I got back to have it taken care of so that I could see my doctor and by that time it was pretty badly infected. I'll spare you the details, but it's not a pretty picture. I've been on antibiotics for about 10 days now and the doctor is just waiting until all the swelling is down to determine whether they will have to remove the whole nail to fix the problem (please pray that it doesn't come to this- I have no desire for the pain or the expense)! So there's that....then a little over a week ago all four of us got sick with a nasty cold/flu/virus like thing. It started with Lily (and apparently a third of the other kids in her class) and spread to the rest of us. The big bummer was that Joe was in Florida during all of last week while we were all sick. It's not very common for him to leave us for that long, but he had some important meetings there for our Lifelines ministry (which went incredibly well, by the way)! While I'm thrilled that the meetings went so well it was really hard being home alone with two sick kids while feeling quite sick myself. Joe's mom came up to help for two days and that was an incredible blessing (and allowed me a little extra rest) and the rest of the week I just muddled through (and watched a lot of PBS with the kids)! Thankfully Joe is back and most everyone is on the mend though they are still a bit worn out with coughs and runny noses. I, on the other hand, am not fairing quite as well. There was a day or two in there where I thought I was getting a bit better, but now it's worse again. In fact, about an hour after Joe got home my ear promptly filled up and became very painful- and I woke the next day to a very congested right side of my face. I was certain I had a sinus infection and while I still think there might be some of that going on the doctor tells me that I actually have a nasty ear infection. Did you know that adults can get ear infections? Well, they can- and I have a doosy. So now I'm on a much stronger antibiotic that will hopefully knock out everything. In the meantime I am quite literally a walking head to toe infection. Good times.

Bowling

2012-01-19T19:10:00.000-08:00

With the cold, snow less winter upon us we have rediscovered our love for bowling! Seriously though, did you know that I "won" our first date beating Joe at bowling? It's a true story, but I'll save that for another time!:) Somehow though we didn't bowl at all last winter so this outing was Eli's very first time bowling! And he loved it. He started off wildly tossing the ball down the alley, but after a while took a totally different approach and started rolling it incredibly gently (as in it would take 3 minutes to make it all the way down)!:) Either was he was pretty adorable. And Lily might have loved it even more (and yes, you might be able to tell from the last picture that she did technically beat me)! It wasn't really my best game, but it was hard not to have fun with Lily jumping for joy with nearly every pin she knocked over! And after this outing we also decided to spend our New Years Eve bowling (and we were literally the only ones there). Happy Bowling!

Winter?

2012-01-17T16:36:00.000-08:00

It has been a crazy "winter" here! We had snow for Halloween and snow for Thanksgiving and then barely eeked out a few inches just in time for a white Christmas. Much of December was quite warm. In fact, towards the beginning of December we took the kids canoeing- yes, canoeing in December! Actually it was a really wonderful morning canoeing in an amazing place that Joe found where we saw about 7 seven beaver lodges, a couple of sea otters swimming (from a distance) and even found wild cranberries! We all tasted some of the raw, wild cranberries and they were incredibly tart. Joe, Lily and I ended up spitting ours out, but not Eli...he kept popping one after the other in his mouth!

And these pictures were taken just a day or two after our canoeing trip...yes, it was December and the kids were splashing in puddles in the back yard- crazy! It seemed sort of novel at the time, but now the lack of snow is really getting to me. Because it has gotten cold and cold without snow is just sad. We have just the slightest bit of white covering the ground right now, but not really even enough to make a poor little snowman. That's right, no snowmen, snow forts, skiing, snowshoeing, sledding, or snowmobiling (with Joe's dad's snowmobiles) like we had been looking forward to this winter. The cold with lack of snow has made for incredible ice skating, but that's it. Please, please, please let it snow!

Nifty & Thrifty in 2012

2012-01-13T19:01:00.000-08:00

The new year is upon us! And with this new year comes a new budget for our family. We are in full time ministry and thanks to many individuals, families, and churches who support our ministry financially we make a modest income. And because so many give to us we are often pretty conscious of how we spend our money. But truth be told we spent too much money last year (and probably in many of the years before that)! Now, we don't spend more money than we make and we aren't in debt (other than our mortgage and one car payment)- but we aren't really saving any money. So basically we are living paycheck to paycheck and we aren't setting ourselves, or our children, up well for the future. And is has to change. So Joe took a good, realistic look at our finances and made a new budget for our family. And most importantly we are having the money we need to be saving (which isn't as much as we would like, but it's a start) taken out of our account automatically every month so that we aren't tempted to spend it!:) But this means that we have to be SERIOUS about our budget and stick to it- and that's what we've been doing since January 1st.

Truth be told I'm torn about how I feel about this. I don't really enjoy having to cut back and I don't like thinking about money so often. And there have already been sacrifices (not for anything I need- just wants). But on the other hand it feels good. If feels good knowing that we are doing the best thing for our family, our future, and to be good stewards of the resources that God has given us. I also have to admit that I sort of like the challenge!:)

And on that note...I'm wondering if some of you might join with me in this challenge. Not only do I need to stick to our budget, but I want to do better than that! I want to save even more money so that we can be freed up to give to others more and to have a little fun with our family along the way! So, I'm taking action and I'm looking for lots of ways, big and small, to stretch our budget (and maybe help a few others do the same along the way)! So throughout this year I'm going to be sharing here the things that our family are doing to save money. And I would LOVE your help with this.

So, the first area that I am targeting to save money in is LAUNDRY. Now I know that this isn't something huge, but I really think that lots of small things in lots of areas will add up. So...if you have any tips or advice for saving money on laundry please post a comment in this post or send me an email (angiedcousins@yahoo.com). And in a week or two I'll post all of the best tips I've found (and hopefully some of them that we have started to use)! And on that note it's time to go fold some laundry!:)

Dec.26th

2012-01-13T16:56:00.000-08:00

The morning after Christmas...throwing parachute men over the balcany at Nonnie & Grampy's house!:)

Stolen

2012-01-10T18:16:00.000-08:00

I generally feel like we live in a pretty safe area...except every now and then I am reminded that while we have all been safe physically we can not say the same for some of our things. You may remember a few years back (the summer before we had Lily) when someone broke into our car and stole my purse, our pillows, and used our Campus Crusade for Christ credit card to buy internet porn. One of the most bizarre things and yet oh so true. I think I need to tell the whole story sometime because it got even stranger. But moving on to more recent crimes...this fall we had something else stolen from our yard...the big red ball pictured here with Eli (about a week before it was taken). The giant red ball belonged to the ministry technically and Joe used it for an outreach with guys on campus called Bloodball. That thing was HUGE and pretty awesome. So one day this fall we blew it up in the backyard for my playgroup (it was the first time we really even let our kids play with it). It was a blast and we left it in the yard for about a week- because we weren't worried at all that someone would run off with it. Oh, but we should have been. Because someone did. Yep, giant red ball stolen from our yard!! Try reporting that one to the cops (but we did since it was worth about $400). I thought for sure someone would find it (because how do you hide something that big?) but alas we have never seen it again. In my opinion this crime was just LOW. Seriously, someone was sad enough to steal what appeared to be nothing more than a very cool toy that belonged to my children. They stole from my CHILDREN!!! OK, technically they stole from our ministry (maybe that's even worse). And just when I had forgotten about that....I had another rude awakening this morning. For Christmas a supporter of our ministry gave us a special personal financial gift and we were saving the money to buy our kids a pass to our local children's museum (which I've really been wanting to do for a bit now). I also had Christmas money from Joe's parents that I was saving to buy new dishes. Joe cashed the checks recently and we foolishly left the cash in our van. We always lock our cars at night, but for some reason that just didn't happen last night. And this morning as the kids and I were loading into the van to head to the children's museum (to buy the long awaited pass) I discovered that the money was gone. I was hopeful that Joe moved it. Not only didn't Joe move it, but he also happened to find an empty bank envelope laying on the driveway outside our van this morning. Yep, $140 in cash- STOLEN!!! Say it with me....uggggghhhhh!

Oh my, was I angry...I wanted to hurt someone. I was really looking forward to having new dishes. And I can't even believe that someone essentially stole something from my kids AGAIN! I promptly drove right to the children's museum and purchased the pass anyway...partially because my kids were so looking forward to it and I just couldn't disappoint them (and we were already loaded in the van, bags packed, and lunches made) and partially because I just refused to let the people who took our money win. It's going to take some financial juggling, but I think it will be okay. The dishes on the other hand will have to wait until my birthday (or maybe I'll start buying one a month)!:)

Anyway...I was ANGRY...remember that I wanted to hurt someone. And then as I watched my kids play at the museum (the actual moment was while they were pretending to garden and harvest vegetables) I began to feel God soften my heart. And as we drove home God began to gently remind me that I need to CHOOSE joy (this could be my life theme I think). I need to choose joy...when I'm faced with loss, when my day to day is not going as I planned, when evil seems to prevail....because evil will NEVER prevail in the end....because in light of eternity $140 will mean nothing...nothing. And right there is the car God enabled me to choose joy instead of bitterness and even gave me the strength to thank Him for the morning and to pray for the very seem people I wanted to harm a few hours earlier. And that's when it hit me...God is changing me. I have oh so far to go, but slowly God is changing me...and this has nothing to do with me, but everything to do with Him.

So, while the police can't really do much to help us (we did report it just to be safe) I know that it will be okay, because I have HOPE (and there is no amount of cash that can buy that).

Christmas!

2012-01-09T17:00:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas was wonderful! It really did sort of feel like a celebration all month long, but the last three days were especially festive!

On Christmas Eve Eve we spent the morning celebrating Christmas with my parents over Skype (though I forgot to take pictures)- it just one of those times when I am so thankful for modern technology! And the rest of the day we spent really focusing on Christ and throwing Him a special birthday party.

This year our birthday present to Jesus was pretty special to us. We decided to sponsor a little girl named Jenifer in Peru. We'll share lots more about her soon! After we picked out Jesus' present Lily and I decorated the kitchen for a special birthday dinner and we ate by the light of candles and twinkling lights!

And of course there had to be birthday cake!

We started with a dark chocolate cake and talked about how on our own our hearts are dark and sinful. And then we poured white chocolate over the cake and talked about how the love and forgiveness of Jesus has poured over our lives and has made our hearts clean and whole.

And after the party and after Eli was in bed Joe, Lily, and I stayed up and read, "An Angel Story" by Max Lucado...all about the birth of Christ from a heavenly perspective (and Lily made it through the whole book for the first time)!

And Christmas Eve was also really fun with many of our favroite traditions... throwing out food for the reindeer, delicious appetizer foods for diner, Christmas Eve service at church (my favoite), discovering Santa's sack when we retruned from church (full of new pajamas)...

And then Joe and I got to play Santa (also one of my favorite parts of Christmas)!

We cleaned and made everything feel magical and got the special gifts ready...

Including this fantastic sensory table that Joe built for the kids...

And this amazing teepee that my mom,Joe, and I made for them!

And I just LOVE Christmas Eve when everything is out and glowing!

And I completed our Christmas tree with our homemade family ornament for the year...to remember our special little girl.

And then Christmas morning came and Joe actually had to wake Lily up (apparently our two previous days of celebrating wore her out)!:)

But soon their faces lit up when they saw the teepee!

And Strawberry Shortcake Dolls and puzzles from Santa!

And they LOVED the sensory table and played with it for quite a while that morning!

And we finally got around to stockings...

And yes, those are toothbrushes that Lily is hugging with glee (my kids have a real love for brushing their teeth)!:)

And Joe bought each of the kids their own log cabin kit (made in the USA- which we love).

And Lily's big individual gift from us was a CAMERA! You better believe I was pretty excited when she asked for this earlier in the season. Oh how fun to have another photographer in the family!

And Eli's big individual gift was this basketball hoop and it was a huge hit with our little sports lover!

And after all of the stockings and gifts were opened and we enjoyed some delicious scones and fruit we cleaned up and got ready and PLAYED!

And although I don't have any pictures to show it we spent the rest of Christmas down with Joe's family just enjoying some great food and being together and a few fantastic presents and throwing parachute men off of the loft stairs. It really was a wonderful Christmas. And I am oh so thankful that the stomach flu waited until just after dessert on Christmas evening to strike me down. While I was too sick to enjoy the Packer game that evening I felt great for all of the most important parts of Christmas. Happy Birthday Jesus- we had a wonderful time celebrating your birth!

Epicenter

2012-01-02T20:23:00.000-08:00

Right now I am at the Epicenter conference in Albany, New York! Epicenter in the annual winter conference that our region puts on for the students in the Northeast. Usually Joe would have come to this conference and I would have stayed home with the kids, but this year Joe decided to give me a bit of a break. And I am ON MY OWN (except for the students and other staff of course) for 6 days! 6 days!!! As my friend Steph put it earler this evening (she is also here without her husband and son)- "At dinner tonight nobody threw food at me or on the floor!" I could add that there was no screaming and I didn't have to convince my friends to eat their dinner by promising dessert!:) I believe that 3 days/2 nights is the longest I have ever been away from either of my little loves before so this is a BIG deal and I am oh so thankful to my husband for making it happen! While I adore my children and do miss them- this time away is oh so good for this mama!

So here I am at Epicenter working on physical arrangments (basically getting some things ready before the meetings), conducting a staff interview with a student later in the week who wants to join staff with Campus Crusade, meeting with our students and coaching them, and now as of last night I was assigned as one of two photographers for the event! This last part I wasn't expecting (and only brought one camera and one lens) but I am really excited. This will be the first real chance in a setting like this to use my photography skills in ministry. After the first couple of hours photographing I can already tell that it's going to be way more work, time, and effort than I was initially expecting, but I'm still looking forward for this chance to serve. So it may not be this week as I was planning, but I will be posting our Christmas pictures sometime soon. For now I'm off to bed...tomorrow should be another busy day!

Getting Ready for Christmas!

2011-12-30T11:11:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas and really the whole month leading up to Christmas was filled with little preparations and celebrations! There were lots that I didn't photograph...parties, the Christmas parade, gatherings with friends, and lots and lots of tasty treats, but here is a glimpse...

The kids loved decorating the tree...over and over and over again!:)

And my parents even got to help with the first tree decorating while they were here. And I love how the pom pom garland I made turned out!

Lily has been on vacation for much of the holiday season (her school follows the university schedule), but for her last day of school they had pajama day and here she is in her matching pajamas with Bitty Baby!

We did a giving basket for the kids again this year and once again Lily just LOVED creating some special little goodies that she could give out to anybody she wanted. She really gets so much joy out of giving- I think it's a gift of hers. This year we made carmel corm again, these adorable snowman ornaments (which she gave to everyone in her class among others)...

And these cute Christmas tree brownies!

Lily helped make each thing...baking, stirring and decorating the treats and cutting, paiting, and clueing the ornaments!

And we enjoyed a few fun little Christmas crafts like these nativity stick puppets (we printed some in color and the kids colored some themselves).

Our giving baskets and the little glitter trees that we made for the mudroom.

I don't even remember which yummy Christmas treat Eli had smeared all over his face here, but I couldn't resist these pictures!

Every Christmas we look forward to the cards and hearing from many of our friends and family. This year we hung our Christmas cards from lights around our front door and we put the picture cards under the glass on our kitchen table (so we got to see all of your lovely faces during every meal)!

Making beaded candy cane ornaments- Lily did such a great job at beading them and Eli even did pretty good at threading the pipe cleaners through the beads until he decided that it was more fun to dump out the beads from bowl to bowl (and ALL over the floor)!

And of course there were cookies! We made a more reasonable sized batch of cutout cookies this year and other than the last few that Joe helped Eli with the kids cut them all out themselves (I would roll the dough for Eli). They really enjoyed being able to do it on their own and they did such a great job!

And while the cookies were baking I let them clean up (and play) in the sink. This has quickly become one of their favorite activities!

Getting ready for Christmas sure was fun this year!!!

2011-12-24T20:51:00.000-08:00

Wishing you a Christmas that is merry and bright!

Love,

Joe, Angie, Lily, Eli & Indy

The countdown is on!

2011-12-23T18:03:00.000-08:00

The Countdown Is On!!!

Lily and Eli have been counting down the days 'til Christmas all month with the advent calendars my mom made for them! Each day they pull out a little box and not only only get to enjoy the little treat my mom has hidden inside (candy, stickers, etc...) but they also get to see what creative, festive picture my mom made on the other side! They look forward to doing their advent calendar every morning and they are so excited that Christmas is nearly here! Yesterday we were planning to head to Bar Harbor (without snow we were going to hit the beach to collect some rocks for a gift I am making for Eli). Instead we decided to slow it down a little and stay home. We made and decorated cookies, went to the pool, Joe worked on a homemade gift for the kids, and we all ate pizza in the living room while watching the Muppet's Christmas Carol. What a fun day! And this morning we woke up to snow and the hope of a white Christmas after all!:) We had our Christmas celebration with my family over Skype this morning and overall it has been such a nice couple of days as we continue to countdown 'til Christmas and celebrate all the while along the way!

Guest Reader

2011-12-20T04:38:00.000-08:00

The day before my parents left my mom was the guest reader at Lily's school! I'm so happy that she got the chance to do it and I know that Lily loved having her there (G-Pa was there too- you can see him watching from the rocking chair in the 2nd picture)! As you can see the kids were pretty interested in the book by the end!:) And mom didn't just get to read- she also got to dance with the kids (since there was a little bit of time left at the end of class)! We are, by the way, very much missing school. This is Lily's 2nd week of break and we still have a few more weeks (it's such a long break because the school follows the university schedule). It is giving us time to do some fun things together but Lily does miss seeing her friends everyday. For now we'll just try to enjoy the time at home!

St. Nick was here!

2011-12-17T16:31:00.000-08:00

Last week St. Nick visited us! As is tradition in our house, St. Nick filled the kid's shoes with fruit and a special ornament for the tree. He also likes to bring Christmas books (and Lily was very impressed that he knew that she loves Fancy Nancy)!:) This year "St. Nick" had the ornaments made by my friend (and college roomate) Dana. She did such a good job on the ornaments and she was so thoughtful to make one for Joy as a gift to us (Dana, that meant so much to me). Lily was excited to hang up her ornament and Joy's and insisted on hanging them right next to each other (because she, "loves Joy so much."). And it was such a special moment for me.

So Creative...

2011-12-16T19:35:00.000-08:00

My daughter is so very creative. I snapped this picture of one of her recent dough creations...a whole village complete with walkways and people- all thought up totally on her own! Pretty much every day she can be found with crayons and markers, glue, beads, paper, tape, buttons, and glitter as she works on her own little creations (almost always to give to others). I just adore her creativity!

The Polar Express

2011-12-14T04:49:00.000-08:00

Eli LOVES trains right now so shortly after Thanksgiving my parents took us all for a ride on The Polar Express in Portland! What a fun way to celebrate Eli's birthday and the Christmas season! The day before we went we watched the movie (which was a good idea because they do try to recreate the movie on the ride). It was a real steam train and as you can see it was beautiful. The whole ride was very cute including even little details like the kids riding in their pajamas and special golden tickets for the kids. After a short ride bakers came on the train and did a little song and dance (from the movie) and delivered cookies and mugs of hot cocoa. They also read The Polar Express story and for a bit everyone sang Christmas carols and we rode the train to the "North Pole." Once at the North Pole Santa joined us and greeted all of the children and gave them each a special Polar Express bell! The ride itself was a bit short but the kids LOVED it and it was just perfect for them. Even now, weeks later, every time we hear or talk about a train Eli says "ooh, ooh" (like choo choo- his way for saying train) and then points outside and then points to himself which basically is his way of saying that he rode a train outside! After I confirm that he'll then point to me and Lily (because we also rode the train with him)- so cute. Riding The Polar Express clearly left an impression on him!

It's Well Under Way...

2011-12-13T16:32:00.000-08:00

It is well under way...the gift making, the baking, the crafting and creating...yes, it's well under way...

The gift making: During her visit my mom and I worked very hard on a special gift for the kids and Joe and I have a few other handmade gifts up our sleeves!

The baking: these pressed sugar cookies (pressed and sprinkled by the kids) were just the first of the season's baked goodies. We've since made a few other treasts...with many more to come!

The crafting and creating: here the kids were helping make our new Christmas candle holders. The "snow" is actually epson salts and the kids loved pouring and playing with it and putting the candles inside. We've since had to start using fake candles inside because I can't quite afford to buy 9 new candles every night (we have 9 of them up our windows) and because the candles were starting to cook the cranberries (a few of them even popped)!:)

There are so many other festive little projects that we have going and I can't wait to share them with you...I just love this time of year!

More to be thankful for...

2011-12-11T17:37:00.001-08:00

If you read my "Thankful Tree" post you might know that we have been working on being thankful for our many blessings. Well, I have one more to add today. We got my latest pathology report back on Friday and my HCG hormone levels are down to 1.1... and my doctor is so happy with this that she may only have me go through one or two more months of testing (instead of the full 6 months)! I didn't even know that this was a possibility (as I thought the 6 months was even pretty good...some people have to go through a full year of testing). It brings me to tears really to think of it...maybe because it's just one small, unexpected blessing in an area of life that has just been so hard. And because it reminds me of something that I honestly felt even in the darkest time...that God is good. I remember a few mornings during that horrible week in August...waking up in tears and through the tears one of the first thoughts in my head was that God is good. It doesn't make sense that I felt that way in those moments. How could the first thing I thought in the mornings following the loss of our baby girl be that God is good? All I can say is that those feelings came from somewhere outside of me. In those moments of pain God was reminding me of this simple truth. And now, as I celebrate this happy news, I once again have tears streaming down my face and I find myself thinking once again...God is good...all the time...and all the time...God is good.