Sweet and Simple Christmas

Some years it seems like all we do is race from one holiday event to another. This year, there was no racing.

Maddie was sick, so we hunkered down and chilled.

Really, that's not a bad way to spend Christmas!

(Well, maybe for the one that is sick...)

Christmas morning we slept in until 7:30am! Wow!! With a 13, 9 and 4 year old, that is a gift in and of itself!

We opened gifts. Lexi bought all of us gifts at her school's "Santa Shop." What a great treat for us! It just cost a few dollars and she had real gifts for the entire family. She even was able to find thoughtful gifts like Kylie's cross with "Faith" on it. Kylie loved having her middle name on a cross!

Doug  found a story book/building kit for Kylie to create and she loves it! I see more of these books/kits in our future! Too bad they don't work with Lego's, we already have a truck load of those!

Doug also got Lexi more of the History Mystery books. She is such an avid reader, that she will probably have read all 4 before she goes back to school!

And Maddie got lots of clothes. We have completely moved into teenage world with her, so no more games/toys/sweet girly gifts for her! 

One of the highlights of this Christmas had to be the treadmill. If you haven't read about God's amazing provision, click here to read about this awesome gift!

And no, Doug and I were not left out. We gave each other running stuff. Exactly what we wanted!

One of my cherished gifts, I actually ordered and created for myself back in October... but I put it away for Doug to give to the girls to give to me! It's a bracelet that commemorates my marathon and half marathon races! I can't wait to add more charms!

The best part of the bracelet is that the proceeds are helping to cover the adoption costs of a forever family!! How cool is that!! If you are looking for a custom piece of jewelry at an incredibly affordable price, I highly recommend my friend Kristy. What a joy it is to know that I get something that is created just for me, and I get to be a very small part of bringing Hannah Joy home! Her etsy store is closed until Jan 1, but you can find her here.

And that pretty much sums up our Christmas. We had a great day, Maddie is feeling better and we are enjoying quiet and slow holiday mornings!

Providing beyond what we could ask for or imagine!

Isn't it awesome when you want something and you know that it really is too much and too expensive,but you hope anyway, and in the end God provides even more extravagantly than you had imagined?

Well, this is one of those stories!!

Backstory, one day a couple of weeks ago Maddie and I were discussing running and her struggle with trying to find a time to go out and run. A 13 year old girl just can't get up at 5 am and run in the dark outside, nor can she run at 4:30pm as the traffic is horrible. So she has been frustrated that on days when she was physically strong enough to run, she couldn't because of our schedules.

So she mentioned how she would like a treadmill.  

I wanted her to have one too! But have you priced treadmills? Just your plain vanilla, no chocolate, no sprinkles kinds are still a couple hundred dollars! So I turned to an online running community I belong to and all of the ladies said to put it on Facebook and tell my friends. 

So I did and within an hour, a friend said she had one that she bought used and doesn't use it and if Doug could drive the 30 minutes over to her house, we could have it for a good price.

So he did.

Last night, we got it out of storage and set it up. I hadn't seen it,so I didn't know anything about it. Given that we paid $100 I figured it was your basic treadmill.

NO! It is FANCY! I'm soo pumped!

Here is Maddie on the treadmill. No, she isn't running in her pj's. She's sick and can't run. Bummer, but she walked on it a couple of minutes.

Look at that console! It has training plans, miles per hour quick buttons, it inclines, has a heart rate monitor and even a fan!

I looked it up, we could have bought this treadmill at a sports store for $800!! Instead God provided a new to us, looks in perfect condition, treadmill for $100!

That's the very definition of providing beyond anything I could ask or imagine!

The President's Gala

Tonight was the Gala. I was excited to wear "the" dress. If you missed the post about the dress, go up a post and get caught up!

 

Don't you love our prom pose! :) I have to say, I was thrilled with the way I looked. I may wear that dress everyday!

This is our third time to attend this event and it is really a great evening. Valet parking, sparkling conversation enhanced by some wine and then an incredible meal followed by entertainment.

 

I'm so glad we get invited to this event. Hope we get to go next year too!

Now, does anyone have a fancy event so that I can wear my dress again??

He heard my whisper

So Linny over at A Place Called Simplicity is always talking about whispering the desires of your heart to God. That He wants to prove faithful. This is such a hard thing for me to do. Why should God care if I find a new dress for an event this weekend?

 

But I did go ahead and whisper my desire. I figured why not. I wanted something glamorous, but cheap! That's not too much to ask. right?

 

I looked all over town. Nothing. I found something okay, but not great.

 

So I loaded up my girls and a friend and her girls and we drove over to another town and went to a nice resale shop. It's a great store. It might not be as nice of a store now that our five girls "looked" while I tried on dresses. Sorry Bella Rose. :)

 

Anyway...I found a beautiful dress. And the price, so right. I came home and looked it up to see what the retail value was. I didn't think I'd find the actual dress, because you know, it was at a consignment store. Who knows how many seasons ago it was purchased! So I googled the brand name and...

 

Guess what? I could have bought the exact same dress at Norstrdrom, or Macy's, or Dillards last night online!

 

Wow. Here is the picture of the dress... it retails for over $200. 

Isn't it awesome. And glamorous!

And how much did I pay?

$15.

Yes, God heard my whisper and He provided!

Memorial Box Monday: The House

I haven't done a Memorial Box Monday in a long time. But the way God has provided for our housing needs has to be a MBM!! So, bear with me as I process.

As some of you know/remember/have endured... our housing situation has driven me nuts. We have a beautiful 3 bedroom home that is great, except that my children are at hard ages to share. So we have tried over the last few years to buy various houses. We have had our house listed for what feels like a million times. But nothing works. In fact, a little over a year ago, we had a buyer, moved out and it all fell apart, so we moved back in a few months later. We've talked about adding on, changing things... just about anything to try to make this house work. In the end, it doesn't work and it is very frustrating.

Moving forward, to early September, my parents asked us if we would be interested in purchasing their 4 bedroom house. We said yes, then not a week later my mom's dad had a stroke and died the following week. We put everything on hold. Then we found out from the bank that things would be much more difficult than we had imagined as Doug is now self-employed and this requires lots more paperwork for mortgages. So we took a step back. We considered other much more expensive, yet easier options working with a local builder that takes trade-in houses. No realtor, no listings, no showings....

We talked a lot about what we wanted in a house, what we needed and who we wanted to be. In the end, we really only had one true requirement on the house... 4 bedrooms. Lots of wishes, and some of those would be met with my parent's house. And the mortgage for my parent's house would be pretty close to what we were already paying, so it wouldn't stretch us. Those were all winners.

So we listed our house. Our realtor is doing a great job promoting it. It's been shown a number of times. No buyers yet... But I know that God will provide at the right time.

We closed on my parent's house (now our house) last Friday. We haven't moved yet. Hopefully we will the day after Christmas. Crazy timing. I haven't packed a box yet.

But I know that it will work out, because God provides for our crazy adventurous God-inspired spirits, and that can only be the label you would put on my parents.

In their retirement they have decided to give up the "easy" and do the "hard" stuff... like remodel houses and serve communities. My mom is still working at her church serving as their women's minister, but my dad is going to  use these "available years" as he calls them, to flip houses and serve others (as if his entire life has not been defined by serving others..) They have started a blog... Not Too Old For A New Adventure and their first house is a disaster.!

Thank goodness our house hasn't sold and they can move here for a few weeks while they make their new house habitable!!

And their you have it. God is providing my family with a house that we need and in doing so, providing my parent's with a way to finance their new adventure in serving Him. Crazy stuff.. God stuff. Good stuff.

48 pounds of blessings

I'm not a theologian. I'm not a big talker of religion really, but sometimes I think something is cool, so I put it here on my blog to share. Enjoy it for what it's worth.

To begin, I don't get worked up over the idea of testing vs blessings. I look at life as pretty much a blessing and that we have an opportunity for far more blessings if only we would stop and accept the blessing for what it is.

I had one such experience this weekend.

It's about the blessing of pecans.

You see, we have a number of pecan trees in our yard. Some years we have lots of pecans and some years not many. Most of the time someone else comes along and asks if he/she can pick up the pecans. We say yes as picking up the pecans is tedious work. This year we offered the pecans to 3 or 4 different people. I don't know if they picked any up, but I got tired of stepping on them so finally the day after Thanksgiving we got out and picked up a few.

Then a few days later I picked up a few more. I mentioned it to a friend and she was very interested in some pecans...soooooo I got to thinking about a couple of other people that might like some pecans, so yesterday, I picked up the pecans.

And as I picked the pecans up and thought about these individuals and the blessing the pecans would be to them, it was as if the floodgates of heaven opened and God said, as many as you pick up, that's how many more you can have to give others.  And as I looked and picked up the pecans, they were just everywhere!

Here is what I ended up with. And I didn't even make it to the side or back yard yet!

I filled a box and a bag and took them to the local nursery to be cracked.

This afternoon I went back and picked them up. 48 pounds of cracked pecans!!! WOW!!

Look at that!

And so, I dug out some of the strong grocery bags to fill with pecans.  And I filled and filled. I have 3 bags ready to give and my big bag of pecans ready to fill more of the smaller bags. 

I noticed a truck load of pecans on the ground this afternoon. I didn't have time to pick them up today, but I've got a mission now. Let's see how many families can be blessed with cracked pecans for from my yard for Christmas!!

How cool is that! And how easy to miss such a blessing.  It truly makes me wonder how many times I walk past the blessing that God wants to give because it might take a little work on my part. Or it might not be what I want to do at that moment. I am thankful for the blessing of the pecans and thankful that I get to piece of the blessing of others.

An amazing adoption story!

Some friends of mine have been in the process of waiting on an adoption for a while.  Last summer, they turned in their “book” and have been waiting to be chosen by a birth mom.  They expected once they were chosen to have a couple of months to get ready. Amy has been incredible in all of this, she truly has rested in the fact that God is in control and that at some point she would be holding a child to call her own.

Well, yesterday the agency called and asked if they would like to come and pick up their 8 day old son!  Can you imagine!! No warning, no preparation, no supplies, no shower, no anything.. except of course A BABY!!!!

So with great pleasure, welcome Ryan! What a wonderful surprise and blessing!! Here are the pictures of the family that I stole off Facebook :)

Isn’t he wonderful!!!!!!!!!

Thankful Thursday: The gift of clothes and a good Doctor visit for Maddie

Coming into the home stretch of this pregnancy has me psycho in a bit of a tizzy.  You forget from one baby to the next how much stuff they need!  Well, you do when they are 5 years apart each time.

On Tuesday I was worried about the fact that we only had a couple of receiving blankets, 4 pairs of socks, a few sleepers and one t-shirt.  I just kept thinking of how often I was going to have to wash if that’s all the clothes we had.

Yesterday, this is what my sister Melody brought over!! 
No those aren’t diapers, they are ALL 0-6 months clothes!! Can you believe it??? We had tons of fun sorting them out and looking at everything.

Mel’s baby is a year old, so we have the benefit of her stuff.. at least until my baby outgrows hers.. :)

It was so amazing once we got everything into piles by size and type. You can not believe the gift it is to be given beyond measure!

If that wasn’t enough a friend of mine provided us with a pack and play complete with baby changer and a couple of very fancy toys!!

And last but not least, Maddie had her yearly well child visit yesterday and looks great!  She is right on target for all of her milestones and her blood pressure (what we have to watch most carefully due to kidney disease) was great! As her doctor said, she looks wonderful!  I am so thankful that we have learned how to manage her disease so much more effectively over this last year. We look forward to her continued good health in the midst of a chronic disease and are so thankful to have doctors who truly care about Maddie!

We interupt this program..

I just had to share my excitement about a hand-me-down from a friend! My friend and co-worker Jennifer gave me this morning the bedding that she used for her youngest child. It's not the same colors that we were planning, but it's so cute and FREE!!

God has provided a wonderful gift to us!! So please take note of the new colors :) Don't you just love those little birds!

Thanks again Jennifer!!