Post Christmas Post

This might have been the best Christmas ever. Not because of some huge thing that happened, but just because being with family meant more this year than it ever has. 

Highs of Christmas 2011:

Jude and Ezra on Christmas morning. They were super cute and they made it fun. 

Being with my Mam Maw and Ross's Grandma again this year. This makes me so, so happy. All that was missing was Naughnie!

Meeting Lainey Meade. She was so yummy! 

Each moment spent with each family member. Every single one was special. More time with the hubs (love his 2 weeks vacation at Christmas time!), giving Phil his birthday card that the boys made him, giving my sister a gift this year (which I'm not always able to do), the awesome food my mom and Mam Maw made, laughs at the table with the in-laws, jokes over matching pjs, great talks with my mother-in-law, and the generosity of others always humbles me. I truly felt loved and I hope I was able to make someone else feel loved also. It was such a great year and to be honest, I'm a little sad its over. 

You can't have a holiday without a few pictures, so here is our Christmas in photos:

Now its 2012 (can't believe this!) and while I know I have no control over the things that will happen this year, I have been reflecting on it nonetheless. Goals, dreams, hopes, plans, its scary and exciting at the same time. While I have no idea what is going to happen this next year, I do know one thing. I desire so much in 2012 for my understanding of who Jesus is to grow, so that my faith will grow as well. So much so that I just can't keep it to myself. That is my main hope for the new year. 

What about you, any new year's resolutions?

DtD Challenge #9 - LAUNDRY ROOM

I have to start out by saying this. One of the top 5 selling points that led us to deciding to buy our house was this: our laundry room. I know that sounds silly, right? But, when we opened the door, we were amazed. It was gigantic, it was glorious, there were 2 decent sized closets for storage space, and it was a room all on its own (a lot of older houses like ours don't have separated laundry spaces, unless they were added on later). We loved it. I'm not sure why it was so exciting to us, but I'm pretty sure we were ready to sign right there. 

Fast forward to today, 5 years later. I still love the room, very much so. But, the cats have kind of taken over it as their space, it holds lots all of our junk, and nothing is organized in there, so everything is pretty much just strewn about. As a result of these things, I hate going in there. In fact, I try to avoid it at all costs. Except on laundry day, of course. :) So, it should not surprise you to know that I did not clean it this week. Not even a little. Yes, I did get all Jude's summer clothes put up (I'm only a few months late, right?) and not just thrown in the laundry room (which is what I normally would have done), but I did not clean, nor straighten, nor organize any part of it. This time of year is just so crazy, there's always a million things to be done, things that do not include the laundry room. And Ross is off work, which makes it harder...if he's on break then I should be too, right? 

Not exactly. So, I think there needs to be a change of mindset here, on my part. If I stop dreading the laundry room and go back to remembering why I loved it in the first place, then maybe this will help me to do what needs to be done in there. And my mother-in-law told me something this past weekend that has been playing in my head over and over, even regarding the darn laundry room. She said, praise is always the answer. 

This may seem silly, but if I praise God for my laundry room, and be thankful for it, then maybe I won't hate it so much, and just maybe it will actually get clean. Maybe it will go from a duty to a delight. That is my hope and prayer for this next week.

And I know what some of you might say, what is the big deal??? Its just a laundry room! And you may be right. It is just a laundry room and it doesn't determine who I am, or whether I am a good housekeeper or not. Those of you who know me know that I don't take life too seriously and don't let every little thing get to me. But even though it may not seem like a big deal, it is to me. The fact that I dread it, procrastinate, and let it steal my joy is a problem for me. So, here's to change! I like change when its good...even if the process is usually hard.

Even though I didn't get my laundry room cleaned, I did, in fact, get my ornament done. Yippeeee!! Would you like to see it? 

I know, it's nothing special, but at least I will remember what we looked like in December of 2011. Yeah!

I thought I'd include some photos of our fun cooking baking event this morning. 

 Jude and I had fun doing this together. E joined us at the end. 

 Yum! They were delish! (don't mind my messy oven, eek! A future DtD Challenge perhaps?)

The Nativity Story

Joseph: If I claim this child as mine, I will be lying. I would have broken a law laid down by God. 
Mary: I would never ask you to lie. 
Joseph: If I say this child is not mine, they will ask what I'm going to do. If I accuse you... 
Mary: There is a will for this child greater than my fear of what they may do. 


As soon as Ross and I popped this movie in last night, I was captivated. I've never seen this part of the story told on screen before, not like this. I was touched by it. I laughed at parts, and I cried at parts. But I couldn't help but wonder while I watched. I wondered what it would be like to be Mary, in her little village of Nazareth, so young, barely married and very pregnant, about to participate in the biggest, most amazing event in history. The looks she received. The rejection she must have faced. The loneliness that this huge step of faith must have produced. People didn't get it. They didn't understand. But somehow she did. Of course, she didn't get the full extent of it and she must have been so afraid, but she knew it was huge, important and that she had to do it. There was a purpose in it. Bigger than her, bigger than anything that had ever been.


My favorite scene in the movie was this:


Mary: You've never really told me of your dream. 
Joseph: My dream? 
[pause, he is teasing her and also contemplating his response] 
Joseph: No. 
Mary: Please, tell me. 
Joseph: An angel came to me. He told me the child within you had been conceived by the Holy Spirit and that I should not be afraid. 
Mary: Are you afraid? 
Joseph: Yes. 
[laughing] 
Joseph: Are you? 
Mary: Yes. Do you ever wonder when we'll know? 
Joseph: Know what? 
Mary: When he is more than just a child. Will it be something he says? A look in his eyes?  How do we raise such a child?  
Joseph: I wonder if I will even be able to teach him anything.


I just love that. Mary and Joseph were just normal people. There was nothing special about them, yet they were about to have and raise the Son of God, God Himself in the flesh. Wow. Talk about overwhelming! And I love what that means for us. That even if the task is scary, and seems impossible, God can and will use us, normal, ordinary people to accomplish His purposes. We just have to be willing to step out in faith and submit it all to Him.


With that being said, I just remembered that I haven't posted my weekly photo yet this week. So, in keeping with the nativity theme, I thought I'd get in a photo of our nativity scene (that I took outside). 

Luke 2: 17-20

''When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.''

I'm back!

Until Saturday, anyway. Ahh, back to the swing of things. I always love being with family. There's just such a comforting feeling that comes with being with family, where you can be yourself, be and feel loved and love back in a really strong way. Its such a great thing. 

But today, back at home, there is laundry that is being done and a house that needs picking up. ...I should probably be doing that now. 

Instead, I want to share a few things that I received recently that I am in love with. 

These pants from Old Navy. I put them on and they felt like I was wearing a piece of heaven. In fact, I may never even take them off. They're only $6 online, so if you're thinking of getting yourself something nice and comfy, or getting an inexpensive gift for someone, get them a pair of these. They will thank you...and be warm in the process.

A sweet friend gave me this cookbook for Christmas, and I have to say, I just love the Pioneer Woman. I use a lot of recipes on her website and am really pumped about trying out some from her book. 

And these two books I checked out from the library:

I'm really excited about reading these. The Family Meal is written by a gourmet chef and he's adapted some really nice recipes so that us domestic ladies can use them. He explains how to cook them from start to finish, all the different ways you can cook an egg, what different oils are best to cook with, and lots of other really good information. I like cookbooks, but I really like books that help you in the kitchen. The second book I don't know much about, but it looked interesting. This subtitle sounded intriguing to me: Family, France and the Meaning of Food. We shall see!

What are you loving and excited about these days?

DtD Challenge #8 - ORNAMENT!

Just about all of the ornaments on our Christmas tree have some sort of meaning to our family. Whether they were given to us by someone on our first Christmas, or the kids first Christmas ornaments, they're all sentimental to me in some way. And every year, I get a family ornament to signify that year. Several years I have bought an ornament, and several years I have made them and put our picture in it. I think its fun to look back and see how you looked each year. Last year I meant to get a photo of us on the ornament I bought, being that it was our first Christmas as a family of four. But, it just didn't happen...and that made me sad. So, this year, when I bought our ornament, I was determined to get our picture put in it. 

So last week, I challenged myself to do just that. A whole week, I was sure I could do it. 

But, my week got away from me, and even though I tried once to figure out how I could get just 1 wallet sized photo of us, our 2011 ornament still looks like this:

Boo. This week's challenge was a fail. I still have a week before Christmas though, so hopefully I will get this done by then.

Next week: I have 2 this week, and one of them I might have to stretch over 2 weeks. The first is that I want to bake cookies with my kiddos. And the second one is that I desperately need to get my laundry room cleaned. That is a project that I have been in the middle of doing for months now. So, now I just need to do it! Ross will be off next week, so I'm hoping to get it done.

Menu plan~

This is an unusual week, being that we'll be having dinner with our families a few of those nights and will still have a week's worth of meals. And I'm going to try my best to stretch the budget as far as it will go, being as close as it is to Christmas, our budget is even tighter than usual. So, this week, boneless skinless chicken breasts are still on sale, so hopefully they won't be out this time! Here we go:

Thursday
Easy night (because it is shopping day), something like hot dogs & mac n cheese (nutritious, right?)

Friday
Turkey (or pork chops), mashed potatoes & steamed broccoli (amended to tilapia and potatoes, the pork chops at Kroger were outrageously expensive and I couldn't find any turkey-except big huge ones)

Saturday
Chicken pasta pesto & spinach salad

Sunday
Christmas dinner with family

Monday
Dinner with family

Tuesday
Almost lasagna 

Wednesday
Homemade ravioli with spinach filling (trying this for the first time, we'll see how it turns out!)

Thursday
Chicken soup and bread

More Christmas!

We went to the library today for story time, to see Santa, and to have some yummies that were provided to everyone by the library. I am so thankful for our library and their employees. All the free fun kid activities they provide are so great. We have such an awesome library! It was a good time, but the kids were so restless and running all over the place. It made me tired! Even so, Jude enjoyed seeing Santa and being with our friends, of which I was glad. Ezra had a good time too...for the most part. He loved the food, the playing, but did not love sitting in Santa's lap. He did cry...and quite loudly. I only tortured him for a second, quick enough to get a picture. If you haven't seen the picture on facebook, you should go check it out. It's quite comical. Good thing he won't remember it, right? Well, except for when he looks at the photo when he gets older and wonders why I would do such a horrible thing to him. It wouldn't be Christmas without a few tears!

Some photos I got of the kids today:

This weekend we plan on going to look at Christmas lights, one of our favorite annual Christmas traditions. If you have never looked at lights with a 3-almost-4 year old, you are missing out. It is really fun, and I'm looking forward to it. 

Only 11 more days til Christmas!! (hope you all have your shopping done...we do NOT. eeek!)