What A Week It Has Been!

I would say that this past week has been one of the most roller-coaster weeks of my life. First there would be good news, then bad news and then the shock of my accident finally wore off and I couldn't believe how much I was crying...It reminded me of a book one of my kids had, it was called Alexander And The Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day. At one point, I started to think, "What else can go wrong?" but I took that back fast!

However, in the middle of this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week, the Lord sent me some very special moments that I want to share.

It started with a devotional called Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence. I had a copy of this devotional at one time and I loved it. At one point, I passed it on to another friend who needed encouragement and so, I no longer had it. One day, my sweet mother-in-law sent me a message asking me if I had read that morning's devotional. She thought it really applied to me. I admitted to her that I no longer had the devotional. She gave me her copy as she now had it in digital version, and I read the devotional on February 19th that she mentioned. It talked about how you can feel overwhelmed by problems big and small that seem to need more and more of your attention. How what you need to remember is to spend quality time with Jesus. That your problems will pale when you spend more time in the Light of His Presence. One of the main verses was Habakkuk 3:17-19 that said:

 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.

I realized that while I had been crying out to Jesus because of the pain and heartache I was going through, I wasn't using this time to draw closer to Him! So from that moment on, I determined to use this time to draw closer to Him, the Lover of my Soul. It has been a wonderful time while also a little heart-wrenching. He has shown me things I need to come up in and areas I need to work on while also showing me just how much He loves me and cares about every little tiny bit of my life.

Another book that I carry with me constantly is called The Quotable Oswald Chambers. A dear, sweet friend gave this book to me before my accident not even knowing that I love the writings of Oswald Chambers, nor knowing what an impact this book would have on my life after my accident.

I have also had several conversations over the past couple days that changed my outlook and attitude on life. One day I was talking with a friend, I was telling her how I didn't understand why God had allowed us to buy our new (to us) van only to have it wrecked 8 days later. We had prayed about this van, we had laid out a fleece and He had answered. So why the wreck? She said that maybe God allowed us to buy the van so that I would be in it, (instead of my little car) when the accident happened. Wow...I hadn't stopped to think about that. I wasn't mad at God but I had just been so frustrated that all this had happened and trying to deal with the "why" factor. If I had been in my little car, the accident could have had a whole different ending. One that would not have been good at all...

You know I just can't get over how much God cares about...me. It amazes me. There is absolutely nothing special about me. I am just your average wife and mother who lives an average life. I am not special in any way. There is nothing so outstanding about me that should call attention to the God of Heaven. But...He cares about ME. He loves ME. He wants a relationship that is closer than the relationship I have with my sweet husband. He. Wants. Me. Realizing that, changes everything. It changes how I think about things. It changes my perspective on God. He wonderfully saved my soul when I was a confused 18 year old and He has been there ever since. But something about this car accident and what I have been through in the past two weeks changes everything I ever dreamed about my relationship with Jesus!

He wants that same relationship with you!! This is what amazes me about God: He can have an intimate and personal relationship with EVERY person who allows Him to. Maybe you are like me and have had a relationship with Christ for a long time but knowing that He wants more from you. Maybe you have never had any kind of relationship with Him and you are struggling to understand why He would want you or maybe you thought He didn't care.

I have news for you: God sent His Son, Jesus, down to this lowly earth as a baby. He was a tiny, innocent baby boy who couldn't defend Himself. That baby grew into a man and gave His life for us. Each. Of. Us. It says in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. That whosoever, believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life." He SO loved the world. He gave His ONLY Son. For whosoever...you, me, every person in the world. So we won't end up in a lost eternity, in Hell. But have everlasting life...with Him...in Heaven.

Now that you know that...what will you do with it?

Tom Sawyer's Pockets...

My son has the compulsion to pick up every little thing he finds "in case he might need it". At five years old, he is a pro at figuring out a use for every thing. Here is tonight's haul, that hubby confiscated at bath time:

A DS game, a DS stylus, Visine eye drops, Chapstick, a set of Ken doll shoes, some sort of heart shaped plastic thingy, a pincher thingy, a Barbie tea cup and two sizes of fingernail clippers!

The Ups and Downs of Life

As I mentioned in my post a couple days ago, I was in a really nasty car wreck. Needless to say, I have been in a lot of pain, sleeping constantly whenever I can because I am not sleeping well at night.
I have been on such a roller coaster of emotions. Re-living the accident and dreaming about it practically every night. I guess my brain keeps trying to resolve it but in reality there was nothing I could do to stop it.
I think the thing that is keeping me going is knowing that all things happen for a reason. By the end of the day on the 14th, we had met up with three different people that we never would have met up with before and we now have the privilege to pray for them.
The story could have had a completely different ending if He had so desired. And even then, I still would be praising His name. However, for some reason, He saved our lives on Valentine's Day. And He let me know, that no matter what, He is in control, not me.
I remember as clear as a bell hollering to my Jesus as I realized what was going to happen. And just like that, He was there comforting me...loving me and showing me it would be okay. I also remember that I was totally okay with dying! There is just something so amazing about knowing where you are going when you die. I had no thoughts of fear, no regrets just knowledge that if I was to die, I was going to be with Him!
Let me tell you right now, if you are reading this and don't have that peace in your heart of knowing that you are headed to Heaven when you die...please stop reading and start praying. Seriously. Nothing, NOTHING is worth losing Heaven over. The devil will use every lie he can think of to get you to turn away right now. To ignore Jesus knocking at your heart's door. My friend, if you don't know that you are headed to Heaven, please pray right now and ask Jesus into your heart. To take away the sin, guilt and heartache and make you a new creature. He can do it! And He will if you come to Him with a completely honest heart and truly want a change. Once He makes that change, you can go through anything with Him at your side! Anything. You can even face death in the face and know that Heaven is your home!
I pray that you will make that choice today if you haven't already!
God bless you!

My Dining Room

I have been working on re-decorating my dining room for months. Still need to get some art work or something for the walls but it is basically done. Over the past few months I painted the dining room set, moved in the low dresser to use as a side board, painted the inside of the corner cabinet and sewed up the drapes. My hubby painted the walls and put chicken wire and new hardware on the corner cabinet. Oh, and he picked up this plastic stuff to put over our table and tablecloths so we can have our pretty tablecloths on all the time but the kiddos don't have to worry about spilling on them! Such a time saver! Really pleased with the results and I don't dread walking through the dining room any more! In fact, it is constantly begging me to stop in for a cuppa tea!

Well...I Had A New (to us) Van...

I was in a horrible car wreck this morning. I had the right of way and the other lady didn't see me and I ended up t-bonying her then bounced off and hit a telephone pole. Lil Mr was with me but besides being complelty terrorized, he is absolutely fine! I on the other hand ended up in hospital. Four hours later, cat scan and numerous x-rays, I got sent home with instructions: No moving for at least two to three days. Ice packs all over every few minutes. Have banged up nasty knees, messed up but okay arm and horrid chest pain but nothing broken.
God is so good, it could have been so much worse. There are many things that have shown us that God allowed this to happen for a reason, if just to reach out to others in need. I will write more about that tomorrow cause at the moment my brain is mush and my bed is calling me!
Hope you all had a good Valentine's day!

Remember: This Was Only a Dream!

I had a super funny dream last night that I just have to share. It made me wake up laughing!

So I dreamt that we moved out to the country (sigh, only a dream) and it was onto a small farm. The small farm had a little garden plot that the black birds had taken over and we had no idea how to get rid of them. We also had a bunch of those little hairy piglets but they had not made up to us. Well, as it turns out, my grandparents and parents decided to come over and "see the farm". My grandpa brought out this incredible tool that I would LOVE to have if it exists in real life! It was this gasoline powered tool that had all these cutting gadget on it and sander panels and you used it to distress furniture! (Really wished it existed outside my dreams!) Anyway, my grandpa knew I would like it, so he brought it out to the farm to show me. Well, after I oohed and awed, I handed it back to grandpa and the thing started smoking! So he takes off the gas tank but it has already started to catch fire. You can tell he wants to try to save the tank cause it went that awesome tool but we are all yelling for him to throw it cause it's gonna blow! Finally he throws it towards the field where the garden plot is and sure enough, it explodes in the middle of the corn patch the black birds wouldn't leave alone. There were birds flying every where and dropping dead and smoke every which way! It was a great way to meet the neighbors cause they all came down their long driveways to see what was up with these new people that had moved in. Oh and the little hairy piggies that wouldn't make up to us? I guess they were over by the garden plot when the gas tank blew up and all of a sudden they were our best friends following us every where. Shortly after the gas can fiasco I asked my mom (not sure why) if I could ride my bike downtown to see the new town with a gal that I met across the street after the curfuffle. When I went in the shed to get my bike the little piggies acted like they were my long lost friends and begged for water to quench their thirsty little tongues...
Oh and side note, I found out my friend Shirley B. adopted a Great Dane and named him Bart, I believe. (Would love to find out if she would like one...)

And that, my friends, is an example of the weird dreams I have! It's pretty crazy in here!

Doggy Heaven

With our first dog as a family, she was a teeny Chiweenie. Needless to say, we rarely took her to the dog park. Sadly, our pup Chloe was hit by a car about a year and a half ago. We realized we were attached to the sound of doggy feet and found ourselves another pup. This time a black lab/mastiff pup we named Lady has won our heart!
Happily, she LOVES the dog park and is big enough to really enjoy it. This past Sunday, we finally had some good weather and off to the dog park we went with friends.
While there we also met some new doggy friends including a St. Bernard named Georgia, who, BTW, is only five months. (So when you look at the pic of her below, make a guess as to how much she will weigh full grown!) Also a fun-loving German Shepherd named Jake who loved to run as much as Lady!
All in all, a wonderful day and we can't wait till the next time!

Park Day? Really?

We have surprisingly had some pretty weather the past few days. Today we went to the park and hung out with some of our younger friends. Loads of fun even if it WAS chilly!

Making Almond Cheese

I have been slowly taking my family to a gluten free lifestyle. I say slowly because none of us have celiac disease or anything that is making us need to drop gluten cold turkey. So we are slowly making lifestyle changes where gluten is involved. And we are also starting to eliminate some dairy products and replacing them with almonds.

One of the main reasons for this is that the children and I, including our son who is adopted, have eczema issues as well as seasonal issues. Changing to a more gluten free diet should help with this. I have to admit that I am starting to see some changes already.

We have been having fun making almond milk, our own almond flour and this week we added almond cheese to our repertoire. Turned out super yummy with just a couple things we want to tweak: needs a tad more salt and we need to puree it a little longer. It was a fun family project and you will find the link to the recipe we used below:

Simple Almond Cheese Recipe

Finding Out More About Your Friends...

Have you ever had that moment when you discover something new about a friend that you have known for years or possibly your whole life? It is the greatest feeling in the world! It's exciting, fun and intriguing...to me!

Tonight at church, I found out that a friend of mine loves one of the same authors as me. The author we both enjoy is Oswald Chambers. Well, tonight my friend gave me one of his books without even knowing that I thoroughly enjoy his books. The book is called The Quotable Oswald Chambers and what I love about it is that it is quotes from Oswald's books in subject form. So you can look up Prayer and find quotes like:

"Every time we pray our horizon is altered., our attitude to things is altered, not sometimes but every time, and the amazing thing is that we don't pray more."

If you haven't read any of his books, I would challenge you to pick one up and read it. You will find it challenging and it will completely change your outlook. It will cause you to look into yourself. Sometimes it will hurt, because you will realize that you need to come up in your relationship with the Lord. Other times you will jump for joy in reading a thought that just resonates with you.

Growing Up...

When my girls hit about 8, I have a talk with them about what is coming up in their future as they grow up into young ladies as well as a little about the "birds and the bees".


  I make it into a girly time full of little presents to make things fun.







 I also include a neat book I found that talks about everything a girl needs to know about taking care of herself as she grows into a woman.


With my older two, a friend and I took our same age daughters together so they could share this growing up moment with a friend. When my next daughter came of age last year to have our little talk, she plugged her ears and said, "No, I don't want to hear about it! LALALA!" Pretty typical for this kiddo! However, a couple months ago, the older girls and I were talking in "girl code" about "stuff". Fred looked at us and said, "What are you talking about?". Her oldest sister looked at her and said, "You know, if you would go on your talk with mom, you would know what we are talking about." Fred looked from her to me and said, "Ok. When can we go?" It was decided that Fred and Bob would go together to make it "more fun and less embarrassing". (LOL)


Today was the day for their talk. They chose to go to a local Mexican restaurant where they decided it would be nice and loud so "no one would hear"!

We had a lot of fun, the girls enjoyed their lunch and presents. They surprisingly were not shy and asked lots of questions about stuff they had heard their sisters talking about. We really enjoyed ourselves and had a nice bonding moment, one of many to come with growing up and becoming young ladies!

I feel so blessed to see my little girls turning into beautiful young ladies!

I LOVE MONDAYS! Really!!!

Mondays are different around here: We do not give our girls school work on Mondays as they volunteer with their grandparents at a local rest home and Lil Mr goes to preschool. So it is perfect for catching up on the little things that build up over the weekend or finishing up projects from Saturday.

Today was no exception. I dropped Lil Mr off at preschool then ran to the post office to get some stamps and also get hollered at by some random stranger who was not having a great day. That was pleasant. Then it was homeward bound with the vision of the two projects I wanted to finish dancing in my head.

The first was to reclaim my son's room. He is very good about putting things away, he likes everything in it's spot or he starts twitching. ( Reminds me of his dad.... :P ) However, if he has a friend over, things don't always get put away before said friend leaves. Then I see this glazed look come over him and he just dumps everything. Probably part of the Sensory Processing Disorder. So...to make it easier on him, I gave away a big sack full of toys that he really doesn't play with as well as a stack of books. Then I put up some of the toys like his blocks, Legos and Little People. This left his cars and trains to play with. The others can be pulled out when he wants to play with them, but  are out of the reach of  friends. Looks MUCH neater in there. We also moved out his big dresser he wasn't using and put in a smaller one. I have to say that it warmed my heart when he came home and saw his room. I pointed out where his shoes go and he said, "Wow, thanks, mom! Where do my socks go?" Too cute!

On hubby's lunch break we ran to Home Depot to get a few little things and off to Joann's to get another panel of muslin for my dining room curtains. When we got home, hubby put up my curtain rod, fixed the doors on my corner cabinet and changed out the hardware on the doors. The result was amazing! (Pics below.) While he did that, I scurried to my craft room and got my curtains sewn up. Was pretty simple to do but did take a couple hours.

All in all, I am really happy with how the dining room is turning out. It's taken a couple months, slowly but surely. It started with being wild and crazy by painting the dining room table and chairs. I moved some furniture around in the dining room. Hubby also moved the piano out of the dining room and into the living room. Then Saturday, hubby painted my dining room a beautiful creamy white color while I finished painting the corner cabinet. I have just two more things I want to do to finish it: I want to get a  cool "vintage" window and make a chalkboard out of it. I am also looking for a nice English or French countryside picture to hang on one wall.   I am pretty picky about what I will spend. I don't like spending more than I have to, as I would rather make things myself! However, a painter I am NOT. My poor parents tried giving me classes in middle school and let's just say...I am not talented in that area!

Anyway, there are some pics below. I hope you enjoy them and have a great night!

New hardware for a lovely old piece. Found out that this corner cabinet has been in our family for over 45 years.

Doors are secure and it is finished!

To save money, I waited till the outside panels of material went on sale for 60% off!
Then I only bought 3 yards, cut it in half and added muslin panels in the middle.

That long dresser was in my son's room. We brought it in here and turned it into a buffet.
Then I was going to put that little dresser out in the shed and hubby had the
great suggestion to put my cookbooks on it and walah! (Also known as "voila"! I just like my non-words!)

Testing One, Two, Three

In this world of technology, I am always amazed by what things can do. Tonight I found out that I can make a post to my blog by using my phone. However, I have no idea if I am doing it right. So here is a test, it's only a test and there is no right or wrong to it....I guess? Lol

How Do I Know My Hubby Loves Me?

Well, let me start by saying that my hubby HATES, with a passion, to paint. He could care less whether I paint every square inch out of the house, but keep him out of it. I LOVE to paint, so it has never been a problem to go along on my merry way painting this wall or piece of furniture or knick-knack. We have been getting along for almost 15 years this way and it has worked out just fine.

However, I have been sick for months. Turned out to be something totally simple. However, in the past couple months I have been dying to get my hands on a paint brush and paint our nasty dining room. The last time it was painted was about 7 years ago and let's face it: it was BEYOND needing help. Made me cringe every time I walked through the room. I have been planning the decoration of it for a couple months as well. I already have the material waiting to be made into curtains for the window. I have distressed and painted a lovely old corner cabinet and placed it in the corner. My dining room table and chairs have been painted a gorgeous dark red color....and yet the walls seemed to mock me. I just have not had the energy or strength to do them.

Today though....today my hubby woke up, rolled over, looked at me and said, "I should paint your dining room walls today." I stared at him. Then I literally reached over, felt his forehead and said, "Are you running a fever?"

That sweet man, jumped out of bed, threw back some breakfast and got going. Here are some pics:

You can see the extreme difference in the wall color! LOL
It is a beautiful creamy white now...

Not only did he paint, but he put chicken wire in my corner cabinet
like I wanted...

Isn't it adorable???

So how do I know my hubby loves me? He spent his only free day to do something he absolutely detests and that he was not asked to do all because he loves me!

I am so blessed, what a man....

Blast From The Crazy Past- Praise!

The blog I am going to highlight tonight was so scary at the time, I thought I would lose it! My little girls were not yet 6 and 4 when they tried to save their 19 month old sister from an uncertain fate...

What happens when climbing, a very heavy dresser and three little girls connect? Find out below!

So thankful for my Father's protecting Hand...

Snack Mom...

I have mentioned in past posts that our son is in preschool for therapy. He goes to a great little school that has been around for over 30 years and is simply wonderful! It is a parent co-op, so twice a month you volunteer for the day either to be the snack mom or help out in the hands on imagination room called the "Blue Room". I am assuming that is for the walls that are painted blue...can't think of another reason anyway.

Yesterday, I realized that it was my turn to be "snack mom". Which meant I had the privilege to think of an interesting snack to bring. To be honest, I always sweat it, cause let's just face it, most kiddos are picky. I mentioned this to Peter and he reminded me that it was Outer Space week and we HAD to think of some cool snack to do with that. After much debate we came up with cheese moons, ham stars and oranges to represent the sun. So much fun! After a trip to our local kitchen store, we were armed with cute little cookie cutters to use and here is the result:

Doesn't that look so cute and yummy?

So off to school, Lil Mr and I went, swinging our bags of food. Here are some pics of my little guy's day. If they are blurry, I apologize. It is hard to get any picture without him moving some part of his body! He doesn't stay still except when he is sleeping. Come to think of it, judging the mess his bed is every morning, I doubt he spends much time staying still at night as well!

Today, one of the little girl's daddy's came and talked about  his job being a dentist and the importance of brushing your teeth....he brought gifts...

A tooth brush kit!!!

Lil Mr holding tight to his toothbrush kit.

Playing with the trains...

Project time...they made "telescopes"...

Yay, snack was a hit for everyone! All the kids thought the moons and stars were so cool!