E's Prayer

You gotta love it when little kids pray. They are so honest! Their faith is so simple I think adults could learn a lot from the faith of a child. E was praying the other day and this is what she said, "Heavenly Father, thank you for Jesus and please have Jesus come see us soon and let Him be proud of us." It was so sweet and so touching!

Some pictures from our vacation

Too Cool Tuesday!

Okay, I know, the title is a little cheesy. But it's just fun to have some theme days with cheesy names. I think this title is pretty broad, so it will probably cover just about anything that I think is cool. And here is today's super cool thing:

Yes, a dresser is super cool! Especially when you hear the history behind why I think a dresser is super cool. I have been married for five years now. I know, it's not that long, but of those five years of marriage, we have never had a dresser. I have stacked my clothes under beds, on closet shelves, in suitcases; but never in a dresser. We bought a beautiful bed that I just love, but nothing else. And so I have been on the lookout, always, for a dresser to match our bed.

Believe me, there have been plenty of dressers that I liked, but none to fit the budget. Until I found the beauty pictured above. I found this dresser on craigslist.com (an online classified listing) and was able to purchase it for $175! Wow! How great is that?! It is solid mahagony wood and it is gorgeous. And it matches my bed perfectly! I am so excited about it. I actually like to be in my bedroom now. Before, we only had the bed. And for a while we had a bunch of plastic bins stacked together to form a desk for our computer. Well, no more my friends. My bedroom is a peaceful oasis now. I love it! Too cool!

Monday Motivation

Okay, I've decided to have theme days for my blog. So today is my motivation day, or the day to decide what all I want to accomplish this week. Here we go (so far at least):

* prepare E for preschool by creating an "About Me" poster (yikes, she starts tomorrow!)
* dentist appointments for me and hubby
* reorganize all of my "office" stuff and put it all away nicely in my new computer armoire
* clean out and reorganize closets (they are currently the hiding places for everything miscellaneous)
* hmmm. . . .well, those are pretty big so we'll see what happens

Anyway, now I'm off to do all that stuff, or at least start it. I will post some pictures later of our vacation.

Where were you?

Five years ago today, my husband was taking me to school when I first heard about a plane crashing into one of the World Trade Center towers. My husband and I thought it was a tragic accident at first. He dropped me off and I went to class. After my class I headed to the computer lab to do some homework, not knowing what was happening to the rest of the country. I got a call from my husband and he briefly told me that more planes had crashed and that they were not accidents. I decided to leave school and go home. When I got home I turned on the TV and watched the news reports, in shock at what I was seeing. It was horrible and seemed so unreal.

I remember feeling so helpless and small. My husband and I were just about to start a family and I remember wondering how I could bring a child into this world when things seemed so uncertain and unsafe. That day made me realize how precious my family and friends are and how important it is to be grateful for all that I have been given. I try not to take for granted this life I have been given and the many blessings that are mine.

Let us never forget that day. Let us never forget all who died and all who bravely risked their lives to save others.

Happy Birthday Miss S

Oh goodness, my baby is turning one today! I know it's cliche, but my how time flies. I can't believe it was a year ago today that she was born. She is just so precious!

I was induced last year on this day. After a small scare (I had a seizure while they were hooking me up to the IV) the rest of the labor was actually quite nice. I handled the contractions pretty well, I think. I was dialated to a 3 when I got to the hospital and after two hours of labor I was a 6. I got on the waiting list for my epidural and was told that it might be a while before they got to me. I was a little worried that they wouldn't get to me in time! Luckily, shortly after that I was able to get my epidural and dialated from a 6 to a 10 in a half hour. Then I pushed, I think it was twice, and there she was! It was beautiful! I only had the epidural for an hour, so I'm thinking that I could have probably handled the rest of the labor without one. I don't know though, we'll have to see about it next time! Anyway, S was 7 pounds 3 ounces and 19 inches long. My smallest baby. I was able to keep her with me for two hours before they took her to the nursery. She caught on to nursing right away. All in all, it was a good day.

I'm Back!

Okay, so I had access to the internet while on my vacation, but I just didn't feel like blogging.

It's been quite a while. I was gone for, let's see, 23 days. Wow! Quite the vacation. But I had a lot of fun visiting friends and family and the place that I call "home". I don't know what it is about that place, but it's just special. Funny how a place can just feel like home. I didn't grow up in the valley that I now love. I visited it once while checking out colleges and something just felt right and I knew that I was suppose to be there. And now, since I live thousandss of miles away, whenever I get the chance to visit that valley, a wonderful peaceful feeling comes over me and I'm home.

Of course, I love my home here. In fact, the moment I walked through the door into my house after the vacation I turned around and told my husband that I just loved our house. I do love my house! I just wish it was in my beloved valley in another state! Ahhh. . .well, someday we will go back to our home. I'll just have to build this exact house there!

I haven't done much since we got home. I've just been readjusting to being here and trying to get back on schedule with everything. Tomorrow I plan to do some deep cleaning and then hopefully some organizing of my new office space.

Anyway, sorry so boring. Actually, I doubt anyone even reads this anymore, not that anyone ever did read it. I promise to write more now that my life has returned to normal.

My computer has a new home!

So it's a few days later than I thought, but I am finally posting my finished computer armoire. Of course, the whole project took longer than I thought. But then, I've never done this before so it's pretty much a given that it will take longer. I have decided that there will be no more furniture building during the summer. It's too flipping hot to work out in the garage! Luckily, we have mild winters here so that is when my furniture making will happen. My next project is an entry table. But that will be happening in October or November. Anyway, gotta run and get ready for our upcoming trip. Very exciting!

Snuggle Buggle: Little S

Okay, so no posts for two weeks and now two in a row! I just thought I would share a little bit about my baby girl S. She is the cutest thing! I realize that all mothers think their babies are the cutest and most wonderful, but really, my S is the sweetest. From day one she has been the happiest little thing. Right after I had her and I held her in my arms for the first time I knew that she would be a little sweetheart. She looked at me for the first time and I knew that she knew me even though she was looking at me for the first time with her big beautiful eyes.

She pretty much slept through the night from day one. She hardly ever cried. She would fuss a little, but never really cry. She still hardly cries. She is just a joy to be around. I can't believe that she will be turning one next month. The time has flown and I've have enjoyed every bit of it! S is my snuggly. She loves to snuggle up against my shoulder or arm. It just melts my heart when she snuggles with me. She usually has a smile on her face. I love to hear her laugh. I really am not exaggerating when I say what an easy and joyful child she is. She is just a happy girl! I am so grateful for this little blessing in my life. She makes me happy and can always help me see the good. I love her so much!

Sigh. . .

I was doing so good at posting! Well, it's been what, two weeks now. Good grief. I feel like I have been going nonstop for the past two weeks. There's always some project to work on, something to clean, something to cook, always something. Anyway, I have finished my computer armoire. Yes, you heard right. It only took me way, way, longer than I expected, but it is now finished. I threw my back out trying to lift it today. Not fun! So I spent the rest of the day laying flat on my back trying not to move. Grrrrr! I hope to get the armoire in the house from the garage at some point tonight. Hopefully my husband can figure it out because I will be no help. I will take pictures when it is all in place and post them so you can see what has been consuming way too much of my time! Alrighty then. I'm off to do more somethings!

Good night!

Much to do, not enough time

I wanted to write more today, but there is no time. I have done pretty well with my list of projects for the week. I am just now finishing up the anniversary dvd. My armoire is close to being done. I really, really want it done by tomorrow. If I have a few good, uninterrupted hours to work on it, it will be done! Wahoo! I have so many things I want to write about right now, but I just can't! I need to get back to work.

More coming in the near future! Have a fabulous weekend!

A few of my favorite things. . .

Okay, here's just one of my favorite things. I decided it would be fun to write about things that I just love; simple little things and I will post about my favorite things once a week. For now I'll do it Wednesdays.

Anyway, today's favorite thing is homemade strawberry jam. YUM!!! I just made some the other day and it is on my favorite things list because of two very important reasons.

One: it is sooooo easy to make (the freezer kind anyway).
Two: it is sooooo yummy!

I only had enough strawberries to make two little containers full. So I went to the store and got more strawberries to make more jam. Then I got home and realized I was out of sugar. Who runs out of sugar? Really? I don't know how I ran out and didn't realize it. Anyway, so I need to get more sugar to make more yummy strawberry jam. My husband won't stop eating it!

Projects for the week

Okay, I have a lovely list of things I would like to accomplish this week. And hopefully I can check them off my list because I actually accomplish them!

Here they are:

- Finish building computer armoire

- continue my weeding saga

- make more strawberry jam

- make our annual picture movie for my anniversary this Friday

Ahhhhh. . .it seems like a lot and it is. However, I could make things a lot easier on myself if I would just manage my time better. I'm really good at planning when to do something and how to go about doing it. But it never works out that way. I have no balance! I start getting into something and then I just go and go and go! Which is beneficial in some regards because I feel good about doing something and sticking to it. But then I realize all of the other things I needed to do that just didn't get done because I was focused, too focused on something else. For instance, I had a plan about how to tackle my weeding. Well, I started weeding and then I just kept going and going because it felt good to tackle the mess and I wanted to see the finished result. I did finish one big area of our yard, but I didn't get to much else that day because I was so tired from all the weeding. Oh well, slowly but surely, I'll figure out how to manage my time better.

Anyway, there is my planned week of projects. And yet here I sit, enjoying my computer. Enough, I must get off and get something done so that I can cross something off my list. There's nothing like crossing something off your list. I use to have lists just so I could cross things off. And if I hadn't crossed very many things off, I would add things to the list that I had already done just so they would be on my list and I could cross them off! Whew! I will be back tomorrow to report my progress.

Am I a Christian?

It almost seems like an absurd question! My answer to that question would be a resounding YES!!! I have never thought of myself as anything else. Today I was reading out in the blogosphere when I ran across some comments about Christians. There was a woman who was hesitant to read a book by a certain author because she thought the author might be a mormon and she certainly didn't want to take advice from a nonchristian. I was slightly puzzled by this because by all acounts and purposes I believe mormons to be Christians. And so I started doing some more research and reading more opinions on the topic. (Believe me, it took up a good part of my day!)

My intent is not to open up a religious debate, I simply want to express my beliefs about being a Christian. I was born and raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have a firm testimony in this gospel and a belief in my Savior Jesus Christ. So for someone to say that they consider those of my faith not Christian, causes a bit of confusion on my behalf. But I suppose it all boils down to what a person believes a Christian to be. To me, a Christian is someone who believes in Jesus Christ; believes that He is our Savior and has atoned for our sins so that we might live with Him again. A Christian is someone who strives to follow the perfect example of Christ; they strive to love as He did, to serve others as He did, to see others as He does. That is what I have always believed Christians to be. I realize that there are different perceptions of what a Christian is, but I believe the basic truth is that a Christian is someone who believes in Christ and strives to follow His example.

After reading quite a lengthy discussion on this subject on another blog, I have learned a little bit about what those of other faiths think about members belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I admit that I have lived a somewhat sheltered life and mostly among those of my faith. But I have had experience living where I have been the minority in my faith. I didn't realize that there are people in other religions so concerned with our ("our" being members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) salvation. It was so interesting to gain a different perspective. I value the friendships and associations I have with people not of my faith. And I have learned so much from other Christian people. I think it sad that there are some who don't want to associate with people of my faith. There are good people everywhere and I believe we can learn a lot from people regardless of their religious beliefs.

Smoothies

One of my new favorite things is homemade smoothies. I've always loved smoothies but I've never had a recipe for one and trying to make one on my own did not turn out too well. I found a great recipe in the book 1-2-3 Smoothies by Rita Bingham. Now I'm having fun making smoothies and they are soooo yummy. Here is the recipe:

2 C. rice milk or soy milk
1 C frozen fruit (raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, anything!)
1 banana
1 t. vanilla
1/2 C. frozen apple juice concentrate
10 ice cubes

I like to add flax seed and some sort of nuts as well.

Blend and enjoy!

Where's my green thumb?

I am not a gardener. I have never enjoyed planting and digging and getting my hands dirty. Plus, my allergies are awful and I usually end up having a sneezing fit along with red, itchy eyes. So for the most part, I have stayed as far away from gardening as possible. But we live in a new house and we wanted our yard to be pretty so we added some flower beds in the front and in the back. Let me tell you, they looked so beautiful after we had planted all the pretty plants and flowers and layed down the fresh mulch. And I actually had fun doing it! Well, now it's been a few months and I haven't kept up with the weeds and well, yikes! It's a little bit out of control. I guess I figured that the yard was my husband's domain and the house was mine. I guessed wrong! There isn't enough time, or energy, in the day for my husband to maintain everything outside.

So, I have been blessed with this new responsibility! Can you tell I'm excited? Just keep telling me how fun it will be. But I have a plan, and hopefully it will work. First I need to get everything under control and looking pretty again so I will actually enjoy my flower garden. I am going to spend twenty minutes a day weeding and I hope that it will only take me one week to get things looking nice and weed-free. Then I am going to keep up on the weeding by having a "Weeding Day" once a week in order to maintain and keep those pesky weeds out. I think it's a lovely plan, I just hope I can stick to it so that I can enjoy my garden.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Too much fun and too much time

Okay, I am having way too much fun making my page look all pretty! It's been fun and I am enjoying figuring out how to write the correct programming to get things on my page. And really, I'm spending much too much time doing it! lol. I need to get to my day and get some other things done. But I will continue to do a little here and there on my page so that it is beautiful and welcoming to all.

I was so excited to see that someone actually found my page and made a comment. Thank you! Really, it was like getting a letter in the mail, I was that excited! Today I am hoping to get the house clean and then work on a craft project. If I succeed in doing that, I will post pictures of the project.

Have a splendid day!

An Introduction. . .

Hello and welcome!

I am new to the blogging world and have enjoyed reading other blogs so much that I decided to try my hand at it. I decided to dedicate this blog to all things homemaking. I have been a homemaker for a mere five years now, and I think I am finally getting the hang of it! Growing up and as a young woman I rebelled against all things domestic. I never learned to cook or sew or preserve foods or launder clothes the proper way or iron or . . . (the list goes on!) Whenever my mom and sister got out their crafts I ran the opposite direction as fast as possible! lol! Even after I married, I still struggled with homemaking and did the bare minimum. I just didn't enjoy it! I cooked a little, I did the laundry, I cleaned our home; but they were all things I just didn't like to do.

When we had our first child I knew that I was meant to be a mother. I loved everything about being a mother and everything about babies! Fast forward four years and I am in tears trying to figure out how to love everything about children between the ages of 2-4. I have the baby thing down, but I am still learning how to be a better mother to my two toddlers. Their energy is endless! I love being a mother and have found such joy in having children and being with them each day.

I am an organizational paradox. I love to be organized and I love organizing, and yet I am not! Parts of my house are very organized and nice and neat and tidy. But there are other parts of the house that I dare not go! Cleaning is something I do good in spurts. I am an expert at decluttering and putting everything in it's place. However, I hate the chemical cleaning; the mopping and the wiping down and scrubbing of things. I realize though, that I am starting to enjoy cleaning because I enjoy the results that come after my hard work!

I love to decorate! I have been learning and reading a lot about decorating and have finally found a style I like. I have really taken off with it and have had so much fun decorating our house. Our walls stood empty for so long because I just couldn't decide what to put on them. Now my home feels more like a home because the walls have been dressed.

Cooking is an on going battle with me. But I had an epiphany the other day. I use to cook recipes that were easy because, well, that's just me. I like what's easy. My husband was grateful for the meal, but it was definitely nothing to be impressed by. Then I realized that everyone would be happier if I put a little more effort into my meals. And so I have been revamping my cooking. I cooked a lovely meal the other day. Yes, more than just a main dish (I use to be queen of main-dish-only eating!) I made a very yummy main dish of stuffed barbeque chicken. And along with that we had corn and green beans, a fruity pudding salad, and bisquits. The best part of the whole meal was that I felt good about my efforts and I was finally able to make a meal my whole family enjoyed it. Amazing what a little more effort and hard work can do! My husband kept complimenting me on the meal and then (this is the ultimate compliment) he phoned to tell his brother all about the meal I had prepared for him and how good it was!

Anyway, I know that this is a strange introduction. But I just wanted to introduce a few of the topics I will be writing about here on this blog. And in case you wanted to know even more about me, I enjoy the following: books, books, books, crafts (yes, crafts! I've overcome my childhood fear), writing, photography, movies, the ocean, the mountains, cuddly babies, bubble baths, flowers, sunrises.

Okay, enough. I hope to write a little each day and I hope that I'm not the only one who reads this!