A little theory of mine...

I usually never have sweets in the house...unless I know someone is going to visit. It's just something I do because I have no self control.

Holiday season=sweets in the house.

I have this theory...

eat it as fast as you can.

I know I will end up eating it all eventually.

Why not eat it all at one time so that I can "get it over with"?

Does this theory make sense to anyone else?

Blessings of 2009

I feel like in my last post, I really put an emphasis on the negative things about 2009 and I do not want to do that. Because despite it's trials and frustrations, 2009 has been the best year of my life.

Blessings from 2009-

-I was able to carry a health baby boy full term (and beyond!:-)

-I learned so much about what EXPECTING a baby really means in those last few weeks.

-January was filled with some of the most precious moments with my husband as just the two of us. Slow dancing, preparing for the baby, timing braxton hix contractions, watching lots of movies, and lots of "last dates".

-I had the best birth experience I could have ever imagined. Even though it didn't go like I had planned, I remember it with the fondest of memories and having Noah there by my side, just the two of us, bonded us together in a new and wonderful way.

-Meeting my son, Barclay, for the first time. There are no words.

-Watching Noah fall in love.

-Watching the joy Barclay brought to our family and friends.

-Being cared for and helped by so many precious family and friends.

-I for the first time in my life, felt a new type of exhaustion and low...which ended up driving me to the only person with whos help I could do it...Jesus.

-I was able to breastfeed easily and I had 10 good months of wonderful blissful moments...thousands of precious minutes I will treasure always.

-Because of so many things going on, Noah and I had to be very direct and intentional about continuing to be loving to one another, and be respectful of each other. We leave behind us a year where we worked hard and enjoyed the benefit of a sweet marriage.

-I learned how to multitask like I've never done before.

-I learned how much I can really accomplish during a 1 hour nap time.

-I have set into order a loose cleaning schedule, which I am able to keep up...resulting in a neater home!

-Being a mother has prevented me from being OCD about certain things. I now feel like my life is a lot more balanced. I can't do everything. I feel like this year I got a good grasp of making prioreties and not beating myself up about not getting everything done. (this is HUGE!)

-Through many many trials, I feel like the Lord has stripped me down of any judgement that I had previously had for mothers who I thought were doing things the wrong way. I learned that nothing is "the right way" and to always always have grace and understanding. And not only just with mothers, but with people too.

-I have cooked more and loved every minute of it

-We have started going to a church plant of the large church we've been attending for years. It is closer to our house, smaller, and for the first time in our marriage, we are getting involved and are loving it!

-God Blessed my business so much and I have decided for the time being to focus on Portraits and not do weddings. I feel so good about this and I've been so blessed to work with wonderful people who inspire me. I'm also blessed because I have a job that I look forward to, and it allows me to stay at home with Barclay.

-I have discovered absolute pure joy that comes from being Barclay's mother. This has given me a glimpse into another side of God that I did not understand as well before.

-I started blogging and have been able to write and connect with so many people on such a deep level. I absolutely love it.

-God provided for Noah (a realtor). He blessed him with an unbelievable work ethic and such a compassionate heart. Noah worked so hard and God blessed him with such wonderful business even in this hard economic time.

-This was the first year in my ENTIRE life that I didn't have to worry about money. Not only did God provide for our needs, we were able to save some money, and we were able to help so many people God laid on our hearts.

-We were blessed to travel to Italy, Chicago, and Boston. We made wonderful memories that we will treasure forever.

-I've been able to see God answer specific prayers in the lives of my sisters. One in particular....Julianna has found a WONDERFUL man of God...and I'm just waiting for that phone call:-)

-We have deepened so many of our friendships. Even though many of our friends have sort of drifted away, I feel like the friends we do have relationships with are not just surface, but good, deep, caring friendships.

--Mostly I am thankful for the beautiful way God has refined me this year. Through every experience of 2009, I feel like more and more of Him has been revealed to me. And the bigger picture of Salvation has become clearer.

The Lord had such mercy on me this year. I messed up a lot, but He blessed me and my family over and above what I could have imagined.

O Christmas Card...

Today I addressed 100 Christmas cards, and I still have 125 more to go. So for hours today, I was thinking about each person as I addressed their cards and I was wondering why I was sending them...

There's something about Christmas cards that leaves me wanting more. Here I am summing up my entire year (the year of the roller coaster emotions) with one picture. Where everyone is smiling and looking perfectly perfect. Though there were plenty of blissful moments this past year, there were also times I thought I would die from exhaustion, or I thought I was a terrible mother, or my house was so dirty that there were only trails through the dirty laundry to the living spaces of our house. There were moments I questioned my marriage, and moments I felt I had lost friendships, moments I swore, moments I hurt, moments that I felt the world was crashing down on me...

But I chose to sum up my year with a perfectly blissful moment...click.

I don't think I've ever received a christmas card that was honest to the year. I never receive cards where the couple is spaced out awkwardly on a couch acting like they were strangers. I don't receive card with tear stained faces or angry expressions. I almost didn't send out a Christmas card this year, because I hate being fake. I don't want someone to think I have it all together. But when it comes down to it, years and years down the road...I think my memories will be more like our Christmas card...sweet and blissful.

Exhaustion finally took over...

...last night I physically could not get out of bed, and due to that, Barclay cried himself to sleep several times. Thankfully it was more moaning than screeching. And right now he is working on hour three of his nap.

I put him down at 7 and didn't pick him up till six thirty.

He didn't seem to hate me this morning and I was able to not be too much of a grouch today due to the lack of sleep I've been functioning on.

Christmas Tree Tragedy

"A DIY guide to almost cutting down the Christmas tree...the hard way"

I love Christmas and I and love decorating for it. I couldn't wait to get the tree up this year with Barclay to enjoy it too. Of course everything has prevented that. Guests, baby showers, extreme exhaustion, that kind of stuff.

Last night I was determined to get our tree in. We have had it for over a week just sitting in our driveway!

I got the hand saw that we borrowed from Noah's dad and set out it the rain to cut the bottom off. It was hard! I was out there for 10 minutes and barely made any progress (other than the progress on shaping my arm muscles!). So I dragged it in the garage to try. 10 minutes later I felt I had done most of the work. Then I had a bright idea. I would take a screw driver and hammer it into the trunk to help split it. Brilliant! Just like old timey people would have done! Well it didn't work and I now had a tree trunk with a screw driver driven all the way through . I tried another screw driver because I was sure that would do the trick and finish it off.

1 hour later...5 screw drivers later....

I am stuck with a strange star on the bottom of our tree. Made with screw drivers that cannot come out! I then started gently chiseling an inch here, an inch there...

30 minutes later ( and two hours from the start of this thing), I had to stop.

My back hurt so bad I couldn't sit down, I was wet through and through, everything was sticking to me with the sap...and still today my Christmas tree is not decorated in our living room...but laying on the floor of our garage murdered with 5 screw drivers.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree....

It was not a good day for holiday cheer...so instead of beer...I drowned my sorrow in 2 glasses of egg nog.

Little Treasures:-)

It's been along time since I've posted any of my yardsale/thrift store finds. That definitely doesn't mean that I haven't gone!

I decided to post a few of the things I've found in the past couple months in no particular order.

I've been doing A LOT of GIVING to goodwill lately. Like bags and bags of stuff every week. I'm on a super simplistic kick. So every purchase I now make from a yard sale or thrift store is either needed, useful, organizational, or an upgrade to something, or...once in a while a treasure I want to invest in.

I've been trying to trade some of Barclay's plastic toys for wooden ones.

Wooden stacking rings.

25 cents

Wooden car

25 cents

Old version of Huckleberry Finn (Barclay's room is based off of classic little boy stories)

25 cents

Metal wall hanging.

$4. I didn't like the color so...

I spray painted it white and it now hangs in the nursery. I am in LOVE with it in there!

Baby Einstein Jumparoo, barely used.

$12.

Although Barclay is almost too old for it, I was thrilled to find it for baby number 2 whenever that happens...

We borrowed a friend's excersaucer for Barclay and he loved it so I wanted to keep my eye peeled for one of our own for the next baby.

3 hand carved Wisemen about 1 1/2 feet tall. They look like they are from Europe.

$15.

This is usually a lot more than I ever spend, but I loved them and I'm trying to slowly throughout the years, purchase Christmas decor that is meaningful and that will be treasured by our children and their children. These are my big Christmas purchase for the year and I love them!

Gorgeous basket

$2

Iron Train bookends for Barclay's classic little boy themed room.

$3

I got twelve of these wicker balls for $2. I LOVE them and have place them all around my house. I got the beautiful cream wire baskets for $2 each.

Catch Up

I've been majoring MIA lately.
What have I been up to?
Let's see...
Housing my Dad for 3 days...feeding, cooking, entertaining.
Cooking Thanksgiving for 10 people.
Having a friend from College over
Having 4 friends from College spend the night
Throwing a baby shower for my friend Mel (who is having twin girls!)
Having 2 friends from College spend the night.

A lot of fun. A lot of grocery shopping. A lot of FUN. A lot of dishes.

With all this fun I've been having, the past week has been brutal in Barclay's schedule and sleep. For instance, today he woke up at 6:30 and didn't nap or sleep till 6:30 tonight. It has been rough, but he is asleep now and I'm finally getting to update this thing!