Happy Birthday to My Boy!

My dear little boy... Three years ago I lay in the hospital bed with you by my side, in awe, adoring everything about you. Listening to you breathe, and stroking your baby-soft skin with my fingertips. It's hard to imagine you being so tiny again. Your baby-ness didn't last for very long at all. You, my Joshua, were in a hurry. You walked at 10 1/2 months, and talked not very long after that. I was in a hurry to potty train you, but you were so willing to go along with it. I think 2 1/2 is still pretty young to be potty-trained, even if you took longer about it than I was hoping. Now you are 3... Full of life and inquisitive as ever. Rebellious... sometimes. Not so much, that a quick swat can't correct. ;) I can't believe how much you love your Daddy. I try not to feel left out. You'd take him over me any day! You are learning letter sounds and have conquered numbers 0-8. You are so good at puzzles and are now learning to cut. We still have to work on that though, along with throwing a ball! Maybe Daddy will give you some lessons... You love cars, trucks, tractors and lawn mowers. And this year you asked for a gun for your birthday. (Where do they get that? Boys...) Daddy found you some Nerf guns... What a nice Daddy. :) We will celebrate your third birthday tomorrow, with chocolate cake and a family gathering. You will have a friend over to play, just like you asked. You, my Joshua... I can't imagine life without you. It seems like I've always had you around. I'm so glad that God sent you our way.

Happy Birthday to ME!

Since today is my birthday and I am now 25, which is a quarter of a century, I will leave you with 25 important or random things about me.

1) I was born in Rochester, NY.
2) I play piano.
3) I have green eyes, like my Gramanita.
4) I have to wear corrective lenses.
5) My son was born six days after my 22nd birthday.
6) I am one of seven kids.
7) I was married when I was 20.
8) I was homeschooled most of my school years.
9) I never went to college.
10) I've never smoked, but I have a tattoo. (Psych!!)
11) When I was a girl I wanted to be a missionary to Brazil.
12) I also wanted to adopt an African baby boy.
13) I still want to adopt a baby, but he/she doesn't have to be from Africa.
14) I don't like washing my own dishes.
15) I'm not sure if I like cats or not.
16) Gardening is my favorite outside activity.
17) I love to travel.
18) I want to live my life for Jesus.
19) I like to sing.
20) It bothers me when people can't spell properly. (I also like spell check.)
21) I cannot keep my checkbook balanced.
22) Keeping a budget is like a game to me. I am very competitive.
23) I love going to the arboretum.
24) I have friends in foreign countries.
25) I am going to heaven, but only by God's grace.

A Good, Clean Birthday Present

To start off, I want you all to know that my very least favorite household chore is washing dishes. Not because it is hard or inconvenient, but because you are never really done washing dishes. Dirty dishes never go away. My sink is ALWAYS full of dishes waiting to be washed.

It was a very nice early birthday gift. Though I'm not sure it was intended to be a birthday gift. It all started when my hubby found out that my Aunt and Uncle were getting a new dishwasher and were getting rid of their old one. Their old one had a leaky seal. I have never hoped that I could fit a dishwasher in my teeny-tiny kitchen. To me, it was just impossible. But when Adam heard about the "leaky" dishwasher, his wheels started spinning. He is very handy and could fix that dishwasher. But in order to fit in a dishwasher, a cabinet needed to be taken out. That meant that a cabinet had to be emptied... That meant we needed somewhere else to put the emptied out stuff, whatever that stuff may be. So this is what happened Thursday when I was at work. We have a fine closet in our kitchen where we keep our garbage can and recyclables. Garbage can was moved to other side of kitchen. Adam hung very nice wire shelves in the closet to turn this space into a WONDERFUL pantry. (I'm not sure which pleases me more, the dishwasher or the pantry. Yes, I am... The dishwasher.) He emptied one and a half lower cabinets of their food contents and placed it all on the pantry shelves. The pots and pans moved out of their cabinet and into the now empty food cabinets. Pots and Pans cabinet was taken out. Dishwasher was put in. Wife now smiles broadly as she washes her dishes. Husband is happy. Counters look cleaner and sink has been empty almost ALL day! Woo-hoot! I am feeling much better about the state of affairs at our house. And I am ready to keep Adam around for quite a bit longer. :)

The Junk Truck

Small Child. He is something. I come home from church on Sunday night to find he has rearranged my bedroom. Well, not the furniture. But anything else that an almost-three-year-old can move. My bed had turned into his "truck" full of "junk" and he had dutifully moved most everything that wasn't in the "truck" into a pile in his room. He was having so much fun moving the "junk" around that I couldn't put an end to his game. (Though I did make sure he helped putting it all away before bed.) There were clothes-clean and dirty, baskets, blankets, books (oh, help!), the kitchen broom, pillows , and the computer chair all piled in a heap in his bedroom doorway. At the very least, I guess I can say his imagination was brewing. And I'm glad I let it simmer for a little bit. Funny little guy.

A Yard Sale Fail

It was a sunny day. A yardsale-able day. Or so I thought. I had hung out my signs, but not until last minute. I waited all day. Not one person. Not one car. I had arranged the tables so nicely. I even hung the baby clothes on the line to attract attention. Not one bite or nibble. It was a good thing I didn't feel like it was necessary for me to stay out there all day. I was able to bake lots of pies while casting longing glances out the front door. We didn't have one person walk into the yard until it was time to pack everything away. It was about that time when the neighborhood kids started gathering across the street in their usual hangout spot. One curious girl came over to take a peek. We had already packed away the clothes and were in the process of packing up the dishes. Suddenly there were more kids. Looking in the box of books and the stack of VHS movies. I was sure a bunch of 8-11 year olds were not going to want toddler books and movies, but I told them if they saw anything they wanted, they could have it. That got them excited... And I got rid of a couple books and some Veggie Tale movies. I offered them my mugs. You should've seen the kids move then! I had just enough mugs for one for each. They were happy. And then I gave away my brother's old skate boards. Two of them.So I guess I did a little cleaning out after all. Haha, well mugs and movies and skate boards anyway...

(Photo forthcoming. Camera is charging.)

Life Goes On.

It's been an exhausting week. My mind and body are tired. We spent two days this week in Buffalo with Adam's family. Grandma's wake was on Wednesday and the funeral was Thursday. The funeral was done in a Catholic church and was very different from any funeral I had ever been to. It left my mind reeling and I was very grateful that I know my relationship with Jesus Christ is a personal relationship. I don't live in fear of not being accepted into heaven because Christ has already paid for my sins and has extended his free gift of salvation to me. My sins have been washed away and I look forward to seeing my Savior face to face someday. I am forever grateful.
This week I met family members that I had never known before and became reacquainted with some that we hadn't seen for a while. Together we mourned the loss of a wife, mother, grandmother, friend, and neighbor. We laughed with each other and at each other. Shared food and hugs. Together we said goodbye to the woman for whom we had all gathered together. When the time came to go home, Adam and I were both exhausted. We left Grandpa behind while lifting him up in our prayers. It will be difficult in the days ahead as this new way of life becomes the norm. If you think of it, you can pray for him too. Hmm, I think it is bed time.

Antoher Goodbye

When we arrived at the hospital in Buffalo yesterday morning, it was very apparent that we didn't have much longer with Grandma. We took turns holding her hand, telling her that we loved her. We witnessed a man kiss his wife and his best friend goodbye. Tenderly holding her hand, stroking her hair and whispering "I love you" into her ear. He recounted the story of how they got together. How she had reached over and held his hand on the way to a dance and how she had asked him out first. His eyes misted over. This woman was his best friend. His wife of 55 years. His heart already ached with thoughts of her being gone. The cancer had taken it's toll on her body. She lay in the bed, her arms and legs worn thin, and an oxygen mask covered her face, to ease her toiled breaths. This was the girl he went dancing with, the mother of his children, the woman who shared his house and home. And now the time had come to say good-bye. His children had come. As had nearly all of the grandchildren. At 10:30 last night, Grandma slipped into eternity and in doing so, left a hole in the hearts of those she left behind. Good-bye dear Grandma.

A Positive Note

Tonight I felt like a night owl. My little family members were both tired and cranky this evening, so they were tucked into bed early. This left me with the house empty- just the way I like it when I'm in the cleaning mood. Maybe my hubby will notice the clean smell when he wakes up in the morning. Clean bathroom, freshly mopped floors, the window int he kitchen was even washed! I'm feeling accomplished. I even baked a squash pie this evening. Before I cleaned the bathroom...

Speaking of pies, you will all be happy to know about those "flourless" pies that were mentioned in the previous post. Well, I baked several of them and tried a piece or two and they were perfectly fine!! That is a praise the Lord moment! Last Saturday my oven was going all day, baking pies to sell at church the following day. My oven ran from 7:30 til 10:00 at night and there were 15 pies baked in all. Not only was I baking pies on Saturday, but I was having a yard sale simultaneously... Good thing I have good friends who came and helped me keep my head on straight. I think the yard sale went pretty well, especially for being so late in the year. We made around $90 and seeing as everything was priced pretty cheap, that number surprised me... We are having a yard sale again this weekend and hopefully we'll clean out some more stuff! (Praying for another beautiful day!) Oh and of all the pies we made? We sold 11 pies at church, two to some friends of ours, a few slices at my yard sale and we even got eat one or two slices ourselves. I feel like the Lord really blessed me on Sunday by selling all the pies that I brought and some people even gave me extra to go toward my trip. I had 9 additional orders for pies made on Sunday to go along with the previous orders. Tomorrow Mom and I are going to have another pie-making marathon and hopefully I can get most of these orders filled by the weekend!

And now it is off to bed for me. A busy day tomorrow.

A verse for today: Luke 17:10 "...When you have done all those things which you are commanded, sat 'We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.' "

Something to think about.