Privileged

So much of what I get to do as a mom and wife is a privilege. Saying I love yous and hearing them back...what more can I ask for? I think about what joy comes for the hugs and words of affirmation that I get to give each day. I am not saying in any way that this is all my day is filled with. I argue with my kids and husband and I have many moments of frustration.. but overall I am grateful for the all of it. The messy mishaps and right now I am overwhelmed by how privileged I am to have my family. 

My husband is dealing with kidney stone issues today and didn't sleep much last night, I am reminded of all he does to help our family run smoothly. It's days like today where I see all that he contributes to helping out in the house and I realize how very lucky I am. Thankful for a man like Michael, and I am trying to serve him today in any way I can to help his day be easier. Hoping he is feeling back to his usual self soon and that the stone passes quickly! Prayers appreciated!

I am glad that I get to do laundry today, happy that I can fold my kids clothes, because there are lots of women who are longing to fold little baby clothes today and I refuse to take it for-granted. So my griping about the many baskets that now line my laundry room will go unheard today. I am privileged. I am thankful.

Perspective is everything. It's a good day. It's a day to look around and realize all that I've been given... what a great gift life is!

Whew, life is crazy!

I apologize for taking my sweet time getting back to blogging. I have missed the time I take to stop and reflect on the weeks that have gone by. November is here! October was filled with lots of great memories; Ethan (our foreign exchange student from China) arrived safely to the USA and to our home, production week at school went great (read more about that here at my hubby's blog) http://koinoiawithmichael.blogspot.com ,we celebrated our first Halloween in our new house, I am volunteering with the Color Guard at school helping them polish and develop routines for marching band and winter guard, also I start wrapping Christmas gifts at Von Maur in a couple weeks!

I love that November causes most of us to ponder all the great things we are thankful for. I know that I sometimes need the reminder to stop and enjoy what's happening here and now. Not to think ahead to the next thing on my list, but to enjoy the moment. I am very excited to be celebrating two of my nephews birthdays tomorrow and plan to also enjoy the Husker game with the family as well. Can't wait to catch up with everyone! It's been a busy fall and there is nothing like being together with your siblings to hear about what's happening in their lives and planning our next family get together at Thanksgiving! Love this time of year!

Plan Ahead? Nah!

Planning ahead isn't always my strong suit. Our weekend was busy with kids' activities and life in general made the weekend fly by! I hadn't really thought ahead to packing lunches for my now 3 kids this morning and so they ended up with a hot lunch delivered by me from Hy-Vee. :) I don't think they minded this at all, actually I think they enjoy the days I don't plan ahead for. Spontaneous hot lunch is a great thing! I did make it to the store this afternoon and have now planned out the next few days for packing lunch and dinners until Michael does our grocery shopping later this week. I love that he plans out our meals for the month! I only need to worry about the staples that we run out of.  I appreciate his ability to manage our food and help with a task that I don't enjoy doing at all. I am a spoiled girl!

Here's to Monday and not always having everything planned out perfectly. Often times that's the fun in life, the moments you never plan for!

Arrival!

Happy to report that Ethan has arrived in Lincoln from Beijing, China. He had quite the experience coming here though. He spent 28 hours in the Chicago airport due to customs hold ups and missing the flight due to exhaustion and sleeping thorough it the next day. So he ended up flying into Lincoln late last night. Everyone is glad he is here safe and sound. He is very tired still though! His Aunt and Uncle live here in Lincoln and they have kept him last night and they are also keeping him tonight. We had the joy of hanging out with him this evening and can't wait until he can join our family tomorrow!! The boys had a great time bonding over PS3 and talking sports, Ethan seems to blend right in to the family! He brought us some amazing gifts from Nepal, he has traveled all over the world and we look forward to hearing more about his trips everywhere. It's amazing to think that he'd end up going to school here in Lincoln, NE. We are so happy he chose to come to the States!

Here's a few pictures:

Looking forward to all the fun we'll have this year!

Embracing Life

I had a day that was really wonderful. Wanted to just list out all the little things that make life so good.

1. I feel really good, my allergies are getting less horrible! :)

2.  I worked with 3 and 4 year olds today with an amazing group of people. 

3. I had lunch with my sweet friend Amy and went to this fun little restaurant called Pepe's the environment, food and conversations were just amazing!

4. Got to do some shopping by myself tonight because I took Faith and her friend Hannah to a football game.

5. Took my lovely daughter out for a date night while our boys were at school.

6. And we are making it a family movie night! 

This day was so wonderful! So many days just zip by and I forget to stop and take in each moment, to really enjoy the little things.. What a great day! Thankful! 

It's not really ours...

In church yesterday they showed a video of a couple who sold their house and downsized, and I will paraphrase here on what I heard... they felt convicted that the life they were living needed an overhaul. They wanted to give more of what God had blessed them with back to others. This story of sacrifice inspired me in that we should be willing to give up and share what's not really ours anyway, it's God's.

I feel that this is our season of doing just that, our season to open our home to foster children and to a foreign exchange student. We are blessed to have a 5 bedroom house. A house that is such a blessing in so many ways; one of my favorite reasons is that we are only 2 minutes from our kids' school! What a wonderful opportunity to open our home up and use the bedrooms that we have, not just for ourselves, but for others. I am so excited to see what our story will look like, what amazing things will happen at our dinner table, people we've not yet met who we will come to call family, and I am thankful that we have room to spare! We are planning on welcoming in a young man from China soon. They are just waiting on his visa to get finalized. Pray that goes quickly for him. Hoping to have him here with us in a few weeks! I look forward to getting to know him and I know that Caleb and he will enjoy being sophomores together at LCS.  Missions is still a passion in our hearts and God continues to use that passion in only ways He could foresee.

 I am also excited to begin taking in a foster baby soon as well. We are waiting on the State's final seal of approval and should be licensed in about 2 wks. Can't wait to welcome in a new little one to our lives. Feel so blessed that we can step up and help. There is such a need for good foster parents in our state and city. Thankful that we have the room to take in a child for as long as needed. So we will converge on these very awesome opportunities at about the same time.

Thankful for the road we're on, for the many blessings we have, for a full heart as God expands our family in some unexpected ways, it's such an answer to prayer...stay tuned for details on all these moments ahead!

Little Ones

Phew! My morning was filled with the usual get the kids ready for school, packing lunches, and then because it's Tuesday I am off to work with three and four year olds at church for a few hours. This was the kick off day for Fall Women's Bible Studies and we had lots of little kids to fill our classroom today. It's such a blessing to go to a church that gives free childcare while the parents are taking a class. Lots of eager moms ready for some adult conversations!

I have the privilege of working with the same wonderful people from last year. I have such fun with Jeff, Evan, and Sharon. We held down the fort with about 25 little kids today... I don't know how kindergarten teachers do it everyday.. wow, they are a busy bunch! We do story time, gym time, snack time, and of course a craft. Which today involved gluing with glue bottles... I am thinking we need to get some glue sticks. You should have seen the amounts of glue it takes to glue down construction paper to a lunch sack to make a puppet when a 3 year old is in charge.. I think we went through more than expected.  Next week we need to revamp the craft so that they can have more independence in the craft without all the teachers hovering over them.

Anyway, I am home and taking a breather until I need to pick up my own kids from school. I am thankful for some quiet time! Wonder if I should get out of the house for a bit before then? My mom is upstairs and I know it won't take much to convince her to go running. Thinking a good thrift store sounds like a perfect afternoon adventure. Off to treasure hunt!

Everyday task..

I have written a few paragraphs only to erase them twice... I guess I don't know quite what to write about today. My normal life this week wasn't very exciting. I feel mostly tired. I haven't quite settled into our school routine. I am still staying up too late and trying to feel motivated in the morning to be creative when packing my kiddos lunches hasn't always panned out. Yes, the lunches have been packed and ready, but I am lacking that creative drive. Pinterest has many good ideas and I have a goal for next week to try a few of them. I want to cut down on my use of baggies, I need to invest in some good containers that the kids can use over and over.

I think my kids would enjoy knowing that I've taken time to consider some new and fun options for them, putting a smile on their faces while they unpack that days creation. I love art and need to incorporate an art themed lunch.. I love an everything the same color lunch. I will try and take some fun pictures to document my endeavor. Here's to a fun creative outlet in an everyday task! 

Timing...

Looking ahead in my calendar at the month of June and it's astonishing to see the changes. We've gone from moving to Italy to moving across town. I am so excited to be moving closer to our kids' school and very excited to live in a house again. God's timing is magnificent, the way that He has used June 1st in our lives truly does amaze me. Our official move date really didn't change, just the location... and that makes me giggle.. how funny that it worked out that way.

I can't wait to be two minutes from the kids' school! I can't tell you how much in gas that is going to save our family.. A LOT! This week alone I make 3 trips to school each day.. with Musical practice, golf practice, volunteering in the Art room, drop off, pick up... it's going to be wonderful that my kids can actually walk to school and home if they need to.. what a blessing!! I am busy mental planning layout of furniture in the house, thinking about color palette, and how much I want to use the whirlpool tub.. ;) The Lord is Good and His timing is perfect! So excited to share with you this new adventure... and I need to mention that we have awesome neighbors.. our besties the Roeloffs' house is pretty much in our back yard... oh, it's going to be SWEET!!!

13 Surprises!

The adventure of 13 surprises to fill Faith's day was so much fun! So I came up with 13 little things to do  to honor her big day of becoming an official teenager!! Here's a peek into her day.. enjoy!

1. 13 Balloons on the floor of her room when she woke up.

2. Streamers around her door frame to add a little pizazz to her room

3. Birthday Breakfast of Birthday cake pancakes candle and all!!

4. A special flower arrangement on the table with glitter ;)

5. A birthday outfit jewelry and all!

6. A special gift from her brother Caleb

7. Taking cupcake cones to her 1st class of the day to celebrate with friends.

8. Surprise Sushi for lunch- her favorite!

9. Getting helium balloons to surprise her when she gets out of school ;)

10.  A few more presents to open when she gets home from school- opened cards from Grandparent's, Godparents, and a few gifts from us.. :)

11. Birthday Dinner of her choice

12. Ice cream out at DQ!

13! Late night family movie night at home- her choice was actually catching up on our DVR! :) Didn't take pics for this one... :)

Surprises..

Being a mom is such a huge blessing. I am so thankful that God chose me to raise my beautiful kids. Today especially as I reflect on the joy of pregnancy and giving birth to our little Faith. Who is not so little anymore, she is 13 years old today! Amazing! It's been 13 wonderful years with her... she's grown into quite an exceptional young woman.. I am feeling so thankful that I get to celebrate her today! 

I am coming up with 13 little things to do for her today to honor her big day of becoming an official teenager!! I am trying to capture each little & big thing on camera to document it. 

I have about half of the list done.. but I want to post pictures of what I did, so it will have to wait until tomorrow to be completed.. it's such an exciting day! Stay tuned until tomorrow to see the adventure of 13 surprises! 

Happy Birthday Faith!!

The joy of being three..

I started a new job today. I am working at Lincoln Berean Church in childcare during Titus Women Bible Study. I am in charge of the three and four year old room and we had about 24 kiddos today. My four other co-workers were men, a very cool thing that men are serving in this role while the women's bible study is going on. It was a thoroughly enjoyable three and a half hours of work time!

Watching how little ones interact with each other and the dynamics of friendship at this age group is fascinating. I am amazed at how quickly most of the kids just play with everyone. However, there was one little boy today who did not open up quickly.  He hung onto me and stayed by my side almost all morning. He was new to the group.. some of these kiddos have gone through a few seasons of childcare together. He was so cute as he observed from afar how things were going.  I was happy to hold him and play close to the group, but not exactly with the group. I could see by the end of our time that he was taking small steps to hang out with his peers. I saw myself in him a bit. I love the comfort of knowing people, knowing how things are going to go, the routine of life. It's hard to figure out how things work when you're new to a situation, I am thankful when I have one person who seems to speak my language and am content to watch from afar as I figure out who I want to get to know better. I am looking forward to our next time together to see how he relates to the group. I know that with more encouragement he'll open up and play with someone. He was the sweetest thing, I was thankful for a bit of one on one with him today.

I am thankful for those few people in my life who speak my language.. who know my heart, who encourage me to open up... and push me on to new things!

Thoughts of a mom

Emotions of motherhood; I feel for my children and myself. It's strange how sensitive you can be for your own children. How you feel such empathy, hurt, happiness, nerves, whatever the feeling so strongly for them. I am dealing with emotions of feeling left out right now.. it's not really me who's being left out, but wow, you'd think it was, at the depth of the pain I feel when it happens to my kids.

Being in a new school, dealing with people who've known each other for years, established friendships and being the "new kid" is hard. I was talking with a friend today about how she is dealing with this same thing with her daughter who is much younger than my kids, but how we both thought that it might bother us more than it does our daughters. Isn't that a thought.. does it bother Faith as much as it bothers me? And so I asked her what she was feeling when this happens.. and she said, it does bother her a lot, but she tries to just ignore it.

Then there is the added bonus of social media, you find out about it through pictures on facebook or status updates as soon as the event is taking place... I am glad I didn't have facebook to deal with when I was in Jr. High or High School, it brings another element of social drama! Here's just another thing I need to lay down and try to push through with Jesus.. grateful for His grace and praying I can extend that grace as these situations happen.. I feel like I'm in high school again.. good thing I'm young and remember how it felt, it's very fresh in my mind.. hoping I can impart some wisdom to her as we deal with many more years of these types of things.. She'll make it through and so will I. Just pray for my heart and for good inclusive friendships!

Production week...

Production week has kicked off and our household will be a flurry of activity!! We are all very excited and I can't wait to see productions this weekend.. but I am asking for your prayers as we won't have much time to breath... pray for peace, kids to remember their lines, lighting, stage crew, hair & makeup crew, and Michael as he directs and fine tunes.. and pray that God will be glorified! We remember that we are performing for an audience of One! :) Thanks!

P.S. and pray I get the job at Von Maur! I really want it. :)

Thankful Morning

I had the most wonderful morning! Morning routine goes something like this; Alarm goes off at 6:30 AM, hit snooze until at least 6:45, get outta bed, make sure kids are up and getting ready, which this morning both were up and Caleb was studying. Pack school lunches for both kids (they don't serve hot lunch at their school), make sure the kids have something for breakfast, Faith wanted me to do her hair, so I did a really cool braid, get dressed, and out the door. The wonderful part happens now... we go outside and it smells like someone baked cookies.. the whole neighborhood smells AWESOME! We are all a little perplexed by where the smell is coming from.. but linger outside our car to appreciate it! And then guess what? I have frost on my windows.. first scrape-able frost cover of the season.. excited.. frost and cookies.. loving the cold morning and to top it off it smelled like cookies! :)

Parenting with laughter!

I get such a kick out of the funny things people say, however, it's not always as humorous when it's you saying the blunder, okay I lied, I laugh harder sometimes when it's me saying the blunder. What can I say? I crack myself up sometimes! :)

Our dinner table is usually filled with lots of funny conversations and usually our sarcasm about certain situations happening in our life become comic relief. I grew up in a family where humor was often found at the dinner table as well. My brothers still talk about the time when my family was talking politics and I was about nine and I was growing agitated that the conversation didn't include me and I very loudly asked, "Who the HELL is Bork?" The table erupted in laughter, except for my father who didn't appreciate my colorful question. Needless to say, we have our favorite quotes from our dinner table as well.

I found a really great quote about parenting and it reminded me of the importance of the attitude I am showing my children. Grateful for the laughter that is shared in our home!

"The attitude you have as a parent is what your kids will learn from more than what you tell them. They don't remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are."

-Jim Henson

So what will your children remember? I hope my children will have many quotable moments that they can laugh about and remember fondly! Even in the seasons of our life when things are stressful, remember that your attitude matters!

Sweet moments of a wonderful life~

In this moment of sitting on my couch writing out my journey I am remembering the sweet moments of yesterday. As a family we went to a park and the boys fished, Faith and I took pictures, spent time collecting pine cones, laughed, threw rocks in the lake, and spent time chatting about life. I am thankful for my children, blessed that God would choose me to parent such amazing kids! Thank you Lord for allowing me to be a mommy, giving my heart such a deep joy about watching them grow up and thank you for giving me a husband who is an awesome daddy! My heart cherishes all the days that I got to be a stay at home mom and sit on the floor and read books all morning, play pretend, play in the park, snuggle, and watch countless hours of Blue's Clues.... and now as my kids are growing into these fabulous teenagers, I am grateful for their sense of humor, watching them act, sing, play instruments, hearing about classes, friends, life away from home... I am so blessed.

Decorating & Cleaning therapy

I was home today with a sick child and it caused me to be home almost all day, other than the drop off and pick up of our older son to and from school. I had the time to just putter around the house and do some fun projects and spiffying things up! I love sprucing up my nest... it's therapy to me. With Michael's help we were able to pull out the stove and fridge and clean behind them.. ugh.. was that needed!! I so enjoy cleaning things! I think I've told you all my deep enjoyment of cleaning floors, it's really very gratifying to see things all spic and span!

Also, when you have a sick child, it's necessary to keep things clean when both kids share the same bathroom.. so I was able to deep clean that too! I have a list of things that I plan to clean tomorrow... I don't think that Faith will be back to school just yet.. she's still not feeling the best. Anyone know a good product to shine up facets? Ours are kind of dull from the hard water.. I would love to see them all shiny..

I also got out all my fall things this past weekend and I plan on tinkering with that more and making the home feel all cozy for fall. Remember that each day is new and filled with new possibilities of how to rearrange your furniture and clean out your clutter! ;)

Beginnings

Today was the first day of school for our kids. Caleb started his first day of High School. I have a high school age child... that seems so unbelievable! And our little baby girl Faith started her first day of Junior High.. wow..

Although, as a good friend keeps reminding me, each stage of our kids' lives brings so many wonderful things and new joys! It's so true. I am blessed. I have two beautiful children who are growing into young adults who love the Lord and I think they are pretty cool people! I kicked off the new year with my friend Teresa and we prayed over each of our children and lifted up their school day. It was a wonderful way to start the year and it will be something we continue together every week, I am so looking forward to our time together this year. What a blessing it is to have a friend who prays with you! We will be using some of the Mom's in Touch materials, which is such a great organization to plug into. (all you mom's out there who's kids are school age, it's a great way to get to know other mom's!)

I am looking forward to our final school year in the states... so much will change for us next year! Each little thing the kids are doing and experiencing this year will feel bigger I think.. knowing that it won't look like this next year will help us to take in each moment and savour our time at Lincoln Christian. It's such a great school and we are blessed to be a part of it! Here's to a great year!! :)

Caleb 1st day of High School

Faith 1st Day of 7th grade

Family Time...

Protecting precious family time was our plan of action for the past two days! We spent time together doing normal family things like back to school shopping, watching funny movies, eating dinner together at our dining room table, and enjoying many laughs. I can't tell you enough how much needed these days were in our home!

Today I am reading a good book a friend of ours borrowed us, Emotionally healthy spirituality by Peter Scazzero, which I am flying through! I have another book I am planning on diving into as well called Leading with a Limp by Dan Allender another book suggested by our good friend Ken. So, today as we slowly engaging back into life.. we are being careful to remember boundaries and protecting our family time...

Next Monday and Tuesday our kids have back to school orientation so we are enjoying what will be one of our last weekends before back to school madness begins... enjoying this last deep breath before school activities fill the calendar. Praising God for the reminder to slow down and enjoy... Hope that you have a day where you can stop and enjoy the little things because it is the little things that make up life. Hug you kids, kiss your spouse, and thank God for life!