HAPPY NEW YEAR

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!! HAPPY 2010 !!! I pray blessings over my family and friends for this new year. Lord help me to be a light to all those who are in darkness. Holy Spirit continue to guide me into truth and righteousness. Father God, I love you and thank you for life, abundant life and freedom to live through Christ Jesus. I thank you for salvation, and for freedom from religious bondages and from the enemy's attacks. I thank you Lord Jesus for taking my penalty for me and for mending my relationship with God. I thank you for loving me when I am not lovable. I ask that you help me to forgive this year all those who have deeply wounded me and that I may be set free. I ask that you help me to fulfill YOUR purpose for me this year and do your work to promote the Kingdom of God. I thank you for my three gifts Kyle, Brianna and Christian. I ask that you protect them daily and keep them under your wing. Your JOY Lord is my strength......I will have a JOYFUL life in the name of JESUS !!! AMEN.

So I thoroughly enjoyed another visit to my friend Kathies home on Monday. I arrived around noon and was fed a delicious lunch and then her daughter Sarah and I got busy making an apron. I couldn't use my sewing machine since it's broken (and not a very good one), so Sarah allowed me to make my apron using hers. She is a very patient and kind teacher. We downed an entire pot of good hot coffee first and then got sew happy !!

Kathie got a quick cooking lesson in also !! She taught me a very simple and Oh so tasty recipe for fried chicken from Paula Dean. It was really good. She may not think she is a good teacher but she really is very explanatory and makes sure I understand the process.

Brianna and Christian just made themselves at home playing and oddly enough Christian even tucked himself in on their comfy couch for an afternoon nap.

When the apron was just about complete we all packed into two vans and headed out to the Amish Bent and Dent store. Unique. No lights....and it was on the edge of evening so it was getting dark in the store. I used the light from my cell phone to light up some of the merchandise to read the labels. Cute store with a lot of variety. Some prices were much lower than walmart and some were same or higher. Thank goodness they had gas heat, that felt very nice on a cold day.
After making our purchases we were headed back home to finish up our sewing project. I think it came out beautiful !! How exciting !! With the help of Sarah, I made my own apron. I am excited to make my daughter a matching one as soon as I can get another sewing machine that works.


Tuesday I spent about 7 or 8 hours cleaning my house. Only got two loads of laundry done and the living room/dining room area cleaned. Oh and one bathroom. Just a very long day of hard work.

Wednesday I was in a lot of pain. Must be the wet weather headed our way. Didn't accomplish much at all. Just basic caretaking of the children and Brianna had a friend over for the day.
The kids did some baking today. Christian used their new mixer and loved it and Brianna and Raquel made some real cupcakes..... yummy.



This evening I made the chicken that Kathie taught me and IT TURNED OUT GREAT !!! Thank you Kathie for being so kind as to teach me how to cook good tasting meals for my family. I truly appreciate it.

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I felt like I had a fever tonight. Just not feeling great. I hate pain days......maybe tomorrow will be better.

Be Blessed !!

Well it happened fast...but another wonderful Christmas has come and gone. Life seems to be speeding up to me but I can't understand why.... I was so not prepared for Christmas this year but it comes whether we are ready or not....lol I had all my gifts purchased for the kids...but not for other family or friends. Those presents were definately a work in progress.



Here is our beautiful real Christmas tree with all the presents under it. We snuck down just after Santa left and got a photo !!

So we got to bed around 2am....Christmas morning and the kids woke up around 8am. I got plenty of sleep and was well rested. I ran down first to get the video camera going and then they came a runnin' and boy did their faces light up when they saw the sight !! I love this moment more than anything. That excitement. It is short lived however and then the mess begins. I struggle with the mess but have gotten way better over the years at relaxing and knowing that the trash can all be picked up and it will not stay that way forever. LET IT GO. They had lots of fun opening gifts and then Kyle opened his ONE gift. A laptop. First time in my life I only had ONE package for him to open. It kills me but at the price of his laptop it just had to be that way. He was so happy to have a nice NEW laptop. His father had bought him a used or remade one years ago but it broke. He really needed this for college so it was practical.

Here is Kyle checking out his new laptop......and Brianna and Christian playing with the new Batman Cave .....daddy is in the background playing his new game...it's a handheld game. He got two. He loves them. He also got some new pajamas and work pants. I got new underwear, slippers and a heating blanket. That is my greatest gift since we have no heat in the room that I sleep. That keeps me so cozy and warm.

Here is a nice baby doll that Brianna got. She loves her. She makes very realistic sounds and drinks and goes potty too !! Makes her feel like a real mommy. She LOVES to play mommy. We call it playing neighbor cuz she is always my next door neighbor and comes to visit carrying her little ones. I love her imagination.

The gifts were nice.....everyone had a nice relaxing day at HOME !! I baked a ham which for some odd reason came out PERFECT. It was so delicious that Jimmy commented several times about it. I made that with mashed potatoes and corn and some bisquits. A great day for us. I LOVE BEING AT HOME. We got sleet and freezing rain so it was nice to stay in and watch kids play with toys all day. The following day we drove to Baltimore to spend time with Jimmy's family. A two hour drive. The fog was extremely thick. Thank God we made it there and home safely. We ate a great meal and spent a full day there laughing, talking and then watching little ones open presents. We left around 10 or 11 I guess so thats why I was really tired this morning in Sunday School at 9am after getting home after midnight, but God woke me up so I went!!! Glad I did. I came home from church......we had leftover ham and watched the Steelers beat the Ravens.....and then I took a two hour nap.....that I really needed badly. Then I got up and put the finishing touches on some gifts that I still need to hand out. Now the family is watching a really strange movie called G Force. It is really weird. So I used this time wisely to blog. Time to go to bed....off to the Landmann's tomorrow for lunch, some sewing and possibly and fried chicken cooking lesson !!! LIFE IS GOOD.

Be blessed !!

Well my dreams for a white Christmas have come true !! Friday we began hearing reports of a rather large snowstorm headed toward our area. I was more than excited. I was not feeling well at all Friday so I laid in my chair most of the day before I forced myself up to make a trip to Walmart for food. Glad I did cuz the storm was a whopper. Got home unpacked food, and to my delight I got an unexpected visitor named Sarah who offered to come over and help me prepare meals for the snowstorm !! That was really nice. We had a fun time in my very small kitchen cooking up a storm. She gave me step by step instructions on making stuffed shells and homemade beefaroni. I think she should REALLY have her own show. She is personality plus !!We let Brianna do a lot of the work and she loved every minute of it. We also made up a Tastefully Simple dip and devoured it with some chips. The storm was getting really bad and when Sarah left I was concerned. She did end up getting stuck but thankfully her father came to her rescue.

Saturday we had a family day enjoying each other and watching the snow fall all day. It is so beautiful and bright with all the snow. I prepared a nice hot breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausage and toast and after eating, I took the kids out in the snow for a while. It was really windy and we were in a blizzard status so we were not out long. The dogs love the snow....they get really excited to jump around and run in it. Brianna and Christian would stay out in the snow all day if I let them. Jimmy can't work in the weather so it's nice to have him home with us.

Saturday we enjoyed the good food that Sarah had prepared and boy was it delicious. Jimmy had double servings of each.....and he loved it. In the late afternoon I prepared a big pot of chicken and rice soup which turned out great and was really tasty but when it came to seconds......the rice had gotten mushy. Oh well.....practice makes perfect i guess. Saturday evening we watched some tv and played with the kids.

Sunday morning......no church due to cancellation for weather. We sang a couple songs and read a little out of the Bible. Jimmy made a great big breakfast and then he cleaned the entire kitchen up for me.......I love that. We watched some tv and then got into the bundling up mode. That took some time....for sure. Once we were all puffy and warm, we headed out for snow fun. First we cleared the vehicles off and then threw some snowballs around and next came the sledding fun. We have just a very small hill off our driveway which is the perfect size for little ones. Jimmy and I rode down together to pack it down. The kids had so much fun on it. It's gives me so much joy to see them laugh and smile. After about an hour their hands were frozen so inside we went. Stripped down just inside the front door and went down in the family room to get heat from the pellet stove. Oh that feels so good. Laid around most of the day watching football and eating stuffed shells. Had a couple very quick visits from Kyle. He looked good. I miss him so much. I am really sleepy now...so I am going to jump into bed and hopefully get some shopping done tomorrow just to finish up !!

Be Blessed !!

Today was a super productive day for me. My body felt really good this morning so I got a lot done. Praise the Lord for that. I washed up all of Kyle's dirty laundry, did school with Bri, went through the kids toy area and bagged up toys they no longer play with to give away. I organized the messy toy area the best I could, did dishes, made a nice chicken dinner and tried to make au gratin potatoes but of course they came out yucky. I still ate them but they could have been much better.

This evening Kyle walked in and shocked me cuz he was wearing his dress blues. What a gorgeous child of God he is. A sharp dressed man. I made him pose near tree and snapped a quick photo with kids before he ran back out the door to see Caroline.

When Jimmy got home we ate, and then watched a cute movie called Gooby and made popcorn in our new machine. They love watching it pop. Now its time for me to retire so I can get up early and do grocery shopping and finish working on this house.

Be Blessed !!

So it's been a bit busy and I am finally settling down to the laptop to write down a few things. Today I had to run around and do a few freecycle pickups which turned out to be really great for me. The first pick up was a box of recipe cards. Betty Crocker !! Couldn't believe it....but this lady gave away a really nice box FILLED with wonderful recipes. They are really old from maybe 70's or 80' s but I don't mind. The box was even really nice.

So after picking up this great free gift we were off to the Dodge Dealership in Lexington Park to have my oil changed. The kids have fun there in the waiting room and I always enjoy a nice free cup of hot coffee. Jeff Thew is my service manager and they are excellent there. Always so friendly and helpful.

Next stop was off of Chancellors Run Road to pick up a (pooper scooper)...lol I had one before but Kaci chewed it up. So this one is really nice. A savings of 25 dollars !! I am so blessed. I love freecycle. I put our easy bake oven on Freecycle today and got no hits.....thats really odd. I will re offer again soon.

Tomorrow we are getting up around 5 am to leave for North Carolina to pick Kyle up and bring him home. He is at Camp Johnson down in the south end of NC and it's going to be about a 6 hour drive. UGH !! Well actually for us in the van it is going to be a 12 hour trip since we are only going to pick him up and come right home. What a long day but so worth it to bring my son home for Christmas !! Here is a picture of us before he left. I think he will be here till Jan 3rd.

I love my boy. He was not supposed to be coming home for Christmas but God is awesome and made a way for his class to be backed up which created an opportunity for the Marines to allow a bunch of these young men to go home and be with family for the holidays. What a mighty God we serve.

A friend of mine gave me a gift today. Her name is Dawn. I was so suprised to see this beautiful ornament for the Marine Corp. So nice and thoughtful of her and it was a great addition to our Christmas Tree !!

Lastly, the other day me and Brianna saw this video on you tube which cracked us up. We watched it over and over.....he is too cute. He is playing a ukelele. And he plays very well. He just doesn't speak any english so it's just really hilarious to watch him. You must find this on the web and take a look or two. He has several videos online....so just pick one and enjoy !!

Well pray for our safe travels tomorrow and be blessed !!

Well today was a very frigid Saturday and it was nice to be able to stay in all day. Even though my joints were hurting I managed to do one load of laundry, clean the kitchen and make spaghetti sauce, and then I made homemade garlic bread in my Breadman machine. I couldn't wait to make a loaf of bread cuz I found a wooden bread slicer rack at the Hooks and Hangers Thrift Store on Thursday evening. Kathie had one at her house and I was completely unaware of what they were used for. Now I know. She mentioned that she got hers at the thrift store so I stopped in there with the main goal of finding one and GOD is so GOOD !! I found a nice little wooden one with a cute message on the front !!!! Here is a photo of it.

Isn't that neat !! The garlic bread didn't come out so great...but that's the story of my life.

After Jimmy got home and after we ate dinner I ran out to Target to get a few more gifts for Christmas and boy has that store changed for the worse. The toy area was horrible. Hardly any toys and they were out of order and just a mess. I have never seen OUR Target look that way.
Not much variety in toys either. They used to have a wonderful toy section. I guess when they moved the food sections in they reduced the amount of toys they would stock.

I am so glad to be home in a warm and comfy place with my family......I wanted to work on this early cuz I really need to be in bed soon if I am going to be at my Sunday School class on time.

Brianna will be in the Christmas Program again tomorrow morning and I will get to see her sing with the Childrens church !! She did well Friday night and hopefully tomorrow will be great also.

Be Blessed !!

Today was wonderful !! I woke up feeling a LOT better and so that always helps. We got busy baking snickerdoodle cookies for the Christmas Program at church. I got the recipe from an online site called Allrecipes.com and I allowed Christian to do one batch

and Brianna did another batch. Each had their own separate mixing stations and they each did a GREAT job. The cookies were delicious.

I got some laundry done today, all the cookies were baked and loaded into my new snowman cookie jar and then off to church we headed !! We had to be there by 630 since Brianna was in the play. It was great and all the singers did very well. An awesome night. After the play they had refreshments and good fellowship !! I am home now and VERY sleepy. Ready for a new day tomorrow and hopefully I can hit a couple yard sales and or thrift stores !!

Today was a better day for me and I got the kids up and ready and we were out of the house by 11am. That's an accomplishment all in itself !! We took a ride to Leonardtown and stopped into a thrift store that I had never been in before. It was a lot bigger inside than it looked from outside. It was called Vintage Values. I found the perfect birthday gift for my sister Kari. Today is her 39th birthday and also my good friend Sandra's daughter Mariahs' 14th birthday !! Kari has a gingerbread theme going on in her kitchen and this little gingerbread man was too cute. I knew she would love it. She and I could go thrift storing everyday if we had the time and money.

I just love a good deal and this was definately that !! After the thrift store we went to the family dollar store for some cleaning supplies and then to McDonalds for lunch. The kids had so much fun in the playplace. I had fun chit chatting with other adults there. After that we went home and daddy took over. I left for my LONG drive to Waldorf to go Christmas shopping. On the way up the road I stopped at Hooks and Hangers thrift store and found a bread slicing block !! It is so nice and says "Our Daily Bread" on it. How great is that? Then I left and headed back up the road. I called my sister to see if she wanted to meet me at the Salvation Army and she said yes. We found a couple really good things there and I was able to give her the gingerbread man !!

Once we parted I went to Toys R Us for some major Christmas shopping. I walked around there for three and a half hours. My feet were hurting SOOOOOOO bad. I got a lot of things except for the one thing I went there for. Sold out !! Drove home late and God kept me awake. Thanks Sandra for the prayer. Now it's blog time and then nighty night for me. Everyone here is asleep !! Quiet time......thank you Jesus.

Be blessed !!

So the sun was shining when we woke up and that's a good thing. Thank you God. Today is one of those days that I just could NOT get going. We did schoolwork and that's about IT. Sure I did the normal mom and kids thing all day, making meals, answering questions, playing neighbor with Bri and Christian etc....but as far as housework.....well lets just say I am another day behind on everything. My body hurts really bad lately and even my pain medicine is not helping. I have an appt soon to see the doc so I will see what he thinks. Maybe just the cold weather settling in??

Today we put the final touches on our tree. The first thing Christian did this morning when he opened his eyes was say, can we decorate our tree ?? I cracked up. He is too cute. Of course we had to wait for daddy to get home but I let him hang some things on the tree that had fallen off. The joys of letting little ones place ornaments on your tree. Most of the ones Christian placed on the tree were hanging on by a limb and most didn't make it through the night...lol.

For dinner I made homemade mac and cheese and hot dogs. I totally drew a blank once I got the pan on the stove on how to make the RUE....or cheese sauce so I txt Sarah to ask if she was with Maggie who I knew could walk me through it over the phone but Sarah was in bed early. So I was left to my own memory. NOT A GOOD THING. I melted the butter.....and then all of a sudden I pictured myself at my friend Kathie's stove, and saw her doing step by step.....it had to be God. I did it all right and it came out delicious. You know it was good when Jimmy piles two and three helpings on his plate.....going back for more and more. Normally he doesnt do that. He even commented that it was really good. So thanks to my new cooking friend I can make something really tasty. I had intentions to take a photo of the finished product but it went to fast....

We watched a family movie tonight. It was really cute. Dove approved of course. : ) It was called "Imagine That" and we all really enjoyed it.

After that the kids went to bed and I sat online for hours christmas browsing at different stores comparing prices....and checking freecycle every now and then.

My joints are hurting SO badly tonight. It's raining here tonight AGAIN....and that normally causes me to flare up.

Tomorrow I hope to wake up in no pain and be able to fully function and be very productive !! I want to make some homemade christmas gifts and do some baking....ok I meant to say TRY some baking...haha. Last cookies I made were more like hockey pucks but it can't hurt to try.

Be blessed !!

So today was Monday and since I was up till almost four am I got off to a very slow start this morning. Thank goodness the sun was shining bright cuz that always helps me to feel better.

I worked on laundry, dishes, homeschooling and making breakfast and lunch for little ones and when daddy got home we ran out to look for the family Christmas Tree !! We went to a new lot this year it was just within a mile from our house on 235 across from the wawa at route 4. Very nice people and the trees were from North Carolina. We didn't bring string to tie down the tree so the owner of the lot offered to drive our tree home in his pickup truck. That was really nice. I stayed there at the lot with the lady till her hubby came back so she would not be alone. We set the tree up and put some lights on.....will probably finish tomorrow.


On Saturday when Bri and I went to the thrift store I got a few little things and have uploaded pics below. The snowman is a cookie jar. The salt and pepper shakers are so cute they are really small mason jars !! The curtains for my kitchen windows match all the decor in my dining room. The curtains were only fifty cents....and they are really nice. I want to go to a bigger thrift store next time !!

My joints are aching really badly and have been for the last few days.....must be the weather getting cold. Taking lots of motrin to no avail. Hope you all are getting everything done and won't be out on Christmas Eve with all the crazies !!

Be blessed !!

Sunday was awesome !! I actually woke up in time to make Sunday School. That is my big accomplishment. Our Christian Education classes at church just started a brand new semester and so I wanted to make the first class so I could hear the details of what we would be learning.

We took two little darlings home from church with us, Kason and Kyra. Their daddy and mommy were celebrating a wedding anniversary and wanted to go out to eat and see a movie in Waldorf so their youngsters stayed with us and played. Jimmy and I watched football and enjoyed seeing the kids play very well together. I LOVE CHURCH CHILDREN. So well behaved. My brother Joey stopped by and hung out to watch football and ended up staying the night. A good friend of Jimmy's stopped by to play guitar and sing so we ended up doing some worship songs. That was a lot of fun. I did take pictures...but they came out so dark it's not worth putting on here.



I stayed up WAY too late last night doing some online shopping. Didn't buy anything, just looking. Comparing prices for Christmas. I need to get moving on that. Today the sun is shining bright which makes me SOOOOO happy. I will do school with Bri, and clean and do laundry and then attempt to make something for dinner.

Oh one more little tidbit of info about my Sunday. Pictured below are my three wonderful dogs. Kaci is the black and white pit bull she is 6, Rebecca is the black lab and she is 13, Daisy is the blur in between the two big dogs.....she can't sit still long enough for a good picture usually lol. Kaci got out of the yard again yesterday and we were unaware until a neighbor from down the road came to complain that she was fighting at end of road with another dog. I was not happy. Kaci is extremely friendly and is submissive to most every dog even my little yorkie poo, so she must have encountered an angry dog and then had to defend herself. At any rate, Jimmy is so mad at her for getting out that he wants me to get rid of her. I dont think that will happen. She is a sweetheart. I think we could just fix the fence and that may resolve the issue.

Today is Saturday and I had plans to wake up early and meet my sister Kari to go thrift store shopping. I haven't done that in a while. Well the weather was just really bad so since she lives over an hour away, we decided not to meet. She did the ones up her way and I started off down in Lexington Park. Bri and I went out in the wet and cold to visit this one thrift store. Didn't get much but we did see a very unfortunate show there. A lady walked in and tried to steal some things. When they said something to her she became Irate. Then she went to pay for items and began screaming at the cashier. Brianna and I are just a bit nosey so we were watching this for about ten minutes. She called the elderly lady behind register an old woman and made all kinds of nasty statements about her. Another lady in the store said that the woman was on a drug and that she normally is very nice. WOW. After that experience we left and met Sandra and her children at Miss Sues music studio. They were practicing for the Christmas Concert in Lexington Park today. We went to St. Mary's Square for what was supposed to be a nice Christmas celebration with music and food and fun but the rain kind of ruined things a bit. They had to set up Miss Sue's string students inside of a pawn shop (which I did not like) but what can you do. It was very small and lots of people were crowded into a very small space. Not fun. Their music was awesome though. The picture I took here was of Mariah and Miss Sue practicing at Bella Music Studio.

While at the concert a company was putting on an identification program for children. They are in cooperation with the Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Each of our children were fingerprinted, had a DNA swab done, had photographs taken and did a digital interview recording which we got a copy of on CD. It was really good.

Oh I almost forgot.....Santa showed up on the firetruck and came in the square for a visit. Brianna very reluctantly sat with him and was not very happy about it. They got to go home with little candy sacks and were happy about that.

After the concert we came home to eat and get warm and cozy. We brought Josiah home with us so he wouldn't have to go to walmart with his momma in this weather. Now that we are home it is starting to snow !! Awesome.



After coming home and looking on my facebook account I came across the funniest photo I have seen in a long time. I just had to share it with you.

That is the kind of funny that I keep giggling about even long after I saw it. I didn't actually see this in person I copied it from a friends facebook page.

Well another day is winding away and I haven't really accomplished much so I will bring this to a close and try to get busy doing something. I haven't heard back from my new friend Kathie so I am hoping she is doing alright and will someday reply to my many emails !!

So today was a great day from the start because when I woke up the sun was bright and shining through every window of my home. I love it !! I function so much better with sunlight.

Had lots of homeschooling to do today with Brianna and Christian worked on flash cards for numbers from 1 through 25. He did pretty well with that. Brianna did well as usual.

I made Chicken and Rice Soup today !! I also made a really delicious chicken gravy using broth that my new friend Kathie gave me.....and Brianna baked a cake. A fun day in the kitchen. Christian missed out while taking his well needed nap. He is not feeling great today and has the runny nose thing going on so he really needed rest. Brianna absolutely loves to bake and was pretending to have her own baking show while she was adding her ingredients.

We soon will be getting ready to head to church for Brianna to practice singing with the group who is putting on a Christmas cantata. I will take my laptop and do some browsing and enjoying my new toy.

Loving Life

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First Day

Well today is my first day to blog and I am pretty excited about it. I want to basically journal my life and the life of my family on here in lieu of scrapbooking. This is easier and less time consuming than printing out photos and cutting little pretty designs out of paper and then hand writing the words to each photo. I used to always say that I thought God should have put me on earth during the olden days (like Little House on the Prairie days). I love that lifestyle and the simple life back then. However when I think of all the hard farming work and the lack of conveniences that we now enjoy and the absence of today's technology, I quickly realize that God knew exactly what He was doing when deciding my birth era. I love information !! Sharing knowledge, gaining information, and discussing newsworthy stuff in general. Some people would call me nosey.



So today was a wonderful day !! I met a lady through Freecycle.org who is willing to teach me to cook and she is just lovely. Her name is Kathie. I love her. I went to her home today for about 6 hours to learn and fellowship with her. I felt right at home. I learned some really neat things today from her like how to make a basic white sauce, a cheese sauce, rice, roasting a chicken and a roast of beef and then she showed me how to make the most delicious gravy from the (essence) left in the pans !! We made beef gravy and of course chicken gravy. I am learning some cooking terms as we go. We then took leftover broths and meat and made two types of soup. What an awesome day. She was kind enough to send me home with LOTS of food and I fed my hubby some chicken soup before church. He loved it. Thank you Kathie for welcoming us into your home. It was a blessing to meet you and your children. I especially enjoyed the singing performances. Really beautiful voices and ON KEY !!
Praise the Lord for that.... A great day and I cannot wait to go back.

Came home, fed the fam, and left for church. It was pouring down raining and cold so I really didn't feel like going back out, being the homebody that I am, but I had nursery duty so I really needed to go. Once I got to church, Christian was the ONLY child in the nursery which means I could have stayed home. We are finally back home....and I am looking forward to another wonderful day tomorrow. I may try to get some grocery shopping done and make a roast and homemade gravy !!

Be Blessed !!