So much to say....

.....so little time to say it.

My friends, I have had A LOT going on.  

I truly wish I had the time to be able to share it all with you.

Good, bad, and ugly. 

But I guess they don't call this the busiest time of year for nothing!

Not only are Christmas preparations in full swing but its the craziest time of year for my job too so I have been racking up the overtime...not fun.....the extra money will be a plus though.

I keep dreaming of all the crafting and jewelry designing that I would rather 

be doing but alas, it will have to wait (sigh).  

At least its looking like Christmas in my house.  

Actually it was even before Thanksgiving but I'm still enjoying the lights and all the Christmas music we've been listening to.  We drive around and look at the Christmas lights in the neighborhood at least a night or two a week.  There is also a HUGE light display at a nearby park so we'll be sure to hit that up in the next few weeks too.  

Watching my boys in awe of the season is just awesome!  

The way they love to shout out when they see a house all lit up, or are mesmerized at the Christmas specials on TV, or sing Christmas carols in their sweet little kid voices...it's truly priceless.  

Even me Hubsy gets a little emotional about it :)

So anyway, I probably won't have much time for blogging until the New Year but I will try to keep up on some of my reading.  I truly hope you all have a wonderful holiday filled with the love and peace of Jesus!

Happy Holidays!

We Encourage - Featured Follower - Carissa

Carissa is a simply amazing young woman.  

I know some of my followers are also her followers...so you already know that ;)
But if you aren't, go check her out at lowercase letters.....  like now!

You'll be glad you did. 

This a a woman of faith.
This is a woman of poise.
This is a woman I truly admire and I want to encourage her to keep sharing her
heart with the blog word...
and beyond (she's an aspiring writer too ya know).

This talented mama has a flair for photography (see some of her pics below) but most admirably she has a dedicated heart for God.  And she expresses her faith journey so honestly.  We're all broken, but Carissa always comes back to relying on God's grace and shows us that we can too.

Carissa explains that her favorite post is heaven, hearing, and other good news 

"because it reminds me how God has been faithful to provide for us."

In this post she explains how God as provided for her and her family as well as some others.  It would do us all a world of good to recognize the myriad of ways in which God provides for us..

And now, here are some of Carissa's beautifully captured moments.

Thanks for so openly sharing your heart Carissa!

call me blessed

Favorite Things Friday

I haven't linked up with Rachel in a while and wanted to reflect
on some of the joyful moments I have had over this past week....

finding joy

* Getting prettied up in my new dress for a hot date with Me Hubsy out on the town.

* Enjoying good company, good food, and acts of kindness at the fundraising dinner for St. Anthony Special Education Program (the site of the aforementioned hot date) held at Heinz Field.  I will probably never get there for a Steeler game but was glad for this opportunity to see the facility.

* Putting out our Christmas lights. Yes we are already decorating.  Me Hubsy is of the mindset that it is better to do it now while the weather is warm and I can't say that I blame him!

* Hearing my sweet baby saying his nightly prayers in that cute little toddler voice....too sweet!

* The "second-hand booger"...that deserves it's own post I think ;)

* L behaving much better this week.

* I think my favorite part though was getting more organized on the home front so I can spend more time playing with my kiddos and less time running errands.  I sure hope this continues!

Happy Friday!

You know it's love when....

your Hubsy covers for you to your MIL to save you face.

Me Hubsy did this very thing.  

Not to condone dishonesty but I can't help but appreciate this sweet display of his love.  

We all know I am not a domestic goddess.  

Well if I am not, my MIL most certainly is...at least where cleaning is concerned.  

She has cleaned houses for a living y'all.  She knows clean very well.  I am always embarrassed when she comes over cause I just can't keep up with our mess.  She NEVER makes bad comments to me about it though and often offers to help, just want to make that clear.  But she did ask Me Hubsy the other day a question about one of my cleaning habits and he gracefully covered for me, said I cleaned it regularly, and saved me some pride.  Albeit false pride since I know I don't really do a good job at cleaning but hey...I'll take it.  Somehow there is always a sense of appreciation and love when you know your Hubsy stands up for you to his mom.  I guess it is that reaffirmation from the Bible that he has let go of his mother and father and is clinging to his wife.

Has your Hubsy ever covered for you?

Three days of goodness

We just had 3 days of much needed goodness....especially after my last post (thanks again for all your supportive comments).  And I'm feeling a bit more like my positive and upbeat self.  Being over my illnesses may have something to do with it.  I was essentially sick with various things for almost all of October...yuck.

It started Saturday morning when we woke up to snow.  And while I would normally think it's too early, it was just the thing for a comfy day at home.  I woke up to the sight of my boys' heads bobbing in the window trying to get a look at the snow.  They kept at it all day.

Me Hubsy was happy not to feel guilty about all the yardwork he wasn't getting done.  I cleaned, did TONS of laundry, listened to music, made sure L got his homework done, and baked.  I felt like Martha Stewart y'all.  Or some less stuffy domestic diva at least.  Nothing like a sense of accomplishment.  I should have taken pictures of my clean house cause it only lasted for about 45 minutes.  We baked sugar cookie cutouts for Halloween, too bad the icing looked more peach than orange after we colored it...L said it looked like skin...next time I'll just buy the darn can of bright orange icing at the store.  The poor pumpkins looked anemic!...I'm sparing you the pics :)  But they had candy corn eyes and were absolutely delish!  

Needless to say they did not survive long in our house of sweet eaters.

 Me Hubsy also came home from Lowes with this awesome canning kit - that he got on clearance of course. 

I've always said he should be a professional shopper.  If there is a deal out there, he's gonna find it.  Anyway we ended up tossing a lot of the produce from our garden this year because we just couldn't eat it fast enough.  We intend to expand out garden a bit next year so we're really excited at the prospect of canning some of it.  Hopefully it won't be too difficult.  Have you ever canned before?

Sunday my sweet Mother-in-law took us out to breakfast.  Such a treat.  Then we went to visit some friends while Me Hubsy helped put heaters on their roof.  The kids had a ball playing together.  Later L said he was going to marry Baby Lila....they do indeed each have a thing for these two girls....time will tell ;)  Once we got home it was time for naps and I was going to begin my Herb and Butter Turkey breast with mashed potatoes.  This was going to be the crown jewel of my domestic weekend.  I have NEVER cooked a turkey before.  It all started out exactly as planned.  I set the timer and basted that baby every 20 minutes.  It was smelling seriously heavenly in my house.  I had visions of actually serving the food on platters and such instead of just serving from the stove like I normally do.  I think I may have even had on an apron in my little fantasy :)  And of course I dreamed of the whole family loving every delicious bite.  But instead we ended up having just mashed potatoes and sans gravy to boot (don't worry I did make the kids a hot dog too), and nobody was dishing out compliments to the chef.  I bought my turkey breast from Aldi's and there was "something" on the outside of it that was curling down into creases and looked like it was raw inside when it wasn't.  Of course I didn't realize this at first and ended up cooking it an extra 30 mins before I realized.  By then we were not in the mood to eat it.  I did pour the butter herb juices over it and had one bite to make sure it was as good as I expected.  All the flavor was there thankfully....next time I will purchase a higher quality turkey breast without any mysterious "stuff" on it.  And I will take pics and post the recipe because....the flavor is indeed worth it!

It was time to fit in the pumpkin carving before bed.  Me Hubsy loves to do fancy faces.  They turned out pretty good I think.

Halloween night was great...all except for the rain.  My two little spooky ghosts had such a good time.  I thought for sure E would not keep his costume on long but he wore is the whole time.  I really lucked out that they wanted such easy costumes.  I like to consider them "throwback"....hehehe. They actually got a ton of compliments.  There's just not too many ghosts these days.

I love that the boys love handing out candy to all of our "customers" just as much as getting it.  It was a great night watching my little spooks enjoy themselves so much.  

That is the best part of parenthood I think.

Hope you had a Happy Halloween too!

Struggling

Just breathe.

Tread water.

Pray and be faithful.

A new struggle is surfacing.  

This is a hard post to write.  

I love my L with all my heart.  

He has such a big heart and can be so loving.  But I don't know who this child is lately.  

This week we have hit a new low.  Not that we've never had behavioral issues with him before but we're facing a new challenge and I'm not sure how to handle it.

There is lying.

There is sneaking.

There is disrespect and backtalk.

And not in small doses or I wouldn't be writing this.  The first thing that comes to mind is maybe new exposure in school.  I really can't think of anything else that has changed that may have brought on this level of increased bad behavior.  He's using words we've never used at home and certainly don't approve of.  He's lying about almost everything.  I get lying, I understand why kids (and adults) do it.  But he lies about things that don't even make any sense.  Like things he wouldn't even get in trouble for regardless of his answer.  And the backtalk.  OOOHH the backtalk, dished out at every turn.  It almost feels like living with a rebellious teenager.  Of course E is soaking all this up and emulating his big brother which just compounds our frustration.

What could be different about kindergarten versus preschool?  Is there really that much difference from the 6 hours a week he was in preschool last year to the 35 hours a week of kindergarten? 
I just don't know...

But I do know that this too shall pass, it's just going to be one
of those struggles we need to go through.

And it surely won't be the last.

I pray for the right words to say to L, the right actions to take, and peace in our home.

We Encourage - Featured Follower - Megan

It's Tuesday, that means it's time for another "We Encourage" post! 

Meet Megan of Our House of Pink.

I found Megan several months ago through a "day in the life" link-up at The Busy Budgeting Mama.

She's a young mother of two beautiful little girls with another on the way. One of the things I love best about Megan's blog is her honesty.  She bravely writes about her reality, the ups and the downs and everything in between.  And the fierce devotion she has to do right by her girls is remarkable.  Though I often feel the same way as Megan, she is so good at putting those feelings into words.

Megan told me her favorite post was Happiness.

"That post is always there to remind me what really matters. It's not our car or if my girls have a different outfit on every day, it's the small things. Their laugh, the way Kyleigh smells after a bath, the bond they share. Those are the things that matter. I often forget and need to be reminded. "

Not only is she an awesome mama, 
but she has a crafty side too...

Check out her Minnie Mouse party for her daughter here.

 And peruse some of her gorgeous photography here and here.

Megan is counting down the days to the arrival of her new daughter in the next couple weeks so drop by and leave her some encouraging words as she prepares to embark on another mama adventure :)

Thank you Megan for sharing your beautiful girls and being such an encouraging follower!