This blog has been a real God send to me. I love each and every one of you  that visit me. I feel as though we are good friends that I can share anything with. With that said, I must confess that I am having some personal issues in my life right now. My mom is haivng her good days and her bad days. I have hospice coming in several days each week now. All the court issues have been taken care of as of last Wednesday, so now I have full power of attorney over her, I guess you can say, Life.  Now I have to make some serious decissions that I really don't think I'm ready to make. And to top all of this off, my dh tells me that he is no longer happy and is thinking along the lines of divorce.

   I try to post uplifting, helpful, and homesteady post, but I can honestly say that I feel as though I am a fake here.  I don't like being  the type to bring others down with my problems so I tend to keep alot locked inside, which isn't really good for your health. This is probably why a couple of weeks ago when I went for my 6 month checkup the doctor had to put me on high blood presure meds. Hummm wonder why, LOL.

   So now that you know I'm a big faker, and that my life is not as shiney as I tend to lead on, I feel I need to take a little break for now. I'm not sure how long, I may  post more often than I think I will  right now, but just in case, I  wanted to let you all know that if I don't blog for a while, it's cuz I'm off  dealin with "Life".         Love you all........God bless

Mom sent me some clothes for Paige and while we didn't get on the web cam... Mom, here's some pictures of Paige.  She loves them and is already saying she wants to wear them to church and she is mixing and matching with her own combinations.  Dresses with pants and she is having a ball.  Steve said they were nicely made and thought they are great for Paige.  I will need to move buttons on the shirts, as the straps are too long, but that is a small thing and hopefully I can get that done in short time.   Mom made these all for Paige... when she told me she was making some dresses, I did not expect this many nor the shirts and pants as well.  I was happily surprised.

So, here's the pictures... enjoy! 

Thanks Mom!

~Melissa

Is that life is revolving around this fire.  Every day is seemingly affected by it.  It is just crazy how one small incident that took just minutes to happen has somehow touched so much of our current life.   I am trying to change that, however it seems a bit hard.  Part of each day needs attention spent on cleaning up... if I don't, we won't get past this. 

Today, Dh and Megan helped a friend sort his sheep out.  He had a hand injury that is limiting what he can do, so help was needed.  While they left this morning, I cleaned the bathroom linen closet.  It is now clean, but I had packed away much stuff and I will still be working on putting things back.  But I am glad it is clean.  Towels are all back and not packed away.  Spare bedding is slowly returning as it gets washed. 

After our morning work, we left for town to do some errands.  I picked up the package from the post office from my mom for my daughter.  We have not opened it yet... Paige is still sleeping at the moment.  I got some buns from the bread store for the funeral lunch that we are helping with tomorrow.  I got some money from the bank for my two kids that are working at camp and apparently BROKE.  We then went browsing at Menards to pin down ideas on items that need fixing. 

All this... do we stay with the same color or something new???   I'm not sure we determined much to be honest with you.  We plan to hit a couple other home improvement shops and hope to make some decisions in the next week or two.  Steve wants to get started so it gets done sooner than later.  But we haven't heard from the insurance company as to what they are covering in full, so we wait to make sure we get paid for the estimates we sent in.  What i found today is that I forgot to add paint to the ceiling tile price... that will add another $100 to the overall cost.  I also priced out the cheapest wallpaper to replace and we're leaning towards one that is about $5 more per role...so $15 more overall, but still.   Each little bit adds up. 

 Tonight we brought lots of samples home and we just sighed, not really able to make a decision.  Too much running through our heads at the moment.  

I'm learning to just take each day... just one at a time. 

Warmly, ~Melissa

I had to quickly share my wonderful find today. I don't know if many of you know, but I am a former hair dresser and salon owner, it all seems like a past lifetime now, but that was me a few years ago.

Since then, I no longer work in a salon, and quite honestly have no desire to ever go back to that, but having the knowledge I have from that job, I am able to do all of my family's hair, (not that it takes a special education to learn to do hair, but it does help). And boy, do I do a lot of hair. I cut all of my family's hair, hubby's and kids, but also my parents, siblings, in laws, cousins, friends, etc. I always do it for free, or for the cost of the materials, perm, color, etc, and always enjoy helping my family out.  Anyways I've always just pulled out a kitchen chair, which works, but always thought it would be nice to have my own barber chair for such things.

I would never run out and spend the money it costs to buy a barber chair, but today, I was at Goodwill and I found a really nice barber chair for only 7 dollars! It wasn't anything fancy, but it pumps up and down, and it looks nice enough to sit in a corner in my family room. I was so thrilled and my dad was so happy about it, that he gave me the money for it.

It's not something I have to have, but it's definately something that I will appreciate!

Blessings, sara

I seem to remember once upon a time when I actually managed to put up a post on my blog at least once a day. Now, I'm lucky if I get on here more than once a week. But, I realize this is actually a good thing. I've found my priorities and although I enjoy my time on the internet chatting and reading, how am I ever going to put into practice all these wonderful things I've learned on here if don't get my fanny off the computer. lol.

So what has been going on? A lot of unpacking, cleaning, and decluttering, and most of all enjoying our new home. My two oldest children are spending the week on a mini vacation with my husband's parents, and although I've missed them so much, I've really put my extra time to good use. My youngest has been going down to my parent's house and having fun with her aunt jessi. I haven't had a lot of time to do fun stuff with her like her 15 year old aunt, and it's given me even more time to work. And since my parents only live 2 blocks away now, she can come back home whenever she's ready to.

So I spent all day yesterday and today going full force around the house, and what did I learn, I'm burning myself out. Between the heat, my ever growing belly, and the piles of work, by the time I got halfway through the day, I don't want to do anymore. So I've decided to pace myself just a bit more. I'm going to attempt to slide back into my flylady routine with a few modifications. It's what works for me, and for some reason, whenever we go through a change in routine for any length of time, I slip out of the flylady routine and get lost in the madness.

I really like the idea of routines, zone cleaning, 5 minute room rescues, and the old saying "you can do anything for 15 minutes". The emails that you get bombarded with never have helped but to sidetrack me, but having a control journal or a home management binder is what keeps me on track. So for the next few days I will be working on getting back on the flylady bandwagon and taking my time and doing my 15 minutes of work and zone cleaning.

We're nearly done with the kitchen, at least our part anyways. We still need to save up and have the new linoleum put down, but that may take a couple of months. We also are going to have an electrician put in a couple of new plugs and a plumber to come and plumb in our dishwasher, which will take a couple of weeks. Hubby is going to help me finish painting the cabinets, (just the top left), and do the final touch ups and decorate this weekend so I can start cooking our meals again. I've been cooking over the last few weeks, but because of the chaos, I've been having to do a lot of sandwiches and convenience foods and boxed meals. And I do so enjoy cooking from scratch. And I think my family is missing my cooking too, which always makes me feel good. 

Well, I'm off of here to go over my home management binder/control journal, and plan my day for tomorrow. My kids will be arriving home from their little vacation, and I can't wait!

Have a blessed weekend!

sara

Thought I would try to start a new thing. Every Thursday I will post this little survey.  

Outside my window: Crepe Myrtle in full bloom swaying in the breeze

I am thinking : about getting a part time job

From the kitchen: just had supper...corndogs and a BIG salad

In the garden: weeded between my rows of corn, brussel sprouts, peppers, tomatoes and green beans

I am reading: "Do Hard Things" by Alex & Brett Harris

I am hearing: my oldest son practicing his guitar

Around the house: need to clean off table and do evening dishes, round up kiddos from outside and give them baths

I am looking forward to: Mon. evening starting VBS down at the state park campground with our youth department...FUN!!

One of my favorite things (blessing for the day) : smiles on my children's dirty, little popcicle stained faces ;) 

We got our oven yesterday.  We are all so happy.  I can't imagine not having one.  I know people who wouldn't have hurt without an oven, but for us it was torture.  LOL!  Even my little  3yo understood we couldn't make bread, cake, muffins, etc. 

Last night to break in the stove we made a half batch of sugar cookies.  After I got to starting on them I was freaking out with each ingredient... sugar?  (I threw out the open sugar, do I have any other sugar?),   Cream of tartar (we threw out most every spice in the cupboard, but I had a spare new one in the bulk cupboard), almond extract?  (I knew I threw it out, but I had recently bought some new that I hadn't opened and it was ok).  I didn't have any regular white flour, but I did have bread flour... the cookies ended up a bit heavy, I imagine from the higher gluten content.  I imagine we won't eat the entire batch anyways... Steve and I are trying to eat healthier and the girls are just not woofing down the sweets.  It was more of an effort to give Paige some Mommy time.  She saw the oven and said... Mommy, I want to make cookies.  She wanted some "normal" back into her life... so we made cookies. 

As we were placing the cookie dough onto the sheets Paige looks up to me and says so sweetly... Mother, I am glad our oven is back... with a soft sigh. 

The oven does look almost identical to our other one... which we were told to replace as close as possible.  Even thought we had just bought the oven this January, the model is not a current one, even thought it was new.  So, we had to find something as close as possible with the current models.  We lost our warming burner.. .to get it was another $100, but we didn't use it and it was in the way.  But now all the burners are able to cook with two different sizes... so it was a trade off.  I am happy with the exchange.  I would have liked to have gone back to a gas top /bottom electric oven, but that was more yet and not comparible in price... I just find I am not crazy about the flat top stove.  It is not flexible in my mind and the pans swim on the top surface... driving me crazy!  But DH loves it and I will eventually get used to it.  Dh says if I can't manage after a year he'll buy me an LP stovetop... But that seems silly to me altogether! 

Anyways, we all just sighed when the oven came... life is feeling more normal. 

Warmly, ~Melissa

Well, after taking a much needed blogging break ~~ I have prayerfully decided to resume my blog here at HSB!  I I want to use my precious time wisely, so I will try to blog with purpose & under God's direction. I am not sure how much time or how consistent I will be this time around. We'll see how it works out. :)

I have chosen to call my blog: " In all things give thanks" based on the passage from Ephesians 5:20:

" Giving thanks all ways for all things unto God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

One of the things that God has been showing me over this past year is to be truly thankful in all things ~~ both the good things, the great things, the hard things and yes even the painful things of life! In ALL things we are to give thanks & it is my hearts desire to use this blog to bring glory to Him and to lead others to do the same.

May you be blessed!

~ gloria ~