Traditions

Crazy time of year!  Don't you agree?  I really have never felt as much pressure and stress caused by holidays.  Not sure why I'm feeling pressure this year.  I'm actually way ahead of the game... normally I shop the week before Christmas and wrap the day before, this year, I'm done shopping AND, everything is wrapped!  And, I actually remember wrapping them this year! 

If you have young(er) kids, I have a question for you.  Does Santa come to your house?  Does Santa bring different (as in not currently under the tree) presents?  Does Santa borrow your wrapping paper or use his own?  Do you or santa write the kids names on their gifts or do you have another system?

We've tried a combination of lot's of these systems, but haven't really settled into a tradition.  This year, I'm sure Santa will stop, eat the cookies and share the reindeer food, but he will not be bringing presents, at least not ones that are different from the ones under our tree.  It will largely go unnoticed I'm sure.  Just not that into it anymore!

I did have to code all the presents this year.  And last.  Last year I used the same number for each kid, I think it had something to do with their  birthday's... they figured it out.  This year, it's COMPLETELY random, I have it all written down, but there is NO WAY they will figure it out.

What other Christmas traditions do you have? 

We go to the Santa parade downtown Zeeland (weather dependant).
We normally go see Santa at some point, unfortunately it hasn't happened yet this year. 
I love to go to the Critter Barn for thier nativity scene... have to do that yet this year as well.
We always have Cherry Coffee cake for breakfast (at least that's what Bailey says... I don't remember it being a tradition, but I'll humor her).
We decorate the tree together and hang up all the old ornaments from when Matt and I were little, as well as the new(er) ones that have been purchased or made.  No, we don't have a "pretty" theme tree, but we have a pretty family tree... and I love it!
I typically wake up before the kids on Christmas morning!  I get so excited to see them open presents that I can't wait, and apparently my kids aren't quite so anxious.  I remember being up at 5am on Christmas when I was little... now I sleep in a little later. 

Do you do a lot of baking this time of year? 

I typically don't purposely bake for Chrismas, but this time of year makes me want to bake. Yesterday Elliot and I made Salty Caramel Oat Bars, which are seriously delicious.  I LOVE salty and sweet... put it all together - AMAZING!  We also made Chubby Hubby Bars - again, I highly recommend these, they are fabulous, but... they are very hard to cut.  I may try doing the carmel differently.  More like the Salty Caramel Oat Bars next time and just sprinkle the chocolate on top maybe?  Anyway... they are fabulous and will definitely be a staple in our house!  You know... as in one of the food groups offered on a regular basis!  :)

And, I leave you with a rather awkward picture of our family!  Crazy to see my hair getting so much longer... remember last year?

Some things I pinned recently that I really love!

From Life as a Thrifter
Love the pictures hanging from wooden hangers!  (I wonder if cheap plastic hangers would look cute too???)

From Jamie cooks it up

Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip

From Snorgtees
Either you like bacon or your wrong!

From Domestic Reflections

Words to live by

From Dearlillieblog

Height measurer

I hope I left you with some inspiration today!

See more of my pinterest pins here



Thankfulness

Cliche this time of year, I know.  We all talk about thankfulness around thanksgiving.  But, in all honesty, that is not originally how this post started out.  I was going to tell you how I hate holidays for a whole slew of reasons.  Instead, I'm going to tell you how I'm planning to work on changing that! 

I was blog hopping this morning.  Like with most blog hopping I never know how I get where I end up, but I know that that is where I was supposed to end up!  God knows my heart.  He knows how I feel about all these holidays coming up.  Some of it is righteous feelings, some no so much.  Anyway, today he brought me to this post.  When you don't want to say thanks.  It's a post written by by Tsh Oxenreider of Simple Mom. 

Here is just a little excerpt from the post:
I’m still not in love with the poop or the what-is-that-on-the-floorboard?, but I’m a little more in love with the Giver of Life. I’m more aware of the unbelievable gifts soaked in my life. I’m humbled.

Make sure you click the link to check it out in full!

Other links I checked out today:
The real first thanksgiving
Another great post about holidays

Feel free to hop around a little this morning and see where you end up!  It could be jsut what you need for today!

Happy Halloween

This blog is slowly turning into list central!  Sorry about that!

• Mom2Mom sale: M-LIFE is having a Mom2Mom sale at Community Reformed on November 12, feel free to come shop or you can sign up to sell as well (just see the blog link on the right side of this page).  Last year I had a ton of stuff to sell... one would think that I would have nothing left.  Not true though, I've already started sorting!
• Happy Halloween!  I've got a mime (again), a penguin and Darth Vader waiting to go trick-or-treating later!  Fun times!
• I recently had my port (used to deliver chemo) removed!  Yay!  That feels good!
• Shingles don't feel so good.  I thought I caught them early (actually, I know I did, so early in fact that my doctor didn't believe that I actually had them, but gave me a Rx anyway, thankfully), but they are still holding on and causing some pain.  Not nearly as bad this time (I'm not in bed or anything), and for that I am so very very THANKFUL!
• Football is done.  It was a fun year, unfortunately the year ended in the locker room instead of on the field due to some silly lightening!  Bummer!
• Basketball started the day after football, so really not much of a break, except that I get my husband home now!
• NewWorldSon concert at Community Reformed this Sunday!  It's free.  And good!
• Miss Lila got her haircut this weekend.  Just a big trim to get the yucky ends off!  She was very scared that it would hurt, but turned out ok!  So darn cute!
• And, right here is where I wish I had a picture to share.  I've been so bad about downloading them though... so no such luck!

What's new?

Well, nothing is new.  We've just been busy having fun is all!  (That, and I'm keeping up the M-LIFE blog, which is very time consuming, leaving me little desire to keep this one up somedays, you should check it out though, there are some great giveaways going on right now!)

What have we done?

Football

Art Prize

Football

Art Prize

Ice Cream

Dinner with friends

Playing outside

Football

School

Soccer

Field Trips

School parties

Dentist appointments

Soccer

Doctor appointments

Grocery Shopping

oh, and did I mention... football?

Here are a few pictures to share... (I love that I started to carry around a point and shoot, I take so many more snapshots of things I normally wouldn't capture)

 Apple picking in the freezing cold!

 Art Prize!

 This one looked like a  photograph, but was a painting.  Amazing!

 I LOVED this... made out of masking tape!

 Free dinner downtown Zeeland!

 Dinner at Marios with my fellow cancer survivors (minus Lindy who had to leave early)

 Field trip to Fredrick Meijer Gardens with Elliot's class!

 Sleepover with friends.  (No, they did not sleep in the same sleeping bag, this was after I put B's sleeping bag away in the morning)

 Last day Captain Sundae was open!

 Our field trip this morning to Outdoor Discovery Center was a huge success... we walked forever and definitely tired the kiddo's out!

Happy Birthday Humor

So, I know this starts off looking like a typical Happy Birthday video... but watch toward the end, it get's funny after the song is done!

Bailey's Video

This is Bailey's first fifth grade homework assignment, just thought it was to cute NOT to post!  Enjoy!

Another Recipe

Mmmmmm!  So, I talked last time about how I made the Raspberry Rhubarb jam... it was good.  It is good, but not the tart flavor I was looking for.  Then I found this one.  Vanilla Rhubarb Jam.  AMAZING!  It smells amazing, it tastes amazing and was easy to make!  (Note, I did not cut up the rubarb as small as the author, that takes way to much time, therefore I have chunks of rhubarb in my jam, but that doesn't bother me).  And, yes, I know Rhubarb is not in season, but that's the great thing about Meijer, they carry out of season vegetables (or whatever you would classify Rhubarb as).  I also did my canning (sealing) in the over... it worked.  Amazed.  And, I didn't have to get my big pot out, again!

It's almost over....

Summer is almost over.  I'm happy and sad all at the same time!  I really dislike this humidity that we have been experiencing the last few days, thankfully we spent yesterday at the beach adn the water was wonderful, today we tried to go outside a few times, but came back in shortly to wipe the sweat off. 

We rode the bus to school with Elliot last week.  Tons of fun.  He is so excited to go to Young Fives.  I'm excited for him, but the closer it get's the smaller he seems to me, going out into the world on his own.  We will both be fine though.  We always are! 

Another thing I've been doing is canning.  Yup, taught myself to can last weekend.  I did plenty of research, especially after I saw that you could get botulism if you don't can salsa correctly.  That is some scary stuff, definitely don't want to spread that to anyone!  I can't find the recipe that i used, but that's ok, I don't plan to use it again, I wasn't a huge fan.  It's not bad, just a little to "tomatoey" and not spicy enough. 

Then this week I had to use up some jalapenos so I made some Hot Pepper Jelly, which is great poured over cream cheese with Wheat Thins to dip in it!  It's also good on a hamburger as I figured out tonight.  Yum!  Super easy too, that took me about an hour (gotta love the food processor)!

And tonight, I wanted to make raspberry jam and decided I wanted Rhubarb Raspberry Jam.  I struggled to find a recipe that I could can as opposed to freeze, although I'm not sure why... eventually I found and settled on this one.  I'm still smiling every time I hear a jar pop.  If you've ever canned you so know what I mean!  I did try a little right out of the pan, after burning the tastebuds off my tongue I decided it was a bit sweeter than I like, but the kids will like it.  Now I'm on the search for a tarter recipe.  And maybe I'll settle on freezing it this time too!  In fact, I may try this one!

(OK, this post was more about saving the recipes that I used for future use than updating anyone, sorry)

A list to sum it all up...

Yikes.  It's been a while.  Sorry.  Life is busy.  Summer is busy.  But fall is busy too. 

Anyway, I will try to sum the past few weeks up in a short list in no particular order.

1. We went camping.  It went great, the kids had a great time.  I have never been to tri-ponds before, but we really enjoyed it.  We were quite a walk from the pool and bathrooms so I did a lot of walking that weekend, which turned out to be a good thing.  I pushed myself and I was feeling better, or at least significantly recovering, upon our return!

2. Landon is now a teenager.  He got a phone for his birthday, something he has wanted for a long long time, but we've resisted.  It is definitely nice that he has one now though!

3. Our house has gone from light tan with brown trim to a dark gray with white trim thanks to my wonderfully talented husband and some other fabulous helpers!  Love it!

4. We went to Green Lake with my brother and sister-in-law for the day.  The kids always have a great time tubing, sea-doing (spelled wrong???), swimming, and boating!

5. I started babysitting again after taking 7 weeks off.  We all missed our buddy!

6. Bailey hit double digits!  Growing up into a beautiful girl!

7. We have spent some great days at the beach and now that I know it's not that bad, we will definately be squeezing in as many more of them as we can!

8. I still can't swim, which makes the beach and camping a bit harder.  Luckily I have great kids and friends that will swim with Lila!  Can't wait to have this scar all healed up and closed, although I think this summer is out of the question at this point.  There may be some water arobics in my future though????  :)

9. We have been spending LOTS of time in the backyard playing on the swingset, in the sprinkler and in the kiddie pool  When I say kiddie pool, I mean LITTLE.  Like maybe 3 feet across.  But, it's perfect!

10.  Lila discovered that she LOVES pop.  In her own can.  Caffiene free preferably!  :)

11.  The shingles are gone!

12. Football starts way to soon.  Meeting tomorrow night and then practice in two weeks.  Games are a little bit later this year, which makes getting to the games so much easier.  And, making it even easier is the fact that I think all but one is home!

13.  This picture has nothign to do with anything, but once you look at it you will know exactly why I had to add it!  So adorable!

14. I am not planning on doing a Race for the Cure team this year, thank you to those that joined last year, and to those that have inquired about doing it again.  But, while I'm not planning on doing one, my friend Lindy has started a team and I would encourage you to sign up on that if you were thinking about doing it!  Click here!

Family "Rules"

Just created this quick and wanted to share!  You are welcome to save a copy and print one for yourself, the original is a 5x7, just FYI!
Hoping to do a full blog post tomorrow or in the very near future!

Better Days

I'm hesitant to say that things are looking up.  The shingles seem to have gotten a little/lot better in the last 24 hours.  They aren't gone, but they are better.  They have been replaced with some muscle pain in the center of my abdomen, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that that is normal. 

I've been inactive for so long though that even a little bit of activity (read: walking to a chair set up outside and sitting down) is quite exhausting.  But that will get better.  I would think.  In time. 

So anyway, just wanted to pass that info along.  I apprecaite all of your prayers, I am so blessed!

Stuck in Bed and Pinning

I've found the most relief from the shingles when I'm laying still in my bed.  Not getting up and down, just laying here.  Every once in a while (who am I kidding, daily) prior to getting sick and having surgery I wished for a day where I didn't have to do ANYTHING.  But, now that I've spent the last almost 4 weeks laying around doing nothing, I'm over it.  Compeltely over it.  I want to be up, playing with the kids, going to the beach, cooking dinner, even cleaning the bathroom.  Yup.  I said it. 

I've watched a lot of "First 48" today, a little Hoarders: Burried Alive and I've done lot's of pinning!  I'll share a few of my favorite things I've found today.  I've found lots! (click on each picture for a link if you wish)

Pom Pom Flowers

Crochet Rug from old T-Shirts

I LOVE color!!!!



LOVE this color combo.  Maybe for Bailey's room re-do (someday)!

And this Pesto Bread.  Although, I can't read the recipe, so I think I'm out of luck, but I like to improvise, I'm sure I could come up with something!

That's only a very very small portion of all the pinning I've done today!  Feel free to see more here!

Ugh, the pain

It's horrible.  The pain has not gotten any better.  I'm miserable.  While I don't want to complain, I'm reaching out to my blog readers to see if anyone has any great ideas for pain relief (besides rx drugs).  I've tried an ice pack.  That didn't work.  I've tried wearing baggy t-shirts.  That didn't work.  I tried wearing a fitted shirt.  That didn't work.  I don't know what to do anymore.  I'm frustrated, I'm in pain, I just want to stay in bed all day.  Post your ideas.  Please!

2 steps forward, 1 step back

I knew it was to good to be true.  I was feeling great last week.  I couldn't believe how good I was feeling.  But Thursday I started getting pretty sore again.  So sore in fact that on Friday I called and asked for more vicodin.  I couldn't figure out what was wrong.  My skin was soooo sensitive.  It hurt to touch anything on my abdomen.  And then in an ambien haze of absolute pain on Sunday night I saw it.  A spot that very closely resembled shingles.  Seriously.  I just had shingles six months ago.  My worst enemy (who doesn't really exist) doesn't deserve to have shingles EVER, and absolutely no one deserves to have them twice.  In six months.  So, needless to say, I'm in pain.  Lots and lots of pain.  I would rather have surgery again than shingles.  Basically the only thing that relieves the pain is to lay in bed very very still.  Yuck.  I'm sick of laying around. 

Luckily I started some meds today and last time I was on these meds it went away pretty quickly.  Praying it does the same this time!

While at the doctor today he also "cleaned" out the wound again, took out the "debris" which is as gross as it sounds.  This whole packing the wound thing is getting old and from what I hear I have a ways to go.  Blech. 

In just two short days I will have a teenager in my house.  Seriously.  Almost 13 years ago I was  barely 20 years old about ready to have my first child.  Scared to death of what that mant.  He has been such a blessing to us, Love that boy!

Wishing everyone a great and safe holiday weekend!