Happy 1,000th Post!

According to wordpress this is my 1,000th post!

I started this blog on August 20, 2007 and this is what our family looked like back then…

Grace was 3 1/2 and Owen was 6 months. Oh those sweet cheeks!

I have enjoyed posting about our little world, from Grace stories, to Go Ducks pictures to sharing about our journey with CDH.

Is it a coincidence that Duck football has had the best years ever since I have been posting our pictures after every game? Well, I am not quite ready to take all the credit for their success…but I am certainly not going to stop now! Just in case…

I love having so many of our family memories and pictures in one place and someday will make it into books for the kids…then maybe they won’t mind not having baby books. While I try to be “equal” in my posting so that in 30 years neither one can say “see Mom loved me best, she posted 355 posts about me and only 223 about you!” But, the reality is, Owen seems a bit more receptive (or oblivious) to the camera and so recently it seems to slant more towards him. I’ve never actually done a post count though, I’ll leave that to them…maybe.

Not sure if I’ll be able to crank out another 1,000, but I guess it’s worth a try!

Thanks for coming along for the ride!

Catch-Up

I have been on an unplanned break…

Will start playing catch up tomorrow on things that have been going on in our neck of the woods…

Wise Words

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news,
my mother would say to me,

‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’

To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’
I remember my mother’s words,
and I am always comforted by realizing that

there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.”

{Mister Rogers}

Autumn, Can You Hear Me?

Fall is my absolute favorite time of year. I yearn for it around the beginning of August (actually if I am honest, about mid-April), hoping, willing, that it will arrive more quickly.

Counting down how many days pass until we are out of the 90’s and then the 80’s.

Back-to-school sales, school supplies, apples, back to work, football games, extra blankets on the bed. All of those things signal the change in weather…

Or at least they should. This year the change has been underwhelming. I’ll admit it, I am a true Oregonian, it is supposed to rain in the fall. And I love it when it does!

Last Friday, the 5th day of October it was 80 degrees out. It hasn’t rained in 3 months.

Well, according to Joseph, the end is near (or rather the beginning…) of fall that is.

I know there are still signs of fall, the changing leaves, the crisp and cool mornings, but I am ready to have some 60 degree days with rain…and bake pumpkin bread without have to open the doors and windows to keep it cool inside…

To celebrate here are a few pics that my sis took in Old Salem in Winston-Salem, NC. They always just scream “fall” to me.

 

 

 

The End of Summer

It appears that summer is coming to an end. It went rather quickly. Fortunately it wasn’t as terribly hot as I feared it might be…

So a couple of summer images to leave you with…

Daisy…in the coolest spot when the sun shines in the backyard…

Yummy coffee drinks that my sis and I made while she was visiting…

And Miss Grace, swinging…

I enjoy getting to sleep in during the summer time, no real commitments, getting projects done and all that.

But, I love fall.

The smells in the air, the routine, football season, warm food, school supplies, wearing jeans and sweatshirts, and yes, the rain.

36 Blessings

Today I am 36. I started a new birthday tradition in 2009, and have done it each year since. And of course I couldn’t resist doing it again in 2012.

This was a good exercise this year. I have been a bit down and frustrated with how under the weather we have been. This was a good reminder of all the blessings I have.

Some of the blessings are the same, as they always will be. But as with each year, things change and there are new blessings.

So here is this year’s list of 36 Blessings…

1. a gracious and faithful God
2. my husband who works hard everyday to provide for us
3. Grace- for her sweet spirit, her imagination, her compassion
4. Owen- for his determination, his rough and tumble boyishness, his strength
5. my parents- always supportive in any way they can be
6. my sis- I only see you every six months, but it is always as if no time has passed.
7. my in-laws (the whole lot of them)
8. 2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV) For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
9. that my husband, my mom and my sister are my best friends
10. that I have a small core group of friends who I can always turn to
11. that overall my children are healthy- we have had a rough two months and we are still in the thick of it (germs that is) but it’s just normal childhood stuff, nothing serious.
12. my job. I love my co-workers and my boss. I love that it is a safe and caring place and that Owen is just down the hall, at least for two more months:(
13. that I am able to be home with my kids after school, I can get Grace at the bus, when they are sick I can be home with them and I don’t feel too guilty about missing work.
14. that my only living grandparent (Dad’s Mom) just celebrated her 92nd birthday earlier this month
15. that our BELOVED Oregon Ducks went to and won the Rose Bowl. What a fun game to watch and what a fun season this has been. GO DUCKS!!
16. that we live in a safe community
17. Grace’s school- she is loving it this year and seems to be blossoming and learning a lot
18. that I have found a welcoming Bible Study group that I have been a part of in the last year.
19. that I am going to be an aunt again this summer
20. Isaiah 26:30 “You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You.”
21. a couple of super nice neighbors that I have enjoyed having nearby
22. health insurance – that we have it, and it is sufficient…if we had to pay out of pocket for Owen’s asthma medicine each month it would cost us $2600…instead we pay $85…such a blessing!
23. that food is plenty for us – Proverbs 30:8 “Give me neither poverty nor riches,” he asked, “but give me only my daily bread.”
24. that we have a nice library in our town- didn’t have one in the last place we lived, libraries are cheaper than buying all your books!
25. that Grace loves to read. I love finding her new books that I think she will like and then hearing “I love this book! I knew I would love it when I read the first sentence!”
26. Mochas…yes, this will always make the list!
27. that Danny and I have been able to reduce our debt and are on the same page with our goals and have made a big dent this past year
28. the kiddos in my classes at school-we have smaller classes this year and I feel like I have bonded with a couple kids in particular and it has been fun
29. that my sister-in-law is getting married this summer to a wonderful man, and the kiddos will be flower girl/ring bearer, they will be so cute!
30. that we have two cars that run and have just been blessed with a vehicle that will make Danny’s commute much nicer
31. that Owen asked me if I was 13. When I said “no”, his next guess was 14, not 90, or 52 like one of the kids in my class
32. I have enjoyed our home in a new town that is a little ways away from HOME, but HOME is just a quick drive down the road
33. watching Owen have his first best friend
34. James 1: 2-3 (NIV) Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
35. that my little man is ok after a trip to Urgent Care and a high temperature yesterday. He likes to keep Mommy on her toes…
36. another year with my sweet family

 

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

“The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore”
on Vimeo from Moonbot Studios
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Owen and I watched this short little film today called

Absolutely enchanting. Books are so powerful.

Reminded me of the first few minutes of “Up”…

Irony…

So, I apparently lost a week on the blog…oops:)

Maybe next week…
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Danny and I decided to open a credit union account. Back in the end of December (the 27th to be exact) I went in to one and opened an account. Ordered checks. Ordered debit cards.

As of Tuesday, nearly 5 weeks later, we had not received our debit cards. We have been dancing between two accounts because we had transferred direct deposit, bill pay, etc. to our new account but still need a debit card for so many things.

Well, as of today guess how many debit cards I have?!?!?!

8. eight. EIGHT.

Seriously.

Four arrived yesterday and another four today, by Fed Ex.

It’s funny how something you lack can be so frustrating. Ahh, but an excess of the same thing can also be a bit frustrating just a few days later…

It makes me want to go out and use them a bunch, but unfortunately, 8 debit cards doesn’t mean 8 times the amount of money…

Finding Some Rhythm

As some of you can tell, I have been a bit absent from the blog lately.

Not sure what is going on, but I just haven’t had the posts running through my head like I used to. I am sure a lot of bloggers go through periods of time where it just doesn’t seem like there is much to say…That is where I am…

My mind used to think in posts, or I’d grab the camera knowing that I would want to post pictures of what was happening.  I haven’t felt that way in a couple of months.

The stories are a bit different with an almost 5 and almost 8 year-old (yi.ke.s) but I still want to record their little lives! I’ve been blogging for almost Owen’s entire life and I know what has been written down will be priceless to them when they are older as it is to me already.

So I am not sure how this will translate…I am not sure if I can be “good” and do posts every day like I did for so long…I just know I also don’t want to feel guilty when I don’t post…cause that sure won’t help!

I am going to start by documenting Christmas…Our decorations are down…and it’s practically spring…maybe I should post some Christmas pictures/stories?

Hang in there with me?

Monday Links for Labor Day

Internet reads I’ve enjoyed lately:

Johann Hari: How to Survive the Age of Distraction In his gorgeous little book The Lost Art of Reading – Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time, the critic David Ulin admits to a strange feeling. All his life, he had taken reading as for granted as eating – but then, a few years ago, he “became aware, in an apartment full of books, that I could no longer find within myself the quiet necessary to read”. He would sit down to do it at night, as he always had, and read a few paragraphs, then find his mind was wandering, imploring him to check his email, or Twitter, or Facebook. “What I’m struggling with,” he writes, “is the encroachment of the buzz, the sense that there’s something out there that merits my attention.”

–What I Learned About Mothering from Millionaire Matchmaker “When joy and peace guide me in my mothering, my heart is set free to enjoy my family.  It takes faith to keep walking in that direction, even when we fall short and feel like we are failing.”

–Grateful for Home “My hope is in heaven. And being sure of this makes it all the easier to be content with the myriad earthly homes God has given me… They’re all temporary, even if I live in this new one of ours for the rest of our life.”

–Top Ten Ways to Manage Your Family Vacation My favorites are #10 and #6

–The Great Evangelical Endangered Species “Listen friends, no matter what age or experience we are in life, we need old people sitting in our pews. We need them. We need to learn from their wisdom. We need to engage their stories and honor the value of their history. Do we have to always agree with them? No. Do we have to let the old rule how we do all things. Of course not. But we must honor them. We must respect them. We must create healthy spaces for them to worship God among us, and not in some separate building as a part of the “non contemporary” service.”

Beverly Cleary at 95: A Talk With the Author Who Created Ramona Quimby
Q: As a former librarian, how do you think libraries can or should respond to the declining resources and shifts in usage today?
A: That’s something I can’t solve, but I don’t think anything will ever replace the pleasure of holding a book and turning its pages.

I’m A Big Fan of Blogs: Jones Design Company
” My best friend says that blogs are like pornography for women… It all looks so good and attractive, is inspiring and encouraging {even addicting}, but you often walk away feeling inadequate, let down and unsatisfied with your true reality.”

ETA:

Looking Back at Life’s Decisions, Large and Small
“God can teach you what you need to know either here or there,” she said, a shocking idea to someone who was sure God had one and only one specific Perfect Will for you, and you’d better hit that Will dead center, or else.