Happy Thanksgiving!

It's 3 in the morning here. Jack finally succumbed to the soporific effect of Play With Me Sesame a couple of hours ago. The chocolate chip banana bread is in the oven, and the cranberry oat bread is rising in my bread machine. The lemon blossoms are baked and will be glazed while the cranberry sauce cooks and the corn casserole bakes, things I will do after I get a few hours of sleep. There's an episode of Friends on TV, one that originally aired 14 years ago, the week we spent our first Thanksgiving as a married couple. 

It's been a busy couple of weeks. Money has been tighter than ever, something that inevitably happens this time of year due to the nature of Nick's work. As the holidays draw closer people tend to put off having their car worked on because they are saving for Christmas/Hanukkah, etc. He also missed a day of work on the this check because he was just too sick to make it in. I can't tell you how many times my sweet husband has gone into work sick,  but by the time he was halfway there he could tell he wasn't going to make it and turned around and came home. Fortunately it only lasted a couple of days, and he just missed the one day, but it hit his paycheck pretty hard. 

Even so, God has provided as always. There are things we've not gotten to pay that we needed to, but we've had food and fuel, and the basics have been provided. I'm really praying hard for next couple of weeks. His check will likely be about $500 short of what we need just to pay the bare minimum of what has to be paid no matter what, not to mention money for gas and groceries. And when I say the bare minimum, that's exactly what I mean - there's nothing I can postpone. Everything is as late as it can be without effecting our credit rating. I don't have anywhere I can go to borrow that money, not do I have a way to earn that much. I don't foresee my Etsy shop producing 25+ orders in the next week, and as far as I know there's no one intending to hire Nick for side work. 

But my Father owns the cattle on 1000 hills, and He has promised to provide for us. The same God who fed the 5,000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish is the same God who loves and cares for me and my family, and His promises are sure. My job is to pay attention to following His will - my part of the promise. I crave your prayers these next few weeks - for me and for Nick. I know how frustrating it is for him to every week see his hard earned paycheck gone before it hits the bank. But God is teaching us about faith during these hard days, and I'm so grateful that Nick is willing to walk this road with me. My life is filled with so many blessings, and my husband is far from the least of them.

We're having Thanksgiving dinner at Grant and Kelly's house. Last year I was pregnant, and Kelly had not yet conceived. What a precious thing to have these two new baby boys at the table this year! It's so awesome that all three of my kids have 1st cousins close to their age. Morgan and Kit are 16 months apart, Maddox and Daisy 4 months apart, and Jack and Logan 9 months apart. All of my many 1st cousins on both sides (13 in all) were several years older or younger than me, so I was an adult before any of us really became good friends, and I'm so tickled my three will get to grow up with theirs.

I have sold a couple of pillow covers in the last couple of weeks, which was nice. I also made Jack the cutest little turkey onesie to wear tomorrow. It seems like I'm always too busy to sit down and craft unless I'm filling an order for the shop, and it just lifted my spirits so much to get to make that last night! I just used a onesie he already had and appliqued the turkey parts onto it in felt. I got the idea here, and I think it turned out so cute! (Excuse the crappy cell phone photos).

If you look close you might notice that the onesie is a size 3 months. Yep, my handsome boy is still such a little guy to be less than 6 weeks from his first birthday! My girls were always a size or so above their age, so I'm really cherishing this extra tiny time with Jack. He's perfectly healthy and doing everything he should be doing by this age, so I'm just enjoying it. 

It's really funny to see his tiny little body crawling around at top speed. He's learned to climb stairs too. Fortunately he's not discovered the stairs in our house, but he loves to climb the 3 steps up to the stage at church, and he's learned to climb onto the hearth, then up onto the ottoman, then onto the couch to me at home, which scared the crap out of me the first time he did it. He was down playing in the floor and next thing I knew he was climbing up onto my lap! He's also almost mastered the art of blowing kisses, although sometimes he smacks himself in the forehead instead of the mouth, so it looks like he just realized he forgot something important lol.

Anyway, it's time to take the cranberry loaf out now, so I'll say goodnight. Have a wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving!