Hello, hello

Well, I feel like I should've posted days ago, but I've just been so busy! Let's see...

Last Thursday was my birthday. I'm going to hang onto the fact that 36 is still considered my mid-thirties. The actual day was kind of lame (as for some reason it always is), but I had plenty of blessings surrounding the event. 

Kate sent me a $50 Visa gift card, which came a couple of weeks before my birthday and unfortunately had to be spent on groceries and (literally) a couple of gallons of gas for my car. It sucks when that happens, but it was still a blessing that it came when it did so that I could feed the family for a few days.

Nick got me a 2 TB external hard drive, which I've needed forever. In fact, the last wedding I shot completely filled up the hard drive on my computer before I even finished the editing, and I was in a little bit of a panic about it before he brought out the new one. 

My mom and dad of course bought our YMCA membership, and my mom also showed up on my birthday with homemade banana bread, a bag of Giardelli chocolate raspberry squares, and three small gifts "from the kids". There was a very pretty journal from Daisy, a canvas zipper tote and cosmetics case from Morgan, and a little stationary/organizer set from Jack. 

My in-laws took us all to Chick-Fil-A for my birthday, and they went in with Kelly and Grant on this Thirty-One purse for me.

Robert and Faith got me $20 to JoAnn's (yay!), and James got me $40 to Hobby Lobby (wheee!). I went to Hobby Lobby the same night and got a bunch of stuff - three different fabrics to make Christmas gifts with, some cool printed feathers to make earrings for Morgan and her cousins for Christmas, and three bags of leather scraps, which I use for all kinds of jewelry and bags. So, maybe not exactly anything for me, but I loved the shopping, and I'll probably make a thing or two for myself out of some of it. I went to Joann's yesterday and got some sweet soft baby blanket material for our upcoming additions (Faith's in November, Melanie's in December, and Kelly's in April) and a set of gorgeous stamps that I can just picture using in ornament and jewelry making.

Nick's grandmother got me a bottle of lotion from Bath and Body Works. 

And Nick also let me go to Belk and get some boots and much needed makeup. 

We've had a full and fun few weeks. Nick's stepmom's parents live about an hour and 1/2 from us, and we've only seen them a handful of times in the 14 years she and Nick's dad have been married. They're in their late seventies/early eighties, and they don't like to make the drive, so my in-laws usually drive up to see them. On the 12th Morgan randomly had a soccer game scheduled about 15 minutes from their house, so we decided to turn it into a family visit. (Actually, we were invited - we didn't just decide to barge in on them). This was our first visit there, and I took some pictures of them that I hope will be meaningful to my MIL for Christmas. On the way home Nick's parents took us out to eat at Cracker Barrel, which was a huge treat for us.

Last Monday I took Logan's one year pictures, and I'm almost done editing them.

I finally got all the engagement/rehearsal dinner/wedding pictures edited and turned over to the bride from the wedding a few weeks ago. She ended up getting around 2000 images, and let me tell you, I was glad to be done with them!

This past Saturday was our church picnic, which was a lot of fun. It was actually held at that groom's parent's house, so I got to sit with the bride as she saw all the pictures since she hijacked their TV to play a slide show on as soon as she could. :) She really liked them, which was a relief.

Sunday we tried to go to a local corn maze and pumpkin patch. I scored some super cheap tickets to it a few weeks ago on one of the daily deal sites, and I'd been anxiously awaiting surprising the kids with them. Unfortunately the place was crazy packed, and after 20 minutes of driving around confirming that there was not one parking space open on the whole farm we abandoned the plan for the day. We're going to try to go again this Saturday.

This Friday Nick and I are planning to go on a Haunted Hike, and I can't wait!

Anyway, that's what's up with us - how about you guys?

Floods (of blessing and otherwise)

***Fair warning, this post is a bit long, but I need to have my eyes on my blessings right now, and I've been awfully blessed!***

I've got to be honest, I'm kind of stressed right now. Within the last few hours: Jack threw up everywhere as soon as we put him to bed. Pretty sure the fact that Morgan was dipping him upside down a few minutes earlier had something to do with that. But anyway, pretty much any vomit in the house is dealt with by me, not because I have such a strong stomach (I don't), but because everyone else is worse, and I don't want to have to clean up even more. So I sent Daisy for a towel and Morgan for the baby wash, and I got him hosed down and smelling fresh, a plan he tried to derail by crying and trying to get out of the tub the whole time and finally just peeing in the tub. Once I had him clean I took him to Nick to diaper and put in fresh pajamas while I changed his bed clothes and took everything to the garage to wash.

Finally we got all three kids settled in bed and I went upstairs to change my own clothes. As soon as I got to the bedroom I could hear the water in the bathroom sink on full blast. As no one had been upstairs for about 15-20 minutes, this was alarming. Sure enough, the sink was overflowing and there was about half an inch of water covering the floor, and it was running down into the floor vent. 

That of course had to be dealt with quickly, and while I cleaned up Nick went to the girls' room to investigate. I assumed Daisy would have been the culprit, but no, when I sent Morgan upstairs to get a new sheet for Jack's bed she decided to wash her hands and somehow neglected to turn the water off at all. So now the ceiling in the downstairs bathroom is nice and soft. 

I actually did almost the exact same thing when I was 10, so I can't be too mad, but it was still frustrating. After all that we sat down and watched a movie, Parental Guidance, which was really cute, then Nick went to bed.

Then I sat down and went through the bills and realized that taking every humanly available option into account, we're going to be a couple of hundred dollars short this pay period (which just began two days ago and won't end till Friday after next). I knew we were going to be really tight because of a few different things, but it's frustrating that it's short, and that much. Of course God can provide, and He always does, but I would really appreciate your prayers that He will send the money we need. 

I also just started my period, and when I came upstairs a little while ago to take my shower I found that the water had dripped down into the cabinet under the sink and soaked most of my pads and three precious rolls of toilet paper. Fortunately it didn't get them all, but I was hoping we'd have enough to get us through this pay period, and now I'm fairly sure we won't, at least not with what we have right now. It also soaked my almost completely full box of tampons, but it just got the box itself, and the tampons all stayed dry inside their wrappers.

The great news is that I caught it when I did (before it soaked the bedroom carpet and completely destroyed the downstairs bathroom ceiling), and we didn't have any phones, Ipads, or my Kindle plugged up charging on the sink. That's where we charge them every night, usually when we go to bed, but sometimes I'll leave my Kindle there all day, or we might plug our phones up early if they're dying. Thank God they were all elsewhere. 

BUT, after all that drama, I got into a shower with running hot water and washed and conditioned my hair and dried off with a fluffy towel and generally enjoyed a standard of living 90% of the world doesn't have. First world problems indeed. So I wanted to sit down and post about all the blessings God has showered on us lately, because that's where I need to focus!

First of all, my mom showed up with a HUGE load of groceries last week, so we're in much better shape than we could be. I actually didn't have to buy very much household staple stuff at Walmart, which is always a relief. 

She also really blessed us with something else. Several weeks ago her kitchen stove stopped working. It's a really nice double oven model, but they'd had it for 12 years, so they figured maybe it had just worn out. They remodeled their kitchen last year and got mostly new appliances, so they decided to just bite the bullet and replace it as well. So they purchased the newer model of the one they had, and because my mom is a great shopper they got it for a very good deal.

The other day they delivered the new stove, and when my dad went to move out the old one, they noticed that one of the connector wires was loose. They tightened it back up and it worked perfectly! My mom called me to tell me about it, and she said that she was planning to put the old stove on Craigslist, but that if they couldn't sell it for a decent price, she was going to give it to me. I was excited about the possibility, but I also felt bad that they'd bought a new stove unnecessarily, and I assured her that I wanted her to get some money out of it and that I would pray that it would sell. 

She called me back later and told me that she and my dad had just decided that it would be a hassle to list it and that they would be unlikely to get what they wanted out of it and they would rather just give it to us! So Nick went out to get it that night, and it's sitting in our garage waiting on us to get the time to install it. :)

The funny thing is that not long before all that happened I was randomly telling Nick that if and when we move I'd love to have a house with a double oven. Isn't it awesome how God sometimes blesses us with things we haven't even asked for?

Friday we went to our local trampoline park with our church's youth group. This was a huge treat. We've been once before (actually Nick and the girls went for the first time when Kate was in town this summer, and we went once as a family after that). This is a fairly new facility in our city, and it is SO MUCH FUN, but it's kind of expensive, so it not something that's really on our regular rotation. It was a lot of fun to get to go and take not only ourselves and the kids, but also a couple of Morgan's friends, and the church paid for it all! They even bought pizza for everyone afterwards.

I also had an order for a scarf for a girl at church. I had made one for Kelly for her birthday, and the girl saw it and asked me to make her one too. I had about $4 in the material, and that was enough to make 2 scarves and a matching hair clip. She paid me $8, and I was able to use the extra scarf and the hair clip as a gift for one of Morgan's friends whose birthday party she had to go to today. 

Another neat thing was something Kelly told me today. One of the things I sent Will for his birthday was a paracord survival bracelet I made in the school colors and with the logo for his alma mater, of which he is a huge supporter. The strap on my camera is one I made from paracord, and he was admiring it when we were in Texas. 

I ordered the logo charm months ago off Etsy for a couple of dollars, I was kind of excited about it. He's so hard to buy or make stuff for, just because I don't really feel like I know him all that well, plus he has the money to buy really whatever he wants, but I was pretty sure this was a winner. But as I sent it off I started to doubt myself and worry that maybe he wouldn't like it after all. 

Today Kelly told me that she was talking to Kate, and that she said he was really excited about it, but when he tried to wear it, it was a little too small and that he was really disappointed that it didn't fit. Of course I hate that it was too small, but I love that he really was excited about it, and I'm having Kate mail it back to me so I can remake it to fit him. It always makes me feel so great when someone really loves a gift I make them!

And one of the biggest blessings lately was Daisy's birthday. She's such a sweet little girl, and I really wanted to make the day special for her. I stayed up late the night before (with permission) sewing up her birthday skirts. That was all she had asked me for other than  a Baby Alive doll, so a few weeks ago I let her pick out some fabric, and I think she did great! I had her 5 skirts from the material she chose, plus a birthday outfit I made with a skirt, headband, and matching birthday cake shirt, and the doll she wanted. I also found a nice stuffed bear and elephant at a thrift store. I made the bear a bow and blanket, and I made the elephant a skirt to match her birthday outfit. 

Kate had sent her $50 to The Children's Place, so a few days ago I took her shopping. The gift cards were literally all the money I had, so I had to make sure we kept it within that amount. I found a 20% off coupon in a coupon book my mother-in-law gave me a few weeks ago, and we took our time and looked for bargains. She chose three shirts, two pairs of jeans, and a pair of shoes. When the girl rang us up it came to $52 and some change. Later on I realized that one of the shirts rang up $5 too much, but at the time I thought I had just miscalculated, so I gently told her we would have to put something back. The cashier told me to hang on, and she found a 30% off coupon for us to use instead! Not only did we have enough for everything she wanted, but she also had enough then to get a necklace and two bracelets! That sweet cashier sure made my day!

The morning of her birthday (Saturday) I asked her if she wanted to wear her new jeans with the birthday shirt that was one of the three she bought that day, but she declared that she wanted to wear the shirt with a skirt. One of the skirts I had made her just happened to match it perfectly, so I stuck it in a gift bag and let her go ahead and open it. She loved it, and so out the door we went with a new outfit, complete with the sparkly new shoes that also matched perfectly.

First of all I took all three kids to McDonald's for a cheap lunch. Then we went to this tiny little cash only thrift store. I had $1.50 in cash, so I let her go through the toys and see what she wanted. She had seven things in her shopping basket, and I told her that we might have to choose her favorites depending on the price. When I put them up on the counter I told the cashier that we might have to put a few back as she was doing her birthday shopping herself and only had $1.50. The lady promptly declared that the total was $1, and Daisy very importantly handed it over.

Next we went to the Goodwill, where we had a little more leeway since they take the debit card. There she scored this awesome baby changing/feeding/bathing station for $3. 

The picture is just one I found online, but it's the same one, and it had all the parts except the mobile and the plastic bottles. The other side has more shelves behind doors that close as well as a sink and a changing area. She also found a few dolls, and we even got a few dolls for the nursery at church. 

After that we went to Froyoz, which is a frozen yogurt place that she asks to go to literally almost every time we pass it, which is about 3 times a week. We hadn't been able to take her, so I really wanted to do it as a special birthday treat. I had a buy one get one free coupon for there, so it was also really cheap. 

She wanted to go home and play with her thrift store purchases, so I dropped her, Morgan, and Jack at home while I ran to take some library books back. While I was out I stopped at the Dollar Tree and picked up some little plastic bins and mini packs of diaper wipes for her changing station, as well as a couple of birthday balloons. 

By the time I got home Nick was home from work, and we all loaded up to go out to my parents' house. My mom had balloons on the porch and a birthday banner on the front door, and she had the dining room in full on princess party decor. There was a birthday tiara and more gifts than we could have imagined. Nick's parents came, as well as Kelly, Grant, Logan, James, Robert, Faith, my aunt and my two first cousins as well as their daughters and son. She got SUCH cute clothes, as well as four pairs of shoes for winter (much needed), and several toys as well.

This morning she insisted on wearing her birthday outfit to church, complete with tiara, and I figured why not? At least she got another use from the birthday shirt. :)

Renewed

I got spanked a little while ago. I honestly wasn't thinking anything about it when Nick got up to give me my usual good night kiss before heading up to bed, so it caught me off guard when he said "Let's go upstairs for a minute."

I followed him up and went to pee, and when I came out of the bathroom he was sitting on the bed holding the Jokari paddle. There was a lot of conversation and some lecturing too, and I was surprised to hear myself say the words "I just don't want you to give up on me." And there it was, the real reason I felt so unsettled when he didn't punish me the other night. 

"I'm not giving up on you. If I was we wouldn't be having this conversation." And of course, even knowing how I would feel when it was over, I seriously didn't want to be spanked, but what it boiled down to was that I should have done what I was told the first time, and I was going to get a paddling whether I liked it or not.

It felt like it had been forever since I'd gotten a spanking, and he was intent on making his point. There were tears not very far in, and I had to be told to stay put more than once. But of course when it was over and he was holding me and telling me he was sorry he'd had to spank me, and I was telling him I was sorry I'd disobeyed, I felt immensely better, and we ended the night in sweet spirits.

Later

Well, I got the kitchen all clean. And I even had dinner ready for him when he got home. He said dinner was good, and we spent an innocuous evening in front of the TV. He fell asleep on the couch, so he was pretty out of it when I dragged him up to bed. I asked him if we were good now that the kitchen is clean, and right before he fell fast asleep again he said "We'll deal with it later." So I'm not sure what that means now.

Scattered.

I've been stretching myself a little thin lately. Last month, besides going to the gym and taking Morgan to soccer practice and games, I've had three doctor's visits for the kids, one dentist appointment, a couple of Etsy orders, some mending for a girl at church, birthday gifts to make for Robert, Kelly, and Will, Trick or Treat bags to make for Kit and Maddox, a Halloween wreath to make for Kate (I needed the last three done so early so I could mail them all together with Will's birthday gift to Texas), sewing for Daisy's birthday, mending for Nick (broken zipper on his gym bag), and three photo shoots for the same couple - one engagement, one rehearsal dinner, and one wedding, and we're talking over 2600 shots that needed to be culled, edited, and converted from RAW format. I'm still working my way through those since the rehearsal dinner and wedding were just this last weekend.

This month promises to be just as busy. Friday we have a youth event at church that Nick and I will be helping with, Saturday is Daisy's birthday (fourth!) which entails a small family party and for which I still have a few skirts to sew (her special birthday request), Sunday is our church's homecoming, the 10th is Logan's first birthday and party (have to make him a gift), the 12th I have Faith's maternity shoot, the 13th is Melanie's baby shower (for which I have yet to make a gift), the 16th is James' birthday (gotta make a gift) the 17th is my birthday, although I don't have any plans for it, the 19th is the church picnic, the 26th is Faith's baby shower (and yes, I still need to make her a gift). And of course Halloween is 5 days later, and I'm going to have to come up with 3 costumes somewhere, although Daisy is making it easy for me by insisting on going as a "girl ghost" (white sheet with eye holes and a pink bow on top, and done!).

All of that is to say that I've let some things around here go. Like everything. The house has truly gotten to an atrocious state, and my car was the same. Saturday I had to leave for the wedding earlier than Nick. He was actually running the sound system for the ceremony, but I had to get there early to start photographing the bride getting ready. I took his truck so that he could have the car to drop the kids and car seats off at his parents' house since they were going to bring them to the wedding and watch them so we could work. Many exhausting hours later we switched cars back after the wedding, and I got in mine to find it absolutely spotless. When I got home, the living room was immaculate.

Now obviously I really appreciate Nick doing all of that for me (with Morgan's help). It took a huge load off of me, but it also made me feel really, really guilty. He'd mentioned the car and the house, the living room especially a few times over the last few weeks, and I knew I was dropping the ball. So when all of a sudden something I'm supposed to do gets taken off my plate, I feel like there's bound to be a cost to that, and that maybe there should be. So when I apologized that he'd had to do it himself that night, he informed me that he was going to deal with it later, which in our house means a spanking.

And I was...relieved. Not that I wanted to get spanked, just that I felt like I probably deserved to, and that the universe would be back in balance so to speak once it happened. The truth is, I've not been handling my time wisely, and when I let things get too crazy, I really do need him to come down hard on me. I hate it at the time, but it refocuses me, and it reminds me that there are consequences to my actions. 

Even with the kids in bed at a reasonable hour these days, it's rare for a punishment to happen the same night it's brought up, so I wasn't surprised that he went to bed without handling it that night. But the next day I was fairly sure he was going to do it after the kids were in bed. To my surprise, he went to be without mentioning it again, and by that point I had reached the stage where I genuinely dread and fear what's coming, so I decided that was a positive thing. When I went up a couple of hours later and he snuggled up behind me with sweeter things on his mind I was pleasantly surprised and more than willing. 

"This is a nice surprise," I murmured. "I though I was getting a spanking tonight."

"Mmm..you need one," he answered. But then he wasn't interested in talking anymore, and by the time we were done he had decided to let it go. 

The next morning he told me he wanted me to work on the house and concentrate on the kitchen. But the day was crazy, and I spent it editing pictures, chasing kids, and keeping the living room as clean as he'd had it, and somehow the kitchen didn't get done.

Today he came home early from work, sick to his stomach and battling a headache. I gave him something for the pain and put him to bed, and he slept a good 4 or 5 hours. I worked on the kitchen some, but I also did a lot of child wrangling and picture editing, and it still isn't done. Tonight when he went to bed he told me that he wants me to have it done tomorrow, and I plan to do just that. But I feel like I've gotten away with something I shouldn't have, like I ran over him by not focusing on what he asked me to do, and I don't like it.