Christmas

So I fell off posting in December. It's always a crazy busy month for me because of dealing with Christmas gifts. God showed up in so many ways for us last month. One of the biggest blessings was around the middle of the month. All three kids were sick, but especially Jack. Our pediatrician copay is $5, and I had figured out that we were going to have exactly that much available in the bank to cover it. Then a preauthorized payment came in a day early. I got enough money in the bank to cover it before it processed out, but because they knew about it before I made the deposit, they still charged $70 in fees, which put us $65 overdrawn. Not only did this take the copay money, but it meant that if we couldn't get enough to cover the shortage within a few days they would charge us another fee on top of it. I asked my Facebook friends to please lift us up for an unspoken prayer request, and I called the bank as soon as customer service opened. I explained the situation, and the agent was very nice and agreed to refund half the fee ($70), which was great, but it still left us $30 short and needing money for the doctor. I asked if a manager might be able to refund the rest, and he seemed doubtful, but agreed to get one on the line. Let me just tell you, that lady was an angel. She listened to this stressed out teary mama, and not only did she waive the other $35, but she went back on the account and waived every fee she could find, putting our account at a positive $110. I had gone to drop off some work for Morgan at school since she was home sick and made the call from the parking lot there. I sat in my car and cried over how above and beyond good to us God is. So I got to take all three kids to the doctor instead of just Jack, which turned out to be a very good thing since they all three had strep. 

The whole month God pulled us through bit by bit. I had 8 or 10 craft orders throughout the month that covered gas and groceries day by day. 

Grant and Kelly had their baby boy on the 9th of December, and I got to be in the room for it taking pictures, which is such a special thing for me. This is the third niece or nephew I've had the privilege of seeing born, and it's the best thing ever!

Christmas was very nice. Nick bought me a couple of pieces for my Willow Tree Nativity, a couple of pretty bras, and some makeup. I got him some duck decoys, a duck call, a few stocking stuffers, and I made him 4 custom t shirts, which were a big hit. The kids got pretty much everything they wanted, and life was good all around. 

Right now we are in a very hard place financially again, but I know God shines brightest in those situations, and I can't wait to see what He does to meet our needs again. 

Thanksgiving

Did you guys have a good Thanksgiving? Ours was very nice! As usual we went to my mom and dad's house, and Mom fixed the ham, potatoes, and a few pies while Kelly, Faith, and I handled the rest of the food. Kelly made the turkey, which is always amazing. She gets it so juicy! She also brought a few other things, deviled eggs, sweet potato casserole, rolls, chocolate truffles, and the sweetest little turkey cookies for the kids. Faith made squash casserole, fried okra, shucked beans, rolls, and homemade honey and pumpkin butters. Yum! Nick made deviled eggs, and I made corn casserole, lemon blossoms, pumpkin trifle, and cranberry sauce. After lunch the guys went hunting while the rest of us just hung out and talked and watched the kids, and I even got to take a nap - decadence!

I got paid for the aprons I made for the church that day, and I also had the money come in on Paypal for a decal order, which was nice. Another neat thing that happened was that Nick got to bring home a HoneyBaked Ham from his job on Wednesday, and it is SO good! 

I mentioned last time I posted that I had found some great Christmas gifts at thrift stores. Well, one of those gifts that I found last week was a kid's die cutting machine called a Cuttlekids. These retail for about $45, and I found one new in the box with all the accessories for $3.99. I have a big die cutting machine myself that I love and use all the time, and Daisy always wants to use it, so I know she'll love this. The thing is, it only comes with a couple of dies, so when I went to a different thrift store this past Wednesday I had it in mind to try to find a few more dies for it. Now I didn't think it was particularly likely that I would find any, but it was just a thought. Would you believe that I found a whole pile of them still in their packages? They ranged from $.99 to $1.99, and the $1.99 ones had multiple dies in the pack. I scooped them right up! Then I went to Joann Fabric for their early Black Friday sale. They had flannel on sale for 70% off, so was able to buy enough for baby blankets for all the soon to be born babies I need to buy for for less than $2.50 a blanket. I'll be taking 5 of them to church tomorrow and making 3 for Kelly and Grant's baby. Joann's also had their remnants marked 75% off the current price, which made flannel remnants something like $0.52/yard, and I got a bunch of remnants which will go to make pillows and lovey blankets. 

We've been so blessed this year with Christmas gifts for the kids coming in from all different directions. A friend messaged me today asking me if I would like a pair of boots that belonged to her daughter and had only been worn twice. Yesterday  I got a call from my mom telling me that my cousin had decided to get rid of their air hockey table and my aunt wanted to get rid of her elliptical machine. They were both just going to take them to the thrift store, but they wanted to know if we wanted them instead. Um, yes please! The elliptical is going to go in our bedroom, and the air hockey table is going to be an awesome Christmas gift for the kids! This particular cousin has blessed us with timely hand-me-down in the past. In fact, she's pretty much made Christmas for our kids a time or two. Jack's birthday is 8 days after Christmas, which sometimes makes it a little tight, and last year she passed along her son's like-new Spiderman bike for us to give him as a gift from us.

Kelly, I think I mentioned, is having a baby (any day now), and she asked me if she could buy some htv (heat transfer vinyl) from me for a project. She wanted to make a milestone blanket for the baby, but she was afraid that if she ordered the vinyl online it wouldn't have time to get here before the baby came. I had some on hand, so she came out tonight and I cut out the numbers and words on my Cameo and we put it together. She owed me money for the vinyl (it took over 6 feet of it), but she forgot to bring it with her, so we worked it out that instead she's going to order some glitter htv for me when she places an order herself on Cyber Monday. This works out perfect for me, because glitter htv is one of the last few things I need to finish my Christmas gifts, and I didn't have money left to order from the sale myself. This way I get what I need and she's paying the flat shipping fee!

Friday Nick was off and we got to go do some running around together and have a wonderful lunch date at The Chop House using a birthday gift card I got last month. Anyway, I think that's about all that's been happening since I last posted. God is still showing up in a big way! We face more financial challenges in the days ahead, so please keep asking God to provide for us - obviously He's hearing all our prayers! Please specifically pray that He will keep sending in craft orders for me!

Starting Christmas

It's been a good weekend. We're low on money at this point, but we were able to pay the bills, put gas in the cars, fill Morgan's lunch account, and buy a few groceries, although we need a few more of those. But dinner tonight was delicious, and I know what I'm making tomorrow. We have season passes to a local amusement park, and we took the kids for a few hours last night to see the Christmas lights, which was a lot of fun.

I was also able to knock out six major Christmas gifts using a huge coupon, which was a big relief. Every year I make photo calendars for the dads and brothers in my life using an annual buy-one-get-two-free coupon, and they are always a huge hit. Putting them together is probably the most stressful and time consuming part of the Christmas season for me, but I'm thrilled to have something that works well and is affordable for people who are otherwise hard to buy/make for. 

This starts the busy season for me, the time when I start making all of our Christmas gifts for everyone. The heat press my parents bought me for my birthday/Christmas is going to be a huge help with that this year. I'm so grateful to have the tools and materials I need to help make instead of buy gifts, as well as to bring in a little money here and there with orders. 

Speaking of orders, my mom has ordered several custom aprons, and I'm working on an order for a memory blanket made from special clothes for a friend's daughter. I've also got a couple of decal orders waiting for pickup. None of these are super lucrative, but they do add up, and I'm grateful!

Preparing

I know it's been too long since I've posted here. But I'm still kicking. Life has been busy but wonderful. Christmas was a precious time as always. I got some fun things, but the biggest was a Dyson DC59 Animal with a Home and Car Cordless Tool Kit from Will and Kate. I know it's not exactly a wild and crazy gift, but I was super excited - it's the first decent vacuum cleaner I've ever owned! And it was completely unexpected. Kate has one that she loves and uses constantly, and I've used it at her house. I was thinking it was a Shark and that it also was a steam cleaner, and a few months ago when we were looking for something to buy to use on our laminate flooring I called and asked her what kind she had. She told me it was a Dyson and that it was just for vacuuming, so I pretty much forgot about it since A) Dyson's are crazy expensive and B) we were looking for a steam mop. Anyway, we found a Shark steam mop at Lowe's that we've loved, and we put an actual vacuum on the back burner since our only carpet was in our bedroom and on the stairs. The carpet in both places was pretty sad, and we had a little Shark hand vac, so we decided to just stick with that for now.

BUT, now we have new carpet!! We're smack in the middle of (well hopefully not the middle of, hopefully more toward the end of) getting our house on the market. Last month we found a house that we really, really love. It's already on the market, but it's been sitting there for 11 months now with no offers. In fact, we looked at the listing last year, but at the time they wanted $30,000 more than their current asking price, and it was beyond what we could even consider. But they've come down to within our price range, and their realtor (who will also be our realtor when we list) told us when he toured the house with us that they are not firm even on the lower price, so they may be willing to come down some more. 

One point against it for some buyers is that it is located directly across from the entrance to a rifle range, which scares a lot of people who don't know much about it. But the shooting area for the range is far, far away on the property on the other side of the street and facing away from the house. And it's also 3 driveways down from our community soccer and football fields, which should tell you something about the safety of it. I think the biggest reason they've not had any offers is because of their more or less horrific decorating style. The big dark poofy drapes, excessive floral and gilt, and terrifying 80's furniture is pretty off-putting, but that's their stuff - we're only worried about the house beneath it. And the house itself is awesome. The only cosmetic stuff we would have to change would be switching out a few chandeliers for ceiling fans, replacing the blood red shower surround and matching vanity, and adding a dishwasher. Everything else is perfect, including the fact that it has a ginormous garage for Nick, a huge playroom for Jack and Daisy, a separate room for each kid, 3 bathrooms, generous closet spaces, a massive master bedroom, a laundry room, tons of play area outside, nice landscaping, and........a craft room!!! Can you hear the angels singing? 

It's about 2 1/2 times the size of our current home, but it's well insulated and also has a wood stove to help with heating, and the utility bills are actually pretty comparable to ours here. Property taxes are also about the same. The owners built the house 43 years ago and raised their family there, and you can tell that it's been lovingly maintained. They're retired now and are building themselves a little cabin in the country, so they're anxious to sell. And I LOVE the fact that the soccer fields are just a few yards down the road. Morgan played soccer for a couple of years, and Jack and Daisy will likely do the same. And there's a greenway for walking with a playground at the end of it, as well as a dog park along the way. When Morgan had practices Nick and I would walk with the littles and sometimes the dog, and I really enjoyed it.

Now I know, this house is far from being ours. Especially since we're not even to market yet with our house. But we're close to listing, and as soon as we do we plan to put down a contingency offer. We've already gotten pre-approved for the loan, and our realtor seems to think our house will be pretty desirable in our area. And when it comes down to it, if it's not the house God has for us, it just means He has something better.

But, we do feel led to go ahead and get ours listed, so toward that, we've: put down new linoleum in both bathrooms, given almost everything a fresh coat of paint, had new carpet put down in all three bedrooms, the hallway, and on the stairs, done lots of patching and sanding and painting on random wall dings, put up a nice new light fixture in the bathroom downstairs, begun painting our kitchen cabinets white (oh my gosh I love them, why didn't we do this years ago?), and rented a storage unit, which currently holds about 50% of our belongings. We've still got to finish the cabinets, paint the ceilings, paint the kitchen, lay the linoleum in the kitchen (which is in our garage waiting on us to finish the ceiling paint), clean out the garage, clear out some brush and stuff at the side of the house, and hire someone to paint the back of the house. Right now we're in the middle of an ice storm, so the outside stuff is off limits for the moment, but we're working hard to get the rest done.

And guys, I've been doing so much better with keeping stuff clean! Granted the kitchen is in chaos right now, but that's because it's under construction. But the bedrooms and bathrooms always look nice. And the living room is more or less always within 15 minutes of being clean, now that all the furniture from the rest of the house that was moved there during carpet installation has been moved back.

So what else has been happening other than house stuff? Well, Nick and I had an unexpected and totally awesome date night Dec 30. We took the kids up to visit with my parents one afternoon, and they offered to keep all three and sent us out the door! We had gift cards for The Chop House  as well as for a movie, so we enjoyed an amazing dinner and went to see The Mockingjay Part One, and even squeezed in a quick trip to Tuesday Morning in between! 

We got our income tax return, which is mostly gone now, but we were able to use it to pay some bills, pay my parents back for some money they had let us borrow last year, rent the storage unit for a few months, and do some repairs on Nick's truck. The bills we paid will especially be helpful as they would have all been due on his next check this Friday. Please be in prayer for us, because he used a couple of sick days to deal with removing our old carpet and flooring and then being here while the new carpet went in, which would have been fine, but then his place of business has been closed for the last two days because of the ice storm, so his paycheck will be taking a huge hit, and we still have a number of other bills to pay. But we are just trusting God and praying - He always shows up!

Oh, something kind of funny (in retrospect) happened last month. Nick and I had made arrangements for someone to watch all three of our kids overnight. His dad and stepmom were taking Morgan and Jack, and my parents were taking Daisy. This is not common. In fact, other than that night, it has never happened. That was Jack's first (and so far only) sleepover. And prior to his birth, the only time Daisy had been away from us overnight was when I was in the hospital during my pregnancy with Jack. That means that Nick and I had not had a whole night alone in over 5 years.

Now we didn't have any big romantic plans. We just needed the kids out from under foot while we (he) installed the linoleum in the bathrooms and painted. But still, we were looking forward to the night, blasting our music from the 90's and painting in our underwear if we wanted, and who knew where the night might lead?

That night our church youth group went ice skating, and Morgan, her bestie Allie, and Allie's boyfriend were all going. I was to pick them up afterwards, then drop them all off where they were supposed to be. Now normally, Allie rides the bus home with Morgan on Friday and we drop her off at home Sunday night after church. I joke that we have custody of her on weekends, although really her parents are a bit presumptive about leaving her with us. It kind of gives us an extra mouth to feed almost half the week since they never send her any money to eat on, and I never get a call from her mom asking if it's okay for her to stay.  But normally it's fine. Truly. She's not a problem, and we're her only access to church since her parents don't attend anywhere. If it was a major issue, I would have a talk with her parents, but generally it's not a problem and she's welcome in our home.

But a few days before, Morgan had gotten grounded, and she had told Allie that she wouldn't be able to stay over that weekend, although she was still welcome to attend the youth event and church services with us. Allie was fine with this and understood, but apparently her mom assumed she would still be staying with us for the weekend. So after the ice skating, I picked the 3 kids up and dropped off first Allie's boyfriend, then Morgan, saving Allie for last because she lives just down the road from our neighborhood. 

On the way home, she had tried to call her mom multiple times to tell her she was on her way, but couldn't get an answer. I had mentioned several times while the kids were in the car that Nick and I were going to be alone overnight for the first time in over 5 years, and there was never any question that she would be going home. But when we got to her house, it was locked up tight as a drum, all the lights out. Allie doesn't have a key to the house, nor does she know the alarm code, and her parents turn off their phones when they go to bed (which it turns out is before 10:30 PM). After dozens of call and texts to both parents and 20 minutes or so of standing in the freezing cold while multiple doorbell rings as well as increasingly aggressive knocks on the door went completely unanswered, Allie even tried knocking on her brother's window to no avail. It was 24°F out there, people. Even had I been willing to leave her there to fend for herself if it had been warm (I wasn't), there was no way I could even think about driving off in any circumstances with it so cold. So I sent her to the car to warm up while I tried one more time to wake someone inside. I called Nick and told him what was going on so that he would be prepared (ie. not painting in his underwear when we got there), and drove her home with me.

Bless her heart, she stayed up most of the night cleaning and organizing Morgan's room while we worked (her idea, not ours!). I think she felt pretty bad about the whole thing, although of course I couldn't be mad at her. Her mom on the other hand, I was pretty put out with. Even if she had been supposed to spend the night with us (which she hadn't), what if there had been an emergency? What if she'd been in a car wreck or been injured ice skating? In my book it's pretty inexcusable to make it so that your kid can't reach you in an emergency, especially when you've not verified where they're going to be overnight! We got a text from her mom about 5:30 the next morning full of apologies, but of course by then it was too late.

It would be just our luck though that we worked so hard to get overnight care for all three of our kids and ended up having someone else's lol. The good news is that Jack did well overnight at his grandparents' house, and they expressed a willingness to keep him again sometime. So maybe we'll eventually get that night alone after all.

DD has been more or less MIA around here. In the last 2 years there have been 10 serious spankings. The last discipline of any sort was over 5 months ago. Not that I'm keeping some kind of tally, but I do post about it here every time it happens, and it's a little sad for me to look back and realize just how sparse it's been. I think it just leaves me feeling a little...untended. I know that right now we are extremely busy, and the DD dynamic is always the first thing to go. Or maybe not the dynamic, per se, because he's still the guy in charge, but it feels more like it's staying that way because I want it to rather than because he's enforcing it. And I guess that's really the way it should be. And it's not that I actually want a spanking. As long as it's been, I do still remember just how much they hurt. I think I just miss knowing that the boundaries are real and that they are solid and hurt to run into. Bah, this is stupid. I know it's a pot best left unstirred, and besides, all our "stirrers" are in storage. I think it's just the fact that I'm generally pretty well behaved and it's not something that's ever really discussed, or at least if I bring it up he just kind of nods in acknowledgement and basically refuses to contribute anything else to the conversation. It kind of makes the whole thing feel like a figment of my imagination. But I suppose 10 years into it there's not a whole lot about it we need to discuss. Meh. I won't be bringing it up.

What else? Daisy's stomach has been bothering her again, so I guess we will try seeing her doctor again. Tons of tests and visits last go round didn't turn anything up, but she's with a new pediatrician now, so maybe they can get to the bottom of it. Jack took a flying leap off Daisy's bed and smashed his poor little nose into Morgan's bed last week. It bled forEVER, and he had a bit of a bruise, but he doesn't seem to have broken it, and the bruise has more or less disappeared. 

Jack turned three last month (me sobbing quietly into a pile of tiny little baby clothes). We didn't have resources to do a party this year, but my parents gave us the money to take the 5 of us to Chuck E Cheese's, and it was the greatest experience of his young life. :)

Hmm, I think those are the highlights. Anyway, I'm off to do more housework!

Holiday fun

Hi, guys! Just popping in for a minute. Thanksgiving was wonderful! The food was wonderful, and it was such a sweet time with family! I'm actually just about done with Christmas gifts, if you can believe it. I was able to do some careful shopping, and I was able to get some really great buys, so I'm having to make very little this year. 

God has been taking care of us as always. Sunday on the way into church, we were discussing in the car how we were going to be able to make it through the pay period since Nick had just gotten paid two days earlier, and we were already at the end of our money just with bills and both needed gas in our vehicles, not to mention groceries. We just prayed about it, and when we got to church, our head deacon handed Nick an envelope with his name on it. Inside was an unprecedented, VERY much unexpected check for $750. The church had decided to give a one time Christmas gift (of varying amounts I think) to several of the people who serve in our church, including our piano player and her bass player husband, our youth pastor, and Nick, who runs our sound booth for every service and creates all the CDs and DVDs for our media ministry. This is not necessarily going to be an every year kind of thing, but it was such an incredible blessing this year!

I've also gotten several photo shoots recently, and just tonight Nick got a job for some mechanic side work. God is so very good to us, and I need to get back to posting regularly so that I can share (and later remember!) just how very much He blesses us!

Tonight was Nick's work Christmas party, and while it wasn't the best year by any means, it was still really nice to have a few hours out kid free with him.

Last night I went up to bed a bit early because I had to get up early today for our Ladies Craft Meeting at church. I was still awake though a little while later when Nick came up, and I was pleasantly surprised to feel him curl  around me and began to explore. Next thing I knew, he had flipped me onto my stomach and was giving me a very hot spanking, followed by equally hot sex. Good night indeed. :)

I'm off to bed for now. Have a great night, all!

Catching up, and a birthday spanking to remember.

It looks like it's been over a month since my last post, and you can blame Jamie and Claire. Well, partly. I may be halfway through Drums of Autumn, the fourth book, which means that I have devoured approximately 2700 pages in the last 3 1/2 weeks. But, honestly, I can't blame them entirely. 

I finally found the kids a new pediatrician, something I've been trying to accomplish all year, so I had to deal with well visits and immunization catch ups for Jack and Daisy. Quick(ish) summary: last fall our longtime pediatrician group quit taking our insurance. We decided to go with the one Robert and Faith use, but they wouldn't see new patients till the New Year, so we were in limbo for a bit. When I was able to schedule an appointment finally, they set it for the 3rd week of January for Jack to get his 24 month immunizations. Then both he and Daisy got really sick, and they agreed to see them both early the next morning at 8 AM. But that night they spiked scary fevers, so we took them to an urgent care office. They both had double ear infections and strep like symptoms, and the urgent care place wrote them prescriptions. So first thing in the morning I called the peds office to cancel the appointments, but they didn't turn their phones on till 8:30, 30 minutes after our appointment (weird, right?), and the answering service said they could not get them a message. So I called back when they turned on the phones in the office and explained the situation. The nurse was super understanding and assured me they wouldn't count it as a no show since they were unavailable to be notified. And they told me that they would call me the day before to remind me of Jack's previously scheduled appointment, still several weeks out.

Right before that appointment, our pipes burst, and we spent two days cleaning everything up. The next day (Friday) was his appointment, but I thought it was on the coming Monday, and they never did the reminder call. So on Monday morning I called to confirm the time, and they told me that we had missed the appointment, and they would not see Jack at all as a patient, because this was our third no show. I explained again the situation with the original appointments and told them that I had been assured that these would not be considered no shows since I had done my best to let them know before my appointments. She agreed to ask the doctor to reconsider in light of the extenuating circumstances, but I've never been able to get her to call me back on it, despite bringing it up during every visit with Daisy (who oddly enough could still get appointments). Daisy only saw the nurse practitioner, so I never actually met the doctor. Anyway, I finally had enough and changed to the pediatrician Kelly and Grant use, and we LOVE them!

So when I took Daisy to her well visit a couple of weeks ago, it turned out that one of her ear piercing sites was infected. They had to get the earring out so it could heal, and it was terribly painful and traumatic for her (and me watching!). (But the doctor and nurses were fantastic). The plan was to get it re-pierced after it healed, but she ended up being so afraid of it getting infected again that she's opted to wait until she's older. Ah well, at least when she does get them redone she'll have plenty of earrings on hand, because she got about 40 pairs for her birthday.

So what else? Kelly's birthday was the 29th, and I made her a couple of pairs of earrings. Will's birthday was the next day, and I made him a Dopp kit. Then Daisy's birthday was the 5th. Five years old! I can't even believe it! I made her several pieces of jewelry (but no earrings lol), and we bought her a baby doll that looks just like Grant and Kelly's baby girl Madison. 

We also got her a couple of other things, but we didn't give them to her till the 11th, when she had her very first official birthday party! We've always done little family celebrations, but this was the first one with friends invited, and it was awesome!

All the girls attendees got to adopt a baby doll and take home lots of dolls accessories besides, and the boys all got stuffed animals. It was a pretty cheap party to put together, and she had the time of her life!

My birthday was Friday, and it was a pretty good day! Usually my birthday kind of sucks, but not this year. My friend Ann stopped by to see me and brought pumpkin spice lattes and donuts, and Nick had some gorgeous flowers delivered! I got some cool craft supplies, some clothes, and a gift certificate for a manicure. Yay! And my parents even kept all three kids so Nick and I could go out for a birthday dinner.

And Sunday night...I got a birthday spanking! The last time I had a birthday spanking was 2007! But this year I got up the nerve to send Nick a text telling him what I wanted out of it, and I hit send before I could chicken out. Here's what it said:

So here are my thoughts on a birthday spanking. I know it's a silly and sometimes sexy little tradition, but I think that's not what I need. I think I need something that is more of a course setter for the year to come, something to help me refocus and recommit. So I am happy with 37 (or 38 as the case may be), although if it goes farther I may not be completely opposed. But I'm thinking maybe the spencer paddle (or maybe that's a mistake) over jeans, at least as long as I can cooperate. And holy crap I'm almost 11 years into this, when the heck am I going to stop feeling so shy and awkward trying to talk to you about it? Sorry, I'm a huge dork.

That was Saturday, and one reason I sent it then was because I knew one of Morgan's friends was spending the night that night, so he wouldn't be able to do it right away. I needed some time to acclimate myself to the idea. Sunday night though we sent the kids to bed at 9:00, and I went upstairs to shower and to spend some time in the 18th century with my Kindle while Nick watched a show I wasn't interested in. 

After the show went off, he joined me upstairs and asked if I was ready for my birthday spanking. Of course by then I had totally chickened out, it having been over a month since my last spanking, and knowing that I had basically told him I wanted this to be a rather more serious experience. I did a bit of reasonable arguing, and told him that after all, I hadn't actually done anything, so we could really just skip it. Fortunately he refused to let me back out of it, telling me that either I could take my birthday spanking or he could come up with a few good reasons why I actually deserved a hard spanking and punish me for those. It's true enough that he had a few of those to hand, so I wisely opted for the birthday spanking instead, and he told me to get the paddle. I balked at this, because well, by now I was truly nervous, but he insisted, and when I asked which one he wanted, he asked me did he need to read the text to me. So, resigned, I pulled out the Spencer paddle. 

Per my text, he allowed me to keep my jeans on, but he seemed quite determined to make it a memorable experience. He spanked hard enough for me to lose count, but he said he stopped at 38. Then he said, "Unless you wanted TWO to grow on -" and gave me an extra hard swat that had me squealing and twisting. Then he let me do a bit of complaining about how terribly hard he'd spanked me and how much my bottom hurt, but I went on a bit far, and, not quite half playfully he decided another session wouldn't come amiss, and he spanked me again, this time even harder. 

He then had the nerve to go on about how easy he'd been on me "pants still on, not that many, and not all that hard." He was teasing me a bit there, watching my reaction, especially to the "not all that hard" part, and I actually had to shove my face into the pillow to keep from protesting his assessment. I've no doubt at all though that had if I had opened my mouth to disagree I would have found myself getting spanked again. 

After the birthday spanking was over, he said, "Okay, that's the birthday spanking, now for your punishment."

"What?!" I yelped, whirling away from him.

"Well, I did tell you to put away the laundry on the chair downstairs, didn't I? You weren't supposed to have it there in the first place, and you said you would put it away last night, but it's still there, isn't it?"

Yes, sir," I admitted grudgingly. "But you just spanked me, and my bottom is really sore! Please don't punish me right now!" I could see then that he was teasing me again, at least about spanking me for it right then, although he was serious enough about the laundry. He told me he wasn't going to spank me for it that night, and he told me to take my pants off. At that point things took a rather delicious turn, but those memories are just for me and him.

Today my bottom was quite sore and a little bruised, and sitting was painful in a very good way. It was just exactly what I needed. Just before we went to sleep I asked him if he was really going to spank me again the next day for the laundry, and he told me that depended on me. If he came home and the laundry on the chair was still there and the dirty clothes upstairs had not been carried down, he would give me a spanking, sore bottom or not. Needless to say there was nary a sock in sight when he got home today. :)

July so far...

Did everyone have a nice 4th of July? Ours was quite lovely. We actually went to my parents' house the day before for a cookout, and it was a lot of fun having all 6 of their grandkids under one roof, especially since 5 of them are 4 years and under. :) Of course they're all together every week at church, but it was nice to have them where they could get down and play and make lots of noise. The actual 4th we went up to Nick's grandparents' cabin on the lake. It was wonderful! We had great food, fishing and swimming, and when it got dark, some of us went out on the pontoon boat and watched the fireworks going off all over the lake. 

I've really missed the cabin. We spent our honeymoon there, and every June for years we would go back for a family June birthday party and then stay for several days to celebrate our anniversary. For the last three years Nick has used his free week of vacation for church camp, so we've not gotten to stay for the week since 2010, and in 2011 we just had a weekend there. This was the first year at least as long as we've been married that they've not had a June birthday party, which was sad.

This year he gets 3 weeks vacation, and we were so looking forward to having a week there again. Unfortunately, since Nick's grandfather passed away, his grandmother has been getting more skittish about life in general, and she told us at Easter that she didn't think she was going to let anyone stay up there anymore. When Nick's dad opened the cabin up for the season there were some plumbing problems that had appeared over the winter, and I guess she's paranoid that someone will tear something up and Nick's grandfather is no longer here to fix things. This is disappointing to be sure, but we're hoping and praying that she will come around. 

Saturday we took the kids to the mountains and just walked around and had fun as a family, which was such a precious gift. God has been so good to provide us some financial ease recently, and it was wonderful to be able to have time with family on all three days and not have to scramble for money for gas or food to take to the celebrations.

Another blessing was that my parents found a killer deal on an upgraded washer and dryer a few weeks ago, and they passed their old set on to us. Obviously it was used, but definitely an upgrade to our washer and dryer, both of which were close to wearing out entirely. We were hoping to make it to next income tax return time so that we could buy a new set, so this was a real blessing. It's actually made laundry a much more pleasant chore. :)

I did end up getting a spanking after all. He planned to get to it Friday night after the kids were in bed, but he fell asleep on the couch. Then he planned to handle it Saturday night, but we got home late, and when he was ready to do it and go to bed, the girls were still awake (although they were in bed). So he decided that he would set the alarm early and do it before church. He was quite prepared to wake me up and paddle me (a rude awakening indeed), but his alarm also woke the girls up, and they came piling upstairs (saved by the bell!). 

Finally Sunday night the stars aligned and he took me upstairs to meet my fate. Forty or so swats with the Patty paddle from Cane-iac over my jeans might not sound so bad, but 4 months is a long time to go between spankings, and I was definitely on fire from the start. But it was exactly what I needed, and I've rediscovered my motivation for housework since lol. Now if I could just rediscover the same motivation to get to bed on time!

Anniversary Week

How's everyone doing? It's been a busy couple of weeks for us. After camp I had to get 4 photo sessions finished, as well as an Etsy order filled, and several birthday gifts made, some of which I'm still working on.

Mine and Nick's 16th anniversary was on the 26th, which was a Thursday. He had to work that day, and that evening we had a memorial service to attend for a friend from church who lost his battle with cancer earlier that week, so there wasn't really any time to celebrate. But after the memorial service, my mom and dad did take both Morgan and Daisy home with them, so we took Jack and went and had a lovely dinner together.

The next day Nick told me to meet him after work for a surprise. I took the kids shopping at a Burke's Outlet and found a cute outfit to wear on our date for a great price. Then I dropped the kids off at my parents' house and headed out to meet Nick. He surprised me with a yummy dinner of fish tacos and an art class! It was one of those places where you all paint the same thing and follow along with the instructor, and you can bring food and drinks to enjoy while you paint. I did one of these classes a couple of years ago with a girlfriend and had a blast, and I'd mentioned several times how much I wanted to do one with Nick, so this was an awesome surprise! The instructor offered an option to split the painting with your partner so you didn't take two mostly identical paintings home to the same house, so I painted the left side of the scene on my canvas, and Nick painted the right side on his. The painting we did was loosely based on Van Gogh's Starry Night, which I've always loved. We'd love to do this for our anniversary every year if we can. How cool would it be to someday have all those paintings to represent our years together?

Theoretically, there's supposed to be a spanking in the near future, but honestly I think he may have tabled it. He first mentioned it a couple of weeks ago, and I think maybe by this point he's decided not to do it, which is fine with me!

We've got VBS coming up in a few weeks, and I'm in charge of crafts again, which should be fun. And after that we go to Texas! Yay - I can't wait! Anyway, I'm off to bed. Have a great 4th of July!

The past couple of weeks...

So just a quick post to catch up on the couple of weeks. Let's see...Kelly's baby shower was the 9th of this month. I had planned all kinds of things to make for her. Unfortunately for my timeline (but not for our church), we had revival at church the week before, which kind of killed any crafting time I had. The revival was over Friday, but I had some errands to run Saturday and Nick was also working, so I didn't get any real time at the sewing machine until that night after the kids were asleep. One thing Kelly had actually requested was one of these:

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I made one for both Faith and Melanie a few months ago, and they loved them, so I did one for Kelly too. Then I started on some burp cloths. A few months ago my trusty iron that I got for my wedding quit on me. I was going to go buy one, but my mom, frequenter of estate auctions, had several, so she just gave me one of her extras. It had been working great, so when I plugged it up that night I was expecting no trouble. But when I took my fabric to the ironing board several minutes later, it was stone cold. No amount of turning it off and on or cord wiggling or new outlet trying could coax the least bit of heat from it. So I found myself heading to Wal-mart at 1 AM to buy a replacement. I went back and forth and finally decided on one of the least expensive models. When I got back home and opened it, I was most irritated to find that the whole tip of the iron plate was broken off! I couldn't see myself making another trip, so I just used it as it was and decided to return it the next day.

I did the carrier handle cushion, two burp cloths, and three skirts. Nick, who had fallen asleep on the couch, woke up about 4:30, just after I finished the first skirt. I told him my whole iron saga, and he didn't seem terribly upset that I was still up. He headed up to bed, and I told him I would be up shortly. Unfortunately, shortly turned into 6:30. 

The next day at lunch Nick asked me what time I'd come to bed, and he wasn't happy with the answer, especially since we had all ended up oversleeping and missed church that morning. (Not entirely my fault I don't think. It was Daylight Saving Time change weekend, and he overslept too!) But I didn't realize I was in trouble until that evening.

Nick runs the sound booth during our church services, so it's rare for us to get to sit together. Occasionally we will shoot each other short texts (generally not during the preaching). This was the conversation we had:

(Me) So sleepy...

(Him) Maybe if you went to bed at 2 instead of 6:30...

(Me) Possibly

(Him) Probably

(Me) I'm unconvinced.

(Him) Later I'll show you.

(Me) Nah, I'm good.

(Him) Too bad. It's already been earned.

(Me) You're no fun.

He didn't get a chance to do it for a couple of days, but finally Wednesday night at bedtime he had me come up with him. There was some lecturing, and I did plenty of assuring him that I was sorry and that I understood why I have a bedtime and why it doesn't work for the family for me to stay up all night, but there was no real question that I would be getting a spanking. He got a new tactical belt for Christmas, and he decided to try it out. It was the first time I've ever been spanked with a nylon belt, but it was very thick and stiff, and every bit as painful as leather. It was also very loud. I don't know how many licks I got, but enough to make me very glad when it was over. 

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The good news is that Kelly loved all her stuff. I was also able to make her a few of the other things on my list (before bedtime!) and take them to her at church Wednesday. All the pictures of the stuff I gave her at her shower include her in them, so I can't post them here, but I did think to snap a picture of the items I made later: another skirt, two pairs of shoes, a nursing scarf (the gray fabric) and a diaper clutch (to keep a few diapers and a small case of wipes in for quick changes on the go).

Friday I got to go to Melanie's house along with Kelly and one of her friends, and Melanie taught us the basics of crochet. It's something I've wanted to learn for ages, and it was a lot of fun having some girl time. 

On Saturday Morgan had her first soccer game. They lost, but only by one point, and her team is quite good this season. Afterwards we went to McDonald's and let the kids play on the play equipment. Jack and Daisy had a blast, and of course Morgan was too cool to play on it, but was gracious enough to climb up in there to keep an eye on Jack for us. Morgan has been struggling lately with some teen angst issues, and they've been manifesting themselves in some unhealthy ways. She's started doing a bit better, but I would really appreciate your prayers for her (and us as we parent her!). 

Saturday afternoon I did three month pictures for Brandon and Melanie's baby boy J, and it was exhausting! Fortunately my sweet husband fixed dinner for me. :)

Sunday night there was huge drama. Daisy...cut her hair! And I don't mean a little bit. She basically butchered it. Nick flipped out. He was furious! I wasn't thrilled about it either, but well, it's kind of something a lot of three and four year olds do at one time or another. I called Nick's stepmom (who does our hair), and she agreed to come and try to fix it the next day. When she saw it, she was kind of taken aback, but I told her we knew it was going to have to be pretty short, so she waded in. There were spots that were less than an inch long, so she ended up with a pixie cut, almost exactly like Maggie Gyllenhaal here, but a little shorter around the ears:

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Guys, I wish I could post a picture here, because she looks so freaking CUTE! I was resigned to it because it was better than the cut she gave herself - I didn't expect to love it! She has these big huge Disney Princess eyes like Katy Perry, so she still looks very girly, and with her dimples she looks like a mischievous woodland sprite, or a miniature Audrey Hepburn (although Audrey didn't have those dimples)! I'm sure we'll let it grow back out, but for now I'm glad we were forced into a cut we would've never had the nerve to get on our own!

Today Elizabeth came over for a while. She had laundry she needed to do and no money to do it (they use a laundromat), and I needed help unburying my kitchen table (which is going to get me spanked again if it's not done by Friday). So I let her use our washer and dryer, and she helped me clean. 

I've got so much stuff to do in the next few weeks! A list:

Skirts (2) for craft exchange

Shoes for craft exchange

Ring for craft exchange

Pillow Cover for craft exchange

Acorn Pillow for craft exchange

Pack gnome figurine and ribbon for craft exchange

10 xl pom poms for cupcake liners/garland

Make cupcake garland

Make 15 makeup bags

String washers for washer necklaces

Make 15 Rosettes for necklaces

String Rosettes

Make 15 Leather Bow Barrettes

Make brush pouch for nail brushes

Make pillowcase shirt for Morgan

Finish J's pictures

Easter bunnies for Logan, A, and J

Make shirts into short sleeves for Maddox

Leather envelope, Knot Bracelet and leather barrette and bracelet for Kit

Mail Easter stuff for Maddox and Kit

Make Daisy's Easter dress

Mother's Day gifts - stitch markers, dish cloths (crocheted)

Order of three pillow covers for Faith.

Anyway, I'm off to bed so I can get some rest and got some of this stuff done!

I should be sewing...

Or at least measuring and cutting fabric. I have an Etsy order that needs to go out tomorrow afternoon, and another that I need to start on this weekend. But I'm so, so tired, and I can do it tomorrow. Right now I just want to hang out for a minute and write. Nick was out of state at school for work this past week. He left straight after work Monday afternoon and got home about 8:00 tonight (or technically last night now, I guess. Thursday.) It's always a mixed bag for me when this happens. Of course I miss him terribly, and having the kids by myself for 4 straight days without a break is always exhausting. (I know, millions of single parents do it every day - I'm just saying it's tough!) But it's good for him at work to get to go and learn new things for his job. And he gets to stay at a nice quiet hotel and have the company pick up the tab for really nice meals every night, and it's just a nice break from his every day responsibilities.

While he was gone my friend Elizabeth came over on Tuesday and Thursday. She has two little girls, one of them 4 weeks older than Jack, and the other about a year older than Daisy. She also has an older son, but he didn't come with her. Tuesday she had both girls, and she came a little while before Morgan got home from school. Daisy was spending the night at my parents' house, but the girls had fun with Morgan anyway. She was very sweet to them both, giving them mani-pedis, and when they got done Jack was anxious to play with them both.

Last month I did a thing in my Etsy shop where if you bought a roll of ribbon at the store of your choosing and gave it to me, I would make you a big bow from it, add an embellishment in the center and put it on a lined clip. There was no charge for me to do that, and in return I got to keep the ribbon on the spool. It was a way for me to get my ribbon restocked for free and for my customers to get bows at a discount since Hobby Lobby's ribbon goes on sale half off every other week. I had a number of participants, and I ended up with probably 25 or 30 new rolls of ribbon for my stash. Elizabeth is one of my very best friends, so that's kind of an ongoing arrangement with her, although really I will make her the bows even if she just brings me enough ribbon for what she needs made. So Tuesday afternoon I spent mostly making hair bows for her.

Thursday she came over pretty early, and we spent the whole day cleaning while Jack, Daisy, and her youngest daughter kept each other entertained. We got a ton done, although not quite everything I wanted. Other than the time with her on Tuesday and then church on Wednesday, I spent pretty much all my waking hours this week cleaning. I got most of my crafting stuff organized and condensed, although I still have some stuff on the table to go through and organize (but not as much!) I also got the rest of the kitchen cleaned, the bedroom and bathroom upstairs cleaned (although this was mostly maintenance), the couches cleaned (vacuumed out, Febrezed, and cushion covers all washed), and the laundry on the big chair in the living room folded and put away (this was a Hurculean task even with Elizabeth and Morgan helping). When Nick got home I had dinner ready and waiting on him. He passed out on the couch not long after eating, but I'm awfully glad to have him back home safe.

A few months ago Hobby Lobby had this gorgeous mustard yellow and charcoal gray rugby striped knit in their fall fabric line. I happened to come across it in the form of a remnant that was all that was left of their stock back in September. I loved it like a small child, but I needed a birthday gift for Kelly, so I made it into an infinity scarf for her. Ever since I've been kind of in love with that color of yellow, and more than a little bummed that I could never find any more of that fabric, even at the other Hobby Lobby in town. Last week Elizabeth came over with some hair bow supplies for me, including a couple of purses she said were stained and I could take apart for the materials. One of them was this purse:

I about died. I loved it! And I told her I was absolutely not taking it apart and I would be happy to make her hair bows from other stuff, but this purse was coming to live with me. There was a very faint, have to look for it, ink pen mark on the back, not at all noticeable, but she's very finicky about her purses. Any flaws at all and she passes them on. She was happy enough to let me keep it and enjoy it, and tonight I finally had the chance to change all my stuff over into it. I keep looking over at it and grinning like an idiot. I'm kind of a nut about purses/handbags, but they have to really catch my eye. I have several that I really, really love, including 3 or 4 that I've not even gotten to carry yet. They're all either gifts or were bought on extreme clearance ages ago, with the exception of two nice ones that were birthday gifts on separate birthdays. I tend to carry a purse for months at a time because I only buy ones that I really love, so once I start using one, it's hard to let go!

And now, because talking about my purses is making me happy, and I know you want to know (or if you don't just skip it), here are my favorites:

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Tyler Rodan Handbag, Simple Satchel

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I've got two more like the last one in different patterns that I haven't yet had a chance to carry. I've had them both for ages, but like I said, I have a hard time giving up what I'm carrying. Anyway. That's my randomness. Hope you all are doing well!

Chugging along...

It's been a while since I've posted, but it's just been so busy! We were snowed in, oh forever. Well, not really snowed in, but Morgan was out of school for almost a week straight, she had a friend overnight for several of those days, and it got a bit cabin-feverish. We did get our income tax return in on the 7th, which has been nice. We paid my parents back everything we owed them (for Daisy's dental work last year), took care of a few bills, and were able to get some things we needed. I'm planning to have another crafting slumber party for Morgan's birthday this year, so I got pretty much all the crafty supplies I needed for that. I also got to get an external lighting set up and a nice backdrop, which will be great for my photography! Nick had a few things on his list as well, such as his handgun carry permit, his next ASE testing registration, some new running shoes, and a new backpack. God always, always provides for us, but it's always fun when He provides a little extra. ;)

Monday night I got spanked. He told me Saturday night that it was coming. The plan was for it to happen Sunday night, but school was out for President's Day the next day, and Morgan had a friend spend the night. Nick didn't feel comfortable doing it with company in the house (nor did I), so he let me know he would deal with it the next night.

Monday night after all the kids were asleep he asked me to join him upstairs. I followed him up, then went into the bathroom to pee first. When I came out he had the Cane-iac Jr. with holes paddle in his hand.

The issue at hand was, as it always seems to be, the housework. I know it comes back to this time and time again. I've come to accept that it will probably always be somewhat of an issue for me, and though I really do make an effort, there will always come times when I need to be refocused and re-motivated. That was certainly accomplished with this spanking. I have no idea how many I got (well less than 100 I would think, but beyond that I can't guess). I do know that it was really, really hard to take right from the beginning, and I was no good at all at staying put for it. Finally, after telling me to bend over again 4 or 5 times Nick pulled down my jeans and panties. He told me that if I could stay put I would get 5 more, but if I moved again it would get a lot worse. Those last 5 were especially hard, and I've got a pretty bruised and sore bottom still a couple of days later.

But I feel better for having been spanked. I feel reconnected to my husband, and safe within his boundaries, and I've been getting more accomplished around the house. It's still far from perfect, but I'm working on it.

After the paddling we made love, something that doesn't always happen after a punishment, and he took his time making sure it was good for me too. Since then I've felt lighter and happier and just closer to him. 

Well that's been our last few weeks - how about you guys?

A super long dear diary post all about the last month.

I've been trying to get here to post for a few days now, and I'm finally getting a moment to sit down and do it. This post will probably be long and filled with details on gifts, so feel free to skip if it doesn't interest you. But I try to get all this stuff down because it serves as a record of our lives for me. :)

December is always busy for me, and this year was no different. I had a couple of different sewing jobs - five different winter skirts with matching hair bows, and a hem on a formal dress for the same customer. It was for a girl I graduated high school with. She has a 13 year old daughter who's pretty severely autistic, and the formal was for a special needs pageant (which she won in two categories I'm pleased to report). The skirts were because, at her physical age, it's hard to find clothes in her size that are appropriate to her developmental age. She's very much into things that most 5 year old girls are interested in, so it was fun to watch her reaction when I delivered the skirts made from material she chose. She was thrilled with them all, and her mom was equally happy.

I also had a couple of photo shoots, one for Brandon and Melanie's new baby boy, and one for a customer I've done several previous shoots for. And I had several Etsy orders too, including one on the 21st that had to be made from scratch and received on the other side of the country by Christmas Eve. 

And of course there were all the Christmas gifts to be made. Probably the most time consuming were the Christmas stockings I made for nearly everyone in our families, and well as Brandon, Melanie, and their new baby. My mom helped with cutting out the pieces since it's hard to spread fabric out to cut with a toddler running around, but I did the sewing, as well as hand painting the names on all of them. I think they turned out fabulous, and everyone loved them. 

Besides the 26 stockings, I also made: 5 shirts (2 applique and 3 stenciled), 5 stuffed whales, 9 corn bags (flannel pouches filled with cracked corn - stick them in the microwave and they make wonderful heat/therapy packs), 7 pairs of earrings, 10 necklaces, 12 wine glass charms, 2 zipper pouches, 1 skirt, 7 scarves, 2 blankets (one for new baby Liam and one for Morgan), 1 bracelet, 24 stamped note cards, a taggie security blankie, a bunch of baby bows/headbands, peanut brittle, candied pecans, 2 paracord bracelets, 4 paracord key fobs, 20 or so wax and cotton fire starters, and 2 pillows. I also ordered 9 personalized photo calendars for the guys and Nick's grandmother, and I think I almost worked harder on them than on the stockings. But they were a huge hit, and I will be doing them every year if I'm able. It will be easier next year, because I already have all the dates saved and can just update with new photos.

Nick and I never do much for each other in the gift category at Christmas just due to time/money constraints. But he did get me a $40 gift card to Joann's (yahoo!), and I got him a sweatshirt, made him a calendar and one of the paracord keyrings, and tracked down Youtube videos of all the songs on an album he wanted, then converted the audio tracks to mp3s for him. 

With my gift card I was able to order a jewelry tool I've had my eye on forever (can't wait till it gets here!) and buy some fabric and other sewing goodies. I made myself two awesome infinity scarves out of some of the material, and I've gotten multiple compliments on both of them. :)

Our Christmas celebrations went as follows: my cousin's house for my extended family on the 21st, my parents' house on the 23rd, Nick's aunt's house for his extended family on the 24th, our house Christmas morning, then his dad and stepmom's house after we were done at our house. 

From us the kids got:

Morgan - a blanket, 2 necklaces, 3 pairs of earrings, a scarf, a corn bag (she and Daisy sleep with them literally every night), a pillow, a Loom Bands set (found on Amazon for about $4 a few months ago!), and several shirts from Aeropostale that my mom bought on Cyber Monday for a great deal and gave to me to give her. Mom also made her a couple of pillows and a set of curtains for her room and sent them to our house for her to open.

Daisy - a skirt, a scarf, a necklace, a corn bag, a toy camera, a stuffed whale, a Foofa shirt (that turned out embarrassingly lame I think, but she loved it anyway), a like new Butterfly's doll that I found at the Goodwill for $1 (total score - they sell these dolls at Cracker Barrel for $20. She wanted one for months before we finally got her one back in August while we were on vacation), two Disney Baby Princess dolls (found for a great price at Aldi of all places), and a toy vacuum cleaner that was actually a hand-me-down from my cousin's little boy.

Jack - a whole bunch of toys handed down from my cousin. She did this for us last year also, going through all her son's toys right before Christmas to get rid of the ones he wasn't playing with and passing them on to us to help fill out Jack's gift list. I also got him a Plex beanie baby, and made him a matching Plex shirt. The beanie baby was a sort of hit, but he went nuts over the shirt, which cracked me up. He's worn it several times since Christmas, and every time he's tried to help put it on and proudly pointed at the applique on the front for anyone who would look. :) He also got a toy camera like Daisy did.

In other places, the kids got lots of clothes and shoes mostly, although my mom did get them all some non-clothing stuff. Morgan got about 6 scarves, which she loved, and Will and Kate sent her just a crazy amount of gorgeous name brand pieces. They also sent shoes and clothes for Daisy and Jack, every single item perfect as always. Nick's dad is also in the process of making a very nice set of bunk beds for Morgan's room. He's a very accomplished carpenter, and they look great so far. Morgan's big Christmas wish was a room makeover, thus the pillows and curtains and blankets. The bed is her grandparents' contribution. They kids also got small gift cards to Walmart (Jack), Old Navy (Morgan), Chick-Fil-A (all three), and Carmike Cinemas (all three). We took them to eat and see Frozen on New Year's Eve, which was very cute.

I couldn't tell you everything Nick got, although I know there were jeans and shirts and socks and a jump box (to jump off a dead car battery), a couple of pocket knives, and a basket full of edible goodies made by Kelly. Also a gift card to Bass Pro Outlet.

I got: from my parents - boots, a shirt, a purse, a recipe organizer, 2 books (one sewing and one on organizing for dummies lol), a pair of scissors, a hair barrette/bun maker thing, pajamas, and a sweater; from Nick's parents - makeup powder, eye liner, lip liner, lip gloss, socks, and an electric can opener; from Kelly and Grant - a ribbon organizer basket with two cute spools of ribbon, a pair of earrings, a gorgeous ornament wreath, and some hair bands; from James - a $25 gift card to Hobby Lobby (the most magical place on earth!); from Robert and Faith - a $25 steakhouse gift certificate (for me and Nick together); and from his cousin who drew my name - a Mary Kay mini Satin Hands set and a $25 gift card to Hobby Lobby (can you tell she knows me?). We also together got a huge bag of meat (steaks, burgers, etc - possibly weird, but so awesome) from my aunt, a huge box of Christmas cookies from my cousin, and a big basket of goodies like bread and hams and blocks of cheese and hot cocoa and chocolates and crackers, etc. from my parents. 

Let me tell you, if you're ever stumped for what to get someone for Christmas, a big basket of hearty snacks for the next day is hard to beat. My mom and dad did this last year too, and it's so awesome when you wake up the next day, with no energy to cook and no money left to eat out, to be able to have something quick and easy and filling to munch on! And if you shop sales and coupon, it doesn't have to be expensive, either!

The biggest Christmas blessing came a few days later from Kate and Will. We're always just crazy tight by the end of the year, and this year was the worst it's ever been. I knew that we would need about $1000 more than Nick's last check of the year was likely to be to just pay the bills, let alone buy gas and groceries. And the check after that (the one coming this Friday) would be particularly short due to the way the holidays fell this year, so we would need to supplement that one by several hundred dollars as well. 

When there's a holiday at most jobs it means full pay for a day off, or maybe even a bonus. At his job they get 8 hours pay, which sounds quite fair, except he works on commission, and being at a car dealership, they get paid for the number of hours an order is supposed to take (which sets the price for a service that the customer pays), not the number it actually takes. Which means that if they are quite good at their job (which Nick is), then an 8 hour ticket might only take them an hour or two of actual labor. This means that on an average day they might clock 12-15 hours in the time they're there, so an 8 hour pay day is actually a loss. Normally it works out that Christmas is on one paycheck and New Year's is on another, but this year they both fell within the same pay period, so his upcoming check will have two short days on it.

A few weeks ago I got particularly down and stressed about our finances. I was praying and searching for God's voice on it, and getting very frustrated with myself for not having more faith. I called Robert and asked him if he could come and talk with me about it. One advantage to having my brother as my pastor. :) So he came by, frozen Coke in hand for me since his wife is a sweetheart and suggested it.  Since my mom had stopped by when he showed up and he knew I wouldn't feel comfortable talking in front of her, he asked if she would watch the kids while I ran to Wal-Mart with him. Then we left, and had a lovely talk and some prayer, and he bought me a strainer I was idly admiring at Walmart and picked up my tab at the post office when I went to mail an order out. I felt much better when he dropped me back off. 

We still had no real prospects in sight, but I felt more at peace and sure that God had a plan. Kate had texted me and let me know that their gift for us was in the mail and to keep an eye out for it. It had not arrived by Christmas, but a few days later it came - a check for $2,000! It was enough to pay our bills, including a few to help out on the upcoming payday, as well as buy gas and groceries. We didn't really do anything out of the ordinary with it, other than to buy a new lunch box for Morgan and a few bottles of deeply discounted lotion for me, and take the family out to eat once. Nick and I also got to go out to eat once by ourselves, our fourth date night of the year. :)

At this point we're back to broke, but the bills are paid, there's a little gas left in the car, and we have food in the house. :) And I know that God is still continuing to provide, as He always does!

A few weeks ago I was in a very minor car accident. More of a hit and run, actually. I was on my way to Wednesday night church and somebody swerved into my lane and clipped my driver's side mirror. It's frustrating, because our insurance will only pay after a $200 deductible which is likely higher than we can replace the mirror for, but it could have been so incredibly much worse that I can't complain too bad. No one was hurt, and nothing but the mirror was damaged at all (although it's pretty much toast).

Daisy and Jack have both been battling some intestinal issues lately. Jack has had a number of vomiting episodes, although they have come with no attending symptoms, and almost always after he's been laughing really hard or crying a lot. So I'm thinking he maybe is triggering them with the laughing/crying. Daisy on the other hand is a little more worrisome. 

A few months ago the kids' insurance plan changed networks to one that their longtime pediatrician won't accept. We picked out a new pediatrician (the same one Faith and Robert use and love), but she was not accepting new patients until the new year. Back in September Daisy had a stomachache that went on all day, along with a fever. That was before the insurance change, but it was a Sunday, so the ped's office was closed, and she was in so much pain that she was actually asking to go to the doctor, so I took her to the ER. 

They ended up doing an xray, telling me she was, er, backed up, and giving her an enema. That seemed to do the trick for a day or two, but soon she was in pain again, so I took her to the pediatrician. They just told me to give her laxatives and sent us home. Unfortunately that didn't do anything for her. By the time it became a serious issue again, we were between peds, so back to the ER we went, for the exact same outcome.

Fast forward to a few days before the end of the year, and she was crying in pain again, and vomiting this time. So I took her back to the ER again. This time the xray showed no blockage, so they gave her something for the vomiting and told us to see her pediatrician for a referral to a GI specialist. She has an appointment this Tuesday to go in and get that referral, so please be in prayer that we will be referred to a good one that takes her insurance, and that it will be something easily fixed and not serious. I'm worried that maybe she's developed a food allergy or intolerance, which we've been blessed enough to have never dealt with before, so I'm hoping it's not that, although that would certainly be preferable to something more serious.

Also of note, Jack turned two on the 2nd. Waaah! My tiny baby is growing up on me! We had cake and ice cream at my parents' house, and he went nuts over all the hand me down toys from my cousin that I saved for his birthday. He's definitely his father's son. He's nuts about anything with wheels, and he can figure out anything mechanical in a flash. He got a little tool kit for Christmas with a toy drill and plastic screws, and he was drilling the screws down into the hole with no help whatsoever. The day Robert came over and Mom kept the kids, she turned her back for a minute and caught him on the kitchen table trying to run a piece of fabric through my sewing machine, which he had managed to turn on and start. :) She about had a heart attack!

The other day Nick and I had a small talk about DD. I started to feel really hurt and frustrated and unimportant because he's backed off on a couple of spankings lately, and we didn't really have any acknowledgment of our 10 year DD anniversary on New Year's Eve. But I recognized that I was letting myself spiral, and after some prayer and reasonable conversation with myself I brought it up at a good time and we had a civil conversation about it. He's agreed to try to be more consistent, as well as to help me with some other things like staying on top of going to the gym. 

Anyway, as promised, this was a super long dear diary post all about the last month, and I'm a bit past my bedtime, so I'm off to bed. Good night all!

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. :)