Happy November!

Happy November, party people! We're in the month of Thanksgiving, and around here that means ratcheting up the gratitude! God is so good, all the time, but oftentimes I'm a spoiled brat who focuses on my stress and forgets what I've been blessed with. I spent a little while earlier looking back on Novembers past here on the blog, and while I've not always done a daily post, it's still humbling to see how relentlessly God had blessed and cared for us over the years. So without further ado, a few recent gifts:

We had some really big bills this week. Like Nick's average paycheck would have left us several hundred dollars short, even utilizing every available option available to us. What he brought home instead was several hundred dollars more than usual. It was just a crazy busy pay period, and while we're still stretching to cover gas and groceries, it is so incredibly much better than it could have been. The thing is, I didn't even realize until after I saw his pay stub just how many things we had to take care of this week, so God was providing before we even knew we had the need!

Next Saturday I have a photo shoot, which will bring in a little bit of money.

Nick and I really enjoyed our haunted hike date night about a week ago. It wasn't the sort of thing with people jumping out at you. Rather it was a hike along a very old trail with the park ranger telling us stories about the real families who once lived there and the reported hauntings in their history. What was really neat is that after talking to my mom it looks like the families in question are likely some of my ancestors, as my great grandmother's maiden name was the same as one family, she married someone with the same name as the second family, and she was from that area.

Faith got to put in her notice at her job today, which is directly related to another recent blessing. It has always been her and Robert's desire and conviction for her to be a stay at home mom when their baby comes (in about 4 weeks!). Unfortunately Robert was only on a part time salary as our pastor, and he just didn't make enough to support the three of them on only his income. But they've been steadily praying about it along with the rest of the family, and a couple of weeks ago, with absolutely no suggestion or input from him, her, or anyone from either family, the church voted to increase his pay by several hundred dollars a week as well as add a weekly fuel allowance for him. It was actually more than the number they'd been praying about, and it allowed Faith to go in today and put in her notice.

Tomorrow is also Faith's baby shower, and I'm very excited to be a part of it.

We had a fun and safe Halloween - Morgan, after endless angst, settled on being a black cat, the sum total of which included black pants, a black tank top, and a headband I whipped up some cat ears for out of scrap leather at the last minute. Daisy had been set on going as a "girl ghost", but I didn't have a spare white sheet to cut up. And about a week ago I made a last minute decision to go to a Trunk or Treat at our YMCA and had to come up with some quick and easy costumes. Morgan went as a One Direction fan (guys, she's obsessed!), Jack went as a farmer (long sleeve shirt, overalls, and camo ball cap), and Daisy went as a baby, in fuzzy footed pjs. She was supposed to have a pacifier too, but I couldn't find one at the time. Anyway, she went as a baby on Halloween, and we stepped it up a bit that night with a pacifier and bottle. Jack went as a cowboy in some cute cowboy costume pjs I found for $5 at Walmart earlier in the day.

Wednesday I was really sick, some sort of stomach virus, which didn't feel like much of a blessing, but I was certainly grateful that my parents were able to stop by and stay for a few hours and watch the kids while I suffered through it. They also brought by a few groceries, which is always a help.

Walgreens.com (not an affilate link) is also running a free photo collage deal through tomorrow with code BOOCOLLAGE, which I plan on taking advantage of.

And I've lost 15 pounds so far, so yay!

Anyway, those are just a few sweet things that have come into my life lately. Hope you guys will play along and take note of your own blessings - I promise it will make every day better!

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. 

Sunny Days and Blessings

How have you guys been? Our scholarship application for the Y finally got looked at. Unfortunately they didn't approve us for the level of scholarship we were hoping, but they did give us a little off each month, which was good. What was great was that my dad decided to have my mom go ahead and pay for 6 whole months for us, including Nick! 

I mentioned that Nick has a membership to a little gym near his work that only costs us $15 a month. We're going to keep that for now, mainly because he goes on his lunch break to work out, and the closest Y to his work is too far away to make that an option. But he's gone to the Y with me a number of times already, and he really likes it. Yesterday evening we took the kids to the pool there, which we all really enjoyed.

Other than Sunday and today, I've not missed a day. Today I missed because Morgan had a soccer game this morning during the time I usually go (they won 6-0!), and afterwards we went and got lunch, then took the kids hiking on a trail in a state park near us. We did about 3 miles, which is a little more than I would have probably done at the Y, so I still got my exercise in, and we really needed a family day together. It was gorgeous weather, and other than the $5 or so worth of gas we used, it was completely free!

Monday Morgan and I have our fitness evaluations so that we can get in the system for a routine, and Nick's evaluation is a week after that. I've been trying to make healthier choices at home as well. The biggest thing I have to conquer is cutting out sweet tea. Here in the South it's truly a staple, and I generally make a pitcher every day. Besides being just plain cheap to make, every last one of us really loves it, but I know it will do us all good to cut it out. My main problem is that well, I hate plain water! Nick says nobody can hate water because it doesn't taste like anything, but that's just not true! I have to have some sort of flavor, or I just don't like to drink it. I've bought a couple of different sugar free, calorie free "water add-ins", but I've not really been happy with the taste of those either, so we'll have to see. I'd really prefer something with no calories, so I don't really want to go the Gatorade route. I guess maybe it will just have to be something I acquire a taste for.

God has really been blessing us lately. Money is crazy tight, but He's been providing day by day. Nick was able to sell some scrap metal today, which gave us enough extra gas money to drive us to the hiking trail as well as get lunch. And I got a small mending job from a lady at church that will yield a few dollars. And at the end of the month I'll be shooting a wedding for a couple at church, which will really help with bills. I won't make as much as I would if I were doing it for anyone else, but I was just glad they committed to hiring me because they're really on a budget, and even the discounted rate I quoted was kind of a stretch for them.

I'd really appreciate your prayers for the upcoming week. I've got a couple of bills that are due before Nick gets paid again, one of which is our water bill. I know God has it in His power to send the money for both, and I'm praying He does just that!

Life Changing

Gosh, it has been BUSY around here! Morgan has started soccer, which is taking up some of our time. She has practice on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and games on Saturdays. This past Saturday was her first game, and she did great! They won 4-1, which is a nice change from the last season she played. This time around her team is older and more experienced, and it shows.

I've also had some sewing to do. Daisy's birthday is coming up on October 5th, and she has requested a special birthday skirt. I finished it today, and I'm kind of in love with it. The main part of the skirt is made from this sweet pink nursery rhyme toile, and the bottom band is a coordinating solid pink. I plan on getting her a plain white t-shirt and embellishing it with some of the toile, maybe a rosette or two.

Here in a few minutes I need to sew up a skirt for an Etsy order. And guys, Christmas is only 15 weeks away! I should have started on Christmas gifts last month! I've already been forewarned that I'm not to turn our house into Santa's workshop again this year, and  I've promised to try not to.

But the biggest thing that has been taking up my time is my (early) birthday gift from my mom. This is seriously the best thing she's ever given me (besides you know, life). She's paying for me and the kids to have a membership to our local YMCA for a few months! We're waiting on the Y to review our application for scholarship to see if maybe we can get the membership at a discount (I'd really appreciate you're prayers on this!), so that maybe they can pay for it long enough for us to get our income tax back and pay for a year up front. 

This has been life changing for me, just in the week since I've been going. I'll be really honest here, I've known for a while now that I really needed to do something to get in shape and lose weight. Diabetes runs in my family, and it hit my mom when she was just a little older than I am now. I think that's the main reason she's doing this for me. Nick has been working out and losing weight for the last year and 1/2, and it's made a huge difference in his life. 

My biggest problem was just not having an opportunity to work out on a consistent basis, which made it seem like it wasn't worth doing really at all. There for a while I tried walking around our neighborhood with Daisy and Jack in the stroller, but then it was too hot, then it was too rainy, then it was too cold, then they got to where they just fussed and tried to climb out the whole time, and it just wasn't worth it. But the Y has child care, and they will watch the kids for up to two hours a day, included with my membership. 

The kids LOVE it there. They have this big plastic playhouse shaped randomly enough like a tomato. Daisy calls it "the bamato house" and I just want to freeze time every time she says it. She's getting old enough now that she doesn't have very many childish mispronunciations anymore, and I cherish them all. 

Right now we're going on a free pass because they're still reviewing my application. The free pass counts for everyone in our household, so that means Nick has gotten to join us a few times. He has his own gym membership at a gym close to where he works, but it was really great having him come show me how all the machines work. Once the membership is active Morgan and I will get to meet with a personal trainer to do a fitness test and get set up on a routine. Then every time we come in we'll log into a computer system that will give us a tailored workout plan for the day. For now I've just been doing the treadmill and some weight room routines Nick showed me. 

It's been hard, but so very good to have the chance to push myself, and I've lost 7 pounds so far. :) Anyway, that's what I've been up to, how about you guys?