A wise man once said…

I was cleaning out my inbox this morning, and I found this quote in an email from The Generous Wife:

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has. Epictetus

And I realized that it didn’t take me too long at all to quit zeroing in on my blessings once November passed, and I need to try to regain some of that focus. So for today, here’s a Gratitude Post.

Today I’m thankful for:

Morgan’s new glasses. The eye doctor we use was running a special before Christmas for $1 eye exams. My in-laws had told me that they wanted to take her after the holidays to get new glasses, and I was able to take advantage of the $1 exam so that her prescription would be up to date. It had just run out in November and hadn’t, as it turned out, changed at all, but it had to be renewed for them to make her new glasses. She had picked out her old glasses herself, but she pretty quickly grew to hate the way she looked in them. They also ended up eventually getting pretty scuffed up, as glasses worn by an 8/9 year old will tend to do. Unfortunately we hadn’t had the money to buy her new ones, so it was a blessing that my in-laws offered. The doctor’s office was running a special for 2 pairs for $99, so they ended up getting her 2 pairs, plus a year’s worth of insurance on her favorite pair.

These cookies. Oh. My. Goodness.

A few months ago I ordered a set of postcards for my photography business from www.overnightprints.com along with a calendar for my brother and his wife for Christmas. When the order came the postcards were missing, so I called them and they reprinted them and sent them out. Last week they randomly sent me another set. Yay free stuff!

Nick gets to go back to Atlanta for another round of classes for work next week, and while I’m not looking forward to him being gone again, it is another step closer to him achieving his ASE certification, which will mean a raise at work along with some other benefits.

Windows Live Writer. I just discovered it, and I love the way it functions with Blogger.

Have a great day!

Brightening it up a bit

So as you can see, I have a new template. Well, actually it’s the same old template, but I played with the colors a bit. It may get old for me, but I’ve got the old version saved if it does. But I figured, hey, Valentine’s Day is just around the corner – why not?

Resolutions

Well, it’s that time again – time to make resolutions to keep or at least strive for. This year I hope to:

Grow my photography business to the point that I at least double my investment.

Get my laundry completely done and keep on top of it.

Do more crafting! This year I made almost all of the Christmas gifts that left our house, and not only did it save us a ton of money, but everyone seemed to love them!

Along those same lines – get a Silhouette machine. This is actually something that Nick and I will both use (rather, I will use it for him). I think I’ve mentioned that he and a couple of his friends are trying to get a custom car business off the ground in their free time, and we would use the machine to cut stickers to sell and to make heat transfers for t-shirts.

I want to learn how to sew on a machine. I got a nice sewing machine for Christmas about three years ago, and it’s never been out of the box. It’s not that I don’t want to use it – it’s that I have no place to set it up. I’m not sure how to go about remedying that, but I really would love to find some room to do not just sewing, but the rest of my crafting as well, and I'd love to be able to get back into origami as well.

I want to try to keep my house within about 15-30 minutes of being ready for company at all times.

I want to be better at couponing.

I want to get Daisy’s room completely organized. I hate to admit it, but right now it’s still half full of stuff that got dumped in there while we were putting down the new flooring in the rest of the downstairs. Her bed and the area around it and through the middle of the room are clear, but her pack-n-play is full of toys that belong to both her and Morgan, and they need to be seriously paired down.

I want to have more company over this year.

I want Morgan to be able to have more friends sleep over.

I’d like to have more date nights.

I want to get to know Jesus better.

How about you guys – any resolutions for you?

A New Year, a new era?

Thirteen years ago Nick spanked me for the first time. Six years after that we introduced the concept of domestic discipline into our marriage, and it changed our marriage entirely. Seven years later, DD seems to have died a quiet death. The day just past was the 7 year anniversary of DD for us, and as I expected, it passed without mention.

It’s been a couple of months since there was any form of discipline happening, and it’s been nearly as long since there’s been so much as a mention of it. A few days after this spanking there was another one promised for the same thing. I had ended up staying up all night the next Tuesday night, albeit with good intentions. Nick had an early meeting the next morning, and I was trying to make sure he got up on time. When I woke him up and he realized I hadn’t been to bed, he let me know that it would be dealt with. I asked him if we could try to take care of it soon, and he promised to try to do it the next day. Obviously that never happened. Nor was it ever even referenced again.

Honestly, I didn’t want the spanking, and I certainly hadn’t been trying to earn it, but I have to admit that the broken promise felt an awful lot like not caring. Much the same way that the birthday spanking he promised never happened. Sort of like how the birthday spankings for 2008 and 2009 never happened either. It’s not like this is the longest we’ve ever gone without any kind of spanking for punishment or play. There was, after all, the seven month hiatus of 2009, although that was during my pregnancy. But this feels different. All the other times we went through dry spells as far as actual activity, Nick still made verbal references to his authority. This time around it’s as if he’d never taken on the responsibility in the first place.

I’ve purposely refrained from bringing it up because I just haven’t had the spare strength to deal with the inevitable feelings of insecurity and burdensomeness. And I always told myself that I’d let it go if it ever got to the point that it was no longer doing our marriage any good. It seems clear that we’ve reached that point.

There’s a tiny voice in the back of my mind saying “See! I told you he doesn’t love you enough to do this without you pestering him!” And while I can mostly dismiss that as my insecurities bubbling up, I have to admit that there is some small truth in it too. And so it has come down to this: Does he love me enough to ever really wholeheartedly make a commitment to having a DD marriage? Or do I love him enough to not try to make him? The fact is, I can’t answer for him, although I suspect what the true answer might be. But I can answer for me. The question really boils down to this: “Do I love him more than I love me?” and the answer is yes, of course I do. And so I have to let it go. It may be that I’m wrong (as I have been before), and if so, I’ll be glad to be so. But this time I have to be the one to make a real commitment to being the wife he needs me to be, the wife that lives under his authority by never making him exercise it. After all these years, I think I may be getting the hang of it.

Whew! A minute to breathe again!

Hey, guys! I hope everyone had an AWESOME Christmas! Ours was lovely, going back to the day after my last post.

On the day of the 22nd Morgan, Daisy, and I got to spend some unexpected time with mine and Nick's niece Kit. Her mom is Kate, the sister who lives in Texas, but Kit was in the state to spend Christmas with her dad, so we were thrilled to get to see her. On the 23rd we did Christmas at my parents' house. Everybody really loved the homemade gifts I got them. Nick and I both got some clothes, and I got a pair of boots. We also got a gift card to Red Lobster from my brother Robert and his wife Kate. The girls got both clothes and toys, and it was just a sweet time together as a family. The 24th we went to have Christmas with Nick's extended family and there was a neat video montage of pictures from Christmases past. I got a set of stuff from Bath and Body Works, and Nick got a gift card to Olive Garden. That night when we were wrapping gifts I was trying to remove the glass from a picture frame to clean it and the glass cracked. Unfortunately the frame was the biggest gift we had for Nick's dad and stepmom, so he ended up giving them the Olive Garden gift card to replace it.

Christmas morning we opened gifts at home first, and the girls had a blast. Afterwards we went to Nick's dad and stepmom's house for breakfast and gifts. My favorite gift there was a beautiful Stella & Dot necklace from Kate. It has 3 charms, a silver circle with "mom" stamped in it and two gold circles with the girls' initials. I totally didn't expect to have something over there to open from them because they had already sent us the biggest gift we got from anyone - a nice big check that allowed us to pay the house payment and buy a few things. This was such a blessing, and truly an answer to prayer, because I didn't know how we were going to pay the house payment.

Saturday we went running around for a bit and did a little after Christmas shopping. We bought this coffee maker as a gift to each other, and it is FABULOUS! It was a little pricey for a coffee maker (okay a lot pricey, but we got it 20% off), but we love, love, LOVE it!

But the best, best, BEST thing I got for Christmas wasn't a physical gift. Okay, first of all some sad news. On my meme the other day I said that I hadn't been to any funerals in 2010. Thursday I got word that yet another former co-worker had unexpectedly passed away, but this one was a man I very much liked and respected. In fact, he was my direct supervisor for a number of years, and I always had a soft spot for him. His funeral service was tonight, and I made arrangements to attend with my friend Denise. Now I've mentioned Denise on here before. She's been coming to church with us quite a bit lately, and she's really been under conviction, but she had never broken down and become a Christian. The deaths at work lately have really hit her hard, and the funeral tonight even harder. Jim, the man who passed away, was a very strong Christian, and one of my former coworkers shared this story about him: Last week she and Jim were talking about the woman who had passed away earlier that week. They had just come from her funeral, and the coworker sharing the story said that it was weird to think that you just never knew how much time you have left. "That's why you have to be ready," Jim replied. Within just a few days he was gone himself.

After the funeral tonight I asked Denise if she wanted to grab a bite to eat. She agreed and we went and had dinner. I had been in prayer for her all evening (well for days really, but especially in light of the funeral tonight). Dinner was lighthearted for the most part, but toward the end it turned toward spiritual matters, and I could tell that she had been trying to work her way around to this conversation. We spent a long time talking, eventually moving out to my car where we talked some more. She broke down in tears and asked me to please show her what she needed to do to become a Christian, and I had the amazing privilege of leading her to the Lord! I have to say that this was none of my doing whatsoever - I rambled and cried and went off on rabbit trails and was generally just a terrible evangelist, but God used me in spite of my shortcomings, and I'm absolutely thrilled! This has been such an amazing answer to prayer, and I know that Jim is in heaven rejoicing that such a blessing came from his passing!

So that's been my crazy wonderful week - how has yours been?

Another Meme

So I was looking back through my archives to see if I had ever done the meme I just posted before. I came across one I did in January 2009, and I was struck by all the changes that have taken place since then. I thought I'd repost it with my updated answers (in red). Feel free to steal it. :)


1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before? Went to Houston, won a trip to Hawaii (although we've not gone yet).
In 2010 I became a stay at home mom for the first time and also launched a photography business.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I honestly can't remember last year's resolutions, but we've decided to make some financial changes this year.
This year's resolution was just to trust God more, and we've definitely had to do that. Next year I'd like to expand my photography business.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Yes. Unfortunately she also got divorced. We also found out that Nick's sister is pregnant. Sadly, still not me, although at this point that would be something of a financial disaster.
Two girls I graduated high school with gave birth. But considering my 2009 answer, I want to point out that I got pregnant about three weeks after I posted that answer and I entered 2010 with a 13 week old baby of my own!

4. Did anyone close to you die? My grandfather
No. I'm blessed to have attended no funerals in 2010, although I did learn that a former co-worker passed away a week ago.


5. What countries did you visit? Just this one.
Same answer.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008? A SLR digital camera
This coming year I'd like to have the full Photoshop Suite/Lightroom and a better lighting equipment package. And since I've been reading all these craft blogs, I've fallen in love with the idea of having a Cricut machine.

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? March 3, the day my papaw passed away, and June 26, our 10th anniversary.
January 7, 2010 was the day I went in and quit my job.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? I don't know how much of an achievement you'd consider it, but I did win that trip to Hawaii.
Actually getting a few photography clients. Also, moderate overall success as a coupon ninja, and serious coupon ninja success when it came to Christmas this year.

9. What was your biggest failure? Probably that we could have handled our money better.
Not keeping more on top of the laundry.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Not unless you count strep throat
Nope! Unless you count the time I slipped in our backyard and ended up with a very sore spine and tailbone for a few days.

11. What was the best thing you bought? Probably my car - it's been a great investment so far.
My camera!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Morgan has really gotten it together with school. She had some issues in October with not really wanting to get her work done, but she's improved 110%.
Morgan has been an ah-may-zing big sister!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? A couple we've known for years and years and actually introduced. They both just gave up on their marriage and decided to get divorced rather than putting any effort into fixing things.
Barack Obama

14. Where did most of your money go? Bills, food.
Bills, diapers, formula

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Our trip to Houston.
My camera and our trip back to Texas.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008? Anything Hannah Montana. If I never hear Hannah Montana again it will be too soon, but since Morgan sings the stuff in her sleep, I'm probably not that lucky.
Anything by the Avett Brothers. Nick has been playing the crap out of them!

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? Probably happier, Probably about the same b) thinner or fatter? About the same, maybe a little heavier, but not much c) richer or poorer? Probably about the same, although we really should be richer, Poorer

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Photography
Day to day photography just for myself.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Eating out.
Staying up way too late.

20. How did you spend Christmas? With family, eating, opening gifts.
This year will be the same.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008? Yes, with my husband and daughter, every day.
Yes, with my husband and both of my daughters, every day.

22. What was your favorite TV program? Lost
Lost, until it went off, then Sons of Anarchy and Terriers.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Nah
Nope.

24. What was the best book you read? I couldn't even begin to narrow that down.
Same answer, although there have been some great ones!

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? That Itunes will let you redownload your purchases if your hard drive crashes!
The Avett Brothers

26. What did you want and get? A better car.
A Nikon D90

27. What did you want and not get? A Nikon D90
Photoshop/Lightroom

28. What was your favorite film of this year? Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Fireproof
Sherlock Holmes

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 31, and I hung out with Nick, went shopping, went to see the movie Fireproof, and stopped to visit with some friends.
I turned 33, and to celebrate we had a cookout with family and friends the day before, then I had a photo shoot. The day of we went to church then went and had lunch with Nick's sister and her husband.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?More money? Definitely more money, and a baby, or at least having one on the way.
Having made enough off my photography to have paid for my camera in full. Right now I'm a little over 50% of the way there.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008? Same old jeans and cute shirts I'm afraid.
Not much has changed here.

32. What kept you sane? Nick beating my butt when I got too stressed, although I probably could have used more of that.
Concentrating on letting God take care of us and our finances.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Mmmmm....Josh Holloway, although Harrison Ford wasn't bad either.
Still Josh Holloway - Oh, Sawyer, I miss you!

34. What political issue stirred you the most? No politics here, please.
The health care fiasco!

35. Who did you miss? My friend L
Still my friend L, although I got to see her a bit more this year.

36. Who was the best new person you met? I can't really think of anyone new I met in real life that made a big impression, but I met lots of great people on here!
Same answer

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008. Life is not fair - sometimes the people who make the worst decisions can still end up swimming in money.
God is always there for us - His mercies are new every morning!

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. I can't really think of a good answer for this one.
Still can't come up with one!

Fried Brain

I feel like my brain is fried right now. I've been rushing around trying to get everything finished for Christmas while still juggling the house and kids and it's wearing me out! I'm done with almost everything but the wrapping. Oh, and that other batch of lotion I have to make. And the rest of the lip balm. And the sugar scrub. And those other two Question Jars. Oh, and the other two sets of crayons. Oh yeah, and I still have to apply the sealer to the other 7 sets of coasters I made. But that's it. Except for whipping up those sets of glass stone magnets. So really - I'm practically done. Look, I've got 71 hours left till Christmas - don't judge me!


Anyway, I need a minute to be not-creative, so I'm totally going to steal Grace's Christmas meme:

1.Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Definitely hot chocolate, although I do like to have about a half a glass of eggnog once a year.

2.Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
I don't technically wrap. I bag. If anything actually gets wrapped it's generally by Nick. But either way, they're packaged.

3.Colored lights on tree/house or white?
White inside, colored outside.

4.Do you hang mistletoe?
We used to, but I haven't found anywhere to buy it in a couple of years.

5.When do you put your decorations up?
Okay, I'm going to tell you the worst thing in the world: It's three days till Christmas and my tree still isn't up. Normally I put it up just after Thanksgiving, but this year I wanted to wait because I figured Daisy would be tearing it apart. Then after a few days I realized it's up in the attic and we don't have a ladder. So I decided to just decorate a small fake pine we have out year round. And I'm totally going to do that. Right after I finish those glass stone magnets...

6.What is your favorite holiday dish?
Ummmm, I'd have to say sausage balls. But only if they're really moist and cheesy.

7.Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
Christmas Eve. We opened gifts at home and at both grandparents' houses on Christmas Eve, and I loved coming home after the final celebration and discovering all over again all the
gifts I'd gotten earlier in the evening.

8.When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
My parents never did the Santa Claus thing with us, although someone always dressed as Santa to hand out gifts on my dad's side of the family. In fact, when my brother was about 4, he nearly started a riot among a room full of kindergarten-age cousins when he declared that the man in the red suit was really Uncle Claude.

9.Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Now that we're grown with families of our own, the celebration gets stretched out some. This past Friday we did my dad's side of the family, Thursday we'll do my parent's house, Friday we'll do Nick's extended family, Christmas morning we'll open at home then at Nick's parents' house, and sometime next week we'll do my mom's side of the family.

10.How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
Well, normally it's a very rustic, woodsy, fishing cabin type theme. This year it's going to be a bit more Charlie Brown since I'll be scavenging stuff from around the house to decorate with.

11.Snow! Love it or Dread it?
Love it, although I hate driving in it.

12.Can you ice skate?
Nope!

13.Do you remember your favorite gift?
The year I was 10 I got a 100 piece accessory set for my Barbies. Morgan still has some of the pieces to it around here somewhere.

14.What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Family.

15.What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
My sister-in-law's amazing boiled custard.

16.What tops your tree?
Hehe, usually a miniature fishing hat.

17.Which do you prefer giving or receiving?
Definitely giving.

18.What is your favorite Christmas Song?
O Holy Night

19.Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum?
They're okay.

20. Favorite Christmas Show?
Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

21.Saddest Christmas Song?
I’ll be Home for Christmas

Christmas Crafting

Okay, so I know - I've totally not been posting like I should. But I've been a busy bee, I promise! Nick had to go to Atlanta for some training classes for work on Monday and got back tonight. Morgan was home sick from school last Wednesday and Thursday (thus lots of make-up work), then school was out because of the weather Monday, Tuesday, and today. So it's been a busy week as a solo parent.

But I've also been doing lots of crafting for Christmas! God has been really good in providing some wonderful options for gifts. Because Nick's sister and her husband (the ones in Texas) are so far out of our league financially and they always get us such nice gifts, it completely stresses me out every year trying to come up with something nice for them that we can afford. Not that they would make a big deal out if it, but they've always been so generous to us that we really want to get them something they'll love. All that I had to start with was a panoramic picture of the lake I had taken off the upper deck of their lake house when we were there in August. I found a 9x24 frame at the Goodwill for $5, and I'm going to try to refinish it, and I ordered a print of the picture to fit into it. Then I came across some great craft blogs, and I've been busy making some really neat things to supplement not only their gift, but also gifts of some others in the family that we didn't have much for.

I got the ideas for the dressed-up post-its (hello, teacher gift!) and the coasters here. I actually did the coasters with rub-ons instead of napkins or paper, and I'm in L-O-V-E with how they turned out. Plus the tiles were only 16 cents each at Lowes! I've got enough tiles left to make two more sets, and I think I'm going to see if my artist husband will paint them for me. The post-its were 12 pads for $3.94 at Wal-mart, and the scrap-book paper I used for the craft I already had.

The snowman crayons are TERRIFIC! I found the idea for them here. Daisy is right at the age where she has discovered coloring and scribbling, but standard crayons and pencils are sometimes hard for her to keep steady. I'm going to make another set for Nick's sister's little boy (4 months older than Daisy), and my cousin's little boy (8 weeks older than Daisy). I will say that I ended up having to use 11 full size crayons for each snowman , but fortunately I had stocked up on crayons when they were twenty cents a box back when school started, so I had all I needed. I will, however, have to go with non-primary colors for the other two sets. The most labor-intensive part of the whole thing was unwrapping all the unmelted crayons. The mold was a silicone muffin pan I got at Target from the dollar bin (well, the $2.50 bin). I just filled the cups and stuck the whole thing in the oven on a cookie sheet at 150 degrees. It took about 45 minutes for them to fully melt, but I think they turned out great!

The little tin pots are homemade lip balm. I found the recipe for that here. My mom and dad actually came by yesterday and surprised me with almost all of the supplies I needed for that. My mom used to make candles and knew of a great wholesale place to buy that sort of thing, so they got me the lip balm pots along with some beeswax, fragrance, glycerin soap, lotion bases, soap dyes, and lotion bottles, along with some baskets and bath poufs so that I can put together some gifts sets. I also got some epsom salt and made bath salts (which I still have to package), and I'm going to make some sugar scrub as well.

But my very, very favorite gift is the Question Jar. This is such a neat idea, and it cost me almost nothing. Hobby Lobby had the jars for half off, the raffia I had, and the flower I made out of a twenty cent piece of felt. This is a jar filled with some really neat get-to-know-you-better questions on strips of card stock, and best of all, Pamela Donnis, the lady who created the idea, even has a PDF you can download for free with the questions already on it! She also has the tutorial for the flower. I found the list of questions to be interesting and thought-provoking. While there were some pretty standard ones in there (like "What would you do with a million dollars?"), there were also some that I had never thought about before (like "What was the most interesting class you ever took?"). I bought three jars, and I'm making one to give to each of Nick's two sisters and brothers-in-law, and one to my brother and sister-in-law. Eventually though I'm going to make one for me and Nick too.

In other news - well, there is no other news. TTWD seems to be TTWdon'tD these days, and I've pretty much let it drop. Life is chugging along, and for the moment it's just less complicated without it. If there's ever a lesson I've learned it's that stirring that particular pot never fails to send some doubts and insecurities to the surface too, and I can always do with fewer of those.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Good deals and oddly specific spanko gear

Hello, everyone. How's everybody's Christmas season going? I got a few more great deals the other day. Hasbro has some great toy coupons right now and I got four of each of these completely free at Target and Walmart.

I also got a coupon for $10 off $10 at Zazzle.com. I had previously ordered some business cards from them using a similar deal, so I was excited to get another offer. Right now they have free shipping on everything, so that made it even better. I ended up ordering a button, a magnet, and a keychain. My total after the coupon was only $1.05, and when I got the package yesterday they had (accidentally?) included an extra keychain. I probably should have ordered something for someone else for Christmas instead, but how could I pass up a Naughty Photographer keychain? Actually, they had a huge number of oddly specific products like that, so if you'll got look, chances are you'll find something in your line of work. :) Might make for some cute stocking stuffers for the spanko you love.

..

Date Night

Nick and I had a lot of fun at his company Christmas party night before last. The company he works for sells high-end cars, and they like to try to give their employees a night experiencing life on the high side, so they always try to pick an exclusive venue for the party. One year it was held at a local historic theater. One year they completely rented out a very expensive restaurant. One year it was held in a very exclusive dining club. This year they rented out the dining club attached to the sky boxes of our city's college football stadium.

College football is big business in our town, so this was everyone's favorite place yet. There are always all kinds of games, and Nick won a $50 gift card. I got some neat pictures of the stadium (rare to have a chance to get pictures of it empty as generally we wouldn't be allowed inside other than for a game). We really wanted to get down on the field and take pictures, but were told it was off limits. About halfway through the night Nick disappeared with three of his coworkers. A few minutes later he called my phone and told me to get on the elevator and bring my camera. Turns out they had found the open door to the roof of the stadium! I got some really neat pictures up there, and what a rare opportunity!

As we were leaving for the night a guy Nick works with and his wife came spilling out of the building into the parking lot, giggling up a storm. They had found a way onto the field and were just giddy with the experience. Nick and I immediately headed back into the stadium, and they showed us how to get there. We got about 20 pictures from on the field, and it was the highlight of the night. It's a good thing we hurried though, because when we got to the door to get back outside one of the stadium employees had her hand on it to close it and lock it. She was very nice about it - she didn't scold us for being somewhere we shouldn't have been, just remarked that we were lucky we hadn't been locked in. I was elated to be able to get such rare photos, and Nick was on top of the world to have gotten to walk around where so many football legends have played. All in all it was a great night.

Yesterday was low key - church for all of us followed by some last minute Christmas shopping for me while the kids stayed at home with Nick. I can't believe we're only 19 days from Christmas!

It's beginning...

...to look a lot like Christmas! This evening Nick and I took the girls to see a locally famous Christmas light display. Unfortunately Daisy slept through the whole thing, but we'll go again before the season is up. :) This family goes all out every year, over 70,000 lights between the father's house and the son's house. Both homes have light displays synchronized to the music on a local radio station (a different one for each house), and the show is free. We've been for several years in a row now, and it's always a treat.

The $60 I got to put in the bank yesterday was definitely needed - without it we would have gone about $11 overdrawn plus the fees! God is so very good to us! Another blessing I forgot to mention:

If you've ever bought baby formula, you know how ridiculously expensive it is. A 24 ounce can of Enfamil powder will run you about $23, and even the Wal-Mart brand is about $14 for the same size can. While I breastfeed (and obviously she's on solids too now), Daisy still takes formula on a regular basis just because I've found it's the most consistent and effective way to make sure she gets all her needed nutrients when she's not a big fan of the solid food I put in front of her. What we've been blessed enough to have access to buy for most of her life has been a large can of formula at Sam's. It's a 3 lb (48 oz) can for $19.97. Compared to other options, this is a great deal! However, this formula is really only meant for babies up to a year.

Enfamil and Wal-Mart both make formula intended for toddlers, but we're back to the $20+ dollar range for a 24 oz can. Wednesday I was in the discount grocery outlet they just put in near our house and I found that they have shelves upon shelves of Nestle Nido Kinder, which is basically a "next step" for formula fed babies. It's marketed to Hispanic communities, but the store I was at pulls overstock from all kinds of businesses. Rather than a formula, it's a milk product fortified with vitamins, minerals, and prebiotics, and is better for toddlers her age. What's so fantastic about this for us? It's $9.99 for a 3 1/2 pound can! I've been wanting to wean her off formula for a couple of months now, but I just don't produce enough breast milk any more to completely satisfy her urge to nurse, and I was afraid that she would miss the nutrients in formula since she can be a somewhat picky eater. This solves that problem while cutting our formula expense by over half!

Anyway, I'm headed to bed, Good night!

Still plenty to be thankful for

Well, we're into December now, and God continues to provide. Yesterday I found a really cute plaid shirt in the bag of stuff my friend Elizabeth had sent home with me the day before. It was just Morgan's size, and she loved it. In fact, she put it on to wear to church that night. While we were at church, Elizabeth texted me and asked if she had accidentally put a plaid shirt in the bag. Oops...turns out it belonged to her mother-in-law (who lives out of state), and Elizabeth needed to send it back to her. Morgan was pretty sad about it, but we dropped it off on the way home from church. When I got home, Money Saving Mom had a coupon posted for JC Penney for $10 off a $10 purchase. I went online and after fighting the extremely slow site for a while, I managed to snag a very similar plaid shirt for her for all of 44 cents out of pocket!

I knew yesterday that we needed about an extra $20-$30 to put in the bank to cover our outstanding charges (the JC Penney charge won't be billed till next week when they ship). I didn't have any way to come up with the money, and I had gone through all my pockets and purses and only been able to come up with $7. Then one of my clients decided to buy a CD from her session. It was only a small CD, but it gave us $60. I met her to give her the CD and get the money, then got the check in the bank 15 minutes before closing time.

 

We are facing some serious bills this week, and I know that Nick's paycheck won't be enough to cover it. An average check would be a stretch, but this week will be short because of Thanksgiving. All of that said, it's wonderful to know that God is going to provide, even if I don't know how He 's going to do it.

 

Saturday night is Nick's company Christmas party, and we're really excited about having a date night! I can't believe we're just over 3 weeks from Christmas! I've decided to try to do something Christmasy with Morgan every day until the 25th. Yesterday we sang Christmas songs on the way home from church. Today we got milk shakes and listened to Christmas music while we waited on my client to meet us. Perhaps a bit of a slow start, but it's getting us in the spirit. :) Normally we have our tree up by now, but I'm a little terrified to put it up right now with Daisy so extremely curious and mobile, lol! We'll probably put it up next week, but I can't help remembering my brother at her age. He was forever pulling ornaments off and being scolded away from the tree. One day my mom and I were in the kitchen when suddenly we heard a crash, and ornaments flew through the dining room - we rushed into the living room to find the tree overturned and my brother waving his arms wildly from underneath it. Hehe - he was fine, and we didn't have any problems with him touching the tree after that. :)

 

Oh, speaking of Christmas, Wal-mart has a couple of cute (and inexpensive!) shirts that I thought were really cute. Sorry if the picture quality is poor - I was using my phone to take them. The first one says "Naughty or Nice, You may need to check the list twice." The second one says "Naughty but Sweet".

Anyway, I'm off to bed. Have a great night!

Last Day

I can't believe November's already over! I have to say, I'm glad to see it done, although I can't really say why. Maybe I'm just anxious to get to Christmas. Today's thank yous:

Today I got the $0.95 coasters I ordered from One Kings Lane a few weeks ago, and they included a pretty little silver picture frame in the box at no charge. Sweet!

I got our free Christmas cards from Shutterfly today and I luuuurve them!

I also got our niece Kit's photo book today, and I think she'll really like it.

I got to have another visit with my friend Elizabeth. When I ordered my sample prints, I got 11 sheets of wallets in different poses. Each sheet comes with 8 wallets. I got 6 of the sheets of images from a shoot I did of her and her family in October. It was a shoot I did pro bono, just because she's been my friend literally my whole life (we were in the church nursery together), and they're having a really hard time financially right now. When I went to see her tonight I gave her 4 wallets of each pose that I had, and she was thrilled with them!

A sent me home with a bunch of Christmas decorations that I can use this year.

It's only 25 days till Christmas!

Goodnight, everybody!

Sweet Cyber Monday

I'm sure most of you are aware that this was Cyber Monday, the online equivalent to Black Friday. Today's thank-you are in part due to that:

I got 154 photo prints for $0.28.

I won a $15 gift card to an online retailer on Facebook. (I never win anything - who would have thought I'd win 2 things off Facebook in one month!)

Nick fixed dinner tonight.

It was his special breakfast burritos - sausage, eggs, hash browns, onions, peppers, bacon, cheese, and sour cream, all wrapped up in tortillas and love. Yum!

I'm especially thankful today to have left my old job. I ran into a former coworker today at Wal-Mart, and she was telling me that the department has gotten pretty unbearable. They've taken away most of the privileges from the agents and begun firing people right and left. They recently fired a supervisor who had been there 23 years, and I got the impression it wasn't a very fair situation, one of those where they look for a reason to let you go.

Yesterday I stopped at Wal-Mart with Morgan to pick up some things for lunch and they were doing free Santa pictures. No purchase necessary, just sit down and pose, and they would have a free 5x7 ready for you in a couple of hours. Morgan has never believed in Santa, but I thought it would be a cute picture, so I asked her if she would do it if I was in it with her and she agreed. When we went to pick the picture up (that's why we went back today), the lady at the counter had three different poses of us. I was going to buy the other two because I absolutely LOVED the way they turned out, but she said to just go ahead and take all three. Apparently Wal-Mart's plan was to print the extras in hopes of selling them, but no one was buying, so they just decided to give them away rather than trashing them.

God continues to take care of us, and I praise Him for it!

Good night, everybody!

More Sunday Sweetness

Today I am thankful for:

The soreness in my neck being mostly gone.

God's provisions.

The great church services we had today.

The Pioneer Woman's Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies (yes, I made more - I may need some sort of 12 step program to stop eating them!).

I delivered the last of my print orders today and the clients were thrilled with the pictures. Now if only I can get some more booked!

A clean living room.

A washer and dryer that work so that I can get some laundry done.

My dishwasher.

Potstickers.

Mozy - they are my off-site file back-up, and they came in very handy tonight in recovering a folder of pictures I accidentally deleted!

My parents.

My children.

My husband.

That my brother is enjoying Texas and his assignment there.

That I was able to get my shutterfly order for 151 free prints submitted about 2 minutes before the coupon code expired.

Happy Holidays!

Another Day of Thanks

Hello again. Today's list of thank-yous:

My neck feels a bit better today. Yesterday I woke up with a terrible crick in it, and it took me a ridiculous amount of time to even maneuver myself out of bed. It was pretty excruciating all day if I tried to turn to my right, and I'm thankful that it has eased off quite a bit today, although it's still a little stiff.

Nick's sister and her husband came over today so that Nick could change her oil. They bought us some McDonald's for dinner and stayed to watch The Blind Side with us, and we really enjoyed the time together.

God has continued to extend His hand of mercy on our bank account.

We have some pressing financial needs right now, and I'm thankful that God is going to provide for those in the proper time.

Nick's normal day off through the week is Thursday (every other week). Since this week it fell on Thanksgiving and everybody got the day off, he got to take Friday off. It's been ages since he had a 4 day weekend, and I'm so thankful he was able to work it out.

My first print order came in the mail yesterday and the prints are beautiful! We took the package to the guy who ordered it, and he was thrilled with it!

Both of my baby girls are snuggled up asleep in bed, and it warms my heart.

Good night!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

What a lovely day! So very much to be grateful for today. Everything we brought to the dinner was a HUGE hit, especially the Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies. Nick helped all morning with the cooking and did the deviled eggs and jalapenos himself. The sweet potato casserole was a recipe we got from a guy Nick works with and it turned out fabulous! It was just wonderful to be able to spend time with both of our families together.

See, Grant is my parents' godson. Both of hiss parents passed away when he was young. His mother was actually murdered, so there's a lot of trauma in his past. Before she was killed his mother asked my parents to be godparents to Grant and his younger twin sisters. After she died, her parents got custody and raised the kids for several years, but within about 10 years both grandparents were gone too. Grant was about 19 by this time, and he moved from his home about 3 hours away to our town to be close to my parents and go to school. His younger sisters were still minors, so they went to live with their aunt and uncle until they were adults. Anyway, Grant really began to become like a part of the family, to the point that my brothers and I consider him a brother, my parents consider him a son, and he calls them Mom and Dad.

So Thanksgiving dinner this year was made up of both my (and Grant's) family and Nick's (and Kelly's) family. We are blessed to have families that get along well, and it was just a sweet time for us all. My friend Denise was able to join us too, and I think she really enjoyed it.

I hope you all had many, many blessing today. Happy Thanksgiving!

Countdown to Casserole Time!

Hello, everyone! Less than 24 hours till the big dinner! I'm really excited, but dreading the morning a bit. LOTS of cooking to do. Tomorrow I'm making sweet potato casserole, corn casserole, cheese biscuits, and The Pioneer Woman's Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies. Nick is making deviled eggs, and we're bringing a few 2 liter drinks. Now about the jalapenos - I am NOT a spicy food type person. AT ALL. Nick's not much for them either. But Mija blogged that she will be making them, and well, they sounded really good. So tonight I did a test run of about 15 of them, just to see if they would be worth bringing tomorrow. Oh. My. Goodness. They are FABULOUS! I made sure to hull them really well, and we got all the flavor with very little of the heat, although they can definitely be made hotter. But I give them an A+. Just make sure to wear gloves while seeding the peppers.

Anyway, today I'm thankful for:

Kay, who left me a comment with a new discount code for restaurant.com. I ended up not being able to get the gift certificates for my brother the last go around, so I was quick to take advantage of it today and his Christmas gift is purchased.

Getting three packages in the mail today - always fun! I got my Thanksgiving cards (LOVE them, although I wish I'd gotten them sooner. Still I can pass them out to family tomorrow). I also got 151 prints from Shutterfly, filler for the photo albums I bought Morgan and her cousin K. And I got The Blind Side.

Which leads me to the fact that we get to keep The Blind Side for ourselves. It was supposed to be for Nick's sister and her husband, but I found out today that they already have it (also grateful to find that out NOW rather than when they opened it). So I do have to come up with something else for them, but Nick and I have both been wanting to see it, so now we can!

Two of my facebook friends have had babies this week, and I'm very glad for both. One girl especially was having a hard pregnancy, and it's good to see her done with it.

I got to pick up my free photo collage from Walgreens tonight.

I got to spend a few hours with my friend A. It's not often that I get that opportunity, so when my parents offered to keep Morgan overnight and A invited me over, I jumped on the chance.

A has a little girl about 15 months older than Daisy, and she gave me some clothes and very cute toys for her tonight. We've gotten a lot of great toys from her over the last year, and I'm always grateful.

Anyway, lots to do tomorrow, so I'm off to bed!

Terrific Tuesday

Happy Almost Thanksgiving!

Today's thankfuls:

Yep, more online deals! A free 8x10 photo collage from Walgreens (use BFCOLLAGE at checkout and choose pickup at store to get it completely free with no shipping).

I completely finished Morgan's Christmas shopping today! One thing I was hoping to get her was a cheap used digital camera. Nick's sister is getting her daughter one, and anything K gets, Morgan wants too. Of course their budget is waaaaay out of our league, so I knew we couldn't get her a new one of any quality. Plus I didn't want to put too much money into it until we know she will take care of it. I found a used 7 MP HP today at a pawn shop for $25, so I snatched it up. I'd love it if she took a real interest in photography - maybe someday we can shoot together!

I also finished her cousin K's shopping as well. I ended up getting her a photo album (since she's getting a camera too) and a small camera case, and I paid less than $10 for both of them together. I also got Morgan a photo album at the same place.

I also found this cool toy for my friend R's little girl. Honestly I had forgotten I needed to buy for her, but she always gets Morgan something, and I just couldn't pass up the deal! It was supposed to be $19.98, but it was marked $4.98. The cashier started to argue with me about it, and a manager walked by. Apparently there was a known issue with the price, because the manager said that yes, I was right and that she'd had to fix the price on one yesterday. So I got the last one on the shelf for basically 75% off!

I got a facebook message today that I had won a contest I entered (and frankly forgot about). I'm getting a super cute pair of earrings that are probably a little young for me, but Morgan will love them in her stocking!

I finally got my 50 free Christmas cards ordered from Shutterfly tonight - hooray for not waiting too late this year!

A while back I had an offer for $15 off a $15 order from overnightprints.com. This is the second time I've gotten that offer. The first time I ordered some extra business cards and some magnets made just like the cards. This time I ordered the photo calendar for my brother and his wife and some postcards for my business. The calendar came a couple of weeks ago, but they somehow left out the postcards. I called and let them know, and I finally got them today and I love them!

My photo shoot client for today called me last night and cancelled (again) because her little boy is sick. This might seem like a bad thing, but it rained all day anyway, and this way I got to spend the day taking care of some errands and getting some great deals!

God has just been so very good to me, and doing this (almost) post-a-day has really brought that out for me and let me focus on it. I can't promise that I'll be able to keep it up after November, but I'm going to try to make gratitude posts a regular thing on this blog again.

Have a great night!

Almost Turkey Day!

Hello, hello! Today I'm thankful for:

Getting a lot done on the house today. It was nice and clean by the time Nick got home.

Getting The Blind Side for $3.99 with free 2 day shipping from Amazon! (Feel free to email me if you want to know how to get the free shipping).

I also got 140 free return address labels in the mail today from Vistaprint.com. We got to customize them to use as Christmas tags, and they are soooo cute! Vistaprint is who I order my business cards from, and they are constantly running specials to get stuff free if you pay the shipping. I recommend them to anyone needing business products!

I was cleaning out my hotmail account tonight. It's the account I use any time I enter a contest or sign up for something free, so it's always full of spam. But I happened to spot an email from Pampers, and they had a special offer from Shutterfly for another free photo book! So tonight I was able to knock out another Christmas gift, this one for our niece. So far the photo offers I've come across have gotten me: a free photo book for my parents, a free photo flip book for Nick's grandparents, a free photo book for our niece, a free photo calendar for my brother and his wife using their engagement pictures, 151 free prints to put in albums for our niece (her birthday is just after Christmas, so we need 2 gifts for her) and for Morgan, and a free photo mug for my dad for his birthday!

We're going to be doing Christmas on a pretty small scale this year, but I know everyone understands, and I'm just thrilled to be able to get something for everyone we need to. All that I have left to get: 2 small gifts for Morgan, something small for Nick's sister Kelly and her husband Grant, and a couple of very small toys for my cousins' kids. I also need to print out a panorama shot I did of the view from Nick's other sister Kate's lake house and get it framed for her and her husband Will. Oh, yeah, and a picture album to put the prints I just ordered in for our niece.

I'm really excited about Thanksgiving. It's going to be at Kelly and Grant's house, and she and I are doing most of the cooking. Anyhoo, I'm off to bed - good night all!

A New Week

Hello guys - can you believe it's already Thanksgiving week? Today I'm thankful for:

A God whose mercies are new every morning! Lamentations 3:22-23

The photo shoot that has been rescheduled twice but which is (finally) supposed to be Tuesday afternoon.

Nick's dad offering to make the shoe moulding we need to go around the trim in our house around the edges of our new floors. If we buy the actual shoe moulding it's about $1 a foot. Nick's dad is going to cut and route it out of shelving board, which will cost us about $18 instead of $108.

The new furniture arrangement in our living room. It was just moving pieces around, but it was free and it gave the room a fresh feel.

A couple of clients who I had just about written off as far as ordering prints from their sessions contacted me to let me know they want to order soon.

The nice cashier at the grocery store tonight voluntarily went through her personal stash of coupons and gave me a handful that I'll be able to use in the coming weeks.

Have a great week, everyone!

Okay, this daily posting is harder than it looks...

It's been crazy busy the last couple of days, but I have plenty to be thankful for!

I got paid for my first print package (YAY!) and got to order it today.

When I bought my Nikon back in February (I think) there was a $50 gift card in the box to a photo lab. I stuck it back in the box to be looked at later and didn't give it another thought until we were moving stuff out of the living room to put down the new flooring. I had stuck the Nikon box under a side table in the corner beside the couch in case I needed to send the camera back. We pulled it out last night and I found the gift card. I was super excited because it was to the print lab I had already decided to use. Then I realized that it had expired in May. I called the print lab today and they gave me a new gift card code for $50, so I was able to order all my customers' prints as well as a bunch of wallet sizes of my work to use as samples and even a couple of Christmas gift prints. My total cost out of pocket was $5.40!

We got the flooring finished tonight - hooray for that!

I got to order a small free photo book from another photo website to use as a Christmas gift.

I also found an offer where I got 75 free Thanksgiving cards that will be here Monday.

Plus I received an offer for 50 free Christmas cards that I can customize with my own photos.

A good day to be a photographer!

Good night, everybody!

I know, I know, I did it again.

I missed another day. But I was busy editing pictures! The family said they really love them and hopefully will purchase a package this weekend. Today (and yesterday) I'm thankful for:

Finally finishing those edits.

God's hand of mercy on our bank account.

Daisy finally learning to walk! Morgan walked at 10 months, so Daisy was really taking her sweet time at almost 13 1/2 months. But she's probably my last baby, so no rush. :)

Getting 151 free prints from Shutterfly, which really helps with a few of my Christmas gifts.

The amazing sex I had with my husband a little while ago!

Rolling along...

Day 15! The things I'm thankful for today:

My in-laws unexpectedly came over this morning and hauled off our garbage for us. We don't have trash pick-up where I live, so we go to the local garbage dump. Normally we do this every other Thursday when Nick is off so that we can use his Xterra. I can take it off if it's not too much, but it's hard to fit it all in my Camry. Anyway, this time we were going to have to borrow my dad's truck to haul away all the old carpet/laminate flooring, so it was great that they came and got it for us.

A silly little thing, but it made me smile: Morgan collects silly bands. She has hundreds of them. Most of them she has purchased herself with her allowance, although I do have a few packs for her Christmas stocking. Anyway, a few months ago I came across an offer to get a free pack from a soap company using them to promote hand washing in schools. I signed up for them and promptly forgot all about it. They came in the mail today and Morgan was thrilled. :)

Nick got all the flooring in the kitchen put down tonight with the exception of one spot where the under-floor needs to be repaired, and his dad is going to come fix that for us. It looks really, really awesome! When we bought the house nine years ago, we put laminate flooring down in the kitchen, living room, and hallway. At the time they didn't have much of the snap-and-lock stuff, and what they did have was expensive, so we ended up with the type you glue together. There was some sort of tool you could rent to help make sure you got all the boards together nice and tight, but my mom assured us she could put it down just as well without it and that it would be a waste of money. Unfortunately she didn't do such a great job with it, and we've dealt with gaps (that attract dirt), chipping, and swollen spots where water has spilled (as it inevitably will in a kitchen) and seeped into the seams. Nick has done a fabulous job with the new stuff, and all we have left is the living room.

I also want to mention separately how very thankful I am for all the hard work Nick has put in, especially here lately with getting the rooms cleared out and the flooring installed. He's truly a wonderful husband, and I'm so very blessed to have him!

Friends and free magazines

Hello, guys! Today I'm thankful for:

The fact that my friend D came to church with us this morning. The message really spoke to her, and while she did not come to a decision, the Holy Spirit was really dealing with her. At one point she was crying so much she got up and left to go to the bathroom. I went to check on her, and she asked me to come back in with her and sit in the back. I agreed, and she really seemed to be thinking hard about what was being said. After the service we all went out to my parents' house and had lunch, and she hung out with us until it was time to go back to church. She declined to go to the evening service, but I think she will come with us again.

Nick and I got most of the flooring in our kitchen pulled up tonight. All that we have left are the areas under the dishwasher and our pantry cabinet.

A few weeks ago I signed up for a free subscription to Martha Stewart Living. I had forgotten about it completely (and in fact can't even remember where I found the offer), so it was a neat surprise to get my first issue in the mail yesterday, especially since I was doubtful at the time that it would even show up!

And I'm grateful to have read this post. I needed to hear it. We are facing some real financial needs right now, and while I know, know, KNOW God is going to provide (He always does!) in His time, just when we need it, it helps to be reminded of it too.

Good night, everyone!