I know. I’m weird. 

Most people despise Mondays and instead, love Fridays. And truly, I love all the days of the week for different reasons. There’s lots of fun to be had while running crazy all weekend, seeing lots of friends, going to ball games, feeding a houseful of teenagers, making a plan and beginning to execute said plan for the upcoming week on this blog, and throwing my hands in the air at the laundry piles that begin to take over the upstairs hallway.

I love it all.

But by Monday, I am ready to have a quiet day at home. I’m ready to take a break from all of the “out of the house busyness”. I’m ready to get back into a routine. I’m ready to sit down and read books with my boys. I’m ready to reconnect with you – my blog readers. I’m ready to have an evening with nothing to do and nowhere to be (which sometimes, believe it or not, actually happens on Mondays…yay!). 

I’ve learned the hard way not to schedule much on Mondays. I really need my Mondays at home so that I can try to catch up on rest and work. I need to take a breath and sometimes…I need to take a nap. ;)

By Monday night, I find that I am refreshed and ready to move on to whatever Tuesday through Sunday brings. Hooray for Mondays! 

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For some, 2012 was filled with trials, disappointment, and grief. For others, the year provided happy opportunities, new life, fun experiences, and excitement.

For many, it is likely that 2012 contained a mixture of both.

I am so thankful that no matter what this world threw our way in 2012…God is good. All the time, during difficulties and during times of happiness.

He is our provider, our protector, our joy.

No matter what 2013 brings to each of us, we can be assured of this:  God is good, He will continue to be good, and because of Him, we have hope.

We are blessed.

May we all have a rich and God-filled New Year!

Share how God is working in your life on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for! Please read through the Gratituesday Guidelines so that you understand what kinds of posts you can link up to share here. Posts that are linked but do not fit our Gratituesday theme will be deleted.

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I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it lately, and I certainly don’t say it enough – but my husband is an incredible entrepreneur. He’s clever, wise, and thoughtful about creating and running businesses – always on the look-out for a need that can be met in our community which will provide for our family and/or bless others. 

He looks for good investment opportunities, and does hours of research before pursuing a new idea. I love that he is “visionary” and very intentional about not having all of our “eggs in one basket”. As a result, it’s hard for us to answer the question, “So Matt – what do you do for a living?” 

Short answer:  He’s a self-employed business owner. Long answer:  He has a snow removal/lawn care business, does small construction jobs for people, and manages the storage units we own and rent out. He is also an assistant coach for our York College ladies soccer team. (And those are just the jobs that earn money. I won’t take the time right now to list everything he does on a volunteer basis to bless people in our church and community.)

Well, as of last Friday, you can add one more title to Matt’s name:  Landlord.

Yep, we have invested in our first rental home. If you can believe it, we put an offer on the house way back in July. One crazy thing after another kept coming up to prevent us from closing on the house – from basement issues to paperwork delays. We were sure we would close by the end of September – so sure in fact that we had renters planning to move in October 1st. When we got the call on September 29 that there was a delay – we almost panicked. 

I should clarify. I panicked. Matt calmly solved the problem. Thankfully, we were buying this house from friends who had moved away, so they let the renters move in and we acted as temporary “property managers”.

Finally, on Friday we signed the final paperwork. The house is ours! Now, along with the storage units we rent out, we also rent out a home to a nice family here in town.

Oh, and here’s a (not so) funny story:  This morning Matt’s cell phone rang early. Of all things – just three days after the house became ours, a knob in the shower busted off, causing water to “leak” from the second floor through to the kitchen on the main floor, and all the way down to the basement. Wasn’t that a nice way to welcome us to the life of a landlord? :)

Thankfully, not only is Matt a savvy business man and investor, but he is also quite handy with home repairs. Several hours of work and $0.63 later, all is well in the rental home. 

Seriously…63¢. I can’t believe that’s all the money that repair took. I love this guy and his home improvement abilities, ambitions, goals, and business sense. And I’m thankful for how God continues to provide for our family – even if it is sometimes hard to give the short answer for “what we do for a living”. :)

Share how God is working in your life on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for! Please read through the Gratituesday Guidelines so that you understand what kinds of posts you can link up to share here. Posts that are linked but do not fit our Gratituesday theme will be deleted.

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Last night, we spent time putting up our Christmas decorations. This morning…we woke up to snow. It couldn’t have been more perfect.

Therefore, I declared it to be a hot cocoa morning. The boys didn’t argue. :)

Wow, check out the film already forming on the hot cocoa. 
And someone reallllly needs to iron the Christmas tablecloth. 
Obviously, my pictures will never appear on the covers of magazines. 
Yay for you – you get to be a part of the real world I live in… :)

I was hoping to get some baking done today too, so right after breakfast, I began stabbing our big pumpkin. The boys thought it was awesome. I’m so glad I could impress them with my pumpkin violence. (Have you tried this easy method for cooking a whole pumpkin?)

Once the pumpkin was in the oven, I did school work with the boys, then sent them off to work on their individual assignments while I started on some website work. The boys all got right to work and finished early for once. Why? Because they had been promised (by me) that I would take them to do their Christmas shopping this afternoon. They were soooooo excited! (And had to show much patience because I wasn’t finished working before they all had their assignments done and were waiting impatiently for me to head to the store.)

Finally at about 3:15, I was able to head out. Malachi got to go first. He picked out a gift for each brother, and one for Daddy, and we headed home. I dropped him off, and picked up Elias. We shopped for brothers and dad. I brought Elias home and picked up Justus. We shopped. I dropped him off at home and picked up Asa. We shopped. We arrived back home at 8:30. 

And then I collapsed.

Not really. I was a little bit exhausted (and starving), but that one-on-one time with each boy was priceless. And seeing their generosity as they pick out gifts that their brothers would like (while spending their own hard earned money) melts my heart every year. We began this marathon shopping tradition about four or five years ago, and we all just love it! (Dad will take all the boys shopping for Mom in a few weeks – also a fun tradition everyone enjoys.)

And so, we are officially feeling quite Christmas-y around here. The pumpkin is ready to be made into pies and muffins. Presents are hidden in closets and everyone is holding on to fun secrets about the gifts they found. The kitchen is a mess and boxes threw up all over the living room. Oh wait. Let’s not go there.

 Let the Christmas season begin! (After I get a good night’s rest.)

Share how God is working in your life on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for! Please read through the Gratituesday Guidelines so that you understand what kinds of posts you can link up to share here. Posts that are linked but do not fit our Gratituesday theme will be deleted.

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It seems that last weekend held a lot of “firsts” for me. I participated in my first 5K walk-run. And I got to go to my first concert!

Really…I’d never been to a live concert before. Why? Well mainly because I didn’t think I would really like it. I guess I felt like I’d be paying good money to have my ears blasted out by loud speakers and that I’d feel uncomfortable in a setting like that.

I’ve always really enjoyed Christian music on the radio. But I tend to be kind of private when I’m “belting it out for the Lord”. Now, put me in my mini-van with a CD cranked up when I’m by myself on the way to the store and I’ll jam out, but with others around me – even my family members who I am, of course, very comfortable around – I tend to be much more reserved. 

Goodness, let’s all just pause for moment and have a nice belly laugh that I used the words “CD cranked up”, “jam out”, and “mini-van”,  all in the same sentence. Not that any of you thought I was very cool before, but after that sentence, all of my coolness credibility just flew out my mini-van window.

Hey. I’ll have you know that our mini-van has a very sweet stereo system, thank you very much.

(My guess is that trying to defend my mini-van speakers is not increasing my coolness level even a little bit, is it? I’ll stop now.)

Well anyway, last Christmas, our boys received the “God is Not Dead” Newsboys CD. We have it playing in (you guessed it) our mini-van. The more I heard the CD, the more I loved it. For the first time, I actually found myself wishing that I could go to a Newsboys concert, because jamming out (don’t picture it) with the Newsboys live and in person sounded awesome.

All concerts in our area were sold out, so it seemed that it just wasn’t going to happen. I decided to just be satisfied with enjoying the CD, playing my favorite songs over and over.

And then, a Newsboys concert opportunity came about right around Matt’s birthday. (You’ve got to love it that I planned something I really wanted to do for his birthday. Don’t worry. Matt loved it too and was in full agreement that we make these plans.)

Last Friday night, as a family, we got to experience the best concert ever. I loved it more than I ever thought I would. In fact, when they sang their final song and the lights came on, I looked at Matt and said with incredible disappointment, “Wait. It’s over already? But they just started.” Matt smiled, showed me his watch, and told me that we had been there for three hours. I had no idea that much time had gone by. But I am admitting to you right now that this 39 year old with the not so coolest mini-van in town felt like crying like a baby that it was over already. 

I figure I’ve already solidified your decision that I’m terribly uncool. Might as well let you know that I was also a big cry baby because (wah) I wanted more songs.

It’s all good though. We turned the Newsboys CD on and jammed out as a family in our mini-van all the way home. ;)

Share how God is working in your life on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for! Please read through the Gratituesday Guidelines so that you understand what kinds of posts you can link up to share here. Posts that are linked but do not fit our Gratituesday theme will be deleted.

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