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Gratituesday: The Fridge Is Clean

August 20, 2012 by Laura 28 Comments

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I know. It sounds like a silly thing to be grateful for. But my fridge sees a lot of food coming and going from its shelves and drawers. It is usually quite full and cluttered. If you recall, last week was incredibly busy, and my fridge was bursting at the seams. Yesterday we had company all day long, and I had a blast keeping up with feeding everyone!

By last night, I really began to notice how junky the inside of my fridge was looking after weeks of neglect. The shelves and drawers were covered with crumbs, crusty milk rings, and all sorts of sticky, icky something-or-others.

So today, I decided we were cleaning out. I changed our menu plan today so we could have leftovers for lunch, even if it did mean that the meal before us was super random and not at all exciting. I pulled out everything from meatballs to kiwi and we had a “crazy buffet meal”. In the meantime, I scrubbed down shelves and rearranged the remaining refrigerator contents.

Ahhhhhhhhh….

If you didn’t already know that I love jars, I guess you do now. :)

I didn’t even think about taking “before pictures” until after I was finished. I was simply on a mission. When this happens, there’s no stopping me. You just have to eat your random plate of lunch and not get in my way. ;)

How long will my fridge stay that clean? Probably for about a half a day. But tonight I’m thankful to be going to bed with a clean refrigerator. It’s the simple things in life, you know? :)

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Gratituesday: First Day of School Survival (and My Comments Button is WORKING!)

August 6, 2012 by Laura 50 Comments

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Today marks the first day that I have a second grader, a fifth grader, a seventh grader…and a sophomore in high school. Wowza. What happened to my babies and pre-schoolers?

I am very proud of my boys today. They set their alarms and got up and ready for breakfast on time. They maintained good attitudes (almost) all day. They worked hard. They listened well while I read to them. They got everything done on their assignment lists. They kept to a good schedule.

Why yes, sometimes we do sit on top of the kitchen table to do our Math lessons…

It was a great day. Have I mentioned before that I love home schooling? Ah, this is the life.

This afternoon, after all of the school work was checked off the lists, we headed out for swimming lessons. Then we chased back home to get Elias off to soccer practice with Dad. And then I collapsed. I couldn’t have cooked dinner if you paid me. (Leftovers to the rescue!) It was like someone hit me over the head with a sleepy stick.

It may have been from my busy day, but more than likely, it was because I stayed up way too late last night trying once again to figure out what was wrong with my website that was preventing so many of you from leaving comments on my posts. That has been an issue and a half, I tell ya. For weeks, we’ve been trying to figure out the mystery of why this was happening. After many hours of work, much prayer, a few tears, and all kinds of trial and error to find the problem – I believe I finally got it figured out and taken care of last night. Praise God! The non-techy(ish) answer to what happened is that a bunch of my coding got wonky in my sidebar widgets when we upgraded the back end of my site a few weeks ago. Once I recognized that this was a problem, I went into all of my sidebar widgets and re-coded as necessary – until my eyes began to cross. But it worked!!!!!!!!! I can’t tell you how thankful I am! (And if that whole paragraph means absolutely nothing to you, that’s okay. Just be happy for me anyway.) :)

So go ahead, leave a comment! Yay! I’ll read it in the morning, because I’m heading to bed early tonight. I have sleep to make up for and school to teach tomorrow!

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Gratituesday: Lego Room Make-Over

July 30, 2012 by Laura 23 Comments

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Yay, yay, yay, and yay some more! Our Lego Room is finalllllly clean!

You know how you have those places in your house that you walk by and immediately upon looking at it, your shoulders droop, you suddenly feel tired, and you just have to walk away? (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I am so happy for you. I hope to be like you some day.)

Our Lego Room is such a place as this. It is constantly a mess. We clean it, and within days it is a mess once again. Legos all over the floor. Legos beginning to string out into the hallway. Legos, Legos everywhere.

First, how is it, you might ask, that we happen to have such a room in our house that is dedicated only to Legos? It is a blessing and a kid’s dream come true, that’s for sure. Well, the simple answer is that we have a Lego Room because all four of our boys sleep in one big bedroom. We used to have them divided into two bedrooms, but they’d always end up sleeping in the same room anyway (and fighting each night over which room and which bed and whose turn and bleh). So, enough was enough, and all the beds got put into one room which became “the boys room”. Then the other room became a Lego Room.

Side note, because apparently I’ve decided to jump around in this post: It is awesome to have all of our boys in the same room. Sure, sometimes (like once a year at the most) one of them mentions something about having their own room, and truly, we’d figure it out if they really wanted it that badly. But having them all together means that they are making awesome memories together. At night, we hear them reading together, making up stories together, singing together (serious or goofy), and laughing together. It’s incredible and wonderful, and Matt and I love listening to it.

Anyway, back to the dreaded Lego Room. It was constantly a disaster, and nothing I’d tried in the past to make it better had ever worked. Finally, last week, the boys and I talked about how we could work together to solve the problem (so that Mom could learn to like Legos again). After way too many suggestions (seriously), we finally decided that the best idea would be to purchase some drawers so that they could separate and store the Legos by color.

We spent hours and hours the next few days, sorting colors, sorting Lego people, sorting, sorting, forgetting that we were sorting and starting to play, being reminded that we were sorting, and sorting some more. Then we re-arranged, swept, dusted, set up some ground rules, and we were finished!

Isn’t it lovely!? Now, instead of feeling discouraged when I walk by, I get excited. It looks like a great place to create and play! I’ve made the kids promise NEVER to dump out a container of Legos again for the rest of their lives!! And if they are working on a project and have Legos on the floor, when it’s time to do something else, they are to put their project into a plastic container until later.

Will this new system work? Oh I hope so. I think so. It better. ;)

I’m thankful to have this project behind me, and thankful that together, we figured out a system for Lego Room survival. :)

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Gratituesday: My Date With the School Books

July 23, 2012 by Laura 21 Comments

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Maybe it’s been the heat, maybe it’s been the lack of routine, I really don’t know. But for some reason, for the first time ever, I had not been as eager as I typically am about the arrival of this upcoming school year.

Why would I feel that way when I love school time with the kids? I’m pretty sure it’s just because starting school means that I need to be a bit more disciplined and organized. I’ve enjoyed our “take it day by day” schedule this summer. What can I say?

However, with school starting for our family in just two weeks, I finally made the time to sit down will all of our books and began to get myself organized. Once I sat down, I believe it took about 3.2 seconds for me to get excited. Books! History! Fiction! Non-fiction! Goals! Fun!

I am once again feeling like I can get into the home schooling groove. Not only that, I am super excited about what the kids and I will be learning this year. (Yes, the kids and I…because I usually learn as much as they do. It’s a huge perk to home schooling. I, the mom, get soooo much smarter. Although please never, ever ask me to be a participant on Jeopardy.) :)

As I made out our schedule, I was pleased to see that it actually seems to work on paper. We never carry out our schedule perfectly, but sometimes I can’t even get it to work on paper, much less in real life. This year, I believe I figured out what might work. (And if I’m wrong, we’ll just tweak it as needed.)

I am so grateful for the opportunity to learn along with our kids, the chance to read loads of excellent books with them, and the privilege of being with them for so much of the day. 2012-2013 school year – here we come! (But not for two more weeks. For now, I’m going to stick to a non-schedule, thank you very much.) ;)

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Gratituesday: My Gift

May 14, 2012 by Laura 42 Comments

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Ever since I lost my mom to ALS in July of 2004, Mother’s Day has been difficult for me. I miss her every day, but Mother’s Day is always harder.

Matt has always been so considerate each Mother’s Day – spoiling me and making the day special, yet acknowledging and understanding that it is a day that I tend to feel sad. I love his strength and compassion.

We don’t tend to give each other gifts on Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. We’ve never felt much need, and instead, fixing special food has always been our fun tradition. That is why I was so surprised to be presented with this on our way to church Sunday morning:

Receiving a gift at all was surprise enough. Seeing that he picked out a Bible with a cover described as “Pink and Chocolate” – well, does that tell you how well he knows me or what? And did you see what he had engraved on my new Bible?

Isn’t he the sweetest?

My husband shows me great honor in how he continually treats me like his queen. He had all of our boys sign the inside of the Bible, letting it be a gift from all of them.

I feel empowered to rise to the occasion and be the kind of Heavenly Homemaker they deserve and desire. I am honored to be the one God has chosen to make our family’s home more heavenly.

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Gratituesday: Wrapping It Up

May 7, 2012 by Laura 33 Comments

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Every year is my favorite school year. This year was no exception.

I love home schooling my kids. I love all the time we get to spend together every day. I love reading piles of incredible books with them. I love having a flexible schedule. I love learning beside them. Seriously, did you know that we have 60,000 miles of blood vessels in our bodies? That’s enough to go around the entire earth almost three times! Yes, I learned that today. I am getting so smart. (It is an added benefit to home schooling that the kids are getting smarter as well.) ;)

We’ll be continuing to read all summer, but we do usually take a break from “regular school work” for a couple of months. This week, we’re wrapping up our last few math lessons and finishing the final chapters of a few books…

And then? Well, it would appear that we started a new tradition last year on our final “official” school day: Ice Cream Cones for Breakfast.

And not the healthy, homemade ice cream either. I know. I don’t know how that even came about. But apparently I did it last year, so that’s all the boys have been talking about for the past few days. Hey, why not? We can have broccoli for lunch that day.

I am so thankful for the gift of another great school year with my kids. And…I am amazed at a God who could arrange 60,000 miles worth of blood vessels in my body with such perfection. What an amazing Creator!

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Gratituesday: May Day Preparations

April 30, 2012 by Laura 31 Comments

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Because they are growing boys with “big boy” interests, I figured they wouldn’t even give May Day a second thought this year. This morning, they proved me wrong when one of them said, “Mom, tomorrow is May Day. We need to get baskets ready so we can surprise people tomorrow!” Everyone agreed that delivering May Day Baskets was necessary. Who am I to argue?

It is possible that the adventure of surprising people is what draws them in. And yes, it’s very likely that the food going into the baskets is what excites them even more. Quality control is done thoroughly around here to be sure. ;)

But they all chose a family they wanted to deliver a basket to, and plans were made for how we should fill them. Tonight, baking supplies are out and ready so we can start putting goodies into the oven in the morning. (Because yes, I over-ruled the idea that we should buy lots of candy to fill the baskets…)

I’m glad my boys still enjoy these simple, fun little holiday traditions. And as a side note – today I got to have a lunch date with our 10 year old, Elias. Here we are as we were heading out the door to his favorite restaurant…

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Gratituesday: Date Time

April 23, 2012 by Laura 41 Comments

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Since it has been several months since I’ve taken any of my boys on a date, I decided it was time to start another round. When I mentioned it to Matt, he asked if he could please be included in the rotation. I can’t say I would mind that one little bit. Five dates for me with all five of my favorite men? Let me get my calendar!

Today, Malachi and I headed out for a little one-on-one.

We started our date at Pizza Hut – his choice. He’s been planning this for weeks actually. In his mind, there was no other option besides Pizza Hut for his time out with Mom. We headed there nice and early to beat the lunch crowd, which was a brilliant idea if I do say so myself. Or at least I thought it was brilliant until we got there and saw a huge chartered bus had arrived there ahead of us. And what do you suppose we found inside the restaurant? Table after table was full. And it wasn’t just any kind of full. It was the full of hungry college age boys kind of full.

I warned Malachi that the buffet might not have any pizza on it for quite a while since there were so many big eaters there. He was willing to wait. We got seated, got our water, talked about important subjects like Legos and ninjas, and we waited some more. Each time pizza would be delivered to the buffet, swarms of college boys would devour it within seconds. And so, we continued to wait. My little man was the picture of patience. Hey, when you’ve got Mom’s ear all to yourself, who needs pizza?

Well, would you believe that after about thirty minutes and the third round of pizza getting snatched up before we could even get out of our seats, one of those nice young college boys came over and introduced himself to Malachi? He told him that he’d noticed how long he’d been waiting for food and he said, “As soon as more pizza comes out, you and I will go up there and get you some.” Sure enough, as soon as some fresh cheesy bread sticks came out, the guy hoisted Malachi up, butted in line in front of this friends and said, “Hey, let’s let this fella get some of those bread sticks, okay?”

Malachi was in such shock, he almost forgot to say “thank you”. But wow, did he devour those bread sticks. He was even nice enough to share one of them with his hungry date. :)

I was able to take another moment to thank that young man for showing my boy such kindness. I hope Malachi remembers this and shows the same kind of love to someone else someday.

It wasn’t much longer until the place cleared out and we were able to enjoy the “all you can eat” part of the buffet. Malachi decided that posing for some pictures was a great idea:

I think that in the following picture, he’s trying to show us that he finally got enough pizza and he’s thoroughly stuffed. Four bread sticks and three pieces of pizza will do that to a seven year old boy.

Next, we headed out to Wal-mart where I promised that he could have several, unhurried minutes to gaze at Lego sets. You would have thought I had offered to take him to Legoland. No need to buy Legos. Just having the time to look at them for a long, long time was gift enough.

He’s been running up to me for hugs all day since we’ve been home. I’d say round one of five dates was a success, wouldn’t you? :)

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Gratituesday: Stretching

April 16, 2012 by Laura 29 Comments

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I like hiding behind my computer. I feel safe there. I can write freely – which I love to do. And then I can edit if I don’t like how I wrote something. Yes, my computer is very safe.

This is why, the past few months as I’ve been invited to speak to a few different groups of women, I’ve really hesitated. I haven’t felt sure that I had what it took to get up in front of people and speak. I don’t care what size the crowd – public speaking has been intimidating to me.

God knows best, however, and He decided to stretch me in ways that He apparently felt I needed stretching. He’s wise and fun like that.

Here is what I have learned through the past few months. First and foremost: I must always have a big bottle of water with me because, wow, my mouth always gets super dry when speaking to a crowd. Next: I may be the one up there doing the talking, but if I can remember to let go of myself (and my nerves), and embrace the fact that the Spirit can take over and do the talking – then we’re really onto something.

Several months ago when I was sharing my desire to simply stay behind my comfortable computer screen and avoid public speaking, my friend Emily said something very empowering to me. “Laura,” she said, “what you do on your blog is wonderful. You have been able to encourage women in so many ways. But just think how much more you can bless them when talking with them face to face.”

Well, shucks. I hadn’t thought of that before. She knew that I had what it took, and I’ve carried that vote of confidence with me ever since.

Satan has still been working to wear me down – just ask those who have had to live with me. I’ve had many moments of being a bit of a basket case leading up to each event, and have, unfortunately, done my fair share of completely freaking out. It has not been pretty, but somehow, my family and friends still love me anyway. God bless ’em.

What I have appreciated most recently is the army of prayer warriors I’ve had behind me. Matt and I took a trip to South Dakota last weekend so that I could speak to a lovely group of ladies there. The week leading up to this event was challenging in many ways, but God continued putting women in my path each day who were happy for me to share my angst. They all pumped me up with encouragement, and more importantly, they promised they would pray.

I wasn’t doing this alone. This has never been about me. God knows what He’s doing every time.

For this, I am thankful.

And as a selfish little aside, I am also thankful that I’ve checked all of my speaking engagements off my calendar for now. Yep, here I am, waving from behind my safe little computer screen. Stretching has been nice, but relaxing again back in my comfort zone is awfully nice too. ;)

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Gratituesday: God is Faithful

April 9, 2012 by Laura 32 Comments

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I have so much to be thankful for and truly, when I look at the big picture that is my life – all is well. Life is good. I have Jesus in my life, I have the best husband in the world, my children are incredible, healthy, and happy. I am so blessed that I can hardly see straight through the beauty and gifts around me.

But today has been a challenge for me. I am emotionally exhausted. Even though doing the right thing is the right thing to do, it can also be very hard. (I’m pretty sure you’ll need to read that sentence three times for it to make sense.)

God is faithful. He never asks us to do something difficult, and then shoves us away to muddle through it on our own. Never.

God is faithful. When we pray for something, and the answer is “no” – He is waiting to comfort us, because truly, our Father knows what is best for our lives.

I mess up. Life doesn’t always go the way we think it should or wish it would. But God is faithful. And because of that hope, I can sleep peacefully tonight.

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