Gratituesday Archives | Page 10 of 20

Gratituesday: The Completed Living Room

October 22, 2012 by Laura 33 Comments

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Remember two years ago when Matt and his dad tore into our living room so that they could insulate our walls?

After they tore out the lath and plaster, they sprayed in some awesome foam insulation, and then put up dry wall. And of course, they got all that mess cleaned up and put the living room furniture back where it was supposed to be.

At that point, the project kind of came to a halt. That’s because all Matt does is sit around all day watching TV.

I am so totally big fat kidding.

The guy is an extremely hard worker and finds himself with more to do in a day than he typically has time for. Plus, the outside of our house has needed painting, so in the warm months, he works on that project instead of indoor projects.

Slowly but surely, Matt textured all of the walls, then painted all of the walls, then put up and painted the trim. It has been a work in progress for quite some time. But a couple of weeks ago, we were finally able to hang curtains and call the room “finished”.

Now, just for added “aaaahhhh” effect, go back up and look at the “during” pictures.

And now…

Isn’t it beautiful!!!

I love the wall colors we picked (gold and raspberry). Those colors were actually picked by a great friend of mine who has the decorating gift. I clearly do not have that gift. If it were up to me, the wall would have been a very exciting shade of…off white. ;) We found a great new rug that is a perfect match. And another friend helped me pick out sheer curtains.

Now, the laptop isn’t a living room decoration, but if you look over to the right of the picture, you will see that Asa, our 15 year old, was doing his Algebra 2 lesson this afternoon when I snapped this shot. I’m sure he’s pleased to have his feet in the picture.

I can’t tell you how great it feels to have this project completed! Each time I walk into the room, I just have to stop and stare for a moment. (Not at Asa’s feet – but at the warm, pretty colors.)

I’m thankful for my hard working husband and my beautiful living room – and sure – even for Asa’s feet. :)

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Gratituesday: Homecoming Weekend

October 15, 2012 by Laura 19 Comments

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I look forward to it…long for it even. Homecoming weekend here at York College always brings lots of house guests, soccer games, and festivities. All throughout the weekend, we run into so many friends that we love catching up with. Often, we don’t know who will be coming, so bumping into people we love all throughout the weekend is always so much fun!

One of the highlights of this weekend was that Matt was able to talk his former YC roommate – the best man in our wedding – into making the trip from Texas. They played soccer together, traveled to church camps together during summer breaks, and have been wonderful friends from the time they first met. Having him here for the weekend was fantastic. The only thing that would have made it better is if his family could have joined him. Next year. (Cindy, that was a hint.) :)

Here they are after playing in the alumni soccer game. Watching my guy play in that game is a highlight of my year – probably because it is a highlight of his. Why yes, he did score a goal that day. :)

Before all the running around began, we were able to sit in the living room and play games together. Love this.

I had the most fun making meals for all of our guests. I’m thankful I had so many meals made up ahead of time so that I was able to relax and enjoy my company. Our friend Lisa was celebrating her birthday while she was here, so the Cake Boys rose to the occasion. That episode will be coming soon, I’m sure.

Lisa loved the cake. Well, we all did, as a matter of fact.

The hugs, the visits, the fun – they all filled me up and left me refreshed. I am so thankful for all of the wonderful people God has put in our lives to encourage and sharpen us.

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Gratituesday: Family On a Mission

October 8, 2012 by Laura 25 Comments

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I can not tell you how thankful I am to have such grown up kids who are so willing to help.

Since we were sick last week, we got pretty behind on day-to-day tasks, plus we have several projects we’d like to finish before our company comes on Wednesday night.

As our strength has slowly come back and we are getting back to normal (whatever the “Coppinger normal” is) – the to-do lists are being made and we are on a mission. The house is being whipped into shape, and so far, I haven’t heard anything but a willing, “Okay, Mom” as I’ve handed out jobs. (Oh if they would always obey without arguing…)

If you have a household of little ones right now, I really want to encourage you to take heart! As they get older, and if you work with them now to train them to be helpers, you will be amazed at the work load they can take on once they are a little older.

They may not always see what needs to be done and do it without asking (says the lady who lives with four male children who will forever and a day step over piles of laundry without ever once thinking about the fact that the clothes may be theirs and that they should pick them up and put them away for Pete’s sake). And the cleaning may not always be done the exact way I would like it to be done. But wow, can they tackle a job and take a load off my shoulders when asked!

Here are the cookies Malachi and I worked on together while the older boys were working on upstairs projects. (Yay! The summer/winter clothes are finally sorted and put away!) While Malachi cut cookie dough into pumpkins, apples, and leaves, I worked on Lasagna Casseroles. Hooray for multi-tasking!

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Gratituesday: Reading Time

September 17, 2012 by Laura 46 Comments

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I have always enjoyed spending time reading to our boys. But during the past two weeks, reading time has become my favorite part of the day.

Two years ago, we read Little Britches together, by Ralph Moody. It is a true story, told by Ralph about he and his family and all of his adventures growing up as a little boy on a ranch. We all enjoyed the book a lot at that time, but Malachi was still pretty little and had a hard time following the story (and being quiet so that the rest of us could follow the story!).

Now, with our boys ages 7, 10, 12, and 15 – we are reading book two in the series by Ralph Moody, called Man of the Family.

I’m not even sure where to begin with my gushing. This book is so, so good. We are all captivated by it and have a hard time putting it down each night so that we can get to bed at a decent time. And I love that it is a book that all four boys are enjoying. (For the record, I believe girls will enjoy this book too. I think that this is safe to say because I am enjoying this book very much, and I am a girl .) ;)

Beyond the overall enjoyment of the storyline, I am loving what this reading time is providing. Since we are in the middle of our busiest season of the year, it has been so great to have this time when we are all crashed out on the couches reading together at bedtime. Then, after reading time comes prayer time. Then after prayer time comes a great discussion or just random Coppinger silliness – or maybe a little bit of both. (Because we can’t just sit and be serious for too long, you know.) :)

I love it all. This time to relax and connect with my boys at the end of the day has been wonderful.

(Shoot, I just realized I should mention that while I highly recommend all of Ralph Moody’s books, there is some occasional bad language. I edit as I read, and either keep moving or use it as a teachable moment.)

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Gratituesday: The Hair Cut Conversation

September 10, 2012 by Laura 25 Comments

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This morning, I found myself growing grumpy with stress. I hate it when I do that to myself (and to my family). As if letting myself become tense and overwhelmed really helps me get through the day? Um….nope. And yet, as I was reading World History to the boys, in the back of my mind I was creating a long “to-do” list of everything else I needed to get done. In doing so, not only did my school time with the boys become not fun, my tension level kept increasing. (Why? Why do I do this to myself?)

One of the items on my “to-do” list: Give Matt a Hair Cut . It needed to be done before he left for his soccer team pictures at 2:45. But before that I needed to do this and that and that and this (Blah, blah. You don’t want to hear about my to-do list.)

By the time I finally broke away from my other tasks and met Matt outside for his hair cut, I had worked myself into a bit of a crazed mental frenzy. I gave him a half smile and admited to him that I was feeling like a bit of a basket case. I’m sure he loved handing over the scissors once I’d confessed that. ;)

He (bravely) sat down and we began the hair cut. I’ve done this cut plenty of times, so it only took about twenty minutes from my “busy schedule”. Guess what I accomplished during that time? Yes, a hair cut. But guess what else? I got to have uninterrupted conversation with my husband. Now there’s something that hasn’t happened for a while.

It was just what I needed. Time to reconnect. Time to process. Time to shift my focus off of myself and onto my husband. I suddenly became very thankful that this chore was on my “to-do” list.

And shucks, as an added bonus, we saved money on a haircut too. What a deal. ;)

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Gratituesday: Freezer Food, Which Was Made to Be Eaten (A Little Post That Laura Wrote To Herself That You Are Welcome To Read If You’d Like)

August 27, 2012 by Laura 44 Comments

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Ah, Freezer Food…

I have a blast thinking through which meals will be helpful to have on hand to pull out with a moment’s notice. I spend hours preparing it. I experiment with new recipes that will keep nicely in the freezer. I store the healthy, prepared food carefully away for the “busy days”. I keep note of it in the back of my mind, thankful that it is there in the freezer if I need it.

And then I hoard it. I hesitate to use it, even on busy days, knowing that there just may be an upcoming day that’s even busier when I will need that particular frozen meal. So I quickly cook something else, even if I don’t have time, saving the frozen, prepared meals for a “busier day”.

Hello, Laura?!!? Every day right now is a busy day!!! You’ve found yourself coming and going every day for the past three weeks. You’ve barely had time to sit at the computer and you are getting more and more behind on your work. Apples are coming out your ears, waiting to be made into applesauce and canned for the winter. You desperately need to go check the garden to see what else is ready to preserve. God continues to put people in your life to serve, there is school work to be done, phone calls to return, and you haven’t been able to keep up with the nasty dishes crawling out of the kitchen sink since the end of July.

Exactly what kind of busy day are you waiting for that will qualify as a “good day to pull out some freezer food”?

Um…apparently I have been waiting for the days when we are chasing ourselves off to six soccer games, or well…I don’t know. There truly will be days that are busier than those which I am experiencing right now. But barely.

On a day when I feel overwhelmed with everything on my “must-do” list – that is the day for the Freezer Food to come out. That is what it is for, after all.

Here’s a picture of today’s BBQ Chicken Sandwich right before I threw it at my husband
when he came home for ten minutes between soccer practices.
Fresh tomatoes and sweet peppers from our garden made this a great meal,
all of which I put together very quickly since I utilized my frozen food stash of BBQ Chicken.

Today, I am incredibly thankful that I spent the time a few weeks ago to stock my freezer with ready-to-eat foods. And today, I hereby give myself full permission to USE THEM!

Oh, and if you were worried, I didn’t really throw the sandwich at Matt. I handed it to him carefully so as not to fling bbq sauce and tomatoes, and I even managed to slap a kiss on his cheek as he headed out the door again.

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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: Anniversary Date

August 13, 2012 by Laura 24 Comments

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It’s been a few years since we’ve been able to make this happen, but today, on our 18th Anniversary, Matt and I got to go out on a date!

Why have we not gone out on an actual anniversary date in years? Because our anniversary always falls right during the busy part of soccer season. It’s pre-season for the college team he helps coach. That means there are three practices per day right now. And sometimes, he’s not even in town on our anniversary because he’s with the team on a retreat.

I am definitely not complaining. I know Matt loves me and we always try to find time later (like in November once soccer season is over!) to do something special in honor of our anniversary. Hey, remember what he did for me last year on our anniversary? Sweetest thing ever!

Well, last week, when we were talking about our anniversary, Matt said, “I think we just may be able to go on a date that day.” Fun! Between morning and afternoon soccer practices, and before I got very busy prepping the meal I was feeding the team tonight, we headed to the nicest restaurant in town for lunch together. (And he wore my favorite shirt. Not that you needed to know that. But it made me smile. It’s his black shirt. And it looks really, really nice on him. I’m done now.)

The boys stayed home by themselves and made tuna. So exciting for them. Matt and I? We had sirloin. Oh yeah.

And then we ran some errands together, because nothing says romance like delivering a library book and making a trip to the post office.

He dropped me back off and home, and headed off for soccer practice number two. That hour and a half I had him all to myself (in his black shirt)? Perfect.

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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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