Recharged

I went to Houston this weekend. Whit had the triplets all to himself. I went with a friend to another friends parents house. They were the most perfect southern family that you could imagine. Sweet, welcoming and the restful weekend was all that is was promised to be.

We slept in, went to see twilight, ate cheese grits, bisquits and gravy and the most incredible chocolate bundt cake I've ever eaten. It was bliss. We ate and ate and I had so much fun. I'm re-charged and feel oh so great. I love being a wife and mom , but i also love being me. It was nice that someone else in the house was the momma. Thanks girls.

So it was business as usual back at the shepherd house this afternoon. GG couldn't believe her luck when I scooped her up after her nap. She held on tighter than usual. The boys couldn't stop bringing me things. After dinner they had forgotten all about me being gone. We did baths then jammas. We then went for a quick visit next door to see recovering Uncle Grant. Then it was night night time. We sang our songs and turned off the lights.

So now it's my bed time. I'm awake, recharged and alive with thoughts of the week. I'm not falling into bed half asleep like usual but thinking about this beautiful week of Thanksgiving. My very favorite. So grateful and so blessed and so happy we have a day when everything stops and we are given grace for our busy schedules and lives and allowed to give thankfulness all we've got.

Tonight, as I think about what the week holds with work, being a mom, wife, friend, niece, granddaughter, coworker, I'm happy to have a fresh set of batteries. As I listen to my hubby snore, I'm thankful to have 6 beating hearts under one roof. All hearts that make my world spin so bright. I'm thankful and ready for another week.

365 days

When I think about a whole year, I think of the end. Thanksgiving, Christmas, new years... All the good stuff that we've worked so hard for. The reward for enduring the entire year of really great moments and really hard days.

I think about all we accomplished as a family and the memories we made in the days leading up to that 365th day. I think about goals we made and ones we missed and I make plans to reach the ones we let fall by the wayside . I make new personal goals, some small like send someone a card each week and some big like be a better person.

When I think of an entire year I think of all the positive moments and all that I am so grateful for. I've often said, "where has this year gone?!" or "wow, this year has flown by!"

Tuesday my friend Lindsey asked me out to her house for a bonfire to remember her husband that past away 365 days ago(reference my blog last year November). I had kiddo duty because whit worked late. So I showed a little late but when I got there, there was this huge fire with friends and family sprinkled around it. A praise band was singing some of their favorites, kids were everywhere and marshmallows were being roasted. It was the most perfect and beautiful night. But as they sang the lyrics to my favorite Crowder song, I was overwhelmed with the thought 365 days prior that she had endured. I played back every memory I had with whit and the babies and imagined her alone with her girl for 365 days and nights.

I could list 5,000+things that she probably missed about him that year and how her year had probably felt like the longest year of her life without him. How goals must seem like such a joke and how these upcoming holidays must be so bitter sweet. My heart was in my teeth once again and when I was handed a perfect balloon to release in his memory, I prayed. I prayed that God lift his family up and that friends and family would give them many more years of support and that each year it would become stronger rather than forgotten.

We had to get up early the next morning and drive to Dallas for a doctors appointment. As I drove I was reminded of how strong Lindsey is. I am in awe of her. I am blessed to know her and so grateful for her strong Christian attitude.

Three. Hundred. Sixty. Five.

Advent Calendar Updates

Happy Monday Evening!

As promised here is the latest on the Advent Calendar......

I hope cutting everything out went well! Alissa put me to work this weekend and to be honest...I am not great at the hand sewing part- but we survived :) Her ornaments look better than mine- but I love the homemade look and feel of each one, even the ones I made!

This weeks plan:

Begin hand stitching 10 ornaments(sounds like a lot but they only take about 15 minutes each...so maybe consider doing one or two a day...) This week you will make the following:

Angel Wing #14
Baby Jesus #10
Gift #20
Cross #5
Star of David #7
Lion #9
Drum #3
Gift #6
Bow #2
Peace Sign #11


You will want to stitch around each ornament using the blanket stitch. Below is a tutorial that shows how to sew the two layers of each ornament together. You will want to leave a half inch opening before you complete the sewing, in order to stuff some batting inside. Then continue to sew the opening closed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aGbMop12Rg

For the ornaments that have embellishments (the peace sign, the baby Jesus, gifts, lion), you will use this stitch to sew the embellishments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cskRye7RFQ&feature=related

***if the ornament has an embellishment, always sew on the embellishment BEFORE you sew the back and front of your ornament together.


****for the bow:
the widest piece is the main part of the bow.
fold that piece in half and sew the open ends together. now it should be in a ring. using the shorter piece of the 2 pieces that are left, wrap it around the sewn together ring to make a bow shape. hand sew this on to secure it. lastly, slip the last piece in through the securing band to form the ribbons that hang from the bow.

*****for the gifts--the long strip gets hand sewn onto the package itself as shown below. the shorter piece is the bow on top of the gift. i simply tied a knot in the middle of the strip and stitched it on top of the finished ornament.

Happy Sewing! :)


Here are example pictures of the ornaments you will complete this week.

Snapshots

I was in the laundry room tonight and was putting the dog bed cover I had just washed back on the dogs bed when I looked up at the chalk board to see an old picture strip of me and whit on New Years Eve 2008.

The first thought was of the iridescent dress I was wearing. I loved that dress. After that night though- I hated it. I was in the main ball room at Barkin Ball(the charity event I ran) when a guest asked me how far along I was as he grazed my stomach. I was mortified. 1. Because he thought I looked pregnant and I wasn't
2. Because it cut me to the quick because I wanted to be pregnant.

We had been trying already for years with no success. I hated that dress and wanted to disappear into a black corner.

When I stared at the strip of pictures I couldn't help but to look at our faces and how sweet we looked at one another. I remember making him promise me (as if he could) that the next "fertility try" would be "the one".

I think at that point he would have promised me anything because my desperate pleas were just that- desperate. By then we had heard the whole "everything happens for a reason" at least 100 times but at this particular stage I was so jaded with doubt that I rarely listened to anyone anymore. They could tell me long stories about how their sister had multiple rounds of unsuccessful ivfs With no success and one day she went sky diving and the next month she was pregnant. What? Really? Did they think I was that desperate? Apparently so.

When I stared at the picture some more I saw the desperation on whit's face too. One that I never saw when I was in the eye of the storm. Unfortunately, I was guilty of thinking I was the only one hurting. I hate that I missed that.

But what rang the loudest to me when I stared at the picture strip was this: situations change. No, this isn't where I say look at me, we wanted a baby and now we have three... It's where I say, whatever your circumstance, no matter how badly you are hurting or how desperately you want change, it will come. Maybe not how you saw it, but how God sees it.

I've talked about unanswered prayers before. I prayed when I was a kid for things to go or be a certain way. When the kids were all in the nicu I even prayed for very specific wants. I think he hears our prayers big and small but sees the big picture when we can only focus on the picture we are holding.

I don't remember how I choked back the tears when that guy asked me how far along I was, but I do remember whit promising me that one day we would have a baby. I don't think he knew how or when, I just think he knew that we would either succeed or adopt..

Either way our situation would change and either way, I would look back on that snapshot and see how much our lives had changed.

Halloween Wrap-up and A New Tradition in the Shepherd House

Last night we went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. Ha, not really....they aren't really at that stage. But, we did make the block and visited friends and family along the way. We picked up some gold fish snacks, some marshmallow peeps and even some dum-dums (which we quickly learned was a choking hazard for the girl!)

Earlier in the day we went to visit the Klaras Children's Center Halloween party, followed by a quick Chik-fil-a run and a trip to daddy's office. It was a full day because work also happened. This reminds me of that juggling that I always talk about. I feel guilty being a working mom but when days are successful and full- I am reminded that this can happen.

As we close the door on Halloween and turn off the lights on the trick-or-treaters, we shift into the holiday season. I want to start traditions that mean something. I plan on doing the three gifts for each child just like we did last year. I want them to know the meaning of Christmas and the reason we carry on traditions in our home. I want them to know Jesus.

In light of starting traditions and teaching them the Christmas story, Alissa asked me to join her in making an Advent Calendar that we can use for many years to come. When we unpack it each year, I want them to know what it is and when they move away and have their own families to shape, I want them to be come home and see this calendar and remember the traditions and the love for Jesus that we instilled in them.

So, I am taking the month of November, week-by-week, to show you the calendar in stages as Alissa and I walk through them. A "sew-along"...if you will :)  At the beginning of each week, I will post instructions for the week with details. I know this week is almost over but this weeks "steps" are quick and easy and you can do it this weekend! The project costs less than $20 and will last forever! I have seen some online that cost upwards of $100.

Because we haven't completed the project, we don't have pictures, but just so you can get an idea, we have adapted ours from the two pictures below.

We are using these colors of felt and this pocket format.....

And we did this overall design. (our tree will look a little different and our ornaments are more faith based rather than season based.)

Below are templates and instructions. Save the images to your computer and make sure they print from edge to edge on a regular sized printer paper (the ornaments should be about 2 inches. Don't be overwhelmed-- it's actually a lot easier than it looks (take this from someone who has never sewn anything!!! This is all hand-stitched and super easy for someone who is not very crafty!) Also, keep in mind that the templates are hand drawn and feel free to change or modify them. 

When the Fair Leaves Town

This week we have been able to hear the fair outside in our driveway, inside the house and even inside the kids room when we are doing the nighttime routine. I can smell it outside and driving by it- is complete chaos.

I remember when I was in junior high how I had to bargain with mema pat on how many days I could actually go and how a whole two weeks in October revolved around the fair. Later, it mattered who was playing and in the last five years, food was more of a draw than anything.

I think life is like the fair in so many ways. Seems really hectic for a few days and then you look around and the "fair" has left town. Right now I'm working really hard on my event and days seem 4 hours too short. I'm stressed and working against the clock- but the ferris wheel at home keeps turning. I'm so grateful. So full of joy that I have so much fruit in my life. We are at this pivotal period where we are snapping three little lives- lives I prayed for. Lives I begged for. Lives that I told God I would shape to live him if he would give them to me.

This past weekend was so good. We stayed home. It was planned and the plan was rich. We ate take out on Friday, got the air mattress out and watched shows. We had a full on thanksgiving meal on Saturday, cleaned out the garage, watched football, went on a picnic at the park(gg is walking everywhere now)and just enjoyed every second of every laugh.

I had just returned from a work trip and being with them and drinking those giggles was just what I needed. Sunday we went to church. Because our kids don't do daycare, I dread their cries when we drop them at Sunday school. But this Sunday was perfect. No one really fell apart. We attended a class on disciplining toddlers.

I think because I wanted them so badly, my disciplining department could use a little guidance. I'm weak. I want obedient kids and I want a happy healthy home- so this is so good for our souls. We learned, we talked, we got on the same page. I think we are stronger in just one Sunday. We're going back for more next week.

So as the carnies load their trucks and the weekend came to an end I was thankful this year. Thankful that I didn't eat one cold corny dog, thankful that while I could hear the fair and the roar of the crowds- that I took the year off.

Hope you ate something yummy this weekend. And if you went to the fair- you ate a caramel dipped apple for me ;)

Happy Monday!

Cold snap

I love when it's hot one day and 58 the next! I've always loved cold weather and the clothes that come with it. You know, when you get to layer shirts and jackets and pants and break out your uggs (and your feet aren't sweaty inside them).

I'm hoping for a snap this weekend. Maybe even some rain. My event is Thursday and after that is wrapped up, I will have a 10,000 pound elephant off my back. I cannot wait.

I want that, whew, it's over feel. I want victory over prematurity. I want more babies born on time because of the education and work that we are providing. I want to touch that one person that wants to make a difference too. I love this work. I love fundraising, I love saving babies.

I'm also missing a certain friend that lives across the pond A LOT this week. So, God, I know you hear our prayers big and small.... I have just a few requests... A cold snap, a visit over the holidays(or even Easter!) from my friend and a successful event.

Have a good night everyone!