breaking in the new computer...finally

 

  

is there a better way to break in a new computer?

a history of grace

Sarah waited for at least 70 years to have a baby of her own.
jacob waited and worked for Laban for over 14 years so he could marry rachel.
the Israelites waited for 40 years to enter into the promised land.
Jesus waited 30 years before he began his ministry.
Paul waited for 3 years to begin his ministry after his conversion.

Throughout time and eternity, God has always worked in the times of waiting.  He has used these periods of waiting to better his people.  He waits until they are ready for the challenges ahead of them.

I am anxiously awaiting this next season of our lives to be over...and it has not yet even started.  as most of you know, michael will begin some traveling next month.  it is not a little bit of traveling.  it is a test of your spirit sort of traveling.  And though I am sad, I am reminded that I have had to wait through challenging times previously in my life.

i waited to be healed of myasthenia gravis.
i waited to get my braces off.
i waited to get married
i waited to be free from bad habits
i waited to find a job when no one would return a phone call
I waited to find friends in a new city

and the waiting sometimes took time.
7 years, 2 1/2 years, 3 years, 7 years, 3 months, 1 1/2 years.
God's timing is not my timing, but what he has done in the waiting has been nothing short of a miracle.

i was healed of myasthenia gravis - with no medication and no relapse, as if it never happened
i got great teeth
i got to know michael better in the year we spent long distance than i had in the two years we spent dating in person.  
i was set free from years of twisted and confused ways of eating
i got the perfect job with the perfect boss, at the perfect place when i had no license and no experience to qualify me
i found the closest of friends who will be a part of my life now and through eternity.

waiting is not fun.  but it is not fruitless.  there is a sweetness in the pains of waiting that make it all the more amazing when the waiting is through.

when 3 -5 months is over, i will be celebrating what the Lord has taught me about myself and my boys and about his goodness and faithfulness.  This is what my history of waiting has taught me as I look to my future of waiting.

one terrrific cupcake

of course i forgot to take a picture of it.  BUT, if you are in need of 2 dozen good cupcakes.  i can for sure recommend these from the February issue of Southern Living.  even michael, the "why would you make anything other than a  box-cake" man agreed that they were good.

the recipe is a bit confusing looking on the website and there is no photo, but they are easy.

As shown, you can make them bite size and in all kinds of variations of flavors, but the men of my house just like "banilla," and i don't have tons of mini muffin tins, so i haven't tried the variations.  Use the Vanilla Buttercream recipe with it, it is delicious.  Like...lick the icing off of the top of the cupcake and throw the rest away because you have 23 other cupcakes, good.

Erin: 25, Stinkhorns: 9

oh...they are gaining on me.  next step is to remove ALL the mulch from the front bed.  good thing michael got a cool new shovel as a surprise gift last night.  i will break it in today.

this is a dialogue frank gave me the other day:

"mommy, this is my little dog.  he is a dalmation.  his name is blueberry.  he lets me pet him and sit next to him when he is eating and he doesn't growl at me.  he lets me clean his ears and doesn't get upset.  he sleeps in his bed right here (pointing), but at night, he sleeps with ME.  he doesn't bark or get scared of the phone ringing.  he lets me give him bones and doesn't growl when i touch him.  i like my dalmation.  he loves me."

if you have met my dog, angus, this should all make sense to you.

pictures from the holidays...finally

sledding

 

 

 

note this is GiGi pulling Frank up the hill, and that is Hank sprawled out down at the bottom

icing cookies

Booma

Paigey

 

 

isn't there always one of these?

and the ride home













editor's note: frank was merely showing me the icing on his finger in photo above.  i love the innocence in this picture, i am not actually crude.  well, maybe a little. 

on a tastier note...

YES!  i did really, really like that pasta sauce.  I even got the San Marzano tomatoes at Central Market, just to make sure I didn't mess it up.  At amy's recommendation, i even got some good crusty bread to go with it, and all I can say is that it was so easy and good and fed us for two dinners.  We drank it with some good wine that I we got at Costco.  It was really good wine.  I am posting a photo in case you ever see it there.

buying wine at Costco is my favorite.  It is like "wine purchasing for dummies," which of course, i am, when it comes to wine purchasing.  You can find lots of bottles for less than $9.99 and they have little signs on them that say their Wine Enthusiast and Wine Spectator points.  i realize, that if you live in KS, you can't partake at your local Costco, but it can be worth a quick trip to missouri. 

(note, beautiful flowers included in photo so that you don't think that stinkhorns have invaded the inside of my home...they most certainly have not...everything smells of roses and lilacs, there is no clutter, dust or germs, everyone is healthy, strong and perfect in every way...sarcasm intended) 

Erin: 20, Stinkhorns: 3

against the advice of my husband, i will continue to talk about stinkhorns.

and yes, i think that i am finally winning the battle.  yesterday, i removed 3 eggs and 1 stinkhorn.  the day before, i removed 17 eggs and 3 stinkhorns.  it is an obsession.  sort of like a smelly easter egg hunt.  to prove to you why i am consumed with this purpose, here is a photo of the stinkhorn i removed yesterday:

the black spots are tiny bugs that are attracked to the stinky brown goo.  they then carry the goo to other places and more stinkhorns appear.

here is what an egg looks like:

 

 

a lesson: if one day, you see a crab like claw coming out of your flower bed, remove it immediately.  do not take pictures of it and stare at it and talk about it.  take action.  even 3 days of freezing temperatures didn't kill the monsters.  this is war.

 

 

pictures from my phone

ford entertaining himself at his one year doctor's appointment

 

my favorite picture of all time

status updates

-guess what's for dinner?  this looks too easy to be good.  i'll let you know.

-stinkhorns.  they live.  they multiply.  they spread.  this week's mission: take down all stinkhorns.  equipment:  rubber gloves, plastic bags, shovels.  goal: not to vomit when i touch and smell them.

-my goal of wearing fun, cute clothes each day has crashed and burned.

- i should be making a grocery list and cleaning, but instead spent the last 10 minutes looking up different versions of videos to this song

cut and paste

so i have not posted pictures from Christmas because I am awaiting a new computer.  this poor machine can hardly handle any more pictures.  i have decided today to post some of the many, many blog posts that i started but never finished.  when put all together they give you something to read.

Jan 11, 2010
family. sweet family. gosh we are blessed to have such good family.
frank and hank are ready for us to all get one big house together.
i'm cool with that as long as shannon agrees to homeschool my kids and dress them.

Jan 7, 2010
why do we own toys that go off and make noises without anyone playing with them?  it creeps us all out, especially the dog.

last night, Noah's Ark started making noises around 2 am in ford's room while he was asleep.
michael had bad dreams because it sounding like his cadence he used to play in drum line practice.  he dreamt that ford was standing up in the crib, drumming out the cadence on the crib rail.

Jan 6, 2010
frank said this morning: "i get one dream pack every night.  and sometimes when i have a bad dream, i just take it and throw it out of the dream pack.  i don't come to your room all the time when i have a bad dream."

Dec 15, 2009
Thoughts that float through my mind throughout a typical day:
"damn dog"
"I wish i could try out that nail polish that i am giving as a gift.  do you think anyone would care?"
"give me patience, Lord"

Dec 6, 2009
Notes to self:

• You really, really, really need to take a picture of what you want your hair to look like when you go to get it highlighted and say, "I want something different."  
• You should know how to work your child's humidifier and how to fix it when it is not working, so that your husband doesn't have to got out at midnight to the drugstore to buy a new one 

Sept 22, 2009
I hate cleaning.
Unless I am in a bad mood.
Then I like cleaning because it is better than thinking.
But when I feel happy and content
I want to read, write, visit, laugh and play.
I do not want to fold laundry or load the dishwasher again.

When you work at a job you have lists of things to do.
There are things that you enjoy...you do those first.
There are things that are easy, but mundane, those are next.
then there are the things that you hate, and you put those off as
long as possible....at least if you are like me.

Cleaning is on my list of hates.
So to my friends and family that suffer my failures as a domestic engineer,
i apologize...I am the worst homemaker that I know.
But ask me about what I am reading, or who I talked to today, or what Frank and I visited about, and i feel that my days are at least somewhat redeemed.

sidenote: i think i am learning to like cleaning slightly more since last september - it can only be the Lord

i am still at a literary loss for blog posts.  instead, here is a glimpse of what i am doing today.

1.  trying on clothes and variations of the new clothes that i purchased while shopping with my pro-shopper sister-in-law, shannon.  i was thinking about posting pictures of these various outfits to get your feedback.  then i felt like that might be weird, as i am not so much into putting pictures of myself on the internet.  of course my children are all over the internet...maybe i should re-think that also. 
2.  experimenting with socks/tights and how they look with various shoes to wear with the various outfits.
3.  looking at the strange, short, gray baby hairs that stick up all over my head in the sunlight. 
4.  changing poopy diapers.  ford poops 3 - 4 times per day - it is ridiculous.  i found a tiny gold coin that is part of frank's playmobile pirate set in ford's poop before naptime.  buried treasure.
5.  cleaning.  dirtying.  cleaning again.
6.  listening to Ladysmith Black Mambazo
7.  opening mail.  my least favorite
8.  watercoloring with frank
9.  now i am fixin to go to the park to meet a friend

Untitled

I am at a loss for blogging.  "so why are you writing about it?" you may be saying to yourself.

that is a valid question.  do i like to hear myself talk?  maybe...a little bit...but mostly because I just want you to know that i am trying.  not that you really care if i write a blog entry or not.  I am not so vain as to think that you are anxiously awaiting my lame commentary on mothering, music and food.  But I am writing to tell you that i do care about you all.  There are not very many of you who read this blog, but the ones who do, i really value that you take the time to double click and check on me, so i just wanted to say thanks for that, even though i am feeling boring and uninspired.

There were certainly many great moments about our trip up north that are blogworthy, but i cannot possibly capture them all, and the thought of even trying to put it in words makes me feel tired.  Instead, i am just thinking about you all, while still trying to find spots for the Christmas gifts that made the journey home with us. This means that old things must go to make room for the new as i have no basement, no usable attic, tiny closets, and a nasty garage that we like to call "purgatory."  The cabinets need reorganizing, the old tupperwares must go, the shelves need dusting, and that red christmas tree that was once so pretty to me is now like a glowing red eyesore reminding me that it, too, must make its way back to purgatory.

I am praising the Lord for a new year, for grace and forgiveness for my terrible parenting of this past week, and for continued opportunities to grow as a person, wife and mother in this next year.  I don't make resolutions because I never keep them, but i do feel excited when i think about the year ahead.  i am not generally a glass-is half-full kind of person, so this is a new emotion for me.  maybe i drank too much coffee this morning and i am confusing it with excitement.  regardless - i will take it.  and hope that you are excited about 2010, too.

breaking in 2010

i really really like m. ward.  i am finally listening to his latest album, Hold Time, thanks to my husband's persistence with checking it out from the library.  i own his previous albums.  i love listening to them all, especially in the car.  they are beautiful and fun.  frank loves them, too.

that is all i have to say about that.