Grace is much needed these days

Today I was able to read some in Ezra. His humility and sorrow as he cried out to the Lord was inspiring to me. He knew God had and was still sparing them tremendously, and tore his clothes at the site of folks still disobeying the Lord.



I am so thankful for God's grace with us.



With that said, I have been needing a lot of grace when it comes to life these days. It has been a challenge to figure out life with a child. John is so much fun and adorable to boot, but he sure changed my life!



Last night I made up a list of 5 cleaning tasks that pretty much need to be done each week. As of now, Hubie has been doing a lot of the cleaning (thank you!). The idea is that I do one short task each day so that everything gets done on a weekly or monthly basis (I pick one room to dust once a week and vacuum the upstairs one week and downstairs the next, etc).

And I have one catch up day for the days I don't get to the task:) That was Hubie's idea. Smart man, I think.



We have thought a lot about how to heat our house with a baby. Since we live in an older row home with vacant homes on either side of us, our house is hard to heat. In the past we just kept the heat very low. We have a game plan now, but it is still on the colder side for all of us.

I was so proud to make my own leggings for John! They help so much since pants ride up all the time and it is cold on his legs. Progressive Pioneer noted on her blog that she cut the end off of her socks to make her own. I had a couple pairs with holes in the toes, they work perfectly! Just cut off the toe end.

Before my parents came to visit two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to do some cooking. We made applesauce from the apples we picked. It turned out better this year, as I figured out I needed less water. I didn't even need sugar, it was good tasting. Perfect for baby food too; I froze some for next month when John starts to eat fruits!

I just got John down for his nap. It is taking some finagling to get him to nap these days. Ever since we decided not to rock him to sleep, he has been napping maybe 1 hr or so each day. He had been giving us trouble when we rocked him to sleep anyway, so I guess we just need to figure out his new schedule.

Hubie has been reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child to me and it has some good tips on setting up a nap schedule.
Since John is 5 months now, apprently he needs to nap every 2 1/2- 3 hrs, two to three times a day. The author recommends really tiring the kid out before naps so he will sleep for at least an hour. I tried taking John outside for a walk before each nap yesterday and today. It sort of is working...although he fell asleep eating at 11:45am, so that messed up his afternoon nap. Nonetheless, he is sleeping now!!! I am going to keep up with this plan for a week, and hopefully that will do the trick.
PS, He is also sleeping through the night as of this past week, which is wonderful!

So, I'd better go throw the diapers in the wash since I have the chance. By the way, cloth diapers have been great! I am so glad we decided to use them.

A spoonful of events (like alphabet soup or something...)

I made the granola bars yesterday, yummy! I ate one for breakfast this morning. Really quick and easy to make, the are a keeper.

Also tried a yummy new black bean soup recipe from the More with Less cookbook. I use that cookbook at least once a week, it has been a good investment. The recipe called for a pound of dried black beans, 1 green pepper and a ham shank. Pretty simple.

::Here's a recap of the past couple of weeks::

Mike and Edna (Hubie's sister and brother in law) had baby Emmett. Don't they look like a fun bunch of people?


Hubie took a week off work to rehab more of the house.

New window in the dining room- looks great! (There used to be a steel door in its place)

Hubie and I spent some nice time on our back patio. I am so glad we put that in last summer. Now is the perfect time to enjoy it, no bugs (only raccoons when it gets dark!!)!!


Take a look at this guy!

Before...

And After...

No More Braces! Hube got his braces off after only having them a year!


This is our orange wall...it was only orange a few hours before we painted it over. Just thought people would like to see the evidence.


We had a wonderful time at Heather and Ryan's wedding. Heather wore her grandmother's wedding dress. Isn't she beautiful?

We spent time with Kenny and Melissa and Melody (pictured above in the black and white dress) too! Went to a cute coffee shop with them in between wedding day things.

Here we are all spiffed up, I even bought a new maternity dress for the special event.


...we've had a busy couple of weeks right?

Lastly, but certainly not of least importance! Amanda Davis's 25th Birthday celebration! She invited us out to Distrito for brunch after church. We had a nice time dining together:).

As you can see, we have been busy. We definitely needed some time to just relax and be silly the past couple of weeks.




Hope you all enjoyed Easter, and had time to reflect during Holy Week. It was a meaningful time for us.

Today

Today looks a little dreary, perfect day for some small errands. I think I will eat up some of my granola today. Good news, I found a granola bar recipe yesterday. I've been looking since we eat so many, and they tend to be pricey. I haven't tried them yet...

We put the crib up yesterday! It was so quick and fun. I was thinking it would be a couple hour ordeal. The house is beginning to turn into the next phase...baby phase! My new curtains for the nursery look cute too. They have flowers on them...so hopefully little Linus won't be too mad at me. I am sure he won't notice for a long long time. :) (Linus is the nickname for our baby boy, who is growing at 30 weeks in my belly!)
He is moving quite a bit this morning, crazy kid. It's nice to feel him move, kinda crazy that he will be here in not too many more weeks!

Hopefully today I will find a dresser for the baby's room, one we can use as a changing table. I am going to hit up a thrift store and see what they have today. That is the last big item we need to complete the nursery.

Life Ponderings

Spending some time resting now, it snowed last night. I think it was still snowing this afternoon too. I went on a walk at West River Drive to enjoy the outdoor sunshine and snow fall. Plus a trip to Target, that place always wears me out!

So I made some cloth napkins today. They are a fun project. When I spent the couple odd bucks on the material, I thought, what a great deal on napkins! Then I added up the hours spent thus far making them...close to 5 hours, and I am still not finished. These projects are what keep me at home, being a home maker. I enjoy doing things like making my own napkins, or baby wipes, or blankets, etc. It is a blessing. I never thought my life would be like this.

In some ways I feel so overwhelmingly blessed that I can actually spend my "working hours" keep our home and making it a welcoming, comfortable place. There are still times I think, what really is the point of all this? I am not saving a kids from a horrible home or teaching a child invaluable knowledge to later get a job and succeed in life, or even serving coffee to thirsty souls at McDonald's.

Life can be simple. I like life to be simple. When it gets too complicated or I try and make it complicated, then I forget what God wanted me to be doing in the first place.

Over the past year and a quarter, my life has been simple. My job has been to serve my husband in any way I could find and invest in a few people God placed in my life. This scaling down of life has proven beneficial me, as it has helped me to lay out my priorities. Who is God calling me to invest in? What type of life does he want me to have? What does he have in mind for my future? How can I prepare for that now? And in attempting to answer some of these questions, God has revealed himself to me in new ways.

I am the type of person who loves relationships and relating. Hey, I was as social worker you know! It brings me great joy to figure people out. With Hubie and I, my normal ways of processing relationships just didn't work. God has had to humble me tremendously so that he could show me, through Hubie, who He is making me to be. For me, it has taken a total simplification of life before God could get to some of the places I had been hiding from him.

I guess this is what some people call "settling down."

Now we are expecting a baby in June. What does life look like now? How do I continue to serve Hubie, have friends and take care of a little one? or two or three or four...who knows? It seems that God knew I would be in this place all along. He spoke certain things too me during this season that are stuck on my heart. Praise Him who knows all things! I have no clue what life will look like come June, but I have a lot of hope that life is just going to get better. God isn't done with me yet:).

I know I haven't written like this for some time...it feels good to get my thoughts out in the open sometimes.

I haven't felt the baby move inside me yet. But I the sense that he or she is in there. I am preparing! It is a lot of work, and fun too. Hopefully my big project, a baby quilt will get done in time! My first quilt was a baby quilt for baby Taylor Hall. Hopefully my little one will like the blanket as much as she did! I heard she wore the thing out.

possible dinner tonight??

One-Pan Spring Pastas recipe at Kraftfoods.com

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People keep saying summer is almost over...

Here's what I've been up to.

making tablecloths

Nicole, a college roommate got married this weekend.

Ruth invited us over for a dinner party, to meet Daniel.

We welcomed Hannah Kiruba to the Paulraj family! She is darling. Thanks to her, I now know what the "squirt" is, how to burp a baby and swaddle one too.
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Hubie and I are going to be in Indiana this weekend visiting my parents. It will be a quick trip.
O yeah, and I am eating homemade plum sherbet I made yesterday. mmmm...yummy! Thanks, Juliana for the inspiration!

It's been lookin' like Christmas for some time now...

Merry Christmas!

This is Hubie and my second Christmas together, and our first Christmas as a married couple. We are enjoying the start of new traditions. We picked out a Christmas Tree a few weeks back, decorated inside and outside the house, bought lots of gifts, and yesterday prepared for a yummy Christmas Eve brunch!

I am excited to attempt homemade Cinnamon Rolls and Hubie is making his famous hash browns. We bought Egg Nog which does not look too bad this year. In the past it hasn't looked appealing..but this is a new year! Hubie's family has a tradition of drinking Egg Nog...maybe it will grow on me. It is neat to learn the small things that each families does each year.

I should show you guys some of my gift creations....however you will just have to wait until Christmas!

I will share a glimpse of our tree.



And here is Hubie's creation on our house. Beautiful right? Christmas time is great!



I hope you all enjoy this Christmas week, may it be a special time.
Merry Christmas!