living these days

We have been enjoying our living room a lot this week. The sun coming through the curtains is energizing. I like the pale yellow curtains we have up; they let all the light in.

John is a little light too these days. He is a lot of fun, much of the time giggling and discovering new things. We have been sick with colds since New Year’s Eve. John hates getting his nose wiped. Last night after midnight, he had some difficulty breathing since he is so congested. By the time I put him back to bed he was breathing perfectly. Praise God, because I was praying He would intervene.

I am continuing the holiday season in our house for the next week (aka I don't feel up to taking down decorations yet!). Our Christmas tree is up and I am thinking of making more holiday foods I enjoy. Mary and I made cut out cookie dough when we were home and then never made the cookies! I am still craving those cookies. I cannot remember a year without cutouts. When I feel better, maybe I will make a batch.

Looking at the sun coming in the windows again. I am so glad we decided to leave the original wooden windows in the living room. They are one of my favorite parts of our house. The wavy glass and all. Our house is about 100 years old now.

Here are some snapshots of our Christmas and New Year’s family time. We spent a few days in Archbold and a few in Ocean City.

Nadaly was so great with John. She was very tender and inquisitive with him. The interaction in this photo was one of my favorite times at our Christmas dinner this year.

John loves Phin...he even bit his nose!

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.

We're Half Way There!

Last week marked the half way point of our pregnancy! I have been feeling tons better compared to the first trimester. It has been nice to be able to get things done in prep for the baby.

20 weeks

Hubie and I decided to use cloth diapers with our little one. It has been a long process of research, and finally feeling comfortable with the idea after attending the Cloth Diaper Class at the Maternal Wellness Center. So far I have made 40 or so cloth wipes to use with the diapers (the blue/green squares on the right side).

I also put together a couple receiving blankets in fun prints (on the left side).

On Saturday I finished my nursing cover project. I found a pattern for a nursing cover online, and thought it would be fun to try. I used scrap fabric and made sort of a quilted version. It has an adjustable strap that goes around my neck and a place at the top to peek in at the baby while he or she is eating!

Next I would like to piece together a small crib quilt, one side for a boy and the other for a girl! I have a lot of fabric ready to begin the project. More to come on that...

We are back at work on the house again. This time, in our living space. Hubie has patched several large wholes in the dining room and finished a heat duct installment. He also scraped the walls and filled in all the little holes and cracks. It looks so great. He is doing an awesome job.

The new heat duct.

New Heat Duct with drywall around it. Almost done!

Now you see the hole....


Now you don't!!!

Update...always working on the house

Here was our patio.











See Hubie digging.

See Hubie throwing sand.



All the beautiful bricks, laid by his hand.




See finished patio.



See a long-time hidden patio, dug out by our hands.



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Did I mention that we had an awesome block party over Labor Day! It went so well!









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We were sad to get rid of this nice glass door. So many things we could have done with it. Happily, a guy on craigslist took it to make a wall in his house. How creative!







Hubie was so nice to take a picture of me after getting groceries. It's a tough job, but somebodies gotta do it:)

pouring cement....in the rain

Hubie is outside our house pouring a cement sidewalk. It was supposed to be a 20% chance of rain, but off course it poured as we were mixing the cement!

It will look nice...it just stinks it had to rain!


Here's it is from up above.

And the flame is still burning!

It was our anniversary this past week. We celebrated by going out to French Creek State Park for a couple days. We stayed in a nice cabin and built our first fire together.

See...



Yes, the fire continues in our hearts as well...for each other:) Although we nearly lost it building this sucker together, since either of us really knows what we are doing!

We did have a nice time away. Just the woods, a really nice pool and us! We drove around much of the day Wednesday. It gave us some time to catch up on the year. It was neat talk about how things went.

We had hoped to hike, but due to my bum foot,

(see here)

we took just a short walk.



Thanks for all the support in our first year. The longer I experience being married, the more I realize how God can use it to show us Himself.
Hubie is an awesome husband, seriously! He is extremely loving, considerate, kind, thoughtful, faithful, dependable, the list could go on.
Today he is putting electricity in our living room...ahh..the joys of making a home together:) That part of marriage has been fun for us. One of the fond memories of our first year!

Here's to many more years of marriage, each one more intimate and loving than the last.



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It seems that God is up to something in my life. Many things are going wrong with me and with those around me. It seems like every day, something else is happening with my body, a friend, or Hubie and I. Everything can be dealt with in it's own way, but these happenings are just enough to make things frustrating and disheartening. No, I don't think God is causing these things to happen, but I wonder if he has something big planned. This verse encourages me today, thought I'd share. maybe we aren't the only ones feeling this way...

Ephesians 6:10
¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

I like the last line, "always keep on praying for all the saints." It helps. Also, taking up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Right on.

Check this off the list...

I finally got a picture of our finished bathroom over at my house!

It's beautiful if a bathroom could ever be, right? Here I am, showing you all that it actually works!

Here is the next project, also finished this week! The middle bedroom upstairs. Look at that shiny new floor...

As for a little taste of my everyday adventures here at our house...

This is Mr. Jack. Mr. Jack is like a member of our block, since he is here every day. Except he is here and gone in a hour or so. Mr. Jack feeds the many cats and birds that have no home except the abandon houses and turbulent streets.

Every day, Mr. Jack pulls up in his old gray car, with milk jugs to fill, loads of cat food, and some bread pieces for the birds. The cats wait in anticipation, beginning to swarm as they sense his arrival. I have to say, they are pretty spoiled for being stray cats. Just look at them...with their food bowls and separate porch for eating (sometimes the 'coons even join them!). I took this picture, thinking I must share this interesting event that occurs every day. No, I never get bored here, there is always something going on here on the block.