What Happened?!? And a Blessing

With all good intentions to get my blog up and going and give myself a bit of creative space, I had to step back and evaluate some things. My family will always come first. Always.

That being said, its a new year and a fresh start and looks like a great time to pick up the reins again.

This year I am taking the Ann Voskamp Joy Dare, though I am starting by just looking for gifts throughout the day and seeing where that takes me. So far I have 15 or so (day 4) but I haven't written down today's gifts. And while it was a hard day, there are gifts and looking for them is a blessing. A heart lift.

My day started with the puppy having an accident in the house.

Then we ran late getting on our grocery shopping.

But not before our budget took a new year's hit.

Whiny kids.

Busy stores.

Some rude drivers.

Sick baby.

Whiny kids.

It is easy to list the negative. Believe me the negative was easy and I left a lot out. However there were gifts.

My 3 (almost 4) year old helping me lift a 25 pound sack of flour into the cart while I was holding a sleeping baby's head.

My boys pretending the car was a school bus.

Cuddling with my baby all day whilst we shopped.

A new exciting but scary job possibility for my husband.

My husband has a job. A good job. And doesn't look for new jobs, they come to him.

Food in the house. A menu planned. A warm house.

I found that once I start, I can think of more and more and more and more gifts that give blessing and hope.

Blessing and hope. Gonna dwell there a bit.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am reminded that it is the little things in life for which to be thankful. My kids are all sick and/or teething and days like this are just hard. But then I am thankful.

Thankful that these colds are small and easily overcome.

Thankful that most days we are healthy.

Thankful my kids are at home with me and I can be at home with them.

Recently some friends of ours lost their 6-month old baby girl to complications from a congenital heart defect. It is heartbreaking. And makes me hold my kids that much tighter. And it makes a cold seem much more manageable.

Each Thursday I would like to take time out to remember to be thankful for the abundance of blessing in our life.

Why Blog?

I spend my days managing a home, chasing little ones, cooking, cleaning, schooling, poop scooping, and living life. But I also crave creativity. I crave expression. I wanted to have a place where moms or not moms could come and be inspired and share ideas. Hopefully it will grow into that and if not I can share with whoever wants to listen. And if no one wants to listen, I can just write it all down for me.

I can be guilty of trying to do too much. So I dabble here and dabble there and sometimes I do more of one thing and less of another. It depends on life and what is happening in it. It depends on what sounds like the best way to be creative. Here I will share life as it comes but try not to get too scattered.

A little bit about me? When I read a blog I love to learn more about the person or people behind them and there is a good chance that others want to know the author too. After all we are relational by nature.

I am a 20-something wife to a hard-working, handsome husband of 7 years. My husband works in agriculture and comes home dirty in the summer and tired of the office in the winter. He is one dedicated man, both to work and his family. We have 3 beautiful children (2 boys and a girl, ages 3, 2, and 6 months). 3 kids in 3 years and, yes, we will probably have more. They make each day fun, adventurous, and a little bit unpredictable.

We also have 3 dogs. German Shorthairs. My husband is a bird hunter and while the oldest dog is just a family dog and doesn't hunt, the other two are family dogs that happen to be for hunting.

Most importantly, I am a child of God and try to live each day to His glory.

We try to live simply. We (will) homeschool. We budget. And sometimes life gets crazy even though we don't plan on it.