The joys of being a mother

I have been thinking lately about some of the funny things and neat things that come from being a mother. Here are a few of mine....

• You kneel down to scrub the tub or do some weeding and suddenly find yourself being rode like a horse.
• You hear the front door open and go check who went out and find that your 2 year is walking down the drive -stark naked.
• When being kissed it feels quite a lot more like a lick or even a spit, but it is still very sweet because it is coming from your 2 year old.
• You find out that your 4 year old thinks you were 50, 20 years ago.
• Your kids go out to play in the yard and a bit later your son comes in to tell you that your "baby" is up in a tree and sure enough she is, higher than your head.
• You get to meet a lot of strangers since your oldest child is extremely outgoing and tries to strike up a conversation with everyone we pass in the parking lot, store or any public place.
• You fold a bunch of clothes and your youngest takes off with a pile "to help put them away" and you find them later in the dirty clothes hamper.
• Your kids go up front at church to sing a special number or something like that and you find your face growing red as they decide to either face the other direction while they sing or lift up their shirt out of self-consciousness.
• You get to watch your 6 year old go so close to the edge of the roof that it scares you to pieces but then feel the pride when you see him "working like a man".
• You watch your 2 year old giving her babies shoulder back rides "just like you" and grin as you see the doll hanging down her back hanging by it's feet.
• You get to hear your 4 yr. old ask someone who is not a christian, "Don't you want to go to heaven?" and then hear all of your kids chime in to explain the why you should and how you can.
• You are impressed by just how much a child can learn in such a short time, and that they can know all about things you never knew.
• You get impressed by the generosity and caring of children as your son wants to take cookies to his aunt who just got back from a trip (even though there wouldn't be enough for him then) and then hear as he plans to welcome her with a hug too.
• You get to hear your 2 year old say "I lub you" for the first time.

There are lots of scary times, awkward times, irritating times to being a mother, but I sure wouldn't ever voluntarily choose not to be a mother. I feel so blessed by God to have 4 precious lives that I get to watch grow and help to mold. Our children are a huge source of joy and laughter in our home!

"At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receive Me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." Matthew 18:1-6

WFMW ~ Office/Guest room

I don't know about you but in our house all space is necessary. We don't have rooms available to just sit empty much of the time. We do however have one room which we don't need for constant use as a bedroom. We thought about making it a guest room with a double bed in it as we enjoy having overnight guests and would like them to be comfortable while they are here. However that seemed a little wasteful for us because though we do have guests fairly frequently, it is even more of the time that we don't have guests. I also have oodles of hobbies and needed stuff for my crafting as well as for my business, Abbi's Bridal Design. We came up with a solution.

We bought an air bed that has legs (which makes it much easier for getting in and out of bed than just a plain air mattress) which we can easily put up for whenever company is coming. We take it down whenever it is not in use. I also found a egg shell mattress to put on top as air beds can be chilly and it will add to the comfort. For consultations or big projects we have a folding table that I can put up in the same place that the bed goes.
And then I have a filing cabinet (for papers and other storage), desk and shelving (found for free on the curb) that hold stuff for my business and sewing and other crafting stuff. I also have to large heavy duty plastic shelves in the closet to hold fabric and scrap booking supplies.

It has been a blessing to me to be able to have a lot of space for all my projects and to also have a private room for our guests. Using one room for two rooms works for me!

Getting ready for the fair ~ #2 ~ Altering a dress

A while back this dress ^ was given to us. It was a dress in my size except quite a bit to short. I decided it would be nice to make it work for Mara instead. One of the categories at the fair is altering so I decided to enter it there as well. The pictures don't really show to well what I did but I thought I would explain.

The sleeves were to long, the shoulder seams to wide and it was to big around. My first step was to cut the sleeves of at the seam line. Then I cut about 3/4 inch off of the bodice to make the shoulders not so wide (also I took a 5/8 inch seam later on to make them shorter too). I also cut about 1 1/2 inches off of the top of the sleeves. Cutting it off of the top allowed me to still have the same cuffs without messing with them. Then I sewed the side seams in by about 2 inches on each side but I only did it down the length of the bodice and then I let it make a pleat in the skirt so that we could still have plenty of fullness there. After that I re-attached the sleeves and we were all done!
This is the finished product. It will make a great dress for fall and winter.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday Breakfast: Eggs, toast and raspberry yogurt smoothie.

Supper: Kids get to eat at Grandpa and Grandma's and Ken and I have a meeting.

Tuesday Breakfast: Cereal, granola and bananas.
Supper: Picnic supper with others, I am contributing Egg Salad Sandwiches, popcorn and radishes.

Wednesday Breakfast: Pancakes
Supper: Twice baked potatoes with hamburger and broccoli

Thursday Breakfast: Florida Strawberry Muffins and Eggs.
Supper:Chicken Rice Burritos and corn. Dessert: Key Lime Pie or Miami Beach Cake.

Friday Breakfast: Breakfast Burritos
Lunch: Cuban Beans and Rice.
Supper: Chicken and noodles and green beans.

Saturday Breakfast: Biscuits and Gravy
Supper: Pizza and salad

For lots more menus visit Org Junkie.

Marvelous Maine

Maine is called the Pine Tree state. Forests cover much of the state. I have never been to Maine but it sounds like a beautiful place to visit.

Maine became a state on March 15, 1820. That land had originally been a part of Massachusetts.

We enjoyed reading about and looking at pictures of Maine. The jagged shoreline, the lighthouses, the sunrises (the first in the US) , the islands, the blueberries, the trees and the small fishing villages all look and sound like neat places to see and spend time in. I think part of my high interest is because though I have never been to Maine, I have heard about it from friends and also in many ways it sounds much like Northern MN.

The State bird is the Chickadee (a bird that is common here in MN as well, I especially love hearing it's Springtime song!), the state flower is a unique one as it is the white pine cone and tassel. The state tree is the white pine, the state insect is the honeybee and the state herb is wintergreen. The state animal is the moose and we read that it is fairly common to see a moose. We have some moose here as well but I think I have only seen one once.

Here are some of the foods we enjoyed:


Down east Maine pumpkin bread.
The Mainiac chicken casserole was pretty good.
And fried dough was very yummy!
Blueberry frozen yogurt (except I made some changes). We enjoyed in very much.

We also enjoyed pancakes with real maple syrup (though it didn't come from Maine, it came from my parents farm.)

We read that 99% of the wild blueberries sold in the US come from Maine. They must have some dedicated pickers there! I know that picking wild blueberries is a lot of work! (but fun work).

Some of the interesting things we read about Maine were:

• A large part of Maine has no roads (at least not public ones).
• Maine has the largest percentage of people (in the US) that speak french at home.
• Boat building is a big thing in Maine.
• Acadia National Park (in Maine) is the only park where the Mountains meet the sea.
• Maine produces a lot of toothpicks. I did intend to take a picture of all of us picking our teeth with wooden toothpicks but I didn't get it done. Sorry! I am sure you are very disappointed!

Okay, now it is your turn! Please tell about all the wonderful things in Maine that I missed! (And please remember to tell us all you know about Florida!)

We're done!

Redoing a roof is a big job but I am glad we did it ourselves as I am sure we saved a bunch of money. Also I enjoy doing projects like this with Ken, it helps us to realize how much we need each other and causes us to respect each other more. Another neat thing from projects like this is realizing how blessed we are with the family and friends that we have!
Here is Dad helping last Sunday afternoon.
Mom even came up on the roof and helped a lot! In this picture we were getting very close to done. On Sunday night all was done except for the ridge on the garage. Because of things that were scheduled and lots of rain that didn't get done until the end of the week but now it is all done!
Ken and the kids up on the roof.


From a distance the house doesn't look all that different but we went from charcoal to wood look (brown) shingles. These are supposed to last 30 years so if we stay in this house we won't have to shingle again until we are 60. I wonder if we will do it ourselves then or not?