This will be all of my "thankful" posts for this year. T
Since we celebrated Thanksgiving at home with just us, it was pretty low key! Olivia had the fun idea to write down three things we were thankful for this year. So we did! I thought they all came out pretty sweet! The kids really thought hard about it.
This will be all of my "thankful" posts for this year. T
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Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours! Its been a very different holiday for us....the first one away from our families. I woke up feeling pretty sad about that. I could feel the cloud of sadness hanging over me. I miss my Mommy and Daddy!!!! But I kneading the cloud away and got into cooking for the day! Yesterday I made cranberry sauce and pecan pie, roasted the mushrooms for the stuffing and cut up the bread so it could "stale" overnight. This morning, Olivia requested cinnamon rolls and I had cream cheese for frosting, so we started with that. We whipped up two huge batches of cinnamon rolls (that never rose because SOMEONE, named Nick, shut off the heat and the house was too cold), two big trays of rolls, and two loaves of bread. Then onto the sweet potato casserole, sausage and apple stuffing, green bean casserole, and of course, the turkey. I was planning to make mashed potatoes but I forgot them! OOPS! Not like we were running on a shortage of food for the 7 of us. LOL! Got some cute pics! Image credit: Kim Voegel. Thank you for taking a moment to capture this for us!
Four something years ago, we were trying to decide whether or not to commit to join the Peoria Vineyard Church plant team. I was pregnant with J. We decided to fast. I fasted using my dryer. Stupid, right? That was HUGE for me....the clothes line was way in the back of the yard, I was big and pregnant, and its time consuming to hang clothes. :) That was my rationale. Anyhow. I was back hanging clothes one day and praying about the move. I heard "you will sell the house before there is ever a sign in the yard" and felt like that was a YES and we decided to commit. It never happened and the prophecy was long forgotten. Fast forward to August 2013. We have decided to move to Texas instead. (Which has really been our dream the whole time we've been married.) My only stipulation? That we do not try to sell the house while we live there. Pregnant with 4 kids earth side already, a dog and a cat, it wasn't happening. So we moved 16 hours away, fulling relying on God to sell our house before it sat empty all winter. After we left Crouse Concepts came in and did some amazing clean up work for us with the paint, carpeting, trim, and windows. (He is an amazing man, does great work, and you should TOTALLY hire him for all your jobs). Two wonderful women came in and worked their butts off cleaning the place from top to bottom (I can give you their info if you are looking for someone, please msg me). And FINALLY in October, it was ready to put on the market. At the beginning of October I attended a ladies breakfast at our new church. I met a woman named Deborah. She was not from our church and was promptly relocating to the Fort Worth area, she was attending with a friend because she was bored at home. When she heard that we were getting ready to list our house and anxious about it, she insisted that she needed to pray for us. "I had a woman pray for me before we listed our house," she said, "She prayed that it would sell within 7 day. We got an offer on the 4th day. I have to pass on that anointing." So she prayed. She prayed that we would receive a good offer within 7 days. I claimed it. Nick claimed it. We believed. THEN we remembered what God had told me before. Sold without a sign. (AND we got to bless her move back with a HUGE stack of awesome boxes to pack with) On October 25, Mike officially had our listing documents and showed the house THAT day to a young family. They were obviously smitten. They made a great offer on October 28th. We accepted it the next day. I kept asking Nick if it was for real. It was REALLY happening. We had sold the house before the sign went up. God is so great. Now you did see a sign. Everyone needed to know it was for sale...right?? :) In a record breaking amount of time we closed on the sale of the house on Nov 15th. Twenty-two days after it was listed. The new family has now moved into the home and we are praying that it is as much of a blessing to them as it was to us. Every time we think about what happened we send up prayers of thanksgiving. Amazing. Before we left we were figuring out how much it would cost us to continue to own it for a year, empty. The bank didn't expect it to sell easily. We didn't expect it to sell quickly. But God had other plans for us and KNEW we needed that relief. Through this move and sale, we found a lot of great people in Sullivan who helped us immensely. If you need referals, let us know. But most of all....we were reminded that if our God is for us, who can stand against us? Thank you Lord for selling our house and being true to your word. We love you. This weekend we had the distinct pleasure of spending time with our family and a couple of new friends! We toured the city of Austin, walked (begrudgingly) around the campus of University of Texas and ate a TON of delicious food. On Tuesday of last week I saw a clip on the news advertising Truck by Truckwest (the name is a play on a big music/film festival during the summer). It included 65 different food trucks, in different places around the city, and it was $20 per tag to be able to sample from all of them over a period of 6 days!! I was SOLD. I am pretty sure I called Nick the moment I heard about it and we were in. We checked with a couple that we have made friends with that are also new to the area and they were in too!! So we started making plans. At that point I was so excited that I was already over Halloween....even though it was still two days away. LOL! I'm never that into Halloween anyhow. **Side note: This was the first time any of our kids had really trick or treated and they really loved it. It was a super fun and positive experience for them. Liv & Kristo got to go with each other and Daddy took the little boys around. The whole neighborhood is crazy packed with kids from other areas for the whole night. Apparently we have the best candy!** Back to TXTW. So we started out on Friday afternoon, thinking 3:30 would be early enough to leave and get downtown without much traffic. Uh, not. With opportunity comes traffic. It took us over 2 hours. Oh well...it wasn't really that bad. We ate so much good food. Delicious cupcakes, fried chicken, truffle mac n cheese, tacos, tacos, tacos, a spicy chickpea wrap, the list goes on and on!! We even got free smencils from a food truck that doesn't serve food. It was more like a vintage shop and she sold organic clothing. So fun! Right next door we discovered a store called "Craft" that is just a studio with supplies....you bring your project in, pay by the hour, and she has all the stuff you need to complete it. Paints, stamps, everything! Cool!! In the end...I think we all agreed that the best thing we had was the monte cristo (I know I've talked about it). It was sooo good. And I kind of want one now! Even the little boys like it. We had stopped getting them samples because they weren't eating them and then you throw out a deep fried, jelly dipped sandwich and BOOM, they are on board. Crazy boys. We cast our votes...whoever wins gets $10,000 for the expansion of their business. Exciting for them! It was a crazy exhausting weekend....by saturday afternoon this Momma was done saying kids' names, waiting, and trying to prevent them from getting run over but it was totally fun and worth it. Loving the city life! Just one of the more interesting things we got to see....this poor guy only had one leg! But that didn't keep him from snaggin bits of yummy cupcakes! We saw another bird that had no foot. I suppose thats the hazard of being a big city bird!
It is so hard to believe that it has been 15 years. That 15 years ago today I lay in a hospital bed, waiting on the arrival of my new baby. At the tender age of barely 17. I had no idea. No idea what to expect. No idea what to do. No idea how we were going to survive. No idea what being a mother would bring. No idea what we were going to go through together. No idea how blessed I would be. No idea how blessed WE would be. No idea how awesome he would be. No idea how scary it would be. No idea how scary it would ALWAYS be!
With much love and many blessings, we have made it into the depths of teenager land. He is a crazy, video game obsessed, squirrel topped, loving kiddo, whom I am lucky to call my own! So we have been here just over two months now. (Wow! It seems like it has been MUCH longer). Anyhow. I've noticed a few things and I thought I would share. 1. They park weird here. The diagonal "on the street" parking is backwards! You have to back into the spaces. And really, it's kind of genius. A million times easier to pull out and you can go either direction safely.
2. Dads!!! There are Dads everywhere! Stay at home dads at the grocery store with multiple kids and a fancy schmancy list! Dads with babies in carriers. Dads at the park. Dads who walk to school everyday before and after school to get their kids, even if the kids are old enough to walk on their own. Its so awesome! I absolutely LOVE how involved they are. At the park, the dads are WAY more fun that the moms. For the kids, I mean. They play and be silly. And the ratio of dads there with kids to moms there with kids is totally even. Amazing. 3. People Talk to You I am the first to admit it. I talk to strangers. A lot. Call it a Kingdom gift, call it annoying but people here seem to enjoy it! People in Illinois (especially as you go further north) tend to look at you like you're crazy but in Austin, its like you just bumped into an old BFF! Men, women, young or old. 99% of people just fall right into the conversation! I. LOVE. IT. Have you heard of this company? There was a story on the Today Show a couple of weeks back and I am simply in love with these people. They make superhero capes...complete with the childs initial for kids with special needs. Simply wonderful. Now, you can buy one for a healthy child too but the special needs kids are sponsored and they get their capes for free! It helps them on their journeys. If we lived closer...I would be pounding on their door to join their team. Anyhow, today I received my "Mission #1" packet in the mail. Exciting! It includes the mission card and many "superhero" cards. Each hero card will be stapled or taped or somehow affixed to a package of Halloween candy and passed out to ghosts and goblins. To help spread the word about this amazing group of people. Can you tell I am in love?! I wish I could do something local, maybe an idea will present itself someday. You can visit the company website and sign up or donate today!
http://tinysuperheroes.com/ Or visit them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TinySuperheroes More to come when we complete our Mission!! In the meantime...check 'em out! Today we had the pleasure of attending the Teravista Elementary School Fall Festival, which is put on by the PTA. It was incredible. Seriously. At first I was thinking that $25 for a wristband was plain ridiculous but it turned out that complete access to all the stuff they had available was TOTALLY worth it. We were NOT there early enough though and didn't get to enjoy all of the rides/attractions available. Next year, we know to be there right when they open and be prepared to spend the whole afternoon. There was everything from The Home Depot there with building kits (our boys made fire airplanes) to bounce houses to fair games to the huge bungee trampolines and the walk inside inflatable ball. What? At the grade school??!! I love the suburbs. There was a million families there and some of the lines were long but everyone had a blast. Nick, J, and I all got sunburned. Olivia was working under a tent or she would have been burned as well. Thankfully my ergo has a "hood" with it and that kept Reese out of the sun! I never needed sunscreen at home when it was 60* in October....I forget that we are now CLOSER to the sun. Next time, sunscreen. Enjoy the pics! (You may have to click play on the slideshow). This morning while working on our Saturday morning "get the house clean" routine, Olivia caught a little tiny lizard with her hands in our entry way. It was so cute and teenie tiny...I'm impressed that she saw it, let alone caught it with her hands! She yells from the other room, "Uh, I need a third hand please!". HA! She had it trapped. So Nick got a jar and we observed it for a short period of time. Nick named it Geico. Creative, right? ;/ He hung out in the jar for a little bit and then we released it. Its a little strange having a lizard in the house but it is FAR better than a mouse! I think when we decided to move to Austin more people said, "Oh, it never rains in Austin," more than anything else. That statement was even listed on the top 10 things that Austinites say! Let me tell you how that hasn't held true since we stepped foot in this state. I don't mind the rain at all, so please don't take this as complaining. Nick and I just constantly joke about it. I mean, it has been raining almost non-stop for the last nearly 2 months. (On a side note, I cannot believe that we've been here for nearly two months) There is so much rain coming down now that our area and south of where we are is having large amounts of flash flooding. And then in the weirdest ironic twist of all time....we are under watering restrictions for the grass. Not because of TOO MUCH water but because of NOT ENOUGH water. Its crazy to think that in spite of all this moisture falling from the heavens, it is still drought conditions here. I thought I had a photo to share with you of an empty Lake Travis but I apparently deleted it off of my phone. (I apparently had better pictures to take of my adorable kids. :) ) I feel like that analogy could have a spiritual impact...sometimes, no matter how many blessings are poured out on us, we still feel dry and empty. I've got nothing beyond that. Just throwing it out there. Spaghetti. You know.
On another note, Jacob and I are going to be starting "tot school". I've got a million and one ideas and it is time to start putting them into play. The blog. 1plus1plus1equals1.net has a LOAD of great printables and ideas and I am following her lead. I'm being inspired by how much Mike is struggling to grasp concepts like "sight words". It is like it isn't clicking with him...so I want to get a leg up with J, so he doesn't (hopefully) have the same struggle. My thought is that I will also do some of the activities with Mike. I ordered a set of BOB books to start working through with Mike and a couple of sets of my wish list for J. Who knows....maybe someday I will master this homeschooling thing and be able to homeschool J and Reese. My goal for now is about an hour a day, three days a week with J. Of course it always depends on his mood and how cooperative Reese is. I want it to be a fun learning experience and never frustrating or unfun! We shall see. |
AuthorWelcome! I am Mandie, a 30-something (ah!) wife and mother of 5. I am claiming this as my families little spot on the internet. Tag along as we adjust to life in the south, learn to have TWO self employed parents, and experiment with all things crafty and crazy! I am 100% sure that it won't always be pretty but it will always be real! I hope that you are blessed with some laughter or some camaraderie as you read! Archives
March 2017
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