I want to eat it up! So stinking cute!!

Blushing Buttercream Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

If you're handy with a sewing machine, you might wanna try your hand. This awesome gal gives directions and links to make one of these little cuties!

Oh my goodness, I want to eat this darling right up! I am not at all sure about attempting to sew one, but maybe...maybe while I'm on the waiting list for my baby girl and have nothing but time on my hands....Maybe I'll be lucky enough to win one!! That would be awesome!

time for a new post....so, my addictions.

I've seen this on a few blogs, and I'm tagging myself, since I have blogger's block.


So, 6 of my addictions are...

1. Um, Duh...blogland. I LOVE getting a peak into my friends day to day lives. It feels like I can keep up with thier life a bit and a peek into thier personalities that I wouldn't normally see.
THEN, there are the friends I would not have without blog land! My new adoption friends. It's amazing to me how connected you can feel to families on the same journey in adoption, having never met in person! I have made some friends that I'm getting to know in person as well as blogs, and that is such a privelege!

2. Coconut Oil. I just bough a GALLON of it. I use it as moisturizer, conditioner for my hair, for cooking, to make deodorant...it's crazy good stuff, and it smells awesome to boot!

3. Shamefully, Dr. Pepper is one of the hardest things to cut out of my life. I have worked hard this past year at venturing into weeding junk out of my pantry and giving my family nutritious food and better cleaning and body products. Dr. Pepper, I'm having a hard time saying good bye to my long time friend!

4. Amazon.com. Especially since entering the adoption world....there SOOOO MANY .42 cent books in this world! For just about $4 you can have just about any book you need. good stuff.

5. 3 ring binders. I have many...3 devoted to adoption stuff. One for MOM's. One for recipes I print off the web. One for my jewelry biz. and more on my shelf. It's an easy way to organize for me. I especially like cute ones.

6. I think that would have to be....craigslist. Whenever I find something we need/want, I check thier first. We've sold thousands of dollars worth of things on there, and bought lots too. My latest great find, I wanted to get Hayden one of those cool art easels from IKEA. $24.99...Craigslist...$8! Yes!!


I tag....Mere, Christy G., Dee, Julie, Lee Ann, Meleea, and Audrey.

grrr.

I had a whole new post typed up, it was detailed and had photos...then just before I could post it...poof. gone. vanished.

sigh. maybe i'll get back to it tonight.

Slaving over the stove today

We're heading north for the weekend to help some of our favorite people, the "other" Keslers move. I'd link you to their blog, be it hasn't been updated in nearly a year. (I say it in LOVE, Rach :)

Since it's a weekend of moving stuff, I thought I'd prep a few meals and freeze them for the weekend. So... I made these:

Pizza Casserole
(the ONLY casserole in the WHOLE WORLD my hubby likes, not a meal I'm real proud of feeding my family, I mean you use the mac and cheese with the plastic like cheese, I use sausage instead of ground beef-and only one pound. I also mixed the spagetti sauce into the noodles, and I chop up the peperoni and mix it in also and top with cheese-but it is easy and my hubby really likes it)
Enchiladas
(from www.passsionatehomemaking.com I LOVE this website. Great resource for natural,healthy, and simple/sustainable living-all for God's glory )
Chili
(from www.momswhocook.blogspot.com--recipes supplied by the lovely ladies at my church's MOM's group)

Then, when I hopped back over to passionatehomemaking.com to relook at the enchilada recipe, I got sidetracked with these recipes for the "Easiest, Healthiest, most scrumptious fudge ever" and homemade whole wheat pretzels, so we made those too. They just looked too tasty to pass up...and it's almost valentines day. I've been looking for some treats for the kiddos that aren't candy and these were perfect! (the fudge is pretty healthy, actually...you use honey and coconut oil and cocoa powder...that's it! so easy!)

(none of these are my own pics, but taken from the sites where I got the recipes)

Now I"m off to clean up the mess.

Not Me

Not me Monday is a little late, but I feel like doing it anyway.

If you're wondering what Not Me Monday is all about, visit here.

I did NOT order MORE books on Amazon this week. I fully know that I can barely read my Bible enough, let alone gigantic books about adoption stuff. (If I did do that, I would surely get some stellar deals, however. This is the problem with Amazon, they are just too cheap! I can't resist.)

I did not Moan and Groan over my stupid cold hanging on for the THIRD week. Seriously.


I did not spend 2 sleepless nights holding the "puke bowl" for my boys. They would go to bed as happy little clams, wake up for puking all night, then be just peachy in the morning. they would never do that to thier dear old mom!

I would NEVER start painting my bathroom, and refinishing the cabinets in said bathroom, DAYS before my homestudy visit. I'm not that nutty!

During that homestudy visit (after a sleepless night of puke bowl holding) my sweet oldest son would NOT ever push his sweet baby brother off the top bunk so he'd land on his face on a metal tonka truck. We are much better parents than to raise a kid who'd do such a mean thing to his brother, IN FRONT OF OUR SOCIAL WORKER. Sheesh.

I would never go visit my cousins brand new baby, and hold him for a wonderful hour, and wish I had a newborn to love. I remember those sleepless nights, sore boobs, and crazy postpartum meltdowns. I would never wish that on myself right now!

Furthermore, I would never yell at my kids for yelling. I mean, YELLING to prove a point about YELLING is pretty dumb. I would NEVER be such a hypocrite, OR yell at my children. I'm waaaay more calm and together than that.

we're doing better!

We survived the nasty bug of the night. Hayden is totally fine...ate a bunch of pizza for lunch. I'm not great, but it could be worse. We were able to carry on with our homestudy visit, which was great. It was shorter than I thought...she said she's going to look around our house next time, which I was honestly a little bummed about. I worked hard to get it all spic and span for TODAY. She didn't even USE the freshly painted bathroom (which, I knew would not be nearly as important to her as it was to me!)

Oh well. I am thankful my hubby took the day off for the visit today, since I would up feeling like CRUD all day. He's taken good care of me and the boys...and managed to get our taxes done too!
Which brought excellent news of a nice refund! Yahoo!! One more way God is providing for ye' old adoption fund!

Thanks everyone for your prayers today.

please pray! *edited*

We are supposed to have our first homestudy visit tomorrow (monday morning). Our oldest, Hayden, just woke up throwing up. Jack had a bug on Tuesday night, threw up all night long, but was fine the next day.

Please pray that he'll get it out of his system quickly so we dont' have to cancel tomorrow! It's been a pain to get it on the calendar, and Matt had to take a day off and get a sub for the day, and now it's too late to cancel that, I think. We reeeeealllly don't want to have to reschedule, and my poor boy is not feeling good. Both are bummers. Thanks!


*edit*- thanks to all who've been praying. Hayden is feeling much much better this morning (his exact words were "I feel AWESOME!") However, I'm pretty certain I've got it coming, too. It's all I can do to keep down my dinner from last night. I'm just praying I can hold out til this afternoon! Thanks for praying for us.

teary day

Up and down kind of day today.

One of the first adoption related thoughts of my day (there are usually many) was when I heard news that a family waiting for their court date, lost their baby (as in, the baby passed away). I don't know details, but saw the prayer request here. What heartache. To lose your baby before you have ever laid your eyes on their sweet face. I know some of you have experienced that it your lives, through adoption or pregnancy. My heart ached with sadness and it brought tears to my eyes.

One of my second adoption thoughts of the day was when I had a few GLORIOUS child free hours this morning hanging out with my mom (one of my favorite things to do). She listens to me enthusiastically as I ramble on and on and on about life and adoption. It seems like she never gets tired of listening to me babble on and on. Even if she does, she never lets me know it. She is the best! Ok, back to the topic, I went on a rabbit trail. Mom and I were out and about and we hit my favorite resale shop, Little Bo'tique. I love going there, the owner/operator Shauna has the cutest stuff, great taste! I love it. I have been worried for her about her business with that dumb new law (see my rant here) coming up next week. I was SO HAPPY today when she told me that it has been postponed for one year! That was great news (but I didn't cry over that.) Anyhow, Shauna is so sweet. I go in there regularly, and of course I was looking at the cute little girl things. She said, "why do you have girl things? You have little boys, right?" (side note: I love to be known. I love that she remembers me!) I told here we were adopting and she got all excited and exclaimed, "I am adopted!" She was really happy that we were adopting. She and 2 siblings were adopted and she told me a poem that was on the wall in thier house growing up...

Not flesh of my flesh
Nor bone of my bone,
But still miraculously
My own.
Never forget
For a single minute:
You didn't grow under my heart,
But in it.

--Fleur Conkling Heyliger

THAT made me cry. I love that simple statement. I will find it or make it for baby girl's wall.

Then, we went to Costco. While their we ran into a dear friend who's having a rough week. This sweet family has a son who about a year and a half ago, found out that he had Leukemia, at 6 years old. Thankfully, he has been cancer free for exactly one year today! They have an amazing faith, that has blessed so many, as they've journeyed this road. BUT, today, on the one year mark, my sweet friend, was heavy hearted as they await test results from their son's one year testing. As we stood and visited, we all cried. Good and heavy hearted tears. We prayed together in the aisles of costco. God has already used this family and thier story for his glory and I know he's not done yet.

Then, I came home, read blog updates and saw this one. Cried AGAIN.

Teary day, but those aren't always bad. I cry easy, if you haven't noticed.

It's only 3:30...holy moly. OK, back to painting my bathroom. Because, our social worker is REALLY GOING TO CARE what color my bathroom is on monday when she comes for our home visit, RIGHT? Yes, I do know that I'm a little nuts right now.

Really good article on Ethiopian Adoption Info

My new friend, Lori, recommended this article to me today, and I'm so glad she did! It was great.

I have seen on so many Ethiopia Adoption related blogs Melissa Faye Green's book "There is No Me Without You". I will admit, sometimes when I see that EVERYONE is reading a certain book, my rebellioius side comes out, and I start to not want to read it. Lori emailed me a link to her recommended adoption reading and it was on her list. I haven't known Lori long nor do I know her all that well, but what I have learned from her, I greatly respect. Her input in my own journey has been WONDERFULLY helpful and invaluable. So, basically, since it was on LORI's list, now I want to read it. I ordered it on Amazon yesterday (for $1.42...LOVE that!)

I have never looked at Melissa Fay Green's "occasional blog", but I did today, and I'm sure I'll go back. I love her perspective, info and suggestions. I found it very helpful. I've read some books about bonding and attachement and done our "adoptive parent education" (all 10 hours worth, although it didn't really take anywhere near that long)....sometimes that stuff sounds so scientific and honestly, I get bored with the psychology mumbo jumbo jargon.

I really like MFG's way of giving REAL info from her own experience. She's an experienced and seasoned mom and I found it very helpful. Now, I can't wait to read her book!