And Then the Flu Hit.

There we were, skipping along happily with smiles on our faces and songs in our hearts.

And then the flu hit.

This was not your average run-of-the-mill flu I'm talking about here.  Oh, no, no, no.

It was grodey to the max.  To the max.  {I don't miss the eighties, but I do love that phrase, as well as 'Gag me with a spoon.', but that's hit a little too close to home these days.}

It all started when Daddy came home on Tuesday feeling a little under the weather.  And then it spread.  Maggie went down, then Livy and Mama and then Sam.  One right after another, we fell like mighty trees to a lumberjack's ax.  (Ooo, I kind of like that imagery.)

It was ugly.  It was the laying-on-the-bathroom-floor-prostrate-praying-Jesus-will-just-take-us-all-now-kind-of-ugly.

And to make matter worse, Paco had to board a flight to Chicago the next morning.  Meaning:  He had to try to feel decent to make a trip halfway across the country for a very important meeting while I had to stay here dealing with three sick kiddos after both of us being up all night.  All night. 

So, it was with some major fear and trepidation that we started the day off Wednesday.  We stayed on the couches with a constant stream of I Love Lucy, Disney Jr. and Wipeout on until I felt like my head would explode.  I managed to start some of the "sick" laundry {shudder, shudder} but that was it.  Thankfully, my mom came over, complete with mask and latex gloves, to help with the little boys who were feeling great and were completely oblivious to everyone else's complete discomfort. 

Thankfully, even though it was horrible, it was quick.  Within twenty-four hours, all the kids were all the way better and Mama and Daddy are almost there.  We're pretty hyper-sensitive to noises right now, funny enough.  Any time a kid burps or coughs, we immediately stop talking, sleeping and/or breathing to make sure that's all it is.  Maggie has even taken to yelling out, "It was just a cough.  Don't worry!"  Gee, I love that girl. 

And seeing as Jesus decided not to take us now, we went to the movies to see the new Muppet movie and then headed to the library for "fun" books (aka not anything to do with school).  So even though we're still stuck in these mortal, feeble bodies, we made the best of it. 

Since out library books are due back in three weeks, I'm praying that we don't get that same sickness again and Jesus actually answers my prayer.  I really don't want to leave the earth with checked out library books. 

Oh, and a dirty house.  Thanks God.  Amen.

Motherhood Is Calling Goes Out With a Bang {and Jack's buh-day pah-tay)!

Yesterday, as I shared earlier with you, was Jack's first birthday.  {sniff, sniff}  Seriously.  A year old already?!  Good grief.

With Livy and Jude, we had a smashing first birthday/baby dedication for them.  It's been such a blessing to have our family and friends come alongside us to not only celebrate our baby with us, but to also share in their dedication to the Lord with us.

So you know we had to celebrate Jack like that, too, especially since he's the caboose. 

Wait.  I might just cry again.

Baseball was our theme and it was a ton of fun!  For food, we had hotdogs (no-brainer), popcorn (courtesy of Paco's company who loaned us a very cool popcorn machine), veggie sticks in ranch (totally not baseball-ish, but we had about ten moms there and I wanted to be sure there was something healthy) and

Cracker Jack.  You know, in honor of the rookie of the year.

After the food was  devoured by all, we got down to the dedicating business.  Our wonderful pastor and his lovely wife, Becky, did a fantastic job speaking and praying over Jack and all of us as a family.  We were completely blessed by it, as always.

Then our friends and family gathered around us and prayed for sweet Jack.  This is always one of the most emotional parts of the whole thing for me.  I love that there are a bunch of little kids smooshed in there somewhere, darting around and through legs as they fight to be included, too.

The kids got tired of being smooshed in the massive horde of people, dodging their legs and getting the stink-eye from the mamas, so they ran away to play kickball. 

Rather than join in the game, Jack went for the devil's food cupcake.

That's my boy!

And then we went home, tired but happy.  Especially this little guy. 

There's been such a special sweetness to this grand tradition of ours.  We've been blessed to be able to celebrate the last three this way.

So even though this was the last of the first birthday/dedications, we're content and thankful that our family has been blessed immeasureably with each of our babies.






This will be the last of the Motherhood is Calling Mondays link-up for now.  It's been a fun ride!  Please feel free to link up and share something about motherhood, either tips, stories, photos or anything!  Blessings to you, dear ladies.

Happy Birthday, Jack

Last year, on this very date, a rock-star made his appearance.  Remember?

Yes, sweet Jack joined our family with his uber-cool hair-do, built-in-tan and dimpled smile.

And once again, my heart was lost to a brown-eyed boy.

As he's grown through the year, we're seeing this boy who is our Jack.  And he's flippin' awesome.  Oh, yes.  Flippin' awesome.

We thought we were abudantly blessed before we met him.

And while, yes, we were, we've taken the whole abundant blessings thing to whole new level.

Happy, happy birthday, Jack-me-boy.  You've stolen my heart, my love.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

And make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

May the Lord turn His countenance upon you

And give you peace.

Budgeting for a Family of Seven

Are there really seven of us?  Wait, let me count again...  One, two, three, four...  Oh my stinkin' goodness.  We really are a family of seven.  How did we get here?  Well, I know (wink, wink) how we got here, but really, um, now what do we do to make sure everyone has food on the table and clothes on their cute little bodies.

We budget.  OH NO!  I said the dreaded b-word.  I hate that word.  I love that word.  It's a love/hate thing.

When we first got married, we didn't have a budget.  We were, how do you say...  stupid?  Yup, that's the word.  But now real life has come to call and we're the grown-ups.

A couple of years ago, Paco and I went through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and got so excited about walking in financial freedom.  It was so practical and godly that we thought it would be easy to do.  And it was... for a while.

That was two children and a much stronger, better economy ago.

This is where the rubber meets the road, my friends.

So, I thought that I'd throw a few things out there to share with you how we are managing to stay afloat in these financially unlovely times.

1)  Pinterest.  Silly, I know, but oh, so true.  Pinterest saves me a lot of money when I'm trying to come up with ideas for gifts.  Last Christmas, I made over half the gifts we gave and it really helped in the pocketbook.  Plus, the ideas are so originally clever and cute, so it's a definite win-win.

2)  Buy used!  Last week our vacuum died.  We've had crummy luck with vacuums and so we have been just buying cheap ones to get by until we could afford what we really want.  (Not likely to happen soon.)  This time though, instead of just buying a cheapie, we went to the Oreck store and got a refurbished one.  I know it's a quality vacuum that we'll get a lot of use out of, but didn't have to spend a ton of money.  We didn't have to put it on a credit card (thank goodness), which leads me to #3.

3)  Have an emergency fund.  I know, I know, easier said than done.  In Dave Ramsay's FPU, one of the first steps to financial freedom is to set up a $1000 emergency fund.  We are building ours up slowly, one paycheck at a time.  Thankfully, we had enough for a vacuum so that we didn't have to put it on the credit card.  Now we'll continue to build it up to the $1000 mark that we're shooting for.

4)  A little thing, to be sure, but I wash out an reuse plastic baggies.  I buy quality bags (with coupons, of course), use them, then wash them out so they're ready to use again.  If I use them for raw meat or something potent like onions, I just throw them out. 

5)  I coupon.  However....  I'm pretty lousy at it.  I can practically hear the inward groans of people when they get behind me in line at the grocery store.  I am not and never will be an extreme couponer.  Although, we do have enough toothpaste that I got for free to last us until the Rapture.

6)  We date at home.  (We also go out sometimes, but it's cheaper to be at home.)  On a Friday or Saturday night, after we put the kids to bed or put a movie on for them, we fix special dinner for just us and then do something together that's different.  Okay, I'll admit, sometimes we watch a movie, but that can get old and then we have little kiddos coming to the top of the stairs trying to join our movie-watching experience.  Instead of movies, we've colored maps together of places we'd like to see, made a bucket list, sat outside in front of the fire pit with wine and looked through old pictures (awwww...).  We keep it really simple, but when you can't afford to go out every weekend, it works for us.

7)  Freezing fruits and veggies.  I love buying them when they're in season and cheap!  It's so easy to give them a good rinse and pop them into the freezer, like I did with peaches for my fresh peach crisp.  In my freezer I have bananas (the overly ripe ones), blackberries, blueberries, whole tomatoes, green beans, tomato sauce and the rest of the peaches.  We also go to a monthly ministry opportunity put on by a local church which for $10, will give you up to 60 lbs. of produce.  Last week, we got eggplant, zucchini (which will soon be in the freezer awaiting zucchini bread), squash, tomatoes (roma, beefsteak, cherry and grape) and anaheim chilis.  Plus, at the end, they ask if you need prayer for anything and then they pray with you.  Love it!

8) Last tip for now...  We pray together before we sit down to do the budget. It brings us into unity with each other in a potentially tense situation.  I heartily suggest doing this!

Well, that's all for now.  These are just a few things we do to keep things in budget right now.  There are about a million other things that others do, as well. 

How do you stay within budget?  I'd love to hear about it!

To My Valentine

 Once upon a time...

We fell in love.

Suddenly, we were a family.

And even more suddenly, there were alot of us.

But we're still us.

We're still goofy.

We're still passionately in love with each other.

We still love to smooch.

We're still living in His grace and love everyday.

We're still living happily ever after.

Happy Valentine's Day, my love.



Ugly, Beautiful Day

Two nights in a row of getting to bed waaayyy late.  So much to do, my mind is trying to get my body to keep up.  My body is putting forth a valiant effort, I must say.

So that means two days in a row of going on less than my normal amount of sleep and anyone in my family can tell you, that's just not cool, mister.  So sad, so true.

This also means that days have been harder, less focused, grumpier...  for everyone.  We've got colds running rampant through the house, sleep-deprived mama, family get-together here Thursday and Jack's first birthday party Saturday as well as Valentine's Day bearing down on me like a freight train.  Laundry's still on the couch, dinner is kinda planned and school half-heartedly, half-way done.  At this moment I want to cry, scream, through the mother of all temper tantrums.

But I don't.

I pray.

I pray for God to redeem this day.  I thank the Lord that this is the day that He has made and even though it looks just plain ugly, I praise Him for it anyway.  I ask for forgiveness for my short-tempered impatience and frustration.  I breathe and I smile.

The day isn't more beautiful in a second, but I'm catching the glimpses of it's beauty when I slow down and just breathe.  Maybe it's in Sambo's practicing his piece of the New World Symphony on the piano (thirty-seven times in a row) while I can only play chopsticks or Judah climbing on my lap demanding hugs.  Or it's Jack's soft, warm cheek after I'm done feeding him, Livy's ball-of-energy-like personality lighting up the room she's in, or Maggie's sweet helpfulness getting snacks for her brother.

Then I smile again.  Because I know that in this bitter-sweetness that is motherhood, I only get to do this once.  It's the twin blessing and curse of mothers from the beginning of time that our babies grow and leave us, leaving only memories and haunting smiles on our faces as we watch them go.

And I'm so thankful for the one chance I get at it.

(even if Sam keeps missing that same note all thirty-seven times...)

Loving Your Husband Well

Right off the bat, I'm going to say, "If you're my mother, mother-in-law or one of my children who can read (I'm talking to you, Maggie) I want you to stop reading this.  As in right now.  For Pete's sake!  Stop reading now!"





(Are they gone?  Good, the coast is clear.)

Valentines season is coming up rather quickly and I wanted to have a little wifey talk with my lady friends.  Now, it's a good thing you can't see my face right now because it's rather red, and frankly, if we were face to face, well I wouldn't be able to look you in the eye.

Paco and I are passionate about marriage.  Especially ours, of course, but also marriage in general.  We've talked about eventually getting certified in marriage counseling so that we can encourage others.

We all know that marriage takes work.  A lot of work.  It takes sacrifice and learning to think of the other person first.  It means football and different movie preferences, it takes sharing the covers and laundry baskets (which totally grossed me out when we were first married.  I don't know why.)  So, that being generally acknowledged and accepted, we have to do our part to make this amazing God-given gift work.   We also know that marriage is fun.  Very, very fun.

This is the perfect time of year to share ideas for romance, dates, bedtime (hee, hee) and general ways to strengthen our marriages.  Seeing as this is so near and dear to my heart, I thought I would share some of the resources I love.

1) The Generous Wife daily emails.  I learned about these several years ago and love the tips on how to bless your husband.  Some tips are more applicable to others, some are a little uh, how do I put this, hot and heavy, some are challenging.  Now they might not all work for you, but no worries.  No biggie.  There are so many fantastic ones that you'll find yourself looking for practical, fun, romantic and even prayerful ways to love on your hubby.  The original Generous Wife, Lori, does take tips from readers...  including (ahem) me.  I submitted a tip that was shared in January.  Now my face is really, really red.

2) One Flesh Marriage's Ten Day Challenge.  Ooo, la, la.  Seriously, I can't say anything more.  Talk about a challenge!

3)  The Dating Divas.  Looking for some great date night or gift ideas?  These gals have so many great ways to show hubs you love him.  I love that many of the ideas take a little planning, but they're original and totally doable.  I love their hearts for building up marriages.

4)  To Love, Honor, and Vacuum from Sheila Gregoire.  She'll get into the nitty-gritty with you, always backed up with Scripture.  Awesome, awesome!

5) This post from Women Living Well.  Again, so Scripturally-based and practical.  Love her!

There are so, so many ideas out there right now!  Stockpile all these ideas and dole them out over the course of the year or just blast your hubby over the next week or so.

You'll end up being just as blessed as he is!