The Gentleness Challenge

I am excited to participate in the Gentleness Challenge...to become a better mommy

Georgia on my mind...

Listen in:  Pages turning as Meg reads yet another book
Plans for the Day:  Explore Newnan with the kids and a trip to the library
Dinner:  hmmm...good question...bc I am not feeling the whole ribs thing
Beauty in the common things:  B coming in with his pacie (no judging), blankies, and asking to please snuggle with his sissy. 

So... drumroll please.... we, as a whole, love Georgia.  I am shocked.  Amazed.  Blessed.  And totally realize that has everything to do with God and nothing to do with luck.  All of my previously mentioned fears have been relieved.   There are still some hurdles to overcome and we are working on that.  BUT, we love it here.  It is simply beautiful.  The people are kind.  The schools are HARD.  We had planned to homeschool...then after much prayer and more prayer...we decided to send our kids to public school.  Oh my goodness.  Who had any idea it was going to be so hard on them.  Not the new school...the huge learning gap they have to overcome.  Even considering that...they love it here.  Praise God.  We found an amazing church with a great teaching Pastor.  We love it.  The kids love it.  We go as a family.  I struggle with that.  I am so used to making sure things run smoothly at church and prepairing lessons, and making sure classes are covered and have what they need... I feel a little bit lost.  In our 11 1/2 year marriage...this is the first time we have been able to attend church as a family.  I know that God has these amazing plans for us and we are exactly where he wants us to be...in his timing.  As long as we are together and put God first....all the rest will come. 

One of  my favorite Bible verses...from The Message. 

I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back.
Philippians 3:12-14

Some of the Georgia beauty I have found....such pretty colors. 
Just don't find that in Texas

Menu Plan Monday...but posted on Tuesday : )

I have vowed to start menu planning.  I love to do it...yet I have horrible follow thru skills.  Bad ones.  But, I am a full fledged stay at home mom now.  My laundry should be done, house clean, and menu's planned.  I'm working on the last one first!

My Menu:

Week One
 To Die For Pot Roast (I added veggies to my crock pot)
Chicken Noodle Soup (I used a roasted chicken I had left over from the grocery store and made my own broth), and crackers...those delightful mini Saltines.  LOVE those
Crock Pot Pasta Sauce and some sort of fun noodle, "THE" Bread, and a salad
Pioneer Woman's 16-Minute Burrito's with mexican rice and chili beans
Pioneer Woman's Frito Pie  Comfort Food....YUM!
Chicken Tortilla Soup and corn bread
Pioneer Woman's Meatloaf with Roasted garlic mashed potatos, and green beans

Week Two
Crock Pot Ribs- Meal for the Diva  , Crock Pot Mac and Cheese and a salad
Roasted Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Croutons and maybe some sort of salad
Pioneer Woman's Beans and Cornbread
Thanksgiving with Family
Mama Blair's Cheesy Enchilada's found in the Mops Cookbook
Chicken Tacos, maybe homemade tortillas, and  mexican beans...maybe these
Crock Pot Baked Potato Bar with left over meat, beans, and etc

Maybe I'll even let you know how the recipes turned out.  Not sure yet. 
Enjoy!

Day two of my...I will blog all the stinkin time devotion...blah blah blah

Listen in:  the Pirate rambling about the most amazing puzzles his Mimi just gave him

Plans for the Day:  PACK.  I'll say it again to remind myself....P.A.C.K

Dinner:  Breakfast for dinner.  Fried Toast, Scambled Eggs, and um...ya that's it

Beauty in the Simple things:  I found a lovely note scribbled in little girl handwriting that said I love you!


Ok, peeps.  Day two has occurred.  I will begin my quest to fufill my bloggy duties: )  lol.  bloggy duties.  Ya, I'm like 6 at heart.  Really just ask DH.  lol.  So I thought I would show you some fun things I made over the last. cough.  year.  Yikes.  In the spirit of Halloween.....drum roll please.....

Cuteness Huh?  Cute and stupid easy.



So what you do is this.  Cut old 2X4's in to various pieces.  You could do as I do and get the DH to do that job for you.  NOT that I couldn't.  I just don't.  Pick appropriate holiday scrapbooking papers, paints to match, stickers, and ribbons.  All to match or not.  Depending on your attitude about those sorts of things.   Oh and you may want to sand your blocks a little bit with a fine grade sanding block.  Love, Love sanding blocks!   Now, paint the blocks.   I paint the whole block because well.  OCD.  God made me that way :)  I use Modge Podge for gluing the paper onto the block.  I paint the back of the paper with a fine coat of the stuff and smooth it on.  Then I paint another fine layer of the stuff on the top.  I found some super awesome glittery scrapbook paper and I used my Cricut to cut out the letters.  Glued those on (after the paper dried from the Modge Podge event),  add your stickers and your ribbons...and done!!!  

Talk about slacking...

I am sitting here at my table in shock.  I mean, I intended to keep my blog updated and even start doing groovy cool updates and giveaways.  I had big bloggy plans.  So, imagine my shock when I sit down to look at my blog and see it has been almost and entire YEAR since my last post.  So much has happened and continues to happen in our lives.  First and formost....we are GEORGIA bound.  Soon.  Very Soon.   I can feel the excitement and dread in the air.  Right now it is an even 50/50 in which is winning!  I have really big bloggy plans for then!   I plan to attempt to blog my crafts and things like that.  Stay tunned to see if that happens.  Better yet...give me a kick in the pants if I DON'T Do that!  Ok?

Until packing finishes....and we load up and move on out...

Blessings from my wild bunch to yours!

Something to think about....

 So, you know that we will be moving to Ga in the early summer...provided that my DH gets the final ok from the folks doing the hiring for his dream job.   I am uber excited about this move.  Somewhere new...its old, has history, is close to WHITE sand beaches...there are mountains and trees.   I know its not Texas but it is different and that is sooo cool.   I don't tell DH this...but these are my worries:
Will I be able to buy Dr. Pepper.  Seriously, this is a major concern.  Do they have Sonic and does that sonic have Dr. Pepper and frito pies.   What if that is just a Texas thing?  Or Hobby Lobby.  What does one do if there is not a Hobby Lobby around.  What if we can't find a church?  You know one we really, really like.  What if I don't make friends?  What if the distance is to far and those friends I love here....forget me?   What if there are not any good scrapbooking stores nearby...or worse...what if no body does that?  What if my girls don't find good friends.  What if they Hate me forever for making them move?    What if we hate it there?   What if we can't buy Blue Bell icecream???   What if my cat runs away because we move him?  What if our stuff in the U-haul gets stolen and we have nothing?  What if the tv anchors on the evening news suck?  You know, what if they do Not play good music on the radio?   What if my girls are behind when they start school?  I have been in that place as a child and I never really caught up?  I struggled in math for the rest of my school career.  What if I can't find anybody I like as much as I like my friends here?  All these what ifs....
See here's the thing.  I know that GOD has a plan for us.  For my DH, for Me, for our family.  I know that these worries are human worries.  They are flesh worries.  I do not need to worry these worries because I have been told to worry about nothing and instead pray about everyThing.  Because, just as GOD provides for the lillies and the birds he will provide for me.  That means that those little things I worry about...have Big God given solutions...because he ALREADY knows whether or not I will even want a Dr. Pepper when I get there, he knows who my friends are and who they will be.  He has already opened the door for this move to be blessed and because he has done that...I will NOT worry about the things that GOD has already taken care of.    I will instead do this:
I will spend the rest of the time we live in Texas enjoying all the greatness that is TEXAS.  We may move but we will have awesome memories to take with us and family and friends to come back and visit.  We will not be gone forever...even if we never move back here.  See, my HOME is whereever my husband is.  As long as I have that...home can be anywhere.

I can't believe its been so long since my last post!

Listen in:  DD2 creating something wonderful in the kitchen...art suppies in action and the food network on the tv

Plans for the day:  I've been cleaning off and on all day, some homework, and filling some orders

Tonight's menu:  I don't even want to think about food....tummy in revolt today

Beauty in the common things....a clean office


Well life in a nutshell...its been busy and we are moving to GA.  There that sums it up.