2014: page one hundred eleven

 “Ladybug” magazine!

One of B's birthday presents from my mom and dad was a subscription to "Ladybug" magazine. Well, the first one came in the mail today and she was SO excited to get it! We had to take a picture and send it to Grandma and Grandpa. :)

2014: page one hundred ten

He is risen! Hallelujah!

Happy Easter! I am so thankful that we get to celebrate the most important day in the history of mankind - the day God saved us ALL from our sins! Amen!

We celebrated at church and then later joined most of Ryan's family at the park for an Easter egg hunt and, of course, food. :)

I only wish I would have taken at least one picture of the day, but nope. Oh well.

2014: page one hundred nine

For the most part today is a day that I'd rather re-write or erase, but I guess that really isn't an option now is it. :( I didn't feel well and was pretty grumpy. Took it out on Ryan. Started an argument. Ugh.

BUT, B and I did do some egg dying and had a lot of fun doing it. :)

 

Ryan took B for the afternoon and evening, so I could be alone with my grumpy self. I guess that's good. I got some "me" time, but I do wish I would have chosen to get over my grumps and gone fishing with my hubby and baby girl.

 

Live and learn. And be thankful for a new day tomorrow!

2104: page one hundred eight

Today is Good Friday. Grateful doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about what Jesus did on the cross to save us ALL from our sins. The following is a great description of why it's called Good Friday:

 

"Why do Christians call the day of His death “Good Friday”? They do so because of what He accomplished for us on that day. The key is to understand who Jesus was, and why He came into the world. Jesus wasn’t just another human being; He was... also God in human flesh. Jesus Himself declared, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

And the reason He came into the world was to deal with the greatest problem of the human race: the problem of our sins. Jesus was perfect and without sin—but on the cross all our sins were transferred to Him, and He died in our place. We deserved to die on that cross, but Jesus took the punishment we deserve—and because He did, we can be forgiven and cleansed of all our sins.

Yes, it was a tragedy Jesus had to die—and the reason He had to die was because of us. There was no other way for our sins to be forgiven, and no other way for heaven’s door to be opened to us. He was willing to do this because He loves us, and He doesn’t want us to spend eternity apart from Him. Open your heart to Christ today, and when you do, it truly will become your “Good Friday”!"

(Here is where I found the above quote)

Random thoughts for a Friday....

• Sun-kissed skin just makes me happy. :) (We played outside for a long time today)
• Thankful for a wonderful partner and teammate to journey through this life with!
• Natural vitamin D is the BEST medicine.
• A good night's rest does wonders!
• I wish I was a bit more crafty, but at least I can attempt to copy other people's wonderful ideas, like these below:

The rake is a necklace/jewelry holder...brilliant! The upper left: I have a bunch of cabinet fronts waiting for something to be done with them. The middle left is a little hard to tell, but it's a window frame that I just like what they've done with each pane. I've been saving a bunch of bottles and glass jars and the bottom left is my favorite. And how cute is that lampshade?!

2014: page one hundred seven

Yahoo, B is starting to feel better! Still not 100%, but much better. She actually wanted to go play outside today! Yeah for outside and yeah for not being stuck inside watching videos!

We did start our morning off a little rough. After Ryan got up to get ready for work and B was in our bed, she was pretty restless not wanting to stay near me and in the center of the bed (it's a king bed, so plenty of room). As well, she kept climbing on top of his pillow that we had laying to help her from rolling off if she fell asleep (she has never come close to it, but just in case). I kept moving her back to the middle.

Well, I guess I dozed off for a minute until I heard a big thud. And then crying. Loud crying. Oh no! She rolled off the bed. :( Apparently, she landed face down and cut her mouth somewhere. Poor girl! I felt so bad. The only upside I could see to this is that all the hard crying got A LOT of snot out of her nose. Silver linings, right...

After she woke up and found out daddy was at work, she cried, "daddy, daddy" while laying down at the top of the stairs. She looks so miserable here, but thankfully, she started feeling better soon after.

Another "fun" (said sarcastically) event of our day happened when Ryan was home for lunch. The two of them were upstairs playing in her room. Next thing I know Ryan is calling for my help. Wwwweeeellll, I guess all her sickness is coming out and in different ways. Like diarrhea ways. Lots of it. Out of her pull up. On her shirt. On her pants. Oh, and on the carpet. Ugh. And yuck, yuck, YUCK!

The two us got her taken care and then wouldn't you know it, Ryan had to get back to work. No, for real. He had a conference call starting in a few minutes. Just glad he was here to help get her taken care of.

I didn't really know where to start to get sticky, gooey diarrhea out of the carpet. So, of course, I googled it.

Step 1: scrape off as much as you can, you know, without rubbing it in any further.
Step 2: spray, spray, spray it with a vinegar and water solution.
Step 3: use spot scrubber machine on it.
Step 4: repeat steps 2 & 3 over and over again.
Step 5: sprinkle (or dump) baking soda on top and let it absorb it.
Step 6: vacuum up baking soda.
Step 7: come back later to check on it and still be able to see the spot. :(
Step 8: spray it with more vinegar and water solution
Step 9: soak up with paper towel by pressing down as hard as you possibly can to get it to absorb into the paper towel
Step 10: repeat step 9 a few times.

Ah, finally, the spot it gone!!!

On another note, here's a happy picture from our time outside.

Leaves on the lilac bushes!!

2014: page one hundred six

Sick Day #3

Last night was pretty rough for us all. Poor baby girl is still sick. After trying several things, B and I ended up on the couch just before 3 AM where she seemed to get her best sleep. Once Ryan was up to get ready for the day, I took her up into our bed and she slept in pretty well.

None of this is helping us work on the sleep issues we are having, but I figure she needs to get better first and then we'll work on them again.

Today was her worst sick day so far and she just looks miserable. :( I'm hoping this is rock bottom and she starts the upswing now.

Ryan got off work a bit early and took her for a long drive to help her get some daytime rest, as she was resisting that today. This provided me with a bit of time to get a few things done and fix a delicious dinner (braised chicken in artichoke-mushroom sauce) from my current favorite cookbook, Against All Grain. Mmmmm... :)

365 Things in 365 Days

Stuff.

Stuff everywhere.

Too much stuff.

Simplify.

I'm looking to simplify life and less stuff seems like a good place to start. After all, we still have a bunch of boxes in the basement from when we moved into our house almost 2 years ago. Not to mention all the stuff I pick up on a daily basis that I don't know where to put.

So, my goal is to sell, giveaway, donate or toss AT LEAST one thing per day for an entire year. Hopefully, even more than that will be gone by April 6th, 2015. (I started this process on April 7th)

The money from what we sell will be put in a give-away fund or a miscellaneous-spending-money fund or something still to be determined, but NOT to buy more stuff! The giveaway/donate items will hopefully make their way to homes and people who can actually use them. 

2014: page one hundred five

Day 2 of being home with a sick kiddo.

She seems to have moments where she feels a little better. At one point today, she said she wanted to go play in her room. I guess she was done watching TV for a while (which I am thankful for) and ended up playing in her room for quite a long time. Finding toys she hadn't played with for quite some time helped keep her busy.

Once Ryan got home, I showered (finally!) and got ready. I needed to get out of the house for a bit. Well, where did I end up? The grocery store, of course. Ha ha! Even though it was just the grocery store, it was still a much needed mommy break and nice to be able to take my time wandering the aisles. And bonus, we have some more groceries. :)

2104: page one hundred four

Poor B woke up this morning with a cough and a fever. Much of our day was spent resting on the couch watching all her favorites: Bubble Guppies, Dora, Team Umi Zoomi, Peppa Pig. Hopefully, she'll get over it quickly! It's sad to see your little one not feeling well. :(

In other news, I found 3 cans of pumpkin that need to be used right away, so I made some delicious grain-free pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. Mmmmm, pumpkin goodies really are good any time of the year! :)

2014: page one hundred three

We celebrated Ahlyvia's birthday today with a "little" family party after church. It's hard to believe that she's 11! She was only 5 when I first met her. Time sure does fly!