Can't wait to get my Saturday on.

Project 365 * 4
Day 673

     Thankful it's Friday. Thankful for gorgeous fall sunsets. Thankful for clean kids. And fresh pajamas. Thankful for clean, damp hair to smell while I read books to my kids at night. Thankful that tomorrow is Saturday, and there is no where we have to be. There is nothing we have to do except whatever we want to do. I'm thinking a long nature walk is in order. I need to be outside. I need to be with my family and the trees and the sky. Being with my family and the trees and the sky fills me up in the same way that Thanksgiving dinner makes me full. Thankful for time to sleep. Thankful that tomorrow we can lay in bed and watch shows until breakfast time. Saturday mornings are the best around here. Cannot wait to get my Saturday on.

Wide open sky.

Project 365 * 4
Day  672   

     

     The sky was beyond amazing today. As I was driving home from work, each new bit of sky was somehow more beautiful than the last bit. It just kept getting more and more lovely. More and more incredible. It took my breath away. Honestly. I'm so thankful for the sky. I would be sad if I couldn't look at it everyday.

     *Special note: I suppose I shouldn't complain about this. There are a lot worse problems one could have. My computer is the worst. It is crazy slow. It doesn't work right half the time. And now, it just plain old won't open up windows. So, I had to blog from my phone tonight. I have sweet sleeping pictures of my kids, but I will have to go back in and post them later. Maybe Santa will bring me a new computer for Christmas?!

11/7/14--Pictures added. Matt came home and fixed the computer :)

3,285 Days of Marriage.

Project 365 * 4
Day 671

     Oh, sweet November 5th. The day I walked down the aisle and became a wife to the man I love. I never expected that nine years later, I would be more in love with my husband than I was on the day I married him. In all honesty, the love we shared on our wedding day pales in comparison to the love we share now. We have truly been through it all together. Good times. Bad times. Very good times. Very bad times. We've had many joys. And many sorrows. But all of it led to this day. This moment nine years later. How did we celebrate nine years? Matt worked. I worked. Matt visited his mom in the hospital. I made dinner. Cleaned it up. Prepared things for tomorrow. We bathed our kids. We read to them. We played with them. I held Tobin and sang to him. Matt held Tobin. (He's not quite sure how to get to sleep anymore without his pacifiers. He stays awake for a long time after we put him to bed.) Matt and I exchanged cards. One store bought. One homemade. And one lone gift. Some chocolates. Money is tight right now, and we just don't have the funds to buy gifts for each other. But after nine years, you learn that it isn't about gifts. It isn't about cards. It isn't about date nights. It's about time. It's about nights like this. When we go about our business as usual, exchanging hugs and kisses when we can. Stealing away a few minutes to talk when the kids are quiet. It's about the other 364 days of the year. The regular Mondays. The same old, same old Thursdays. It's about who we are, and how we love on all those ordinary days. Ordinary days are important. The most important, I feel. The way we live them is who we really are. Anyone can buy flowers, and gifts, and have extravagant date nights. Special days are just that. They're special. But they're not always indicative of how we really live. The real test is all the ordinary days. The days where nothing much special is going on. When you make a choice to love someone throughout all those ordinary days, 364 of them, for nine years, you know what you have is real.

     Thankful for my sweet love. Thankful to be able to call my husband best friend, lover, soulmate. Thankful for our nine years of marriage. I've learned a great many things throughout those years, but the most important is this: just love each other. Through it all. In the good. In the bad. Just, love. And by showing love, even when you don't want to, you find that all your prior notions of love and romance just don't compare to the oceans upon oceans upon oceans of love two people can share after 3,285 days of marriage.

A list for a Tuesday.

Project 365 * 4
Day 670

     Tonight, I'm thankful:

-that my mother in law is safe and sound. She had major back surgery today, and it went well.

-for the most delicious roast I've ever made in my life. Flank steak bathed in beer, Worcestershire, and whole garlic cloves. I literally wanted to eat the whole thing myself.

-for chubby cheeked babies smiling in the bath tub.

-for fluffy after bath hair.

-for books read under comfy blankets.

-for a day off with my babes.

-for ice cream. I had a few bites tonight, and I don't feel the least bit guilty about it. Honestly, if I could eat ice cream breakfast, lunch, and dinner...I would.

-for talks on the deck with Matt and Patty.

-for sleeping babies.

-for my cozy bed.

-for so many things to be thankful for.

His eye is on the sparrow.

Project 365 * 4
Day 669

For Sue.

     Those words keep coming to mind today. "His eye is on the sparrow...He watches over me." As you go into the unknown tomorrow, as you lay down on the table, as you walk down a path you have no desire to walk down, remember these words:

"Look, if you sold a few sparrows, how much money would you get? A copper coin a piece, perhaps? And yet your Father in heaven knows when one of those small sparrows falls to the ground. You, beloved, are worth so much more than a whole flock of sparrows. God knows everything about you, even the number of hairs on your head. So do not fear." -Matthew 10:29-31

     If you still have doubts, consider this:

     This is just one flock of sparrows. And if God knows when one of those birds, from that one flock, falls to the ground, out of all the sparrows that reside on earth...He is surely watching over you.

     Tonight, I'm thankful for words to turn to when life gets scary. I'm thankful for you. I'm thankful for the life and light you bring into our lives. I'm thankful that after this, you will be back on your feet, and feeling like your old, or should I say, young, self again. I'm thinking you should be all healed up by March. Just in time for a birthday dance party. Complete with jello shots stolen off of some waitress' tray. I love you. And I know He's watching over you.

Pat-Mary. All day in the kitchen. Sundays with family.

Project 365 * 4
Day 668

52 People I Love

     Been thinking about my friend, Mary-Pat this week. Or Pat-Mary, as I like to call her. She is one of the sweetest women I have ever known. And one of the kindest. She taught me that croutons packed in a baggie make the best snack. She taught me that bagels, when soaked in water, make the best ammo when attacking the car of someone who has just TP'd your house. She taught me that the best nicknames for daughters and sons is simply, daughter, or son. I love Mary-Pat because she loves to have fun. She loves to visit with friends. She loves to have people over for big dinners. And she loves to talk on the back porch after dinner for a long time. I love Mary-Pat. I miss her. And I'm blessed to call her my very good friend. I feel the need for a trip to sunny Florida sometime soon. :)

52 Kind Things

     It was a very busy week. And I didn't have much time to do kind things except in my own home. However, I think the many hours I spent standing in the kitchen today cooking, cleaning, cooking, cleaning, and cooking, and cleaning up again counts as something kind. Not going to lie. I thoroughly enjoyed doing it. I hardly ever get to stand in the kitchen and cook for hours on end. It was a treat for me. But also a treat for my family. We had pumpkin pancakes for breakfast. And we had chili and cornbread for dinner. And cookie bars for dessert. I was so glad to have been able to cook and bake all day. And do something kind at the same time.



     We spent the day with Matt's family. It was a lovely day. Beautiful and windy outside. Warm and cozy inside. Made even more cozy by the smell of chili and cornbread. And by the warmth of love and togetherness. So thankful for family. Thankful for days spent entirely with my favorite people.

Dear. God. This day is over.

Project 365 * 4
Day 667

     In all of my life as a mother, I have never spent a day like this one. Matt and I decided to let the kids have a few...a few...pieces of candy from their buckets throughout the day today. They each had about three or four pieces. And man oh man, did we pay dearly for that mistake. They only had chocolate. As soon as we come in from trick or treating, we dump their buckets, and remove all the candy except the chocolate based ones like Reese's and Kit-Kat's. Then we take all the removed candy and put in a big bowl on the front porch. The only thing left this morning was a few Dum-Dum pops. It's actually kind of genius, right? We buy our own candy to hand out, but we always have more than enough with the candy we remove from their buckets.

     Anyways, it was like they ate entire five-pound bags of sugar for breakfast. They cried all day. They ran all day. They rolled around on the floor all day. They screamed all day. Adelyn splashed a sink full of water all over the walls in the bathroom. They bit things. They bit each other. They hit. They screamed. And they cried some more. I have never in my life been so happy to put them to bed. I'm just praying it's out of their systems by tomorrow. On a happier note, we got to meet Shane's girlfriend today. She was super sweet and fun and pretty. And she was completely okay with our kids being little crazy hellions today.

     Tonight, I'm thankful for the end of this day. I'm thankful for family. I'm thankful I got to meet Shane's girlfriend. They seem very happy together, and that makes me happy. Thankful that tomorrow, there will be no more buckets of candy because this mama is going to dump them tonight. Matt's going to take it all to work. I'm sure the firefighters will be happy to have it.