My "Grateful" List

I read a post on another Mommy's blog recently & I can't even remember where to give her credit (sorry!)!  It just really impacted me so I wanted to do it for what applies to my life!  She said to remember that someone, somewhere, wants what I have!  Someone would be so grateful for what I have even if what I have doesn't meet my selfish expectations & even when I don't recognize how blessed I am!  It was such a fresh reminder to be grateful to God for every blessing & to even try to see that God can be working & trying to help us grow in the things we don't understand!  It's hard sometimes but so good for me to keep my heart & mind focused on gratefulness for all that God has done for me & given to me! 

• When I'm hoping for a full night of sleep & my sweet baby wakes to nurse at 3 am.......I am grateful that she is a healthy baby girl with an awesome appetite who nurses wonderfully & doesn't have to eat from a feeding tube in her tummy! 

• When I am hot & really wishing I could turn our air down & make it cooler in our home.......I am grateful that we have safe & comfortable shelter & that we are much cooler than if we had to live outside!  

• When I finish putting away all the laundry just for another pile to appear.......I am grateful that my Husband & 5 little girls have so many clothes to wear that keep them cool in the summer & warm in the winter & that they even happen to be nice & cute clothes & not rags! AND.....even MORE grateful that I have my sweet family who put all that laundry on their cute little bodies that I love so very much!  

 

• When I grumble in my heart about having to iron my Husband's work clothes.......I am grateful that he has a wonderful job & a healthy, strong body to provide for our family!

• When the air in my Suburban takes longer than I would like to cool down.......I am grateful that we have transportation that is safe, comfortable & big enough so that all 7 of us can ride together!

• When I wish I could feed my family more healthy or organic foods.......I am grateful that we (almost) always have a full fridge & pantry & most importantly.......5 full little tummies (& 2 big also!)!

• When I get angry because I tripped over my Husband's big ole' shoes again.......I am so grateful that I have my amazing Hubby & best friend who WEARS those big shoes!  (Did you know that you actually can love something like a pair of dumb ole' shoes you always trip over?  It's possible when you imagine your lovie man wearing them as he works so incredibly hard for your family!)  : ) 

• When I have to vacuum (or have my big girls do it!) up Goldfishy crumbs several times a day.......I am grateful that I have a sweet little toddler with a healthy appetite who loves to eat them & (usually!) sweetly asks for "fishy crackers pease Mama?" & usually makes that mess by trying to "share" with all of her sissies & her baby dolls! 

• When I get discouraged about my weight & wonder if my tummy will ever be flat again.......I look at my 5 beautiful babies who grew, snuggled tight, in my tummy for 9 months each ( for a total of  45 months or 3.75 years!)  : )  & realize that all of my hard work is SO very worth it!  

• When I see how worn out some of our toys are & wish I could surprise my girls with new things.......I am so grateful that the reason our most loved baby doll, "Caleekee" (my sweet firstborn named her that at 13 months old & that has been her name ever since!) & our little baby push toys are so worn is because they  have been hugged, squeezed, toted around, pushed, sat on & loved by my 5 sweet little girls!   

• When I see that my big girls' jeans will need to become cut-off clam-diggers by necessity only three months after buying them.......I am grateful that they are healthy, growing children!  

• When we're out at a store & people ask "Are they ALL yours!?" as if they feel sad for me  (not always ~ most people are very sweet & happy for me!).......I am so grateful that God has allowed me to truly enjoy Mommy-hood, that He has given me such a sweet & passionate love for my children & that I can joyfully answer & walk away smiling & thanking God for how very blessed I really am!  

• When I'm discouraged that I'm not the Wife & Mommy that I want to be.......I am grateful that God is working in my heart & teaching me new things every day & that I have an extremely patient & enduring Hubby & little girls who all happen to love me so unconditionally!

• When I just finish mopping the kitchen floor & return to see sweet little footprints where I hoped to see nothing but clean.......I am grateful for who those precious little feet belong to & realize that keeping a tidy & comfy home FOR the twelve little (& big!) feet that I love is the very reason that I clean!  

• When I am giving in to the sin of selfish ambition & I wonder if my "gifts" are being used or "noticed".......I am grateful that God helps me to remember that the gifts I'm cultivating right now are the ones that really matter!  What I am doing will affect 5 sweet little girls & 1 awesome man's lives forever!  I am grateful that God helps me ~ NOT always ~ but sometimes to.......tell my girls about Jesus, joyfully change my sweet baby's 7th diaper that day, take my sweet little newly potty-trained toddler to the potty as many times as necessary, have real big-girl conversations with my sweet big girls, show my girls I love their Daddy, kiss owie's, apply "NEW-sporin" & Dora Band-aids with gentleness, tell my girls about Jesus, be a chef to 5 very hungry little people & one very big one, be a laundress, stain removal extraordinaire & iron-er to (what feels like) the masses, tell my girls about Jesus,  wash the pb & j off my hands, diaper cream off my shirt & glitter gel off of my face so that I can remember how to woo & romance my Hubby, teach my girls to read, write, spell, do math & have godly character, remind my girls how to love their sissy, tell my girls about Jesus, show my girls I love their Daddy, pray for their little hearts like I've never prayed before & depend on God every moment of every day for everything AND.......oh, yeah.......tell my girls about Jesus!

Last but not least, this is the absolute most important thing!

• When I am tempted to think that I NEED anything at all.......I am grateful, with all my heart I'm grateful, that my greatest need has been taken care of!  My sweet & precious Savior Jesus died on the cross for ME!  He died for this wretched sinner!  He took my sin upon Himself, bore the punishment I could never bare, endured agony on the cross, in His perfect, sinless body, on that tree, for me!  He made me clean & pure & brought me into sweet fellowship with my God!  So often my heart is tempted to think that I need, but I am so grateful that He has given me everything I could ever need!  AND.......God has been so amazingly kind, gracious, generous & loving & given me way more than I could've ever asked or imagined when He gave me my amazing Hubby & 5 precious baby girls!  God is SO good!  I am so grateful! 

My Baby Love! Yes.....she's wearing BLUE!

I love that our girls love & really enjoy each other.  I realize what a gift from God this is & I am so very grateful!  The other day my sweet little budding photographer Amy (10 years old!) asked if she could do a little "photo shoot" with her precious little baby sissy Anibella!  It was so sweet & really melted my heart!  Amy dressed Anibella, did her hair & took her into our front school room where there is lots of awesome natural light! I let them have time alone together but I could hear them giggling, Anibella's sweet little baby voice cooing & baby-talking & Amy encouraging her in the sweetest little voice!  Of course, my girlies have their sisterly moments but I am so grateful for how much all 5 of them love each other!  See y'all, we DO wear colors beSIDES pink!  : )  Here are just a few of the adorable & quite amazing pictures that Amy & Anibella did together!  : )  I just have to say how much I LOVE my sweet baby & how much she just melts my heart into a sappy, gooey but very happy mess!

 

This one cracks me up because it looks like Anibella is thinking, "Are we done yet?  I wonder if she's still there!?  Ha ha!  She is SO adorable!

DAAAAAAADYYYYYYY'S HOOOOOOOME!!!!!!!

There's a cute little thing that happens at our house around 6 o'clock every day.  When our girls hear Daddy's car pull up & the garage door open, they drop whatever they are doing, (even if they're in the middle of a serious game of pretend!) & they RUN to see their Daddy!  Even our littlest girls, Ava & Anibella, have realized that this is a very special time of day & they get just as excited as our big girls!  Daddy is always greeted with lots of kisses, giggles, hugs & "I miss you......I love you.......I'm so happy you're home!" times FIVE!  Every.......single.......day!  It makes my heart so happy to see our girls adoring their Daddy like they do!  

                                                          Our Daddy is                       home! Five
                                                    happy little girls run            to meet him! Little
                                                blue eyes that just sparkle    with love & affection!
                                             Our sweet,  tender & lovable Daddy!  SO much fun & 
                                            oh how he makes us giggle!  Scoops us up in his strong
                                            Daddy-arms &  we feel so safe!  We admire, respect  &
                                               adore~ our little ♥'s belong to him! Humble,genuine,
                                                  passion for God, tenderly loving us &our Mommy,
                                                     gently molding us  ~  our HERO!    Protecting
                                                        us, guiding us, loving his  5 little girls with
                                                           all he is & does & has to give!   Reads,
                                                              cuddles, plays, lives life & teaches
                                                                 us to be tough but girly! Shows
                                                                    us how to love Jesus, our
                                                                       Mommy & sissies by
                                                                           his life! Amazed
                                                                              to have him!                                                            
                                                                                 DADDY
                                                                                      we
                                                                                       ♥
                                                                                       U
                                                                             

4th of July

 My hott Hubby & our precious littlest baby girl!

We had a wonderful 4th of July!  A few of us still had colds so we couldn't go to church or hang out with friends like we had planned but we had so much fun as a family anyway!  I tried really hard to make it special for our girls because by Friday I could tell that we still wouldn't be well enough to have our BBQ with friends on Sunday.  We started out by Daddy making chocolate chip pancakes, painted fingernails, watched a movie & ate popcorn,  did 4th themed coloring & word activities while Mommy cooked & Daddy played with little Miss (Ani) Bella Bug, ate LOTS of yummy food, then Daddy read aloud about Independence day from this fun website called "kaboose", we got out our copy of the Declaration of Independence & our girls read along with Daddy, we went & did a little photo shoot by a cool water tower that says, "City of Cocoa" with the American Flag, played in the fountains at a park, ate dinner at home (LEFT OVERS!), ate our fun "flag cake" & did sparklers in our yard!  It was a very full but very fun day!

I'm so grateful to God to live in our country & to enjoy the amazing freedom & rich blessings that we have every day!  I'm also SO very grateful to have my amazing best friend & Hubby & our 5 precious little girlies & my sweet little sidekicks to share this wonderful life with!

WARNING!     : ) There are a LOT of pictures in this slide show!  I included them all because I want our very loved & missed far-away family (& friends who are like family!), who we don't get to share everyday life & fun holidays with, to be able to see our little sweeties!  Our hearts are SO WISHing you were all here to share life with us!

Pancake Family Night

We had a fun pancake family dinner last night!  I used a squeeze bottle full of batter (I got the squeeze bottle at Wal-Mart for $1 & you can put whatever kind of batter you like in it!) & made our girlies' names & some really cool designs.  Daddy kept all of our sweeties occupied in the living room while I worked the griddle.  I had way too much fun doing it too!  : )  I loved the look of surprise on their faces when they saw their names on their plates!  It was a huge hit & our girlies really loved it! 

My Life Today.......Monday 6/28/2010

My life today........

Right now I am...thinking how amazed I am that my precious little Anibella Buggie is 8 months old.......yes, she is already EIGHT months old today! I am so in love with my sweet baby!  When she woke up this morning she was calling for me with her cute little voice, "Mama.......Mama.......Mama"!  Oh my goodness, she is just irresistible!

Outside my window... okay, this one's gonna get boring real fast!  We live in FLORIDA.......in the SUMMER!  So, yeah, this is pretty much always gonna say HOT for the next few months plus maybe I'll occasionally throw in a "it's raining" every now & then!   : )  Although I'm not complaining at all!  I'm a beach/summer girl at heart!  I LOVE warm weather, flip-flops, seeing my girlies in sundresses & the smell of sunscreen!


I am hoping...one day I'll be able to be the kind of wife & mommy I hope to be!

I am thankful...that I have a hard working Hubby who gets as many overtime hours as possible so he doesn't have to get a 2nd job!  

I am smelling...my baby girls' soft, curly, yummy-smelling hair!  I love how it smells like Johnson & Johnson's baby shampoo!   : )

I just...reheated my coffee for the 2nd time!  I love my coffee warm/hot-ish but I also like to sip it slowly!  My Hubby says that's one of my little quirks!  He says he loves how I cup my coffee mug in both hands & sip it as I peek over the top!  He teases me cause it takes me twice as long to drink it than him, or anyone else for that matter!  I guess drinking coffee is kind of a "romantic", relaxing treat to me!

From the kitchen...lazy lasagna for dinner tonight!  I love to simmer my semi-homemade pasta sauce for hours to really infuse the fresh garlic into it!  YUMMY! 

I am wearing...a green & white tie-dye tank top & shorts.

I am creating...a new daily schedule for my little girlies.  We're starting school in just a few weeks.  We took a wonderfully long break in October through December when our sweet Anibella was born AND another long break when we moved so we're gonna start earlier this year!  I want to test it out over the next few weeks to be sure it will flow nicely & give me time to tweak it if necessary.  


I am going...to set aside time during my baby & toddler's nap & my 3 big girls' rest time to watch a Photoshop tutorial.  I've had this amazing editing software for months & I've made a few half-hearted attempts to learn how to use it but it's very complicated & I keep getting very frustrated with it!  So.......I'm hoping today's the day I conquer it!!!!!!!

I am STILL reading..."Feminine Appeal" by Carolyn Mahaney.  I'm reading it slowly so that I can digest & really ponder what I'm learning!


I am thinking...how grateful I am to be a wife & mommy, not just in general though!  I'm so grateful to be my Randal's wife & my Amy, my Ashley, my Abby, my Ava & my Anibella's Mommy!  I seriously have the most awesome job/calling I could've ever dreamed of!  


I am hearing...my little toddler is wearing a tall hat we got at the "Barnum & Bailey Circus" years ago that we use for dress-up.  She's waving her little arms & walking around saying, "Layyyy-dies & Jeeeeen-KUL-meeeeen......."  (she's trying to say "gentlemen"!)  Hee hee!  I didn't even know that she knew what a ringmaster says & I especially didn't know that she could equate the tall circus hat with that phrase!  It's been months since she went to the circus!  She is so cute & always makes me laugh!


Around the house...girls, girls, little girls everywhere (hee hee!).......JUST the way I like it!  : ) 

Some of my favorite things...this sounds silly but, when I think it's hot INside our house (when it's really not but sometimes it feels like it when we're running around, doing chores or whatever!), I go do some laundry OUT in our garage for a few minutes.  Then when I come back inside, it feels gloriously cool again!  : ) 

Some of my plans for this week:

~ Baking & delivering cookies to our neighbors behind us that heard the raccoon attacking our puppy.  He tried to scare the raccoon off with an umbrella & yelling while hanging over the back fence while his wife quickly ran to our door to tell us!  If they hadn't cared to come tell us, Aidan surely would have died & we're so grateful for them! 
~ FREE SUMMER MOVIE!   : )
~ I'm gonna take my girls to play in the fountain!  It's hard to do anything outside that doesn't include water right now!
~ Practice new fun braids on my girls' hair!
~ Get serious about couponing again!
~ laundry.......again!  : ) 
~ lovin' my Hubby & 5 sweet girlies with all my heart!
  
 

The REAL reason I want things "just so"!

We've had a busy few weeks in our home with sick little girlies, a sick Mommy, an injured puppy, 2 broken-down vehicles, an amazing over-time workin' Hubby, overnight company, Father's Day & our Daddy's 36th birthday (both on the same day!)!  WHEW!  It's been busy & I feel like I haven't been doing anything well!  I also happen to have this annoying self-imposed deadline for posting things on my blog & if I don't meet my "deadline" I am not happy with myself!  A perfect example is that I took pictures & had thoughts on what I wanted to write for my Hubby's birthday & Father's Day but never did my posts.  The day I was going to set a few minutes aside to post, which was Saturday, the day before his birthday & Father's Day, I woke up with a migraine that just wouldn't stop!  Gratefully, God helped me & even though I felt pretty yucky, my girls & I shopped & got all the food, gifts & decorations I needed for  my sweet Hubby's birthday/Father's Day dinner party AND everything we needed for our overnight company for that same night as our party!  I went to bed having done everything I needed to do except for my special blogs!  I wasn't happy about it but figured I might be able to steal away for a bit to blog on Sunday.  I woke up still not feeling good.  We went to church, came home to eat a special but casual lunch to show our Daddy how much we love him then we took naps.  I cooked our special dinner, finished decorating & setting up our party table & our guests arrived just in time to eat.  Our guests were coming into town for an unrelated thing but they are old friends & we loved having them stay with us!  We sang to my Hubby & celebrated his birthday & Father's Day & we talked late into the night with our friends, long after all of our sweet littles were in bed!  We had a wonderful, fun, happy, special, sweet & amazing day celebrating my Hubby's 36th birthday & his 10th Father's Day!  I sleepily crawled into bed beside my Birthday Boy, once again, NOT having blogged about his special day!  My heart sank.  I was angry at myself.  WHY???????  If you ask my Hubby he could care less whether I blogged about his birthday or Father's Day!  But.......to me, HE is important to me & I love him with ALL my heart so, of course, I would want to record his special day on our blog!  Not for anyone else, but for our own posterity!  It's just for me & our family, right?!  Isn't that all that matters?  Wait a minute.......what is going on here!  Why am I so upset about this?  This is seriously ridiculous Mommy!  (which is what I call myself even in my own mind!  Ha!) I had some investigating to do!  This is one of those moments that I could have & usually do let pass by without a second thought but I laid there thinking.  Needless to say, there was some major sin going on here!   This is what I came up with or rather, what God showed me that night & the many times I've thought about it since.  (Okay, okay, so in reality I've thought about this MANY times before because I've always struggled with this sin!  But, it was all the more evident this time!)  The fruit, or what is seen on the outside is my inordinate desire (which in any given scenario can appear to be a need if you observe how it rules my thoughts, words & deeds!) to be in "control" of my situation AND, this is a major ugly one for me.......SELFISH AMBITION which always & forever follows closely behind my "control" issue!  How I appear to others is way way way too important to me!  NOT GOOD!  Sadly, I often hear this sin of "control" & the desire to appear "perfect" referred to in a more palatable or easy to justify way.  I often hear it referred to by others or even myself think about it as "liking things just so", "type A personality", "OCD tendencies" "anal retentive" & "over-achiever"!  In our "do it yourself", "pull yourself up by your boot straps" culture, it has subtly become funny, a perceived sign of intelligence & a desired personality trait!  The root, or what is really going on way down deep in my heart & WHY the fruit in my life looks the way it does, FOR ME is "self-sufficiency", "pride" & "lack of trusting God" (by showing that I want to trust myself more!)  Let's step back & look at this for a minute.  Let's evaluate this for what it really is!  Since when is SIN funny, a sign of intelligence or something any of us should desire!  We should be calling this what it really is!  Okay, I'm coming clean, I'm outting myself, the jig is up.......I am self-sufficient, I am proud (& not the sweet, good kind like my kid made the honor roll kind!) & I don't trust God!  Sad.......very sad.......but very true.  If I'm being honest with myself & searching my heart the way God searches my heart, like in Psalm 139:23 when it says,  "Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!", then this is what I see!  I have such a need for God to change me & I have an even greater hope & joy knowing that God is able & willing to change my wretched heart!  

SO.......all week long I've been procrastinating about posting because I'm "annoyed" with myself & embarrassed about not posting about my Hubby's birthday & Father's Day on "time".  I am seriously kidding myself if I think any one actually cares whether or not I post on time or even at all!  Crazy, I know!  SO, from now on I'm gonna do what I can & do it WHEN I can & ask God to help me with all of this ugly sin in my heart when (I say when cause I know it's gonna happen!) things don't go as I have "planned"!  I belong to my Savior, I am HIS, (which means my greatest need has already been taken care of!) I have an amazingly wonderful Husband, 5 beautiful, precious little girls & all of the physical blessings we could need!  I don't need to be fretting about such silly things!

I'll "catch" up on my posts as I can & they probably won't be in order either but that's okay!  : )