Mundane Musings

It’s birthday week in our house! Both Noah and I have birthday’s this week.

I’ve always, always, always loved birthdays. And then I faced cancer. And won. It puts life into perspective and now birthdays have even more meaning. Each life is reason to celebrate. Every life has value. Every life has purpose. It’s a reason to celebrate!

So, that’s what we’ll do. We’ll take days off school. We’ll eat cake for breakfast. We’ll go out to eat and shopping. We’ll make memories and remember what we’ve done in years past.

I’m forgoing my private birthday celebration and instead going to a Light for the Lost banquet with people from church. I love missions, so it’s a good way to spend my birthday. Noah wants a trip to Bass Pro Shoppes and a new BB gun (don’t worry, we won’t let him shoot his eye out). We’ll spend time with family. It will be a great week.

So, what do we eat on birthday week? Well, right now it’s a lot of “It’s too nice outside, who wants to take the time out to eat?” food.

Monday – Chip and I had Applebeas. The kids had sloppy joes.
Tuesday – Prime rib, potatoes, veggies for Chip & I at the banquet. Frozen pizza for the kids.
Wednesday – hamburgers and chips. I make AWESOME hamburgers. The trick? Cooking them in a skillet on the stove – NEVER on the grill.
Thursday – Noah’s birthday – He’s torn between Buffalo Wild Wings and CiCi’s pizza.
Friday - chicken cheese quesadillas (Elijah’s making dinner)
Saturday – Bratwurst (cheddar & bacon bratwurst), fries, baked beans and fresh veggies
Sunday – Taco salad

What’s on your menu this week?

I never, EVER in all of my imaginings growing up expected to find myself living in a small town, let alone a RURAL community. The plan was to move from my “small town” (100,000 people) to a big city for college and then to an even bigger city for life. Instead, I moved to that first big city, fell in love, devoted my life to ministry with my husband and found myself moving from one small town to one even smaller until I found myself currently living OUTSIDE the smallest town yet (it’s ok – Starbucks is still only 30 minutes away).

But living in a small town isn’t a bad thing (which I DID imagine as a child). I’ve actually grown to love it along the way. Here are some of the things that I love…

• Neighbors are neighborly. While I knew some of my neighbors, suburban and city living finds a lot of people pulling directly into their garage and living life in fenced in back yards. Not so in small towns. You get to know people simply by being out in your yard. People just “pop by” like they did in my grandmothers generation (even in the city).
• Generally, it’s a safer environment to raise children in. Everyone knows everyone and we all watch out for each other and their kids. While we don’t live in a neighborhood anymore, we do still have kids around to play with. I know that if our kids are being watched over and cared for – not in a suspicious, “What are they up to?” way, but in a “it’s good to see kids having fun” way. And it’s nice to know that if they DO get in trouble, I’m likely going to get a phone call about it before they even make it in the door. My kids can still be kids and just go outside to play – I don’t have to make a concentrated effort to set up playdates and over schedule their little lives.
• The smaller the town, the bigger the hospitality. It’s an awesome thing for people to welcome you so openly. You hear a lot about small towns being closed off to strangers. And we found that to be true when we lived in a bedroom community of St. Louis. But the smaller the town has gotten, the more open and welcoming people have been. We became an addition to a small family, not just another outsider.
• Everyone knows everyone. And while that can be a bad thing, it’s also a very good thing. If you need something done or need to find out information, just ask someone you know. If they don’t know, they are either related to or know someone who can help. Social networking doesn’t have anything on small towns. There are more interconnections than Twitter and Facebook combined.

I could keep going, but there are people at the door, the phone is ringing and the sun is shining so it’s better to get outside. I’m looking forward to the warmer weather returning so that we can meet even more people in our small town (which is smaller than the church I grew up in – by about half!).

What do you like best about where you’re living? What are you thankful for today?

Emily is two now. Well, two and two months. She’s cute and sweet and our very own version of Fancy Nancy.

See…

And like any good, fancy girl – she LOVES, LOVES, LOVES stickers! She’s supposed to just stick them to her book box (side not – covering an empty cardboard box, in my case a diaper box, with duct tape makes it durable, cute and GREAT for storing books for toddlers), but sometimes she just things more things need a splash of color. This morning, I woke up with one in my hair.

But today, I tapped into the glorious world of BRIBERY with her.

Don’t judge me.

Really, all I wanted to do was take a shower without help. So, I gave it a whirl thinking it would at least keep her occupied.

“If you go clean your room, I’ll give you some stickers.”

15 minutes later, I still wasn’t in the shower and she was back. “I clean my room. GO SEE!” she demanded.

And OH! MY! WORD! Her room wasn’t just clean, it was cleaned correctly (things put where they belong) and completely.

If only stickers worked for teenagers!

Last week was crazy busy for us – as you might expect from a pastor’s home. We celebrated Maundy Thursday on Wednesday, had a special service for Good Friday, a sunrise service on Easter Sunday to celebrate the Resurrection, made breakfast and helped serve for 60 people or so, celebrated Easter with our church family, watched the kids do an Easter egg hunt after children’s church, came home and prepared Easter dinner for our family (and Chip’s parents who were kind enough to drive to us so we didn’t have to travel), and fell into bed sometime around 10:30.

I think I have a hangover. A JOY hangover! I’m still feeling the effects of the joy in my heart, but my body is achy and weary! We took the day to rest and relax. Mondays are our Sabbath. And I’ve never needed one more. I love being able to take a day as a family to rest, lean into Jesus and invest in the ones I love most. It’s what makes my heart sing and helps my soul to hear my Savior better.

I really got to relax today since Elijah made dinner for us tonight. I decided long ago that by the time my kids – especially my boys – move out of the house, they’ll be able to do laundry, cook REAL food and clean up after themselves.

So, what did he make? Baked Tacos – via Pinterest. I’m not a fan of tacos, but if I have to eat them (and occasionally I do so the family doesn’t mutiny) these are the only ones I can eat.

Here’s our menu for this week:
Monday – Baked Tacos
Tuesday – Chicken Spaghetti, garlic bread and salad
Wednesday – Italian Beef, chips and salad
Thursday – Pork chops & sweet potatoes (for those of us who will eat sweet potatoes)
Friday – Orange Chicken with rice and steamed veggies
Saturday – Crockpot Pizza
Sunday – CORN (Clean Out Refrigerator Night)

What’s on YOUR menu this week?

Wednesday was the first official day of spring and I woke up on Tuesday with a cold. And there was snow in the forecast. Anyone who knows me well knows there are two things I can’t stand – being sick and snow. And this week I got both.

But there are still a lot of things to be thankful for…

1. I made it through the entire winter without being sick. There were a couple times I thought I might be coming down with something, but by the next morning whatever was ailing me was gone. I think what I really lacked was sleep.
2. Monday, Chip had an eye appt in Columbia. We made a late appointment and made a date of it.  We had a lovely dinner at 5 Guys, went to the mall for a bit (mostly because that’s where Target is and we needed diapers), and then stopped at Starbucks before heading home. And this time, a deer didn’t commit suicide off the side of a bridge when we were coming home.
3. It’s MARCH MADNESS! As of this very minute, I still have a perfect bracket. I think Mizzou is going to let me down and ruin that, but it’s ok because I don’t like Mizzou anyway.
4. My baby girl had friends come by and surprise her today. Our kitchen sink has been leaking for a while. Most of it was fixed last week, but we needed a new faucet to fix the rest of the leaking. Last week, when Josh came to work on it, Emily was just shocked that he came alone. Today he brought Malachi & Jalynn with him and Emily could not have been happier.
5. I won JJ Hellers newest CD this week. I likely would have bought it anway, but winning it just makes it all the better. If you aren’t familiar with her music, start with The Boat Song and then I Get To Be The One.

I could go on and on, but I need to go blow my nose again.

What are you thankful for this week?

So, I’m going to start a list of thankfulness. A journal of joy. A bundle of blessings. Every Thursday that I can get here. Because thanksgiving is the heartbeat of joy. Don’t believe me? Give it a try. I dare you. I double dog dare you. If you take the time to focus on the positive in your life, it’s impossible to not feel hope in your heart.

1. Emily fell on a broom that was in the middle of the floor today (she left it there). She hurt her toes really badly and has limped around all night. She finally decided what she really needed was to talk to her PawPaw to feel better.
   Emily: Hi PawPaw.
   PawPaw: Who is this?
   E: It’s Emmy!
   P: Hi Emily Joy!
   E: I hurt my piggies. (jabber, jabber) You pray my piggies.
   P (who never turns down an opportunity to pray for his grandkids): Prays for Emily Joy and her piggies.
   E: I love you PawPaw.
   P: I love you, too.
   E: Bye PawPaw.
   P: Bye, Emily.

   Is that not the best thing EVER?! I melted into a puddle right here in my living room. It made my heart smile and my eyes leak.

2. Chip went back out tonight, with a headache, to get me a snack because we don’t have anything to snack on in the house.
3. My kids love each other. They aren’t just siblings, they genuinely LOVE one another and miss each other when they are gone.
4. Daylight savings time makes me happy. I’m having a harder time than normal adjusting. Instead of staying up until 1 or 2 am, now my body wants to stay up until 2am or 3am. And it wants to sleep until 11am.
5. Coffee makes me happy in the morning. A cup of great coffee and my devotional found in my email. Jesus is the only one I really want to talk to until that first cup is gone. (Well, family too, but other than that, give me a few minutes to wake up).

What are you thankful for? I double dog dare you to join me!

I hate time changes. Seriously, can we not just leave the time alone and adapt ourselves instead of our clocks? We complain about having too much darkness in the winter, but it could be worse – we could live in Alaska where it doesn’t get light for more than a couple hours a day (or dark for a couple hours in the summer – although that doesn’t sound so bad). What IS awful though is putting our bodies through trying to adjust to a new time twice a year.

Last week was busier than normal for some reason, so I really enjoyed my day off last week (and I’m enjoying it off today as well). While Tuesday was a normal day, the rest of the day was full of activity. We traveled north on Thursday to have dinner with Chip’s parents and then to watch the Iberia Rangers play in the Final Four in basketball (they lost – got outrebounded the entire game). Friday, we had friends over for dinner. Saturday was a baby shower and then we had to go pick kids up – because they refused to miss church on Sundays (isn’t that an AWESOME thing?!)

And in between all of that, we still had the normal everyday things like school, cleaning, church activities, etc… Maybe that’s why I slept for 10 hours last night.

So, onto this weeks menu. I’m struggling a bit with feeling like I’m in a bit of a rut. I’m bored with our current meals and ready to try something new. So, please share your favorite recipes with me in the comments.

Monday – Ihavenoidea – yep, this is tonight. It’s going to be a surprise. For all of us.
Tuesday – Chicken Tortilla soup
Wednesday – Nachos or quesadillas (if they’ve eaten all the tortilla chips in the house, I have some tortilla shells in hiding)
Thursday – Pork chops with potatoes & veggies
Friday – Chicken Spaghetti
Saturday – OUT (the bigs will be gone for a youth conference – great chance to spend some time with the littles)
Sunday – Crockpot pizza, salad & garlic bread (who wants to come over for lunch after church?)

What’s your favorite thing to eat?

I love Mondays. This wasn’t always the case, but I LOVE them now.

Mondays have consistently been Chip’s day off, but a few months ago, our Mondays looked like this -

Breakfast
Rush through school with 4 kids so that it could all be done BEFORE lunch
Eat lunch
Run errands – grocery shopping, Target shopping, run to the bank, etc…
Hurry home so dinner can be eaten at a decent hour
Chores & bedtime routine

By the end of the day, I was eshausted and it didn’t feel like a day off at all. School usually ended up a wreck because the kids were taking too long because I was stressed and they were picking up on it. Chip HATED spending his day off grocery shopping (he hates it on a good day). We usually got out of the house later than we wanted to start our errands, which meant we got back later, which meant I was super stressed about getting dinner done.

So, at the beginning of December, we declared Mondays as a  DAY OFF. For everyone. No school for the kids. No scheduled errands if at all possible. Now our days look like this:

Leisurely coffee and breakfast after SLEEPING IN!
Kids play video games/Adults read and relax
Lunch – maybe here at home, maybe out – depends what we feel like doing
Chores after lunch, maybe an optional nap for the adults while the baby naps
Make dinner with whoever wants to help
Play a game or watch a movie or DVR show together as a family

And you know what? Mondays actually feel like a DAY OFF now. And we all feel refreshed and ready to start our week on Tuesdays.

So, what’s for dinner this week? I spent last week making up a lot of freezer items – made and froze sauce, bought and repackaged a HUGE pork loin, some chicken and some beef. These few steps make it so much easier when it comes to dinner prep. Next Monday I’ll talk about it a bit more. This week we’re having:

Monday – Pulled pork with cheese, baked fries (homemade), veggies
Tuesday – Baked Tilapia, lime/cilantro rice, steamed veggies
Wednesday – Spaghetti & meatballs
Thursday – Chicken tortilla soup
Friday – Stuffed shells with homemade sauce, salad, garlic bread
Saturday – Carnitas with refried beans & lime/cilantro infused rice for sides
Sunday – CORN (Clean Out Refrigerator Night)

What’s on your menu this week?

We’ve had a week of being snowed in and all the togetherness has been awesome. Here are some thoughts from this week.

• Our Emily has me in stitches daily. Today, she chased a fly all through the house yelling, “BUG! COME HERE! I need to WASH you!”
• It was snowing when I woke up today and I nearly cried. I am so tired of the snow. There’s a reason I left the Wisconsin shores of Lake Michigan behind when I graduated from high school Winter is simply overrated, y’all. I hates it.
• We’ve given up on American Idol because of this season. Nikki Minaj makes me want to throw things at my television.
• We have NOT given up on Survivor. Phillip may be my favorite Survivor character ever.
• For those who have asked – NO, moving to Missouri has not made me a Mizzou fan. That is NEVER going to happen.
• Sometimes being so far from family is really hard. This week, my Grandma (my mom’s mom) buried her baby sister. My Aunt Shirley was an amazing woman – all of the family is. My grandmother and her siblings were a tight knit bunch. They get together once a week if their schedules allow. I want that kind of relationship for my kids when they’re older.
• As a result, I’ve started a Facebook group for our family. Some family members didn’t find out about the funeral until after it was over. I understand these things happen, but in today’s connected world there is no reason we can’t be in touch with one another – even if the miles separate us.
• Chip’s starting a new series at church tomorrow leading up to Easter – “Rocks, Snakes & Lambs”. I do the church graphics. I hate snakes. Do you see my problem?
• We are seriously addicted to the game Settlers of Catan. It’s recommended for ages 10 and up, but even Seth can play (he’s only 7). I think we played 5 out of the last 7 nights.
• I’ve lost 5lbs since Ash Wednesday. I gave up sweets/snacks for Lent this year. This is just an added bonus.
• I’ve got a new story in my heart as I’ve made the journey from Thanksgiving to thanksliving to thanksloving. Because our thanks should always lead us to love others more. To love others better. I’ll be starting Thankful Thursdays here on my blog this week. Start making your lists now so you can join me!

The past year has been full of newness for us. A new job for Chip in a new state, which moved us into a new home and a new church. It’s been a seven months of getting settled, making new friends, reconnecting with old friends and just all around change.

We are LOVING living in Missouri. Which is just confirmation that we are right where we are supposed to be. Because who would have ever though that this big city girl would be able to say that living in a small town in the mountains? Sometimes it’s all very “Green Acres” for me – with talk of hunting and guns and all things outdoors (which I don’t mind the outdoors so much as long as I have an INDOORS place to sleep and a shower/bathroom to use). But we are well within driving distance of good shopping, Target and STARBUCKS (a girl has to have her priorities).

I’m feeling settled. At home. Like I’ve found a tribe.

So, I’m back.

After nearly 18 months of general unsettledness, I feel like I have peace in my heart. Like God has brought not only our family to a place of peace, but that He’s brought my very heart to a place of peace. I’m finding the creativeness in my margin again. I’ve got a song in my heart that I hope will flow through words as I try to explain this crazy GRACE journey that God’s had me on in the past two years. A GRACE that led to HOPE that lead to PEACE that to led to JOY.

And JOY is contagious, y’all! I’m making it my life’s goal to spread as much of it around as possible!