November misc

It's baking time! I love the fall season and it inspires me to bake. I've been attending a women's group that meets once a month and this time, it was my turn to contribute snacks. Since I was in the mood for sugar cookies and pumpkin bread, this is what I brought!



Yes, I have cookie cutters shaped like squirrels, acorns, and apples. I also have Noah's Ark themed cookie cutters and pretty much anything else you could imagine. My mom has been collecting them for me for years!


It's been very warm lately, with most days in the mid 60s to mid 70s. All of that is supposed to end this week, but before it did, H1, H3 and I took advantage of the beautiful weather by taking a stroll through Colonial Williamsburg. The trees were gorgeous with their fall foliage. Most of the animals were out too, and H3 took delight in petting the sheep and horses. I'm going to have to teach her that horses don't say "moo" though! She really does know better, but for some reason was rather insistent that horses and cows make the same sound. Silly girl!






Now that cold weather is finally arriving, I'm looking forward to snuggling up next to our fireplace. H1's dad bought us several truckfuls of wood to use--we don't own a truck, so it's really hard to try to get the free stuff around here, and most of it isn't offered in the nearby area. I really enjoy the smell of the house when the fire is crackling away!

Fall cleaning and organizing is slowly beginning. I have a lot more to go, but I'm slowly chipping away at my to-do list. Tackling my craft room is next on the agenda. There's a walkway through there, but not much more right now since we've just been throwing stuff in there while cleaning out the rest of the house--mostly the closets and the attic! I have three huge trash bags to put in the dumpster so far, and I've donated more to church. I'm amazed at how much stuff has ccumulated in the last 5 years!

Before ending this post, I want to take a minute to reflect and commit to "paper" my gratitude for what God has given me. 'Tis the season, you know! My beautiful baby girl is 2 years old. She is strong and healthy, smart and strong willed (which is both a blessing and a difficulty). I have a home, granted not one I own, but it has been a wonderful house for us to rent and my landlord has been kind to us. We even have new floors! H1 still has a job. This year has been a challenge for many of our friends who work at local plants and the shipyards. There have been massive lay-offs and thousands have lost their jobs and their homes. God has been good. We certainly aren't overflowing with extra, but He has provided exactly what we've needed and will continue to do so. When we moved here two years ago, I believe He guided us to the little contemporary church we belong to. This church has become more than I ever imagined. They are our family here. I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love we have received from them. The calls, the prayers, the get-togethers. During our greatest times of need, these people have surrounded us with God's love, even in light of this past week. Men have stepped forward to stand alongside H1 in prayer. Women have come forward with love, patience, and words of hope and encouragement during my losses. Friendships that have been slowly cultivated over these last couple years have bloomed. God is good. This Thanksgiving season holds a lot of pain for me. It does take a bit of effort to remind myself of everything beautiful. A book a read recently by Shauna Niequist focused on seeing the beauty and joy that God brings during the darkest times in our lives. Bittersweet. That was such a good title for a book, but also a really good title for life. Without the pain, without the sorrow, you can't understand the fullness of God's love and grace. Not that I believe we can ever grasp it fully, but the experience is amazing all the same.

Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God."
Despite everything going on, that's my reality right now. I'm listening for that quiet whisper. There is great comfort in the stillness, kneeling in awe before a mighty God in recognition of who He is.

Happy Thanksgiving!
~H2

Hanging out

H3 came home Friday after spending most of the past week with my dear friend, Robyn. From all the fun pictures that Robyn texted me, I can tell that she had a wonderful time and I'm so thankful! I did miss her though! Yesterday and today, I was finally feeling well enough to go out for a bit, and H3 is sufficiently recovering from strep, thanks to antibiotics. Yesterday I had a doctor appointment, and there was a park conveniently located nearby, so I took H3 afterward. Then today, I had to run to Walmart and stopped by yet another park on the way home! I wish we had parks closer to our home, but everything is about half an hour away. Our neighbordhood is okay for playing, but since we have no out-door toys, munchkin gets bored pretty quickly. We go for lots of walks and wagon rides, which help!

Checking out the disc-golf course at the park. We played on the slides for a bit, but she was very interested in all the leaves and acorns!


This park is located near my doctor's office, and also next to another Walmart. We frequent this one, since it has a large play area. They just added the tree house that she's checking out. It's in a small area designated for toddlers. The rest of the park is great for her age too, but this area requires a little less running around for me!



Checking out the new flag that my mom sent for the front of our house.



These pictures are a bit more blurry than usual, since I took them on my cell phone, so I'm sorry! We did have fun over the last couple days though, despite the fact that all three of us are on antibiotics at the moment! H1 also has a muscle relaxer now for a knot-ish thing in his shoulder that has been bothering him. It was getting hard to lift his arm and our family doc wanted to try this before exploring other options. He wasn't thinking though and took it this morning! Oops! He called and said about halfway through his 2nd class, he got really sleepy! I think he'll just be taking it at night from now on.

~H2

Fall Pictures

Yesterday was the 4th anniversary of our church. After the service, there was a potluck luncheon and hayrides for the kids, along with candy--not trick-or-treat style though. H1 and H3 stayed inside to help me work on a bulletin board for my Sunday school classroom, since H3 was tired from her morning in the nursery and fully occupied playing with the bright colored game pieces from my class that morning. It was the first board I've ever done and I should have gotten a picture. It's a yellow background with an orange border and 8 large pumpkins in the middle. Each pumpkin has a clue on it, and the kids have to match the right Bible character to the clue on the pumpkin. Bible character names are on large brown pumpkins seeds (made out of paper) that can be inserted into a slit on the pumpkin. Yes, very simple, I know, but for someone who is not creative, I'm just happy that I got something on the board, even if it had to be inspired by a book on bulletin boards!

Afterwards, we all went outside to let H3 play. Our church doesn't have outdoor play equipment, except for one old slide, which H3 found and had to play on. She loves slides! It helped, of course, that a couple other kids were there too, namely our friends' twin boys who are around a year older and H3 plays with them frequently.





At home we attempted a few more pictures! I'm so glad we had a couple that turned out.




Cooler weather has finally set it, and I think it may be for good this time. We spent last week near 90 again, which I find rather miserable in October. I've learned in Virgina that one can never put away summer clothes. Without fail, we always have really warm days when you least expect it!

H3 is still recovering from croup. Poor child. Her fever stayed around 101 every day for a week, and though that part is gone, she still has a nasty cough that refuses to leave and a runny nose. Sleep times are the most miserable, since laying down seems to irritate the coughing. At this point, the humidifier seems to be 0 help, though I'm still using it. The claritin she'd been taking before the croup for allergies seems to help a little, but she's still up coughing a good part of the night. I'm looking forward to this being over, and I know she is too. She's still been such a sweetie though, snuggly and mostly happy. I love my precious baby!

Football season is almost over for H1 now. It looks like 2 more games, one for each of the following Fridays. At this point they won't be in the district play-offs, unless they win both games. I'm not saying they won't win, and it would certainly be nice if they did, but this past Friday was the first win of the season so I'm not holding my breath. I wish I could elaborate on our frustrations with the football situation, but that's a road I can't go down. Suffice it to say, none are satisfied and H1 isn't the head coach, so decisions aren't his.

Praying that this week goes better than the last ones, and confident that Christ is my refuge and strength.

~H2

Learning to understand

Sometimes there aren't answers to the questions we ask God. Sometimes He gives us that "yes" or "no" or asks us to wait on Him. Other itmes I've discovered that the answers may not come for years, if ever in this life, and it's that last part I'm struggling with. God is good and God is sovreign, but sometimes I just don't get what He's doing in my life and why, and not knowing can be painful. He gives and He takes away, that I know. It's the trusting after He's taken away that is hard at first, even after years of walking with Him. Maybe it's not so much of questioning that He is trustworthy or that He is good, but rather what is His definition of good? This world is full of sin and often sucks, and it's not what He intended, yes, I remember that, but still He allows things to happen that don't make sense.

I know where I'm spending my night, digging back into the pages of His Word, but I can't hide my struggle right now. There's a song with the following lyrics:

Find my in the river
Find me there
Find me on my knees with my soul laid bare
Even though you're gone and I'm cracked and dry
Find me in the river, I'm waiting here

I feel like that fits me right now. Pain lays my soul bare before my God. I need His healing, so I'm waiting.

~H2

Learning more about being mommy

Doctors must love first time moms. Everything is new and everything is a question. This time it's been my turn. As far as first time moms go, I think I've had it pretty easy for the most part. Other than a double ear infection at 5 months old, H3 hasn't been sick at all. Sure, her nose dripped a bit when she cut her teeth, but that's normal from what I understand and that information was readily available online for my research. Tantrums and pickiness with food have been the worst battles, and my cousins, in-laws, and friends have been wonderful with their words of advice1 This last weekend has been a new challenge.

H3 woke up on Saturday morning with a hoarseness in her voice and a cough that sounded like a seal. When I checked her temperature, it was about 100.7. By the time her nap was done in the afternoon, it was 102.9. Even with Tylenol, her temp hovered around 102, and finally hit 103.3 at 10:30 that night, which is when she threw up twice too. Warm baths and steam helped, but she was still miserable and the coughing sounded awful. She just lay there limply while H1 or I held her, which is a foreign behavior for my very active 25 month old!

Listening to her cough, I did figure out that my little seal was probably dealing with croup, or something like it. My problem was figuring out how to deal with it. A few websites offered suggestions, but my biggest help has come from my dear cousin and a friend from church who has 5 kids. Thanks to them, I feel more at ease while trying to help my little one cope with this. We did take H3 into an urgent care center on Sunday, just to make sure there wasn't a bacterial infection complicating things. Her pediatrician's office wanted her to be seen within 24hours and not wait until Monday (today) because her fever had been so high and she was pretty dehydrated on Saturday. Sunday H3 drank a lot more water, so her temp stayed a bit lower than Saturday. She even played a little, as opposed to laying on the couch and staring into space.

Today she seems a lot better for the most part. Her temperature is hanging around 100 degrees, and she is still coughing and hoarse, but she is more active and eating better. Unfortunately the diarrhea kicked in. Gross, I know, and poor child has been through 7 of those diapers this morning before her nap. I feel a bit more prepared for that though, since she's had a sensitive digestive system since day 1!

Bascially I'm assuming stories like this sound familiar to those who have been moms for a while, but as a mom of just one, this has been a new challenge for me! Now I know what to look for if this happens again, and maybe it will be a little less scary.

Apple Picking!

This past Saturday, our family (minus the dog) drove a couple hours away into the mountains in search of apples. There are no you-pick orchards in our area, and I have heard good reviews about one in the Blue Ridge Mtns, so off we went! I would have to say our trip was a success and very worth the drive. H3 enjoyed herself immensely, running around the trees and picking up apples off the ground for inspection. We let her pick a few from the trees as well, but left most of that to H1 and myself, since we actually plan on using the apples we bought! H3 prefers to carry them around and eventually throw them. While she loves apple sauce, she’s unfortunately not interested in trying to eat a real apple. Too bad, since I think she’s missing out! This is a very large orchard that has a picking season from July through the end of October, depending on the variety of apple you’re looking for. I specifically wanted Fuji and Granny Smith, since those are what we like to eat and bake (H1 loves eating Granny Smith with his lunches, but I prefer the Fuji and use both for apple pies, dumplings, muffins, etc). The trees were very healthy and laden with the fruit. It was wonderful and didn’t take us long to pick the 55lbs that we brought home.

A few of those are going to some friends of ours, but the rest I’m planning to either dehydrate or freeze (I’ll make up the filling for apple pies and then freeze them in gallon bags, and then freeze some plain slices). At this point, I don’t have all the necessities for making and canning apple sauce. I know I’ll get there eventually, but for the time being we simply don’t have the storage space for the equipment, much less any place to put the cans if I did them. There’s no pantry in this house or even space for one! It’s a great house for everything but that!

I think a good part of the trip was just for some fun family memories. Granted, H3 won’t remember all that, but I have pictures to show her and it was fun for H1 and I to watch her joy and excitement over something so simple as an apple.

Fall!

October is here and with it came the cooler weather, finally. We've had constant mid-90's since our return from NY this summer, and now it's cool enough (70's and 60's) to get out a little more!

H3 and I have been enjoying daily walks and playing for hours outside. Well, more like her playing and me cleaning up the yard. Although I don't usually mind yardwork, it's not very high on my priority list when it's warm out. We have a huge tree out front that drops twigs and small branches whenever the wind blows, so there's a constant pile to pick up. In a few weeks, I'll be raking up leaves! My mom gave H3 some sidewalk chalk earlier this spring, and now she is putting it to use. She'll make little marks everywhere, then hand it to me for drawing shapes. She recognizes squares, circles, triangles, hearts, stars, and diamonds and can name them. Usually, she also wants me to "draw" a few numbers and the alphabet. At this point, she does know her numbers 1-10 on sight, and can pick out 12 or so letters in the alphabet. She can sing the "ABC" song, but just doesn't recognize all of them on paper yet. Once in a while she'll make an attempt at writing one, but of course I can't make out what it is unless she tells me! Haha!

A week of rain last week caused two football games to be rescheduled. One hasn't been put on the calendar yet, but the other was rescheduled to this past Saturday night. It was an away game, 3 hours away to be exact, and poor H1 didn't get home until 2am Sunday! We had to turn around and leave for church at 8:30 too. He was quite tired that day. The season hasn't been going too well for the team, but H1 says that the kids are learning, so there's a positive side to things. It's been amazing what God has been doing in his life this year, both with football and in school. Two moms requested that their sons be put into his class this past month. Both families were going through separation/divorce and both moms specifically said they wanted their boys to be in H1's class because the boys needed a male role model in their lives. Quite the compliment, yes, but the best part is that it's a tangible piece of evidence that God has him here for a purpose right now! Sometimes that's easy to forget.

The move here was a necessary one for our family because of job situations, but it was hard because we knew no one in this area and have no family anywhere close. Still, this has been a good school system, we have a wonderful church family, and God has brought some wonderful friends into our lives here. It's been just over 2 years since we came here, and it's good to look back and see what He's been up to!

Tonight's agenda is getting dinner together and going to our church home group. We are hoping to go apple picking this Saturday. Granted, we'll have to drive a couple hours since there isn't an orchard close, but I found one that offers you-pick for 50 cents/pound, which isn't bad at all. I'm hoping to get some fuji and granny smith apples. My dad always made the apple pie filling, put it into gallon zip-lock bags, and froze it to use at a later time. I want to do the same thing! Not to mention all the apple recipes I'm hoping to try out!

Now, let's see how long of a nap H3 takes this afternoon...

Blessings!
~H2