Reasons to be thankful

This week I find myself being thankful for so many things.

Last week Greg and I realized just how tight our money is (and is going to be for the next few months) as we pay for the birth of baby #2. At first I was a little bit in shock, then I started to think, "it's impossible... we can't live on that", then I started to feel hopeful. Like, maybe God wants us to be ultra dependent on Him. Maybe He wants to show us, once again, how He always provides for us.

I remember when Greg was just finishing grad school. We had a few months left to pay for His school. Even though we were living very frugally we found that our money just wasn't stretching far enough. My work was extremely slow... and they had started cutting back on my hours. We had drained our savings... we had no reserves. I look back on that and think, God helped us through that and provided for us through that... and He's going to do it again!

And He has amazed me again and again with the way He provides. We've had people loan us so many things for Baby Boy - a changing table, a bumbo seat, tons of clothes, cloth diapers... it's been such a blessing. And then this last week a friend loaned me a bunch of winter clothes for Elisa. She was starting to need some new clothes, and these came just in time. We've received money from unexpected places. And even though the library cut my hours back, I feel so thankful for the fact that I've been able to make some money other ways (sewing, babysitting, and consigning old Elisa items). I just have felt really encouraged and thankful to God for each little thing He gives us.

Today Elisa and I had to do a little grocery shopping/errand running. As we were getting ready to leave (you know, filling water bottles, getting snacks, putting on shoes and socks) she saw me stuffing her diapers and wipes into my purse... she ran up and started stuffing Itty and a stuffed dog into my purse with a very serious expression... like "hey mom, we're going to need these too." Then she ran and got my little alarm clock, the dental floss, a jellyfish toy, and a rattle for one of her dolls and put those in the purse too. She was very intent on bringing everything. She can be such a little hoarder sometimes. I hate to see how big her purse is when she grows up.

Anyway, just had to share with you some of my purchases from when we were out... I find myself being even more thankful for the food that God gives us money to buy. And who can help but be thankful when it's this good!

Fresh tomatoes, basil and green beans from the Farmer's Market

And... I was SO excited when I saw this in the grocery store today... it's here! Candy Cane Lane Tea. I think I can safely say that it's my favorite tea ever. We always buy a ton at Christmas time so that we can drink it throughout the year. But due to poor planning last year, we ran out shortly after Christmas. When I showed Greg that I found it, he did a little happy jumping dance around the house and then gave me a big hug! I think I'll go make a cup now...

Bubble Pictures

Elisa has been obsessed with bubbles lately. In the morning after she eats breakfast the first thing she wants to do is go outside and blow bubbles. And many other times throughout the day she demands: "BUBBLES! BUBBLES!" Here are some pictures from today...

She's quite a cutie! She actually smiled for this picture!

Learning to Draw

Okay, first off - a disclaimer: I feel a little weird about this post. But, I did tell a couple people that I would put some of my artwork from class on my blog, and here it is... (and it's only taken me 5 months now to do it.)

So this last Spring I took my second drawing class... this time it was Figure Drawing. (The year before I took Drawing I). I am always intimidated and insecure to be taking these classes... especially since I'm taking them with almost all art majors. But it has been so good for me.

The thing I've learned most of all is that drawing is a lot of work! I really am starting to believe that anyone can learn to draw. It's just that most of us get frustrated and stop trying somewhere around middle school. Some people have a more natural talent for "seeing" how to convert a 3-D object onto a flat piece of paper... but that does not mean that the rest of us can't draw, it just means we have to work a little harder to be able to "see" too. The book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain talks about this and has wonderful exercises to do to teach yourself how to draw.

Back to Figure Drawing though... Each class night we had a model. We would start out with the model posing for only 2-5 minutes and we had to capture the pose within that time. They called this "gesture drawing." Then we would work up to longer poses... sometimes having up to 15 minutes per pose. I definitely improved a lot over the course of the semester... I didn't upload any of my worst earliest drawings... I should have. Sorry, I've put them all away now (convenient, huh?). But here are some of my better drawings from the class periods:

We also had outside assignments that we had to do for the class. Here they are:

Anyway, I guess the big lesson that I've learned from taking these classes is that I need to press on and just do it... even when I feel afraid, intimidated, and uncomfortable. If I had let my fear of what other people would think of my poor drawing skills stop me from taking these classes, then I never would have improved. I feel like so often I let my fear stop me from doing the things I need to or want to do.

Dancing to Great DJ

Here's the cutest little video of Elisa.... This took place a few nights ago while we were getting her ready for bed. She loves the song that's playing in the background and we have had a few family dance parties to this little number. Elisa has some pretty good dance moves, as you can see. The video is made even funnier by the fact that all Elisa is wearing is her huge double night-time diaper with a wool cover over the top. Enjoy!

Creative people I know

So I have a lot of creative friends who make beautiful things... and I've been wanting to feature them in a post. Now with Etsy it's so easy to display and sell handmade things. I love browsing on Etsy and seeing what people are making. So here are a few of my friends' Etsy sites to check out:

My very talented sister-in-law is an expert knitter. She makes beautiful felted wool bags that get tons of compliments. She also knits hats, scarves etc. Check her out at knit on a bike.

I have two friends that make beautiful jewelry. My mom got me a pair of earrings from Jessica's shop for Christmas and I absolutely love them. Check her out at jlalalalala. Jeana's jewelry often has an organic feel - nature inspired designs. I love how delicate her designs look. Check out her site at ruby willow.

My friend Kristal makes really cool signs. She can even personalize one for you. Check them out at grateful tulip.

I know there are probably people I'm forgetting... so if you are a friend of mine who makes things to sell and you have a site I can refer people to, let me know and I'll add you in!

Thanks to a comment from Lori, here's another site to check out: Molly J Walter. She makes all sorts of things from "plarn" (plastic bags - reused as yarn). Really cool!

It'll cure what ales you...

A few years ago when I worked at Master's Touch Chiropractic one of my coworkers gave me this awesome home remedy. Of course nothing can really "cure" a virus, but this concoction works wonders to boost the immune system. I've made it numerous times since she told me about it. Now, it's probably not a smoothie you'll want to make and drink just on a regular basis... it doesn't taste bad (in fact I think it's pretty good)... but we don't make it primarily for the taste. It's all about the antioxidants and vitamin C. And it tastes a lot better than Emergen-C or Airborne.

So here's the recipe for Lecreta's Amazing Cure-All:

1 lemon

2 cups frozen blueberries

1 Tbsp. honey (opt.)

water

First, peel your lemon, leaving as much of the white pith on as possible. (I usually peel the lemon with a vegetable peeler - as this removes all the yellow, but leaves lots of the good white stuff). Then cut your lemon into quarters and remove the seeds. If you don't get all the seeds it's okay - they'll get ground up in the blender anyway. Put the lemon pieces and frozen blueberries into the blender. Mix the honey with about a 1/2 cup of warm water and dump this into the blender. Blend it up (blend really well - it takes a while to chop up all that lemon) and enjoy! You can add more water if you need to. In fact, you can add more or less of any ingredient depending on your taste.

I made this tonight and gave some to Elisa. She LOVED it! She sucked it all up through her straw and then when that didn't work any more, she dug in with her spoon to get the rest out. Then she dug in with her fingers and tipped the glass back to her mouth just to make sure she had gotten it all. Here's the aftermath:

Moms sometimes need sick days too!

Well, once again Greg is gone on a retreat... just one night. So Leesi and I are home alone. This time we're both sick - yech!

I didn't used to get sick very often. I guess it's just part of the joy that comes with parenting a toddler. Leesi seems to pick up everything and then she passes it on to me.

Last night I felt feverish and kept getting chills... I slept a fair amount yesterday afternoon and evening. But so far today I have felt a lot better. I am very thankful for that. I didn't know how I was going to manage a cranky Elisa by myself while sick. One of the symptoms of this particular virus seems to be mouth pain. My gums feel totally swollen and brushing my teeth causes a fair amount of pain.

Elisa has been sick for about a week now... though we didn't know what was wrong for most of that time, because she is also teething. Her gums seemed extra red lately and the drool spots on her sheets were tinged a faint pink... like she had been bleeding. I blamed this on the teething though. Then on Friday she received a knee to the teeth that has since resulted in repeat bleeding episodes. Now most mornings she wakes up with a few dark red spots on her sheets and jammies. I was pretty worried about this at first and thought that we might need to go to the dentist. But the bleeding episodes seem to be getting fewer and less severe, so I'm pretty sure that the teeth were just knocked loose a little and will tighten back up soon. Anyway, I feel so bad for Elisa - to have this sickness that causes mouth pain, on top of teething and a tooth injury seems terrible.

All in all I think we will somehow pull through! :-)

Thanks for listening to my complaints. Hopefully some new posts will bring happier and more interesting news soon!

Oh to be productive...

Greg was gone last night... He's still gone actually. He's on his Residence Life Retreat. He should get home sometime this evening. I had all kinds of big plans for all of the stuff I was going to get done while he was gone. But very little of my list has actually been accomplished. Instead I watched most of the last season of HGTV's Design Star on my computer. Ah, procrastination. I really wish I had more motivation. Well, maybe I need to get up off the couch and just start doing something instead of waiting for motivation. Here I go...

Home again

Well, we are back home in Arkansas.  I definitely have mixed feelings about being back.  I like sleeping in my own bed, but I miss being around our families already.  Elisa asked for Papa, Hamma, and Hammy (Grandpa, Grandma, and Grammy) today... so I think she misses everyone too.  Here's a little slideshow of some (but not nearly all) of the highlights from the summer... 

Also, I couldn't ignore Anna's requests for prego pictures any longer... I definitely am starting to look very pregnant.  This picture was taken a week ago (at 30 weeks)... 

I'm feeling well.  The nauseau is finally behind me and my energy is coming back.  Only two months to go until the due date!  Still no name ideas... we are really going to have to get going on that.  Any suggestions?  It's a boy.  The middle name will be Gregory.  We want it to be longer than one syllable.  We also prefer that it be definitely a boy's name (not gender neutral).

Summer so far...

Well, we're off to a great summer.  We've been in the Northwest for about a month now and we've been having a lot of fun with friends and family.  It's been really good to see Elisa interact with her grandparents, aunt, uncle and friends.  

Greg and I also got to take our first vacation without Elisa (thanks to my parents).  It was just a two night trip to Seattle for our anniversary.  We had a great time!  

Here are some fun pictures from our vacation so far...

Elisa had a great time at the "spray park" on a particularly hot day.

  
Elisa eating raspberries out of her container while sitting in the pool.  She LOVES raspberries and whenever we go outside she heads straight to the raspberry bushes to pick and eat all she can.

  

Happy Fourth of July!  Homemade Ice Cream - Yum!