I am a mother.

I am a

• diaper changing,
• boo boo kissing,
• animal cracker eating,
• hug giving,
• cold coffee nuking,
• laundry washing,
• daddy skyping,
• toy tripping,
• Christmas tree ornament wrangling,
• grey roots up-touching,
• apron wearing,
• hubby kissing,
• muffin baking,
• sometimes dinner making,
• often takeout grabbing,
• quickly praying,
• Pinterest pinning,
• ABC's singing,
• highchair wiping,
• dishwasher loading,
• little girl rocking,
• hesitantly entertaining,
• sippy cup giving,
• list making,
• well balanced meal skipping,
• toddler chasing,
• nap needing

mama.

And I couldn't be happier.

I write that because sometimes I need to remind myself.

This is my calling right now.  This is my reality.


 I was recently pursued for a job.  A great job.  Outside of the home.

I was immediately sold.  So many good things about it.  I really thought it was meant to be.

But something just didn't feel right in this mama's heart.

I thought and prayed much.

And I realized the great commitment it would be.  And what that would mean to my other calling.  My current calling.  Mother.

I cannot express how hard it was to pass on this opportunity.  I just knew I couldn't add it to my current load.  Maybe some other time in the future.  Or in some other, smaller way.

But right now my plate is full.

Overflowing.

In a good way.

27.  christmas music

28.  cinnamon rolls & mocha flavored coffee

29.  little girl napping

30.  mom here to keep me company

Ahhhh...  I think my 30 days of gratitude is suddenly complete.

18.  I am grateful for a beautiful sunrise today!

19.  I am grateful for my husband making me waffles for dinner!

20.  I am grateful I could rearrange our living room in ten minutes.

21.  I am grateful for a bowl of honey nut cheerios, mmmm!

22.  I am grateful for Christmas lights.

23.  I am grateful for a warm bed to crawl into at night.

24.  I am grateful for God's grace.

25.  I am grateful for extended family.

26.  I am grateful for playtime with my little girl and laughing with her so hard my eyes teared up.

8.  I am grateful to finally have a dishwasher!

9.  Even more so, I am grateful for a dishwasher that works so well!  Many times I see dishes in it that obviously were not rinsed an inch, and I think, "Oh, no way that's gonna get clean!"  And a couple days later after the load has been washed and I'm putting dishes away, I am amazed that it's all clean!

10.  I am grateful to finally have a garage!


11.  Even more so, I am grateful for a two car oversized garage!  Winter is not my friend.  We've had a few frosty mornings recently, and it brings me great joy to be able to leave without having to scrape the car windows!!!

12.  I am grateful for date night with my hubby!  It doesn't happen often, and it's a great break when it does!


13.  I am grateful that Catherine is growing up in close proximity to her family.  I did not have that advantage as a child.  Neither did Josh.  It means the world to me that she knows her family and gets to see them often.



 14. As much as I hate politics, I am grateful for the freedom to vote.



15.  I am grateful for a big pot of coffee.

16.  I am grateful for nap time.  I know; I've already said it.  But this ought to give you an idea just how grateful I am!!

17.  I am grateful for sunshine - especially in these long, dreary months!

5.  I'm so grateful that God knows better than I do.

I was driving home from Aldi this evening when a song came on the radio that took me back to a time long ago and to a former crush.  Man, seriously, God protected me from so many lousy relationships.  I look at how this former crush has turned out, and I think about how other former crushes and former boyfriends or pseudo boyfriends have turned out.  I'm so glad I didn't end up with any of them.

Now I see a workaholic,
an alcoholic,
one who can't hold down a job,
one who didn't want children,
one who didn't see freedom in Christ,
one who wouldn't sing with me in church...

I could go on and on.

I am beyond grateful that God knew better than I did and did not allow of those past relationships to continue.  Of course at the time, I was naively seeing only the dreamy, good things and wearing blinders to the bad.

"God, why won't you just let me have what I want??"  I don't think I used those exact words, but that was pretty much my sentiment when none of the relationships continued.

And it wasn't until years later that my blinders were removed, and I saw all that God had protected me from.

Thank you, God.  Thank you for doing things in Your time, not mine.  Thank you for knowing better than I do.

3.  I am thankful for Target's policy that allows me to get the sale price of an item after I bought it at regular price a couple weeks prior.

4.  I am thankful for a husband who does so much for our family - tending to Catherine when she occasionally cries in the middle of the night or frequently cries in the early morning, changing poopy diapers, cleaning toilets, climbing onto the roof to clear out gutters, mowing, raking, cooking meals, skyping during his lunch break, working long, hard days so I can stay home with Catherine, washing dishes, bringing me flowers, dusting, vacuuming, and making me pumpkin pancakes.  Phew!  I am SO grateful that he is my husband and Catherine's daddy!!!

i write this on a friday night not from my own home, but from the home of my in-laws.

i am thankful for my in-laws.  they raised a great son in my husband, and they are great grandparents to our little girl!

we are so blessed to have them nearby.  tonight josh is with his dad at a mens retreat.  catherine & i are having a girls night with his mom.  we had a nice dinner out, and catherine entertained all the restaurant patrons and staff of course.  tomorrow we'll do brunch and who knows what else.  kinda depends on how little girl does.

thank you, God, for more family through marriage!

so do you think i could actually post a little blog of something to be thankful for every day in november?  or at least until thanksgiving?

hmmm, we'll see.  maybe it will last a day.  ha.

i am grateful for my new job.  as trying as it may be - and believe me, it is - i am truly grateful that i can stay home with catherine to be a full-time stay-at-home mom.

it took us about a month or so to get into our routine and figure out our groove together in a new city and with josh going back to work and me staying at home.  i tell ya - it was a lot of change all at once.  but we are exploring our new town and getting out there and trying new things.  we are both learning and growing together.

the last two days i really felt like quitting my job.  it was a very rough couple of days.  but the fact that it was the first thing that came to mind as i show gratitude for specific aspects of my life shows how easily i can overlook the challenging times to focus on the good.

thank you, God, for giving josh a good full-time job so i can have my good full-time job as well!

I am so grateful for our vehicle(s).  Granted, only one is currently working, but that is ok.  Josh now walks to work, and we are managing to get by.

We are in no hurry to get rid of either vehicle, especially the one that is working.

However, with that said, I will say that our next vehicle will be a bigger vehicle.

We have had some interesting moments in our backseat lately.  Thank goodness we have an easygoing baby!

Things I Like Right Now

• chevron
• grey & yellow
• burlap
• pumpkin
• candles
• fall
• actually being chilly
• nap time
• muffins
• cookbooks
• coffee mugs
• having a dishwasher
• sitting on the front porch
• baby Halloween costumes
• consignment shops/thrift stores
• weekends
• family cuddle time
• pinterest
• craigslist deals
• catch-all baskets
• pumpkin recipes

Internet til whenever Catherine wakes up from her nap...  Considering she's already been down an hour, I'm not sure how long it will last.

This will be all over the place and random.

Updates:

• we have moved to Goshen!!!!!
• Josh is back at work!
• I quit my job in education!
• I am now a full-time stay at home mommy!!!

Phew, is that all?!?  No wonder I'm stressed!

Last week after a trip to Ikea (and Giordano's of course) my back (actually, totally honestly it's my upper butt, but I refer to it as my back to sound more polite) started hurting me.  By the next morning I was in "extreme pain" - an 8 on the 1-10 pain scale.  So much pain that I did all the annoying hassle of calling insurance 5 million times to get the scoop on who I could go to and what would be covered.  Fortunately, my old DO (Dr. of Osteopathy) was in network and with good coverage.  Hooray!  AND he was available to see me.

Since then I've seen him 3 times.  The most recent of which was yesterday when I woke up in "severe pain" - yah, I had to come up with a new way to describe it since it was worse than last week's "extreme pain".  Definitely a 10, as I had not felt more pain before.  It actually was so painful it made me nauseous.  Never had that happen before!

Thank the Lord I woke up much better today!  I am grateful for the prayers of many and the help the doctor was able to provide.  It didn't seem very helpful at the time though yesterday as I was laying on my stomach getting shots in my butt.  Er, um, back.  Yah...

Oh my word, new subject, I hate moving!!!  I hadn't moved in 7 years!!  In 2005 I moved what fit in my car from CA to IN, picked up a few more things IE furniture when my folks moved a month later from the house I grew up in on Brick Road to the new house they built on the southside and then again another month later after that into the place where I've spent the last 7 years.  Follow all that?

Needless to say, I've accumulated a LOT of stuff in the last 7 years, yikes!!!  Moving makes me realize how much stuff I have - and how much I want to get rid of it.  So, anybody looking to pick up anything I no longer need?  We've got two microwaves to start.  Any takers?  What do ya need?  I'll give it to ya for cheap!

Hopefully it will be awhile before we move again!  And in the meantime, hopefully I can sort through stuff and get rid of a lot!  I have to remind myself how freeing it is to have little!!!

Next...

I met a neighbor this morning - the only one so far.  Very nice lady who welcomed us to the neighborhood and invited us to her church - yea!

Something I had not thought about until last week was how much I am going to miss our church.  It has been my home church for I think 3 3/4 years, but it feels a lot longer than that.  Josh served on worship team the last week we were there, and the worship pastor did a very nice send-off for us in the last service.  Totally took us both by surprise and made us even more grateful for that place.  I've made a lot of great friends through Living Stones, and I hope to keep in touch with many.  It certainly has been a place of blessing for us, and I hope we can find another church to call home in Goshen.

Moving to Goshen does put us further away from most of our family - both sets of parents and my set of siblings Jen & Andy.  But it does put us slightly closer to Josh's set of siblings, Jeremy & Liz.  Oh, yes, in the midst of buying a house Josh's brother got married!  We love Liz.  In fact, I have from the moment I met her last summer as we discovered we had a LOT in common!  She is a wonderful addition to the family, and she will be teaching just a few minutes from us in Goshen - yea, another teacher in the family!

Here's us at their wedding:


And our little family:



When school ended last spring we started solids with Catherine.  Guess who loves prunes (along with lots of other foods)!!

This was the day we had her publicly dedicated to the Lord (it's what our church/faith/religion does instead of infant baptism or christening).  Yah, she's always barefoot.


 I have so much more I've got to update you on, but I hear Little Girl waking up!!

So long!

PS, I'm not re-reading or proofing for errors.  So, there may be mistakes in this post!  But consider yourself updated - at least a bit!

Had a GREAT 4 day weekend in Wisconsin!!  I love being back there.

We went with Jen and Andy and of course the girls.  It's awesome when we can borrow my folks' mini van and all ride together.  Well, except for the fact that long car trips with babies are hard, and sometimes they just take turns screaming and crying.  But other times they are quiet and content.  :)

We stayed with family friends the Kemna's the first night in Fort Atkinson where I used to live.  We actually didn't get to see any of the town, as they live in the country.  I love, love, LOVE staying with Kemnas.  Mrs. Kemna was my 1st and 2nd grade teacher, and she has long been someone I admire - largely for her amazing gift of hospitality.  It always truly feels like a retreat when I am in their home.  Such a treat!!

We enjoyed reminiscing and visiting in their farmhouse and eating ice cream sundaes on the back deck admiring the gorgeous view of farmland.  Ahhh, Wisconsin...


We then headed north to Marshfield for my cousin Leigh-Ann's wedding.  What a beautiful bride she was!


We had a nice time visiting with extended family, enjoying good food, and rocking out on the dance floor.

We also enjoyed the pool at the hotel we stayed at!  Catherine's first time in a pool.  She was a bit hesitant at first, but we all ended up having lots of fun!


Saturday we continued north to Wausau to friends Tammy & Michael's house.  Their son was celebrating his 5th birthday with a big space themed party.  Tammy did a great job planning, organizing, and throwing the coordinated party.  She also fed us lunch and dinner and let us hang out there for the day.  It was great to visit with 4 of the 5 Richmonds!


We stayed at another hotel with a pool so the babies could enjoy more swim time, and we then traveled to visit friends Sean and Ali in Chicago suburbs.  We picked up Giordano's (YUM!!), gobbled down freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, and spent a good time talking and giggling - two guaranteed activities around Seanners.


 And now back at Home Sweet Home, for at least a few days!  :)

Josh & I were super excited to see a new house hit the market just about a week and a half ago.  I'll call it The Yellow Farmhouse because that's what it reminds me of - even though it's not on a farm.

The pictures looked GREAT.  The house sounded GREAT.  We did a drive-by and couldn't wait to see it on the inside!  Seriously, before we had seen the house we were already planning on how to arrange rooms!

We saw 8 houses 2 Fridays ago and then 2 more on Tuesday.  The Yellow Farmhouse was the 1st one we saw on Tuesday.  We agreed that we could definitely see ourselves living there!  We went back for a 2nd showing on Wednesday, bringing along lots of family for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. opinions.  On Thursday we made the offer.

Throughout all this, we frequently prayed for God's will to be done and for God's will to be clear.  Wednesday night at small group our leader suggested we have a specific amount that we pray for the house to not be more than.  I got a figure in my head, planning on lots of countering and hoping we could agree on an amount somewhere in the middle, but not knowing if it would happen for no more than that amount.

We started with a low offer.  They countered with not a great offer.  We tried again.  They countered with again a not so great offer.  In fact, it sucked.  We were not happy.  We gave it great thought.  We considered going with a final offer that would be the max, but I did not feel peace about it.  We kept praying, and I kept thinking about the amount that I put in my head Wednesday at small group.  We finally decided to offer that amount and just see what happened next.

Time passed.  We waited.  We wondered.  We pondered.  We prayed.  A lot.  I got to the point where I was able to fully trust that God's plans are the best for us - even if it meant we didn't get The Yellow Farmhouse.  I had peace.

Tonight we were up north celebrating a belated Father's Day at Josh's folks.  All the family is in town for his brother's upcoming wedding. I missed a call from our realtor (oh, have I mentioned how great she is?).  Then a text:  "Pls call"  Josh and I excused ourselves, and we called her on speaker phone.

"It's time to kill the fatted calf." she said.

My brain started racing, and I thought that meant a celebration was in order, but I was doubtful.  She said something else still confusing me.  So I said, "I need plain English for clarification sake."

"They accepted your offer."

No way!!!

I am amazed at how God has worked in this situation.  We kept asking Him for clear direction, and He certainly made it clear.  I also had to get to the point where I was willing to give up my desires for this house if it wasn't meant to be.  I clearly see His hand in all of this, and I want to give Him the glory!

Not only is our house much more organized, picked up, orderly, cleaned up, but I took a moment to do the same to my blog.  My "Blogs I Read" is updated.  If friends hadn't posted in a year, out they went.

Maybe one of these days I'll update my profile.  And I suppose I should add some pictures of Little Girl in the photo header...

I'm calling these treats Rhubarb Bars because it's fun to say.  Go ahead, try it.  Rhubarb Bars.

Told ya so!

I have loved anything with rhubarb since I was a little kid living in Minnesota (that was a L O N G time ago!!) where we used to grow it in our garden.  But this is the first time I've actually done anything with it (other than eat it).

I got the recipe from a co-worker who got the recipe from a friend who works at a fabulous local restaurant with a well known bakery.  They aren't particularly attractive looking, but they taste soooo good!  I may have eaten an entire row the evening I made them.  Shhhh...

Since some friends asked for the recipe I thought I'd post it here.  Enjoy!

Rhubarb Bars

2 c flour
3/4 c powdered sugar
1 c butter

4 eggs
2 c sugar
1/2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
4 c rhubarb diced

Grease cookie sheet (Texas sheet/jelly roll pan) and press mixture of first three ingredients onto pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  While baking, prepare filling of five remaining ingredients.  Pour filling on hot crust and bake 40-45 minutes until light brown.

I made them in a 9 x 13 pan, but it may require adjusting the baking time.  You can also substitute some strawberries for the rhubarb.  Other notes:  I used margarine instead of butter (I always do), and the crust was still great.  And I didn't use the full amount of sugar called for.  I rarely do.

Do you have a favorite rhubarb recipe you'd like to share with me?

It's officially Summer Break!
And we are already busy!
Josh was in Chicago last night to celebrate his brother's birthday.  Today he's taking him golfing, and then we're all going over to his place for dinner.
Tomorrow's a cookout with Josh's family in Michigan.
One week until Josh runs the Sunburst half marathon.
Two weeks until we host a wedding shower for Jeremy & Liz.  I have a lot to do to get ready for that.  I love that sort of stuff.  I just can't wait til the last minute, or I will be utterly stressed.
We are pursuing purchasing a house in Elkhart County this summer.  Considering renting too, but meeting with a realtor next week.  It sure makes me feel like a grownup!
We had our first experience with feeding Catherine solids today!  More time consuming than I anticipated.  Yah, it's gonna be a lot of work!
Well, I'm gonna see if I can make it in the shower before Little Girl wakes up from her nap.

Oh shoot, I hear her moving via the monitor.

I can smell sweet relief.  It's so close I can almost taste it.



 Just one more day.

And then...

no more pumping 3 times a day
no more preparing bottles nightly
no more scrambling around trying to find a room to pump in and praying no one interrupts
no more 5:30 alarms
no more leaving my sleeping daughter on a daily basis

At least for a couple months and then we'll see.

Gotta go; summer break is knocking on my door, and I'm not about to miss it!