hello!

Time to break internet silence :) Seriously, though, life just continues to be crazy... Our schedules aren't even all that full, but there never seems to be a spare moment. One exciting bit of news - at least for ME - is that I'm going away next weekend. WAHOO!!! Yep, I'm off to a scrapbooking retreat Friday-Sunday. I know I'll have a ball, and it's also served as a good motivator to get my craft space organized. Everywhere else is pretty settled, but this corner still has boxes stacked up. Proud to say that I've gotten a lot done in the past week - and sad to admit that it's more than had been accomplished in the previous 3 months.

So what else is new? Well, I went out with a friend last week and we saw Avatar in 3-D. Very fun experience (I personally didn't think the storyline itself was that great, but the effects, colors, etc were amazing). We've been spending quite a bit of time outside as the past 2 weeks have been in the 70s-80s. I *do* love the balmy temps, but am not so fond of the mosquitoes. Still trying to decide what we're going to do in the yard - as much as we love all the palm trees, the space is really overplanted and is in need of some major pruning. Not to mention that I'd like to replace some of the greenery with fruits and/or vegetables. One of hubby's coworkers is giving us some fig & peach trees, so we need to decide where they'll go. And once those are in, we're also going to buy a pomegranate tree. YUM! Still trying to wrap my head around the fact that we're talking about this while half the country is blanketed with ice/snow.

One last request: please continue to pray for us with the church situation and our son's behavior at school. These are the 2 areas where we're still really struggling and need wisdom. Thanks!

The Girl, and Christmas Recap

Don't know how it happened, but our "baby" is now officially 5 YO! I snapped this picture on Sunday morning - she wanted to wear her fancy dress, and asked if I could make her hair "pretty." We had some time, so I worked my blow dryer magic to create this stunning look :)

Thought I'd show a pic of the lovely shingles, too. I am so thankful that she wasn't in a lot of pain. She was tired and very snuggly, but that was about it. The other pic is from the little party that we had on Sunday night. Nothing elaborate -we had 1 other family come over for dinner and birthday brownies, then the kids decorated crowns, made candy necklaces, and had a birthday blower fight. Good times, good times!








I finally uploaded pictures from Christmas, too. There are lots of pics of our Arizona antics (including a trip to the Natural History Museum) if you'd like to check them out HERE.

Ponderings

It's been a crazy week. Our daughter's shingles are much better, but she's not quite back to her normal self yet. I'm fighting off some sort of stomach bug. We're planning to celebrate our daughter's birthday this weekend (she turns 5 on Monday!), so I'm praying that we're all back to normal *very* quickly. I'm also just generally in a bit of a funk - I have a million and one things I need (and don't even get me started on the "want" list) to get done and am feeling overwhelmed and rather discouraged. Obviously nothing will be accomplished by my whining, and this isn't the sort of attitude that I want my kiddos to see, either, but I just can't seem to pull it together. I definitely need to be spending more time in prayer and in His Word... whatever state I may be in, my Savior is bigger than all of it, and already has the answers when I'm ready to listen. And I should add that I was richly blessed by a couple friends this week - I know that He is ministering to me through the caring actions of others.

Finally, I just want to say that it is COLD. It will be below freezing three nights in a row - a major event for South Texas. Part of me is laughing a bit, as "cold" is definitely a relative thing. During the news earlier this week, they were talking about the preparations being made around the area. They were speaking with several families about how they were planning to stay warm. They didn't have many warm clothes, and showed footage of one lady hanging a quilt on one wall in an effort to block the wind, all while wrapped in a towel. The houses didn't even have sheetrock, much less insulation. And my hubby came home from work last night, talking about how they expect less than half of the workers in the Mexico plant to show up today - schools are closed, and families are huddling together to stay warm. Neighbors are coming together, gathering in 1 house, and buying extra bags of charcoal so they can keep a small fire burning in some sort of metal container. Definitely a reminder of just how very blessed we are - I can keep my house warm by simply pressing the button on my thermostat. Not to mention that we have abundant clothing, food, etc. Are we being good stewards wtih those blessings?!

Ringing in the New...

Wow, so much to say. We had a magnificent time over Christmas, celebrating with family out in Arizona. We survived the 34 total hours in the car quite nicely, with only 1 incident of car sickness. The kids had a wonderful time playing with their cousins, hubby was able to clean up Mom's garage (and we now have a lot more tools in ours), played around with webcams (I had a great conversation with my BIL on skype while sitting approximately 2 feet apart) and of course there was a ton of food consumed by all :) We actually arrived back home on Dec 31, so had a couple days to get back to "normal" before returning to school and work schedules today. Oh how I hated to hear the alarm go off this morning!

In other interesting news, our daughter has shingles. Yes, it is VERY unusual in little kids (especially considering she never had chicken pox but only the vaccine). Thankfully she is not having a lot of pain or itching, but she is contagious until the rash dries up (which will probably take another 3 days or so) so we're going to be hanging out at home for a bit. Probably a good thing as there is still a *ton* I need to get done.

Of course there are a slew of pics I'd like to share - hoping to post some by tomorrow, but we'll have to see whether the computer cooperates. We've been having issues with it, and it's now started turning itself off and on randomly. Yeah, that's fun! We're planning to order a new unit sometime this week, which means that my dreams of a freezer will be pushed back until February.

So have you made any New Year's resolutions? I try to avoid them, but I will admit that I'm working on getting healthier. Had made some small gains last year, but also slipped into some bad habits amidst all the craziness of our lives. And what better way to kick off the decade than with a desire to compete in bikini modeling competitions (kidding! KIDDING!!!!!) Seriously, though, I want our family to tweak our eating habits, and I definitely need to tone up. I want to concentrate on 1 item each month, and in January my plan is to exercise for 20 minutes 2x/week. I know it's not a particularly lofty goal, but it's a good place to start for me personally. I'll be back each month (around the 5th or so) for a status report and an unveiling of the new goal. We'll see how this works...

I'll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I've swallowed.
I remember it all—oh, how well I remember— the feeling of hitting the bottom.
But there's one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:
God's loyal love couldn't have run out, His merciful love couldn't have dried up.
They're created new every morning. How great your faithfulness!
I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over). He's all I've got left.

God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks.
It's a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God.
It's a good thing when you're young to stick it out through the hard times.

When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence.
Bow in prayer. Don't ask questions: Wait for hope to appear.
Don't run from trouble. Take it full-face. The "worst" is never the worst.
Why? Because the Master won't ever walk out and fail to return.
If He works severely, he also works tenderly. His stockpiles of loyal love are immense.
He takes no pleasure in making life hard, in throwing roadblocks in the way:
Lamentations 3:19-33, The Message