Counting Blessings - March 2014

29. Creative things that happen when the TV is left off.

30. The magic and silliness of sisters.

31. Pride in a mission accomplished.

32. Forgiveness granted and received.

33. Friendships that inspire you to see the beauty all around.

34. Knowing loss of loved ones isn't the end of the story.

35. That His grace is sufficient.
36. Abundance of wonderful meat smoked by my hubby.
37. Four thumbs up at dinnertime and fighting for claim of leftovers.
38. Roads free from snow and ice.
39. Exercise buddies.
40. Dinner for two.
 

Counting Blessings - February 2014

1. Battery charger - redeeming the car battery and a rough start to a Monday morning.

2. Hot Coffee.

3. Beauty of winter - viewed from inside a warm house.

4. Favorite pens on sale.
5. Crafty love notes from Sage.
6. One set of school 'valentines' ready to go.

7. Mystery tracks in the snow that encourage interesting conversations.
8. Natural remedies that are helping postpone Paul's hip replacement.
9. Chickens that are still laying eggs despite the bitter cold winter - (they are housed inside a garage at Paul's work).

10. Round two of school valentines ready to go - hershey kiss 'mice'.
11. Sunshine 'dripping' from the icicles.
12. A dog that makes us smile - even if it does mean one more family member for me to pick up after.

Valentines Day Blessings:
13. Stickers, balloons on a stick and self inflating balloons for the girls
14. Doggy puzzle for Sage (to soon be replaced by one that isn't so difficult)
15. Butterfly puzzle for Regan
16. Homemade chocolate covered strawberries for all (no photo - you will just have to trust that they were beautiful and delicious!)

Birthday Blessings:
17. Warm sunny winter day - perfect for making a snow caterpillar.
18. Regan helps make a birthday cookie.
19. Celebrating 8 years of our little 'Sagie'!
20. Fun family times at the bowling alley.

21. Hearing Regan's first band concert - despite blizzard conditions outside.
22. Home safe, sound and warm on another day of school closings
23. Warm sunny afternoon that allowed us to play outside on our day off.
24. 'Cocoon' on snow our our caterpillar - reminding me that change (spring) will come!

25. Homemade sourdough bread.
26. Window drawings.
27. Winter Olympics
28. Messy kitchens

The Luckiest Kid

If there are any lottery players reading this, you might want to ask Sage what numbers to play. She is quite possibly the luckiest person I have ever met. She just always seems to win stuff!

Last night was 'Harvest Festival' at our girls school. It's a carnival night with silent auctions and raffles that our parents' organization uses to raise money. Before we even went to the event, I told Paul 'maybe Regan and I should just skip the raffles and let Sage play all the tickets...since she is the one who always wins'.

Well, of course that idea wasn't going to fly, at least not with Regan. So, we split 36 tickets between us. The girls each played 14 tickets and I was left with 8 to vie for prizes of my choice.

The girls were very excited about two beta fish that were part of the raffle prizes. They were chattering about how many tickets they were going to 'spend' trying to win one. I kindly explained that fish aren't that expensive to buy, and I was limiting them to one ticket entry for the fish. Well, of course one ticket  is all it took for Sage to be the proud new owner of 'Laker'. (Fortunately, for me, the girls want to donate him to Regan's class, who recently lost their class fish to old age.)



Sage's next item of interest was a Razor Flash Rider 360. Apparently there wasn't anything else in her sights, as she stuffed her remaining 13 tickets in it's raffle box. As I'm sure you have surmised, she won that raffle as well. Needless to say, she was one excited kiddo! (Having one winner and one non-winner in the house afforded us many teachable moments the next day.)



The night was not a total loss for Regan and I though. We made a cake, together with some friends, and entered it in the adult category of the cake decorating competition. We captured a first place ribbon and a gift card to our favorite local baker!

Converstaions - Take 2

Regan: Mommy, how much did that tulle cost for Sage's Halloween tutu?

Mommy: I really don't know sweetie. Mommies have to do about 5 bazillion things everyday, so I really don't keep track of how much every little thing costs.

Sage: MOomMmyy...you do NOT do five bazillion things a day! 

Mommy: No? You don't think so?

Sage: No. You only do like 5 things a day.

Mommy: I only do 5 things a day? OK, then tomorrow I am going to get myself out of bed, eat breakfast, get dressed, brush my teeth and fix my hair. Then, I am going to do nothing for the rest of the day. OK?

Regan: No! NO! No Mommy! (Glaring darts at Sage) Sage - if Mommy only does five things it means no getting our lunches ready, no ride to school, no gymnastics, no awana, no ride home from school, no waking us up in the morning.....

Sage: Ok, I guess maybe you do five bazillion things a day. Maybe even a googol. (Shuffles around for a few minutes) Mommy? How do you spell present?

About 10 minutes later I was treated to a 'God's-eye' carefully decorated with beads and a sweet note saying 'I love you Mom. I hope you like the present.' She let me know that it could maybe be my birthday present too...(the one they forgot about last week).

Love those kiddos! There is never a dull moment! :)

Conversations....

Some conversations just need to be recorded and remembered.

Today, as Sage and I were having dinner together:

Sage: 'So, I still don't know how babies get in their mommies bellies.'
Mommy: 'Well, we'll talk about that more when you are a bit older.'
Sage: 'Well, Fudge knows. And he is younger than I am.' (Super Fudge by Judy Blume is the current favorite audio book at our house)
Mommy: pauses...searching for how to respond.
Sage: 'Does God put them there?'
Mommy: (big smile) 'Yeah, kind of sweetie.'

...and before either of us could give the conversation a second thought, my little chatterbox had moved on to other important topics like how to do a proper cartwheel and did I know that turtles hibernate.

Love Notes

Sage absolutely loves to make things for me...all the time. She draws and colors and creates so many things that there is not any possible way for me to keep them all. Now that she is learning to write and spell, well kindergarten spelling anyway, it is especially fun to see what she comes up with. She is definitely our tender-hearted child. Sometimes this can be a frustration, as she can be oversensitive to certain things. Often, though, it melts my heart and reminds me how lucky I am to be her mom.

Here are the notes she made today for Paul and I.



Interpretations:

While we were in the process of making cookies, she came to me with the one on the right, which says "Thank you mom for the cookies I am going to love them love Sage"

In search of a new church to call home, we have visited several over the last few months. Today, she wrote this note to Paul after our second week at the one we believe will be our new home. "Dad please let's stay at this church Love Sage"


I love my job. <3

They're Back!!

Our mischievous little friends have returned for the holiday season and have brought their antics with them. The girls were anxiously waiting for their return the day after thanksgiving and the elves did not disappoint.

They showed up ready to party and had the girls beds filled with balloons and some streamers on their doorway.



The girls used the balloons and extra streamers to decorate the railing in the loft.



The next morning they were found having some fun in the pantry. They turned some flour into an opportunity to make 'snow' angels.




The elves made the trip with us to Detroit for the weekend and their mischief followed us there as well. Ellie and Heather found the spare roll of toilet paper and did a bit of decorating in the girls room of the hotel.

Monday morning they brought the girls some holiday chapstick, complete with a message on the  bathroom mirror.



Tuesday, they made their way outside with the decorations. The girls still cannot figure out how they write with this snow type stuff on the windows. Regan had fun adding her own touch, drawing some peace signs in the letters.





Today, they found the dry erase markers and had a bit of fun with some family photos. Well, Ellie did anyway. Sage left Heather in her backpack and neglected to feed her crackers and ice water and sprinkle her with the necessary magic snowflakes.



Wonder what else the next few weeks will bring for excitement! Those two sure like to have fun while we are sleeping!