Living My Dreams at 35...

Today is my 35th birthday!  It is kind of crazy to think that I am 35.  I am not someone who gets all bent out of shape about age... actually I really enjoy getting older... maybe even wiser?!

When I was little, ever since I can remember, all I wanted to do was be a wife, a mother and a teacher.  Now at 35, I am doing all three!  I am a wife to an amazingly godly man who lives his life constantly asking 'what would jesus do?'.  I have five beautiful children aging from almost 9 to 1. And I have the privilege of homeschooling my children.  I can honestly say that I lack for nothing.

Looking into this new year (I just love new beginnings), I am praying that God would truly lead us and guide us.  I want to live a life that speaks Jesus without using any words!  I want my children and myself to learn more about the needs around us, to love in a way that has no boundaries and to serve others with the reality that when we serve someone, we are really serving Jesus.  We have much to learn but more importantly, we have much to give thanks for... this is my list of 35 things that I am thankful for... (of course it is only the beginning...)

1.  Knowing Jesus as my personal Lord, Saviour and best friend.
2.  Meeting the man of my dreams.
3.  My 5 children
4.  My immediate and extended family
5.  My church family
6.  My neighbors
7.  Hill- my sister in so many ways
8.  A beautiful house that brings rest to my soul
9.  My bed which provides much needed rest
10. A bathroom with a shower and hot water- most of the time:)
11. The feeling when I hold a soft bunny up against me.
12. Surprises
13. Music
14. A one year old and all that goes with her!
15. Beautiful food
16. Fresh juice which brings life
17. Warm boots, coats and mittens
18. Sledding
19. God's mercies which are new every morning
20. freshly painted toes
21. a clean kitchen
22. tweezers (I am Italian!)
23. thrift stores
24. the smell of fresh pesto
25. solitude
26. the night time (and day time) 'I love you' s from my children
27. reading
28. the color deep red
29. fleece socks
30. teaching my children to read
31. homemade flowers from my sons
32. good movies
33. dark chocolate
34. sweating after a good workout
35. the ability to give and receive love

And this is my prayer for you:  that you may know the abundant and unconditional love of our Lord Jesus both now and forevermore.  Blessings

When the going gets tough...

Lord we know that you are here...

"The Lord is my Shepard, I shall not want"

Sometimes when the going gets tough, we just get tired...

Physically

Spiritually

Mentally.

We need Jesus more than ever...

More than we ever dreamed possible.

Sometimes when the going gets tough we need others more...

People come together for good and bad.

Relationships can be broken and later healed... sometimes much later.

When the going gets tough, our love is challenged...

Challenged to love unconditionally.

When the going gets tough, we sometimes question what is love...

What does true love look like?

How can we love in the midst of challenging circumstances?

When the going gets tough we are drawn more than ever to prayer...

"Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done."

1 Amendment...

So, I realized that I forgot to mention about a special date night that my husband and I have almost weekly...  Pizza night (definitely not plant based!)!  Having 5 kiddos we don't get to go out too often so we decided to embrace 'at home' date nights and we REALLY enjoy them.  Last night we put the kids to bed after having a super fun time at the roller rink and then sat down in our WARM home and ate the pizza and salad... opened up some yummy wine and WOW... the end of a very long week!

Otherwise, I have really been kickin' the no animal products and feeling better already.  For exercise yesterday I shoveled the driveway a couple of time and went roller skating for a couple of hours:)   Little by little I hope to reintroduce these healthy habits of plant based eating, daily exercise and daily scripture reading...

***Thankful list
1. solitude time at Panera with a yummy lunch, a Bible and a journal

2. a warm house

3. my husband home from a long week

4. SATURDAY

5. family night out

6. late night date night


***Quotes

Nick "Mom, I think God's been holding all the snow in his hands and just decided to let it all drop."

60 days

***I am new to this blogging thing but I am just going to jump in.  Share my stories.  Share my life.


Well, something about our family is that we tend to be extreme visionaries!  This kind of follows us in every area of life.  We have both had seasons of eating well, being active and being in the Word.  However, we have also had seasons where those kind of took the backseat... this is the season I feel like I am coming out of now.  This has been a busy last few months with Thanksgiving, Christmas and then all 5 of my children's birthdays!  I am ready to slow down, find that routine that got lost and restore my health- physically, spiritually and mentally.  Starting tomorrow and for the next 60 days (ending Easter morning) my goals are:

1.  Begin reading through the Bible again

2.  Only have plant based food in the house to eat and cook

3.  Exercise for 30 min. 5x/ week  (This used to be my warm up!)

4.  Include a 7-10 day juice cleanse

5.  Find our routine while teaching a healthy work ethic to my children

Now, I am known better for coming up with ideas than I am about sticking to them... only time will tell but I will share about my experience as I go.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin which so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."

Four Years Later...

 Here we are... four years later, 2 more kiddos and lots more love!

Well, it has almost been four years exactly and I am ready to be back!  Since I last posted we have had two more children... two girls matter of fact!  It would be hard to catch up so I will just start for today... Today, I give thanks.  I am thankful for a wonderful husband who loves me with the love of Christ and for my five children who love me in the same way!  May I shower that same love over everyone that I come in contact with...  Lord, let your light shine.


And these three remain: faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love.

Last Birthday Celebration til August...Happy Birthday, Joshua...

Joshua had his first kid's party.  Who would have thought that all I needed to do was hand out their new books!



The boys also enjoyed playing with the police cars that we put on top of the cupcakes!

Joshua was really excited to celebrate his birthday.  He has been such a great sport celebrating with the other boys on their birthdays.  Happy Birthday, Joshua.  We are really proud of you!  Just seems like yesterday that you were still in my belly!

We sang early to him and celebrated with our 'healthy' cinn. rolls!

Happy birthday to me..

Well, I turned 31 on Sat, the 14th of February.  Chris always works himself up trying to get the perfect gift. (Bless his heart)  The night before my birthday, he came home and said that he wanted to get me a bedframe.  (We have been sleeping on the floor on our king size mattress since this summer.)  We got online and found the perfect frame for a mere $1,400!!!!  It was a little out of our price range.  The next morning, after sleeping in!!!, Chris asked what I thought of this one (in the picture).  It was BETTER than the one we had seen the night before.  It was on craigslist in Chicago, handcrafted for $450.  We got it for $4oo and drove to Chicago the next day to pick it up!  The quilt was our Christmas present from my mom and goes perfectly with the frame.  I couldn't have asked for a better present!  Chris had prayed the night before my birthday that God would help him make my day special, needless to say, He provided!

I went from sleeping on the floor to almost needing a stool to get in bed, now 3 feet off the floor!  I am truly blessed...