40 little gifts to celebrate my 40th Birthday!

Well, I turned 40 just a few days ago. It is funny I was dreading it for months and then when it happened. It felt great! I wasn't prepared for that. And as everyone has so lovingly pointed out 40 is a milestone birthday. So to celebrate BIG I decided to do 40 pay it forwards to shower others with blessings and love. Now I am not blogging this to toot my own horn...I am blogging to inspire. This world and this life are incredibly hard and we really need to show others love and encouragement more often...so I am using 40 as my vehicle.

So here goes my list of 40 PIFs. I will add to the list as I do them so you can get some inspiration, hopefully for your own journey.

Day 1: Returned Monuments Men to the Redbox Kiosk with a $1.00 bill folded neatly inside.

Day 2: Donated scissors to Dollar Tree's Operation Homefront School Supply Drive.

Day 3: Diapers and Wipes to someone who needs this blessing.

Day 4: Cold (sealed) drink and snack for our mail carrier.

Happy Heavenly Birthday Austin...

My friend Christina lost her dear son  Austin 10 years ago. Today marks his 10th Heavenly Birthday to celebrate the blessing of Austin she has asked her friends to perform random acts of kindness this week in his memory. I wanted to dedicate a blog post to them and to share what our family is doing to remember Austin and to hopefully inspire you to share a little love with others this week. There is far too much hurt and not enough love in our world today, we can change that with small acts of kindness.


1.) We made a goodie bag for one of our oldest daughter's teachers who just lost a dear loved one.
2.) Blessed one of our oldest daughter's classmates with lunch on us.
3.) Taped a dollar (in a snack baggie) to a pack of diapers in our local grocery store to hopefully cheer up a sleep deprived mom.
4.) Left a sealed bag of microwave popcorn on a redbox machine.

Joy in the ordinary.

I have come to the conclusion that the business of living life can be quite boring. After all we wake up and face the same things day in and day out. This is one reason I treat life like an experiment, always trying new things. Spicing up the daily chores with little touches here and there. It isn't about how much money we spend it is about the heart attitude we put behind our actions. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich served with a smile, means more than the most elegant meal prepared with a griping heart. God is also teaching me to never apologize for His provision. If we have company and beans and rice are what's for dinner...serve it with confidence it is just the thing that is needed. So my challenge to you today is to find a way that you can make your ordinary routine a little more loving and memorable for those you love. Get out there and get creative!

 Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! ~Psalm 100:2

Hold them close, and they will reciprocate.

Our youngest is a very wise, funny child. She is always sharing her heart whether we want to or need to hear it or not. Sometimes she moves me to tears and humbles me beyond belief, tonight was one of those nights. I was in the middle of our local grocery store finishing up the weekly shopping. My cell phone rings, on the other end is my sweet-pea. She is crying, she wants her Mommy (she is home with her big sister who is babysitting for me). She asks where I am, when I tell her she brightens and then says "Mommy that means you will be home in 10 minutes". I told her I would finish up as quick as I could and I would be home. Well, it took much longer than 10 minutes, the phone goes off again. Again it is "Sweet-pea". She tells me that she is really sleepy and she is afraid that she is going to fall asleep before I get home to cuddle. She tells me that she just wants me to put my arms around her and never let go and to hold her with my voice. In that moment it becomes real that she needs me, she enjoys having me close. I feel the security that I bring to her and I pray that I never do anything to damage the closeness that she and I share. Hold your children tightly, soothe them, comfort them....all too soon they will be spreading their wings, trying out their newly found independence. Nurture the relationship that will always keep them close to you even when they are physically far away.

1 day left...

Our long awaited vow renewal is almost here. I am excited, nervous and excited...lol. I want this event to be a beautiful celebration of all that God has given us over these past 10 years. I want to bless our friends and family with a fun night for them just being them in our lives. Please pray that I relax and enjoy the process as well as the event. So many friends and family members have volunteered their time, talent and resources to help make this day unique and special. It is all so humbling and I am grateful for each of them.

The Lord Will Provide...

was the enduring lesson for me today. Our vow renewal is a week away. A relative offered to make outfits for our 4 youngest children and was unable to do so. We found this out less than a week ago. This put me in a major panic. If you know me, I am a planner. I do not like surprises at all. Then today more surprises cropped up in the form of a car repair bill we were not anticipating (I know, I know, we own a car, we should always be prepared for maintanence.) my alterations on my dress were higher than we budgeted and there were not 4 coordinating Christmas outfits to be found in the 4 stores I went to today. I was in tears. This was not how I wanted this to be. I wanted it to be easy and frugal. Things were not going according to plan. After bawling on the phone with Donald and having him reassure me things would be fine. I headed to the mechanics to pay his repair bill, with a heavy heart. While I was there, I kept feeling a need to stop by a local clothing store. Guess what God had placed there? A size 8 (Amarissa's size) moss green and ivory Bonnie Jean dress for way less than retail price, gotta love Christmas sales. I started crying and praising God, He cares about the little things, and this lifted a HUGE weight off my shoulders. Then I headed to Walmart and found 2 Christmas plaid shirts with the same green that was in Amarissa's dress, I bought the boys their shirts. Now all I have left is a shirt for Donald, with all of the budget changes we decided to forgo the tux and just do casual with my classy gown. I think it is perfect, I think it is more "us". So now I am going to take a deep breath and try to enjoy my last days of planning, wish me luck!

Days of Nothing Update.

Our elf Peppermint McSprinkles

We are still plugging away. However I must admit that with it being Christmas time. It stinks. I want to spend, spend, spend. However God keeps reminding me that if I were to give into that urge it would undermine what He is trying to teach us and it would hurt His provision for us during this time. So I will continue on. One thing I have noticed is our Christmas focus has radically changed. We are spending a lot of time at home, together as a family. We are playing games, watching our Christmas movies (many were unopened from last year, sad I know) and we have added an Elf, for Elf adventures. Now this was a splurge I allowed since it was radically less than the more popular Elf on a Shelf version and I had the money for her in my paypal account. We are also going to make advent ornaments this year, using stuff that we already have, so glad I save cards, tissue paper, etc. I enjoy the focus being on Christ and Family more than things and commercialism but I do worry what my children's reaction is going to be as they "compare" gifts come Christmas morning. I pray that we are able to cultivate a right heart attitude as God continues to grow us as a family during this time.