Thanksgiving and the Whole Christmas Season

It's late and I should be really going to bed. If not going to bed, then cleaning the house because we have my family coming over tomorrow for Thanksgiving, yay! We essentially only won by default....We usually have lunch at my parents but their house is under construction and we'll be going to my sister's house on Sunday- leaving my little family hosting the beginning of the Christmas season at our house!

This excites me :D

With this being our first holidays spent in our house, our first with Gage, and our first with just our little family, I'm being extra sentimental. Tomorrow we'll get to put up a Christmas tree (and fight Gage off all the while, no doubt). Ahh! I can't wait!!!

Matthew and I didn't get the "our first Christmas married" that I had dreamed of. Last Thanksgiving morning, we did set up a 4 foot Christmas tree in the living room. Our house was no where near done, but Matthew helped me decorate that miniature tree to make me happy. We didn't even have power in the house, but we put lights on anyways and had a drop cord from Matthew's parent's house to ours and our tree was lit up. It made my heart giddy to see it glowing next door.

But now we're here. In our home. The Christmas season is probably going to make me cry out of joy and relief that we're finally here, starting our own life. We finally get to create memories here and start our own traditions that Gage will get to grow up with. My goodness, where has all of the emotion come from? Haha! The past few holidays have not been enjoyable on my part, the experiences pretty bitter, and I'm ready to have a Happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas! Seriously, let's do this ^_^

I recently discovered one major con of having no cable tv...No Christmas movies. What!? Time to dig out the radio...

Bring on the Christmas music!!!

Which Christmas songs get you into the holiday spirit?

Thomas Gage

My son Gage was not planned. Actually, it wasn't a very "convenient" time to be pregnant with trying to get into our own house, but did I ever consider abortion?

No.

After I found out I was pregnant, I spent my first few days in total and complete awe. I couldn't believe that God was using my body for something so amazing! I had this itty bitty tiny body growing in my belly; I can easily recall the feelings of those first few days. There were lots of tears, but simply due to amazement.

Sure I was one of those crazy women that absolutely loved being pregnant, but that doesn't make my cause less important- how can you justify a purposeful death on someone so innocent? Simple answer:

You can't.

To be clear, I am not trying and will not try to make anyone feel guilty if they have done this in their past. That's their sin and their's to ask God's forgiveness for. And He WILL forgive you! I say everything I do for the recognition that abortions are wrong and to prevent anymore in the future.

8 weeks

I was able to see Gage for the first time when he was 8 weeks along; 3/4 of an inch with a heart beat so strong. Boy, did I cry! It was my baby! Soon enough, I would find out that it was my son. Shortly after, I started feeling his little body roll around! Little hands and feet started poking around and my belly grew and grew while God intricately designed my child. Everyday he was learning something new, just like he is now outside of my womb.

A year ago, I was 22 weeks pregnant.

 

And a year later.

My little boy. So full of personality, screams, and, best yet, life.


Would you hire an assassin to kill someone for you? Then don't hire a doctor to kill your baby. Choose life.

I am PRO-LIFE.

My Weakness

If you were to ask me what my materialistic weakness is, I would answer, "dishes". I love dishes! I have 3 sets of dinnerware:


I got my first ones as a wedding gift! An eight place setting that is solid brown. It's so nice to have a big set!

These were also received as a wedding gift! A four place setting and the colors remind me of pottery.

I got my vintage dishes at a yard sale! I love yard sales. I don't have the whole set, but I have lots of plates and bowls. I looked them up online and found out that they were sold at Piggly Wiggly's in the 70's!

A few sets aside from dinnerware:

A pitcher and 6 glasses that I also received as a wedding gift! AND I just found out this past Sunday that my grandma-in-law's grandma had a set just like it! How awesome!??

And another favorite is my Princess House canisters! I'm not quite sure where my love of glass canisters stems from, but these are perfect! Best yet, they were all kindly given to me!

I adore all of my dishes so much that it's crazy, but it's my "thing". Though I love them all, I'm not afraid to use them. If I'm going to have something, it's got to do more than sit around and collect dust. Hoarding? Not my "thing".

Last, but not least, my favorite kitchen utensil is a wooden spoon. It's sturdy, doesn't melt like the plastic, and is just perfect in every way. Seriously, it makes cooking feel more home-y than it already is :]
I've even converted Matthew to liking wooden spoons!


So there you have it, a whole post dedicated to my favorite thing, dishes.


Oh...and then there's fabric. I love fabric!

What's YOUR "thing"?

Simple Saturday: Slow Down

Let's look at the polar opposite of last Saturday: This has truly been a simple Saturday.

Sure, we've done a few things with me accomplishing some normal housework and Matthew changing the oil in his truck, but that's it. The work we have done has been so leisurely; "normal" house work is so easy going for me. All of this to say, take a break. Pick a day and push for nothing.

In this busy world, you have to step back. Just stop. Let it go.

There was always something going while working on the house. If we weren't working on it, we were talking about it. If we weren't talking about it, we were thinking about it. If we were completely away from the house, we were at some kind of event and there was always something happening. Even when I was doing nothing, there was still the stress weighing me down and because of that, I had one two many breakdowns. And that is putting it nicely.

In the few days of being "done" with the house, it has not gone unnoticed that there will always be something. And I mean always. There will always be something to steal time away from my husband, always something to divert my attention away from my child, and always something that will  tamper with my temper.

God blessed us with the power of free will, to choose. It's up to you how you live your day to day life and what you let rule it.

In the past few days, my focal point has been to catch up on time lost with Matthew and the time we've had together has been amazing! In fact, we just finished watching a movie we rented since we're trying to catch up on all the movies we have missed in theaters.

Time together, time at home, and time to just stop is so crucial to a simple life. I'm realizing now, more than ever, how important it is to slow down. Funny how I say this right before the Christmas season starts up :]

Daily living and simple sorting:

If you're so busy that you can't get everything done, you probably have too much on your plate. Instead of stretching yourself out so many ways, do just a few things and that way you can do them whole heartedly.

Gage in a pile of leaves, on a day that I decided to slow down.

What is keeping you from slowing down?

Welcome Home

That's what all of this feels like now, that I'm finally at home. The feeling that I've been wanting to experience for 2 1/2 years now!

We moved in here in August, but relaxing in a chaotic mess is nearly impossible for me, coming home to work leaves no room to settle into a routine, and family time just didn't happen. All of these things were very frustrating, straining on relationships, and tempted sanity to be lost. I told Matthew that not only should we celebrate being done with the house, but we should also celebrate the fact that our marriage survived it!

Oh, and when I say "done with the house" it doesn't actually mean done. Just means that we get to close our construction loan with the bank and start paying a mortgage! Should that really be so exciting to me? After so long of just paying interest and our house not getting any closer to belonging to us. Yes, a mortgage is exciting!

Tuesday after lunch, the house was given the "ok". That night, we celebrated by taking Matthew's parents out to eat! We have had many people to help us out on the house, but Matthew's dad has spent more time and energy on it than anyone. Also, my  mother-in-law and father-in-law allowed us to live with them for a year until we were able to move into here. I don't think I will ever be able to let them know how grateful I am for how much they have invested in our lives.

So here we are, finally at home and putting together our own lifestyle. Creating memories within these walls, listening to the rain against this green, tin roof, and getting to play in the biggest yard that I've ever had. This is what we get to do now. Would we do it again? I'm not quite sure. We have talked about it several times and we are leaning towards "No, we probably wouldn't do it again." This house took a lot of (literal) blood, sweat, and tears.

But at this given moment, I'm really glad that we were stupid enough to do it.

Before...While it was on the way to our property.

May 2010

After!!!

October 2012

Major Changes:

Outside:
Roof reconstructed, new roofing, new vinyl siding, front porch, back deck and center front door covered.

Inside:
New plumbing, new wiring, dining room and living room swapped, new flooring (in living room, laundry room, kitchen, dining room, and bathroom), wall between kitchen and dining room removed, wood stove between kitchen and dining room removed (and will be installed downstairs), "closed in back porch" turned into the laundry room/mudroom, wall between 2 bedrooms removed to create master bedroom, and basement changed from partial basement to full.

And we have more projects down the road, but for now we're just going to breathe for a little bit!

Do you think we should have a house warming party?