Customer of the Week

Jeremy is Customer of the Week at the North Salisbury Starbucks this week. That means that the Monday morning Barista liked his drink selection and chose it as the week's "Customer Drink of the Week." I think it means that he spends a lot of mornings at his "North Office" and is on a first name basis with most of the employees! He gets a free drink every day this week...pretty cool.

First Snow

Aliza had her first snow experience today. We only got barely an inch, but Jeremy was home before dark so we bundled up and took Aliza and the camera outside. She threw snowballs with Jeremy, ran around, played with her ball, played hide and seek and took a ride on the frozen hammock. What fun! We only wished that Grandpa Van could have been here because no one LOVES snow as much as he does.

Eventually Aliza got cold and was ready to come in. We are trying to teach her the difference between hot and cold. Everything is hot to her so when she was cold she said, "hot, hot, brrrrr..." We got the idea.

I used to love the perfect looking snow before it was walked in, but now I think I will prefer snow with lots of little footprints. That means lots of fun was had!


new set

Unexpected Evening Out

I've been sortof fussing recently because all of my time away from home is planned for me with things I would rather not do....like Dr. appointments, getting labwork done etc. I really just wanted to do something that I wanted to do. It's a long story instigated by the Creating Keepsakes Ultimate Product Guide that I came across a Close to My Heart consultant and she was just happening to have a workshop in Fruitland this evening where we made this cute gift bag and cards. There was no sales pressure, they had dinner and Janell and I got to spend some time together.

Since we have been home all week, except for grocery shopping, Aliza and I are going somewhere where she can RUN tomorrow. I'll take some Ibuprofen before we go and after we get home....I'll pay for it tomorrow night!!

Gotta Love Friendly Cashiers

We bought a crib mattress at Babies R Us tonight and the cashier took a liking to Aliza. So while Jeremy filled out the credit card application so that we could get 10% off the mattress the cashier taught Aliza to say "I'm cute." Guess what we heard all the way home? "I'm cute....I'm cute.....Mommy, I'm cute...." Not that we disagree. We actually found it quite amusing.

Aliza Performing

Just click play if the screen is black.

This evening Aliza was in rare form. Janell and Jeff (in background) were relaxing after having painted the nursery and Aliza took the opportunity to perform. She started singing and running in circles. I think this clip is almost 3 minutes. We have 12 minutes videoed and we didn't start videoing right away. So her performance lasted quite awhile!!

Scrap Challenge

Christie and I did a scrap challenge. The idea is to limit yourself in what supplies you use so that you try new things and feel inspired to create in a different way. It was refreshing and inspiring.

Our rules were that you could only use red, white and black and you had to tear an edge.

My edge is supposed to resemble a Christmas tree. Not exactly sure that it worked, but I tried and it was definately something I wouldn't have tried on my own.

The journaling is about Aliza and I decorating our Christmas tree that I blogged about in an earlier post.

You can see Christie's layout....when she posts it.....at www.dwellinpossibilities.blogspot.com

Nursery Painted

Jeff and Janell painted the new nursery yesterday. They did a great job and we owe them a lot....at least a trip to Plaza Tapatia.

Aliza liked standing at the gate to watch.

Now we need some baby furniture.

Kenya on My Mind

I've been reading about the violence in Kenya recently and I find it popping up in my thoughts more frequently as time goes on and the refugee crisis increases. It has been almost 10 years since I spent four months in Nakuru, Kenya as part of a Youth Evangelism Service team. I don't keep in touch with anyone from Kenya, but I remember faces and names and wonder how this situation is affecting them. It makes me sad to think that some I know could be suffering.

Word: 2008

A popular scrapbooking blog (aliedwards.typepad.com) challenged it's readers to choose a word to focus on during 2008. So I was sortof thinking about what word I would choose and then Christie posted hers and so I was officially inspired to choose a word.

I really wanted to choose a trendy word like balance, energy, passion etc. But they didn't really resonate with me. Didn't really challenge me the way I wanted it to. What I wanted was a selfist word that meant "taking care of me" "not losing me in the grand scheme of raising children and being a wife" That's not where I ended up.

My word comes from the Beth Moore Bible study on the fruit of the Spirit I recently did called Living Beyond Yourself. The word is gentleness.

The Greek word translated gentleness is praotes. The following definition comes from Beth. Praotes does not denote outward expression of feeling, but an inward grace of the soul, calmness toward God in particular. It is the acceptance of God's dealing with us considering them as good in that they enhance the closeness of our relationship with Him. Praotes describes the complete surrender to God's will and way in your life. The term basically means to stop fighting God. It is quite the opposite of weakness. Meekness or gentleness is the power and strength created from submitting to God's will. Gentleness is responsibility with power. Gentleness is made up of the components of submission, humility, teachability, and teaching ability.

A verse I want to remember this year is Jeremiah 26:14. "As for me, I am in your hands; do with me whatever you think is good and right."

Expensive Stickers

As I was finishing the supper dishes, Aliza came in and very animatedly was telling me something. She took my hand and showed me the new stickers she found. To my surprise she had found the stamps and thought that she had hit the sticker jackpot. I couldn't help but chuckle. She was so proud of herself. I am thankful that my child has not developed a manipulative attitude. She doesn't hide a thing.

But obviously she isn't allowed to play with stamps. So I'm trying to explain to an almost 2 year old that stamps are like money and not stickers. She didn't get it!

The greatest part was that Jeremy was sitting right there with sticker stamps on his shirt and was completely oblivious to what was happening. Yes, I took a picture just because I was annoyed and needed solid documentation!!!

Decorating Cookies

There just wasn't enough time to do everything before Christmas so today Aliza helped decorate cookies at my Mom's house. Yes, there was a method to my insisting that this be done at Grandma's house.

Aliza's decorating consisted of picking off the chocolate morsels as fast as Linda and I put them on the cookies. She popped them into her mouth complete with a goofy smile and "Mmmmm...."

Then Mom gave her some dough to roll out and play with. She ate it.

Finally, she helped Mom roll the dough and cut the cookies. She got into that. It was fun and the recipe only made 2 dozen cookies so it didn't take very long.