30 Days of Being Thankful- Day 7

Tonight, I am thankful for two things- quiet, alone time, and being a stay-at-home wife.

For the last 3 days the twins have decided that they don't want to take naps, and that means I have not been having my peaceful afternoons like I used to.  I've been really tired lately, and the past 2 nights Mason has been waking up crying, so I would have really liked a nap today.  And today, I just woke up with a horrible case of the "F-it's."  (That's short for "forget it," like, "I need to do laundry...forget it, I'll do it later.") I really didn't have any motivation to do anything around the house, but I somehow summoned the strength to wash and dry my sheets and comforter, took out all of the trash in the entire house, I did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed and tidied up the house.  All before noon.  I feel very blessed that I get to stay home and take care of my home.  Most people might think my attitude is a bit outdated, but I always wanted to be a stay-at-home Mom, and I guess you can say I'm living the dream! I have so much fun with my boys on a daily basis, but it can be a lot of work to keep things running smoothly. After I picked up the boys I made sure the kids got their homework done and played outside for at least 45 minutes.  I had dinner ready by 6:15 and everyone fed before Chase and Todd left for Cub Scouts.  Then, I got the younger 3 boys bathed and they decided they were still hungry, so they had a snack before bed.  Todd came home, Chase bathed and went to bed, and then Todd headed out for church basketball.  So here I am, watching TV and knitting.  I enjoy my quiet Wednesday nights when the kids are asleep and Todd is out playing ball.  He'll come home and we'll watch shows that we DVR, but for 2 1/2 hours, I get a little alone time.  Trust me, it may not sound like much, but when you have children constantly needing your attention, a little alone time is hard to come by.  I love my day job and I am just so fortunate that we can afford that luxury, but I do enjoy my Wednesday nights as well!

30 Days of Being Thankful- Day 6

EEK! It's almost the next day, so I have to post quickly! Today, as I stood in line for 45 minutes to do my civic duty, I realized how thankful I am for my freedom of choice.  I am fortunate to have been born in a land where freedom is encouraged, and celebrated.  And since today was one of the ultimate days of freedom, we as a nation were blessed to have the choice to choose a new president.  Even though the outcome was not what I had hoped for, I am still grateful that I had the right to elect who I thought would be best for our nation.  I don't live in a country under a dictatorship, or forced government.  I have a choice, and I can make a difference, even if it is small.  I am thankful for that.

30 Days of Being Thankful- Day 5

Hey, friends! Another last minute, late night post.  Today, among other things, I am thankful for my sons, and knitting.  My boys really and truly are the light of my life.  I am so fortunate that I get to stay home with the twins, and I am also so impressed as to how much the older boys are learning in school right now.  Tonight, the boys made dinner (with Dad's help) and I was so grateful, because I was in the middle of a knitting nightmare.  I had made a New Year's resolution to learn to knit or sew, and I ended up learning both this year, but knitting has become a wonderful hobby.  I really like working with my hands, and it can be quite soothing for me at times.  However, I started some more difficult pattern work in my latest knitting class, and if I'm not paying attention I get off on my stitches.  And since I'm such a perfectionist, if I can't get things back on track, I frog the whole thing.  (Frogging is a knitting term used for when you aren't happy with your knitting work and you "rip it, rip it, rip it," like "rib bit."  Get it? OK, moving on...) So, after working on a cable knit scarf for most of the day, I got really frustrated and overwhelmed and I frogged it.  This was when I was super thankful that the boys and Todd made dinner.  They even set the table, and my kids actually sat at the table and ate dinner.  That NEVER happens! We had a brief Family Home Evening lesson, and ice cream for dessert.  All in all, it was a really great evening.  After they went to bed, I started a different scarf project, and made some good progress.  My knitting class has been cancelled this week, and my instructor is anticipating us having a project complete to bring to our next class, so I have to get my hands to work on this new scarf. 

Well, I'd better post this and get to bed.  P.S. To all of my friends who are posting what they are thankful for, thank you.  I appreciate reading your posts and seeing every one's different perspective on life!

30 Days of Being Thankful- Day 4

It's Sunday, which means my hubby and I are watching DVR'd TV shows, and eating popcorn after the kids go to bed, so I figure I'd go ahead and post in between shows.  Today, I'm thankful for my family.  And I'm not just talkin' 'bout my immediate "man clan," but all of them, including the extended ones I never see.  We celebrated the October and November birthdays in our family tonight, and I just love being with my siblings and their families.  It's great to see all of the kids playing and I enjoy laughing and chatting with my big brother and sister.  We celebrated 4 birthdays tonight, and we were also lucky enough to have a few of my cousins and my uncle come over.  I am incredibly blessed to have been born into a family that so strongly believes in the meaning of family.  I witnessed that meaning of family this August when my Dad invited all of the Frick family members that could come to my parents home for a reunion.  I had the chance to meet my Dad's cousins and their children.  I have to say, not only am I related to a bunch of really beautiful people, but it was kind of neat to see so many of us that were "cut from the same cloth."  I celebrate being a member of the Frick family, and I love them all, each and every one!

I'm cutting it short tonight, but I did want to make a disclaimer that I am not putting any of these posts in order of importance, just the particular way I feel that day.  If I would have made this post earlier in the day, I would have said how thankful I am for pumpkin flavored donuts, pizza rolls, Funyuns, and my favorite drink that the Astronauts took to the moon, Tang.  And yes, to answer the question you are already forming in your mind, I eat my feelings.  Today was a rough day, but that's a post for another day...

30 Days of Being Thankful- Day 3

It's late, I'm tired, and for very good reason.  We had nothing really going on today, but we worked our tails off! And today, I am thankful for Todd.  This morning, he took my Suburban to have the oil changed, got his car tags, and brought home donuts.  I did some mending, and decided to clean my car out. While I was cleaning out my car, Todd helped direct the older boys on sweeping out the garage and organized the garage shelving unit.  Then, a little later, we loaded up the kids and grabbed a quick bite and headed off to do our shopping at Sam's.  We all worked to get everything put away, and while I Todd was getting the boys bathed, I did laundry, vacuumed, mopped, cleaned the kitchen, and made up the twins' cribs.  And even now, Todd and I are sitting here watching "Real Sports," I just keep thinking how great he is. 

I have been madly in love with my husband since we were 19, and I am so happy and blessed that I am married to him.  He really is my best friend, and I couldn't imagine my world without him.  I know it sounds really corny, but he completes me.  Where I lack, he picks up the slack.  Todd is the best person you want working beside you, and even though it seems like we can read each other's minds, we are still quite opposite.  He's an amazing Father to our sons, and a really great role model for them.  When the boys don't listen to me, he often champions me in my cause and he can often be heard saying, "Listen to your Mother!" I just can't say enough about how much I love him and just how much he means to me.  When we crawl into bed at night, I say, "I'm so lucky to have you," to which Todd replies, "Yes you are." And for that, I am so lucky to be sealed to him for time and all eternity. 

30 Days of Being Thankful- Day 2

Alright, I wrote a novel last night, so I'll try to keep this one brief.  Today, I'm thankful for my home.  In a few months, my family will have lived in this house (well, owned it) for 20 years.  I'll never forget the night we moved in; my brother, cousin Kyle and I stayed over night BY OUR SELVES while my parents finished packing and cleaning the rent house we were living in.  I was dropped off after a dance (yeah, 12 years old and a middle school dance in the early nineties...good times...), and the 3 of us set up the 2 upstairs bedrooms and bonus area.  We had pizza, soda in a cooler, paper towels, and toilet paper.  This was WAY before cell phones, so if anything happened, we couldn't call anyone.  The boys set up John's room, and played Nintendo way into the night.  I hunkered down and put my room together, and that is where it all started.  I lived here until I got married, then moved into an apartment with Todd, and then we bought a house for our 1 year anniversary.  My parents lived here until 2003, and tried to sell the house, but ended up renting it out for a year.  They approached us about buying the house when Chase was nearly a year old, and we have been here for 7 years now.  It's fun that the boys share my old room, and my older brother's room, and that they've been able to create memories where I had so many.  We have finally started to do some updates, because let's face it, the house is 20 years old! It still functions wonderfully, but things are starting to wear out and 1992 called and wanted it's style back.  While we were gone this Summer, Todd took down the ivy wallpaper in the breakfast nook, which made a HUGE difference, and we had new carpet put in the downstairs (we're going to wait to put nice carpet upstairs until the boys get a little older!) And a few months back we replaced the siding on the house- it's made a huge difference to the look of the house and it's so much warmer/cooler inside! I do have a big list of things I'd like to do to the house before I start back to work when the twins start school (1 1/2 years away...I'm not counting or anything...), but every day I think about how blessed and thankful I am to have not just a house, but a home.  We have a sign that hangs in said breakfast nook that read "Houses are made of bricks and beams, Homes are made of love and dreams," and I really do feel that way about our home.  It may not be brand new or design worthy, but it's comfortable and it's ours, and I love it.

See you all tomorrow!

30 Days of Being Thankful- Day 1

Hey Friends! So, I know I haven't posted in a while, and I know I need to post about the trip to Aspen Grove and the start of the school year, but I have been waiting for November for a long time.  Over the years I've had several friends post what they were thankful for on their blogs, and soon I had more friends posting what they were thankful for on Facebook.  Remember when I did my week long posting challenge back in May? Well, I figured I would post all month long in November to celebrate what I was thankful for.

 Today, I am thankful for my big heart.  2 days ago we had a Mommy cat and her 6 kittens show up at our house.  They were all very slim, but very sweet and friendly.  Todd pulled in the driveway, and they came running up into the garage. So, being the kind people we are, I asked Todd to get out an old dog kennel and I fixed it up for the little family.  We put out milk and water, and they drank until their little bellies were full.  Todd made some phone calls, but no animal shelters were accepting cats at the time. I emailed the head of the Home Owners Association, but no one responded to my email asking if anyone was missing them.  I think the cat's owner just dumped them in our neighborhood expecting someone to take them in.  We would let them out to run around and eat, and my boys just fell in love with each and every one of them. The twins were so good about picking them up, and even the Mommy let Parker carry her around. We kept them in the kennel in our garage that night, and we had almost all of our neighbors on our street come by to visit them the next day.  I gave them the only "cat food" we had around the house- milk and tuna fish... I know, a stereo-type.  We let them out several times during the day and you could see some of their personalities start to emerge, and the Momma cat was so sweet and easy going.  By late afternoon, my boys had given them names- Fluffy (dark gray and fluffy, hence the name), Tigger (orange with stripes and very aggressive), Sweet Pea (light orange with stripes and very cuddly), Shadow (dark gray with stripes, and he liked to sneak up on me and climb up my back), Mittens (fluffy white and gray with white around his feet), and Jinxy (light gray with stripes).  Last night we finally began calling the Mommy cat "Penny," because honestly it just fit her.  This morning before school, a neighbor brought over some cat food, and they all loved it.  Over a 2 day period you could tell the cats were getting bigger, and even though it was a bit of an adjustment, I got used to getting them in and out and changing out the bedding in the kennel.  As much as it pained me to tell our kids they couldn't keep them, I knew we needed to get them to a shelter to try and get them adopted to a good home.  So, we packed them up and took them to a shelter.  We told Parker that we were taking the kitties home and he said, "No, MY home!" He and Chase cried at the shelter, but I tried to explain that when you take in a pet you have to be responsible and take care of that pet, which means having them spayed or neutered so they can't have babies the owner isn't willing to take care of.  I guess, in short, I'm thankful I grew up loving animals.  I couldn't turn away what I described to my best friend as "a single Mom with 6 newborn babies.

There it is- my first post of the month.  I P-R-O-M-I-S-E to post every day and update our what's been going on with up since the last post. Later, friends!