today is great

I am having a great day and just wanted to tell you about it. We ate pancakes for breakfast. The kids entertained themselves for a long time this morning while I caught up on kitchen cleaning. My husband had success with a work related matter that we have been praying about - amen! The final remains of the yard sale have been properly put away. I parked my car in the garage - which you would know was a big deal by how big Katie's eyes got as we rolled in. (I am pretty sure that until now she has thought that the garage is just a clutter filled room of our house with a really big door.) Lunch was three free pasta bread bowls from Domino's that were wonderfully yummy. The weather is gorgeous. And I have a sesame seed-sized baby in my belly.

Thank you, Jesus, for this great day!

yeah, baby!

The yard sale was AWESOME!!!!!

Awesome because:

• My husband woke up early and put up our sign at the ends of our road and helped us get the tables out of the garage and got the kids up and dropped them off at Grandma's.
• My mom watched my two kids and my sister Sherrie's four all day long so we didn't have to deal with child care. Let it be said, she is awesome! That's four boys ages 8, 6, 4, and 3, and 2 two-year-old girls. If we had had to take care of them, the day would have been impossible. Thanks, Mom!!!!!! (one exclamation point for each child)
• My mother-in-law was over on Friday, and she was a huge help setting up the tables and getting all the stuff on the tables. We would have been setting up much later into the evening if it wasn't for her help. She also brought food to eat for lunch on yard sale day, which was very generous and thoughtful. Thanks, Mom! (and you were our best customer!)
• It was crazy busy! I mean it. I am not exaggerating-- at one point we were both totaling up orders and taking money, with a line of five or six people waiting to pay. And that went on for a while. At this point I probably need to explain that most of what we sold was our (mostly my sister's) huge stockpile of drugstore stuff after a year of couponing, rebates, CVS ECBs, and drugstore deals. We had hundred of items for sale including hair care, dental products, shaving products, cleaning products, dish soap, make-up, otc meds, and more. We got the stuff for free or very cheap and then sold it at a huge savings from the drugstore price. It was a hit. We used the empty lot next door as a parking lot and it was full!
• Even though we had the lot full of cars, some people still parked on the side of the road (I live on a road that doesn't have sidewalks) and a township police officer came and warned he would ticket anyone parked with their tires over the side of the white line. So in addition to trying to keep up with all our customers, I had to be the parking police and keep people from getting tickets, and keep them off the front of my neighbor's lawn, and direct them into the lot or our driveway. No one got a ticket, and I think my neighbors understand we were doing the best we could.
• We had tons of customers with just a free ad on craigslist, and 4 road side signs. It was nice to not spend any money on a newspaper ad.
• At one point we were running out of plastic bags, and a customer jokingly suggested if he would have known he would have brought some along. I told him if he went home and got some bags I would give him a free toothpaste. About a half-hour later he was back with bags, and got his free toothpaste!
• At the end of the day, a huge majority of our items sold, so there wasn't too much to have to pack up.
• Someone stole a phone case and wallet I had for sale, but when we figured out our totals, there was more money than what our books showed. After we split it up, I made up the value of the two items. (Can you believe people steal at a yard sale? I mean, really! We will have to hire security next year.)
• When we figured out our totals, I was blown away by the success the day was for both of us. Praise the LORD! It was way more than I was expecting, and made all the hard work worth it.
• We had the most beautiful weather one could want for a yard sale.

I am so thankful, so very grateful, to the Lord for what a blessing the day turned out to be. And like Adam said, in the daily, everyday life of motherhood, it was fun to have a little crazy excitement. Also, I don't get to spend that much time with my sister, and even though we were running around like crazy maniacs all day, it was fun to be running around like a crazy maniac with her:)

So what to do with my cash.....Hmmm...I know it is early, but I have a big project I'm working on that should be ready by Christmas, so I think that maybe this and this, or maybe this will be a great way to spend some of that hard-earned yard sale earnings. What do you think?

yard sale, oh me, oh my!

My sister and I are having a yard sale tomorrow. Most of today was spent organizing and preparing and pricing and sorting and cleaning and moving and hauling. Tomorrow, we hope, will be a day of sell, sell, selling!

The Lord has blessed us with a wonderful weather forecast, so we are hoping for a big turnout. And I have already made 36 bucks from super-early birds who came to shop while we were working today.

Hooray for yard sale day!

happy feet

Happier feet

half baby...

...half vampire.

The victim-- an Edy's wild berry fruit bar.

sixth sense

I have a sneaking suspicion that someone may have, possibly, had her mouth on the cheese while I wasn't looking.

loophole

On Tuesday, the kids and I spent a few fun hours over at my friend Katie's house. She has four boys, and Joey always has a great time playing with them. (And I love spending time with Katie too!) They get along well, and besides a stray knee to the throat during a round of mattress jumping, the day was incident free, full of good fun.

When it was time to go, Joey shed some tears, and sorrowfully said good-bye to every friend. He sadly made his way into his car seat, and had the longest face he could mange as we pulled away and yelled good-bye one last time. A moment of silence and then from the back seat I hear--

"I wish Daddy could be Miss Katie's wife, so then I could live at their house and play with them everyday."

Just like that. Mommy out. Four new brothers in.

thank you, mama

After seeing the cute header Jersey Mama put on her blog, I decided to go to scrapblog and make one myself. After I was finished, I did my very best to get it from scrapblog to its new home as my blog header. I could not figure it out, (I am not good with the whole technical aspect of blogging- not that I am very good with the whole writing part either) and it was driving me crazy, almost to tears - yes, some days the tears some way to easily. So I sent a completely pathetic plea to Jersey Mama, and she was so kind to email step-by-step easy instructions. We do not even know each other in real life, just through reading each other's blogs, so I really appreciate her kindness.

Thank you, Thank you, Jersey Mama!

put on your sunday clothes

I found Katie's dress last year at Macy's for about four dollars. The clearance rack at Bon-Ton yielded my skirt for five. So thankful for some good deals. My son's Easter outfit cost more than mine because I finally bought him a belt and he is almost five years old - it is all high fashion in this household.

egg fiesta

Mom-mom colored eggs with the kids on Friday. Katie plopped the eggs into the cups of colorful water. Watch out for the multi-colored splash!

Joey removed the eggs when they were sufficiently colored.

Then they glittered and painted and glued while I was out grocery shopping.

I love how a carton of colored eggs looks.

Isn't the orange bright and cheery?

I believe this orange is even more lovely.

Mom-mom comes.

The kids color eggs.

I receive tangerine Fiesta Ware.

Grocery shopping alone.

Good times.

it's Monday

Yesterday was a lovely day. I had fun getting the kids dressed in their new outfits, church was a blessing, lunch at my mother-in-law's was yummy.

The kids outfits are now soaking in the washing machine, the resulting bloat from lunch has gone, but a line from my pastor's message yesterday has played again and again in my mind. The message was about the victory side of Calvary. At one point He was talking about how, as Christians, we can approach struggles with sin. He said (as best as I can remember) "We complain about a sin, or we say 'I'm always going to struggle with this sin' or 'I can't get the victory over this.' No!! You have all the power of the universe!"

Yes, the Savior is loving and kind, but He is also powerful and victorious. And that power is mine to claim as His child because He conquered death and He conquered sin. I needed to be reminded that Jesus has all the power I need to be victorious. I can mother today expecting to be overwhelmed and at some point lose my cool and act sinfully and selfishly, or I can mother depending on the power of Jesus to stomp out the selfish monster, and be the minister of love and care I know I should be.

Jesus is the victory!

itty-bitty

I will be taking a little break so that I can do a few things I need to do without pondering what I should blog about. Not that you were wondering all too much where I was, or if you even noticed at all, but now that I have told you I feel better.

I should be back on Monday.

Have a great week!

Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed.
Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Psalm 37:3,4

just a little Joe

Joey asked me to take this picture and made the goofy pose while he had fastened Katie's changing pad around his waist.


Joey took this photo of Bear, his faithful companion, with a bowl of vegetable pepperoni soup that he had made for him. Joey also fastened the bib around his neck and placed him in the chair so that he could eat with the rest of us for dinner. Sometimes I think that even though most of Joey's brain knows that Bear isn't real, a part of it believes that he is. And I like that.




Here is Joey working on jumping off the swing. This is a very important skill for a young man to have and he is taking the responsibility seriously. White socks and black sandals are standard swing-jumping apparel.



And here he is making the goofy face he sometimes makes when he doesn't know how to look when I am taking his picture. He puts his front teeth on his bottom lip and squints his eyes a little bit.

I love this boy so much. He brings love and smiles to all my days.

rainy day outside

Offspring plus a couple cousins inside -


Good times.

not always...

My yard

The fence

The other side

...but sometimes it really is greener on the other side:) Especially when you are neighbors with a field of winter wheat that is quite happy about all the rain this week.

Rain means green things grow, which means soon I will need to mow (and I love to mow), which means spring is really here, which means only one thing: flip flops.

It might be greener on the other side, but I am pretty happy here on mine.

Happy Thursday to you!