Thanksgiving

I am so thankful for this little boy....

 This little girl....

And the most amazing man with whom to share my life.

We are so beyond blessed.

Thank Yous

I write thank yous after Christmas and my birthday and anytime anyone gives me something.  It's something I've done since childhood.  I have an aunt who is very particular about thank yous, and perhaps it was her voice in the back of my head that has made this such a deeply-rooted habit.  I always send them to family (even though my father-in-law teases me ruthlessly about it), and now that I have children, I want to instil the practice in them as well.

For Charlie's first year, I ordered these thank yous from Vistaprint:

 I opted for postcards.  I liked them but I had forgotten to uncheck the glossy box.  It was hard to write in the blank space.  I also ordered WAY too many - 100.  They were on special and I thought I could use them for a long time.  The trouble with that thinking is that babies grow way to fast to save something like this for future use!

For his second year, I ordered these folded cards:

 I got orange paint and had him put his hand print inside.  It was messy, but cute. :)

This year, I decided to have them send their thank yous together.  I wish I had a better picture, but I think this one turned out just fine:

I had two $20 Shutterfly codes so I made up some adorable ones there, but neither of my codes would work on the order.  I'm still not sure why.  So I went to Vistaprint and got them for a fraction of the cost I would have paid otherwise, and they are pretty cute if I say so myself.  I am going to work with Charlie to write his name on each card, or at least the C. :)

Project: Nurse's Gifts

After spending so much time in the hospital, I didn't feel like parting with a simple "Thank You" was enough.  More than 10 nurses cared for me during my five-day stint and nearly 30 for Lucy during her almost three weeks in NICU.  So I wanted to do something special.  I didn't really have any great ideas, even after scouring Pinterest.  Finally I remembered a super cute card I got from a student one time, and thought I would adapt it for the nurses.  So here's what I did:

Step 1: Gather materials

• Card stock
• Colorful markers
• Tape
• Ribbon
• Smarties
• 100 Grands
• Milky Ways

Step 2: Artwork
I wrote each of their names in fancy font and colors on the front of the card stock.  This was the most time-consuming part!

Step 3:  Message

I hand wrote (which also took a lot of time) the following on each card:

Thank you for using your (SMARTIES) to serve us!

(MILKY WAY) You are out of this world!

You deserve (100 GRAND)!

Thanks so much!

 

Step 4: Picture

These nurses see so many people that I was afraid they might not remember (or maybe even have known?) our last names.  So I ordered 40 prints of our family picture online  (FREE from York Photo for new customers - paid only $2.38 in shipping!) and then stapled it to the top and labeled it.

 Step 5: Tie it Up!
 I used a hole punch to punch a hole in the top and then secured it with ribbon.  The finish product was two grocery bags full of these:

 

We dropped them off and didn't get to see their reactions, but I hope the nurses enjoyed them. :)

Thanksgiving: Week 5

November 24: Thank you Lord for my mom, who watched the baby and cleaned my kitchen so I could get some shut-eye, and who does this kind of stuff all the time!

November 25: God, thank you for forgiveness. What a great message about Your forgiveness and forgiving others this morning!  If you want to take a listen, check it out here.  It was so good - I can't count how many times I've thought about it since.

November 26: Thank you Lord that my little girl is doing so well! The doctor said today that we can begin to treat her like a "normal" baby! What a blessing!

November 27: I heard a sermon a few years ago in Lawrence about how Christians are called to be good stewards of that which we are given, and that includes our earth. I've always considered myself pretty environmentally conscious - I recycle, I try to reduce uses of water and energy when possible, etc. but had never thought about it quite like that.  When we moved to Topeka, we found that curbside recycling was QUADRUPLE the price of what it was in Lawrence.  The city of Topeka has changed this, and we got our recycling bin today!  Thank you City of Topeka for making it so convenient!

November 28: Thank you God for my beautiful boy. He is so smart and funny, and continually causes me to stop and be in awe of Who You are. Thank you for choosing me to be his mommy.

November 29: We enrolled Charlie in Puggles (Awana for toddlers) this year, and I have been amazed at how quickly he is learning.  God, thank you that our son is taking to heart the things he is learning about You. Tonight in the car, out of the blue, he started listing things you have made - namely zebras, flowers, and chicken nuggets. :)

November 30: Thank you God for loving me.  I am consistently proving myself undeserving, but You in your mercy count me as Yours.  There are no words to explain love like this.

Thanksgiving: Week 4

November 17: A huge thank you to Kim Geer (whose website you can view here) for taking such amazing pictures of our family.  This is such a special time and we are so excited to have these memories preserved in such beautiful pictures.  Here's a peek:

November 18: Thank you Lord for doctors and modern medicine. Thank you that my son, with his 104 temperature, got in to see the doctor immediately and is now being treated for an ear infection. And thank you for his snuggles :)

November 19: God, thank you for my marriage. Thank you for commitment that runs deeper than feelings and love that goes beyond my imperfections. I am so immeasurably blessed.

November 20: I am so grateful to God for the friends he has placed in our lives.  We are blessed with wonderful people who love us and whom we have the opportunity to love!

November 21: I'm thankful for visits from my dad - Charlie and Lucy love their Pepa!

November 22: It's Thanksgiving Day and we have so very much to be thankful for, but above it all, I am so thankful for God's grace. It is because of His grace that all things good in my life exist at all.

November 23: Thank you God for precious memories.  

Thanksgiving: Week 3

November 10: God, thank you for the co-worker who brought Charlie the monkey that has brought him so much joy since Lucy's birth.  It's name is Mrs. Brown, but since Lucy came home Charlie has begun calling it "Baby Monkey." Pretty cute.

November 11: Thank you Lord for my church family.  I was able to go to church last Sunday for the first time in nine weeks.  That is a record for this lifetime church-goer!  It was wonderful to see everyone and to be back in corporate worship.

November 12: Lucy is changing more and more every day, but one thing remains the same - she is LOUD!  When she sleeps, she grunts, snores, and whimpers, just like her brother did.  And when she snuggles, she purrs.  So I am thankful for baby noises. So sweet.

November 13: I got this picture in a rare moment when my son was both sitting in my husband's lap AND sitting near his sister.  He was reading Where Is the Green Sheep? to her, and it was another reminder of how precious my family is.  God, thank you for my beautiful, healthy family.

November 14: I am so so so thankful for my parents.  My mom has been gone for three weeks now and I can't believe how much we depend on her!  Her absence has been sorely felt.  Both she and my dad were such great examples of godly parents.  I am so thankful for them!

November 15: Today I am thankful for favorite childhood movies.  I ordered Home Alone online because I show it every year at school during our Positive Reward Party, and every year I have to find someone to borrow it from.  It was on sale cheap on Amazon, so I bought it and watched it. So many memories...

November 16: Thank you God for my education. Thank you that my parents sent me to public school, thank you for teachers who cared, and thank you for relationships made along the way. I wouldn't trade the experience for anything, and it is responsible in part for both the teacher and the person I am today.

 

Thanksgiving: Week 2

November 3: God, I thank you for my beautiful baby girl, who is 1 month old today!

I'm going to try to do a picture like this each month on her month birthday.  We'll see!

It's hard to believe I was in the hospital giving birth to her one month ago today.  She has gotten so much bigger and has developed so many new skills - holding her head up, chugging a full feeding in fifteen minutes flat, and staying awake!  We are so proud of her, and she has stolen our hearts for sure.

November 4: Thank you Lord for an extra hour of sleep!  It's truly amazing how one hour can affect someone who is sleep-deprived!

November 5: Thank you God for parents and in-laws who live near by.  Our recent experience at the NICU with Lucy would have been such a nightmare without them.  They are always willing to serve us, and often at a huge inconvenience to themselves.  Our children have no idea how good they have it with both sets of grandparents living near by!

November 6: I really hate politics.  It's not that I don't care about the issues - I do.  What I hate about politics is how divisive they are.  Have you read CS Lewis' The Screwtape Letters?  When I think of politics, I think it would have been a perfect avenue for Uncle Screwtape to recommend to his apprentice Wormwood.  (If you haven't read the book, Screwtape is a demon of high ranking who is advising his nephew on how best to keep his "Patient" from being an effective follower of Christ.)  It is such an easy, quick way to stir up contention among people who may otherwise coexist peacefully.  However, I am thankful to God for the fact that I have the freedom and the right to vote, both as a citizen and a woman.

November 7: I am so so so thankful for my job.  Yesterday marks two months of being off work.  I can't believe how much I miss it.  I work with such awesome people and I am missing them daily.  I love working with kids and my building truly knows how to care for kids.  I am so blessed to work where I do!  God, thank you for the blessing of my job.

November 8: Lord, thank you for insurance. This week I received the EOB for my delivery and hospital stay - more than $20K.  Can you believe that?  I had a c-section and spent four nights in the hospital.  Crazy.  I don't even want to know whatour daughter's 19-day stay in the NICU cost!

November 9: God, thank you for my brother.  He is the greatest and I love him so dearly.  I can't imagine my life without him and I'm so glad my kids will have each other to experience the joys of siblinghood.  I love you, Al!

Yeah...we need an updated picture...

 

Thanksgiving: Week 1

Inspired by the Facebook trend to name one thing you are thankful for each day of the month of November, I am going to attempt to do this every Friday in observance of Thanksgiving!

November 1: I am so very thankful for my husband.  This has been without doubt the hardest semester he's ever had.  It may have also been the hardest two months we've experienced as a family, and he has definitely gone without sleep many nights.  But he is the most patient and giving man I know.  Last night he took the midnight and four o'clock feedings for me so I could sleep.  I argued, but he insisted.  He knows once I'm up, I'm up.  But if I can get back into bed quickly enough, I can trick my body into going back to sleep.  He told me to do that, and sure enough, I fell back asleep.  He was up for the next half hour, feeding, changing, and resettling our daughter.  Then he got up two hours later and drove to Lawrence for school.  He'll come back tonight, spend some time with all of us, and then stay up studying, doing homework, and taking care of our daughter while I sleep.  It doesn't get better than that.

November 2: Time at home with my baby.  She is only this age once.  She is four weeks old, so tiny, and such a precious bundle of cuddly cuteness.  My son won't let me hold him like this anymore, so I am soaking up all I can of this special stage of her life.

Thank You: Freezer Meals

Once upon a time in high school, I went to FCA camp and decided to take a shower after competition (though it was unlikely that I had broken a sweat).  No one was in the bunk except this girl I had barely talked to named Melissa.  As I was getting my shower stuff together, we began to talk and found that we had much in common.  We talked so long that I wasn't able to shower, and we continued to get to know each other throughout the weekend.  Since then, though we have never lived closer than an hour and a half, we have written letters (yes, actual letters) and emails, gone on trips, been in each other's weddings, and gotten to share the joys of motherhood together.  There is so much I admire about Melissa, and one of the things I admire most is how she is able to channel her care and concern for others into helpful, practical ways to support them.  When she found out about our bed rest situation, she cooked for a week straight and brought us a freezer full of meals.

See all of that stuff?  That's just what's on top.  It is literally a freezer FULL of food, including lasagna, chili, soup, brisket, seasoned pulled pork, potatoes, cookies - the works.  And not only did she bring all this food, she painstakingly typed a reference list of all the food, how many dinners of each there were (at least two of each), and specific preparations.

We have only eaten two of these meals so far, as people from church have been bringing us meals several times a week (thank you SOOOO much!), but it is so nice to know they are there waiting for us in the freezer.

I can't tell you what a ministry this act of Melissa's and the meals brought by our church family have been to us.  My husband has been such a trooper, shouldering nearly all of the responsibility around the house and with our son, but it has been so nice for neither of us to worry about meals.  So a HUGE thank you to Melissa and the folks who have been helping supply meals for us.  It has been SUCH a blessing.

Thank You: Dresser for the Nursery

 

I mentioned in this post that we needed a dresser for our baby girl's room.  Only a few days after I wrote this post, I was placed on bed rest by the doctor.  Getting the baby's room together just got a whole lot harder.
 

Our good friend Kallie read the post and realized she and our other friend Kristie could do something to help.  Kristie ended up with a dresser she had listed on Craigslist and been unable to sell:

Sorry so small! When I enlarged it was way distorted

She and Kristie volunteered to paint it and put new hardware on for us and then bring it to our house in Topeka.  Seriously?

 

Kristie sent me this picture last week:

 

 

And they delivered the finished product to us on Saturday:

 

Isn't this amazing?  It's exactly what we wanted in terms of storage, but this has so much character!  Kristie asked me what kind of hardware I wanted and I told her to do whatever - SOOOOO glad I did!  Aren't those pulls amazing?  They were original to the dresser and she removed them and painted each one.  Such creativity!  She is so stinking talented - check out her Etsy shop.  I can't wait to start using it in the baby's room, and it will be a piece of furniture she can use for years and years!

 

So a HUGE thank you to Kristie and Kallie!  You guys are the best!  This took a huge load off of us and gets us one step closer to having that nursery ready!



Thank You 5: My New Sink!

I went to California for four days, and not only did my husband give me a wonderful going away present, take care of our son, clean our house, do all the laundry, and go to work - he got me a new sink.

Now before you can fully appreciate this act of true love, you must understand our sink.

It was DISGUSTING. When it was new, it was probably nice, but whatever film had been put on it to protect it from stains had worn off LONG ago.  No matter how much I scrubbed, let it soak, used bleach - NOTHING would get this stinking thing to look clean.  And then there was the faucet.  It wouldn't shut off, no matter how you adjusted the handle.  Before going to bed at night I would place one of our water jugs underneath the faucet to catch the water and fill the jug.  It would be full in less than 10 minutes, and the remainder of the night it would drip over and leak into the sink.  I don't even want to know how much water was wasted because this stupid faucet wouldn't shut off, not to mention the tediously annoying drip, drip, drip.  Are you getting my tone, here? I HATE THIS SINK. I have been asking for a new one almost since we moved in.

When I returned from vacation, I found this:

It has a removable spout, with a button to adjust flow and spray AND there is so much room! I screamed, did a dance, jumped up and down - I made such a racket that my son came running into the room and asked, "What's wrong, Mommy?"  Nothing, my dear boy.  Your daddy is just my hero for the millionth time.

So thank you, thank you, thank you to my dear husband for my new sink!

Thank You 4: Mother's Day

My husband surprised me with my mother's day gift yesterday.  Mother's Day fell on graduation weekend and we had so much going on that we knew Mother's Day was going to get pushed to the back burner, at least until the summer.  But it had been so long I thought he had forgotten about it.

Nope.

We had finally gotten our son down for a nap after a very eventful day at the North pool and were simply taking some time for ourselves.  He asked me if I wanted my mother's day present now (honestly, are there people who say no to this type of question?) and went downstairs to retrieve it.

A bit of back story while he's downstairs: 95% of the time I'm okay with being cheap.  But there's this one tiny little thing that I do to pamper myself, and it's get my eyebrows shaped.  It's not exactly pampering - it doesn't feel great - but it is definitely something I don't need.  I don't spend money on this luxury - instead I ask for gift cards at Christmas and use them every few months until they are out.  I have been known to spend 3 eyebrow shapings worth on a pedicure (the ULTIMATE luxury!), but, as those are SO expensive and unnecessary, it doesn't happen often.

He comes back upstairs and gives me a gift card worth enough to do WHATEVER I want!  I could get a pedicure AND a manicure AND get my eyebrows shaped.  I could get my eyebrows shaped several times.  I could get a pedicure twice with money to spare.  When I asked him why it was so much, he said he wanted me to do whatever I wanted before my trip.

I'm going on a girls trip without him.  I'm spending money.  I'm leaving him in complete charge of our son.  I'm going to be having fun doing things I know he would love to be doing while he's at home.  I'm going to get to spend time with adults.  I'm going to get to eat at fun restaurants and see fun shows while he's watching Super Why and making PB & J.  And throughout the conceiving and planning of this entire trip, he has said "Go.  Don't worry about us, don't worry about the money, just go - we will be fine."  Not one mention of all the work this creates for him.

Translation: more evidence of what I have known since that summer at camp when we were 16.  This is the most caring, loving, giving man I could have ever found.  He is the true manifestation of what it means to put others first.  He serves faithfully and without question.  And the older we have gotten, and the more responsibilities we've taken on, the more fiercely committed he has become to the things he loves.  I count myself so blessed to be one of those for the rest of my life. 

So thanks, Babe - not just for the gift, but for you.

Thank You 3: Father's Day

Today is Father's Day, and I grew up with one heck of a father.  Rather than write a long, sentimental post about how much I love my dad and why, I've written a list of some of my favorite memories:

• Reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe on my parents' bed in our old house
• the three things before bed
• practicing hitting in the front yard, and my dad constantly telling me to "watch the ball" (I never ever got good at this)
• dad's tea in a big glass, with lots of ice
• having to wait at the grocery store, movies, or wherever we went while dad talked to former students who stopped him
• how commercials were free reign - dad would tie my brother and me into knots or tickle us until we could say "I love you tickle monster"
• getting busted for throwing a battery at my brother in the truck (he ducked and it put a big dent in the dash)
• accidentally burning my dad with the s'more stick while camping
• long, long, long car trips
• "last again"
• getting in trouble for rushing through a prayer so we could eat, because I wasn't really thinking about being thankful, was I?
• my dad walking down to meet me at the middle school to tell me my brother had been suspended from school (I think he needed the walk to cool off)
• telling my dad that this guy (my now husband) had a crush on me and might ask me out, and him saying "Good.  I think it's high time and he's a good kid."
• the prom speech
• my wedding day
• calling my dad when my car broke down - 
• Dad: "What did your husband say?"
• Me: "I don't know, I didn't ask him."
• Dad: "Hang up, call your husband. He's the man in your life now." Click.  Call husband.
• Me: "My car broke down. What do I do?"
• Husband: "I don't know - call your dad." Call Dad.
• Me: "He said to call you."
• Dad: "Okay - now I can help you."
• talking shop at the dinner table (much to the irritation of others present)
• watching my dad play with my son
• knowing I can call anytime, day or night, good or bad

I love you, Dad!

Thank You 2: Daycare

We don't pay for daycare. Why? Because we have freaking awesome moms who watch our son for us.  If this were not the case, we would have to put our son in daycare every day. Let's say it would cost us $100/week to put our boy in daycare (this would be an insane deal).  I have the summers off, so we are talking about approximately 40 weeks.  So let's do a little math:

$100/week x 40 weeks = $4,000

That's just for one year.  I have been back at work for two years now:

$4,000/year x 2 years = $8,000

Being a 1.25 income family, we could not have afforded this without an additional income.  This means that my husband would have had to get a full-time job, which would have made his schooling impossible. Not only is this a monetary blessing, but if we can't be at home with our child, who better than the people who raised us?  A HUGE thank you to our moms!

Thank Yous

I was taught that if you truly appreciate something, you should be emphatic about your thanks.  As a result, I send thank yous for everything.  I am often ostracized by certain family members for this practice, but it has remained a habit, and one I plan to teach my son.

I'm making a concentrated effort to focus on things for which I am thankful by blogging about them every so often.  I didn't have to think very hard to come up with one today.

My son was literally up ALL NIGHT.  My husband and I tag-teamed getting up with him, but I don't think I slept a wink from 12:50 on. I don't know how single people do it.  If I had ha to handle him on my own all night long, I may have throttled my son out of sheer frustration.  Okay, not really, but you get the point. Taking care of a child is so exhausting and demanding - especially when they can't sleep. I depend on my husband for so much, but more than anything last night, I was thankful his extra set of hands.