A month to give thanks

Before this month began, I decided to celebrate a new gratitude with God each day.  As a mom, it is so easy-- too easy-- to get caught up in the mundane day-to-day trials that life brings and completely overlook the joys God blesses us with on those very same days.

So far this month, I have thanked God for many blessings.  From my previous post, on the first day of November, I thanked Him for the blessing of my son, who He blessed us with 4 years ago.  Henry has never been what someone could consider an "easy" child, but I truly feel that our bond is stronger because of his very strong personality.

Throughout last week, I was also able to witness God's amazing hand at work in all areas of my life.  Specifically on November 2, I was thankful for a God who can.  A few months back, we had a message series titled "God Can," with the entire message that on our own, we can't, but when we trust God, He can.  And, He has!

On one of my busiest work days, when I had focus on my various courses and different groups of students, and their individual needs, I was thankful for my job.  I have always know I wanted to be a teacher, and to be a teacher of future teachers at our local university is truly a joy.

The end of the week brought immense gratitude for a full refrigerator and money left in our wallet.  Not long ago, Jim and I set out to become entirely debt free, paying for our purchases solely with cash.  While we aren't quite debt free yet, we are making amazing stride, and by the grace of God (and some help from couponing websites), our grocery budget has decreased significantly, leaving some "extra"money at the end of each month!

My weekend gratitude was for a wonderful celebration of Henry's fourth birthday.  We had a gorgeous day outside, shared with our family and a close friend, delicious food and yummy cake.

 

What are you thanking God for today?

Vet Med Open House

One of the things I love about our community is how close we are to all the resources the U of I provides.  This weekend, while Olivia was having a girl scout activity, we took Henry to visit the Vet Med Open House.  It was adorable as he suited up for surgery, looked at x-rays to figure out what was wrong with his patient, and then performed surgery to remove a bottle cap from the stomach of a dog.  I guess Peyton is in good hands now.

Looking for the bottle cap. . . .

Got it!

Life Has Been Happening

The last few months have been full of memory making moments . . .

We watched two Monarch caterpillars turn into beautiful butterflies. . . 

We visited the zoo . . .

Olivia started second grade. . .

She was thrilled that one of her best buds is in her class. . . 

Henry started the 3's room at pre-school . . . (yes, he's only 3)

Olivia participated in her DAWG-Walk at school . . .

And we enjoyed the Illinois Homecoming Parade.

We can't wait to see what the next few months bring!

Little Swimmer

We know that Olivia is completely comfortable in the water, but we weren't 100% sure how Henry would take to swim lessons. Apparently, he is going to love the water as much as his sister. His first session of lessons went amazingly well, and by the end he was swimming with big swimming arms, face in, blowing bubbles on his own. Woo-hoo! He now likes being under the water just as much as (if not more than) being above it!

Doing the Superman glide:

Superman glide back to the side:

Big swimmer arms:

A Taste of Summer

Apparently we can grow our own food!  Our first cucumber of the season:

It looks good- we'll see how it tastes at dinner tonight!

Summer!

Summer is in full swing, and we are taking advantage of every minute!  Last night we enjoyed Cars 2 at the drive-in, complete with popcorn, way too much candy and not enough sleep.  This morning, since I knew Olivia would be no good in a pool after going to bed at midnight, we went berry picking instead and came home with 2 pounds of blueberries.  And as if that wasn't enough, we also tried our hand at making homemade ice cream- delicious!

 Buckets o' blueberries:

Homemade ice cream recipe from Family Fun magazine
Follow this link, or read on . . .

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup half and half
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup salt (The bigger the granules, the better. Kosher or rock salt works best, but table salt is fine.)

• Ice cubes (enough to fill each gallon-size bag about half full)
• 1 pint-size ziplock bag
• 1 gallon-size ziplock bag

Instructions

1. Combine the sugar, half and half, and vanilla extract in the pint-size bag and seal it tightly.
   
2. Place the salt and ice in the gallon-size bag, then place the sealed smaller bag inside as well. Seal the larger bag. Now shake the bags until the mixture hardens (about 5 minutes). Feel the small bag to determine when it's done.
   
3. Take the smaller bag out of the larger one, add mix-ins, and eat the ice cream right out of the bag. Easy cleanup too! Serves 1.

Shake it until it turns into ice cream:

Eating homemade ice cream right from the bag!

Marco Island Part 2

More pictures of Marco, as promised!

Henry, burying daddy in the sand:

One of the sandcastles of the week:

The final sandcastle (or should I say sand-kingdom!) Olivia was ready to sell her sand-castle-building services by this time!

Enjoying the view

Playing at the beach all day is hard work!

Going parasiling!

Being dipped on the way back to the boat:

Marco sunrise:

Enjoying the waves:

Great time, great trip!