Jumping Daisy

When it comes to God, you either believe, you aren’t sure or you don’t. Though I know and love lots of people that fall into the second and third category, I am firmly grounded in the category of belief.  I try not to push God on people, because we all have reasons for believing and feeling the way we do, but it’s hard not to try to give others the kind of peace that I have myself found through God.  My philosophy is adopted from a quote attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Gospel Always: When Necessary, Use Words.”  I try my best to live my life for Christ, not because I feel like I have to, but because that is what feels right in my heart.

Day 2 of the month of thankfulness is dedicated to faith.  When my life comes to an end, I may find that the skeptics and non-believers were right all along but I don’t care.  I am thankful for the faith that I have found in God because it makes every part of my life on Earth better, and that alone makes standing up and claiming belief in a world of non believers worth it.

If loving you is wrong God, I don’t wanna be right! 🙂

I noticed that several of my Facebook friends have decided to post one thing they are thankful for each day during November. I decided to give this a shot, though I am sparing Facebook and instead posting my thankfulness here, where I am not limited to my status update field. I like to go on and on every once in a while. Like when I am talking about the things that are most important to me.

November 1st seems like the perfect day to declare my thankfulness for my Dad. Not only because I like him an awful lot, but because today my Dad turns 54. Happy Birthday Dad! When I think about my Dad I think about how much he has taught me about life and about the importance of family. I like to think of him as my moral compass, and when things get tough and I don’t know what to do, he is the one I look to for guidance.
When I was a little girl, too young to go to school I spent my days at home with my Dad, and I like to think about those days, and those times where it was just the two of us. I got myself into trouble more times then I care to remember but I have fond memories of following my Dad around the farm while he worked on different things, chatting his ear off about whatever passed through my mind.
When I was in College, I would frequently pick up the phone in the middle of the day, again, calling my Dad to chat and distract him from his work. I wish that it was still so easy for me to get away for a “quick” chat with Dad during my own work day.
I am so thankful for the guidance, the love and the always willing to listen ear of my father.

One of the things I love about our house…I can pretend that I live on a farm.  In fact, I went to sleep on the night this picture taken with my window open and the hum of the combine out my window singing me to sleep.

Photo credit goes to Cory for these!

I missed my own Kindergarten field trip, and when I was in school (listen to me) we only had one trip per year!  So this was my very first Kindergarten field trip.  It wasn’t the exotic zoo trip that I missed out on back in 1986 but I did enjoy the trip to the pumpkin patch, a block from our house.

The highlight of the day was early on.  After lunch we met up in Mrs. Halverson’s classroom and she asked the girls to all line up behind me so I could lead them to the bathroom for a last minute potty break before our walk up the street.  The girls got in line as directed and I started out the door and said, “Come on ladies! Lets go use the restroom!”  The girls erupted in giggles, “She called us ladies!”

We walked to the patch and had a presentation from the owners.  During the presentation I had three kindergartners sitting across my lap.  It took my legs a while to recover, but I honestly loved it.  I love kids, and I love feeling loved by them.  Leila and her two buddies that all nestled in on my lap were also by my side the whole afternoon while we walked through the patch.

 Leila’s class is great.  I loved spending the afternoon with them, and stuck around the classroom for the rest of the day when we got back. I put together puzzles with the kids and just enjoyed their company.  I can’t say it enough, kids are awesome.

We are working on week three with no washing machine.  Yeah, our house is a year old, as is our washing machine.  It is already dead and the part is taking forever to come in.  This sucks no matter how you look at it, but throw in the current state of potty training at our house and it double sucks. The mountains of dirty laundry at our house have taken on a life of their own and I just bought everyone new socks.

Things on the health and fitness trail have been derailing.  Birthday cake, a love of pizza, a lack of adult interaction and available baby sitters for my gym escape isn’t helping.  I turned 31, which reminded me of my failure to follow through on my 365 photo journal.

Leila is loving kindergarten and having lots of fun with her friends.  I attended their first class field trip (more about that later).  Five year old kids are awesome.  Leila is reading like a child who doesn’t belong in kindergarten, but her behavior shows us that she is right where she belongs.

Thea is still working on the potty training.  She has great days and not so great days, but she is very determined to not wear diapers, so we are pushing through.

Every time we load up in the car Thea wants to play I Spy.  I really like hearing her little voice, “I spy with my little eye…” but I do not like that she tends to forget what she spied so the game never ends and she always wins.

Winter isn’t here yet but I already find myself wearing my jacket and running my space heater all of the time at work.

Sometimes I wish that I had a commute to work so I could have some time alone to listen to the radio and prepare for my day.  Maybe then I wouldn’t feel so rushed all the time.

I may or may not have had 4 trips to the pumpkin patch so far this year…This was from the first trip, before the rest of the Daisy troop arrived.

Mabel turned one on October 7th and we got to celebrate with her with a very hungry caterpillar birthday.  The birthday girl, always out to impress, gave the best cake eating performance I have ever seen at a first birthday party…

Thanks Mom, don’t mind if I do.

Yeah, I think I’ll have some more!

How much can I fit in at once?

Missed a piece!  Can’t leave anything behind!

Thank you may I have another?

Seriously.  Do you see that mouth open so wide her nose is crinkled picture? Priceless.

And look at her fans enjoying her special day! 🙂

The past few weeks have been busy with football games, and girl scouting outings.  Leila is in a Daisy troop that includes a lot of little girls that not only live in our neighborhood, but are also, for the most part, in her kindergarten class.  She has a few girls that she seems to be particularly close to, and I am happy that they are in her troop as well.  Not only does she get to spend time with friends that she has been bonding with in school, but she also gets the opportunity to spend time with other little girls that live close by and are in different kindergarten sections.  All of the girls are adorable and sweet, and I have enjoyed getting to know them. Luckily, there are also lots of little siblings close to Thea’s age, so the events can be fun for the whole family.

My baby brother got married this weekend.  I have to say, it was a bit unreal to see him standing at the alter waiting for his bride.  I remember him like yesterday, with his wild curly mullet. He would be running around causing trouble, climbing grain bins, skinny dipping in mud puddles, plugging his nose with his upper lip and making that super weird noise that no one else seems able to imitate.

Follow that up with watching Sam, Clay’s best man, who four months ago we thought would not survive, walk up the aisle and I was a mess before the bride even made her entrance.  Bekah was beautiful, no surprise there.  One of the things that l love about her is that she is so natural and she looked just that, natural and beautiful.

My photos are a little fuzzy.  I hate flash, not that it would have worked in this situation anyway, but maybe by the next family wedding I will know how to use my camera.

The ceremony was very nice, not too long, not too short.  The music was perfect, I especially liked that In This Very Room was included.  That is a favorite of mine.

The reception was also beautiful, and a testament to Clay and Bekah’s relaxed attitude, that you don’t have to sweat all of the little details to have a perfect wedding day!

Loved it all, a wonderful weekend.  Priceless.  Of course I could go on about my new sister, but really, she has been one of us for so long and this wedding was a bit of a technicality. Mabel may have moved things along a little quicker than they expected, but this was meant to be, and I couldn’t be happier for all of us for the wonderful addition to our family.