Wish I could share a youtube of this song but I can't so will just post the lyrics instead. I have heard this song several times and just love it. Its "More Like Falling in Love" by Jason Gray. There's a few differences in the lyrics depending on which site I look at but this is pretty much it.
Give me rules
I will break them
Give me lines
I will cross them
I need more than a truth to believe
I need a truth that lives, moves, and breathes
To sweep me off my feet
It ought to be
More like falling in love
Than something to believe in
More like losing my heart
Than giving my allegiance
Caught up, called out
Come take a look at me now
It's like I'm falling, oh
It's like I'm falling in love
Give me words
I'll misuse them
Obligations
I'll misplace them
'Cause all religion ever made of me
Was just a sinner with a stone tied to my feet
It never set me free
It's gotta be
More like falling in love
Than something to believe in
More like losing my heart
Than giving my allegiance
Caught up, called out
Come take a look at me now
It's like I'm falling, oh
It's like I'm falling in love
...It's like I'm falling in love, love, love
Deeper and deeper
It was love that made
Me a believer
In more than a name, a faith, a creed
Falling in love with Jesus brought the change in me
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Decluttering time again
We have been in the new house for 6 months now and I can see that its time to declutter! I've had more than enough time see how we will use each area of the house. I really need to make use of the closet space we have and do some major sorting. Summer clothes have been brought out (not sure why with this rain) but winter clothes are still out, so laundry needs sorted through. I also need to sort through the home school and craft stuff. We just received a large order and I realized I don't even know where I am going to put it all! So I once again am starting the decluttering process, which I love to do. I've posted about my thoughts on decluttering before and you can see those if you click organization in the list on the right. Hope your Juneuary is going well.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Tunnel Vision
One of my favorite times of day is cuddling Naomi to sleep. When she climbs into bed and says "lets tuddle" my heart just melts. I love snuggling up to her as she wiggles around trying to find the spot. Which is usually head on my shoulder with one leg draped over my body. lol I love smelling her sweaty head, hearing her soft breath, and feeling her warmth snuggled next to me. Two year old head is a whole different smell from that newborn scent we women like to inhale with long deep breaths. It is a wonderful smell none the less. She smells of play. Of grass, sweat, and dirt. She smells of something only children can accomplish.
Some days bedtime takes only about 15 minutes or so and I cherish every moment of it. It won't be long before she won't want to cuddle with me. She all ready doesn't cuddle much during the day. She is going, going, going all day long. Then there are some days, and thankfully these are few and far between, when bedtime takes about 45 minutes or longer because her mind is going 1,000 miles per hour and she is just trying to process it all. She wiggles and wiggles and can't seem to find the one spot that is comfortable enough to bring sleep. She picks at my freckles and decides every 10 seconds that she wants the blanket and then she doesn't want the blanket. Every sound brings questions and I can literally see her brain working behind her eyes. She whispers to me as I lay there pretending to be asleep. "Mama wats dat?" "Mama dat da titty?" "Yes sweetie thats the kitty, now cuddle, lets sleep." I say as we settle down for another round of where's the sleep spot.
Sometimes I give up and just get out of bed with her but usually I just try and wait it out. I know she is tired and just needs a quiet space to bring some peace to her mind before sleep takes over. These times are quite often not my favorite. In fact they can be downright frustrating. Some days I have had one to many boogers wiped on me and feel incredibly touched out and have Joe put Nomy to bed and some days I just take a deep breath and make a choice. I choose to cuddle my daughter to sleep at night. When I am frustrated that she won't go to sleep when I want her to I tell myself I have a choice. I could choose many other methods for getting her to sleep but I don't.
This post really isn't about the different methods of sleep training or getting children to bed. Its about the sweet smell of my last baby girl. Its about the way her nose wrinkles when she finally drifts off to sleep and I sit and stare at her almost afraid to move because our bed creaks when I get up. Its about the tunnel vision I get staring at her sleeping face. Watching every breath her body takes in and me completely forgetting any frustration the evenings bedtime routine caused. Its like that moment after birth when all we see is our baby and all we feel is love just pouring out of us like its going to spill over and fill the world. We completely forget the moaning, the rocking, the swaying, the in and out of the birth tub. We forget the pain and have tunnel vision that lets us see only one thing for a brief moment.
What a wondrous thing motherhood is.
Some days bedtime takes only about 15 minutes or so and I cherish every moment of it. It won't be long before she won't want to cuddle with me. She all ready doesn't cuddle much during the day. She is going, going, going all day long. Then there are some days, and thankfully these are few and far between, when bedtime takes about 45 minutes or longer because her mind is going 1,000 miles per hour and she is just trying to process it all. She wiggles and wiggles and can't seem to find the one spot that is comfortable enough to bring sleep. She picks at my freckles and decides every 10 seconds that she wants the blanket and then she doesn't want the blanket. Every sound brings questions and I can literally see her brain working behind her eyes. She whispers to me as I lay there pretending to be asleep. "Mama wats dat?" "Mama dat da titty?" "Yes sweetie thats the kitty, now cuddle, lets sleep." I say as we settle down for another round of where's the sleep spot.
Sometimes I give up and just get out of bed with her but usually I just try and wait it out. I know she is tired and just needs a quiet space to bring some peace to her mind before sleep takes over. These times are quite often not my favorite. In fact they can be downright frustrating. Some days I have had one to many boogers wiped on me and feel incredibly touched out and have Joe put Nomy to bed and some days I just take a deep breath and make a choice. I choose to cuddle my daughter to sleep at night. When I am frustrated that she won't go to sleep when I want her to I tell myself I have a choice. I could choose many other methods for getting her to sleep but I don't.
This post really isn't about the different methods of sleep training or getting children to bed. Its about the sweet smell of my last baby girl. Its about the way her nose wrinkles when she finally drifts off to sleep and I sit and stare at her almost afraid to move because our bed creaks when I get up. Its about the tunnel vision I get staring at her sleeping face. Watching every breath her body takes in and me completely forgetting any frustration the evenings bedtime routine caused. Its like that moment after birth when all we see is our baby and all we feel is love just pouring out of us like its going to spill over and fill the world. We completely forget the moaning, the rocking, the swaying, the in and out of the birth tub. We forget the pain and have tunnel vision that lets us see only one thing for a brief moment.
What a wondrous thing motherhood is.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Rain, rain, and yet more rain
This year has been a rainy one. Joe told me he heard it was the wettest May in history. I am not surprised if that is true. The few days of sunshine we have had were absolutely wonderful and I am aching for more. Sad to say that the radio just informed me another week of this is coming.
The garden is not doing well with all this soggy weather and hail even. I have never been unable to grow the cool weather crops and this year it is just a dismal failure. Sad for us as we are still buying store lettuce and greens. The lettuce we do get this year will taste so good though as we have waited a month longer than normal for it. lol
I am also worried about my tomatoes and peppers which I put out at my estimate of last frost, May 15th. A good 2 weeks past last years date but I figured its a bit higher up here and I will play it safe. I have lost a good amount of tomato plants this year. Not sure exactly how many are left but I put out over 100 this year. Some succumbed to the hail we had two weeks ago, others to the high winds we had several days later, some just withered up from lack of sun I think. I am not losing hope yet though!
My estimation for our first frost date is still a good 120 or so days away. Still plenty of time to pull the waterlogged plants and plant some new seeds if I have too. So there may still be tomato sauce in our pantry this fall!
I do find it funny that I count up to the last frost date all winter and early spring only to turn around and start counting down to the first frost date. At then a few months later I will start it all over again. Hope you are all having a wonderful spring or fall depending on where you are!
The garden is not doing well with all this soggy weather and hail even. I have never been unable to grow the cool weather crops and this year it is just a dismal failure. Sad for us as we are still buying store lettuce and greens. The lettuce we do get this year will taste so good though as we have waited a month longer than normal for it. lol
I am also worried about my tomatoes and peppers which I put out at my estimate of last frost, May 15th. A good 2 weeks past last years date but I figured its a bit higher up here and I will play it safe. I have lost a good amount of tomato plants this year. Not sure exactly how many are left but I put out over 100 this year. Some succumbed to the hail we had two weeks ago, others to the high winds we had several days later, some just withered up from lack of sun I think. I am not losing hope yet though!
My estimation for our first frost date is still a good 120 or so days away. Still plenty of time to pull the waterlogged plants and plant some new seeds if I have too. So there may still be tomato sauce in our pantry this fall!
I do find it funny that I count up to the last frost date all winter and early spring only to turn around and start counting down to the first frost date. At then a few months later I will start it all over again. Hope you are all having a wonderful spring or fall depending on where you are!
Monday, May 17, 2010
Garden Season
I am full into garden season now, my absolute favorite time of year. Spring brings not only my birthday but new life, growth, and the chance to dig my hands into the earth and feel the warmth of sun kissed dirt. My nails are always brown even with gloves and chances are my face is brown too from wiping my hair out of my eyes with my garden gloved hands.
This year is a big garden year for us. We have sold three shares of our garden, one to a complete stranger! It was interesting getting a check in the mail, that I was not expecting, from someone who wants to buy our produce every week. Turns out its a friend of a friend so they didn't go into it blindly but I still have yet to actually speak with this person. lol In addition to the garden shares (think CSA but I was to scared to call it that) we also sold some produce to my mom and are planning our fall harvest to be huge for root cellaring.
So whats in the ground? So far its been slow going. Lots of rain has hampered my efforts and being in a new, higher elevation, area I was worried about frost. None of my neighbors could give me a good answer. I heard everything from July to when the snow is gone from Mt. Pleasant. Umm where is Mt. Pleasant? I ended up calling a local dahlia nursery a few miles away and they were very friendly and helpful. Ooops thats me getting sidetracked, so back to what is in the ground. So far potatoes (3 varieties), lots of tomatoes, carrots, snap peas, many varieties of lettuces, radishes, spinach, cabbage, swiss chard, arugula. I have a ton of starts left to go in the ground and many, many seeds left to plant.
I love spending time in my garden, I even tolerate the spiders when I am there. If you know me personally you know spider tolerating is huge for me. lol I still have one garden bed to de-rock and then I can finish mulching the paths. I hope you are all enjoying your spring (or fall) and are looking forward to the coming season.
This year is a big garden year for us. We have sold three shares of our garden, one to a complete stranger! It was interesting getting a check in the mail, that I was not expecting, from someone who wants to buy our produce every week. Turns out its a friend of a friend so they didn't go into it blindly but I still have yet to actually speak with this person. lol In addition to the garden shares (think CSA but I was to scared to call it that) we also sold some produce to my mom and are planning our fall harvest to be huge for root cellaring.
So whats in the ground? So far its been slow going. Lots of rain has hampered my efforts and being in a new, higher elevation, area I was worried about frost. None of my neighbors could give me a good answer. I heard everything from July to when the snow is gone from Mt. Pleasant. Umm where is Mt. Pleasant? I ended up calling a local dahlia nursery a few miles away and they were very friendly and helpful. Ooops thats me getting sidetracked, so back to what is in the ground. So far potatoes (3 varieties), lots of tomatoes, carrots, snap peas, many varieties of lettuces, radishes, spinach, cabbage, swiss chard, arugula. I have a ton of starts left to go in the ground and many, many seeds left to plant.
I love spending time in my garden, I even tolerate the spiders when I am there. If you know me personally you know spider tolerating is huge for me. lol I still have one garden bed to de-rock and then I can finish mulching the paths. I hope you are all enjoying your spring (or fall) and are looking forward to the coming season.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Meet PomPom
This is our favorite addition to our flock this year. All of the birds are Speckled Sussex except for this one. He or she was thrown in for free with our chick order since we ordered more than 25. We are not 100% sure what she/he is but we "think" she is a White Crested Black Polish Bantam. She was less than a week old in this picture and has since lost the pom pom fuzz on top. It has been replaced with white feathers as she is now about 2 months old.
It seems I have figured out this blogging on dial up issue and will hopefully be here more often. I have really missed blogging! So coming soon are pictures of the new place!
Meet PomPom
Some of the others at less than a week old.
It seems I have figured out this blogging on dial up issue and will hopefully be here more often. I have really missed blogging! So coming soon are pictures of the new place!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Living off the Pantry
Keeping a well stocked pantry is high on my list of priorities. There are many reasons I do this. One being I like to know that the items in there were purchased on sale, saving us money. Another is I do not like to run out of things mid cooking. Knowing that I have beans, rice, and baking supplies on hand is comforting to me. I enjoy feeding my family. Making bread is one of the highlights of my day. Dinner can sometimes be a chore but I am working on that. lol
Before we moved in January we discovered that the budget needed a lot of tweaking. We though that our first months rent would be the pro rated amount like it usually has been when we moved mid month somewhere. Well this was our first time using a rental company and how they do it is the second months rent is prorated for the amount it would have been in the first month. Quite a shocker for us since we had rearranged our budget to accommodate paying final bills and new bills and had a lot of overlapping bills making it a very tight month and a half. As we looked at out budget the only extra that could go to this unexpected amount was either savings or the food budget.
I told Joe that I could feed the six of us on just our pantry and freezer stores for 6 weeks. He was skeptical but I was certain I could do it. We did buy milk and some fruit during this time but not a lot. I am so thankful that we had this store of food. Had this been a real emergency we would have been fine. I could have even stretched it farther if needed! I am very thankful for this and even more determined to have a stocked pantry after this experience.
We did not starve but towards the end the options were limited. lol The kids were hit the hardest I think. One day Joe came home with his lunch dishes in a plastic bag and the two littles rushed him yelling "Did you go the the grocery store?!!" lol I think thoughts of goldfish crackers were running through their heads. :) The snack options were limited and for the last week snack consisted of a loaf of homemade bread with peanut butter and a jar of apple butter. My kind of snack! Many soups were enjoyed and a lot of beans were eaten. I feel like this experience really strengthened my cooking skills.
Now the task of restocking my pantry is at hand. Luckily this happened at tax season where we were able to throw a bit of that to restocking the pantry. Its not where it was before but will be soon. Living off our pantry for 6 weeks also showed me what I really need to focus on stocking a lot of. We were just about out of flour and some kinds of beans. We still had a lot of rice. We completely ran out of most baking supplies, frozen/canned vegetables, and meats by the end. We had an ample supply of jams and jellies thanks to our canning the previous year.
I am excited that we were able to do this. It was daunting at the beginning and a little scary. We had little extra money to throw into the food budget if this failed and I am happy to say that it was not only successful but it taught me a lot about our food usage. I am looking forward to this spring when I will plant our garden and am all ready planning a root cellar for inside our garage. I am mid re-organizing and re-stocking the new pantry area and when I get it cleaned up a bit I will post some pantry photos and more details here on Lally.
Have you ever lived off your pantry? Either by choice or by necessity? What kinds of things are most important to you to keep stocked in your pantry? I would love to hear about it here in the comments.
Before we moved in January we discovered that the budget needed a lot of tweaking. We though that our first months rent would be the pro rated amount like it usually has been when we moved mid month somewhere. Well this was our first time using a rental company and how they do it is the second months rent is prorated for the amount it would have been in the first month. Quite a shocker for us since we had rearranged our budget to accommodate paying final bills and new bills and had a lot of overlapping bills making it a very tight month and a half. As we looked at out budget the only extra that could go to this unexpected amount was either savings or the food budget.
I told Joe that I could feed the six of us on just our pantry and freezer stores for 6 weeks. He was skeptical but I was certain I could do it. We did buy milk and some fruit during this time but not a lot. I am so thankful that we had this store of food. Had this been a real emergency we would have been fine. I could have even stretched it farther if needed! I am very thankful for this and even more determined to have a stocked pantry after this experience.
We did not starve but towards the end the options were limited. lol The kids were hit the hardest I think. One day Joe came home with his lunch dishes in a plastic bag and the two littles rushed him yelling "Did you go the the grocery store?!!" lol I think thoughts of goldfish crackers were running through their heads. :) The snack options were limited and for the last week snack consisted of a loaf of homemade bread with peanut butter and a jar of apple butter. My kind of snack! Many soups were enjoyed and a lot of beans were eaten. I feel like this experience really strengthened my cooking skills.
Now the task of restocking my pantry is at hand. Luckily this happened at tax season where we were able to throw a bit of that to restocking the pantry. Its not where it was before but will be soon. Living off our pantry for 6 weeks also showed me what I really need to focus on stocking a lot of. We were just about out of flour and some kinds of beans. We still had a lot of rice. We completely ran out of most baking supplies, frozen/canned vegetables, and meats by the end. We had an ample supply of jams and jellies thanks to our canning the previous year.
I am excited that we were able to do this. It was daunting at the beginning and a little scary. We had little extra money to throw into the food budget if this failed and I am happy to say that it was not only successful but it taught me a lot about our food usage. I am looking forward to this spring when I will plant our garden and am all ready planning a root cellar for inside our garage. I am mid re-organizing and re-stocking the new pantry area and when I get it cleaned up a bit I will post some pantry photos and more details here on Lally.
Have you ever lived off your pantry? Either by choice or by necessity? What kinds of things are most important to you to keep stocked in your pantry? I would love to hear about it here in the comments.
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