winner winner chicken dinner

Oh my goodness... I can't contain my excitement... I just won an official Gussy bag! Yeow!

I know I've been a little crappy with the blogging lately... home and work have been busy and stressful and it looks like things will be staying that way for a bit... this alternative certification process is going to end up taking a bit of concentration and preparation... hey... maybe I can keep myself better organized and control the paperwork that it is taking me to get this done in my new Gussy bag?!?!

Anywho, thank you to Gussy and the folks at Love Feast Table for having the fabulous giveaway. I'm super excited!

thrilled

pardon the lowercase and any typos.... i'm blogging and nursing... necessary multitasking.

i just couldn't wait to tell everyone that one of my all time favorite blogs, the painted house, is BACK!!!! she took a bloggy brreak, but next week she is coming back in full force and having some giveaways to celebrate (including one of her fabulous paintings... lemme tell you i would just die if i won!!!) so,please go take a sneak peak... she is fab-u-lous!

One Thing

Mrs. Fussypants offered a challenge of choosing ONE THING to work on yourself for the week.  I probably should make mine 'remembering to exfoliate and moisterize' but instead I opted for "avoiding complaining"...  I think the opportunity to focus on how God has so graciously gifted me in my life will be a real mood lifter and day brightener, both for me and the rest of my family!

What will your ONE THING be?

p.s.  CK, I'm gettin' those pillows finished!  Don't give up on me!!!!!!

The Reality

Its taken me a little while to get around to doing some updates around here. For the longest time, I've had this whole 'routine' here as I read my way through blog land... there are my 'must reads' that are in my recent history, then the blogs whose url's I know by heart and type in by hand, then a whole list of different blogs that are bookmarked in my 'favorites' list which also contains a whole mess of other bookmarked links, so in other words, I have this little routine of jumping around from here to there and back again. Inevitably there are a few I forget to check and doing so means I miss out on a cool giveaway or an important announcement in the life of those I follow in blogland. My list is not complete, I have a few changes and additions to make, but at least I've compiled that majority of my 'daily' (ok, they are not ALL daily reads but I do check these frequently) reads. I don't know why I put off creating/updating this list for so long, it seemed tedious, but now that it is finished, in honestly only took about 15 minutes. Please feel free to peruse this list of wonderful sites and blogs. Hopefully you'll find something new and inspiring to read!

Prayers

Please say a prayer for Clover Lane and Out on a Limb

100 & unwrapped

Pop quiz:

Today I'm:

a)hosting a giveaway

b)participating in chatting at the sky's Tuesdays unwrapped (which technically was Monday evening unwrapped)

c)celebrating my 100th post

d)all of the above

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take your time to think about this one.

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a)the giveaway: my friend ck suggested i do a giveaway that involved me doing a sewing project and I decided to take her advice. I will make 2 throw pillows for the lucky winner in the color scheme of your choice. all of this is 'within reason'. I'm not going to go out and buy $500/yd fabric, but I WILL make you 2 very pretty pillows. Promise.

Here's the details: if you want to enter to win 2 free throw pillows made by yours truly, leave me a comment with 1)something you've enjoyed reading on my blog AND 2)a description of the colors you'd like in your 2 throw pillows. You need to leave me some way to get in contact with you, so if you have a blog, leave me a link, if you don't make sure I have your email address.

Finally: one entry per person PLEASE! comments taken through Friday April 24th noon CST.

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b)Emily from Chatting at the sky is hosting Tuesdays unwrapped... just a little glimpse into every day life. Last night, husband had a soccer game late in the evening and I was a little frantic about having the girls at home by myself for the third night in a row. So, we decided to make things easy by having sandwiches, bananas and cheese crackers for dinner and just playing in our backyard. Our backyard is not fancy and will never be featured in a magazine (unless its the 'don't' type of illustration), but it has come a long way since we first bought this house 3 years ago. We haven't oured a ton of money into it, but every summer it gets a little better and it is now finally safe enough and has the appropriate toys for my girls to have some fun playing... here's a picture:

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c) and finally, yes I am celebrating my 100th post. I know I don't have a big following like some of my favorite bloggers- June from byebyepie, PW of Pioneerwoman, Nester from the nesting place... but I really didn't start this blog as some sort of popularity contest. Its really just a glimpse into my life that I hope I'll be able to keep up so that my girls can see what my life is all about. So, here's to the next 100 posts!!!

help me find....

every once in a while, i stumble up on a blog that i think is so charming and i forget to add it to my favorites list (need to update my links over there--> but i'll have to do that some other time), and this is one of those times.

this blogger is a super cute texas mom w/a video camera. she did a specific blog post having to do with 4 ways to tie a scarf. i wanted to check back in to her blog for some other reason (that i can't recall now) but i don't remember which blog this is.

does this sound familiar to anyone? anyone? beuller? beuller?

if so, leave me a comment!

VOTE!

I just thought I wasn't going to get all political on my blog... but it turns out... I AM! Oh yes, I am!

One of my favorite reads, Chatting at the Sky, is up for a weblog award- best small blog. So, now, you need to do your civic (ok so it isn't civic- its more pleasing me and miss Emily) duty and go vote for her once every 24 hours. Seriously. I just went and voted and she's getting whooped by like 2000 votes or something, so she really needs your support and more importantly her VOTE.

Oh, and go read her blog too. She's witty, creative, kind, compassionate, fun and REAL.

Here's the link where you can vote for her. Do it now.

photo op

Ree over at the Pioneer Woman asked this question today (for one of her giveaways): What is your favorite photography subject?

Well, the answer came easy for me (maybe I'll win that awesome printer!)... its my girls... what I've learned as a mommy is that taking pictures of your kids is kind of an art. It is not a science. Not something that can be 'mastered'... you have to work work work at it (i.e. snap snap snap a lot of pictures) and every once in a while you get something really cute....

so, I thought I'd share some of my favorites

oldest daughter:

youngest daughter:

What I'm working on...

So my actual JOB is keeping me very busy these days. As my 'about me' says, I'm an NFP teacher, teacher trainee to be exact, but I'm in the midst of completing my final exam. Its fascinating, incredibly difficult, and really has me in total awe of having NFP in my life. I can't imagine, comprehend our family planning going any other way. I don't say this to be judgmental, I say it because for better or for worse, learning, understanding, and teaching NFP has given me so much awe and wonder for the way that our bodies have been created, the way they work, the way that there are ANSWERS to the things that people (especially our culture's 'modern medicine') ignore, cover up, and destroy. I don't write this to be preachy. I write this because there is an amazing amount of mis-information being fed to our society and it sickens me and makes me hurt for those who believe it and allow it to become a part of their lives. Like I said, I can't imagine living that way because if I found out this TRUTH, I would be heartbroken. That's why I DO what I DO.

Two other things I'm thinking about, toying with, working on for my blog... those living room pictures I promised (maybe husband will help me get the living room clean so that I feel like I can actually share pictures!). I've also been reading two blogs (Mindless Junque and Pioneer Woman)each of which share fascinating stories of how they came to be with the loves of their lives (respectively). I'm enthralled. It has me thinking a lot about my LOVE and how we came to be, so I'm considering spending a little bit of time writing our story. I don't want to lose the details later on in life when my girls are old enough to ask about them. There's so far back that I'm considering needing to go in order to really explain it all, so I've got to figure out the story and edit it down to the message I really want to express.

So... stay tuned.

p.s. has anyone taken notice that one of my all time favorite reality shows, The Mole is about to come back on?! Cannot WAIT!