There is always something for which to be thankful...

This Thanksgiving seems to have a new meaning to me.  I think I've gained a new perspective this past year on giving thanks.  I've been doing the 30 days of thanks challenge on Facebook, posting each day something I'm thankful for.  I know for some it isn't your thing, but it has given me a chance to really reflect on each day and think about all the things I'm thankful for.  Even on those hard and trying days, I was still able to find something to give thanks to.
It is so easy sometimes to allow the selfish human side of us to sneak in, and we sulk in the things we don't have.  We reflect on what others have and want what our neighbors have.  We use the line, "Life's not fair," when things aren't going the way we wish they would go.  We get caught up in the great deals of the holiday shopping weekend, thinking we NEED all the latest and high tech gear. 
But I want to challenge you to be thankful for all circumstances in life.  A good friend of mine recently posted on her Facebook page being thankful for the hard and challenging times in her life this year. She is thankful for these moments, because now she can connect with others that may go through similar experiences in life. Wow!  What a powerful reflection for others in her faith and walk with Jesus Christ.
As Josh and I are journeying through being a licensed foster care home, we have truly been giving thanks in all circumstances. I never would have guessed 10 years ago that this is what my life would be like right now.  If life hadn't worked out the way it has, we wouldn't be starting this chapter in our lives. We are realizing how blessed we are to share our home. God has certainly been carrying us through this experience, and making us feel at peace through it all.  
So I hope that you are able to take some time and give thanks for all of your experiences, even though it may be difficult. 

So I'm going to learn to sew...

I've always had an interest deep down to sew.  When I was younger, I admired my Grandma Peach for her skill of sewing.  She made beautiful quilts and each grandchild got one from her when we were babies.  I still have it today.  She also made her dresses. They were simple, but with great prints and they fit her perfectly.  It was my dream to learn some skills from her before she passed-away, but it didn't happen unfortunately.  I took a "stab" at sewing when I was younger for a 4-H project and made a piano seat cushion with the help of my mom, but that is as far as anything I've ever done.
Lately I've had an interest though in making some simple clothes, so for Christmas this past year I asked for a sewing machine.  When school got out I finally took the sewing machine out of the box and attempted to figure it out.  Little did I know that I have a husband who has this under control!  With a little help of the diagrams he had the sewing machine threaded in no time.  (He was taught well from his skilled-sewing mom) I was shocked!  I guess I know who to turn to when I'm struggling.  So I've been tagging a couple of things that I would like to try on pinterest. I figured if I posted about it on here, then it might motivate me to try some of the patterns out.

Here is one of the first projects I'd like to try.  Simple Skirt



Now if I can just find the right fabric I need.....

Back to My Roots...

Last weekend I had a fabulous time celebrating our family Christmas.  Yes I know it was a little late, but this was the best weekend for my brother and his family to visit, since he had to go to Wisconsin for his job.  It was a weekend filled with smiles and laughter, and I really miss these times we have as a family.  Since the weather was so nice, my brother wanted to get the "kids" out of the house ( I use the term "kids" loosely as I think we all wanted to go out and do something together) and went to the family farm.  It had been a long time since I had been out the farm, in particular the timber. My brother and his wife took the "mule" with the kids in the back, and Josh and I went on the four wheeler.  We had a blast!  Riding throughout the timber, watching the kids smiling in front of us and "directing" traffic to make sure that we were going to stop. We saw a beautiful sight of about 12 deer jump across the road and run right in front of us, too.  Even though riding around on the four-wheeler with my husband was great (awesome to see my "techy" husband, enjoy an outdoor adventure), the ride brought back so many memories as a kid on the farm.  I thought about the 4-H and church wiener roasts in the clearing and hayrack rides......... seeing the cows walk through the timber......... sledding adventures down the hill and being pulled behind the tractor........ice skating on the pond.......listening to my families' deer stories when they came back from hunting.....and all of these flooded my mind with emotions. These memories are filled with laughter, tears, and joy and most were just loads of farm family fun. It's in my roots, this family farm, as it has been in our family for over 150 years. I think of all the great times and memories that have been made here, and now my brother is making new memories when he brings his children here now.  Even though, I don't visit it as much as I used to, and the farm is different without the cows, and the cousins are now adults, it still is the family farm. I pray and hope that this farm will still continue to make beautiful memories for generations to come as it has for so many long ago.

Happy New Year..

I'm way over due post to the blog world!
If you ask my husband he can tell you that I've said over and over "this would be a great blog post", and then I never go home and actually write it.  Today I figured I would just write a mix of thoughts.

Scarves:
I have fallen in love with scarves!  I know some people really dislike them or are tired of seeing them, but it really makes it easy to dress up a simple sweater and top for work with a scarf.  I'm learning different ways to tie them as well. I found a great tutorial video 25 Ways to Wear a Scarf  I've been a trying out a couple of ways. Looking forward to trying out others when I go back to work.  I've also found ways to make a scarves, headbands, and more from old t-shirts. Going through my closet this weekend to see what I can find to use.

Gift  Ideas:
These are a little late now, but I've found a couple of ways to reuse extra left over wrapping paper or magazine pages to make bows for your gifts. They turn out great!  I even got a chance to teach my students how to make them out of the magazine page.  They loved it! Bow Made from Mag. Paper

Book Reading:
I just recently finished a book that I found thought provoking called Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim...   I came across this book from my mom.  It is on our United Methodist Women reading list.  I found it quite interesting about respecting others who have different beliefs than you and working together for the good of others.  Good read, and it makes me want to read other books that make me "think".

Weight Loss:
I have maintained my weight, but think that I have lost some muscle toning.  My goal is to get back on track after the holidays (we haven't had our family Christmas yet, waiting for my brother to come up in a week) Hard to exercise with work, but I need to make time!  No more excuses.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year!  May you be blessed with new journeys and opportunities that come your way!

Positive List is Needed...

I haven't blogged in a long time, and I thought I could use a positive list today:

1. My husband is full time at the school now. We are very blessed to both have insurance now.
2. Won a giveaway to receive free (10 pack) of coupons inserts for a month.  Makes it really easy to get some deals!  By the way if anyone needs some coupons, let me know. I've got a TON!
3.  I've lost 16 lbs. now, and only 2.5 lbs away from my goal for my birthday in October. Not sure if I will make it, but I'm giving it a shot. The next goal will be for Christmas break.  I'm learning that short term goals keep me motivated.
4. I have a stack of free/cheap magazines to read through this weekend.
5. I helped my sister on her first trip to use coupons/price matching and had a ton of fun :)
6. Even though one of our vehicles is needing some work, we are blessed to have another one to rely on.
7. Great co-workers!
8. Kids' smiles!
9. Fall weather. I know many of you don't like the "cooler" temps. but I love this time of year. Something about the beautiful colors, temps, sweatshirts, hot cider, pumpkins, and can't forget birthday and anniversary!
10. Speaking of anniversary...lucky to have such a great husband.
11. Blessed to have such great friends near and far, and to the far away friends I want you to know I think of you often.
12. Good health report for Josh's mom :) Love you.
13. It's the weekend.
14. Cooler weather means more snuggles from my kitty.
15. Enjoying reading the bible in a year.


Hope you take some time out of your day to think of the positives in your life!

Fresh Start...

A couple of years ago, I made a commitment to be healthy.  I worked so hard at it and lost several pounds, and it didn't come off easily for me at all. I was in a healthy/weight loss group at church that held me accountable which was so great.  Once I started eating healthier, I didn't crave the bad foods anymore but it was a challenge.  Long story short as many things have changed in my life since then, I have gained all that weight back and more. So I start down the path once again.  Going through my closet and finding clothes that don't fit anymore is not great on the self-esteem at all. Thanks to my good friend Brenda for reminding me of sparkspeople.com  I found the website once again, which has motivated me to get on track and keep me accountable.  It is a great website that allows you to track what you eat, your workouts, recipes, and accountability groups that you can be a part of that have similar interests as you.
So I've started slowly with exercise and watching how much I eat.  Portion control is a huge thing, and forcing yourself to record everything you eat really puts the calories into prospective.
I'm slow going on the exercise part as my back only allows me to do so much  (man do I really want to go for a nice run....I hope one day I can get over it :P   )  
Thanks to swagbucks.com, I was able to get enough amazon credit to purchase a Wii. I've been walking in the morning and also doing Your Shape on the Wii.  It is great because it is low impact and you can choose to customize your workout depending on what area of your body you want to work on.  It also allows you to use weights, the ball, or bands if you want as well.  What is great is that it was cheap, and didn't cost me a lot of money to buy.  It shares progress you make and calories you burn (at least an approximation)   The only downfall is that sometimes the camera on it, doesn't always pick up my arm movements. Sometimes I feel like I'm flapping as hard as a bird and they still don't see them.  Anyway....  I would love an ideas on easy, simple recipes that are low calorie or any other low impact exercise ideas as well.  If anyone would like to join me in this journey feel free. I would love a partner or two to keep me on track. I'm hoping that by sharing it with others that this will make me stay on track and not give up after a couple of weeks. So here's to a fresh start...

Busy Summertime...

So I haven't posted on her in a very long time.  I tend to think of something to blog about, and then forget to do it when I actually have time at home.  My month of June was busy with workshops and a week long Summer Ag Institute class put on by the Farm Bureau.  I was so intrigued about all the different farms and ag related places that we visited in Bureau, Lee, and Whiteside counties.  It was very educational.  Even though I would consider myself a "farm girl' spending many days on our grandparents family farm, I kind of lost touch with what is happening in agriculture today. What I liked most about the experience was that I was back in a classroom setting for myself.  We went around visiting a lot of farms from composting, organic dairy, chickens/turkeys, beef, hogs, horses, John Deere Historic Site, etc, but we learned so much about how agriculture impacts our world. We had to complete assignments for the week, and I miss this!  There is something to be said about challenging the brain.   I miss completing classroom work. (nerd, I know :)   )   Planning on taking more classes, even if it means online, in the near future.  Hope you are challenging your brain often...  Enjoy the pics

The red ones last...

So as I was grading papers and chose a snack to enjoy last night, I went of course to a pack of fruit snacks. As I opened the package I started my usual routine. Laying all the fruit snacks out in my hands and then sorting them out by color. I first eat them in order to even out the number of each color. Then I eat them by color choice, yellow ones first and red ones last. Josh of course laughs at me when I do these things. It occurred to me that I guess my brain does work in funny ways more often then I realized.

My house if you ever saw it on a day to day basis is not neat and tidy, nor do I claim it to be that way to people, but I do have my things organized. I love to file things, sort in piles, and organize things. If a stack of DVDs were in front of me, I would probably organize them by title. I find it challenging to put things into alphabetical order and feel so accomplished when I do.

So world...does anyone else sort out their fruit snacks, candy treats, etc. and save the best color for last??? Or do you just randomly grab them out of the package and eat them.

Childhood Fun... in a new way?!?

So I enjoy earning swagbucks. You can check it out on the side of my blog. But through their facebook page, I came across a fun website over the weekend called Santa Claw. Real Art Design company decided to create the largest claw machine ever. It is huge! You remember the claw machines as a kid you might have played with all the toys inside that you just had to try and win (most of the time, not win :P ) What is so great about this claw machine is that you get to play the game from home, and it is located to Dayton, Ohio. I decided to give it a shot and play over the weekend. Of course the line is extremely long to play, so I just left the window open all day on my computer until it was my turn. So 7 hours later, I played the claw machine, located about 6-7 hours from me. So with my fearless husband's help, I won! IT is just a big green bouncing type ball. They will be shipping it to me for free in the next few weeks. Of course, the prizes aren't anything spectacular. But they have other types crazy/silly prizes as well. It really didn't matter to me what I won, just had a great time with the experience. Then it hit me. What a small world.

It made me think about how virtual the world is really becoming. Is all this technology really helping society or hurting society? I see people consumed by their cell phones to the point that they don't even realize that people are around them. I see a lack of communication between people now, because they only know how to do it through texting/typing. Then I see the advancement in medicine with technology, or the fact that now I can connect with friends across the world from the comforts of my home. My mind tends to go back and forth with it. I think a lot of it depends on the user. I think a lot of it depends on the type of technology as well. What are your thoughts?

Dreaming...

So after my dreamed filled night, it made me think why do I dream so much?

It just so happened that when I thought to blog about this topic, I found an article about dreaming on yahoo's page today. http://health.yahoo.net/articles/womens-health/8-things-you-didn%E2%80%99t-know-about-dreams

My husband and I have had discussions about dreaming a few times, and he always says that he doesn't remember his dreams most of the time. I am the opposite though, every morning when I wake up I remember at least 1 of my dreams, if not more. Most of my dreams are not pleasant either. It seems like my brain never shuts down at night. I wake up in the morning and wonder if I really fell into a deep sleep at all. I'm sure it is because I don't know how to just let things go... I'm either thinking about work, finances, life stresses, friends' concerns, etc. It isn't so much that it bothers me that I dream because I know we all do; it is more the fact that I remember them clearly.

On a positive note, after reading the yahoo article it says that dreaming can help you learn. So I guess dreaming isn't half bad, huh?

Maybe I'll try counting sheep tonight...