Timing is Everything

Two years ago my family and I set out on a journey. We knew it would be quite the adventure, but little did we know we were in for the ride of our lives!

At the time, Little Man was about 6 months old and we knew our little starter home was quickly becoming too "cozy." It was time for a larger home. We also wanted to settle in a different school district before Little Miss started Kindergarten. It just so happened that the small community in which our church is located has great schools, so that became our destination.

It was spring, which I knew is a good time for the real estate market. I figured we could put our house on the market, sell it, and find something to settle in by Fall. (I am a planner...it's just what I do. Even when something is beyond my control--like selling a house--I still need to have a plan.) God must have had a good laugh at that one.

By the time we had our house "market-ready," it was almost September. (You know how it is with small kids...the simplest task like painting a closet becomes a tw0-week project!). I became increasingly frustrated because things were not moving as quickly as I'd hoped, but we finally listed it and had a sign in the yard to prove it! Now it was in God's hands (as if it hadn't been before), and He came through as He always does. We had a contract in less then 3 weeks. Alright! I thought, Now let's get this show on the road. Let's buy a house and get settled.

We looked and looked and looked, but we didn't find what we were looking for. We weren't looking for anything extravagant, but we knew this would be a long-term house for us, so we were kind of picky on some things. And it just wasn't there. We even started looking in other communities, hoping to find the right house. We talked about removing things from our "The House Must Have This..." list, but when it came down to it, we weren't willing to budge on anything. We were getting down to the wire and needed a place to live, so we found a nice duplex to rent right behind our church. We had made it to the area, now we just had to find a house.

We moved into our rental at the end of October 2009. We had signed a 6-month lease, so I resigned myself to the fact that we would be there at least through the winter. I was sure, though, that come Spring we would find our house!

Spring of 2010 arrived and I frantically looked for our house. I scoured the Internet. I drove through neighborhoods. I looked at foreclosures that were in desperate need of repair and thought, Well, maybe we could make this work... I dragged Hubby through house after house that, honestly, I knew wasn't right before we even went in it. I was determined to find our house!

I grew increasingly frustrated, wondering what we were doing wrong. We had prayed about this for years (long before we actually put our house on the market). We firmly believed the move and the timing were right. Why weren't we finding our house? I begged God. If He would just tell me what lesson I was supposed to be learning I would be happy to learn it so we could move!

I took the month of June off to go down south for my sister's wedding and enjoy some time with family. It was not long after returning from that trip that I found the lump in my leg. I began seeing doctors, getting scans, and waiting for results. The whole time, I was still looking at houses. As a matter of fact we found one in July and another in August that we seriously considered making offers on. But neither felt quite right so as disappointing as it was we held off.

My surgery was the end of August, and it wasn't until my recovery that I realized what a blessing our rental was. There were no stairs for me to climb. The duplex and the yard were maintained for us. It has a large handicap-accessible shower in the master bath (who would have thought I needed that when we moved in?) It was literally .5 mile from our church, which was so convenient for those who blessed us with many meals and helped with childcare. The list goes on. In leading us to this rental (which we picked because it was one of two that had a fenced yard for our dog), God had provided for our needs before we even knew they were needs.

The rest of the year was spent recovering from surgeries, undergoing radiation and physical therapy, and finally simply enjoying the holidays with family. At the start of 2011, we declared it to be The Year of the House. This was the year, we would find our house! There was just one small problem...because of the mountain of medical bills, we had to dip into the money from the sale of our house which, of course, had been planned for a down payment.

We still had a sizable amount for a down payment, but we had to adjust our price range a bit from what we had originally looked at. We hadn't found what we wanted in the higher price range, we had no idea how we were going to find what we wanted now. It would have to be God.

A few weeks ago a house that had been on the market since Christmas dropped $29,000. I had noticed it before, but knowing it was out of our price range didn't pay much attention. When the price dropped, it got my attention. I made an appointment to go see it, even then thinking I probably wouldn't like it. I had seen so many houses and not liked them, I was skeptical. But this one was different. Not only did I like it, I kind of loved it! There were a few little things I wish were different; we know we're not going to find the perfect house...but this one came really close!

I called Hubby and we went to see it the next day and made an offer that afternoon. We heard it was a short sale, so we were prepared to wait a few months for a response. We had a response in 24 hours and negotiated a price. We are set to close this week and MOVE on THIS WEEKEND!!

It occurred to me a couple of months ago that had we found a house last Spring, my first memories of it would be surgery, recovery, cancer, and treatment. Instead, I am thankful for our little duplex which was such a blessing through such a difficult time. Now I can leave those difficult memories behind in our "temporary" home. I can start fresh in a new house and a new neighborhood.

One more thing...our house is just a few streets from where we've been renting. Little Miss will stay in the same school and already knows three girls in our new neighborhood). God got us as close as possible to our final destination. We simply had to wait for the right time. I'm so glad we did.

"There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the sun"

--Ecclesiastes 3:1

Project Organization

After all we went through last year, we declared 2011 The Year of the House (more on that in a later post). In preparation for our impending move, I embarked on a couple MAJOR organization projects over the long, cold days of January and February. (Hence the bloggy silence recently.) Now, I am finally getting around to posting about them.


Project Organization #1: the Playroom
As the kids get older it seems their toys come with more, TINY pieces! The constant corralling of teeny, tiny toys was about to drive me crazy after Christmas when I stumbled on some clear plastic tubs on sale at Wal-Mart. That inspired me to do this...

I bought one tub for each set of toys: Littlest Pet Shop, toy tools, animals, My Little Pony, etc. (Since the above picture was taken I have purchased more tubs so they are all contained.) Once all the pieces were collected in their respective bins, I downloaded clip art (or in some cases, the actual brand logo) from the Internet and printed them out. I taped the picture or logo to the inside of the tub and voila! instant toy organization.

I am not naive enough to believe that this small act will cast a magical spell over our playroom so that it remains in a constant state of tidiness and organization, but you would not believe how much it has helped! Not only does it give my kids some direction as they clean up, it also helps when we have friends over to play. Everyone knows exactly where all the toys go. Plus, the tubs stack neatly on a shelf. Magic spell or not, every little bit counts!


Project Organization #2: Recipes
When we got married 8 1/2 years ago, some of the girls I worked with made me a starter cookbook. It was great..a huge 3-ring binder with slip-in sheet protectors and all! I added to it faithfully over the years as I discovered new favorites. As a matter of fact, I added so many that it eventually looked like this:

My recipe collection had outgrown my organization system. In addition to my printed collection, I had various electronic files stored on my laptop (in multiple locations and formats). It actually took me longer to sift through the mess and find a recipe than it would to search for it online! So I set out to tackle the mountain of recipes.

I found some 3-ring binders on clearance and invested in some sheet protectors. First, I started with the recipes I already had on my computer. I formatted them all the same and printed them out. (Sorry, I didn't get a picture of these, but trust me...they look nice!) I had several recipes printed from various web sites, and although they didn't match my format they were clean and easy to read, so I left them as is.

The biggest job was the many hand-written recipes I had scribbled down while on the phone with my mom or my grandma. I spent several evenings typing those up and printing them out (a huge undertaking in itself!). The last type of recipe I had were the ones I had clipped or torn from magazines. I have a terrible habit of finding a recipe that "sounds good," so I tuck it into my trusty notebook, never to be seen again. Since most of these were untried recipes, I couldn't justify taking the time to type those up. I left them as is, rationalizing that I will type them up if and when I get around to trying it (and provided we love the outcome).

Next, I made a list of categories. I had five binders, so I organized all my recipes into five main categories and then created sub-categories for the tab dividers. This may seem like a lot of work, but honestly, this is how my brain works so it just sort of "fell into place" in my head. I even created folders on my laptop that reflected these categories so I always know where to find the electronic files of the recipes. Here are the categories I came up with based on the recipes I had:

Appetizers, Snacks & Dips

*Appetizers

*Snacks

*Dips

*Beverages and Sauces

Breakfast

*Pancakes & Waffles

*Muffins & Biscuits

*Casseroles/Quiches

*Cereals

The Main Course

*Beef

*Chicken/Fish

*Turkey/Pork

*Pizzas

*Pastas

*Casseroles

Soups, Salads, Sides

*Soups

*Salads

*Rice, Pasta, Potato Sides

*Veggie Sides

Desserts & Goodies

*Cakes, Cupcakes & Icings

*Cookies

*Pies, Brownies & Bars

*Cold/Chilled Desserts

*Miscellaneous

Finally, the easy part: assembling the binders. I printed all my recipes, put them in the sheet protectors and organized them in the binders. I put of all my "to try" recipes (remember the ones from magazines?) in one sheet protector at the back of each section. That way, when I'm in the mood to try something new, I can sift through them and see what I find. Once I try it (if we like it), I'll type it up and add it to the section. (I also put extra sheet protectors in each section so I'm ready to add new favorites as I find them.)


It was a daunting (and, at times, overwhelming) undertaking, but I'm so pleased with the results, and they look so nice sitting on my counter where they're so easy to grab!

So what are your organizational secrets? I'd love to hear your ideas!

You're One Smart Cookie, Valentine!

At our house, Valentine's Day is second only to Christmas when it comes to cookie-making holidays. This year I decided to do something a little different than the traditional cut-out heart cookies.

Because of Little Man's food allergies, it's hard to find a good, cut-out cookie recipe he can eat. And since he loves to help me in the kitchen, I don't feel right about making something he can't enjoy right along with us (even though I always keep alternative snacks on hand for him).

I found a recipe for "angel wing" cookies last Christmas (recipe to follow). It's similar to a butter cookie or Mexican wedding cookie with plenty of butter and powdered sugar, but no eggs or nuts...yeah! They were a big hit last Christmas so I decided to adapt them for Valentine's Day this year.

It's such an easy recipe that I figured the adaptation would be a cinch. It was, with one minor exception: Shaping them into hearts without a cookie cutter proved to be more challenging than I expected (especially with a couple little helpers on hand). Regardless, I think they turned out pretty well...

And once they are covered in powdered sugar, you can't see all the little blemishes and finger-indentions. (I would recommend adding more powdered sugar. I did a "quick" dusting with these for photograph purposes.)

Since we are giving these to teachers and friends, I packaged them up in red and white and attached a cut-out heart card that read...


All in all, I think they turned out pretty nice (and yummy, too!)

Angel Wing Cookies (a.k.a. Powdered Heart Cookies)

(originally from BGH.com)

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

4 tsp vanilla

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

Powdered sugar

In a mixing bowl, beat butter on medium to high for 30
seconds. Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1/4 teaspoon salt; beat until
well-combined. Beat in as much flour as you can. Stir in remaining flour. Chill
dough for 30 minutes or until easy to handle.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with
parchment paper. Shape dough into 1-inch balls then pinch and shape into
crescents (for wings) or hearts. Place 2 inches apart on baking sheets.

Bake 12-13 minutes or until bottoms are golden brown. Cool 1
minute on baking sheets. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Roll or
lightly dust cooled cookies with powdered sugar.

Makes 3 1/2 to 4 dozen cookies.

I hope you get the chance to enjoy some sweets with your "Sweet" today...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sickness, Snow Days and a Birthday

I don't think I've ever been so happy to see Monday. Last week was one of the strangest weeks we've had in a long time, and I'm glad it's over!

It all started with me in bed for three days with a fever. At the same time, Little Miss developed a fever and Little Man had quite the cough and snotty nose. To add insult to injury, we found out none of us had the same thing so we had to be careful to not spread what we each had to the other! Poor Hubby had his hands full playing both Daddy and Mommy (to sick kids nonetheless!), medical assistant to me, cooking meals, cleaning messes, and even managed to go grocery shopping...which had to be done before Snowpocalypse hit. (Do I have a great man or what! More on that later...)

In case you've been living under a rock for the last week, most of the Midwest United States was blanketed under inches (and sometimes feet) of snow in what is now being dubbed "Snowpocalypse" or "Snowmeggedon." This winter catastrophe resulted in four days off school for Little Miss, no preschool for Little Man, and two days off work for Hubby. It would have been a wonderful winter retreat for us all...if we hadn't been sick!

Still, we did manage to spend Wednesday celebrating Hubby's birthday. Since we were all snowed in, we declared an all-day birthday celebration complete with Apple Fritters for breakfast, a jungle safari in the living room (featuring every stuffed animal we own), a special steak dinner, a viewing of Disney's Jungle Book (notice the theme?) and of course, birthday cake.


Since sickness and blizzard prevented us from going shopping for birthday presents, the kids made "My Favorite Things with Daddy" books. They each drew pictures of their favorite activities with Daddy and we tied them all up with a ribbon. I'm not sure who had more fun...the kids making them or Daddy reading them.

We even created special birthday cards by cutting out pictures of the kids and creating funny scenes and sayings. That was Little Miss's idea...she's quite the crafty bug!


Sickness aside, it was a great week of spending time together and creating special memories. There's nothing like being snowed in together in tight living quarters to make you truly appreciate each other! I was once again reminded how blessed I am to have my wonderful family...especially my Hubby. I hope you had a wonderful birthday, Babe! Thanks for (once again) being my hero!

It's Extreme Makeover Time!

This Sunday, January 16, my sister and her family will be featured in ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. (check your local listings for time). Tune in to see Baby Zoe and his family receive their new home!

We were in Savannah for Christmas and stayed in the new house. Let me just say, it is amazing! Zoe is doing wonderful and even started saying, "Aunt Na" over the holidays! (This aunt couldn't be more proud!) Don't miss Sunday night's show. You'll be amazed at their journey and inspired by their faith. Grab an extra box of tissues and join Ty, Tracy, Paul, Ed, Shaun White, and Paula Deen as they welcome home the Simpson family.

From Our Home To Yours...

Wishing you a very

Merry Christmas

and a

New Year filled with

love, laughter, and joy!

C'mon Ring Those Bells!

In a previous post I mentioned my recent medical journey. I haven been undergoing radiation on my leg for the last six weeks. In the lobby of the treatment facility where I go, there is a bell and a plaque with the following poem inscribed on it:

Survivor's Cheer
Ring this bell
Three times well,
Its toll to clearly say;
My treatment is done!
This course is run!
And I am on my way!

I had never seen anyone actually ring the bell and begun to wonder if anyone actually did. Then one day last week as I came in for my treatment, I heard the bell. I saw the joy and relief on the face of the lady who rung it. Her friends and family, along with the facility staff, were gathered around cheering her on. It was an amazing sight. The nurses later told me they've had people who were treated at other facilities ask to come ring the bell once they completed their treatments. (Of course they let them.)

Today I got to ring that bell. I completed my final radiation treatment. I didn't expect to feel so emotional, after all I have been doing this every day for the last six and a half weeks. I figured this would be just another day. But it wasn't. After ringing that bell, seeing my husband smiling from ear to ear, and hearing the staff cheer, I walked out the doors with a new outlook on life: I am now a survivor.

If you are undergoing treatment for cancer, I encourage you to find out if your treatment center does any type of celebration when your treatment is completed. If not, create your own. Invite family and friends to meet you there. Bring refreshments (I'm sure the staff would appreciate some, too!). Or simply arrange for a celebratory dinner afterward. You've earned it.

If you know someone undergoing treatment for cancer, buy him or her a bell. Attach a copy of the above poem. Offer to celebrate with them...and be prepared to clap, cheer, shout, whistle, and carry on for your loved one. You'll never know how loved it will make them feel.