Today is December 29, 2009… that means that there are only two days left in the first decade of the 21st century.

The decade in which I was a mommy for all but 9.5 months.

The decade that saw me move from Arizona to Washington, (back) to Colorado and back to Washington.

The decade in which Eric & I finished school and turned the page into “real adult-hood” – and into parenthood.

A decade where I was unemployed… a lot

…and a decade where I became a small business owner.

It is a decade where I stepped into a leadership role that God called me to.

It was a decade in which I lost my earthly father, and held my daughter for the first time on the same day.

It was a decade of hope, despair, faith, trial, fear, peace, birth, loss and so very much more.

When I look back on the past 10 years I see so many things that have helped to mold and shape me in to the person that I am today – and the person that God is (slowly) making me into tomorrow.  And I wouldn’t trade very much of it.

New friendships were made, old friends were lost, and through it all God has been leading and guiding us.  Moving us from one place to the next – keeping us in this world but not allowing roots to sink in too deeply in any one place.

I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to see what the next 10 years will bring about!  Our girls will grow up and begin their life journey’s.  They will move toward what they want to do with their lives and hopefully will listen to that still, small voice inside of them for guidance.  They may even fall in love somewhere in there (although I hope that waits until the next 10 years!)  We may move again, we may not.  We may actually put down some temporary roots, who knows.  One thing is certain – life will be very different 10 years from now, just as life now is very different from 10 years ago – and I am curious to see what God will do.

April was a very busy month, and it spilled over into May just a bit. I have to say that it seriously wore me out!  Not sure why… it just did.

You may remember the water leak we had a couple weeks ago.  Turned out to be a 1-inch crack in the copper pipe connected to the outdoor faucet.  Yep, a cracked copper pipe!  Eric fixed that this past weekend (yay!) and we were only without water for one day.  Fortunately M & I were at church for half of that day (Eric had stayed home with A who wasn’t feeling well).  That was one bit if stress that is now in the past, and MUCH less of an issue than I was afraid it may have been.

There was also the flower bed I built last week.  It’s coming along nicely, but I still need to go dig up some plants from the back hillside and move them up front…  The hillside is the Summer project – and one I’m not entirely looking forward to.  The hill is 75′ long % 25′ tall, with a fairly steep incline and very not level.  Oh, and lots of tree stumps.  It’s covered with grass, blackberry vines, buttercup and nettles.  And dandelions.  And the 6-10 plants that survived the winter that need to be moved before Eric attempts to kill everything.  And trees scattered here and there.  Not good trees, mind you, but the kind that (as the former owner put it) “grow when you cut down a forest” which they apparently did to build this subdivision.  yeah, not looking forward to that project.

However, my kitchen looks AMAZING!  Eric did SUCH a nice job on it!  We painted the walls a lovely mocha suede color and put in a marble backsplash in creams, taupes and colors in between.  All that is left for this Spring is to get a micro-hood installed to free up counter space.  We called it the remodel-on-the-cheap.  The paint was $50, the tile about $350 for everything.  We took down the vertical blinds and put up some sheers that have been in a box for years and it looks SOOOOOOOOOOOO much better!

Now I just need to get everything put away.

The end of last week and beginning of this week also saw the girls & I making some Mother’s Day gifts for Grandma’s… one of which I still need to finish and get in the mail.  They are very cool though.  I’d share more, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise for anyone!

I know that doesn’t seem like a lot, but I must remind you that the mortar holding on the tile must set for 24-48 hours, then we had to seal it (another 48 hours) and THEN grout it, which set over the next day or so.  And Eric was out of town in the middle.  Yep, I essentially had no kitchen for 10 days.  I’m now officially tired of “away food” and want to eat something that we cooked again!

The flower bed was another long project.  We had to *whisper* remove the tree.  Then we used leftover bricks from the portion of the wall we built last year to start the flower bed… and ran out.  So that sat partially done for a couple of weeks before I made it to the lumber yard to get more brick (Lowe’s didn’t have any and Home Depot’s bricks were waaaaaay different!).  But it’s now built (although Eric says they are crooked) and that project is 95% finished.

It’s amazing how unfinished projects make a person weary!  It’s not a physical weariness (although that eventually comes) but a mental weariness.  Living in a constant state of limbo and chaos just isn’t good for us…  I’m just thankful that we are getting the list checked off, one project at a time.

Now I just have to tackle the garage and my office.  Ugh, my stress level just went up again!

Oh, and the good news from the water leak?  A new storage space!  The faucet came into the house under the entry-way, which means that the hole we had to cut into the wall opened up into a great little storage space under the stairs and landing!  Just a little something to help clear out the garage…

That all fell on the heels of taxes and 10 solid weeks of being sick.  Plus Easter services and all that those entail… No wonder I feel a bit tired this week!

Can’t complain though… life is just too good!  God is good, and He keeps us sane if only we will let Him.  It is from Him that we get that peace that goes far beyond all human understanding – that peace for which I am so very thankful.

Just a little update to help explain my lack of posting as of late.  Well, all of that and spending time online doing, er, other things.  Like something that starts with F and the end rhymes with hook.  And twitter.  And PandoraJam.  And typing chord charts. And planning music for services.  And… and.. and… well, you get the picture!

Have a great week, and Happy Mother’s Day to those that are, just in case I don’t make it back until next week.  Make it a great one…

Whew, life has gotten a bit insane lately!  Tomorrow will officially be 8 solid weeks of at least one person in the house sick… and 7 weeks that my ears have been plugged up!  I’m hoping that with the sunshine that finally decided to come for a visit we will start to get over this crud.

That is the reason for my absence as of late – I’ve been sick, the girls have been sick, and the weather has been nasty.  Did I mention that we had snow last Wednesday & Thursday?  And today it’s sunny & 65 degrees.  Strange.  Oh, and last week was Spring break too – even though it felt much more like Winter.

So, now that the girls are both back to school and I’m feeling about 75% better, I’m getting back into the swing of thing and posting again.

So, the giveaway that we did for Milkshake swag a bit ago… the winner was contacted today (sorry for the delay!) and I hope to get that shipped out this week.  I have some bags to complete and taxes to finish up.  Oh, and Easter weekend services to finish up!  Should be an eventful week…

A couple of updates:

Gardening Fun – I found a great site this morning that actually helps you plan out your garden, and tells you when you should be planting all of those seeds (or, in my case, when I should have planted some of them!)  It’s called PlanGarden.com and they have a free 45 day trial that is FABULOUS.  I was able to diagram our little subdivision lot and put in the plants that we have already planted as well as those we are getting ready to get into the ground.  I was also able to put in the things we plan to add in structurally – something other sites I have found don’t allow for.

Another garden planning site I found (which is free) is WorldFoodGarden.com – they offer a service to plan out a veggie garden that fits into a pretty small space that will feed a family of 4 and more.  It’s pretty cool – it shown you how many plants of each variety will fit into a 1′x1′ square of space, enabling you to fit a LOT more than you would normally think!

So, yes, that is being added to my list this month as well.  I need to get the seeds planted!  We spent Saturday leaning up the yard from Winter, and garden area #1 is ready to be planted.  THe onions & garlic are already growing like mad, and the berries are starting to bud out.  Hopefully I got to the raspberries soon enough tis year and they don’t develop the leaf mold they got last year… I kinda forgot to get out there and take care of them last Spring.  oops!   The currants and blueberries did very well last year though, so we didn’t miss them too much!

Eric has also set a goal to have the garage and my office cleaned up this month… I’m almost tempted to take a picture of my office so you could truly understand, but I’d be too embarrassed!  Yes, it really is that bad.  At the moment is is a giant pile of papers, boxes and fabrics.  I think there is a cutting table, ironing board, desk and chair in there somewhere… I just haven’t seen them for such a long time that I’m not sure anymore.  I will be posting some fabrics on etsy.com over the next 2 months, as I go through them.

Selling fabrics?  Yes, I will be going through the fabrics for Mimsi Bags and culling out the ones that I want to keep and selling off the rest.  I’m taking a leave of absence – a hiatus if you will.  With the job at church and everything around the house I just don’t have the time to devote to it that I used to.  That and I have been having a few health issues in the past year that have seriously hampered my ability to churn out the number of bags that people have ordered at times.  Not major health issues, but enough to make life interesting.  Migraines being at the top of that list…

So, if you or someone you know has a desire for some fun fabrics, check back from time to time over the next few weeks.  I have a couple of bags to complete (once I uncover the sewing table) and then I will be measuring and posting fabrics.  I’ll let you know when they go up.

Let’s see… the rest of the list for April includes a minor kitchen remodel – basically a coat of paint, curtains sewn and some tile for a backsplash.  Depending on what the taxes offer up we may put down tile floors in the kitchen and bamboo flooring in the upstairs as well, but that remains to be seen.  I’m open to any tips you may have to offer for that!  Yes, we will be doing it ourselves.  The floors also means that the garage HAS to be cleaned out post haste – gotta have some place to put all of the furniture!

Well, that covers most of the updates!  We are almost healthy again – M still has a cough & I still have partially plugged up ears, but Eric & A are both doing well.  The cat seems to be healthy too – a good thing ’cause she doesn’t get trips to the vet.  Now that the sun us here we will be eating healthier again too – something about warm weather just makes a person hungry for fruits and veggies instead of soups, stews and breads.  I am getting back into the habit of baking our bread again – I had paused that for about 2 months as well.  I just didn’t have the gumption to do it.  Whatever the crud I had was (cold, flu, etc) it just wiped me out energy-wise.  Add in TWO double ear infections (yes, back to back – big fun) and the vertigo that came with them and moving wasn’t much of an option some days.  Seriously.  Not the most fun I’ve ever had, but (crossing fingers and knocking on wood) it seems to be on it’s way out the door.

Well, the island in the kitchen is taunting me again – I need to give Eric an excuse to buy me flowers!  Yes, we have a deal that if it is cleaned off he will bring home flowers to set on it.  Unfortunately I haven’t gotten many flowers for the island because I haven’t held up my end.  Bummer.  I’m trying to work on that too!  

Thanks for walking through life with us!  I hope Spring is visiting you as well, and if you have any tips for gardening or painting (especially cabinets!) or de-cluttering, I’m all ears!

Happy Easter!

Eric had a birthday on Wednesday and I didn’t get to see him for more than about 15 minutes (that is worship & choir practice night, remember?) So we made weekend plans…

You see, Eric & I were supposed to have this wonderful semi-weekend away Friday night & Saturday. And it started out great! Drive to Seattle, dinner at Braza, hotel on the waterfront… beautiful sunset, starry sky, the works.

Then I got hives.

Waking up every hour due to that until 4:30, when I woke up to an amazing amount of pain in my left ear AGAIN. Yep, another ear infection – ’cause apparently 2 just wasn’t enough. Well, I can’t sleep, which means Eric can’t sleep, so we got up, ot dressed & packed up.  While we were walking to the parking garage we got a beautiful view of the Seattle sky line though… a cobalt blue sky, a crescent moon, fog just starting to crawl in & the stadium glowing green just peaking out above it.  I tried to take a picture, but my camera & night shots aren’t a good combination.  It was gorgeous though!

We had parked in a parking garage at the Seattle Art Institute… and there isn’t an attendant until 8 am. We checked out at 6:30. No problem, you say, just use the debit card in the card reader & it will let you out! Well, in theory, yes, that would be brilliant. In practice, however, it was an epic FAIL. Nope, “please pay attendant.” Insert card to pay – nope “insert ticket first” ummm, I JUST DID!!!!! We tried to leave at 6:42. After numerous phone calls to every number we could scare up (by haunting the booth) we were informed that the employee would be there at 8am, but we could call the towing co. and pay a $40 fee (posted as $35) for “after-hours release” even though it was their system that wouldn’t let us out.   So w walked back to the hotel & had a cup of wake-up juice (Coffee for Eric, Tea for me… I really miss coffee too)  We finally got out at 8:10, when the attendant (who was late) got there and logged himself in.

By this point my ear is shooting searing, pulsating pain through my head. Fortunately I keep Motrin in my car for just such emergencies. Had to take them dry, but they eased the pain. Oh, and we’ve been up since 4:30, so breakfast sounded good a couple of hours before that.

Up to Pike’s for crumpets we went! A leisurely stroll up and down the market (that was just getting set up for the day) and the purchase of some fruit… and there was nothing else to see. The Confectional was closed, Piroshky, Piroshky was closed, Beecher’s Cheese’s was closed… you are getting the idea. We had planned to sleep in (I know, what a concept) and go have crepes by Seattle Center at 10… but we were headed north by 9. Stopped at a PCC to get some ear drops (NOT similican – that junk has mercury in it!) and wandered our way towards home. We did stop at a Emery’s Garden to think about what to plant this year (Spring has officially started after all… it just doesn’t feel much like it), and picked up some cucumber seeds and shallot starts.

We were home by 10:45, which threw off Mom H’s schedule with the girls.

They were decorating for a little surprise birthday/welcome home party and getting ready to head out to go shopping and get pictures taken, so Eric went along with them. However, by this time my lack of sleep and the early morning wake-up had caught up with me.

I slept. It was lovely.

I met up with them for pictures, and the pain returned. I took more Motrin, but it didn’t work. I took more a while later, still not working. Ugh. But, I did get some good Indian food for dinner! That was a glowing moment much like Friday had been.

We headed to bed around 9, I tossed & turned until about 11:30, when I remembered that I had some vicadin left over from last Summer (yes, I checked the date – it’s good for another month) so I took 2 and Eric put in more ear drops. I slept for about an hour-&-a-half. The rest of the night I was fading in & out with recurring dreams and Desert Song on repeat play in my brain. And I so used to like that song.

So, needless to say, I slept through my alarm this morning because I couldn’t hear it (cotton crammed in one ear, sleeping on the other) and was late to church. Then I coughed instead of starting a song… nice.

Had to take more heavy-hitting pain killers to get through the morning, then came home & attempted sleep again (I do have 2 kids, remember?).

As of now I am sitting here with kleenex stuck in my leaky, ringing ear trying to stay awake until it is somewhat closer to an acceptable time to go to bed & listening to Eric search for new music to buy with the iTunes gift card the girls got him for his birthday.

How was YOUR weekend?

Well, I successfully survived day 1 of officially being on the compact… of course the fact that it’s between paydays & I have a grand total of $21 to my name probably helped with that!

Not going anywhere that has a retail outlet probably helped too… that could be a good answer to the issue of buying new things!  Resist the temptation to purchase by avoiding the outlets.

By Jove!  It could work!

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Oh, and in case you were wondering, we did have salad for dinner… fresh, organic lettuce from Garden Treasures, crasins, black currants, homemade croûtons, fresh mozzarella and crumbled goat cheese.  Yum!

In my defense, the goat cheese came from Costco in a package 3x the size as the grocer, for $2 less!  And I bought it a few weeks ago.

And yes, the girls are devouring the rest of the butterfly biscuits for dessert… At least E for to try a bite before they were gone!

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In other news, Mr. Wonderful himself is attempting to install an iPod player into the Suby… a VERY cool gadget we picked up for the trip to the big D… alas it did not arrive until after we left.  c’est la vie.

The down side here is that the cd player does’t seem to want to work… because the former owner apparently JAMMED a couple of cd’s inside the changer!  He is working furtively to remove the offending disks (and yes, they really are… paul mccartney anyone?) without destroying the stereo.  Please send prayers and good cd removing thoughts our way!  Apparently one of them is bent inside & therefore wedged… ugh.

So, assuming he gets THAT fixed, we will be spending the weekend filling up the super large trash bin so that we can get rid of it & get back to the tiny one we are used to (hear that girls?  Your rooms are going in the bin!), and hopefully getting the base level of the retaining wall put down so that the rest of the blocks can go on in rapid fashion next weekend… or sometime after that.

No rest for the weary, eh?

Anywho, I’m off to do the dishes… again.  how can 2 girls make such a pile in the sink so many times each day?  It is beyond my comprehension.  Any tips?