Gooey Butter Cake!!!!

Tonight I am making the most wonderful sounding dessert. It calls for powdered sugar and, you can't laugh at me, it is the first time I have EVER bought powered sugar!!! I have 3 kids, my oldest being 9 and I have never had powered sugar in my house!!! I have always just used regular sugar or just made plain cakes and stuff. So I am excited about making this.

I found it on Traci's blog-Nothing More or Less Than Myself. Here is the link to the recipe.

Stay tuned and I will let you know how it turns out.

Thanks Traci!!!!

Looking lived-in, a good thing?

Well, it has been a while since I have shared any wisdom so I thought I may need to throw some out here so I don't lose your interest! LOL

At the beginning of Aug. I am supposed to start keeping a little baby. Her name is Zoe and she is 8 weeks old. Well, she is coming over for dinner tonight with her mom and dad and I have been obsessing a little over my house and how "lived-in" it looks. And by that I mean that the walls need to be painted(we have flat paint-little handprints everywhere), my nice dining room table is VERY scratched up and even has a few notches knocked out of it, the carpet is NOT spotless, the living room furniture is a little saggy looking. You know, just lived in!

Well, my devotion this morning talked about enjoying everyday/everything God has given us. To quote Joyce Meyer exactly,"It is easy to get so caught up in all your responsibilities that you forget to enjoy what you are doing. You can get so busy "raising" your children that you forget to "enjoy" them! You can get so caught up in cleaning your house, trying to pay for it, and remodeling it, that you forget to enjoy it."

Once again, Joyce has nailed me! I can say that I have been soaking in my children more lately because of the allergy attacks we have been under, they want more cuddling and mommy time, but I could do better. They are only small for just a brief time. Jacob will be 9 in a few weeks. It seems like just yesterday he was a newborn. Nathan will be 2 tomorrow, did I blink and suddenly it is 2 years later?!?! Luckily with each child I have chilled out more and enjoyed them more. Like in the middle of cleaning yesterday I stopped and tackled Nate in the floor and just tickled him! I used to be pretty focused when cleaning and would not stop until my job was finished, but I have learned to spot those little chances of play time I can have with each of my children.

Even though my house is "lived-in", I can be okay with that. There will come a day that I long to hear the little voices again and see those little handprints. For now, I will enjoy the messy walls, scratched table and jumped on furniture.

So my words of wisdom for today are:
Enjoy every moment-the good, the bad and the ugly!

Enjoy the little things.
Enjoy the big things
Enjoy all things!

Feeling better........

Thanks to all of you who prayed for me. I decided to not take my allergy medicine this morning. I had to deal with the pressure but at least I had more energy.

And with that energy I deep cleaned my kitchen! YAY!
I cleaned baseboards, cleaned out the fridge, cleaned out the microwave, did the dishes, washed parts of the walls, swept and mopped the floors. And because I worked so hard I decided not to cook supper. We had Taco Bell. That was nice for me. No mess in my fresh clean kitchen!

I still feel like my head is in a bucket but I am on my way out of this.

Maybe tomorrow I can tackle the bathrooms..........

Sometimes moms need homeschooling too!

I learned to sew buttons on today!!!!

I am so excited. My Amber has a little outfit that is so cute and it was missing a button on the shirt. Well, I finally bought some buttons Saturday and my sweet husband taught me how to sew them on this morning. He learned when he was younger and I never learned. But now I know and I can fix my kids clothes when they pop a button!

So I guess you could say that I had a home school lesson this morning in sewing! Now I feel like I could accomplish anything!!!

So my words of wisdom for today are:
Learn something new today. It will make you feel smarter! ;^)

Working children?

Yes, I make my children work around the house! I think it is really important to let them do chores in the house and in the yard. Yesterday we mowed our yard for the first time this year and today I will be raking up all the cut grass, and yes I am gonna have the kids help me. Of course I will make it fun and they will think we are playing, but they will be learning how to do yard work. And we will be making memories all the while!
If we don't teach them this stuff then we will be the ones helping them after they leave home and need to be doing it on their own. And I don't know about you but I do NOT want to be doing their laundry when they are 25 living on their own!!!
So if you have your child doing the dishes or folding the laundry and they tell you that you are mistreating them, tell them that Mrs. Michelle said that it was good for them and that they will thank you when they are older! ;o)
So my words of wisdom for today are:
Sit back, relax & make your kids do all the housework!!! LOL

A Day in the Life of a Tax Preparer..or an at home mom, which ever you prefer to call me!

So, today I am adding Tax Preparer to my list of jobs that I do. For the last few years I have prepared our taxes and saved us quite a bit of money. There are times that I feel I do not add any financial help to our home and then God reminds me of some things that I do to save my dear hubby money. I will now share the list of things that you can do to help with the finances in your family.

~Grocery shopping-buing things on sale and staying on a budget.
~Clean your house-you don't have to hire a maid.
~Cook your food-you don't have to order out or hire a cook.
~Do your laundry-you don't have to pay a laundry service to do it.
~Take care of your children-you don't have to pay a sitter.
~Homeschooling your children-you don't have to pay all the classroom fees.
~Organize your home-you don't have to pay me to come & do it.(lol)
~Financial Advisor-making sure there is enough money to pay the bills and paying them.
~And doing your taxes-you don't have to pay H&R Block to do them.

That is only a few of the many things that we as moms do for no charge! I am sure there are many more I could add if I had time. So don't feel like just because you are a stay at home mom that doesn't have a job that gives you a paycheck, that you do not contribute to the financial stability of your home!(was that really all one sentence?!?) You really could make or break your financial situation in your home. Think for one moment, what would happen if you did actually take the day off and not do ANY of the things that you do on a day to day basis? Things would probably fall apart and you would spend 2 days getting everything back to normal!

I want to let you all know that you are PRICELESS to your family!!! I know that sometimes our husbands and children sometimes forget to tell us how important we are to them, but I also know that they do appreciate all that we do.

So my words of wisdom for today are:
Go and look in the mirror and tell yourself that YOU ROCK!!!! Have a blessed day!

change.......

Hello everyone! Hope you all are having a great Friday. I am. My husband is home today. He has been working 12 hours a day, having to be at work at 3:30 am. So he has been going to bed early and it seems we haven't even seen each other this week. So I am enjoying having him here today!

The only down side to him being home is that he is a very busy little guy! We have been having a hard time getting the kids to go to sleep at night without them getting in trouble, so we have been changing rooms around today. We did have a play room and then a room that had the beds in them. Now Jacob has his own room(he is soooo excited). Though I still expect to get up some mornings and find him in Amber's bed. Even though he would never admit it, he gets scared at night and gets in her bed. And Amber has her own room. Then poor little Nathan is roomless! Just kidding. His stuff is in Jacob's room and he will be sleeping in Amber's bed with her. So this is a HUGE change for our family. And for all the kids who visit our house on a regular basis. We have had a play room since I can remember and all the kids always know where to go when they come over here. We will have to figure something out.

Now, I want to start sharing every once in a while about my weight loss journey. I decided at the first of the year that I am making some changes and I plan to lose 50 pounds this year. I will probably not share this regularly, but I will update when I lose some pounds. So I have lost a total of 6 pounds. I am eating less, making better choices, getting my water intake(64 ounces a day) and trying to workout at least 5 days a week. And I did get 5 days in this week!! And just let me say that it makes a HUGE difference in your body when you workout! I may have only lost 6 pounds but I am toning up a LOT!
I have a friend that is doing a daily blog on her weight loss and she has really encouraged me by being so strong and having so much will power. Way to go Aprille!!!!

So my words of wisdom for today are:
Accept change. It can be really good and life changing sometimes!
And, make some changes in your daily routine to be healthier. It does make a difference in how you feel from day to day.

Convenience

OK, I just wanted to let you all know that I had taken the thing off of here that made you type in letters before you could post a comment. Well, I put it back on because last night I got a comment and I think it may have messed up my computer. So today I downloaded a new virus protector and I had 13 viruses!!!!! Yes 13. So I am sorry that you gotta go through the extra step to leave me a comment, I hope it doesn't hinder any of you from commenting me. I love hearing from you all!

So now to interesting stuff..........I was cleaning my toaster today(yes it does need attention every now and then) and I realized how often we use it(bout every day). And then I wondered what people back in the days before toasters did to toast their bread or frozen waffles or toaster scrambles...........then I realized HEY! they didn't have all of this convenience food back then. So then my thought process went to- I wonder what "convenience" things (or food) your family can't live without or uses every day? Ours is probably:
Food-sliced bread and sliced cheese(3 kids=grilled cheese)
Appliance-microwave/toaster
Personal stuff-hair dryer

And then this makes my thought process go to--Thankfulness! Thank God that we live in a time of convenience things that help us through our days. We rely so much on some of these things.

So my words of wisdom for today are:
Take a minute and think about the things in your life God has blessed you with to make your life easier and thank Him for them!

Blissful Saturday!

Oh, good Saturday to you all!
So this has been a pretty productive day. Thank God for my husband having the day off!!!! He is such a great help when he is bored and needs something to do. LOL! If the weather were right he would be fishing. But it is too cold. He is not the type that can just sit at home and veg out(unlike me), he needs to be doing something all the time. So we have been cleaning all morning.

I love these weekends that we don't have a million things to do and we can catch up from the week in peace. My 2 big kids are outside playing, Nathan is sleeping and now George is napping on the couch(he had to be at work this week at 3:30 in the mornings and didn't get much rest-he normally would NOT be napping). So I am getting a few precious moments of quiet.

God has really been dealing with me to stay focused on a schedule. I am such a better wife & mom when things are caught up and I am not running around like a chicken with my head cut off!!! So the question is "Why do I allow things to get out of hand?" Well, this answer may not feel very good, but it is true for so many of us. I listen to my flesh and do what I want to do. Not what NEEDS to be done. This is so true for me in a lot of areas of my life. Housework, eating, time with my children, etc. I know what I need to do to make things go smoothly around here. But I choose at times not to do what I know is the right thing. And then somewhere down the line I am saying to myself,"If I had only______ before things got crazy, I would not have this mess now."

So my words of wisdom for today are:
If you are a person who needs a schedule-write one up & stick to it!
If you are a person who doesn't need a schedule-can I come and live with you?!?!?!

Our Homes

Good morning all! I am soooo thankful for a new day! My intention was to post on here early this morning and then the chaos began!LOL
Which brings me to my thoughts for today. I walk through my home some days and wonder "How did things get so crazy?!" As I was pondering on that this morning the Lord gently reminded me that there are things I have learned along the way that help my home run smoothly that I had not done for today.
Examples: #1.When I get up before my children and spend time with God praying or doing my devotion for the day in the quiet of my home, things just tend to run more smoothly. Well, today I woke at 7:30 and my 2 older kids were already up watching TV. Therefore they were already ready for breakfast before I woke up and I had to scramble to get their breakfast while being half asleep.
#2. My children get cranky when they get hungry, but I still lose track of time and wait until they have reached cranky mode to get them a snack or meals.
#3. When I spend too much time on the phone my children get out of hand! And when I say too much time I mean in the span from 8AM to 10AM I was on the phone with 12 yes twelve phone calls!!! And that is the calls that came into my phone, not counting the calls that I was making!
So my point from all of that craziness is that we as moms/wives set the tone in our homes. Our homes can either be peaceful or full of chaos. God has blessed us to know what our husbands and children need to help them be happy from day to day. And it is our jobs to make that happen. At times I want to ask God "What about my needs?!" And then I realize that if I focus on making my home peaceful and a place where my family can come to to get rest in times of chaos in their lives, I will in turn have a peaceful life from day to day. And that if I meet the needs of those around me that God will allow my needs to be met. And I just want to say that I have tried this method and it is true! There are times that I get my focus off and don't follow this advice and that is when the chaos begins to move in.
So today look for a need to meet. Try God on this one and see what He will do!