Thankful

Thankful.

 

I certainly have much for which to be thankful.

 

Four amazing children with tender hearts and energetic spirits.

 

A strong, growing marriage with a creative, passionate man that loves and follows God.

 

Most importantly, God who leads us into all sorts of unfamiliar territory and gives us the strength and courage to follow Him.

 

And so we celebrated Thanksgiving with gusto.  With pumpkin cheese pie, savory turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet yams, cornbread stuffing, and mashed potatoes.  With family game time and long conversations.

 

Thanksgiving activities haven't been the only things keeping us busy in my absence from this blog.

 

We have been homeschooling a lot and making great progress in the Beast's reading skills.

 

We have been planning up a storm for Christmas and getting all the gift shopping done.

 

We have officially left our church home of eight years and have been visiting other churches to see where God wants us to serve.

 

The Nerd has been fervently looking for a new job and has been up late every night, studying and practicing for long interviews and steeling himself against the disappointment of rejection.

 

And we have much to look forward to in the next month.

 

We get to spend the weekend with our close friends at the coast, children playing and adults enjoying meaningful conversations and time away from life's pressures.

 

Baby Girl is turning one year old; so of course we will be celebrating with much joy at a very pink party.

 

The kids and I will be making ornaments and focusing our attentions on the One we really celebrate at Christmas time by doing our Truth in the Tinsel activities along with our advent calendar.

 

We will be celebrating Christmas!  Enough said.

 

We will hopefully soon be settled in a new church home.

 

God is so good.  He is so faithful.

 

And we are thankful.

thankful

short and sweet today.

The Drama Queen was helping me make a "so grateful" book today, and it reminded me of the innumerable blessings, small and big, in my life.

so grateful for:

grilled cheese for lunch on a cold rainy day

sibling love

imaginative play

online shopping

surprise gifts in the mail

supportive friends

the last weeks of tummy kicks :)

the excitement of waiting for Little Sprout to make an appearance

funny things my kids say

libraries

the comfort of God's Word

the anticipation of leftover turkey sandwiches

spending time with my littles

spending time away from my littles (recharge the batteries!)

coffee. oh yes.

Farewell 2009

It is hard to believe that I am looking at the last day on the 2009 calendar already. It seems as if this year has flown by even faster than previous years!

Miss Drama Queen was born in 2006, the Beast was born in 2007, and the Spud was born in 2008. I guess one thing that makes 2009 a banner year for us is that I have not been pregnant or given birth this year! :) I love love love my kiddies, but it was nice to have a break this year.

Apparently however, I am a glutton for punishment, and didn't allow myself much of a break before I "gave birth" again, this time to The Framed Frog. My husband had been encouraging me for some time to take this step, and on February 6, 2009, I opened The Framed Frog on Etsy.com. It took me nearly a month and a half to get my first sale. Then the sales started trickling in here and there. Even though I had grandiose plans to build my new business, I still thought of it as more of a hobby than a business. In September, sales really started to pick up, and by November, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the Christmas rush. Over a third of the 80 sales I have made online this year came in November and December. God has blessed my little business so much - now I just have to figure out how to balance it all with taking care of my kiddies, taking care of my man, and taking care of my home. Yeah. That's definitely still a work in progress!

2009 was also the year that I was able to faithfully blog the entire year. :) Although I primarily started my blog back up to chronicle all the events of our chaotic life for the kiddies (I mean, the Spud's baby book is still in the shrink wrap!), I appreciate all the support from my followers and commenters! Your encouragement helped make The Framed Frog a possibility, and I love having all these new cyber-friends! Sara, thanks especially for all your faithful commenting! It feels like we have know each other a long time - I hope that someday, before our kiddies get too old, we can get the whole crazy group together for a playdate. We have family in Ohio, so it could happen, right?

Despite some tough trials this year, our family has been immeasurably blessed by God. I look forward to 2010's adventures, although I'm not sure I'm ready to be the mom of a 4-year-old (in two weeks!).

And in case this post isn't long enough for you already, here are my top five favorite posts of the year:

1. A Quick Trip to the Post Office
2. It Hit the Fan
3. Mexalian
4. He Cares About the Little Things
5. Future Preacher :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Thankful Indeed

The chefs here in the land of Temporary Insanity would like to wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving! They are in the midst of making some very tasty cornbread stuffing, but they paused to tell me some of the things for which they are thankful:

*monster shirts

*movies

*Jesus

*Mommy and Daddy

*stuffing

*little brother when he's not hitting them

*when Momma lets them drink soda (this is a lie - I do not know what they are talking about!)

*lollipops

*toys

*the presents they will get at Christmas

*when Daddy lets them wear his shirts to bed

*football

*church

*Pastor Mutchler

I'm just guessing that all of you have a lot to be thankful for, too, huh? We wish all of you a joyous day with family and friends and of course no weight gained whatsoever. Amen. :)

A Big Thank You to You

A spirit of thankfulness is in the air. People are once again reminded by a simple holiday characterized by lots of cooking and eating and family togetherness that we need to be so grateful for our blessings.

In that spirit, I would like to say a big Thank You! to my faithful blog readers. It was just a year ago that I started blogging faithfully, and although my primary goal for blogging is still to record our family's life as I see it for future generations, I do love having an audience along the way. So thank you! I hope to continue blogging for a long time.

You may have noticed a new box on my sidebar, inviting you to join as a fan of The Framed Frog on Facebook. I encourage all my readers to join up and be Froggy Fans! Froggy Fans get first notifications of new things in the shop and also have access to exclusive deals and discounts. And, sometime in the next two weeks, I will be posting on The Framed Frog Facebook Fan Club how you can get something free from my shop! So go join up and ribbit on!

"Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name." Psalm 100:4