Today..

Today was pretty sweet. B and I have tried hard to be easy going and accept the obstacles we have been given. I think we have done pretty well so far. Earlier this week was a last straw kind of deal. It's been so long since we have been able to "get ahead" wth life in general. Our house has been a construction zone since before Noah was born. Never enough money to finish and it seemed like one thing after another kept setting us farther and farther from completion. I have tried extra hard to believe that God had his hand in this all along and today I felt like he finally revealed something to us. On tuesday our sewage backed up into our home, lovely ;)  It was icing on the cake. Both of our cars had no heat, I need all new tires, our house has no heat and we need a complete electrical re-wire something or other. We have been using these plug in box heaters which have given my comed bill a whole new meaning. So needless to say, we were not happy. So we barracaded ourselves to the front of the house and dealt with the smell. After my husband went to work it started raining and I soon found our laundry room drenched with water from a pretty little leak in our celing. I stood there laughing as I looked at the bathroom floor warped and pulling off the ground, the hallway carpet drenched in sewage water and my laundry room floor creating its own pond.

The nect day I called to put a claim into our insurance. I had read a few things online saying that most cases like this were not covered unless you had a specific sewage coverage on your policy but I decided that it couldn't hurt to try. I tried to hide the worry of what the hell we were going to do! We are going to need a plumber, new carpet , new floorig and who knows what else with who knows what money.

Well, we got a call from my insurance agent today. Tomorrow we will be put up in a hotel for the weekend. We have a plumber coming to fix the problem, and then a clean up crew will come to tear up the carpet and flooring as well as clean up and air our our house. They will replace our flooring and our carpet and anything they think could have been damaged by the water.

My husband told me this on my way home from work today and I cried. Joy. Thank you God.

Resolutions.....Goals.....?

A bit late......story of my life ;) I want to get these goals of mine down on paper or digital internet paper in this case. Anything to hold me accountable and something that I can refrence because I have no memory to speak of. I know that not all of these will get done but I'd like to entertain the idea of it. There is a lot im going to put down but Im just feeling all sorts of motivated at the moment. Tomorrow I may regret this. But anyhow, these are the things I would like to get done/work on/or accomplish this year.

• Simplify/Organize our home
• More Date Nights
• Establish a consistant fitness routine
• Run 2 5k's
• Juice more
• Work on my photography
• Get out of Debt
• Take a Vacation
• Eat as a family at the table
• Put God first
• Get back to Church
• Establish a weekly homemade pizza night
• Make a quilt for our bed
• Build a kitchen table
• Finish all our current renovations

A long list but Im fairly confident in it. I've already started on some of these so that's pretty sweet in my book!

A letter to myself...........

Dear Stephanie,

Things are getting better for you and your family. Without a doubt, you have been blessed beyond words. This past year has been a rough one but at the same time it has been a year of life lessons and growth. I want to document this so that in the future you have a reminder of all the blessing God has given you despite all the trials. At this point you feel like everything bad in this world has happened to you and your the only one with problems. Well snap out of it because you are not. This past year you have had many financial problems, a job loss, car problems, house problems, and all at the same time as having a baby. It felt like once three things went wrong, then six more problems came your way. After a while nothing surprised you. At the end of the year, all within a week after Christmas you had three deaths in your famillies. It is so easy to get discouraged with all of this. But have a stopped to think of things in a different light? Have you tried looking at what you have and what you have gained? You have learned so much this past year. And guess what? You still have your beautiful, loving and amazing family. You still have your house and your car and food. Each and every month God made sure that you have had just enough for your family, sometimes down to the penny and sometimes more. So you don't have everything you Want and everything that others have. That isn't what matters. Your loved ones have since gone to a greater place and you should find peace in that. Recently B has gotten a new job with a better pay. It may not be enough for you to stay at home yet but trust that God will work things out for you in His time. Stop. slow down. Enjoy your days. Do not wish them away. Love lots and smile, because what you have is what God intended and it is beautiful.

Love,
Stephanie

Hello :)

A few years ago I started a blog. I didn't really know what to write about but I knew I wanted one, and so I went with it. I kept up on it for a while but I found myself constantly worrying that no one was reading and that it wasn't funny or witty enough. A while later I became pregnant and lost all motivation to continue, but posted randomly just because I felt like I had too. And after that I finally stopped. I still have a long feed worth of blogs that I scroll through each day and they are a constant inspiration. But never enough to start blogging again. Today I was reading a certain blog and this quote just sang to me.

 " in case i haven't convinced you to start a blog yet… start a blog. i promise it is the best new year's resolution for you this year. it could be private, it could be public. you could write once a day, once a week, or once a month. one person could read it, or one million people could read it. the important thing is that you tell your story. the important thing is that you don't forget. the important thing is that you wrote it all down so your kids can read it all one day. the important thing is that you share what you're passionate about." - via 

And that's all I needed to hear. So my kids can read it. So maybe, just maybe, it might help one person. So I can tell my story. As boring as it may seems at time and as much as I think I can not write, that's not whats important. 

Ill be happy I did this. And Im hoping I can keep it up.

Happy New Year. Happy 2013

:)