Hanging in there

We’ve been battling sickness. Ethan caught a cold a week ago, gave it to Kevin, gave it to me, and its been a tad rough. Housebound, missed pee wee soccer classes, extreme fussiness from Kevin. Yesterday, we took them to the doctor. They both got pink eye, but Ethan is on the mend. Kevin is still in the middle of it. Two hours straight of a whining, crying, fussy baby can drive you to the edge when you’re on your own day after day. Shaun always helps when he gets home, which is only three hours till bedtime and then back to work. He’s been wonderful.

We got prescriptions for eye drops and med, went to the pharmacy, only to find out that Shaun’s work changed some part of the insurance plan recently. So, the price for the meds was incredibly expensive. More money stress, and with meds costing that much, we simply can’t afford to get sick. I’ve been second shooting a lot, hoping and praying that it will help me start booking weddings. We really need the financial help from a wedding booking. It’s just been challenging to be away each weekend from Shaun. I know I can’t just wait for the referral to come. I have to be active, keep the photo blog up, and keep posting pictures, continue to figure the pricing for wedding packages, etc. I am incredibly grateful I have a few mini sessions in April booked.

Sometimes, you just have to be patient. When I want something so bad, and it doesn’t come right away, I find that I have to get on my knees more, and truly let the Lord guide me, and help me be humble. It’s so easy to get off the spiritual track, and not stay close in prayers and scripture study. Sounds like we need to be more humble, and pray for greater faith. Good things do come, eventually. Heck, it only took me seven years and a long road to find Shaun.  So, when that first booking happens, you’ll hear me sounding much like the secretary on “Ghostbusters” yelling, ‘We got one!’ :)

On a good note, I had an angel of a friend come by this week in our hardest of sick days. She shared some of her essential oils with us, Do terra oils. I’ve always believed in herbal remedies, oils, and such. My Mom, Grandma, and other friends have used stuff like that, and they’re great. Now, I love tyelnol, excedrin, and such, but I’m quite amazed at the result of using these in the past three days. Here’s what happened:

Kevin has been so fussy with the sickness. My friend rubbed a drop of a handful of oils, ranging from lavender to peppermint, on Kevin’s feet, and rubbed some on his back. Within a minute, I’m not kidding, the fussiness stopped. He started smiling and talking again. That first day, I was shocked. I got my hands on some oil of my own, and have been applying it to me and the boys. Thankfully, Shaun is not that sick. Again, the same blessing of calming and better breathing happened with Kevin, instantly.  Now, when Kevin sees me with the oil, he sits on the couch, and holds his feet up in the air. It’s hilarious. The lavender is my favorite, as it has helped me sleep incredible, and has that wonderful, calming effect. I got a ‘breathe’ blend of oils that helps with colds, and have been using it daily. It’s super. I’m going to a party next week to learn more. So, just had to share that.

Forgive me for being so open and honest about our trials at the moment, but it helps to write. I love reading all of your blogs, and have been trying to keep up with life:)

Some great bread recipes

Recently, I went to an enrichment meeting at church, and a sweet lady taught us how to make super, simple rolls. We watched as she got the dough out, sprayed the counters, and cut the dough into pizza slices, rolling them up. We tasted the end result, and it was wonderful.

I came home with the recipe, gave it a shot, and they turned out great. The amazing part was how simple it was to make them. I never grew up in a bread making home, and the first time I was exposed to that was in my chapters living in Kooskia, ID. Everyone made everything from scratch there, from bread to jam, to cheese. (Home made cheese is super squeaky on your teeth:)

I called my friend Kerri, demanded that she come over so I could teach her, and now she’s making them. Such a great sport:) So, I have to share these recipes with you guys. If I can make them, you sure can!

Bread Roll Recipe- When using all white flour, the rolls turn out very soft. I used all wheat, half wheat/half white. Not quite as soft, but still good!

Cinnamon Rolls and Breadsticks

One Hour Bread Recipe

Allright, my friends, go bake!

Good thoughts

Recently, I had a quiet birthday staying home, and taking care of the sick boys. It’s funny how you get older, you’re birthdays get quieter. We went about 2 weeks being healthy, before catching another round of colds. I’ve been meaning to make that no bake cheesecake in the pantry for me. Back to meds, staying home, taking it easy, and missing pee wee soccer for Ethan.

He LOVES his soccer class. I have never grown up with sports or been a big sports person, but there sure is a need for a physical outlet for boys. Its the cutest class, and Ethan loves running and working with the ball. I was amazed at how fast he picked up on it, using his foot to hold the ball still, and listening to the teacher. He sits down next to a kid, and starts up a conversation. I love how sociable he is!

We got a brand new Oster blender, and have been making smoothies every day. It’s absolute heaven. The boys stand on chairs next to the counter, and we all watch the blender work it’s magic. The thing’s blades go forward and backwards, and shuts off when its done blending. So cool!

I saw “Morning Glory”, a cute movie that just came to Redbox, and one my Mom would have enjoyed. We loved watching movies together, and were not ones to watch good movies just once. Mom and I love Harrison Ford, and more of his other great movies, like “Regarding Henry”. When I was watching it, I could totally hear Mom laughing with me on the funny parts where Harrison is a cranky, old brat complaining about everything. There’s a tender part in the park where he and the “Notebook” actress are sitting on a bench, and he finally gives her a decent compliment, and says “See? Told you I could banter”. Total quotable part that Mom would have used in her bag of favorite movie lines. It was just neat to feel her near, even if its about something that doesn’t hold any eternal value, movies. Anyways, its a cute movie that wasn’t full of crappy sexual stuff and not too much swearing. It’s so hard to find decent movies today. By the way, “Despicable Me” made me giggle. Really funny movie, especially when the old guy says “We have to warn him fast!”, jumps on his motorized cart, and proceeds to move at the pace of a snail. Ok, enough movie talk. Sorry, guys. I just love good movies. Don’t even get me started on Jurassic Park:) Cannot wait to watch that with the boys, when they’re like twelve!

Tried to start networking with a sweet caterer last weekend. Went down to the reception at the south end of the world, tried to take pics of her food, and couldn’t get my new, darn flash to fire worth beans. Tried everything. Apologized profusely, came home, studied and asked online for an answer. Turns out I needed to go into the custom functions menu on my camera, go to the flash menu, and turn the switch from ‘no fire’ to ‘fire’. Tried the flash, and it fired away. Whew! The blessing of the night? The main photographer was kind to me, tried to help with the flash, gave me her info, and said I could second shoot for her anytime.  She’s in her first year of business too, and remembered second shooting to get started. Thank heavens for understanding and kindness!!

So that’s what’s been going on around here. Praying for weddings to book, enjoying the active boys and their sweetness, praying to not explode when they are being exasperating, diving into bed when they go down for the night, and laughing with Shaun about the day.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week:)

 

 

Spring gardening 2011

First chapter of gardening for this year! Trying to keep up the blog had been slightly challenging, as I just can’t seem to get enough energy theses days. (Sorry the font keeps changing. I want it to be this one, but have posted and forgot to change the font. Font lover:) Attempting to consistently exercise for an easier pregnancy, I walked on the treadmill for ten minutes this morning. Was so pooped later.

I am growing some Cosmo flower seeds under the grow lights in the washer room. Luxor light is back on, it’s so bright in there. Here’s the fun stuff outside!

The herb bed, with green onions, parsley, chives, oregano, and a purple lavendar plant that will attract some much needed bees. Last year, my neighbor said none of his grapevines gave any plants, because of no bees. I felt bad, because I had one, consistent bee come hang out in my garden often. Oops:)

1.4 aperture, love:) 

Mint above, basil below. Keeping the basil in a pot, so it won’t grow stinking huge! Don’t need that much.

Sugar snap peas! Great plant for springtime, and its fun to see stuff growing on the trellis. 

Two cherry ‘sweet 100’ tomato plants that I took a chance in planting early. I got the Tomato Lady’s silver mulch down there. It is SO bright, and bounces that light right up to the plants. By doing so, it’s supposed to help increase yield and size. I like it because after I secured it down, it didn’t fly away in the crazy wind we had, unlike the hay mulch. I sprinkled my Dipel Dust on the plants. It took care of the hornworm problem in the fall last year, with my one remaining tomato plant. We had a massive fall harvest of grape tomatoes after the dipel dust. So, this year should be great! I say ‘Just try to eat the plant now, hornworms!’ with the same tone as the pirate saying ‘Anyone who yells “parlay”, I’ll have their guts for garters!’

Broccoli!

I started these strawberry plants last fall, and they’ve been growing roots all through winter. There’s a sweet lady at church who jams strawberries in her garden each year. I figured I’d try it, and we love strawberries. So we’ll see how these do.

The boys and I have gone out each day and played in the garden, before the scorching heat comes. It’s been lovely. PS: I have a ton of hay leftover for mulch, if anyone wants some for their garden. Let me know!

Guess who had too much fun with their snack pack today? :D Yes, he dumped it all on the table cloth, and proceeded to it from there. Crazy kid. Love him. Looks like an Indian with war paint.

The new camera!

Squeal! Yes, I know. Silly, girlish squeals of delight when I heard the UPS truck pull up this afternoon. Thank you, tax return. Thank you, thank you, thank you for helping me get a very important tool for the business, a real professional camera.

The boys and I opened up the big box, and pulled out a larger camera than what I’m used to, the Canon 5d. First things first, I got a strap on it. I’m too scared that I would drop it, so I make sure there’s a strap on that baby. Took a few moments of “Wow, it’s big and black” with the boys, put on my only lens that will fit it, (50 1.4), put a card and battery in, and went out front with the boys.

I sat in my camp chair as the boys pushed their cars around the culdesac, and I worked on figuring out the settings. I switched the focusing over to back button focusing, which has been great for me, and started firing away. The LCD screen is so much bigger than my rebel. I look at it, and think “HD flat screen TV at Costco”. It’s big and great! I know this is more of a post for the photo blog, but just wanted to share about it on this blog first.

The boys have been really good this week. I’ve really tried to be patient and listen more to them. Many times, Ethan will make arguments over things that don’t make sense or matter. I’ve responded a lot of times with an “Oh, ok.” answer and that has stopped many stupid battles. He freaked when I tried to take out the camera box to throw in the trash. I asked if he wanted to keep it to play, and he stopped crying and said yes. Again, slowing down and listening to the kids has been a tremendous help this week:)

Here’s my darlings. Love them!

Yes, this camera and I are going places, that’s for sure!!