Still here...

I'm still here but here's what I'm not:
*Not Running
*Not motivated to cook
*Not motivated to clean

Here's what I am doing:
*Reading the Hunger Games
*Making Strawberry Jam
*Planning my clothing for the rest of this year to include making all my clothes for Olivia and me...

This is what I'm really excited about.  I was wondering if I could make it through the rest of the year with only buying minimal clothes.  I can make skirts for me and Olivia and not need to go shopping. I'd like to buy her some t-shirts so I can put fun pictures on them, but making girl skirts are so easy! I"m collecting my virtual library of sewing blogs and I have plenty to look at! As for me,  I found an easy yoga skirt pattern that would be perfect for this summer.  Now onto some homemade shirts for me and it will be a stress free summer!

Olivia Marie Holdgate

Our sweet little baby girl! Although this 2 1/2 year old isn't so baby anymore.  She's mostly into size 3's if the 2 is cut small.  She wears size 7 and loves pink.  Purple is a close second. She loves skirts, dresses and shoes.  Still not crazy about tights or footed Pj's. 
She is into princesses, ponies, and baby dolls!!  She is constantly carrying around a baby doll on her hip, talking to her, feeding her, making  her go potty, pushing her in a stroller. 
She also got into those Littlest Pet Shop toys, squinkies and zoobles while at her cousins house. 
As much as this little one enjoys the girl stuff, she is pretty tough and holds her own with her brothers. 

Ryan Francis Holdgate

My Sweet Ryan.  One of the sweetest boys yet so passionate, energetic and sometimes, my parenting nemesis.  He is the most photogenic and it's a lot of fun hearing the stories he makes up.  One of my favorite things that he does is a mish mash of songs.  He'll combine Jesus Loves Me, with the Itsy Bitsy spider and Hello Mr Turkey, all into one song.

Ryan is built very athletic and reminds me of a soccer player.  We put him in soccer this fall, but he wasn't very interested. 

He loves superheros, especially spiderman.  He loves to dress up in a cape, or his spiderman outfit or any other costume he can find. 

He wears a size 4 but can still wear some size 3 pants.  He LOVES pajamas!!! 

He's just starting to get into legos, but still has a hard time following the directions, but he's getting there. 

Great is Thy Faithfulness!

This is the song that came to mind today:

The Steadfast Love of the Lord never ceases
His mercies shall never come to an end
They are new every morning
New every morning
Great is thy Faithfulness O Lord!
Great is thy Faithfulness!

How have you seen God's faithfulness lately?

This might be my favorite time to blog

When I get to talk about my children. I always said I would never be that mom who could only talk about her kids.  But when I start thinking of funny things, of hard things with children, I just can't close the flood gates.

As has become tradition for my sister and now myself, we write Christmas posts for each child. 

I'll start with my first: James Alexander Holdgate

 Going on 7 years of marriage, we have seen alot of ups and many many downs.  However, these children are a major part of the ups, and I guess downs, too.  However, I am continually amazed with watching my children grown. I couldn't find a picture of our little butterball turkey so here are 2 pictures that show a bit of who this blessing is. 

Is is not uncommon to find James, like this picture shows, hands deep in a project. This happens to be a lego set he purchased when he decided he wanted to make some money to buy a toy.  So, we gave him a few extra chores and paid him for it. 

James is super smart and his mind is a sponge.  He absorbs all the information at school and we are only privvy to a portion of that.  Every now and then we'll have a conversation with him and realize just how much his little brain is working. 
He loves school.  Did I say that already, well, He LOVES school!! He loves to do his homework, he loves to draw and make his own paper books with his drawings.  He loves to build.  He loves to explain things to a point where we have to ask him to stop talking and give someone else a chance. 

He is growing out of size 5 and wears size 11 shoes.  He prefers his crocs but will wear tennis shoes when needed.  He, like his dad, would be happy if all I ever bought him were polos and khakis.  Yup. 

He hates tight clothing and tight shoes.  He does not like to wear clothes around the house, but we are working on it.  He does not prefer fruit but has discovered he does like cantalope.  He eats a peanut butter sandwich for lunch, EVERY DAY.  He loves to eat cereal in the morning with his dad. 

So, what would be a good gift for James? Any sort of new project or tool; any sort of new coloring supply, puzzles, legos and cool t-shirts. 

No energy to write

Or cool stories to tell. It's hard to remember all that happens during the day as well as make time to write about it. I do pretty well at recounting a few stories to Alex in the evening, after my glass of wine. But this story is about God's plan.



You see, Alex and I both have a desire to give. Sometimes we give and it makes people uncomfortable. Sometimes we're not able to give because, well, sometimes that's just how it is. I do find it quite healthy and freeing to give away clothes, toys, kitchen appliances, etc.



So last week, Alex told me about this guy who was working for him. He has 2 little boys, 2 and 11 months and his girlfriend. They were evicted 2 weekends ago, had their car impounded and are living in a very much less than desirable hotel room; where even the landlord told Danielle and Andy to stay inside all day. So, as a mother of young children, I couldn't even bear to think of what it would be like to be cooped up in a hotel room with 2 young ones and not even be able to spend time outside. Actually, I can understand and I know it would drive me CRAZY!



A day after that, Alex calls me from work and asks if we should offer them our guest room. At least they wouldn't have to stay inside all day and then Alex could take Andy to work. They agreed and they arrived late Wednesday night.



You know that feeling when something is just right? Well, we have it. So, Danielle helps out around the house, watches the kids if I need to run out and is very happy to be out of that hotel. I am happy to have some other little kids to distract my kids and have an adult to talk to. Alex was happy to have someone help him clean up our backyard.



So today, I was putting some stuff together for Danielle, out of my vast supply of coupon deals and started filling up one of my 31 cosmetic bags for her. This particular bag, I had bought back from a customer ( a year ago) because she didn't like the color of the monogramming on it. So, I look down and see that the monogramming is DC. Her name is Danielle Crabtree. I couldn't believe it so when I gave her the bag, I couldn't help but say that there is a reason God has them here. She says that she knows, she prayed to get out of that hotel.



All of this to say that God does have a plan and he sometimes gives us very concrete, visible signs. What's next for our friends? I don't know. They paid to get their car out of impound, and now it doesn't work. So, they're looking for a car so at least, Andy can drive to work. Alex has enough work for a few weeks for him but we don't know about after that. Then they'll consider moving back to where Danielle will be closer to family and can get some help. I think they'd like to come back to Charleston eventually, once they can get a cushion to fall back on.



So, I'm continuing to pray for their sweet family and sweet little boys. I'm so glad God brought them here and I hope that they will see what God has planned for them too.

Random

I haven't been posting but I have been thinking.  I've been concentrating on cleaning up my house (flylady.net), focusing more on respecting my husband (Love & respect) and reading through Grudem's Systematic Theology (1/2 off at the local christian bookstore). 

House Cleaning: No, it doesn't come natural. My theory, you either get the cleaning or cooking gene, I got cooking.  Can I get an AMEN!!  Okay, so this Flylady Kelly lady tells you certain things to do on certain days. This might come natural to some but not to me! I want a clean house, I just don't know how to do it.  So, I've been motivated to go minimal with our stuff and hoping to make some big improvement this summer.

Respect:  Turns out, I need to work on showing my respect for my husband. Need I say more? I'm looking forward to listening to Love & Respect. 

Systematic Theology: After going to a Holy Ghost sunday school I got inspired to get this book. AND it happened to be half off....I'll be posting more as I read more...

That's what's been going on.