Little Joys

Thursday, July 16, 2009

I STARTED A NEW BLOG!!!!!

When I first got married I had no idea what items I needed to have "on hand" in my kitchen at all times. I didn't know what "staples" to buy each time I went to the grocery. And on more than one occasion my husband came home to me sitting on the kitchen floor crying because I didn't know what to cook for dinner.

I was highly intimidated by all the fancy cookbooks I had received as wedding presents and I NEVER had all those ingredients. To add to my frustration, my mother had always had dinner on the table when my dad arrive home from work and all the dishes were always "done" at the same time.

I knew how to cook about three things and every time I tried something new, it had a pretty major flaw.

This site is dedicated to newly married couples searching for easy meals and moms who are ultra busy and need some quick meals. Every time I have googled or searched for "easy" meals, I think to myself "easy for who?" and "who has these ingredients lying around?"

So a few things about this site:

the goal is to have a happy cook and a happy kitchen..
the meals posted here will always be simple
the posts are to be helpful and give tips to beginner kitchens
this site hopes to address questions and give solutions to everyday living in the kitchen

check it out at www.littlejoyskitchen.blogspot.com

The new Nursery

Here are some pictures of our new little one's home to be. We decided to leave the "big" bed up in our guest room and just add the baby bed and changing table. This way if guest come, we can stay in there with the baby and they can have the master bedroom and bath.

My cousin had here tubes tied after her last one and this was the furniture that she was getting rid of. It happened to match PERFECTLY and it was FREE!!!

The baby bed...The 'theme' if there is one, is trees..

Here is what the room looks like without being able to see the baby stuff.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Finch Family Hike

This past Saturday Ben and i had " calendared" a canoe trip to one of our favorite hiking trails that is just beside a creek.

The wagoneer did not quite have its "canoe rack" ready so we decided to load up the Jeep and go on a hiking trip, a picnic and a trip to the Amish market.

We got a DELICOIUS watermelon, two cucumbers and a LARGE tomato at the market and Brennan got to see the horses.

Then we took our picnic to the creek and Ben loaded Brennan on his hiking backpack and off we went, wondering if we would ever make it to the top with us each having extra "baggage". Well folks, me 8 months prego and Ben with 30+ pounds on his back went ALL the way to the top! At times it was straight up and the only thing to grab was tree roots, but succeed we did indeed!!!!!

Click here to see pictures from the top..

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

one more thing..

I was talking about little joys in my last post and there is one more thing that is not so little that i wanted to rejoice in publicly so that you could share in the moment and i pray for this kind of Joy to be bestowed upon you as you read this.

Since Brennan has been born, Ben and i have been limited in our dates. We have allowed that to take a backseat for several reasons. At first it was nursing-you can't go anywhere without your baby for very long! Then it was scheduling mixed with finances, lately it has been finances mixed with finding an available sitter (without wearing out the faithful precious ones that we always call upon).

One sweet friend of mine who just graduated high school and i were talking (we get together once a week) and she offered to babysit Brennan last weekend. It was a great surprise and she insisted on us having a date night.

When we got back i tried to pay her (to no avail) and was very blessed by her humility and service to our marriage and family. She graciously views herself as been given much by God and as many of our dear, wonderful friends (Mike and KAY!, Bethany, my sweet elderly neighbor) they recognize God's gifts to them and want simply to bless others.

As if that weren't enough, on our date i had begun to share with Ben about some things i was learning in a book i was reading and how it challenged me. On our way to bed that night i grabbed the book and my bible from where i had been studying that morning. When i did $50 fell out of it!

Now, i know God is good and provides generously for His children, but i was overwhelmed at finding this money. Where did it come from?? Yes, GOD! I know there was most likely a physical representative that left that (& it wasn't my sitter, i asked)..but nevertheless mysterious!

Thanks be to God for HIS indescribable gifts!!! And i have a notion that it could have been one of those afore mentioned wonderful people that was at my house for lunch..but i know that no matter what it was my wonderful Heavenly Provider. I am so thankful that God allowed us to go on that date, though it was in a way an act of faith that He would provide the un-budgeted money..

Any friends want to share surprising and wonderful ways God blesses YOU?

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HA! Today history was made for all of you who were unaware..at 12:34 and 56 seconds on today, 07/08/09 it was, for the first time ever, a consecutive moment!

I thought that was a tadbit of funny to share. My husband called and told me and we had mini celebration (i taught Brennan how to "toast" as he bumped his sippy cup with my lemonade!)

Here as some other "little joys" i have had today:

1. I bought Brennan a pretend camera (that looks really hi-tec) for a dollar at a salvage sell. On Monday he had his one year portraits done [to see them click here and go to event access or here] Ben took over 90 pictures, so Brennan learned what to do with the camera. All morning he walked around with it making a clicking noise with his tongue and trying to close one eye to look through the lense! Precious-already wants to be like his Daddy

2. He LOVES to brush his teeth. Like this morning on our walk he HAD to take his toothbrush and did not let go for the entire 2 miles!

3. On that note, he has a book called "Toothbrush, Jammies, Man in the Moon, Why is Bedtime So So Soon?" We haven't read it in like 3 weeks (b/c he had hidden it under the futon) he found it today and brought it to me doing the sign for brush teeth! We had to find the page where the little girl was brushing her teeth.

4. In this same book the little girl stretches and yawns really big before getting in the bed. In the picture her little hands are made into fists..A couple of weeks ago, Ben thought that it would be great to teach Brennan how to "fist bump" like big boys and teens and so when Brennan sees this picture he wants to "bump" fists with her and he puts his chubby little cute fist up next to the page! Gotta love moments like that!

5. I have been really challenged in my disciplining him lately b/c he has begun to laugh when i use my "serious" voice. Like when he is in the dogfood, or the china cabinet, or the toilet. When i say "NO NO" in my firm tone, its like he thinks its a game. My nephew did this and my best friends little girl, so i know that its not just an evil laugh, its a nervous reaction to us using an unfamiliar tone and it doesn't necessarily mean that they think what they are doing is funny, just that normally the things they do don't get much reaction and so if we respond "theatrically" to them they think maybe its something they should laugh at--us, not their disobedience-however, it can make it a challenge to be firm when he laughs hysterically when he disobeys. But our poor dog runs everytime i use that voice-she thinks its HER thats in trouble!!

So what are some little things that YOU have laughed about today? Somethings that made you have a little joy?