My Madelyn Girl

If Isaac is the masculine name in the Bible for "laughter," the girl name must be Madelyn. Our Madelyn is 4 years old and hysterically funny. She thinks "outside the box," mispronounces more than her fair share of words, and loves to sing, dance and laugh.

We are reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to the girls at night. Madelyn can't seem to get the name right and calls it "The Lion, the Witch, and the Woodle" :) After we read, we have the girls tell us about the story in their own words. Last night I asked Madelyn to tell me what Father Christmas had brought to Peter. She answered (correctly) a shield. When asked about Lucy, she answered (almost correctly) some medicine. Then came Susan. Madelyn thought and thought and finally yelled out, "A baking set!!!". The correct answer - a bow :)

How thankful I am for this little one who has come so far in the past 3 years. She was an underdeveloped, underweight, overwhelmed little beauty when she was placed in our arms at the age of 11 months. Thank you Lord for blessing us with this sweet, precious cutie.

Pictures: Madelyn's 4th birthday, Madelyn at 11 months (the morning of her adoption)

Snow Day!

When you have 12 inches of snow, a sunny day and three of the cutest darlin's ever, it is a fun, fun day. We spent almost 3 hours in our snow clothes playing and working in the snow this morning. Randy and Mason shoveled our drive and then we headed to the best hill in town to sled. Then we went to Memaw and Granddaddy's house to shovel a little more snow, to Sonic for $1 hamburgers, and finally home again to dry out and rest.

It is amazing how quickly this foot of snow is melting. Tomorrow, we are going to have another warm day, so the snowy fun won't lasted long. We are so thankful for the much needed moisture. Have a fun weekend wherever you are!

Jammie Day

The blizzard of '09 has hit, although it doesn't seem as bad as predicted. We are home still in our pajamas watching movies and drinking hot chocolate :) I have a roast in the crockpot and fresh, hot rolls for our dinner. Life is wonderful!

Here is the recipe for the rolls - they are so super easy, and even I haven't been able to mess them up yet! This is my friend, JoRita's recipe. She and her late husband ran a large ranch for several years, and this recipe has fed thousands of ranch hands. She and another sweet woman published my very favorite cookbook - The Lone Star Pantry Cookbook. I don't know if it is still in print, but it has almost 1000 recipes that are all so tasty.

Ranch Rolls

Dissolve 2 packages of yeast in 2 cups of warm water

In a large mixing bowl, place

1 beaten egg

1/3 cup oil

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

Mix in the yeast water and stir well

Add 5-6 cups of flour to the mixture and knead in your mixer for a few minutes

Place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise

Make into rolls with greased hands

Let rise again

Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes until golden brown

Brush with melted butter

Makes about 30 rolls

Enjoy sweet friends!

You Won't Believe It :)

Right now our temperature outside is almost 70 degrees.......and, school has already been cancelled tomorrow because of a blizzard! We are expecting 8-16 inches of snow tonight and tomorrow that may come with 40 mph winds. So, there isn't a flake on the ground, but we are having a fun-filled snow day tomorrow. Crazy weather? I think so :)

Stay Tuned!

Well, the bad news is that our weekend trip to Iowa is probably cancelled because of the BLIZZARD we are supposed to have tomorrow :( The good news is that I should soon have some great snow pictures of three precious snow bunnies :)

Woo-Hoo Day!

How I love our restful Sundays! With church on Saturday night, our Sundays are wonderful, family-filled days. Today we planted 12 new shrubs in front of our house, and sweet Randy fixed the garden gate and installed a new curtain rod in the dining room. I had coffee with a friend and the little ones worked puzzles and played games. But......the EXCITING news is that we took the training wheels off of Molly and Mason's bikes. The really exciting news is that in less than 5 minutes they were both riding without any help! (I think they are geniuses, but that is another story :)

Here are some videos of the fantastic bike riders and their little sister who now doesn't like her training wheels - lol! (And don't even look at our awful Bermuda grass that won't turn green for weeks - ugh!)

Bootiful Fowers

We are making good progress on the first stage (cheap stage) of the remodel. If you read the previous post, you know that soon every paintable wall will be "Honey Beige." We will then move through the house one room at a time and do a complete redo.

One thing that is strange about this house is a half wall that hangs above our kitchen breakfast bar. Randy started to take the entire thing down tonight, but.......apparently it is a major, load-bearing beam that runs the entire length of the house. The good news is that the part of the wall that really bugged us did come off. Isn't Randy the sweetest guy ever? He could be sitting on the couch right now watching the basketball tournament, but instead he is making his wife sooooo happy by hauling the weird wall out to the dumpster :)

I started putting a primer over the floral wallpaper in the entry hall so that I can paint over it. Madelyn stood in the hall tonight with a sad face and kept telling me that I was ruining her "bootiful fowers." Apparently this paint job isn't making everyone happy - lol!

Our Missy was home for a few days this week, and we loved spending precious time with her. What a sweet daughter and sister she is :)

$40 Intervention

I have written many posts about contentment (or the lack of) on this blog primarily because I struggle with it so often. Our "new" house will someday be the yellow cottage of my dreams, but work has progressed so slowly because of Randy's work schedule and our busy life full of parenting, homeschooling, church, life, etc.. I have remained fairly upbeat about the very colorful walls and much neglected kitchen and baths until last week :(

We have orange walls, blue walls, green walls, red walls, grey walls, floweredy wallpaper walls.....well, you get the not-so-pretty picture. As with most remodeling projects, painting is not the only issue. The walls need to be textured, new trim needs to be painted, cut and installed, doors and window trim need to be painted. I began to see myself living with orange sponge-painted walls for a loooong time. So....

I did a little research and found that I can buy 5 gallons of paint at Lowes for only $37.89! It is not the kind of paint I normally buy, but at that price I can paint over EVERYTHING and not feel guilty about texturing and painting over it again later. I started on the orange living room yesterday and already feel much better :) Goodbye orange, hello Honey Beige!

I don't know about you, but I think $40 is a small price to pay for a happy momma.

More Dallas Pictures

Before our son Michael moved to New York last month, we took a trip to Dallas to see both of our sweet guys. Because of the trauma of Michael's car wreck and broken nose, I never finished posting some of the pictures I took that weekend. Most of these pictures are from our trip to a fabulous science museum in Dallas. Michael finally had his nose repaired on Tuesday by a wonderful plastic surgeon in New York. He goes back in tomorrow to have the cast taken off and can now finally start his new job in the big city. Thank you again for all of your prayers for Michael :)

Puzzling Days

My favorite thrift shop often has great puzzles for a dollar - what a deal! We now have a pretty big collection, and occasionally have a puzzle marathon. It is a little hard to maneuver through the house on these days, but our floor is very colorful!

Homeschooling has taken a sweet, leisurely spring-time feel. We do a lot of math and reading, a little gardening, hunt for a few bugs, ride bikes and scooters, and just enjoy being together.

Michael finally found a doctor in New York City to fix his poor nose. He will have it repaired tomorrow afternoon, so please pray that all goes well and that he recovers quickly. I know he is ready to feel better, look better, and start his new job in New York.

Randy has another birthday tomorrow (51!), and so he will be a year older than me. I prefer being the "younger woman." :)

Have a wonderful week and hug everyone you love.

Sweet Friends

I am blessed with many sweet, sweet friends. They make my life more full, more fun, and much richer. Friends hold you up when things are poopy and they love you even when you are a mess. My friend Kris gave me a blog award that I want to pass on to some of my favorite bloggy friends :)

The details of blogs chosen for this award:
"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind
bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested
in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons
of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated.

Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award
to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this
cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”!

Take a gander at these sweet blogs:

What Do I Know of Holy (my daughter's blog)

Canyon Wren Cottage (my sister's blog)

Farmhouse Blessings (this is an award-free blog, but one of my favorites!)

Little Cabin in the Woods

SchroFamBlog

There's More Than This (Dan's blog)

Thoughts From My Heart

Blessings Upon the Path of Life

Thanks again Kris!

It Finally Happened

You know those dreams where you are running away from something terrible, but your legs won't work? Or the nightmare of showing up somewhere and forgetting your clothes? Well, I have had a fear of something for a looooooong time, and yesterday it finally happened :(

After homeschooling yesterday morning, the little ones and I left our home to run a few errands. We had plans to meet Randy for lunch, and the day looked wonderful. We spent quite a while at a resale shop for children looking for spring clothes and then headed for Hobby Lobby. As I got out of the car I realized.........I STILL HAD MY HOUSE SHOES ON!!!!!! Yes, that has been my fear for quite some time. I usually check my feet before heading out the door, but one little slip-up has led to lots of laughter and a little embarrassment for me.

Maybe I should have titled this post "The Real Danger of Homeschooling Your Children - You Will Occasionally Look Like a Dork Because You Get a Little Too Comfortable in Your Robe and House Shoes."

Quick Update on Michael

Thank you, thank you sweet friends for praying for Michael after his accident. He finally made it to New York late Thursday afternoon and was exhausted. After the car wreck, no one felt very safe sleeping in the van, so Michael and his co-workers were awake for almost 48 hours.

The swelling in his face is almost gone, but the pain in his nose has worsened. He has two black eyes, and I am sure most people think he has been in a fight :) He is going to try to see a specialist tomorrow for pain medication and to schedule surgery on his broken nose. I am praying that this ordeal is over for Michael very soon.

Please continue to pray that the other driver's insurance will not be "stinky" about paying for the hospital stay last Wednesday and all of the other doctor bills that will be coming through in the next few weeks. I can't even imagine what the final amount will be.

Thank you for all of the phone calls, emails and comments you have left on this blog. We are blessed beyond measure with precious friends and family :)