Blissfull weekending

Lovely April weekend of very warm temperatures. Exciting events like babies standing, enjoying company and fellowship with wonderful people, really good food( peanut butter chocolate chip cookies being one of them) Babies being passed around, wine being passed around, laughter being passed around: beautiful!

Smiling babies!!!

Beautiful gifts from a lovely friend, pretty things that bring a smile to my face!

Weeding, weeding and more weeding and counting all the blossoms on my habanero plant.

and all the lovely yellow heirloom tomatoes I'm about to enjoy

And the exciting beef steam tomato coming along nicely...

And one hilarious and now POTTY TRAINED two (almost three!) year old.

Looking forward to watching this movie a friend lent me. Can't wait!!! Also excited to dive into this book which just came in the mail. Looking forward to family coming to town to visit....happy Spring days indeed. Blissfull indeed!

Coupon purse

This last weekend I went to a workshop on couponing and saving some serious cash from thepractical saver lady . I was so inspired!!! So much to learn and so much money to save. She showed us something she uses for her coupons and I thought to myself "I can make that!!!". It's a little different than the one she has and I have yet to make the dividers out of old folders but here is the purse.

It has a button in the front for when you want to close it, and one in the back for when you want to hang it over your grocery cart handle and have easy access to your coupons. I fell in love with this material at JoAnne's and used a 40 % off coupon to buy a yard (which was more than enough material) It is reinforced too.

I really love how it turned out!

pardon...

Pardon my absence from the blog world. This month has been a bit hairy. March started off with a surgery for Soeren which was successful and Praise God for that. But now my little Soeren (8 months old) and his brother Aiden (2 1/2) have RSV. Which is really scary, involves little to no sleep, and a whole lot of praying. My Abigail is also sick, although she is out of the RSV catergory, very sick though which is a little discouraging (two more kids to go I guess). Needless to say, we haven't been anywhere or done anything and today is a "Anne of Green Gables" and peppermint tea day.I know God is faithful, I know sleep will come again. Meanwhile, I have been working on Soeren's nursery and here are some pictures. It's still a work in progress...

a place for us to cuddle and read

this is the fabric for the curtains and the pillow I made. I fell in love with this fabric!

Please pray for continued healing of our children and that I don't get it.

some major Soeren cuteness!

yes indeed, a cutie pie at 7 months trying to crawl and trying to talk and a sweet four year old, trying to help!

Tuna Salad Sandwiches

So last night for dinner, I thought it would be fun and welcoming of Spring days to have tuna sandwiches. Served with a pickle of course! I don't know why I think of Spring and tuna together, I just remember when I was a kid, we would watch baseball games and eat tuna sandwiches. Since Spring training is just around the corner, here is my take on the delicious sandwich.

Julia's Tuna Sandwiches

six cans tuna

four pieces thick bacon broken into little bits

five hard boiled eggs, cut into little pieces

half a red onion, minced finely

2 Tb. honey mustard

1 Tb. dried thyme

2/3 cup. Mayo

salt and pepper to taste

Some really good Rye Bread, toast before assembling sandwiches.

Mix all together and serve on toasted Rye Bread.

Warning, if you happen to be on a diet and you've told yourself before "now one sandwich, just one", you may find yourself making another sandwich and devouring it before you even know what hit you. Happy Spring! (because I live in Phoenix and it is full blown Spring here)

Titus 2 from far away

There are times in my life when Titus 2 women are hard to find: those encouragers, those who dare to challenge you, help you in your focus to keep going...to love your husband, your children, manage your home well... and keep your focus right where it should be: on Christ!

I may be in a dry time in my life as far as women located near me who are wise beyond belief and full of golden nuggets and jewels of wise words, but I have been encouraged by this list of blogs and hope that reading them will bless you as well.

http://www.itakejoy.com/

http://www.feminagirls.com

http://proverbs14verse1.blogspot.com

and because this is another area of wisdom that is encouraging me

http://joshealthcorner.blogspot.com

May you grow in His grace today, learn and be encouraged!

Julia

Folly beach

As promised, here are the pictures of our time in Folly Beach, SC. This house was incredible! Spectacular views, and can you believe it.... I never actually made it down to the beach. Between fevered kids, wedding chaos, nursing a little guy, this beach lover and dweller in the desert still didn't make it down to the beach:(

but my very cool husband did. And brought back up a very cool (and dead) present. Science time!

My sister found just the right spot!

the view from the front door. Sigh! (it doesn't get much better)

This pleased my heart very much. Grandpa reading to the kiddies. So sweet!

One very happy and voracious reader!

A lovely wedding, a lovely visit

We had a wonderful time in lovely South Carolina (Charleston and Folly Beach) except for.... four very sick children. Fevers, coughing, sneezing, sore throats. You name it. Not fun! But spending time with family, lovely Christmas memories, and visiting was wonderful! You can see a high fever on Abi's face above. Poor thing!

doing some make up touch ups.

My "little" brother and I

Here is my sweet angel flower girl. She took my breath away.

My Soeren, uncle tony and my brother.

My father looking at his daughters in admiration. So sweet!

Getting to walk down the aisle with my older brother Michael.

a sweet pic of my little guy and I.

Flower girls. (and their four uncles behind) I found these dresses at the Thrift store for about five dollars each. It worked and I was happy!

These cousins are a week apart. And sooooo adorable.

Everyone thought Gennevieve was so precious, and this picture is beautiful. But I'm thinking it was the Tylenol working :)

The girls!!!!

So many special memories made. We trimmed the tree. My sister and I got to go through my grandmother and greatgrandmothers jewelry and special things. It was magical to have a legacy to keep, something to hand down to my daughters some day. I'll post pics of the incredible beach house we stayed in later. Amazing!!!! I could have stayed!!! So wonderful, just wished the kids had felt better.

keeping me organized!

I found this idea from Littlebirdysecrets that I made and thought I'd pass along to you. Here is my version.

You take a regular photo frame, inside the frame put your pretty paper and fancy stickers (to do list, weekly schedule, menu, etc) Then use the outside glass portion with wet erase pens and change it whenever you need to. I thought this was genius and looked much better than slips of paper everywhere. Give it a try!

Growing!

Someone is now three months old and growing out of the bassinet and into the crib. Last night (after I'd put him to bed for the night) we heard him screaming quite loudly and upon running into our room and turning on the lights we discovered he'd scooted himself into the corner and was very stuck. He needed more room. After I put him back to bed and got him situated the right way, I saw a foot pop up and try to hook the side of the bassinet and was using that help to try to sit up (as if he were trying to escape) Crazy!!!. He spent the rest of the night in our bed between us, but is now safely into his crib. Is he really getting so big? Can this already be happening? It's going too fast! (although I love the belly laughing that just started, oh-so adorable!!!)