childcare and answered prayers

I know Heavenly Father hears my prayers. I never doubted it. Recently, He reminded me just how much he's willing to answer them too. And that the things that matter to me, matter to him. He can make things happen quickly if necessary. I'm grateful for these reminders so I can recognize them and maybe even uplift others by sharing them.

Months ago, Jared and I began praying about our finances. We are doing fine, but would like to get a second car. We function without one, but over the last year it has become increasingly difficult. Jared is now done with his schooling so we have loans that need to be paid off. There are many reasons we pray about our finances; appreciation that we have financing for life in this world, and desire for more independence so that we may better give to others too. 

During that time of prayer, we had many financial opportunities present themselves. I was a little dumbfounded. First, a stranger from Freecycle contacted us after several months to say he had an opportunity for us to work from home. Within 2 weeks, 2 other people in our lives had invited us to join in on opportunities to work from home. We seriously looked into them and prayed about them. Although none of these felt like the right match for our family, I was amazed at the quick response. I'm grateful to each of these people that acted on promptings to invite us to do something. Within another week, someone else invited me to sell for Mary Kay. Again, it wasn't the right match for me, but I could see that the Lord is willing to answer my plea for opportunities, but places the choice in my lap. I had options. Lots of them. And they kept coming!

Next, a couple of married friends asked if I would be interested in watching their child in my home. And pretty quickly; they needed someone soon. This opportunity did settle well with me and we made arrangements to watch the little man three days a week. Awesome. 

The very first day I watched all three, however, I could see that it was not going to work for my kids. It was a hard combination of personalities, especially for my baby L. Each day it got harder for her, and consequently harder for me. So, our trial period ended after three weeks, I believe. 

However, the Lord provided another opportunity for me to work from home and make extra money. Making my children happy and secure at home is really important to me, and it appears that it was really important to Him too. On the second day that I watched our first little friend, my husband was approached by a coworker. She was in search of an in-home childcare provider for her premature baby. This match has been PERFECT for our family. What an answer to prayers this little man has been! We love him and the opportunities he has brought to our family. He starting coming over a month ago, and all is still well. 

Our little buddy

 Our new little friend E has helped us all. He has helped Jared by being a source of income and stress relief to the whole family. He has blessed me by restoring a bit of my confidence in my abilities. When L was a newborn, I was traumatized. That's the main reason I'm not pregnant with #3 yet. This little man has helped me feel like I could take care of a newborn again, it doesn't have to be traumatizing, and I could even do it with three kids! He is here three days a week, and so we get a good balance of time with and without him. My children are learning/relearning how to act around a baby and how to help me. L LOVES to hold him, feed him, and she tells me everything he does. "Baby E cry. Baby E eat. Baby E tired. Baby E toot." It cracks me up! 

S wanted to play dress ups with the only other male in the house :)

We love E. He blends well with our schedules, our needs, and our personalities. His parents are wonderful to work for - reliable, kind, friendly, and understanding. I love talking to his mom about motherhood. Their whole family has been a blessing. And I know Who to thank for sending them our way. :)

My Mister's Master's Graduation

Can I just brag for a moment about my man? I am so proud of him! He graduated last month with is master's in computer science from George Washington University. Yay! "Let's here for the boy!" 

This alone would be so praise worthy. But he received this master's degree while working full time, going from 1 to 2 kids, raising those kids with me, teaching several sections of an online CS class, using public transit over hundreds of hours, preparing and teaching a couple classes at his employer, serving at church each week, and putting up with my constant home improvement projects. Some semester he was stretched thinner than others, but he never ceased to amaze me with his balance and prioritizing. Congratulations, my love!!!

my (mildly crazy) hero!

The first day of GWU graduation celebrations, included a detour to the white house with an out-of-town visitor. Lucky us, we arrived in time to enjoy the protest again President Obama. I'm grateful we live in a country with freedom of speech, assembly, protest and reform. On this particular day, a group of what looked like mostly military veterans protested Obama's leadership. 

 These two cuties were not protesting, but were just happy to be in the Nation's Capital.

When S asked what the crowd was doing there, I tried my best to explain. It was NOT an easy task for me. He had some extremely tough and good questions about these folks we saw.

 Then the next day was the big commencement on the NATIONAL MALL. How cool is that? Who else gets to graduate on the National Mall?

We took the Metro in to DC with Nate and Sara, and were inexplicably grateful to have Jared's siblings' support that day. They came from not-so-close locales, and I was extremely thankful for their sacrifice and support on this very important day.

Didn't I marry into a good-looking family? THANK YOU FOR COMING, NATE AND SARA!!

"Yay for daddy!"

 Behind the stage was the Washington Monument, although no visible in the bright morning sunshine here. 

And behind us was the Lincoln Memorial. 

our excellent view of the goings-on

I am so proud of my mister. He has worked hard and made his whole family proud. I'm sure his mom would have loved to be there to see her oldest son earn the first Master's degree in the family. I like to think she was there in spirit, looking down and cheering him from Heaven. But we were definitely there to cheer him in person. I love you, Jared. I'm grateful you're on my team. 

living in a construction zone

When we bought our townhouse Jared and I knew there were both blessings and curses of owning your own home. Remodeling is both of those. A blessing because you can improve your home however you like. But a curse because it is expensive, chaotic, and time consuming. 

It has been busy around here. First, we finally fixed a leak in the upstairs window. Depending on the angle of wind, rain would drip right through the window and into the room. Yikes. It is fixed now, and we enjoy rain storms a lot more than we used to. 

We bought this bad boy fridge on craigslist and it has been a great fridge. It was a third the price of a new one, and will be great in our remodeled kitchen. 

Speaking of the kitchen, these are the old cabinets. We removed them last week and it felt therapeutic to see them hauled away in the trash. They were so gross, broken, and ugly. My house smells less like "old house." :)

this one was a beast to remove! demo was supposed to be the easy-peasy part.

My hero of a husband!! Many, many times I feel paralyzing anxiety when I think about remodeling the kitchen. We are doing as much as we can on our own, and with the help of a friend. Which is why I'm stressed. This is not where our talents and intuition lie, BUT Jared is impressing me. He is very good at research, so using that strength he's learning a lot. He's been my motivational speaker more than once, telling me not only should we do it to save money, but we CAN do it with excitement. I appreciate his optimism, drive, and hard work. Like I said, my hero!

Our new kitchen! ...sitting in the dining soon. 

Since the new cabinets arrived on Tuesday we have been working, but it is such a slow process. With every step forward we take a couple steps back. We have run into unforeseen roadblocks: a vent in the wall we're removing, not enough space in the floor to fit the new duct, buying the wrong materials, measuring wrong, working too late at night with a foggy brain, the wrong sized cabinet showed up. We're doing our best. But we sometimes learn things the hard way. Oh well. We fix it, and move forward. I'm holding on to what an improvement it will be when it's done!!

Any advice for us DIY kitchen newbies? 

I don't want to grow up...

I hope my children enjoy their childhood; that they look back and think, "I had so much fun I didn't even know I was learning so much!" Everyone, please help me remember this, because sometimes I was too serious for my (and their) own good. 

I cannot get enough of this picture. Her face and especially CHIN make me so happy. 

My kids sit and play in the backyard mud all the time. That's why the bum of their clothes look like this.

Mining for treasure

This is what my garden looked like back at the beginning of the Spring. It has definitely grown. We have eaten the lettuce greens and Swiss chard. The cabbage and cauliflower are not growing like I thought they would, though. I am still trying to figure out this gardening stuff. Oh, and the plastic snakes have done a good job of keeping the squirrels and bunnies away. They are my watch-dogs. 

These greens have grown to their fullest, been eaten, and are growing back. 

Family festival at the elementary school. We barely made it for the last hour, but the guy loved it.