Well, it definitely is strep throat, just like I suspected. I am extremely curious how I was exposed to it though. . .

So I imagine I’ll be laying low for a few more days. Wow – a popsicle hasn’t sounded this good in a long time, lol!

I am so thankful that this isn’t moving week! Now I’m just praying that Little man doesn’t get it.

When Stephen was sick a couple of weeks ago, I had prayed that we all wouldn’t get sick at the same time. We didn’t – and I was extremely grateful for that.

Unfortunately, last night my throat began to hurt, and when I got up this morning, I had a temperature of 102. I’m not entirely sure if I have strep throat or the flu, but I’m leaning toward the strep throat based on my symptoms. I’ll be calling the doctor in the morning to see when I can get in.

Stephen has been absolutely incredible – waiting on me hand and foot. Another thing I’m thankful for is that Little man seems to remember Daddy being sick, and has not bothered me at all. He’ll ask Stephen questions about me but hasn’t tried to climb up in my lap or anything. I love to snuggle with my little boy, but regardless of what I have, I do not want him sick with it if at all possible. He was so good this morning before church – he just sat in a chair and played with one of the toys that my mom and dad brought him when they were here last week. When they were walking out the door to church, he asked Stephen, “Mommy church?” He just didn’t understand why I would stay home from church.

I was pretty disappointed this morning though – Stephen preached in the morning service and I missed it. I just love to hear him preach. I know things happen sometimes, but I was really looking forward to hearing him. Oh well.

I am seriously blessed with the best husband in the world.

This morning when I went to put my Bible away after reading it, I discovered a chocolate bar underneath it. He had put it there when he got home from work this morning. I had to laugh that I didn’t notice it sooner, but I open my Bible on my desk each night before I go to bed, so when I sit down in the morning to read, it’s already open. I did feel rather unobservant though!

It’s not the chocolate that made me happy – though it was greatly appreciated. It’s the thoughtful gesture that meant so much to me. In the past he’s hidden chocolate bars under my clothes laid out for the next day. One time he wrote I Love You on some sticky notes and scattered them throughout my household notebook, another time a new set of sticky notes were stuck in my Bible study notebook. I just love his little surprises; they make me feel so cherished.

The past few days I’ve been reading through Romans in my quiet time. This morning, Romans 8:35-39 really stood out to me.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35-39

Nothing – absolutely nothing – can separate me from the love of Christ. No matter how tough things may get. I just love the reassurance that’s there.

It was neat to read about how God has adopted us as His children earlier in chapter 8 as well. After going through the adoption process to become a mother, this passage is even more real to me.

Romans is such a rich book to read through. There is so much to meditate on here.

This morning, we got a phone call that was a real blessing. It was our Preacher – the preacher of the church we’re moving back to. He wanted to know when we’d be arriving. He told me that he didn’t want us to get to SC and call him and say, “We’re here.” He wanted to have people ready to help us unpack the trailer when it arrives at the house.

How wonderful! My shoulders literally sagged when he told me that – it was a huge weight off my shoulders. Don’t get me wrong – I was not worrying about us moving into the house, but just knowing that there are going to be extra sets of hands that day is such a blessing. Moving is taxing enough as it is that it blesses me to no end knowing that one more thing will run smoothly that day.

Poor Little man. He can sense that there is change, yet he doesn’t understand it. He has been a totally different child the past few days. I haven’t been coping with stress very well lately, but after watching how he’s reacting to it, I know I need to be more careful. It is so easy to get caught up in planning. . .all while forgetting that children sense the stress too. We’ve told him that we’re going to go live in a new house, but with him being 2 (almost 3!) he just doesn’t understand yet.

Later in the afternoon, Stephen finally got in touch with the couple that moved us last March about moving us back to SC. We were concerned that they wouldn’t be able to move us any time soon, but that didn’t end up being an issue. Our move is scheduled for the week of March 12.

The timing works out really well. We have three more weeks to wrap things up here before we move. Our rent actually goes from the 15th to the 15th, so that is taken care of. Stephen was just approached last night at work about taking some overtime hours, so the extra money will be a blessing as well. One of my favorite things, though, is the fact that we don’t have to hurry to finish packing. A good bit of our things are already packed, so a box or two a day and we should be ready to go.

It is wonderful to see things falling into place so nicely!

The household notebook forms have been moved to a new site.

When I first put up the household notebook forms here on my blog and made them available for download, I never anticipated how many people would actually use them. It eventually reached the point where I needed a better way to manage the number of downloads.

The final solution was to create an entirely new site for the notebook forms. That wasn’t my original intent, but in the long run, the new site should actually work better than my original ideas.

One of the biggest parts of the project was writing a master household notebook and compiling all of the forms into one big .pdf file. The finished notebook is 52 pages long and has several pages that are customizable, as well as several new forms that I haven’t previously offered here on my blog. It is also available in five colors to choose from. The price of each notebook is $6.99 and comes as a complete .zip file with the forms you need to customize it.

The forms that I previously offered here on my blog are still free, but they have been moved to the new site so I can better keep track of everything.

With the Fruit of Her Hands – household notebooks made beautiful

Christina, since you encouraged me to make the purse. . .here are pictures!

It is just a little bit bigger than another purse of mine, and the size is absolutely perfect. There’s more than enough room for my organizer and my wallet, and it’s big enough to get things out without taking everything else out first. There’s also enough room for my coupon book when I go grocery shopping.

I just love how the organizer looks like part of the purse. If you noticed, my keys are clipped right to the strap. There’s a small key ring that I slipped onto the handle, and I just clip my keys right to that. The clip is just a cheap clip that I bought from the hardware store, but it really makes my life easier not having to look for misplaced keys.

And no Sara, you can’t have it. *grin*

The other day I found this pattern for a purse organizer. I thought it was neat, so I saved the .pdf file to make it later.

Then I caved and made it yesterday. This is how it turned out:

The organizer before I put everything in it. Comb, lip balm and lip gloss, lotion, handkerchief, pens, checkbook, pocket knife, calculator and business card holder.

This is how it looks all rolled up. I can roll it several different ways though, to fit certain purses better.

The pocket with the handkerchief in it is wide enough that if I start carrying a cell phone again, it should fit. I didn’t measure my phone to make sure, but I don’t have cell service right now so it doesn’t really matter. My wallet is so fat that I didn’t bother making a pocket for it. This organizer rolls up small enough that there’s more than enough room in any of my purses for both the organizer as well as my wallet.

I ended up liking the pink and red together much more than I anticipated. There’s still about a half a yard of the pink left, maybe a little bit more. I thought about making a purse to match it, but we’ll see.

For those of you who buy peanut butter. . .There’s been a recall of Peter Pan and the Great Value (Wal-Mart’s generic) brands. There have been cases of salmonella linked to some jars of peanut butter – so check those jars. The recalled jars are stamped on the lid with a code beginning with 2111.

Here’s the link to the news article about the recall: CNN article

Thankfully, the peanut butter we have right now in our pantry is a different brand. Although we prefer Jif, I usually buy whatever’s on sale, so it’s not uncommon for us to have Peter Pan or Great Value in the house.

Anyways, I just wanted to share the recall information for anyone that might happen to have either of those two brands in their house.

We took Little man outside yesterday to play in the snow. The neighbor kids like to sled down the hill in our back yard, so I was hoping to be able to get out there before they did. It was really neat to watch Little man’s reaction when he first tried to walk in the snow, especially since it was waist deep for him.

He decided to just crawl along the top of the snow. He was light enough that it held him up, so he crawled all the way down the hill.

We got a good laugh at the way he he was laying on the sled.

Stephen went to walk up the hill and ended up sitting down. I like this picture because it looks like the snow is up to his waist. It was about thigh-high here though.

Somebody got upset because we wouldn’t take him into the garage. . .

Sledding fun!