Here it is, the last day of 2007, and I’m finding it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted. Lots of ideas for posts have crossed my mind, but somehow never made it to the blog here.

Really though, one of the main things on my mind at the moment is reflecting on this past year. It’s been quite a ride, and I’ve learned a lot.

In 2007. . .

I learned that God’s timing is not always my timing. I don’t always understand what He is doing, but He always has good reason for it. Like finding out that I was pregnant – we have prayed for six years that it would happen, but God’s timing was that it wouldn’t happen until now. Right now I can see a few of His reasons for that (though surely not all of them), and I am thankful for His timing.

Through learning about God’s timing, I learned about faith. I learned that there are times when we think He is late – like when a bill needs to be paid. It was during those times that I learned that sometimes God waits until a time when it is clear that He and He alone is responsible for our needs being met.

I learned that when I think that my faith is not strong enough to go on, God often gives me something else to keep me going for just a little bit longer. Those things have been anything from getting a single egg from our hens one day, to getting a big order from one of my online businesses, to someone paying a huge bill for us. There have been many times that He has simply opened my eyes to see the things that He has done for us. . .and that counting of our blessings has often been something that keeps me going another day when I think I just can’t go on.

I learned that I serve a mighty God who answers prayer. I love seeing Him answer prayers for “little things.” I also love seeing him answer the prayers of my 3-year-old son.

I learned that it is possible to feed my family of 3 for under $40 a month. I had no idea it was that low until I was looking at budget totals the other day. If it weren’t for God laying it on peoples’ hearts to give us food, we would have really struggled during lean times. Instead, we ate wonderfully through His provision. Suddenly, Psalm 37:18 and 19 make more sense to me (emphasis mine):

18 The LORD knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be for ever.
19 They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.

You know, the more I think about it, the more I realize what an amazing God that I serve. Lord willing, in 2008, I can give Him more of the credit He deserves for the wonderful things He has done in my life!

This morning I decided to go through a box of newborn clothes that I had saved from S so I could put them into the dresser to start getting things ready for baby’s arrival. Only 6 more weeks until my due date!

We had been keeping the plastic tote under the house, but recently Stephen got it out for me and had left it on the back porch so that I could get to it when I wanted to. We’ve had some rain lately, but I thought that the box would be fine. The Christmas decoration boxes that were also out there are pretty water tight (also plastic totes, though a different brand), so I thought this one was too.

I was wrong. Very, very wrong.

S and I opened it up this morning to discover that everything was wet. I thought that maybe some water had gotten in the box when I removed the lid, but that wasn’t the case. Everything was so wet in there that once everything was removed and in a laundry basket to be washed, there was an inch of water sitting in the bottom of the plastic tub.

On one hand, it was nice to see what was in there again. On the other hand, it creates more work (oh well, lol), and now we have a huge plastic tote to replace. At least I needed to take stuff out of it and didn’t need to put more in it yet!

Hopefully the five or six pairs of leather shoes will still be ok once they dry, but if not, well, I guess that stuff happens. As far as I can tell, that’s the only thing that could potentially be ruined. Everything else is washable.

Heh. . .that’s not what I had planned for today, but at least all the newborn clothes will be freshly laundered!

When you grow and butcher a variety of different meats for your freezer, sometimes it can present an adventure when you’re looking for something in particular.

Tomorrow is our church’s Christmas party. I was asked to bring potato soup. To make it, I need chicken broth, so I opened the freezer this morning to get a chicken out to cook for tonight’s supper. Cooked in the crockpot, it would produce enough broth for tomorrow’s soup.

Thing is, I kept pulling out packages of other meats – Stephen doesn’t label things the same way I do and he was the one that put them up. So I was examining each plastic bag, trying to determine exactly which animal was in each. Finally I found a chicken. I know it was a chicken for sure because of the way he had tied the legs – I had asked him to tie the legs differently so the huge birds would fit into my crockpot without having the legs stick out from under the lid. :O)

I am so thankful that we do have meat in the freezer! Our freezer is stocked pretty well, and right now, having the extra savings on groceries is wonderful.

S walked into the room and looked at the chicken. “What’s that?”

I told him it was a chicken.

“Is it dead?” I assured him it was.

“Does it say ‘Bot-to-doo?’” (that’s his interpretation of what a rooster says)

I had to laugh. I told him it used to say that, but doesn’t any more.

“We gonna eat it?” Well. . .that was the plan. . .

Silly boy!

This week, my computer monitor decided to die. Well actually, it’s been trying to for a while, but finally decided to give up the ghost this week. I turned it on one day to discover that everything was now displayed in different shades of blue. For email, I can handle that, but there’s no way I could do most of the other tasks I usually do on the computer. . .like upgrading the software for my jewelry store. . .I needed to be able to see that everything was displaying correctly.

Well, one day, Stephen came home from work with a 19″ Dell monitor for me. The plant he was working at that day was just throwing it away – even though it works just fine! They gave him permission to take it home for me.

What an encouragement! It’s larger, has a higher resolution, and doesn’t make funny noises when you turn it on like my old one did. I love it! AND – it takes up less space on my desk, even though the screen is bigger than what I had. How neat is that?

Just for the record, my old monitor was also a Dell – I’ve had it for 10 years myself, and it was our family’s computer monitor before that. So it was really old. And the fact that it was moved back and forth from MI to FL 4 or 5 times when I was in college, back to MI when I graduated, then to SC when I married. . .and to IN and back after that. . .I think that old Dell monitor was a good monitor, don’t you? I told Stephen it sure makes me trust their products.

Just thought I’d share my bit of encouragement for the week!

This just cracks me up.

I teach one piano lesson on Tuesday evenings (my other lessons are on a different day). Tonight’s lesson was supposed to be longer than usual. No big deal.

Well, yesterday, Stephen found out that he needed to go out of town tonight for work. He’s only an hour away, but the company is putting him up in a hotel for the night because he needs to stay late tonight and be there super early tomorrow. Not a big deal, other than it leaves me here at home 32 weeks pregnant with a 3 year old and no car (which really still isn’t a big deal because if something happened, there are people around who could come get us).

Well, I can’t teach tonight’s lesson without someone to watch S. So I asked my mother-in-law to come over just long enough to watch him. She lives 5 minutes away.

Today at lunchtime she called me to say that she’s got a stomach bug and isn’t coming tonight. Okay – I figured I’d call one of our teen girls from church and hope her mom can bring her here.

So I call the mom, she says ok, and I plan on them coming.

Fast forward to now. I am utterly exhausted. Apparently I overdid it today. At 6 pm (an hour before my student is due to arrive), I check my email.

There’s an email from my student’s mom in my inbox. “We won’t be coming tonight – I’m so sorry for the short notice.” (She wasn’t being inconsiderate, just to let you know – it was a perfectly legitimate reason)

I stood there at the computer and said “Praise the Lord!” I would not have canceled lessons, but I am so tired right now that it is a relief to not have to worry about people coming to the house.

Then I get back on the phone to make another call. “I’m sorry for the short notice, but I don’t need you to come tonight now.”

It just cracks me up to see how much one simple thing like a piano lesson can have such an impact on one day’s events! I never would have thought this morning that I’d need to go back and forth on the phone so much about one 45-minute time slot!

So here I am, waiting for supper to finish, sipping a cup of fully-caffeinated coffee that I started brewing before I found out about lessons. I figured a small mug might be nice. . .and it is. . .but now I’ll be up late, all for no reason! Oh well. Maybe I can get some Christmas gifts finished. With Stephen gone and S in bed, I ought to be able to finish their gifts tonight with no problems, lol!

S told me his version of the Christmas story this morning. Remember, he’s three.

“Jesus was a boy, in a barn. He was born in a barn. There’s horsies in the barn. And pigs. And roosters. They’ll bite me. Jesus was born in a barn. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

When Christmas cards come in the mail, he looks them over for a star over the stable. He tells me, “The star says, JESUS IS HERE!”

He’s learning. . .

Someone emailed me yesterday asking if I’d posted any recent pregnancy pictures of me. . .um. . .it might help if I’d actually remembered to have Stephen take them!

That said, he took a couple last Sunday. I didn’t think I looked that big, until I saw the pictures. Ahem. I guess I’m bigger than I thought. On the other hand, this weekend I’ll be 32 weeks. I guess that’s not too bad. Just about all of my weight gain has been out front too, so I shouldn’t be complaining in the first place.

This pregnancy has been pretty trouble-free, and for that, I am SO thankful. I’ve had some problems with my back and hip, but they’re more old injury-related, and the extra pregnancy weight is just aggravating a condition that was already there (car accident I was in 8 years ago). My OB recommended an absolutely excellent chiropractor, and those visits have been very helpful.

We’ve also gone to OB visits every two weeks – I still can’t believe we’re this far already! We’re also signed up to take labor classes in January since we missed the November set of classes. Oh well, right?

We went to Stephen’s folks’ house the other day and got our carseat and bassinet out of their storage shed where they’ve been keeping them for us. Even though we still have several weeks (Lord willing!), it still feels better just to have those things ready. I stripped the carseat yesterday and the fabric is in the dryer right now.

I’ve also been doing a bunch of research and antagonizing over which types of cloth diapers to use this time. I think I finally decided on one – it’s called Rita’s Rump Pocket one-size fitted pocket diaper. The fact that they’re one size fits most really appealed to me – I want the convenience of a fitted diaper, but didn’t want to have to make a couple dozen fitteds in each size. I also have a couple of the Mama Bird pocket all in ones cut out and ready to sew – I just haven’t gotten around to sewing them yet. With Christmas coming so quickly, I wanted to get gifts done first. Now that those are mostly done, I can get working on the diapers more.

So there you have it – everything you wanted to know (and more, lol!) about me and this pregnancy. . .for now. . .lol!

My pink purse that I’ve been carrying for a while is starting to get a little worn, and needs a good washing. I decided the solution was to make a new bag. :O)

The fabric is some patriotic snowman fabric I bought shortly after 9-11. I’ve been trying ever since then to figure out what to use it for. I’m not sure if it’s still available now or not, but I’d love to get more if I could find it again! It’s got snowmen all over it, but they’re all wearing patriotic vests and hats and have sayings like “God bless America” “Liberty and Justice for All” and “Stars and Stripes Forever.”

Here’s a shot of the inside fabric. Isn’t it neat?