My parents were going to come visit us for a few days. They were supposed to arrive Wednesday evening. Well, things have been moved up a bit. They called last night to say they’d be here tonight. YAY!

So now I’m scrambling to get things done around here – a lot of the stuff from our yard sale is still in the living room. We were going to go drop some of it off today and some next week. This morning I put most of it on freecycle and am hoping to get it all gone so we have a much less cluttered living room by the time Mom and Dad get here. We’ve been trying to figure out what to do with it for days, so it’s gotten shuffled from room to room. Ugh. The clutter is really closing in on me. But it should be gone soon now!

Don’t expect to see much of me for the next several days. I try to limit my internet time quite a bit as it is – and with my family here. . .well, they trump the blog any day. :O)

We’ve been trying to cut back more on the amount of empty, white, processed carbs that we eat. As a result, it’s been a challenge to plan menus. I’m also having a hard time trying to figure out what to eat myself – between wanting to lose weight but needing to eat enough because I’m nursing little C. We’re wanting to eliminate a lot of the processed, high sodium, etc foods from our diet as well so this is going to become an interesting project, I think. I don’t mind those things occasionally, but we’ve eliminated enough processed foods already that when we do eat something (like brats or hot dogs), we can really taste the sodium and preservatives in them. They’re on our menu this week because we already have them in the house – and I’m trying to use what I have in the pantry too so our grocery budget can still be manageable.

Most of our flavorings and mixes are homemade – the sauce for the Chinese chicken and sloppy joes, and the taco seasoning for our taco salad. But it’s a start. . .

We also don’t normally eat pizza on a piano lesson night, but some of the pizza ingredients we have in the house (the sauce and mushrooms) need to be eaten before they spoil. I’m not sure they’ll last to the end of the week if I wait to have it then.

Breakfasts are pretty similar all week – grits or oatmeal and eggs. Eggs are one thing we usually have a lot of in the house at any given time. Our hens are laying better now after the raccoon attack, and since they’re such a great source of protein we eat a LOT of them.

I also need to make some bread for Stephen’s lunches. Most days he doesn’t have access to a microwave or else he’d take dinner leftovers (he’s a computer tech and travels to a different location each day). I got a TON of lunchmeat with triple coupons last week, so as long as we have bread in the house he’s good for lunches.

Here’s our menu:

Sunday
Dinner – church fellowship – I brought chicken and brown rice in the crockpot
Supper – leftovers

Monday
Lunch – tossed salad
Supper – homemade pizza and carrot sticks

Tuesday
Lunch – tuna salad, carrot sticks, cheese slices, apples
Supper – chicken and mixed veggie bake

Wednesday
Lunch – baked chicken breast, carrot sticks, oranges
Supper – spaghetti and meatballs, green beans, tossed salad

Thursday
Lunch – Tossed Salad
Supper – sloppy joes

Friday
Lunch – split pea soup (from the freezer)
Supper – Chinese chicken, brown rice, mixed veggies,

Saturday
Breakfast – whole grain pancakes, eggs
Lunch – hot dogs (whole wheat buns or probably none at all) and sweet potato fries
Supper – taco salad

You can read more menu plans over at I’m an Organizing Junkie.

Life is nuts around here! Ha! I love it though!

Let’s see. Yesterday we had our first real brotherly love adventure. I had just set C down so I could make the bed for Big Brother. My back was turned, and I heard, “C, catch.” I turned around just in time to see the startled look on Little Brother’s face and a full-sized basketball beside him.

Poor Big Brother. He thinks his baby brother can play basketball with him. Um, nope. Thankfully, little C is just fine. I worried that his nose would bruise but so far, nothing. That’s a good thing. Tomorrow we’re having family pictures done!

We’re driving almost an hour to have the pictures made, but the prices are phenomenal and their service is supposed to be far better than a regular department store place. I’m really excited to see how things will go. Which reminds me. . .I still can’t find the shirt I wanted C to wear. . .

Then there’s another triple coupon sale going on today, tomorrow, and Saturday. We went today and did fairly well. My out of pocket total was higher, but the things I bought weren’t free things for the most part. They were all much cheaper than the usual prices though so I’m still using it as a chance to stock up. Like the coffee – I usually don’t pay more than $2.50 for a 13 oz vacuum-packed brick – and with coupons I got Maxwell House bricks for $1.84. Not a huge savings, but the way we drink coffee, any savings helps.

Then on Saturday we’re having a yard sale over at Stephen’s parents’ house. I’ve had it with the clutter around here. We could put it all on freecycle, but there’s so much stuff we figured we’d try to sell it instead. C just outgrew his 0-3 month clothes, so we’re selling a good bit. He had so many clothes that there were some that he never got to wear. It was that way when S was little. So I saved some aside to keep for our next child (if God chooses to send us another), and put the rest in the yard sale pile. The part of town we’re having the sale in should be fairly conducive to a yard sale. . .

Then on Sunday is our church’s monthly birthday and anniversary fellowship dinner. I forgot to sign the signup sheet to tell what we’ll bring. I still have no idea. Need to figure that out soon. . .

So I think that’s it, lol. We’ll combine a triples trip tomorrow with the photos – there’s a store right on the way home from the photographer’s. The coupons are all sorted out so it should be a fairly quick trip. Yeah, right. As if triples trips are ever quick. . .

And so. . .I need to get off this computer so I can get to sorting more yard sale stuff!

Oh my. Where to start. Today was a bittersweet day.

This was my first Mother’s Day as a mother of two children. It was wonderful. S came running up to me a dozen times at least. “Happy Mudders Day, Mommy!” In many ways, it was a Mother’s Day like those I used to dream of.

But that’s just the thing. Even though my S is four and I have a darling 3-month-old C, it seems somewhat odd how infertility still seems to come to my mind today. Well, I guess it’s really not all that odd.

Our church recently called a new pastor. He and his wife haven’t been at the church that long yet. I was curious how Mother’s Day would be handled. It ended up being pretty much as I expected – all the mothers stood and were given pens and bookmarks, and the sermon was from Proverbs 31 (which was actually more about being a Proverbs 31 woman than about being a mother – it was very good though).

As I stood with the rest of the ladies standing, I couldn’t help but wonder about the women who aren’t mothers today. Not just at my church though – all the women who long to be mothers, but for whatever reason, aren’t. I’ve been there. It hurts. How many of those ladies had to endure comments today like, “You just wait – your time will be soon” or “I wish I didn’t have any kids” or “Don’t you want any kids?” or “Why don’t you have children?”

I have a prayer partner on Hannah’s Prayer. She’s still waiting for God to send her children. She has been so heavy on my heart yesterday and today. I know today is emotional. I know church is hard. I can’t be there physically to give her a hug, but you better believe I’ve been lifting her up in prayer today. Not just today, but especially today.

A couple ladies I know just had recent miscarriages. They have to spend their Mother’s Day knowing their little ones were born straight to Heaven and that they won’t be able to hold their children here on earth.

Why is it that a day that so many celebrate and enjoy can bring pain to so many others? I’ve been on both sides of the fence. I’ve watched from the outside, waiting, desperately longing to become a mother. I’ve celebrated it as a mother, but one who doesn’t know if God will ever send another child. And then there was this year – where I looked completely “normal” to outsiders, as a mom of two boys. But yet I wonder if God will choose to add to our family again or if He considers our family complete as it is. Funny how infertility brings uncertainty like that.

So today, I prayed. I didn’t know what else to do. My heart was so burdened today for all those who are hurting. There were Mother’s Days for me that I just barely made it through – by God’s strength alone. Maybe there was someone praying for me. Today I prayed for God’s strength for those ladies who are walking along that same painful path of infertility that I walked.

As contradictory as it may sound, infertility really can be a blessing.

I wish you could have heard the conversation I had with Stephen this morning about Mother’s Day. It’s going to be quite the day. (insert rolling eyes here)

First, the boys are going to give me a rock. Yep. That’s the boys’ Mother’s Day gift to me.

Then I’ll get breakfast in bed – at 5 am – because Stephen says I can’t get ready for church in time if it’s any later. How sweet. Breakfast will be from McDonald’s because he saw a sign the other day saying they were doing free breakfast for mothers that day. Except the sign he saw was at a McD an hour away, lol!

Then for lunch he’s taking me to Billy Bob’s Roadkill Cafe. The special of the week is possum. Oh yum! I don’t remember if it’s a side of possum that’s on the menu or if it’s deep fried possum tail. With that is fried okrie (I really don’t like okra!) and smothered grubworms. Sounds like a winner, doesn’t it???

After that, our conversation turned to the grubworm that I found the other day while I was hoeing the garden.

I love that I can have fun with my husband. We joke all the time like this. We can go on and on, making up crazy goofy things, and have a blast the whole time.

Doesn’t my Mother’s Day sound lovely?

It is so exciting to see things popping up in our garden. Every day it seems that we find a new plant or two. Today some more croockneck squash is up – day before yesterday it was pumpkin. Hopefully the cucumbers will be up soon too.

We bought more plants this year than we ever have. There’s 22 broccoli (and some even have little broccoli buds already!), 17 tomato plants (1 died), 9 green bell peppers, 2 watermelon, and 1 peppermint. S wanted to grow the melons, so we bought a couple plants for him. Both of the pots had 3-4 plants each, so we’ll probably end up with far more than we can eat. That’s ok though.

Everything else we’re growing from seed. We bought corn, beans, pickling cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini, sugar pumpkins, and beets (for my father-in-law). Then I dug out (I know, bad pun, haha) some seeds we didn’t plant last year. We put those in more out-of-the-way places in case they don’t come up. S and I planted carrots, regular cucumbers, and spinach today. It’s too late to plant the lettuce so we’ll wait until later in the season for that.

We’re wanting to do a second planting of things later too – broccoli, corn, beans, spinach, and the lettuce. We’ll see how that goes.

This is by far the biggest garden we’ve ever planted. Stephen’s time is limited, so he tills up the ground and I plant. S helps me and C watches from the stroller. It’s fun.

S likes to “help” but it’s a challenge since he isn’t always careful where he walks. He won’t learn if we don’t teach him though, so I let him try. And he enjoys it. That boy is SO proud of his watermelon – I can’t wait to see how he gets when they actually have melons on the vines.

Stephen also tilled up a spot for me to plant a flower and herb garden. I had some sunflowers in the corner of the vegetable garden that were getting really crowded, so I dug them up and moved them. When I got them off freecycle the bunch was football-sized; now there was enough to plant a good 8-foot row of them! They will look so pretty. I planted lavender in front of that (next to my mint) and the spinach is in the very front. It’ll probably look kind of odd, but for now I was just planting where we had room. I’d till more ground for flowers myself but I can’t control the tiller well enough. So if it looks too weird, I’ll move them next year.

So we’ll see how things do this year. Lord willing, there won’t be such a drought this summer and we’ll be able to put a lot up for the winter.

Tuesday evening, halfway through my first piano lesson of the evening, the power went out. It turns out that there was a car accident that knocked over a power pole. What scares me is that the pole is right at the corner, but it’s on a curve. It was a compact car that hit the pole. I cannot imagine how fast that car had to be going to break a power pole – it seemed too small to do much damage otherwise.

Our power was out for about six hours. It wasn’t too bad – we just went over to Stephen’s folks’ house. When we came home, we brought all 50-some chicks back in the house. It was a cold night, and without electricity for the heat lamp we were concerned about them. Then the next morning we took them all back outside.

The power was still out when we got home, so we lit some candles. I decided to take a couple of pictures of them. Even though the candles were just decorations, they are so pretty lit. There was a lot more light from them than I anticipated. Both candleholders were from ladies’ meetings at church (recognize the second one, Stephanie?).

Without flash:

With flash:

Without flash:

With flash:

I never know what S will come up with next. This morning he got one of his plastic firemen stuck in the floor vent.

This is one of my favorite pictures. I really wish the camera strap hadn’t been in the way!

Recently Stephen got a new PDA for work and gave me his old one. We had talked about getting me one before that, but I was hesitant to buy one in case I didn’t like it or it wasn’t useful for me as a homemaker. They’re expensive enough that I didn’t want to waste the money.

Oh wow – they’re so cool! Mine is old – a Handspring Visor – but it has quickly become indispensable. I love it!

The date book has been wonderful for keeping track of appointments and piano lesson time changes – it is nice to have it with me when I’m out so I can double-check times more easily.

It has a Memo pad feature that I started putting my grocery list into. When I went grocery shopping, I just deleted items off the list as I put them in my cart.

A big hangup I had was how to import some form of a price book into it. There’s no software on my Palm that allows me to read Excel documents, which is what my current price book is in, and I really didn’t want to purchase software for it right now either. It doesn’t help that none of the price information is actually in the Excel document – all of that is printed out on paper and written in by hand. So it would be a lot of work to go input it all into a document and then transfer it over.

So yesterday I went looking for free software that could possibly do the job better than I knew how to. Did I ever find a winner!

HandyShopper is free, and organizes your shopping list by category and even store aisle if you choose. You can mark items you need, and then easily mark them off as you put them in your cart. It also gives you a total price for everything on your “Need” list – including tax if you set it up that way. Probably my favorite feature is that it will keep track of each item’s price – at multiple stores. No more standing at Wal-Mart, wondering if I can get an item cheaper at Aldi. You can also import items into the database from memo pad entries, so I was able to import a nine page Word document into the database in just a few minutes. I did have to reformat the Word document a little bit, but it was worth the work.

So now I have a shopping list on my Palm that has 365 items on it. And that’s just the more common items we buy – I left off some of the things I didn’t think we’d be buying anytime soon. It’s easy enough to add them later.

This is far better than what I was doing, and much more efficient. There are a few drawbacks – like most of the editing has to be done on the Palm itself and can’t be done on the computer (which would be much faster for me). Once I discovered that I could import memo though, it was faster because I could just copy and paste from my hard drive into the Palm software. I found a way around it and it works for me. :O)

It’s not for everybody, but it makes things MUCH easier for me. I’m happy!