I'm Soooo Tired!

Yes I am. I haven't posted because we have been moving the past week. It all happened so fast and its not easy to move with 5 children- one being a teething baby- makes it even harder but its all worth it. God answered our prayers and we are now in a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom, large spacious home with an attic every child dreams of. I am beyond happy and thankful! There are only three things I had to give up for this great home.
1. My yard- or a yard period. I have a fenced in cement patio now with a tiny little bit of dirt that will be the home of 2 blueberry bushes, raspberries and strawberries. As much as I can cram in!
2. My dishwasher! Oh, how I miss you already. I told my hubby we are going to have to use 2 dish strainers for the amount of dishes our family of 7 uses. And I LOVE to cook.
3. Whole house air. Sadly missed. I can't even talk about it.

But its great here. We are in my husbands churches- he's Anglican, I'm Catholic- Parish house. We can both walk to church since his is right next door and the Roman Catholic Church is two blocks down-a very large, steep hill- and to the left. And the Byzantine Catholic is two blocks up- that steep hill and two blocks to the right. Today I walked to the Roman Catholic one. Mary, Mother of the Church. It was a very nice mass with guitar and tambourines rather than organ and I liked it. It's beautiful inside and I can go to the 9:00 mass and be home in plenty of time for my husband to go to 11:00. Next week I want to walk up to the Byzantine Liturgy but I need to get there mass schedule.

I will try and get some pictures up soon. Happy Memorial Day and God Bless all our soldiers. Please pray for them and thank them too!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, another birthday has come and gone. I turned 37 on Mothers Day. And surprisingly again I'm just fine with aging, dare I say even happy? I keep expecting to feel abit sad ever year when I wake up and I'm a year older and I don't. I can honestly say I just feel happy and thankful to God for the wondering family he has trusted me with and the life he has given me. What is there to be sad about. I have a wonderful husband, 5 beautiful children here with me and 2 more waiting and praying for us in Heaven, good health, enough to get by so I can stay home and raise and educate our children. Sure, I would still love that small family farm some day but it will come with God's grace and prayer if its meant to be. And I truly believe that so I'm at peace with it. Everything we have and don't have is a gift from God. Sometime its hard to keep everything in perspective and remember that. Just cause we want something doesn't mean its ours to have or that its good for us. Everything we have is a gift from God and we have to trust in him. Its hard, I'm not saying its easy at all. Especially when we know our friends and family may not always agree with the way we do things but just try and remember who will you answer to in the end? Not your friends, not your parents, not even your husband and certainly not the stranger at Walmart who not so kindly asks "Are they ALL yours?"
Looking back over my life and especially the last 12 years, every time I have trusted in Him we have been blessed. With each new child there has been a raise or promotion, just a lil more to help us get by. And we have been praying for a bigger home-right now we are in a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom- which we are thankful to have but our prayers have been answer by my husbands parish asking us if we would like to rent their large 5 bedroom 3 bathroom parish house since their Priest bought his own home. What a blessing!
Speaking of blessings, here's my lil guy teething on the tablecloth at Bravo. My friend Sue took Madison and I out there for our birthdays Friday night. She's another one of our blessings, she's so good to us.

Lots of Laundry

This is what happens in a family of 7 when mom takes her birthday weekend off, 4 huge piles of laundry. Now keep in mind this doesn't include my hubbies or the load of Manny's cloth diapers. My man generally washes his own clothes because he has some sort of special method that I just don't quite understand but I am very thankful that he's happy to do it himself. I can do anything of his that goes in the dryer only.
One of my favorite things about summer is the lighter laundry load. I'm not crazy about the heat but I do love that it almost cuts the laundry load in half! It's not even the washing, drying and folding thats hard for me, its getting it all separated and put away. I'm hoping when we move to a bigger home to come up with a better method. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a giant laundry room that had shelves for everyones clothes along with a shower so that you could just have it all in the same area? Life would be so much easier if you could just shower, dress and wash your clothes all in one big ol room.

Cutie Pie

Oh my, my lil guy is cutting teeth and I am so tired. It's 2:00 a.m. and I just wanna sleep. Can you believe this adorable lil guy is keeping me awake? I have to admit that a few years ago I would have been wallowing in self pity right now. Crying and complaining to myself because I was being kept awake but now I just feel sorry for him and the pain he is feeling. He doesn't want to be awake either and he's only awake because he's hurting. I dont know if I handle these things better now because I'm older and I know what to expect, because I know he may be our last baby so I better just enjoy every moment, or because I had prayed for Gods grace and peace so much during my pregnancy with him but I have been able to find peace and even joy in the hard times with this precious lil boy and I am so thankful to God for that.

Mmmmm, Blackberry Cobbler

This is sooo yummy.

I had a coupon for Border's lastweek for 40% off of 1 book and since my birthday was coming and I love cookbooks I went for The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond. It has great pictures and recipes.

I halved this one and baked it in my cast iron skillet.

This is the complete recipe- not in 1/2 but its so simple to increase or decrease the size of this one.

Preheat oven 350- bake about an hour.

Ingredients-

1 stick of melted butter

1 1/4 cups of sugar plus 2 Tlbs. for spinkling

1 cup of self-rising flour

1 cup of milk

2 cups of blackberries- or any berry

Just melt the butter in the micto and wisk 1 cup of sugar, flour and milk together then wisk the butter in. Put in grease dish and drop in the rinsed and dryed berries. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup sugar now and then 2 Tlbs. again just about 10 mins before you take it out of the oven.

So good, so simple.

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

These are just the best!

1 1/2 sticks of softened butter

1/2 block softened cream cheese

Cream those 2

add 3/4 cups of sugar

add 1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

in seperate bowl sift

2 cups of flour with

1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

1/4 teaspoon of salt

Mix all and refrigerate for about 4 hours or more

Divide cold dough and roll on floured surface to about 1/4 inch.

Brush tops with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 350 for 8 - 10 mins.