Life is now

Feeling overwhelmed and distraught today with the condition of my house. It's never clean or organized and I'm always looking for my keys. I know what's for dinner but I forgot to get it out of the freezer and we don't have a microwave (but I'm starting to really want one!)

I spend all day wiping faces, making sandwiches, filling cups and changing diapers. You know, the basic survival stuff.

And like every other woman (person?) on the planet I convince myself that if I could just freeze all the little people around me for a day I could catch up. I could clean up the mess around them, find those crazy keys, and organize my desk. Oh, and thaw dinner.

I start to feel snippy and desperate and head over to Ann's wise words (there are so many to choose from...) and I am reminded by her that this mess is life. Life is not waiting for me to get organized so that it can start, life is here...now, all around me.

It is all from Him, it is all good, and it's happening now.

(But I'm still glad Brian took the girls to the pool for the afternoon so I could make a nice dinner in a quiet house.)

Farewell Christmas! Hello 2012!

Goodbye Christmas, see you next year. And may I just say, good riddance? I love Christmas, but I also love seeing it go. I love how BIG my living room feels after I pack the tree up, I love how clean the house looks without piles of odds and ends everywhere.

Christmas this year was interesting for me. We had planned for almost six months to bring my brother and his wife down as a Christmas surprise for my mom. I had very big expectations for Christmas. All my girls with all my siblings and two of my bestest friends.

But, oh, the girls were sick! For weeks. And still are.

Cough, cough, cough.

No long cozy afternoon at my mom's...it was more like one hour of eating bites of delicious food in between puke buckets, and mopping up piles of goo. There was also a lot of tears and whiny children who just didn't feel good. We left my mom's house and went back to my house where we tucked all of our little sickos into bed, and then stared at the wall in a daze.

I had wanted Christmas to be "perfect" and do advent and make sure my girls were focused on Christ more than gifts. Turns out it was I who really needed the lesson. My perfect Christmas dreams were shattered as I wiped runny nose after runny nose. A constant reminder that Christmas isn't about fun and games and advent reading but about a perfect Saviour who came to an imperfect world.

His Holiness meeting our earthly sin and sickness.

As it turns out, Christmas was perfect after all.

And now the New Year is upon us, which in this house means lots of fruits and veggies to clean all of those Christmas carbs out of our system.

My only New Years Resolution is to keep reading through my Bible till I've read every single word. And I won't get there in a year, but that's okay.

What are your resolutions?

Afternoons

Every day after naps, Lexi gets a snack on the kitchen floor. Her blankie, a plate of fruit and she's all set.

"All done!"

Then she hangs out with Alice for a bit...

Isn't life grand?

What is it?

We made this hair clip thingy today out of circles of fabric. We went crazy with the hot glue gun. We can't decide if it looks like a fabric flower hair clip or like a bunch of fabric circles hot glued together.

What do you think?

Elena couldn't hold still, this is normal.

Abbie kept making funny faces for the camera, this also is normal.

Today I got all the laundry done.

(And by done I mean washed, NOT, washed, folded and put away. That would just be crazy.)

Random Furlough Memories

Memory Number One: This photo was taken one week before Lexi's appearance. I was convinced I was in labor, I know I was, but my Dad told me over webcam to "Stop! Stop at once! We'll be there in a week! Just wait!" and wouldn't you know it, I obeyed. The contractions stopped, nothing happened, my parents arrived a week later on Thursday afternoon and my water broke on 1 AM Friday morning.

But, during the false alarm the week before, I called up my brother and sister-in-law, "get ready!" I told them, "Baby is coming." So they came over and sat on the couch and watched me not be in active labor.

Good times.

Memory Number Two:

The one and only picture of my girls in the snow of New Hampshire. Notice the creative angle? The exact camera settings? The perfect exposure?

Of course you don't, that's because I stepped outside for all of 2 seconds to take this one picture and then retreated inside again. I would have taken many more pictures of them outside in the snow except for the fact that there was snow outside. Also, the girls were never in the snow. We lived inside all winter and moaned and groaned whenever we had to walk outside.

"No! Please! No! No more snow! Take us to Paraguay! At once!!" Thus, their very happy faces. (not so much)

Again, good times.

Color and lots of it!

I took a bold plunge and painted my old dining room set a bright tomato red. (When I say that "I" painted I really mean Brian.)

I have been wanting lately to put color everywhere. Sunny yellow, cool turquoise, bright red...I'm not sure why this sudden urge has come over me, but I like it.

Linkage

Some links I've been enjoying:

Jim's Pancakes - Cutest pancakes ever.

ListBean - Another great place to make lists. I love lists, I just never do anything with them.

What Katie Ate - My latest food blog crush

Bloesem Kids - The pictures here make me swoon. So many great decorating ideas! (If you have kids that is.)

Above picture taken with my new LensBaby. I got it for Christmas and I still have no idea how to use it, but it's been fun pretending that I do.

Felicidades Paraguay!

Too happy for words!

Go Paraguay!!

Mexian Pot Roast Tacos and Flour Tortillas

The pot roast was amazing.

The tortillas were....meh. (A little to thick and bready for my taste)

Still, a delicious meal all in all. And simple.

Tortillas

3 cups of flour

3 tsp. of baking powder

1 tsp of salt

3 Tbsp. of oil

1 cup of water

Mix flour, baking powder, salt and oil in medium sized bowl. Add water and mix with hands. Divide into small balls, roll out thin and cook in hot ungreased skillet.

I involved the girl in this recipe and then finally sent them out! Out! OUT! of the kitchen. Sometimes my beautiful,sweet, charming, cute little girls drive me nuts. But that's okay.

Mexican Pot Roast recipe found here.

Ikea love

The children's section of Ikea is so fun. It makes me feel like I'm walking through Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, good thing Ikea is less fattening. (Although their $1.00 hot dogs are amazingly good.)

The colors are so cool, and so are their prices. I finally get what all the hype is about.

Dear Ikea,

Will you come to Paraguay, please?

No?

Fine!

(It was worth a try!)

I didn't buy anything from the children's section, but I did bring home the cute guy holding the cute baby.

Not a bad deal at all.

Cookbooks

source

I'm so happy when I can find a great book that combines my two loves - cooking and photography.



I recently purchased some cookbooks that are chock full of great recipes and beautiful pictures as well. Who else likes to read a cookbook from front to book as if it were a best-selling novel? I know I'm not the only one.



My recent purchases:



Real Simple Best Recipes



Dinner At My Place by Tyler Florence



Back to the Family by Art Smith



And there are always a few on my wish list, such as these:



Apples for Jam: A colorful cookbook by Tessa Kiros



The River Cottage Family Cookbook



A photographic cookbook is one thing that will not go on my Kindle.

I guess my suitcases just got a wee bit heavier.

Strawberries

The latest craze in the McCobb household has been to make silly faces for pictures. Wait a minute...latest craze? That has been the craze around here for a long time. I guess it's a fad thats going to stick around, and I'm fine with this.

Right now we are loving this awesome Florida weather...80 degrees, hardly any humidity, and blue, blue, blue skies.

We're also loving that it's strawberry season. Sometimes, we stuff whole wheat biscuits with fresh strawberry slices and freshly whipped cream (with a pinch of cinnamon and a dash of vanilla) and call it supper. More than sometimes, we do it a lot.

Notice the mess in the background? Sometimes we don't clean up before we eat the yumminess either.

It's just that good.

Simple Days

It wasn't like we did a whole lot that day...

We went to Best Buy with my brother Josh and his wife Naomy. We bought a wireless keyboard for me.

We played hide and seek with Abbie in the aisles while the guys drooled over large screen TV's.

We went to DQ and had ice cream cones.

We all wore flip flops because, duh, we're in Florida and that's what you have to wear here.

Not a fancy day, not a tiring day, just a simple day.

But simple is good. Simple is fun. And sometimes, simple can be special.

P.S. I almost fell off the table and everyone laughed at me. Then a couple came later and sat at the same table where, only moments before, my feet had been.
Ha!

The Bee's Knee's

I'm smiling because I Abbie took this picture of me and I think Abbie is the bee's knee's.

I have a lot of reasons to smile, such as, I was recently given 15 free Bum Genius diapers for my little Lexi. I think Lexi and her cloth diapers, are the bee's knee's as well.

Elena makes me smile every time she asks if she can "give my baby sister some love". Elena is definitely the bee's knee's.

Also, using the phrase "the bee's knee's" makes me smile. It's goofy and cute and what in the world does it mean?

Yay for Marriage!

Happily Married, originally uploaded by paraguay4christ.

In a world that is riddled with divorce, I'm feeling very blessed knowing that the young (and not so young) marriages in my immediate family are going strong.

Hooray for marriage!

What are you thankful for today?

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm very thankful that my daughter dresses herself in a creative manner. Flowered dress, striped stockings, and black patent leather shoes.

Why not?

And tomorrow I hope you eat lots of pie.

Why not?

Happy Thanksgiving.

Coffee

A new coffee shop opened up in the mall, and since Brian and I are both addicted to coffee we decided to try it out. The fact that it's cute attracted me too.



Think Paris...black and white fabric, curtains, wallpaper, everything.



Certainly fun for taking pictures.

However...

...the coffee?

Tasted. Like. Feet.

Lukewarm feet.

So gross.

At least it looks nice.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter.

Is there a better combo in this life?

I don't think so.

(I was going to give you the recipe for the peanut butter cupcakes, but I have packed the cookbook the recipe was in.)

(So sorry.)