Blessings Jar - 2012

Well, this was our second year of randomly recording blessings throughout the year and storing them in our blessings jar.  On New Years Eve this year, we were all sick, so we decided to stay home as we were trying to recover.  We had told the kids we would celebrate the new year with them and we played three rip roaring games of SORRY and then we both were so tired that we decided to cheat.  We never lied, but we did ring in the new year at 10:00 at our house, so we could all go to bed.  We even cheered in the new year, had a countdown on the microwave and then drank our special drink out of our special glasses as we hollered Happy New Year!  hahaha.  Then we called Grandma and Pappy Bumbaugh and told them happy new year, before heading off too bed. :)  Guess we can't probably pull that off next year, but it worked this year, until the next week when Ava realized from school that we didn't get to watch the New York Ball drop. ;)  woops.  Sorry honey!

So in our blessings jar for 2012, we found ourselves to be very blessed.  We didn't even place all the blessings in our jar and truly we were more blessed than we could ever record but we did record some for memory sake.  I felt personally that this was a tough year and it did me good to read through some of our blessings that had actually taken place.  Okay, but I am not recording all of what we did for some personal reasons. :)  Here are a few that were in our jar.


January - Daddy bought mommy roses just to say he loved her.
January - Ava feels blessed that her dog, Simba, gets to stay with Grandma and Pappy after all.  They were giving him to a friend and it didn't work out so they took him back. :)
January 13 - Court date was postponed so Baby J got to stay with us one more unexpected month.
February - Ava finally said a positive thing about the school bus and that she actually likes school and the bus.  She said home was boring to her now.  First time since September of last year.
March 20 - we received the call that stopped us in our tracks.  It was Baby J's dad, Jeremy and he called to see if we wanted to see our little guy sometime soon.
March - We found out about a huge tax return, much more than we were anticipating.
March 27 - Christian's Kindergarten Registration - so much excitement for him and he passed his test with flying colors.
March 27 - We finally get to see baby J after three long horrific weeks of missing him.  He remembered us and we even got to keep him over night.  His dad was extremely gracious.
March 28 - Good News for my dad. . . he was accepted into a program he had applied for, and changed his life.
May 18 - "Mommy was in hospital for her heart - I was excited she didn't have a heart attack" - Ava
May19 - Jason bought Micah a golf club he had wanted to add to his set, and we had a great opportunity to go four wheeling at the Justus homestead. . .the kids had so much fun.
July - Margaret and Harry called to tell us they were getting a pool!!!
August - Beach Trip with Jason, Kim, and Westin.  Then Scott and Lori came down to surprise us and hang out at the beach with us.
August 12 - Nate proposed to Danielle and Ava and Christian got to be a BIG part of that special moment (random blessing spoken from Christian - "Danielle Loves Christian")
August - We found out at their class orientations that Christian and Ava got classes right across from each other at school this year. :)
August 29 - Ava lost another tooth and caught it right before it went down the drain.  She was so excited about this little but significant detail.
August 30 - Christian's first day of school week of school went great!
September - We were blessed with FREE tomatoes, peaches, potatoes, and cucumbers from the Glessners and dad helped me can them, along with Harry and Margaret.  Free food and lots of help.
September - Christian finally lost his first tooth!!!! 
September - Christian also got his four wheeler a month early, for his birthday.
September 16 - We had the privilege of getting to keep baby J for four days straight!  Best bonding ever.
September 16 - Ava was baptized at church and it was an amazing day
September 22 - Matthew and Jean were married and we were able to go and be a part of the big day.  Margaret and Harry called and offered to keep our kiddos so Micah could go along with me.
October - We received a monetary gift of $1500 dollars and it couldn't have come at a better time in our lives.  Friends allowing God to use them in a mighty way.
October 19 - We had a very cool birthday surprise!  Ivvie M. came to stay with us for four days. . . little Happy Feet.
October - Dad paid for all our gas to Hilton Head SC and Back
October 27 - We got to be a huge part of Andy and One-L's Big day, their wedding.  We were the Matron of Honor, Flower Girl, and Ring Bearer and it was a fun wedding to be a part of
October 29 - We made it through hurricane Sandy without any damage to us or our house or property
November 5 - Dr. Quesenberry didn't charge us anything for our doctor visit to him, saving us close to $80 bucks, and then we also had our vehicle in to the garage and found out the repairs were only $200 and God fixed the back window on His own time. :)
November 7 - Kim Brought us meals to fill our freezer from her and a bunch of friends including Becky Sullivan, Erin Deihl and Linda Pedersen too.  They were wanting to help out with Micah not having work.  Such a major blessing.
November - Margaret and Harry took us shopping and paid for our groceries for that trip, again filling our cupboards and freezers.
November - Jim, our neighbor, told us we could use the hot tub whenever we wanted to.
November 27 - Johnny S. came to stay with us for a few months
November 30 - Jim, our neighbor, came over to tell us he had set an appointment and had taken it upon himself to order us a set of brand new tires for our Sequoia.  Merry Christmas he said!!!
December 24 - Christmas Eve in a hot tub with our family and Pappy and Jim, in a snow covered winter land.
December - Kevin and Amy spoiled our kiddos and blessed our families with an abundance of presents.  It was so amazingly sweet and memorable for the kiddos.
A few last random ones with no dates but they were there - groceries given to us, money dropped off for us, bills worked out without our knowing how, and so on and so forth.  A few of Christian and Ava's random ones to end

Chritian - blessed - "mom was excited bceas(because) Ava slesa(listened) and I Lesa(listened) with my lesaing(listening) ers(ears)."
Ava- blessed - "thankful for my little brother for now, Johnny S."
Christian - blessed "Danielle Loves Christian" and "my mom loves me" and "that Jesus died on the cross for my sins."
Ava - blessed - "I was excited I saw Westin"


Malachi 3:10
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

There are many more that were in our jar and many that never even made it to our jar. The Bible talks about blessings that will be more than we have room to store. I think that God has done as he has promised. We did test him this year in our hearts and in our ways and He truly flew open the floodgates and poured out his blessings upon us and our home. It didn't mean that it was easy, or that He even took away all the pain of life, but He sure did richly bless us. Micah was without a job for the majority of the year and yet, financially God took care of us.  Life this year was hard for many reasons, and yet, emotionally God carried us through.   It is amazing and humbling and truly Only GOD.  If we have trouble trusting God after this past year, then shame on us and we will never learn.  God is the one and only thing we need in this life.  He takes care of our every need.    Thank you Lord for all you do and thank you for being true and constant and always there for us.  We love you and owe it all to YOU!!!!

Christian's Abstract Thinking

We have all been sick in our home, just as every other home in America this Christmas.  Micah and I have bronchitis and fevers, and the kids are showing symptoms too.  As I was running our little foster guy to the doctor today, I checked and sure enough he and I were both running fevers. I knew that I had to make dinner and I decided to swing through and get McDonald's Chicken Nuggets for dinner to save me effort and energy.  
It was a win win situation with Christian as I knew it would be.  He as he was eating them, he stopped and said (with a great surprised look on his face) "mom, those chicken nuggets made the bad stuff go down and the good throat come back up!!!!"  I love how he thinks.  I guess he was saying the chicken nuggets felt good on his throat and belly.

Jim's Hot Pool - Christmas Eve

I have really been struggling lately with wanting to stick with traditions for my kids sake and making things consistent from year to year.  Then I realized I have spent a lot of my time worrying about cramming so much into everyday and every holiday that I forget to stop and just enjoy the moment. I started wondering if they felt it, if they felt the pressure I was putting on all of us to have fun.  The pressure was so much for me that I never really could enjoy what it was we were doing anymore anyway.  Something has to change.  I decided to take it day by day.  Enjoy the moment and live life day by day and not event by event that has to be done a certain way cause that is what we did last year. ;)  We started tonight. . ..

It is Christmas Eve 2012 and the kiddos are excited as they always are about Christmas. We got up and cleaned and organized because the next few days are crazy hectic as they are for everyone on Christmas.  My dad came up to eat dinner with us and then we did something really exciting. . something that I could easily make a habit of.  After dinner, we called our neighbor Jim and asked if he would mind if we came over and spent some time in his hot tub. . or "Jim's Hot Pool" as the kids refer to it.  He is so sweet and of course said yes, so now we had a plan.  The kids overheard my conversation with him on the phone and that was all it took.  They talked amongst themselves about it all day.  They were overly excited and hyper all evening anyway, as the snow was falling on the ground and giving us a nice White Christmas! 

My dad and I went over to prepare and then the Micah came running over in his swimming trunks and sandals carrying both kiddos so they wouldn't get their feet in the snow.  His feet were in some pretty severe pain by the time he arrived to the hot tub, but they soon warmed right back up in that hot water.  The water was so amazing and as I was sitting there in the hot tub with my family of four, I realized again how blessed I was.  The snow was lying on the ground and on the tree limbs and just made everything so pretty, soft and bright!  The world seemed to be quiet and asleep and here we were all in our own world of warmth while enjoying the freshly fallen snow.  Such an amazing experience.  The kids were so excited that they were bubbling over and just kept saying how much fun this was and thank you thank you.  It truly was a peaceful and beautiful moment that made my heart sing.  This past year, there have been many moments that I am walking through and though I am there for the moment, I often feel as though I am not really in the moment.  This special one caught me off guard though.  I didn't feel like I was outside of the moment at all, but rather I felt inside the moment all cuddled up with people I love with all of my heart. I am so grateful for my family and for all that God has blessed me with in my lifetime.  I am a blessed and happy woman on Christmas Eve 2012!!!!

Steeler Nation- and Pretzel Party!

 We had a little STEELER NATION get together at our house and while we were at it, we decided to throw some Aunty Anne's pretzels in the mix.  It was a blast, as per usual.  We had our little foster Guy, Johnny FIVE with us and we also had Julian over night that night too.  It was a great and busy night.  The kids were kept busy being entertained by dancing with Kelsey or making pretzels with Grandma.  Julian and Johnny met for the first time and they were not too sure what to think of each other, but Johnny sure did love being center of attention.  It was his first time meeting all the family and he warmed up to them quickly.  He was very happy to dance and entertain while in the middle of the living room.  Not a shy bone in his little body.