You get what you get...

I saw this sign the other day on my new favorite website, Pinterest. Have you been there? It is FABULOUS! Tons of great ideas all in one place!

Anyhow, back to the sign. My kids know this quote! They hear it a lot! But this sign doesn't look like a kids sign to me. SO that got me thinking.

A lot of us have LIFE happening to us and everyday we can make a choice how we are going to react to it. I can whine, cry, and complain but it's not going to change what's going on right now. And your mess doesn't look like my mess, but it's still a mess that I have to work through. So if I ever want my little ones to follow this I think it's time I start following it.

A little about me

 I'm a worrier, I worry about everything, it's who I am.

So six years ago I got married. We knew we wanted little ones right away and 3 months later I was pregnant! We also decided to move from Wyoming in hopes of more. Isn't that what it is always about, more?

Ryan got a job with Union Pacific Railroad. Everyone told us how lucky we were, and what a great job it would be, and how the money would be so nice. Yes, there would be long hours, but we could sacrifice a little to get our feet on the ground and get us off to a solid start. This wonderful job would also allow me to stay home and be a Mom! It was a dream come true! ha! Oh how little we knew!

I also think the ideas we had were not of a typical younger, newly married, expecting a child, just starting out kind of dreams. We were older, life had happened to us, we had found our way and somehow we expected more for our new adventure.

Well, life has a way of humbling you. My hubby has been furloughed more times than I can count, he busted his knee at work twice and now his shoulder. We have gone through 3 surgeries, months of physical therapy, and time off work, PLUS we added two more babies to our family. And the list of should haves, could haves is long.

But we have been blessed also. The new town, one car, no friends made it easy with just one car because really we had no where to go anyways! Dad was able to be home and see so many of those precious baby milestones such as the first  step or  word. There was no place, and no one, to run away to when things got bumpy, so what didn't kill us made us stronger as a couple.

I sometimes think of our first five years here in Oregon like we were in a cocoon. Our little family all wrapped up tight and together.

Recently though it feels as if the shell is breaking, and not in a bad way. Our wings are opening up and stretching. I feel as if there is some light at the end of the tunnel. We have met some friends here. Friends who will NEVER replace the friends back home, but friends all the same.

I still get to be a stay at home Mama, but now I sell Scentsy. And while I'm not breaking any records in the sales department it does give this Mama a brief time out to talk about something other than babies which is nice, and it pays a bill or two, so I feel like I do my little part to help out our family. It also gave me something to focus on. It's replaced some of the worry and given me a partial solution.

It's also nice to have some new dreams. It seems we were focused on survival for so long, which is a little extreme, but true. Now I feel like I can look up, and look out. I can grow my business, my team, myself,  and continue to grow my family (and I don't mean literally!!! at least not yet!) lol!

SO while the struggles aren't over because life isn't over. I am letting go a little more, enjoying a little more, I just have a feeling like it might be our time to fly. And that feels good!

Hope you had a wonderful Easter! and some deals, recipes and more!

Did you have a good Easter? We sure did!

My plan was for the Easter Bunny to leave a note on the door saying he hopped on by while we were at church and left some clues to find the hidden Easter baskets BUT... Miss Allie Grace found the hidden Easter baskets about 10 minutes before we were to walk out the door! So, we took a mini break from our Sunday morning mad scramble routine to check out the baskets before I whisked them away so we could maybe make it to church before Sunday School was over! WoW! total run on sentence, sorry. Anyhow, I love days we get to spend together with family and friends, good food, and chocolate :) I hope your day was just as wonderful!

Now onto the deals:

I have a TON of pictures I need to get developed so I have been watching out for the photo deals. Here are two I saw this morning from Couponing to Disney.

Target has a printable coupon for $2 off the purchase of 20 prints. Prints are 10 cents each so 20 pics for FREE!

The next one is 365 prints from Snapfish for $15.00 SHIPPED! Use the code SPRING365 at check out to get this deal. If you are new to Snapfish you also get 50 FREE prints. That is just $.04 a picture! You only have until Tuesday night to do this deal though so hurry!

I found an email from Disney in my box this morning for their beach towels. They are on sale for $12 this week with FREE personalization. I'm thinking my babies might need these :)

You can get a FREE DVD today only from Blockbuster with the code MONDAYDVD.

Frugal Living NW shared a deal about 2 tickets for Big Surf at Clackamas Aquatic Park for just $5.

She also shared a post about a FREE 8x10 photo canvas from the Canvas People. You just have to pay shipping. This would be great for Mother's day!

And the last thing is a recipe I saw over at Our Best Bites for a Tortellini Spinach Bake. This looks good and with a couple changes my little ones just might eat it :)

Okay friends I have some pictures to download so have a great Monday!

HELLO...out there

is anyone still listening?

I want a reason to blog, a purpose. I share most everything on my personal facebook page, sometimes my Moose to Men facebook page, sometimes my Scents of the Northwest facebook page. I share, and share, and share...do I really need to share here too? Or maybe my facebook friends wish I would share here so they didn't get bombarded with so much from me on a daily basis :)

I think I tried to do too much, be too much. I also think I wanted to keep everything separate. So my Scentsy friends didn't have to hear about my children, or my mom friends didn't have to hear about my business. But you know what, this is me. This is who I am right now. If I offend you or drive you crazy with too many pictures of my children, recipes of food I dream about eating, or the yummy smells coming from my warmers I'm sorry. I'll still love you if you don't come back or if you hide me from your facebook :)

Usually what brings me here to blogland is I want to share. I mean really, why else are we here? So this is what I read today, Mommy On Fire. I've had it on my screen all day. It's just a short post. I think I realized though how important it could be. Plus I wanted to read it, I mean really read it, with out interruptions from the little ones. So, unsure of what to do, I just left it up all day. I wanted to make sure I would remember it. I starred it as a favorite, but have you seen my favorites list! I thought about posting it on facebook, but I posted a lot over there tonight. So here I am.

I want to do this. I want my children to have this. Can you just see what a gift this could be? I don't know a lot about the Bible. I hope my children grow up to know more. This gift will teach them about God, but also about ME. They will see my heart, my struggles, my praises. And when the day comes I can't be right there for them, to help them through something, my heart will whisper over the words of God and I hope they know how much I loved them and cared for them.

There are so many things we give and can give our children, but how many of those things are going to mean something to them next week, next month, next year, in thirty years?


***Okay so I can't sleep. I don't know who is going to read this or if anyone is going to read this, but the idea behind the post is WONDERFUL!!! So, you don't want to do the Bible, pick your favorite book and write in the margins why it touches your soul. Watch your favorite movie and write a letter to your son or daughter and give it to them on an appropriate birthday or when they move out. Maybe there's a cookbook that you use over and over, start adding post- its to why you make a certain dish, what you change, who's favorite is it?  This would work for a brother or a sister or a child. We lose so much in the hustle and bustle. Life is flying by us right now and we're not going to remember the details so write them down!