Yes, we are homeowners once again. We purchased a house about a half hour north of Valdosta that is on an acre of land, surrounded by a pecan grove, a green bean field and a cabbage patch. This day only took almost four months, but we finally made it. Of course I have pictures for you all to enjoy.
Stay tuned for more fun stories about the house, the contract, the four months it took to close and the closing, until then, enjoy the pictures! (click on them to make them big).
Let me just say: Gnats are gnasty! The humidity and heat are not what keep those who live south of the Gnat Line (anything south of Macon, Ga) in side all summer, it is those darn gnats.
Yesterday they were pretty bad, before and after Mass. Most people do a quick open and close of the car door, so the cool air does not escape. In South Georgia, one does it so the gnats do not swarm inside the car. So, trying to get the kids out of the van for Mass, while replacing shoes, checking a diaper, securing chapel veils, and not trying to let gnats is often a lesson in futility. I often find that we bring a swarm of them with us in to the church and I am spending the first five minutes or so of the Rosary swatting then away from the baby’s head.
After Mass, yesterday, I stopped Father to ask him a question. I tried to make it so quick because in the morning sun, I could see the gnats swarming his head as I am sure they were doing to mine. (Sorry, Father.)
Last night, we went to visit with Joshua’s Aunt and Uncle and their family. They were camping outside of Adel, so we headed out to visit last night. The gnats were awful last night, thankfully fully they went away after the sun went down! We used a natural bug spray that the locals told Joshua’s uncle is what they use. It sort of worked, sort of.
If anyone out there has any suggestions, I would appreciate them! 🙂
{pretty}
This past Tuesday, we attended the Baptism of our newest goddaughter, Luca Lynn Hope. Here she is, just before the baptism, looking as pretty as can be in her gown.
{happy}
Goodbye, Original Sin, be gone with you! She did not cry or flinch, just happily looked at Father.
{funny}
There are seven children between the two families and (only three parents doing the corralling as Cassie’s (Luca’s mother) husband is currently deployed ). Getting a nice group shot is not always easy, my kids made it even less so. Note the nose picker, yep, he’s mine. This picture will be held on to for a very long time.
{real}
No nose pickers in this one! Seven kids, three parents and no criers. Deo Gratias!
For more {pretty, happy, funny, real} head over to Like Mother, Like Daughter.
It was sitting outside my back door when Joshua arrived home. I was rushing to get ready to head to our friends’ house for their son’s 2nd Birthday Party when I heard Joshua call for me. He had the box in hand. I was more than thrilled to see my wonderful and thoughtful gift. I plan on sautéing zucchini and squash in it tomorrow!
(the picture is from williams-sonoma.com)
I have been waiting for a package to be delivered all day today. It contains my Mother’s Day present. I am not about presents at all, but Joshua the kids ordered this from a fancy-schmancy kitchen store and it has been on back order. I have no idea what it is, but I am very excited. Joshua sent me the link for tracking and this is what I see:
We are going out for a bit tonight, I just hope it gets here before we leave…or that the UPS driver left it at the back door and forgot to ring the doorbell left.
Our city has four major grocery stores, Winn-Dixie, Harvey’s, Publix and Walmart. I refuse to step foot in to Walmart, so I alternate between the three other stores. I really like Publix because they will have uncommon items, but the meat prices there are usually out of our budget. Harvey’s has good prices on meats and cheese, but much of the store is processed foods. Winn-Dixie has been hit or miss. They have good sale items, but the quality of their products are not always good. This goes for store brand and national brand.
This past Saturday, I was preparing the meal plan for this week and discovered that we only had one pork roast and a package of chicken in the freezer, so I needed to stock up. I saw that WD had some of their meat buy one get one free, so I decided to go there to stock up a bit. One thing I learned a while ago about going to WD is the need to check out sell by dates, as perishables are on the shelfs well beyond the sell by date. (For example, the cream I saw this weekend with a sell by date of 27 April, at the front of the shelf, not pushed back and forgotten.)
Joshua and I went together with the kids and looked over the meats and decided to pick up some ground beef, beef roast and pork chops. The pork chops had the sell by date of the 25th of this month and I planned to make them yesterday, so I stuck them in the fridge (even in the bag they were put in at the store, in case they leaked).
Last night when I took them out to get them in a marinade, I knew they were bad, before I even took them out of the bag, I knew they were bad. I opened the package anyway, just to make sure it was not say some juice that had leaked out and started smelling. Nope, the pork chops were bad. When Joshua got home from work, he confirmed.
I was frustrated. It was dinner time and here my main course was bad. I was further frustrated by the fact that this is not the first time that something I purchased from WD went bad before the “sell by date”. Milk, cream and butter have all gone bad before the sell by date. (okay maybe the butter does not go bad, but it always tastes like refrigerator.) I know to keep away from them, unless I absolutely need them (and WD is the nearest store to us, so I will run and pick up only one of the item I need). This was the first time meat has gone bad.
I have never returned the food that did not last until the sell by date, mainly because the time and energy involved just did not seem worth it. However, last night, I called up the store and they said I could return it, but I needed to return it to the store I bought it from, so this required a trip to the other end of town, as we went to the store near our (wonderful!!!) farmers market. Oh and because I had tossed the receipt already, we got store credit.
Winn-Dixie was already the store I went to the least because of the other reasons mentioned, but I am taking it off my list for good. Grocery shopping is something I really enjoy doing, really, but I do not want to have to look at every package buy and wonder “how long will this last?” or “will this have a bad taste to it?”
This evening we visited the local store of a national chain store hardware stare, when we noticed this:
(click on the picture to make it bigger)
Wow, I have heard of the happy dance, I have claimed to do the happy dance, but I have never actually done the happy dance. Until 1601 on 24 May 2011, that is.
More details to follow as to why, but until then, we Facemyers ask for your prayers!
That is how much I spend today on this bounty of veggies and fruit. Yay for Farmer’s Markets!
For a while now, I have been trying to write a post on being open to life. I started thinking about this when I heard or read comments about “planning” children or postponing children because of upcoming plans or deciding to be done because the next baby would require the purchasing of the dreaded minivan.
As a Catholic, I trust Holy Mother Church and Her teachings on family planning. I embrace the teachings of Pope Paul VI in Humane Vitae. I trust in God. I know God will not give us more than we can bear, emotionally, physically and financially.
God has never let us down. He has never given us more than we can handle. When I look back at our budget sheets from our first two years of marriage, I wonder, how did we do it? How were we able to put food on the table and a roof over our head? Yet, in that time, we paid our bills on time, did not have a lot of extras, and we trusted our fertility to God. In just over two years of marriage we had two babies to care for on Earth and one to intercede for us in Heaven. God has since blessed us with two more wonderful babies and we hope to be blessed with more.
As I stated in my first paragraph, I often hear reasons for why couples are avoiding or postponing pregnancy, reasons that seem to overlook Church teaching on being open to life. It seems that people are not open to life in the way the Church intends and I pray that couples will ask for guidance and seek out fidelity in the matter of openness to life.
Children, too, are a gift from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward. (Ps 127:4)