What day is it again?

If someone told me it was 2013, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be phased.  Life has been a blur these past two weeks and I've barely managed to keep up.  At one point I was pretty sure I hadn't.  Like, I was still hanging out on Wednesday and the whole wide world plus the slow growing mold on my dirty dishes had already made it to Thursday.  Just kidding - my husband washed those dishes.  Probably while I was still on Tuesday.

So what made me so busy??  Okay, remember this:

Well, he got replaced by this:

This is Nika, an ADORABLE shih tzu whom we've been watching for almost 2 weeks now.  I have never ever considered owning a small dog.  But she has most definitely made me reconsider - she's THAT perfect.

There were also these 3 boys:

 (Well, not the one on the right.  He's the one who washed my dishes on Tuesday.  Or was it Wednesday?)

Then these 3 girls:

And then these two boys:

(Sorry.  No actual picture means you get a rare glimpse into the overflow of my creative juices.  Feel free to pause and enjoy.  Oh, and P.S.  That little grey thing in the boy's hand is not dust on your screen or a syringe.  Anyone who can guess what it actually is receives a hypothetical gold star.)   

All three sets of kids required pick-up and drop-off at their school every day.  It's hard to put into words what kind of work this is.  Maybe like having teenagers?  No, that can't be it.

In addition to hosting students, we also had to sort through piles and piles (and piles) of stuff.  Did I mention piles?  Massive piles.  For a Massive sale.  

I know its difficult to comprehend right now, but some day, somewhere, you will see a massive pile and it'll make sense.  If not, consider stopping by our next Massive sale, coming this September to a street corner near you (well, actually not.  For my readers in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Canada...heck, for anyone outside of my mom's zip code, its really not that close to you, so don't bother).

Then there was a Massive Yard Sale, hence the need for Massive piles.  (Please note the capitalization of the word Massive.  There is a point trying to be made.)  

So WHY did I allow my life to become so busy?  Because of this.....

Wait, wait, WAIT.  Before you click on it, do a little drum roll.  Just a little one.  It'll be fun.


Why did I allow my life to become so busy?  (Drum roll!!!)  Because. of. THIS!

Awesome, huh?

We have dogs!!

(for the week).

I'll explain:

In an attempt to build up our savings, my husband and I have been thinking outside the box on ways to make additional money.   We both love dogs and have seriously thought about getting one of our own, but when we put ourselves on a budget, we realized there was no money for dog food.  Or a dog, for that matter.

Not too long ago we dog sat for a good friend of my mom's and had a blast doing it.  And then it was as though the cosmic puzzle pieces aligned themselves (or rather, I saw an ad on craigslist.  Same thing though, right?) and a brilliant idea was born: we'll advertise ourselves as dog sitters.

So far we've been asked to do daycare for a toy poodle while her owner goes to beauty school.  Umm...no.
We've also been asked to watch a dog...for a year.   =|  I'm glad they didn't ask that in person.

We've also had some successful responses.  Like these two dogs:


Here's Flounder, the 2 year old basset hound who is the sweetest thing EVER. Not to mention she loves the kids to death.  Well, not to death.  We do have some restrictions on the types of dogs we watch and "loving to death" is expressly forbidden.  But every morning she runs straight to the kids' rooms and licks them (nearly to) death, and cries if the doors aren't open.  Could there be anything more adorable?  Methinksnot.

Then there's Rodeo, the 6 month old Australian Cattle Dog.  What you're seeing is generally what we see all. day. long.  

Seriously, how could this not be fun?  And we get paid to participate.   =)

I Want to Talk About Me.

Usually I wait until I'm hit by lightening to post something new because it takes about that long to come up with a brilliant idea.  With all of this Southern California heat making itself comfortable here, I've been getting worried that the lightening is a long way off.  So I stressed and then the idea came:  this is my blog, let's talk about me.  

Me

I am a twin.  I am 3 minutes younger than my twin sister, and no, we don't know if we are identical or fraternal. It's been theorized that we could possibly be "semi-identical" (aka polar body) twins, though this is rare.

I am a mother. I have 3 children.  Do I love them more than I love your children?  Yes.  Do I think the world revolves around them?  No.  They are perfectly imperfect and it's an honor to teach them to love others as Christ does.  Yes, my husband and I want more.  Yes, our additional child(ren) will mostly likely come to us via adoption.  No, that shouldn't be regarded as weird or crazy or ambitious.  Don't forget, God Himself is constantly adopting children of His own.

I am crafty.  I love to be crafty.  But I get overwhelmed when my house is messy.  Since I have 3 kids, my house is always messy.  So unfortunately I spend more time cleaning than I do being crafty.  Poor, poor pitiful me.

I love learning, but I don't retain knowledge well.  So if I read a book that taught me something fascinating, I could only reiterate about 5% of it back to you, and it would be sprinkled with "I think it said" and "I don't remember exactly."  Still, I would be a college student my whole life if I could do it debt-free.

I absolutely love:  soap bars, snowman, cookbooks, calla lilies, the smell of old books, and my blue couch.

I can't stand when there is hair stuck on my soap bars.  It grosses me out.  But what grosses me out more than anything?  People brushing their teeth in their car.  *gag*

I'm a horrible hostess.  So if you come to my house, grab yourself a drink and make yourself comfortable.  I'll invite you over more often.

I don't understand why they don't make whole wheat bagels with blueberries in them.  Or cinnamon and raisins.  Or any dried fruit.  I'd totally buy them.  Well, maybe not whole wheat bagels with prunes.

My husband and I do not have a perfect marriage.  We've had some awesome highs, and we've had some pretty bad lows.  But we're still together, we love each other, and we feel overwhelmingly blessed to be on the same journey.

I am not a perfect person.  I get grumpy, I question my worth daily, and I lose my patience with my kids.  But I love my family, I love my friends, and I love that I have everything I need, not to mention tons of stuff that I don't need but love.  Like my blue couch.  And especially now that it's topped with these folks:

Six Months

Unbelievable.  It's been a whopping 6 months since I wrote my Thimble List and approximately 6 months since I even thought to look at it.

Oops.

So I assume now would be a good time to evaluate said list and laugh at my progress.

It's okay, you can laugh too.

Personal:

1. Start a blog I'm awesome.   Just glad that I didn't require it to be an excellent one.

2. Complete 5 paintings - I have completed one, and it currently resides in the dark recesses of the garage. 

3. Read 24 books, minimum -  Actually doing decent here.  Well, so long as I can count "Go, Dog, Go" and "Green Eggs and Ham."  If you're going to be picky about this, then harumph (in an attempt to own another word) - I'm not even half done.

4. Walk 3 times a week, minimum - Not doing too bad.  In fact, at my last blood appointment, the guy taking my stats was pretty impressed by my numbers.  "Do you do a lot of cardio?" he asked.   =)

5. Finish Quickbooks class - Uuuuhhhh.  Well I never actually paid the college so they dropped me from the class before it even started.  So no.

Home-making:

1. Plant 5 vegetables successfully - Right.  Remember this cute craft?  Total failure.  And my neighbor's cat is using my raised bed as it's personal litter box, which I'm thinking is bad for the carrot seeds I planted in there.  My onions are doing awesome, but that's about it. 

2. Cook 1 new recipe a week - blog about it - Seriously??  I wrote this??  Big harumph.  

3. Put $x per month into savings - Never actually defined "x" so let's just assume it's zero = total success.  

4. Start a monthly budget - STICK TO IT! - Got the monthly budget part down.  Just really wish I hadn't added that qualifier.  

Spiritual:

1. Read the Bible daily (finish O.T. by years end, minimum) - Wow, that's convicting.

2. Personal Ministry Goal - Actually....YES!!!!

3. Study 6 topics in-depth - Don't even remember what I was thinking when I wrote this, but I'm pretty sure it was brilliant.  

4. Memorize 2 Timothy 4 - "Preach the word.  Be ready in season and out of season."  That's all I have and I'm thinking that's not even the first verse, and obviously done in my own translation.  I'll get to work on that.

Family:

1. Pray earnestly about adoption: timing, location, funds  Since this is a constant burden on our hearts, I'm happy to say I have done this, and will continue to do this.  Feel free to join me.  =)

2. Family ministry goal - Harumph.  

3. Be consistent with family Bible time.  Double harumph.

4. Take more pictures of the kids - Aaaaand triple harumph.  (I totally own it now. Woot.)

5. Organize all my digital pictures! - I've taken about 22 pictures this year.  Not terribly hard to organize.  But I did say "all", didn't I?  Probably should change this to "Find all my digital pictures" instead.  Now THAT would be an accomplishment.

So, with six months over, I'm going to adjust my list.

Personal:

1. Continue blog

2. Complete panel painting 

3. Read 24 books, minimum

4. Walk 3 times a week, minimum

5. Learn something new - What?  Not specific enough for you?  At least I'll be able to cross it off in 6 months.  

Home-making:

1. Plant 2 more vegetables successfully

2. Perfect my pizza skills

3. Build half of FFEF by end of year 

4. Organize my garage whilst keeping painting hidden

Spiritual:

1. Read the Bible daily 

2. Continue personal ministry

3. Finish studying Daniel; study Ezekiel

4. Memorize 2 Timothy 4 - like, the whole thing, and not just verse 2

Family:

1. Continue to pray earnestly about adoption: timing, location, funds

2. Family ministry goal*

3. Be consistent with family Bible time

4. Develop homeschool schedule for fall (Can somebody say "aaaggghhhh!")

I'm sure I'll forget to do some of this, but at least its written down to be laughed at later.  So here's to the next 6 months...

.