Why not make this a double post night.

I found this a this blog ... I found it beautiful....and I thought I would share it because I know that I am not the only one with one of these boys. One of these beautifully and perfectly made boys!

Psalm 139:13-16
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

Sometimes it can be the most active children that get ignored. Oh, not completely ignored, they get talked about, or dealt with… What I’m saying is that they rarely get talked to. They aren’t always, but usually they are boys. These boys are sometimes good boys with lots and lots of energy. Sometimes they become trouble makers…sometimes they just get ignored by adults, hoping that their attention getting tactics will just go away if they are ignored.
These boys need us. They need their parents; they need the other adults in their lives, relatives, school teachers, Sunday school teachers, to pay attention. Yes, they may need more attention than their brothers and sisters and friends. They may need extra effort from the teachers and parents that are around them. Hear this…God, our God, our one and only powerful Lord of All…He made those hyperactive, trouble making, just can’t sit still boys. He made them perfectly and wonderfully and He put them in your life!
He didn’t put that child, or children in your life so that you could pass him off to the next person, the next teacher, the next volunteer… no, He put that child right where He needed him to be and that’s right where you are.
If you are the parent of an ‘energetic’ kid, you know how hard it can be. You know that sometimes they get so excited about the world around them, that shoes and socks keep escaping their minds…and that sometimes you have to remind that child ten times to put them on!! Even though it’s a school day and you’ve been reminding him to do that for the last 3 years! Not that I know anything about that….
You also probably have noticed that these active children have amazing minds… Minds that keep going and going and you don’t know how they keep going and going! These kids have had amazing thoughts… once in a while you can even get them to share a complete one! These kids are perfectly and wonderfully made….
It does take extra energy to teach them. They may need extra help from a teacher. They may need someone to help them organize their things every day before…and after school. They take extra effort, but our God knows they’re worth it. You might have to watch this child and wait and wait and wait for that teaching moment. You may need to teach this child while actively doing something. This child will learn eventually if you sit him in a desk and repeat, repeat, repeat, but he’ll catch on much faster and actually enjoy learning if you take the time to build something with him, or cook with him, or plant with him, or ….
I want you to remind yourself. God doesn’t make mistakes, he put this child in your arms, in your class, in your path for a reason. This child like all the others is AMAZING and WONDERFUL and BEAUTIFUL. He sometimes takes extra effort, but he’s worth it!

No pictures...I know.

So my camera and my computer are not communicating properly and I am not sure why but is something I am totally working on. I actually think I may need a new memory card holder thing and since I am taking two days off to be selfish (not really) I will try and find a new one of those thingy mabobs. That being said we have had a lot of fun on our days together lately and I have lots of pictures to share.

So what have we been up to you ask?

We have been to the fair, enjoyed a week at my moms laying by the pool and playing in the sun and made a lot of progress on the new room.

I also catered a wedding on Saturday that will be featured in Martha Stewart Wedding magazine next year. The bride thought it was important to call me nearly every day to remind that every detail would be photographed so every detail needed to be perfect...fabulous! I may have spent 3 of the most stressful days ever preparing for it but now I can tell you that it went off without a hitch and Martha ain't got nothin' on me:) I can't believe how much time I spent thinking about that woman last week when finally on Friday night I broke down from exhaustion and prayed about it....imagine that. During my prayer God reminded me that I needed to remember to ask Him for the strength to get through each day. So first thing Saturday morning it was Him I was thinking of not that crazy Martha lady. And in addition to this I felt at complete peace:)

Now we are in the final days of summer vacation and I have done absolutely no shopping for school. Thankfully the days I have been waiting for since mid-July are here. I am taking two days for me and will be hanging around Seattle with Sarah shopping for school and maybe a bit for myself. The trip is really for rest but I might as well get the shopping done at the same time....right?

Grace got her letter from her teacher Saturday in the mail. It described all of the wonderful things Kindergarten would hold and one of them was experiments. Not sure why, however Grace thinks this sounds like the best part:) Can't believe my tiny little bundle is now 5 and ready to school...she informed me the other day that she was very sorry but Mommy's don't get to go to kindergarten with their kids. Does it sound like she will miss me? Yeah..nope! I am sure I will cry as soon as I drop her off no more babies, no more preschoolers....I guess this will be the start of the new chapter titled School Aged Children.

Oh and next up on the crazy catering clients is a man I like to call Dino but probably not to his face....I am actually not sure what I am supposed to call him to his face...well maybe Mr. Rossi...someone should fill me in on the appropriate title because in 10 days I get to meet him.

What do you want?

I was able to sum up what I wanted in life in a hour the evening I had my first pseudo unintentional re-date with BJ. After dinner with Kristin he somehow invited himself over to my apartment, asked me what I wanted out of life, what my ten year plan was and if I wanted to date him again. I gave him long answers to the first two questions and a simple no to the last one. It is funny now but I thought it was odd in the beginning.

What I told him is what really makes me happy, because over the last few days I realize what I wanted has been given to me by the grace of God, and all I want to do now is say Thank You.

When he asked what I wanted out of life I answered with....I want to find my best friend get married make an agreement to never even mention the "d" word, and make another agreement to raise kids that can be happy because their world is happy and at the end of the night go to bed thanking God for everything I have because he is the one who has given all of those things to me.....and that was that. My answer to the 10 year plan is the same answer I would give today...whats a ten year plan...doesn't a ten minute plan sound much better?

We have been part of a Sunday School class over the summer titled Love and Respect. It addresses the whole battle of the sexes topic from a christian perspective, talking about our differences being just that differences and not as positives or negatives. The pastor talks a lot about how women need love and men need respect and how the two things react to each other in a unique cycle. That is all the explaining I will do on the subject, however I will say if you haven't had the joy of being a part of one of these classes you should do it, it has been life changing. Anywho...last weeks session I found very intriguing in a few different ways...he spent a lot of time talking about heaven and our salvation in relationship to our marriages and I suppose it could apply to most any relationship in your life actually, well I am a daydreamer...and I immediately started thinking about heaven. I must admit that heaven has become much more real to me in the past few years. I have actually experienced death in our family in many ways especially in the last year which has led me to think of it on a personal level. Not that I haven't done this before. But I have been more worried about being ready and what that entails and what it doesn't. Well the pastor from the video series asked what would you say to God? And immediately I thought, Thank You. And then not right at that moment but later I thought about why that phrase popped into my head and then I cried and then I thought of the following list.

Thank You for giving me all my hearts desires and then some. Thank You for hand delivering to me my best friend who is my greatest companion on this earth. Thank you for being ever so present that I can see you moving throughout my every waking moment. Thank You for lending me two beautiful kids that I can watch grow and see learning to love and trust you, children who are happy because we are truly happy. Thank You that I am able to be happy. Thank You that I can go to bed every night praising you for all that you do. Thank you for all that I am sure you have planned for me yet to experience. Thank you for your grace so I can continue to move forward and not look behind.

Thank You.

I don't know how it will actually be when I get there or when any of us get there but if I do get to say something, Thank You will be it!

What I want out of life now is much the same....happiness is a common theme, I could write a whole post on that topic alone. Its what I grew up wanting and its what I have........

This is my 400th Post and I plan on talking about food!

Food.Food.Food.

My typical work morning starts with rolling out of bed with pain in my hands and wrists and usually my left hip it is interesting. I, however, choose to ignore it and make my children some breakfast. Breakfast is followed by finding my grubbiest work jeans and a random t-shirt that I probably bought at the Second Chance (this is the best place to find weird kitchen t-shirts). I throw my hair in braids or a pony and on top of that goes a bandana...the purple one is my favorite but sometimes I settle on red and pray that I don't come in contact with gang members. And this is it, if I forgot to mention before that cooking all day is one of the least glamorous job in the world, you are being told now. Because by the end of the day you smell like a meatball and probably resemble one as well. Now this sounds really awful at this point I am sure but picking up the most beautiful produce in the world that still has dirt on it and does not look manufactured does not take glamor it takes love. Foodies are weird and foodies that work in kitchens are even weirder..because you can't be normal if you enjoy being in a 120 degree kitchen cooking for a couple hundred people at a time. Or if someone asks if you can cater corporate events for 500 and you actually get excited because not only is that a challenge but if you nailed it and made it happen you would have done the impossible.

Now I had someone make a comment about caterers being ultimate rockstars. Now I am not sure that the whole world sees it this way. A lot of clients treat us as hired help and a lot of their guests are the same way. But again its not about that. Its about doing what you love and food is what I love.

Recently I worked out of a clients home to cater a family party and when I arrived at their newly renovated (gutted) home I was greeted by my very own caterers kitchen (butlers pantry) who has this.??? I didn't even know they existed anymore. So there I was working in my little box making beautiful food for people who ended up being rather nice in the end. But back to my little box it even had a garbage disposal and more cupboards and drawers then I have in my entire house, it was nuts. And in that moment I felt as if I had arrived, making very good beautiful not frozen food in a pantry that was filled with everything boxed and processed. Woohoo....1 point for team healthy food awareness.

So this summer has been long it has been a challenge and its almost over. Not sure what my overall opinion is but I know that my kitchen skills and my tastes and abilities have grown immeasurable and there is a lot of excitement in store.

So that's that. I have a couple of days off this week woohoo. We are going to hang around and ride bikes and work on the new room and be thankful for all that we have....because that's what Jager's do.