From 1 to 6 to 3, all in about 3 days!

So, I'm a little ashamed that I haven't posted in so long, but the good news is we have two adorable and wonderful little girls with us!

They are foster daughters and so far the experience could not have been better. They almost immediately (at least in my mind) bonded to us and have fit right into our family from the first evening. Pumpkin and the oldest girl are the same age, so that does not help the arguing/fighting/not wanting to share thing one bit, but yet at the same time, they will play wonderfully together and even called each other their best friend.

The other little girl is just shy of a year and is the sweetest. She is super smiley and is a very content little girl.

We have been so blessed by the prayers of family and friends and also so many generous donations of clothes, toys, shoes and books. (only having had a boy for 3 years, did not give us much of a girl toy collection...haha)

We got a call to do respite for the weekend for 3 siblings. Then the next day we got a call to take the placement of the girls. We just couldn't say no, so that meant that for one night we had SIX kids under our roof (and if you had any idea how big our roof was, that is actually quite a lot of kids for our roof). Having 3 kids has proven to not be too hard. It's just been an adjustment of not spending our time the way we used to, not getting all the one on one time with Pumpkin and I feel for that little man so much because his world was turned upside down. He instantly had to share his home, his toys, his Mommy and Daddy and some even some rules had to change. (due to there being girls in the house and some things we have to being in compliance or agreement with as foster parents). But he has been a champ! I love that boy so much and tell him that every chance I get!

 

I'll try not to be a stranger, but I make no promises. Although having 3 kids has not been that hard; I still find that extra time is not abounding!

Waiting on the Lord

This morning as I was reading in Psalms, this verse just really spoke to me.

 

"Wait for the Lord;
    be strong and take heart
    and wait for the Lord."

Psalm 27:14- NIV

 

I also like this version:

 

"Wait on the Lord;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord!"

Psalm 27:14- NKJV

 

 I do in fact feel as if I've been waiting on the Lord for the past 2 years and still am in regards to having a child. Now we are beginning another journey of waiting on the Lord. Waiting on the opportunity to take in the right children and hopefully adopting those children.

Every time I see a new face on the adoption web site, I get excited. Then I have to take a real look at the logistics of taking in 3 or 4 children (because they are always a sibling group of that size) and consider being a parent to that particular age group (they also always have one or two maybe three in the age range we are looking for, but then there is at least one that is quite a bit older than we were thinking). In the end, I just ask God to give us wisdom and guidance and to let us know when the right child or children come up.

 

There may be many types of things that you are waiting on the Lord for. But please realize, as I have to do everyday, that God's timing is best, even if we don't understand it.

 

 

Wait on the Lord and HE will strengthen you heart!!!

Things are happening

Well, for nearly the past month things have been out of the ordinary. First of all, we were coming home from a family ski trip and my friend called to ask if I could watch her baby boy for the week. I agreed, turns out that she needed someone for about a month until her daycare starts. So we are enjoying our time with little C this month! Also, my husband has only been working on and off (seems more off lately..haha!) so we have started some MAJOR projects. Project number one is actually coming along quite nicely. We tore off the original front porch of our home and my husband has built us a new one. It currently needs painted and the floor put on. Project number two is repainting the entire exterior of our house. So far, all we have accomplished on that is a patch on the front of the house where we tested the color and part of the railing on the porch and a few pieces of trim around the porch. SO, that means there is still plenty to be done, but oh well at least it is coming along.

You wanna know the biggest happening?!? We received our temporary foster care license in the mail today!!!! AND our final home inspection is scheduled for Wednesday morning!!!

 

Things are happening my friends, things are happening!!

Hope all is well, I hope to be back around more often soon! ;)

Just like Jesus adopted ME

We've finally handed in the last of the paperwork (for now) and we are currently waiting on a phone call from the state. We've taken the classes, had the physicals, had 3 different people look at our home and now we just wait for the last, state walk-through. Then we are ready to have children come into our home.

We are going to be licensed foster parents. We hope to adopt. I have always loved the thought of adoption. I think around the first time that I heard the analogy of Jesus adopting me into His family, and it stuck with me, just how adoption must be a true part of living like Jesus; I have wanted to adopt one day.

My one day looked a lot different than Jesus' one day. In my mind, we would have 2-3 or even more of our own children. They would be older and we would be anywhere from 5-10 years from where we are now. BUT, God sped up that plan. Sometimes I'm still scared out of my mind about what it will be like to take "strangers" into my home. But then the other times, I can't wait to have other little smiling faces around our table and playmates for our little Pumpkin! There will be ups and there will be downs, just like with our biological son and just like we have in our relationship with Jesus. But just as we will always be a part of the family of God, the child/children will always be a part of our family.

 

 

 

If you have ever thought about fostering or adopting, I challenge you to look into it. There is quite the process to go through, but being where we are now, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be going in. There are a lot of children out there that need positive role models and good families in their lives.

Saving Money on Cleaning Products: Homemade Laundry Soap

Ok, so this will be the last of my money saving tips on cleaning products...for now anyway.

In January, I finally decided to take the plunge and make my own laundry soap. As far as saving money, I'm not sure how much I can or will save with the homemade stuff. In a little over a month, I've probably only used about a quarter of the soap that I ended up with. I usually bought the cheapo stuff because I couldn't bring myself to pay the price for the name brand laundry soap, so this seems to be better quality; I'm just not sure yet if I'll save that much money. If you do buy the name brand stuff, I can see how you would easily save money by making your own.

I will get back to you on what it comes out to once I run out or am getting close...they might be awhile. I filled one whole ice cream bucket and half of another and I've only used half of the half full one...got a lot left! haha!

Here is where I got the recipe.

On that blog it said it lasted for 9 months, if mine lasts that long I will save money. I've already forgotten how much, but I remember I thought it would be worth it as long as it lasted about that long. So maybe by mid October, I'll be able to give you an update!

Saving with Chicken

Ok, just a quick money saving/time saving tip for you!

Yesterday our local grocery store had whole chickens on sale for $1.19 a pound..I don't know about your neck of the woods, but that's a great price for around here! So there were only 2 left and I snatched them right up! Brought them home and boiled one last night quickly and plan to pull the other one out of the fridge today and boil it. Then I simply fill containers with the broth and freeze those. The broth is a great addition to soups and other meals. I have also started making homemade cream of chicken soup, which needs chicken broth. It's really easy and we like the taste of foods made with it better than the store bought stuff! Here is where I found the recipe, if you'd like to try it. 

I then de-bone the cooled chicken and I used to have to cut it up by hand, which really seemed to take forever. Then one day I stumbled across this tip on pinterest and it may very well be one of the best tips I've ever found!

If you have a Kitchen Aid mixer, place the cooked chicken pieces in you're mixer bowl and use the paddle attachment and "mix"! It shreds your chicken meat and is WAAAY easier than cutting all of it by hand. Easier and FASTER! Gotta love that!!! Then I just put it in containers and freeze it also.

So it takes a little time up front, but you can stock up on chicken when it's on sale and then if you cook it up right away, you will have precooked chicken ready to go into whatever recipe you want (you just have to defrost it) and I like boiled chicken a lot better than the canned chicken (we've tried the canned before) and it's cheaper than the canned stuff too!

So some of these tips are easy to find on a lot of blogs, but I've honestly only seen to put chicken into the mixer ONE time, so maybe that's a new one to you (I don't even think I pinned that pin, so I can't tell you where that idea originated from, but it wasn't me!). Either way, hopefully something in this post will be helpful to you!

Happy Tuesday!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Checkin' In

Sorry for being absent for a while, we had snow this week and the week before that I started my "part time job"...as in a few hours, twice a week. You all know when we get rain/snow and my husband is home, that throws my schedule WAAAY off...so yes, there you have it.

Anyway, I have one more tip/recipe for saving money on cleaning products and I plan on posting that later this week. So be sure to look for that!

 

Happy Sunday!