It was a good day…
Waiting for some hot chocolate
Mumsy & Papa are here!
Jude pulls Grampa
Our house in the snow… and Andrew faithfully shoveling
The boy and his sled
December 30, 2008
December 28, 2008
The holiday continues!
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My parents made it over the pass to our side of the state and we are enjoying a fun and relaxing time with them, sort of an after Christmas celebration. Lots of games, train playing with Judo, and enjoying being together. And aren’t these slippers from Andrew so great?! |
December 26, 2008
A merry little Christmas
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Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas day. We had lots of fun just being together, playing in the snow, cooking, and feasting. I’m pretty sure I drank over half a bottle of sparkling cider with dinner. I love that stuff. Even more than my husband loves gravy. |
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My Gram’s apron- I have so many memories of her wearing this while she cooked during the holidays and I proudly donned it for cooking yesterday. |
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Jude loves to look at my growing belly, and is such a good little sport to pose for all the pictures I like to take of him, we’ll see how long that lasts!:) We’re 6 months along now and I’m entering the last trimester, feeling great but a bit more tired these days. We are really excited for this little one to come! |
December 23, 2008
A holly jolly Christmas
Christmas is almost here and I am thoroughly enjoying the lack of busy-ness, the time with Jude and Andrew, the snow still falling outside, the sitting by the tree with it’s sparkling blue and white lights and ornaments from 29 years of Christmases. May this be a week of blessings, peace, and joy for you. Much love from us Fooshes to our family and friends all over the world.
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6
December 22, 2008
Outside & In
Snow everywhere!
Isn’t this fun Papa?!
Cozy inside…
Cars, hot cocoa, & Christmas music…
let it SnOw, let it sNoW, let it SNOW!
December 21, 2008
Frosty
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It’s blustery and snowy outside today… too cold and snowy for playing. So we brought Frosty inside! A little guy for Jude to ‘build’ and rebuild with felt. |
| I grabbed my stack of felt, some sharp scissors, tacky glue, and the cardboard back of a pad of paper. First I glued a piece of felt onto the cardboard and put books on it to dry flat. Then I just cut the snow man’s shapes free hand. |
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This is how he turned out. All the makings of a snowman! Jude especially loved the ‘carrot nose!’ |
| Jude played with it longer than I expected him to, taking the pieces off and on and talking about the parts of the snow man. A really quick and fun inside activity for this wintry day! |
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December 20, 2008
Portrait of a Judo
My mom surprised Andrew and I with the most amazing pictures she had taken of Jude while we were in China. My sister in law was there to help get Jude to smile and they had a wooden train that he played with while the photographer snapped away. (The quality on the blog isn’t so great because it’s not scanned- just a photo of the photo already framed.) There are several different shots but the one above in sepia tone is my favorite- that little face that will someday be a man, forever etched in this mama’s heart as her little boy.
Some of Andrew and I’s favorite Jude phrases lately are… ‘What’s that?’, ‘Oh Man!!’, ‘That’s good stuff’, ‘Where’d it go? I don’t know!’, his response when I ask him where baby brother is- ‘In my belly!’, and the spontaneous ‘I love you’s’ starting to come from him first, not just in response to ours. He’s also into singing- he can remember a lot of lines from little songs like Itsy spider, Row your boat, Jesus loves me, and his recent favorite- Frosty the snow man. He can almost sing the ABC’s and can count to 9 all by himself, proudly shouting 9 as if it’s the big number to end on. 2 years old isn’t terrible in the least… challenging for sure, but amazingly wonderful as well.
December 18, 2008
Snow & Sweaters
Last night we had our youth group Christmas party with a cheesy holiday sweater theme. It had snowed all day yesterday and didn’t stop last night or so far yet today. We have over 20 inches so far!
That’s my man…
The Fooshes in their holiday apparel
Jess & her high school girls looking Christmasy
Jude & Papa shovel the driveway
Jude’s shovel sure helps out:)
Looking out the back shop door
Snow built up on the edge of the roof
A little red sled
Powdery fluff
Up to my knees
Up to his waist!
The forecast is for more snow… we may be here a while, cozy inside with the snow building up around us! Home made bread is cooling upstairs, roast chicken and veggies for dinner, and maybe a viewing of Will Ferrel’s Elf tonight.
Happy winter!!!
December 17, 2008
Ultimate Comfort Food
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15 degrees & snowing! Big, fluffy flakes. Whether or not it’s snowing where you are, here’s a recipe for winter comfort- delicious & easy home made Chicken Soup. If you don’t eat meat just substitute veggie broth & some extra veggies. |
I don’t have exact amounts for you because I just throw in as much as I think will feed us dinner and some lunch the next day. In a large pan with a bit of butter or olive oil saute diced carrots, celery, a few cloves of garlic, and onions just until onions are translucent. Add to the pot about 32 ounces chicken broth, some parsley, freshly ground pepper and sea salt. Bring to a boil and add a few chicken breasts, cut in half. Put the lid on the pot and let the soup simmer on medium low until the chicken is thoroughly cooked. Take out the pieces of chicken and shred or dice them, then return to the pot. Add a cup or two of noodles and bring to a boil again, cooking just until noodles are ready to eat. Sometimes I add a bit more stock or water when boiling the noodles if it needs it. Season with more pepper if it needs it and serve with some biscuits or bread for dipping. Enjoy! This guy did:)…
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December 16, 2008
Thoughts on marriage
A few thoughts about marriage I’ll ramble on about if you feel like reading…
“Doing nothing is doing something.” That was the headline of a little paragraph I read earlier that went on to talk about how careless we become with our marriages over time, and how lack of effort to show our spouse affection, etc. is not just NOT doing it, it’s DOING something- damaging and eroding our relationship. While I still feel that Andrew and I are at the beginning of our married life (it will be six years next summer and I can honestly say that some days I still think to myself, ‘I can’t believe I got the man of my dreams!’) I definately see, especially after having Jude, how the effort we make when dating and first married fades easily if we let it. I think of how meaningful even the smallest romantic gestures from Andrew are to me, and how his eyes lit up the last time I planned a special night for the two of us. But life gets in the way and those gestures and moments seem to be fleeting. So the challenge is- how do we keep motivated to effectively work at and maintain the closeness we desire in our marriage? Like anything that is worth it- we set our hearts to the hard work of commitment in between the romance. We choose not to base our actions toward our spouse on a daily basis by how we feel that morning but by the very fact that they are there… worthy of our love and respect. We love them when we feel like it, and when we don’t we put aside Self and love them anyway. We choose to work toward our marriage and communicate well and often, in between work, loving and raising Jude, and everything else on our plates, instead of waiting until later on when lack of effort towards our marriage has made us distant. We face our issues head on in soul-bearing honesty and loving communication. Even when it means putting aside our pride or feeling silly about bringing up something we thought we had already worked out. We put the other first. Not everyone can relate or agree with this but we personally also believe that we have to find our ultimate fulfillment in our creator, since not even a husband or wife can truly be our end-all fulfillment in life. God is our first love, and when we are both pursuing Him we are on the same path. Our priorities for God, then each other and then our children, ministry, work, etc. dictate how we spend our time and what we choose to pursue first.
I realize that not everyone is married to someone who they feel is the ‘person of their dreams’. I also realize that in some marriages one person is willing to make the effort and the other isn’t, and for that there is no easy solution. I wish I knew the answer but I do know that love is worth fighting for through thick and thin, and that most often actions speak louder than words.
I’ll have to go back and read this in 30 years to see how we’ve done and if this has led to the marriage we desire… but for now I’ll hope that it does and keep on loving my man the way I know he deserves.
What a blessing to be called his wife.
