29 Gifts - Day 26 - Buttercup's 4th Birthday (and a Give Away!)

This post was going to include a recipe for Sweet Vanilla Pecans. It was going to include my give away and an invitation (pleading?) to help get my numbers up by sharing my blog with those around you. It was going to be those things - but it's not.

With her Pop at about six months - wearing a dress that I wore as a baby

It's not because it is Buttercup's 4th birthday. She is spunky and clever and sharp as a tack. She challenges us at every turn - both delighting and... well, challenging us beyond what one would think endurable. With her three older brothers, our lonely-only girl often holds the reins. She comes by it honestly. She adores her brothers. She delights in being big sister to Mr. Magoo. Above all, she is Absolutely. Awesome. 

29 Gifts - Day 24 - Care Packages (and a give away)

In addition to Hallowe'en, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, we have several events this time of year: Maestro, Buttercup, Bruiser and Jeff all have their birthdays in those weeks from October 31st to December 25th, and our anniversary is in that time as well. You can imagine it's a busy, fun-filled time!

Last year's birthday bash

On top of all that, this year Jeff has been away and I've been really working on changing the look of my blog - adding new pages, selling some things, etc. In short, I've decided to start working a little more "business" into my blog, without making it all-about-business.

29 Gifts - Day 22 - A Gift of Faith

There is a new Orthodox chaplain at the base near us. He kind of travels around from parish to parish for Sunday Divine Liturgy but he'd like to start holding mid-week services on base as well. His first effort at this has been to start holding Akathist services three days a week. Well, I took all of the kids on Thursday (day 21, for you who are counting). The Catholic church/chaplain gave him the use of a small side-chapel so we were able to be in a smaller, more close-in setting for the prayers. That is a good thing with restless younger kids around!

Actually this is a window from the back of our last church in Maryland, but it fits in until I can get a better picture of the little chapel.

29 Gifts - Day 21 - Encouragement

Today's gift was an opportunity almost missed. 

As we wandered the narrow aisles of Michael's Craft Store looking for items for Sweet Nuts, Christmas wrapping and gift-giving, and Maestro's magic show/kid drop in tomorrow night, Chef bemoaned his fate of not having a way to earn money. 

*** Interruption for a shameless plug: did you see that I've added two new pages at the top? If you haven't checked them out, please make sure you do! ***

Back to the almost-missed opportunity... Chef went on for some time about not having a way to earn money, and to be honest, he was getting really. really. irritating. (I'm not a perfect mom, just an always-there Mom, and I pray that in the end it is enough!)

29 Gifts - Day 14 - Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce

Ah, how the days fly past when we have so many birthdays, holidays, our anniversary, and other great things to celebrate! My gift for day 14 is homemade hot fudge for the kids to have on their ice cream before bed - and I'm sharing our recipe here with you as well. It is super simple, and as hot fudge syrup goes, it is healthier than what you get in the bottle at the store.

29 Gifts: Day 8 - Happy Birthday Oldest!

I'll recap my gifts of these past few days. Right now, something important has come up in the middle of my journey. Not a surprise, it happens every year, but important is important, and this is Important.

Ladies and Gentlemen: I give you my Oldest - Maestro - as an emerging TEEN. This child is my first gift to the world as a "Mom." He is special. Don't break him. He is wonderful. Help him stay that way. He is unique. And I am in awe of him as he grows into a young man who is now big enough to almost fill Pop's shoes (he is in a bigger shoe size than dear Mom now, poor soul!)

2012 - playing around in the garage in VA. Love that we can still laugh this way.

When he was born, we had to find "preemie" clothes for him to wear for a week or two, he was "on time" but just so tiny. Now, he can wear some of his pop's old pants (glad I saved them!) and shirts. He can help keep the house going when I am not at hand. And yet... he can laugh with his friends and play tag with his brothers and sister, and handle her sometimes-screaming fits with aplomb.

29 Gifts: Day 4

Gifts of time and books

It took me a while to get to my gift today. I had a list of things to do and as so often happens not a lot of spare time it seemed. But the truth is I did have spare time. I puttered around, I perfected my molasses bread (mentioned in Gift #2) and I got a number of things done for "me." But as I drove around in my newly-repaired Pilot, it occurred to me that I hadn't really given a Gift yet. Not really. 

I hadn't spent extra time with my kids or picked up the phone to talk to anyone or given anything away... I just hadn't. 

29 Gift Challenge - Day 3

Today was a pretty good day. We got up way too late, we spent time puttering around the house (had to skip church because the car window is shattered and it was not safe to drive in it to get there), the kids spent time with their friends and I spent a chunk of the day trying out a different version of a new bread I'm working on (Multigrain Molasses Bread, in case you're interested.)

And then I checked my FaceBook messages. I got a message asking for my Molasses bread recipe.

...

Hmmm... This could present a problem.

29 Day Gift Challenge - Day 2

Today, I gave something special to my girlie and her friend to use. I have had a little girl's tea set for years. It's a little "Hollie Hobby" thing, with four cups, four saucers, etc. And Buttercup is finally old enough to use it, I think. So when she asked if she and her friend could have a tea party, I pulled it out and it is hers now. I set up a nice little tray for the girls, with carrots, graham crackers, four little sweet pieces and four banana chunks. We put it on a special tray that was given to her before we moved from Maryland. She had a great time and I loved seeing something that I enjoyed once-upon-a-time being loved that way again. That was my first gift yesterday.

But the funny thing about giving gifts is that a) the more you give, the more you find new ways to give, and b) the  more others end up blessing you.