A series of unfortunate events

One step forward, two steps back.

That's how it goes, right?

Well, yesterday was my two steps back. My day just started out rough. I was awaken by a little dude who was ON FIRE with a temperature of 106!!! After going up and down with fevers for the last few days, I woke up the hubs to tell him he needed to get the little guy to the doctor. I wasn't able to go with him, because I was having my preschool Valentine's day party. After running late for work (of course) and getting the kids together, the hubs had to drop me off at work. Realizing that it had snowed overnight and the hubs should have been up bright and early to plow at the college, he ended up taking both kids next door to plow snow while I was at school.

So, I'm scrambled. I'm worried about my chum. My assistant and I were frantically getting things ready. She had a rough start to her day with a leak in her house. We were both not wanting to be there.

Then, one of my students came in with his grandmother. We welcomed him in and knowing that his mom was due any second with her third child, we assumed she must have been in labor since she was not bringing her son to school. After asking him 'Hey buddy, did you mom have the baby yet?' we were met with cautious eyes by the grandmother, who put her hand up to stop us. She leaned forward to tell us,

"The baby died. She delivered yesterday morning."

How gut wrenching. Tears welled up in my eyes. I had just seen her, in her pregnancy glory a few days prior, everything was fine. Emailed back and forth about the baby that week, sending her well wishes. Apparently, she noticed mid afternoon that the baby wasn't making any movement. The chord has wrapped around her neck and had knotted. They went to the hospital only to discover that baby had died, then had to deliver it naturally. She has two boys, and this was her third and final child...a girl.

She has been flashing through my mind constantly since. I can't even begin to imagine what she must be going through. This morning, I sent the grandfather with a lasagna and a card....but it felt so pitiful and insignificant. What can you do for someone who has just lost a child?

Needless to say, it was tough to get through the day. Then we had to take the dude to urgent care after school, only to get antibiotics (he's still been very sick today).

Pray for this family, that God will provide healing and peace that passes understanding for this horrific situation.

Answered prayers and a Scrapbook Event

Thank you to everyone for you kind words, and especially, your prayers.

The power of prayer is awesome. Within hours of asking for prayers, they were being answered. The hubs and I sat down and made a list of things we could do to save money and earn money. This is what we came up with:

Ways to Save Money:

1. Have the hubs stay home in the am on Tues/Thurs and work pm so we can cut out paying the sitter - The hubs is going to discuss this option as a temporary fix with his boss. This will save us apprx. $180 a month.


2. Possibly pull Faith from preschool and see if our dear friend would watch her along with our son (who she is already watching) - This is a last option, but it would save us upwards of $50-80 a month.


3. Ask the director for discount on Faith's tuition, after all....I AM the head teacher there - I will be discussing this option this week.


4. Call Student Loan providers and discuss repayment options - I did this thinking I didn't really qualify for anything, just wanted to see what the options were....turns out, they told me I could pretty much pay back whatever I want per month or not pay anything for a year!!! We dropped our $275 a month loan payment to $75 - saving us $200 a month!!! WHAT A BLESSING.

Ways to Earn Money:

1. Get another job - Last night, I applied for two jobs with Lifetime Fitness in the Child Care Center. This would be an answered prayer, because it's part time, I would never work past 9pm, the kids could come with me to work, AND I'd get a free membership....this would earn and save me tons of money!!


2. Sell some stuff - I am working on putting stuff together for a Mom2Mom sale. This week, we're going through our house and posting stuff on Craigslist to sell. And, I'm hosting a Scrap Swap on Feb. 27th (I just came up with this idea the other day....and I think it will be amazing. Even if it only makes me a few dollars, it's gonna be really fun.

(if you live in the Metro Detroit Area and are interested in this event, please let me know!!!)

God is good. Thank you for your continued prayers as we work on our financial situation.

Prayers Needed

I am asking for specific prayer today for 2 major things:

1. As most of you know, I lost an income at the beginning of the year when I quit my job. The hubs and I started Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, which has been wonderful. HOWEVER, even though the last few weeks have been the most frugal of our lives, we still just can't cut it on what we make - it doesn't even cover bills right now. So my specific prayer is that God will provide us an opportunity to earn some extra income without having to sacrifice family (it's very hard when we only see each other for a few hours a few nights a week). I am going to put out some applications this week, I've been looking for anything and everything that I can sell in my house, we're talking about the hubs trying to work evenings a few nights a week so we don't have to pay the sitter while I'm teaching. It causes a lot of stress. There's no way around it...we can't just save money at this point. We have to make more money.

2. Tonight, I ask specific prayers for our dear friends. They're facing losing a job tonight as well, and I know they are worried about what the future holds. Ironically, this decision about his job effects our financial life as well (I won't give you the details, just know it's complicated). Through all this, we want to pray only that God's will is done.

Just knowing that people are praying gives you a certain amount of peace. So thank you.

Precious Moments

I was downstairs working while Faith was playing with her magnetic letters on the fridge in the basement. She strung all the letters together and shouted "Mommy, come look what I spelled."

Anxious, I walked over with her and said "Wow, that's a lot of letters baby, can you tell me what it says?"

After naming each individual letter (and number), she replied "It says, Love GOD with all your heart. Matthew 22:23"

How precious is that?!?!? Just FYI, the scripture is actually Matthew 22:37, but this proud Mama couldn't care less. =]

Bathroom Bliss

Since I know it will be quite awhile til I get my hands on redecorating my dining room and painting my bathroom, I'll just continue to daydream.

In searching for bathroom inspirations, I discovered a few things:

1. I am apparently pretty picky about bathrooms, cause I had a hard time being inspired

2. I could not find ANY bathrooms I liked that were in the orange family, so it makes me nervous to venture there.

3. Let's be honest, I have a tiny bathroom with mostly slate tile. Cute, but not much to work with. Basically,  just finding the perfect paint color.

Well, I'll let you be the judge. This is what my bathroom dreams are made of:

Someday, I will have a tub that I'll actually want to spend time in

Love the neutral colors and stripes. Oh, and that mirror.

Spa like effect. I realize this is not happening in my current house. 

I loved this. Simple. Doable. Serene.

I'm not usually drawn to 'everything white' - but these bathrooms are so peaceful and inviting.

This green theme came back up....I'm wondering if I should use the same color in the bathroom as in the dining room.

This is probably the most realistic for me...cause I have the same slate tile. I DO love the green....

I can't wait to change it up. Something fresh. Something calm. I'd soliciting any and all suggestions/comments. Here is a picture of my bathroom (I didn't want to add the eyesore here amongst all these beautiful bathrooms).

And, I will leave you with my very FAVORITE bathroom inspiration of the day: 

If this doesn't make you wanna melt into bathroom bliss, I might judge you a little bit.

My first blogger award

I received an award and Im sharing the sunshine!

I just received my first blogger award from my new friend @ A Daily Scoop of Chaos!

I'm super excited to share my sunshine! Thanks!

Now as a recipient of this award I now have to share it with some other fabulous bloggers.
Here are the rules:
- Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
- Pass the award onto 7 bloggers.
- Link the nominees within your post.
- Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
- Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

And the awards go to...

1.  Lucy @ Lucy's Life - One of the first blogs I followed, she has a great writing style, and always have something yummy cookin' up in the kitchen!

2.  My dear friend Katy @ The Travis Family Blog She's always a ball of sunshine, and has recently committed to some amazing frugal challanges

3. Lovely Lupie - My sweet friend from way back talks about her struggle with Lupus (among a billion other complications) and how she manages to stay strong and be a great mom/wife - what a woman! 

4. Room to Inspire - love love LOVE her style and all the cool things she comes up with!

5. My Husband's Watching TV - love her style, she always makes me laugh!

6. CA Girl - Another new blogger friend, her last post cracked my up!

7. Fitness: A Journey not a Destination - LOVE this blog and all it's inspirations...totally little everyday motivations

Share the Sunshine! =]

Dining room inspirations

Today has been a weird and long day for me.

So, I've been daydreaming to keep my mind off of other things...

I was looking at some dining room inspiration for my bland room:

My original idea was to use the dark chocolate brown I had left from my bedroom makeover to paint the one back wall.

However, my second thought is it might be too dark in such a small space. Because all the pictures I was drawn to looked like this:

 

and this:

And I've noticed I'm really drawn to this green color....

Hmm...the wheels are churning.

What do ya think?