Count Your Many Blessings....

I am thankful for every minute of life that God has given to me. We are not guaranteed anything. I am thankful for Jesus dying on the cross- for me, for the world. For grace, and for mercy-  God knows what a mess I am. For hope, a future, eternal life. For forgiveness ( I am forever messing up). For unending love, peace, quiet, for joy, song, and celebrations. Thank you Lord for giving me everything that I have- my husband, my son, parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. For friends- near and far. For our "PA Church" and our "NY Church". For the country, and for the city. For the seasons. For change. For consistency. For creation. For a job, and money to pay our bills. For our home, and our "stuff". For blankets on our bed, and food in our fridge. For our car and jeep. For technology. 

I am thankful for my husband. He gives meaning to my life, laughter in my soul, love in my heart, and adventure. Most importantly, I am thankful that he is following God's calling. He puts up with my emotions, my tears, my break downs, my anger, my resentment, and every other imperfection that I have (which are numerous). He has promised me till "death do us part". He gently encourages me in my faith, supports my dreams and aspirations, and inspires me. 

I am thankful for my son. What a wonderful gift from God. A miracle of new life. He brings me love, and laughter. He brings challenges, and requires selflessness. I am in love with his smiles, his tiny fingers and toes. His cries break my heart, and his hugs and "snuggles and cuddles" melt my heart .

I am thankful for my family. Mom and dad, for raising me, for their sacrifice of time, money, and self. For their encouragement. For love and laughter in our home. For discipline. For blessing me with siblings, for excepting my husband. For my brothers and sisters, for they are my friends, and my inspiration. 

For my friends- they offer me so much! Love, support, fellowship, gifts, laughter, haircuts, joy, comfort, help,and encouragement. They pull you up when you are down. They laugh when you laugh, and cry when you cry. They become family, when family can't be close. 

This only a teeny tiny bit of what I have to be thankful for. From the smallest detail to the biggest gift! I encourage you ... think about all that you have to be thankful for. It kind of puts things into perspective. 

ps.I wanted to have this blog posted on Thanksgiving... but obviously we do not always get what we want!  

How To Cook A Pumpkin

On Wednesday afternoon, Matthew was "i"-chatting with his twin brother, when I over heard my sister-in-law say, "Tell Tab I checked her blog on how to make a pumpkin." I quickly jumped in front of the camera, hoping to share my knowledge on how to make a pumpkin! This may seem odd, but you have to understand, my sister in-law Micah is a great cook, and baker, she scrapbooks, sews, (like really well), and she also knits or crochets (I am not sure which, but which ever it is she does a bang up job, and makes the most adorable hats!). In case you are not getting it, Micah can do EVERYTHING... I  was excited to be able to tell her how to do something!  Too bad, she was already more then half way through the process of making her pumpkin, because she was doing it the wrong way! (ok, there really isn't a wrong way to make a pumpkin, but there is definitely an easy, and a hard way, and poor Micah was doing it the hard way.) The hard way, which Micah found online, said something about peeling the pumpkin, cut into chunks and boil it. Blah, blah. This is way too much work, and I can't imagine that the pumpkin taste half as good as it does when you make pumpkin the "right way." So Micah, I apologize for not having anything on my blog on how to make a pumpkin, and please, next time just call me!


Baked Pumpkin

Cut pumpkin in half, and scoop out the seeds, and "stringy stuff". (save the seeds if you like roasted pumpkin seeds). Lightly grease a cookie sheet (one with edges), and place pumpkins face down.

Cut a few slits in the top.

Bake at 350 for about an hour or so, until the pumpkin is super soft when poked with a fork.

Scoop out pumpkin from skin.

The best part about this recipe? Your house will smell so good! A few weeks ago I made pumpkin and my husband randomly said: "I love when you bake pumpkin. It smells so amazing!".

Note: if you have extra pumpkin, you can freeze it. I suggest measuring it out in cup size portions so that way you know exactly how much if frozen.
Micah- I hope that you will try this recipe, I really don't think that you will be disappointed.

Becoming a Mom

Lately I have been getting asked questions like: "What is it like, being a mom?" "How are you adjusting to becoming a parent?" "Were you ready for all of the responsibility of raising a child?" "Do you find being a parent hard?" I usually answer with something like... "well I have five younger brothers and sisters so there really wasn't any surprises with having my own".... or "it is not always easy", and "we have our moments". And it is not always easy, and we do have our moments. There are many days that the dishes are left undone, the dirty clothing is piled a mile high, the trash is over flowing, and Matthan won't take a nap. Or maybe the clothing is all washed, but it sure isn't put away, and just when you thought you were seeing the light at the end of the long "laundry tunnel" Matthan has a blow out so large that it creates almost an entire load of wash all on its own.  I feel like my apartment is never in the condition that I would like it to be, and I don't think that either one of our vehicles have been cleaned out since Matthan was born. Things like dusting the living room take a back burner and dusting the master bedroom never even makes the list. But over all, if these people could look deep into my heart they would see that I absolutely love being a mom,  and though it is hard, and things don't always go as planned, there is nothing more rewarding to me then taking care of my son. Responsibility? Yes, but a blessing a privilege.