my blessed life...

work work work, often i feel like thats all i ever do...i say that as i sit here working for the 3rd time today (2nd time from home)  and i know often i seem to gripe about how "its all i ever do" but deep down i am so grateful!  i am grateful for the opportunity to work from home, at my leisure, with total control over how much or how little money i make!  often i sit here in my jammies, with a cup of tea and a snack...my christian music playing on pandora, my kids giggling themselves to sleep in the baby monitor...i mean seriously what more could i ask for! (other than of course, for the debts to be paid off and the knowing that i really am working JUST for the fun of it!)

but i know that time will come, i just need to be patient and appreciative of all the blessings that surround me day after day.  i know with enough hard work now, when my kids are still at an age when they wont really remember...my time will come to be a stay at home mom and i am grateful to know that it should happen during the years they will really need me around the most!

frank and i have been so blessed...we swore when we got married that daycare/regular babysitters were something we didnt feel comfortable with for our family-and by the grace of God our plan has worked out...we might both work, but everyday frank is here when the boys wake up and i am here to tuck them in at night and somewhere in the middle it all overlaps. 

it often feels like chaos because one of us is always coming and going, but really, what parents life isnt full of chaos??  and i know...the best is yet to come! "wait till one has football and the other soccor all at the same time, etc..." i hear it often!  but with every stage in life comes its own handful of experiences that we can learn and grow from and i have learned through my own life that God will never give me more than He knows i can handle...and i trust that, with great comfort!

so please just know, whenever you may catch me complaining that "all i ever do is work" know that i am saying that with more appreciation than irritation...the frustration is only on the surface because i know i have a choice...but the gratitude is as deep as my soul - my "desk job" was a bigger blessing than i ever would have known to pray for.  it has provided a whole new lifestyle with so many opportunities and given me yet one more reason to feel proud of my family and who we are becoming.

frank and i are such a good team.  he is certainly my soulmate and i couldnt imagine sharing in this wonderful life with anyone else.  God sure does know what He's doing!

and the best is yet to come...   :)

the 2nd dash...

to make a long story short - our pastor got into his reasoning for chosing to follow Christ when he did, verses any other religious leader out there...it was such a breathtaking, Gods hand in the works, kind of story that he opened our Easter Sunday sermon with, but the one line that stuck with me the most today was this...(forgive me that i will never be able to type it with the same power that he spoke it with...)

"when i was on my spiritual journey, searching for what fit for me there was one thing that stood out the most about Christ...the second dash...he has a birthdate, followed by a dash, followed by his death date and then a second dash..."

Jesus is the only one, out of all the other religious leaders to ever exsist that has an empty tomb.  He is the only one that was able to conquer death...even the tomb could not hold him...

As Pastor Chris said this morning..."its that second dash that gives us Hope"

and really, i had never thought about it that way before.  i can honestly say that growing up i believed in God and the story of Jesus, but it wasnt until about 8 years ago that i really accepted Christ into my life and called myself a Believer.  For the last 8 years i can honestly say that i understand what it means to have a relationship with God and its AMAZING!  what a difference it has made in who i am, how i view life, my marriage and the way i parent.

so today i celebrate my Lord and Savior and i want the world to know how eternally grateful i am for the life He has given me to live here on earth and even more so, i look forward to the days that will follow this life once i arrive in heaven.  I dont fear death because i believe in the one and only God that has proven there to be something better when our time here on earth is over

...the best is yet to come :)   (and on such a greater scale than you and i could ever understand!)

day off?!?!

a day off...what is it exactly that a working mother does with a day off?? 

well today for me...

~i was up by 730am to see Frank off to his mens breakfast with the church

~fed our 3 guys and had myself showered by 830am...

~by 900am the 3 of them were dressed and we were backing down the driveway on our way to party city - spiderman birthday party supplies were on the list!

~by 1030am, the van was gased and we were on our way out to meet Frank at our parents house for an easter egg hunt by 11am.

from there it was back to Nonna and Poppa's house for lunch, coloring eggs, digging up rocks in the lawn, cleaning up Cenzo after he fell in the mud...

by 330ish we were back in the van, where 2 out of my 3 took full opportunity for a nap, which in turn detoured me into the drive thru at my work - i needed a coffee...even if it was decaf!

from there i stopped home to grab bowls and forks and headed to Frank's work for a "picnic dinner with daddy" in the van!

back home by 530pm to bake Easter cutouts, give the boys a bath and get them to bed by 8pm after watching a bit of Cars and reading them a story.

a shower for me, a few minutes on the computer and i was back to the kitchen frosting pink tulips, blue eggs and chocolate bunnies!

somewhere in there i also managed to wash/dry 2 loads of laundry and get two other loads folded and put away.

needless to say, by the time frank got home around 11:15pm - i was more than ready for bed but told him my hope is that one day i will be able to not work at all and have the time everyday for the things that mean the most...my kids, my husband and my house - when there is balance there is pure happiness - someday ill find consistancy in them both!!

...the best is yet to come :)

FREEDOM!!

Today is truly an amazing day. Its Good Friday - i am eternally grateful to our Lord for the way he graciously gave his own life so that we could be free!


But today, this gorgeous sunshiney day, i am also grateful for a new freedom - freedom from credit card debt! Logging in to our bank account today and discovering that our tax return had finally arrived gave me such an overwhelming feeling of excitement. The ability to pay off our last credit card is something we have been looking forward to for over a year now.

Christmas 2008 our parents gave us a copy of Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover...i read it and i was hooked. i wanted to know what this financial freedom was that he spoke of. Fortunately we had our tax return last year to give us a kick start at paying off our debt and by the end of Feb '09 we had paid off 5 of our 9 debts - a hospital bill, 2 student loans and 2 credit cards! it was so refreshing! we spent last summer spending smarter, although we had been trying to do the Dave program our own way - it didnt work...using the credit card at all, no matter when i planned on paying off what i had just spent - it just wasnt working. it really is true, you spend more money without thinking when you arent handing over your hard earned cash!

So for Valentine's Day this year, i attended the first of our 13 week Dave Ramsey class, instructed by our parents at their church and it has really been life changing! For the first time ever Frank and i sit down and do a monthly budget together. We talk about where our money is going and we have it spent on paper before it ever reaches our hands! It's amazing! We have learned so much in just these first few weeks about how to spend, save and give...we are depositing into our savings on a weekly basis for the first time in our lives. we are giving more to our church than we had ever imaginged possible and we actually have enough money every week for all of our life's expenses! There is no more money stress because we know full well that there is enough...but just incase, we even have our emergency fund set up incase we get hit with some sort of surprise that doesnt fit in the budget!

For the first time in my life i feel like a real grown up and for reasons so opposite of what i used to think it meant to be "grown up". I remember a time when i thought credit cards were a necessity and i had quite the collection of my own! I remember a time when i thought that savings accounts were a nice thought but not something practical for our life and now here i sit, almost ready to start learning about IRA's and mutual funds so that i can start saving my money with intensity!

I so look forward to being that couple, in our early 30's with a few little kids, our cars and mortgage paid off, college funds set up and saving and a good retirement plan underway. I only say this because i know it will happen and i look forward to the excitement i will be able to share with all of you when that day comes!

Today is a new day...and i know i started it off on the right foot!

we are blessed in millions of ways and forever grateful...

just for proof....i really did do it! 

and i will NEVER open another credit card ever again!!

 
and the best is yet to come :)

the most special bond...

Until you have had the pleasure of experiencing twins in action, its hard to understand the truth about the special kind of bond they really do share.  When i was pregnant with them people would tell me about stories they knew of special things twins did together, particularly identical twins...some of it was touching, but some of it went in one ear and out the other like it was no big deal, just a silly story.

well it is a big deal!  the relationship these to share is something of pure amazement.  they cannot go more than a few minutes being away from each other. they typically share better with each other than i have ever seen two toddlers share.  they speak for each other, they really do seem to share each others pain and emotions.  the love and concern they share for each other is unmeasureable!  if only we all had the opportunity to know what they feel for each other!  they are the true definition of brotherly love!!

and they proved that to me yet again when i went in to check on them last night...

i had to run downstairs to grab the camera!!

"Brothers may fight; but woe betides the one who dares to come between them!"

~ carl joseph vonnoh

matteo had fallen sound asleep on vincenzo's chest!

absolutely precious!! 

i'd be lying if i said there wasnt a tear in my eye when i saw this..these two are just amazing to me!  everyday i am more and more grateful that i was chosen to raise them in this world.  i look forward to being the one that gets to sit back and watch them grow into boys, young men, husbands and dads... it will be such an adventure to see how being twins plays into all the other aspects of their life!

oh...the best is yet to come :)