Thursday, December 31, 2009

buh bye oh nine

As we wrap up 2009... [all by my lonesome...ugh.] I find myself deciding what to do to make me a better me in 2010, like I do every New Year's Eve.

Well this time I am going to challenge myself, one of these challenges will be to periodically- yes, more than once!- fast from Facebook. It has become such an easy outlet to vent, judge, slander, gossip, yaddayaddayadda for me that I just need to step back. This first fast is going to be for 21 days. I have been wanting to do it for a while, but once my friend Hannah said she'd be doing it I felt the strength of numbers :]Don't get me wrong! FB is also a GREAT way to stay in touch with friends and all of my family that is 8 hours away, but I'll still be here, blogging away, hoping to get a little more accomplished.







Love you all! Be safe tonight, and have a blessed new year/decade/2 more years of life according to the Mayans!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Water

Our water has been off...ALLL day.

I've been drinking bottled water and praying for no number two...
Plus side? I have an excuse as to why the dishes aren't done!

I've been reconsidering the Oregon trip. TRUST me, I don't want to, but Eamon and I need to focus on getting the funds to move. We actually need the funds to stay here first! HA! Its pretty rough here right now, not gonna lie. We're unsure of our purpose in the Metroplex and are very unsure of where we are supposed to be if not here.


Well, off to be super mum!

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

2010 Crafty to-do

Stiiiill looking for my camera-hooker-upper-thingamajiggy, so still holding off on my Christmas post. But with this being the last week of 2009 [whaaaat?] I decided to post 10 things I would LOVE to do for my personal use [outside of mae flowers] in 2010.

1. Decorate Lily's room
We've already got some pretty cool bird themes going on, so not very much stuff that would be too girly, but I love this found on ohdeedho























2. Make a funky beautiful quilt for Lily
Maybe something like this?
























3. make three sillouhette portraits for my living room

4. Sew ADORABLE [and matching?] dresses for our trip to Oregan

5. make some beautiful bedding for our Japaneasy bedroom

This set from Anthropologie matches our colors perfectly!













6. Sew a fabric map

7. felt...ok maybe not felt, but make some out of felt moccasons for Lily as well as cute house shoes for all my guests


I've seen these EVERYWHERE and need them












8. An "Inbox/Outbox" for mail

9. recover the rocking chair in my living room & cover my couch

10. Make another ADORABLE baby ;]

ok, YOUR TURN!

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Whole Lotta Love

I have had an amazing three days!

Lily and I both quite literally have bags under our eyes so I cannot go in to detail tonight as I STILL have this list to do:

  • prepare orders to ship tomorrow
  • make dinner
  • make meal plan for this week
  • start on flowers needed by wed
  • clean up post-Viducic weather conditions
  • ...sleep?

oh, and Lily cut her SECOND tooth yesterday...YUGH!

OH! And mae flowers' still has a giveaway going on! get to it!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Our Christmas Eve

While Eamon has sadly been at work all day, and I haven't convinced my mom to drive up tonight instead of tomorrow night [or have I?] it has been a beautiful vitalizing day!

My camera hooker-upper-chord has disappeared so I can't put all of the wonderful pictures and video of the winter wonderland that has transformed DFW but I do have this...

I finally got my pictures from Lily's 5 month pictures! Our WONDERFUL friend Michelle did these, and I couldn't be happier!

















Now head over to mae flowers to enter to get a late Christmas present!

Lily and Christmas Eve

So I didn't update yesterday bc we were insanely busy [again!] but I will make up for it!

As we speak, a "mighty snow storm" is on its way through the DFW, Pandora is on the Christmas station, and there are two half cookies [so that makes a whole cookie...] in my stomach as breakfast. I just can't believe it!

Eamon has to work today but will be off at 9, and we may go to a candle light service depending on what the weather does:::

WE INTERUPT THIS BLOG UPDATE TO BRING YOU THIS IMPORTANT MESSAGE
ITS SNOWING! I SAW SNOW GUYS!


SO in the middle of this post that I started two hours ago it started snowing!
I have N-E-V-E-R seen falling snow.
I will update more when the euphoria has faded :]

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Goodbye Gummies!

The past 24 hours have been INSANE!

Lets start with Goodbye Gummies:
My adorable "Gummie Baby" as we affectionately call her, cut her first tooth last night! We were on our way home from Diedre's house [who blessed us with some AMAZING fabric for a flower barter] in Katie's new sweet ride- the Coach [a beautiful boat of a van that we will be taking on our trip to Oregon!] Lily was super good the whole time and then as soon as we were headed back home, she started screaming. I went back there [as Katie said "you are now free to move about the cabin"] to let her suck on pink to try to calm her down [ya..we're one of those weird no pacifier kinda families...] And as soon as I stuck my finger in her mouth, I almost cried! I felt a little bitty sharp Raptor tooth poking through my baby's gums! Poor thing! I just wanted to nurse her and make her feel all better, and cuddle her...But we eventually made it home [the whole ten minute drive!] and I got to snuggle and love on her as much as I wanted!...and called my mom devastated at how fast she's growing up!

Monday, December 21, 2009

I have never been so disappointed by lemon and butter.

Never in my life.

Don't get me wrong, there are few things that you can do to lemon butter to make it taste awful and not awesome. so what we had was still put to good use, but man...am I ever bummed that it didn't work!

If you're not up to speed- last night I attempted Hollandaise sauce. I tried and tried for about 20 mins and it just wasn't setting. Eamon came home and pointed out it was because I was using a glass bowl. [no laughing, please] So on with the metal bowl I went! It was going FAN-TASTIC guys! Eamon even took video of the blessed event on his G1! I was so happy! And then it happened...my arm started to tire. Eamon decided to switch me duties for Lily duty...

Y'all...I tried to hard not to look disappointed when Eamon said "Aww man!"

I went in the kitchen, and suddenly my wonderfully creamy, buttery, lemony concoction was...butter. And lemon. and eggs. I'm tryin REAL hard not to blame it on my Iron Chef of a husband, because that is a lie, and I know it just got too hot because of our stupid electric stove, BUT I probably would have taken it off if the heat...just sayin.



Still don't know what to do about a present for Eamon! Just ordered some Baby Legs from Hip Green Baby for Lily and I have some presents in the work for my family...but Eamon? Ugh.

Have a DARLING day!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

another reason i'm a terrible blogger?

I forget to put batteries in my camera to capture the moments of epic failure whilst I cook.

U.G.H.

Bean stewy thingy, steamed broccoli with hollandaise sauce. and acorn squash for dessert is on the menu. bean stewy thingy already a bust [well a tenth of it is stuck to the bottom of my pot]. Hollandaise sauce is next on the menu to destroy! Wish me luck!

m<3e

internet = hates me

so this morning I was going to tell you all of my brilliant thoughts but my "Free Internet Connection from The Arts Apartments" failed. MISERABLY!

I guess they will have to wait for another day, but I MUST gloat on my grocery amazingness today.
43 Items for $66.21!
Thats groceries for all three of us PLUS company until next SATURDAY!
I realized later I forgot ONE thing, but other than that, I think I did pretty dang amazing.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Recoop, Recover, Re...start over

Ok, after the Boom, Boom, Bust of a Craft Show last night, I'm switching gears.
Wife mode, Baby mode, Christmas mode have been LOOOONG ignored.

Eamon was gracious enough this past week to say "do whatever you need to do to get ready for the craft show" and didn't mind if he came home to some laundry on the floor. Such a sweet man :]

So today I'll be doing lots of cleaning [actually, I'm pretty surprised that the house isn't in worse condition than it is.] A meal plan [I'm going to try and buy groceries for the WHOLE week so I don't have to shop every other day...wha???]

So I have TONS to talk about, but Lily pretty much climbed Mt Everest this morning as far as 5 month old feats are concerned, so I've gotta sweep..and put things up on high shelves, and hide anything electrical, valuable, and choke-able.

Friday, December 18, 2009

I can...Can I do it?

ok, what do you get when you add a Mae to a Fro?
Hopefully a darn good day.

[Totally just realized that "darn" is one letter away from being "damn". Not That I changed "damn" to "darn" as to not offend any of my "readers"...whoever you are-please forgive me for using the word "damn". I was trying not to but turns out I just did...three times. damn.]

I am not going to stress, no really.

I have a craft show tonight and I REALLY hope we get some turn out...Kinda scared. SO I still have a few flowers to make [basically a BUNCH of poinsettias, bc I forgot...]
But before then I have a friend coming over for a lunch...that I don't have any food for [?] and meet my hubby for lunch...
I think I can I think I can I think I can...

pray for me to get through today without loosing my mind. and my potty mouth.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Two faced? Hardly.

It's more like 5 faced.

Let me explain:
About once a year I go through a "oh-my-god-what-am-i?i-look-black-white-yellow-brown-pink, SOMEONE-SAVE-ME-FROM-MYSELF" phase. And it's mostly concerning my looks, because I, boys and girls am what they call "multi-racial" or "other" as I put on all my standardized tests in school for lack of a "mutt" category.

So, for the next few week I will be exploring my many nationalaities-and I'm dragging you with me.

Lets just say I have a bag full of perm rollers...this should be fun :]

Hold me to it!

In the week of June 6th the Burkes and the Brownings will be taking their dream trip. We will be headed up the west coast, stopping in Portland, Oregon and head back home down The Rockies! My family may only be able to make the treck TO Oregon, and have to fly home [depending on Eamon's job-another reason he needs prayer for a new one!] after spending a few days in Portland, but MAN is it going to be awesome.

I will dedicate another post to the trip of the details thus far.

All of this to say I have decided I'm going to try my hardest to blog...wait for it...every day!

It's going to be hard, real hard [insert "that's what she said" from audience] but I'm 90% sure I can do it!

HOLD ME TO IT!

Friday, December 11, 2009

An Inconvienent Confession Conviction Part 1

Lately, I have been...empty. I have been running around, keeping busy with chores, sewing projects, grocery lists and often meaningless tasks. I've been pouring this hurt in small and large amounts to my friends Michelle and Katie, and of course my husband.
This emptiness is temporarily satisfied in my Wednesday morning small group, but fades through the afternoon. But the past two days have stretched me so thin in my heart, I couldn't take it. After reading my friend Aaron's blog, I was overcome with jealousy- as I often am truthfully. As usual, when I should be encouraged with Our Father's movement, I am filled with jealousness, bitterness, and strife over what is going on in his life that is NOT going on in mine. I often start to play The Devil's Advocate with him in my head to try and figure out WHY is this working for him...and never for me...
but that is not what we're talking about tonight.

Tonight, I turned to my good friend, Matt Carter.
[Ok, so maybe we've met once or twice, but if he were to reach Sainthood, and I were to pick a Patron Saint, I would pick him. His aparent gift of Prophecey pushes me to find a mentor to mold my own gift, and his passion is overwhelmingly welcome any day I hear his sermons.]
One [of the many] of podcasts that I have not listened to is a series called "And You Will Be Healed." Tonight, out of pure exhaustion of what I just went through- I will go over part one.

Matt Carter on Paul, The Prodigals Son, and Confession
"'I am the foremost of sinners'
What Paul is saying is this: 'I am acutely aware of my own sinful nature..I get that the propensity of my flesh to wanna sin and to live out the stuff that I don't wanna do. Paul basically says that 'I am the foremost of sinners and the only reason that I'm aware of that is not because I'M good but because God has done a work of Grace in my life That's what that means
Now I wanna ask you guys a question-'Are you there?' Especially for those of you in the room who have been in church forever were virgins when you got married, never gotten drunk and all the hanis sins that we talk about in the church all the time, you've never done that [oh! oh! oh! I'll raise my hand-guilty on this!], are you there? are you so acutely aware of your own sin that your able to say, 'I am the foremost of sinners'? [craaap...no] or do you still think you're husband is worse than you, honestly?...Or the couple living together down the street that's already had an abortion, do you think, 'ah, their worse than me, they're higher up on the list.' Or you look at the guy in the church who's had seven affairs on his wife, and it came out. and you think, 'at least i..i did this but at least i didn't do that.' Or the pastor up the street who stole money from the church. 'How could HE do THAT?'
Or are you like Paul? You're so aware of your own brokenness,before God that your like me- like Paul, I'm sorry I thought I WAS the worst of sinners?"


I could continue to go, but I think you got it. I HIGHLY encourage you to listen to the full sermon here.
One-
HOW AWESOME IS OUR GOD?!?! I have been talking to Katie about how desperately we need confession. I have seen communities, friendships, marriages, religions! fall to unmendable pieces because of lack of confession. I asked that when we get together, we have a time of confession, no matter how difficult or awkward it may be. That we are able and willing to come to each other with our sins without judgement in order to be able to do the same for others.
Two-
How convicting is that passage alone? How often do I, me personally, gossip, put another down, forget to pray out of hurt, not damnation for someone who is close [or not!] who is sinning, and worst of all- pray to gossip! "Oh Lord, I lift up my friend Joe who is wicked in his perverse homosexuality" in front of a group of friends who did not know Joe was gay. How often do I say to a friend "Oh and please pray for [insert name of a mutual friend] she is really struggling with finding community. She reffuses to talk to anyone, and its just hard for me to do this by myself." And I know I am NOT alone in this, as heartbreaking as that is.
Three-
Later on Matt mentions that in every culture that has fallen, the women are the last to go. That once the morals in women have become demolished, the nation soon falls...and man are the facts that us women in America letting our nation come to ruins stacking up against us.

Matt leaves us with four applications for Confession:
Confess to God; Before anyone, bring your sin to God, immediately and with a deep passion for forgiveness. If you run to someone you know and confess to them before Our Saviour, little is going to happen to keep you from doing that again. His forgiveness of Sin is essential.
Confess to someone who will actually keep you accountable; Have someone in your life-that it is the hardest to bring your sins to- keep you accountable. Telling your best friend that you lied to your mom is not that hard, Confessing to God that you lied to your mother, repenting, and then telling your mom you lied to her, then telling your friend who will keep you accountable is the scriptual way to go about it.
Confess with detail; Matt gives the example of a man telling his friend "Hey man, I struggled with Lust today" as he leaves the room as if his simple admission will be enough. He did not say- to his wife- "Today at work, I struggled with Lust and Adultry by..."
Create a gospel culture; This is for the person receiving the confession. Forgive them the way Christ forgave you for their sin. In that moment Christ is working in you just as much as he is working in them.

I'm asking you to join me in this new discipline that myself and my family are about to undertake with a fierce determination- to satisfy Our King! I pray that as I make it through this series some of this emptiness [which is now realized to be burden] will be vanished, filled with Grace and understanding, and a heart that is lifted much closer to Jesus.

I know I have a lot of prayers to say, phone calls to make and a heart to prepare for my husband to come home to tonight.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Can I Complain About How Busy I Make Myself?

Pretty, pretty, please?
Flowers, food, potty training...its never ending here! Haha

I PROMISE by Friday I will have an update on how we've been lately, but for now I will just leave you with a sneak peak :]

Bath time
Lily LOVES her baths, mostly because afterwords she gets a massage...spoiled baby :]






And she usually has to take them because of this:





Aaand today [on our way to our Chiropractor apt and Moms Group] we had to dress like this:
























Because of THIS!



















THAT'S RIGHT! SNOW!




















SO, mama and family, that SHOULD tide you over til Friday!

Mae