Rainy Days

I've been neglecting my blogging. It's been crazy busy around here but that never seems to change. Life will not slow down for little ole' me so I'm going to have to get strategic in this blogging thing. I'm also SUPER excited that they have an app for this blogging thing. Woohoo! Now if only they had an app for laundry, I'd be set. I check daily but alas I still must do this task. 

I have been very busy, especially as of late with my knitting/crocheting. Here's a baby blanket I just finished up. 

I am working on making a prettier back drop for taking pictures for the items I am selling on Etsy. It is gorgeous in my head...now I just actually have to make it! 

It's a rainy day here today and actually most of this week is going to be rainy. I am starting another baby blanket (grey, white, and teal) to sell and a couple of Piggy Tail hats I've been commissioned to make. I'm also going to make some Cloud Dough for the girls to keep them from total boredom while being stuck indoors and the big kids at school for the day. I just need to remember to clean the cloud dough up thoroughly before letting Barnaby (our bunny) out play so he does not try to eat it! 

I have to try and get a picture of Barnaby and Penelope (our cat) playing together. It's hysterical. I just am so amused watching them play in their own ways together. 

I hope you have a blessed day!!

Sulky McSulkerson & The Clean Miller's

Here's an update on the cat front. Callie, our beloved cat, is still quite determined that if she sulks enough in our bedroom that we will send the big, black furball back from whence he came. She has earned herself a new nickname. Sawyer has his own new nickname but that's for whole other blog post.

Sulky McSulkerson (aka Callie)

While I feel bad for her...she really needs to just get over it! He barked at her when he first saw her and since then she has cursed the day he ever came into the Miller house. Now don't get me wrong she is starting to warm up but VERY slowly. She will come out of hiding, albeit in our room, when he is following me around upstairs. I did make her stay downstairs two days ago. Poor Sawyer looked so dejected because every time he walked over to her or even just to walk past her she would hiss at him. He just had this totally pathetic look on his face. I don't know how a dog makes a totally pathetic look but his took the cake. I felt terrible for him. On the flip side, she was WAY over weight. She has lost a bunch of weight from not hitting the food bowl constantly during the day since Sawyer is usually downstairs all day. He is crated when we are sleeping. He was used to that and then I don't have to worry if he is getting into anything, etc. Plus it gives Callie a chance to go downstairs to eat and walk around. Her food bowl is downstairs and I refuse to bring that up to our bedroom and further enable her stubborn sulking. She is looking good just in time for bathing suit season! lol

I have been on bathing duty for Sawyer. Mainly because Jared has no time  working full time, school 3/4 time, being Mr. Fix-It for me around here, plus squeezing in daddy time with the kids, and I can't stand a stinky dog. Well I can't stand a stinky dog if he expects me to actually hug him and pet him. I wouldn't be able to not do that though because he is too cute. Really I do have a 'stinky dog' patrol position here. Her name is Ava. If that dog starts to have that stinky dog smell she is the FIRST one to constantly be holding her nose and telling me he's stinky. Seriously they could use her as a human bloodhound. This kids nose is ridiculous. I can't even do the 'sneak some chocolate in the kitchen before going in to check on the kids' thing because she will smell it on my breath a block away and proceed to ask me what I was eating. Then if you don't tell her she asks to smell you. LOL I guess that keeps me from sneaking junk or it just means I have to find sneakier ways of sneaking treats.

I gave Sawyer his second bath yesterday. The kids wanted to come in and watch. Ian asked me if he was going to shake. He didn't see the first bathing episode so he was excited that mom might get all wet in the process. Sure enough, after I got him soaking wet and all scrubbed clean he decided it was time to get some of this water off of him. I did get soaked. He must have some super special fur or something because there was an extraordinary amount of water he shook from himself. The kids did help me towel him off.

Clean Sawyer. His hair looks so funny when he's wet!

Then I decided to bathe all the kids since the hubby was at class and it makes the night go much faster. Sawyer decided since they just had to watch him get his bath that he was going to watch them. He kept going in and checking on whomever was in the tub at the time. He has this fascination with drinking the bubbly, dirty, tub water. Gross! I guess it's better than toilet water though. Here's what some clean Miller's look like. (Unfortunately poor little feverish, tired, teething Lia was not amused for pictures. She promptly went to bed so no photos of her in all her crankiness.)

This picture reminds me of just how much smaller Ava is than Ian. Even though I see them everyday, you just lose perspective of it. Aw!

Ian! He's such a goof. He told me to make him have a mowhawk because daddy does when he gives him a bath. I told him I think this is technically called a fin but whatever. He was thrilled if you can't tell from his face.

Ugh...these curls! She looks like this after every bath. What a blessed little girl she is to have this beautiful hair.

The hubby installed a new garbage disposal Tuesday night AND he had a new dishwasher delivered. Happy Mother's Day to me! Both of which were broken. They came with the house so who knows how old they were. Since I have used the new garbage disposal I can not believe how quiet it is. The old one was definitely on it's last leg. The dishwasher gets hooked up tonight (I hope) and if it's as quiet as the disposal I might never even know when it's running. Oh the things that make a SAHM happy! This has been such a blessing. I can not even tell you the frustration that is caused when these type of things stop working. Now I am just nervous about our dryer because it seems to take at least to cycles to dry a load of laundry. It makes laundry time around here much longer than it needs to be. Our dryer is a real old one we actually bought used from someone we worked with so I don't know how much it's going to last but I am praying we can get at least another year out of it and maybe replace the washer and dryer next year with a pair of those super heavy duty huge load ones. Yes...that IS the technical term for it!

Alright it's off to do MOUNDS of laundry before it starts a revolt on it's own and then possibly some errands before the thunderstorms we are supposed to get today hit.


I hope you have a blessed day! †

·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.· ஐ Rebecca ·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.· ஐ

Italian Chicken Sausage Soup

Easter was wonderful this year. I hope everyone got to spend time with the people they love. We got to stay home this year and everyone came to us! It was wonderful. Our church service was awesome in the morning. I can not tell you how blessed we are with this church and church family in our lives.

We were not having our Easter meal until closer to dinner time this year and I don't know about anyone else but when I get out of church around noon I am starving! I decided to make some soup that I had been planning to make the day before, but got way too busy to make, for our lunch on Easter day. Luckily both my husbands parent's and my parent's would be coming early to enjoy lunch. I love feeding people and it was a bonus for the kids to have their Grandparent's to play with while I got things prepared for lunch and then for dinner. I figured soup wouldn't be too terribly filling but we wouldn't be starving until dinner and it's always the easiest, one pot type of thing to whip up. I was running a little behind so I was a little more frantic than normal to get it done since I was starving and so was everyone else. I did also have munchies to put out but still! Actually some of the things I had planned to put out never even went out which means...SCORE! The hubby and I can have a little wine tonight, light the fire pit, have some good munchies, and enjoy some quiet time just the two of us once we tuck the kiddos in to bed tonight.

Just a word of warning on this soup...it makes a TON so if you don't expect to use it all up you can just pop it into freezer safe containers for the next time you want soup with out making it from scratch. Then all you have to do is pull it out of the freezer and put it in a pot on the stove to heat back up. It's that easy. Or even better yet...share some with friends or neighbors. Who doesn't like to get a nice surprise like that?! We have had neighbors stop by with warm zucchini bread right from the oven and warm whole wheat bread. Did I mention how much I love our neighbors? We have the best neighbors where we live.

Italian Chicken Sausage Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 pkgs Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage
• 2 (32 oz) containers of Chicken Broth
• 4 cups (total) of chopped Carrots, Onions, Celery
• 1 (10 oz) pkg Frozen Chopped Spinach
• 1 pkg of Gnocchi **You can substitute pasta.
• 1 large can of Stewed Tomatoes **Break tomatoes into smaller pieces
• 1 Tbsp Salt
• 1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning
• 1 Tbsp Fennel Seeds
• 1 Tbsp Garlic Powder
• Cayenne Pepper (I added this to taste. I like my soup a lil' spicy!)
• Super Secret Ingredient: Aw Shucks Seasoning
  (Again...added to taste. Thanks, Dad for the suggestion!)

Directions:

1. Break sausage up into bite sized pieces and brown up in a little EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil for you non-Rachel Ray watching peeps out there) in the bottom of a pot. Remove and set aside.
2. Add a little more EVOO to the pot and throw all the veggies, except the spinach, in the pot with spices. Cook until onion is translucent scraping up the little browned pieces of sausage as you go.
3. Put sausage, spinach, and liquids back into the pot and bring to a boil.
4. Once boiling, add Gnocchi.
5. Enjoy!  (o;

This soup was a hit and I know it's going to be a staple in our house especially this coming fall and winter. It's getting to the point where it's starting to warm up here in our area and I am just about ready to retire my soups and bust out the salad recipes! That's an exciting this. Can I just say that I don't know about anyone else and I know we are just waiting for the warmer weather and the summer to hit BUT just thinking about the fall coming with all it's warm soups, stews, cool weather, harvest activities, and the smell of crisp air with that wood fire smell in the air gets me all giddy inside! This must be what we will experience after this life. It never gets old. I get excited for each season for it's own joy and excitement it brings and usually way in advance. It's so funny. I hope I am not the only one but something tells me that I'm not!

I hope you have a blessed day! †

·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.· ஐ Rebecca ·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.· ஐ

Good Friday

I am so thankful for a day to reflect on Jesus suffering on the cross. He took the death that I deserve for my sins so that I could be made righteous by His perfect sacrifice. Until I fully understood grace and what God did for us because of how much He loves us, the cross never made sense and it was even offensive. I now can understand why we call the day Jesus was crucified 'Good' Friday.

Today I am just thanking God for providing a way for us to have eternal life through Jesus Christ, His son, who came and took the punishment we all deserve for our sins. What an amazing thing. I have never been given, nor will I ever, a gift so precious as being purchased through the blood of Christ. I thank Him for removing the veil from my eyes to see the truth. I know He will always be with me and pray for the strength to fight the good fight each and every day against the enemy who is truly real.

I am going to be spending the day trying to keep my eyes focused on Jesus. I am sure many tears will be shed as I am already in tears writing this post. What a great God we serve.

I heard this song maybe a week ago and it really impacted me. I hope it blesses you and reminds us all that He took our punishment. It was my cross...not His.

How wide is Your love
That You would stretch Your arms
And go around the world
And why for me would a Savior's cry be heard

I don't know
Why You went where I was meant to go
I don't know
Why You love me so

Those were my nails
That was my crown
That pierced Your hands and Your brow
Those were my thorns
Those were my scorns
Those were my tears that fell down
And just as You said it would be
You did it all for me
After You counted the cost
You took my shame, my blame
On my cross

How deep is Your grace
That you could see my need
And chose to take my place
And then for me, these words I'd hear You say
Father no
Forgive them for they know not what they do
I will go
Because I love them so


I hope you have a blessed day! †

·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.· ஐ Rebecca ·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.· ஐ

The best Carrot Cake ever! (No, really!)

I made a carrot cake within the last week or so. Yes I am behind on my posts. It's not easy to squeeze time in lately with everything else I have to do in a day plus a first birthday, Easter, and the last of our Truth Project series BUT I needed to post this in case anyone was looking for a great dessert for Easter this year. I know it will be making an appearance at our dessert table.

It turned out super moist and everyone loved it here in the Miller house. I hope you love it, too!

Ingredients:

Cake:

2 c sugar

1 1/4 cup oil

4 large eggs

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 Tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

3 c grated carrots

1 c chopped walnuts (Optional)

Frosting:

- 12 oz powdered sugar

- 8 oz. cream cheese room temp

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 2 Tbsp butter

- 2 Tbsp milk

Directions:

1. In large bowl, beat sugar and oil. Add eggs and beat well.
   
2. Sift together flour, soda, cinnamon, and salt into egg mixture; mix well; fold in carrots and nuts
   
3. Place batter in greased 9x13 pan; bake 30-45 minutes in a 350 oven. (Check center to make sure a toothpick comes out clean. The oven time may vary a little bit)
4. FROSTING: Beat together powdered sugar, cream cheese, vanilla, butter and milk; spread on cooled carrot cake.

This cake is so yummy and I can't wait to make it for Easter this year. Mmmm...carrot cake and a nice big, hot cup of coffee. What more could you want for dessert? I couldn't work chocolate into this one. Sorry! (o; I will however be posting my yummy recipe for Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter icing but that will be left for another post.

I hope you have a blessed day! †

·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.· ஐ Rebecca ·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.· ஐ

Our littlest girl turns one!

Our littlest girl, Lia, turned one on Saturday. She is one year old. I can't even believe it! Time goes so fast. She has such a wonderful little personality. I love getting to see her personality take shape day by day. We are truly blessed for having this little girl in our life. (o:

Lia's nickname is Dinks or Dinky Dinks. It started off as Stinky Winkers when she was super tiny and spitting up all the time. It evolved into Dinks. She is our little comedian. She likes to smack you in the face but if you pretend to cry she puts her head against your chest to give you a hug and make you feel better. She's a little sweetheart. She only has her two bottom teeth but manages to eat a LOT of stuff with just those two teeth. She is not walking yet but she is practicing standing without holding onto something. I think she will be taking some steps soon and once she does we are in trouble! She likes to try and keep up with her siblings. Lia already gets herself up to the third step on our stairs. We are blessed that she hasn't taken to eating cat or dog food from their bowls although I am sure it's just a matter of time before she experiments. She loves her big brother, sister, and all the wonderful friends she has made in this first year of life.

Lia thoroughly enjoyed her cupcake and ate it like she was a professional. (o;

Lia's friend, Casey, made her this awesome birthday sign. It's so creative!

Here's some cute little tissue paper pom-poms I made to hang around. They were FREE! I always have a ton of tissue paper around. If you want to know how to make these I can post a tutorial. They are easy and super cute for a girl's party. (o:

I didn't go crazy decorating for Lia's birthday BUT I did spend some time making these really cute tissue paper pom-pom flower looking things that I just love. I had more hanging around the house but didn't take pictures. My bad! The ones in the picture above are some of the small ones that I made. I made small ones and a couple of large ones. I can envision having some little tea parties with the girls' friends and decorating with these all over hanging from the ceiling. I can't wait for those days. It's going to be so much fun with these two beautiful little girls.

Her newest bff, Sawyer, had to get in on the action making sure she was all clean during her tubby bath. He proceeded to start drinking the bath water, bubbles and all! Really I think he just wanted to get in there with her and splash around like a nut. We were told he LOVES water! I can't wait to see the kids playing with their pool and squirt guns with him this summer. She loves her tubby baths. I can see her loving the pool this summer, too!

Don't close your eyes for a moment because life passes you by so fast you might miss a moment that you can never get back.

I hope you have a blessed day!

† ·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.· ஐ Rebecca ·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.· ஐ

Meet the newest member of the family!

So since our life isn’t crazy or busy enough we added a puppy to the mix!

Meet Sawyer…

Meet Sawyer

He is a 7 month old Lab/Collie Mix. He is the sweetest dog you have ever met.

The kids just totally adore him. Ava already told me that Sawyer is her best friend.

The story of Sawyer begins with Prayer. We had wanted to get a puppy for the kids and I had been feeling convicted to also train the dog to do visitation at local hospitals especially for children. This was all before Lia came along but we just could not fit a puppy into the budget or mix at this point. Again I had started feeling very convicted to get a puppy and had been praying about it. I was checking out Petfinder.com as well as keeping my ears open for anyone with puppies. The biggest hurdle I have been having is finding the perfect puppy breed and then trying to fit it into our already super tight budget. This was going to prove difficult for someone who always shops clearance, end of season, and sales. Hmmmm…I do not know how or if this is going to actually happen so I just kept praying and asking God for a miracle. That we would get a free puppy somehow never really sold out to the fact that He was listening or going to truly provide a puppy and for free. I started reasoning that maybe we could afford to get a puppy and it just didn’t feel right. I know our budget has many other things pulling at it. I resolved myself to being ok with not getting a puppy if it was not under those circumstances since that would show me that He was answering us but with a no. He always has better plans than we do anyway no matter how ‘great’ we make them in our minds. I have done and do that a lot and am trying to be more patient not to mention a better listener. LOL He has His work cut out for Him with me. All I can say is that I am glad He can work miracles. (o:

Well typically, Jared has been taking a later lunch and taking our son and our neighbor’s daughter to pm Kindergarten. Monday was a beautiful day here. It was warm and sunny. All of the kids were healthy and I needed to get out for a walk. It just so happened that Jared had a luncheon that day and was not able to take the kids anyway so it worked out on both ends. Many of the times when I do take the kids to school I just drive, even though the school is a block away from our home, because I will use it as a good excuse to run errands with two kids instead of three! I did not have errands that needed to run that day and just decided that the walk would tire out Ava. Well…when I got down to our friend Kim’s house, she was outside. We started talking and walking together for a couple of houses. She told me her neighbor had a puppy that they needed to find a home for. I was not really thinking puppy at this point in the day. I was just thinking about quickly walking the kids to school and getting the girls home for naps so I could maybe get some stuff in the house done in my quiet mommy time. She talked me into walking back to her house and checking the puppy out before I took the girls back home for their naps. 

We walked out behind her house to go see the ‘puppy’. I say ‘puppy’ because he was HUGE! I was thinking tiny little cute puppy and I walk back to see a full-grown dog in a kennel outside. The couple was her neighbor’s daughter and son-in-law who were going back to Delaware Tuesday afternoon. Yes, that was the next day! They let him out of the kennel and all I kept thinking is how sweet his face was and he seemed so nice but not what I wanted. I did not want a black dog or one who sheds. I am a neat freak to say the least and the thought of cleaning up dog hair constantly gives me heart palpitations. I mean, come on! I have enough to clean up with three kids and a husband. LOL this would never work. He would bark too much, knock the kids over constantly, be TOO big for our home, and various other panic attack type of talk going on in my head. I do not even want to really consider this…do I? Well he was adorable and Ava loved him. Lia cried. Bad sign! Kim said she loved him and was going to talk to her husband about taking him. I thought for sure since he was so cute and seemed calm that we did not even have a chance at him anyway.  I called Jared, told him about the ‘puppy’, and told him he is not ‘puppy’ sized. He seemed very excited even in spite of me not really being super interested at the time, which was a complete surprise to me. I assumed I was going to call him and he would have the “Oh great…she’s asking me about a dog again” tone. He wanted to go and look at him when he got out of work. I prayed again about it that God would show me what we should do. 

That day was actually somewhat funny. I had run back to the consignment shop we had hit on Saturday for a breadbox I was feeling guilty for passing up. There will be a completely separate post on that little guy. Anyway I had been spray-painting that day and had just stuff on that I didn’t care if I got paint all over. Ava at some point was in the bathroom and I went in to check on her. I noticed in our bathroom mirror that I was wearing my T-Shirt from a local S.P.C.A. that I had gotten from a walk we did to raise money years ago. I rarely ever wear it. Mostly because I guess, I could not find it for the longest time. I had just gone through all my clothes to reorganize it all and it was more easily accessible. Well that was enough for me to feel a little more comfortable with actually feeling like this was the direction we were supposed to go but as I said, I did not think we had a real shot at getting him so I was still trying not to think about him too much. 

In the meantime, Kim had called me to tell me that they found out the couple would work with them on timing if they decided to take him. They are moving to a new home in two months so they wanted to take him once they moved in. She was going to speak with her husband about taking him after they moved. I have to be completely honest and say that I was actually heartbroken. She did tell us to still check him out just in case they decided not to take him. We waited for Jared to get home and rushed him out the door to go check the dog out. We walked over and I could tell after Jared seeing him that he was totally in love with this dog whose name was Lucky Joe. We told them that we were just looking at him just in case Kim’s family did not want him. They offered us to have a sleepover with him since we were not sure how it work out. I called Kim and she had told me that they were not going to take him after all. I hate to say that I was THRILLED! I was so sad for her because I know she really wanted him but I was just sure we were supposed to have this dog and he was the answer to my fervent prayers. If she would have told me she was taking him, I would have been happy for them and enjoyed being able to visit him. Jared called the woman who had him and told her that we would take him for an overnight to see what we thought. Yeah…it did not even take the whole night. Jared was already out at the Pet store buying him a bed, toys, food, etc. I knew we were keeping him and for free! She gave us his crate, leash, collar, toys, treats, and food. She was so sweet and nice. I felt bad for her. She loved him so much and you can tell that he was very well cared for and loved. They could not keep him because they already had two other dogs and just wanted him to have a good home of his own. They had taken him from their Grandson who worked full time and did not have the time for him. Our situation is perfect since I stay at home and he would have the kids to play with all day. Plus with Jared doing class one night a week and business trips here and there I really wanted a dog to keep me company as well as 'protect' the house. We told her she could visit anytime she wanted and we would keep her updated on him. She made us the happiest new dog owners EVER and I am very grateful to her wonderful heart in wanting to give him his own family to grow up in.

We decided to rename him to make him more officially ours. His name had been changed a couple times before us. It was Zeus, then Lucky Joe, and Shadow. New family...new name. Originally we were going to name him Hurley after the character on LOST (I am a HUGE fan of that show) but then our son kept calling him Harley. NO WAY! There will be no ‘Harley’s’ in this house. It makes me think of the motorcycles and we are not motorcycle people for sure. Then I thought if you shortened it up a bit it sounded kind of gross....think about it. Right?! Gross. It totally would not fit. We then went with what was my first choice all along and that is Sawyer from the same show. Ever since I heard that name, I thought it would be a great name for a dog and I kind of tucked it away in the back of mind for if we did get one. I cannot say enough wonderful things about our Sawyer. He is potty trained, sweet with the kids, submissive, well behaved, ridiculously smart, and not destructive or a big barker. I almost want to pinch myself to see if this really happened to us. You can tell him no for a kid’s toy he grabs instead of one of his own and he doesn’t try getting it again. He drops it and realizes that is not one of his toys to play with. He gets to eat enjoy the scraps that Lia throws down from her highchair and it has been great not having to sweep up the puffs that she throws or drops onto the floor!! We found out about him and less than 24 hours later he was ours! God may take a while to answer prayers but when He answered this one it all happened so quick. I am so glad we listened. Sawyer is already the most spoiled dog. He goes on at least one walk a day. Yesterday he had three! Jared walks him in the morning first thing, I walked him to school with the kids, and then we took a family walk in the evening. He has a million toys, a basket to keep them in, a brand new bed, lots of doggie treats, a new blue collar, run of the whole house, and a nice sized fenced in yard. There is also a stream behind our house that I can already foresee him playing in when summer hits. The kids always beg to go down and play in the stream and I know he will happily be in tow with us. I can already see him loving the lake near our house with us this summer, too! We always have lots going on and people dropping in so I am glad that the two breeds are great with people and especially strangers coming into the house since we have a lot of play dates here at the house. I am actually in the process of spring cleaning our bedroom and while I am doing that I figured I better make a nice cozy spot for him to have his bed so he can lay up here anytime we are on the computer. He loves to be in the same room with us. 

So Sawyer found his furever home and I get to give God the praise for all of this. Soli Deo Gloria! You will be hearing much more about his crazy adventures in future blog posts I am sure! Hopefully by then poor Callie, our cat, will have decided he's not so bad either.

This says it all. THIS is the face that was burned into my thoughts when I first saw him. Look how sweet he looks. How could I say 'no' to this face?!

So loved...he is going to be just totally spoiled rotten with all the attention from our family. Ian already loves playing tug of war & fetch with him and sweet little Ava hand fed him his first two meals.

Now I will be praying about the direction God wants me to take Sawyer in. I can train a dog and have done so with dogs growing up but it is MUCH more involved when getting them prepared to do therapy work. I will be praying for patience & direction as well as the time to be able to do that without taking time away from the family. God is good. If He has this for us to do I know He will provide lots of grace & guidance to get the job done!

I hope you have a blessed day! †

·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.· ஐ Rebecca ·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.· ஐ