The Simple Life at Home

I'm in desperate need of a blog makeover.

I spend w-a-a-a-y too much time each day visiting blog after blog that is smart and sassy, beautiful and inspiring.

It's enough to make that green-eyed monster rise up within me and cause me to want to go all crazy, playing with my template and experimenting.

Except I know NOTHING about html. Or Photoshop. Or Photobucket.

Basically I know nothing period.

So I'm looking for recommendations of blog designers. But money is an issue - I'm looking for something that would be maybe $50-75. I don't think I could explain more than that to Hubby, particularly since we haven't had a full paycheck since Christmas.

If you know anyone that could help me, please leave me a comment - especially if they've done your blog and I can pop over and take a look.

'Cuz so help me, if I don't do something to pretty up this place, one day soon you'll come here and see nothing but scrambled letter and colors.

Or whatever happens when your template gets all messed up.

Not long ago I wrote a post talking about how great my kids are. My Thankful Thursday post today is all about how thankful I am for them.

I really don't want this blog to be one of those that just go on and on about my kids. I promise this isn't going to be a regular feature. But I do want to share what they did for me today.

They knew that I would be a little down since it was our 15th anniversary and Hubby has been gone for two months, with another one to go before we move over to Doha to join him. So the came up with Operation: The Plan. I know, I know. The name could have used a little more creativity, but the actual plan was fantastic.

Emily got my friend Jan to pretend to hire her for a babysitting job, but really she ran her all over town buying supplies. Then yesterday she corralled my friend, Mylinda, into taking me out of the house for some girl-time, while the kids worked on part of the surprise. There have been flurries of secretive phone calls requiring me to leave the room. Whispers between Emily and Daniel and furtive looks. I was ordered not to come out of my room before I was told to this morning.

About 7, Daniel came in to wake me up and call me to the family room. Once I got there, I found 15 roses spread around a poster-size cards the kids had created that was beautiful and had a list (dictated by Hubby) of 15 reasons why he loves me, a cute little stuffed puppy, Hershey's kisses, and a beautiful card. In the background they had taped from the radio the song, "How Do I Live Without You." Both kids were there to greet me and hug me when I opened the card and started crying.

Then this evening they organized a surprise anniversary party with a few of my girlfriends at church. It was just pizza and chips and soda, but they did their best to make me laugh and have a good time.

See what I mean? They are truly fantastic kids!

As I mentioned quite a while ago, Hubby and I did not date before we became engaged. I promised then to tell the story one day. Well, that day has come. It's our 15th wedding anniversary. Sadly we are spending it separately, but we will be together in a few weeks and celebrate then. But on to the story.

I had noticed a fine man in our church. He was a deacon and carried himself very well. He was always helping other people, seeking to serve and honoring God. One night there was a singles party and we were asked to carpool since parking was limited. We all met at the church and split up into groups. My younger brother, who was 8 at the time, and I went in Hubby's car (lots of single parents in the group, so my little brother wouldn't have been out of place).

At some point in the evening, my brother misbehaved. When we got back in the car, I scolded him. Hubby really rebuked him and I was sitting there thinking, "Who does he think he is?" I looked over at him , but in a godly way, and, believe me this really happened, I heard God speak to me. This is not something I say casually - it's never happened since and it had never happened before. But as I looked at him, I clearly heard God tell me, "This is your husband." Completely shocked, I sat face-forward and didn't say a word the rest of the ride back to church.
Now, I should mention here that dating was discouraged in this church. So not dating before engagement was not something unheard of. Typically how it worked was that one person felt that God was leading them towards someone, they would pray about it and then inform the pastor. The pastor would then go to the other party and say, "Someone has "submitted" your name. Pray about it for 30 days and see if God speaks to you who it is." The pastor DID NOT arrange marriages or tell anyone who to marry, got it? I mean really. Do you understand that?

So, this episode in the car happened in June. For the remainder of the summer I basically did all I could to avoid Hubby. I prayed and prayed and asked God to purify my heart. The feelings were definately increasing, but if there was something to develop between us, I didn't want it to be because I flirted and let him know how I was feeling. I wanted it to totally be a "God Thing."

I also didn't want to be the one that went to the pastor first. I saw that as a man's role. Finally, God spoke to me about my pride and stubborness and I felt led by the Lord to go to the pastor in late August. Then Hurricane Andrew hit, delaying everything but recovery efforts. Finally, in mid-September, I caught a few moments with the pastor on a Friday night after services and submitted Hubby's name.

Whew! I figured I now had 30 days to not worry about it while Hubby was supposed to be praying. I could relax.

On Tuesday evening, while at a Christian conference, Hubby pulled me aside and asked to speak to me outside. He proposed right then and there!

Amazingly, God had led him to go to the pastor and submit my name within 48 hours after I spoke with the pastor. He had been praying all summer too. According to the pastor this was the first time both parties approached him independently before he had a chance to talk to the other person. Hubby and I believe that the timing of both of us independently going to the pastor was just further confirmation that God was leading.

Believing that God led us together, we decided that there was no reason to delay our marriage with a long engagement and we were married 5 1/2 months later. Yes, there have been some difficult moments, as with any marriage, but the knowledge that our relationship is truly the work and the will of God has carried us through many a rough moment.

And it's nice to be able to tell our children the story of God's miraculous intervention.

Tracy over at Mama of Boys has graciously blessed me with the Blogging with a Purpose award. Tracy is such a sweet thing, with three adorable boys whom she homeschools. Be sure to go over and check her site out, particularly if you have a child with food allergies.

Anyways, on to the business of the Blogging With a Purpose Award Rules:


1. Awarded parties must nominate five people who have not received the award.
2. The blogs that receive the award must serve some purpose.
3. In their post about the award they need to link back to this entry.
4. Awarded parties must post the award banner on their site. The banner must remain linked to the above linked site.

My nominees are:

Jenny at Life is Not a Cereal - Jenny always has amazing insights (well, that or amazing scrapbooking ideas!). I always come away from her blog thinking about what she's said and pondering it. Good stuff!

Jess at Mourning Into Dancing - Jess is an amazing woman of God who doesn't believe she is. Which, to me, is the best kind. She struggles and has regrets and yet she has an amazing relationship with Christ. Reading her blog helps me to remember that it's about my relationship with Christ, not what I do or who I am.

Laura at My Quotidian Mysteries - Laura has become my "orientation" guide to life in Doha. She's offered tons of advice and encouragement. But her blog is a wonderful site full of thought-provoking stuff. Plus her devotions at CWO are incredible.

Anya at Sanctuary Moment - Anya is a beautiful writer. Her posts are so moving and so well-thought out, helping me to find sanctuary in all of life.

Mrs. Fussypants at Marriage Hacks - Her posts are forthright and funny, and always encourage me to be a better wife to Hubby.

Now, I know that some of the women do not post awards on their sites and that's ok. I just hope that you might find something new to check out through this post. All of these women are well worth your time.

1. Your child asks you to pause the movie. In the movie theater.
2. You actually move to hit the rewind button on your car radio.
3. You belive it takes too long to fast-forward through the commercials at the highest speed.
4. In conversation with people, you actually think you can rewind, um, REAL LIFE, if you've missed what someone said.

What will we do without Tivo?!?!