So, with all this time on my hands… I have decided to make a quilt! I am going fabric hunting tonight, I can’t decide on a pattern yet but I have it narrowed down to two so I am hoping that weeding through yards of fabric will help me decide. Also, I am going to buy a hummingbird feeder and put it on the porch right next to our window. Recently there has been a little hummingbird hanging around the plants that are outside near our porch and they are so cute. While I was eating lunch today I saw one that had a bright orange chest, and when I say bright, I mean really really bright orange. I was thinking that if I put a feeder close to my window I might be able to see it upclose and maybe even get a picture!

So an update on my health… I am home resting 24/7 now. My spleen is still swollen and I am not able to be up and about for a long period of time. I am hoping to be able to do some work from home starting in the next few weeks and hopefully I will be able to go to work by the end of April. Until then, I am going to be quilting, reading, resting, and dreaming of the day when I can go back to living a normal life!

I have been out of work for two weeks now, and I have a new found appretiation for my couch. It has been a faithful friend. And I have had a great opportunity to break in my new throw pillows! I am really hoping that I get better soon and am able to return to work. It has been a slow few weeks, relaxing though…

This weekend Ben and I are going to Mt. hood for the Bridge ministry’s winter retreat. I am super excited to get away for the weekend and meet some new people! It had been a long week at work as there have been numerous people out sick with this “bug’ that has left no one innocent of it’s terrors. I have a few days left on my antibiotic and then I am hoping to be healthy forever more!

Today my wonderful Benjamin and I went shopping in Portland! We had a grand time together. While we were out, Ben foud this black board and on it were words that had been cut out that read, ‘Kiss the Cook’. Ben picked it up, laughed, noticed how inexpensive it was and promptly decided to buy it for our kitchen! I love him so much. The first thing he did when we got home was to find the bag it was in, clean off the back of the stove, and give it a new and permanent home. Now not only do I have a clean stove top, but I also have a reminder of how much my husband loves me, every time I go into the kitchen!

…maybe this is an evil plan of his to make sure I am always in the kitchen…hmmm…one can never know the mind of a man…either way, I will probably spend more time in the kitchen because of it…

I think it is really funny how our priorites change with time. This picture was taken on my windowsill about a year before Ben and I got married. I remember freaking out if I didn’t have a lipgloss in my purse for every occasion. If you were to look in my purse today you would find one, I repeat, one tube of lip gloss. I found this picture and it hit me that all this lip gloss would buy a few weeks of groceries. If I ever get the chance to mentor a young woman on priorities, this might be a good visual.

A few ways my priorities have changed over the past few years:

* Sales on flour and sugar come before sales on designer hair care.

* A day full of laundry comes before a day out doing nothing with the girls

*Good bye zip-lock, hello kirkland!

The obvious change is learning to put Ben ahead of myself. I used to be the first one on my priority list, now he is. At first it hit me funny and I did not want anything to change but now I love the fact that Ben is the head of our household and I love putting his needs before my own. It is weird, this whole marriage thing, and how much it will change a person. I look forward to see how we continually change and learn to serve one another.

P.S. The lip gloss I currently have, Ben gave to me for Christmas….he is so amazing!!!

Since I have all the time in the world, I thought I shoud sit down and write. I have been at home sick since Monday afternoon. I don’t remember the last time I was sick this long. Ben and I went to urgent care on Wednesday because I kept getting worse. They were able to give be medicine to relieve the pain in my throat and chest and also an antibiotic so hopefully, I can go back to work on Monday. Today is the first day that I am feeling somewhat human. I was able to get up all by myself and take a shower. I have a load of laundry in the wash and the kitchen is mostly clean. Ben has a client coming over tonight so I need to get at least the downstairs cleaned! The sun is out today and I have the sliding class door opened…I love the smell of fresh air. I remember my mom always had a door or window open when I was younger. The house always smelled fresh. I love my mom…

One and a half years is how long Ben and I have been married now!!! I am so madly in love with him! He is taking me somewhere special tonight and valentine’s day is only 2 days away! I am the luckiest girl in the world….I just wanted to let the world know…

I just want to say, for the record, that I love my job! I am realizing that I am playing a large part in these children’s young lives. Some get dropped off at 6:30 a.m. and they are still there when I leave at 5. I hope I can always be a good example to them and show them agape love. It is sad to me that there are so many moms that need to be working when they have a houseful of little ones.

If I may rant for a moment…

I understand that the economy has forced many stay at home moms to forge a new path, one not in the home. They are forced to pass their children off to surrogate mothers (day care providers) in order to put supper on the table. Those are the mothers that I am truely working for. Those are the mothers that I have the brightest smiles for in the morning. What I don’t understand are the mothers that drop their children off for a ten hour day, not to go to work, but to go home and “have me time”, “get a break” etc. It really saddens my heart. Being a young, married woman that looks forward to the day when I become a mommy, I can’t comprehend wanting to be rid of my children for such a large part of the day.

I would welcome comments on this one. It is something that I struggle with, not being a mom I haven’t lived both sides of the story…

I have never really understood the concept of Fridays. Why do people get so excited about Fridays anyway? I now know! For the first time in my life I have a Monday through Friday job. I now understand what is really supposed to happen on Saturdays. You aren’t supposed to wake up early and go to work while your husband is sleeping. You are supposed to sleep until the day is half gone and you wake up only to nourish your ravenous tummy! I love it!!! I really like getting of work before Ben too. I get to come home and have some quiet time, prepare supper, and attempt to get the laundry done. I say attempt because the closest I usually get to doing an actual load of laundry is getting all of the colors separated and into their respective baskets. At least it’s not all over the place? Tonight though, I have done 3 loads of laundry and I also dropped off Ben’s nice shirts at the dry cleaners! Does that make me a good little wifey? I was in a creative mood when I got home and made stuffed french toast for supper. I added strawberries to it this time and it turned out delicious! I discovered that I am not very good at cooking bacon. I either undercook it or make it so crispy that it crumbles in little pieces. Ahhh…with that little confession there I think I will call it a night… (I actually am going to fold more laundry and watch an episode of lost. We are almost to the end of season three!!!)