a great day

Since we knew Sunday would be a full day, we decided to do our first family Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday. It involved jelly beans, so it was a big favorite.

 is this here, let me help you or give me all your goods, sister...............??

 After church on Sunday, we were invited to our friends', Eric & Laura. They have a downtown condo and were so gracious in letting our kiddos invade! Thankfully they left it in one piece :) and for the second Sunday in a row, Eden napped well in a strange place.

This allows us much more freedom on Sundays!

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

Mama Hughes sent them special Easter outfits - we were likin' the purple/grey! 

We didn't like picture time so much.  

You know it was a tiring day when Graham asks to nap on the couch when we get home!

Mommy & Daddy jumped on the purple wagon as well.

And ironically, 5 out of 6 worship team members.

3 men all choosing purple shirts..............what are the chances?!

 We had such a great Sunday service ~ loved being a part of it.

Thankful to everyone who has been so kind in their encouragement as Andrew settles into his new role.

And I love our red church doors. =)

happy Easter.

We are excited for our first Easter Sunday at 3RG!

Looking forward to a great worship service and ending with this great song of praise {also playing right now}.

One day when Heaven was filled with His praises
One day when sin was as black as could be
Jesus came forth to be born of a Virgin
Dwelt among men, my example is He
Word became flesh and the light shined among us
His glory revealed

Living He loved me, dying He saved me
And buried He carried my sins far away
Rising He justified freely forever
One day He's coming, oh, glorious day!

One day the grave could conceal Him no longer
One day the stone rolled away from the door
Then He arose, over death He had conquered
Now He's ascended, my Lord evermore
Death could not hold Him
The grave could not keep Him from rising again

Living He loved me, dying He saved me
And buried He carried my sins far away
Rising He justified freely forever
One day He's coming, oh, glorious day!

It is a very glorious day indeed.

pricematching.

I have to admit something that truly pains me a little bit. It's hard to believe, but Walmart actually made me a tiny bit happy this week. I know, hard to believe.

But one word sums it up: pricematching.

You've probably seen their commercials over the past few months and may have even figured that, like many advertisements, there was a lot of fine print involved. So I've been giving it a try once in a while over the past few months........and well, I must say, I've been very pleasantly surprised. Not one hassle. Not one argument. They simply adjust the price.

Their marketing technique may even work brilliantly if it continues.

I was one who being fed up with such horrible customer service & long lines had said

see ya Wally's and hello Trader Joe's & Target.

And I love my TJ's & Target there is no doubt.

But I also have this thing called the Bottom Line and for us right now, every single penny counts.

So I save the ads that come in the weekly circulars and write down all the best prices I see. (It works easiest for me to write them all down in a list so I can easily tell them at the register instead of digging through 4 circulars.)  

Aldi's & Bottom Dollar are the ones that work best for me. Aldi's doesn't have brand names, Bottom Dollar has some....but where I have scored so big is in the produce!

We seriously go through the produce. I have paid close to $20 a week sometimes.

Produce can be so expensive, but A & BD throw out some really great deals.

(btw, I was also able to do deals on bacon, sausage, toilet paper & sugar as well)

Here's some of my happy produce deals:

 cantaloupe & pineapple: 99 cents each

3 lb. bag of onions: 89 cents/bag (yes, that's 7 onions!)

5 lb. bag of potatoes: 1.68

sweet potatoes: 29 cents/lb.

4 lb. bag of oranges: 1.97

strawberries: 1.68

bananas: 39 cents/lb

baby carrots: 97 cents

All in all, my total for produce was 11.66.

Without pricematching, it would have been 23.37.

And so that, my friends, is significant enough in my book to occasionally drag myself back. =)

So now you know why my shopping day essentially takes up my entire day {around taking care of the kiddos}. I do my 2-week meal plan, write my list, plan my pricematching, manage coupons.....thankfully I only have to do this every 2 weeks. :)

Here's what we'll be eating the next 2 weeks:

{I'll let it go without saying that fruit/veggies will be obvious sides.}

T: sweet & sour chicken/rice - 'cept changing the sauce

W: Ham/Cheese Sliders - trying this for the first time!

Th: Carbonara Pizza

F: doing a restaurant review for the Momtourage

{Bd's Mongolian Grill!}

S: Hamburgers on the grill/potato wedges

S: dinner at friends for Easter

(making homemade crescent rolls & dessert)

M: Omelets/Bacon

T: Ricotta/Tomato/Basil Pasta

W: Chicken fajitas

Th: homemade bbq meatballs/mac & cheese

F: tuna sandwiches/sweet potato fries

S: chicken/bacon/tomato/avacado quesadillas

S: Sloppy joes

M: Quick Quiche

T: Chicken parm/pasta

Also going to try some homemade ranch dressing, since Graham goes through it like it's going out of style.

And now, I think I need a snack. =)

A fresh buttermilk oatmeal muffin should do!

hosanna.

I see the king of glory
Coming on the clouds with fire
The whole earth shakes

I see his love and mercy
Washing over all our sin
The people sing

Hosanna
Hosanna
Hosanna in the highest

I see a generation
Rising up to take their place
With selfless faith

I see a near revival
Stirring as we pray and seek
We're on our knees

Hosanna
Hosanna
Hosanna in the highest

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart from what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I go from nothing to
Eternity

Hosanna
Hosanna
Hosanna in the highest

{This is no April fools}

whipping out a boy's kind of craft: S.L.I.M.E

Generally my idea about arts & crafts is this:

coloring counts, right?

and they do these in school, I hope.

However, next week we are holding our first Arts + Crafts Day for the Momtourage.

15 kids doing all sorts of various projects.....

brilliant or what was I thinking?

we.shall.see. =)

Enter........Pinterest, of course!

Awhile back I had pinned this concoction for making slime and figured it was

The One for my craft station. Seemed simple enough, but I also figured I better try it with Graham and make sure it worked.

(it did. and super easy. who discovers these things?!)

Here's all you need:

• 1 Part Elmers Clear School Glue (I used 1/3 c.)
• 1 Part Liquid Starch (used a little less than 1/3. c.)
• food color (2 drops worked for us)

Put the glue in a bowl, then add the starch & coloring.....and that's it! (add a little more glue if it's not getting gooey) Mix together, we used a spoon first until it got more gooey and then hands are good.

Contrary to what you might think, it actually wasn't messy at all!

The orginal post is here.

Of course Mister I-Don't-Like-To-Get-Messy took a few minutes of convincing to actually play with the stuff! 

 And then it was fun!

The more you play with it, the better the consistency. And by the way, the big bottle of liquid starch was at Walmart in the laundry aisle, for about 3 bucks.

So there's my craft experiment for the year. And I'd say it was pretty painless.

Maybe I might even go a little crazy and make some of this

Liquid Sidewalk Chalk next!

ROOTS.

7 years. 3 States. (MN,VA,PA). 4 houses.

That's been our story since we got engaged.

After we got married, we moved to Va Beach where we spent a lovely 4 years. Made many great friends there, but we always knew that God had something else for us in the future. 

Following Andrew's graduation, we moved to Pittsburgh to help with a church plant. Thus began our transplantation to Pennsylvania. We really loved living in Pittsburgh. We met a lot of great people, found so many fun things to do, established the Pgh Momtourage and loved that it was not only a very affordable city, but a great place to raise a family. This past summer, after moving across town for Andrew's job, Andrew began looking to pursue a place of vocational ministry.  As we sought God's leading for our lives, He led us to a church that was only about 2 miles from our house, Three Rivers Grace Church. In a very short time we felt our hearts very knit to so many amazing people and found great encouragement & refreshment as we began to form friendships. Unbeknownst to us, this church has actually been looking to fill an assistent pastor for over a year. They had several possibilities, none of whom ended up working out. {hmm, a little Providence?} But as Andrew & the pastor got to know each other and he began to learn the direction we were heading - ah-ha! Talks, interviews, conversations began happening........and this past Sunday the church officially voted to approve Andrew as a part-time Associate Minister! We could not be more thrilled & excited at how God so clearly was directing, long before we could have even guessed what He had in store.

I recently saw this quote...............

The providence of God is like Hebrew words--it can be read only backwards.

~John Flavel

So we are excited about this new path. There is one challenge: The church only can afford to pay someone part--time, so for now Andrew will continue to work full-time at his current job and just work a few hours each week for the church. His first immediate task will be to oversee the worship services (the job description they sent could easily fill a full-time job!). As time progresses, he may look to find another job which would allow him to give more hours to the church. And of course the hope of us and the church is, that the church would continue to grow and thus allow him to come on full-time.

So I think that's as concise as I can be.....so much more that could be shared.
We are so thankful for this church family, how kind and welcoming they have been!

We praise God for His kind providence in our lives and I am now officially planting my first garden. How's that for roots? :)

St. Patty's Day fun

You would think we would have more 'kelly green' in this house.....but this was the best we found!

I do believe we were the least green-dressed people at the parade, but E for effort. :)

Downtown for the St. Patty's parade 

In the parking ramp, our reflection across the road 

patiently waiting.............. 

Andrew split to head to see some NCAA games, so I couldn't have done it without Kristin! 

snack time

there were a lot of bagpipes. a lot. 

a 20 minute break in the parade...kids getting restless.....

Finally, Mr. Joe Biden literally comes running down the road among about 50 Secret Service.  

LOTS of interesting characters out. :) 

We left watching the parade after about an hour & a half. We hung out downtown, got some lunch and the kids ran in the park. The weather was so perfect!

When we left downtown after about 3.5 hours, the parade was still going on!

Apparently people really are into their St. Patty's Day.

 Let's take a nice sibling picture.

Or not. :)
(we'll take the above sweet hand-holding shot!)