weekly 10

1.  I was praising God on Tuesday with the results of my mammogram/ultrasound.  And then I checked my facebook and saw the news of two people I went to college with that have been diagnosed with cancer.  Definitely humbled me and made me that much more grateful for the good news I received.  One of the girls was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer.  She is my age and was first diagnosed at age 30 when pregnant with her son.  I thought pregnancy was full of anxiety, but add chemo to that... she is definitely a strong woman.  She actually started an amazing non profit org for those dealing with cancer called Hope Scarves.  Check it out here....  http://hopescarves.org/

2.  I tried to stay away from it as long as I could, but Ashton finally became victim to the stomach flu on Sunday night.  Grant seemed to think it was an appropriate time to claim a tummy ache to get out of going to school the next day. Not cool that he is starting this at age 4.

3.  The anticipation of when the rest of us will get the flu is killing me.  I wish we could just get it over with already.

4.  Ashton built me a beautiful house the other day.  Not sure how I feel about the polar bear on the roof though- that might give me nightmares!  It is funny how different my boys are.  Grant could give or take building blocks but Ashton will sit for an hour straight and just build.

5. While I am mentioning differences.... Ashton refuses to let me do anything for him.  Grant on the other hand refuses to do anything for himself.  Polar opposites.

6.  Ashton's favorite food these days is green olives.  He would sit down and eat an entire can if we let him. 

7.  The other night at dinner, I asked Grant to pray and he did a great job thanking God for the beautiful day even though it was only 9 degrees outside and we couldn't leave the house!  Ashton asked if he could pray too... "Dear Lord.  Bless the juice and the pepsi (what he was calling 7 up when he was sick) and this and this and this as he proceeded to point to the peas, turkey burger and avacado on his plate.  It was so precious.

8.  If I knew it was going to snow this much this winter, I probably would have asked for a snow blower for Christmas.  My back hurts.

9.  I was trying summer clothes on Grant the other day and realized that he has grown out of his wardrobe from last summer already.  I knew he had gotten taller, but that just confirmed it.  My baby is no longer looking like my baby.  Sigh.

10.  Blessing of the week: our house is framed!  It seemed like it took forever and a day to get to this point.  Now that it is here, I am ecstatic!  We have had these plans in our heads for so long that I literally cried as we walked through it because it is actually happening.  And then I cried because we had to shovel 8 inches of snow off the main floor:)

good news....

It is not a cancerous lump!  It is glandular tissue that has been there the whole time but is suddenly becoming more prominent/large due to hormones in my body.  I always knew I was full of wacky hormones:)

I have to consult with my dr now to find out what to do about the lump from here.   I am just so thankful that they could tell me right there on the spot that it was nothing of concern and not make me wait a couple days.

I was so full of anxiety before this appointment.  Everyone kept telling me it would be nothing, but you only ever hear about the women who go in and hear the news that it is cancer and that is what your mind goes to. This past week definitely gave me a new perspective on everything.  I hugged my boys a little tighter and have learned to not sweat the small stuff meaning my house is a disastrous mess and I don't care!

Thank you all so much for the prayers and words of encouragement.  I definitely felt a peace as I sat in that freezing cold office waiting for my results.  It was a peace that I know only could come from all the prayers lifting me up. I am grateful.

Prayers

I would really appreciate some prayers today.  I am having a mammogram and ultrasound on a lump in my right breast at 2:30.  I found the lump in November and assumed it was a cyst due to the characteristics of it and the info I read on webmd.  Last week at my annual exam, my dr thought it was excess tissue.  Either way, I am a 'go instantly to worse case scenario' type of gal and am totally freaking out.  If you think of it today, could you please lift me up with prayers of peace for my heart and mind and prayers that this lump is not cancerous.  Thanks!  

Another fun list I saw on Pinterest that I thought I would use for my 2014 goals.  List by Lauren Conrad.

A bad habit I am going to break:
Coveting.  "Do not love the things of this world.  Those who covet will find no satisfaction." 1 John 2:15
"Be content with what you have-contentment allows you to enjoy what God has given you." Hebrews 13:5

A great article I recently read on this topic can be found at this link to Thriving Family Magazine.  This definitely describes all the issues I fight with in this digital age.

A destination I would like to visit:
I always want to go back to Hawaii but don't think that will actually happen again until my kids are older.  More realistically, I would love to go to New England in the fall and see the colors.

I am going to work harder at:
Decluttering my life.  I am a slight hoarder.  That fact combined with two small children and a house with no closets other than for clothes, means my house is always a cluttered mess.  I can't wait until we move and I actually have places to put things and I have space to go through all my treasures and get rid of stuff!

A project I would like to finish:
my house:)

A class I would like to take:
I would love to learn how to sew.

I would like to spend more time doing:
devotionals.  Still looking for a good book.  Let me know if you have a recommendation.

A food I want to ear more of:
I always need more chocolate in my life:)  I would like to incorporate quinoa in more things though.  I have a great stuffed pepper quinoa recipe but that is about all I have used it for.

I want to wear more:
This is one of my coveting issues.  I just don't have a budget for new clothes all the time so instead of saying I want to wear something more, I am going to commit to being happy that I have clothes to wear at all.

What are your resolutions?

weekly 10

1.  The last few winters I have longed for winter wonderland days where we are stuck inside, eating chili and cozying up to the fire.  I never really got that wish.  This year however we are trying to build a house and somehow I get that wish every.single.day.

2.  This is Jason shoveling off the first floor of our house.

3.  The other day I caught Grant putting my Victorias Secret swim catalog (previously put in the recycling bin) on the bookshelf.  I told him that we didn't need to keep that and he looked at me and siad,"I just want to keep it there so I can look at it every day."  LOL!

4.  This past weekend was supposed to be our annual ski trip up north.  Mother Nature decided to dump a lot of snow and cold temps on us so we chose to stay a little closer to home.  Grant loved skiing and if it wasn't really cold out, he probably would have stayed all day.

5.  Ashton even got his turn at skiing.  I had no doubts that he would love it since he loves anything that requires adventure.  He went down the hill with a daddy a couple times and then we made him go in cause it was cold out.  He also would have stayed out there all day.

6.  This was taken at the top of the mountain.  Whiteout conditions but the fluffy snow was really nice to ski through.

7.  After skiing we checked into a local hotel with a really cool pool.  The boys loved the hot tub that went outside.  Ashton loved the pool.  He is a true fish and scares the heck out of me.  I can't wait until June when he can get into his swim lessons.

8.  Grantism:  I took the ornaments off the tree while Grant was in quiet time the other day.  He came downstairs and said,"mom, why is the tree unhung?" 

9. It was definitely a weekend of outdoor adventure for us.  On Saturday Jason and I went snowshoeing through the golf course that our house is on.  It was beautiful out there and fun to see our house from a different perspective.

10.  Blessing of the week:  A "message" from above letting me know my girls are being loved on and taken good care of by their grandma in heaven.