Blessings:
1. The house was quiet for a very long time this morning. I guess the kids were all really tired – even Little Man slept in today. That allows me to work into my day slowly, and spend some quality time with God.
2. Tomorrow is supposed to be the big day for Fancy, Damian, and Salia! I’m excited to meet my newest granddaughter!
3. I enjoyed the Ladies’ Bible Study this afternoon – it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to get together with the “church ladies.”
4. Caleb is suddenly very interested in putting wires and batteries together to create things. Every wire, piece of metal, or battery is destined to be part of an “invention.” Maybe he has a future in electronics like his Scrivner progenitors.
5. Andrew and I wondered all evening why Little Man was grouchy. I was thinking teething, sickness, hungry, diaper...we tried to fix everything. As soon as the rest of the family came home from Taekwondo we found out what was wrong - Little Man missed his people! He's been a happy, giggly man since they got back. Crazy little monkey!
Blessings:
1. I was able to spend time with my mother-in-law and her sister today. Considering how crazy-busy our life is, that is a rarity.
2. I got my challenging new work task done while sitting in my Suburban in the WalMart parking lot.
3. We’re getting closer to adopting Little Man. We still have weeks to wait, but at least it’s not still months.
4. My kids are quite capable of making their own dinner – as you can see above, Nathan made a double-decker PB&J for his dinner. He was so proud – “it’s stuck together with jelly!” Nope. No sugar rush there.
5. Little Man can stand independently now…but don’t tell him that. As long as he’s holding something he’s good. So funny. He even takes a few steps. One time he did that, then looked down and saw that he wasn’t supported by anything and sat down. Silly man!
Blessings:
1. I had a weird start to the morning, but it was a very calm, relaxed morning anyway.
2. We were invited to go to the local Mexican restaurant for lunch. Yummy stuff!
3. We had a great time at church today. I enjoyed the music, and even the small bits of the message I heard spoke to me.
4. Little Man is getting more and more confidence in his balance and walking – he stood independently for a couple minutes this evening, holding on to a piece of paper. As far as he was concerned, he was still holding on. Funny boy.
5. Ken and I are watching Kyle XY on Netflix – I’ve really enjoyed watching it with him.
Blessings:
1. I got to sew something for the first time in a hundred evers!! I love this super cuddly, flannel blanket made for a brand-new little man in our neighborhood. I hope he likes it as much as I do!
2. My spunkity-punkity-munkin has been happy and loving on me today.
3. I set a couple goals to accomplish today, and I got them both done! Yay!
4. Somehow, a God who knows everything that’s going on every moment still has the time to listen to me. Crazy.
5. We had a delicious, sit-down-together-at-the-table dinner tonight. Dale helped cook and did a great job. The only missing piece was Caleb – he is spending the weekend with Nana. But mashed potatoes with bbq chicken is just the perfect combination.
Discussing baptism – apparently Nathan thought the water would wash his sins away, but he was concerned that if he was baptized after someone else the water would be dirtied by their sins and not clean enough to wash his away. Ken explained that if Nathan had asked Jesus to be his Lord and Savior his sins were already cleansed – the water was just visible representation of the change God had made in him. Nathan was relieved!
I found ALL of these in one drawer when I cleaned it out the other day. I think my children are toothbrush hoarders!
Blessings:
1. Ken and I were chatting with a friend (who attends an Assembly of God church) and she said, “I just respect you guys so much… even if you’re not Pentecostal.” Okay…it might be Baptist humor, but it sure did make me laugh. It’s still making me laugh. ‘Love you dearly, friend!!
2. I love candy corn.
3. I have laughed a lot today.
4. It’s the end of the work week. I love my job, but this has definitely been one of those weeks. I think I’ve made more corrections than progress this week.
5. It’s a chili kind of day. I love warm comfort food on a fall day.
Everyone else had their turn playing on the Game Boy today - Little Man wanted his turn too!
Blessings:
1. Little Man walked a few steps several times today. He’s going to do it on his own soon!
2. We sat down and had dinner as a family for the second night in a row! It’s been so crazy that we’ve gotten too scattered to have all our dinners together lately.
3. I love this song – Your Grace Still Amazes Me.
4. God meets our every need. What a relief. That’s not to say He meets them all the way we expect, but He never lets us down.
5.
I love some of the conversations in Scrivnerburg. Life is funny here! By the way, Philip got the correct answer – but that leads to another funny. On Tuesday I had been taking a few M&M’s out of the bag each time I passed it. On Wednesday I went to take a few out of the bag and said to myself, “Oh man! I ate a LOT of these yesterday!” Then Ken posted this status to Facebook and I realized it wasn’t all my fault. Whew!
Puzzled.
Blessings:
1. One of my coworkers commented that sometimes she didn’t know if she had her head on straight – my answer was meant to be funny, but when I thought about it seemed somewhat profound to me. And kinda like I was talking to me instead of her.
“Just remember, if you can see where you're going instead of where you've been, your head is on straight.”
2. Little Man was almost himself today for the first time in a couple weeks!
3. Despite the collection of mistakes I made at work yesterday, my manager recommended me for a complicated project – here’s the quote, “I would choose carefully who you give this one to (cough*cough**Elli**cough*cough) as it needs extra special attention.” That means it’s going to be a pain in the patootie, but she has confidence in me. It seems a little backwards, but I appreciate the confidence.
4. Andrew has been healthy for a looooooong time. What a blessing to realize he hasn’t needed steroids or even albuterol for his asthma in evers and evers!
5. I’m so thankful that I get to spend time with my mother.
Little Man's not-quite-well-yet body betrayed him. He was just playing in the play yard, minding his own business, and out of nowhere a nap grabbed him and took him down! Poor guy.
Blessings:
1. Sleep. Not a full night, and not enough…but it was sleep.
2. Caleb was cruising along in his school work today! He’s often slower than everyone else and we’re not done with school until after lunch, but today he just got right on it and moved along.
3. The kids have had a great time playing in the snow. It started to melt and got them soaked and cold, but it was a blast while it lasted!
4. Parmesan Crusted Chicken. Oh yeah.
5. I have a great family.
How ‘bout a photo blessings list for today?
1.
Very much a necessity today.
2.
Ah…he’s sleeping! Yay! He has a respiratory virus that brought croup with it, but he’s going to start feeling better very soon!
3.
Caleb did great at his dental visit – he had to have a general anesthetic, and it took him a while to recover, but he’s a rock star.
4.
The first snow of the season.
5.
Boys washing dishes. Love.
How is it that I managed to take at least 5 photos on the craziest of crazy busy days when I only had a couple hours of sleep last night? I dunno.
Bonus blessing: I tried my hand at the new task at work and it didn’t kill me.
(Credit where credit is due: Dale actually took this photo, as I was the one with the clippers.)
Blessings:
1. I’m enjoying these low-key Sunday mornings.
2. I got two boys’ haircuts done before Ken took them off to visit a different church (ours meets in the evenings now). I wanted to tell Ken about my relief in getting two of the five done…
”I finished two of the headaches…headcuts…haircuts.”
3. Ken, asking Nathan about his play time at the unfamiliar church:
”Was there a person…I mean human…I mean adult back there with you?” (Of course, by the time he finally got “adult” out, we were both laughing so hard he could hardly finish.) I always suspected kids weren’t really human.
Both of these funnies were totally unintentional…but I think they show some deeper meanings. :-)
4. I always pray about the songs for worship (I choose them for our church), and I can usually see a theme or progression in the music as I pick out the songs…this week I could not. There was not theme that I could see…until we were singing them in church and I realized every song had the word “everlasting” in it. The best part was that Pastor Michael and Ken both spoke during our service, and each of them used that word also – God did have a point in choosing those songs! He wanted to be sure that we understand that He and His covenants are everlasting. Amen.
5. I love Totino’s Pizza Rolls. Specifically the original pepperoni ones. Mmmm…
Blessings:
1. Frontier Café and their 7 Layer Dip. The dip was great, but even better was the service they provided for Fancy’s baby shower. Awesomeness!
2. There were some pricelessly funny moments at the baby shower.
3. I’m all out of order – before the baby shower I took the kids in to Missoula for our friend Clara’s birthday party. They had a blast. (They were at Galaxy Elite.)
4. While they were partying, Little Man and I were shopping at Target. Double win!
5. Little Man is sleeping through his cold rather than fussing through his cold. I’m sorry he’s sick (again), but if he has to be sick, I sure am glad he’s not a grumpy sick boy.
Blessings:
1. I got a little extra sleep. Seems like that was probably a good thing, because I think I’m living with a constant sleep deficit.
2. We have plenty of food.
3. My kids (and Felice’s) were able to play outside for an hour and a half without disturbing our life group meeting.
4. I was attacked by the cutest ewok look-alike I’ve ever seen. I wanted to take pictures of Gimli, but he kept running right up to me so that I couldn’t focus on him. So so so cute! He even barked…I think. Even his bark is small! I’m not sure if we were taking pictures or playing, but either way it was fun. What a sweet, tiny, tiny, tiny dog.
5. I enjoyed the conversation we had during our life group. It was interesting and encouraging.
Blessings:
1. No school today! Whoohoo!
2. My workday was done early enough to do other stuff in the evening. It wasn’t productive, but it wasn’t work, either.
3. I love worship music. This is one of my current favorites – 10,000 Reasons.
4. I get to go to bed soon (I’m exhausted).
5. My sweetie bought me peanut butter M&Ms because he loves me.
It seems like most of my photos lately have been of Caleb or parts of Little Man. I do have other children…
Kristi was having fun with doo-dads while we waited for our food.
Blessings:
1. I was nominated for a fun “award.”
2. It’s a gorgeous day – pretty leaves, brisk wind, no smoke, snow in the mountains…
3. Nana invited us out for dinner.
4. I did finish my work day! (I didn’t think I was going to get done today – it was a crazy day.)
5. Little Man took 3 steps today!
Have you ever heard a Liebster Blog Award? I hadn’t either, but it’s fun! It is apparently intended to help bloggers with small followings get more readers, and I greatly appreciate the nomination. Thank you Jennifer!
Here are the rules I was given:
* You have to list 11 things about yourself.
* Answer the 11 questions sent to you by the person who nominated you.
* Choose UP TO 11 bloggers that have less than 200 followers to nominate to get their own award.
* Post 11 questions (in your blog post) for them to answer (on their own blog).
* Go to your nominees page and inform them of their award.
* You CAN NOT tag back.
Okay – 11 things about me.
1. I get coffee before I even change the baby out of his overnight diaper.
2. I spend time in the Word of God every morning – after getting my coffee (and usually after changing the baby’s diaper).
3. I stay up way too late to get up at 5:45am.
4. My favorite food is pizza.
5. I can knit, crochet, sew, and take pictures…and I love to do all of them when I have time.
6. I am easily irritated. (Yeah – that’s one of the not-so-positive aspects.)
7. I can not remember what it felt like to be bored.
8. I have lived in Montana longer than I lived in all the other places combined.
9. I wore mismatched socks and earrings on purpose long before it was cool.
10. I have clean laundry all over my bedroom (and yet I make my kids put theirs away).
11. Next year my darling beloved and I will celebrate 25 years of marriage. Zowie howie.
Jennifer’s questions for me:
1 ) If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
I did! I changed it from Elli Morrison to Elli Scrivner 24+ years ago!
2) Your happiest memory from before you were 10?
Laughing with my two cousins until my head hurt – that was Christmas 1976.
3) Do you like your job? Why or why not?
Followers of my blog will know that I love my job. It’s perfect for me – tedious, detailed, geeky.
4) Name the first three things that pop into your head, that start with T.
Tigers, Temple Run, Television
5) Favorite Book?
The Bible, and almost anything by Max Lucado.
6) Where did you meet your best friend?
My best male friend – at a roller rink in Fairbanks, Alaska (that was my husband). My best female friend – in my own front yard. She came to introduce herself because her kids came to play.
7) It's 2:34 PM. Where are you on a typical day, and what are you doing?
At home, working. I generally try to work from around 1pm to around 4pm at my “day job.”
8) Do you use coupons?
Occasionally, but I’m not a serious couponer.
9) What was the last thing you bought for yourself?
Shoes. Clearance shoes from Kmart.
10) Coffee or Tea?
Coffee, coffee, coffee, and more coffee.
11) If you could tell your 16 yr old self one thing, what would be?
When you’re 40 you’re going to think you’re okay. And you’re going to know that what all those other people thought didn’t really matter. (I know, that’s really two things.)
My nominations are:
Nancy – my friend, and one of the most content people I know. She’s such a good example of enjoying each moment!
Leslie – my photography/homeschooling/faith-sharing friend. Her family cracks me up – I mean, really…check this out.
Elle – she’s the one who caused me to start counting my blessings a few years ago – if you want to bask in a positive outlook, check out her Facebook page.
(I’m only nominating 3 because the other blogs I follow and love are much larger than the guideline.)
And here are my questions for my nominees:
1. What is your favorite candy?
2. What is your dream job?
3. If you were given unlimited funds, what would be the first thing you would do with your new wealth?
4. What part does faith play in your life?
5. Who taught you to cook?
6. What attracted you to your husband?
7. How many potholders do you own?
8. What’s your favorite tv show?
9. Do you have a college degree?
10. What is your guilty indulgence?
11. Do you keep a journal or diary?
Thanks again, Jennifer! This has been really fun!
Blessings:
1. Caleb felt so good today he was out running in the blowing leaves. Today was the first day in over a week that he didn’t even need a nap!
2. Today was the perfect fall day – wind, leaves, rain…it was awesome!
3. School is getting a little harder, but today was a good day – we only had one little meltdown.
4. My darling husband used to say, “Some days are diamonds. Some days are really hard jelly beans.” (I wonder why he doesn’t say it anymore – does he dislike jelly beans now?) Today had some jelly beans, but it’s always great when a jelly bean day mixes in some diamonds.
5. After a couple difficult days with our precious 11-year-old, today was a calm day. No meltdowns (a couple raised-voice moments, but that’s all), no refusals, and she was actually playing with and squealing with her siblings. Yay! (Of course, immediately after I typed that she started in on one of her brothers. Makes me laugh.)
Blessings:
1. Caleb is feeling better today! Yay!
2. We got higher speed internet today. Whoohoo!
3. The colors are just beautiful outside right now.
4. We have a fairly easy school week. I still can’t believe how far we are in this school year already! It’s the 7th week! Craziness!
5. Little Man is amused by the simplest things – the dog food bowl, a gate, a cupboard full of plastic dishes…he plays and laughs and plays some more. It’s wonderful!
My poor Caleb is still sick. That’s not the blessing.
Blessings:
1. Caleb’s illness isn’t dire. It’s just totally miserable. He has a pretty bad case of gastroenteritis – in other words, a stomach bug. The doctor says it’s going to go away on its own, but it will be a few days yet. Poor boy.
2. I had sweet snuggle time with Caleb this morning. We don’t do that very often anymore, but he sure wanted mommy snuggles today.
3. Our church co-hosted a special event this evening that was very interesting (in a good way) and informative. We also spent some time visiting…that’s always fun.
4. I am so thankful that we have a responsible teenage son who can take care of the younger kids when we have to leave them home. It helps that Little Man slept the whole time we were gone. But even if he hadn’t, Dale can handle it. What a blessing.
5. Have I mentioned my love for Blue Bunny Mint Bon Bon ice cream? I’ve recently become almost obsessed. I don’t feel too bad about it – I’ve been working off any extra calories getting up multiple times a night with wakeful kids all week.
I’m looking forward to a healthy, energetic week!
Blessings:
1. I woke up to the sound of rain today! Hallelujah!
2. I found a fabulous baby monitor app that works with my current phone and my old phone (together – one sends to the other). No more sad baby who couldn’t be heard!
3. Ken took all 6 of the older kids to the park for a while – once Little Man went to sleep I had time alone! It was short, but it was sweet.
4. This picture cracked me up.
5. All Little Man needs for entertainment is a wheel. He was quite pleased with the sounds he could make with the big one shown above with the fat, new tire.
Blessings:
1. This has been a very full, fun day!
2. The Liner family offered to babysit our kids while we go to the Get Loud concert this evening.
3. Dinner at El Cazador – it was so good! I’d forgotten how delicious their food is!
4. The Get Loud concert was great. I enjoyed the music, and the worship. Great night!
5. I spent the evening with some funny people…Fabulous Felice, Radiant Rachael, Angelic Anola, and Captivating Ken.
Today you get a bonus shot because I have to share this shot of Fabulous Felice’s new baby, Gimli.
It was another one-picture day. I snapped this one while I was at Kmart to send to my friend Felice. She teases me about how tiny my hands look with the big big rings on. I thought she'd get a chuckle out of this huge one. She did.
Blessings:
1. We decluttered one corner of the living room. Ahhh….that’s so much better!
2. This made me laugh:
Conversation in Scrivnerburg:
Ken: "Elli, do you want to keep ALL these kids' books? While we're [cleaning this bookshelf corner] we could sort out the ones we don't need."
Elli: "You want me to get rid of BOOKS?!?!?!?!?!?"
Ken: "Um..."
Elli: "Keep the good ones. The ones with words in them."
3. I got to spend some time with just my mother-in-love today.
4. I have a very full life.
5. Dinner was a hit tonight – Chicken & Stuffing Skillet. Andrew even declared it “heaven.” It’s been a while since we had “heaven.” Here’s the original recipe. I did what my mother taught me – I followed the recipe exactly, except for the changes I made.
Blessings:
1. I was able to mostly stay home today!
2. The one time I wasn’t at home it was for a trip out to the Refuge with Fancy and Damian to take maternity photos.
3. When I came home from the refuge Ken and the kids had taken care of dinner. Yay!
4. My kids have come so far. (And Lactaid tablets.)
5. Mint chip ice cream.
Blessings:
1. It’s sorta yesterday’s blessing – when I had the symptoms of what turned out to be a viral bug yesterday, they were short-lived. Unfortunately they haven’t been so quick to pass for Caleb and Little Man. But at least I’m not sick when they need me.
2. I discovered a great web service today. I haven’t needed this since I read about it on a blog, but this is going to be so helpful for me! Where’s My Cellphone?!?!
3. Well, it will be helpful when I get my new phone (yes, my 3rd htc Rezound). I’m so thankful that I have been paying for insurance. It would have cost more than I can afford to get my broken phone fixed, and I sure can’t afford a new one without insurance. Whew! It’s a good thing I’ve paid that $5.18 every month!
4. My kitchen is clean, clean, clean. Since Ken took most of the boys off to Taekwondo I spent the evening cleany-cleaning my kitchen. And then I got to spend some time watching it stay clean.
5. I had some nice, quiet time this evening to do things that needed to get done (like cleany-cleaning the kitchen, and clearing papers off my desk.)
It’s been a while since I had a single photo day, but today was one. Kristi asked me to take a picture of the puzzle she put together.
Blessings:
1. I was able to visit with my aunt and my cousin today. I only get to see my aunt about once a year, and I haven’t seen my cousin in more than 9 years. What a blessing!
2. I had a great workday today – such a change from last Monday!
3. I’m really looking forward to new things at church.
4. I have insurance on my phone.
5. Walking with my sweetie in the evening.
I'm not sure if this is football or monkey in the middle or something else entirely. I do know that Nathan (with the rake) said, "I have a rake, and I know how to use it!" The funny thing is, somehow this pass still managed to make it past the rake.
Blessings:
1. A mellow Sunday morning. Having only evening services is…different…but it leaves the morning free for calm, relaxing nothingness.
2. It’s a gorgeous fall day.
3. New music for our worship service tonight.
4. I had a joyful time in the house of the Lord today. It was so good to have Fancy there with us tonight!
5. Sitting in the living room listening to the sound of silence. Priceless.
Blessings:
1. Andrew wanted apple crisp for breakfast, so he and I made it together this morning. We did it the easiest way possible – canned apple pie filling, instant oatmeal packets, and melted butter. Simple, simple, simple, and yummy! (We did this today instead of on his birthday because it was a school day and it’s too hard to get everything done before school as it is.)
2. It’s finally party day! We went to Westside Lanes in Missoula for Andrew’s bowling birthday party.
3. The bowling party was a great success – everyone had fun, and the price was well worth it.
4. Little Man was once again sleepless all afternoon and evening, but he was an angel.
5. Our house is relatively quiet – we only have 4 kids at home, and they’re exhausted.
Blessings:
1. Wow! Has it really been 14 years since my Andrew was born? It's crazy, but true. We've had some interesting times over the last 14 years, but I am thankful for all of them. Andrew is an amazing kid who has accomplished so much more than we might have thought possible. Happy birthday, Andrew! I am so proud of you!
2. I work with a great group of people.
3. Company picnic!
4. It was the last day of week 5 of school. I can’t believe how quickly the first 5 weeks went!
5. Today was the best day all week!
Instead of blessings today, I think I’ll post the “new rules” in Scrivnerburg:
1. Everyone must wear clean clothes every day. I just made that one up - 14 years ago.
2. You may not stab at things with a knife (especially if you’re under the age of…say…47).
3. No yelling outside the bedroom door when the baby is asleep.
4. Okay…this isn’t a rule…it’s just funny. 
5. I just can’t write a post without blessings: a) funny kids, b) funny pets, c) my honey cooked dinner for me, d) chocolate chip cookies, e) it’s sweater time!
Andrew is very excited about his upcoming birthday!
Blessings:
1. We finally, finally, finally had precipitation this morning! We tied a record of 42 days without measurable precipitation. Now maybe we will start to see some relief from fires and smoke.
2. We have two vehicles. That’s good because when one breaks down we have another one to use.
3. My husband is able to fix vehicles that break down.
4. I got my work done before superdy-duperdy late. I thought I was going to be working until past bedtime, but I finished before bedtime!
5. God is good. All the time.
Little Man was communing with the teddy bear. The bear didn't say much, but that was okay because Little Man seemed to carry the conversation quite well on his own.
Blessings:
1. God did not “sentence” us to a houseful of special needs children – He rewarded us with a quiver full of beautiful people. (See Psalm 127:3-5.)
2. Crock pot dinner! I love it when I fix it early in the day and don’t have to worry about it at dinner time. This one is Chicken Enchilada Soup.
3. Happy McFlappy. That’s one of Little Man’s nicknames, and it was completely appropriate today. Several times today he sat on the living room floor laughing great, long chuckles of happiness for no apparent reason.
4. Andrew’s birthday is all set. Whew! Nothing like waiting ‘til the last minute. This Saturday the family will be having a bowling party. It’s going to be fun!
5. Almost bed time!
Blessings:
1. We did finish school before midnight! (Actually it was before 1pm, but it was our latest day so far this school year.)
2. My reminder from the Word today – “Do not grow weary in doing good.” (2 Thess. 3:13) Sometimes the day-to-day “good” makes me feel weary – but it’s important to God, so it needs to be important to me.
3. My job is not a life-and-death situation. Whew! If it was, someone would have died on my watch today. It was definitely one of “those” days!
4. My friend posted this funny that amused me at 7am, but by 5pm it was more irony than amusement…
(I did not create this graphic – I can not take credit for it. I could not find an original source. If someone knows the original source, I will give credit where credit is due.)
5. Little Man grins and bounces when he sees me come into the room. He loves me. (He loves Daddy more, but I’m going to ignore that part.)
What were the moments of joy in your day?
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