new look & a shameless plug

A little blog refresh this weekend.  It just feels like spring is the best time for that kind of stuff!

Gonna be honest and just go ahead and say that this is my most favoritest design I've ever done for any blog.  I guess it's good that it was for me! ;)

(But seriously, if anyone's in the market for a new blog design or any kind of graphic design whatsoever, head on over to tailormade designs and check out my portfolio!)

I've got some stuff in the works to go along with my new look, so keep checking back!  Or you could sign up to receive my posts straight to your inbox.  Handy, eh?  Just type your email into the little box  under "SUBSCRIBE" in my sidebar and click submit!  Now you never have to miss a post!

Oh, hey there

I really have been meaning to post.

Since school started, though, I've just felt really scarce, like there wasn't enough of me to go around.  The kids' school is twenty minutes away and it takes about ten minutes for pick up and drop off, which means almost two hours every day are spent getting them there and home.  Then I have groceries, or Costco, or laundry, or playdate, or something.  Seriously... I've been meaning to take my car in for service for months, and there just never seems to be time!  (Nothing urgent, obviously.)

So blogging has slipped.

I can't believe I still haven't written Hallie's birthday post!  It's sitting -- all five words I have so far -- in my drafts along with ONE paragraph of the fifth part of Our Love Story!  Oooooops.

So.  Both of those are coming soooon.  (I realize I've been saying that since November, but I really am going to try to carve out some time this month or next to actually write!)

For now, enjoy these pictures of the cute little pup we adopted a few weeks ago.  (I know.  I do feel insane for adding a puppy into this already crazy mix.)

His name is Ranger, and he's a cutie.

The kids just love him, especially the boys.  

Their favorite game is chase, though we're still teaching Ranger that it's not acceptable to try to rip clothes off of people. ;)

Guest Posting at His Ladyship!

Hey, y'all!  I'm guest posting over at His Ladyship today!

The lovely ladies over there have been writing a series entitled "Return to Fairy Tales" and I'm so honored that they asked me to be a part of it!  Head on over there to read about one of my favorite fairy tale princesses and why I want to be just like her!

Hi there.

It's been a long time, I know.

Truthfully?  I haven't felt like I could write before now.  I've been so low on grace the past two months.  I've been hard on myself, hard on my husband, and hard on my kids.  There's just been so much going on with our family and with me emotionally and my fuse has been extra short.

I'd like to say I've turned a corner, but I can't really say that if I'm being honest (and I promised myself to always be honest here).  But I will say that I'm trying harder.

No, I'm not trying harder to stop losing my temper.  I'm not trying harder to be happy.  I'm not even trying harder to be a better wife/mom/person.

I'm not trying harder to do anything, other than go to the One who can make me better and happy and give me self-control.  Because I can't do it on my own.

Life updates soon, I promise! :)

In the mean time, check out Charlyn's Heart, a blog by a sweet woman I have known for many, many years.  I had the privilege of designing her blog a few weeks ago.  I know her heart will bless you like it has me!

A Little Post of Randoms

Hello, friends.

My mind is everywhere lately and I can't seem to form coherent thoughts, much less compose a whole blog post.

Welcome to the sleepless nights of the third trimester, Mama.

So, I thought I would just post a few random things that have been on my mind.  Who knows... it might be entertaining to see where this leads...

Hopefully next week, I'll be able to get my thoughts in order long enough to write something worth reading! :)

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I got a domain!  It's been something I've been meaning to do for years, but I finally took the plunge and did it!  Woo!

I've been designing my sister's wedding website and was working in their domain trying to get it linked to the host (looooong story -- like 2-3 days long) and when I finally figured it out, I decided I might as well take what I'd learned and do my own.

Mine took literally 10 seconds.  Go figure.

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I missed my organizational goal last week.  I just hit a wall.  We hosted a Super Bowl party for our Sunday school class.  It took me two days to recover and when I did, the last thing I wanted to do was organize a closet.  So now I'm a week behind, which means I'll either remain a week behind and just tack the last project on at the end or I'll have to overlap projects a bit.  Not sure which one I'll do.

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During my previous two pregnancies, I've severely limited my sweets intake during the third trimester.  And by severely limited, I mean I would only ingest them on the weekends.

But I can't seem to bring myself to do it this time around.  I just want to reward myself for keeping the kids alive... or making dinner... or finishing the laundry... or whatever.  Because all of those things are the last things I want to be doing.  (Well, obviously I want to keep my kids alive.  But sometimes I wish they could keep themselves alive for at least five minutes!)

And because I keep eating all this sugar, I'm starting to worry that Asher is going to be quite a bit bigger than my other two 8lb, 6oz babies (yes, they were the same size).

Lord, help me!

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I am SO behind on laundry.  Ugh.  Last week, I had to pull stuff out of the dirty clothes just to have something to wear.  I've been pretty good about staying on top of my kids' laundry, especially with Hallie outgrowing all of her clothes (only a few outfits still fit) and Gabriel going to MDO (skinny kid only has four pairs of pants that fit around the waist).

But my laundry is rarely all clean at the same time.  Which means I'll have pants, but no shirts, or vice versa... or I'll have clothes, but no panties.  Poor Drew has been forced to do his own on the weekends.  Sometimes I'm able to fold it for him, but more often, he's living out of laundry baskets.

Currently I have 3 clean loads sitting in my hall, one in Hallie's room, and one in the dryer.  Guess I know what I'll be doing during nap time today.

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My car is in desperate need of a vacuum.  I haven't had the inside done since the summer... before our family vacation to the beach.  Yeah.  Gross.  It's just so hard to sit and wait with two toddlers, even on the weekends when I have Daddy's help.  Add another thing to the list of things to do when Gabriel's at MDO!

---

Tomorrow, I have to take my glucose test.  I'm freaking out a little.  You'd think, being that this is my third, stuff like needles and getting blood drawn would be no big deal.  But it is a big deal.  I don't know if I'll have both kids (how long is pneumonia contagious?) or if Drew will be able to take off work in the morning to offer moral support.  And considering I have to drink the glucose mixture first, then sit and wait for however long with one antsy toddler (possibly two)... I'm just not looking forward to it at all.  Who could blame me?


Well, that's all for today, folks.  Time to go fold some laundry, call the pediatrician, and start dinner prep.

Whew.  Wish me luck!

Life Updates

It's been a busy past few weeks, y'all.  We've been fighting another round of colds (just the kids, no adults this time).  Ugh.  Cold season is the worst.  I think we're past the worst of it, though... especially considering Houston thinks it is now spring.

Lovely. /sarcasm

Taken this week, y'all.  Me thinks the weather is a little confused.

In the mean time, I've been attempting to stay on top of laundry, feed my family, prevent my kids from killing each other (I joke... kind of), and keep my house presentable.

(Note I did not say clean.  Tidy is about as much as I can handle these days.  I mopped my hardwood floors last week -- the whole first floor -- and it completely wiped me out for two days.  Last time that's happening until Baby Boy's arrival.  Whew!)

But basically, I just haven't given much thought to blogging.  Well, let me rephrase:  I've thought a lot about it, but I made a commitment to myself when I started Sufficient Grace that I would never post because I "needed" to.

This blog is an outlet for me to relax and escape.  To reflect.  To allow God to teach me things through my writing and my experiences.  It is not -- and will not be! -- a requirement.

So while I have thought a lot about posting, I just didn't.  Mainly because 1) I didn't have any energy and because 2) I just didn't feel like I had anything to write about.  It's been a boring few weeks, y'all.

On the bright side, I was able to make a list of all my "nesting" projects that need to get done before Asher's arrival, complete with due dates!  I have about one a week from now until April 1st.  And then in April I'm making freezer meals.  Tons and tons of freezer meals.

At least that's the plan...

In any case, last week I finished organizing my closet.  It was a huge project.  When we moved in October, I was right in the middle of transitioning into maternity clothes, so I never bothered unpacking or hanging up the rest of my stuff.  I also threw in all the baby stuff that Hallie wasn't using any more... as well as random odds and ends that just didn't go anywhere yet.

I so wish I had a "before" picture to show y'all!  It was a mess!

Midway point!  Looking better already!

Done!  Not perfect, but I still have to add Asher's things.

And then today, I took everything out of my pantry and reorganized it.  Again, despite my best intentions, I failed to take a "before" picture.  I blame the pregnancy. :|

This poor pantry was pretty disorganized.  Whoever unpacked it, just stacked stuff ev.ry.where.  It's been driving me absolutely crazy, but with morning sickness, two littles, and the holidays, I just hadn't had time to tackle it.

Sheesh!  Who knew I had so much space in there?!

Now everything is grouped together nicely, even if it doesn't look more organized.  Eventually, I want to get everything in uniform containers.  But that is expensive and time consuming and just not something I'm ready to take on right now.

So that's what I've been up to the last few weeks.

What's been going on in y'all's lives, friends?

My Vision

Second Corinthians 12:9 is the heart behind my blog.  It completely sums up my life being a wife and mommy -- failing daily because of sin and weakness, but knowing that His grace is enough for me.

I want to have grace like that.  Grace for myself, my husband, and my kids.  Freely I have received, so freely I want to give.

My vision for this blog is an outlet for me to share my life.  I want to share funny stories, sad stories, and happy stories.  I want to share God stories.  I want to share stories of His grace with me and (hopefully) my grace with others.

This is a place for me to be transparent and open.  I hope y'all don't mind my honesty. :)