Day 228

Today we went to my mom and dad's.  Mom had all of Jake's cousins over for a visit so we all got to hang out together and play around.  We don't do this enough but I'm really thankful for there not being hours of distance between us.  This makes it pretty easy to have days like today where its a pop in visit and some good quality family time spent together.  Thanks God!

Day 227

I love flowers, love, love, love flowers!  Did I mention I like flowers.  Well on the way home today we stopped at walmart and got an amazing deal on flowers, $15 for a pot full, when at home they are $7 for a little tiny pot of one flower.  Thanks God for the great deal!  Thanks for the great drive home and Jacob being such a great little traveller!!

Day 226

Sometimes when I'm parenting I wonder if I'm gaining.  Is my discipline making any difference, is he learning from his mistakes?  Today I learned that it is.  I saw a glimmer of how it is making a difference and I'm raising a compassionate little boy.  Jacob was miserable and he was just being plain whiny and grumpy.  He even yelled back at me and this I don't tolerate and he has to say sorry for when he does it.  He was so miserable that there was no winning and so in his fit I just put him down for a nap.  Well before his nap I had been trying to get him to say sorry and he refused.  Now I don't want him to say it just for the sake of saying it I do want him to be remorseful when he says it or else its a meaningless apology.  So he fell asleep and then when he woke up the first words out of his mouth were "I'm sorry".  He's getting it, and he understands, and he remembered!  Thanks God for showing me I am doing the right thing and that it is working.

Day 225

A number of years ago I started a new position and the moment I met one of my co-workers I felt like I had met them before, one of those people that you are instantly comfortable around and you just know that you like this person.  My friend Marlene is one of those people to me.  Today I got to spend the whole day with her, something that doesn't happen very often because we live 5 hours apart now.  I miss her but when we have limited time together now you tend to appreciate the person even more.  Thanks God for this gift of Marlene and our friendship that I'm pretty sure will continue well into our grey years.

Day 224

Today we are going to surprise my dear friend Marlene and surprise her with us coming for a visit.  I still had lots to do, clean the house, pack, all that stuff before we left though.  Jacob decided to sleep in today though giving me the extra time to get it all done before he woke up.  A very nice little gift!  Then we took off and had a really good drive together.  Yes I packed the portable dvd player but I thought I would just bring it out to use in an emergent situation when he was miserable of travelling.  I didn't even have to use it though!  He was a great traveller chatting away to me about the things he saw out the window.  The whole day from start to finish was a great and miraculous day.  Thanks God!

Day 223

I went for lunch with a dear friend today and since I had the day off I thought I would treat myself to a drink at lunch time.  Well I almost fell off my seat when she asked for ID.  I'm 31!  So she thought I looked young enough to look 18.  A huge compliment in my books.
So my other miracle of today would be that as I've dreamed of what the perfect man would be like over the years there are certain things that have been added to the list.  Now I don't have a formal written down list as much as qualities or traits that I would like in a man that are rambling around in my head.  These qualities or traits usually have been decided upon because previous men didn't have them and I wished they had at the time.  So one of these traits is that I wanted to end up with someone who was appreciative of me and the things that I did for them.  Someone who didn't take for granted what I did for them.  Daniel is that appreciative man.  He always says thank you and this morning he was even more so, maybe because I cleaned his house but how he thanked me so many times after the fact made me not mind at all cleaning his house and I will most likely do it again because I know that he doesn't take what I do for him for granted.  So thank you God for this man and his appreciation of me.

Day 222

Today is Mother's day and wouldn't you know it in Jacob's little subconscious he must have known because he slept in giving me some extra quiet morning time.  Thanks God for this wonderful gift!!

Day 221

Today may seem like a silly miracle but it was a prayer and God did answer so therefore according to my books and this blog that is a miracle.  My mom has been looking for a dress for my brothers upcoming wedding for months now.  Everything hasn't fit right or isn't her style.  Today we were on the hunt to find a dress.  I even prayed on the way that she would find a dress.  Well since I'm writing about this you can assume yes the miracle did happen and she found a dress!  Thank you God!!  Even for the little silly requests he is there to answer and grant the miracles.

Day 220

Jacob was sick today.  Now how can this be a blessing??  It wasn't.  Especially not today because I had to cover for my boss and so I couldn't stay at home with him and just snuggle.  So what possibly could be a miracle of today?  Well the fact that my sitters think nothing of keeping Jacob and snuggling with him on the couch when I can't.  I am so blessed with this family to look after Jacob when I can't.  Thank you God for them especially today when I can't be with him.

Day 219

I have commented before what a blessing my friends are but there are 4 of us that really step up when the other needs someone/thing.  I never thought of myself as part of a group of girls but really these 4 women are my girls.  I know that we each lead very separate lives but when we really need each other we are there.  Thanks God for these wonderful women in my life.

Day 218

Today we were blessed at work with a new employee that started.  She is amazing and a great fit into the office dynamics and I really enjoy her company.  Thanks God for blessing not only me but our entire office with this wonderful new addition!

Day 217

So if you consistently read my blog you know that I along with other who work with this man have been able to get a man his dying wish to visit his homeland.  Today I got to tell that man that he is going home.  I know you probably are thinking that this must have been such an emotional moment.  It wasn't.  In his own way he showed excitement and told us a poem in his language of origin.  However there was still a feeling in the room.  A feeling of accomplishment and anticipation.  Thank you God for all of the things you have done to be able to get this man his dying wish.

Day 216

I had a meeting today with a family at work that can be a bit contenscious at the best of times and it went very smoothly.  Thanks God for just bringing peace into the room and allowing everyone to be heard and not feel belittled or uncomfortable.  I know that this peace in the room was directly from you.

Day 215

Jacob is starting to be more and more inquisitive about God, God's book, Jesus and all of that.  I'm so thankful that he seems to be understanding it and the importance of God and Jesus in our lives.  He knows so much more about all of it than I did at his age already.  Today in church he was holding my cross and said, "Jesus cross, Jesus died on the cross."  Yes he did and he died for us to be saved and live eternally.  I'm so proud of this little boy understanding it already and that already he is starting to build a relationship with God and Jesus.  Thank you God.

Day 214

I got a nice little unexpected surprise of my mom asking to take Jacob overnight for a visit.  Whenever this happens I'm grateful and take it as a miracle because it is a gift.  So thanks God and thanks for my mom as well!

Day 213

I belong to a group of women who together raise money for families in need in our local community.  We found that we would like to have one more person join our group.  We agonize on who would be a good fit with our personalities because there is a lot of fun that we have and not all people might get our humor.  Last year we were approached by a local home business who wanted to help us out and donate a cake to our big event.  Through this donation we got to know the family of the home business and the woman really seemed like she might be a good fit for our group and so we discussed it amongst us and decided to invite her to join us.  She is an amazing fit and I actually foresee her becoming the next  chairperson one day which is great news for me because I don't want to be chairperson for many more years.  So thanks God for blessing our group with this woman but also thank you for bringing her to me so that she may one day take my place in the group and we will all feel comfortable with it.

Day 212

This morning we were both up early and ready to go so I thought I'd treat us and go to McDonald's for breakfast.  We arrived, got our meal and sat to enjoy our breakfast.  Jacob chattered away to me, quite the little personality he is developing into.  I'm just amazed at how quickly he's becoming a little person. 
Back to breakfast.  Another mom had the same idea as us and she brought her daughter to enjoy McDonald's this morning.  Their breakfast did not go as smoothly as ours.  Soon enough there were the typical threats to send the young one to go and sit in the car, which you know never happens.  Then coaxing her to eat, then crying, then a fall, then swearing and cursing and it just went from bad to worse.  As I watched and heard this situation going on I was so thankful for the little boy sitting across from me chatting away to me, eating his breakfast, sitting nicely on his chair.  Thankful that I've never felt the need to lose my cool and resort to swearing and yelling at my son and thankful that  Jacob is just such a mild mannered easy child to parent.  Thank you God again for blessing me with this wonderful little boy that I get to be a mom to.

Day 211

I have been trying to get an elderly man his dying wish for about 4 years now.  He has a request to go back to his home country and then pass away there.  Well to figure out how to get an incapacitated man, with no friends or family to take him to a different country is a difficult feat.  A few years ago I was able to find a man who was willing to be hired to take him.  This ended up not happening because the elderly man became paranoid that the companion was going to steal all his money.  So we had to start from scratch all over again.
Well the elderly fellow said that he still had family in his home country so we were able to miraculously locate a nephew and thought that it was going to work for him to go and live with the nephew.  That is until in the 4th phone conversation the nephew asked for $50,000 cash to take his uncle.  So that was no longer going to be a viable option. 
So the man does have a friend who spends a lot of time with him but the issue was that the trustee wouldn't allow the man to pay for someone else to accompany him to go and the friend isn't well off enough to pay for a trip "just because".  So yet another roadblock to getting this man his dying wish.  Well a few months ago his file was transferred and he was assigned a new trustee, whose.............family originates from this man's home country and has visited that country numerous times.  This trustee is willing to allow this man to go back to his home country, take his companion and enjoy his money while he's still alive.  What a miracle!  After so man roadblocks we finally are all working together to get this man his dying wish.  Now you can't tell me that any of this isn't a miracle.  It all is, every single step of the way has been a miracle.  Thanks God, and thank you for allowing me to do your work.

Day 210

I don't often pray and have a request in which I want an immediate answer but today I did.  I was at the farm with Daniel and he had to pull a calf.  I've seen this happen numerous times before and have been fine with witnessing it happening.  Today though was different.  For whatever reason as I was watching the miracle of birth I started to feel light headed, then I started to see spots, and then everything started to get blurry.  I was going to pass out!  SO I said a prayer to God asking him to help me through this and to not let me faint in front of Daniel and his grandpa, what a sight I would have been falling down and fainting during my first calf experience with them!  I started breathing deep and praying more.  His grandpa was talking to me and I just answered with yes or no and kept praying.  God answered me and I didn't pass out and was fine.  Then later I did chores with Daniel and I wondered if I should tell him or not.  I bit the bullet and told him.  Well it could have gone either way; he could have been sympathetic or he could have laughed at me.  He was very humble and didn't make fun of me but rather told me of a story of when he was skinning a calf, yes I said skinning, and he all of a sudden woke up and was getting trampled by a cow.  So he didn't fare as well as I did in not passing out.  So thanks God for answering me right then and there. 
An aside.  When a calf dies they skin it and then if there is an orphan calf they put the skin on the orphan calf and re-introduce it to the cow that lost her calf.  It's 99% successful; and also known as adoption on the farm!!

Easter Monday; doing chores with Daniel.  Not passing out with the calf being born.

Day 209

It's Easter!!!!  Today is a huge miracle.  Jesus came alive today and did what he said he was going to do.  Rise from the dead 3 days later and open the gates of heaven.  Open the gates to everlasting life.  Thank you God!!!
So this is one miracle of the day that truly is a miracle every day after it happened.  The other miracle is that Jacob did get the meaning of today.  We were at my parents and his cousin asked him what the easter bunny brought Jacob and I quickly said, "oh the easter bunny actually didn't bring Jacob any presents.  Jacob can you tell M why you got a present today?"  To which he shouted, " Jesus is alive!"  The enthusiasm was just priceless.  Thanks God for having my son already start to know you and build a relationship with you.