Making the Most of Milwaukee

Monday. Day 53: I'm grateful for online sermons. I looked up the church website of the pastor I met on Sunday, and they had several sermons online. I really enjoyed listening (throughout the week) to his sermons as I went about my days. Every one was encouraging and challenging. Tuesday. Day 54: I'm grateful for chances to be a helper. Today I helped out my close friend, Marie, who was in the process of moving, by watching her two boys and feeding them dinner. I wouldn't say that I'm always happy to babysit, but I want to be willing to help when it's needed. Wednesday. Day 55: I'm thankful for this: Thursday. Day 56: Today is Justin's birthday, and I'm just grateful that he's my husband. I'm hoping he has many, many more birthdays with me. I know this sounds cliché, but time is really flying by. We have celebrated nine of his birthdays together! Oh, and I'm also thankful for the delicious chocolate cake I made. It is so yummy!...

Three is a good number. I shouldn't beat myself up for all these triplet posts, even though I'd really like to have the discipline to blog every evening. Maybe one day. Day 50. I'm thankful for dinner with the Iwinski Family. Last week Deuce mentioned that he wanted to have Josiah over, and rather than just having a play date with the two of them, I talked to Mehgan and Joey, and we decided a family get together would be great. The kids ate separately, and then went off to play. Justin bought some big filets from Ray's Butcher Shoppe and a new gigantic cast iron skillet to cook them. Holy moly that thing is heavy! I can't lift it with one hand! There was a slight mishap too. Justin used a tad too much butter in the pan, and it started smoking like crazy. We had to open a couple windows to let the smoke out. Dinner was delicious! Besides the steaks, we had baked potatoes and steamed veggies. For dessert I made paleo chocolate mousse. We also had leftover lime...

Day 47. I am thankful for a fun texting conversation I had with a newer friend. I love how sometimes a quick text can turn into a really enjoyable conversation with lots of laughter. That happened with Carrie, Bri's cousin, on Tuesday night. Sometimes my sense of humor is really on point, and it certainly was that night. So maybe what I'm really thankful for is my ability to make myself and others laugh. Haha Day 48. I am really thankful for this family portrait that Deuce brought home from school. I am going to keep and frame it for sure. Day 49. I love my Mommies of Blessings group! It is always a blessing. It's always encouraging and convicting. It's so awesome to see how God is moving in my friend's lives and my own. I love it.

Day 46. Piper was a goofball today (Monday), and since I didn't have the best day, I appreciate that her silliness lifted my spirits. I'll let the videos speak for themselves.

Day 45. Sometimes I'm thankful for the kids' screen time. Sunday mornings are busy and tiring with getting everyone ready for church, and then keeping them well-behaved at church. There was a time not so long ago that I wondered why I bothered taking them to church, because I was spending so much time training and disciplining them to behave and be quiet. All my (and I say my, because Justin was working 3rd shift, and sleeping during church) hard work is finally paying off, and I can now encourage other moms to power through! Josie, Deuce and Margo have come such a long way, and they can generally sit through a two plus hour service with relative ease. I do sometimes take Piper down to the nursery, because she's at the age where she wants and needs to be more active. And unfortunately, it's really hard to hear the sermon when there are other kids and parents down there. It's just a season, and since she's our last one, I know that the time when we can all sit ...

Day 44. I'm grateful for a great night out with Justin and my in-laws. This morning, Justin dropped me off at Ellie's nail salon for a much needed pedicure and manicure, while he took the kids to swim lessons. Mo and I had an appointment at 10:30. It's always better to get pampered with friends! The plan was that she would drop me off at Bay View High School where the kids have their swim lessons so I could help Justin get them get out of their suits and into their clothes and all that. Unfortunately, the guy who did Mo's nails was a bit of a slow poke, and I didn't get dropped off until well after the classes were over. I got accused of being a blister (shows up after all the work is done haha) by Matt Thundercloud. I'm glad that Justin wasn't annoyed that he had to handle it all himself. We went home and had lunch, got the girls down for their naps, and otherwise had a pretty lazy afternoon. I should have done more cleaning, but oh well! I don't th...

Day 43. Today's grateful moment is brought to you by Family Game Night! But first, my day. It was a pretty productive one. I didn't quite get accomplished everything I wanted to, but I definitely made progress. First of all, Justin took off work, so I only had to take Josie and Deuce to school this morning. Only having to get two kids out the door really makes a difference, especially since Margo and Piper are both pretty dependent. So, I dropped them off, and then was going to grab a few things at Walmart, before getting coffee and heading home. Unfortunately, I forgot to grab a bag of returns for Walmart, so I had to swing by the house first. I grabbed the bag, made my returns, and bought a few necessities, before going to Starbucks for coffee and morning buns for Justin and myself. After breakfast, I wrote out my grocery list and made myself presentable while Justin loaded up the van with boxes and bags for donation. I grabbed a couple other bags of things needed to be r...

Day 42. I am thankful for a new route to school. Justin and I have basically decided that Milwaukee Parkside School for the Arts is the school all four of our kids will go to up through eighth grade, barring any serious issues. We really like the teachers so far, and the school seems like a really good one overall. The one negative is the drive. It's only 10-15 minutes away, but it's a lot of stopping and going. Becher, the street that I normally took is busy and pretty narrow. So much so that two cars can't drive in opposite directions at the same time. But it just seemed like the most direct and fastest route. Until my wise (and handsome) husband informed me of a better way! He suggested taking Oklahoma Ave, which I agreed would be a smoother drive, but I was concerned about turning left into the school, since there's no light, and the traffic is pretty constant. (This is a very boring blog post, I know. lol) Then Justin told me that it isn't a problem, becaus...

Okay, here we go again! Day 37. I'm thankful for date afternoon/night with Justin! Also, burgers! Shortly after noon, we decided to go get a bite to eat before going to the movie theater in New Berlin. We were going to check out Matty's Bar & Grille, but the parking lot was packed, so we knew it would be busy inside. We ended up stopping at Bosch's Tavern in Hales Corners and ordered burgers. I got the Cowboy burger, which was SO delicious! Burger, cheese, onion ring, and barbecue pulled pork.  Plus I got some yummy sweet potato fries. I would definitely eat there again. Yum! We still had some time to kill before the movie, so we shopped a bit at Dunham's. I got a new pair of workout pants (which I definitely need based on my recent eating habits. Just wait. It gets worse), and Justin grabbed a kid's mitt and ball for Deuce. The movie we watched was Mockingjay Part 2, and unfortunately, it was kinda lame. It was definitely not as good as the other three ...

Bah! I'm getting worse! I really do think about being more grateful each day, so that's good. But if I don't write about it that day, I risk forgetting! So now I have five days that I have to remember what caused me to feel grateful Day 32. Well-behaved kids at church make me happy. Justin found out that he had strep on Monday. As I mentioned yesterday, we had an evangelist in town doing special services, and I really wanted to go. I knew that I couldn't have the kids at home with Justin being contagious, so I hauled them all to church with me. And they were so good. Well, perhaps I should clarify: Josie and Deuce fell asleep before 8, and were still and quiet the rest of the service. Margo and Piper were relatively quiet and cooperative too. It was just so nice to be able to listen to the sermon with minimal distractions. Day 33. I'm thankful for Nicole Curro for being one of our Tuesday night babysitters. I'm really enjoying going to Spanish class with...

Yesterday morning I took the kids to church by myself since Justin was still sick. We have an evangelist in town leading special meetings. We had service twice yesterday and then tonight, tomorrow night and Wednesday night. It's always a really blessed time when he's here preaching.  When the evangelist and his family are in town, usually a group goes out to lunch. And since Justin wasn't feeling well, I knew he'd appreciate a quiet house even longer. After mingling with my friends for a while, I learned where we'd be eating lunch: Benny's Café. Our pastor seems to be a fan of big, local, 24 hour diners. And there's no complaints from me. I am pretty easy to please. On the way to the restaurant, which was about 10-15 minutes away, Piper fell asleep. I knew that naptime would be iffy since it was already close to 1:00 at that point, so I'd take whatever snoozing she'd give me. When we got to the restaurant, I set the three older kids at another tabl...