Domestic Goddess I am Not!

I love to cook, bake, entertain - and yes, I think that I have some talent in those areas. I can throw a load of clothes in the washing machine, put them in the dryer (if I remember), and fold them (eventually). Usually, they don't look too bad.

However, other domestic duties - hmmm... not so much! Case in point... I don't iron. My mom didn't iron much when I was growing up and my grandmother's ironing gene did not skip a generation to land in my gene pool. Over my adult years, I have ironed on occasion as the need arose and maybe even went above and beyond the call of duty every now and then. But, it's been a long time since I ironed - probably since before Mark and I started dating. Thank goodness for a husband who doesn't care about that stuff. Truth be told, before he met me, Mark had two clothes hampers: one for clean clothes, one for dirty. I'm not quite that laid back, I do like to get things in the dressser. Ok... I'm getting off track. I had an iron and ironing board when we got married, never used it. When we had sewer back-up in our basement several years ago, those items got wet. Finally got around to replacing them about a year ago. Since then, the ironing board and the iron have remained in their packages untouched.

So... today, I'm getting ready for the week. Trying to decide what to wear for my clinicals tomorrow and Tuesday. Glance at a blouse that I haven't worn for a while, I really like it but it is WRINKLED! I try dousing it with wrinkle release spray and tossing in the dryer. No luck. Can you guess what comes next? Yes, I decide I am going to be ambitious, call upon that domestic goddess of ironing that is hiding somewhere inside of me. Get out the iron, turn it on (I think), get out the ironing board, but I don't want to actually set it up so I just lay it across the counter in the bathroom. Back to check the iron - guess I must not have turned it on so I figure that out. Let it warm up and iron my blouse. Not perfectly mind you because I would need to have the ironing board set up correctly and probably set the iron at the correct setting for the fabric I am using. But... enough ironing to get by so that I can wear the blouse tomorrow. I'm quite proud of myself, pick up the blouse to kind of shake it out and look at it from a hanging perspective. In the process, I knock over a bottle of diffuser oil and spill it on the blouse I've just finished ironing. Grrr...

I KNEW there was a reason I don't iron! Back to the closet for an easy, wash and wear sweater or something like that.

Update

Becky (our SW) emailed today to say that our home study is in the mail! We will need to proofread it and then off for it's final stamp of approval. Yippee!

In our bedroom, I have a daily calendar of bible verses. Yesterday's verse was Jeremiah 32:27, "I am the Lord, the God of all mankind, is anything too hard for me?" That seems so appropriate right now and a confirmation of His promise that we will be parents.

Tomorrow, one of my dear friends and her husband are renewing their vows in honor of their 25th wedding anniversary. What a special celebration of their life together!

Thankful Thursday

Yep - two Thursdays in a row, can you believe it? Ok, my next goal will be to get my Thankful Thursday post in the morning instead of right before heading to bed.

#1 - God's goodness in healing. The pathology reports from my mom's surgery indicated "clean" tissue in the area surrounding the melanoma. YAY! One of my co-workers has been battling breast cancer for several months now. She finished chemo and had surgery. The lymph nodes that the docs biopsied came back negative! Another YAY!

#2 - Encouragement. This semester, school has got me running. Two of my classes have several major projects and require a LOT of time and effort. I was feeling pretty down tonight with the weekly grade I received from the instructor of one of the classes. It wasn't a big deal, but I was discouraged. God reminded me that on Tuesday night, the other instructor gave me about the highest praise I could ask for - saying that I was setting the bar for the class with my writing skills. Talk about a warm fuzzy! And probably a good thing to remember when I am a parent. Sometimes, that negative comment lingers long after all of the praise. Thanks to my instructor for the positive comment that helps me keep the bigger picture in mind. I can't make everyone happy ALL the time, but I can give my best effort.

#3 - Completing one more step in our adoption process. We had our last "official" home study meeting with our SW this week. She will be writing our home study and hopes to have it ready for us to proof in the next few days. Then, it will go to her supervisor for final stamp of approval and we will be added to the "waiting families" list. DOUBLE YAY!! Little one - we are dreaming of bringing you home!!

#4 - The author of one of the blogs I follow is currently in Russia with her husband adopting a precious little boy and girl. She commented about how the little girl has no concept of what a "daddy" is - to her Eric, is "the man." Every child should know the love of a mother and father - it makes me sad to think about the children in orphanages never knowing about mommies and daddies. It also made me thankful that our child is going to have such a wonderful daddy!! Mark is so good with kids! I can just picture him on the floor with our children climbing all over him, laughing, playing, and loving on him. Can't wait to see it in reality!

adoption profile

We spent all weekend making a profile of us for the birth mother to look at and pick us as the parents for their child. This task turned out to be a lot bigger than we thought. We must have spent 16 hours working on this.

mark

Thank you to our friends and update on mom

Spent much of the day working on stuff for our portfolio. We need to finish up our "dear birth mom" letter tomorrow and I will feel pretty good about what we have accomplished.

Tonight, we went out for dinner with friends who are references for our adoption, Denise and Guy, Ken and Jeanne with our "niece" Tasha. Got home and remembered that I wanted to take some pics - oh, well. It's been a while since everyone's schedules have allowed us to get together and we really enjoyed the chance to catch up. We need to do this more often!!

Thanks to everyone for their prayers yesterday. My mom had surgery as planned and the surgeon was able to remove the entire area of concern. She was sick today in response to the pain medication, but is doing well.

Prayer Request - Melanie's mom

My mom is having surgery this afternoon to remove a melanoma from her arm. Please pray that the surgeon is able to remove it all and that any lymph node biopsies will be benign. Thanks!

Thankful Thursday

On time... two weeks in a row - yippee!!

#1 - My mom - We are working hard to get our adoption portfolio put together. This is a file for the birth mom to look at as she is selecting a family for her child so we want to brag ourselves up a little bit. My mom has a great deal of experience in graphic design and is graciously helping us. I know that the portfolio will look much better with a professional (mom) working on it and I am very thankful for all of her talents!

#2 - Yummy (and easy) recipes - I made one of my all time favorite recipes tonight, Caramel Krispie Treats. They are beyond wonderful - I am going to take some to work tomorrow to share. Yes, Mark... I will leave some home for you as well (and yes, I also know you think I am nuts for "baking" when I have so many other things going on - what can I say... it decreases my stress level).

#3 - The chance to do nice things for others - Ok, this really isn't much and I am not trying to pat myself on the back, it's more just such a good feeling to make someone else's day. I had clinicals today and brought rolls for the staff - they are always so welcoming and have really made me feel comfortable there. So bringing treats was not a big deal, but everyone was thrilled to have them. Also, one of the nurses loves Eyore. I had a partially used pad of Pooh/Eyore post-its at work so I took took them with me to give to Donna. She was very touched. Again, it wasn't about "me" - it was about bringing a smile to another person's face and that was a wonderful feeling! One of my favorite quotes is "Be kinder than necessary to everyone you meet for we are all fighting some kind of battle." Sometimes, things that we don't even stop to think about can make all the difference for someone who is having a tough day. What can you do to make a someone's day a little brighter??