Thursday, November 29, 2012

Christmas Mood

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We did some outside Christmas decorating today.  Though I didn’t take any photos… our flower boxes and pot in the back are filled with fir boughs to be festive.  That pretty much all we did to leave the house today. 

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

My Happy Boy

I love looking at these photos and seeing Henry so happy.  It makes me so happy that he is a happy boy.  Hudson is a happy boy too.  I just have a hard time getting him to smile when there is a camera in front of my face.

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My Little Guys This Afternoon

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Camera Back in Action

Here’s my little three year old super star in front of our Christmas tree we got before Thanksgiving!!!  And decorated last Saturday!! 

The Widow and The Orphan

Fred and Rawne Pierce

Welcome to the Pierce Family Project Page!

Fred and Rawne have answered God's call and stepped out in faith to adopt a 14 year old boy from Ukraine. The Pierce Family and a team of volunteers will be working on a widow's home to help raise funds to cover the high cost of adoption - $17,000 more needed!

The loss of a beloved spouse often makes it more difficult for a widow to keep up with the necessary improvements and repairs to her home. So on December 1, the Pierce Family and the team of volunteers will be fixing up Ms. Karen's home. 

Each volunteer is raising sponsorship for their day of work. Since most of the supplies for the repairs on the widow's home are being donated, 100% of the money raised will help bring a child into a forever family - The Pierce Family.

How can you help? Join the team!
GIVE (financially) –  GET INVOLVED (paint, plant, repair)

Please note that PayPal charges an administrative fee of 1.9% to 2.9% + $0.30 USD per transaction. The donation will be decreased by the amount of this fee.To avoid this fee, mail donation checks payable to:
Lifesong for Orphans
PO Box 40 

Gridley, IL 61744
write in the memo line: preference Pierce #3225

 

The teenage orphan.  This is SUCH a miracle that this boy will not be a casualty.

The widow.

Hudson’s Check Up

Yesterday we went to Hudson’s 5 month check up.  His doctor moves with lightening speed and we are in an out in literally five minutes once we get into the check up room.  Hudson weighs 19 lbs and 4 oz, so he’s at the top of the charts in weight.  He’s 26 inches.  He’s a big boy.  That’s what the doctor calls him.  He did get the second part of the meningitis shot.  Of course, he was fussy at night last night so I was a little freaked out about the shot.  I couldn’t calm him down (he’s teething and probably was beyond tired), so I brought in one of our porch rocking chairs and held him for an hour – rocking, walking and praying.  He finally collapsed in my arms.  I was actually thankful to have that special time with him.  Usually, I am being pulled in so many directions now that I am working from home and then there’s Henry who is extremely active. 

Henry has been expanding his vocabulary by leaps and bounds and really maturing in so many ways.  We went out to lunch with my aunt Molly when she was in town.  Henry had been dying to see her and her family.  I was a little concerned about going out to lunch because he is a very active 3 year old boy.  He did so well.  He sat in his chair for over an hour.  He also is doing well staying with me at the grocery store or going to an appointment.  The other day he pushed the cart around Trader Joe’s for me for the second time.  I got a little bit of anxiety while he was doing it because he wasn’t always listening when I told him to stop and there were a few elderly ladies that almost got taken out. 

I think Henry is going to be a salesman.  Maybe all kids are just brilliant at convincing their parents to do something.  This kid can seriously talk me into things and I am a very strong willed person as well.  I can see why parents cave just to get the broken record to stop.

Henry really loves his baby brother and does do a lot to help out.  He’s always getting things for me and throwing away dirty diapers.  He pays attention to his brother and sometimes purposely wakes him up when he’s taking a nap because he wants to see his eyes open as Henry puts it.

Henry has a habit of telling everybody that it’s his birthday on Christmas.  Then he tells people that the clothes he’s wearing he was given by Santa Claus.  Then he tells people Santa is coming which he must have picked up from someone because we haven’t really told him this or that reindeer are going to land on our roof which he is always saying.  If you ask him if he wants Santa to come to our house he gets struck with fear and says that he doesn’t like Santa Claus.  I was afraid of Santa when I was little too.

Henry loves family hugs and if Dave and I have a hint of a disagreement Henry gets very upset.  He is very sensitive.

Hudson is my happy camper for the most part.  He’s rolling over and very mobile.  I have to be very careful with him now.  He even pushes himself out of the car seat if I set him in it for a minute on the floor while I am doing something.  He’s very smiley and loves to be held.  But he does do very well sleeping in his own bed during the day which Henry NEVER did.  I guess being a second child means you have to cope with things the first didn’t have to.

My camera has had some technical difficulties because my camera card broke and the only other one I had took six photos max.  Kind of a bummer but Dave got me a new one that came in the mail last night.  So we should be up an running.

If you ever get a chance, please read my cousins’ blogs.  My cousin Rye and her husband are living in Budapest teaching at an international Christian school.  They are traveling around.

My cousin Annie lives in Chicago now and is always taking fabulous trips around the world.

For those of you who don’t know, I “by accident” (don’t believe in that) started a Melaleuca business after becoming a customer in the end of September.  I have a great team and it’s going better than expected.  It has become a great provision to supplement our income.  I was refinishing furniture and buying and reselling things from auctions.  I LOVE doing those things and will continue.  This new business allows me to leverage my time better and I look forward to doing more of the things I love while being able to help others whether through introducing them to a safe product, helping them build their business or having the financial means to help myself.  I appreciate prayers around navigating life with two children while working.  I praise God I can do this from the comfort of my home.  It’s a very small sacrifice in comparison with dropping them off at daycare each day.

Dave has been working like crazy at his work – overtime and Saturdays.  He only took one Bible College class this semester as we were still adjusting to having two children.  He has been taking second shift with the kids when he gets home at night.  It has worked out really well.  Both of us are tired but thanking God we can do the things we are doing to making ends meet. 

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Hudson’s First Thanksgiving

HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY TO AUNT DESI!!!

I took this on the way out the door to our friends Eileen’s for Hudson’s first Thanksgiving.  He was so precious and so tired by the end of our gathering. 

Taken before we left for the day. 

Pastor Alexson sparked some great dinner conversation after Henry renamed him Lisa.  Yes, Lisa.  We all laughed our heads off (not Bill so much).  It was a lot of fun and we had other plans to keep going.  But Hudson was so tired after all of the flirting he did with the women who were going crazy over him.  Henry became more of an energizer bunny and we weren’t sure if Eileen would have any furniture left if we stayed much longer.  So home we are and too tired to decorate the tree.

My littlest man is fast asleep now for a while and Henry and I watched some really cool National Geographic shows together.  A first for us and we both really loved it. 

I called my grandmother Galkowski this morning and was completely broken hearted for her.  She was telling me how she keeps thinking to turn the light on for my grandfather and then remembers he’s not there.  It totally crushed me for her.  I can’t imagine being married for a few months shy of 60 years and then going on without your partner.  Please keep her in your prayers.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Pinterest Post

Oh, Pinterest, how I have missed you!  I have been too busy to get on and forgot how much I loved you!!

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Not completely my style but I can appreciate this design!  Via.

lockers

Old lockers have been big the last year or so and I kinda like them too! Via.

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Now what isn’t to love about this house!  Perfection! Via.

Cannot pretend to be a snow or winter lover but this photo is cute and I had a twinge of winter longing when Henry said he wanted to go sledding today. Via.

This pose is absolutely adorable!  Via.

A gorgeous Thanksgiving table

I love the mix of design in this photo – rustic meets elegant.  Via.

Panel Wood CHRISTmas tree. $75.00, via Etsy. - love the simplicity of the design.

Praise God!!!!!  Via.

Wild Things

Cute.  We just got this book from the library.  Even though we own it.  Can’t find ours.  Via.

love!!!!!!

Really like this!!! Via.

love, love, love

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Via.

simple

This style couch is my dream style but then again, the older I get, the more practical I become…. I think… Via.

So Funny

Listening to church service online while the kids sleep and saw this on someone’s Facebook feed.  Yes, I am a little ADD (that’s why I need to physically go to church!!).  I laughed my head off at it because I am slightly psycho:

Drove down to DC today to help my mom prepare for thanksgiving by vacuuming, dusting and cleaning windows. I get down there and things are going well till the vacuum cleaner hits the edge of one of the many table coverings my mom has. Sucks the fabric right into the vacuum. And the soda on the table. Right into the thing. Scratch one vacuum cleaner.

We clean this mess up, and while we're moving couches around to vacuum under, I startle a rat. Yes. A rat. A rat that was not the least bit afraid of me. After some maneuvering and a bit of angry couch flipping (a new olympic sport I hope) we manage to scare it, hopefully, out of the house. Then I run behind one of the couches that we've put back up and cut my pants and leg open on a piece of rusted metal sticking out from my mom's 30 year old couch.

So, after some peroxide and a little Iodine I finish all the vacuuming and dusting and get to the window cleaning. And jam my thumb into a nail that was left in the window frame. Little nail. Painted the same color as everything else. Just waiting for me.

Then I have some pumpkin pie with mom and drive to the local CVS for a tetanus shot.
Thanksgiving will be a downhill coast.

Overflowing with Blessings

My heart is so full with the blessing My Almighty God and Lord Jesus Christ has bestowed upon me!  Seriously! 

My baby boy was laughing and laughing today and my heart was so full I just wanted to cry.  Tickling my three year old on the couch and having family hugs when daddy got home.  These are the biggest blessings and moments when time almost freezes and I take note of ALL that God has done for me. 

I thank God the Word of God is true and healing.  Seriously. 

Happy Thanksgiving.  Looking forward to my baby’s first Thanksgiving. 

Praying for my grandmother, father, and his siblings this first Thanksgiving with the presence of their father not on this earth.  I am so thankful for my heritage and that my grandfather is a part of me and I am a part of him.  Family is a gift.

Monday, November 19, 2012

My Little Superstar Hudson is 5 Months old Today

He’s 5 months old.  Can’t even take his cuteness and the amount of love I have for this little man.  Henry feels the same!  We are all madly in love with Hudson.

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Robert & Darlene Galkowski Family Photo Circa 1977

Taken around the year I was born.  Classic! Back second person in is my Aunt Mary who went home to be with the Lord and then my grandfather a week ago today. 

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Infinite Amounts of Love

I cannot get over how much I love my kids.  I truly seems impossible so love them any more than I do.  And then more love comes.  God has truly blessed us.  I can’t even begin to imagine how much God loves each one of us if He loves us more than we love our children.  It’s mind blowing.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

God’s Precious Gifts

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Hudson is so incredibly precious.  I just love having a baby.  They are truly a gift from God.  The shirt is a gift from his daddy.  He gave me a hard time because I didn’t love it and then said I would take a photo and write something sarcastic on my blog.  Well, I didn’t!  HA!

Henry is such a loving big brother. 

Someone got some new pjs today.

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Passed out tonight.  I just can’t get enough of his cuteness!!!

Galkowski Siblings

Aunt Annie, Aunt Teresa, Uncle Gerald, Dad, Grandma, Uncle Rob, Aunt Rita, Uncle Pete.  Photo stolen from cousin Sophie.  Grandpa and Aunt Mary are with Jesus ♥.

Friday, November 16, 2012

Hudson & the Galkowskis

We visited our good friend Dee yesterday.  Please continue to pray for her healing from bone cancer.

We were trying to figure out a way to get up to RI for my grandfather’s funeral.  Dave was unable to get time off work today to watch Henry so I could take Hudson alone.  Then I was trying to get a sitter to go with me.  It might have all worked out if Hudson wasn’t up half the night with a cough.  The good news is we found out from the doctor this morning it isn’t an infection.

My heart is with my grandmother, my father, all of his siblings, my siblings and cousins tonight and tomorrow as they celebrate an amazing life today.  I can’t wait to hear about the medals my grandfather received during his military career that he never talked about.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Grandpa’s Obituary

Robert Edward Galkowski, 87, of Portsmouth, R.I., died Monday, November 12, 2012 at the Newport Hospital. He was the husband of Darlene (Kueny) Galkowski.

Born in Springwells, Michigan on December 29, 1924. He was a son of the late Stephen Galkowski of Poland and Bernice (Gawrych) of Michigan. Polish was his first language.

Robert attended school in Detroit, Michigan, like others during the depression he dropped out of school to help support his family. Robert got his GED in the service and went on to attend college in Ann Arbor, Michigan and at Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I.

Robert was a 20 year United States Navy Veteran, retiring as a FTGC, and retired from Raytheon Company. He was a combat veteran of WWII, Korean War, and Suez Canal Crisis. In his younger years he loved to play ball, fly fish, summer at the lake, dance, and listen to music. He enjoyed doing cross word puzzles throughout his life, had a great sense of humour, was a devout Catholic and loved his family.

Robert is survived by his wife Darlene Galkowski of 59 yrs. He was predeceased by his daughter Mary Ann Galkowski, grandson Vincent Paul Galkowski. his brother Edward Shoenrath, and sister Irene Studnick. He is also survived by his children Rita Kelly of Groton, CT, Larry Galkowski of Rockland, ME and his wife Joanna, Robert S. Galkowski of Colorado and his wife Kris, Gerald Galkowski of Newport, Teresa Warburg of Westerly, Ann Galkowski of Middletown, Peter Galkowski of Middletown and his wife Sheila Randall, 21 grandchildren and 31 great grandchildren. His sister Florence Foldvary of Michigan and her son Kevin also survives him.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Saturday, November 17, 2012, at St. Augustin’s Church, Carroll Avenue at 9am. Burial at St. Columba Cemetery in Middletown, RI.

Visiting hours will be held in the O’Neill-Hayes Funeral Home, 465 Spring St., Newport on Friday from 4-7pm.

Donations may be made in Robert’s memory to Woman to Women, 164 Broadway, Newport, RI 02840.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Visit from The Grandparents

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My mom and Dan left this morning.  We had a really good time with them over the past few days.  On Monday it was such a beautiful day to enjoy the zoo. 

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Last weekend…

 

Please continue to pray for my father, his mom, siblings and everyone in the Galkowski family.  The funeral is on Saturday with the wake the night before in Newport, RI.

I had a vivid dream last night – I was in his home with my grandmother.  They had a Christmas tree.  It was a nice dream.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Until We Meet Again, Grandpa

(this photo is of his first 6 grandchildren taken almost 35 years ago – my brother on the far left is in heaven with my grandfather today).

You will be missed.

Please pray for my Galkowski family as we lost my grandfather last night.  Our loss, heaven’s gain.  Please pray for his children and my grandmother as they navigate the details and life without him on a daily basis.

Grandpa Galkowski was the father of eight, a husband of over 60 years, grandfather to 20 and great grandfather to 32 if I have counted correctly.  He got to see his beloved daughter and my brother last night as he entered into eternity.  And many of his family that went on before him. 

He also was a devout Catholic, a veteran of 3 wars I believe including a Navy Medic in WW II and the son of Polish immigrants.  He grew up in a Polish neighborhood in Detroit, MI. 

I took this photo the last time I saw my grandfather I think.

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Thursday, November 8, 2012

Prayers

Wow, the hours just fly by in a day. 

No photos today.  The boys and I took a trip to Walmart this morning because I wanted to pick up a photo I had printed for my Grandfather Galkowksi who is in the hospital with pneumonia.  Please pray for him as he is elderly, weak, has COPD and is very sick at this time.  And my grandmother and family as they navigate the best care for him.  So we picked the card up and I had bribed Henry to tear him away from his farm toys by telling him we were going to see Christmas.  Unfortunately (maybe fortunately for some), Walmart’s Christmas display wasn’t that exciting.  But we did manage to get Grandpa his card.

Speaking of Henry’s farm toys.  He has a complete operation set up.  He’s quite creative using train tracks as fences and cardboard boxes as extra garage space and barn space.  He has one fenced cow pasture and a fenced horse pasture.  Included in those are tractors with trailers hauling smaller animals.  Quite the scene that takes up most of the living room.  Tonight when we told him it was time to get ready for bed, he had to make sure all of the cows and horses were sleeping by laying them on their sides.  Then all of the tractors went to sleep by placing them in the barn.  This is a very delicate task that he takes seriously and does slowly and carefully.  I am quite impressed.

Hudson is growing by leaps and bounds.  Dave likes to say he’s half my size already which he probably is in length because it doesn’t take much hahaha.

My sister in-law’s dog of 16.5 years died.  She is very sad, so please pray for her as well.

My time is becoming more and more consumed with my children and building this Melaleuca business along with daily things that always need tending to. 

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost for His Highest Nov 7

Such an appropriate devotion for today written so many years ago.  Praying for our president and our nation.  May God continue to bless America….

We know that all things work together for good to those who love God . . . —Romans 8:28

The circumstances of a saint’s life are ordained of God. In the life of a saint there is no such thing as chance. God by His providence brings you into circumstances that you can’t understand at all, but the Spirit of God understands. God brings you to places, among people, and into certain conditions to accomplish a definite purpose through the intercession of the Spirit in you. Never put yourself in front of your circumstances and say, “I’m going to be my own providence here; I will watch this closely, or protect myself from that.” All your circumstances are in the hand of God, and therefore you don’t ever have to think they are unnatural or unique. Your part in intercessory prayer is not to agonize over how to intercede, but to use the everyday circumstances and people God puts around you by His providence to bring them before His throne, and to allow the Spirit in you the opportunity to intercede for them. In this way God is going to touch the whole world with His saints.

Am I making the Holy Spirit’s work difficult by being vague and unsure, or by trying to do His work for Him? I must do the human side of intercession— utilizing the circumstances in which I find myself and the people who surround me. I must keep my conscious life as a sacred place for the Holy Spirit. Then as I lift different ones to God through prayer, the Holy Spirit intercedes for them.

Your intercessions can never be mine, and my intercessions can never be yours, “. . . but the Spirit Himself makes intercession” in each of our lives (Romans 8:26). And without that intercession, the lives of others would be left in poverty and in ruin.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

God Bless America. Land That I Love.

Join me in prayer for our nation today. Father, We come boldly before your throne of grace to ask that Your Spirit would guide each individual, as they close that curtain to cast their ballot, to vote for the man who would heal the crippling effects of our national debt, unemployment and the protection of all human life. Thank You for the blood that Jesus Christ shed for our personal freedom no matter what happens with our country and thank You for the blood that our forefathers, brothers and sisters did shed and continue to shed for our national freedom and this privilege we have to vote. God, please bless America. Stand beside her and guide her. Amen.

Monday, November 5, 2012

God Bless America

Land that I love.  And please guide her to vote for Mitt Romney!  Amen.  In the words of my good friend Jessica from Maine, I am praying for Holy Spirit conviction to set in when each individual closes that curtain.  And even if they don’t vote for Mitt Romney, I pray they don’t vote for a man who will continue to cripple or paralyze our country with debt, unemployment and the decline of our defense.  And most of all, don’t vote for a man who supports the murder of unborn children.