Back to it!

Yesterday I spent sicker than I have been in who knows how long...it was awful.  See...when you're a mom, you don't just get to call in sick.  You don't get a day off and you don't get (normally) undisturbed resting time.  Todd had to work yesterday so there was no day off for me and since my parents decided to jump ship and leave GJ I was on my own with my four little rascals.  There is no way in this green earth I would have ever made it without my big girl Emma.  She was sooooooo helpful.  She changed every diaper, made breakfast and lunch for herself and the other kids and entertained Maggie and the boys for well over 4 hours.  There was still a lot of fighting and a lot of screaming...that's normal when big sister suddenly gets a little power and tends to assert her new found authority over those younger siblings...(I should know...I'm that older sister.)  But all in all...we survived.  Yes they watched a lot of movies, yes they were in their pajamas all day and yes my house was absolutely a disaster (and why wouldn't it be... the kids had the run of the roost all day) but we made it.  I literally remember laying on the bathroom floor at 8am saying to myself, there is no way we will ever survive this day...4:45pm when Daddy gets home will never come.  But it did.  We made it.  Everyone was a live and there were no major casualties.  What a blessing.
Yesterday really caused some reflection.  I remember being on bed rest for 3 months when I was pregnant with Ollie.  That was a very trying time for our family and yet a very rewarding time for our marriage as Todd and I grew closer as we worked through that.  I thought about the many people that are grieving right now as they have lost a loved one and it made me truly grateful that we are all still here and together.  Life has been very forgiving and very full for us.   I often wonder what the Lord's plan is for me and my little family.  What's in store for us?  2014 has been a very challenging year for us, yet a very rewarding year for us.  Weird to say that but looking back I can completely see the Lord's hand in our lives.  There was a time several years ago when Todd and I almost threw in the towel, called it quits and walked away but after looking back over this past year and seeing what we have accomplished together in almost a decade I am so grateful for the decision we made to stick it out.  Roll up our sleeves and work a little harder and love each other a little more.  I can't imagine my life without my husband and children, the opportunity to not be able to know these sweet little spirits would profoundly devastate my world.

The Beginning

I guess with anything great and amazing, there must be a beginning and here is mine.  This blog/journal has been on my mind and heart for a long time and I've ignored (or denied) the thoughts and feelings to actually put it together thinking that no one would even read what I had to say, but even if that's true, I need to do this for myself.

Let me introduce myself for starters...

My name is Tiffany Lovell.  I am 33 years old.  I tell everyone I'm 30 because truly I never really had a 30th birthday (a post for another day...).  I have lived everywhere, not because I was in a military family, but because I have a spirit for adventure.  I have been married to my best friend for 8 1/2 years and have four beautiful children, 2 boys and 2 girls.  We have a 5 lb yorkie named Sophie.  That's pretty much the surface stuff.  The underlayers are what I plan to share with you through this crazy blogging adventure.  Things like post partum depression, financial struggles and successes, parenting struggles, learning how to love me, recipes I can't live without, crafting thoughts, friendship experiences and advice, faith and belief and mostly just figuring out how to make it in this crazy world and be happy!

I hope that you'll share this journey with me.  I hope that something I share will inspire you, touch you, make you laugh, make you cry, make you reach out to someone who you haven't talked to in a long time and mostly just draw within you the desire to live a little better, stand a little taller and find joy in the simple things!  Together, we'll embrace this crazy life and find out really "WHAT MATTERS MOST!"