Precious Beans Crochet

I have started a business.

Not because I was bored and needed something to do.  I already am a mom of three boys, watch a little girl who is now 10 months old, sell Pampered Chef, and tutor.....yup, I needed something else to do!

Back on September 27th, I created Precious Beans Crochet, check it out here.  It took off in a major  way....by the middle of November I had over 48 orders to have done before Christmas.  Needless to say, it was a little insane at my house!

I have loved every minute of it, and currently have crocheted over 220 items since September.  I have been in several boutiques, including these two which are coming up:

Shops at the Lodge

and

Wild Ruffle Pop Up Shop

Here are a few of the creations I have made.  If you need to order anything, just contact me through here or email me at mollylujancm@gmail.com.

three strand headband

Textured Newsboy hat on Cooper

Shell beanie with flowers

The ever so popular minion hat

An order of infinity scarves and hats

Ice Cream/cupcake hat

An original by Precious Beans Crochet

An order for Christmas gifts

Ear warmer which can be made in many different colors

Cute zebra hat

Go Broncos!

matching hats for your little girl and her doll

Go Seahawks!

It's a Girl!!

Ok, I hate to burst your bubble...but, no, we aren't pregnant! :(  As a mom of three boys, I hear ALL THE TIME, "Are you going to try for a girl??"  As much as I would LOVE to say, "YES!", my answer is, "no......unless God has other plans!"

Steve is dead set that we are done, and I thought we were too.  Then I went through a period of thinking, no, I am not done having kids.  I am home now, we don't have to pay daycare, we can do this!  But, I think I have been defeated!

That is ok though, because God has put several little girls into my life, right at the right time...can you imagine anything less of our Lord??  First, my baby sister (11 years younger than me!), just had twin girls!!  So exciting!  There is just something to be said, when your sister has babies!  Especially a sister that you feel more of a mom to, than a sister!  A very emotional time!  I am eager to watch her raise these beauties and help whenever I can!

NEXT, God brought me Aubree!  A sweet little blue-eyed baby girl for me to watch while her mama and daddy are working.  I am friends with her mom, as we taught together, and I offered to watch her!  Today was our first day together for the year, and it went great!  Cooper even did great with her!  After a few "hard" pats on the head, I think we are adjusting nicely!

So, no, I don't have any girls of my own, but God has planted some into my life right now.  And that, I am grateful for!

Baby Aubree sporting one of my crochet hats!

Gracie and Kinley, almost ready to go home!!

Crocheting and Babies

School is back in session and I am going to give this blogging thing another try.  I have to do something with my time! (besides cleaning, cooking, laundry, etc.)

I always seem to have a MILLION things going on in my head.  Ideas that I want to put into motion, but am not quite sure how to do that.  Currently, I have taken up crocheting again.  Love it!  I found a great shell beanie pattern here and have been making this up a storm!!  LOVE them!

I am also SELLING them! :)  $15 each, but please know the pattern does belong to Betsy at http://thedaintydaisyblog.blogspot.com/!!  Love her blog and mission!

I haven't quit figured out how to make my own patterns yet.  Someday I may work on that.....

 This is a 3-6 month hat.

I actually made this hat into an adult size.  I sell the adult hats for $18.

Here is a super cute pumpkin hat.  This fits a toddler size head...also $15.

Just leave me a message if any of these hats interest you!

My next blog will be devoted to these to cute models!!  My new nieces, Kinley and Gracelynn!!  I will leave you with a photo of them modeling the hats their mama made for them!

SO IN LOVE!!!!

Love Conquers All

It is Sunday.  It is Super Bowl Sunday.  Plans to be with friends tonight, which should be fun!  But what I am really thinking about right now is how "Love Conquers All."  This was the message today at Hosanna!  Pastor Shea is amazing and I always love listening to him preach.  The sermon series is Hot Topics, and last week was on sexuality, this week was religion, and next week is politics.

Religion.  I LOVE my Lord and I seriously want to shout it from the rooftops!  I want everyone to know what a LOVING Lord we have.  I want everyone to ASK Jesus into their hearts, so we can all spend eternity in heaven.  BUT not everyone receives this message very well.  So, there are many times I just keep my mouth shut.  I don't share what I know (but there are many times I share A LOT!).  Today's message was to Live It.  Live what I know through my actions, and THEN be prepared to answer the question of, "Why are you so happy?" or "What happened to you today?", then and only then will I share that I am filled with the Holy Spirit and LIVE for HIM!

How can I do this?  Through my parenting.  I need to show LOVE to my children, show them how Jesus would have cared for the children.  I need to be PATIENT, UNDERSTANDING, CARING.  I love my boys more than anything, and I want them to LIVE with the Lord in them as well.  So far, I think they are doing a pretty good job...except when they are calling each other names, and hitting, and.....I could go on.  But I LOVE the moments where they are just playing and laughing, and truly enjoying each others company!

I started this blog, wondering what I was going to blog about.  Would anyone want to read what I have to say?  What do people want to hear?  What do I enjoy that I want to write about?  What do I knowledge do I have to share with the world?  How can I LIVE IT and SHARE IT?

Stay tuned, as I am going to try to help people out.  Answer questions I may have, or have heard other moms ask.  And I am going to try to do this by just LIVING IT!

Happy Sunday!

May God Be with All of Us Tonight

I just laid Cooper down for the night.  I said our prayer, like I do every night, but tonight I added something.  I prayed to our Dear Lord for the moms and dads who wouldn't be snuggling their little ones into bed tonight.  I then cried.  I cried a lot.

Why?  Many of us are asking, WHY?  This event hit home a little too much for me.  I have taught kindergarten for the past 4 years.  I have had over 100 5 and 6 year olds come through my room, who depended on me to keep them safe while they were away from their parents.  Me.  Me alone.  What if this would have happened to my class?  I can't even think about it.  It is just so sad.  So wrong.  So very, very wrong.

I will never forget the first lock-down drill I had to experience, as a teacher.  Growing up, we didn't have these types of drills.  Teachers didn't have to worry about a gunman coming into our schools and shooting people...well, at least not in my small little Iowa town.  But up here in the city, in 2004, we had to have a lock-down drill.  My student was in industrial tech at the time.  We were down in the basement, there were no windows.  The teacher and I had to direct the kids to go under their tables.  I remember doing the same and thinking, "What the heck are we doing??  What has the world come to that we have to practice what to do IF someone came into the school with a gun?"  It took everything for me not to cry during this drill, which leads me to believe I may have been a HUGE mess if this happened for real!  It is a moment I will never forget in my teaching career.

My prayers go out to the families who lost children, parents, friends, teachers, today.  My heart goes out to all the children who experienced this dreadful event, one that they never, in their short lives, should have encountered.  I want to do something more, but am unsure of what that is at the moment, so all I will do is pray to our GOOD, GOOD Lord and ask him to wrap his arms around those who lost a loved one today.  God Bless You!!!

BUT GOD

I have been away for awhile.  Life has changed.  Life has changed BIG time!  Some highlights:

1.  We moved

2.  I quit my job

3.  My Pampered Chef business has TAKEN OFF

4.  I am SO HAPPY

5.  I have ZERO stress in my life

Let me reflect a little.  At the beginning of October we found out we were going to have to move.  We had just moved into this home 1 year and 3 months prior.  We were shocked.  But GOD had a plan, and we soon understood that home was a stepping stone for us to get to where HE wanted us!  We moved into Prior Lake.  We are in a neighborhood surrounded by homes with CHILDREN, which means our boys have kids to play with all summer long! We also don't have to worry about mice, which makes me smile!

I have had a flashing, neon sign hanging if front of my face for years.  I could never quite read it, and finally on Tuesday, Oct. 16th, it simply said, "QUIT."  That was that.  God needed me to be done teaching at my school for myself, my husband, my children.  It was time to be at home and take control of the family we were raising.  I LOVED my job of teaching my little kindergartners, but my time at my school was done...as a teacher.  Joey is still there, and being very successful in 3rd grade.  BUT GOD (this was the message from Pastor Bill this weekend...BUT GOD!) has another journey for me right now.  So, I am a stay at home mom and LOVING every minute of it!

My wonderful friend, Sara, got me into Pampered Chef.  It was something to do over the summer and make a little extra money.  Well, when I quit my job, I still had to find X amount of money to bring home.  The LORD has blessed us!  With me already submitting $6600+ in sales for December, and 12 shows on the books for January, God is GOOD!

I can't tell you the last time I was this happy.  I get to spend everyday with Andy and Cooper.  I get Joey to school and pick him up everyday.  I am not getting up at 5:15 am and out the door by 6:45 am with 3 boys, I get to make supper (and not be stressed about what we are having!), I get to go to coffee with great friends, and I still get to see my former students!!  Life is good!  God is good!

My only stress is financial (but whose isn't??), BUT GOD is providing!!

Watch Pastor Bill's sermon on Joseph, and here him talk about BUT GOD!

And this is just a BONUS, but one of my most FAVORITE moments at Hosanna!!

Check out our family session with Tina Vega Photography!

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!

Beating the Heat

Today is my 2nd day of not leaving the house.  I am going a little crazy.  Luckily, I found the slip n' slide yesterday and Steve got it set up last night when he got home.  The boys are out having fun (in our HEAT WAVE) and trying to stay cool.

Usually when we are ALL at home, minus dad, the boys cannot get along for the life of them.  It seriously drives me CRAZY!  They either have to be right by me, or are at each others throats.  The rule is no TV except when they wake up in the morning and are waiting for me to wake up (they are on school time, I am NOT!).  The rule for the Wii, is no Wii unless it is raining...or YiaYia (grandma in Greek) is here, because she likes to play the Wii with the boys! :)

We try to keep busy by having 30 min of school in the morning.  I work with Joey in a curriculum book, trying to get him up to speed with his reading skills.  Andy does www.abcmouse.com.  This is AWESOME! Andy has a lot of fun learning on this website, I highly recommend it!

The boys love to be in their "art room", aka the screened in porch which has no furniture, but all their art supplies!  They both love to draw pictures and create.  I am constantly getting "works of art" from them!

They can also go downstairs, which is their domain.  We do not have any furniture down there either, but their room and the toy room is down there.  The family room is a finished, wide open space they can run around in.  Once I get them down there, they can play for hours, usually with each other.  It is so nice to see them actually enjoy each others company!

Cooper having fun with the water table

I just LOVE Cooper's BLUE eyes in this photo

Seriously, he needs to learn to walk.  It would make being outside so much more fun!

Andy's worm he found.  He named it....Cooper!

Fun with the slip and slide

Joey and Andy, actually loving each other!

Joey is "strutting" as he put it!

I just LOVE this photo!

Back to today, I was able to get some fun pictures of them outside playing in the water and HEAT!  I just read a friend's blog about capturing the moments we don't think about in our child's lives...the moments we will surely miss someday!  I went right outside to try and capture some memories of the boys.  I thought some of them turned out pretty cute!