The kind hearts...

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John 15:12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you…”


In the past few weeks since the babies were born we were overwhelmed by the kindness and compassion of those around us. So many reached out to lend a hand and a hug, to support, to help with the kids, to not let us starve... Some of you we've never even met in person, but you kept us in your thoughts and prayers, you sent us cards and generous gifts and other tokens of love and care.

Our hearts were and are so full of gratitude. At the beginning of this week I received a very special gift that left me in awe and brought tears to my eyes - beautiful handmade quilts:

Every stitch was sewn with love by someone who quietly followed our journey on this blog and kept us in her prayers - a reader and new friend Nancy. I cannot begin to comprehend how many hours of hard work were put into creating them (you all know that I'm not a quilter but I'm always amazed by those of you who are and your talent).

 And matryoshkis?? Isn't it so thoughtful? My 4-year old thinks so too - he constantly tries to steal that quilt because matryoshka might just be his most favorite toy:) They will be loved and cherished for many-many years.

Thank you again, Nancy! You truly touched our hearts!

I only wish I could pass along all the kindness and generosity that was sent our way but this life is not long enough to do so...

And now I'm getting all mushy :) I better head out to bed. In the meantime, check out the backs of the quilts. Aren't they just so much fun?? Love love love them!

Have a good night, my lovelies...

Yours truly,

We made it through week 2 :)

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The "twinkies" officially turned two weeks old yesterday. This week was definitely a roller-coaster. We had days when all they did was sleep and eat, and others when they were screaming their little heads off without apparent reason. It seems like even a little distraction can throw them off the loop. And on Wednesday they had a big one. We had our first appointment with their pediatrician. Normally she wouldn't schedule it for a few more weeks because with both of our boys she would stop by the hospital while we were still there. This time around we had to go in because she doesn't work with our hospital. And it was brutal! We stayed there for almost two hours discussing everything twins, getting them checked, poked, weighed etc. On a good note, Tanya gained a whole pound and caught up with her brother, Alex only got back to his birth weight but at least he's gaining. He's just my lazy one :) She already had her first growth spurt, lost the umbilical cord stump (can't wait until he loses that nasty thing) and, overall, she's usually way more alert and independent. But I know, it's only a matter of days until Alex "wakes up", and then I would be longing for these sleepy days to come back again. That's exactly what happened with my oldest, and then we haven't slept for like a year. Oh, the bliss of motherhood! I'm not going to miss the newborn stage... Even though they are so cute:

The other thing I'm struggling with right now are my emotions. I'm a pretty emotional type, period, and I always get some "baby blues" (who doesn't when you only get an hour of sleep sometimes??) but this time it seems a little more severe. I can actually physically feel the "wave" of emotions coming over me, and that's definitely new. I haven't experienced it as much in the past three days, so I'm hopeful I will snap out of it very soon but I'm sure happy to have my sweet hubby here with me right now to keep an eye on me. I really don't know how I would do it without my amazing man! Meeting him was truly the biggest blessing of my life (and now I might just start crying. Darn hormones...). I do have an appt. with my OB GYN on Monday, we'll see what she says...

On a very non-related note, I'm pretty much done with Christmas shopping. I only need 1 more gift for Hubby's uncle who lives out of state and I need to send a package to my parents that's been sitting in our bedroom all packed and ready to go for almost a month right now. Other than that, we are DONE!! And the best thing is that we stayed within a budget (I do love me some online shopping deals :) and we did not have to dip into our regular savings, let alone pull out a credit card. We added another $100 to what we saved by July, and it covered everything. As I mentioned in that post, most of the money came from the other sources, and I love it. Now I just wish we had the energy to decorate the tree...

And are you done with your Christmas shopping? Did you end up going out for Black Friday this year?

How to lose 30 pounds in 3 days

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How about by giving birth to twins? wink wink :)

Thank you all for your kind words, wishes and messages. I sure wish I could reply to all of you but, as you can imagine, my hands are pretty full right now :)

We survived through the first week of their life. To say it's a challenging journey is an understatement.  On top of being majorly tired and sleep-deprived, I also deal with hormones and it's not easy. One of the problems I'm facing right now is that I can't sleep even when the babies do. I found myself staring at the ceiling way too many times in the past couple of days, and it's really taking it's toll on me. Also my milk never really came in, so, even though I'm relieved to always know how much our little ones are eating, I have a bit of mama's guilt, for sure. I'm trying not to dwell on it too much though because I am a Mom of four now, and all of my kids need attention and love.

The boys seemed to transition OK to the babies. The middle one struggled a bit at first (and even asked when we are going to take them back to wherever they came from) but is now enjoying talking to them. I'm really looking forward to the time when babies will start smiling back, so they can all interact. But that's still far away...

The biggest milestone I personally achieved (other than the one in the title. I didn't do much for it but I'm happy to be at my pre-pregnancy weight already even though I still have a small soccer ball to lose on my belly...) is putting away all of my maternity clothes for good. It's nice to know that our family is complete now and, honestly, I'm not going to miss being pregnant. Even though this pregnancy with twins was fairly uncomplicated, I was still constantly exhausted and missing being active and mobile. But this body gave birth to two (or four) healthy little ones, and I'm grateful for it.

I will try to do at least weekly updates and I promise I will bounce back to writing all kinds of money-related and frugal posts (just wait until all the bills will start rolling in...). In the meantime, I hope you all are doing wonderful and enjoying all of the hustle and bustle of holiday preparation (only 32 days until Christmas!!) and gearing up for the end of the year in just a few short weeks.

The Frugal Fridays. Sigh...

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I had to retype the word "frugal" in the post name three times! No wonder, since August life was anything but frugal for us. In fact, it was so expensive, we are way off the charts... First, it was an unexpected medical bill. We tried to fight it but there is not much we could do. It's all about the agreement between the hospital (or hospital system that also includes small clinics in our case) and the insurance company. They did give us a 15% discount for paying it right away but it was still $686. Ugh!!

Then, our dog... Our poor little puppy... When we went out of town before, a family member would usually take Toby but she couldn't this time, so we had to rely on a boarding place when we went to Bear Lake. Never again! To make a long story short, we came to pick him up early and he was covered with pee as if he spent days sitting in it, his bed was soaked and he was visibly miserable. I felt like the worst Mom in the world! We are still fighting with them to get our money back but so far it's one excuse after another. They do offer a complimentary bath before you pick your dog up but we hit the road earlier and didn't warn them we were coming. I guess I'm glad we didn't because we found out in what condition our dog lived in for 5 days... I was and still am heartbroken. We left all kinds of nasty reviews and are considering a complaint with animal control department...

And two days before we left, our puppy had some issues breathing so we had to take him to the vet. It turned out to be nothing serious. But add the vet bill to the picture plus a new bed that we had to purchase for him (because even the wash couldn't save the old one. It was that nasty!!), and we paid almost $300 this month. That's almost $1000 in unexpected bills alone! I'm grateful that we have money set aside for things like this but it still hurts...

But there are blessings too... Today my sweet friend gave me all of her baby girl clothes, a bounce seat, a car seat and an exersaucer. It's huge for us and saves us a lot of money on necessities. We are almost ready to buy a second car seat too (more on it tomorrow).

But yes, August was extremely expensive for us and I'm ready for it to be over....

And how was August for you? Was it full of blessings, nasty surprises or somewhere in between?

Living an abundant life...

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Some of you might remember the times when the original name of this blog was "Frugal and Thankful". And even though I changed that name since, it didn't influence what I believe in. Being thankful is a huge part of how I see life. There are times when the plate is overflowing, and it's hard to find things to be thankful for.

But if you slow down and look around, there are so many things, moments, people, experiences that can fill your heart to the fullest with gratitude... Really, so much in life depends solely on our attitude.

I read a quote the other day that really inspired some pondering here:

We can't direct the winds but we can adjust the sails... In the past few days I tried to put in extra effort to see good in life. And I was amazed at how many blessings I've received.

1. Peace. I'm not going to lie, this is not exactly a peaceful time in my life. There are so many things I worry about, scared of, not sure how to deal with, that it gets overwhelming really quickly. But this past week I tried to find a few minutes every morning to squeeze in some Scripture study and spending time in "sweet hour of prayer". It's not always easy to do with two kids and a hundred and two responsibilities but it definitely brought that peace into my life that I so longed for. Whether religious or not, there are many things we can do to gain extra peace and comfort...

2. Friends. I was amazed at how many friends reached out to me in the past few weeks. Some brought physical blessings  -like books on multiples - really made me happy - baby stuff, offers to babysit so we can find time for each other or extra cuddles for when babies are here so this tired Mommy can take a shower. Or this blessing to make our life truly "abundant":

Others just brought hugs, encouragement, extra laughter and much needed grown-up interaction. Friends truly rock!

3. Family. I have to say, I am not on perfect terms with all the members of my or my DH' s family. Some of those relationships have been a bit rocky lately, and not necessarily because of something we've done. But other family members have been such a tremendous help that my heart swells with gratitude. My FIL has helped us with so many doctor's appointments (since I have a lot more of them than ever before), my sister-in-law is always willing to babysit even when she has her own hands full beyond capacity. My other awesome SIL just celebrated her own Birthday but decided to make it a very special day for the kids instead. She and her husband rented a gigantic bounce house with water slides, and the kids had a blast - and Moms a break!! It was amazing!

And of course, my Mom and my sister are such a blessing in my life. The other day I spent more than two hours Skyping with my Mom and we chatted about everything and anything in the world as if the borders and miles between us didn't exist. I wish I could also squeeze her tight through the screen but it still amazes me at what we already can do thanks to some technology achievements.

4. The bounty of earth. And of course, it wouldn't be right if I didn't mention how grateful I am for the abundance that we get from our garden. Just picked this morning:

I don't spend nearly as much time as I should in the garden but it's still blessing us above and beyond anything I can comprehend. Love me some free and organic produce!

So what are you thankful for on this beautiful Sunday evening?

So many big and expensive changes...

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First, I want to thank you all for your kind responses on my post yesterday. As some of you guessed here and on Facebook, we are expecting twins. And it was really unexpected!

To answer some questions, twins do run in my family. Kind of. My amazing great-grandma gave birth to 16 children, out of them 3 sets of twins. Unfortunately, 4 children died in infancy (including one in each twin set). But the other 12 survived and thrived. Her husband left her soon after the last child was born, so she raised them all on her own. My Grandpa knew how to milk a cow by the time he was 4. She was one heroic woman...

I digress...  So, technically, "twins" were supposed to be in my Mom's generation but the gene skipped all of the kids that came from those original 12. And made a surprise appearance in our ultrasound :) Many of you know that we were trying to get pregnant for a while, for almost two years to be exact. During this period, I discovered that I have hypothyroidism.  It definitely could be the reason why we had problems with fertility. I did not go through any infertility treatment, mainly, because we didn't have the money for it. We decided to leave it all in God's hands. Then, after my devastating miscarriage in January, I started getting desperate. And then somebody told me that it's already great that I could at least GET pregnant, after so many unsuccessful months. There was truth to that. And then came the big surprise :)

Somebody asked me today how long I've known. Honestly, we found out more than two months ago. I already knew for a week or so that I was pregnant but I started bleeding Sunday night and thought I was going through another miscarriage. The bleeding stopped the next day and when we went to the doctor that week we were shocked to find out that, not only everything was OK, but there were two little buns baking in there!

I'm not going to lie, I have a healthy (I hope!) mixture of excitement and feeling absolutely terrified right now. There is a long road ahead of us... Twin pregnancy is not an easy one. I honestly feel like I am discovering the whole pregnancy thing all over again... So many words I didn't even know before - HCG levels, progesterone, mono-mono etc. etc. Our little munchkins are fraternal which makes them a little less high-risk but there is still plenty to be aware of and try to prepare for. Right now my only two prayers are for them to be healthy and for me to make it as far as I can...

There are going to be many changes in our future, that's for sure. Obviously, we won't be able to reach our goal of saving $10000 this year. In fact, we will, probably, deplete our savings quite a bit to cover all kinds of medical bills. But we know our out-of-pocket maximum and we try to prepare the best we can. We are not going to stop saving until we need to start spending... I actually try to pick extra work to bring in more right now....

Also our 1800 sq. foot house suddenly became much smaller... Doubling the amount of kids in the same square footage is no joking matter :) I still think we are lucky to have 4 bedrooms here. We will  keep the room downstairs for my parents (if we ever finish it...Seriously, it's getting ridiculous!). I just cannot bear the idea of my Mom sleeping on the couch somewhere... They will have their own space when they come to visit again. We'll move the boys together in July as we always planned. But the other bedroom is pretty small. It was perfect for one but a little tight for two. We will have to sell all of our furniture there, including the gigantic crib and buy everything much smaller. We will wait with that for a few more weeks but we already started shopping around a bit and pricing everything we might need. It seems like we will mostly have to start from the beginning. Now everything will be in twos :) I'm not too concerned about clothes. Even if we end up having two girls, they will live in mostly blue stuff. We'll just buy a few pink outfits for major outings :) But we will need cribs, car seats, a stroller eventually and many other big, small, and expensive things...

So there will be many adjustments to our regular and long-term budget in the next few months. I don't know what the future holds for us but we will do what we can do and rely on God to help us with the rest... So far I'm just enjoying seeing my belly grow and get rounder and rounder :) And yes, I already look like I'm 5 months along but apparently you measure about 5-6 weeks further with twins. Sounds about right...

The bump on the road...

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First, I want to wish a Happy Father's Day to all fathers, grandfathers, soon-to-be-fathers and want-to-be-fathers. No matter what your status in life is, there is so much you can do to help all those children around you who need love, support and a fatherly hand in their lives... I hope, you all had an amazing day!!

And since it's Father's day I thought it would be appropriate to share a secret I've shamelessly been keeping from you for the past couple of months... Honestly, without it every single one of my posts seemed flat. But it might also give you an idea behind the reason why I would occasionally disappear for days if not weeks....

Will be back tomorrow with more updates :)

In the lane, snow is glistening...

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Now imagine me singing this phrase with a deep voice of... I don't know, Bing Crosby? I sure love me some festivity of this song, just not at the beginning of April. But that's what came to my mind at this depressing view today:

OK, it's a pretty view. Just again, not at the beginning of April. I'm kind of done roasting my chestnuts for the season... I guess I jinxed us by sharing with you all the pictures of my tulips... Come on, you can stop gloating now :) I've learned my lesson... I'm trying really hard to convince myself that it's moisture we need for the grass, and gardens, and rivers or lakes... It almost works...

But on a day like this I just did not have any energy to be useful... In fact, I was pretty lazy (it doesn't help when you eat something that doesn't agree with your stomach the day before...). I spent most of today away from the computer but enjoying time at Church, sleeping and curled up on the couch with my soft blanket and some uplifting books instead.

What can I say, I'm really looking forward to spring... When it's nice and sunny outside, I'm so much more productive! I feel like the energy is just flowing in my body and I'm ready to conquer the world (of dirty laundry, that is...).

The only thing that helped me feel that spring is near was the gorgeous bouquet that I scored for just $5:

So worth it!!

What do you like to do when you need a day for yourself to relax and rejuvenate?

And October turned out to be the best month of the year...

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And the winner is... The Quest!! She guessed it right :) This picture was taken on beautiful (though slightly windy) Redondo Beach in LA, California. It was my first time to see the ocean...

But it wasn't the only thing we saw. How about this picture:

Yes, we are in "The happiest place on earth" aka Disneyland... Before you start thinking that we might've gone insane going on vacation while my husband is unemployed, I have to explain. We did go on a vacation but it was a "paid one". My BIL arranged an awesome "job assignment" for Hubby. He had to deliver a prop, for a commercial shoot, all the way to California and then take it back almost a week later. Because I've never been to California (and because my husband has been promising to take me to the ocean for the past 8 years...), we decided to tag along. The company was paying for food, gas to and from and accommodations plus another $200 for every day they needed us/him to stay in LA, and when my husband's amazing family found out that we were planning to go there, they got together and presented us with the means to purchase Park Hopper tickets to spend three days in Disneyland and California Adventure:

It was so much fun!!! The kids had a blast and enjoyed every minute of it. The weather was beautiful - not too sunny or hot but warm enough to wear a T-shirt. It was more than we could ever hope for...

We also spent a day in LA going to Beverly Hills, Hollywood Boulevard, even a Russian store (there are a bunch there and the food is delicious!). Of course, I took a picture of the famous "Hollywood sign":

There were also some fun characters to take pictures with on Hollywood Boulevard:

It was supposed to be a picture of the little guy but as you can see the Oldest Kid in the family just couldn't resist :)

This year we planned to have a family vacation for just the 4 of us and were saving money for it but due to unemployment it never happened. And this trip was that dream come true... Thanks to so many blessings in our life. Including unemployment (who would've thought I'd ever say that!!) because we would never get an opportunity like this if Hubby was working...

But to make this month even better and to tell you something I was dying to share for a whole week, my husband finally got a job!!!! Not in California (sorry, Nan :) but it's a wonderful position with a  well-known non-profit with great benefits and salary (about $5000 a year more than the salary and top bonus he could make in his previous employment). Almost 4 months later our prayers were answered, and after a very long and hard September we got an amazing October! Life is so good, it's amazing!!

And to put a cherry on top, we have a tradition in our family started by my Dad many moons ago to buy local bread wherever we go. This is what I got this time :)

I do have a soft spot for Mickey... I should be back to regular posting from now on and can't wait to catch up on everything I missed in your life :)