From Bad to Good

What do you do when you're feeling under the weather and your husband has a high fever and is puking his guts out and your daughter poops in the middle of supper on her chair (and she isn't wearing any pants or underwear because she didn't want to), you're left with a big pile of poop to clean up, and while you're running to the bathroom with her, you get poop all over your favorite jeans?

A. Cry
B. Scream
C. Ask God, "Why did I have children?"
D. Praise God because there are so many more worse situations that you could be dealing with.

Answer: I did C + D. Although I managed to not cry + scream on the outside, I sure was on the inside. I'm ashamed to admit that I did ask God why I had children. Once everything was cleaned up and we were back at the supper table, I thanked God for the many blessings He has given me, including my children. I thank God that He uses them to work on my character and develop a servant-heart, which is hard, but the end result is worth it! I'm thankful that I managed to finish my supper in spite of all the poop and that the kids + I had a peaceful, happy rest of the evening! That is the grace of God!

Old + New

“The more I count these blessings, the more I realize that they really are not the product of my own efforts. They are truly gifts of grace from God above. It’s incredible to open my eyes to them week after week. And humbling. That I should be graced with such wonders? Me… whose heart is weak and black, yet covered with much mercy. How great is Your unfailing love, Lord God of all!” ~Sharaya Crossan

Some of the pictures today are from 5 years ago and some of the pictures are current.  Today I am thankful for:

521. Big snowflakes softly falling

522. Cuteness

523. That “The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in His unfailing love” Psalm 33:18

524. Friends I’ve had for 10+ years

525. Hearing my baby speak English (and non-English)

526. Taking pictures in the park with Jared when we were engaged

527. That Kiera enjoys doing puzzles and is getting very good at them

528. Raindrops on flowers

529. Not having any stomach pain yesterday or today (praise the Lord)!

530. Aquariums

531. Christian mystery novels

532. My former bedroom at my parents’ which was full of pictures and bright, cheery colors

533. The guy I played with on the praise + worship team who brushed the snow off of my van after worship practice

534. Red in a sea of yellow

535. The cleaning disc that fixed the problem with the DVD player in our van (the DVD player hadn’t worked since we bought the van in spring and now it does)!

536. Christmas lights on palm trees (pictures from the Dominican)

537. Blake’s 3-hour nap yesterday afternoon (he almost never does more than 2 hours)

538. My cousins

539. When Kiera said, “There’s fire coming out of my head,” after seeing her breath outside

540. Pool areas that have palm trees

This and That

Warning: The following post contains talk of poop.

Kiera is watching Veggie Tales and Blake is napping, so I finally have a moment to blog. Things lately have been mostly good, with a few small "bumps." Kiera's behavior has been worse in the past week, so that has been trying on my patience. I'm continually being shown how much I need God, because on my own, I don't have enough patience, love, joy, etc. I think part of it is that Kiera is bored of being in the house all the time (we hardly go out during the week...anyone up for a play date?), so she gets into trouble. On the plus side, she is totally day trained on the potty! YAY!!!! It took a long time for her to transition from going on her small potty to the regular toilet. Now that she has done that, she goes to the bathroom on the toilet when we're not at home, so I'm totally excited about that! We still have another obstacle to overcome and that is pooping on the potty. She saves it for her nap or nighttime and then poops in her diaper. She pooped once on the potty 2 days ago, so I keep praying she will make that a regular habit!

Blake is starting to talk! SO cool! Most of you have probably seen my facebook statuses, but he now says, "Up, Dad, Daddy, and Ma!" I love watching my kids learn and develop! He is working on tooth #5 right now and I suspect some more will follow closely after. He is close to walking on his own; he just holds onto one of our fingers and then cruises. He takes a few steps on his own almost every day when he walks between Jared + I, which is followed by much cheering and hugs for him!

Jared is busy finishing up his final assignment for the Security + Investments course he's been taking since the beginning of September, writing his best man speech, and other wedding-related activities this week with the wedding on Saturday. We'll both breathe a sigh of relief to have these weddings behind us. It's so much busier + more complicated both being in weddings in the same month while also having little kids.

I have been having digestion issues since the end of October. I haven't been to the doctor yet, as I don't have a family doctor and want to see if I can get rid of it naturally first. I have had mild stomach pain on + off in addition to other "things." I have tried cutting out anything that has flour in it and that seemed to help for a day or two, but I keep cheating. This week, I'm not going to cheat and I'll see whether or not that could possibly be the culprit. I've cut back on dairy as well. I started taking enteric-coated peppermint oil capsules to see if that will help. They pass through the stomach and then get released in the intestines and are supposed to take away stomach pain. I started those on Saturday afternoon and haven't really noticed a difference, but I'm not sure if it's been long enough. I also went to the chiropractor and he said it could be temporary as my body's hormones are changing since I quit breastfeeding in October. He also recommended I take acidophilus, so I am. He is a health-freak and has done a ton of research on everything related to health and the body. I also went for an hour-long massage on Friday, which was amazing, and she massaged my stomach quite a bit and I felt really good after that. I'm just praying that this annoying issue will go away, so if anyone else wants to pray for me, please feel free!

Glory

October Blessings

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” Colossians 4:2

God, today I thank You for:

501. Fellowship with friends

502. The fun I had with the bride + bridesmaids making the wedding favors

503. Soft, warm, fuzzy socks

504. Watching the sunset from the highway

505. Vitamins

506. Bachelorette parties

507. A quiet house at the end of the day

508. Glow mini golf

509. Kids who make the house noisy during the day which I will totally miss when they’re all grown up

510. Super white teeth

511. That I don’t have to go outside every day when it’s cold outside

512. Glow in the dark necklaces

513. That Jared + I cashed in our Air Miles and went to see a movie, which included free drinks and popcorn

514. That we also got a Canon HF R100 HD camcorder for free with our Air Miles (and it’s our first camcorder ever)!

 

515. Kids who love Sunday School

516. Sleeping bags

517. Scrambled eggs

518. The face that Kiera makes when I ask her to, “Say cheese”

519. That God is good all the time

520. That my kids could each celebrate their birthdays and eat chocolate cake!

Memorizing

I read a blog called "A Holy Experience," by Ann Voskamp. One post she did recently has stuck with me. She wrote about her mother-in-law who passed away and left behind her Bible Memory Association Booklets: booklets of her memory work over the years. Ann said, "Who memorizes God in the age of Google?" Ouch! That really hit me because I turn to Google for so many things and it can be a great tool, but not when it takes the place of God. I've been slowly memorizing Scripture this past year which has been good! I feel like God has asked me to step it up a notch and memorize every day, not just a verse here and there. So, I'm memorizing 1 or 2 verses a day. Right now, I'm working on different chapters in Psalms. I'm picking ones that aren't very long right now because I don't feel so overwhelmed then. Eventually, I want to move on to New Testament books, like maybe Ephesians and Philippians. Another thing she said was, "Do I spend my week ruminating on His Words or my worries?" Worry is something I struggle with daily. What better way to combat worry than with Scripture? Once I finish a chapter, I write the date beside it. I'm finding the more time I spend in His Word, the less my desire is to spend time on Facebook and other things like that. I've struggled so much with having my priorities in the wrong order. It's a daily battle. I want to hide God's Word in my heart. "A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of." Luke 6:45 I want to speak words that encourage, words of grace and love, but it won't happen if I fill my heart with useless things. I need Jesus.

There are many helpful tools to aid in memorization. Here are some of the ones she has suggested:
1. biblememorymusic.com or kingdomsongs.com It puts chapters of the Bible to song which makes memorization a lot easier.
2. Writing out verses on business-size cards and leaving them in various places where you'll see it. That also makes it easy to take them with you, too.
3. Writing just the first letter of every word of the verse helps your brain fill in the blanks.

Psalm 119:97 "Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long."
Psalm 119:103 "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth."

I want to be able to honestly say those things. Lord, help me as I fall so short. I want you to be my treasure.

The Wedding

Last week Saturday, the activities started at 10:00 at the hairdresser’s.  This is the bride, Amanda, getting her hair done.

This is the back of my hair.  They didn’t have any sparkly clips, so one of the girls went to the dollar store and they bought 3 broaches which they pinned into my hair (which you can’t really see).  I never would have thought of that and it totally worked!

 

Here is the flower girl with her brother

You can’t tell in the pictures, but Blake was WAY overtired.  It’s like the kids knew there was something going on before the wedding.  Kiera was misbehaving a lot and Blake refused to nap in the afternoon before the wedding.  I found it quite stressful getting ready for the wedding.  Getting Blake to look at the camera during family pictures was interesting. We had the groomsmen stand behind the camera and make faces, jump, and shout his name. It certainly made the rest of us smile! We took outdoor pictures and although it was gorgeous weather for November, in that dress without a jacket I was quite cold. Oh well, I'm sure the pictures will look great! The wedding went very smoothly, which is amazing considering that a lot of the planning happened last minute.  I enjoyed it!

TJ + Amanda

Amanda danced to "Butterfly Kisses" with her dad and during that time, I conveniently went to the bathroom. I can't listen to that song without thinking about Kiera and starting to cry. I don't even want to picture her walking down the aisle as a bride instead of a flower girl.

Here are my Mom-in-law and my sister-in-law dancing (Mom was the maid of honor and photographer and my sister-in-law was also a bridesmaid)

Me + my sweetheart

Me + Jacki, a close friend who was also a bridesmaid

One of the best parts for me was when Kiera walked down the aisle, or should I say bolted.  She made the whole church laugh and Jared got it on video!  The lighting isn’t great, but you get the idea.  Jared + I both said we’ve never seen a flower girl do that before.  Only Kiera!

Dancing Queen (and King)

I want to blog about the wedding, but haven't had time yet. I took this video on Kiera's birthday and it makes me laugh!

Happy 1st Birthday, Blake!

Yesterday, Jared’s step-sister got married, so I didn’t have time to blog.  Yesterday, my baby turned a year old!  That definitely felt like the fastest year of my life!

Blake, you came into this world a quiet, content baby, which is exactly what we prayed for!  You have grown into a determined toddler who is very attached to your Mommy and not afraid to make your voice heard when you want something.  You have added a lot of joy to our lives and you’re such a tremendous blessing!  I’m looking forward to watching you grow and learn new things as you start to walk on your own this next year and start to talk.  I love you more than words can say!  Happy birthday to my favorite one-year-old!

11 hours old

3 months old

6 months old

9 months old

My one-year-old looking so handsome in his cute little suit!

Kiera’s 3-year Photos

My Mom-in-law took Kiera this past Saturday, the day after her birthday, and took some beautiful pictures of her!  Here are some of my favorites:

I think she looks more grown up in the next one

 

 

I’m 3!

I would love to frame one of them, but I’m not sure which one.  I’m think I’m leaning toward either the 2nd one or the 6th one.  Which one of the 11 would you pick?

Schedules

Last night, Jared + I read from a book called, "His Needs Her Needs: Building an Affair-proof Marriage" by Willard E. Harley Jr. We've been slowly reading through it for quite a long time (for sure more than a year). It's all about making deposits in each other's "love banks" and not making withdrawals and also not making deposits in the opposite gender's "love banks" who you aren't married to. Yesterday, it talked about only doing activities that you both enjoy that you can do together. We don't follow this, but it got us talking about how little alone time we have together. The book recommends 15 hours/week and we definitely haven't been getting anywhere close to that. Kiera has always slept in, had a very late afternoon nap, and then gone to bed later, like around 9:00 p.m. That always worked well since we used to go out with her a lot more in the evenings, especially before Blake was born and when he was younger. Blake has now put himself on a different schedule which is that he goes to bed between 8-8:30 p.m. and wakes up at 6:30 a.m. for a bottle and then is up at 7:30 a.m. for the day, until his next nap. Last night, Kiera had a bad attitude, so she ended up going to bed at 8:00, so Jared + I had 3 hours together before we went to sleep! It was great! We decided that I should start waking Kiera up earlier so that her nap is earlier and then her bedtime will be earlier as well. I've always enjoyed my quiet mornings, but now that Blake wakes up early, I'm not really getting that anyway, unless he goes down for a nap before Kiera is up for the day. I'll basically be trading some of my alone time for alone time with Jared which will be worth it! I will still make time to read the Bible and pray, but reading other books and going on the internet will probably be cut back. I REALLY don't like waking the kids up, but hopefully Kiera will naturally start waking up a bit earlier on her own if I keep at it. We'll see how it goes!