Apr
27
2011Easter. The Resurrection. In one moment, where a dead man breathed anew, the entire order of the world changed. Humanity went from a dying people estranged from a Holy God to a people loved so completely that the very same God would purchase us back from slavery to sin with the blood of His very Life. We were redeemed. And so I sit again to count moments as redeemed for His glory.
#1795-1829
- Overtime and gas reimbursement equaling enough to pay off the rest of our insurance deductible for the year
- 2 Sunshine Radians and my already owned Graco SnugRide fitting 3 across in my Corolla Rear Facing
- Powering through the editing of my images from my last session.
- Clothing from Auntie Jen, always unexpected and always super cute
- Throw up bug #2 being far less sever than the first and only affecting Aeralind one time
- Bronwyn, Derek, and I unaffected by bug #2
- Babies holding hands during a meal
- Correct context and usage of the words “uh oh” as taught by Aunt Ruthie and Carol
- Amber’s Simply Said launch party with grown-up conversation!
- Looking forward to hosting my own Simply Said Party 🙂
- Hosting a party giving me a firm deadline for completing the kitchen cabinets remodel
- Babies who sign 🙂
- Apple Butter
- Avocado
- Zoo play date canceled due to weather that caused me to invite myself to the farm to help with Easter celebration preparations
- Carol telling me of the Lord allowing her to cross one of the busiest roads in our town 3 different times with no traffic when she was grocery shopping when she wasn’t feeling well. What thankfulness!
- Washing tons of dishes
- Seeing how smart the girls are through Ruthie and Carol’s eyes as Aeralind put away CDs and Bronwyn climbed a bar stool to stand on top and thieve food.
- Being told and watching how well the girls listen to no
- Ruthie and Carol finally witnessing the “smile cutely and wave” version of defiance
- Bronwyn’s sign language and spoken language taking off and seeing how proud she is that she can communicate successfully
- Aeralind happily mopping the floor with a wet rag
- Washing tons of dishes, peeling dozens of eggs, making fruit salad, and peeling apples for pie to help Carol prepare for 70 guests
- Meeting Derek at Chick-fil-a for dinner
- Yummy non-rotten baby Carrots
- 71 people running in joyful chaos all over the farm
- Yummy food
- singing with 71 voices
- the girls riding a horse with Aunt Ruthie
- laughing at a pant-less Aeralind watching everyone outside the window and refusing to nap
- Hearing the Gospel on Easter- Oh, the Joy!
- Girls eating/teething on raw baby carrots
- laundry on the line
- A & B conquering all but two climbable surfaces of the 7 at the 2-5 year park. Scared me senseless at time… but they are so proud of themselves!
- A potential new client
Apr
22
2011Julia and I are exploring the meaning of Beauty, intersecting Beauty with the word of God, and letting Beauty live in our lives. Inspired by a joint feeling of just not measuring up in the beauty category, we’re tackling some hard questions:
- What is Beauty? And does it reside in me?
- And when my husband says that I’m beautiful, how can I receive those words as truth in a culture that says the opposite?
- What am I going to teach my daughters about Beauty?
- And most importantly, what does the Word of God say about Beauty?
Join us as we converse about a topic that touches the heart of all women.
________________________________________________________
My sweet Julia,
When I was pregnant with the girls I mad a drastic decision to throw out all my journals. Those journal contained my history from 7th through 12th grade. It is a history I am not proud of and it was not something I wanted my children to stumble on unprepared.
I did not want them reading of
- how I would chase boys around the playground hoping they might notice me
- hands that reached where they should not of without permission
- the deep miserable longing to be loved and accepted
- that longing so deep that I laid bare before two young men
- feelings of failure that drove me to food for comfort
- my pride that I knew everything and that no one could teach me anything
- volumes of depressing poetry relaying my fear that I would never be good or beautiful enough
Like you, I did not want my children peering into the vivid and painful history painted by my young perspective.
But at the same time, my rough history and yours are
His Story.
His Story of redemption.
His Story of reaching down and buying back with His very life that which others had overlooked as valueless.
His Story.
________________________________________________________
Hop on over to Julia’s blog to read the rest.
Apr
18
2011I’m slowly coming back out of a coma.
No, I haven’t been in a car wreck or otherwise had my health compromised.
You see gift #1583: “a very unexpected surprise!” has been wrecking havoc with me. That gift made it impossible for me to be awake during the girl’s nap time (and my typical blog time) for about 10 weeks now.
But I’m slowly coming back out of the coma and wanted to introduce you personally to gift #1583.
Say hello to the singleton baby 🙂
We’re all doing great now that we’re through the insanity of the first trimester. My energy is being restored and I’m enjoying this time with my two before they become three 🙂
#1737-1794
- Little Aeralind girls snuggling with my childhood teddy “Cranky” and playing with his whiskers just like I would
- Bronwyn feeding 9 month Addison Cheerios one by one
- Dani bringing Addison and Colton to play on a cold dreary day after a sleepless night for our house
- B & A reading with Dani
- Exhausted babies napping well
- Helman’s Mayo commercial dances with hubby
- 10 minutes of Bronwyn snuggles first thing in the morning
- Daddy and Aeralind joining us in bed
- Bronwyn wrapping the birding Gwampa around her little fingers- I think she convinced him that she was incapable of walking long distances
- Little Ponytails!
- Ruthing and Nana taking the girls overnight at the farm
- Date Night with Derek
- Laughing hysterically over the tot sized potty at ToysRUs with a complete stranger
- Snuggling on the couch
- Uneventful drives to and from Atlanta
- Only being the second shooter at Derek’s sister’s wedding
- Being able to explore wedding photography creatively with the pressure off of having to capture every shot
- Playing with Sun Flare
- Capturing details like toes, dresses, flower girl shoes
- Watching Mariana dance and snuggle with her Uncle Derek
- Getting to talk to Aunt “Monkey” at the reception
- Aeralind waking up to snuggle because of gas right as we got home from Georgia. After 2 nights away, momma needed the snuggles more than Aerie did!
- Exhausted slug state and the husband with the energy and grace to just let me rest most of the morning
- Aeralind tackling the biggest, bumpiest slide at the playground all by herself and sitting on her bottom.
- Biodiversity in my backyard: I do believe we have 4 different types of grass and 16+ types of weeds. At least it’s green 🙂
- Red-Tailed Hawk flying right over us
- Neglected Lilies of the Valley coming back up this year
- Vocabulary Explosions
- 7 hours overtime due to his bosses vacation even if it means less daddy time
- Sunshine after a week of rain
- Aeralind snuggling with my 27 year old Cranky bear
- Talking with Tamara
- More paint applied to cabinet doors
- Final paint color selected
- Free breakfast with the family at Chick-fil-a
- Library Programs
- First Ponytails the the dozen or so since
- Friday with a fun weekend ahead of us (after last weekend was spent nursing the stomach bug)
- Julia 🙂
- Hard stories, but ones of Redemption
- True peek-a-boo with the girls
- Open mouthed on the mouth roaring Aeralind kisses
- All but 7 cabinet doors completely primed
- After 7 months without being near one, the girls still loving the swimming pool!
- While teaching Aeralind that if she falls in the pool to turn and grab the side, seeing her do a pull up on the poolside to chew/teeth on the concrete. Hysterical!
- Brady’s Party 🙂
- Little Bronwyn Making other feed her fruit salad simply by smiling and signing please
- Aeralind stealing and shoveling unattended cupcakes into her mouth! (3 to be precise!)
- Derek taking back the two bags of rotten baby carrots.
Apr
15
2011Julia and I are exploring the meaning of Beauty, intersecting Beauty with the word of God, and letting Beauty live in our lives. Inspired by a joint feeling of just not measuring up in the beauty category, we’re tackling some hard questions:
- What is Beauty? And does it reside in me?
- And when my husband says that I’m beautiful, how can I receive those words as truth in a culture that says the opposite?
- What am I going to teach my daughters about Beauty?
- And most importantly, what does the Word of God say about Beauty?
Join us as we converse about a topic that touches the heart of all women.
________________________________________________________
Dearest Melissa,
We’ve spoken of many things through this series.
We’ve talked of modesty, words, parenting our daughters, teaching our daughters about Beauty, who is Beautiful and about living out Beauty to glorify the One who made it.
It’s a lot to strive for, and much to live up to.
Of course, no one is perfect. We all have shortcomings.
But, what about when we fail?
_______________________________________________
When I was in graduate school, my life felt completely and utterly out of control:
- my boyfriend broke my heart
- two of my best friends were engaged to be married
- I was a bridesmaid in both weddings
- from the recesses of my memory, I recalled trauma from my childhood
- my family was one big disaster
- graduate school was hard and demanding
- I was working two part-time jobs
I was in the depths of despair. I handled “the depths of despair” poorly, to say the least.
I looked in the mirror and, somehow, everything that was wrong could get better if I just wasn’t so “fat”.
I exercised to unhealthy ends.
I hardly ate.
Numbers on the scale dropped lower, bones jutted out further. I still despaired.
I loathed myself. What I looked like, who I was.
I have some pictures from one of the weddings I was in, but seeing what I look like is not my point.
My point is—I’m sure there are many women out there with a story like this one:
A story of self-loathing.
A story of fighting for control.
A story of hurting her body.
A story of sinking into the depths of despair, where the ocean waves of depression mercilessly crash over her body, as she fought to keep breathing.
Or maybe, in her story, she wanted to stop breathing.
There is redemption here in all of this. On the other side of all this struggle, all this yuck, all this “I can’t see a light at the end of the tunnel”, there is redemption.
A friend of mine, with her own story, shared this verse with me:
I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten….
~Joel 2:25a
These are those years! I am blessed beyond what I deserve, and my cup is overflowing with joy!
I won’t say I don’t still struggle sometimes. There is a balance. Moderation. Sometimes I have to search through the weeds to find it, like a golfer looking for his shanked ball.
I have to fight for joy, sometimes I have to fight hard. In the joy, I find Beauty:
Beauty in my daughters
Beauty in me
I also find a space to give myself permission to love myself. Love myself, because God created me with love and care. He knit me together in my mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13b). My body is his temple, I should care for it, and love it tenderly, as he does.
That is grace. Redemption.
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
~Oscar Wilde
What a gift, to be lifted so far out of the pit where I was wallowing.
With that gift, with that undeserved redemption, I want to live, and “be” in such a way that my daughters do not see my struggle. So that they do not see me struggling with the way God made me. I do not want them to inherit that struggle.
Apr
12
2011- Sort and Put Away Laundry
My girls love putting anything in a box, basket, drawer, or any container. Nothing gets folded for their room any more. I just sort for the three drawers and let them put things up. I would fold it, but they love this task so much that they pull out their laundry just to put it back. You should see how proud they are! It’s free entertainment that helps you finish your chores 🙂 - Go on a Hike
We took them on their first hike when they were about 17 months old. They were recovering from a cold and we totally expected that they’d just ride in our backpacks for the majority of the time. Not only did they insist on walking, but the instinctively followed the trail too! We loved watching what they stopped to pick up (pine cones, rocks, sticks larger than they were). Both girls squealed and sang the whole time.
Now I will say that picking the trail is extremely important part of this activity. Obviously, you don’t want anything too steep or with water features much wider/deeper than a creek. But for our girls having a trail that isn’t filled with people (and their dogs) was very important as well. Try not to pick the most popular trail in the area or you’ll end up carrying them as they follow strangers or cower in front of every dog. - Go to Pet Smart or any local pet store.
It’s like a free zoo. Seriously. Utterly hysterical. - Do Yard Work
They love to “mow” with daddy, attempting to plant seeds with me (can be frustrating…), and love moving yard debris to a wheelbarrow. And knowing my girls, spreading mulch would be the ultimate joy of all yard work! - Give them some Boxes
Disposable diaper boxes are the perfect size for my girls… but really anything you have will do. We’ve made forts out of car seat boxes. We’ve put toys in toddler shoe boxes for instant noise making fun. We’ve hidden our music playing cell phones inside multiple boxes nested together and made them find the music. We’ve filled diaper boxes with clothing or bags and watched them both climb in to play. They’ve pushed boxes around like toys. They’ve turned boxes over their heads and walked around squealing. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, boxes are the perfect toys. - Let them Run Wild in the Toy Aisles
You need one person per child, but the wonder and joy in their eyes is breath-taking. They’re too young to understand that the toys could come home with them and think they’re at a playground. They’ll shake one thing, and press buttons. Then dig out bouncy balls. Mine even just run shrieking up and down an aisle because they can. Just a wise word of warning: don’t do this during a stores busy hours and don’t attempt it if your twinados can destroy the store in 20 seconds or climb shelves. Otherwise, it’s actually pretty fun 🙂 - Let them Paint
Make some finger paint; the odds are good that you have all these ingredients in the house. Strip the babies down to diapers and bring old newspapers into the yard. Let them be crazy. One of mine was all about painting on the paper. The other just loved running off with the paints and hiding them.
Or grab a bucket filled with water and old grown-up paint brushes. Let the babies ‘paint’ the neighbors fence, or the house, or their daddy. The girls did this painting activity for over an hour while Derek and I recovered from a stomach bug on Sunday. They loved it!
