Sunday, August 28, 2011

More Than Just a Place

Good morning bloggies,

A few years ago in a magazine called Real Simple, in a section where they pose a question and readers weigh in, they asked "What does home mean to you?"  I loved this simple question and people's responses.  None of them were basic as in it's that place I go to after work and wake up in the morning at.  They were all more thoughtful.

So I started thinking about this to myself and realized for me...

Home is my family....
Home is intertwining my fingers with Arabelle or Lincoln's little fingers....
Home is snuggling up next to Ryan...
Home is where I can eat a big bowl of ice cream while drinking a glass of wine without judgement....
Home is where we laugh and cry and stay together forever....
Home is way more than just a place....


So let's hear it, what does home mean to you? 

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Wake On Up From Your Slumber

Hey there bloggies,

There is a song I have been thinking a lot about lately by a band called NeedToBreathe.  They have a song called Slumber that talks about waking up and opening your eyes.  And I have been thinking, how often are we just sleep walking through life?  It's kind of like when you are driving and end up somewhere and can barely remember driving somewhere.  It all becomes so routine that we don't even remember what we did that day or that week.  Things that are unimportant stick out and the things of importance which tend to be routine, fade away.  Maybe it's time we 'wake on up from our slumber and open up our eyes'. I know I don't want to look back and wonder what happened to the years or how my babies got so big.  I don't want to be on auto pilot just making it through each day.  Let's make each day count and not pull the covers back over our eyes and hope for the best. 


Have a great week!!

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Lincoln Man

On August 6th my little Lincoln man turned two.  We love this little man so much.  He has rocked my world.  He has a tender heart, is sweet, funny and oh so loving.  Lincoln has surprised us in so many ways.  We can't imagine life without him.  What's even more fun is seeing how he and Arabelle interact.  And seeing their differences and similarities.  I don't so much care for the trouble they get into together, but I guess that's part of it.  I can't believe he is two and that he's growing and talking and loving on us as much as we love on him.  I pray daily for him to be a man after God's own heart, I pray for his future family and friends, I pray that he always knows the Lord.  I hope that we are doing a good job of showing Lincoln God and that God uses us to help Lincoln grow. 

We had Lincoln's big circus birthday party last weekend and it was a hit.  Unfortunately after weeks and weeks of barely any rain it would rain on his birthday...trapping us inside.  So much for those games.  I guess it's good we didn't go over the top on the outdoor game thing.  I think we still had a great time though.  Lincoln was totally uninterested in opening presents.  Luckily he has his big sister to open his gifts for him. He didn't care other than for the soccer ball, basketball and form of ball.  For two years now that is all he has wanted.  He was born wanting some sort of ball to throw.  Who knows what that will all develop into.  Enjoy the pictures.


Now I am off to figure out how to get blue nail polish out of our new carpet...yes the trouble they get into.  I am pretty sure this one was instigated by the older one though.  Any suggestions on the clean up???

Have a great weekend!

Monday, August 15, 2011

Changes

Hey there bloggies,

I don't have much to report on the home front today.  We had Lincoln's big Circus bash yesterday which was wonderful.  Pictures will come soon, I promise!! 

I was looking at pictures though from just over a  year ago and looking at faces in those pictures and thinking oh my how things changed in that time.  A year used to seem like forever, but as I get older tiem is going more and more quickly.  Then you look back and realize all of the wonderful things and hard things and time consuming things that have happened and you remember that a year really is kind of a long time.

I came across pictures of our wonderful friends who live in Switzerland.  They were home for a visit following a crazy bicycle accident, just the two of them.  Fabulously enough they have multiplied and became three.  It took some time for that to happen...about 40+ weeks to be exact. They are now super proud parents of a beauty of a girl named Priska.  And wow is she beautiful!  One day I will get to hold her yummy chubby baby hand...I am sure it will happen. 

Then there are pictures of my Lincoln man, just crawling and rolling around.  Now he runs up and down the stairs and jumps and yells.  He tells me he misses me and says thank you.  Wow, how did he grow up so quickly?? 

In these pictures, we are moving out of our condo.  Our first owned home.  We now live in much bigger house.  We actually have enough bedrooms and a fenced in back yard.  Some things are still in boxes, but we are surviving just fine.  Maybe some of those things never need to be unpacked...maybe they can go straight to Goodwill.  Or we will just get there when we get there. In the meantime, we are happy and love having the space to sprawl out.

Then there are pictures of my handsome brother.  Pictures at his going away party.  He's packing up his belongings about to embark on a little trip to Japan to work.  I can't believe that was only a year ago!!  I mean really all of the things that have happened.  I am amazed.  There was a small earthquake which freaked us and him out.  Then just a couple short days later one of the biggest earthquakes ever recorded happens followed up by one of the biggest tsunamis ever.  Hours of no contact and stress and worry and prayers and love.  Now he is back home in Indiana with his fiance, the beautiful Georgia.  Which may I say she truly is beautiful and super nice and I am super excited she is going to be my sister-in-law.  All Arabelle could say was "She is so beautiful!"  And Lincoln well he calls her George.  So you take what you can get there. 

In a year, your world can change.  Your heart can break and be put back together. Your belongings can increase, be lost, be boxed up and or unpacked unpacked.  You grow and mature in ways you probably thought weren't possible or never imagined.  God shapes you and molds you to the person he always knew you could be and will be.  God is still perfecting us everyday and every year that go by, don't lose sight of that.  Sometimes when you think not much has happened or that time is going so quickly.  Take a look back and remember all that truly happened.

And because everyone should remember what fun a Lincoln Log set is I shared our pictures.  We really do take pictures of everything....We had to document our success at figuring it out.  It's not as easy as you might think.

Have a nice evening loves!

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Thoughts...

Hello there,

I know this is two in one day, but I needed to talk through some things.  :-)

In the last week or so Lincoln Man turned 2, I turned 28 and I had an actual conversation with Arabelle on the phone where she told me she missed me and asked legitimate questions about my day that were relevant to conversations that had actually taken place.  In all of this, I have felt a little sad.  My munchkins are growing up.  I keep thinking of Lincoln and Arabelle the first times I held them.  How their pudgy little faces looked eerily like me from the get go.  How their little hands clutched just one of my fingers.  How I carried them around and watched their every move.  I feel like they are growing up way too fast.  And I feel like I am missing out somehow on that.  I work full time and find myself longing to be able to just be a stay at home mommy. And maybe I am failing them because I am not staying home. I feel like if I am working maybe I should at least be doing my "dream" job...even though I still don't know what that is after years of contemplation.  I feel like maybe I should be more.  Whatever more is. 

I am reading a book called Bittersweet right now and it has me thinking.  A lot of the stories the author describes, ring true in various ways for me.  I just read a chapter about trying to do everything all the time.  The author explained how she loves to make lists and how she once added to her list "DO EVERYTHING BETTER".  She then went on to break down each word and how awful that was to say.  But it made me wonder how often to I find myself in the same thoughts...I may not write it down, but I am there.  I literally want to do everything better.  I feel a need to be a better mom, a better wife, a better employee, a better Christian, a better cook, a better everything.  Really??????  It's like dreaming the impossible dream about every little thing.  She explains in the book how she has started to learn to make a list of the things "I do" and the things "I don't do" and then reminds herself of these when she starts to feel that addiction to being everything creeping in. 

And it really does creep in.  It's not like you wake up in the morning and suddenly think I have to do and be everything everyone at all times today.  It starts small I think and then grows, kind of like a disease or an infection.  If you leave it unattended suddenly that list of things you wanted to do better has suddenly encompassed every aspect of your life. 

I need to remember that I am right where God has placed me.  Maybe I was created for such a time as this...just like Esther.  Maybe a little dramatic, but in honesty God is the creator of every aspect of my life.  He put the Earth into motion and created the stars, if he wanted me to be in a different place wouldn't he make that happen?  The truth is, I don't stay at home, I don't keep my house spotless 85% of the time, I don't always finish projects, I don't have dinner on the table when Ryan walks in, I don't make our bed every day, I don't always put away laundry and I don't have nicely manicured fingernails and toenails.  I do however, love my kids and my husband more than I could have imagined loving anyone, I do read lots of books, I do teach my kids all that I can, I do pray for my family, I do love God, I do have a good job where I work with lots of people who feel like family, I do love to bake and do it well (I think), I do like to start lots of artsy projects and I do love to listen to a variety of music and dance around with my munchkins.  I know there are lots more things I do and things I don't.  But for now, I am learning that every moment with my kids is precious. God has blessed me with those moments and I pray he continues to bless me with those moments.  I pray that through those moments, we bring glory to God in every way.  I pray that in those moments I can teach them about God and that hey would grow up in His ways and always be followers of God.  I know they are growing up fast, but that's the way God made it.  Maybe if I spent less time focusing on how I can do everything better and be everything, they wouldn't seem to be growing up so fast.  Maybe time might slow down just a little. 

I will probably still wish I could stay at home, but I know not everyone does.  My mom wasn't always at home with us, she too worked.  And you know looking back I don't remember longing for her to have been a stay at home mom.  I don't really remember daycare that much.  Just bits and pieces of different things.  What I do remember is the first time I ever made pancakes with my mom, I remember making homemade peanut butter, I remember going to the park and going to the pool with her.  I remember those precious moments.  I am sure it will be the same with my kids.  I am praying for contentment and learning as I go.  Today I will remember that I am right where God wants me.  He created me for a purpose and it isn't to do everything better.

And to close it up I just wanted to share my lovely babes with you.

You know she still sleeps like that sometimes...mouth open all flopped out.

And have you ever seen anything so precious.  I love his little face.


A Care Bear Girl

And finally with much delay here is Arabelle's 4th birthday.  It's only 6 months after the fact, but oh well.  Arabelle had quite the fascination with Care Bears for a while and of course that was what the birthday theme HAD to be.  It's really interesting to do a theme that isn't popular currently.  I searched for Care Bear goodies and couldn't find much.  So we had to just make some stuff up. We did lots of bright colors and tried to find bear stuff.  I made the invitations which had rainbows and cotton balls on them.  I think we all had a good time!  :-)  Enjoy!



Mimi made this awesome rainbow jello and we made the chocolate bears in all different colors.



     
I don't know what is up with that smile!
 
Have a lovely day bloggies!!  I am home recovering from turning 28 yesterday.  Actually I am super happy to have a day off from work and relax and clean and check things off my list.  I know....sounds crazy exciting.  What can I say I am wild like that!!



Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Where the Wild Things Are

And finally after a year, here are Lincoln Man's first birthday pictures.  Here is how he became the king of all the wild things!
Homemade cupcakes


I painted these bad boys myself



Love that face



Actually eating his cupcake. Lincoln doesn't like sweets as much as his sister.

And there he is, King of all the wild things

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Smoothies!

Good morning bloggies!
The last couple of weeks Big Daddy and I have been making smoothies also called by some green monsters every morning.  Oh they are yummy! We have been trying all kinds of things, but they almost always include veggies too and flax seed.  Did you know in three tablespoons of flax seed there are 7g of fiber and 6g of protein???  That's a lot!  We been mixing it up with strawberries, bananas, plums, spinach, oatmeal, flax, cantaloupe, peanut butter, cocoa powder, and one of the best ones was mixed with avocado.  So good.  Actually the avocado one was amazing.  We weren't so sure at first, but had an avocado that needed to go, so we just tossed it in. With a little pure maple syrup and peanut butter and some fruit it was awesome.  It had a pudding like texture.  Oh so good.  The best thing is that they keep me so full!  My body is notorious for having major sugar lows and crashes around lunch or in the afternoon.  Sometimes with my work lunch can get pushed off and it can be late before I get to eat. Which can lead to me being shaky and starving and then wanting to eat eating everything in sight.  I am sure none of you have ever done this.  Never....Anyways.  These smoothies have rocked my world as far as being sustaining.  I love it! I am wondering if I will love them as much once it cools down from 100 degrees outside.  

How about you all??  Ever tried a smoothie or green monster?  If so what do you mix up?

Monday, August 1, 2011

A Heavy Heart

I am home sick today, by myself for now.  Which gives me a chance to read the news, browse yummy recipes, pray, read and think.  I truly struggle doing some of those things when the house is full and I am being asked hundreds of seemingly random questions. Well unless you are 4 1/2 and then the questions aren't random at all. 


I was just reading about the famine in Africa and reading about poor women being gang raped while their children watch, all while they are just trying to seek food and safety.  What kind of world do we live in??  Why is it like this? 

I look at the pictures of crying, starving children and I myself cry.  How do you comfort your child that is starving?  How do you tell them everything is going to be ok?  How do you explain the horrors that they have experienced before they should be able to understand these things?

I feel called to these people to help them, but how?  For now all I know to do is to pray.  I pray that they will know God's love and that they will feel his peace.  I pray that the Holy Spirit will comfort them in this time of great struggle.  I pray that the parents will be able to show their children God's love even in the worst circumstances. 

Maybe I struggle the most with that.  Living in the America and really never having gone with out, it's always been relatively easy for me to see God's love and his amazing goodness.  I can't imagine the struggle with faith some may feel in Africa and other war torn, poverty stricken nations.  It is in those times and places I think as God's people we are forced to rely on him more than anything.  We have to seek his word and find goodness there, because there aren't green trees and grass to show beauty.  There aren't majestic animals walking around because they too are starving.  We have to look to God for joy and peace and increased faith. 

I pray I would learn to be happier with what I have and remember how incredibly blessed I am. I need to be happy that I can provide for my kids in every way they need.  I pray that I never have to explain to them why we can't feed them.  Pray for the people in horn of Africa who are suffering so much right now.  Pray for relief and that they would come to know God's glory.