Travels

It was soooooo nice to spend time with some of our precious friends to the north recently. I am more thankful than I can express for friends who seem custom designed for us! :) We had a lovely time! I need to get in the habit of taking more pictures!!

4th Anniversary

We enjoyed some family time this year. Yummy lunch with our sweet girls. 4 years together already! Amazing.

Best road trip food!

...for a 1 yr old, that is. Normally, I pack food for a road trip...chopped apples, sandwiches, chips, etc. And when traveling with a little one lacking in teeth, I pack a couple jars of baby food for convenience. But this new development in baby food packaging was a hit! Libby had her 4 oz. of blueberry bananas down in less than a minute! No spoon necessary! She just sucked right from the pouch. I'm all about a little thing that makes life just a tad more simple.

Having too much fun..

...to blog. :) but here are some pics.

Ups and downs

The great part of ups and downs...are the ups! Ha ha. We had a better day today. NOT a perfect day, but a better one!

So I attempted a project. This could have been a disaster, but it went pretty well, considering there was a 3 year old involved! Granted, she did have a blue face and hands when we were done... :) but we had fun! (after I set aside my extreme aversion to paint colors being mixed together!!) And she just loved it so much, I let her continue on some paper.

(still can't get my pictures to load in the right order...)

...more of a "woe is me" day

Those pesky hormones! Sometimes I wish they were less powerful. I'm sure women would lose much of what is captivating and beautiful about us without them, but I am also convinced they are somehow linked to our sinful nature. Perhaps not the cause of it....but fuel for it? Definitely!!

Well, that's quite a preface, eh? Today was a day full of tears...many of them Momma's! That lump in my throat just wouldn't go away til I'd had myself a good cry. And boy did I! ...while washing dishes (after putting the girls down for a MUCH needed early bedtime). I've cried over dishes before, I'm pretty sure. These were not tears of self pity (I don't mind dishes THAT much). They were tears of "I'm seeking You now at the end of this hard day, but why can't I seem to seek You in the midst of the hard stuff!" and then they were tears of "Jesus, thank you so much for wiping my slate clean yet again." ...and then tears of longing and joy for my next home! I never used to long for heaven as I do now. I believe being a mom opened my eyes wider to the "fallen-ness" of this world.

I'm so thankful for the evenings. At the very least, they are a recharge--a time for me to get things straight in my head again! The tears in the middle of the day were frustrating, but the evening tears were cleansing.

Being a mom forces me to really SEE myself. Before my girls, the people in my life didn't reflect back my character to me. I would get feedback here and there for sure, but it was easier to shrink away from if I didn't like what I saw. But children are a different story! My girls see my every move. They mirror my actions...my emotions...my reactions! If I'm short with Evie, she's short with Libby! And when they're not mirroring, how they are generally coping with the day is a direct reflection on me. It's incredible and inescapable. I'm forced to take a goooood look at little 'ol me. Phew. That can be rough!

But I'm convinced I've "grown up" more since my girls were born. And THAT is a good thing! I'm so so so thankful God blessed me with these two precious girls. I'm growing because of them (or at least learning that I need to grow!). AND they bring untold amounts of joy into my daily life. (can't seem to get this app to upload videos, but I captured Libby discovering the baby in the mirror for the first time today! Hilariously adorable!!)

Here's to hormones, children, crying, and dishes!

And here are a few pics from the day before the tears began to flow... :)

that sunset sure seems to come early these days!

Thankful

There are days that I give into the "woe is me" thought patterns...more than I care to admit, really. But tonight I am thankful. Thankful for my cozy warm home, my glimmering, happy Christmas tree, my sweet, healthy children, my washing machine!, my running water, the quiet snow outside, and the peace that enters my mind when I fix my thoughts on Jesus. I fret sooo easily these days. Motherhood only made that tendency in me more prevalent, but when I close my eyes and see Jesus looking back at me...into me, I am quieted. There are so many things more easily endured in his presence.

This is the perspective I seek!! I wish I attained it more often!! Instead of fretting over how hard it is to have Jon working away from home so often and the challenges that places on our parenting and our marriage, I can look into His eyes and just know that He loves me. Ahhh. Rest. In that kind of love, I KNOW He will take care of us...even work it for our good! What a calming perspective!

I sure hope that eventually I will be able to have an upward perspective the majority of the time! How many years of life and "maturity" will it take!? Lol. I'm sure it will never happen in my strength. But I hope, with a lot of help from my Lord, that it will eventually become habit to rest in His calming gaze instead of worrying all my little neurons over the trials of life!

Sigh.

I end this with my sweet Libby Faith...the little one exploring her world! ...and I quote, "...I'm just looking! Really, Mama!" uh huh. ;)