a new year

I wrote my mortgage payment check the other day, and realized that I wrote it for 2010.  I always struggle to remember to write the new year correctly until about April, but I somehow feel this year it might be past April.  Last year FLEW by and it felt like it went just as quickly as it came.  You know how when you are a kid you wait all year for your birthday or Christmas or some other event and the days, weeks, months just draaaaaaag on and on.  Yeah, how come time isn't like that anymore?

Last year brought some major changes for our little family. Huge ones. For the most part they were decisions that we actively chose.  It feels good to be on a "path" per se. We are totally open to God changing our path/plan, but until we hear Him tell us to do something differently, we are moving forward with our plans.  I liked that part of last year.  I liked the intentionality of it and the fact that we tried to not let life just happen to us.

This year is starting out with us opening up a little coffee shop in our downtown.  We are hoping to open within a few weeks (though it may be a few more than that).  There have been a lot of late nights and a lot of time home alone with my kiddo at night.  I have a newfound appreciation for single parents.  It's not cool folks, not cool at all! But, we feel like God is guiding us in this and has surely blessed our endeavors already. We are excited to see it open and for it to be a fun space for people to meet, mingle, eat, drink, and just enjoy friendships...new and old.

Mostly though, I am excited to see what it is that God has for me personally, and for our little family this year.  I know that I cannot expect for all things to be good, but I do know that in whatever it is that God does send my/our way that He is with us. And that thought is truly comforting.  No matter what changes, or how fast it changes, God remains the same.  I suppose that is partially why He is referred to as a "Rock".

30 mintues

Thirty minutes seems like a decent chunk of time, right?  Em...no!  It's not.  I have spent the past three days of taking my kid to the toilet every 30 minutes.  Do you know how much other stuff I have gotten done?  Not a whole lot.  My darn phone alarm is going off all the time it seems.  I just get my elbows all soapy in the sink again and then the buzzer goes off.

We are figuring it out though.  Slowly, but we are making it!  Sorry if I haven't called anyone this week, it's not that I am gone somewhere or doing anything fun.  Nope, just spending some time near the ol' pot.  My husband came home yesterday and took one look at the bathroom and said "Yeah, so it looks like you have  spent a fair amount to time in here today".

Obi is doing great.  Getting there. We've almost got the peeing down to a science, one tiny accident this morning.  Otherwise dry even at naps and while grocery shopping.  We've had two big-businesses get wished a fond farewell down the swirling water. He is so pleased with himself when that happens. It's kinda cute.

I didn't really plan out that this was going to happen this week.  I mean, I had joked about it and had started the "going on the potty" conversations.  But, this is it...we are going to make it.  Probably not without a few accidents, but we are just taking it one day at a time.  Or, every 30 minutes at a time, is more like it!

Tis the season...

Whew...my busy weekend is over.  I took an hour and a half nap this afternoon, but I loved every minute of all the chaos preceding and during this weekend.  I got my house all ready for the parade with the babysitting help of my momma, and an hour from my brother filling "litter bombs" (also known as Luminaries) as he called them...my sweet husband threw together a screensaver of classic Christmas movies to play while our stereo crooned carols. Sorry the lighting was so bad in these pictures, but here ya go!

 See the popcorn and cranberries??  It turned out super cute!!

 Nothing special, just a little bathroom decor.

 Our guest room...with that screensaver.

 Obi's room!!

 Ohh..a sweet Reindeer boy. :-)

 The master...red and white.

 And, my old nutcracker that I bought after going to the nutcracker ballet when I was in 5th grade.

It was fun...busy, but fun!  Merry Christmas

going old school

My house is on a tour of homes for Christmas.  I don't have a ton of Christmas decor, but my mom-in-law sent me home from Thanksgiving with a couple buckets of stuff...for which my wallet is eternally grateful! We've put up most of the decorations and are almost done with the house.  I'll take some pictures when it is all done and show you what it looks like.  But, tonight a sweet friend is coming over and I am going to pop in a Christmas movie and then we are going to do a little classic decorating project.  Oh yeah!  We are going to combine this-

with this...

and hopefully it will look as pretty as this...

But, if not it will have only cost me $1.50 for three bags of cranberries and some popped corn and I will still have had a great time with my friend.  If it looks good when we are done then I am going to wrap it through some garland that is hanging over a doorway.  I love the classic and simple look of Christmas.  I am not huge into the trendy funky colors.  I just like for my home to feel cozy, warm, and relaxing. The big trick with this project will be keeping the dog from eating the popcorn.  Wish me luck...I am gonna need it!  ;-)   I'll let you know how it goes. 

high places

I am pretty sure that teething goes hand in hand with the punishment that Eve brought upon us women. Can I get an Amen? Obadiah has been cutting his four incisors for the past month, and the majority of that time has been painful for him and therefore painful for us.  Coupled with the fact that he isn't napping/sleeping well, has a bit of a cold and cough, and can't adequately communicate...well, this means that today was rough. The past few days, no, the past two weeks have been really rough.  I won't lie.  There were tears today.  And an argument with my sweet husband that came home at lunch time to try and help. And I wasn't entirely cheerful as I was changing a dirty diaper of screaming, kicking little boy.

And as I was doing a pile of dishes the Lord and I had a little conversation that went like this.
Me: "Lord, I need some help here.  I want to be patient, kind, and loving."
God: "Come away my child".
Me: "But, I have this pile of dishes to do before Obi wakes up.  It will be impossibly hard to do once he gets up".
God: "I know, but this is more important".
Me: "Can I just get this sink-full done and then come?"
God: "Yes, I am here waiting for you."

I so wish that I had just left the dishes.  They would have waited.  Why did I let God wait, and not the dishes?  Just as I was rinsing off the last one and I was flipped the switch off on the garbage disposal I heard a little voice crying.  My chance for solitude and quiet for my soul was gone.

Thankfully, God worked a small miracle with my kiddo and had him occupied for a few minutes in his room later on and I crept over to my bible and laptop.  What I came to was this, " yet I will rejoice in he Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.  The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to on the heights." Habakuk 3:18-19.  I must find my strength in the Lord and I must choose to rejoice and be joyful. Ah...that is so hard to do.  But He says that He enables me to go on to the heights.  Maybe today my "heights" are only making it through a day without giving in to the temptation to be upset or lose my patience.  But today that would truly have been a "height".  So that is what I asked for, and that is what I meditated on throughout the rest of my afternoon.  That God would enable me to go to the high places.  From there I can see beyond myself and my little corner of the world.  Fortunately, His mercies are new every morning.  I am going to need some mercy and some enabling of my feet tomorrow.  But I would rather live striving towards the high place rather than spiraling downward into myself and my little problems. 

You know what I newly discovered today?  Choosing to be joyful and to rejoice in the Lord makes for a much more pleasant day, for both myself and my family. And really, the life God has blessed me with is fantastic, warts and all.

one week until...

I am in Kansas for Thanksgiving.  I told Jason that I don't want to eat pickled herring this year.  Made a horrid mistake my first thanksgiving with the Kansas side of his family.  I didn't run from Grandpa Daniels when he pulled out some toothpicks and shoved them into the herring.  I should have known that he was going to aim for my mouth with the herring.  My husband's grandparents drive all the way to a special town to pick up that gunk.  It is a highlight for them, one in which they love to share with everyone who is too dumb to quickly stuff something else in their mouth right as Grandpa makes his aim. I am smarter now.  I have several "Kansas Thanksgivings" under my belt and my escape routes are well mapped. 

But, as much as I am NOT a fan of Grandpa's herring...I do love the games of mexican train that follow the big dinner, and the handmade potato chips that precede it.  I partake in the annual tradition of bringing out everyone's Black Friday fliers and making a huge list of where we are all going to shop and what time of the night, er...morning, we are meeting up. I love the laughs and hugs and the parade.  I am so very thankful for this family that so graciously welcomed me into their clan eight years ago.  They have truly made me one of them and it is nice to belong.

A week from now I will most likely be out shopping with the crazy women of Jason's family. Last year I was still breastfeeding so I didn't go at 4am.  This year, I am leaving my two men home and I am going out for some strong coffee to start the day and then some good sales to sweeten it with.

not happenin'

You know that stuffed bunny I was attempting to make??  Well, it has been an epic fail.  Multiple tries, a wreck of a spare room, and many hours later...  I have decided that my calling in life is not to make stuffed toys.  Tomorrow I am going to the store and we are going to buy one.  Not the same as a sweet homemade toy, but I just CANNOT justify sending an already poor kid a little toy animal that looks like it has be maimed.  I want the kid to be happy when he opens his box, not permanently scarred.

It was worth a try though.  But the adage of "if at first you don't succeed...try, try again" does not apply in this scenario.  It really doesn't. I promise!