May21

I Can’t Believe He’s Already 2!

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I Can’t Believe He’s Already 2!

On May 11, we celebrated Nolan’s 2nd birthday!
Unfortunately, he had a terrible fever on his birthday.
While we didn’t get to have a big party or even big adventures for the day,
I savored the extra cuddles and snuggles which reminded me of his newborn days.

On his birthday, we actually drove by the hospital where he was born.
And every time I think back on our time in the hospital, it seems like a camp memory to me.

Have you ever had that “camp feeling”?

I grew up going to summer camp each year, and it was my favorite part of the whole year!
We spent our time outdoors, making new friends, swimming, hiking, creating, imagining.
All in a place, far away from home.  Far away from any normal routine.
Time stopped.
Then after about 5 days (of real time), we’d return home feeling older and more confident.
We’d return bolder, more ready to try new adventures.
Sometimes we’d return with our lives changed.
And we’d always return with special memories.

When I think back on May 11, 2010, I get that “camp feeling”.
Swimming and hiking were definitely not involved.
Actually, there were over 10 hours of intense contractions!
But in my memory, I vividly remember a corner labor/delivery/recovery room in the Williamson County Hospital.
I spent about 3 days in that room, far away from an normal routine.
In that room, time stopped.
That’s where my husband and I met our son, Nolan for the first time.
We became, “Mommy” and “Daddy” for the first time.
Our lives were forever changed.

More and more each day, we learn what it means to be parents.
More and more each day, we discover this child’s amazing personality!

It’s shocking to realize how quickly he has truly transformed from a baby into a confident, interesting, comical, talented, and caring Little Man!

And even though 2 years really isn’t a long time at all, I know that he has always been my son.
From the beginning of time, the Lord has known about his plan to create Nolan Michael.
It has always been his plan to share this child with my husband and me.

When I think about May 11, two years ago, it’s like an exciting, life-changing “camp memory”.  And at the same time, I know that this precious child has always been a part of my life, in the Lord’s perfect plans.

I look forward to each day that I get to spend with my growing son.
I’m thankful for this precious child, whom the Lord has given me the great privilege of being “Mommy” to.

joy:  Nolan’s grin.

May15

Asking the Right Questions

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Asking the Right Questions

Communicating with a toddler is one of the most entertaining pastimes I’ve ever had!

It can also be one of the most frustrating things in the world!
When he tells me something and I have no idea what he’s saying,
we have miscommunication.

Sometimes we, as adults, create miscommunication with toddlers when we expect them to read underlying messages.

When we ask, “Are you ready to go?”, we might be expecting them to say, “Yes” out of obedience rather than answering openly and honestly.  But really, is asking someone if they’re ready for something, a matter of obedience or disobedience?

I think that we can help our little ones

  • know that what they say really matters
  • avoid  getting in trouble unnecessarily
  • and communicate more clearly

when we carefully choose between questions and statements.

Check out my latest contribution on Mama Moderne, Asking the Right Questions.

joy:  Watching my Little Man growing up and carrying on his Nolanese conversations with everyone!

May3

Does this make me look pregnant?

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Does this make me look pregnant?

 

Countdown to due date: 8 weeks and 5 days.
And many of my maternity clothes are already getting to be too small!

It’s so hard to describe what it’s like to have a little baby moving around in my belly!  And my Little Micah is quite a mover!

Jerking

Poking

Pushing

Wobbling

Shifting

……all happening under the skin of my belly, and I have no control over it!  It’s the weirdest thing!  This amazing miracle of pregnancy leaves me astonished!  And I know that there’s a precious child growing in there.  But I still can’t get over how weird it is sometimes!

And the weirdest part,
is that this basketball-tummy,
this jostling, round extension of my middle,
has become normal to me!

When I look down, and see this round tummy blocking sight of my feet,
and I see my belly button has been turned inside-out,
and then a wave moves across my abdomen because a little person is shifting around,
I have to wonder,

How did this ever become normal?!

I’m so thankful that this (like my first pregnancy) has gone very smoothly, and I feel great!  So it almost comes as a shock to me when I walk past a mirror and catch a glimpse of my body!  It just looks so funny, and I almost forget how disproportionally round my tummy is!

In a few months, I’ll have a little baby to snuggle with, and I’ll look back at pictures of his prenatal home.  I’ll laugh at how crazy it all is!  And even though I’m not there, yet, I’ll still look at this baby’s prenatal home, and laugh!

joy:

Apr25

Casualties in Moving

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Casualties in Moving

“No one is hurt……..BUT……”

Have you ever gotten that kind of a phone call.  Or maybe you’ve been the one to make the call.

Luckily, I haven’t had to make many of those calls.  But now that we’re in the toddler phase with Little Man, I have a feeling that it’ll be happening more.

I was shocked to find that Little Man got into my lipstick and managed to smear it along the back door and a couple walls when we’d only been in our new house for less than a week.  But after the latest incident, lipstick doesn’t seem so bad after all!

Although we quickly unpacked almost all of our boxes, we’re waiting to get settled in more before we start decorating.  So currently, our dining room is a little shop of our own decorations to begin with.  Also, we were going to wait until last weekend to hang up the full-size mirror in the master bedroom.  It’s wasn’t just any mirror.  This thing was HUGE.  It was really more like a heavy piece of furniture, that would appear to be propped against the wall, but would actually be mounted into that position.

You may be wondering why I’m talking about this gorgeous, framed mirror in past tense.  And you can probably guess what the answer is…….Little Man.  (I would’ve preferred that he’d stuck with playing in lipstick!)  Before mounting the mirror, we kept it propped up with the mirror side facing the wall.  As I was organizing our closet last Friday, Little Man was working hard, too.

He managed to get between the mirror and the wall, and push that ginormous piece of furniture!

A corner of the frame crashed into the wall, leaving a nasty gash.
The back of the mirror crashed onto the bedside table and shattered!

Tragic.

One of our favorite pieces of furniture.

Destroyed.

This Little Man didn’t set out to be destructive.  He just happened to show off his strength in a place and a way that we never expected!

I would’ve taken a picture to share, but it was too sad to capture.

So I’ll keep telling myself a phrase that I’ll probably have to get more and more familiar with.

“It’s only a thing.”

joy: Beginning to imagine something new to go in its place.

Apr24

We’re Here!

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We’re Here!

We’re here!!!  I’m so thankful to be in our new house and that our old house is completely sold!  It has instantly felt like home, and even Little Man doesn’t seem to wonder about what happened.  He’s really enjoying having more open space to run around in!  Especially since we don’t have much furniture on the main level, yet!

I’ll share more stories about the adventures (and misadventures) in our new place.

But for now I really just have one word to sum up how I feel when I get up in the morning, go to bed at night, and everything else in between: THANKFUL.

joy: BOXES!

Apr6

Why Easter is My Favorite Holiday

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Why Easter is My Favorite Holiday

“….it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him.”
Acts 2:24

Although Jesus was put to death, it was physically impossible for him to stay that way.

He, the King of the Universe, allowed his tormentors to physically overcome him.  But He knew the WHOLE story.

Jesus, the Author and Perfector of Life, knew what was going to happen.

He could have prevented it.  He could have stopped them.  He had the power and the ability to rewrite the story.

But he didn’t.

Instead, He experienced the most gruesome and horrific torture that I’ve ever heard of.

Then, hanging there by his torn flesh, he died.

Even worse than all that, He was separated from His Father, the Lord.

WHY would someone endure such a treacherous, embarrassing, unbelievably painful death?

The answer is YOU, my friend.

It was all a part of His plan.

When He was despicably betrayed by one of His closests friends, it was all a part of His plan.
When the crowd chose Him, and begged for Him to be crucified, it was all a part of His plan.
When they crushed a crown of thorns into His scalp, whipped Him with lashes of sharp debris, mocked His identity, and cruelly drove nails through His hands and feet, it was all a part of His plan.

His plan is to know YOU and for you to know HIM!
His plan is to give you a path to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
His plan is to earn the right to become a child of God FOR YOU.

He died.  He paid the price.

And then, when all was said and done, He came back to life!  And He is alive now!
He conquered His own death.
And He conquered the chasm of death that separated us from Him.

Only the Holy and Righteous can be in the presence of God Almighty.
A title that is absolutely impossible for us to achieve.

But He achieved it for us!

So let’s cling to the LIFE that Jesus gives us!
Let’s REJOICE in His physical resurrection that offers us spiritual life!

Jesus Is Alive!
There is no greater news.

joy:  When I see a dogwood flower, I see a tiny crown with petals shaped like a cross and tiny rose colored marks on the ends of each petal.  Yet it’s one of the most gorgeous flowers, full of life and beauty!

Apr2

Child-like Amazement at the Zoo

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Child-like Amazement at the Zoo

This morning, I took Nolan to the zoo for the first time!  He. Soaked. It. Up!  While his favorite animals were the meerkats, alligators, and flamingos, at every exhibit, he told me multiple times, “Mommy, I SEE IT!”.  Actually, he even told me that as we were walking along the paths surrounded by lush greenery and bugs.

Let’s be encouraged by Nolan to take notice of the world around us!
What are little things that are easy to pass by that could bring God glory and bring you joy when you take notice of them?
What are big things that have become just normal, that you can be especially thankful for?
What are some exciting things around you, that have lost that spark as you explain away it’s wonder instead of marvel in it’s beauty?

Let’s open our eyes and approach each day with a child-like thrill of the amazing world the Lord has created!

joy:  We got to see the anteater take a bath and the lemurs bathe each other!  (Anteaters are the strangest looking animals I’ve ever seen!)

Mommy! I see it!
Fish! Fish!
Hi, fish.
Fish, where are you?!
I see it!
Bye, fish. See ya.

I see it!
Hi, animal.
Mommy, come on!
Animal, where are you?
Hi, animal.
I see it!
Bye, animal, see ya.

Bird! Mommy, Bird!
I SEE IT!
Bird, where are you?
Hi, bird. I see it!
Bye, bird. See ya.


 

Mar30

Helicopter Seeds: Friday’s Little Thing, Big Joy

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Helicopter Seeds: Friday’s Little Thing, Big Joy

You know those little seedlings that propel through the breeze,
just in time to land in your landscaping,
catch those early spring showers and sunshiny days,
then pop-up in sprouts all around your manicured yard?
You know what I’m talking about?
I love those things!

I think it’s an oak tree in our front yard that generously disperses these helicopter seeds this time every year.  As a kid, I felt like I’d made a grand discovery: tossing each seedling up, and watching it slowly float to the ground like a helicopter!  Even better, I’d pick up a handful, and watch a team spin together!  And now, not much as changed since then.  I still get a thrill from  sitting in the yard, picking seedlings, tossing them up, and watching them spin, spin, spin.

The helicopter seeds, straight from trees, without needing anything added or taken away, are nature’s simple, little flying toys.

It’s a good thing that I like them enough to not be bothered too much about pulling extra weeds mid-spring!

joy:  Maybe my thrill in helicopter seeds has stuck around all this time, OR maybe a little someone has inspired me to see the world through the eyes of a child!

Mar29

Looking Forward to the Move, but Living in the NOW

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Looking Forward to the Move, but Living in the NOW

New experiences are pretty exciting to me!

So moving to a new (to us) house, in a new area will be like Christmas morning!

I find myself daydreaming about
how we’re going to arrange our furniture,
what new furniture I’d love to buy to fill the house,
what our interior decorating style could be,
where I’ll go to the grocery store,
what parks we’ll explore,
navigating walks through the new neighborhood,
new outdoor toys I want Little Man to have, etc.

I’m looking forward to having a bigger yard, a shorter distance to drive to church, a garage, and a place that we can comfortably have guests over!  Sometimes I find myself daydreaming about less logical expectations.  When we move, I’ll probably get more sleep, Little Man will probably be a little better behaved on those tough afternoons, the dog will shed less, I’ll probably cook better dinners, and be more organized.  It’s like I’m not just planning to move into a new house, but a utopia of perfection.

Of course I know those irrational expectations are silly.  But it’s what I see when I daydream about the future!

The truth is, there is ALWAYS something to look forward to and imagine how life will be better when we get to that point.

But if we’re always focused on that point in the future, then we’re never fully living in the present.  And even when we reach that point, we’ll probably be preoccupied imagining the next milestone of things will be better when….

I think that the best way for me to thoroughly enjoy our new home the most, is to thoroughly enjoy the home we’re living in now.  We have 2-3 more weeks to make memories here, to walk up and down the hilly loops of the neighborhood, to mingle with our neighbors, to pull weeds, and to play in the driveway.

Instead of counting down 2-3 weeks as the point at which I’ll reach my utopia, I think I’ll count each day as a joy to be where we are NOW!

joy:  Yesterday’s special memory was playing in the front yard with Nolan.  While I sat in the driveway, he walked up the small hill of our neighbors’ yard, then came running down to crash into me with a giant hug, over and over again!