Everyday Miracles

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. - James 1:17

I am struck nearly every day with how amazing God is. Most of the time it's when I'm nursing Vivienne, and she is so sweet and vulnerable, and completely trusting in her mommy. I can't help but stroke her round head and her soft, fuzzy hair and smell her sweet skin. She still has that baby smell that smells like milk and happiness. I am utterly in love with my children, and feel so unworthy of the blessing God has bestowed on me through them. 

Vivienne passed out in her daddy's arms

I've recently been reading the book 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp, and it has opened my eyes to a lot of truths about my faith. I have been struggling with the weight of my sins since I was a teenager. I really felt that things I had done in my life were unforgivable.  Reading that book made me realize that I was not accepting God's gift of grace and mercy. Since realizing that I have been trying to accept it every day, and it has made me realize how much grace and mercy is pouring though my life. It's overflowing and cascading and covering every aspect of my existence!

I watched a documentary a couple of days ago on the sinking of the Costa Concordia, and in it several experts in the shipping industry made the point that, even with modern safety measures and sea charts and highly technological boats, there's really no way to guarantee safety, and it's pretty amazing that we have even devised a way to cross the untamable oceans at all. It made me realize that when disaster strikes and people ask why, it might be more apt to simply praise God for the thousands of times it didn't. Instead, we become complacent and feel that safety is our entitlement, which is incredibly presumptuous. That's why I'm trying to remember to praise God every day for every thing I have, but most especially my husband and children.

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. - James 4:14

Taking a Nature Walk on an "I'm bored" Summer Day

Picture source: www.mrjacksfarm.com

It has been miserably hot here since about mid June so we have been staying inside with the blinds closed, the curtains drawn and the lights off, cave man style to save energy. We only have one family car, so Eric takes it to work and it leaves us with few options of how to fill our hours. There's only so much coloring a kid can do before she starts speaking whine-ese and repeating the phrase "I'm bored" like a broken record. She loves movies but I hate having her planted in front of the TV for hours on end so yesterday morning, before the whining could start I decided we would go take a nature walk.

Bella's "yuck" face!

Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of us on the walk, because I was having too much fun! We just walked around the lake in our neighborhood and picked "samples" (aka leaves). I would have Bella run up and grab a leaf sample and we would talk about the tree or bush it came from, she would smell it and see if it smelled good and then we would put them in our "sample box" (the compartment in the stroller handle). After we picked a sample from pretty much every tree, bush and interesting piece of grass out there I walked her to the playground and pushed her and Vivienne on the swings, and even let Vivi go down the baby slide!

When we got home we had a snack of apples and water, and Vivi had this Dole "fruit squish 'ems" thing. I can't say precisely what it is about this thing that is so nasty, but it is just absolutely repellent. Eric bought them because we had a coupon for them, and it's essentially baby food so we thought we could take them with us when we went places and give them to Vivi, but they are gross! It might be that they have the color and texture of grainy applesauce and the odd flavor of blueberries, like, extremely potent blueberries. Whatever the issue, none of us liked it. Vivi and Bella made the funniest faces when trying it, so of course I had to try it myself. Yuck. After that I just gave Vivi an apple slice and let her use her two teeth to chomp on it a bit and gum it all up.

Bella's rubbings! I can't identify all of these - there's Juniper,
Crepe Myrtle, Red Oak, and some kind of evergreen, and I
don't know what that cat-tail looking thing is.

After snack we sat down with some paper and crayons and made leaf rubbings! We talked about each plant sample again and how to make a leaf rubbing. I had intended to press each sample and keep it for a scrap book, but Vivi got grumpy and needed to be nursed and put down for a nap and then afterwords I just forgot about them until this morning and they're all dried out! I suppose I could still press them if I had some clear contact paper or laminating sheets but I don't, and it was fun enough that we could do it again and I will save those instead.

The trick about doing something like this in the Texas heat is to do it well before noon. We left the house at 9:00 AM and got back before 11:00, and we were all still sweaty and tired! Thank God for air conditioning!

Visiting My Grandma

A couple weeks ago we drove out to visit my grandma who lives just about 50 miles south of the Oklahoma border in a little town called Seymour, Texas. It's about a six hour drive from Austin and it was the first time she got to meet Vivienne! Vivienne was born in October, and my sister Katheryn was married in December. I was Matron of Honor so I was very involved in throwing her Bachelorette party and her Wedding Shower and, in addition to that, Eric ran a half-marathon in San Antonio in early November, so we were traveling literally every weekend that month except Thanksgiving, and two more weekends into December.

Bella, Vivienne and Great Grandma!

We typically go out to Seymour for Thanksgiving, but this year we just couldn't stand the idea of traveling for six weeks in a row so we stayed home and missed that opportunity. Unfortunately, in December my Grandma broke her hip and then got a compensatory injury in her opposite shoulder, so she was laid up and couldn't really have visitors until about April. Unfortunately, that was the month I quit my job, and things were pretty busy around here, and then Eric had to work pretty much every weekend in May. So we FINALLY made it out to see her this month!

It was kind of neat because Vivi crawled for the first time in my Grandma's living room! We were sitting around talking about how she would get up on all fours, and rock back and forth but just hadn't actually crawled yet, and as we were talking about it, she did it! So it was neat that my Grandma got to see that, and that it happened in the same house where my own mother was raised.

Vivi lets Lexi hold her!

Generally Vivi is a very easy baby and a very easy-going baby. Maybe it was because the drive was so long, or maybe it was because she was off her nap schedule, but she wouldn't let anyone hold her until about Sunday night (after we had been there for over 24 hours). My cousin Lauren sure did give it the old college try though, I'm pretty sure Vivi thought she was being kidnapped by the way she screamed! Poor Lauren, she really is good with babies, but Vivienne just did not want anyone else holding her. Maybe she thought we were going to leave her there, poor baby, she has traveled more in her short life than some people do until they're in their teens.

On Sunday night my Uncle Tommy and Aunt Jeannie threw a barbecue at their house and we all went out there to dine and socialize. Bella had a great time running around with my cousins' kids, Lauren's son Josiah, and Glenn's kids Lexi, Tyler and Leah. Lexi is 13 now (I can't believe it!) and she is the first one Vivienne allowed to hold her! Glenn had to leave early to take his Mom to an appointment, but Jan and the kids were able to stay so it was still fun! It was really good to see my family, they live so far it is rare for us to get together.

I particularly love this picture where no one is looking at the camera except Vivi...

... and this picture, where everyone is looking at the camera except Vivi!
This is Lexi, Jeannie, Lauren, Grandma and Jan, and Tommy, Vivi and Leah

Learning the Ropes...Again

Vivienne and Isabella, April 2013

It's been about a month and a half since I started staying home with my two daughters, on purpose this time. I was a stay at home mommy for 13 months when I was unemployed between February 2010 and March 2011. I had all but given up hope of getting another job when I was hired to work for Texas PTA as the Communications Coordinator. Working for a non-profit really changed my perspective of what I do for a living. Instead of looking at things from a sales perspective, I was using my talents to work toward a goal, which seems so much more self-actualizing. I loved working there but after Vivienne was born it became a lot harder to afford daycare, and then when the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut happened in December 2012 I developed separation anxiety and I began feeling like I needed to start spending my time with my children instead of at an office while someone else raises them. This is not to say that I feel judgement for anyone who chooses to work, I just really, very fervently wanted to be the one to raise my children, see all their milestones and teach them their first lessons in life. This is my passion, just as some people's passions are their careers.

It has been interesting so far, Bella is much more advanced than she was when I started back to work, she talks incessantly and has a wild imagination that is very entertaining for all of us! I am trying to teach her the alphabet and she has the classic bright-child problem where if she doesn't know the answer to a question she will make one up. When I point to a letter and ask her, "What letter is this?" if she doesn't know it, she will make up some inventive new letters like "Key", "Co", "Bo" and "Bum". Vivi just sprouted her first tooth, and when she's not teething is just about the sweetest natured, mild mannered, easy-going child anyone could ask for. Whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed or exhausted I can just pick her up and hold her and her serenity seeps into me and calms me down.

I hope that this blog will be the personal side of my professional blog, and I expect to be able to write more often now that I'm staying home with my sweet babies. Thanks for stopping by!