Favorite Quote Friday

It's been over a week since I publicly "announced" I was going to be slammin' through parenting books during naptime. (I would still appreciate more recommendations :)

Well, as you can maybe imagine, I am still reading the same one, Shepherding a Child's Heart. When I do read, I read fast, but half of the time I still fall asleep. I like this book, there's some good stuff in it, but its also the first one I've read, so judge for yourself.

And it's really hard to not cook or clean. Is it really even possible? For me, I'm not so sure. I know there are people out there who say they don't cook or clean. So....me thinks I will keep trying. I just did a little sweeping and there's a roast in the crockpot, so that should tide us for over for a good week, right?

Right?

Probably not, but all things in moderation.

Except coffee, no room for moderation there. At least with twins.

So, for this week's quote, from the 1 parenting book I hope to soon have under my belt:

"Parenting is your primary calling. Parenting will mean that you can't
do all the things that you could otherwise do. It will affect your
golf handicap. It may mean your home does not look like a
picture from Better Homes and Gardens. It will impact your 

career and ascent on the corporate ladder. It will alter the kind
of friendships you will be available to pursue. It will influence
the kind of ministry you are able to pursue. It will modify the amount
of time you have for bowling, hunting, television, 

or how many books you read. (Sleep, it will hinder your sleep 
and your time with your spouse!) It will mean that you can't develop
every interest that comes along (or ever Pinterest project).
The costs are high."

(italics mine)

Obviously I don't care about golfing or the corporate ladder, but I have been feeling the burn of how parenting affects my relationships, ministry and hobbies. Because it really does! The cost is high. Very high. But the reward is higher still.

I do feel kinda boring these days. I don't have many hobbies anymore because who has time? or energy?! Once the cooking, cleaning and parenting book reading is done there isn't much time left over for ministry.

My favorite "hobby" these days is veggin' out with my Blond Sensation and watching Person of Interest. In case I am being unclear: not a hobby.

Part of that is my personality. For me, I hear from God best when my schedule isn't full. When I am racing from one thing to the next, its harder for me to hear His still, small voice. And I don't want to be so tired that I never want to read my Bible to or pray with my husband. I know myself and I know that's what will happen if I allow myself to get too busy.

I also don't place much value a keeping a jam-packed family schedule. I don't like to be really, really busy and I believe my children and my marriage benefit from that. The result, however, is that we may miss out on stuff.

I am learning to be ok with that. I am a slow learner, but thankfully, God is a patient teacher! And there's always someday. Maybe someday I will read that great new (old) book or finish that amazing pinterest project. Or maybe not, either way.

So here's to someday! And here's to enjoying today with my boys!

I need something to lick

A while back I took J into a liquor store with me (gasp!) while we were out 

running a few errands. I wasn't actually sure if that was even 

legal, but the woman in front of me did it too.

When in Rome.

So there we are scanning the wine section for the cheapest bottle of 

moscato I can find and he pipes up: "Mama, I need something to lick."

Me: "Excuse me, what? Gross."

J: "I need something to lick. Aren't we in a liquor store?"

Me: "Why yes, yes we are."

For now, I think we will stick to licking ice cream cones.

Hope this made you laugh today.

Still makes me laugh.

I need something to lick...

Manic Makeover Monday

Its manic because by nature, if I try to do anything "extra" around here, the littles go nuts. Its a makeover because my house needs some major TLC as far as decorating goes and well, it's Monday.

So Friday is for my favorite quotes and Monday is for showing off the very (very) small amount of decorating we have actually done since we moved in over 18 months ago. 

Settle in with a fresh cup of coffee and we'll start the tour with the twins room, the first room we painted. I never got to decorate a nursery since we were always on the move, so this was really fun!

Beck's crib

 I only have a couple pictures of my dad with both twins, but my favorite one is framed on the wall there.

T-Bone's crib

from doorway

That baby quilt on the wall was made for my mom when she was pregnant with me :)

 I don't have any before shots, but plan to start taking those before the painting begins with future projects. We also added their names by their cribs with some cute alphabet decals.

This is one of my favorite rooms, I love how bright and cheery it is. I doubt the twins care much, but it brings me so much joy knowing that their room is so cute. It's the little things in life!

Happy Manic Monday!

Favorite Quote Friday

Three things have kept me sane and functioning this past year:

1. the immeasurable GRACE of God
2. Tim
3. Streams in the Desert devotional

Probably in that order.

Reading the Word has been hard since Dad died. Straight up. It's getting better, but still hard.

A friend gave this devotional to me for my birthday and I feel like it has practically saved my life.

So, for the inauguration of Favorite Quote Friday, I give you a quite from May 21:

It is indeed extremely doubtful that a person's soul can really know

the love of God in its richness and in its comforting, satisfying completeness 

until the skies are dark and threatening. Light emerges from 

darkness, and morning is born from the womb of night.

This is a great devotional, I can't recommend it enough. If life feels hard for you, the gut-wrenching, I feel like I might die, kind of hard, then buy this book. Straight up.

Happy Friday everyone, I am off to the MN State Fair!

T-Bone is ready to trade in his stick for some deep fried pickles, nom, nom, nom!

Thanks

I just spent a few minutes indulging in reading a few blogs, a rare treat! So I want to say thanks. Thanks for reading. There are a lot of amazing blogs out there full of wonderful ideas and thoughts and recipes and stories. I am humbled that you read mine.  :)

Pour me out

Time to break the silence!

Sorry for the lapse in writing, it's been a busier-than-usual week I guess. One of my besties keeps a blog along the lines of "I Only Have 5 Minutes." Love the idea on getting on more often and just writing whatever I can in only 5 minutes. Perhaps I need to follow suit.

Bunny trail...

I've felt an urging to use my "free" time a little differently lately and it hasn't left a lot of time for blogging. My blond sensation and I never really felt the need to read any books on parenting when we only had 1 child. He was easy and there was only 1 of him. Then, along came twins and goodbye went time to read. Though we are still in the season of life where if we sit down to read anything, we fall dead asleep, its time. Time to read about better, more intentional methods than what seems to just "come naturally."

Thus my new hobby was born: cramming parenting books during naptime.

I will say that new hobby has ironically created some extra chaos around my house. Typically, during naptime, I clean, my house and myself,  I make dinner and I catch up on whatever I have fallen behind on: bills, laundry, etc. Now that I am reading during naptime, and drinking coffee to stay awake, I have seriously fallen behind. So, its possible that we may be eating a lot more frozen pizza and Goldfish for dinner unless I can come up with another plan. Hey, at least the Goldfish are whole grain. Life saver, those crackers. Life. Saver.

One of my favorite verses for parenting is Philians 2:17 "But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you." This is the verse God brought to mind as I was pondering my new normal last week.

I know that I clean too much, I like a clean house. I also know that I could probably take the easy way a little more often with mealtime and my children would still learn healthy eating habits. I like to cook. I like homemade bread, who doesn't?!

But I also like to be obedient. And I know that if I pour myself out, in big AND little ways, if I care for my boys to the best of my ability, God will care for me. Because, after all,

they're worth it.

Yes, I know this picture is almost a year old; I told you I was behind.

Ok, time to get back to reading!

What parenting books have you appreciated?

proud

Don't fear, you have no worry of this becoming a running blog.  But....one more post for this week.

I am so proud of myself!  I went running with the twins this morning.  For some reason, I was nervous about my ability to practice my new hobby while pushing a double stroller, but it went really well.  Tim took my sweet Puter-pie to the Dr for a double ear infection and ruptured ear drum (poor Pook!), so if I was going to run, it was going to be with Thing 1 and Thing 2.

I had to break-in my cute new (clearance rack) running skirt, so off we went.

I ran 4 times this week, which was my goal.  Feeling pretty good.  

Later gators, be blessed.

Run, girl, RUN!

Well, I was hoping it wouldn't come to this, but it has.  I need some outside motivation to get in shape.  I am clearly incapable of motivating myself and these stretchy pants are getting old.

So I signed up for my first 5k.  It's been a while since I've run, so I have mixed emotions, but it had to be done.  I picked the race solely for it's name:  The Diva Dash.  There's even a picture of high heels on the shirt, love it.

Tim is loving being my coach and is so supportive of helping me get some time alone for a run, a difficult things will 3 toddlers.  So thankful for that and for him.  Also one more reason we LOVE our neighborhood, since there are miles and miles of fabulous trails 1 block from our house.

So far I have enjoyed getting out there to run this week.  We'll see how my "training" goes.

Happy Friday everyone, hope you have a great week!

The Same God

Had a playdate this morning with a very dear friend and a total of 7 kiddos between us - yikes!  Somehow we were still able to have a great conversation.  She lost her dad exactly 1 year before I lost mine.  To the day.  Crazy timing.  She's one of my soul sisters.

We chatted about what each of our families were going to do for the anniversary that's coming up.  Can't believe it's already been a year.  Can't tell if it's gone by quickly or slowly.  Can't decide how to celebrate/commemorate this first year.  Can't handle thinking about it quite yet.  

As I drove home I was listening to the song The Same God by New Song.  Great song.

It reminded me of a Saturday afternoon late last August.  The weather was flawless, but the tears were flowing.  It was the first time I had allowed myself to consider that Dad may not make it.  I was laying in bed for a moment resting.  We had just returned from visiting him at hospice.  I was asking God "what am I going to do?  how will I survive without him?  without his voice of wisdom in my life?  how, God, how?!"  

You know what?

God answered me in that moment.

As clear as I can hear my babies screaming when they have have been robbed of a toy by a brother, I heard God speak into my spirit "it's time for you to stand on your own two feet, daughter.  and you will be ok."

Then the tears really flowed.

The same God who lead me to this place, will lead me out of this place.

Thankful for a God of redemption; a God who hears me.

And a God who speaks to me.

Thankful

One week ago, I wrote about how hard Mondays tend to be; how Monday is the day I can think of nothing else except the gaping hole in my family where my dad used to be....

Today is better than last week.

Thankful.

I know I talk about my dad a lot.  I talk about my grief a lot.  I hope you don't mind.  Grief is a process.  Grief takes time.  For me, grief takes blogging...apparently :)

My hope is that as you stay with me you will be witnesses to God's redemptive power in my life as he brings me through this journey called grief.

Here is an old picture of me and my dad.  An oldie but a goodie.

Happy Monday, everyone.
Be blessed, I know I am.

Genetic testing?

The Pook and I got to hang out at Como Town this morning for a few hours and had our fill of the flying swings and spinning tea cups.  I left with a slight headache and seriously bruised (and bloody) ankle, but it was worth the special time together "WITHOUT the babies!"  

The third time we went on the swings, I witnessed a very meaningful interaction between a man and his disabled teenage son.  This man, who looked to be about 50, had a shaved head and solid, marine-like build.  He was tattoed and tough-looking, confident and intentional.  His son was none of these things.  

The thing was, this physically intimidating man couldn't stop loving on his son; it was hard not to take notice.  I wanted to stop what I was doing and watch.  This interaction really struck me.  I have no hard facts to present to you, but I do know that with the dawning of genetic testing many babies that indicate genetic weaknesses are aborted.  I ask you, when is the last time you saw a small child/baby with Downs?  Its been a while for me.  

In a society that, as a whole, doesn't seem to really value children the way it used it, it impacted me to see a man so overwhelmed with love for his disabled child that he couldn't care less if the whole world saw.  Love it!  

I can't count how many times we get asked if we are really considering having another child?  Really, another?  Because 3 is so many.....  Last I checked, Bible says children are our inheritance!  Our inheritance, people!  That's a good great thing.  Not gonna lie, life is cra-zy with twins.  Crazy.  But crazy awesome because my quiver is full.  :)  I am too busy most days to even find my quiver, but when I have a millisecond to think about it, I am forever grateful that it is full.

As a nation, we voted in a president that literally vowed to legalize partial birth abortion.  Not ok.  (My intent is not to be political, rather to provoke thoughtfulness and dialogue.)  When did we stop placing due value in our children?  When did they become such a burden, a trial for us to endure until we can ship them off to school?  

More often than not, that's what I hear from people I encounter at the store:  just get "through" the next few years, then you'll be ok.....Once they go to school, life with be good again.

Except for the grandmas, they always respond to my very full cart with joy and they encouragement me to enjoy every moment.  "good for you!"  "have more babies!"  

Love it.

I am not a kid person.  I adore my children, but there is no part of me that yearns to be around anyone else's kids.  Just giving it to you straight.  But I do deeply value the gift and privilege of having and raising children, of teaching them to walk in righteousness.  No. Higher. Calling.  

Just a few of my thoughts.....

Thankful for the gift of witnessing that man and his son.