Go Light Your World

This is a video that we took of the girls, singing at our Christmas Eve family talent show at Uncle Tim and Aunt Cindy’s house this year.  I was just organizing video clips on my computer tonight, ran across this one, and decided that it was worth sharing.  It’s a little long, a little over 3 minutes, but I couldn’t bear to edit out a single note:-)  It captures both of thier personalities pretty perfectly.  Enjoy!

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Fun Fall Pics

Here are some recent fun Fall pics from Halloween, trips to the pumkin patch, etc. 

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Monday Updates

Okay, so I’m going to try to start doing a quick Monday post each week, with just the bullet list of what has been going on in the life of our family over the past week.  So here goes!

• We are loving Escondido and feeling incredibly “at home” here!  This is an awesome community, and in my opinion, the perfect mix of small town atmosphere with access to big-city fun. 
• This has been a great week of growing friendships!  Last Monday night we spent the evening with some Kenny and Donielle Winter and thier 4 boys, at Donielle’s parents house (who also attend NC) Don and Betty Bundy.  We ate, watched the kids swim, watched football, and laughed and laughed.  They are a really great family that we look forward to knowing better in the years to come!  Friday evening we spent with some other couples from church, sitting out on the patio in the cool SoCal evening, again laughing and laughing.  Just really great people here! 
• Last Tuesday, I attended my first PTA meeting.  Wow, do I feel old!  Actually, it was terrific.  Reidy Creek is a great school with very high parent involvement, and I am so impressed with everyone from the prinicipal to the teachers to the other parents.  I love this new era of life, and I love having a venue to form friendships somewhere other than church.  I feel like, for the first time really since college, God is giving me opportunitites to form really great relationships with people who may not know Him, and I just love that.  I’m also taking very seriously the concept that I can be Christ in all those interactions – by showing a spirit of helpfulness and generosity toward teachers and school administrators, by inviting Anna’s friends (and thier Mommys) into our home and into our lives, and by sending a daughter to school each day with the joy of the Lord in her heart to share.   It is just thrilling to think about the opportunities that surround us each day, and for that I’m really thankful.
• I officially unpacked the last box – at least those that were inside the house, not in the garage – and our home is officially open for visitors!  We had our first small group gathering here last night – about 6 families came over – it ended up being about 14 adults and 20 kids!   But it was just a joy to see all the kids – from about age 12 down to 6 months old – playing together, singing together during our praise time in our living room – and all the adults – some of whom have been away from church for awhile – just reconnecting and sharing life and family together. 
• My daily routine has developed into AM (work while the girls are at school)/PM (being mommy, family social coordinator, home maker, etc.).  It is a terrific routine so far…except that I’m still trying to find my exercise slot.   So this morning I stole an hour from my workday (don’t tell!) and discovered this incredible walking trail behind our neighborhood – so I just walked for an hour – and it was perfect.  Cool breeze, a few cottontails bouncing along the path, whifs of fragrant plants and flowers drifting by, the hills around me still that pretty early-morning purple and cradled in mist.  God is just so cool for making such a beautiful world.  I just walked and praised and soaked it all in.  That’s a good morning. 
• Olivia is gearing up for her 4 year old birthday in a few weeks, and (if you know Olivia) she is daily reminding me of all her wishes and desires for the perfect birthday – and she wants a Mermaid party -as she says, “At the ocean and we can all put on our mermaid outfits and swim with the real mermaids…Okay, Mommy?  That’s what I want…Can we do that, PLEEEEEEEASE?”   So I’m brainstorming of ways to have a really fun mermaid party….without real mermaids.   She is such a little toot. 

So that’s what we’ve been up to this last week, mostly.  Tomorrow Anna is having some friends over after school for her first “Girl Club” gathering at our house – with her 3 best friends from Kinder: Eryn, Haley, and Morgan.  I don’t know where she came up with the Girl Club thing, but she’s taking it very seriously, so I’ll have to post tomorrow and let you know how it goes. 

In the meantime….God is good!   Have a great week!

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Becoming Mom

Today was one of those days when being a mom both melted my heart and made me wanna pull out my hair…hey, isn’t every day as a mom like that?  It was “picture day” at school for Anna, and I had a “bad Mom” morning because I sent her to school in new shoes (to go with her new dress for picture day) that ended up rubbing a blister on her heel, which made her miserable, and they actually had to get a big band-aid from the nurses office so that she could walk at all.  So I felt like a complete failure as she came hobbling out to the car – doesn’t every good mom KNOW not to send your child to school in new shoes without “breaking them in” first?  What was I thinking?

Then after picking both the girls up and coming home for lunch, we cuddled up on Anna’s bed for a nice bible-story book before naps, and right as I am dramatically reading all about how angry Esau was that Jacob stole his blessing, and Olivia is asking me why Jacob lied, and I’m thinking of how to explain to a three year-old that for some reason God wanted to choose Jacob over Esau…..Anna leaned over and threw up all over the bed, me, Olivia, and the carpet.  

So now Olivia is crying because she’s worried about Anna, and Anna is crying because she threw up, and I’m about to cry thinking about the 3 loads of laundry I now get to do this afternoon!  Vomit laundry, nonetheless….and only you Moms out there know the full joy of doing vomit laundry…how ‘come nobody ever told us about that! 

So I comforted, and I cleaned, and all my errands and “to-dos” for the day went out the window, and then the strangest thing happened….

Somewhere between bathing Anna, reassuring Olivia that her big sister wasn’t going to die, and then bringing my sweet girl into my clean big bed to try to sleep, I felt this deep sense of joy and contentment.  As I laid down next to Anna, and she finally fell asleep cuddled against my belly (which is way too soft these days!), I was so grateful to be able to care for these girls.  I started daydreaming about how good it felt when I was a little girl and my mom would take care of me when I was sick – the clean sheets, the cool washcloth on my forehead, the deep understanding that no matter how miserable you feel, there is someone who will take care of you.  Is there a better feeling? 

There is something about caring for my girls that is shaping me in a God-way.  After almost six years of being a mom, I am finally starting to get a glimpse of what God is doing to me through this whole thing called motherhood.   Nothing could be more common than a mom caring for her sick child.   And yet, is there anything more significant?  Not to a 3 and 5 year old.  Nothing else in the world matters except that at the moment of thier need, I was there to love and care and make everything all right. 

I think there is a deep part of God’s character that exists in even the simplest acts of mothering, and as we live it, each day, often very imperfectly, God is slowly shaping us into women who are deeper, wiser, and closer to His heart than we were before. 

Now, I better go finish up the vomit laundry:-)

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First Day of Kinder

Anna had a GREAT first day of Kindergarten on Monday, and the week has been a pretty perfect first week of school!  Every day she hops in the car and tells me the names of the new friends she’s made.  She’s also already been invited to 2 birthday parties….one Mom said, “So far Anna’s the only one my daughter has come home talking about as a friend…”  That made me feel pretty good about my sweet Anna.  

Here are some pics of Anna (now a Reidy Creek Coyote!) and Olivia on the first day of Kinder!

Anna ready for her first day – in front of our new home in Escondido!

I loved making her “snack bag” in the classic brown bag with her name written on it and (of course!) a note from Mom inside to brighten her day.

Olivia was a proud little sister, sending Anna off with hugs and cheers!

Tim was so glad he got to be the one to walk Anna to class on her first day! She gave him a great “moment” with a big hug and zerbert as she said goodbye and went into class!

We already love our new neighborhood and school! Great community!

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