A pool party with our spanish class!The fourth with some of our very favorite friends!A super cool splash park!Our sweet friends treated us to a trip to the Pueblo Zoo! We had never been and it was so much fun!
The Pueblo Zoo also held another first for us…our sweet Selah got stung by a bee for the very first time…TWICE! I know that’s not technically possible…we think it must have gotten stuck under her skort, tried to sting her once but didn’t get its stinger out and so it tried to sting her again. So two pokes, two welts, and one very sad (and angry!) little girl. I was standing about 2 feet away from her when she screamed and when I ran to her she angrily yelled, “A bee just STINGED me!!! HE STINGED ME!!!!!!!” So mad, so offended. As I was trying to comfort her, she screamed again a minute later and that’s when I started trying to rip her clothes off of her and this little (probably angry and scared!) bee flew out from under her skirt. 🙁 It was slightly traumatizing for a few minutes there but if you look at the picture of her sitting on the giant bunny on the right hand side of the zoo collage…that’s her about 15 minutes after it happened…so needless to say, she survived :).
Rainbow! (In other words, we had tons of rain this summer, just like how I remember Colorado while growing up. It rains virtually every afternoon in the summer. And we also got some intense hail storms which a number of interesting stories to go with them!)Brian got Elliott these “real man” working overalls just as summer was starting, and he loved them so much that he almost didn’t take them off the entire summer! Chances are, if you saw him this summer he was wearing his favorite blue striped shirt and these overalls! Filled with crafting supplies :).We went to this awesome truck event with some awesome friends!The kids got to sit in, climb on, and pretend to drive all sorts of police cars, firetrucks, ambulances, school buses and working machines!The cousins came to town!!!!!!!!!!!We had this hilarious day where we had no water and everyone in the neighborhood was flipping out. We came home from church to a news reporter, begging us to go on camera to explain to the city about how awful it was to be without water for 3 hours. We politely declined complaining about such a “horrific” #firstworldproblem, but when she begged us to at least get a shot of our sink filled with dirty dishes, we consented. Oh, the horror. Haha!We celebrated 7 years of marriage!This big man has been reading like crazy and completed a set of readers. He wanted to celebrate by going to one of our favorite breakfast places because kids get to put together a little cardboard animal!Our “big” vacation this summer…a quick overnight in Denver :). But the kids were thrilled to get to stay in a hotel!Elliott did a super fun soccer camp and just had an absolute blast! He is totally in love with his shin guards and literally wore them all day for the entire week of his camp.Elliott tried out a gymnastics class just for fun (see him doing a bridge on the left there?) and Selah moved down to the BIG girls gymnastics class! (More on that in another post!)Two dear out-of-town friends graced my presence this summer, one all the way from England and the other from the distant land of Tacoma :).Our neighborhood fitness center was offering the cheapest swim lessons in town! Aaaand, I’ll just say, we got what we paid for and leave it at that :).
One of my main goals this summer was to teach the kids to swim. Every Mama can probably relate to this, but I have just not been fully comfortable around water with the kids since they haven’t known how to swim. Selah is so fearless when it comes to things like the water that I’ve been particularly concerned about her. One time when she was 2 she jumped in the water without asking. She sank straight to the bottom and thankfully Brian was right there to pull her out. When we spoke very seriously to her about how she could never do that again, how she doesn’t know how to swim, etc., etc., she just burst into tears, shouting, “BUT WHYYYYYYY????!!!” So. You can see why it’s been a priority in my mind.
When I quickly realized that the cheap swim lessons weren’t going to do the job, I googled, “How can I teach my kids to swim?” I came across a video which at least helped point me in the right direction, since teaching a child to swim comes about as naturally to me as teaching someone to sky dive. But after watching the video, I went from saying, “I have no idea how to teach our kids to swim!!!” to being 100% confident I could do it myself, thanks to the nice man on the video telling me I could :).
That is…until I actually started TRYING to teach the kids to swim! HA!! The first step was simply getting them to take a deep breath to go under water. And every time I told them to take said deep breath and dunk their heads under the water, THEY BREATHED OUT. It was the most hilariously disfunctional scene you’ve ever witnessed… “Okay, kids! Take a big deep breath and go under water!” With huge smiles on their faces, they blew all the air out of their lungs, into my face, and dunked their heads under the water…gasping for air as they came up half a second later.
Sigh. Needless to say, I basically gave up and told Brian I had officially allotted him the task of teaching our children to swim. Well, it was only a matter of weeks until Brian and I (together) taught our kids to swim! What, what!!! Go us!!! I am seriously so proud of ourselves…we taught the children who couldn’t breath in before diving into the water…to swim :).
We still let them have a lot of fun with floaties whenever they want to, but these kids are swimmers and floaters!Selah is like a dolphin in the water…she’s always loved the water but she’s truly a natural at swimming.
Both kids can swim from one of us to the wall; jump in and swim back to the wall; jump in and swim to one of us; and do a “starfish” (float on their back) for a long time. Elliott also just learned how to jump in, tread water, and get into a starfish position. So although they’re not QUITE ready for the Olympics 😉 I feel a whole lot better about them being around the water!!! Granted, they still aren’t very good at taking a breath before going under water 🙂 but at least we’re making progress!! In one of the videos you can see our relentlessly silly Selah trying to make the swim task more challenging by covering her goggled-eyes while swimming to Brian! HAHA!! That girl of ours!!! Enjoy some snippets from one of our swim days!
“Our God does not intend His people to be shipwrecked. However, we would be shipwrecked and lost if we could not be held fast in the hour of temptation…He bought you at too great a price and values you too much to see you broken to pieces on the rocks. Therefore, He has provided a glorious safeguard for you so that when…the trials of the world attack you, hope may be the anchor of your soul, both sure and steadfast. How much we need this anchor!…If you have been sailing on the great waters of life for any length of time, you must be well aware that if it were not for everlasting truths, which continue to hold you securely, your spirit would quickly have been thrown into everlasting darkness long ago, and the proud waters would have gone over your soul long before this. When the mighty waves rose, it must have seemed to you as if your poor boat had gone down to the bottom of the sea, and if it had not been for the unchanging love and immovable faithfulness of God, your heart would have utterly failed. Nevertheless, here you are today, convoyed by grace, provisioned by mercy, steered by heavenly wisdom, and propelled by the spirit’s power. Thanks to the anchor, or rather to the God who gave it to you, no storm has overwhelmed you. Your ship is under way for the port of glory.” ~Finding Peace in Life’s Storms by Charles Spurgeon
A timely belated birthday present from Erika! (artwork by Brianna)
He is good, isn’t He?
Where would I be without this hope, without this anchor for my soul? I would–most certainly–be drowned at the bottom of the sea…my heart would have utterly failed.
It is incredible to sit down (when I can!) on these Mondays and just stop to look back and remember. Wow. I just sorted through pictures from the last couple of weeks and in the midst of that little project, the Lord has shown me so much that I don’t think I would have seen had I skipped sitting quietly to blog today.
In the last two weeks, I have felt a seedling sprout in my heart. In faith, I have been confident that the Lord has been tending to a good work in me over the months and years. The digging and tilling and planting has been happening out of sight to the world and even to me…though I could feel it, I couldn’t understand it or see any visible fruit. But this week a sprout was visible–even to me. He is restoring laughter to my spirit and joy to my soul.
Last week, thanks to the prompting and encouragement from my Step instructor, I sat down to read Habakkuk, a book I haven’t read in too long. She had been encouraging me the night before, quoting verses from Habakkuk and as she was speaking I was finishing the book in my head: “Though there is no fruit on the fig tree and no cattle in the stalls…YET I will rejoice in the Lord…” So I sat down the next day to read through all of it and was so deeply encouraged by Habakkuk’s wrestles…isn’t it amazing when you encounter the very things you have said to God in the book that He wrote for us?? I am not alone.
Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls– Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills. (Hab 3:17-19)
Then earlier this week, I got this text message from my dear, sweet friend Shaunna. She wrote, “When I pray for you, I always pray that God would fill you with joy, peace, and comfort. But today I also pray that you will enjoy a deep belly laugh and smile from ear to ear…”
I smiled, and immediately realized that she had put to words exactly what I could feel God doing in me…restoring joy and laughter. And there was my friend, hand-in-hand with our mighty God, praying it into existence. Who is blessed with friends like this who walk with you in grief while believing God to meet you with joy?? Thank you, Lord…
Two days later, Elliott had just stepped out into the backyard to play when he came bounding back inside squealing and screeching and shouting, “MOM!!! MOMMM!!!!! MOMMMMMM!!!! COME LOOK!!! OUR FLOWERS ARE SPROUTING!!!!”
To be honest, I didn’t believe him. We had JUST looked in our flower boxes the day before, and I had JUST explained to our friends who were over that day that I have a black thumb and although I tried SO HARD to grow these perennials for Elliott so they would attract butterflies for him, that I had utterly failed. But I ran outside with him to look and, sure enough…we had four little sprouts!!
Here’s one!!
Look at how the Lord weaves every detail of our lives into profound lessons for us. A sprout.
And a sprout of laughter.
It can be difficult to accurately portray reality: I never want to embellish or dramatize what’s happening in my heart and our home, and I also want to keep each blog post a blog post, and not a novel (I know, too late!). So I don’t mean to portray that there has been NO joy or laughter in our home, because that’s not true…there has been. Every day we laugh together as a family and my kids laugh together ALL THE TIME, but it has been hard for me to push aside my grief and just let the laughter roll out of my belly like I know it can. It’s been really hard, especially in the day-to-day mundane tasks. If I can distract myself enough to forget, I can find joy and laugh easily. But to find joy when I remember the grief and the loss and the pain? That’s much more difficult. But, it’s sprouting. I am seeing myself laugh WITH the kids all day long instead of just watching them laugh and trying to remember what it feels like to be that carefree. I am finding true joy in the Lord, in the anchor of my soul, in the midst of the grief and the trials and the dreams that feel crushed. And little by little, it’s rolling out of my belly and up through my mouth like a thunderous ball of laughter.
“…and she laughs at the time to come…” (Prov 31:25)
Lord, let it be. Grow your joy in my heart and in our home.
Here are some glimpses of the laughter sprouting in our home in the last couple of weeks…
New friends, all trying to pile into the clown car together!Trader Joe’s. Need I say more? These kids LOVE having their own mini carts. If it looks like they’re racing, it’s because they are ;).Peanut Butter nose. This girl can’t eat without getting food all over her face, and it always gives every one of us a little chuckle. I’ve never seen a more adorable freckled peanut butter nose!!She also can’t eat without somehow turning her food into a joke, a letter of the alphabet, a vehicle, and animal, or a body part. This might drive another mom crazy, but it makes me laugh every time!! She’s always forcing me to STOP and really take joy in life. Here, her cucumbers were, of course…eyebrows. 🙂We introduced Elliott to our new pet, the Penny Horse!!!
My mighty girl, who never ceases to amaze me with her bravery. Look at how chill she looks up there!! Just sittin’ on top of the playground like it ain’t no thang!!! Ha!!
Speaking of bravery…my kids did not get the “animal bravery” gene. We have tried to work so hard with them…thankfully, the McCabes have cats and so the kids get to practice being strong and courageous against these fierce incredibly sweet and cuddly felines every time we go over there. However, all progress may have been lost in that arena when Selah was bit by someone else’s cat a couple months ago. Sigh.
So then, my dear friend Julie was in town!!! Her parents live in Guam about an hour and a half away, so I invited her to spend the night over here. She accepted and asked if she could bring her dog. Yes! It was the perfect way to expose our kids to animals, as Lincoln is a super sweet and well-behaved dog. Julie taught them how to play “hide-and-seek” with her, and they just giggled uncontrollably throughout the entire game. They each hid two treats for Lincoln around our living room and then Lincoln had to find them. The kids thought it was hilarious. Julie also very patiently taught them about Lincoln and let them pet her while in Julie’s arms. AND…they each wanted to take a turn walking her! Now THAT’S progress!!
Look at those brave kids and that adorable dog!!
And, I got to spend time with my sweet friend!
We asked Brian to take a picture of us, and this is what we got at first 🙂
This big man took the longest bike ride he has yet with his daddy to a surprise location: Culver’s! For some yummy custard!The kids and I baked this (INCREDIBLE) banana bread last week. I have yet to be successful in teaching the kids to crack eggs without getting them EV.ER.Y.WHERE, but they still beg me to let them crack them. So I consented that day, and Elliott’s egg literally ended up ALL OVER HIM. We all laughed so hard…even Elliott, which is a big deal for my normally hates-to-be-dirty-and-wet son 🙂Will selfies with the kids EVER get old???!!! I don’t think it’s possible!!This one sure thinks it’s funny!!!!
Thank you, Lord, for another week, for sprouts of joy, and for your new mercies.
I’ll come clean–I was going to skip blogging this week.
Yes, I had a birthday, but, well…I honestly just didn’t have too much to say about it this year. (I know, I know…which is surprising for this normally long-winded girl…)
Until there I was at the gym right before the fitness class started, chatting with my Zumba friends, and one of them mentioned that she wouldn’t be there Thursday night because she had a funeral to go to. Apparently her daughter’s friend had just finished his first year of college and he and a bunch of his friends were celebrating…by jumping off a bridge into a river. Well, her daughter’s friend drowned.
We all said our “I’m so sorry’s” and then the music began to play. Normally, my Zumba hour is my “let’s-pretend-I’m-on-a-professional-dance-team-and-actually-good-at-it” hour, but not tonight. I couldn’t follow along with my usual carefree-ness. I couldn’t stop thinking about that young man whose life was over when it had barely begun, and about his parents who were obviously sitting somewhere, completely devastated. Did he know the Lord?
And then my mind wandered to me…and to all of the incredibly stupid, stupid, stupid things I did back in the day, all in the name of “fun” or “celebration”…and how any of those things could have ended the way this man’s life did.
He has been so merciful to me.
He gave me another year. He has given me so many years. Thankfully my stupidity level has significantly decreased since a.) I surrendered my life to the Lord at 18 and b.) since I have gained a tiny bit of wisdom over the years (I found an ENORMOUS gray hair on my birthday…proof of my crown of wisdom, right?!!) but all those years of just being unwise…of feeling invisible…of thinking nothing could harm me…He was there. He kept me. He guarded me and protected me. Every.Single.Time I hear a story of how someone’s mistakes early on are wreaking havoc in their lives today, I hit my knees in my heart as I listen. Because that could have been me.No, that SHOULD have been me, save for the grace of God.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10).
I have been saved not only from physical death, but from spiritual and emotional death. I have been saved from living a life of immorality, I have been saved from the death of anger, unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment and fear. I have been saved from the chains of insecurity and confusion and hopelessness. He saved me. I am His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.
Thank you, Lord, for teaching me to walk in them. Thank you for giving me another year to do so.
“If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13).
Cheers to another year of knowing and loving the Lord with all of my heart. And cheers to my dear (local) friends and my precious, precious family!!
Celebrating with queso and sweet friends!Birthday morning snuggles with my favorites…
These two…they are SO into wrapping presents. Daily I will find a new “present” to open and inside is one (or many) of my possessions. Selah literally gets so excited to watch me open one of these “presents” that she shakes and squeals with delight from her tippy toes on up. Here, Selah wrapped up tons of our crafting stuff. When I opened it and delighted over the array of tape and crayons and markers, she just beamed with pride :). Oh, how I love her!!!! And Elliott made me this puppet out of an old vitamins box! CUTE!!!
And, a birthday date with this man and some lobster-stuffed shrimp. Mmmmm……
My love.
How about you? If you’re reading this, He’s given YOU another day. Have you seen His mercies? Have you received the free, undeserving gift of salvation?
I am constantly trying to see the Lord in all that I do in a day. He teaches us all the time, and I don’t want to miss a lesson from Him. So, so often I understand His character through watching my children and taking note of the way my heart, as their mother, responds to them. Because if I know how to give them good gifts, how much more so does our Heavenly Father? (Matthew 7:11). So I let Him teach ME about Him through parenting.
One particular morning…”errand morning” to be precise…my little girl had just had it. She had been on the edge all morning, but when we rolled our little Costco cart out of the building and towards the car, the receipt (you know–the one where the kind old man had drawn a portrait of my daughter on the back with a marker, curly hair and all?) was taken captive by the tornado happening in the parking lot. She had had her heart SET on taking that receipt home…cutting it into pieces and gluing it onto construction paper. She had plans. She had dreams. And all of them were blown into oblivion with that huge gust of wind. She totally and completely fell utterly apart. And as I attempted to unload our groceries into the back, all the while clinging to that enormous Costco-sized watermelon with all my might in hopes that it would keep me anchored, my darling daughter had her face plastered against the car window, shouting out suggestions through heaving sobs of how I could “just chase after the receipt.”
It was literally so windy I was afraid WE were going to blow away, and against my better judgment I attempted to try and explain to her how far away China was and how, at the rate the wind was blowing, her receipt was surely already there.
“BUT WE CAN JUST GO THERE!!!!” she sobbed.
“We would have to take a plane, and then our groceries would go bad.”
“WELL YOU CAN JUST CALL THE POLICE!! PLEASE, MOM!! JUST CALL THE POLICE!!!” she begged.
How do you gently explain to your crushed 3 year old that her receipt is not important enough to call the police for? Oh my. So she cried hysterically all the way to the place where we pick up our milk. I tried to reason with her and sympathize with her for a few minutes and then I just stopped talking, quieted myself, and let her cry. Because, come on, she was devastated and therefore totally unreasonable. And I get that. It just didn’t feel like a moment to correct her. She was refusing to be comforted by me. How many times have I been too busy pumping my fists and shouting suggestions at God that I have refused to be comforted by Him? That was an insightful question to ask myself.
We arrived and I unbuckled my red, swollen-faced little girl, grabbed our milk box, and we walked inside. I set the box down and…
There, stuck to our milk box, WAS A COSTCO RECEIPT. With a curly-haired little girl drawn on the back. I had to blink about 700 times but it really was there. I checked the items and they were items I buy, but not items I had purchased on that particular day. But still…it was a virtually identical Costco receipt. I knelt down, showed Selah the receipt and talked to her of the Lord’s mercies towards her. That there was no way I could have orchestrated that, but God did. That God knows her heart and her desires and He cares about them…because He cares about her. Her receipt may not have been important enough to a police man, but it was important enough to God. So there I was, talking to her, but more than anything I was talking to me, because I desperately need to understand that lesson. That when I am screaming and crying and hysterically shouting at God, and He is silent, that that doesn’t mean He doesn’t have a plan. It’s just not time to find the receipt yet.
So then we headed to the next grocery store to get the few items we need from there. And Selah decided she MUST sit in the blue car cart. I mean, it was a matter of life and death. I explained to her for the third time that we only needed 3 items and we had to hurry if we were going to get the items, drop our groceries off at home and make it to Elliott’s preschool to pick him up on time (thankfully we didn’t have to take a detour to China anymore!). And she lost it. Sobbing and hysterically crying all the way into King Soopers. She had finally calmed down by the time we got to the cream cheese and we made our way to the check out as I checked the time for the billionth time since setting foot in the store.
After paying, the teller slipped a penny across the counter. “Would she like to ride the horse?
“The HORSE?” I asked.
He looked at me, dumbfounded. “Yes, the HORSE…you know? The penny horse? The penny horse is the only reason people shop here!” We had been to that store dozens of times and not once had anyone mentioned this horse that was apparently the main attraction and certainly had I never been given a penny to ride it! I looked in the direction of his pointing finger to see a brown toy electronic horse, with a “1c” sign hastily scribbled on with spray paint. I will admit, we are not “grocery store ride” people. I have never even glanced twice at one of those things, but I will say that 1 penny wasn’t a bad deal at all! My mind raced with the fact that my little one had been hysterical for the better part of the last hour and that she certainly didn’t “deserve” a ride on the penny horse and that we didn’t have two minutes to waste in this particular moment…when…
Mercy. I could see God’s mercy. Not getting what we deserve. God seemed to be going out of His way to give my emotionally-unstable little girl new mercies that morning. And I certainly wasn’t going to get in His way. I gave up my agenda and bent down, for the second time that morning, and explained to Selah how the kind man had given her a penny to ride the horse, but how really it was God giving her yet another new mercy. She listened intently as I preached my little sermon and when I asked if she would like to ride the horse, she stared back at me with those big blue eyes, mouth open in wonder, and slowly nodded her head up and down. Because sometimes His mercies come in the shape of recovered Costco receipts and penny horses.
The Penny Horse.
Thank you, Lord, for all of our new mercies this week.I refuse to miss seeing YOU and your heart for us in the little moments of life:
The Moberg version of Saturday morning cartoons…“How did the deer cross the road?” “By using the crosswalk, of course!!”Spaghetti Squash Chefs!Homeschool Space Tinkering Day…we made instruments and learned about Space with Quinn and Kari!A preschool Mother’s Day tea with my boy who was the first to let me be a mother full-time. Thank you, Lord, for this little miracle of a man.Mother’s Day…with my kids and my Mama in beautiful Colorado!
And last, but not least. Elliott’s hunger for reading is just exploding. He’s reading so much!! He and Brian read the Bible every night and a couple of weeks ago he just started sounding out the books of the bible. So Brian went through them with him and the rest is history. Check out our little man!!
Your turn. What new mercies has God given you this week?
This week, I was blessed with double “Jillian” new mercies!
My sweet friend Jillian from Tacoma was in town and I was SO blessed to get to grab a quick breakfast with her. Such a treasured friend. We met because she was my student teacher, which seems like EONS ago!!! But I knew we would be friends from the moment I read her application and profile. Definitely a kindred spirit and her friendship has blessed my life. I didn’t even think to snap a pic!! It was such sweet fellowship to see her!!
And THEN, my OTHER dear Jillian (Jilly-Bean, to be more precise) sent us package!
First of all, WHO ON EARTH sends a package this beautiful!?!! I’ve never received a package where the box itself is a piece of art!!!
I’ll tell you who. Jilly Bean. Artist extraordinaire. Seriously–I mean that. She is UNBELIEVABLY talented. Check out her work here!!
I’ll tell you what’s a new mercy–HAND-ME-DOWNS!!! We are SO blessed to get boy hand-me-downs from Jill’s boys and girl hand-me-downs from Kari’s girls.
The box was FULL of amazing treasures, including these AWESOME Lightning McQueen slippers for Elliott. Olivia also passed down two sets of jammies for Selah (although they are probably close to the same size at this point since they are just a few months apart!). The kids TORE through the box like it was Christmas day and then immediately stripped their clothing and tried everything on. It was so darling to watch. They were SOOO thankful, just squealing and giggling with delight. So precious.
Later in the week, Selah and I got a little girl time and she wanted to play Bingo. We were towards the end of a round when she suddenly started dumping game pieces on my board, and then LAUGHING ABSOLUTELY HYSTERICALLY. She did it again and again to the point where I was laughing hysterically at HER laughing so hysterically and then…it happened. She got the hiccups. When she laughs so hard that she gets the hiccups, (which she does a lot) I just absolutely lose it. I think it’s SO RIDICULOUSLY FUNNY. Anyway, I finally grabbed my phone to try and capture the moment. We must have laughed for 10 minutes straight.
My girl who always has us in stitches.
And THEN, I was cleaning up our craft room when I found THIS little gem! I am SO thankful that I write things down because I had totally forgotten about this picture despite the fact that I had just written down the caption a few months ago! Selah drew this picture back in February, handed it to me, and explained what it was. I wrote exactly what she said on the back of it:
Come on, now. Who is this girl?? Her imagination!!!!!!!!
And last, but CERTAINLY not least…
While I was making dinner, Brian embraced me and said, “Happy Anniversary, my Love.”
My brain immediately started rattling as it was not computing…what is today…May…May what?…May 2nd…what is May 2nd….AHHHHH….
“The day you proposed to me!!!”
I am certain we have forgotten this anniversary many times, but this day we didn’t.
What a new mercy. We were just laughing through our dating story with some new friends on Saturday night. What a story :). But (almost) 7 years in and I couldn’t be more certain that God’s mercy was on my life and my heart while we were dating to open my eyes. Boy was my little heart guarded and hurt and BOY did it take me some time to realize that there was no other man on the planet that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. But God dropped the walls off my heart and confirmed in my heart that Brian was the man. Every day I am thankful for him. Every day I am thankful for God’s mercy in opening our eyes because they were certainly CLOSED to each other for a long time!!!!! 8 years of friendship+6 months of dating+3 months of engagement=new mercies every day. Thank you, Lord, for this man.
Promised to each other for 7 years!!
And if you haven’t read our *incredibly* lengthy engagement story, you can click here :).
YOUR TURN!! What new mercies has God brought to your life this week?!!!
When I shut down my facebook account over a year ago now, I made a mental note to blog more often. And well, that didn’t really happen :). My zeal for writing and recording in this virtual scrapbook here has somewhat windled down to birthdays and holidays. Most of that, quite honestly, is that I’m so tired in my spirit. It’s been an incredibly weary-ing few years in many aspects and when I look in the mirror, all I see is tired.
Virtually every night before bed, Selah asks if we can sing, “Great is Thy Faithfulness.” It is the song that I listened to on repeat in the weeks and months leading up to her birth and the song I played over and over while in labor with her. It’s the song that steadies my fears. He is faithful. Always. Every day.
…Remember my affliction and roaming, The wormwood and the gall. My soul still remembers And sinks within me. This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!” The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. … Though He causes grief, Yet He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. [Lam 3:19-25, 32]
The beginning part of the chapter is much of how I have felt these last few years, but…BUT. I recall to mind, constantly, that His mercies are new every morning. Selah reminds me daily. (Of course she does–that is what her name means!) I am so thankful for her reminder to make me stop and think about how great God is and to meditate upon his mercies. Last night I asked her to tell me what had blessed her about the day and she rattled off a list several minutes long of all the things she was thankful for. She finished, smiled, looked at me, and returned the question: “What are YOU thankful for, Mommy?” My heart is abundantly blessed by who she is.
And so…this little series is born. New Mercies Monday. Rather than devoting the start of my week to simply meal planning, grocery shopping, cleaning and laundry, I want to devote them to Selah-ing. To stopping, to pausing my to-do list, and to meditating on the new mercies that God has poured out to us in the previous week. Because, He is worthy to praised. I am so grateful throughout the week for the ways the Lord has lavished us, but sometimes, you just gotta testify! Can I get an amen?!
Monday: An afternoon in Denver with Elizabeth and her darling crew. Elizabeth, my gentle-spirited, wise, like-minded friend. So thankful she is in my life.
Popcorn and play time!
Tuesday: Sometimes I see so much of myself in my kids, and it tickles me to my core. This particular day, I saw me in my dear Selah when she asked me to tape the broken arm back onto this (ancient) Playmobile man. (Have you read the Gecko story? Well, if not…take a peek. I re-read it today and was majorly encouraged!)
All taped up and all better!
Wednesday:“A day at the zoo with Kari and Quinn is like a milkshake to your soul.” (Have you read that verse in Proverbs? It’s true.) So ridiculously blessed that we get to do life together, even if we do live 30 minutes apart.
The zoo was epic. We hugged a (fake) giraffe, fed and pet (real) giraffes, fed the birds, pet a pony, climbed a (fake) elephant, watched a (real) elephant take a bath, rode the carousel, played at the playground, watched the lion cubs frolic and wrestle…all with the wonderful company of our dear friends!
And so of course we ended the day with milkshakes!
Thursday: Lull in the week=Let’s try a new pizza place! Have you tried it? MOD pizza? I guess it started in Seattle. It was fun! And had very yummy pizza :).
Pizza Pizza!!
Friday: My parents had us over for dinner (which is always a bonus!) along with another family and I made a new friend!
Saturday: Blizzard! Family snow day.
Sunday: So encouraged by the Word of God and the parsing of Scripture with other believers at church, who challenge all of us to live according to what it says.
Want a bonus?
These are from the previous week but I just couldn’t help but add them here after sorting through the pics on my phone…
**The kids BEG to help me in the kitchen preparing meals. A couple of months ago I taught Elliott how to slice up some zucchini for dinner and Selah has been pleading with me to let her try. That day was the day. She was in heaven…just look at that face!! So thankful for children who are eager to serve and help.
I snapped this photo and then set my phone down quickly so I could helicopter her cutting!! (Yes, I just made “helicopter” a verb all right!!)
**I just adore this picture…it cracks me up!!!
A hot chocolate date with the kids!
Well there you have it! God’s new mercies on us this past week. This may take on a different form and may not be every week…who knows!
How about YOU? What mercies were new to you this past week? Will you join me in testifying??
I’m taking a break from my normal long-windedness 🙂 and blogging this year’s Christmas through pictures! Enjoy!
Get out the Christmas decorations and decorate your felt Christmas Tree!Go pick out our Christmas tree!Put up Christmas lights!Make Christmas gifts for our friends! (A project I envisioned doing for many more friends, but these were FAR more difficult and time-consuming than I had anticipated…so only two friends got gifts this year!)Build rocking horses together!Take out all of our Christmas and winter books!Journey to Bethlehem as a family! (“Breakfast in Bethlehem”…a breakfast/crafting/interactive living nativity put on by a local church! We all had SO much fun!!)Counting with Christmas Trees, Pom-pom sorting, Pipe Cleaner Straining…Zoo Lights!Stained Glass NativitiesSnowman Pancakes!Elliott’s Christmas Program at PreschoolReindeer Cookies!The kids’ program at church, Nativity Stickers, and Christmas Magnet Pattern BlocksGingerbread Men with the McCabes!Nativity Window Clings!The North Pole!!New pajama shirts (made by me because I couldn’t find any Christmas p.j.s that I like this year!!) and popcorn and a Christmas movie!Make baby Jesus some cookies and cupcakes…out of playdough!Christmas Eve…the kids each got to open one present (a new puzzle for each of them) and we all worked them together. Then church!Christmas Eve family shots!Christmas Day!!!Christmas with the family!
It’s incredibly hard to believe that our baby girl turned THREE this year!! Here are the highlights from her birthday and birthday party…
She woke up with a room full of purple balloons……and the first present to open of the day…a dress I personalized for her with the word, “three”!She got dressed and went downstairs for her next surprise…a huge 3 in purple balloons!!Grandma & Grandpa were in town, so we took Elliott to preschool together. Here she is outside of his preschool, in all of her birthday glory! She picked out this dress for her birthday and would have stayed in it day and night if I would have let her…Then we stopped at our favorite coffee place for a birthday hot cocoa…and the barista put a candle in her whipped cream and everyone sang “Happy Birthday” to her!!
She went to gymnastics and then Grandma, Grandpa, Selah and I went to go pick out a cupcake from a bakery. For weeks I had been asking her what she wanted for her birthday, and her ONLY response was, “A cupcake.” I tried to tell her that I was already making cupcakes for her birthday party, but she could think of nothing else she wanted. The day before her birthday, she reminded me that she would like a cupcake for her birthday. I reminded her we would have one on her birthday party day a few days later. She looked at me as if I had not heard the 1 million times that she told me she wanted a cupcake for her birthday and almost burst into tears. So :). We decided to let her pick out a special cupcake for her actual birthday.
After naptime, she got to go into the basement and see her special gift picked out and put up by her Daddy…he added a SWING to her beloved birthday present from last year–the gym in our basement.
Needless to say, she LOVES it…(and her Grandpa, too!!)
We went to Red Robin for dinner (her choice) where, of course, they sang her Happy Birthday and she buried herself into me as she normally does when put on the spot!But she definitely enjoyed her ice cream when the singing people went away :).Us!And then she had her long-awaited cupcake at home afterwards!!
HER BIRTHDAY PARTY:
Selah is our super tactile child. She LOVES playing in rice and sand and squishing play dough between her fingers. So we decided to party hard for her 3rd with play dough, her favorite friends, and her grandparents.
Our most wonderful Selah Bean is turning three!
She’s our silly, hilarious, playful one (as you know),
To you, her favorites, she asks: “Will you celebrate with me?!”
Join us for a party with games and PLAY DOUGH!!
We decorated our craft room with purple!Made favors for our friends!Personalized an apron for every kid!Decorated cupcakes with sprinkles!And waited patiently for our friends to arrive!
Our friends arrived and put on their aprons!Here’s everyone ready to create with play dough!Selah was overjoyed to have play dough in her hands and her favorite girlfriends by her side!Happy birthday girl!
The first challenge was to create a cupcake that Selah would like to eat for her birthday.
Elliott’s cupcake creations!Quinn’s delicious goodies!Charlotte’s yummy looking cupcakes!Selah’s dough-light-ful birthday cupcake!Ava’s cupcakes definitely took the cake 🙂
The next challenge was to create a playdough version of Selah. Here’s what we got:
Pretty good!!And Elliott’s playdough Selah is very creative!The dearest friends!!!!
The kids played with play dough for a little while longer until it was time for cake!
My darling girl and her cupcakes with sprinkles!Happy Birthday to you!Selah and her Nonna, who usually always wears purple, to Selah’s delight!!She opened some super fun and thoughtful presents from friends and family!Happy Birthday, our dear Selah Bean!!!
If you’ve made it this far :), here are some extra special birthday bonuses…
Here she is in the “three” dress that I made for her…
And THIS is a picture of ME when I turned 3, alongside of Selah on her birthday. My mom made this sweet Care Bear for me for my third birthday, and here is Selah with it as well!!
Our darling little girl is growing up so quickly before our eyes, and she brings an exceeding amount of joy into our home every day. Selah lives life as if it were a musical–and we adore it!! She literally sings her way through life…she sings throughout the day, sings herself to sleep, and wakes up with a new song on her tongue every morning.
Here’s a video of one of her latest songs:
It is so easy to see her mother’s heart burst out of her every move…she is constantly so eager to take care of everyone around her and serve every chance she gets.
We had the joy of taking care of my niece a few days a week at the beginning of the year, and Selah (and Elliott) were on cloud 9 to have her in our home. Here is Selah feeding her a bottle……and reading her a book, in sunglasses of course!
And that heart does not exclude her babies and stuffed animals! It is not rare for us all to be playing together and for Selah to jump up in the middle of our playtime and exclaim, “I hear my baby crying upstairs! I’ll go get her and bring her down!” She is the epitome of sweet and kind and loving. And although she has definitely learned how to push her brother’s buttons this year :), most of what comes out of her heart is genuine love.
A few months ago, I overheard this conversation:
Selah, as she takes Elliott’s pencil and sits down: “Elliott, I need to use your pencil.”
Elliott: “But Selah, that’s MY pencil.”
Selah, in the sweetest, most genuinely convincing voice: “Yes, I’m SHARING it with you!”
Elliott: “Oh! Thank you, Selah! Thank you for sharing it with me!”
Selah: “You’re welcome, Elliott!”
It’s hard to articulate the depths of her heart, but this conversation was so typical of her…she was truly not manipulating him, but she just genuinely believes that she was giving Elliott a gift by letting HIM share with HER!
As she approached her third birthday, any time it would come up in conversation and someone would ask her old she was turning, she would respond, “Three…THEN FOUR!!” I think she is determined to catch up to her big brother! 🙂
She continues to be our amazing gymnast.
Strong arms on the bars at almost 2 1/2!
She is truly talented and it is such a joy to watch her doing something she loves. We did the “Mommy and me” gymnastics class last year, and a couple of weeks before she turned 3, she started the 3-4 year olds class, which is a class without her Mama!! (Granted, I do sit right outside where she can see me and watch her through the window…baby steps for both of us!) I talked to her about it ahead of time, wondering how she would do without me (and let’s be real–how I would do without her!!!) and she said she was excited to do it. The morning of her first class, however, as we were getting her into her leotard, she said to me with a voice that quivered more with each word: “Mom? I was just thinking that I actually want you to come into my class with me…” and then she erupted in tears. My heart broke and I held her as she sobbed…Elliott and I comforted her and prayed with her and he gave her advice on what it is like to go into a class without me. It was precious. Sure enough, when I walked her into her class a couple hours later, she let go of my hand and waved goodbye to me with no problem. It has been so incredibly fun to watch her thrive!!
The first few moments of her first class all by herself! (She’s second from the front in the pink)Climbing the rope!Peeking through the window at Elliott who got to be there for her very first class to cheer her on!!And a celebratory hot chocolate afterwards because–come on! That was a big deal!!!! Cheers to big girl gymnastics!!
She is wild and messy and silly and free and creative and and hilarious and we adore every part of how God created our little girl!!! Enjoy a snapshot of her year below!
Selah takes artistic license when it comes to doing anything…eating dinner, crafting, writing her name…
One night while out to eat as a family, I looked over and saw Selah doing push ups like this! Bahaha!! (I know–bad Mom for taking a picture…I took a picture and then reminded her of what good table manners are…)Most kids sit while crafting, but not this girl. She crafts while balancing on one foot.Oh look, here she is sitting to craft…but with nothing but her brother’s backpack on. She can’t do anything the “normal” way!!She LOVES puzzles as much as her big brother! At 27 months, she could complete this 48 piece jigsaw puzzle all by herself.She loves to build and create at Home Depot!“Look, Mom! It’s a monkey sitting in a high chair!” She is a budding artist who draws extremely hilarious and creative pictures!!“Look, Mom! It’s a snowman walking!”I found her like this at the chiropractor one day. The chiropractor is one of her favorite places to go :). (Yes, yes…she takes after me!!)Did I mention she is messy?!!!At Chick-fil-a…making goofy Chick-fil-a saucy faces at herself in my phone…Thanks to Aunt Melanie, we figured out how to FINALLY get her hair into pig tails!! She was about 2 1/2 at the time… We continue to hope and pray that she GROWS SOME MORE HAIR!!! 🙂
Selah continues to have a love-hate relationship with animals of all kinds. She screams in absolute horror if our friends’ cat even takes a step into a room that she is in, but then she can be in a pen filled with Alpacas and literally chase after them yelling, “Here, alpaca! Here, alpaca!”
Chasing down Alpacas, trying to feed them vegetables…And here she is feeding a bird at the zoo. I love that face!!!She actually looks like she’s really enjoying being in the mouth of this Alligator!She loves dressing to match me!!Goofy face!She ADORES her big brother and his friends!They truly are BFFS…She still loves to dress up in all varieties of clothes…Probably one of my favorite things about Selah is how FREE she is. She doesn’t have a care in the world. She sleeps like this most of the time…hands above her head, baby by her side…in total peace.And yes, I know…we are the only people on the planet who still have a monitor for their (now) 3 year old…but come on…I would have missed all of these precious sleeping moments if we didn’t have one!!!!!My darling girl!!Here I am at 2 as well. I was probably an early 2 and Selah is close to 3 in this picture, but I think we look pretty similar!!Welcome to age 3, my love!!!! I cannot wait to see how you change and grow in the coming year!!!!
I often tell Brian that I wish I could bottle Selah up to remember her like this forever…Two is seriously my favorite age and she is so articulate and hilarious that she keeps me laughing all day long. Oh, the STORIES that she comes up with…they are incredible. This girl’s imagination is VIVID and she always has a story to tell about everything.
She also, however, has some stage fright. 🙂 So anytime I pull out my phone to take her picture or record her, she stops acting like her normal self but then wants to see what I’ve recorded! I have been trying so hard to get her on video without her knowing because I want to capture the essence of HER…and, folks, I did it :). She had been talking to me already for several minutes and I somehow casually placed my phone on my leg and pushed record without her knowing…until the end, of course. This video is CLASSIC Selah…first of all, she’s wearing her shirt backwards because when she dresses herself in the mornings she usually takes some artistic license with how her clothes should be worn. Today, her shirt was backwards and it was very intentional. (You all just wait for that to become a trend!) And her backwards shirt is covered in watermelon juice because…because she’s the second child :). Her hair’s a disaster because it’s after her nap and well, seriously…this is classic Selah. Feel free to watch below to catch a glimpse of our imaginative little girl…and bonus points if you can catch everything she’s saying!
