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Hard Sunday

Yesterday was a long, hard day. We found out before church that close friends had a miscarriage. She was 12 weeks along. I hurt for them. They have three precious children - 5, 4 and 2 1/2 and were so excited about having number 4. Many times I've heard Kathleen say, when asked why in the world would she want another baby, that she had a desire in her heart for one more child of her own.

Then, during our prayer time in our worship service it was announced that the husband of another family in our church has contracted Lyme's Disease. This family has so much on them and now this. I'm not going into the details, but it's a "Why God?" type situation . . . where I am literally crying out in my heart "What are you THINKING?"

Ephesians 3:13-21
Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory. For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

We thank you, Lord, and worship you with gladness;
We praise your name and lift our hearts in song;
For you are good, your love endures forever,
Your faithfulness continues all day long.
You've lavished us with every spiritual blessing;
We thank you, Lord, and praise you now in song.

God is good. Even when it is hard to say it, He still is.

Later that day...

At the moment the house is quiet. I seem to have convinced Noelle that it is not in her best interest to keep throwing Baa over the side of the crib if she really wants to take a nap. A few tears, hugs, and kisses later and she's out like a light. How blessed am I to spend my day with my sweet girl!

On the home front, the house smells like cinnamon. Yum. I tried a new recipe for cinnamon rolls and they sure smell good! They aren't pretty, but it was my first time making them and I had to improvise with my dough. I also baked a loaf of bread this morning for some new neighbors. They moved in about a month or so ago and we are finally getting around to going over and introducing ourselves. Shame on us.

Yesterday I finished laying out the wedding invitations I'm putting together for a friend. Here's what they should look like:



The cool thing is that the photos on the front were taken by my Dad and the horses and chickens belong to the bride and groom. The pictures on are a piece of cream vellum that is over the actual wedding invitation. You can't see the little ribbon tie at the top very well.

I need to go get stuff ready for our monthly church staff meeting in the morning. Other than the meeting, Travis and I have little planned for the weekend. Maybe fit in a trip to the library, Target, but not much else. Happy weekend!

Friday Fun

Which Winnie the Pooh
character are you?

Take this quiz at
Sparrow's Song Quiz Page.

More later . . . I have errands to run in my car that now has airconditioning! Woo-hoo! And Noelle's third tooth is through on the top. :-)

9 Month Report!

We had Noelle's 9 month Dr. visit yesterday afternoon. Her weight is now 18 lbs., 2 oz. (a gain of 3 lbs. 5 oz. from her 6 mo.); her height is now 27 inches (grew 1 3/4 inches). She's now in the 75% for her weight and the 25-50% on her height. You can tell by looking at her that all the weight gain is because she's getting taller. Her little legs are starting to hang over the end of her car seat. Boy, won't she be excited when she doesn't have to sit in a rear-facing one anymore!

Everything looked good. She had two shots and her finger pricked to check her iron level, but she was a trooper. She is allowed table food now - only exceptions are milk (although she can now have other dairy products like yogurt, cottage cheese & regular cheese), honey, and, obviously, things she still might choke on like raisins, peanuts, etc. I tried giving her some vegetable beef baby food last night and that did NOT go over at all. However, when we went to Chili's last night for a friend's birthday she took to tortilla chips very well - greasy and salty, what's not to like. Disclaimer: as the mother, I was not the one who gave her the tortilla chips. It was someone else *cough* LauraSarahBecky *cough* :-)

Because I so traumatized her with the vegetable beef baby food, I let her have some mandarin oranges to eat. She loves them! It incredibly messy, but I thought she deserved a small treat for being such a big girl for the Dr.





Apparently it wasn't enough that we eat the oranges, we needed the yummy juice at the bottom of the bowl! :-)

I had something else I wanted to write, but as it has apparently left me for the moment . . .

A Confession...

I don't like reading non-fiction.

I have a HUGE list of books (non-fiction) that I want to read. They sound fascinating, challenging, inspiring, et al, but as soon as I open the book and curl up, I immediately start nodding off. Has my brain atrophied so much from singing songs about dry diapers and VeggiesTales that I can't handle anything heavier? I was a history major in college - I know how to plow through the dry and dull and survive.

I'm stil working my way through C.S. Lewis' autobiography Surprised by Joy. It's a book my husband recommended, one I am eager to read. But, when I finally get it out I make it through a chapter if I'm lucky and then I'm dozing.

In contrast, I can sit and read half of the new John Grisham book (which I finally got from my sister) in one sitting without so much of an eyelid flutter.

Maybe I should take notes and read with a highlighter in my hand. That worked in college.

So....help! Inspire me. What are must-read non-fiction books (I can give you plenty of must-read fiction books in return - an idea for a future post?) Here's a few of the non-fiction books on my list - tell me what I need to add to it! And feel free to gasp in horror at what I have/haven't read.

Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis
Do You Think I'm Beautiful, Angela Thomas
Knowledge of the Holy, A.W. Tozer
Hinds Feet in High Places

In other completely unrelated news . . . girl dog Jenny is molting. She's starting to lose her long puppy fur and her short adult Husky fur is underneath. She looks like she has mange or something. Travis has even tried vacuuming her to get the hair to come out faster. I'm trying to set a world record on how many times a day I can vacuum. I just can't put Noelle down on the floor when it's covered in dog hair. Eeewww.

9 month appointment this afternoon. Will update with her remarkable progress probably tomorrow.

Back in the Swing...

I have such a hard time refocusing after a few days of play. My mind feels like mush. Good mush, but still mush. And, in spite of that, I've still be rather productive today thus far. I ran an errand across town to pick up paper for the wedding invitations I am making for someone, hit the grocery store on the way home, and then vacuumed the house and mopped the kitchen floor. By then Noelle was ready for lunch and a nap so this afternoon hasn't been as fast paced. I did some church work - made reservations for the youth group, plus us chaperones, to go white water rafting at the end of the month. I'm not terribly excited about the trip. I'm not that great of a swimmer so hurtling downstream in a boat with nothing to restrain me sounds mildly unpleasant. The last time I went rafting/canoeing (where the main purpose of the outing seems to be to see how many times you and your boat can get dumped over) I made sure I rode with the guy who was paddling the lunch down the river. No one wanted to mess with him. I stayed nice and dry and fairly sunburned. I'm a chicken. :-)

Noelle has been so cute lately. I think she is trying to say "uh-oh." I've been saying it to her for a while when she drops something or I drop something. Now when she drops Baa over the side of the crib, I'll her this "Uh!", but no "oh." It's so cute. We have her 9 month appointment tomorrow afternoon. I can't wait to find out what she is weighing and how much taller she has gotten. She seems like she has grown at least a couple inches. I watch her reach up to shelves that I didn't even know she could get to and pull stuff off. Poor girl has to have a few shots, too, but her Daddy's coming to the appointment with us. He handles the shots better that I do. I just cry along with Noelle. :-)

4th of July Weekend Photo Post

We're going to see fireworks tonight!



The show's about to begin... I wore my USA onesie just for the occasion!



Oooooh! Aaaaaaah!



Kisses!

We went for a drive on July 4th in the evening. There was a huge thunderstorm on Sunday afternoon and after it blew through, it was just the right temperature for a drive through the Tennessee countryside with the windows rolled down.



We took all sorts of backwoods roads - some that weren't even really marked on the map. It was so much fun. Noelle rode in the carseat and kept us entertained by the conversation she was apparently carrying on with Baa (her lamb) and her feet. :-)

This morning, the 5th, we went and played sand volleyball with some church friends and Noelle watched from her play pen. Lunch was at Sonic and then showers for EVERYONE! We're cooking out with family tonight...

Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th. Rejoice in the goodness of God.

Big Girl

9 months old today. :-) *burst of love*

Happy 4th, Ya'll!

This looks to be a fairly quiet 4th of July weekend for our family. I'm looking forward to it. After travelling last week, I'm excited about the whole weekend in town, and that Travis has Monday off. We were actually supposed to be out of town this week, too - Travis' extended family has a family reunion every year at a cottage on Lake Erie around the 4th of July. But, with Travis' new position at work that he started about 2 weeks ago, he couldn't up and leave for a trip this soon. Right now I'm thankful we're not travelling again, although I miss the opportunity to catch up with family (some who I feel like I'm still trying to get to know) and for Noelle to play with her cousins.

Our/my plans for the weekend:
~ mop kitchen floor - woo-hoo!
~ recaulk the bathroom (that's actually Travis' project!)
~ possibly go to a scrapbook night at church tonight. The thought of packing up my scrapbook stuff to go down for a few hours doesn't sound appealling at the moment, though.
~ Free Casting Crowns concert today - at lunch time at a local church. Maybe - depends on the rain/drizzle that is presently occurring.
~ Nothing on Saturday's agenda!! Could possibly do some fireworks . . .
~ Nothing on Sunday's agenda!! Besides church of course . . .
~ Nothing on Monday's agenda!!



I had to put this little picture of Noelle up - a girl needs her privacy when on the phone. :-)

And lastly, Friday's Feast:
Appetizer
Name a board game you enjoy playing (Scrabble? Monopoly? Trivial Pursuit?) What's fun about it? Do you change the rules or go by the book?
I'm not a huge game person, but my favorite is probably Trivial Pursuit. I would rather play a board game where I am on a team with someone than by myself at something like Monopoly or Scrabble - both games that I am HORRIBLE at.

Soup
How's the weather been in your area lately? Hot and dry? Wet and muggy? Stormy? Beautiful?
Wet, damp, drizzly, humid, hot. In a nutshell.

Salad
Do you consider yourself an emotional person? What types of emotions do you experience most often?
Yes! Top 5 emotions: Bursts of love for my baby & husband, weepy/sad, excited, frustrated, introspective (which at times can also be depressed)...

Main Course
List 3 songs you've been listening to recently. Are these songs from a different category of music than you usually choose, or are you devoted to a certain type of tunes?
This is so embarrassing . . . Jessica Simpson's "I Think I'm in Love With You," Jeremy Camp's "Beautiful One," and "Sport Utility Vehicle" from the VeggieTale A Snoodle's Tale. I generally stick to contemporary Christian music, but the Jessica Simpson song is very summery and I like singing it. *blushes*

Dessert
What's on your refrigerator door? Magnets? Your child's drawings? Photos? Calendars?
Photos of Noelle and family, a few pictures that my neice has drawn, pizza coupons, and usually my meal plan for the month.

Happy 4th! God bless America . . .

Today is a Picture Day

Noelle and Sam lounging around...





Our family photo (Noelle is 5 months)



One of my favorite pictures...