Excuses, Excuses...

So there are a lot of things I could blame on my lack of posts lately:

• Single parenting: Brandon is away this month, and by the time I get the munchkins in bed for the night, I rarely have the gumption to do a whole lot more than crash myself. :-) Thankfully, the man of the house should be returning sometime this weekend. We are super duper excited to hear his voice again, give him lots of hugs and kisses, and throw him a party (the kids are planning quite the bash including silly string, party poppers, signs and banners, cupcakes decorated by little fingers, and cookies.) I'm sure Daddy will be thrilled.

• Trips and Travels: We had the great opportunity to head up to TC for 2 weeks to spend some time with my fam. It was a wonderful, relaxing, enjoyable time. It's a rare opportunity that we get to have an extended period of time with my parents. Since they both work and normally only get evenings with us, the kids don't get a whole lot of play time. :-) It was so fun to make up for that this time. The highlights were: late Easter egg hunts, trampoline jumping, playing soldiers with Papa, dance parties, Mario Cart on the Wii, meeting up with friends/family, and last but certainly not least, spending time with Mr. Shawn and Auntie Lins.

• Baby Bumps and Nights of Nausea: yeppers, I'm finally coming clean with the news! We are expecting Baby Brown #4, making his or her grand debut in December. :-) We are elated, and the kids are over the moon excited. It's been so fun watching them react to the news and go crazy over all things baby. This child has caused quite a bit of discomfort for mama lately, though, and at 14+ weeks, I just keep hoping that someday soon I'll find some relief. This is the first time around that I haven't found the 2nd trimester to bring automatic relief, but the upside is that this is great motivation to keep a clean toilet. ;-)

I guess that would be my top 3 in what could be a long list of excuses, but I do plan to be back sooner than later. :-) For now, it's time to get my sweeties off to bed so I can crash. ;-)

Whirlwind month!

Eek, almost a month between blogs. That's just how it goes sometimes I guess. What can I say? It's been a great, busy few weeks. Here's a quick recap...

*We enjoyed a week long visit with Matt, Kristi, and the kiddos. What a blast! The kids are quickly becoming sweet friends, spent many hours playing outside (yay for spring in February. I love the south!!!), and the adults fit in lots of  talking, teasing, and fun as well. Aaaand, I totally forgot to get Kristi's pictures from her camera, so photos from that great week will have to wait.



* The day after Matt and Kristi left, we enjoyed a visit from Grandmama and Grandpapa Barr. :-) They took Brandon and Ellie on several fun adventures, babysat all three so B and I could have a date night, and joined us for Brandon's 5th birthday party. Our time with them literally flew by! Ellie insisted that they should just stay here "forever!" :-) So sweet.



*Saturday we threw a bowling birthday party for our big 5 year old! What fun to get a little group of kiddos together to bowl together. Too cute. One of my favorite moments was watching a ball go down the lane in slow motion (no joke!), take FOREVER to arrive at the other end, and then, somehow, create enough force to cause a strike!!! :-D We all just burst out laughing.

*Brandon and Ellie also had their first dentist appointments this week! Since you never know for sure how your kids will react to new things, I tried to prep them as well as I could and just hoped all would go well. :-) They did wonderfully ... opened their mouths wide like alligators, let the dentist "count" every tooth and then polish them clean, opened and closed their mouth for "Mr. Thirsty" (the water sucker thingy;-)), sat perfectly still for x-rays, and even attempted to rinse with flouride. I felt like a bit cheesy coming in with my camera, but I just had to get a few pictures of their first dental adventure. We love our dentist here!!!

[caption id="attachment_127" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="I told Ethan to smile...:) Love that kid!"][/caption]



*On top of our family adventures, Brandon is very busy with the course he is in and is under a lot of stress. We are learning daily to surrender the pressures, stresses, and busyness to the Lord. He has sustained us thus far, and it's neat to see Him continue to provide and in the midst of the stresses give us opportunities for growth and ministry with those He's placing in our path.



So there's a quick recap. I will try my best to make my next post a bit more witty, catchy, and creative. :-) For now, this is all I've got. :-) Sending love! :-)

Super Bowl

Well, this post is a little late, but I've really been meaning to get to it all week. Unfortunately, we've been assaulted by sickness the last few days. Sick kids needing lots of extra lovin' leave little time for mama to do blogging. :-)



So back to the topic at hand, I honestly don't have a whole lot to say about the super bowl itself. We were decidedly underwhelmed by the super bowl this year. Actually, we both forgot it was super bowl Sunday until one of the 4 yr olds in the Sunday School class we teach shared with us excitedly about the super bowl party he was attending. :-D Since neither of us really get into pro football, we normally watch the super bowl so we can laugh at the commercials. This year several of the commercials contained sexual humor that we found inappropriate and unentertaining. After two of those, I totally checked out.



I had a great deal more fun watching the kids play football with Daddy. I have to say that this is most definitely not a safe indoor activity - safe, that is, for all of the pictures and knick knacks I have around the house. ;-) It was a great deal of fun, though, and Li'l B stayed decked out in his football gear for days after our little family super bowl game was over. :-) He certainly won the best dressed award, since Ellie suited up with a hockey helmet and Daddy with a baseball helmet (on backwards of course.) ;-)  ;-) Ethan definitely wanted to join the fun, but he had a slight wardrobe malfunction that most definitely impeded his progress. (it might help if he had a rear end to hold up those pants! ;-) ;-).) He took care of the pants problem quickly...

And since I forgot about the Super Bowl, the snack foods came a day late, too. The kids were only too happy to help me taste test...errr... make a batch of cookies. ;-) And I suppose the snacks weren't all that late anyway, considering the fact that round 2 of the family football continued on Monday night... ;-)



And so I think perhaps this was my most enjoyable super bowl Sunday to date. :-) I love this crazy family of mine!

936

At a recent MOPS meeting, one of the speakers shared that we only have 936 weekends with our children before they turn 18.  Her statement struck me and has stuck in my mind ever since. Of course I won’t get to spend all of those 936 weekends with my kids – especially when they hit the age where we are no longer “their world,” and they start spending more time with friends, attending sleepovers or youth group events, going on mission trips, participating in sports activities, and maybe even studying once in awhile. ;-)

[caption id="attachment_73" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Sunday afternoon baseball..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_72" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Ellie on "first base";)"][/caption]

Brandon and I were talking about this last night, and about how desperately we want to make the moments count with our kids – investing in them, teaching them, discipling them, enjoying them, playing with them, creating memories and traditions with them, laughing with them, cuddling with them, and loving them.

[caption id="attachment_76" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Everybody tackle Daddy!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_70" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Sliiiiding into first base... ;)"][/caption]

The fact that Brandon’s job often takes him away from home for extended periods of time or, as is the case right now, can be highly demanding time-wise even when he is home, puts a whole new spin on things for us. Family time comes at a premium, and we are quickly learning not to take it for granted.

[caption id="attachment_78" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="An attempt at a family pic...this makes me laugh!"][/caption]





Sometimes the challenges of parenthood – trying to figure out discipline, losing sleep, cleaning up endless messes, constant training – distract my focus away from the incredible gift I have been given in each of my children.  It’s so good to be reminded that this season of my life is incredibly rich, filled to the brim and overflowing with opportunities - to make an eternal difference in the hearts of my children, to develop a relationship with them that will last a lifetime, and to grow and be changed myself in the process.



Li’l B is almost 5. That means we have already spent nearly 260 of those 936 weekends with him.  Time is flying.  Life is short. I just want to make it count.

[caption id="attachment_79" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Photography by Li'l B :)"][/caption]

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” Ps. 90:12

Snow Day!

[caption id="attachment_48" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Our Sweeties!"][/caption]

The kids and I had a wonderful surprise this morning when Daddy returned home from work at 9:30! Yes, that's what happens when you get snow in the south. Haha, just a couple of inches and the whole community literally shuts down. In their defense, the rarity of such weather makes it quite bit more challenging to handle it well, and no one here is comfortable driving in it. Still, being from MI, we can't help but laugh at the panic that ensues whenever we get the faintest dusting of snow...or even talk of it.

[caption id="attachment_39" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Trying to get kids dressed and outside!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_49" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Three peas in a pod... :)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_44" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Now he's lovin' it!"][/caption]

The kids were unbelievably excited about the weather. Ellie woke up and came running to find me, "Mommy! Can I show you sumpin'?" ... and proceeded to whip back the blinds and show me the "SNOW!!!!" :-) Since we aren't around snow much, I'll be the first to admit I'm not very efficient at getting all of the kids (and myself) bundled up to head out there, but we made it happen and spent a good chunk of time out there this morning. Since we don't own a sled, we used trash can lids (you gotta improvise!), and Brandon and I took turns pulling the kids around while they sat in the back yelling, "Go, Rudolph!" :-) I noticed some neighbors pulling their kids around in laundry baskets, so at least we aren't the only house on the block without actual sleds! haha. :-) We closed out the morning outdoors with some yummy hot chocolate. The whole morning took me back to so many fun, snowy outings I had as a kid. I often say I don't miss the cold living down here, and most of the time I don't, but having a snowfall every now and then really is a lot of fun. :-)

[caption id="attachment_47" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="No sled? Use trash can lids!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_46" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="He has no problem driving in the snow! ;)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_45" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Me 'n my girl"][/caption]

While looking out this afternoon on the world of white, I was amazed at how different our yard looks now that it’s covered in fluffy, white snow. I have to be honest, before today, the yard was beginning to look like quite an eyesore. It was covered with sticks and dead leaves just begging to be removed! To make matters worse, our neighbors are very diligent with their landscaping, and their yards always look picture perfect. In comparison with their yards, ours looked hideous! Not today, though. The snow served as the great equalizer – now all of our lawns look the same – peaceful, serene, and lovely.

[caption id="attachment_42" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Making letters in the snow"][/caption]

As I looked out at our neighborhood today, I was reminded that God does the same thing in our lives. While some of us may look more lovely or put together on the outside than others, deep down all of our lives are much like our poor lawn – full of grime and junk that needs to be removed and cleansed. How thankful I am for the blood of Christ that covers us, cleanses us, and allows us to come before the Father without blemish or spot. In that sense, His blood serves as the equalizer – no matter who we are, where we’ve been, our how dirty we’ve become, there is nothing His blood cannot cover, nothing His sacrifice is insufficient to pay, nothing beyond the reach of His grace.

[caption id="attachment_40" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="I told Ethan..."smile!" :)"][/caption]

The Bible often uses snow as a reference to purity and cleanness. Watching the snowfall today reminded me again of how thankful I am that the precious blood of Christ washes me whiter than snow. I’m thankful that it’s not my own efforts that purify me, but that I find grace in Christ alone.

[caption id="attachment_43" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="snow angels!"][/caption]

I also made it my prayer today that God would give me a heart tender to following Him so that my life would be pure, clean, and refreshing; that when others see me, they would see I am covered by Christ. And that, like today's snowfall, is nothing short of beautiful.

Ps. 51:7…wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

[caption id="attachment_41" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Ellie in her eskimo hat! :)"][/caption]