a family adventure

tim finally cashed in his father's day gift IOU and found a child's carrier pack. we headed to Mounds State Park in Anderson to try it out. it was a gorgeous day and isaac didn't even notice that he didn't have lunch until 2:00 because he was so busy just looking around and giggling when either of us would "run" with the pack on our backs. his favorite thing to do was either lean as far as he could to one side so he could watch Marley walk the trails...or pull our ponytails out.

what goes around..

my grandmother sent me this picture a few months ago when i was complaining about not getting sleep with a new baby. she wanted me to "note the tired eyes" that my mother had when she was so enthusiastically feeding me.if you didn't already know how much i resemble my mom, this picture is a great example. i'm about six months old here...it was Christmas in 1984.

what were YOU doing for Christmas in 1984??

fighting for morning

i've never been very good at carving out dedicated time each day to read my Bible. i just don't sit down and read, period. i know it's a weak link in my day and my journey in faith, but i'd just accepted the fact. tim, on the other hand, is very good at this. he is a reader, and is usually very consistent with finding time to be alone with God. this is one of the many reasons i know the Lord made us for each other. in some instances, you couldn't find two more people as opposites but complements of the other.

recently, i've actually wanted to get up early and start my day with reading & having time to myself. maybe it's because if i let isaac be my alarm, i'm not ready for the day & don't feel prepared to meet him every morning with a joyful attitude. i stumble around, trying to get him changed, get him breakfast, and wake up myself all at the same time. it's still taking tim and i some adjusting to get used to the fact that 8am is really sleeping in!

i feel like i need to be up and prepared to meet the day before my family so that i can almost pave the way for how the day starts for them. if i'm grumpy and tired, then that will definitely rub off. if i've spent time with God, praying for my family, and ready for the day...it's amazing how much more productive and prepared i feel. i usually get more excited when isaac finally wakes up and i'm ready to start a good day.

with any new endeavor to become closer to Christ, i've learned to expect the enemy to throw a fit. he will now try to throw kinks in my plans and make me feel frustrated and stupid about what i'm trying to do. ever since i've tried to get up before isaac and get my morning started with prayer and reading, i've noticed a few things:

isaac has successfully slept through the night since 8 weeks old. occasionally, you'd have to go put a pacifier back in or cover him up, but that's about it. just this last week and a half, he's been waking several times and may have to be rocked or nursed back to sleep.

our chocolate lab, marley, has had a weird issue with getting sick at night ever since she was a puppy. it's usually not very often, but if we wake up to her getting sick, we just know it's another day. it involves taking her out, cleaning up, getting her water, getting back to bed, etc. in the last week or so, she's gotten sick three times, sometimes several times a night.

needless to say, tim and i have not been getting good sleep lately. call me crazy, but i'm not looking forward to 6:30 am when i've been up with a crying child and sick dog that night. i haven't slept well and i don't feel like getting up any earlier than i have to. i know this is the enemy trying to tell me i don't have the energy to get up and spend that time with my God.

i'm telling you all of this because maybe somehow that keeps me accountable. whether i'm up to spend time in Scripture or i'm just praying for my family and friends or i'm writing and thinking about something i read somewhere, i need to prepare my day. i've never ever been an "up earlier than i have to be" person at any point in my life so this is a new season for me. i'm excited to see how God will use it and i hope you're encouraged to start your days off with something besides that last minute cup of coffee on the way out the door.

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.
Marcus Aurelius

Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.
William Blake

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Mark 1:35

one day...

building a home

God's been working on my heart lately about really taking my roles as mother and wife seriously. not that i thought he was kidding before, but i've realized the peace and satisfaction that i get from fulfilling these two roles and i want to make sure i'm being the best i can be at both of them. at this point in my life, i know that my main priorities should be at home, making it a place of refuge and encouragement for T and of learning, love, and safety for I.

i never realized how accountable i would be to God for the way i handle these two roles. just like teaching at school, i feel like i am solely responsible for the atmosphere i create & the attitudes and characters that are built as a result. i'm trying not to be too 'old-fashioned' or sound as if i'm against any working mom (i was one for a short time) or wife who wants to earn her place as a financial contributor. sometimes, i don't like depending on T to be the breadwinner. i have earned two college degrees, a full time job position in the public schools, and a paycheck that is quite comparable to my husband's. i'm learning to let him provide in financial ways so that i can provide in other ways that i couldn't quite as well as if i were still working full time.

i want to briefly share the journey that God is putting me on as new mother and a wife of a minister. i'll go up against anyone who says those roles aren't challenging and sometimes frustrating. i'd also argue that they can be the most rewarding. they are roles blessed by God and to be taken very seriously.

i've found another blog (surprise, surprise) that i love dearly. it's called passionate homemaking and she writes about Titus 2:4-5 where he instructs women to be the main keepers of the home, and what a Biblical thing that is. check out her blog...it's pretty incredible. stocked with all sorts of great recipes, diy natural cleaning products, articles that make you think, and best of all...how God is tied into all of it.

ok, back to my point. in one of her posts entitled, "homemaking is about people" she used this statement. i feel like i need to post it somewhere and remind myself every day of why i'm choosing to stay home, a choice that is sometimes looked down upon or questioned in an economy such as the one we face today. This statement explains exactly what my goals should be:

The point of being a keeper at home is to provide a haven for a godly family to thrive, to offer hospitality to fellow Christians and non-Christians alike, and to provide a place for the church to meet.

-taken from Caroyln McCulley’s Radical Womanhood

wow. so much packed into one statement! more on that later... thoughts?

f-f-finally

i can breathe now. we have internet at our house. like, the legit kind you don't steal from your neighbors and hope the signal's strong enough when you turn on your machine. i finally realize how much i need the internet. yes, i need it. i do.

here's why, in case any of you out there are wondering, "but court, don't you usually talk about how we need to spend time outside and having real conversations and not watching cable and all that?" yes, i do. i believe all of that too much tv stuff rots the brain and makes us think of mush. however, i have discovered a new appreciation fore the blogging community, the coupons to practically ANYTHING you could think of, and the recipes and immense amount of information to anything that wonders into my muddled brain during the course of a day.

just yesterday, i thought, "hmm. i wonder if i need to be doing anything to treat the seal around the door of my new he washer. i bet i could look it up."

this last weekend when tim was out of town (again), "ok, i'm going to hit up some community garage sales. i'll have tim look up the addresses online at work and tell me where they are. *insert stifled independent woman syndrome* oh nevermind, i'll just drive all the way down there and find out they're really tomorrow. convenient. i guess i'll just drive aimlessly around and hope to bump into some." (btw, i actually did.)

or, "i think isaac has an unusual diaper rash. i wonder if i need to change the overnight diaper covers i'm using or if there's another way to treat it besides Desitin?"

or even, "i need to pay my bills online so i don't have to use stamps and checks."

well what about, "i have a ton of watermelon. what can i do with it besides eat it cut up? or make watermelon juice? (barf.)"

but especially, "i feel like writing."

see?