Music and Tears

I always remember The Battle Hymn of the Republic bringing Boo to tears. I never understood because I’m a mad cryer not a happy cryer. Last night as I worshiped I realized there is one song that consistently brings me to tears. It paints such a beautiful, powerful, and personal picture of the gospel that Holy Week seems like the perfect time to share it.

And because celebrating Jesus seems like a great time o look toward His return and because I love my mom:

*A sidenote: I spent several hours trying to find my favorite version of the Battle Hymn of the Republic until I realized that my favorite version is Aunt Connie and Boo singing it. Since I don’t have that version the Cactus Cuties will have to do.

Hubs

I don’t talk about Hubs much because, well if he wanted himself all over the world wide web he would put himself there. But alas he is a fairly tried and true Gen Xer and therefore a little distrustful of the “system.”

But since he is a pretty, ya know, HUGE part of my life I thought I’d share some of the reasons I’m thankful for Hubs.

- he voluntarily watch the first half of West Side Story with me and withheld any snarky comments (he did fall asleep, but hey he tried)

-He never leaves the house without praying for me and our family.

-Sunday night when it was already past his bedtime he ran to Allsups to get me some Cinnamon Toast Crunch without mentioning one word about me being the one who banned simple sugars from the house in the first place. (They didn’t have it, and he still didn’t complain)

-He makes mind blowing zucchini bread!

-4:00AM, that’s what time he wakes up to study for the college ministry he teaches so that he can spend the rest of the morning and his evenings with us.

-He has (finally!!!) given up on trying to have decorating input

-His perfectionism. It drives me crazy, but things tend to work properly around here and that is a beautiful thing.

-He makes the Bug be brave,because he is a strong and confident daddy and that’s what they do. Her biggest belly laughs are always for daddy’s daredevil antics.

-He loves Jesus and leads and serves this household every day in a way I know makes Jesus smile!

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Bookworm

Step 1: Get out EVERY book we own.

Step 2: Choose a book for mommy to read.

Step 3: Take over because we are in a “do it myself” phase

Step 4: Finish book and attack camera!

(And you wonder why I never have any good pictures of the Bug)

Thought from others…

So here is the deal, I got WAY carried away with the new nursery (Shocking. I know)and now I’m buried in projects, eight months pregnant, and having on of those days where I’ve cleaned up a lot of poop and puke.

So I thought I’d share some thought from people who seem to still be able to string words together in a…what’s it called…oh yes, sentence.

Thoughts on January

Thoughts on pregnancy.

Thoughts on Daughters.

Also if you are looking for a quick pick me up mommy read I highly recommend Loving the Little Years by Rachel Jankovic. It made me have tears run down my legs if ya know what I mean!

If your looking for something a little deeper as far as mommy books go I recommend Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson. I’m only a few chapters in, but the biblical view of motherhood and encouraging scriptures have already changed the way my day was headed today.

I hope to be back soon to report at least a finished crib and nursery pics!

New Year Craziness

Hubs teaches the college ministry for our church on Thursday nights. I missed a week in December because I was traveling and this was the week that they decided to discuss the New Year’s Eve party.

Any guesses where they decided to have it?

In a moment of sheer hormonal craziness I agreed to have the party at our house. Way out in the boon docks.

Why craziness? Because I have the habits of a ninety year old woman. I consider it wild to stay up past ten and no matter what time I go to bed my eyes pop open at 6:00 AM at the absolute latest. While age wise I am only a few years (or no years) older than most of our group, mentally and physically I’m on my way to a retirement community. Charming isn’t it?

But this…

And this…

And especially this…

Made staying up to ring in the new year totally worth it!

Oh, I praise God for this group! I love that this is the ministry God has called us to, we got the sweet spot in ministry for sure!

Happy New Year!!!!

Petals of a Lily

Because neutrals are for sissies and being quiet is overrated!

Baby Training

Sorry for the long absence, we have been Christmasing all over the Texas panhandle and Oklahoma and also snowed in which leaves me exactly enough energy to eat and then lay back down!

The Bug got a baby doll for Christmas. This particular baby doll sucks a bottle and then cries. Normally I would jerk those batteries out so fast it would make your head spin because really? Nothin’ entertaining about a crying baby.

However in this particular situation I decided to use it as a learning experience. When the baby cried I picked it up, patted it, rocked it, kissed it, so on and so forth to demonstrate proper baby comforting behavior (You know the kind that happens in an ideal world when mom has had plenty of sleep and all calming techniques work. I left out the more realistic crying, eye rolling, and helplessly sitting there wondering how to make it stop.)

Then I sat the baby down and it started crying again. Lily looked up at me for just a second and then started fake crying.

Awesome.

Glad she has such heartfelt empathy, but I think we are going to need some more baby training before Ava gets here!

Ikea and Bedding Issues

I’m making a trip to Ikea (land of furniture we can actually afford) in November courtesy of Boo. However I’m having some bedding quandaries and need help from experienced moms.

Let me see if I can explain this. Lily will be sixteen months when the new baby is born and will probably still need to be in a crib. So I plan on buying a crib for sure. However this is where it gets tricky because somewhere around six months after that Lilybug will be close to two, Baby girl will be close to 6 months and we will be bringing home Baby boy and he could be anywhere from 1-3 years. I want to get the bedding taken care of in this shopping trip, but do I get a crib and a toddler bed? Are toddler beds even worth the trouble for a bed they can only sleep in for two years. Would it be crazy to put a two year old in a day bed with rails?

Or do I just buy two cribs and become a three crib household and just covert them into toddler beds as needed and worry about bigger beds in three years?

Of course money is a huge factor, and will be in the foreseeable future as well.

Help!

The verdict is….

Looks like

The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Music!!!!

We are having another girl!

A Girls Best Friend

I’m not sure I really need to expound on this picture at all. It seems the dog and the baby have come to a mutual understanding…