Everybody Stinks

Obviously, blogging regularly with two kids under 3 and both still in diapers, is not easy. I really miss writing, but for now, the lack of time and inspiration only allow me to add a few lines here, as I nurse baby girl...and what's going through my mind? Somebody stinks! Diapers maybe? A sweaty baby? A sticky toddler driving his cars around me? A showerless mama? Yes, yes...we do. Everybody stinks. Good thing they are both so adorable and they love me even when I stink!

Uh-Oh!

Maybe it's not a dictionary word, but "uh-oh" is my son's first word. Not mama or papa, just "uh-oh". In his language it means: it fell, it's lost or it doesn't work.
Sometimes lately he and I stare at each other and don't know what to do. He gets bored, I get tired. It happens when you've been in the house too long. But it's too hot outside and there's nowhere to go. Yet I'm thankful for those little interactions we have, between uh-oh's, sweet sticky hugs and his love for being chased and tickled. He is a very patient and loving little boy and I'm so blessed!

Crawling Backwards

Can I just say that my son is the cutest, most adorable child in the world? I can, because I'm the momma. : ) A momma's heart can truly get stretched, though, when we see our babies struggle and we want to be their hero and their everything, but we know we need to let them learn. Like this past week... it's been the "pre-crawl" week and my baby boy has been adorably frustrated at times. He finally figured out how to get on his hands and knees. Then he started the rocking back and forth thing, but that didn't get him where he wanted to go. So next he tried putting his bottom up in the air, but no, he was still in the same spot. Eventually he realized he had to move his hands one at a time, but...he could only manage to move them closer to himself, not farther away. So backwards he went, farther and farther from whatever toy he was trying to reach, until his legs got stuck under the couch. I rescued him and sat him back in the middle of the room so he could try it again. We have now repeated this process countless times in the past days.

It's so easy and tempting to just give him what he wants or to just reach out my arms and hold him. Yet every time I let him try it again, he gets better and better at it. Today he realized that by using his hands, one knee and one foot he can hobble forward slowly. It's hilarious. But one of these days, he's going to figure it all out and a whole new season of mommyhood begins.

I wonder who learns more in this whole parenting process...the child or the parent? I feel like I'm getting a big lesson on not giving up and on trusting God's timing and seasons in my life. We try to push so hard to the next thing, and although diligence and perseverance are essential, so are peace and joy in the middle of every moment we are given.

Thank Heaven for Patient Husbands!

Women's brains are like spaghetti and men's brains are like waffles. You've probably heard that before. Another similar example that a great marriage conference speaker (Mark Gungor) uses is that in men's brains, everything is categorized into neat boxes that don't touch. In women's brains, there is a great ball of wires and all the wires are connected to each other.

The other day I told my husband I was trying to separate my wires into different boxes and failing miserably! In reference to Mark Gungor, again, he says that of all the boxes in men's brains there is one favorite...the "nothing" box. There is nothing in there and men love to go to that box. This is in no way derogatory towards men, for to quote a good girlfriend of mine, "I wish I could think of nothing for one day." Yes. We crazy emotional feminine creatures do in fact wish at times that all of our thoughts weren't connected to each other and that they would please quit spinning around our head like a clothes dryer!

It is true that most of the time it is women who buy the marriage books, drag their husbands to the marriage conferences and continually need to analyze their marriage relationship. In part, that is because we are very relational and ...our emotion wire is very much intertwined with our relationship wire, which is twisted together with our mood wire, and so forth. But also, in my opinion, because we are the ones with the crazy roller coaster hormonal emotions! Our husbands may be cool as a cucumber drinking a lemonade on a sunny summer day while we are bouncing off the walls with emotions and mood swings and drama and "do you love me?" and "am I pretty?".

My husband and I have learned to turn our differences in character and personality into things we can laugh about and have fun with. But even as I poke fun at us "crazy" women, I believe God made us in a very delicate and deep sort of way for a great purpose...much greater than we can imagine! Oftentimes though, there's a whole lot of character building that He needs to do in us, meanwhile those closest to us get to experience the process of our growing and stretching which is not always fun.

The point of this whole thing is really to simply make the statement that GOD BLESSED ME WITH AN INCREDIBLY SWEET & PATIENT HUSBAND!

Thoughts of Pumpkin Pie & Love

It's nearing the end of this Thanksgiving Day, the house is dark and quiet and everyone else is asleep. The weather is finally cold in this Texas state, as it should be in November. The turkey turned out well, despite my lack of experience in turkey-baking. I admit though, that I could gladly have Thanksgiving without turkey. What I really love is everything else and especially, pumpkin pie. If no one stopped me and I had no conscience, I may eat a whole one by myself in one sitting. It's the truth. One of my happy thoughts as I drift to sleep tonight will be the knowledge of a whole left-over pumpkin pie in the fridge waiting for me to wake up tomorrow morning! :) Black Friday sales? Forget it. Just give me pumpkin pie for breakfast!

But my happiest thoughts as I drift off to sleep tonight are about how deeply thankful I am to the Lord for the amazing husband I have. I really can't describe how incredible he is and how blessed I am! It is the greatest joy in my life and the greatest honor to walk this life next to him, to serve the Lord together and to parent our perfect, adorable, little boy.

I am one happy, full, thankful woman. 

Peace Like a River

As women, there are days that seem to be going just fine and all of a sudden something bumps into our perspective and shuffles everything around leaving us crabby or insecure or emotional...how easily that happens and how hard it is to turn it around sometimes. It's even harder to really pinpoint what's the matter, specially when the poor bewildered husband tries to help. I've discovered that usually I try to spoil myself when I'm in these "moods" with stuff like brownies, ice cream and coffee. That makes everything better, right? Only temporarily.

Recently, my little son has helped me learn something in a rather funny way. It doesn't matter what mood he is in, he will always laugh when I sing the old song "I've Got Peace Like a River". Always. Even when he is crying, he will stop crying and start fighting a huge grin that forces its way across his face. I'm not sure why he does that, after all, my singing can't be that bad! But he reminds me to allow peace in my heart. It's not something that just happens; it's something I need to allow.

"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts..." Colossians 3:15

A Joy-Moment

Anyone who has known me for a long time knows that I have many Joy-moments. These are not necessarily moments of joy...well, not exactly. They do usually bring laughter to other people though.

The other day I had one such Joy-moment as I was driving my aunt's car to pick her up at the airport. It was my first time driving her nice car and my first time driving by myself into the huge busy city we just moved close to, so I was a little nervous. However I was mostly proud of myself for being so capable and independent. After a while on the freeway, I started feeling good about myself for being such a good driver and not speeding like all the other cars around me. I kept telling my cousin who was sitting in the passenger seat, "Goodness, people are in a hurry around here!" Then a few seconds later, "This car really goes a lot faster than it feels!" A few seconds later, "I don't understand why all these people are going so ridiculously fast and I am already 10 miles over the limit!"

She finally spoke up. "Joy, that's kilometers per hour, not miles!"

I had never noticed the mexican license plates on her car. :)