Workity work work

My husband is a pretty successful guy whom does everything for our family. Up until he switched to his new company, he never needed to work over time. However, when he moved companies, he took on a lot more responsibilities and leads projects and has other engineers who do work for him and so on and so one.. So, now, he is responsible for things getting done when the company says they will be done. Meaning, he has to be at work a whole lot more than I would like! (And than he would like).

As I sit here this Saturday morning, with my sweet husband at work, I wonder how it feels to be him. I've always let myself feel sorry for me with him not around as much, but I mean he gets up and leaves while we all still sleep in our beds. His being so good at what he does has given the boys and i the opportunity to get to sleep in every day, go do whatever activities we wants, go eat wherever we want and to enjoy every day just like its the weekend. And on weekends when clynt will only have one day off because he works on the Saturday, I hate it a ton, but I can't imagine how bad it stinks for him! I love my husband and am so so thankful that he is willing to do everything he does to give us the life that we have. I know he will not be working this much forever, and I can't wait till this particular project he is on to be over, so for now, I'm just thankful for him. Time to quit feeling sorry for myself for not having him around as much as I would like and feel bad for him whose is having to suffer wayyyy more than me!

Idaho vacation!

This past week we spent the whole week at, as far as I'm concerned, one of the most beautiful places in the country. Sandpoint, idaho is an amazing place. I lived there for a summer while I was in college and its just gorgeous. A lake over 150 miles around, mountains everywhere, a ski resort, a cute town for shopping, Montana and Washington both less than an hour away, and so much more. I haven't been back since I was pregnant with Corbin. But when my awesome aunt got engaged, we knew we wanted to be there and that meant an amazing week in a gorgeous place with tons of loved ones!

She rented an entire place full of cabins for all of the family coming in town, so we had an incredible 4 bedroom cabin on the lake. The place was just so so cool!

The wedding was also beautiful. And we did lots of other stuff with the boys too. We went to a wolf place and the boys got to pet a couple baby wolves and thought that was awesome. We went shopping and got some pretty cool stuff. We went to Montana and drove on a dirt road through a national park and then let the boys stomp around and toss rocks in a creek, we went to the ski resort at the top of a mountain and got to see some great views, we ate tons of local food, we went on a boat ride, did some fishing with Corbin, I got a facial and a mani/pedi, and we did a lot of relaxing. It was a lot of fun!

Even Garrett having strep throat and ear infections didn't keep us down. (It never fails that he will be sick on vacation!).

Here's some pictures!

Dead ends

Do you ever just pour your heart and soul into projects, relationships, things, and then eventually realize that what you thought would come from it is never going to happen? For some reason that seems to be happening to me often lately. I've been trying to mend things, make other things better, work really hard at things that I never thought I would, and try so hard, all for me to eventually realize that it's not doing me much good at all.

This morning though, I read a devotional from proverbs 31 and realized that I've been like the little kindergartner in the story. I'm trying so hard to please people, or fix things, and etc, but the only way that I'm not going to continue to hit dead ends is entrusting the situations to God. I need to learn that I, alone, cannot make things change. I need to spend more time with God about the little things and let him be in control of not just the big things but the little things too.

Here is the whole devotional. You should read it.


June 12, 2013

A Better Way Than My Own
Van Walton

"The LORD will work out his plans for my life—for your faithful love, O LORD, endures forever. Don't abandon me, for you made me." Psalm 138:8 (NLT)

When I was five years old, my mother took me to kindergarten in the middle of the school year. She prepared me for my new adventure by promising fun and many new friends. Fighting tug-of-war emotions, anticipation pulling against apprehension, I entered the room full of children.

While acclimating to my new environment, I decided to speed up the making-a-lot-of-friends process. Eager to be accepted, I couldn't wait to be noticed and included. I devised an interesting plan that would have every kindergartener eating out of my hand, literally.

Each morning before recess, students lined up in front of the school store to buy mid-morning snacks. Noticing that donuts were the treat of choice, my mind whirred.

That afternoon, alone in the back seat with my mother's purse, my plan began to hatch. My little hand slipped into her wallet and pulled out a dollar. Surely that was enough to buy everyone a donut.

The next day, exploding with eagerness, I pushed my way to the front of the line. Handing my dollar up to an open hand I said, "A bag of donuts, please."

"Are you sure little girl? A bag full? That's a lot. No one ever buys that many donuts!"

I nodded my head. "Yes, one for everyone in my class and one for Teacher."

Slowly the treasured bag of donuts slipped over the side of the counter.

Yes!

Stepping aside, I announced, "My treat!"

Mouths dropped. Eyes flew open. Little hands extended. Classmates surrounded me, the instant celebrity.

I felt good! Just as planned. Now, I had friends.

After school, when my mom walked into class to pick me up, my teacher asked everyone to thank her. The look of surprise on my mother's face exposed me. My secret was out.

I was a criminal. A thief. I had stolen money from my mother!

How had a perfectly well-planned strategy gone so wrong?

The Bible is full of stories of people who devised seemingly good plans. In too many circumstances strategies were flawed—like mine. In other situations people wisely relied on God.

Psalm 138:8 says that God will work out His plans for my life. I don't have to manipulate, plot and devise.

Regardless of my desperate circumstances, anxiety, or longing, there is a better way than my own. One popular Bible story encourages me to pray and then wait on the Lord.

Moses' mother and his sister, Miriam, expected that God would protect baby Moses when they put him in a basket and sent it down the Nile River, hoping to hide him from a murderous ruler.

Miriam watched the baby float away, all the while waiting for God to take control of the desperate situation. His sister's faith was rewarded by an amazing turn of events and his mother's trust in God paved the way for a Hebrew slave to become an Egyptian ruler (Exodus 2:1-10). This would not have happened without Moses' mother's and sister's patience and dependence on God.

It's easy to rush to fix our own circumstances—contriving for the outcome we desire. But too often, in so doing, we tangle ourselves into ever-growing webs and create trouble or chaos. Let's learn from Moses' wise family by following their pattern:

• Expecting God to act.
• Waiting for God to deliver.
• Trusting that God's timing is best.

I don't know what spurs you on to contrive, manipulate or plot. If you are like me, any circumstance where you find yourself out of control, desperate or confused will tempt you to scheme.

Let's determine today to believe this truth, "The LORD will work out his plans for my life—for your faithful love, O LORD, endures forever. Don't abandon me, for you made me" (Psalm 138:8). And rest in His promises, committing to trusting God whenever tempted to influence our uncomfortable conditions.

Lord God, I know You will work out Your plans for my life, but I need help to believe in the midst of desperate circumstances. In Jesus' Name, I ask You to give me strength to accept Your timing and Your ways during this unsettling time in my life. Amen.

Energy

7 years ago, I found out I had hypothyroidism. Which was no big deal and I didn't need much medication. Every few months though, I needed to go to the doctor because I was flat exhausted. While pregnant, it was checked even more often than that. Almost every single time it was checked, It was wrong, and they had to add more meds. Last year, I decided to go to an endocrinologist to find out why we couldn't get this under control! He did some labs and I have Hashimotos, which is an auto immune disorder that attacks your thyroid, eventually causing you to not have a functioning thyroid. At this point, my thyroid doesn't work at all, which may sound bad, but it's not at all. For a full year and a half now, I have been on the same dosage because it doesn't vary any more. And I should get to take the same amount for the rest of my life. I feel great!

Add that with my loss of almost 30 pounds and I have more energy than I've had since I was a teenager. It's been amazing!

With the extra energy, I'm able to do so much more with my kids, around my house, and even for myself. Life has gotten so much easier since I have the energy to accomplish everything on my to do list. My kids don't watch near as much tv and they have almost no iPad time anymore, because we spend our time playing. We play with Legos, trains, and do science experiments and all kinds of stuff. I just realized how much more of a mom I can be and how much more I love my life. I love that I can have a clean house and happy kids and I can cherish all this time so much more when I don't feel like I'm going to pass out the whole day. I don't have to lay down and leave my kids to their electronics. I am willing to take them swimming by myself and do.other things I wouldn't have normally done because of how much work it is. I'm just feeling so blessed and cherishing these moments so much more! Having energy from my more healthy life has just been flat amazing!

Safe haven

Have you watched the movie safe haven? The whole movie was really good and I definitely recommend it to anyone wanting a good movie for a date night in (or in our case, after the kids go to be). I'm not going to give away the whole movie but I am going to say a couple things about the end of the movie that had me in tears. There was a man who lost his wife to cancer who had two small children. He met another woman several years later who he fell in love with. The wife (who had died from cancer) had thought ahead and wrote many letters for her kids to read as they hit major milestones (graduation, wedding, etc) in their life that they will now not have their mother at. That alone is just heart touching. But she also wrote a letter "to her". A letter to the lady that she knew her young husband would meet one day.

I mean, what a selfless act! She knew that she was young and that even though her husband would love her forever, she would no longer be here and she hoped that he would meet someone who would make him happy and her kids happy.

It had me crying, wondering if I would ever be able to do something so selfless. Of course if something ever ever happened to me, heaven forbid, I would want for my kids and my husband to be happy one day. But the thought of that being because of another woman really makes me sad. I can't talk about this much because it makes me so sad. However, this movie had me thinking about what I want for my family given something would ever happen to me. And it also had me thinking about what I would do if I was only given a few months to live. Writing letters to important people for important things is such a sweet and amazing thing to do.

Since we are never promised tomorrow, for now, I will make sure that those around me know they are loved. I will cherish these moments with my small ones and I will love my husband so that he forever knows what true love is.

Garrett's birthday!

I cannot believe for a second that my sweet baby boy is 2! 2!! We couldn't go through a birthday without a big, fun party! We have a big family and tons of loved ones and friends so we have to come up with ideas and places that accommodate a crowd of 60. :). This year for Garrett, since he is two and unable to participate in many of the activities that have enough space for our crowd, we decided on the park. And since June is hot, we did a PJ's in the Park party! We had donuts, breakfast tacos, fruit, donut holes, juice, coffee, etc. The kids had plenty to do with the park and a moonwalk we rented. And we had a pavilion for shade. Since donuts contain so much sugar and the party was so early in the morning, we decide to give out cookies instead of cake. They were bagged so they could be taken home if the children or the adults had already consumed their sugar limits! :)

It was an absolutely fantastic, stress free party. Garrett had a blast and got everything his heart could desire! It was just so so much fun! I'm going to be so sad when my guys are 10 and don't want parties anymore. I have so much fun doting on them for their birthdays.

On his bday I baked a cake and we enjoyed more sweets for my sweet guy.

Here are some pictures! And here is one of him when he was born. Can't believe that's been 2 years!!!!

Corbin's last game

My little guys last tball game was this past Thursday. I, for one, am so glad the season is over. Corbin, though, is a little sad. He enjoys playing. It's amazing seeing the difference from 1.5 years ago to now. Now, he actual stands (or sits) at his position and knows what to do when he gets the ball. It's really cute to watch. He has been practicing his sliding, so he was running home and got close, he realized he was too close to slide, so he stopped, went back a few feet and then slid in. It was hilarious and oh so very cute!! He goes up to bat and always looks at the stands to see who is there watching him. He gives a thumbs up and is giddy about us cheering him on. Gosh I love that little guy.

Not sure if we will stick with baseball or let him try out other sports, he wants to do football but it will be another year and a half until he is old enough. So we shall see. It's just fun getting cheer on my boy, no matter the sport. I love being a wild and crazy boymom!

Here's a pic of Corbin ready for his last game. :)