What I say, what he hears

I say: Did you hear that the measles is going around?
He hears: Whose husband is walking around in a speedo?

I say: Do you think he's wearing a toupee?
He hears: How much do you think he had to pay?

XOXOXX Love you Michael

I think all my posts will be labeled 'random'

My brain is so fragmented these days.

I hope it's temporary.

Today I had my pre-op, it went well. The kids missed me, and I loved that part.

Eden's really getting into organization and lately she tells me she doesn't like the mess in the playroom and asks me if I'll help her clean it up. Ummm, yes, please.

(I wanted to label this picture: Eden got her hair washed the next day, but it sounded mean). She's a doll, always, even with dirty hair.

Micah got his first very own bracelet last week. He loves it. I love when boys accessorize.
(I wanted to label this one: Micah's dirty shirt is actually clean, just stained).

Our creative juices have been flowing over here lately.
Eden did this crazy incredible picture last week of care bears, a rainbow, and a beast, of course. Her obsession with villains is still strong.

Mike told me this weekend that we've almost lived here for four months. What?! That's it? I've done six rooms. I don't think I've posted pictures of them all, but six! I feel good about that. Pshhht, in four months!

Mike and I went on a wonderful date this weekend. Dinner and a play, it was heaven. We saw, "To Kill a Mockingbird". Wonderful, and powerful.

I finished our downstairs bathroom on Saturday. Got up at the crack of dawn, literally the crack, and was done by noon.

I fear my obsession with preaching podcasts is waning. I don't want it to be though, they're awesome.

My last thought of the night which is random in context but not as a whole:

I think of myself as an introvert. I enjoy people but within my parameters, and only when I can mentally prepare, and so on. I've always thought that it was fine to be like this, and that my opposites are extroverts. I listened to a podcast (I know, I know) from Francis Chan about the second greatest commandment in the Bible, "love your neighbor as yourself". I've heard it my whole life, but for some reason, it really got me. I don't believe that it's right for me to be an introvert. I truly believe right now that God has called me to live a life of community. To learn from other people, to truly love them, and to give them your best. Easy concept, but hard to arrive. I'll get there eventually, but it won't be overnight. It's just amazing that things that God can change in your heart. "Beautiful" pretty much sums it up best.

You mean it's not Wednesday

I thought it was Wednesday all day. Even when I got my brain on track and knew it was Tuesday, I kept thinking it was Wednesday. Oh well, it won't matter until Friday, or Saturday?
*
I was making the second one of these:

and mistook
my finger for
a nail.
Holy smokes!
Fifteen hours
later and it's
still pulsing.
I thought I
was tough
until today.
On a lighter
note,
it's darling.
But you
could tell
that from
the picture.
*


Every night I wake up and start counting how many days of mobility I have left. Every. night.
*
When Eden woke up from her nap today, she handed me a note with a bunch of scribbles and told me what it said. It made my day.
*
I went to Target yesterday and looked down when we were walking across the parking lot. Slippers. Good thing they're cute.
*
Micah has the longest attention span of all my kids:) He just plays and plays and plays and is happy while doing it.
*
The kids and I have been working on two things lately:
showing kindness and love

*

I think it's working.

What's on my heart

This was written last week:

I cried tonight. Really hard.
     It was one of those realization moments that I find happen less and less the older I get and I worry that my teachability isn't what it once was. Those moments are so beautiful and I cherish them not because of their beauty but because of what God shows me is in my heart.
     Tonight, I was getting my tools and supplies together to work on my little bathroom project. Mike wasn't home and I'm tired of music lately so I had the idea to look up a preaching podcast. I'd never done this before and really only wanted to just to pass the time faster. I went on iTunes and typed in Francis Chan, went to "podcasts", and without reading titles or anything quickly hit play on the first one on the list "The Joy of Suffering".
     I was right about the time passing, it flew. He's an amazing speaker. Anyway, this podcast was on suffering and how we rely on God so much through tough times. He talked about being comfortable and how we really don't need God when we're comfortable. I really can't sum it up in a few sentences, it was powerful. So powerful that I cried really hard.
     Probably about five months ago, I began really desiring God. Not in a "I want to go read my Bible" type of way, but in a deep, close,  and personal communion.
     I've thought back hundreds of times to when I had this type of relationship with God. It was amazing, so hard, and yet so incredibly powerful. It was also at a really low point in my life. I was engaged to be married with wedding plans being made and suddenly it was over. Just like that it was done. It was a funny feeling, being so alone. I remember that's what scared me the most: the thought that I could be alone for the rest of my life. It wasn't my heart hurting for that guy that I was engaged to, but the reality that I now had no one.
     Those next few months were painful. I remember laying on my bed just sobbing and crying out to God. Telling him that I felt alone but I knew He was with me. It was so intense, the closeness that I had God.
     I crave it, to this day. Not by any means the hardship, but the love I had for Him. So I began praying for it. I wasn't praying for the hardship, just the closeness. But like Francis Chan talked about in that podcast, those two things go together.
*
     Mid-January, I had a doctor appointment for my ankle. It's been years that I've dealt with the pain, but I always told myself that it'd get better or eventually go away. To make a long and boring story short, I need surgery to repair it and to stop the arthritis that's already there. Uggghhhh.
     I've struggled with this for a while. It's a hard recover and will be six weeks of not even putting my foot on the ground (so the doctor says). Project person and lover of independence that I am, this is a low blow. Mike says it has to be done, to be healthy and to hopefully have more children.
It's small in the big picture, very small, very trite. But it's big in my little picture right now. I've lost ten pounds in 26 days (but that could be quitting nursing Micah too) just thinking about how this will affect my family and me.
     I'm embarrassed to keep writing about it as some people have real problems and serious problems, and it's so selfish of me. But here's where my realization came in tonight. I will be in a hardship, I will need God, and that is what I prayed for.
     I don't usually get this personal on here, but I want my kids to know that their mom sought God. Not just went to church, prayed, and went through the motions, but flat out just love Jesus. I hope that they know by the fruit of my life, and if they don't...well, I think then I've failed at my job of being the mother God wanted me to be.

  
  
  

Dinnertime

A jumbled Monday

Today was one of the yuckiest Monday's I've had in a while: crabby kids, crabby me, messy house

I got the biggest paper cut I've ever seen in my life

Finished the fabric covered nightstand for Eden's room-- sounds weird, looks adorable

Began a big project--not too big, the little bathroom on the main level

Having ankle reconstruction surgery in a little over three weeks--sniff sniff

Got all our paper filed

Holy Cow! Micah has a temper

Haven't gone grocery shopping in almost two weeks

Convinced my hubby to turn our heat up a degree--64 to 65 (I know, that's cold)

Sewed eight buttons on a shirt in one sitting

Had a meatless Monday

Wondering if a beer will cure a scratchy throat

Haircut time

 Once upon a time, this little boy needed a haircut.
His mommy grew tired of doing her little girl's hair and then having to do her little boy's hair because it was so long.

 She didn't really want to cut it, because it was quite darling. But her little girl started calling her little boy a "girl" and the same little girl had started calling her brother "Judy".
So, mommy cut her little boy's hair.

 Mommy wasn't thrilled with the outcome.
Although she thought he was still the cutest little boy ever, she liked his hair better long.

The End.

It's been a week?

I can't believe it's been a week since I've posted. 

 We've been homebodies.

Big time.

I've gotten more projects done in the last two weeks than I think I thought I'd accomplish in the next six months. Two bedrooms painted, kitchen cupboards recovered, linen closet shelves recovered, growth chart up, and ceiling paint touched up (mostly).
Now that I write it out, it doesn't sound like much. I've been busy though. I promise.
And not just with projects.
This little one keeps me very busy.

It shouldn't surprise me that he has a mind of his own, we all do. He just seems like such a baby to me still, and a strong-willed baby at that.

*

This is why I love winter, well, love is a strong word.

This is why I tolerate Wisconsin winter: 

hunkering down with my babies day in and day out,

 reading stacks of books a day, 

snuggling under blankets on the floor, 

leg warmers every day,

leaving the house is a special treat,

and living life with big and little people that mean the world to me.

Close

Be still

One of my hardest tasks as a mom is being still. Focusing, usually drains my energy and when it does happen it only lasts about half a minute. It's really hard for me.
Mike is the opposite. He rarely has more than one thought on his mind at a time. I've asked him for pointers, tips, training- if you will. He's told me that you just put all your being into that thought. I love the idea of that, but I can't.
Today though, I tried really hard. It felt amazing. Like free therapy.
*

I held Micah for over an hour after he fell asleep. I studied him. He doesn't smell like a baby anymore and he's all boy (minus the occasional bobbypin). He grunts more than he talks and he's so affectionate. Eden got her fingers slammed in a dresser drawer tonight. I ran to pick her up and Micah was right beside me reaching for her. When I put her down, he hugged and kissed her. It sounds sweet, but it was beautiful. Like you just saw a light bulb turn on in your kids' head beautiful.

I still heard Eden up when I was cleaning up dinner a half an hour ago. I thought about being focused, about being still. I layed down next to her and bawled. My baby. I always close my eyes until she closes hers and I felt her touching my face over and over, the gentlest of touches. Then she started twirling my hair ever so lightly. Her gentle fingers were finally still and I opened my eyes to see her struggling to keep hers open. When I tried to leave, she hugged my neck so tight.
Man, that's what I call perfect.
*
I don't enjoy cleaning up dinner and toys at nine at night, but I'd take tonight over any other and choose it over anything.
For sure.
Perfect.
Be still.