January 1, 2010

Here is what I wrote in my journal this morning. For some reason, I thought I would share it:

Today is New Years Day. We all slept in and are having a lazy morning. The girls woke up and went straight to writing books. It's amazing to see how Myah is sounding out words and writing a "book".

I'm sitting in my bedroom trying to have a moment of reflection and prayer, but instead I am hearing the sweet chatter of little girls who are best friends, the dog's obnoxious squeaky toy, and the Today show on the television. Usually, I would be annoyed not to be able to have some quiet time, but this morning, it puts a smile on my face. I am hearing the blessings God has given me.

I am so blessed to have Emma and Myah. I know they were given to Happy and I as a gift from our Heavenly Father. I love being the mom of little girls. I love making baby doll clothes and playing barbies. The drama gets a little crazy at times, but what a blessing they are!

Then, I hear that annoying squeak. (Why did I even buy her a squeaky toy?) Roxy has been quite the challenge. I guess God wanted me to experience a strong willed child. Only strong willed children are usually highly intelligent, and I'm not so sure Roxy has that part of it going for her. But, even she has given our family many laughs together and we are thankful for her. She is also a strong thing, having survived getting hit by a car! Or I could say the car survived getting hit my her!

Last, because he is the most important and biggest blessing in my life is my lifetime partner, my hubby, Happy. My sweet, easily pleased, quiet, and gentle husband has loved me when I've been moody, unlovable, and unsure of myself. He has dedicated his life to changing the world and by no means has he ever forgotten his family. He is so kind and caring. People crave the Jesus they see in him. There have been times in our marriage when we've struggled. I was gently reminded of three things that me, as his wife, need to always remember.

1. To accept him as my husband
2. To accept him as a gift from God
3. To make him my primary ministry

I think I have done okay with number one and number two. But, number three would get a big fat F! This year, with God's help I want to work on that. One day the girls will be gone from our home and only Happy and I will remain. I want to spend the rest of my life with a friend and a lover, not with a man who helped me raise my girls. "You have to fight for it", is what was said to us. It's hard. I'm exhausted at the end of the day. I don't feel like being creative and besides we don't have any money to go out on dates..........EXCUSES!! I'm going to fight for it guys!!!

So, I challenge anyone who might read this to sit back and and "listen" to the blessings in your life. It may be the sound of your dog ripping your favorite pillow apart. Or it might be the sound of children chattering/screaming/crying/fighting, in the background. It could be the sound of your heater coming on, like mine just did, and oh how I'm thankful for that noise!! It could be the sound of coffee brewing, or the television, and you know there is the presence of others in your home. Our God is good. We have much to be thankful for.

Highlights from the past couple months...

In November, Emma was a turkey in the Thanksgiving play. Thanks to my friend, Melanie, I was able to come up with a costume that somewhat resembled a turkey. I think Emma was embarrassed, but she didn't say anything to me and wore it anyway, not wanting to hurt her mommy's feelings. :)



Also, in November, we celebrated Emma's 6th birthday. She wanted a Littlest Pet Shop party. My friend, Becky, graciously took on the task of making Emma's cake with only a napkin to look at. She did a GREAT job. It tasted just as good as it looked!




Emma was in the Christmas play at church, "Cookin Up Christmas". It was so cute! She had her famous one liner again this year. She said, "It makes me want to love and serve Him more. It makes me ask myself what gift can I bring Him? What can I offer Him now?"



Myah had a busy month too. She celebrated parties at school and really enjoyed going to see sissy in all her fun plays. Emma was a mule in the Christmas play at school. She had quite a few lines. It was an adorable play. I'll post pictures of that later. I ended up using another camera and do not have access to those pictures as of now.

Emma's baptism

What a sweet moment when you start to see your children begin to understand their faith and take hold of it. Emma has been wanting to get baptized for quite some time now, but we have been hesitant, not wanting her to rush into something she didn't understand. Last Wednesday night at church she saw Pastor David and wanted to go say hi to him, or that is what she told me. When we got over to him she said, "Pastor David I understand about baptism now and I'm ready to be baptized Sunday morning". How can you argue with that? She understands that being baptized does not make you a christian, it is just a public profession of the faith you have already trusted in. We are so proud of her. She is a blessing from above. What is even more special is her daddy is the one who baptized her. :)

Smiles

So I am not doing very good at these moments of joy and grace...but here are a couple moments that made me smile this week.

While driving home from school yesterday Emma says, "Mommy, can we just stop and pray. I feel like praying." I respond, "well, of course". So, here is Emma's prayer,

"Dear Jesus, I just want to thank you for forgiving my sins. I just feel like
telling you that. I love you Jesus. Amen".

Here is a Myah moment:

I am sitting in my bedroom and she is singing Waves of Mercy over and over and over again. I finally say, Myah that is beautiful singing. Mommy loves to hear you sing. Here is how Myah responds, "I know Mom, I just LOVE to hear myself sing!"

Hope those made you smile.:)

ROXY

Here is our new addition. Roxy Ann Peterson. She is so much fun...but I forgot how much work puppies are and how much they like to chew on things. She is just like a baby in that, she will pick out the one toy that is not hers, and want it more than the six toys that are hers, that are lying on the floor. What a mess! Emma and Myah are doing good with her. Emma hides and jumps from chair to couch when Roxy is in a playful mood. She doesn't like Roxy to jump on her or bite her. (I don't blame her). But, when Roxy is calm or asleep Emma with not leave her alone. She carries her around like a baby using words like, "oh sweetheart" and " that 'a' girl!". As of right now, Roxy is a good fit, but only time will tell. :) If you have any dog advice, let me know!

The Month of July

We had a lot of fun this summer and stayed very busy. My sister came down from Maryland with her three boys and they stayed for a couple weeks. We took the kids to the pocket and had a picnic. While wading in the creek we saw two copperheads. YIKES! We got out right away! We also took a vacation to Myrtle Beach with my parents, my brother and his wife, and my sister and her kiddos. The kids had a wonderful time. Zac, Jacob, and Emma really took to body surfing this year. Especially Emma and Jacob. They just kept on getting hit by waves and they just kept getting up. On the last day Emma got knocked down pretty hard and had finally had enough. It was so much fun to see my dad and mom out in the ocean with their grandkids. It was also a lot of fun to have my brother and Rochelle there. The kids love their Aunt Ro and Uncle Jeff! Happy had to fly out of the Myrtle Beach airport on our last night to attend Student Leadership 201 in Washington DC. He returned on his birthday and then the next day he and I left to take a group to Student Leadership 101 in Orlando FL. When we got home we went and picked up a new addition to our family. Her name is Roxy and she is half bulldog and half collie. She is the sweetest little thing. The girls are enjoying her and it's helping Emma with her fear of dogs. And that completes the month of July. Emma will be starting Kindergarten soon and Myah preschool, three mornings a week. Our schedule will change. I'm looking forward to structure, but not looking forward to 6am. alarm clocks!!

Cave Spring Fun Run and 5K

Happy, Emma, my brother, and myself ran a race today! Happy ran the one mile with Emma. She did soooo good! I really did not think she could run the whole thing, but she did! She told me later, "Mommy, I was hurting a little and tired, but I just kept going". We were all so proud of her. My brother, Jeff, did amazing. He finished it in 22min. Me, on the other hand, well, I decided to take an alternate route that deviated from the main route. I told Happy, this was the first time following the pack, didn't work out so well for me. :) I think I was on track to finish in 29, maybe even 28, but followed a couple runners, who were wearing numbers, around a big building and through a field. (It's OK you can laugh. I can laugh about it now.) There were workers RIGHT THERE who just let me follow them. When I discovered no one was behind me I yelled to the guys in front, "Hey! ARE YOU RUNNING THE RACE?" ( Yes, you can laugh again at the sight of me yelling my head off at two guys as we were running through a field.) They said they were doing their cool down and apologized for being on the course. I couldn't believe it! HA! Only I would get lost on a 5k! I turned around and when I saw those workers again, I told them what had happened and one worker said, rather too cheerfully, "I saw you, but I thought you were just out for a joy run." OH PLEASE!!! It was a fun time though. Emma wants to run another race. We might sign her up for clock tower in August. Don't worry, I've done clock tower before and won't get lost!