Super power

He came up behind me. "Mama, look at how fast this shirt makes me run!" And then he was gone, sprinting through the kitchen and into the dining room. I chuckled and remarked at how he was as fast as lightening.

And I thought, "if I had an outfit that gave me super powers, what powers would I want to have?" I surprised myself when I realized that instead of wanting super speed or x-ray vision, I wanted things like never-ending patience, or infinite wisdom in being a wife and mother.

Then He surprised me by reminding me that I already have all of that in Him. When I wear the cloak of the Spirit, I have love, joy, and peace. With His armor I have a full supply of patience and wisdom. In His Word are all of the super powers I need to navigate this life well.

Now if only I had the super-power to remember that I have these super-powers.

My children are not my own

My mind and heart spin. Round and round they go with anger, frustration, worry, mostly anger.

My boy has something wrong and everyone is sending me in circles, with no end in near sight. I tell myself all the Truth that I know. God is bigger than this. He already knows the answers. I have learned that I can trust Him with everything, including my boy. And still He leads me.

I lift up trembling hands, offering it up to Him. If I could leave it there at His feet then I wouldn't be in the emotionally and physically wound situation that I'm in. The problem is that then I take it back. He's my boy. And then I remember that he was His boy first.

And then he looks at me and smiles and says, "I love you, Mommy. More than you know I do." And then he's my boy and I'm picking him up and hugging him close and he's got his arms around me, playing with my hair. And I'm melting, and I'm frustrated, because the people who control this situation are telling me that there really is not so much a situation as I think there is.

And then I remember that really He controls this situation, and round and round I go.

And now I choose to stop. I choose to remember that my boy isn't really mine. And even if I have to tell myself the same thing over and over and over, I will remember that in Him lies the future of my son.  

In this world I will have trouble, Hudson will have trouble, but we can be encouraged because He has overcome the world (John 16:33). And because He has, in Him we have. So I will take it to His feet and leave it there. And I will rest in His calming presence, as His peace guards my heart and my mind (Matthew 11:28, Philippians 4:7).
 
"Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul. Worship His Holy name. Sing like never before, O my soul, I'll worship Your Holy name. The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning. It's time to sing Your song again. Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me, let me be singing when the evening comes." 10,000 Reasons by Matt Redman

And we won't even go into the fact that this morning I have to take Remi to the doctor because she did something to her thumb and now it is stuck bent and won't straighten out...

Stickers

This sweet boy has had us laughing from the very beginning.

This past Sunday, our pastor was talking about the treasure that is found between the covers of the Bible. It is a gift for us to grow on and also for us to share with others. As a demonstration, he asked if anyone wanted a Snickers. They were small-sized Snickers that came with two in a pack (get it, one for you, one to share!). After handing a few out, he went on with his sermon. Hudson, who was sitting with my mom a few feet away from me, looked up at her and said, "Where are MY stickers?" Confused, my mom asked him what he was talking about. He said, "He asked if anyone wanted stickers, and I raised my hand but I didn't get any!"

Is it a bad Mama...

Is it a bad Mama who, upon hearing her wandering baby boy's, "Help, I'm stuck" cry and subsequently finding that he has fallen victim to the empty laundry hamper trap, rushes downstairs to grab her camera and takes a few pictures before freeing him? Is it a bad Mama who does that? Hopefully not. Is it a bad Mama who then posts those pictures for everyone to see? Maybe.

Those eyes

They tell so much.

Octamom issued a challenge of sorts, to shed some light on your eyes. She has some amazing green eyes, and her husband has blue. This resulted in a beautiful array of color in the eyes of their children. You should hop on over and check them out.

Scott's eyes are green, but when I enlarged the picture of his eyes, I discovered some hidden brown.


I come from a family of crystal blue eyes, and my eyes also have a hint of green.




When Libby was born, her eyes were so dark blue that they almost looked black. They lightened up to a clear grayish-blue, with that beautiful dark blue ring around the outside.


Hudson was also born with the almost black eyes, and now he has the bright bright blue.

Alright, let's see yours!

My little fireball

Notice the subtle movement of his arm as he smacks at me. This time? He wanted the phone.

Friday Fam part deux..... some pictures!

I realized today that I haven't taken any pictures the last several days, mainly because it would be all snot and drool. But, with the beautiful sunshine coming through the windows this afternoon, I just couldn't help but capture some of the creativity.

For example: henna shmenna, who needs fancy henna ink when you have markers? If you enlarge this picture you will see the beautiful artwork on miss Libby's hands, and some on her face as well.


And then after the art session, Libby decided that it was her birthday today, so she made her own cake, put her own candle in it, and sang her own birthday song.



And then blew out the candle.



When I asked her how old she is on this birthday, she told me that she is 1.



And 5.



And throughout all of this fun, Hudson looked the same as he has looked the last several days..... pathetically adorable. Ps. that's not drool on his shirt, he moved when I was trying to have him drink his probiotic and I spilled it all over him. That is a tear in his eye, however. And, yes, snot in his nose.



And just because he's the family clown, no illness would keep him from giving me a smile or two...


or hitting the camera. Yes, he's a hitter.


And now, have a wonderful, renewing weekend!

Thursday.... uh.....

Well, it happened. My baby boy is a year old. I have spent the day remembering that snowy day a year ago when my fair headed boy was gently breathed into our lives. A year later, he is the family clown, the hot tempered boy, and the joy in all of our hearts. He adores his sister, adores hitting his sister, and stops whatever he's doing (even if he's nursing) to crawl over to meet her at the bottom of the steps when she wakes from her nap. Happy birthday, big boy! You are so very loved.

Climbing our way out

We are still recovering here, and boy it is an uphill battle. Libby was stick for quite a while (for her), and still gets sick here and there. She's eating and nursing alright now, but her body is still programmed to gag easily, and she has a cough that very effectively hits the trigger (I'm trying to use polite words=)). I am trying to be as patient as I can, but she has been pretty belligerent (boy that sweet little face can scream!), is whining most of the time, and Hudson has been really cranky as well. I finally told them both this morning that they had to stop whining, because I'm going to pull my hair out. They got the message. Now they're both sleeping, so hopefully this afternoon will go a little more smoothly.

In the meantime, I'm going to share a few pictures from before everyone got sick, because I haven't touched the camera since (you really wouldn't want to see what I could photograph, anyway).

This is a "castle" that Libby built with her cars and wanted me to photograph. Yes, I realize that it is horizontal and not vertical, but, hey, give her a break...she's 2 =)

And this is Hudson's new favorite game, and it has everyone wanting to play along and giggle their hearts out. He will crawl over the the bottom of the stairs and pull himself to standing, and as you crawl, or walk, or even look in his direction, he starts to giggle. The closer you get, the more he giggles, until you are both cracking up. Then right before you get to him he gets down and starts charging towards you, head down, hands and knees a'going. You wrestle for a bit, and then he crawls back to the stairs to start over. Notice he still has a purple mouth. We're still dealing with the thrush (which is also why he's in a disposable diaper and not cloth).


I hope you get to giggle today, because it's very good for the soul.

A Year in Review

I apologize for being fairly absent over the last week. As you know, we got sick, but Libby really got it bad. We finally took her to the doctor to get some medicine to stop her vomiting after 4 days of her not being able to eat anything without throwing up. That was Thursday, and she's still trying to get some energy back. She still isn't eating much, but she is at least able to nurse a lot and is keeping it down.

Anyway, since I didn't get this out before the New Year (did that really happen? It is a fog in my memory), here it is now. Here's a bit of a recap of our last year, beginning with little Libby, at barely 21 months old, "listening" to her soon-to-arrive sibling's heartbeat.


This is Scott and Libby near the end of my labor with Hudson. The looks on their faces pretty much sum up the way everyone present feels at the end of my long, drawn-out home births.

And so our family's third (first one being Daddy and Mommy's, second one being when Libby was born) love story began on the snowiest day in January. As you can tell, my pelvis was very unkind to his poor face.



















We have had a year full of growth, blessings, love, giggles, tears, and sleepy mornings. I look forward to this next year of more growth, new adventures, lots more giggles, lots more love, and many more blessings. I wish you a very happy New Year, and I pray that your next year will be full of whatever you wish it to be full of.

What we've been up to (lots and lots of pictures!)

Lots of posing... (ps. these matching shirts are the brain child of my mother-in-law; every family has their own color; ours is red (yay! Go Bucks!))
Lots of playing...

(Libby actually posed for this picture. She was getting me food and drink while I baked (below) and she said, "Mama, take a picture of me getting your drink," and then she held this pose while I shot the picture. How funny is that?)
Lots of baking...

More posing...
Libby's pretty Christmas dress (if you enlarge the picture above you can see her pretty sparkly shoes that she kept pulling up her dress to show everyone)
The anticipation on Christmas morning!!!...
And possibly her favorite gift...
Sorry it's taken me a while to post. It's been a little hectic around here with Christmas starting last weekend for our families. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We had a great time with family, and we're ending it with a bang with a missed weekend trip to my Dad's house because Scott is upstairs puking. Big bummer (truly!). It's time for the children to make up lost sleep, and for me to clean this house!

How did you celebrate this year?