Tuesday Truth

From Daily Wisdom for Mothers

"I call on you, O God, for you will answer me; give ear to me and hear my prayer." Psalm 17:6

When Allyson was only 3, she encountered an eight-legged friend who wasn't so friendly. That spider left it's mark - a large, black circle on my little girl's right calf. I hadn't noticed the bite that morning because Allyson had dressed herself. But shortly after I arrived at work, the phone rang.

"Michelle, you need to get Allyson to a doctor right away," urged my day care provider. "I think she's been bitten by a brown recluse."

Quickly, I drove to the day care, scooped up Allyson, and headed for the doctor's office. Panicked, I called my husband and unloaded. Then, I called my mother and cried some more while Allyson sat calmly in her car seat - no tears, no fears.

Then I heard her sweet voice say, "Don't cry, Mama. I prayed and Jesus is taking care of me."

In all of the confusion, I had neglected to call on the Great Physician. Thankfully, Allyson hadn't forgotten. She knew who to go to, even if her spastic mother didn't.

Allyson taught me a lot that day. She showed me that prayer should be instinctive. God should be the first one we "call" in every situation. Make sure He is first on your speed dial.

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I find that I let my mind get filled with so many things in the course of a day, that I automatically get in the, "I have to fix this, I have to do that..." mode, even when it comes to things that are better left to God.

When Libby knocked her tooth out, there was a good 10 minutes of me trying to keep everyone else calm and trying to figure out what in the world I needed to do, before I finally realized that I needed God to help me. Finally, I prayed, "Lord, please clear my mind and tell me what I need to do here." Just that short prayer was enough to help me take my mind away from the chaos and focus enough to think.

I encourage you, through things big and little, to remember (even if it takes you 10 minutes or a whole day) to call on God for wisdom, for comfort, or even to cry out in dispair. He knows, He is there, He will listen, and He will provide comfort.

Go in Truth, and be renewed!

Technicalities - Comments

I received an email from a kind person (thanks Katrina!) saying that she could not post a comment on here since she doesn't have a Google account. You should have two options if you don't have a google account. You should either be able to post anonymously and include your name at the end of your text, or click on the Name/URL option, put your name in the Name line and just leave the URL blank, since it's optional. I think that should work, but if not please let me know! I want it to be easy for anyone to leave me a comment if you want to!

Monday Menu

So a piping hot cut of chamomile tea and some skittles have nothing to do with this week's menu, but they've got me munching and sipping while I type.

I think the way I'm going to do this menu planning is to just list my menus, and if anyone would like a recipe for a specific meal just leave me a comment and I'll be happy to oblige. Most of the recipes I use I have on paper, but if they do happen to be online I will include the link.

So, here's my menu for this week:

Monday: Marriage Monday Group (theme: Breakfast for dinner - I'm making cinnamon rolls)
Tuesday: Chicken Stew with homemade Red Lobster cheese biscuits
Wednesday: Beef and Noodle Casserole
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Vegetable Soup
Saturday: Chicken Tacos
Sunday: Leftovers

There you go! I did my shopping today, and I'm excited to return to making yummy homemade meals for my family.

Have a wonderful, renewing week!

Embracing the soft

The theme over at Shutter Sisters on Tuesday was A Softer Side. The idea was to take a second glance at those blurry/out of focus/not quite right pictures instead of just deleting them or throwing them away and seeing if maybe, just maybe they hold something beautiful. Or even better yet, making a photo soft (read out of focus) on purpose to see just what turns out. I actually did this on purpose several weeks ago. Libby had taken the cushions off the couch (a regular occurrence) and was jumping back and forth between them on the floor. I wanted to get a shot of her that showed her movement from one cushion to another (although a still shot of her in mid-air would have been cool, too). Here is how it turned out. Once I looked at these I thought, "Hmmm, I wonder if this is how people get those 'there's a ghost in my house!' pictures."

And, just for smiles, I thought I'd show you how Libby was helping me vacuum the floor yesterday evening. She gets out her popper and goes throughout the room with me, popping right along. My little helper =) And don't miss the little guy, peeking over my shoulder!

Have a wonderful day, friends!

Renewal

Octamom passed on a challange that was issued to her a few days ago to describe your thoughts for 2009 in one word. When I read that post, my thought was, "No, too difficult, don't think I'm gonna try it." However, in the time since then I have thought over my goals and hopes for 2009, what I feel like I and my family need out of this next year, and a word pops, unbidden, into my heart. That word is renewal.

Whenever we have a new baby enter our family (all 2 times now ;)), it seems like it takes the whole first year for me to get back on my feet. With Libby it was because she cried the whole first year (no kidding or exagerating at all). With Hudson it has been a year-long healing from the above-average amount of blood that I lost during his birth combined with Scott's former-former job working shiftwork (leaving me alone through the night with a newborn and a 1 and then 2 year old) and then his former job that was very stressful on our whole family. As soon as Libby turned 1, I got pregnant with Hudson, so I feel like I haven't slept or had energy since before she was born.

So, as we shrug off our family-wide illnesses, ponder on and set aside 2008, and walk towards 2009, I anticipate the renewal of myself as a follower of Christ, a wife, a mama, a friend, a keeper of my home, and even a blogger.

Now, I'm not under the delusion that I will be getting more sleep (I'm 2 for 2 in bad sleepers) or more hours in the day, but it is time for me to look up and around me. It's time to breath and walk forward, out of "new babyhood" (yes, even though he will be a year old in a week!!), and into renewal.

What does that mean for you (the few people who look at my blog regularly, and those of you who peek but don't comment;) )? Well, the layout of my blog will be changing a little bit to help me keep on track with this renewal. Part of my renewal as a keeper of my home is to get back into menu-planning and to keep a home management journal. I got lots of great tips over at Simple Mom. Every Monday, I will be posting my menu for the week. (Monday Menu, get it? ;))

To help me keep on track as a follower of Christ, I will be getting back to having a time where I read the Word and nourish my relationship with Him every day. So, on Tuesdays I will share an experpt from my Daily Wisdom for Mothers book that I am reading as part of this time. (Tuesday Truth, are you catching on?)

On Wednesdays I will write about a certain website that I find encouraging as a mother, or inspiring as a wife, or helpful as a keeper of my home, or just one of the many blogs of my friends that I love to keep up with. (Yep, your're right... Wednesday Web)

On Thursday, I'm still not sure what I am wanting to do, maybe something from the garden once the weather warms up (I wait with such anticipation). Though, yeah, Thursday and Garden don't start with the same letter.

On Friday, I will be posting something about my family, either something like 'a day in the life' or some recent pictures, or a 'corners of my home' or something like that. (Uh-huh, you're ahead of me aren't you? Friday Fam).

And on the weekends I will either not blog so I can spend more time being a mama or wife or home-tender, or I will blog about whatever comes to mind.

One thing that will be different as well is that I will probably be adding new posts in the evening for the next day. Mornings just aren't good times for me to blog, because it throws everything else in the day off. So, I will probably post the Monday Menu on Sunday evening, for example.

So, friends, this is how I plan for renewal. I hope you are renewed in some way yourself as you travel through this year with me, or at least get a few good recipes ;)

I will start this new blog layout next week (in true "resolution" form, lol) and in the mean time I will be updating some things on the physical layout, and I'll post a few things as well.

Oh, by the way, I have no idea how the giveaways work, but I'd love to be able to host some here and there. If anyone is still reading this post and knows how that works, could you share your knoweledge?

Have a wonderful day, and here's to renewal!!!

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.