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A Moment in the Middle

We've all heard it... we've probably all said it. Those dreaded words... "Where does time go?" It occurred to me yesterday it's almost JUNE - the year is nearly half over, and once again I've managed to rush through it all. It's been a trying first half of the year for us, to be honest. There's been some real wake up calls - life lessons - that I wish I didn't have to learn. Discovering people aren't who they say they are. Finding out sometimes God needs you to step away from people so you can rid yourself of negativity, which is lonely, but necessary... it's hard.

At the same time, it's been a hugely rewarding year. Sophia finished kindergarten and is going to be starting a summer reading program I am creating for her because I really love that she loves to read. The CD. The book. The baby. (Not in that order, of course.) It's all made our lives so full.

But did I miss it? Did I get so busy or so focused on the 'ick' of the bad stuff that I forgot to savor the 'grand' of the great stuff? Some say you need to 'stop and smell the roses...' Adam says, "Take a moment in the middle." In the middle of it... when it's happening... you've got to stop and realize it's happening. When you're outside on a perfect summer day, sun beating down, kids getting along - you have to savor it. That is the good stuff of life.

Well, we learned this lesson last week. The weather is finally nice - really nice - and everything we were working on was finished... but I was caught up in trying to get the house ready to show to our realtor. Adam wanted to do something fun with the kids. He won (and I needed a break by the end of a whole day of hauling, purging and cleaning) and we took the kids out for a surprise. First, we ate dinner.

Then we went to this mini golf/go carting place here in town. Golf was first on the list of things to do. Naturally, we didn't keep score. Instead, we pretty much just laughed at the kids trying to hit the ball. Especially Ethan, who is left-handed. And I noticed mid-way through... we were having so much fun. (Sophia just informed me they are picking the tiki-man's nose in this picture. lol)

And look, you can sorta see my 'bump.'

All of this was tons of fun. We came at just the right time, and honestly watching Ethan hit the ball and then pick it up and put it right next to the hole was hysterical. And he did it every time.

BUT... the true fun for Adam and I came after golf, when the kids - for the first time - hit the go-carting track by themselves. They have 'kiddie carts' and we were sure Ethan wouldn't be able to drive the cart alone. We strapped them in and started to give the instructions of how the thing worked. "So, you just push down on this pedal here and the car will go... if you need to stop you just...." and then WHAM! He was gone. Giggling hysterically and tearing around the track. Now there is where I took my real moment in the middle.

Overall, this was more than just a fun family outing for us. It was a huge lesson that turned into a sermon this past Sunday. If you want to learn to have fun - to really enjoy your life, you have to learn to take a moment in the middle. Always extremely hard for me. Always looking for the next thing that has to be done. But this summer, even though I have some work to do and we've got some big events planned with our kids at church, I'm setting my mind on having fun. Relaxing. Taking my moments in the middle. I guess it's one of those choices I'm finally going to make.

 

...and breathe...

Wow. It's been a tough couple of weeks. Typically, I am a stay-at-home kinda girl. I like to be home. With my kids. With my husband. By myself. I like all of it. The past few weeks have been running, running, running... and hardly seeing my hard-working husband at all.

HOWEVER... I know it is worth it because Adam has officially finished

This is the second CD of memory verse songs Adam has done, and honest to God, while I liked the first one, this puts that freshman attempt to shame. I can only imagine how awesome Faith Kids Blue will sound! This CD is hugely popular with our kids (at church, not our two kids) And as they sing all these songs, they learn Bible verses. They learn Jesus loves them. They learn God won't leave them. But they have fun doing it. I love it. I'm really proud of Adam for this. Maybe I'll do a CD giveaway just to spread the love. lol (I'm addicted to these giveaways ya know!)

Anyway, we took over the 'big people's service' on Sunday morning. Our kids led the praise and worship and did a dance and just really impressed on so many levels. Typically people expect kids services to be cutesy and 'oh that was nice...' but we don't buy into that - we wanted them to SHINE. We wanted the anointing on them to be so strong (that's what we prayed for) and it just was. It was incredible.

It was tough getting ready for that service. I did the dance, so it was lots of practices. Adam and the CD were one and the same for weeks and weeks... but so so worth it.

This week kicked off with a bang as we prepared for Sophia's kindergarten graduation. The pictures are still on my camera otherwise I'd post a few. The ceremony was tonight. Adam spoke at it and he wrote a song for the group, which the kids performed - it was so much fun. :) I'm proud of Sophia, but so sad to see her growing so fast. Adam said the reason time goes so quickly is because you don't stop to notice its passing. So true. Must stop and take notes.

Then, there is the big decision. To move or not to move. Went househunting on Wednesday and found a very promising house. Closer to school (we drive 1/2 hour each way and it's brutal for me - someone who hates to drive...) and much more space. I would have a nursery, bedrooms for each of the kids, a scrapbook room and a guest room. Not a scrapbook room designed by Cropper HOpper (it will be hard to leave my room, I will admit...) but a room nonetheless.

What to do?

The thought of moving is daunting. Packing. Painting. Fixing. Preparing.

And exciting. New house. New paint colors. New beginnings. New neighbors.

And sad. Just starting to get to know the neighbors next door. And older couple who love to mow their lawn and put ours to total shame, but who are wonderful to ask questions about thistles and weeds and peony bushes.

And overwhelming. Because I'm just tired.

So, who knows what we'll end up doing? I just feel so confused at the moment, I'm not sure what to do - but I like the idea of a fresh start in a new house - a clean slate, so to speak.

Anyway. If you happen to want memory verse songs for your kids, I can get you a CD - they're only $10 and well worth it, I promise. :)

Now, I leave you with these... my sweet kiddos. Near my parents house is a beautiful field of daisies and lavendar. Simply breathtaking. My dad wanted to take Sophia's pictures there so badly he called up the people who own the field and asked if it was okay. This is so unlike my dad, honestly, it shocked me... but made me happy. He 'gets' this whole photography thing. So, we went out and shot these. It was really cool. I felt hurried because we were in someone else's yard, but I liked a few anyway. :)

Happy Long Weekend!

 

We have a winner!

This is so fun. I should give stuff away more often!

First off, let me just say thank you to everyone who stopped by to tell me a little bit about their faith. I've read every single comment, and it's amazing to me how many of us never thought about scrapbooking it. Truthfully, I hadn't thought of it either - but it's such a HUGE part of who I am, I knew if I didn't, then really, no future generation would ever know the 'real me.'

So, even though I can only give away one book (until I order more and over-order again - which will probably be in another week or something!) I really do hope you'll check it out. I'm so excited about this whole project and after I announce the winner, I want to tell you about the girls who worked on this book with me. They are amazing! :)

So... without further ado... (is it ado or adue?) I think it's ado...

My Sophia woke up yesterday with a fever. This was bad. She missed Field Day at school (which was also a jean day.) She missed her daddy teaching chapel at school. Then, last night, she missed their Sonlight Auction at church which was also banana split night. Felt so sorry for the poor kid. So, I asked her to help me with this... She had just had a hot bath, which she said she could "stay in for the rest of my life..."

She was, at first, very serious:

She knew this was not a job to be taken lightly. Finally, I coaxed a smile out of her:

It was fake, but nonetheless. Then, she reached into the jar of paper slips, which for some reason, she thought was pretty cool.

She swirled the paper around a LOT. This was good because that way, there was no way they were going to get stuck together or anything.

It took me finally telling her to go ahead and pick one (there's a reason we call her SLOW-phia)... But she finally went in for the kill:

And when her sick little hand emerged, in it, she held this:

Announcing that Dawn (rnj4christ) was our big winner! :) Dawn, send me your address and I'll get your book out to you - in a timely fashion, I promise! I am TERRIBLE with the mail.

I really do hope if you aren't Dawn (and most of you aren't since there's only ONE Dawn) that you'll check out the book and then let me know what you think of it. I really believe no matter what your religion, you must, must, must get it down for future generations. Plus, it really helps you determine exactly what you believe - you're writing it down - it's in stone... there's something cool about that. And I hope the book will inspire you to not just think about scrapbooking your faith, but actually do it!

As for the ladies who worked on my book with me... I couldn't have asked for a better crew of people. They were all - and are all - just incredible people. Deb Perry, Ruth Akers, Jodi Amidei, Hanni Baumgardner, Amber Nichole Clark, Heather Preckel, Nely Fok and Brenda-Mae Teo were nice enough to contribute to this project, and it's so much better because of it. They made the whole thing more amazing with each and every layout.

So, there's that! Scrapscene is giving away another copy of the book in a few weeks, so check that out! :) Just promise you'll let me know what you think of it if/when you do get it, ok?

Thanks to everyone for playing! Get outside and play today. I know I'm going to!

One more day!

Just one more day to post on the thread below for the book drawing - and I am so excited! Truly, I wish I could give everyone a book because I've loved reading everyone's responses! I hope people will check out the book - and if you do, I would love to hear what you think of it! If you DON'T win the drawing, you can get it by clicking that little button over there on the right... and you can get it at a great price! (I had to get that in there, right? lol) So... one more day to enter the drawing! :) I'll post the winners on Thursday.

In the meantime, just one more layout from the book:

This is a really simple one, but the sentiment is something I need to remember everyday. I am a little bit of a worry wart. ugh. There's lots of different styles in th book, which I really like, but I think it's the words that I like the most. It was just really amazing to be able to get all of this out and onto paper. You should try it sometime! :)

Wonderful days all around!!

I'm giving away another book...(ETA: Closed for business!) :)

ETA: ** I wish, wish, wish I could give everyone who posted on here a book - seriously - :( My daughter is sick today, so I am going to print the comments out and have her help me draw a name. I'll post tonight or tomorrow a.m. with the winner! :) Thank you to everyone who left a comment... this is so exciting for me!**

For some reason, when I ordered books the other day I thought I needed an extra or two... I didn't. At least they aren't spoken for. So, I've got one sitting here, and I can't think of anything better to do with it than to give it away... soooo...

If you comment to this post on or before next Wednesday, May (gosh, what is the date?) May... 16th. Is it the 16th already? Well, not yet, but on Wednesday it will be...

So, leave me a comment and maybe just tell me if your faith is a big part of your life or hardly a part at all... Then, Tuesday night I'll draw a name and send out a book! :) Yay! I was really touched this morning when I read Beth Williams' blog. She is the new Executive Editor at Memory Makers, and working with her has already been just amazing. She really made my day this morning. :)

And I'll leave you with one of my favorite layouts from the book. It feels like so long ago that I did these layouts. This one is a photo Adam took of me without me knowing it (he also took several of my rear end, but you better believe those were all quickly deleted before anyone else could see them.) :) So, I enlarged the photo and pretty much made it the background of the page.

I think so often we have such high expectations of people in ministry - and being in ministry, it's something I think about a lot... because I have so many imperfections... so many things I need to work on and work out. So, that's what this layout is about. :)

So anyway... leave me a comment! I'm drawing on Wednesday!!

:)

LUCY is a cute name. I swear it!

This is my mom and sister and I getting ready for my cousin's bridal shower - which I honestly had no part in planning (I feel sorta bad about that) - Isn't my mom cute? She's so little and cute. I want to know why I'm not little and cute, but that's a story for another day. lol 

My mom is the epitome of what a mom should be. I wish I had her talents. Making a house feel homey. Being able to actually put together a meal. Keeping up with the house the way a woman should be able to keep up with the house. She can even decorate and plant flowers and not kill them. (Why did I not inherit these traits?)

Anyway, the thing I most appreciate about my mom is her ability to tell the truth. She has an uncanny ability to tell the truth when you most need someone to tell the truth...

When trying on clothing...

"Um, yeah, that's not exactly flattering..."

When raising children...

"You have to let him be a boy..."

and the newest... When naming a baby...

"Wow, none of those is doing much for me."

I'm laughing as I write that because I LOVE that she doesn't just tell me what I want to hear. When I decided this baby would be Mirabelle (before its conception) she gave me a disapproving eye.

Today, I went through a list of names... Charlotte (Horror-stricken)... Katie (too plain jane)... and I told her "We're kind of leaning towards LUCY."

Okay - isn't LUCY a cute name? Seriously - how many little girls do you know that are named LUCY? I love this name. Mom... not so much.

"Oh..." she said... "Really?"

A look of contempt on her face.

"Yeah, don't you like that name?"

"No."

I'm laughing now - wishing my sister were in the car because I know she would be laughing too. (Incidentally, if Carrie has another daughter, she wants to name her Georgia - another name my mom absolutely despises.)

I'm thinking of just letting my mom name the baby. The pressure is waaaay too much for me right now.

But if I had my way... this little monkey would be LUCY.

(Come on, Mom, you'll warm up to it!) :) 

Tagged!

About a week ago, (okay, it was more like two weeks ago) the Fabulous Jessica Sprague tagged me... and being my preoccupied self, I completely forgot until today to respond to it... so here are Six Random things about me: (I'm sure you're on the edge of your seats!)

1. My all-time favorite salad is the Steakhouse Salad from Outback Steakhouse, which is on my brain because I just ate one last night for Adam's birthday. :) It was my present to myself. lol

2. My sister is my very best friend, along with my mom. Two women who I admire who will never leave me. Can't beat that. I'm pretty lucky. :)

3. Secretly, I'm sort of hoping this baby is a girl. Here are my reasons: a. because my sister is MY best friend, and I want that for Sophia and b. Since Ethan will be the "middle child" (gasp!) it would be so good for him to be our only boy. At the same time... Ethan is sooo lovey, it sort of makes me want another little monkey to hang around with. Sigh. I guess God knows best! lol :)

4. I fall asleep spooning Adam every night. If he's not there for some reason, I have to fashion pillows to cuddle with. (And I'm really not very affectionate, so this is REALLY random about me!)

5. I love the word "spooning." :)

6. Even though Adam and my dad share a contempt for dandelions, I actually really love them - especially on a field where they are free to just grow by the hundreds. Can't think of anything prettier than a green field dotted with bright yellow... and it reminds me of the fact that God even made the weeds pretty, which I think is so cool. :)

So, if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged! I'd love to read random things about you! I consider myself wonderfully random, so I probably could've listed many others like:

7. right now in my house - all three bathrooms are sharing ONE roll of toilet paper. And even the fact that it's a GIANT roll, it is still really annoying. Must go to the store.

8. I hate acne. And my face loves to break out due to hormonal changes (like pregnancy)

9. I really like pizza with sausage, peppers, mushrooms and onions, but no one else in my family does, so I never get to eat it that way.

10. I am starting to really love throwing things away.

11. I still struggle to pitch boxes and any kind of plastic mailing stuff - like bubble wrap

12. I work better under pressure, but I'm not a big fan of stress

13. I say I love to write, but sometimes it does feel like work to be creative.

There's so much more - this is probably my favorite tag. :)

Yesterday, Adam and I and my sister and her husband Matt went out for Adam's birthday. He's 32 years old. HOLY darn, we're old! :) But it's okay because we're happy! We saw Spiderman 3, which I have to say was really good. Not for kids, though given the introduction of VENOM - who was honestly - really scary. And although I truly do not like to watch Kirsten Dunst on stage (and hearing her sing was even harder) the movie was still really wonderful. A great, great story.

Then we went out to dinner (Outback) and I realized my sister is the funniest person I know. I loved being out with them. We had so much fun. The best part is, we're doing it again tonight - with several couples from our ministry who wanted to celebrate Adam's birthday (isn't that nice?) Today, Adam's out of town golfing with my dad and his dad. I hope he's doing well. When he doesn't, it sort of spoils his mood.

So, I'm working on some writing assignments today and working on choreographing a dance to teach the kids next week. It's an awesome song. I'm going to see if there's a way to put a video on here after they perform it because it's so amazing to see these kids worship God with drama/dance. I love it.

And that's about it for me. Happy National Scrapbooking Day (which unfortunately means nothing to me today because I'm not scrapping at all) and Happy Saturday! :)

random tidbits...

Things have been a little quiet around here lately, which honestly, is really good. We've been trying to decide if we're going to put up a fence in our back yard or move altogether. In our current house, there's not exactly room for a baby (though if I got creative, I could probably fanagle (sp?) something...) Plus, we're really trying to find a way to give ourselves a bit more privacy where we're at (if we do stay) but we've discovered, that's not going to be cheap.

Sigh. I hate these grown up decisions.

Being pregnant is getting easier. I have been feeling completely normal lately with the exception of the fact that I can tell my uterus is already expanding. Good grief - I'm only 9 weeks and I'm already pooching out... I guess that's what Baby #3 does to you! But I'm so glad I don't feel sick all the time anymore. I've been able to do quite a bit around the house and get things in order.

I've gotten some really important feedback lately on my book, which makes every hour I spent working on it totally worthwhile. I love how God will take something and allow it to minister to people you don't even know... in ways you can't even believe. It's just amazing to me how and when God works.

Other than that, I think I'm already nesting. I've been cleaning (purging) a LOT - especially in my scrap room. In doing that, I've fallen behind on my emails and computer stuff, but it helps clear my mind if I can work in a clean space. :) Plus, I love giving stuff away to the ladies at church who scrapbook.

Yesterday, we came in from picking Sophia up from school and I told the kids "Okay, you guys, we've gotta clean up a little bit because your babysitter is coming over tonight..."

Sophia said, "I am NOT going to get in your way at ALL while you do that."

It was pretty funny how she ducked out of that one. I clarified and she went and cleaned her room. :) Kids make me laugh.

Hope your day is happy!