Wedding Weekend

This weekend we attended my cousin Kameron's wedding.  The weekend was so fun getting to see our extended family.  The wedding was beautiful, and we are so excited to welcome a new cousin.  Alex was in the wedding, and since we were all dressed up I tried to get a few family pictures.  I didn't get any of the actual wedding party because I was busy keeping a certain little boy out of the pictures.  He was obsessed with trying to walk up the steps of the stage.  Thankfully it was his nap time during the wedding!

Look at that sweet smile!

 We never get pictures of just the two of us anymore.

God's Promises for Boys

I received God's Promises for Boys by Jack Countryman and Amy Parker.  The book is 127 pages of pictures, poems, and scriptures.  Each page deals with a different subject such as God's Promises About God's Grace or God's Promises When You are Worried.  Each page has a short poem and several verses pertaining to the subject.

It seems that the book is meant more as a gift book instead of a devotional appropriate for helping to exhort, instruct, and disciple your child.  That, to me, was a bit disappointing.  Anyone can go to the back of their Bible and find verses on a certain subject, but this didn’t seem to appeal to a child’s heart.  Instead it is a cutesy concordance.  However, this could be a great book to use as just that.  If you want to teach your child how to use a concordance to look at what God says about certain subjects, this book with poetry and pictures would be very appealing to a child.  Children need to be taught to search the scriptures to answer their questions instead of taking an adult’s word for it.  If this is your goal, use this book as a tool, but teach your child to use his actual Bible to look up the verses in context.

I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book
review bloggers program.

Kitchen Redo? Opinions needed

Since we moved in a year ago I have been trying to decide what to do with my kitchen cabinets.  In a word, I hate them.  Ok, maybe not hate, they are actually nice cabinets as far as the style but I hate the 80's yellow oak color.  I've gone back and forth, should I paint them white, but I have white floors?  Should I stain them, but that takes so much work.  My latest idea was to put a darker reddish glaze on them to get rid of the yellow tone, which on the difficulty scale I think probably falls between the two.  All of that is still undecided but I do have solution to another problem.

Our overhead cabinets above the peninsula make the kitchen seem so small.  When I'm cooking I have to bend over to see to the table.  I would love to be able to clean up in the kitchen while being able to easily interact with Sterling sitting at the table, or talk to my waiting family while getting everything out of the oven.  The simplest solution would be to take out the cabinets altogether.  But in a small kitchen extra cabinets are a luxury.  Also, that would eliminate our range hood which makes that idea less possible. 

Alex and I have talked about moving them up to the ceiling; however, I thought that having regular sized cabinets against the ceiling would look silly.  Which they would unless we did it like this.

I stumbled upon a blog today and and after about two clicks I found this kitchen redo that started very similar to our own kitchen.  I don't know who this is, but I love her new kitchen. (If you click on the picture you can see her before and after pics as well as some during the process.)

Here is a refresher on what ours looks like.

We are a couple of steps ahead where her fabulous kitchen started.  We have new black counter tops, cute cabinet pulls, and appliances that match.  But I love the way her upper cabinets look with a shelf to display cute dishes and cookbooks.  And the best thing of all, it gives me a little more storage not less.  And, well this is probably the best thing, it wouldn't cost us very much to do this.

Well, what do you think.  Should we take the plunge?  Please leave your opinion. 

New Name, New Look

I have been wanting to rename my blog for a while, but couldn't come up with anything clever.  Actually, I wanted a clever name from the beginning, but I am not a very creative person!  Crafty, maybe; creative, absolutely not!  Oh the struggle I have with my left brain, I wish it would let me use the right at least on occasion!

Anyway, I've been thinking and thinking and nothing would come to me.  I was thinking about one of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 16, and that is where inspiration hit.  What better place than the Word, right?

I love the parts that talk about God being our portion.  How often do I need to hear that.  But in reading it again I was struck by verse 8. "I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken."  What a statement, to always have the Lord before us, to always be walking in His footsteps; obeying His Word; and looking to Him alone for guidance, wisdom, everything.  How could we be shaken?

That truly is my prayer for myself, my family, my ministry, my everything.  And how appropriate for a blog about my life and family. 

So, use this blog to take a peek through our window, as we are walking with the one who is "Always Before Me."

Psalm 16

1 Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
I have no good apart from you.”

3 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,
in whom is all my delight.

4 The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;
their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
or take their names on my lips.

5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
8 I have set the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
my flesh also dwells secure.
10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption.

11 You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

16 Months

While we were at the beach Sterling turned 16 months old.  It is amazing how quickly time is flying. 

I had planed to give an update along with one of the beach picture posts, however taking care of Sterling nixed that idea.  I had also planned to post something with the Mother's Day pictures, but again pink eye, ear infections, a snotty nose, and a fever took care of those plans.  I just didn't have the energy or brain capacity by the time Sterling was in bed.  Just for those worried grandmothers, Sterling is doing much better now and while he still has a horrible cough and a constant runny nose he feels so much better (much better than he looks).

Back to the update.  Sterling had several days right before leaving for the beach that he would decide to walk all day instead of crawl.  I knew that being around his walking cousins would do one of two things for him a) he would give up crawling for good or b) he would go back to crawling everywhere to keep up with them (he is a very fast crawler).  I had prepared myself for the latter, but was really hoping for the former.  Thankfully he has now been walking everywhere for about two weeks!  FINALLY!

Now I know that all of you mothers and grandmothers out there are thinking that I am crazy.  I know I hear it all the time, "Just be happy he isn't walking, because when he does you'll be chasing after him."  Those who are thinking that right now either a) didn't have an almost 30lb. 1 1/2 year old that you had to carry everywhere once you stepped out of the door or b) don't remember those days very well.  Believe me, there is nothing about me that is not thrilled about this accomplishment (especially my left arm!)  And he was one fast little bugger on his hands and knees!

Not only am I more happy with his toddlerhood, but Sterling's whining has diminished, dramatically.  Granted there has been some due to not feeling well and being exhausted the past week or so.  He had gotten to where when I would leave the room, he would start whining and frantically crawling and trying to find me.  I don't know what it is about seeing upright, but all of a sudden he is happy to let me leave, and if he wants me he will come find me with a smile on his face. 

On other fronts, Sterling has started that obsessive movie watching thing that we all did as children, where he wants to watch the same movie all day long everyday.  Right now it is "moo" which means his Baby Einstein farm video.  He LOVES it!!  He would watch it ALL day if I would let him.  We try to limit it to a couple times a day for our own sanity.  He wakes up and goes to sleep saying "moo."  He has the thing memorized and can tell you what animal or thing is coming on next.  It reminds me of being about 7 or 8 and quoting/acting out the Disney movies with my sisters and friends.  We would turn on Beauty and the Beast or Aladdin or something and say every word from beginning to end.  I can actually still recite many of those movies.  That's kind of sad, I know.

He loves to read and wants you to tell him every single object on the page.  It is amazing what he can then remember and point back out to you.  It is so fun to watch his little mind absorb everything like a sponge.

He is still a little chatter box and loves to talk.  I hope his love of communication carries with him for the rest of his life.  That is definitely a treasure, especially among the male species!  ;)

Final Installment

First time with Play-Doh

 Reading with Pop

 

Playing "Pirate Ship"

Dressed like pirates

Playing with Georgia

More Pictures From the Beach

I was hoping to get more pictures up sooner, but I have again been nursing a sick boy back to health.  It seems that Sterling just got better from last time.  What I thought was allergy symptoms (runny nose, watery eyes, and coughing) turned into pink eye in both eyes, an ear infection and a bad cold and fever. 

Unfortunately, I have caught some of what he has so it's been Daddy to the rescue.  Anyway, here are some more pictures, I'll get some more up later.

We always try to get a family beach picture.  You would think that as the children get bigger it would get easier, WRONG, with my child being the main cause of stress because he didn't want to get in the sand.  But we managed to get a few that he wasn't bawling.

Mother's Day Pictures From the Beach

We were able to go on a wonderful beach trip with my in-laws for Mother's Day.  I have tons of pictures to share.  I will start out with pictures from Mother's Day.

 

I mean what mother would not be proud of that precious face.

 

The Hole In Our Gospel

May's free audiobook from christianaudio.com, The Hole In Our Gospel by Richard Stearns, is out.  It is so funny because I saw it somewhere earlier today and was intrigued by it.  Lo and behold, when I checked my christianaudio email I read that it was the free audiobook of the month.

If you do not already have an account with them, I would encorage you to do so.  Just create a username and password and such and they will send you an email each month telling you their free book of the month.  I have downloaded some great books that I would have otherwise probably not read.  However, I can load these audiobooks onto my ipod and listen as I go.

Their books of the month range from old classic authors like Martin Luther and Augustine to contemporary writers like John Piper and Mark Denver and everything in between.  Even if I don't listen to it right away I try to remember to download it, because I never know when I might want to listen to it.  And who can turn up a great free book!  It seems that the books they offer for free download are usually very doctrinally sound. 

Here is a paragraph from one of the reviews,
In The Hole In Our Gospel, Stearns presents a compelling challenge to westerners, especially the church, to forsake their myopic pursuit of wealth, comfort, and self-realization and to fulfill the uncomfortable command of Jesus to care for the poor. As Stearns says in the book’s introduction,

“…being a Christian or follower of Jesus Christ requires much more than just having a personal and transforming relationship with God. It also entails a public and transforming relationship with the world.”

That sounds very challenging, I hope it is!  Now where did I put my earphones...?

In the Midst of the Flood

My sisters and mother made their way to Nashville this weekend to attend a college preview day of the design school that Hillary and Tori will be attending. 

Of course, most of you know that this weekend Nashville experienced a major natural disaster as the river rose over 50 feet.  The Lord was gracious and made sure that they stayed in a hotel that was on high ground, but they were stuck in their hotel for an extra 24 hours.  They are home safely now, but I would encourage you to check out Hillary's latest post. 

Some have lost their lives and many have lost everything but.  Please be praying for the people of Nashville as they try to pick up the pieces, and pray that the gospel will be proclaimed and embraced in the midst of this tragedy.