30 Days of Thanksgiving

"Thanksgiving was never meant 

to be shut up in a single day"

--Robert Caspar Lintner

With Thanksgiving just around the corner-so it feels like-I have decided to gear my blog towards that for the next 30 (err 28 days since I'm 2 days late) <--haha sounds like female problems!! Anyways...so for the next 28 days I will blog each day about what I was thankful for that day! Here I go...

Today I am thankful for:

iChat!!!! 

My parents just bought a MacBook Air--thanks to my husbands wonderful discount--so now we can iChat/FaceTime with each other!! But more importantly Wesley gets to "see" his Grandpa & Grandma every day! I am very close to my parents and we talk on a daily basis. So being able to "see" them whenever I want is totally something to be thankful for :)

Like our crazy faces?

Mobile? Yes please

It's about time!!!! Someone has finally created an app for Blogger!!!! Yay, now I can blog on the go instead of writing in my notes app and posting later.

So this is basically just a trial run to see what it looks like and how efficient the app is!

Welcome to the 21st Century Blogger

Cliché Prayer Life

"Do not pray for easy lives, 

Pray to be stronger.

Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers,

Pray for powers equal to your task."

--Phillips Brooks

Prayer has been on my mind a lot lately. Up until about 2-3 months ago I found myself praying the "You know whats on my heart God" prayer-so cliché no? Yes, God does know what is on my heart...but how cold and impersonal is that type of prayer! Not only do I feel like its impersonal...but in a way its like saying "God I don't really have time to talk to you, but I know I should, so I'll just say You know...that thing I'm dealing with...HELP!"

When I was in high school, my bible teacher had all of us keep a prayer journal. It was a class requirement!!!! At the time I thought it was completely bogus...really...you're going to grade me on prayer!?! But now, looking back, I cannot thank him enough! Granted, the majority of my prayers were about my current boyfriend, or drama at school-really petty stuff. But at the same time it taught me to express my thoughts, feelings, and emotions to God instead of just assuming He knew it!

After realizing and being convicted about how vague and impersonal my prayer life had become, I decided something had to change. At first I started just really telling God everything...and somewhere in the process I was reminded of my old prayer journals. When I moved out of my parents they boxed up all my stuff for me and brought it down to me when we moved in to our house. Well I figured my old prayer journals would be in the boxes...but I can't find it!! Makes me sad because I would like to go back and read about different life events and different prayer styles that I had throughout high school.

All of the above is to say I have started journalling my prayers again! And let me tell you I LOVE IT!!! I totally look forward to it! Sometimes they are just short simple prayers...and other times (like the other night) they are 2 pages worth!!! A big reason why I started blogging again was to be able to express myself and get things off my mind through writing it out. Well, lets face it...sometimes there are just things that cannot be publicized but you feel the need to vent, express, and flat out ramble about!! Journalling and telling God about it has been a HUGE release for me. I totally encourage you to take up Prayer Journalling...it has made a huge difference in my walk with Him and I look forward to re-reading it someday to see how God worked in and through my life.

Luvs!

Catch up and Ketchup!

"If evolution is really true, how come Mother's only have two hands?"

--Milton Berle

Ok so obviously I have not updated my blog in FOREVER!!! So sorry about that, but things have been quite busy/new/hectic/fun/overwhelming/crazy...lol just to name a few!

Anyways, we are all adjusting quite well to the new lifestyle change. My last blog post was about the decision to quit my job and the overwhelmingness-is that a word?-that all of that involved! I can honestly say that it was one of the best decisions we have ever made! I found a part time job, if you want to call it part time...I clean office buildings in the evenings 3 days a week. I currently have 3 accounts; A real estate office that I clean on Mondays; a bank that I clean MWF; and a KinderCare facility that I clean MWF! It took a while to adjust to the time frame...but now that I've been doing this for a little over 2 months I have it down pretty good. Mondays take the longest obviously since I do all 3 accounts..but even at that the longest I'm out is from about 4-8:30! Not too shabby! :) I am very grateful for the income this job provides, however, I look forward to the day my income will no longer be necessary! :)

Now that the "catch up" has been updated, on to more exciting things! lol

Being able to spend all day with Wesley has been such a privilege that I am SO grateful for! It has been fun watching him learn and grow and watching him discover new things. The end of our summer was spent going to parks and water features around town. He is OBSESSED with water. One day I was sitting at the computer going through emails when I heard water splashing. Thought to myself, "hmmm I know the dogs water bowl is up, how can he be splashing in water?" Got up to see what he was getting in to...turns out a glass of water had been left on the end table from the night before and he was sitting on the couch with the cup between his legs HAND INSIDE THE GLASS splashing in it!!! hahaha welcome to being a stay at home mom I told myself! 

One thing that I was excited about being home for was watching him go through the Milestones-and the mini Milestones as well. About a week ago, Wesley decided 'I don't want to eat anything while I'm sitting in my highchair!' So just out of curiosity I put him in one of our kitchen table chairs, that he ALWAYS wants to climb in to, to see if he would eat! Sure enough he ate EVERYTHING...even though it wasn't covered in ketchup lol! So...with that said, last night I purchased a booster seat for him as well as a big boy sippy cup! He has 2 sippy cups, the straw kind as well as the regular water bottle type! Well they both leak and I was tired of cleaning water spots off the couches! So far he's doing pretty good with the new cup...took him awhile to realize he had to suck pretty hard to get the water out, unlike the water bottle type where it just pours out! 

He decided his hat was necessary while eating dinner haha

All of this to say...after I put him to bed last night it hit me....HE'S GROWING TOO FAST!!!!! I know its cliche but its so true...time flies!!!! But I am loving this new stage in his life where he's learning words and learning how to express himself...haha and I'm learning how to understand his new found "language"! 

Thank you to all of you who prayed for us during the transition...they were definitely felt and appreciated! 

Someday List Update!!!

I am your parent, you are my child.
I am your quiet place, you are my wild.
I am your calm face, you are my giggle.
I am your wait, you are my wiggle.
I am your finish line, you are my race.
I am your praying hands,
You are my saving grace.
I am your lullaby, you are my peekaboo.
I am your goodnight kiss,
You are my I Love You.

Awhile back I posted a blog entitled "Someday List." It is with GREAT pleasure and GREAT faith that I am able to cross something off my list. As of August 5th, 2011 I will officially be quitting my job. I am so thrilled to be able to stay at home with Wesley. However, in the same breath I am anxious because this will be a huge adjustment for our family. I have been with this company from Aug 2006-Aug 2011...so I will definitely miss a lot of my coworkers-but we need to do what is best for our family

My previous blog was about this situation. James and I were faced with the decision to either find daycare for Wesley or for me to stay at home with him. After going over everything in great detail, we are putting our trust in God that He will provide for us.

As we step out in faith, please keep us in your prayers.



I cannot express how excited I am to be with my lil man throughout the day!!!





Trust=Dependence

"I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish He didn't trust me so much"

--Mother Teresa

Webster defines trust as, "dependence on something future or contingent."

I've been thinking a lot about "trust" lately. What exactly does that really mean? I have to be honest, before I looked up what Webster had to say, in my mind I defined it as this: to wholeheartedly believe that something or someone is who or what they perceive to be. Would you agree with that statement? Looking at the real definition I have to disagree with my thought process. I love the way Webster defines it-dependence...thats a huge word. To depend means life altering. Think about it; if you depend on someone to follow through with something, and they don't, it affects your life. Whether it be small or big, it affects your life.

For years, we have been taught to put our trust in God-to depend on Him if you will. And throughout my life I have done so, or at least tried my very best to. Putting your trust in God is a very easy thing to do...when things are easy. Its when things start to get "out of our control" that trusting becomes a difficult task to accomplish. Its really quite stupid if you think about it. Why is it so hard to trust God when you KNOW it is out of your control?? I hate that!!!

Without going into much detail, I am being faced with a circumstance that is clearly out of my control! I literally have no choice but to Trust in Him. I think its interesting when God decides to put something in your life that makes you realize how little control you actually have. Think about it; you wake up one morning and everything is great! You go about your day like you do everyday only to wake up the next morning and have your whole world turned upside down...or so you think(things always seem worse when you're in the middle vs. when its all over). Sometimes I wonder if God has a timeline. "lets see here...I haven't thrown anything Lindsays way in a while to make her really trust Me." haha I know He doesn't have this...but it feels this way at times.

All of this rambling to say...I could use some prayer. This verse is the only thing getting me through this circumstance right now:

Proverbs 3:5-6

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding

In all your ways,

submit to Him

and He will make your paths straight."

Summer Fun

Finally...its SUMMER!!!! The past few weeks have been filled with some pretty weird weather! Rain, hail, and thunderstorms...did I mention it was JUNE when all of that happened?! So weird! I think the worst was raining/thunderstorms ON MY BIRTHDAY!!! But oh well..its in the 100's now...so I'm not complaining!

We started our summer off right by heading to the pool over the weekend...the 4th of July weekend!! Since Wesley hadn't been to the pool yet-well he did last summer but he was only 3 months old-my mom and I took him in the evening. It was shaded and a lot cooler. However, since it was cooler the pool was pretty cold. As you can see from the pictures, Wesley did NOT like it very much...

 

 

 Even though Wesley didn't like the water...he LOVED running around the grass area! Could not contain him! It was fun to watch him get so excited to play in the grass! =)

On Monday-4th of July-we decided to take Wes back to the pool during the day so it would be warmer! My mom and I got to the pool and there was not a soul in site around the kiddie pool!!! Hooray we had the pool to ourselves! Took Wesley a couple of minutes to adjust to the "big bathtub" but after that he just wanted to walk all over the pool! haha it was super cute! Since he was in a better mood it was fun to take pictures and actually play in the water with him. Here are some of my favorite pics of the day! Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July weekend!!