Splash the Puddles

It's been one of those days. Shoot, it's been one of those weeks. The kind that makes you long for your blissfully quiet and peaceful days of marriage before you had kids... If you are a mom, you know the kind I am talking about. Unless of course, you are one of those moms who pretends you never have days...or weeks like that. In that case, shame on you :) for giving future mothers everywhere the idea that everyday is a picnic and that motherhood is all smiles and sunshine. It's not. And by the way, I am thankful none of my close friends are those kinds of moms. It's a special gift God gave me, having a couple of close girlfriends who also have days and weeks like I have and are willing to be open and honest with me about it, how they feel and that the harder days are probably still yet to come from me. Who also know that no matter what is felt and expressed during frustration, that we love our kids more than anything ever in all the world. Being a mother is by far...

March, due to a couple of unforeseen events and expenses, was turning out to be very tight for us.   We’d recently paid two different expenses, both right around $200 each, totaling around $400.    Two hundred of it was money we hadn’t planned as an expense and therefore wasn’t written into our budget.   Then there was the $200 check that we had written to Walker’s preschool the day, maybe two days, before we moved him to my school. (another God story, so see the post below!)   Now, I have no problem giving that preschool my money.   They have been wonderful to us and for Walker, and we truly believe in their cause.   However, there are times when we could really use the extra $200 that we paid for a month of school he wouldn’t attend there, and now is one of those times! Cliff and I are currently doing a 40 day prayer challenge.   We are reading through a book called “Draw the Circle,” and we are learning so much about growing our faith through...

Our book keeper came down to my room today near the end of the school day, and she said she would watch my class and that I needed to take a phone call in the office. This isn't how phone calls are normally handled, so I was a little concerned. My thoughts immediately jumped to the bad things that could have happened. When I walked into the office I was told it was "Pre-k" on the phone, and my thought was "Phew..." I was SO relieved nothing was wrong. I picked up the phone, already knowing what our answer would be. "Thanks, but no thanks..." Last year we registered Walker for the pre-k program at my school. It's lottery funded and he didn't make the draw. I was sad, but chalked it up to all being part of God's greater plan. We carried on with Pre-K at Kids R Great, where he had just completed the three year old program. He loved it. We loved it. I was sad he wouldn't be with me, but the alternative was so nice an option it was r...

My husband and I have said many times (mostly joking, of course) that if Will had come first, there would be no Walker. For him to have been the most perfect, well-behaved and easiest baby that ever did live, he sure has made it his goal to develop the complete opposite reputation as a toddler. I'm not kidding. So many of our friends at church, all who love and adore his precious personality, say they have never seen anything quite like our Will. Great... Tuesday night, Will was feeling more like himself for the first time in about 5 days. He was finally getting over the flu and making his way into mischief again. Lots of it. He, Cliff and Walker were kicking around Walker's new soccer ball in the living room and I was in the kitchen doing (surprise, surprise) housework. :) At one point I hear Cliff gasp "What did you eat?" Then I hear sounds of "Ech, gag, plbbb, uuhh, Ech, gaggggg..." I go in the living room to find Will covered in blue liquid, and spit...

My boys cannot resist a mud puddle. They simply cannot. What appears yucky and dirty to me is an open invitation to jump, frolic, splash and have the time of their lives to them. They take what seems to me like a mess, a mere a disaster waiting to happen, and turn it into an exhilarating, life giving experience. They splash. That's not so different than what God does for us when we are found in the muddy places of life. He takes that mud, that "yuck" and that dirty and he splashes in it, providing us with His love, mercy, and grace. He gives us am exhilarating and life giving experience, when all we could see was mud. This is a somewhat new venture for me. I've always loved to write, and I have always written. I don't however consider myself to be an award winning author. Yet. (Ha! That's a joke!). There will most definitely be grammar errors here. I have also been known to use a word to two incorrectly...and I'm wordy. I just am. I honestly have grown ...

(Originally posted February 22, 2013) We just returned from a wonderful fun filled cruise to the Bahamas with my mom, stepdad, brothers, Ashley (Josh's girlfriend) and my stepdad's parents. We had an absolute blast! Considering the weather was less than ideal the first two days, the pools and slides remained closed on those days, and it was entirely too cold and windy to venture to the top deck to play putt putt (though we DID try) we had a little boy on our hands who was quite a trooper. His behavior (for the very most part) was superb. He sat through long sit down dinners from 8:15 to sometimes close to 10:30 at night joyfully and was extremely pleasant. There were shows we attended that he was less than interested in, but he endured with minimal :) complaining. There was also lots of water slide fun, putt putt playing and ping pong challenges once the weather warmed up and the winds died down on our second full day. Despite almost perfect behavioral conditi...

(Originally posted February 11, 2013) I was driving my two boys to watch their Daddy play basketball with our church team recently, and we passed a spot that we have passed several times in Walker's life. It's not a place we pass often now. As we drove past, I shared with him about how I was involved in a wreck in that place several years before his Dad and I were married. I was riding with someone else and a deer ran out in front of us on this country road. The driver of the vehicle did what came naturally to him, and in a panic, swerved to miss the deer. I am unsure of the details that unfolded next. All I know is the car was soon spinning out of control. All I could make sense of were the browns, greens and camouflage of the trees, bushes and night that lie before us. I don't know how many times we spun. One too many in my opinion. My first response was fear. I was terrified. I knew that any minute the car would flip, because I knew the path well-the deep d...