This is just a little video of Eli that makes me laugh. He adores his cousins but apparently for some reason he remembered being laughed at and didn’t like it. The sad part is I kept making him say this over and over because he made me laugh so hard. He is so emphatic! So cute!
At 8pm I was literally lying fully clothed on the playroom floor while Eli played around, over, on top of me as I dozed on and off. I could not pull myself up to tuck the boys in, so Mark thankfully did the honors. I needed to go to the Wal-Marts but put it off until tomorrow b/c I just was too tired.
So I dragged myself to the couch and vegged with the laptop and watched some tv. Now it is 11:12pm and I just took a Tylenol PM b/c I am wide awake! I know that tv and computer stimulate your mind, but honestly it is really just that I am wired as a night owl and if I don’t go to bed before 10:30 then, whoops! my energy kicks back in. If I let myself, I could now do laundry, finish my book, bake Christmas cookies, write a few blogs, etc.
But McCall will still be up by 5:30 ish. Not that I get up with him, but I am semi-awake b/c I am aware that he is awake. Just sharing how insane I am:) I remember my mom was the same way though. That’s how she was able to stay awake for all my manic, emotion filled high school angst:) and help me with my gajillion term papers! Love ya Mom xxxooo
Off to try and go to sleep and pray no little boys sneak into bed with us:)
I meant to post this when Mark was gone, but I couldn’t find the right cable, blah, blah, blah…
This is what I ate one night when Mark was gone for training.
What is that you are asking? A Baked Brie Cheese with Raspberry sauce. No you di-n’t you say? Oh yes I did:) I bought it to make for home group and forgot to make it and was craving it, so I made it for myself and ate the whole thing! Well most of it.
Most days were great when Mark was in Orlando but there were some survival days and that was one of them. Can anybody relate?
Today is our nine year wedding anniversary. I prayed since I was a little girl that God would bring me a handsome, godly, loving, kind, patient, funny man to marry me. He gave all that and so much more to me in my amazing husband, Mark. Nine years ago we were married on Daufuskie Island, SC. We had 10 bridesmaids and 10 groomsmen. We were married outside, just feet from the beach on an island only reached by boat.
It started to rain and then stopped. I think everyone but me was freezing:) But it was beautiful and so much fun! All of my siblings attended and it was just before Christmas so when we came home from our honeymoon we had a big, old family reunion!
Tonight Mark and I went out to dinner and to a movie. About 9:30pm I asked him if he remembered what we were doing this time 9 years ago. He said “I was sitting on the bed at the hotel watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” and you were on the phone with your sister.” Yep… funny, huh? I was a little nervous let’s say:)
I am such a blessed woman. Mark is amazing and I am truly, truly thankful!!! I pray that we have 9 x 9 more amazing years together!
That is the word that is printed on the shirt that McCall wants to wear to school tomorrow. Today was one of the most significant days in my life as a mother. My little man was baptized tonight!
He publicly professed his faith through baptism tonight along with 8 other people at Newspring Florence’s first baptism service. It was held at the indoor pool at the YMCA. They each received a blue shirt that said “washed.” It was amazing to watch people that I have shared life with baptized.
He had to do a creative writing project a few week ago about “A Special Event in My Life…”. This is what he wrote:
A specile Event in my life was when I asked Jesus into my hart. It is vary inportant in my life because I had never done it in my life. It means that I will go to God when I Die. When I was finesed I fellt good.
I was on the swing when I did it. At furst I was gruppy and I whent on the swing. I did not know wat was about to happin. Asking Jesus Into your hart is good. All that you hafe to Do is pray.
He has asked for two years when he was going to get “bap-i-tized”. As parents we all pray lots of things for our kids, but the one I have prayed the most is that my boys would enter into an intimate relationship with Christ and submit their lives to him at an early age. It is amazing to see fruit of this!
So many people have poured into McCall’s life and many of them were there tonight. Pat gave McCall a leather bound Bible with his name engraved on it and we gave him a Bible cover with his name monogrammed on it. He was so excited about everything. It has been an amazing night!
Mark and McCall and his new Bible cover
McCall and Grandma Pat and his new Bible
So many of my family members live far away and were not able to be there tonight. I thought it might be neat if people left messages for McCall here on my blog. So if you feel so inclined leave a message of congratulations for my sweet boy and I will make sure he reads it. Thanks for sharing in this special time with us:)
Been gone. Yes, it has been busy around here with Mark gone and things are really revving up with holiday this and shopping that.
But we are less than two days away from Mark being home. Yea!!! The Lord has so provided energy and sanity over the past 10 days. We had a rough spell when one night McCall and Haig woke up at 4:30am and stayed awake until 6am and then had to get up for school at 6:45am. That was a bummer, but other than that we have made it!
Still not myself. I don’t know the last time I have felt this unmotivated to exercise and take care of myself. Hmmm, haven’t figured that one out yet, but I am working on it. The knee doctor said I don’t need surgery right now, thankfully and he said I should start exercising again. But he said I shouldn’t run long distances, which is okay with me:)
However, I am loving celebrating Christmas with the boys. We made a fun mitten Advent Garland tonight. I will post pictures eventually because it is super cute. Still no real insight, wisdom, humor to glean from this soul today but I just wanted to check in and let you know all is well.
Thanks friends for the humor, encouragement and hugs you all have been sending my way. They are felt! Love to you and Merry Christmas!
Many of you know that I have a whale phobia. I don’t know why. I have had nightmares about whales all of my life. They don’t come often but when they do, wow! And when I see them on tv,(as you can imagine I have never really seen a whale in person, thankfully, which makes my husband even more amused by my strange phobia)I get a panicked feeling. Short of breath, sweating, but clammy skin, a bit nauseous.
About a year ago McCall came to me one morning and told me he had a nightmare about a whale. What is that about!!!! I had never mentioned my phobia to him. Last night he came to me in the early morning in tears because of a whale nightmare. He was still talking about the dream tonight. What in the world? Anyone want to analyze that craziness?
A tidbit from a book I am reading, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction :
“I have put great emphasis on the fact that Christians worship because they want to not because they are forced to. But I have never said that we worship because we feel like it. Feelings are great liars. If Christians worshiped only when they felt like it, there would be precious little worship. Feelings are important in many areas but completely unreliable in matters of faith. ….
We live in what one writer has called the “age of sensation.” We think that if we don’t feel something there can be no authenticity in doing it. But the wisdom of God says something different: That we can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting. Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship. When we obey the command to praise God in worship, our deep essential need to be in relationship with God is nurtured.”
Wow! That’s hard but makes sense. I’m working on it.
I know it has been forever since I have blogged. I am in a funk. I am a true extrovert so usually being around people fills me up but for the last 3-4 weeks everything seems like an effort. I have been quite a hermit and enjoying it. I don’t want to talk on the phone, read, blog, read blogs, be social, go out, exercise, nothing. I know poor me. Don’t pity me, just trying to explain my silence and lack of communication.
I am sure it will pass but if I randomly blog and am inconsistent during this season, I am asking for grace. I am excited about Christmas and loving celebrating this time with my boys. Just can’t seem to shake the funk. When I am social I have done a pretty good job at faking my funkiness and not being Debbie Downer for the most part, but if you happen to see me out and about in my overalls, just know I am having a less than best day.
On to better news. Updates are: We had a terrific Thanksgiving with my sister Kelly’s family in Charleston and then the rest of the weekend was busy with housework but fun, restful family time. We celebrated Eli’s upcoming bday w/ Mark’s side of the family. My little rockstar received a miniature drum set, electric guitar and microphone. Now he is asking Santa for a keyboard:) Seriously he rocks out. I will share pics soon.
Mark organized the attic and reinsulated it Wow, I know! He is now in Orlando for training until the 12th. We miss him tons already but also are so jealous that he is so close to Disneyworld! Eli has been fighting a nasty case of bronchitis with fever for almost a week but he finally seems to be on the better side of it and we are also in day #3 of big boy pants. Mommy is finally getting off her duff and pottytraining:)
Also my great bro, Karl, inspired me to focus more on Advent this year with my boys. We have a fun calendar castle that we do every day of December where we have a question for the boys that relates to the Christmas story. This is fun but learning about Advent and celebrating it has been our new addition to this. I went to buy an advent wreath but howdy those are expensive so we just bought little candles, three purple, one pink and a white one and put them on a pretty candle plate and voila it works just as well.
So we are focusing on this season of preparing our hearts for the Advent (the Coming) of our Emmanuel. This week’s candle is the Prophecy candle of Hope. My goal this weekend was to come up with some verses for Advent as well. My great friend Jenny provided these for me though on her blog today. I also found a neat women’s devotional/Bible study focused on Advent that I am trying to work on as well.
I have so much to be thankful for and God is so good to me and mine. I realize I need to be better at discipline and balance. Perhaps this has to do with my funk:) So with that being said instead of staying up forever on the computer I am off to put my little house in order, spend some time with the Reason for this season and then hopefully get the rest I need to clear my head and be the momma my little men need in just a few hours. That’s silly it may be just a few minutes:) Thanks for hanging in with me friends!
