My Boys

I love this photo, B looks like he is thinking “Come on mom, please just take the photo so that Dad and I can keep playing!”

Grace

Being a mom has opened my humble little world up in more ways than I ever could have imagined…

One of the ways has been the opportunity to join a “Mom’s Group”.  The goal of the group is to formally meet at least once a month to discuss a book we are reading together and to connect and share motherhood  milestones and prayer requests from the past month. 

We are currently reading TrueFaced by, Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol and John Lynch, (the same book that our small group is reading) this book is fantastic…it is both encouraging and convicting on multiple levels! 

I left this month’s mom’s discussion  incredibly encouraged and felt like I needed to share what really stuck out in the book…

“Many of us understand grace as a theological position. And it is delightfully that. Undeserved, unending, unearned, unwavering, grace is God’s inexhaustible love and absolute acceptance of us, coupled with his unabashed delight in us. Grace brings us adoption into God’s family, a new identity, a new life, new power, new capacity, and God’s full protection-with absolutely no strings attached.

But grace is much more than a theological position. Equally and simultaneously, grace is an actual environment, a realm, a present-tense reality that weaves around and through every moment of even our worst day. God’s gift of grace continuously and always surrounds us…”                                     p.69 TrueFaced

How awesome is it use this idea/concept of grace as a filter for our everyday experiences…it really puts life into perspective  and reminds me that nothing is too big, too great or too difficult because I have God’s full protection…NO MATTER WHAT! He is continually surrounding me with His gift of grace…I just need to choose to believe and accept it!

He is so in love with us…just like C and I are in love with B…this encourages me to remember that as we are captivated by B’s little life…our Heavenly Father feels the same about each of us!

These are a few recent photos of B as C and I were totally captivated by his antics at the dinner table…Just picture the two of us laughing behind the camera…who would have known that a spoon could bring so much joy?

Here’s to grace!!!!

B’s Fort

Making forts is something that my brothers and I enjoyed doing when we were little…I can remember how a couple of blankets coupled with a few chairs could transform a common room into a fort!

The other day, while we hunkered down with all the snow, B and I made a fort…he loved it! He crawled in and out and in and out…here are some photos I took in an attempt to capture the precious moment and  simple joy that he experienced!

 

Happy Birthday M!

I guess I have gotten a little blog happy today…it’s what happens when there is 12 inches of snow outside and the city you live in sort of shuts down!

This is my dear cousin M, her birthday is tomorrow…the day before Valentines Day. I can remember attending several Valentine themed parties for her growing up. One of the most memorable was a sleep over party where she and I fell asleep before everyone else and we both woke up to discover there had been a conversation heart fight while we were asleep…there were heart candies everywhere! Oh, were those the days!

M now has a daughter, A, who is about a month older than B…I am sure A & B may someday have party stories of their own to share!

Here is to some of the memories…

 

 

Happy Birthday M!

Family “TeePee” Time

My mom passed this along to me last week and I just now got a chance to read/watch it because of the unexpected snow day we are enjoying.    

My brothers and I had the honor and privilege of attending Kanakuk Kamp for a number of years, we spent many nights sleeping in teepees and many mornings enjoying the famous Kanakuk Koffee Kake. But even more, Kanakuk played a huge role in my own spiritual life and walk with the Lord and it is my hope that our children may one day be able to have the same privilege.

As B grows up, C and I so desire to be intentional about telling him about Jesus Christ and spending quality time together as a family…

http://www.kanakuk.com/youandyourchild/Windows Live Writer Blog

“Cousins”

“Gatsby, are you getting to enjoy this fun cold white stuff at your house? It’s the best isn’t it?” -Ella

"It's so cold I can't keep my eyes open!"-Gatsby

Gatsby is Ella’s “cousin” (he is my brother’s dog). My brother, J, and Gatsby live in Waco, it doesn’t look like they got quite as much snow at their house, but it’s still white and still snow…you have to love Texas in February!

Good Morning!

This is what we woke up to this morning… 

It truly could be Minnesota, Colorado or somewhere in New England outside our door this morning. Everything is still pretty quiet and muted, but you can hear the drips of snow melting from the trees and roofs. Sometimes it even looks like it is still snowing because the heavy snow is falling off of the trees.

The snow is so heavy that a lot of tree branches are bowing and almost touching the ground!

No snow plows here!

B wasn’t quite sure what to think of the snow…though, we are pretty sure he enjoyed it as his eyes lit up when he saw it this morning.

There is no question that Ella is LOVING the snow…though playing fetch can be a little more difficult in regard to finding a ball after it has been thrown, I think she and C have lost one or two balls while playing both yesterday and this morning (one is on the roof of our house).

This snow is such a special treat, we will be sure to savor it as we know that it will melt soon!