Things I Never Thought I'd Do

Well, I am back to the blogging world after a short sabbatical. We were having some major computer issues, but all is well now, because we just got a BRAND NEW COMPUTER! Everything is moving along fantastically now, so I should be able to write more often!

In honor of my new computer, I thought I would finish up an entry I started about a month ago. Enjoy!

I have only been a mom for three years, so I do not yet consider myself a "seasoned mother." Nor do I think I've done all there is to do - there are so many, many things I have yet to experience. Yet there are several things I have done up to this point that have caused me to think afterwards, "wow, I never thought I'd do that..." So, as my son's third birthday approaches, and I reflect over my few years in motherhood, I'd like to present the following, in no particular order:

Top Ten Things I Never Thought I'd Do

10. "Hop like Tigger" to the bathroom. (This was in order to get my 3 year old excited about going.)

9. Watch The Lord of the Rings trilogy the extended version, with commentary, on a loop. (Why, you ask? Because my daughter refused to sleep for the first five months of her life. I had to do something to keep myself awake at 3am. The commentaries are amusing, by the way.)

8. Have a passionate argument over whether the character on the screen was Bob or Larry. (Joshua gets them mixed up.)

7. Inspect and then discuss the contents of my children's diapers in great lengths with my husband and my mother.

6. Be thrilled when my son had an enormous stinky diaper. (You would be thrilled too if your son had not gone in five days...ai yi yi...)

5. Consider 7:00 a.m. to be "sleeping in."

4. Encourage my toddler to "go potty like Elmo." (He has an Elmo potty book. This has suddenly become quite the incentive.)

3. Breathe a sigh of relief to see lice streaming down my daughter's back in a river of olive oil. (Because it meant they weren't actually IN her hair anymore...)

2. Sneak up to the church nursery and fling the diaper bag over the barn-style door like a grenade because we forgot to send it with the kids, but if my daughter actually sees me, it will make the nursery worker's life miserable for the next hour.

1. Find myself in a parking lot at 9:00 at night with a book and a Diet Coke because it is the only quiet place I can find to read.

More to come, I am sure!!

My Husband, My Hero

"A real man's gotta be a hero to his wife before he can be a hero to anybody else, or he ain't a real man." - Fireproof

Valentine's Day came and went this weekend. I don't really care that much about it - why do I need a special day to express my love to my husband? For that matter, why does he need a special day to express love to me? Mostly it's a marketing ploy,but I was brought up in a house that celebrated EVERY holiday - and I mean EVERY one - so I still like to celebrate Valentine's Day and all its silliness.

However, one thing that is not quite so silly is just how much I love and appreciate my husband. I was reminded of it again this weekend. There are just so many things I love about him. He is an amazing, amazing man. And I wanted to take a moment just to talk about the things I love and appreciate about him.

My husband is fighter. He fights for what he knows should happen. He fights for what he knows is right. He has some unique struggles in his life, but they stem from a desire to get it absolutely right with God. I have seen him wrestle and struggle and fight so hard to get through a tough battle. So many men would have given up on God a long time ago. But not him. He fights on, seeking to grow and change and become more and more of the man God already sees him as.

My husband is a servant. On the weekends, he won't let me come near a diaper. He sees that I am with the kids all day, all week, and on the weekends, he jumps in front of me to keep me from doing too much. He surprises me by doing the dishes or cleaning the living room while I'm at the store or the YMCA. He looks for ways to lighten my load, and he desires to serve me and the kids in whatever way he can.

My husband is a provider. Throughout our marriage, he has gotten up every weekday morning (and not a few weekends) to go to a job in order to provide for our family. Right now, and for the past three years, he has a job he loves. However, that was not always the case. He has had to work some grunt jobs just to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads. He has done factory work, fast food work, whatever it took to pay the bills. And he did it with a smile on his face. He is not a complainer. He got up, did his work to the best of his ability, and came home to serve me. He still does all those things now with the job he loves, for which he continues to strive for excellence.

My husband is a partner. He does not see "the house" or "the kids" as just my arena. Nor does he see "the finances" or other areas as just his. He desires to be there with me 100% as we live our lives together. He also understands that at 4:30, he gets to leave his job behind and come home...but I never leave my job behind. He is very good about coming home and sending me out of the house for a while, or allowing me half and hour to myself in our bedroom with the headphones on while he has Daddy Time with the kids. We made an agreement a long time ago that Saturday mornings were his time with the kids and my time to grocery shop...away from the kids. This has worked beautifully for everyone involved, but it shows how much of a partner he is when it comes to this family. He also sees the housework as his job too, and he is careful not to let all of it fall on me. We make decisions together, pray together, work together. He seeks to partner with me in all these things.

My husband is a family man. He is a fantastic father. He truly enjoys his children. He loves to see them when he comes home from work. He wants to hear all about everything they did that day. He loves to play with them, take them places, dance with them, and teach them the love of Christ that he has known. He is a balanced disciplinarian, and the kids know what to expect from him. One of my favorite things to just sit back and watch is my husband interacting with our children. He loves them, and they love him. He in gentle and loving, yet firm and steadfast. I cannot imagine having a better father for my children.

My husband is a romantic. He has never stopped courting me. He still, after 4 years of marriage and 2 kids, spontaneously brings me flowers on his way home from work. We have a standing date every Saturday night, and he does not allow anything to interfere with that. He asks for how he can bless me, and he works hard to keep after my heart. He truly finds me beautiful, and he cannot seem to stop telling me so. He didn't let up on the romance when we got married - if anything, he increased it. When he walks in a room, my heart still lifts. His coming home is still my favorite moment of the day. I know he will keep romancing me till the day one of us dies.

Finally, and most importantly, my husband is a man of God. His relationship with God is the most important thing in his life - more important than me, and that is a good thing. His life is anchored on Jesus Christ, and that spills over and soaks everything in his life- jobs, kids, ministry, me. His main goal in life is truly to know the Lord and make Him known. His faith is steadfast. Weaker men's faith would have been shaken and broken by some of the things he has experienced, but not him. His heart so longs to just be with God, and it is that longing that makes him such an amazing man.

So there you have it. Just a few of the many, many reasons my husband is awesome. For these, and for so many other reasons, I can truly say my husband is my hero.

Top Ten Favorite Things that Start With H

Well, the blog world is a fun an interesting place, full of connections that never would have been made otherwise. A fellow mommy blogger, Luckygirl, found my blog via one of my favorite blogs to read, Stacy From Louisville. She commented that she could identify with some of the joys of motherhood I had mentioned (ex: mistaking "Mommy" for "Walking Zombie), so I went over to check out her site. One of her entries had a fun game where someone made a list of their Top Ten Things that Start With ____ (enter whatever letter it was), and when someone else commented, you give them another letter with which to do their own list.

I like dumb things like email surveys and "25 Random Facts" on Facebook, and my friends from my youth goup years may remember my affection for top ten lists, so I played and have received the letter "H." Here is my Top Ten List of My Favorite Things that Start With "H." Leave a comment with YOUR favorite thing that starts with H, and I will give you a new letter, and the blog love can keep rolling!

In no particular order...

1. Heaven. I haven't been there yet, but I am assuming once I get there it will be my favorite place, as I will get to spend eternity worshipping the King of Kings with no hindrance. Who-hoo!

2. Hand Lotion. I wash my hands about 30 times a day. I change at least 10 diapers a day, plus go to the bathroom myself, plus wash dishes by hand...I'm constantly washing my hands. When I remember to put lotion on, it's a lifesaver. Otherwise my hands becomes scaley and crack and bleed.

3. Hot Dogs. I really like hot dogs. The best are the ones at the ballpark, but since they cost about $5 a piece at this point, I haven't had one of those in years. Hebrew National ones are fantastic, and the all-beef Ballpark ones are great. My favorite way to cook them is on the grill.

4. HISTORY. How did it take me to #4 to think of history? I am a history buff...also known as history nerd. I read biographies and historical non-fiction for fun. I have some sort of odd, uncomprehensible obsession with the English monarcy, particularly during the Middle Ages. No on understands it, least of all me. I also love to study the genealogy passages in the Bible - all those verses in Chronicles people usually skim through on their "read through the Bible" jouney? Oh, I stay there for weeks!

5. Along those lines, I love reading Historical fiction. My favorite book beyond the Bible is Gone With the Wind. I have recently discovered Sharon Kay Penman. She writes novels around the time of - you guessed it - 12th-13th century England.

6. Hot Tubs. Having spent the better part of the past 3 years pregnant (at one point during my second pregnancy, I had actually been pregnant for more of my marriage than not), I have a great appreciation for hot tubs, because I couldn't be in them for so long. It's worth it to go work out at the YMCA just to get to use the whirlpool at the end. Aaaahhh...

7. Habbakkuk. This is my favorite book of the Bible that starts with H. Granted, that's a limited list (Hosea, Hebrews, Haggai and Habbakkuk, that's about it) but still, Habbakkuk is one of those little known books of the Bible with such great wisdom to share. Habbakuk had the guts to come to God and ask one of the great questions in life: Why do the wicked prosper? And God answers, although not in the way Habbakuk was really looking for. Not only is it a good place to go when you have questions yourself, but to me it's a great reminder to keep asking God questions. He wants to communicate with us!!!

8. Helmets. That's right, I said helmets. WEAR A HELMET. When I was 16, I got thrown from my bike and broke my arm in two places. That was bad enough, but as I was sitting in the hospital waiting to go into surgery, my mother suddenly noticed my forehead and asked, "Does your forehead hurt?" I looked at her funny - nothing hurt at the moment, I was on all sorts of pain meds. But my forehead had these large imprints from where I had hit to ground...in the shape of the pads from my bike helmet. If I hadn't been wearing it, there's a good chance I would have died. And don't talk to me about "just going around the corner." I was six doors down from my house. If you're riding a bike of any kind, WEAR A HELMET!

9. Hugs. Hugs are great. Hugs are healing agents. You can do a lot of good with just a hug, a lot more than you can with words much of the time. I like hugs, both giving and receiving.


10. Hey Ruth. This is Waterdeep's band before they were Waterdeep. Don and Lori Chaffer are my favorite musicians ever. They're strong believers in Christ, but they are not your typical "Christian" artists. Their lyrics are deep and their music is original. Hey Ruth is the irold band, and there is a 2-disc CD called "Old Stuff" that has music from that era. One of my favorite albums.

Fun stuff!! If you comment, I'll give you a new letter. :)

The Scents of Motherhood

I love the smell of my children while they sleep. That may be a weird statement for some, but I'm guessing most mothers out there know what I mean. During the day, my kids smell like a variety of things: fish sticks, graham crackers, diapers, what's in their diapers...but at night, after their bath, after they've fallen asleep, there's nothing to cover up their distinct, special scents. It's their little child scent, the one that hasn't been overcome by the onset of hormones. They each have a smell that is unique to them - I would be be able to identify them blindfolded. I love checking on them while they sleep and just leaning down to breathe them in.

Someday I won't be able to do that. Someday they'll loose that soft smell of childhood to the onset of adolescence and adulthood. Someday they won't be down the hall for me to check on while they sleep, kiss their foreheads and breathe in their scent. Someday they will grow up, move away, and have children with scents of their own. And that "someday" is probably closer that I think. Joshua is almost three - the next time I blink, he will be in preschool, then kindergarten, with his sister close behind. Then bigger, and busier, and then gone. Someone once told me that this period of their lives has "the slowest days and the fastest years." That's a pretty accurate description, and sometimes in the craziness of changing diapers and making lunch and settling fights and time-outs and everything, I forget that in a moment, it will all be gone. My children will grow up to have their own lives and families.

So for right now, I want to drink in these moments of their childhood. I want to take the time to watch them sleep, kiss them on their foreheads, hold them tight for as long as they'll let me - and take in the sweet smell of their childhood, making memories of all senses in my heart to cherish forever.

COW

Today my two year old, Joshua, climbed up into my lap to snuggle with me while I did my morning Internet stuff (Stuff Christians Like and Woot). He was all snuggled into my arms, and I held him and looked down into his beautiful liquid blue eyes and shining face. I was overcome with love for my son, so I kissed him on the head and said, "I love you so much." He looked back up at me with his beautiful smile and said, slowly, "Coooowwwww."

Then he asked me what a lion says.

So much for having a moment! :)