February

February is a one of my favorite months...

First of all, some of the GREATEST people ever were born in February! (No, I am not talking about myself in case you are wondering!)

It is still cold weather...but here in the south, not too cold. And we might even get snow.

This particular snow was just about gone by lunchtime...less than twenty four hours of snow. Just enough to look pretty, have some time to play and then be gone.

For Valentine's Day, J2 spoiled me this year with an evening out on the town. Dinner with friends at a delicious restaurant and then off to see Wicked. It was a great night out!




We also had a great time watching the super bowl with our friends. The kids decorated a cake that was half Colts and half Saints. The tradition is that you eat a piece of cake from the side that is decorated in "your" team's colors. I pulled for the Colts, bless their hearts. My team never wins!

Musings from a thankful mom...

It is the beginning of Mother's Day Weekend...


Yes, I know technically it is just a day, but I like to stretch a good celebration out as long as possible.


Tonight, as I was making a "welcome home from Canada" pound cake for J2 , I spent a little time reflecting on mothers and Mother's Day.


What? Don't you find your self "reflecting" when you are baking a cake??


Anyways, it all began as I was thinking about Mother's Day and what it was like for me for the first 7 years J2 and I were married. The first three were super easy...happy celebrations of our own wonderful mothers.


Then Mother's Day began to take on new meaning...we wanted to start a family and it didn't take long for us to realize that it wasn't going to happen quickly and easily.


Before long, Mother's Day became a day when I spent my time fighting off thoughts of what I longed for that I didn't have. As mothers were recognized at church and throughout the day, I stilled thanked God for the blessing of having a great mom. But I would often find myself fighting tears and wondering if I would ever get to experience the joy of being a mom myself.



I know that in the big scheme of things there are much, much worse things than infertility issues. I know and knew then that I had many wonderful blessing and so much to be thankful for.


But knowing all that didn't change the fact that there were times when my heart just felt like it was going to break in to a million pieces. Oh the sadness of thinking that J2 and I may never get to be parents...that my deep desire to have a family might never be fulfilled.


Our journey to have a family was complicated and very involved...we experienced many difficult days. We struggled at times to keep our chins up and our faith strong, but the truth is that I know that God just plain old carried me through many of those trials. It definitely was not my own doing.



It was through those most difficult times...the ones where things looked the most hopeless, the days when it just was hard to keep it together...that He changed us.


He prepared us for bigger things to come. He showed His glory to us and helped us to see that it is through His power and His strength and His plans that we would make it to a new day, when our hope would be restored, when our faith would be strong and our joy overflowing.


For my peace and joy was NEVER intended to be found in my circumstances... but instead it was to be found in Christ alone.... The Glorious One.


Though I would never wish those struggles on anyone, truly those trials are precious to me...I am so thankful for those difficult days and how He changed me through them.



I hope that I am a better mother and wife because of them, but even more important than that, I honestly believe God used them to take me to a new place in my walk with Him that I never would have found otherwise.


On a side note... maybe as we begin this Mother's Day weekend, we should take a moment to remember and pray for and love on those who may find this coming Sunday to be a struggle...the childless woman, the woman who has lost a child whether through miscarriage or death, the single mom who finds herself going alone through this journey of motherhood, the child or adult who is missing their own mom for one reason or another.


And if you are there right now...take heart. God is near. He hasn't forgotten you... He is faithful...He will provide beyond your wildest expectations when you least expect it...He will use all those difficult times for good, in His time.


... and I have two unexpected blessings to prove it

When you have so much to say, you can't think of anything to say...

I have so much to say.



There has been so much time since my last post...time filled with thoughts and feelings. Time filled with family. Time filled with friends, old and new. Time filled with events and activities. Time filled with school and work and play. Time filled with thoughts of the many things I still have yet to do.

Time filled...


Seems like that is a theme in my life right now.


And yet, on all the occasions I have sat down to update the blog, I can't even think of one thing to say. I write a little, backspace a lot and then just close the whole thing down.


How can that be? So much to say that you can't think of a thing to say.



So for now, I will start to update the blog with pictures and a little bit of commentary to go along. Perhaps in the midst of it all, I will begin to gather my thoughts and eventually be able to communicate the events of my life through the written word.



In the meantime, I'll keep that right hand close to the backspace button just in case.

January was filled with ...

What else! Swimming. Isn't that what you think of in January?

Snow...okay, that sounds more like it in January. But really our January snow was more ice than snow. The kids still managed to have a great time in it.

And take note of those IMPRESSIVE homeschoolers...finding a piece of ice in the shape of South Carolina! Always making the most of every educational opportunity!!

And then there was our trip to Snow Mountain for snow tubing...what a ton of fun! We really did have a blast hanging out with our friends, tubing down the hills and then visiting with my amazing parents for the weekend.

Paper Trees

I zoomed in on this part of the "puzzle" picture to show a portion of the paper Christmas tree collection.

The trees were made by every member of our family...the process to make the trees is simple. Take a piece of paper and put it behind your back. You may fold or tear the paper any way you like in order to make a shape that resembles a Christmas tree. At no time can you take the paper from behind your back and look at what you are doing . Once you bring it out, you are done. It really is hilarious to see what everyone comes up with!

Mine is the one to the far right that looks a bug/alien space ship. I think that it would really work well as one of those things that a psychiatrist uses...one of those ink blots that they hold up and say "now what do you see".

First time I saw this done was by our church staff last Christmas...they are such a creative and fun bunch!

Oh, that blasted puzzle...

My oldest sister (I would use her initial, but we all start with a B so it would be pointless!) brought a puzzle with her for us to work on while we were together.





She said that it would be fun...a good way to relax.



Well, let me officially go on record as saying that it was the hardest puzzle ever made and between times that I wanted to take a hammer and smash the puzzle, I had a lot of fun and was very relaxed.

Christmas Cookies

For many years, even since my sister's kids were young, we have had an annual Christmas tradition of baking and decorating Christmas cookies. Well, this year the tradition went on a road trip! Time passed so quickly during our Christmas break and we didn't get around to making cookies at home...but I made dough before we left for Mimi and Big Daddy's and we made sure that time was spent one afternoon baking, decorating and of course eating our homemade Christmas creations!

These are a few of my favorite things about Christmas at Mom and Dad's...

Awesome food.

Great people.


Even though one table may be full ...


...there is always a way to make room for more.





My amazing dad (and mom too, even though I don't have a picture of her from this year).




Spending time laughing together.






Presents! (and more great people).

Cute puppies and dogs. And more great people!

Wait...there is my mom on the sofa (kind of like where's Waldo!) I didn't think I had a picture of her.

Family.