Thankful Thursday

1.  A healthy 20 week check-up!  Baby boy is doing great and it was so good to see him via ultrasound.  It was the last one we'll have, so the next time we see him will be in person!


2.  Corny family fun.  Last Saturday, David and I took Audrey up to Jaemor Farms north of Gainesville.  They had a pumpkin patch, a hayride, rubber duck races, an apple gun, and a corn maze.  We had a blast and loved every minute!  It was one of those cheesy family days I've dreamed of my whole life.  


3.  Cooking again.  Okay, truthfully I don't care for it much.  The planning, the shopping, the prep, the clean-up...it's a whole lotta work.  BUT, after first trimester nausea and then all of David's travels, it does feel good to finally be back in the habit of doing that main part of my "job description."  I know it's a lot healthier for us and our budget.


4.  Pumpkins, candy, and adorable toddlers in costumes.  I'm not a Halloween fanatic and definitely do not care for the scary stuff, but I am excited about carving a pumpkin and taking AJ out on Monday night.  She's been practicing her "Trick-or-Treat!" line for weeks now!


5.  This week's song is "All Your Life" by The Band Perry.  Great talent and if you haven't heard their hit "If I Die Young", check it out too.  It's haunting, but has depth lyrically and musically that many artists today lack.  

CIA/Thankful Thursday

Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to serve with a project as part of a day that my church calls CIA (Compassion in Action).  2,200 volunteers met at the central campus and then, after an amazing time of worship and "pumping up", we were sent out to serve in one of 90 different projects in our community.  As I waited in line to pull out of the parking lot, I looked around at the hundreds of cars surrounding me.  It felt like the troops were being deployed.  It was the troops being deployed.  I got goosebumps thinking about the lives that would be affected that day and, hopefully, the message of Christ that would get out.

As I mentioned in last week's TT post, my ladies' bible study small group was helping a local ministry put on a fall festival and clothing giveaway for families in transitional housing.  "Transitional housing" in this case means a step away from homelessness.  There are no homeless shelters in our county, so it's actually an extended-stay hotel where families at financial rock bottom pay day-to-day, week-to-week, or month-to-month to live in a tiny hotel room.  The conditions are dismal at best.  

We met up with a few other volunteers off-sight and prayed over our day before driving to our location.  When we arrived, we set up the games, clothing tables, bouncy house, and food tables in an open field on the property.  As we made trips to and from our cars to unload, I kept seeing curtains move as residents peeked out to see what was going on.  The ministry we were working with has been serving there for almost a year and hosts weekly dinners and Bible studies, so they had put the word out about the festival.  Still, I imagine many people were skeptical about what we were up to.

Around 11am, people slowly started coming out.  Between the smell of the grill and the sight of the giant colorful bouncy house, we were drawing them in.  Most started out at the clothing tables, where "personal shoppers" helped them dig through mounds of clothes to find things that fit.  The kids that came jumped right into the games, running from the face painting table to the lollipop tree to pin-the-nose-on-the-pumpkin.  We also had a little photo backdrop set up with bales of hay, a scarecrow, pumpkins, and mums for a family picture.  There was a photo printer set-up so they got to have their picture to take with them.  Lunch was waiting when they wanted it, along with colorful homemade cupcakes for dessert.  We spent nearly three hours hanging out, talking with, and loving on the residents that showed up before it was time to pack it in.  I was exhausted, but I walked away feeling incredibly full, blessed, and grateful.  Grateful not only for the opportunity to get outside of myself and be the hands and feet of Christ for a day, but also for the home and material things my family and I own that I constantly take for granted. 

Instead of a typical TT post, I wanted to share five moments from that day that will stay with me:

1.  Helping a young mom rifle through infant clothes to find winter things that would fit her 9 month old baby boy.  My mind flashed to the closet in our baby boy's nursery that already has outfits on hangers inside.

2.  As we were packing up, my friend that had been taking the pictures was asking me what we needed to do with the crumbling bales of hay.  A sweet woman who lived there overheard us and asked, "If y'all are going to throw the mums away, may I have one?"  I told her I would love for her to have one of the flowers.  She argued and I insisted.  As she gratefully accepted the flower, she said something so simple in passing:  "I love...well, when I had my home I loved...putting out mums in the fall."  It struck a chord with me big time.

3.  There was a little five year old girl that patiently waited for her family to take a group shot together.  She kept telling a nearby volunteer that she was going to keep waiting until they came over because she'd never had a family picture taken.  

4.  Getting to serve alongside the ladies in my group.  It bonds you in a way nothing else can.  I was so proud as I watched them dive in, work hard, and show the love of Christ to strangers.

5.  Surprising the leader of the ministry with boxes and boxes of food for her food pantry before we left.  Her team assembles "weekend bags" of food for children in a local elementary school who have been deemed to be in the worst case latch-key situations.  Most get a hot meal for lunch five days a week but are on their own, often unsupervised, during the weekends and need easy-to-open/easy prep foods.  Knowing our touch was going to extend beyond that day and that particular crowd was awesome.

Please join me in praying for these families, especially the children.  Please also pray that David and I make time to get involved like this more often, be it there or elsewhere.  It's easy to give one day here and there, but to make service a regular part of your schedule takes intentional planning and commitment.  Despite the effort, it's the only consistent antidote I've found to selfish-centeredness and greed and is certainly a calling of Christ that we need to heed.  As I quoted last week, "Sometimes the only way people know they matter to God is if they matter to you."  I know I personally need to work on making people feel mattered around this county.  Meeting their physical needs is a doorway to meeting their spiritual ones for sure and of course that's the real reason we should be doing it.

Thankful Thursday

I woke up in a panic remembering that I hadn't written a TT post, so here I am.  Okay, that's not exactly true.  I woke up to go to the bathroom (as I have every night since I was pregnant with Audrey) and then decided I was hungry (as I am about once a week in the middle of the night) and then couldn't get back to sleep after eating my cereal (as is often a pregnancy hazard.)  SO, I decided I'd bless you with a TT post since I'm up anyway.

1.  A good night's sleep.  Not tonight's, obviously, but Sunday's.  It seems like the past three weeks have been rough in this department between having a cold, anxiety/excitement, lingering coughs from one of us, and David's traveling.  But Sunday night I got eight hours straight (minus that middle of the night pitstop) with no tossing and turning and woke up without an alarm.  It was the first good stretch I can remember in forever and it was so lovely.  Consequently, I was a very patient and productive Mommy on Monday.  Unfortunately things aren't looking good for later today.

2.  Being a part of a God-size project.  Our church, 12Stone, is having CIA (Compassion in Action) this Saturday.  There will be 2,400 volunteers working on 90 different projects ranging from prison ministry to sewing blankets for shelters to construction/painting in single moms' homes.  My women's small group is doing a fall festival and clothing giveaway for families in transitional housing that I'm really excited about.  Hopefully I'll have the time to post more about it later, but please pray for the people we're serving.  Also, please pray that volunteers (myself included) are moved to continue their service beyond just tomorrow.  "Sometimes the only way people know they matter to God is if they matter to you."  - Pastor Kevin Myers

3.  My father-in-law, Ed, whose birthday was yesterday.  He's one of the nicest, hardest-working, and smartest men I know and I'm very grateful to be a part of his family.  One of the coolest things has been for David and I to see him shine in a grandfather role.  He's so wrapped, it's pathetic. ;)  Can't wait to see how he handles two.  We love you, Ed!

4.  Rainy days.  I'm sure I've mentioned this several times before, but I love rainy days.  I would prefer it rain at least 40% - 50% of the time.  Maybe slightly less now that I have a toddler who needs to get out and let some energy loose, but I do love them.  We have had our fair share this week and boy have we needed it!  Cozy, cozy, cozy.

5.  I was browsing through my iTunes trying to find a song to post for this week and was noticing the "number of plays" column.  One line stood out to me because it had 17.  Then I realized it was "Red Means Stop", which is one of Audrey's favorite songs that we like to turn on and dance to.  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share it with you:



Going to try to head back to bed and catch a few more z's before the next 48 hours of busy craziness begin.  Have a great Friday and weekend, everyone!

Friendly Reminder of What NOT to Say to Pregnant Women

When I was pregnant with Audrey I wrote a post about the top 12 things not to say to a pregnant woman.  Unfortunately, I've been experiencing deja vu and hearing a number of them again lately.  If you haven't already (or even if you have), do all expecting women everywhere a favor and read it here:

http://thesinyards.blogspot.com/2009/04/what-not-to-say-to-pregnant-woman.html

Of course, were I writing it now, the gender would change, I'd have my own horrifying labor and delivery story that didn't include an epidural after all, and I'd add asking if we're done (we are - and, YES, we still would've been if it was a girl) and then following up with the "But why?!" (Many reasons.  But unless you are gonna carry, birth, raise, and pay for a 3rd for us, you don't need to ask.)  But you get the gist.

Enjoy it.  And offer a sweet compliment to the next preggo momma you see.

Thankful Thursday with a BONUS update!

I've been meaning to get on here and write about the fantastic time we had last weekend, but never got around to it.  Humor me while I give you a quick update before this week's TT list:


I headed into the weekend feeling a little overwhelmed with our to-do list.  I want to get as much baby preparation done as possible before the holidays because I know how chaotic that time of year can be and I figure I won't feel much like it come January.  So that basically leaves the next seven weeks to check off some big items, and of course David is traveling like crazy right now.  But, the good news is that with with our powers combined, he and I are quite the accomplishing force.  We began the weekend with zero clue on what we wanted nursery-wise and ended it having ordered furniture and purchased bedding. (More details to come.)  We also narrowed down our name list to two choices though there's no way I'm telling until we're certain.  Just be thankful we're going to announce it before he's born this time.  Quite a productive weekend, huh?  AND, on top of all of that, he and I had an awesome date night on Friday night.  We took a long walk, visited a local restaurant we'd never been to before, and then came home and had a fire in our fire pit.  We snuggled close and roasted marshmallows for s'mores.  It was nauseatingly romantic.  :)


SO, I'm most definitely thankful for last weekend.  And you would think such an awesome time would have carried me through his next business trip this week.  I gotta confess, though, that it didn't.  I'm not sure why, but it's been a really tough few days!  Being pregnant, having a toddler, and dealing with back-to-back single mommy weeks took its toll.  Especially when I was going to bed on west coast time (he was in CA) but getting up on east coast time.  I finally broke down on the phone with him last night.  It was really late and I can't remember all of what was said, but the gist of it was mommy guilt and exhaustion.  I remember sobbing something about not having given her a green vegetable in five days and losing my temper over potty training to which he calmly replied, "You're doing the best you can.  You just gotta keep her alive."  This is pretty much our motto when he's traveling, and it was good of him to remind me.


SO, God brought us through, David just got home, and he'll be here all next week.  Of course, he does have customers in so there may be some late nights.  Just pray I don't snap and show up at one of his customer dinners to drop AJ off.  


Here is the list of things I'm thankful for this week:


1.  A two year old's version of hide-and-go-seek.  Audrey hides in plain view, can hardly wait until I'm finished counting to ten, and then jumps out in front of me while cracking up.  I love it.


2.  Rocky road ice cream.  And 3 more weeks before my next weight check at the doctor's office.


3.  Temperatures that make it comfortable to be in long sleeves and a t-shirt.  My favorite!  


4.  Humidifiers.  All of us have had a constant nighttime cough for almost two weeks. I finally broke out the humidifier for Audrey's room and I don't think I've heard anything from her since.  I wish I'd done that sooner.


5.  If you're a new blog reader, you may not know that the #5 item on my Thankful Thursday list is always a song.  This is because A) I'm grateful for music and B) It allows me to share my tastes with you and chronicle them for my kids, who I hope will some day read these random ramblings.  My pick this week is "Shake Heaven" by Montell Jordan.  You may remember him from his huge hit in the 90s, "This is How We Do It." He recently left his R&B career and is now the worship pastor at Victory World Church.  He released this song a few months ago.  It kept my spirit and motivation up several times this week!