Favorite Day

Wednesdays are my favorite day of the week this school year.

We have speech and TKD, then OT and TKD at the start of the week so we run around both afternoons. I don't think any of us especially enjoy it.  Altho, its fine.  Peter certainly enjoys speech and OT.  But I think he's just tired by time its TKD.  And it all just feels a little tense.

I've realized this week that I need to soak her in... its our last weeks together, just the two of us.  And I need to make sure we are in the best possible place for both of them before we rock this boat with a new one.  We'll start packing next week so it could be our last week of a slightly orderly routine.

{Sometime we run out to do other things, but yesterday we just sat at OT.  She thought we should do Sudoku.  I tried to tell her it was for grown ups, but she wasn't convinced so we worked on it.  It was good number writing practice and she liked 'taking turns' to do it together.  I did thoroughly enjoy the physical closeness so that was the selling point for me.  I wasn't able to "solve" the puzzle.}

 Then it progressed to this... fill my love tank.

  I need to work on my selfie skills to cut the double chin.

But Wednesdays are our free day.  I can feel my body relax on Wed mornings, after Peter gets out the door.  ;)  Its nice to head to sewing class.

I took in the snack today.  It was sorta fun to make them.  I don't bake often.

After school on Wednesdays, we just get to play.  It feels like we really should do what I want to do... just play!  It took a little extra encouragement today, but then they got in the zone.  Peter was telling Lily how to phonetically spell words and then Lily was typing them on the iPad keyboard, connected to nothing.  It was sweet. 

And there was some of this... 

 Then "sleeping"...

 I have time to cook dinner, and then we do homework.

We can now do it all in one night.  Which maybe isn't totally ideal, but its what needs to work with our schedule.

Doing Y this week.... making it the end, altho it hasn't gone in order.

Each week, he has to read a Y poem, find and circle all the Yy's.  

Write Y and ys.  Write your name- first and last.

Cut out or draw and color pics of things that start with the letter of the week.

Then phonetically write the word you've cut out or drawn.

Thankful for the "break" that Wednesdays are!!

Meanwhile, at the river house...

I can't believe this was two years ago!

Saturday we had a little re-do and it was just as awesome.  It was sunny and pretty on Saturday, probably a high in the mid-60s.  The sand toys came out first, then the kids thought it was warm enough to get in the water.  So they did!  Of course, we didn't have swim suits with us.  Underpants work great!  If you could hear the sounds from these pics... GIGGLES and JOY and SQUEALING (lots of squealing this weekend)!

 Peter insisted right away in bringing over the slide.  Warning: lost of pictures! :)

 They weren't excited or anything- Lily's feet off the ground.

 That face is so gorgeous.

Mom and I went to our favorite consignment shop, looking for a dresser for the baby boy.  I saw this one and it was the perfect size but old so the drawers weren't on runners.  We we will keep looking- or go back again.

 Love this gorgeous face too.

 Had to get an updated teeth picture... they are coming in... 

 This girl had a nice loooong afternoon beauty rest.  Love a sleeping pic.

 We celebrated Paw's birthday.  Although, I accidentally deleted the pic of Paw and Maw together.

 The required cupcake eating pics.

And some snuggles from this sweet, sweet girl.

For a few weeks, I've been telling Mike that the kids are having a hard time playing and pretending together.  There is lots of bickering instead.  The best part of the weekend (maybe tied with selling our house!) is that the kids pretended and played and had fun together all weekend.  Maybe it did them good to step away from our normal setting and just be together.  It was wonderful to see.

Wonderful Whirlwind

Its been months in the making.  Its been a step of faith.  Its been lists, lists, and more lists.

Its been joyful too.  And wonderful that we get to do this.

My mom was here with us the end of last week.

We finished off all the the very last little tasks... We iced the cake, if you will.

We cleaned, raked, swept, and Mike painted a floor.  We vacuumed, and steamed floors, and bought a valance that we'd lost in packing; we ate, and washed and Windex'ed.  And ran kids here and there, and painted more trim.

And we stopped to play ball and we laughed because we were getting punchy.

Then on Friday afternoon, we walked away.  One whole hour before the bus stop (write it down- I'm rarely early), we locked up the house and drove away.  Our house was on the market!!!  Woah, it felt sorta like a wedding day... the feeling of 'I've never done this before, but I'm taking the plunge'.

 We got Peter.  We got milkshakes.  And we drove to the river.  And we napped.... all but Maw.

There had been some build up.  We'd had a post in our front yard for a few weeks.  I was so thankful... and told HIM so, over and over... that with all the bad weather, snow, and rain we've had this winter, we had a week of sunshine leading up to listing our house.  We "listed" on Wed and had "delayed showings" til Friday at 5pm.  I was a mix of excited and relaxed (these two below with their foot therapy helped...), hopeful and trying to curb my expectations.

There were 3 showings on Friday night, 2 on Saturday, and an open house planned for Sunday.  That felt good but I was also preparing myself to be able to go a longer haul.

By 7pm, we had a call that there were 2 offers.  (!!!)

We talked it over, talked with our realtor, worked it out, and by 10:30pm we were "under contract" with one of them!!!.

Unbelieveable!!!

Mike and I kept squealing in disbelief.  Mike was pumped too!

It's all felt surreal in some ways, yet in others, its just felt like we could soak in God's care for us.  What a gift!

Saturday am, I read psalm 126... perfect, fitting, & profound.
It is not lost on me that this season is different that it has been.  I am oh so thankful.
My eyes want to see it.  To see what He has for us here too.  To not be lost in the rush.

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,

    we were like those who dream.

 

Then our mouth was filled with laughter,

    and our tongue with shouts of joy;

then they said among the nations,

    “The Lord has done great things for them.”

 

The Lord has done great things for us;

    we are glad.

Restore our fortunes, O Lord,

    like streams in the Negeb!

 

Those who sow in tears

    shall reap with shouts of joy!

 

He who goes out weeping,

    bearing the seed for sowing,

shall come home with shouts of joy,

    bringing his sheaves with him.

So, so great to come home to this!!!

Clean Water

Many of you have read here (specifically here & here- and other posts since) that my cousin's (who I think of as my SISTER) husband passed away 3 years ago at the young age of 31.  

Walking through that with her has blessed and shaped so much of me.

She has begun raising money to build a well to honor him in Kenya, Africa. 

Be still my heart.  God is good.

Would you join us in helping her to raise close to $10,000 to build the well and to GO!

She is a Community Planner in Currituck County, NC and she will travel with the team to the community where the well will be built this coming summer!!! 

Read more of her story & give here:

Charlie's Well

Progress

Coming up on 35 weeks!! Only about 5 more to go!

What the heck?

We had our new house inspection today!

All looked great!

It got me super excited and helped put any hesitations to rest. :)

What on earth will we do with so much space?!  I can't wait to find out.

Baby Boy, we can't wait to meet you.  It feels quite surreal.  But stay put til close to 40 weeks and be easy on your mama!!

New House!!!

My heart has wanted more space ever since we first thought we were having more kids and I couldn't get the idea of more kids out of my head.  But over time, God was good to help me surrender that desire to Him and trust Him.

Well, the time has finally come!  We've been getting our house ready to sell over the last few months.  

And isn't it looking so so cute and good?!

We found a house that we liked over the weekend!  We made an offer and have a contract.  

Its been a wild ride of emotions, that I didn't totally expect.  

(Altho, I should have, knowing myself.)

Its the thrill of 'wow, God is providing this great house at just the right time'.  Truthfully, I have just been thrilled to get our current house thinned down and fixed up (loving the lack of clutter!) and have been relishing in the fact that we are getting to have another baby.  So it felt like an easy place to rest in trusting God's timing. 

Its the thrill of 'its so much bigger! and has so many great things about it'!

To the sadness of 'we are leaving this house that we've brought two babies home to, and spent hours playing in the back yard, and I've painted every square inch of the awesome chunky trim and wood work, to oh no, our new bedrooms are smaller and not as charming'.

But I can't complain and pout about God's good provision to us!! 

This morning I read in Jonah 4 after it was mentioned at church yesterday.  And the Spirit reminded of good truths that need to sink deep into me.

 "I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity."

The Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh..."

It convicted me that God is gracious and compassionate, and not as caring about my old hardwood floors and chunky molding, and painted brick.

Our new house allows us to welcome more people, to show hospitality and compassion.  And it is wonderful!  Thank you, Lord!

Girlie (& Lunch) Happenings

She loves to help around the house. I'm trying not to quench this fire before its actually helpful.

She loves to help with cooking.  Making some blue cupcakes to celebrate our little boy and just because we are hungry and its winter.

She LOVES to make a list and to make cards.  We've had a list for the river house weekend, and lists for the pool (dreaming!).  And the drawings and cards.  There are 10-20 cards made daily.  Paper is on my grocery list for this week.

This past week, we went out for our first haircut at the salon.  I usually do it but thought I'd get her a "real" cut.  She enjoyed the pampering.  :)

And then we did nails afterwards.

She is just a sweet snuggly little girl in the mornings and loves her Daddy, for good reason.  She won't snuggle with me like she used to.  But I can still sneak some from time to time. 

Her voice.  Her voice just kills me.  She has such a high pitched little girly voice, esp when she sings. 

And yesterday, I took the kids out to lunch.  Mike had a meeting after church.  We've done this once before when he had a meeting.  It could become a fun, little tradition for us.