Tuesday, January 31, 2012

TOTS

Sara Beth has been doing TOTS after school on Thursdays. They had a halftime performance during Belhaven's game on Saturday. You can tell she was really nervous before. About halfway through you could see her loosen up and start having fun! She has a 45 minute performace in May! I truly can't imagine what they will do for 45 minutes!




Monday, January 30, 2012

Dribble, dribble


On Saturday, we went to a Belhaven girls basketball game to watch Sara Beth do a TOTS performance at halftime (more on that later). Sam was so into watching the game and Sara Beth. He has been trying to dribble ever since! The girls and I think he's pretty cute!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

I missed a week of my life

I know I really didn't miss a week, but it sure feels like that.  I have been thinking there were two weeks left until February 1st.  I learned today, only after causing minor chaos among MOMS leadership, that this isn't the case!   Usually I am a very by the calendar person, so this has kind of thrown me all day!  ha!  Next week at MOMS is our missions conference and our expert panel!  I am very excited about the panel.  It has 3 ladies on it that are expert because they have reared Godly children and have been married many years! I can't wait to hear what they have to say to all of our questions!

In discipleship group on Wednesday nights we are reading Maximum Impact by Wayne Mack.  Overall, I really like the book.  He has definitely made me think.  It takes 1 Cor 13 and talks about love not from a marriage perspective, but on how to love so we can make the maximum impact for Christ.  Last week, we were talking about love believes all things.  Honestly, I have never really given it much thought about what this means.  Our group had a really good discussion as we thought through it.  There was one quote in here that I really liked.  It is especially important to think this way towards our spouse.  It is actually a John MacArthur quote, "Love will always opt for the most favorable possibility.  If a loved one is accused of something wrong, love will consider him innocent until proven guilty. If he turns out to be guilty, love will give him credit for the best motive."

Click here for Shirley Windham's 2nd talk!

Oh, and losing a week in January just means that my friend Rebecca gets here a week sooner!  Feb 3rd! That was definitely a perk to my chaotic day!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Sam

Sam, I am so far behind!  You turned 18 months on January 2nd and I am just now getting around to doing your post.  Your 18 month check up was last week and you are 33 inches (a little over 75%), and 23 pounds (15%)!  You are the sweetest thing ever! You absolutely love your daddy.  If he is home when you need to be comforted you run right past me to him!  You also adore your sisters.  You play well with them and try your best to keep up with them.  Sometimes this means carrying around a baby doll while wearing beads--yikes!  That's okay though because you love cars and balls.  Your favorite right now is a remote control tractor you got for Christmas.  You LOVE to read.  You bring me books throughout the day.  Your favorite is Roadwork.  This just makes me smile real big, because Dub was a highway man, and he would be so proud! You are a real good eater.  You easily eat more than your sisters.  You go to sleep about 6:30 and wake up about 7:30 (sometimes later!).  You still take 2 naps every day.  When you are home you jabber all the time.  Not so much when you are in public.  You have a lot of words, but only one sentence--"I want ____".  This may be  I want up, dip (you like to dip your food in stuff), to read,your paci, or even your drink.  You are wearing 24 month clothes and a size 3 diaper. My May and Bo Bo gave you some boots for Christmas and you love them.  Actually you like having shoes on in general. You have started throwing fits when you don't get your way.  They are so funny-even though they aren't.  I think you are slowly catching on that you don't get what you want in our house in you throw a fit! We love you so much! You sure do add a lot to our family! 

First ride in Bo Bo's convertible

playing cars with Trey Adams at gymnastics
I was really so proud of you for sharing!


 This just absolutely melts my heart!

I love this pic and it was taken with my iphone with no editing!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

In my last post, I mentioned that MOMS Bible Study at FPCJ was doing a study on marriage.  Shirley Windham is teaching and is going to do a weekly summary.  (Click on her name and it will take you there--I think!)  Wednesday was so good!  I can't wait to start my homework today and for our study again next Wednesday!

Our week has been pretty un-exciting--which has been great!  Sam, Leigh and I spent a little time at the park before getting Sara Beth from school!


Leigh took her doll to school for show-n-tell. She loved the fact she was dressed like her doll.

About 2 mornings a week I go to a spin class before Zeb leaves for work.  Yesterday on my way home I could not get over the sunrise!  As the girls say, "Momma, God is saying good morning!"  

Last night we went and ate Mexican and came home for some good snuggle time!  My arms are full! I sure love these three!

Friday, January 6, 2012

You Never Marry the Right Person by Tim Kellar

You might have seen this by now.  I know it is floating all over facebook.  It definitely has an intriguing title that makes you stop.  It's worth stopping and taking 3 or 4 minutes to read.  It is an excerpt from his book The Meaning of Marriage that you can find in Relevant Magazine. This spring in MOMS Bible study we will be doing a study from the book Marriage Matters.  Shirley Windham is teaching and I feel pretty confident in saying that we will be hearing similar things to this this semester.  Marriage Matters talks about how it it the very ordinary moments in life that can make a marriage extraordinary.  Both would be good books to pick up if you are looking for good reading!  If you are interested in MOMS Bible Study let me know.  Sign ups are going on now and it starts on Wednesday.  All ladies with kiddos 6th grade and under, or those who would love to be a mom one day are invited!
Anyway...the article...

How our culture misunderstands compatibility.
In generations past, there was far less talk about “compatibility” and finding the ideal soul-mate. Today we are looking for someone who accepts us as we are and fulfills our desires, and this creates an unrealistic set of expectations that frustrates both the searchers and the searched for.
In John Tierney’s classic humor article “Picky, Picky, Picky” he tries nobly to get us to laugh at the impossible situation our culture has put us in. He recounts many of the reasons his single friends told him they had given up on their recent relationships:
“She mispronounced ‘Goethe.’” “How could I take him seriously after seeing The Road Less Traveled on his bookshelf?” “If she would just lose seven pounds.” “Sure, he’s a partner, but it’s not a big firm. And he wears those short black socks.” “Well, it started out great ... beautiful face, great body, nice smile. Everything was going fine—until she turned around.” He paused ominously and shook his head. ”... She had dirty elbows.”
In other words, some people in our culture want too much out of a marriage partner. They do not see marriage as two flawed people coming together to create a space of stability, love and consolation, a “haven in a heartless world,” as Christopher Lasch describes it. Rather, they are looking for someone who will accept them as they are, complement their abilities and fulfill their sexual and emotional desires. This will indeed require a woman who is “a novelist/astronaut with a background in fashion modeling,” and the equivalent in a man. A marriage based not on self-denial but on self-fulfillment will require a low- or no-maintenance partner who meets your needs while making almost no claims on you. Simply put—today people are asking far too much in the marriage partner.
You never marry the right person
The Bible explains why the quest for compatibility seems to be so impossible. As a pastor I have spoken to thousands of couples, some working on marriage-seeking, some working on marriage-sustaining and some working on marriage-saving. I’ve heard them say over and over, “Love shouldn’t be this hard, it should come naturally.” In response I always say something like: “Why believe that? Would someone who wants to play professional baseball say, ‘It shouldn’t be so hard to hit a fastball’? Would someone who wants to write the greatest American novel of her generation say, ‘It shouldn’t be hard to create believable characters and compelling narrative’?” The understandable retort is: “But this is not baseball or literature. This is love. Love should just come naturally if two people are compatible, if they are truly soul-mates. “
The Christian answer to this is that no two people are compatible. Duke University Ethics professor Stanley Hauerwas has famously made this point:
Destructive to marriage is the self-fulfillment ethic that assumes marriage and the family are primarily institutions of personal fulfillment, necessary for us to become "whole" and happy. The assumption is that there is someone just right for us to marry and that if we look closely enough we will find the right person. This moral assumption overlooks a crucial aspect to marriage. It fails to appreciate the fact that we always marry the wrong person.
We never know whom we marry; we just think we do. Or even if we first marry the right person, just give it a while and he or she will change. For marriage, being [the enormous thing it is] means we are not the same person after we have entered it. The primary challenge of marriage is learning how to love and care for the stranger to whom you find yourself married.
Hauerwas gives us the first reason that no two people are compatible for marriage, namely, that marriage profoundly changes us. But there is another reason. Any two people who enter into marriage are spiritually broken by sin, which among other things means to be self-centered—living life incurvatus in se. As author Denis de Rougemont said, “Why should neurotic, selfish, immature people suddenly become angels when they fall in love ... ?” That is why a good marriage is more painfully hard to achieve than athletic or artistic prowess. Raw, natural talent does not enable you to play baseball as a pro or write great literature without enduring discipline and enormous work. Why would it be easy to live lovingly and well with another human being in light of what is profoundly wrong within our human nature? Indeed, many people who have mastered athletics and art have failed miserably at marriage. So the biblical doctrine of sin explains why marriage—more than anything else that is good and important in this fallen world—is so painful and hard.
No false choices
The reason that marriage is so painful and yet wonderful is because it is a reflection of the Gospel, which is painful and wonderful at once. The Gospel is—we are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared to believe, and at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope. This is the only kind of relationship that will really transform us. Love without truth is sentimentality; it supports and affirms us but keeps us in denial about our flaws. Truth without love is harshness; it gives us information but in such a way that we cannot really hear it. God’s saving love in Christ, however, is marked by both radical truthfulness about who we are and yet also radical, unconditional commitment to us. The merciful commitment strengthens us to see the truth about ourselves and repent. The conviction and repentance moves us to cling to and rest in God’s mercy and grace.
The hard times of marriage drive us to experience more of this transforming love of God. But a good marriage will also be a place where we experience more of this kind of transforming love at a human level.
Excerpt from THE MEANING OF MARRIAGE © 2011 by Timothy Keller with Kathy Keller.  Published by Dutton, A Member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Excerpted with permission from the publisher. All Rights Reserved.