My Ebenezer

Ask Noah how old his daddy is, and you'll hear "FIRTY!" Today is Josh's 30th birthday, and we have decided to celebrate! It was tempting for him just to let this one roll on by, but no. I wasn't going to let him get away with that. Thirty is...is...I don't know how to describe thirty, but we're going to do our best to make it a banner year and not focus on how old we are getting. :) We are having a little party tonight, and hopefully I can remember to take some pictures and post them soon along with a sappy tribute to my husband! And you wouldn't want to miss that, now would you? Happy Birthday, Josh! Here's to being Firty.

The following song has been running through my head for the past week or so. Is this the kindness of God, or what? Do you ever notice that God sometimes puts JUST the song or Bible verse you need in the back of your mind and it will just come to you, or you'll catch yourself humming along to the track in your head? Well, okay, maybe it's just me. Anyway, today I'm thankful for "God my Maker who gives songs in the night." Job 35:10 Not just the literal night, but the night of our trials as well. (I was going to highlight the parts of the song which were most meaningful to me, but I found myself highlighting the whole thing!) "Bow the Knee" There are moments on our journey following the Lord Where God illumines ev’ry step we take. There are times when circumstances make perfect sense to us, As we try to understand each move He makes. When the path grows dim and our questions have no answers, turn to Him. *Bow the knee; Trust the heart of your Father w...

Noah's been infatuated with frisbees lately. Josh got a Wii game system for Christmas, and there are a couple frisbee games on there that Noah loves. He's been practicing on the Wii, and then watch out when he gets a real frisbee in his hand! You just never know where that thing will end up. In the picture just below, he was aiming to throw it to me, and it went to the fence behind him. :) And as for his form? Impeccable. Wait... Make that HILARIOUS!!!

We've been studying the book of Job on Wednesday nights in Bible Study. I love the book of Job, not because I have ever experienced anything remotely similar to Job's losing everything, but because he puts into words the emotions I've felt over the course of the trials I've faced. I like it because God comes through so mightily and reminds Job who He is. And, strangely, I like it because nowhere in the whole book does God ever explain why Job went through what he did. God rarely if ever shows us why either, but reminds us that "why" is not the point. The point is, who God is and that He can be trusted. I've experienced many trials in my life so far: the divorce of my parents when I was a young child, the death of my father when I was 11, a physical assault by a stranger when I was 15, the sudden death of my brother a few years ago, and five years of infertility to name the biggest of them. Though each one of those trials was difficult in its own way...

I've been thinking a lot lately about rearranging my priorities. I'm finding that I have more To Do's left on my list at the end of my days than I'm able to accomplish and that it's happening every day. There was a time when I was getting most things done and feeling fairly satisfied with a day's accomplishments, but not lately. Lately every day is a frustration for me, as I watch the hours pass and days go by getting seemingly very little done. Why is this happening? I think it's due to a few factors: The biggest is that Noah's naptime has shortened considerably within the last month or so. He used to take a consistent 3 to 3 1/2 hour nap Every Day. I could count on the hours from 1-4 or 1-4:30pm being child-free. That's a HUGE chunk of time to accomplish just about anything, so I would push all the neccessaries into that timeframe and I usually got it all done! However, I've noticed the last month or so that Noah has been waking up betw...

Jen, Brianne, Noah, and I went to a very cool place over the weekend as part of our monthly Playpals get-together. The Hands-On Children's Museum is not too far from here and was such a fun place to take the kids! Everything in there is touchable and kid-friendly, which is Kid Heaven, as you can imagine. They have different stations all around the place set up as miniatures that you would find in the adult world: they have a post office where kids can sort "mail", stamp things, and open mailboxes. There is a huge wooden fire truck loaded with boots, real fireman hats and coats, there's a police station, veterinary clinic complete with x-ray machine and stuffed animals. They have a bank with real adding machines and computers, a grocery store with (empty) food boxes and a real cash register, a theater where kids can dress up and put on a show on-stage. Not to mention the pirate ship, train depot, and Noah's favorite; a basketball court with wheelchairs so you can p...

By far one of Noah's favorite stories is The Three Little Pigs. There are other stories on his favorites list, but somehow this is the story he knows the best and recites often. Here's a video of him telling his very condensed, yet very animated, version of the story:

Here's what I got at Publix this week for $26.58 2 pkg Lender's Bagels 1 pkg Goldfish Crackers 2 bottles Olive Oil 2 boxes Cheez-Its 1 box Scotties Tissues 2 jars Smucker's Jam 2 jars Applesauce 4 cans Progresso soup 1 dozen eggs 6 Dannon Yogurts 3 apples 1 huge crown of broccoli 2 pkgs Halls Cough Drops Spent $26.58. Saved $33.58. What a blessing!!!

The ladies of Truth Baptist Church had so much fun at our ladies' meeting last Tuesday evening! The theme was "Cozy Slippers", which Jen and I had some reservations about. Would it be cheesy? Would it be dumb? But no!! It was very enjoyable, and very well-received! :) We are praising the Lord for a great time of fellowship with all the ladies. After our Bible study focusing on the tongue and our words, we enjoyed delicious food and a craft. Most of the ladies also brought slippers to wear for the evening. I'm really enjoying getting to know these ladies better each month!

We've been working with Noah lately on Psalm 23. Last week he learned Ps 23:1, and this week we're trying to learn verse 2: "He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters." Last night we were trying to explain to him more about the psalm; that it's talking about all the things the shepherd will do for His sheep. We explained all about what a pasture was--a great big soft green field of grass--and thought we were doing really well getting Noah to understand the psalm better. At the end I quizzed him: Me (confident he'll get this right): "So, Noah, what is a pasture?" Noah: "Pastor Masitto!" (our former pastor) Lying down in green pastors must be....interesting! Well hopefully one day Noah will understand all this scripture he's been memorizing. :) For fun, here's Noah reciting Psalm 23:1 "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want."

Getting ready to chop up some firewood. It. Was. COLD!! Ugh, it's bothering me that I can't be on here more! Do you have things like that in your life? Things that are your Favorites, which must be put on the back burner to make way for the Dailies? This is the story of my life these days. :) First, though I hate to take time for a weather report, I feel that I just must make an exception to tell you that it has been FREEZING COLD here for the past week and a half to two weeks. 20's at night. 30's-40's in the day. This makes for some rather lonely time at the park for Noah ("Where are all the kids, Mommy? Is it just us today?"), and some rather long days inside since I personally do not like the cold. In a pinch, I've been bundling him up and sending him outside in the backyard to play while I stay in the comfort of my 69 degree house. Under my electric blanket. Drinking hot tea. You get the idea. Thankfully, I do believe a warm-up is on the way. Look...

I've had several people tell me lately to "Relax!" and I must admit that relaxing is not something I do very well. I'm naturally an uptight person. I've shocked you, right? :) You're speechless at learning this new fact about me, aren't you? Admit it! Ok, NOT!! If you know me, you could have written this chapter about me already. :) Anyway, I've been really listening to myself throughout the days lately, and I'm realizing everyone is right. You're right. If you have told me to relax lately, thank you! What I'm hearing from my own mouth is this high-pitched insistent tone of voice barking out commands that, when you think about it, don't really matter all that much in the grand scheme of things. "Cut that out !" " Stop that!" "Stand right here!" "You're so loud !" "Put that down !" "Stop bouncing!" (sometimes I think I am parenting Tigger himself rather than a two-year-old...

Matt, Jen, and Brianne were over at our house last week for dinner and to play a little Wii (Josh's Christmas present). The kids were just chillin' on the couch, which happens so seldom that we had to get a picture! By the way, if you haven't heard their news yet, Jen is expecting a baby the beginning of July! How exciting!

My mom flew in to Jacksonville on the 29th of December and spent a week with us. I know she especially loved seeing Noah, and we enjoyed having her here with us. It's nice to have someone to help make the food, and talk to during the day. While she was here, I "made" her fix fried chicken with vegetables, biscuits, rice, and gravy for us, since that was my favorite meal growing up (and really is still right up there at the top of the list). We also had a good time going on outings in the mornings and resting in the afternoons. Here are some pictures from the day we went to the zoo: A rare luxury: feeding the giraffe! It costs $2 to feed the giraffe, which always makes Josh remark, "That's some pretty expensive lettuce!" But my mom took pity and dug deep on Noah's behalf. :) Thanks, Mom! Giggling with glee Still giggling! They had a huge bouncy-slide set up for New Year's Eve, which Noah got to ride. I did too, because the hike to the top of the sl...

I was thinking the other day that I needed to get back to blogging again because it had been a few days...and a week and a half later, here I am! Once again I have more to say than time to say it, and don't know where to begin. I feel like it's the same song I keep singing on here: "It's been a while since I last blogged but now I'm back..." It must be the season of life I am in at the present time. Sometimes it's nice to step back and enjoy life rather than sitting down to blog about it. Other times I know I definitely love to have the written record of our life, so I always come back. And I'm back!