My Ebenezer

It's summer time, and little kids (at least mine) tend to spend the entire season with bumps, bruises, scrapes, and cuts all over every square inch of skin that is not covered with clothing. Right now, for example, there is a purple bruise by Noah's eye, another on his cheek, and several cuts on his hands and legs. It is at this time that I am reminded yet again that not everything that is good for us feels good at the time. The best thing for these cuts would be to clean them with alcohol. All I have to do is mention "alcohol" and Noah turns into a screaming meemie, begging and pleading with me not to use it. He's more concerned with how alcohol will feel now . I am more concerned with the healing process and that alcohol will make it feel better later . I think to some extent it's the same with God. He in His sovereignty sees that our trials now, though very painful, will work good for us (or Him) later. "But, Lord, it hurts now." "But think h...

Today I woke up and decided we needed to do something different. I have loved unpacking and setting things up, but I cannot say the same thing for Noah. I haven't been much fun for him the last few weeks I'm afraid. Convicted that he is a precious part of my life (much more important to me than how my home looks), and wanting to spend a fun morning with him, the zoo popped into my mind. You should have seen his face when I told him we were going to the zoo. Me: "Time to get your shoes on, Noah!" Noah (sounding less than excited): "Where are we going?" Me: "I think we'll go to the zoo. How does that sound?" Noah (little gears turning in his mind as he lets the weight of my suggestion sink in): "THE ZOOOOOO!! THE ZOOOOO!!!" he shrieks. Shrieks, I tell you. I think he was excited. He was in his carseat all buckled in the space of about a minute, yelling for me as I scrambled around finding the sunscreen, snack, and water bottle (who need...

Noah Samuel-son is Josh's nickname for Noah. Nicknames are usually shorter than your actual name, I realize, but nonetheless. I thought I'd do a post about Noah, since he's been left out of my blogs a lot recently, although now that I'm thinking about it, not much has changed with him... Noah is still bounding around as he usually does with endless energy. He's enjoyed having Grammie Rowley here for the last week. Another playmate is always a good thing, right? He still could talk your ear off if you let him. And asks at least a million questions every day. He still basks in the praise of people, and loves to have someone tell him he did a good job. Who doesn't? I'll have to watch him with this in the future, as I don't want his life to rise and fall with the accolades of others. He continues to have a very sunny personality most of the time. I'm noticing that he's all of whatever emotion he's feeling at the time. Happy? His grin takes over h...

Setting up our new home is going pretty well. Last week we got our living room set up and functioning, and we are happy with the coziness of the space. Now for the rest of the house....

This month's Date Night was courtesy of Mom Rowley, who has been here all week! I invited her down for Jen's baby shower, and she was able to come and stay for a week. Allow me to rabbit-trail for a minute.... You know, we always say things like, "The Lord's timing is best", but this week I saw firsthand how true that can be and how He can work out the little details in ways we never imagined. We moved last week. Jen's shower was last week. It was a CrAzY week. We had been scheduled to move twice before over the last 6 months, but this time was for real. When I had invited Mom Rowley down initially, I had no idea we would have moved the weekend before she arrived. Therefore I had no idea how much I would need her here for this week. As usual, she has jumped right in with Noah (and Brianne); taking them to the park and off our hands while we accomplished Necessary Stuff. I've moved lots of times in my life, but this is the first move I've made with a li...

Jen admiring the cake Laughing at the homemade Mother-To-Be lei that Mom Rowley and I made. Me explaining The Price Is Right game we played Jean doing a great job with the lesson. Candy pacifiers made by the Bradley girls. CUTE!!! A. Maze. Ing. That's all I have to say about Laura's cake. Opening gifts More gifts Cute little duck bowl for a decoration The gifts I knew I wanted to give Jen a baby shower from the time she and Matt found out they were having a boy. Having had a girl before, there's just some stuff that can't be shared with the new baby. Clothes being one thing. I don't know how butterfly-and-flowered sheets would go over either. So. A baby shower was in order, but how to pull it off without her feeling awkward about us planning it? Right. It had to be a surprise. Conveniently enough, the ladies just "happen" to get together every month for Ladies' Meetings. Conveniently enough, Jen had already offered in the past to let me run a...

I'm having blogging withdrawals. This happens to me when I can't blog due to time or other constraints. I start composing posts in my head, and coming up with titles for them and dream of the wonderful day when I can sit and write it all down. Then it doesn't happen and I go have a piece of chocolate instead. Just being honest. :) I wanted to post some pictures of our new home all finished. I wanted to do a post about Jen's Surprise Baby Shower, which was last Tuesday, and which the ladies of Truth Baptist Church managed to keep a secret for over a month--praise the Lord! I want to write about all the dailies in our new home. Bear with me, and I just may get it done! For now though, here are some pictures of our kitchen. The kitchen is mostly done. (Kind of like in The Princess Bride when Westley is only "mostly dead." As in that case, there is a big difference between "mostly done" and "all done." I digress....) Items Still To Finish incl...

Thank the Lord we had a successful move on Friday! It was a little crazy at first, since our carpet man had "gone dark" on us the day he was supposed to install the carpet. This meant he was installing carpet WHILE we were moving in. Ever done that? It was a new one for me! And I'm here to tell you, it can be done! ;) But anyway, we're in, and starting to find all our stuff again. By the way, you never realize how much stuff you have til you have to move it all. I could totally have another yard sale (and I might in the Fall, we'll see!). Yesterday I was able to get my kitchen all unpacked and put the way I like it, which was HUGE in contributing to the overall feeling of sanity. I took pictures, but right now I can't find the uploader cable to get them onto the computer, so they'll have to wait. (I wonder how many times I've started a sentence with "I took pictures, but..." It has to be a lot!) Josh and I are loving our new home. I...

It looks as though, after months of rescheduling, that we might actually move this weekend Lord-willing! Just thought you'd like to know that. This is a CRAZY week, but I'm looking forward to finally being settled again. I haven't forgotten my promise to put up pictures of how Cellar is looking these days. Time is just something I don't have a lot of as you can imagine. To whet your appetite, here are a couple pictures of the backsplash we put up in the kitchen last week. And this week I learned to caulk! Imagine that.

Mother's Day. I may find time to post all my deep musings on this holiday, but probably not (have I mentioned we're moving soon?), so instead I'll just give you a glimpse into the mind of my sweet two-year-old and post a photo of our family. Yet another glorious self-shot! Try to contain your excitement. Here was our conversation in the car on our way home from church today. Noah: "Are we going there?" Josh: "Where?" Noah: "To the Happy Mother's House" Joanna: "Noah, what do you mean?" Noah: "Is it Happy Mother's Day today?" Joanna: "yes!" Noah: "So does she live at her house?" Josh: "Who?" Noah: "The Happy Mother!" No, Noah. The Happy Mother lives at OUR house. And that would be me. :)

Yesterday Truth Baptist Church held our first picnic of 2010. Our other picnics have been fun, but this one was FUN. The difference? More people! Picnics definitely fall into the More The Merrier category. We all had a great time eating, talking, playing volleyball and frisbee. Here are some pictures of our fun evening: (in reverse order, since that is how my computer decided to load them!)

The more I live and try to get every last thing done each day, the more I come to realize that there are definite seasons of life. Sure there are the literary ones that some of Shakespeare's works can be compared to; phrases like "the winter of life," speaking of a person's age. But deeper, I mean just that there are times in a person's life for certain activities and other times when those activities cannot happen. Blogging, for instance. I was thinking that now, in the time of life when I probably have the most to blog about, I have so little time. Fast forward twenty or so years and I *may* have more time on my hands, but less to blog about. I could also have titled this post, "Ironies." But I digress. Take also, for instance, reading. Now there's a pastime I miss. I can remember being a teenager and able to read an entire Saturday away if I wanted to. And I didn't even think that was remarkable! And now, a confession: I used to s...

This is becoming Noah's favorite way to swing--probably because he can go super high and still feel safe. I show you, The Crab. Enjoy! And try not to get seasick watching my video.

***please don't be offended if you see anything at my yard sale that you gave me. It doesn't mean I didn't love it; it means I loved it, used it, and now no longer have space to keep it. Thank you for understanding. I do love you. *** Our yard sale went really well Saturday, praise the Lord! It was looking a little shaky at the beginning with not many people stopping by, but we kept praying and the Lord brought more people! Most of our stuff sold, which I was happy with. I don't know of a yard sale in history that didn't have some stuff left over; correct me if I'm wrong. Noah sold lemonade. Well, it would be more accurate to say he "charmed" lemonade, since I think people bought it because they thought he was cute, not necessarily because he was a good salesman. That, and it was 25 cents! He got quite a few tips too, so he did very well and enjoyed his little job. It actually turned out to be a double blessing, because while he was selling lemonade...