My Little Black-Eyed Pea

Sooooo...if you live in our town and were walking or eating downtown tonight, you might've noticed a sweet little kiddo bouncing down the sidewalk with a ponytail and a cookie and a huge smile across her sweet little mouth.............right under the HUGE BLACK EYE that she got playing in my office last night.

This is not a wimpy little black eye, folks. It's the real deal. The funny part is, every time we passed someone, there was a noticeable trend: "Smile at the cute kid....wait for it....wait for it.....gawk at the black eye....then turn to check out the daddy to see if he looked like a potential offender." Hilarious. Funnier is that she was really proud of it and would point it out and talk about it even to a complete stranger, leaving them in a true conundrum of what might really be going on in our household.

I'm not thrilled that our Easter pictures consist of a major shiner, but then again - it could have been much worse, so I'm thankful that a shiner is all we got. After you get over the initial shock, it's even a little bit sweet, don't you think?

Chocolate

This is a 3-minute video that you are welcome to skip over. I promise it won't hurt my feelings. I certainly could have edited to make it much more concise, but then you would never understand how "unscripted" this event really was. You might even wonder if it really even happened the way it did.

But there are some moments in life that really are priceless. Some of them we are lucky enough to capture on film so that we can keep forever (as, ahem, blackmail).

Tonight I was lucky, and I really needed to prove to anyone who watches that this is just - plain and simple - real life with my little kiddo. :)

So Great

Today has been a hard day for many friends of mine. Though I did not know him personally, I understand that Mike Sweeney has lived a life that epitomizes Philippians 1:21, "For [Mike Sweeney], to live is Christ, AND to die is gain. He both lived in the fullness of Christ, and died to the gain of his Heavenly Father, leaving an incredible legacy of faith with his loved ones.

As I sat in church yesterday, I noticed a verse written on the dry erase board on the wall (our church is a school during the week), and the words hit me so powerfully in that moment that I had to write them down. It holds a lot of weight with many stories of cancer and unexpected loss and death that seems to just be happening all around me right now.

"Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men." Lamentations 3:32-33

How is it possible that an all-powerful, all-knowing, almighty God can unwillingly bring grief? Honestly, I do not have His mind, and I do not have the answer to that question. Lamentations 3 is full of the writer's conflict between the same God who purposes both calamity and good, who seemingly allows injustice to reign over a believer's life for a season before stepping forth and defending the cause of His beloved.

I'm not sure why, but I am intensely drawn toward the picture that God is tender and compassionate with me during the midst of the very trials that he ordained. Toward a God whose heart breaks as the waves he has made crash over me. Toward a God who is mysteriously able to sew painful stitches to heal a sinful, broken part of me.

Is He safe? No, but He's good. He's the King, I tell ya.

Egg Hunt 2010: Take 1

As is the tradition of this time of year, we celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior by stuffing brightly colored plastic eggs full of instant teeth-rotting materials, "hiding" said eggs in 2-inch grass, and encouraging our young ones to get as many and as much as they can faster than anybody else so that hopefully they will become the "winner" of the prize egg.

At least, that's the lecture that my husband gave to me when we ended up on the Easter aisle at Wal-mart the other night at the end of a luxurious date. Love my man. :)

In good fashion with the commercial agenda, though, I packed up E this weekend and traveled to my home town for a really sweet little egg hunt that one of my high school friends' mom does each year. Last year, we weren't able to make it, so I was really looking forward to the "reunion" aspect of this little emerging tradition. And I wasn't disappointed. My mom even blocked off her very full tax season schedule (gasp!) to be able to be there. Trust me...it's a big deal for her to do that!

Looking at all the cameras, one-by-one, and saying "Cheese"

(none of the other kids care)

Look at all these kiddos!

Surveying the land of eggs

"Mommy, whatcha doin'?"

*love*!

For Me

Tonight I'm simply lost in the powerful reminder of a God who is FOR ME yesterday, today, and tomorrow. A God who is so unspeakably awesome and powerful that I am not even worthy to be compared, yet He both humbles and glorifies Himself in the way He pursues me. Incredible.

The Gift of Giving

Each year, my parents are way generous givers at Christmas. Each year, we always talk about it and about how we should instead organize a family project and do something "really meaningful" with our money instead of just using it to give things to each other. Implying, of course, (though definitely unintentionally), that giving gifts to each other isn't as meaningful.

And sometimes it's true. If we're honest, many times gifts aren't all that meaningful. Sometimes they're given out of obligation. Sometimes items get regifted in an effort to save money. Sometimes, the gift becomes the idol, and the sacrificial, selfless meaning behind a gift is entirely lost. Been there, done that for sure!

For some reason, though, each year our whole family is back around that Christmas tree giving gifts to one another. I think I know why...and it has something to do with the fact that my parents truly take pleasure in finding those gifts for their children that reach out and connect with us, that show their children that they truly take delight in us, that speaks that they know us both on a deep, heart level and also on a lighter, what-kind-of-things-make-you-smile level.

One of the things my parents seem to delight in giving to us are those rather "necessary" things (necessary being a relative term, of course) in life that just are sometimes a bummer to spend hard-earned dollars on. Like...

When I was in high school? Cool clothes.

In college? Expensive shampoo and conditioner.

As a wife? Starbucks!

And as a mom? Diapers. Always diapers.

This past year, my parents gave me a gift that would otherwise be beyond my budget but has since motivated me to do something I haven't been able to do as a mom: running. Now, ask me in high school if I would ever jump up and down over a jogging stroller and I would've given you the perfected, classic eye roll. Today.....well, that thing is priceless to me.

Thanks, mom and dad, for understanding and living out for me the picture God gives us in Luke 11:13 of how a (don't take the evil to mean more than what the scripture implies) parent willingly gives good gifts to their children. Maybe we'll make it around to a family project one day...but because that's what God lays on your heart, NOT because it holds more meaning!

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” -Luke 11:13 NIV

My Baby Is Going to School!!!

E-isms

We've had some fun around our house lately. As a stranger pointed out to me this evening, "How old is she? Only two? She is very verbal!"

And boy was that "stranger" right. Although I still don't understand everything she says, it's becoming quite clearer. And hilarious.

Some E-isms as of late:

-The past few mornings, after getting into the car:
Mommy: Alright, time to go to ______'s house.
E: No....let's go to M's house today. (M is my best friend from high school who has every toy God ever created in her home. We visited her on Saturday and E still remembers how much fun her house was!)

-I caved and bought some sugary cereal this past weekend. Lucky Charms, to be exact. Her favorite thing to do has been - of course - to eat ALL the marshmallows out of the bowl then turn sweetly to me and ask, "More 'Monkey Arms', Mommy?"

-Her favorite phrase right now? "Mommy, I neeeeeeeed ____________ (fill in the blank with anything you can imagine...). And if I say "No" E turns to her daddy, "Daddy, I neeeeeeeeed ____________." How do they learn this stuff???

And the best one to date (and possibly a premonition of things to come?)...

-Tonight, after falling and stubbing her toe, and crying for some time:
"*Sniff* *Sniff* I........need..........some...........chocolate!!!"

Update:

Almost forgot this one!

Every morning after dropping E off at the sitter's house:
Mommy: *kiss* "See you later! I love you!"
E: "Love me too, mommy!"