Futon Recovery

My Day on the Futon.

[Background: Matt is ill Sunday night; I fall ill Monday morning at 1:30. We were quarantined today (stomach virus.)]

First Futon Pix: Filling out paperwork due today for Woodland Park's Mission Conference.

Middle futon pix: My friendly yellow towel is handy in case I get sick again. Yep, Simon looks like he is getting away with something, but his daddy is watching him carefully as he felt the better of us two. Simon makes me smile!

Last Futon Pix: The end of Simon's day. We all cuddled on the futon with jello dessert. I had my first real meal of the day (dinner.) You can see the yellow towel is now being used to drape Simon's lap from orange jello. Then, we had family devotions. For music, we had a family singsong with Simon's toy cymbal, toy xylophone, and toy piano. He loved it! Then we read about FAITH and then we prayed.

"The End" or "A Blogging We Will Go"

Well, Here we are. The Monster at the end of the book.

Still wrapped in a get-well quilt.
What is it about quilts that make one feel better?

I'm noticing that maybe, at some point in the day, I should have at least brushed my hair.
I did brush my teeth.

Here's hoping I don't awake in the night with sickness.

Looking forward to tomorrow--God has done great things!

Simon Likes to Read!

We're so pleased that Simon enjoys books. Board books are the best for him, cause his little hands can pretty much turn the pages by himself!

Saturday

This is Simon playing with some new toys from Saturday.

Shay did come over Friday night and we celebrated our birthdays with dinner and a movie. We went for a walk/jog together on Saturday morning. Then, Coach Shay made me do many more push-ups than I am comfortable with...then crunches...then stretches...I can still feel the pain. :)

Lisa did come for the afternoon with Bethany and Jacob. Shay was able to stay until lunch, then she had to leave. Matt played a little disc golf with Bethany, but it was a little cold for her. That's nice to say it was a little cold. It is winter, you know. (According to the calendar, not our weather.)

Matt was nice enough to put Simon down for a nap and hang out with Jacob and Lisa, Bethany, and I were able to pick up a Bridal Shower gift at Pier 1 and then try out our local thrift spot.

Simon is advertising two of his new toys.

Mid-Week Bonus Post

I actually didn't intend to post, but I was correcting my template, and here I am!

Pray for Kelly and baby Alex. She had a doctor's appointment and was told that the baby is in a 'breach' position--which is not dangerous, just not the easiest and best scenario. Pray that the baby will move so the delivery procedure will be normal.

Weekly Talk

"It would be curious to discover who it is to whom one writes in a diary. Possibly to some mysterious personification of one's own identity." ~ Beatrice Webb

Hmm, and I would add, to whom one writes in a blog.

I have pulled out my trusty quote journal that has been sorely neglected. Here's one perfect for the holiday:

"If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven played music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well." MLK, Jr.

Friday night I was able to watch Pride and Prejudice (A&E Version) with some girlfriends from GFA. Although I have seen the film several times (usually when I am sick,) I always enjoy watching the story unfold between Mr.Darcy and Elizabeth. I do question the casting for Jane, though, since she is supposed to be the beauty-endowed daughter and really Lizzie is much prettier. I also noticed for the first time how much Mr.Bingley looks like Mr.Tumnus (Narnia.)

From the book-

"A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment."

"She is a selfish, hypocritical woman, and I have no opinion of her." (Ah, Mrs.B.)

"Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us."

End of P & P Quotes.

I am so happy that we live right on the greenbelt. It's so nice to look outside our window and not see other homes immediately. One could almost imagine not being in the city (were it not that we can also see a Taco Bueno sign.)

Sunday was nice. Uncle Scott came over and shared the day and three consecutive meals with us. I don't think we've ever had him over for 3 consecutive meals before. Church was nice. Weather was nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. And my nap was ... nice.

I forgot to mention Simon's first haircut by Matt on Saturday. The pix I posted isn't great as far as the dribble on Simon's shirt, but I was trying to show a view of his haircut. Simon was intimidated by the electric clippers (though he has been fine before.) I think it helped him to also see Matt cutting Matt's hair with the same clippers. Regardless, I don't think he'll be sitting still the next time.

Simon is saying more words!!!! It's rewarding to hear him repeating words and being more toddler-like. A milestone for us was buying Size 5 Diapers for the first time. But the 4's still fit so it's kind of a grey-milestone.

Or maybe a milepebble. :)

Here's hoping that my weekend plans come through! The weekend kicks off early with a GFA Ladies Meeting Thursday night. Shay and I are celebrating our January birthdays this Friday with dinner and a movie. And she might stay over. And sleep in the 'spare room' or 'spare uuum.' Tentatively, Lisa, Bethany, and Jake are coming over mid-Saturday for lunch and a visit. A GFA wedding shower Saturday evening. And we're going to get to go to Wesleyan this weekend and have lunch with the folks! They might have a semi-remodeled kitchen by then which will be fun to see.

That's a lot to look forward to. We just need to carve out some Matt and Amy time sometime. I hope that isn't too selfish.

I enjoy reading people's online journals that are rambly and surface level (like mine) and I also enjoy reading the short and sweet ones and the spiritually deep ones. For me, though, for this season, I have peace to keep up the rambling and family vignettes.

So, you'll have to forgive me for not sharing the really important things coming to my mind. Things that last. Things of the Lord. You'll have to actually talk to me sometime! Or read my prayer journal. OOOH, you better not do that. Seriously. Off-limits.

But I'll end with my absolute favorite discovery of the week---

desiringgod.org

I've often told people that John Piper discipled me through his books, tapes, and teaching. Well, on his ministry's website, you can download sermons for free and they also encourage you to burn them on cds if you like and to pass them on to other, as long as you don't alter the audio. It looks like most of the sermons available are from Romans 12. I memorized that chapter a few years ago, and b/c of that, it's some of my favorite scriptures because it is really embedded in my heart. I've listened to the sermon based on the verse "Abhor Evil, Embrace Good" and it gets two thumbs (way high as the movie reviews read.)

So, I'm really taking my time cleaning the kitchen in the evenings so I can listen to more audio teaching. That's no promise to see a clean kitchen, by the way!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Caption: SUPERMAN!

Today, I am thirty minus three. Or Twenty plus seven. F.Y.I. January 8th was also Elvis' birthday.
My birthday celebration lasted all weekend and it was full of all sorts of pleasantries.

We had all-night prayer this Friday, so Simon stayed with my parents this weekend. Saturday (late morning), Matt brought me breakfast in bed. (Earl Grey Tea and Baked Oatmeal which is yummy in case you haven't tried it.) Then he vacuumed our van out for me.

Then I went for one of my favorite activities (garage sales and thrift stores) with Rachael C.

We had so much fun and here's our most excellent finds: Simon got some cute board books at the garage sale at the K.'s house (G.F.A. family relocating to the G.F.A. office in the UK)

Our thrift store finds: Rachael: 2 fun shirts with one being of exceptional, exceptional material and a hopefully fave pair of grey slacks. Amy: Balderdash (which I have been wanting and was considering buying later that weekend for my birthday, but I don't think we could beat the $2 price at Target, plus it was the old version which I think I like better than the new version), the board game Malarky (similar to Balderdash and also $2), and perfect jeans (now and later.)

To make the outing even nicer, Matt called while we were out and asked me to stay out later so he could clean even more for me. Awesome. What a wonderful gift of service.

So, I visited leisurely at the Tysons before heading home.

I made Matt some lunch or dinner or whatever you eat mid-afternoon when you don't plan on eating dinner. And then we played disc golf and walked in the park and it was so gorgeous outside--in the 80s I think.

Then game night at the Chupp's. Fun. People. Games. Popcorn.

Then Blockbusters for a movie of my choice. We rarely rent movies. They didn't even have our name on file anymore. I don't think we've rented anything since BEFORE Simon was born. (We usually get movies at the library.) So we had to fill out paperwork.


As the birthday weekend continued...
Breakfast at Cafe Brazil (I love the bottomless cup of coffee and we love that there's one just down the road since the one at Lake Ray Hubbard by our former homestead closed down)
Church (Bent Tree hoping to see Wesleyan friends but too many people)
Bike Ride
Mom, Dad, Scott, return Simon to us and we have Chinese and birthday cake.
(I made my own birthday cake. How sad.)
I was actually glad to try a new recipe (pineapple coconut pound cake.)

I really don't feel like I deserved all the attention, fun outings, and gifts this weekend. I felt like I was playing hooky from parenting. (The healthy part is that I missed Simon so much. He is so much fun. So much. So much.)

Hmm.

Funny story: my mom got me lots of hand towels. I know she thinks we have none because we're really bad about not having them in the guest bathroom. We actually have plenty, but we can always use more and I think it's really sweet and funny and helpful. (She also got me soap................................................................................. Bath and Body kitchen soap...but it was funny to make you think it was for the bathroom. That would have been hilarious. By the way, we do without exception have soap in the bathroom. It's just the hand towels that never make it out.) Mom had a 'room theme going.' The hand towels for the bathroom, the kitchen soap, and a Kohls gift card for me. I guess that's the bedroom. AND for I don't know what room but it's really awesome, A SEWING MACHINE! Whoo-hoo! Yep, my mom knew I wanted one. So my dad took my mom's old one (that hasn't been used in years and only then it was used by Tamitha), to a shop that repairs sewing machines and asked if it would be more sensible to repair the old one or buy a new one. The fixer person said that the old machines are better b/c of the metal parts (versus plastic?). I love vintage. If 1970s is vintage.

Ooh, I'm vintage. 1979. A good year.

(I should mention that my mom used to sew before she got so busy with children. Kelly and I are only 20 months apart. So, pretty much the last things she made on the sewing machine were maternity clothes for her pregnancy with moi. Then the sewing machine took back burner.)

That's the Sunday update.

Pending Delay

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to be more consistent with my blogging. Blogging is my way of journaling our life and I need to ask google is they could sell a "Blog Album." They could publish all of one's blogs and bind them together and make some money. And save me the time of putting together another photo album and journal.

I know my last post was full of excitement about Sarah coming, but it actually didn't work out this time. Maybe we'll be first in line for the Spring Break calendar (?) The plane ticket can be changed and sometimes enjoyment delayed is more fun. (Besides, Sarah, Simon is really sick right now. I won't give details, but trust me...it's not a pretty sight.) He is happy though and somehow able to sleep despite a racking cough.

I'm listening to the new David Crowder CD (A Collision.)

We decided to stay home this Sunday and let Simon's body heal. I also gave him some decongestant, antihistamine, and expectorant so we'll see...