Thursdays are my favorite day of the week

I thought that when I got up this morning we were going to have just another rainy, inside day. Thankfully it turned out much better than that! I called Amber this morning to see what they had going on today and discovered that her day was looking to be as low-key as ours. So we made a plan to hit the mall for some lunch and shopping. We had a great afternoon (well, there was an unfortunate diaper blowout midway through, but I am trying to block that out!) and Haven and I even got some new shoes. Amber and I beat the system and took advantage of the buy one get one for 50% and each got a pair for $7. That's what I'm talking about!

Cale came home a bit early so I could head over to my friend Dawn's house. She decided a few weeks ago to use her ability and passion to organize the ladies in our house church and get us exercising. Tuesday we walk together and Thursday she leads us in some torturous form of stretching, toning and cardio. It's great to be able to be doing something good for my body and get to hang out with my girls. It was fun, but I am feeling it tonight. The best part- I came home and Cale had cooked dinner! Love that!

Last fall we were fortunate to find a bike trailer super cheap so our whole family can go biking together. It's been rainy the last few days, but we have been wanting to get it attached and give it a shot. It took some doing, but Cale managed to get it working this evening and we took our first ride of the season. Unfortunately 5 minutes into the ride it started raining, but we still had fun. Haven is not a fan of her helmet, but how cute is she. How cute are both of them for that matter?

It turned out to be a wonderful day and now I am going to crash on the couch and veg out in front of the tv. Thursday is my television night- The Office, Grey's Anatomy and ER. I'm out.

SRT Update

I haven't had as much time to read in the last few weeks as I would have liked, but I still have managed to cross a few more books off my Spring Reading Thing List. I finally managed to finish Mockingbird and really enjoyed it. I felt like I read that book forever and could never finish it, but it was interesting. It got a bit long in some sections (like when Nelle was helping Capote with In Cold Blood research), but it was nothing if not thorough. If you love To Kill a Mockingbird then I think you would enjoy this. Or if you are just a fan of a good biography, this book would work for you.

I started to read Water for Elephants. Started as in about 80 pages and then had to walk away. I don't know what it was, but I just couldn't get through it. It's very rare that I stop reading a book, but I had no desire to keep going. So that has been crossed off the list.

I have about two chapters to go in A Mother's Heart and have really been challenged, encouraged and inspired by this book. I feel like that sounds a bit cliche, but it's really true. I am walking away from this book with a renewed vision for my home, a deeper sense of responsibility for the task at hand, and practical ideas to help me be a more intentional, focused mom. With Haven being as young as she is, some of the ideas will have to wait, but I am confident that this is a book I will come back to time and again as we strive to make the Lord the head of this home. If you are a mom- READ THIS BOOK! And thanks to Jenny for the recommendation!

Yesterday I had a few minutes to start The Other Boleyn Girl and I hope to have more time later this week to really get into it. It comes with great recommendations so hopefully it hasn't been too inflated in my mind and can live up to all the praise!

Haven's been busy reading, too! She seems to have her mother's love for books!

Don't Go, Be

We had a beautiful weekend here in southwest Ohio. Perfect for slaving away in our yard. And that's just what we did around here. The results are worth the hours spent ripping dandelions out of our flower beds.

I love this time of year for so many reasons, but one of the best is that you actually get to see your neighbors again. The colder months find us running from our house to our car with an occasional wave to the neighbors if we happened to coordinate our timing right. We have lived in this small community for 2 years and we still only know our immediate neighbors for the most part. We are blessed with great, helpful, caring neighbors and we are thankful for the relationships that we have built with them. But there's a whole street out there of homes filled with people and we don't even know their names.

Our church has started doing something called "Don't Go To Church, Be the Church" Weekends. The idea is that one weekend each month you don't go to the gathering at our church, instead be intentional and find practical ways to reach out to your community and to share the love of Christ with your neighbors, co-workers and friends. We are divided up by our house churches as to which weekend we participate in this and have the option to do something as an entire house church or on our own.

This past weekend was our weekend to "Be the Church". Cale and I decided that we need to be much more intentional with our neighbors and so that is why we decided to reach out to a family that we don't know much about beyond their names and that they just had a new baby. I went over the other day to chat with her and we had a wonderful visit. We took them dinner last night and again were able to talk with them for a little bit. Plans are in the works for a BBQ in the next few weeks. It might not seem like much, but I know it's a start.

But it was very evident yesterday that we have a long way to go as police cars filled the street several houses down from us. An ambulance, a lot of yelling and people standing out on their lawns is what greeted everyone as they arrived here last night for house church. My heart was heavy as we heard things unfold down the street. I walked around getting ready for house church praying for that family and being convicted that we need to do more. Yes, we have built real relationship with the people right around us, but the fact that I don't even know the name of the people 4 houses down disturbs me and I want to do something about it.

I think the "Don't Go to Church" weekends are a great idea, but they aren't enough. We are called to BE the church everyday, wherever we are. And I am challenged to get out of the comforting, albeit confining walls of my house and truly shine the light of Christ on this street.

"But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing"

-2Corinthians 2:14-15

Not yet

Let me just state the obvious by saying that I haven't posted all week. Life hasn't been too busy (although Haven is a bit sick) and I have had ample opportunity to write. I just haven't been able to do it. And it's not for lack of things to write about. It's almost like I have too much I want to write and to say and they are all jumbled in my head and get can't out.

I have tried more than once to write about some of the things I am learning and thinking about, but it's just not working. That leads me to believe that it's not time to write about that stuff yet. Especially the areas that the Lord is teaching me about...I need more time to work through those things. So I will wait and see and be patient. Not always easy for me, but necessary. I know that I could write something that would appear to be mildly interesting and give the impression of being from my heart, but I know that wouldn't be the case. I've always been a good faker. But no fake-outs here. We will just have to wait til it's time for something to come out of this head of mine.

Ask me again

Five years ago this very day, Cale asked me to walk alongside him and become his wife. It took me all of 1/10 of a second to yell, "YES!"

I have such a vivid memory of that precise moment in time; the warm air on my face as evening set in... the smell of spring and newness and cut grass... the feel of that ring sliding on to my finger... and the look in Cale's eye knowing he was the one my heart wanted for always.

And there hasn't been a single moment I have ever regretted my answer (questioned my sanity a time or two, but regretted, never!).

I love you, Cale!

We-Haul it

Yesterday was a first for me. I drove a U-haul to Michigan with my good friend Amber to go to Ikea. Amber managed to get us roped into a major design project at our church and we went to Ikea to buy a load of furniture. We have been working together for the last few weeks choosing and planning and changing our minds for Apex's new conference room. Now a conference room doesn't really sound like the most exciting or glamorous room to be designing, but it's not just any old conference room. The powers-that-be want it to be really comfortable and to feel more like a home than a meeting room. So we have racked our brains and come up with a pretty great plan- at least we think so!

We had a great time at Ikea making our final decisions about furniture and seeing in person the things that we have been hoping would work for the last few weeks. We got cool couches and a ton of other stuff- a 14 foot U-haul's worth to be exact! We had a pretty clear idea of what we wanted so we made it through the store at a pretty good pace. A stop for lunch (I love the Ikea cafe!) and a few minutes to do some personal shopping and we were ready to go down and load our furniture up. It took us 2 shopping carts, 4 flatbed carts, 3 Ikea workers and umpteen trips up and down the aisles to get all our stuff. We started to stash all the merchandise in one place and put signs on it saying we were still shopping so no one would put our stuff back. We checked out and Amber went to get the U-haul while I waited for the couches.

TWO HOURS later they brought our couches out and we were able to load up. It was incredibly frustrating to have to wait so long especially since we had a 3.5 hour drive ahead of us. But regardless, we survived and were able to get everything we had hoped to. It was a long day, but good company and spending someone else's money made it all worthwhile!

The plan is for paint and carpet to go in the room in the next week or so and then we can get to the fun stuff and put it all together. We have so many things to do before then, but I love doing stuff like this so I don't mind a bit. And the best part is I get to work with Amber and we don't have to come up with excuses to get together (as if we needed them before!). So thanks, Amber, for getting us sucked into this major undertaking - I love it!

Nashville

I know that it's Thursday and a new weekend is upon us, but I said I would write about our time in Nashville and I intend to keep my word. It was a quick weekend, but really fun to be with my family and to see my brother's new house. One of the highlights included a night out at some of the quintessential Nashville tourist bars Tootsie and The Stage. We had intended to go to see some bluegrass band playing at some little bar, but discovered it was sold out. Perhaps the 100 cars parked around a tiny, tiny building should have indicated that we weren't going to get in. And I have to say I am not so sure I was saddened by missing out on the bluegrass. No offense to bluegrass music, I'm just not sure that's my thing.

We had fun listening to some live music and just taking in the whole scene. Honestly the best part of the night for me was just leaving the house with Haven sound asleep and not having to worry about her for a few hours. Two weeks in a hotel with no break were definitely wearing me down. (And let me just tell you that we had a very long drive to Nashville with some little girl not feeling well and screaming intermittently as she tried to work things out. She also puked all over Cale at dinner time and I do mean ALL over. So it had been a really long, stinky day!)

Saturday we were supposed to sleep in because my wonderful mom had Haven sleeping in her room. But I was awake at 7am and ready to go. So what did I do? Got online and paid bills and caught up on my blog reading. Despite the early hour it was delightful because I didn't have anything else I had to be doing. We had planned on going to Opryland for the afternoon, but my brother heard that there was some sort of convention there and that it involved lots of kids and we decided to pass. Instead we went to downtown Franklin and went to a little place called HRH Dumplins for lunch. Rolls the size of your face with honey butter and some fruit tea. Deeeelicious. We all walked out of there stuffed.

We hung out in the afternoon and then went and checked out where my brother is working and learned all about the real estate market in the greater Nashville area. Because Sunday was going to busy with church and flights to catch, we decided to have our "Easter dinner" on Saturday night. My brother insisted that he was going to do all the cooking and wanted the rest of us to relax. Well, I guess my 10th trip into the kitchen to ask what I could do to help finally set him over the edge. It just so happened that he picked a chicken recipe that I have made before and he hadn't so I was full of all sorts of advice about it. I ended up fixing the chicken in it's entirety while Steve busied himself with all the sides including his famous stuffing with sausage, pears and hazelnuts. Since I hadn't cooked a thing in two weeks, I really didn't mind a bit and they have a beautiful kitchen to work in so it was a treat. We had a fabulous meal and once again stuffed ourselves.

We woke up Sunday to a gorgeous blue sky and biting cold wind. No sweet pictures of Haven out in the yard with her Easter basket and cute little sleeveless dress. Bundled up in blankets and with her winter hat on is more like it! We went to church and Haven got to ride around in a Bye-Bye Buggy which is something I have never seen before. She seemed to like it, but was a mess by the time church was over. The hour off, a missed nap and heading towards lunch = disaster for the poor nursery workers. My niece and nephew ended up not singing at church which was a bummer, but we were treated to a private concert at home while we ate lunch. You can't beat that. The B-i-b-l-e! Yes, that's the book for me! Does anyone know the song I am talking about??!

That's about it. This post seems kinda silly four days later, but this was our weekend. It has been a crazy week with a lot going on and maybe I will get around to writing about all of the good stuff that is now sometime soon!