Reflections

Last night we had our amazing life group.  I am finding that more and more I leave with "nuggets" to think about over and over during the week.  I am so thankful for our "family city group". God is doing something!

Not only has it been a blessing, it has been a challenge.  It's a challenge in a good way. God challenges me to think and reflect on me.  Last night, I believe Jeremy was talking and he mentioned two things that people do - it was two opposite things...both negative things -JUDGING AND BEING JUDGED.- I realized I've been on both ends of that.  Judging and being judged for decisions that I have made.  This is so negative and does not create any sort of lasting friendship.  Our series this month has been on the book, Walk Across the Room by Bill Hybels.

Sidenote:
My friend, Samaria just wrote blog post on a book that she really loved.  Check it out - that book is next on my list of reading material. Sounds great Samaria - thanks for the blog post.

The book I mentioned above (Walk Across the Room) is one of the greatest books I've read in a while.  I often have a hard time reading and finishing a book (I do have to mention that I still have a few pages to finish in the book). I usually start and read the first 2-3 chapters and then I lose interest.  This book along with the series at life group has really been a kick in the rear to change some things in me that needed changing.

So going back to last night's life group (have to go take care of the kiddos for the time being - love being a parent - just need to adjust to the interruptions) I'm back now several hours later.

Last nights life group we talked about how "friends" like to judge one another especially in the church instead of going through life's lessons with one another and being there for each other.  I've been guilty of this so many times. I have such a high standard for myself that I often forget that I put that on other people too.  I often think I can't make any mistakes and when I do, I beat myself up. This is not what God intended...he intended for GRACE to be present every day that I live.  Going on the other side...being judged is just as bad...it creates a place where you can't trust and where you have a hard time loving.

The easy solution here is just LOVE! Love those around you!  Let God's love change your heart! LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!

Ok so this is really hard to do...REALLY REALLY HARD! Especially if you try to go at it alone.  Change is hard anyway you look at it but I think this is one of the hardest things to change.  You have to change your vision and how you look at the world.

Lord give me eyes to see like you see.  Give me a vision for those around me.  Change my heart and my mind to be pure and holy before you and before others. I ask you to take any judgment out of my heart and replace it with love. Help me to extend grace to my friends and any new friends I make.  I love you Jesus!

Yuck!

It's been a bit of an eventful morning around here.  Not with the kids this time...it just involves a spider.
I'm not a fan of spiders...I shudder just thinking about them. Anyone with me?

The other day I noticed two little black spiders on our ceiling but forgot about them since it was lunch time which is always followed by nap time preparations.  (side note: I think we had some spiders hatching in our house b/c this is the third spider I've seen in just a few days).  This morning I was checking my email and I noticed something out of the corner of my eye...it came down and slid underneath the keys on the computer. It was so subtle that i barely noticed it...but then I remembered the spider that had been living on our ceiling.  I hit the key that I thought it went under and then went to take care of one of the kiddos (I believe Amaya was sitting on the potty). 

Then I came back and thought I would just forget about it. HA...not really!  I cannot stand spiders...I don't like the thought of spiders, I don't like to see them, I don't like them near me...ICK!  (Arachnophobia - I think I saw that movie one too many times)

So I proceeded to lift the entire laptop on it's side and I hit all the keys and finally I saw the little legs sticking out of the keys. (Another shudder from me).  I hit the key gingerly so it would leave the computer keyboard but so I wouldn't squish it.  It was a fast one...it scurried out and went who knows where.
At this point I had a decision to make...do i just pretend that all that never happened and sit down and finish my emailing for the morning?  Or do I try to find it?

I almost did the first one but then I decided that I would constantly be checking all around me to make sure it wasn't crawling on me. Soooooo with a fly swatter in hand, I picked up all the things around me and finally something moved. You should have seen me as  I moved everything, you would have thought it was a huge snake.  I was ready to jump back at any moment. LOL In fact I did retreat after I first saw it but then SMACK!  I got it on the first try. 

No spider is going to survive my deadly fly swatter. Now if only I knew where that last spider was... =/

 

Amaya and Mak Comparison

Hey all...I just thought I'd do something fun.  Everyone is always saying how much Amaya and Mak look alike so I did a comparison. 

What do you think?

 

 

It's a New Day!

What a beautiful morning!  The sun is shining. Amaya is enjoying her new favorite show on TV - Clifford!  Mak is taking a nap and I'm enjoying this time blogging.

One of our (Chad and Mine) goals for the next few months is to run/walk a 5K charity event.  Bloomington always has a lot of running events in the fall so we'll just have to see what we want to support.  (I haven't actually checked it out so I'm hoping there are some in Oct. so we have time to get ready.)
One of the reasons for our goal is to lose some weight.  I figured it out...between the two of us we would like to lose 35-40 lbs...WOW! That's a lot.  We can do it.  I recently stepped on the scales and realized that I gained weight since Mak has been born. This wasn't a complete surprise since that happened with Amaya.  I really had to work at losing the weight after she was born so I figured I would have to do the same this time.  I was hoping I wouldn't have to but didn't quite work out that way.

At least now Chad and I can work on our goal together. It's hard when you have a busy life but I want to make sure I am healthy to enjoy my kiddos when they get older.

My second goal (which will take longer) is inspired by what I read on Darcy's blog yesterday.  Check it out.  It's a beautiful story!  Love this blog - our kiddos are about the same age and seem to be a lot alike. =)

So my goal is to grow out my hair and donate it.  I've done it once and it was a great feeling but actually very hard to let go of my hair.  I did like my short hair once I had done it.  The first time I did it - it took me a while to grow it out - couple years so I think I have at least a year and a half left.  I had been thinking about doing it so I had only gotten my hair trimmed the last two cuts but usually I get to a certain point and then want a change again.  This time I'm going to do it!! Thanks Darcy for the inspiration!

Leaving you with some of my favorite pics of Mak and Amaya from the last week.

Here is Amaya after I curled and "styled" her hair....just having fun with her hair. She doesn't let me play with it very much so I take advantage of the times she does. =) 

Amaya

I'm just dedicating this post to by beautiful girl Amaya.

These days there is so much I forget to post about.  She is getting so big.  She says so many things now and I can't keep track of them all. For some reason recently she's become a bit camera shy so I try to capture other images of her.  Here we were outside playing while Daddy was parking cars for IU. 

Just thought I would add a couple funny sayings of hers:

A computer is: on-cue-ber
Tony the tiger is: Tiger the Pony

I love my little girl!

Mak at 7 months

Makiyah is now 7 months (ok over 7 months)  Here are some cute pics I took close to his 7 month birthday.

 

Isn't he handsome?

I'm so proud of him...he can finally sit up on his for for a few seconds.  He has started to get up in the crawl position and just rock. And he has his first tooth now...in honor of Teresa's birthday. =)

Marshmallowkaylan & Lammie

We welcome the newest members of our family:

Marshmallowkaylan and Lammie (or Lambie).
Born: August 26
Weight: 14 oz.

Thank you grandma for taking Amaya to Build-A-Bear to create our new family members.

Amaya had a lot of fun and she chose a cream lamb. 

Here is the conversation Amaya and I had when I asked her what she wanted to make with Grandma.

Me: "Amaya what color do you want your BEAR to be? Black, Brown, Light Brown"
Amaya: "Just brown Mommy"

Me: "Do you want your bear to have a skirt?"

Amaya: "No"

Me: "Pants?"

Amaya: "Yes"

Me: "What color pants?"

Amaya: "Red"

Me: "What color shirt do you want the bear to wear?"

Amaya: "White"

Me: "All right, that's my girl!  Red and white."

Amaya: "Look Mommy like this bear" (she shows me her "IU" bear that has a red shirt on)

I must say (for you Samaria) my little girl is a smart one.

Here is Amaya pushing her new babies out of the store.