My Son, My Joy

Being Momma to a little person is one of the most adventurous journeys anyone could take! Today our mommy group from church had an outing to a local State park. Being an 11 month old my son pretty much ran his Aunti and I all over the place as he ran around the playground and up and down hills. We did slide and swing for a bit and stop to eat lunch. But the most still I saw the child was when he sat down near the play equipment where a chain was really close to and parallel to the ground. First he tried to put a leaf on the chain but it kept swinging back and forth. Being ever the thinker my baby boy decided to work with that. He started to pick up the wood chips that were directly in front of him and reach over the chain to drop them on the other side. Never mind that half of them went under the chain and landed back on his side. He was determined. He kept at this for a good while until I lifted the chain up so a little girl could go under it. It was then he decided, after being so good about it, to shove the wood chips in his mouth. I can only assume that this was done because he didn't have anything else to do with them since the chain was too high at that point. I dug piece after piece out of his little mouth and was almost done when in goes another handful. I decided it was time for lunch at that point! However, his sheer determination and watching his little brain work gave me so much joy. He will be 1 in three weeks and I can barely believe how much he has changed! That is all. I just wanted to share my joy with you!

Technology and Me

So this weekend my husband's cell phone bit the dust. Some of the internal components came out when he removed the charger from it. Don't ask me the proper name for it because while I love to USE technology I have not versed myself on all of the inner workings!

Needless to say until we could get one of my old phones switched over that left him with no phone all day yesterday while he was working. To top it off he normally doesn't not have to work Sundays so I was already a tad irritated about that! Anyway, I digress. I could not text him at all while he was gone for 12+ hours! I know! It was a tragedy right?! Or at least it felt like it was a tragedy. Not being able to send and receive even a short little text made my day SOOOOO long.

That got me thinking. I mean, seriously, what did I do before texting? In college while I had texting on my phone I didn't use it much because it cost my parents 10 cents a text. We won't even go into High School because I had one of those bag phone monstrosities that stayed in the car. So basically before I texted or had a cell phone I waited it out or waited for someone to give me a call back. I didn't fret about it all day long. I just went about my merry way. So I am beginning to think I may be too dependent on technology! Is there a twelve step program for that?

The little moments

Short blog because it makes my heart burst with love. Today I was trying to teach my baby boy to give me kisses when I said, "Give me kisses!" Saying that and just showing him, however, did not work so I resorted to acting a fool! I would make kissing noises, say, "Give me kisses!", kiss him and then laugh like a mad woman after I kissed him. He, of course, thought this was hilarious and started spontaneously running over to me to give me kisses just so I would laugh like a mad woman. His aim isn't perfect yet so sometimes he got my neck or my chin but I say it counts! Oh the things we do to make a child laugh, especially our own. This is going down as one of my favorite "mommy moments"

Relinquishing the Reins: A Challenge

I want to lay down a challenge to you today. Some it may be easy for; others it will be one of the most difficult things you have ever had to do. I am one who has difficulty with this challenge.

As followers of Christ we should daily be handing over our lives to His control. Relinquishing the reins so to speak. This doesn't mean with just our life changing decisions but with the small ones as well. This is so hard for me! I am what you would call a control freak bordering on OCD. I try to plan and control every aspect of my life. It's actually quite stressful and I am sure irritates those close to me. I have challenged myself to every day turning that over to God. Actually in all honesty it is something God has demanded of me. Today is Day 1 and I must say I can feel my burden lighten. Not to say that I am not struggling with the need to organize, plan, make lists etc. but it is lighter!

So here it is I challenge you to join me in this. Make a daily conscious effort to turn everything over into the control of our Father. It will be freeing, it will strengthen your relationship with Him and those you are close to and it will allow you to spend more time with Him because you will not be spending all of your precious time trying to control!

Seasons come and seasons go.

I have been watching everyone post on Facebook that Fall is their favorite season and they are excited because we are on the brink of it. It got me thinking, "what is my favorite season"? My answer is complicated. I realized I like them all nearly equally. Every time a new season is approaching I get excited!

When Fall/Autumn is approaching I think of the beautiful colors we are going to experience in God's handiwork of nature and the crisp air. Plus it also helps that my middle name is Autumn!

When Winter is making it's debut I think of all the Holidays, family gatherings and wish for one good snow fall (not ice just snow!).

When Spring is beginning I rejoice in the new life of the trees and plants! I am amazed as I watch what looks like death be turned into new life by God's hand.

When Summer is here I get excited about all of the outdoor activities, the possibility of swimming, and though I don't have any in school yet, I get excited for the children on summer break!

Isn't our God so awesome that He allowed to have all of these seasons in nature? Shouldn't we anticipate the seasons of our lives in much the same way? While I might not always like how a certain season of my life is going, I look back and see how it shaped me as a follower of Christ and as a woman. Right now I think I am in transition to a new season. It has been slow in coming and while parts of the new season scare me I am choosing to anticipate it instead of dread it. After all our Father wants what is good and right for His children. So as I anticipate the approaching Fall I will also anticipate the new season in my life (with God's help of course). If you are reading this I challenge you to do the same!

The Desires of my Heart

I have a lot on my mind lately. Not really going into it on here but we have a lot of changes going on in our lives. Some for the better and some that feel like we are being refined in the fire. Right now I am struggling with a couple of decisions that have to be made. I have always worried (not a good thing) when I have decisions that are going to be life altering. My biggest fear is that my wishes and desires will so blind me that I will not be able to see what God wants for our lives. I have had two instances in the last few months that helped me with this.

The first one was right after I lost my job. I had just had B and had not yet been fully looking for a job. I was getting prayer during our Discipleship Community. The lady praying over me knew I was struggling with having to put our son in daycare and worrying about others raising him. She said to me, Armanda God wants to give us the desires of our hearts. I think you already know what you are supposed to do. Basically she was affirming what I already felt in my heart. I was supposed to stay home and nurture my son.

The second time God affirmed that He wants to give us the desires of our hearts was when we were talking to our DC Pastor about some major life decisions we were trying to figure out. I told him that I often worry that my wants are going to get in the way of God's. He told us then that when a Christian is trying to live out there life for God and seeking Him out that our wants tend to be God's wants for us. In other words if we are seeking God out wholeheartedly and pursuing Him then His desires for our lives become our desire.

Now while this elates me that my desires and His are parallel it doesn't mean that it is going to be easy. There are going to be sacrifices made and it will be a journey but in the long run it will such a deep and fulfilling journey. I am not just talking about being a stay at home mom mind you. Like I said before I am not ready to share everything God is working out. Let's just say I am being refined. No one said being the daughter of a King would be easy. Quite the opposite but it goes so much deeper than that. I am not living this life for the temporary. I am living it for the eternal. I have God's desires in my heart. I desire Him and He desires me.

I am sorry this didn't come out as eloquently as it would for some but these are the words as they pour from my heart. Then again I guess I am really not all that apologetic when it comes to my heart. After all it's God's heart. :) Good night for now.

Mini blog post: Random thoughts.

It occurred to me today while I was trying to take a nap with Braedon that I have the most random thoughts. As a matter of fact it is a good thing that Jesus is the only one who shares some of these random thoughts with me because they would just verify how looney tunes I am! Sometimes I wish there was an off switch for these thoughts. But most times I find I can keep myself pretty entertained. And no this isn't because I am a mom now. I have always thought randomly. As a matter of fact most of my thoughts come with full color images in there(my head) too. I will now contemplate the wisdom of sharing any of these random thoughts with other people besides my husband. I occasionally do divulge them to him and usually get laughed at or get odd looks but he loves me anyway. I know if you happen to be reading this you are curious now but seriously if I told you then you would just know how truly off the wall I can be. Then again if I tell you I may find I am not all alone in my random thinking.