Peace

I've been trying to make it. Peace that is. These past 2 weeks or so I've been trying to create peace in my heart. Something to calm the swirling in my head. I've tried clean counter tops. A de-cluttered home. Even dinner being prepared as Ben walks in the door so hungry kiddos and parents can fill their bellies before the fuss starts in. And I have found peace in these things, don't get me wrong. But it's not long before it fades away. It's not the kind of peace that transcends through me. It's the quick, fleeting, artificial kind.

It's funny because while I am trying to create this peace by doing things and accomplishing tasks, I know the whole time what I really need is to SIT DOWN. It may seem ironic, but the more things I have to get done, the more I need to sit down. I need to give it (whatever "it" may be) up to God. He is the only true source of peace in my life and I believe He has plans for my days, should I be open to following them...

So as I walked around feeling like the walls of my mind were caving in, I tried to squeeze in a bit of reading for our women's group.

Okay, here we go. Where did we leave off? Chapter 8. "Not as the World Gives-Peace Part I". Hmmmm....

I only got through the first few pages of this chapter before our group met, but our discussion resounded in my heart. The conviction of my disobedience of not-sitting grew. And grew. I finished chapter 8 and then 9, "A Soul at Rest- Peace Part 2" the next day during nap time. It was almost painful to not "do" anything during this quiet, uninterrupted hour. But God has used the words of the author and how she expounds on the Scriptures to further open my eyes.

Some things that have stuck with me:

(from "The Fitting Room-Putting on the Character of Christ" by Kelly Minter)

-The Hebrew word for peace, shalom, means "completeness, wholeness, health, peace, rest, harmony, and the absence of agitation or discord. Shalom is meant to bring us peace with God, with ourselves and with others..."

-"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives" John 14:27. (emphasis mine)

-God wants to speak deeply to what is troubling us and desires to give us a peace that is different from the paper-thin comforts of the world.

-He gives not as the world does. (LOVE this! So true! God's peace is everlasting. Unlike dazzling countertops that seem to be a magnetic force for drips and crumbs...)

-Biblical peace is far more than everything being in its place. ...my truest peace has to do with God's presence and what He says is true about me, not so much with everything holding together just so.

-"Earthly possessions dazzle our eyes and delude us into thinking that they can provide security and freedom from anxiety. Yet all the time they are the very source of all anxiety." Quoted from Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship

- ... peace is a broad term that encompasses more than just an internal sense of well-being, but this inner rest is an unmatched gift we receive when we choose to live the way God prescribes.

-The beauty of peace is that it can be restored when we take the chisel of repentance to the stone of disobedience, and though this doesn't sound especially thrilling, it is much better if we hurry up and use our own chisel so that God doesn't have to use His-so I've found.

-It is God's kindness that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4), the act of turning around from the sin we have served and toward the presence of God through choosing obedience. God is quick to forgive, slow to wrath, and full of compassion for those who forsake their sin and seek His forgiveness. He is eager to restore peace to our troubled hearts, because it is the way He designed us to live when we came into relationship with Him in the first place: He Himself is our peace.

And just as I wrapped up those two poignant chapters, I moved on to a Bible study that I had been working on with a student who I meet with on a regular basis. We left off right as the school year ended last year and are trying to pick it up again to finish together. The topic of this week? Experiencing God's Peace.

Okay. I get it. Working on it...

Wedding Pics!!!

Here are a few pics from Joe and Lucy's wedding Labor Day weekend. What a day, what a couple! Love you guys!

Hello, Gorgeous Bride!

Never have I seen the guy smile like this!

The ring bearer

And flower girl

Mother of the groom, Sister of the groom, niece of the groom!

Couldn't even make it down the aisle w/o another kiss!

Off for a cruise in the '70 Skylark Joe brought from my Grandpa.

Rev'ed it up and off they went. Awesome.

Project Let's-Get-Some-Stuff-DONE

Last weekend Asher went to Nana and Grandpa Bill's (or Gampa Bol as Asher would say). We've got some before and after shots of projects that we worked on and finished! How lovely it was to be able to start something and see it through to a final product!

Here is a shelving unit I picked up at a garage sale for $8.

(Thank you purple house ladies)

After sanding it down and a few coats of paint, it makes a perfect shelf for Asher's room!

I added this cute fabric over the peg board backing for a personal touch. I'd like

to make valances out of this same fabric. Asher loves his doggies :)

While I worked on the shelf a few other things out in the garage, Ben was busy adding some color to Millie's room. I wanted to do a deep teal to contrast with her white furniture and pink bedding and valances. We kept two of the walls a neutral since the teal was really bold and I think it would have been a little too much to have the entire room done in that color. Will post more pics once we get her wall hangings up.

Before:

Hi! I LOVE having my own room.

After:

And quite possibly my favorite part of the weekend, Sunday afternoon my girl and I walked downtown to run some errands. Just mother, daughter and Moby wrap.

10 Months

Poor, neglected second child. We've completely lacked in taking 8 and 9 month photos. :( And to be honest, I can't believe the stars aligned for me to take pics for her 10th month. (By stars aligning, I mean me remembering to take them at some point when Asher is napping. He's kind of a camera hog theses days...) Anyway, here are pics from Millie's 10 month photo shoot. She is missing the "10 Months" sticker because it wouldn't stick since there's a bow on her shirt and you couldn't really see it anyway.

Fun facts:

-Weighed in at a whopping 14 lbs 10 oz at her 9 month appt.

-She is sweet, smiley, relational and very cuddly and affectionate!

-Loves to be with and imitate her brother.

-Has no teeth yet.

-Can climb up our entire staircase. (thank God for safety gates)

-Likes to go to bed at 6:30 theses days and sleeps for 12-14 hours. Plus 2 naps. Yep. Kinda great.

Gossip

It's true. I've been gossiping about my son lately. Daily. Particularly at meal times.

Millie, do you think that Asher can take a big bite of his egg? It would be really cool if he did...

Out of the corner of my eye I see Asher look up and take a big ol' bite out of the egg he was refusing to eat.

Wow Millie! Did you see that? Asher took a HUGE bite. I'm really impressed.

Why this works I do not know, but I gossip during most every meal these days. It works well with praise too.

Papa, did you know that Asher shared really well with Sissy today? Yep, he sets such a good example for her...

Of course I speak directly to my child as well, but this is a nice way of mixing things up. Who doesn't like to hear good things being spoken about them?

I'm a Mother

What do you do?

Any of you other stay-at-home (or mostly stay-at-home) Mamas struggle with this from time to time? The question of: "What do you do?" You know, for like, a living? Lately as I've been meeting new neighbors in the hood, I've found myself shying away from this. One time I even found myself answering, "Well, I taught high school for 5 years. Special education... Taught a ninth grade English class for students with learning disabilities. And after I had our son I decided..." What?! First of all, the question was, what DO you do. Currently. Present tense. Not did. Do. If I asked someone that question and they started giving me their resume, I'd raise a brow.

So I think I need to practice it more: I'm a Mother. I'm a Mother. I'm a MOTHER and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. Sure I work part-time for Brookside, but I am first and foremost a Mother. Around about 90% of the time, want-to-miss-out-on-as-little-as-humanly-possible-in-my-precious-babies'-lives-Mother. God created this desire in me and put the gifts there too (thank you Jesus for access to your unending patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, whatever I need, when I need it, through your Spirit). I was made for this and I embrace it with all that I have. I'm a Mother. And I'm proud of that. Dammit.

:)

The Big Move

Still praisin' God for this one folks...

So. The big move. The long awaited move. The move that happened in God's perfect timing and provided more than we could have ever hoped for. Yes I'm an optimist. But I am not exaggerating here. We scored big. In every way. Selling and buying a home all in a week's time may seem maddening, but it wasn't. Hectic yes. Stressful at times, very. But it was amazing to see it all come together, so very smoothly, like it was meant to be this way. In this timing. In HIS timing. 3 summers of having our home on the market was long for us. But I would do it all over again before I would ever consider taking matters into our own hands, like it was tempting to do (taking a huge loss for a sale, renting it out, etc). Sometimes you just gotta sit tight and keep the faith. And keep praying. Over, and over, and over... Draw near to Him, and he will draw near to you.

I wanted to share some moving advice for anyone who might need it, now or in the future. I think these things were helpful. They might have taken a little bit of time during the packing process, but they paid off tremendously in the long run. Here we go:

1. Gather supplies (obvious, but I'll explain a few of the items suggested below)

Boxes (ask friends who recently moved, hit up the dumpster area behind stores, call grocery stores in advance and see what they have, search Craigslist and then re-post them when you're done!), packaging tape, black permanent markers, construction paper, red duct tape, Scotch tape, pens, a mini notebook and whatever else you might fancy.

2. Have a landing place for your supplies

There's nothing more annoying than searching for the packaging tape every 5 minutes.

Where's the packaging tape? I thought you had it. No, you had it last. Didn't you? I dunno. It's gotta be here somewhere...

We chose the top of a bookshelf in the most central part of the house to keep putting all of our supplies back onto. A basket that you can carry every thing from room to room in is a good idea too.

3. Color code

This was the single most helpful thing I did. It was helpful to the folks who helped us move-in and it was helpful to us because each box was placed in the room it needed to be in.

Think through the rooms in your new home. Try to get an idea of what you want to go where. Then, choose a color for each room. As you pack boxes, pack them according to the room they go in. For example, every time I packed a decorative time (except the ones in bedrooms) I made sure the box was labeled brown, for living room. Simply cut or tear off a square of colored construction paper and tape it to the appropriate box. Voila.

This is the poster I made on foam board that sat outside the door as movers carried boxes into the house. If there was a pink swatch of paper on the box, they knew they were headed to Millie's room. Red, playroom and so on.

4. Number and list. List and number.

Keep a small notebook handy to list each item that goes into the box. I reserved a few pages in the notebook for each room. Then I would give each box a number, beginning with 101. Here's what a page in my notebook would look like:

Kitchen-yellow

101- utensils, measuring cups, measuring spoons, cutting boards

102- glass bakeware

103- kiddie cups, bowls, etc.; plastic cups, straws, water bottles

Then on another page:

Guest room- purple

101- scrap fabric, card making supplies, pens and markers

102- bed linens and pillows

103- books (You can really get specific and put certain genres together. We didn't...)

Get the idea? Each box had the color square on top and was also labeled with a number on top and then the number on the side as well. This makes finding items a breeze. Just find it on the list and that will lead you to the exact box it's in. No guesswork required.

5. The red duct tape

Think through what you'll want to unpack first. Tape these boxes in red duct tape. That way when you see a pile of boxes, you just go for those first. It's especially nice if someone is helping you unpack, then they know where to start without a question. *Hint- many of the things you pack last (toiletries and the like) are going to be the boxes you want to open first.

6. Recruit and Reward

I think emailed just about anyone we knew who lived in the area and asked for their help. Friends, co-workers, neighbors, you name it. I just gave them a time and a place and asked for any amount of time they could contribute. A little over 20 people showed up throughout the evening. The girls and I headed to the new house to clean while the guys loaded up. This was my favorite part of the whole thing-just watching the masses descend upon us. It was so fun to see which face would pop up next and grab a box. The new neighbors all commented on how many people helped us and how fast it went. Yeah, we know some amazing people. Couldn't do without them.

And as it was nearing the end of the hottest spell of the summer, we had plenty of bottles of water and Gatorade on ice available. And some granola bars too. We would have provided a meal afterward, but we moved from about 6:00pm-8:30pm. Instead, at a later date, we invited everyone out to a local ice cream joint for treats on us.

Special shout-out to all of our moving buddies. You guys were AMAZING. We loved having you be the ones to grace our home for the first time. Sweaty bodies and all. And love to the Alts who housed us for the night when we were in transition. Extra love to Nana and Mimi for doing the hardest work of all and caring for the kiddos. 3 words: Peace Of Mind.

And be sure to keep your eyes peeled for the date for our House Warming Open House... We've got a lot to celebrate!