To my sister Elizabeth and brother-in-law Oliver on their darling newest addition…
Thomas, born in France on May 6th weighing 8.27lbs — We love you already!
Congratulations
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Category Archives: Everyday Life
An Orange Pattern By The Ocean
I haven’t been on my computer very often the last few weeks (maybe months) – my phone is a different story – so I’m finally getting around to posting these.
We like going to this beautiful spot overlooking the ocean, there’s also a quaint park close by.
I’m learning to embrace our family’s way of “posing” and doing more candid shots helps too.
That orange sweater Preston’s wearing is gone. He kept wearing it and wearing it so I took action. It might of taken Steve a few months or a year before he started to see an orange pattern. : )
First I hid it high in his closet while we was sleeping…but the very next morning when I came downstairs there he was sitting on the couch wearing it! I still don’t know how he managed that one.
I figured a more drastic approach was needed or he’d keep finding it so…
Bye-bye orange sweater, it was getting too hot for you anyways.
Preston’s 4th Birthday
These photos are a mix from Easter and Preston’s birthday.
We had a fun celebration for him with a few of his friends which was low key and relaxing — a pleasant surprise.
So far Preston’s personality has been very easy going, though he does have a determined side when he’s set on something he wants, whether that’s food (he has a sweet tooth!) or staying with dad and mom instead of going with his group at church, and not much will change his mind. It makes for an interesting contrast from his usual jolly self.
When he gets in those moods I wanna tell him ‘it’s not part of your laid back personality to do that!’, but that would just be silly since apparently it is.
And then with the other boys I expect, or at least am not surprised, by their more “intense” reactions to a host of things. Gotta love all the different personality types under one roof.
Happy Birthday Preston Sawyer, you’re one sweet kid & we love you to the moon and back!
Link Love & Spring Cleaning
Comparisons will kick you in the teeth and hijack your dreams every time by Lisa-Jo Baker. – “The Internet can be a very loud and shouty place about what everyone else is doing successfully.”
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You Are As Valuable As the Orphan by Amber C. Haines. “We’ve had to remind ourselves again and again that salvation doesn’t come when we work more. Sometimes it comes when we stop and lay down the work, not in sloth, but more like in the work of turning back a cup and drinking.”
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What Shames Us by Tim Challies.
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Tips for Decluttering Your Kid’s Bedroom by Melissa from The Inspired Room.
Even though I’m not able to pull off all her tips exactly I still liked the general concept of “zones” for kids and it helping with organization/cutting down on messes. I’ve already started getting rid of things we don’t really use enough, now I need to put some toys and books out of sight too.
I keep up better with cleaning and organizing by having less stuff around me – big surprise there – but the hard part is consistently keeping things to the essentials and/or things we love without letting all the other stuff make its way into the house (first-world problems I know).
Are you gonna spring clean or how’s it coming along if you already started?
Thoughts On Holy Week, Brokenness And Redemption
I bought lamb to have for Holy Thursday, to commemorate the Last Supper when Christ shared Passover with his disciples. And I’ve been questioning how to live a beautiful life in a broken world.
My struggles are so small and petty I know, nothing very dramatic or terrible; jam & bread crumbs here, sibling fights there, kids disrespect & ungratefulness, wanting those same kids to thrive in learning, dirt trails throughout the house, more laundry, more messes, paint peeling off walls, lack of quiet, money to save for a bajillion different things, bla bla bla. Mediocre pettiness to be sure. It still wears me out and drives me nuts on an hourly basis.
I’m thankful for this life. I don’t want to waste it or not see it for the gift it is.
Just how exactly do you live a beautiful life when you know these things breaking and dirty around you also mirror your own brokenness? You know when kids are grown and a cleaner house is yours there will be other things breaking still, because isn’t that life?
I think my idea of a “beautiful life’” has been wrong or at least lacking in its definition, in the totality of what that type of life looks like.
Ultimately, it’s not the state of our house or family, our goodness, our accomplishments, is it?
I believe a beautiful life is one that’s been redeemed. One who cherishes the price paid and lives and acts in such a way which honors and glorifies that redemption. Not out of guilt or condemnation, but from the knowledge and recognition of their freedom.
Christs’ life and purpose was to love and redeem us so we wouldn’t have to live and die in bondage to our own fallen state. Whom better to look to than Christ and how He lived.
His agape love was extraordinary, it was all about binding up our brokenness and setting us free.
We can live extraordinarily beautiful lives regardless of our physical limitations, circumstances, the nature of our problems or issues.
We’ve been set free and any crappiness we face here and now is just a reminder of why we needed to be freed in the first place.
Brokenness. Redemption. Holy. That’s a beautiful life.
