Here's my confession/conviction...
What's NOT important is that I have an easy day with kids that nap well. It's not important that all of my graduate school work get finished ahead of schedule so I can "relax" and it's not important that Jimmy be home a certain amount of time so I can have a "break" or be able to clean the house well. All of these things are good things, don't get me wrong, but they are not important. In fact, the most important thing in my life SHOULD be to follow Him: Jehovah, Yahweh, our Creator. I should be striving to know Him well, make him known to my family, friends, and even complete strangers. It is crucial for my soul to turn to Him in good, bad, and in ugly times. I haven't been very good at doing that, honestly. Complacency is quite a dangerous thing y'all. This past week at our home fellowship group we talked about the parable of the sower and how that, if you know Jesus, you can't be complacent...you can't NOT speak of his glory and doings in your life. You can't just sit there and pretend you believe in Him when you aren't putting Him first in your life...I've been doing that a lot. Here's the encouragement and what I'm striving to do: "But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop" (Luke 8:15). Will you join me in honest evaluation of your thoughts, words, and actions? I don't have any answers, pointers, guidelines or advice to give anyone, including myself. However, I DO have the Holy Spirit living in me and maybe you do as well. Praise the Lord for that! HE is enough. Not delicious chocolate that satisfies stress cravings, not semi-good days with no time-outs, not a toddler-ish boy that eats his yogurt without making a complete and utter disaster zone, and not even a pleasantly more full bank account than usual to plot spending pleasures on Amazon Prime. HE is enough.
He has been speaking to me about shaking things up, about not being such a strict schedule follower, not being so worried about how people may perceive my words, and NOT being complacent. He's told me that I have little eyes watching me, copying me, looking up to me. If 90% of my day is spent following some schedule I have created and about 10% of it is spent in God's word with my kids or speaking of Him, then I need to do some self-reflecting. So that's what I'm doing here, out loud, for everyone to read and I didn't even mean to still be sitting here typing about what's going on in my brain. I hope you'll take some time to reflect upon yourself...it's necessary and also quite painful. Don't dwell in the painful part because Jesus has burdened that load for you, instead, seek God's will and be a vessel in His Kingdom today! Hawk Nelson's song "Drops in the Ocean" speaks this encouragement most beautifully:
If you want to know
How far my love can go
Just how deep, just how wide
If you want to see
How much you mean to me
Look at my hands, look at my side
If you could count the times I say you are forgiven
It's more than the drops in the ocean
Don't think you need to settle for a substitute
When I'm the only love that changes you
Open your heart
It's time that we start again
Family Update time:
We went to a Saturday night (6:30) Winston Salem Dash baseball game. After going to a different game earlier in the month, we realized you could come to the game up to an hour before and that has worked out nicely because thing 2 (Wesley) can't make it much past his bed time before he turns into a monster, hehe. Plus, there are less people there an hour in advance which results in easier parking and pretty much having the whole kids section with inflatables to yourself...
We LOVE hill seats.
Bahahaha...I can't stop laughing. We check on the kids each night and LOVE watching their sweet selves sleep...this particular night Wesley was feeling pretty good about his dream I guess.
A brief run in with friends is always a blessing. The Hicks and us have been friends since I moved to Winston-Salem in 2009. There used to be 0 children...now look at that full bench of offspring!
Memorial Day cookout in the cul de sac. Jimmy was working but I am glad the rest of us were able to spend some time together. When we moved to Winston, Coen (top of the picture) was 2!
My mom found my childhood tea set and now Grace is "just borrowing it, mommy!".
Jimmy is involved with several committee's and one of the groups gave out free tickets to a suite at the Dash game...yes please! It was awesome!
Fantastic view
If Jimmy is home, he reads to Grace at night. I know when it gets quiet and about 5 minutes have passed with continued quietness, that something is suspicious :) They had both conked out.
Daddy was gone another evening and the kiddos didn't nap long (Grace is a 50/50 napper), so we made a spontaneous trip to a new playground that is actually near our house.
It had swings, slides, climbing obstacles, and dinosaurs!
Usually I don't cook dinner when Jimmy is on call...it's just not worth it! Naturally, we had ice cream for dinner this evening.
Grace's church pre-school is AWESOME. They love my children, and everyone's children for that matter, so well. We are sad the year is over, but Grace can't wait to start kindergarten next year. NO, she is not really starting kindergarten...but she thinks she is. I've been trying to convince her that she'll be starting the four year old pre-school class. We'll see how long that takes to sink in.
Part of the class and the teachers!
Teacher appreciation gifts...thank you Pinterest.
After a long week of no Jimmy, and an impending weekend of more no Jimmy, we made a weekend trip to Memere and Pepere's house. Thank you mom and dad for loving us so well and being so supportive. It was SO nice to get away and have some time in the sun.
Grace, the one who has been terrified of water, decided to start swimming with floaties all over the pool that weekend! We were so proud! Cue video:
We also went to a new playground at the elementary school where I once attended!
Color time
Mother's Day craft from chubby-fingered Wesley
Craft from Grace
Math craft time: making subitizing cards for Grace. Subitizing is a method of helping children learn to recognize groups of numbers to build number sense. The way the math flash cards are displayed helps children do just this. Subitizing has actually been considered by many researchers to be a precursor to learning numbers and counting. Grace helped me make them with the sticker dots I had on hand.
Working on some math activities to laminate for Grace.
Wesley is such a second child...I'm sorry buddy! Hello Kitty stickers instead of trucks or planes...oh well!
Grace and Wesley both had check-ups on the same day which included shots. Wesley actually was given more shots than Grace, but she had a pretty classic reaction. She had a meltdown for over 20 minutes and kept getting herself all worked up. She wasn't too worked up to drop her Elsa toy (right hand) or binoculars (left hand) as I noticed after viewing this video several times. I feel a little bad for posting this, but she'll appreciate it one day, right??
Wesley: He likes to copy his sissy...more than ever. Just about everything Grace says is immediately spout out of Wesley's mouth. Top repeated phrases: 1. "NO, no, no!" 2. "MINE!" 3. "Sorry." You catch my drift, right? The boy is crazy. He's also quite the sweetheart. He will run out of nowhere and jump on you for a hug whether you are ready for him or not; whether your face is ready for a bruise or not. Wesley is starting to speak clearly and even says some two word phrases. He may not be talking a whole lot, but he sure does understand a whole lot.
Grace: Since turning 4, Grace has decided she can literally do everything "on my own!". She was already an independent child, but now there is no stopping her. Getting dressed, cleaning up (yes!), helping Wesley solve world problems, SWIMMING with floaties, you name it, the girl does not need anyone's help. As cute as it may sound, it kind of makes me sad! I'm so happy she's confident, but where did my baby girl go???
Kristen: The end of a school year is CRAZY. You teachers know that...and I'm only part-time. I've been enjoying my job and plan on continuing next year with the same position. Grad school has been very doable so far as I'm entering week 4 of my educational law class (which has been SOO interesting). The last few weeks of May have been difficult because Jimmy has literally not been home and if he has been home, he's post-call (sleeping during the day), studying, or some type of resident-related work. Some months of residency are manageable, but recently it has just been hard. We haven't had much time together, but we will have some time soon enough!
Jimmy: Jimmy is finishing up his NEURO rotation. He loves neurology and has enjoyed the rotation which is encouraging. He had a rough call schedule recently topped with some moonlighting shifts (which are self-inflicted as those are voluntary but also well paid so I can't complain too much) which resulted in him not being home much. The kids and I were able to get away from town and visit my parents which helped a lot. Next week Jimmy has a vacation week!! We can't wait. It will be a stay-cation mostly since I still have to work and he'll be hosting daddy daycare. We will also be going out of town for a wedding. One more thing, Jimmy has been approved to do research! All I can really explain is that he is trying to see how much a steroid injected into someone's veins post-surgery will prolong their anesthetic so they do not wake up in writhing pain in the middle of the night (is that even close, Jimmy??). At least, that was his original plan and there have been some changes along the way, so I very well may be more off base than on base. Needless to say we are SO proud of his diligence in getting approved to do this research. When you work in an academic hospital, research is so important and Jimmy is really interested in doing research, so there you go! Good job, baby!
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