Tuesday, September 29, 2009

{vision}

I just had an amazing, wonderful and emotional experience at lunch today. I normally don’t attend the group meals we have here at work (I work at a seminary), but today I felt that my presence was required, since the speaker was a part of the conference I had planned for yesterday and today. And I always find that when I push myself to attend these things, and come out of my introvert's shell, I always come away with a lesson learned. Today was no exception.


The topic he spoke about was in a general sense, prayer, and our individual prayer lives. He talked about how, since he was a small child, he would walk around for sometimes hours at a time, thinking, wondering and even talking to himself. Once he was older, he realized that this was, in fact, prayer.


Time alone with God to share your feelings, frustrations, ideas, and work through problems and situations going on in his life.


That struck me so strongly because I do this as well. I use time to myself, in nature, to think, work through issues I’m battling, and replenish my spirit. When I don’t have time to do this I feel overwhelmed and crave that time.


He put it in very simple words, that prayer can be “thinking in God’s presence.”


What a wonderful way to explain prayer, especially for someone who grew up thinking the only way to pray was to begin with “Dear God, please…” , or it wasn’t really a prayer. I found out that I’ve been praying all along, in a way that I wasn’t even aware of.


He also talked about how sometimes he speaks out loud to someone that isn’t there, like a person he is angry with or has a problem that he needs to work out with. I do this, and have always been a bit embarrassed by it, but now I see

such a strong value in this as a way to talk to God about something that is bothering me, and letting him be my sounding board.


The other part of his presentation that opened my eyes to how God works in our lives was about experiencing visions. The word vision to me before today’s experience evoked a picture of bright lights shining down from heaven on someone, and God’s booming voice telling them what he thinks they should do. But I learned today that very simple things can be visions, and that I have experienced them as well.


Before Dan and I had the boys, we would drive around this beautiful neighborhood here in town that is behind our local park. Dan would usually initiate the detours but I always enjoyed them as well. It is such a beautiful area with lots of trees, hills and pretty houses. He would always say as we drove through there that he wanted to live in that neighborhood, and we would usually look at a few different houses that really caught our eye.


Now we are living in that neighborhood, in one of the houses that I always admired on our drives, and I realize that God was showing us his vision for our future and for our family. It may sound simple and uncomplicated, but I like that God can be just that, simple and uncomplicated. What a lovely way to look at the path our lives take.



Thank you God, for our cozy house in our lovely neighborhood, and for showing it to us so many time, and years before we knew we would make it a home. What a blessing.

Monday, September 28, 2009

{and the floor goes on...}

We had the same laminate flooring that we recently installed in the family room and kitchen also installed in our entryway last week. It is such a HUGE improvement over the stained and torn linoleum that was in there before, and also transitions nicely to our lovely wooden stairs. (And did I mention that it was $3/square foot including installation?! Yes - you CAN do home renovations on a tight budget!

Here is the best before pic I could find...



And here is the after! We love it!




Wednesday, September 23, 2009

{whew!}

What a whirlwind the past week has been! I haven't had time to blog, let alone breathe since last Wednesday. We had a big family wedding on Saturday, so Dan's brother came from Texas. We hadn't seen him since last July so we were all very excited. We had lots of fun family meals at mother-in-law's house, a few get-togethers at our house, and LOTS of laughter which is the norm when we all get together. It all went by so quickly and I feel like we are still trying to recover. I have a cray week/weekend here at work this week too so I am feeling very run down at the moment.

I wanted to share a few pictures from the weekend - some of the family, some from the wedding. I wish we could go back and do it all over again in super slow motion!

The hubs and the groom-to-be (his cousin) on the golf course...



Cousins Eric and Kyle



Dan, the groom and the groom's brother



Of course one of the most exciting things about the wedding for me was dressing the boys up! Their Grandma made them vests to go with their khakis, button down shirts and cute ties. Aren't they handsome?!



Ben doing his GQ pose...



And now for the wedding! I didn't get any photos (due to wrangling two cranky toddlers during the ceremony) so I snagged these from another guest...



All together now...Awwwweeee :)



Dan and Landon after the ceremony...



Mr. and Mrs.!



Daddy kisses :)



Dan, Kyle and Landon. You can tell which one of the boys I was holding all night...no pics of me or Ben!




The next day we had a 1st birthday party for one of the hub's cousin's children...told you it was a busy weekend!

Here is Ben with Grandma Joyce enjoying the party...



Landon playing with the balloons...



With my favorite 2nd mom :)



And of course the birthday boy, Aiden, enjoying his cake....A LOT!



And lots of new toys!



And since all good things come to an end, we had to say goodbye to Kyle on Monday. Here he is with Landon before he left for the airport. Sad times at the Ford house. :(



Thanks for sticking with me through this major recap - it was quite a weekend! Hope yours was just as fun, but not as tiring. :)

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

{progress!}

The floor was about 80% done when we got home last night! It looks wonderful and we are so excited to have that awful carpet gone for good. Here are a few progress pics...



Monday, September 14, 2009

{new flooring in the houuuuuse}





I think I watch waaaay too much Sid the Science Kid with the boys (all you parents will know what I mean :)

Anyway, here is our new flooring!!! Which, by the way, should be mostly out of these packages and in its new home as I speak! Oh I can't wait to get home tonight and see the progress!

Friday, September 11, 2009

{music man}



The boys both love music.

I played a lot of Ben Harper and Jack Johnson for them when they were still in my tummy, and now whenever they hear music playing they start to nod their heads and gyrate to the beat. And it doesn't matter what type of music. Last night we were in Fazoli's for dinner and Ben was dancing to the odd Italian polka that was playing. So cute.

The other day Dan let Landon listen to his mp3 player and right away he knew where to put the ear piece. I captured this photo and it just makes me melt. Seeing my babies doing such grown-up things amazes me every time.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

{big steps and dirty feet}

Our family too a very big step this past week.

After over 7 years working the night shift, my husband quit his job and is now going to be a full time stay at home dad! This was a HUGE leap for us, as we are going to be living on a much tighter budget than we are used to, but our only other option was putting the boys in daycare soon which would have cost almost his entire paycheck. But I know that this is the right thing for us, and I know that God will help us make ends meet.

The hubs has only been gone from that horrible job for a few days and he is already an entirely different person.

Happy, optimistic, cheerful. And he is loving being at home with the boys.

And I'm loving having him there. No more being home alone at night with the boys, worried they are both going to need me at the same time. No more handling all of our household stuff on my own because he is sleeping during the day. He took the car for an oil change last week and that was like heaven for me. I've always had to take care of those things.

We took full advantage of the long holiday weekend. We took a fun shopping trip out of town that included Target, Panera, TJ Maxx and Old Navy. Found dress shirts for the boys for an upcoming wedding - can't wait to see them all dressed up!

The weekend was also full of time for the boys to run around in the grass and get some dirt between their toes which they looooved. They got equal yard time at their Grandma Joyce's and at my parents' house. It was a great photo op for their camera obsessed mother. They are looking so grown up!





















Wednesday, September 02, 2009

{blessed}

This morning I got not one, but two kisses through the baby gate on my way out the door to work. Oh how I love these boys!



Tuesday, September 01, 2009

{hello fall}

I don't care what day fall technically begins...in my mind it is here! And today is September 1st, and September = fall, right? On Saturday while the boys were napping I pulled out all of my fall decorations. Despite the disarray our house is still in, it was such a calming activity to pull out all of my faux pumpkins, acorns, berry garlands etc. and find homes for them. They might not have the beautiful surroundings they had in our old house (not yet anyway) but they are still a reminder of my absolute most favorite time of the year.

There is just something about the mix of colors that fall brings that put me in a relaxed, introspective, and even I guess I could say spiritual mood. Here are a few pics of my fall decorations from last year to hopefully put you in the fall mood as well...





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