Vacation 2011

I have finally moved my pictures from our trip to Myrtle Beach over to the computer. Now the question is...how do I choose out of 400 photos which ones to share? And then...after that...what do I do with these 400 photos? What do you do with all your pictures?

Here are a few of my favorites! Enjoy.

Beauty

Looking for Mommy

Not so sure about this.

Curious

She likes the beach!

The cousins have arrived!

Love this picture!

Nana doing what she does best!

Nana and Anna

Sweet Hanna

... And Halli (I'm relying on my four year old to tell me which one is which.)

How I spent my mornings.

My sweet blessings

Please tell me how to get 5 kids 6 and under to all smile at the same time?

Silly J.J.

Our view every morning...

The Sweeter Side of Life

Dear Friends,

I must let you know…it’s not always this bad. Since I was a small child, I have followed the same pattern. When I am sad, I write. When I am mad, I write. My journals are quite depressing. It is how I release my emotions.

The truth is this.... I have an amazingly helpful and supportive husband and three beautiful children. I serve an amazing God who has providentially placed amazing people in my life. So amazing that they made this walk a lot easier than the previous one. Many of you that have emailed me and messaged me only know me through the blog…you don’t see my silly antics and pictures on facebook. You don’t get to see me pushing my kids in swings and taking picnics and going fishing. You don’t get to see me when I do enjoy life…because then I’m too busy enjoying it and I don’t want to stop and write. I’ve received enough concerned response…I felt like I should let everyone know some things.

The truth is the first two or three weeks after I had my precious Anna, I didn’t cook a dinner because my sisters in Christ provided them for me. The truth is those same sisters have allowed me to borrow or offered their daughters to come allow me to rest. The support has been incredible and I praise God for His provision through them.

But, my previous two personal posts are still a reality. Hormonal things happen to many of us in varying degrees. I do have days when I am sad…but I also have very enjoyable days. Postpartum blues are a very strange thing to me. It is overwhelming at times when my little angel nurses that I am overtaken with sadness, tiredness, and nausea all at the same time. But praise God again! I have a dear friend that experiences the same thing and we can support each other.

I also believe it is a reality that having a 3 year old, a 2 year old, and a newborn…is HARD! And top that with postpartum blues and there is surely going to be tears. Wait, take away the postpartum blues and there is going to be tears! Especially, when there is intentional parenting involved.

So, friends, those who know me personally and those who don’t, thank you so much for your prayers and please keep praying…I need them. I’m sure many of your prayers were God’s means to make my days enjoyable.

Much love to you today!

Daughters of Virtue

I see beautiful, amazing, and godly young women all around me. I see the faithfulness of God in the lives of the daughters of friends who have raised them in the admonition of the Lord. I see modest young women, intelligent young women, and women much more prepared than I too be mothers and wives. I think of one such young lady, and I’m inclined to call her a “girl” because of the girls I’m accustomed to seeing in the world are just that…“girls” unprepared for the world. She is but nineteen or twenty and her beauty is amazing. Her inner beauty radiates from the inside out through her smile. Her eyes sparkle and you are drawn to her…because you know she is different. And as time goes on and you know this young lady you realize why she is different. Her father and mother have instilled her with godly principles and ideas of biblical womanhood. She is modest in her dress and speech, her diligence in work can be seen from afar, and her humility is plain.

I cannot help but think of my own self at that age. I think of the friends that walked with me through life and how if they saw me now, they could very much recognize me physically. But with a little time, they would find me not only changed but almost unrecognizable from the girl they once knew. Some could say it was the nature of life and that marriage and children took their natural course in my life. However, if they stay just a little longer, they will see it is so much more. My thinking has changed and my heart is completely new. I have truly become a new creature in Christ. I have been truly born from above. (John 1:13, 2 Corinthians 5:17)

Had I walked the earth during Jesus’ ministry, the Pharisees would have scolded Him for looking at me, speaking to me, and touching me. I would have sat at His feet and known that I was broken and in need of a Physician. I would have felt unworthy of being in His presence. However, with His great love, He would have touched my face and said, “Go, and sin no more.” (John 8, Psalm 99:5)

I can look back on my spiritual transformation and marvel at the work of God in my life. But then I take a step back and realize something about my own daughters. If we, like the parents above, instill in them a biblical worldview and godly principles, how will they ever know their need for Christ? If there is not a time in their lives where they can’t remember not knowing Christ, how will they keep from becoming like the Pharisees? Lord willing, we will in no way neglect our calling to raise our children in the admonition of the Lord. But, if each of my daughters never walk a road with sinners, how will she know that she sits just as unworthily at Jesus’ feet as I?

The Piece That Holds It All Together

The past couple of weeks I have painted a picture of order and peace with a splash of beauty. I have shared the way I manage to accomplish things and why I think order is such a necessity in family life. However, as I finish off this series of post, I must add the most important part… the awareness that no home is the same, no situation is the same, and no mom personality is the same. For a good look at different personalities, check out A Slob Comes Clean; this is a recent find of mine that I love…she has a great way of keeping things real and in perspective for the anti-procrastinating, neat freak type like me.

I was also reminded of how different situations can be as I spoke with my very pregnant friend a few weeks back. She has three times the amount of children I do and her husband leaves very early and comes home a little later because of his drive to work. As I spoke of my little orderly world, she reminded me of exactly how blessed I am on a day-to-day basis because of one reason.

See, I have something some of you may not have…it’s that guy we refer to as “Nate” on this blog. Without him, the order and peace would be a lot harder. First and foremost, he supports what I do as a homemaker. He lifts me up and praises me. He makes my life easier by usually having a pleasant and supportive attitude. He gives me that support because he believes as much as I do that home is where the wife and mother belong.

Nate also has a little awareness of how weary a mom can get doing the tasks of the homemaker…especially when you add in godly character training for the children. We see him most every day for lunch. After work and on the weekends, he doesn’t go off with his buddies frolicking like so many other men. He is home with us because this is what makes him happy. He doesn’t want to miss his children grow into adults; he wants to be there for it all. He even once said, “I can’t wait to come home every day.” And not only is he home, he is involved.

After dinner, when most moms have the entire load of kitchen and baths and bedtime to handle, Nate is there with me. Every single night I can count on him to give the babies their baths and entertain them before bed…which leaves me time to clean the kitchen and pick up the house from the busy evening. Because of that consistency, every night from 6:00- 7:30PM, our children know that Dad and Mom will be spending family time with them. And Mom knows that everything will be taken care of before bedtime, so I can just relax and have fun.

I know that without him, maintaining my vision for a godly home would be a lot harder. My patience would be thinner and I would grow much wearier. So all that order and peace, he is what holds it all together…or maybe he’s just what holds me all together.

The Home Series

Order in the Home

A Taste of Home

Why Order Is Important

The Piece That Holds It All Together- this post!

Papaw Sneed: One of the Lord’s giants

As we drove into Athens for my papaw’s funeral on Wednesday, I told Nate about what came to my mind when I thought of him. Papaw Sneed to me was overalls, circus peanuts, chap stick, and chewing tobacco. It’s amazing the things you learn about the one’s you love when they are gone.

I knew he was a preacher back in the day. I didn’t know it was for 51 years. I knew he loved the lake and stayed there every summer. I didn’t know he liked to have his feet rubbed. I knew he was married to my mamaw for 64 years. I didn’t know how sweet they were with each other until I saw her kiss him and clean his face while he was in the hospital that last week. I knew he loved his family. I didn’t know he loved us so much he would recognize each one of us on his death bed. (And there are a lot of us!)

Papaw Sneed is one of those people in my life that I wished I could have been around more…that I wished I could have talked to more…that I wish I could have loved more.

As he laid there peacefully in his overalls with a Bible in his hands, I had to agree with the man giving the message that night…he was one of the Lord’s giants…

Marion Alfred “Bo” Sneed

November 20. 1929- September 6, 2010

To My Beloved Boss

For your birthday, what better form of expression than publicly announcing my love for you? (And you say I’m not affectionate. Psfft!) I have so much to be thankful for as we celebrate another day together. Our marriage is yet another sign of God’s grace on His children. I am often times so undeserving of your love and yet you continue to be an amazing husband and father.

Thank you for being my companion. Thank you for being my best friend…my ear when I need to talk…my shoulder when I need to cry. My guide when I am on the wrong path. The one who reminds me when I forget who I am without Christ. Thank you for coming home every night to your family. Thank you for always wanting to hug me even when I don’t want to hug back. Thank you for always giving the kids a bath so I clean the kitchen. Thank you for going to work every day and providing for our family. Thank you for being the security that I have longed for my entire life. Thank you for always bringing me drinks at nighttime when I am exhausted and just want to kick up my feet. Thank you for calling me during the day so I always know we are on your mind. And most of all thank you for humbly leading our home.

On your birthday, you should be receiving all the gifts…but is us who is blessed most of all. We love you…(all four of us!)

Where you die, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part you and me. Ruth 1:17

Where Can I Serve God?

It wasn’t long ago I was writing about Losing Michelle… And it wasn’t long ago I was Finding Michelle either. I believe I find myself still caught in this battle. The battle is a cultural and spiritual battle. It is the battle of what I have been indoctrinated with against the biblical vision we have for our family. We are fighting this battle as a family against the tide of our society. Luckily, we have been so blessed to find a body of believers to worship with on Sundays. I told you about when I first met them HERE. The godliness in this church is astounding compared to the many, many churches we have visited for the past six years. So with this battle we have been fighting for so many years, God has blessed us with support and guidance and discipleship.

Here I am a mother of two beautiful babies, a wife to a wonderful husband, and a child of God trying to find His ways. Being so blessed, I sometimes find myself so confused. I want to blame the culture. I want to blame feminism. I want to blame someone or something. But it all comes back to me. It comes back to me learning to let go of the world I was taught to love and embrace. It comes back to me learning that only God can satisfy my hunger and thirst for something more. It is God! It is God that I thirst for! It is God that I long to be with!

God wants us to die to self so that we can serve others. We search for ministries in our community…when a woman’s ministry is in her own home. Where I am right now is where God wants me to serve Him. By serving those in my home, I will serve God.

Proverbs 31

A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.
She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.
She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.
She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.
She gets up while it is still dark;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her servant girls.
She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.
She sees that her trading is profitable,
and her lamp does not go out at night.
In her hand she holds the distaff
and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.
When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
She makes coverings for her bed;
she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
Her husband is respected at the city gate,
where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them,
and supplies the merchants with sashes.
She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
"Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all."
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Give her the reward she has earned,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.