I normally feel guilty about buying so many clothes and sharing it on top of that, but I can count on my hands the clothes I bought for myself in the last 18 months. Plus, you’ll see these were such great deals there is no guilt here!
Extraordinary Faith for Everyday Life
by Amy 12 Comments
I normally feel guilty about buying so many clothes and sharing it on top of that, but I can count on my hands the clothes I bought for myself in the last 18 months. Plus, you’ll see these were such great deals there is no guilt here!
by Amy 11 Comments
How’s that for an SEO-friendly title? I just know someone is googling for people’s weekend recaps.
So hi.
I’m still here. I still love blogging. I love writing. I love you. If you’re still out there. I guess you are if you’re reading this. And if no one does, I suppose this is like me talking to myself in the middle of the woods. It wouldn’t be the first time I talked to myself, so I may as well keep going.
The last two weeks have been hard emotionally for me. Lexi has come unraveled a few times and it’s led to some glaring issues and things that need to change, a lot on my part. I’m trying my best to spend as much quality time with them as I can. I’m having to say no when I don’t really want to say no. I’m having to bite my tongue. I’m having to pay attention. Really pay attention. In other words, it’s been taking a lot of my time and exhausting me a little. But in the most wonderful ways. This parenting gig is something I happily signed on for and while hard, the good is so good it’s worth it.
In super duper good news, I’ve been working from home a lot more lately. I’m SO thankful. It’s such a huge answer to prayer and could not have had better timing.
We stayed in Friday and ate pizza and watched TV together. Saturday I took the girls to the Nature Museum, Moe’s and the library. For whatever reason they really latched on to the rocks and minerals at the museum and most of their books were on those. Kids surprise you sometimes. Lexi was scared to death of the big bears and elephant. I embarrassed her when I started praying over her right in front of the monkey display. We were all alone in the whole hall but she still said, “Stop, Mom, you’re embarrassing me.” I think it was the first, but certainly not the last. The library we went to after that has this wonderful spiral staircase. My parents used to take me and my sister and I loved that thing. We were climbing to the second floor and Emma was complaining about so many stairs but it was one of those moments of passing down a tradition that is part of what makes parenting so fun. After that, we went grocery shopping and came home to wash laundry and have dinner. Exciting times, I tell you! I heard someone once say that the more bored the parent was, the happier the kids were. I really think that’s true for my girls, at least.
Today we went to church, had lunch with Scott’s family, went shopping just the 3 of us, spent some time at my parents’ and then came home to an evening of leftovers and wrestling. Church, shopping, family. You know it’s a good day. In fact, I might have to do a haul video on all the stuff I got at Old Navy. I honestly don’t think I’ve bought myself anything outside of a few shirts for Christmas since the end of summer. Today I didn’t spend more that $5 for a shirt and most of them were $3.50 so it was GOOD.
Beyond that I’ve been reading some good stuff on adoption (and getting scared to death) and eating better (and doing absolutely nothing about it) and watching Elevation’s revival services (and getting some wonderful words).
I hope you had a wonderful weekend!
by Amy 8 Comments
OK, so here are a few small updates that we’ve made around the house that I haven’t taken the time to tell you about. The first is another Christmas present from Mom. I picked out the fabric and she recovered it for me.
Isn’t that fabric fun? It is totally me and makes me so happy!
When we were in Maryland, I scored a new shower curtain and rugs for SIX dollars each at Ollie’s. Not a bad transformation for less than $20! You can see older pictures here and here.
Amazing how a little color and pattern changes things, huh?
by Amy 5 Comments
I love, love, loved this video from Beth Moore today on prayer. I know, like you, there are so many people around me hurting and sick. They need us on our knees interceding for them. I have been so lax at this and I admit it. This video really inspired me today to do a better job and I hope it does the same for you.
She has a post that goes along with this where folks are leaving their ideas that work. The only thing I can contribute is that writing my prayers out has helped tremendously. It’s been awesome to look back and see where God answered. Not being boastful, though, I have not written them down on more days than I have.
If you feel inclined, I’d love for you to leave any prayer requests, or even just something unspoken, in the comments so I can pray for you specifically.
(image courtesy of http://www.stopthecandyshop.com/)
When I went to Catalyst in 2010, I was blown away by Christine Caine who heads up The A21 Campaign, a non-profit which aims to abolish human trafficking. As a follow-up, they also showed a promo for a short film/parable bringing awareness to child sex trafficking called The Candy Shop. I had the pleasure, or should I say discomfort, of finally watching it today for Trafficking Awareness Day.
Did you know Atlanta is the LARGEST city in America for trafficking and comes in at tenth in the whole world? That’s 375 little girls just a few years older than my Emma and Lexi that are taken advantage of every single month. Just last month, the FBI said a pediatrician was arrested for child pornography. The thought sickens me. But we simply cannot ignore the nausea. We feel helpless but there are organizations making a difference. The A21 Campaign works all over the world to restore victims, prevent new ones and bring perpetrators to justice. Street Grace is the organization that partnered with the film company to produce The Candy Shop film. Here are ways to partner with them and make an impact:
It’s so disheartening to think about these things but we can’t be like the people in the film that just say it’s none of our business or believe the lie we can’t make a difference. We CAN. Let’s do it.
by Amy 5 Comments
Have you seen that quote on Facebook from parents about how you will question, stalk, annoy, etc. your kids just to make sure they’re safe because you love them? Well, I would look it up for you if not but I’m on my lunch break writing this at work and something about looking up stalking in Google feels like it might raise some red flags with HR. Plus, all I really want to say is I completely agree with quote and did my first bout of stalking this weekend.
Emma had a friend invite her to sleepover on Friday night and her mom said she could just walk home with this little girl since they only live two blocks from the school. At first, I was like, oh no, this is different and Emma is going to freak out. See, every day since she was 3, I have taken her and picked her up from whatever school she was in. And she cried the first 3 weeks of Kindergarten even when I walked her in. So, when the mom asked me this on the phone, I had to put her on hold and ask Emma if that’s what she wanted. See, Emma has said that she really, really wanted to be a walker on multiple occassions but we just don’t live close enough. But here we were with a chance for her to actually walk home and well, I just didn’t know how that was going to go over. She gave me a sheepish grin and agreed that yes, she wanted to walk. Then, of course, Lexi started to freak out because she didn’t want to walk to the van alone. Change! My girls are not good at it!
Friday afternoon came along and Lexi was saved because I had to pick up a friend’s son too. As for Emma, I hadn’t seen her all day and was on pins and needles to see how she was going to do. I seriously wouldn’t put it past her to be in near tears walking the two blocks. There are two ways she could have walked home so I parked my van on one of the streets so I could see the alternate way too. We waited. And waited. I just had to see how she was doing. Lexi finally started suggesting we just head home even though she was pretty interested in seeing her big sister too. I started seeing other parents and their kids and still no sign of Emma. Then all those horrible things started going through my head of kids just being picked off the street in white vans (because it’s always a white van in my head). So, I told the kids, ok, now I’m getting worried it’s been so long, we’re going to have to go look for them. So I started to take off, looking back in my rearview just to make sure I hadn’t missed her. I turned left at the corner and was then one street away from the alternate route. And there was Emma and her friend on the other street.
She was crossing the road and drinking from her reusable soda can we bought a few weeks ago. You could tell she was having fun and talking a mile a minute. And then she spotted the van. I rolled the windows down at the stop sign where we met and she was all, “Hey, Mommy! Hey, Tucker! Hey, Lexi!” And then I was all, “I gotta go, there’s a line behind me!” And we were off, headed home and I watched in the rearview mirror as she finished her walk.
She had no idea I had waited a good 10 minutes for her. It just happened that we met at the stop sign. She just figured I had just picked Lexi up and was on my way home. I guess it shouldn’t be a big deal. Kids walk home all the time. But for us, it was a first. One of those Mom Moments where you look at your kid and go, You’re growing up, stop doing that.
And it won’t be the last first-time she’ll have with her mommy stalking her through it.
by Amy 4 Comments
Belated Merry Christmas to me! My mom had my curtains made for my Christmas presents but we had so many issues with the fabric they didn’t get done quite in time. They were well worth the wait though! My bedroom is really feeling like a bedroom!
Lots more to do in the room to make it all come together…pillows, bedding, pictures, furniture but I’m loving it so far!
Some days in the office are exhausting. By the time I get home almost 11 hours after I leave the house, I feel much like a ragdoll ready to be set on a shelf and left alone. Thank goodness I had spaghetti leftovers for us to eat tonight. One less thing to think about. I had promised the girls this morning I’d take them to the Dollar Store tonight. Emma had a dollar from her chore chart and Lexi had one for trying her baked beans the other night. What? Don’t pretend like you don’t bribe your kids. And of course they couldn’t save their money. It’s been a whole 10 days since hitting the motherload at Christmas. So I took them and they bought fairy wings and a play cash register, which I admit was quite fun. I don’t get to throw around $100 bills often.
On the way home, Emma asked what forbidden love was. Seeing that our conversation to The Dollar Store was sparked with the question, “Is there really a medicine you can take so you don’t have babies?”, this new question didn’t startle me in the least. Immediately, Romeo and Juliet popped in my mind. I explained they were from two families that were sworn enemies and they weren’t supposed to love each other. Lexi piped in that she had seen a movie where Juliet was a dog and Romeo was a cat and that was forbidden love because cats and dogs aren’t supposed to love each other. All I have to say about that is whoever cast that movie got it all wrong because we all know cats are girls and dogs are boys. The girls seem to catch on to the idea and finally Lexi said, “Who started this anyway?” Which is what they always say when we’ve found ourselves knee deep down rabbit holes.
All that to say the whole conversation got me thinking about God’s love for me and how it’s a forbidden love. He has no right to love me. Him, being perfectly perfect and patience and joyful and loving. And not just having those qualities but BEING those qualities. He has no right to love me in my pride and stubbornness and impatience and jealousy and all those things I wish I could rid myself of. It ought to be forbidden for Him to love me as much as He does.
When Romeo found Juliet sleeping, assuming she was dead, he drinks poison, killing himself so he could have eternity with his star-crossed lover. Much like Romeo, God found me in my death, before the earth had its foundation and because He loved me so much, He chose to come and die so I could join Him in eternity one day. The best part about our love is it’s not a tragedy. It’s a beautiful story that’s been written long before Romeo and Juliet and has an ending that all forbidden love’s only wish they had.
I put together a listing of all the ways He loves us for my eBook Entangled. Maybe you need a reminder of His forbidden love today. I know I did.