Friday, November 30, 2012

Choosing Joy

I read a great post on The Marathon Mom the other day, entitled "Dear Overwhelmed Mother of Little Ones." It is a great post and I really recommend everyone read it. If you don't have a house full of incoherent little devils... I mean, sweet little angel preschoolers and toddlers... then read it to gain some understanding of those of us that do. If you do... read it because you need to read it. It will make your day (although it might make you cry, so if this is the one day you decided to opt for mascara, maybe wait until tomorrow).

Anyway, it got me thinking about the verse in Romans that talks about renewing the mind:
 
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is--- his good, pleasing and perfect will.
--Romans 12:2
 
 
As I was driving in the car today, trying not to lose my patience with my sassy little 3-year-old, I started adding up all the "I won'ts" and "I can'ts" and "I will do" in my brain--- basically, succumbing to the "pattern of this world" that tells me that I should be depressed, overwhelmed, stressed, and self-pitying about my current *domestic* state. Things such as "I won't go on an adult vacation/sleep through the night/pee by myself for another ??? years" or "I can't leave the house without a diaper bag/make plans more than 2 weeks ahead/leave the cupboards open for another ??? years" or "I will change ??? diapers/make ??? bottles/ get peed/pooped/puked on ??? times before I'm done raising kids."
 
And then, the stress became compounded. I could hear the devil whispering in my ear "This is coming from your choice to continue having children. You could stop and go on a cruise in less than a year. You could stop and have no more diapers in 2 years. You could stop and have your body back, your nights restful, your house clean, etc etc etc." And part of me wanted to give into it.
 
But then a stronger voice, the voice of the Holy Spirit, came soaring in, telling me "be transformed by the renewing of your mind..." And the love of God filled my heart and reassured me: not that any of those things were necessarily lies, because they aren't, but that I am doing HIS will, and while those things may be true, there are stronger, higher, brighter truths as well.
 
It is true that there is no end in sight for us--- no end to baby, toddler, preschool, and in the future pre-teen and teenage years. And I could choose to listen to ramblings of a crazy man (ie, the devil) and wallow in the negatives that come along with each of those, and let that wallowing drag me off the path I know I am meant to walk.
 
 
OR
 
 
I can renew my mind and give myself a Godly attitude (as many times a day as it takes). I can strive to be like the person in Psalm 1:
 
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish.
 
Granted, I was in the car with a *sassy* (that's really the nicest word I have right now) child, so it didn't all come this clearly. But, the scaffolding was there :) And the main point that I did get was this: I can choose joy. I can meditate on what God has promised me, and I can us that to renew my mind, and I can choose joy--- because once we look for it (and we don't have to look hard), joy is there.
 
And the biggest reason it's there, for me, is this: There are a million little things to love about the phase of life that we currently find ourselves. Many more than there are things to hate, although the things to hate push themselves to the front of the line and scream "Me! Me! Right here!" while the things to love wait patiently and sweetly behind them.
 
Things like:
-How funny toddlers find it to escape mid-diaper change and run around the house naked, laughing like an insane person.
-A preschoolers eagerness to help-- even when that help isn't all that helpful--  that is going to evaporate much faster than I want it to.
-The amazing love and joy that comes from a child that is sick or hurt and depends totally on you to fix them.
- Midnight snuggles
- Car rides and neighborhood walks where my kids discover things they never knew existed-- like Roly Poly bugs. Or sprinklers. Or lawn gnomes. Or bulldozers.
- Always having snacks in my purse for when I get hungry ;)
- How proud my daughters are of me when I go potty. Goooooo Mommy!
- Seeing the unique uses for common household items that I would have never imagined had that cupboard not been raided.
- Watching my daughter turn into a person with her own thoughts, feelings and attitude... even if I don't always like that attitude...
- How sweet a little hand touching your cheek and saying "Time to wake up, Mommy" can be, even if it's 6am.
 
 
And what makes them so precious is that I don't know how long they are going to last. I may be blessed beyond measure and get to experience them again (even 5, 6, or 7 agains) or I may be a person to whom the Lord chooses to say "No, you're done now." Part of the joy comes from not knowing if this is going to last for 20 years or if it will be over in a few short months. And I won't know until that happens, so my best bet, the smart thing to do, and even the selfish thing to do is to choose to take all the good things and focus on them for however long they are there.
 
Lastly (I promise): my encouragement for myself, and I hope my encouragement for other people, is to rest on the promise of God in Psalm 1. He promises that if we delight in His law, if we meditate on His word, we WILL yield fruit. We WILL prosper in whatever we do.
 
Can I get an amen??
 
XOXO,
Me
 
PS: My list above is by no means exhausting. Please, comment and add your little moments of "choosing joy" for whatever season you're in. I'd love to read them and add them to my list of things to watch for :)


Wednesday, November 21, 2012

3 under 3 no longer...

... or, "Happy Birthday to my Baby Girl!"

My little-not-so-little bean is 3 years old today. In honor of her momentous third birthday, this post will be dedicated to all things JoJoBeans.
So, if that doesn't interest you, please go away.

If you are part of the cool club (i.e. subscribe to the "JoJo is awesome" philosophy), feel free to peruse the following and add your own comments, pictures, memories and thoughts about my awesome little girl at the bottom.

Here is my sweet little baby at 2 weeks old!


 
And here she is yesterday...



 

 
This little girl changed my entire life. I never knew how much it was possible to love someone until she came into the world.
 
 

I can't believe this little bean (1 month, above) has grown into such a beautiful, smart, talented little girl. She amazes me every day with her wit, her love, and her crazy personality.


This picture was taken during our church worship practice a few weeks ago, where she took over the lead singing responsibility and rocked out to "How He Loves Us." She has such a heart for worship and for loving God--- what a blessing to have her teaching us how to have true "childlike faith" every day!







I'm finding it really hard to put down on "paper" anything concrete about little Bean... so I'll bomb you with a few more adorable pictures and then be done with it!







Happy 3rd Birthday my beautiful girl! I love you!!!





Saturday, November 10, 2012

Welcome to the World, Baby Boy!

As I'm sure everyone knows, we welcomed our third beautiful blessing into the world on November 1st at 10:42 am.


He is beautiful and perfect and I am so in love with him! Even though, clearly, he is not too in love with me in this picture. Hey, birth isn't easy for any involved. Even Hubby had to take a much more active approach this time around--- I'm sure he got a bit more of a *peek* than either of us would have preferred, but he did a great job and was really helpful!

Let me just get these answers out of the way:
No, we are not done now that we "got our boy."
Yes, we want more.
I have no idea when we will have more--- whenever God decides to bless us with another.
Yes, my hands are very full. Better full than empty!
No, we aren't trying to beat the Duggars (as if we're even close at this point, really) but we are aiming for a decent-sized hockey team ;)
Really, if your kids were this cute, you'd keep reproducing too
 
 
(Isn't his rockstar hair awesome! I love it...)


I was going to say everything went really quickly, but clearly the postpartum hormones are kicking in and already making me forget the 3 days of "prodromal" labor that happened before the super-quick actual labor. I had contractions (yes, real contractions--- painful, can't walk or talk contractions) every 10-40 minutes from Monday afternoon to Wednesday night. Luckily, I got to sleep Wednesday. I woke up at 6am thinking "Hm, no contractions all night. Maybe that's done with."

Well, my water broke about 5 seconds after that, so I guess I was kinda right! I called Nik to come home (because, of course, he had gone to work for the first time in 4 days--- and had literally just clocked in and sat down with his coffee, in that order) and my Mom to come over. By the time she got there around 6:20 I was having contractions about 3-5 minutes apart, strong, but not too bad.

We headed to the hospital around 7, got there about 8. By that time I couldn't walk or talk through the contractions. I got checked in, told the random person pushing my wheel chair "I'd like an epidural. Like yesterday."

The contractions were bad, but not as bad as I remember with Jordan. I puked around 9, and they totally changed quality (I guess that was *transition* or whatever--- I'm totally not up on this labor stuff.) I think I got the epidural around 10, at which point I kept telling the nurses I felt "funny," they checked me and said "Oh, you're ready to push." Like I said, totally not up on this labor thing--- I guess I'll know better for next time.

Everything else was a bit of a blur--- Nik had left the room for the epidural, and I guess I was REALLY ready because they started breaking everything down and calling the doctor and forgot that Nik wasn't there. I had to keep telling them "Go get my husband!"

He came in right as they had me start pushing. Like I said, he was a trooper--- I was really impressed considering he kinda hid like a deer in headlights with Jordan. Little Man was born only a few minutes later.

I felt really great after birth--- not too tired or worn out or grumpy or anything!

Everyone is doing really well. He had a little jaundice but is all cleared up. Little Bug was having some jealousy issues but she seems to be adjusting better now that I'm up and about more and am able to give her more attention. It's definitely an adjustment to be nursing instead of using bottles, but it's working out well. Thank God Nik is able to be home for 6 weeks, because I don't know what kind of craziness would be going on around here if I was trying to handle all three of them on my own already!

Love from us,