the BEST kind.

Tonight as I sit here, exhausted from a day's work and waiting for my dear hubby to get home from our house, I read Nie's encouraging words, and this stuck out to me:

Family is hard work, but it is the best hard work that ever existed.

That's the truth, and it is echoing in my head tonight. 

Thank you, Lord, for my precious, beautiful family.

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My "quiet" time

I've mentioned this before, but sometimes, my quiet time with the Lord looks a whole lot like this:

What I've realized is that this is just a season of my life. And know what I'm finding? The Lord meets us right where we are. 

So be encouraged, my friends. Just come to Him and let Him show you His love. His mercies. His truth. 


Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
Psalm 90:14

A house.

A lot of you may have already seen via Facebook and instagram, but this past week Chris and I became first time homeowners!!!

Woo hoo!!

Holding the key:

Us with the kiddos:

Demolition in progress: 

While we wouldn't really consider it a "fixer-upper", it does have a bit of work that we're going to do on it before we move in. (mainly floors and walls--stuff that's way easier to do while the house is empty!)

Taking a break and resting on the porch. :)

Living Water- part TWO

Well. I certainly didn't intend for a whole entire month to go by without writing. But ya know, life happens. We took a trip to North Carolina to visit my mom. (I'll give you a recap on that later.) 

Also, I'll have a really exciting announcement later this week. Am I keeping you on the edge of your seat? 
(no, I'm not pregnant, let's just get that out of the way now)

Anyway.

My month of drinking only water is over. And this coffee I'm drinking right now as I type is SO tasty. 

So what did I learn? What did the Lord teach me? First off, if you are one of those people that says, "I could NEVER give up coffee!", know that I was one of those people too. I really was. But when the Lord calls, I answer, and when He calls, He equips (not the other way around.)

It was somewhat ironic, because the very day I made that commitment, I read this on Hannah's instagram:

"it is wonderful what miracles god works in wills that are utterly surrendered to him. he turns hard things into easy, and bitter things into sweet. it is not that he puts easy things in the place of the hard, but he actually changes the hard thing into an easy one." 

hannah whit hall smith

And that day, I wondered if that would be my experience through all of this.

Let me tell you, friends, He absolutely was my help. 

I never suffered from caffeine headaches. I was rarely tempted to give in. But on the occasions that I was, He was my strength, and I was reminded of WHY I was doing it, not just the fact that I was. In summary, keeping your eyes on Jesus is always a good thing.

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One last thing, friends. Here's a song that's been on my heart the last couple of days. It's speaking to me hardcore. What is your "sing all you want to"? This last month, mine has been drinking coffee. And this week? It's something else. Please give this song a listen. Open your hearts to what the Lord may be speaking to you. 

Anything I put before my God is an idol.Anything I want with all my heart is an idol. Anything I can't stop thinking of is an idol. Anything that I give all my love is an idol.

Living Water

 ^"Whoever believes in me...rivers of living water will flow from within them.” John 7:38

This is a really hard blog post to write.
1. It's making me incredibly vulnerable not just to the internet world but to those who are close to me and to whom I see on a consistent basis. 
2. I'm afraid of failure. Extremely afraid. 

BUT, I feel the Lord leading me here, and I feel that I need to share it. So here goes. 

I have a struggle with bad food and healthy eating. Like, a back and forth, roller coaster, up/down, love/hate relationship, however you want to describe it. 

I have lots of knowledge on how to eat healthy, I know why I need to do it, yet I just cannot get over the hump of getting all the crappy food out of my diet. 

I tell myself...

It's been a bad day, go ahead and swing through McDonalds and get that large Dr. Pepper and large french fry. 

The kids are finally in bed, you're completely exhausted, you deserve that ice cream. 

It's been a stirring in my heart, to say the least. But I think this post finally pushed me over the edge to sit down, journal out my thoughts, and pray about what steps to take next. 
Because clearly, this is a heart issue.

Like Jessi, I decided to write out my own lies/truths about this subject. I won't share them all, but here's my first one:

LIE: food and treats will refresh me.
TRUTH: JESUS is the only true living water and ultimate source of refreshment. 

So, what to make of all this? 

I'm going to drink only water for the next 30 days.

A goal towards healthier eating and a reminder of what is my true living water.

And yes, that means I'm not going to drink coffee. Do I think coffee is bad? Heck no. I think coffee is God's wonderful gift to mothers. :) But I also believe that good things can get in the way of what HE wants to be in our lives. 

So friends, this is going to be hard. I'm not going to be able to do it by myself. Which I think is also what the Lord is going to teach me. My weakness. His strength. My Living Water. 

Life Lately, as told through pictures

Brother/Sister Duo.

She is loving that he sleeps in her room now. 

I think he likes it too. :)

Ya know, bonding. 

Girlfriend loves her an ice cream cone. 

I feel like I'm getting a small glimpse of what Molly is going to look like as a teenager here. *hold me*

Swimming with Grama.

Trying out some food. He gets SO excited and flails his hands in the air. :) 

Rejoicing with friends that have welcomed their sweet baby boy into the world.

I cannot even handle the sweetness....

Experimenting with homemade almond milk. The french press method didn't quite work for me, but I'm hoping to keep trying and find the right way!

This morning I tried to explain to Molly the difference between a CD and a DVD. I told her she had a CD in her hand and that we hear the music with our ears...

Happy weekend, friends!

SIX months

Oh Coop. Where do I even begin your six month post? 

(Well, first, I read Molly's. Here. Wow, that seems like forever ago.)

You are a lot like me--you live in the extremes of life. When you're happy, you're really happy. But when you're mad, well, you're really mad. 

You have quite possibly the best smile I've ever seen. Your face can light up the entire room. And your laugh. Oh, your laugh. You  are super ticklish, and your sister can really make you giggle.

But--how do I say this?--you've been quite the challenge. I'm fairly certain I've changed more in the last six months than I have in my entire life. You've driven me to my knees in a way that nothing else has up to this point in my life.

You've taught me more about being a parent than I had learned with Molly. You've been quite the opposite of her, throwing me for a loop in that some of the things we'd done with her, well, they don't exactly "work" with you. (I imagine we'll be running into that a whole lot more!) :)

Ya know, it's hard to necessarily put the blame on one thing, because it's not just you. It's been tough with daddy in school, learning how to adjust to two kids, and your big sister Molly entering a new phase of toddler-dom. :) 

These last six months have stretched us, to say the least. But my love for you has grown more than I ever thought possible. You are SO special to me, Coop-scoop. I cannot imagine our family without you. 

love always, your mama.

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....and of course, some more pictures. :)

for funnsies...both kids at 6 months: