Joy

One of the things I struggle with in life is finding joy in the everyday. God is showing me in many humbling ways that while I may say that the biblical way of living is the only path to true happiness, it is rare that I show that in the way I act. Particularly in regards to children. Sure I may say that God is true and that children are in fact blessings rather than curses, but so many times, my countenance, words, and attitude reflect a heart that doesn't really believe it. Here is an excerpt from an interesting article

In our society parents do a wonderful job of portraying the difficulties of
having children: the financial burdens, the time drain, the guilt, the
exhaustion. But we do a lousy job of getting across something else about
parenthood: It's fun! When you are experiencing parenthood from the inside,
there is an overwhelming pleasure in the funny, fascinating things your
children
do. When my daughter was 2, she put her arms around me as I was
kissing her
goodnight and said to me, "Mommy, you're a wonderful husband."
That was better
than any of the movies I hadn't been to since she was born.

I don't know much about the author, but she, who has only one child, is showing that she has found joy in the blessings of children. Whereas I, who am expecting my fifth reward from God, hardly ever do. I realize that I can easily excuse away these sins in the world's eyes. After all, who wouldn't blame someone who's in pain or exhausted with pregnancy for being grumpy with their kids. But the truth is that this is a heart issue and it involves my willingness to believe, trust, and honor God in all circumstances. It is always one thing to say it in your head, it's another thing to believe it in your heart and practice it throughout your day. When I walk around the grocery store annoyed, when I sigh at having to clean up the spilled milk under the table, when I'd rather let the kids watch a video than interact with them, I'm showing that I don't really believe God.

I feel terrible when I realize this because not only does it mean I'm dishonoring God, but I'm also presenting a lie to the world. They see me saying that we believe children are a blessing but acting like they're not, and what do you think they'll believe? What an awful witness for the Lord I am. I really need to practice what I preach in the everyday, the nitty gritty, the mundane. Then and only then, will my life start reflecting God's truth instead of my sin and lies. May God forgive me and grant me the wisdom and the ability to find joy in the everday. And may you all find it too :)

Winners

I won! I won! I won! Okay, I LOVE competition and thanks to Moms4Psalms, I won her competition and a prize! I got my free Mary Kay eye makeup remover in the mail today and am very excited to try it out. Thanks again, Moms!

Another winner is a site my sister sent me today. It's a menu planner for mothers and even included grocery lists! Sounds like fun to me!

And then we can all be winners by staying out of debt :) Here's a neat new site for that.

My sister finally called and asked when I was going to update my blog, so I guess I'd better! Bottom line is, it's hot. The last three days have seen temps at or above 100 degrees. Now as awful as that sounds, it really hasn't been too terrible. Thanks to our God for the mercies of air conditioning and swimming pools, we've managed to stay pretty comfortable. And there's a bonus in that, the kids are so worn out from the heat and all the swimming that they are sleeping like 12 1/2 hours every night! Now, if only I'd go to bed as soon as they do... Still I am getting like nine hours a night, which you'd think was more than enough. Somehow though I'm still exhausted.

I'm officially in my last trimester, yahoo! Only twelve plus weeks to go - why does that feel like much longer than the 28 weeks I've already been through? Anyway, my old friend SPD has reared its ugly head again and this time has spread down my thighs and in my groin muscles. Who knew that could happen?! So, I can't walk much more than just around the house and even that gets pretty uncomfortable fast. Dearest hubby is helping lots by taking over the grocery shopping, doing as much lifting of fat Molly as he can, buying me lots of chocolate :), and today he let me get the maid in! Truth is, he's been offering to get a maid for a while, but cheap and proud me wouldn't let him - I know, I know...

June looks like it might be a pretty busy month with five family birthdays. I've also got to get busy planning Gracie's party. She's only been talking about it since January. You should have heard her after Noah's party back then, "How long until my birthday? Six months!! Oh, no that's going to be forever! Can I have a swimming party with my cousins? No, wait! I have an idea! Let's have a swimming PRINCESS party! Oh, that'll be so great!" I still have no idea where she gets her dramatic side from - probably her dad ;) Anyway, all those birthdays will be a great distraction from the much awaited birthday of this newest little one on or around September 2nd.

So, that's the highlights I guess. Hope to post more soon.