Priceless

Insomnia + a daughter who has decided to start waking up at night again = exhaustion migraines for Mama

A facial anatomy lesson (eyes! nose! teeth!) from said daughter at 6am = blurry eyes and yawning during church

A commitment to flexibility = not worrying too much about any of this

Two hours of extra rest with a sleeping girl snuggled under my chin and watching her wake up and smile at me = PRICELESS!

Who wouldn't want to wake up with this cutie in their bed?! :)

 

Incredible Hulk Super Soup!

Over at Good Food.

In the Hand of the Lord

 

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will. ~Proverbs 21:1

Today I had to report for jury duty. I was not happy about this. Until today, I had never left Clara home with a babysitter. We had left her with one or another of our parents a couple of times during visits. She had hung out at our friends the Niles' house while we went trail-riding. But we had never left her home with a "sitter." No one but me had put her down for a nap. You may think this is good or bad, sweet or strange, an example of dedication or codependency. Regardless of what you think, it has worked for us and we have all been happy.

 

The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps. ~Proverbs 16:9

I was first called for jury duty in March. I postponed it as long as I could, but this time I finally had to serve. I was on telephone standby and so yesterday evening I called to learn my fate. As you can imagine, I was not happy when I learned I had to report to the courthouse in Troy by 9 am this morning. I knew Clara would be fine, I knew everything would somehow work out, but I still had knots in my stomach all night dreading leaving my baby girl, not knowing how long I would be gone.

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but  it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand. ~Proverbs 19:21

I left at 7:45 this morning, leaving Clara in the very capable hands of our friend Lauren, one of Clara's favorite people. After navigating Troy traffic and confusing one-way streets and parking restrictions, I made it to the courthouse about 8:40, got through security and sat down to start waiting. A little after 9 we started the sign-in process. Over an hour later we had all been signed in for quite some time and were still waiting for the judge. At 10:20 the Commissioner of Jurors called his office and found out he was still in conference with the attorneys for the case that was to be tried today. She gave us a 15 minute break, during which I texted Lauren to let her know we were still waiting and see how things were going. She wrote back that all was going well and said, "Praying that the judge will show up soon and send you home!"

The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD. ~Proverbs 16:1

Fifteen minutes later, the judge entered the room and said, "I have some good news. Fifteen minutes ago the defendant in this case finally agreed to a plea bargain. You are all done and are free to go home." He went on to explain that this defendant has been particularly tough to work with, determined to "do his own thing." They have been negotiating with him for almost a year. He is a cocaine dealer who has been in and out of jail several times. I don't know what the "plans of his heart" were, but as close as I can figure, about the time my friend Lauren started praying, the Lord put a different answer on his tongue than the one that has been there for the past year. Truly,

The [cocaine dealer]’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will. ~Proverbs 21:1

 

I came home rejoicing because I serve a good, good God who saw fit to reach down and pour a little extra grace into my life this morning. I expected Clara and Lauren to have a wonderful time together, and they did. But I never expected to receive a little love letter from my Father God at jury duty. I'm not sure why I was so surprised. Jesus told us to expect this very thing!

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! ~Matthew 7:11

A Little Person

Clara has always been full of personality. Ever since she was born we have treated her as a person and she, in turn, has acted like one - communicating well even before she could speak or sign, interacting with us and others and displaying her own unique characteristics. The older she gets, the more like a little person she becomes. It is so funny to see her do "grown-up" things, like pushing a baby stroller, checking herself out in the mirror, or brushing her hair.

Note the mis-matched shoes and bedhead.

 :)

Yes, the mirror is dirty. It has since been cleaned.

 

She is obsessed with chapstick, and knows how to put it on her lips (sorry, I don't have a picture yet). She loves cell phones and is perfecting her texting technique.

 She has long conversations with her baby doll and tries to share toys with it.

She has also decided that she is much too old to use "baby" utensils anymore. Instead, she insists on real spoons and forks like Mama and Daddy use.

But no matter how old she gets or how advanced she thinks she is, she'll still be my little baby girl.

Grammie's Applesauce Cake

... over here. Mmmm...

Birthday!

Luke turned 26 last Saturday, October 30. Last year, when he turned 25, I had wanted to surprise him with a big quarter-century party, but with a new baby around it just didn't happen. This year, however, I pulled it off. Our dear friends the Niles agreed to host, and last week was spent in secret phone calls, visits and much conspiratorial discussion. It was exhausting! Luke gave us quite a bit of trouble trying to actually get him to the party - he wanted to come home and stack firewood instead. Silly man. ;) But we managed to get him there, and he was completely surprised!

Don't worry, no harm came to him, though there had been some talk of throwing a pillowcase over his head and beating him with wiffle ball bats. But no one tried anything violent. Instead, he was decorated with leis.

 

The ribbon says, "I am 2!" Apparently there was also an "I am 6!" ribbon but it was misplaced before the party. So Luke got to be 2 all night. Our friend Scott thought that was a good idea, as he told me beforehand that he thinks Luke is getting self-conscious about his age. Again, silly man.

Luke enjoyed his thoughtful gifts, as well as the wrapping paper. I don't know why he thinks he's getting older. Maybe he really is 2. ;) (This is only the last in a long line of pictures of Luke with gift wrap of some sort on his head. I think we have a picture from each of the Niles girls' parties of Luke with wrapping paper, bags, or bows on his head.) For the third time... silly man. ;)

 As usual, Clara was the belle of the ball. She got to stay up late playing with friends, stole some of her Daddy's decor, and got her very fashionable beads from somewhere, I have no idea where. She loved walking around the house swinging the long necklaces back and forth.

It was so much fun to celebrate my wonderful husband with sweet friends that have been such a blessing to us over the past year. We had a huge, yummy dinner (7 lbs of pot roast, 11 lbs of sweet potatoes made into casserole, and 4.5 lbs of roasted broccoli, along with crusty bread and a big green salad), watched a hilarious slideshow of Luke, put together by Lauren Niles (I'll try to see if I can post it later), and enjoyed each others' company.

Happy birthday honey! I love you more than anything and am more thankful for you every day!