on gifts, knots, & motherhood

Sweet little miss-she really is a gift (and she knows it: "I is so cute" has been heard lately around our house)

Tait is so into knots he is tying everything around our house & it's driving me batty. As if I'm not feeling scatterbrained enough, I am trying to open doors and finding them literally TIED SHUT! According to Gma Kay he gets it honest from his papa! This made me laugh-he really did tie his legs together & then couldn't get it undone!  "Hey Mom, I need help, get me outta here!"

I've been thinking a lot about motherhood lately too. Maybe it's because I'm pregnant...perhaps because it's that time of year when Trent & I try to get away for a night & set family goals...maybe it's because it's what I do everyday...Regardless, the Lord has really encouraged me in several different ways in my role as Mom & it's been the best thing that could happen smack dab in the middle of my winter stuck-in-the-house-with-2-hooligans blahs. This article was helpful as well:

"Live the gospel in the things that no one sees. Sacrifice for your children in places that only they will know about. Put their value ahead of yours. Grow them up in the clean air of gospel living. Your testimony to the gospel in the little details of your life is more valuable to them than you can imagine. If you tell them the gospel, but live to yourself, they will never believe it. Give your life for theirs every day, joyfully. Lay down pettiness. Lay down fussiness. Lay down resentment about the dishes, about the laundry, about how no one knows how hard you work.

Stop clinging to yourself and cling to the cross. There is more joy and more life and more laughter on the other side of death than you can possibly carry alone." -Rachel Jankovic

Read the full article Motherhood is a calling (and where your children rank) . And be encouraged, mamas!

The Lord's Faithfulness & winter blahs

T & I would call this a "learning winter". Full of chances to talk through deep things we don't exactly agree on, deal head-on with some fears (mostly mine) & embrace the chance to trust a Faithful God through all circumstances (how Faithful is He? see Eph 3:14-21). The Lord keeps using others around me to remind me of His faithfulness as well. And...I can honestly say that even though I'm excited for spring, "learning winters" are great in their own way.

Can't say that all my strategies have worked 100%, but here's what the kiddos & I have been doing to combat the winter blahs:

Tried to improve at something: for me, that was photographing outside in the snow. Got a ways to go, but i had a cute model ( :

 Celebrated anything & everything! Indigo is certainly a great reason to celebrate!

 Relaxed my cooking standards. Who's to say you can't combine lunch + bathtime?

Enjoyed friends. Several of us that know Mary got together to celebrate her b-day. Mary should have a birthday more often!

Hung out with sibs. Yay for sibling bash! We stayed overnight @ Jerms & Marias. My only regret is going to bed early & missing out on seeing my brothers show off their dancing skills. Supposedly Cam can even do the "worm"!?

On a night I was nauseous & T had snow removal, the kiddos and I went out for a rare splurge of supper out. I had a good coupon so the kids ate free, and I didn't have to cook my salmon myself-bonus! How can 2 kiddos be so angelic in the van on the way there & so terrible in the restaurant? Tait startled the table next to us ( and me) with spontaneous barking! BARKING!?!

Valentines! We used this picture of Captain Tait with a cute cheesy one liner & a golden coin for a valentine.

Exercise! Seems like the most effective way to deal with the winter blahs but it's so hard to do when I'm  preggo & nauseous. Trent was home with the kids for 1 1/2 hrs on a saturday morning while i went to aerobics. When I got home & asked indigo how it was going, she announced " I am being naugh-ty and habing a bad att-tude". Trent agreed, and I noticed he was being a bit growly...so I told him to have some coffee...and that's when I noticed what he'd written on his coffee mug. Snicker, snicker ( :

Anybody else have some good suggestions for dealing with winter blues? Tait's been dreaming about what we're going to put in our garden...Spring, come soon!