Thankfulness Part 7 - Thanksgiving

So, it would appear that I have not been doing very good keeping up with my thankfulness list. But I'm not done yet. I still have 6 days left before December hits. We've been rather busy lately. Last weekend my dear friend and cousin married the Love of her life, and it was such a lovely wedding. I did dress Andrew up, and he looked so cute in his sweater vest and dress clothes (I did get a couple pictures, but they're on my camera still so perhaps in the next post...), but I'm glad I don't do that often because even though he looked so adorable, his shirt and vest kept riding up under his arms, and I doubt it was comfortable. Of course he had to wear the little booties that my Mom made him (see previous post).

In 19 minutes it will officially be Thanksgiving. I love the holidays, but as I think back to past Thanksgivings (and "Christmases"), my eyes begin to water as I recall all the great memories I have of family dinners/get togethers with loved ones who no longer walk on this earth. Growing up we always had both sets of grandparents and my Dad's grandmother over on the holidays and in the past few years that has extended into my Aunt's family too. That's what I remember most about the holidays, not what we ate that year or what we got as gifts, but the togetherness of family.

Thanksgiving last year, we were finishing loading up the trailer, changing the oil in the car, trying to fit as many boxes of books as possible into the trailer, and saying our goodbyes to our families as we would be heading out early the next morning for Scott's book tour. In a lot of ways we feel like we missed Thanksgiving (we had a lot of other things on our minds), and while we had a decent Christmas, it was very different not being with family. Praise God for Skype! So, needless to say, we are very much looking forward to tomorrow and the rest of the holiday season.

On to my thankful list. I'm thankful:

• For all that God has done in the past year (I can't believe it's been a year since we started our trip)
• That we get to spend the holidays with our families this year as well as start our own family traditions now that we are a family.
• That God allowed me to miscarry last summer as He has brought me so far since then (although it still brings tears to my eyes every time I think of it)
• For the 9 garbage bags full of boy clothes that I just went through that were given to us. It took me 2 weeks to go through them (it was so daunting), but I am so thankful for all the clothes as they mean I won't have to buy that much, and there's such an abundance, I am passing some along.
• That he Lord has impressed on me the importance of seeing what ways I can decrease our spending. I use whatever coupons I can find, but I realized that making our bread (which I've known how to do since I was 8), making our cereal, and making other breakfast foods like baked oatmeal, cuts $15-$20 off of my weekly grocery bill. That's a lot considering how little it takes for the "substitutes". I can make enough bread, cereal, and baked oatmeal for a month for $15-$20 tops!!!! That's a savings of $45-$60 a month. Pretty good, if I do say so myself.
• For Andrew's smiles every time I talk to him (he just wins my heart every time I look at him).
• That I have such a caring husband with a listening ear. He likes to listen to me talk, whether it's serious things, or just ramblings, and that means a lot to me.
• For the friendship that I share with my Mom. She considers me one of her best friends (next to my Daddy, of course) and I greatly treasure that!!! She's definitely one of mine!
• That even though my kitchen is still a mess from cooking dinner today, I am not stressed about it, because God has been teaching me to make the most of every minute I have, and I did get lots done today.

This past week I was reading some of Laine's Letters and in one of them, she talked about how she likes to keep a list of all that she does throughout the day so as she starts thinking of all her "to do's" instead of becoming overwhelmed thinking "how will I ever get them done" she can see all that she has accomplished. I know that as I've done that this week (although it's been mental lists, not written ones), it has encouraged me to add to my list of "accomplishments." Laine's Letters are very encouraging, and I encourage you to check them out!

It is time for me to head to bed. We're getting up early tomorrow so we can help in the preparations for dinner.

May you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

I have been reading The Mom Walk by Sally Clarkson and I would like to share a couple quotes with you.

"I realized that one of the roles God wants me to play in my children's lives is a conductor of joy, happiness, and celebration. After all, God designed our need for these things into our hearts. We were made to enjoy life and our Creator, and we were meant to choose to live in His beauty and provision.
"This doesn't mean I won't have difficulties or times of depression. But I do have choices I can make as a mom that will determine the environment in my home." (Sally Clarkson)

This does not only apply to the role of mother, but also of wife. When I am joyful and cheerful, looking for opportunities to praise God, the whole atmosphere in my house changes. We don't have children in the house just yet (although Little One is frequently reminding me that it is on it's way :) ) and I can only imagine how much my attitude will effect the environment of our home, because I know that it does now, and once the children are coming along it will only be even more important and vital that I am not always downcast, focused on all my "duties and responsibilities" instead of focusing on the gift of my children and all that the Lord is doing. Now is the time to be practicing this because it is just as important and vital that we look at our responsibilities with delight, especially for the sake of our Husbands (or families if you aren't married yet).

I will end this post with one more quote:

"To neglect enjoying God and His own wonderful ways in my life is to not really know Him or grow in Him. For at the very basis of His character are love, life, beauty, and joy. To know Him is to know goodness. To walk with Him is to walk in lovingkindness, pleasure, and delight." (Sally Clarkson)

9 Month Anniversary

9 months since I said "I do!" 9 months since my new husband carried me over the threshold into our first home. 9 months since my entire life changed. 9 months since my life became centered completely around my husband. 9 months.

As I look back over the past 9 months, I am just in awe as I see all that the Lord has done (knowing that there are things He's done that I can't see and may never see). I also feel strange thinking about how much I've grown in such a short time. I feel so much older and yet I find it hard to think that I'm old enough and mature enough to be a parent this year. That alone scares me. But God wouldn't give us this baby if He didn't think we were ready, and I rest in that knowledge.
So much has happened over the past 9 months and through it all I've grown in the Lord, grown in my relationship with my husband, grown in my relationships with my family, and grown in my roles as wife and homemaker. God is doing so much and sometimes I think I take too much of all that He's doing for granted.

It is so amazing to me how He has used the past 3+ months to teach and grow me in little things along the way. My routine is so different from what it would be if we were more stationary. It's more like I don't have a routine right now. :) One thing that I think has become part of my routine is that when we arrive at our next destination I "let things go" in a way. I know that once I need to start preparing for our next trip, I'll be packing things totally different, and I stress less over things by not worrying about keeping it all neat and organized for a week or two. Now that is NOT me! I am always so organized and keep everything so neat. But right now, until we get back to Connecticut, I am much more relaxed letting things just go until I need to prepare for the next trip. And, because of our consistent travelling and being on the go pretty much every day, that is what I need. When I was trying to keep it all together every day, I was stressing myself out and not getting much of a chance to relax. I've always been a perfectionist and although I thought I had been growing out of it, God has been working particularly on that area in my life. As I think about it, this is probably a good thing for me to be learning right at this time, because as our family starts growing, I am not going to be able to keep everything perfect every day. Now mind you, I'm not learning that it is okay to just leave everything here or there and not pick up after myself, I'm learning that everything doesn't have to be absolutely perfect all the time.

One thing is for sure, I'm always learning. There is always something new that the Lord is teaching me, and when it comes to marriage, that seems to be more true than ever! I know I will always be learning and growing in my marriage and I am just so thankful to have a Husband who is just as eager to learn and grow and is determined to keep our marriage focused on God. Marriage is not always easy because you have to communicate with someone else and you have to be willing to give up your selfish ways to include your spouse, but it is definitely the most wonderful thing in the world!

I am so excited to see all that the Lord has done just in the past 9 months and can't imagine all that he has in store for us in the next 9 months!

The above pictures were taken while we were waiting for some lunch after a signing last weekend.

Just Stuff ~ 2

So, I've decided to do another "just stuff" post. These posts might become more common in the days and months to come.... who knows??? :) For more clarification, a "Just Stuff" post is a post on what my days have been filled with....

Let's see, on Friday evening Scott, my friend Kelsie, myself, and a couple of K's friends, drove to Cincinnati to go Ice Skating on their square. It was lots of fun. However, the women's skates weren't regular figure skates, and made it more difficult for me to "get the hang of" so after about 10 minutes, I along with a friend got off the ice and put our boots back on (it was VERY cold out!). The ice was not very smooth and the skates were very dull, and I think I was just nervous about falling or getting hurt, with the baby. I think if it would have been regular figure skates, I might have been more comfortable, but I was NOT used to the skates we had. Scott had a blast though! He and everyone else skated for another hour and a half and my friend and I walked around the rink for about half that time, then we went and stood in the heated tent that was there, watching everyone skating. It was lots of fun.

On Saturday we left to go look at an apartment and just as we were about to get on the highway, our car died. We ended up replacing the battery and the car worked fine. Then yesterday, we were on our way to church and just after got off the highway, our car died again, right in the middle of the road (we were about a mile from church). Praise the Lord, no cars were coming and we were right across from a gas station. We got the car parked in the gas station (Scott had to push it, and he did it! :) ) and then decided to walk to church because we knew someone there would be able to help us or know of someone who could look at the car. God worked everything out. Our new friends jumped the car for us and we got it to a garage and they gave us a ride back to where we're staying. They were so nice. The car needed a new alternator and it will be done this afternoon. Thankfully that's all that is wrong with it. God is so good!

Between Thursday and Sunday we got a good amount of snow. It is just beautiful! Snow is so white! It reminds me of the song "Nothing But The Blood"

".....O, precious is the flow,

That makes me white as snow;

No other fount I know;

Nothing but the blood of Jesus...."

You can listen to the song and read the words here. Snow is so white and pure. When the sun comes out just after a snow storm, it can be blinding because of the sun reflecting off of the snow. To think that Jesus' blood makes me white as snow, is quite the thought! It is overwhelming!

Submission

Here it is, the long awaited post (considering it's been well over a week since my last post (: ).

The above picture is from this past Saturday, on our way from N. Attleboro, MA to Montpelier, VT. The weekends book signings were not the greatest in sales, but it was a great trip. Yes, even though we didn't find a place to spend the night until 9:30pm. :) Most of the Motels/Hotels/Inns were full because it was Parents' weekend at the nearby college. So yes, it took us awhile to find a place that had an opening. When I went to look online last week to find a place, there weren't any openings then, so we expected it to take us awhile. We ended up staying in a nice Motel (Twin City Motel) that was only 4 minutes from our book signing the next morning. That worked out really well. Now for the object of this post:

When we left the book signing, I started out driving. I had packed us sandwiches and fruit that we had for lunch, on the road, and then Scott reclined and took a nap. Normally he has a hard time taking a nap in the car (me, on the other hand, that's a totally different story), but he fell asleep and slept for at least an hour and a half. While he was sleeping I called my Mom because when I had talked to her in the morning, she invited us to come over for dinner when we got back to CT (they were also making Apple Pie, and my Mom promised to make me a BLT with fresh bacon. That sounded really good since I didn't have anything prepared at home, and our estimated time of arrival was just after 6 o'clock.), so I was calling to tell her that we'd be there (remember, we weren't in CT yet, so I wasn't disobeying the law). :) We decided that we'd go straight to my Parents' as there was no need to stop by our place first.

Before I go any further in my story, let me remind you of my recent studies in my quiet time with the Lord.... A Woman After God's Own Heart. That's what my goal is. I'm reading through Elizabeth George's book and studying Scripture on the same topics that I'm studying each day. One of my prayers since I've been married (and long before I was married also), was that the Lord would give me a heart of submission. That includes submission in the little, day-to-day things.

Okay, so back to my story. By the time Scott woke up, we had less then 2 hours left of driving. Then, with approximately an hour left of driving, we hit the 5:00/5:30 traffic. So, Scott got out our big Road Atlas that we just bought at Borders last weekend. (Good thing I was driving so he could look at it, because I don't have much experience with road maps, although I'm getting there.) After looking at the map, he said we should take exit 74 and there were some short cuts we could take that would get us to my parents faster. Well, at the moment, the exit numbers were going up and the GPS (the trusty mechanical device, that only I think is trusty, Scott doesn't trust it as much) said that we should take exit 72 (obviously 72 must come before 74 since we're going up in numbers and the GPS had us getting to my parents at 6:27). Scott was looking at the map and said that, although that exit would work, we should take this exit because it would be a faster route. In my heart, I knew I should do what he said and even if it took us longer, it would be worth it because I let him lead instead of insisting that we should take *my* way. So I said that I would go his way (and I prayed that it wouldn't end up being a longer route). Almost immediately after that, the numbers all of a sudden changed and exit 74 was 1 mile away and the next exit (exits 73 and 72) was 12 miles away (let me insert here that the traffic had greatly increased). I was so glad that I had made that decision to trust my Husband and go with what he said. We took exit 74 and then we followed Scott's directions. Twice he saw a shortcut on the map and said for us to take that way, and although it didn't look much different from the other direction, I didn't question him, I had learned my lesson, and I'm so glad that I did. I know I will still struggle at times with wanting to do something *my* way, and I will no doubt want to question him at times, but I am praying more fervently than ever that I will stop first and ask myself, "how important is it that we do it *my* way?"

To top it off, when I got up this morning and went to start my Bible Study, what do you think today's chapter was on? A heart of submission. It usually takes me at least a a couple days to go through one chapter, and I love how God gave me a physical lesson on Submission, and now to make sure that I really get it, I will be studying submission over the next couple days.

Many blessings to all my readers, and I hope you all have a lovely day. I'm off to reply to some emails from over the weekend, and then start some packing (hopefully) or dishes before I leave to go clean this afternoon. And as for this evening.... we will be having dinner and then playing Phase 10 with Scott's grandparents (last time we played for 3 1/2 hours (: ).