Friday, April 29, 2011
Fun Friday
A royal wedding. A run. Eating dirt. A new recipe. A dip in the upside down baby pool filled with not-so-clean rainwater. Soaked jeans. A warm bath. Nap time. Momma gets to play catch up from the week and post cute pictures.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Easter
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..." (1 Peter 1:3)
I LOVE Easter! What a time to celebrate the great living God that we serve. It was a fun year for Mary-Michael with the egg hunts and dresses (Ok, that was probably more fun for me), but I do hope when she's older anbd starts to understand what it means to trust in Jesus she will get more joy out of this fact than eggs and bunnies. Though come on who doesn't love eggs and bunnies!
I hope your Easter was a blessed one and that this week you feel refreshed. You should! God's love is a gift - it is not earned and cannot be bought. It is given to us freely because of His sacrifice - one in which we celebrate this Easter season and all year long!
Oh praise the one who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead!!
Mom - big yellow balls are much more fun to find than Easter eggs!
Nonnie and Grandad's grandbabies.
An attempt at a picture with Nonnie and Grandad (it is not easy getting 7 children under the age of 10 to look at the camera at the same time!).
Loving my Nonnie.
Easter lunch and egg hunting with the Wiltons and Simmers. These eggs were filled with Cheerios and Goldfish - so smart Christian!
Lilly-Kate - can you share some of your eggs?
Relaxing in my new swing from Daddy after a long and blessed Easter weekend.
I LOVE Easter! What a time to celebrate the great living God that we serve. It was a fun year for Mary-Michael with the egg hunts and dresses (Ok, that was probably more fun for me), but I do hope when she's older anbd starts to understand what it means to trust in Jesus she will get more joy out of this fact than eggs and bunnies. Though come on who doesn't love eggs and bunnies!
I hope your Easter was a blessed one and that this week you feel refreshed. You should! God's love is a gift - it is not earned and cannot be bought. It is given to us freely because of His sacrifice - one in which we celebrate this Easter season and all year long!
Oh praise the one who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead!!
Mom - big yellow balls are much more fun to find than Easter eggs!
Nonnie and Grandad's grandbabies.
An attempt at a picture with Nonnie and Grandad (it is not easy getting 7 children under the age of 10 to look at the camera at the same time!).
Loving my Nonnie.
Easter lunch and egg hunting with the Wiltons and Simmers. These eggs were filled with Cheerios and Goldfish - so smart Christian!
Lilly-Kate - can you share some of your eggs?
Relaxing in my new swing from Daddy after a long and blessed Easter weekend.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Growth
Life is filled with growth for us right now. Isn't that how it should always be? If we're not growing, changing, learning we are stagnant - life is too short to be stagnant!
A little over a week ago I resigned from my current position as Director of Benefits (It wasn't public to the company until Friday, so I didn't want to post anything until then). I know that TNTP is one of the best mission and goals driven organizations out there, and I'm thankful I'll stay on to do some project work, but I know for my family this is the best decision. For months I have been struggling to find some sort of balance between work and family life. I recognize this is a struggle for many people, but for me, in particular, it was impacting my sleep and therefore health, my relationship with Geoff and the way that I wanted to be able to be a mom to Mary-Michael. I am blessed to be married to a completely supportive husband who also has proven to be a successful business owner in his 31 years, so thank you darlin' for encouraging me and working hard to help this happen.
This was a huge and prayerful decision for us, but one I really believe God gave me peace about. I've learned that rarely (or for many, never) do we hear a big ominous voice tell us the path we should take. Rather, I've learned we hear from God through inner peace (hello Holy Spirit!), leaning on wise council and reading God's Word, among other things. Just making this decision has put me in a better frame of mind - one of content largely because I know I'm in God's will. So, over the next several months I will make the transition out of my current role, and we'll do a little transitioning at home by eating out less (I mean we do have 60 chickens if times get really tough!) and cutting back where needed. Thankfully, I come from a line of coupon and bargain fanatics, so as annoying as it might be to Geoff, we do alright with budgeting. Thanks, Mom!
And we're going to need that little cushion in the budget, so that we can grow our family! Many of you that know us have heard us talk about adoption, and the fact that we both felt from the time we started dating that adoption was a way we wanted to grow our family. Well, the time has arrived! We plan to adopt our next child through parental placement or private domestic adoption. Parental placement adoptions are arranged directly by the birth parents and adoptive parents, so with your help (stay tuned!) Mary-Michael will have a baby brother or sister soon. At some point soon I'll write more about why we chose this route over other routes and "why adoption?". In short, we firmly believe with God's help we'll be able to reach a birth mother who might otherwise not consider adoption, and this made the most sense for us financially because sadly, adoption is expensive!
So, on Friday we started our home study with Jewish Family Services. We had about an hour and a half meeting with a social worker to discuss the process, the paperwork and just get to know each other since over the next 2 months she'll get to know us really well! A homestudy is required by the state of Virginia, and essentially through paperwork, interviewing and exploration into our lives as parents, a social worker well determine if we're "fit" to parent by adoption. She'll come to our home in less than 2 weeks, so please keep us and that meeting in your prayers. More to come on this adoption journey...
And finally, while it feels strange to transition from the future adoption of our son or daughter to veggies and chickens, I did want to mention the other things that are growing and changing besides our faith and our family. My vegetable plants have become my new babies, and because I check on them every day they never seem to be growing. Yesterday I forced myself to not look at them so maybe I might notice a change today. Growing plants from seed requires A LOT of patience. I have learned I will probably not try and grow tomatoes again from seed since out of the 75+ in tiny pots only about 4 are living. And this weekend I went to a few local farms with my stepmom that sell veggie plants, and I bought 4 tomato plants for a dollar. That's a bargain and much easier and cheaper than building a greenhouse to keep these babies alive! So, while there is nothing to enjoy from our labor yet in terms of veggies, it is time to send our Cornish hens up north (a.k.a. to our dinner plates).
Geoff is planning to do this sometime this week, and while I'm not sure I want to be present, I did have an opportunity (if you want to call it that) last night to get used to the idea of dead chickens. Gross. Of course while Geoff is out of town I find 2 of them dead - apparently, they are getting too heavy for their little legs, which is why they must be sent up north asap. So, in all my farming glory and squeals of anxiety, I put on some gloves, grabbed a shovel and some sacks, and I got rid of those dead chickens. While it was less than graceful, I felt like I'd reached a major milestone in this farming adventure. Now this doesn't mean I won't pass up every other opportunity to do something like this in the future, but for myself, I now know I have the guts to do it.
So, how are you experiencing growth in your life? I will try and ask myself this question more often, while also considering what fills my days and my calendar. Our pastor recently challenged us to look at our schedules - is most or all of our time focused on bettering our careers or business, recreation for ourself and opportunities for fun? In other words are our calendars completely "me-focused" and not "others-focused"? Are we carving out time to encourage others, bless others and show God's love through our lives? I know I can do better at this. How about you?
A little over a week ago I resigned from my current position as Director of Benefits (It wasn't public to the company until Friday, so I didn't want to post anything until then). I know that TNTP is one of the best mission and goals driven organizations out there, and I'm thankful I'll stay on to do some project work, but I know for my family this is the best decision. For months I have been struggling to find some sort of balance between work and family life. I recognize this is a struggle for many people, but for me, in particular, it was impacting my sleep and therefore health, my relationship with Geoff and the way that I wanted to be able to be a mom to Mary-Michael. I am blessed to be married to a completely supportive husband who also has proven to be a successful business owner in his 31 years, so thank you darlin' for encouraging me and working hard to help this happen.
This was a huge and prayerful decision for us, but one I really believe God gave me peace about. I've learned that rarely (or for many, never) do we hear a big ominous voice tell us the path we should take. Rather, I've learned we hear from God through inner peace (hello Holy Spirit!), leaning on wise council and reading God's Word, among other things. Just making this decision has put me in a better frame of mind - one of content largely because I know I'm in God's will. So, over the next several months I will make the transition out of my current role, and we'll do a little transitioning at home by eating out less (I mean we do have 60 chickens if times get really tough!) and cutting back where needed. Thankfully, I come from a line of coupon and bargain fanatics, so as annoying as it might be to Geoff, we do alright with budgeting. Thanks, Mom!
And we're going to need that little cushion in the budget, so that we can grow our family! Many of you that know us have heard us talk about adoption, and the fact that we both felt from the time we started dating that adoption was a way we wanted to grow our family. Well, the time has arrived! We plan to adopt our next child through parental placement or private domestic adoption. Parental placement adoptions are arranged directly by the birth parents and adoptive parents, so with your help (stay tuned!) Mary-Michael will have a baby brother or sister soon. At some point soon I'll write more about why we chose this route over other routes and "why adoption?". In short, we firmly believe with God's help we'll be able to reach a birth mother who might otherwise not consider adoption, and this made the most sense for us financially because sadly, adoption is expensive!
So, on Friday we started our home study with Jewish Family Services. We had about an hour and a half meeting with a social worker to discuss the process, the paperwork and just get to know each other since over the next 2 months she'll get to know us really well! A homestudy is required by the state of Virginia, and essentially through paperwork, interviewing and exploration into our lives as parents, a social worker well determine if we're "fit" to parent by adoption. She'll come to our home in less than 2 weeks, so please keep us and that meeting in your prayers. More to come on this adoption journey...
And finally, while it feels strange to transition from the future adoption of our son or daughter to veggies and chickens, I did want to mention the other things that are growing and changing besides our faith and our family. My vegetable plants have become my new babies, and because I check on them every day they never seem to be growing. Yesterday I forced myself to not look at them so maybe I might notice a change today. Growing plants from seed requires A LOT of patience. I have learned I will probably not try and grow tomatoes again from seed since out of the 75+ in tiny pots only about 4 are living. And this weekend I went to a few local farms with my stepmom that sell veggie plants, and I bought 4 tomato plants for a dollar. That's a bargain and much easier and cheaper than building a greenhouse to keep these babies alive! So, while there is nothing to enjoy from our labor yet in terms of veggies, it is time to send our Cornish hens up north (a.k.a. to our dinner plates).
Geoff is planning to do this sometime this week, and while I'm not sure I want to be present, I did have an opportunity (if you want to call it that) last night to get used to the idea of dead chickens. Gross. Of course while Geoff is out of town I find 2 of them dead - apparently, they are getting too heavy for their little legs, which is why they must be sent up north asap. So, in all my farming glory and squeals of anxiety, I put on some gloves, grabbed a shovel and some sacks, and I got rid of those dead chickens. While it was less than graceful, I felt like I'd reached a major milestone in this farming adventure. Now this doesn't mean I won't pass up every other opportunity to do something like this in the future, but for myself, I now know I have the guts to do it.
So, how are you experiencing growth in your life? I will try and ask myself this question more often, while also considering what fills my days and my calendar. Our pastor recently challenged us to look at our schedules - is most or all of our time focused on bettering our careers or business, recreation for ourself and opportunities for fun? In other words are our calendars completely "me-focused" and not "others-focused"? Are we carving out time to encourage others, bless others and show God's love through our lives? I know I can do better at this. How about you?
Monday, April 11, 2011
Baby Steps
Mary-Michael took her very first solo steps today! I am a proud Momma. Ok, I already was proud but I've been anxiously awaiting this! We were having our biweekly lunch with my nana when it happened so she was able to witness it, too. Though Geoff wasn't there for those first steps she did a replay tonight. We'll capture it on video soon. Hooray baby girl!
Monday, April 4, 2011
Mr. and Mrs. Hedges
Congratulations to the newlyweds, Brian and Keesha Hedges!
We enjoyed a full week and weekend in Northern VA to prepare and celebrate this past weekend's wedding. There were 19 people at my in-law's house, including 7 children ages 10 and under. While there were moments we all looked for an excuse to go to the store, run a non-essential errand or just lock ourselves in the bathroom, I was amazed at how well this actually worked out. As long as you were limber enough to get through all the suitcases, beds and toys you could survive.
The wedding festivities began on Friday with a ceremony and luncheon for about 35 family members at Pinzimini, a yummy restaurant at the Westin in Arlington. We had our own private room, which was great for the 10+ children that were there, so they could run around and play freely with toys and games. Some friends of Brian and Keesha's joined us later to celebrate, and our afternoon lunch turned into 11 hours at the Westin. It was a fun evening and great to spend time with people we don't get to see that often. Here are some pics from Friday.
Geoff and the beautiful bride.
The girls playing after lunch (Mary-Michael was rarely alone and untouched the entire trip with all these doting girls).
The grandkids - Makenzie, Mary-Michael and Jace.
The kids - Melissa, Geoff, Keesha and Kameron.
On Saturday, a small bus picked up the Lawrence side in Alexandria and took us to Sonoma, a wine bar in DC. We joined about 130 others for a lovely cocktail hour that lasted until about 6pm. From there, the little ones went home to hang out with a sitter and all the adults headed to the after party at Restaurant 3, which is Brian and Keesha's "Cheers" as they call it. All the bartenders and waiters had shirts on that said "We love Brian and Keesha," which was really sweet and a true testament to how loved they really are. The only sad moment of the evening was watching VCU lose, but otherwise, we closed down the place and left around 1:30am. My old self is not used to these late nights nor several hours of dancing. It was a fabulous time though. Now I need a vacation to recover from my vacation! Here are a few pictures from Saturday.
Us with the bride at Sonoma.
Mother of the bride, sister of the bride and us!
A moment alone - Grandma and Grandpa treated us to a lot of time to ourselves. Thank you!
And the dancing begins!
We enjoyed a full week and weekend in Northern VA to prepare and celebrate this past weekend's wedding. There were 19 people at my in-law's house, including 7 children ages 10 and under. While there were moments we all looked for an excuse to go to the store, run a non-essential errand or just lock ourselves in the bathroom, I was amazed at how well this actually worked out. As long as you were limber enough to get through all the suitcases, beds and toys you could survive.
The wedding festivities began on Friday with a ceremony and luncheon for about 35 family members at Pinzimini, a yummy restaurant at the Westin in Arlington. We had our own private room, which was great for the 10+ children that were there, so they could run around and play freely with toys and games. Some friends of Brian and Keesha's joined us later to celebrate, and our afternoon lunch turned into 11 hours at the Westin. It was a fun evening and great to spend time with people we don't get to see that often. Here are some pics from Friday.
Geoff and the beautiful bride.
The girls playing after lunch (Mary-Michael was rarely alone and untouched the entire trip with all these doting girls).
The grandkids - Makenzie, Mary-Michael and Jace.
The kids - Melissa, Geoff, Keesha and Kameron.
On Saturday, a small bus picked up the Lawrence side in Alexandria and took us to Sonoma, a wine bar in DC. We joined about 130 others for a lovely cocktail hour that lasted until about 6pm. From there, the little ones went home to hang out with a sitter and all the adults headed to the after party at Restaurant 3, which is Brian and Keesha's "Cheers" as they call it. All the bartenders and waiters had shirts on that said "We love Brian and Keesha," which was really sweet and a true testament to how loved they really are. The only sad moment of the evening was watching VCU lose, but otherwise, we closed down the place and left around 1:30am. My old self is not used to these late nights nor several hours of dancing. It was a fabulous time though. Now I need a vacation to recover from my vacation! Here are a few pictures from Saturday.
Us with the bride at Sonoma.
Mother of the bride, sister of the bride and us!
A moment alone - Grandma and Grandpa treated us to a lot of time to ourselves. Thank you!
And the dancing begins!
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