My Beautiful Mess

Christmas day was filled with new traditions for us. We woke up opened presents, ate breakfast as a family and played until lunch. It was nice getting to be with each other as a family instead of rushing around having to get somewhere. The night before we set up Ella’s three gifts from us. She got a fisherprice cash register, basketball goal and a kitchen set.

She immediately started playing in her kitchen.

Ella opening the melissa and doug fridge pack.

Ella opening her other kitchen items-pots and pans, and cookies.

Dad reading ella the christmas ABC book I made her.

Santa left a lot of goodies in Ella’s stocking-books, rain/snow boots, Dr. kit, guitar, basketball bath toy, and color wonder.

Grana and Papa gave ella this dollhouse.

Ella hugging me after I opened my gifts-silhouette sd machine and garmin gps

Matthew got a rice cooker.

Even though his facial expression doesn’t say I am excited..he loves his razor.

Our Christmas eve/day traditions that we started last year and continued this year or plan on doing next year.

1. I continued with a homemade gift for ella. I want to do this every year for each of our children. Last year ella got christmas dolls that she was able to play with during the holiday season. This year I made her a fabric book.

2. Next year Matthew and I decided to start opening up from each other on christmas eve.

3. We want to enjoy Christmas morning as a family. Read the christmas story together, open gifts, eat breakfast and play.

4. Happy birthday Jesus cupcakes will be made next year as we celebrate his Birth as a family.

5. We also want to give more than we receive. We adopted a family from my school for christmas. The mom couldn’t buy for all 8 kids. We all went and delivered the gifts and they were so grateful. We adopted a little boy from the salvation army as well, Ella and I went out on several different days shopping for him. Matthew and I want our children to see the reason why we give. We give, because He has given us so much. I pray that Ella and all our children one day will look at giving the same way.

I know my christmas posts are way overdue but I have a few more….hang with me.

My sister is a very talented writer. In addition to raising 3 precious boys she writes on the side. I always love reading her blog. Today was one I had to post on mine as well. You can follow her here. After reading I prayed that Ella would know and see her parents follow Jesus, not just because we say it but because how we live our lives. Much to learn from Mary. Thankful today for my sisters wisdom and words.

Gotta Love Mary

Most of our time is lived in the present, as it should be. Yet, it’s always hopeful to look to the future and then there’s always a lesson as we look to the past.

As a mom, it’s easy to stay in reflective mode. You know that mode that clicks ‘on’ when you watch your kids grow up before your very eyes? Or catching yourself doing something your mom did when you were young and you stop to say, “I am her!”

Well, look back at the past with me, I mean waaay back.

To the wedding in Cana in biblical days.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, obviously knows what her son is capable of, to some degree. When the wine had run out, Mary states the obvious!

(Which of us moms spend all day doing with with our kids…stating the obvious?)

“They have no wine,” she says.

Jesus, who hadn’t taken his miracles and ministry public yet, says, “Woman, what does that have to do with me?”

Mary, I can imagine, gave him that motherly look.

(You know. You’ve either been the giver or receiver of that look!)

So she then tells the wedding servers, “do whatever He says.”

This moment became Jesus’ first earthly miracle. He turned water into wine – the best

wine actually. (He is into doing things with excellence and perfection, isn’t He?)

This wasn’t a miracle where all the guests believed and were saved, but it was a miracle that opened the eyes and hearts of his closest – the disciples.

And the beautiful part of the story is that Mary wasn’t just a mom who was raising the Son of God, she was a follower, too!

For Scripture says in John 1:12 that after Jesus left the wedding, his disciples joined Him in Capernaum. But guess who else came? Yes, His mom.

I am certain Mary had many proud moments as a mom. I’m also certain that on those nights she lay in bed awake, she often reflected on that encounter with the angel Gabriel. And she felt peace and joy knowing she told God, “okay, I’ll do this.”

Not only to raise the Light of the world, but to follow Him as well.

As a mom, how am I raising my children?

Do they know I follow Jesus?

Do they hear me talk of Him?

Let me raise my kids in such a way that they want to follow me

as I follow the Light of the world.

Writer: Shauna Pilgreen

Thankful jar tutorial

I saw this tutorial on Little Birdie Secrets and thought it was too cute. I decided to change it a little and make it a little more rustic. So here is my version, although I totally recommend you checking out her tutorial. It was a lot of fun making it. Ella had fun playing with the ribbon.

Here are the supplies you need.

A jar with lid

A stamp and stamp pad

ribbon

Scrapbook paper

Begin by stamping your thankful quote onto a solid piece of cardstock.

Take the stamped paper and glue on to a piece of scrapbook paper. Using mod podge, glue the scrapbook paper onto your jar.

Take the inside part of the lid off the jar. You are left with jar and the part of the jar that screws on.

Cut your ribbon.

Tie your knots around the jar lid.

Once all your ribbons are knotted around lid, it should look like this.

Cut your strips of double-sided paper. You want double sided so when you make links both sides are pretty.

Put your strips of paper into the jar. Start taking them out one by one once November arrives to link them together. I remember my sister making an advent calendar with links. This is kind of like that. This is a great family activity. Your children can help write down what they are thankful for. Ella is too small to have input yet, so I wrote what I was thankful for. As I take each piece of paper out to staple, it will be a reminder to pray for that person, organization, event etc. I hope you all have as much fun creating your thankful jar as I did.

What are you thankful for today?

I recently read a blog this summer that had the cutest laundry decor idea. I saved it in my reader and thought I would give it a try. I had some frames that I wasn’t using and hot glued some ribbon to back for hooks. I then got some coordinating scrapbook and added stickers. I thought they turned out great. Go look at luckeegirl —I love hers. They are super cute. She got the idea from Craft-o-maniac. I also love hers. Here are mine

I also added this to my laundry room decor. A little paint, some stickers and viola! I love this!

Every picture tells a story and this one is mine.

You go through life and experience challenges , hardships, and victories. I would say every one of my friends I trained with, was going through something at the time we all decided we were ready for an adventure. I remember the day Lane came over and was encouraging me to train with her. It was shortly after I had Ella. Anyone who is close to me remembers those months. I thought anything that would take away from how I feel, SIGN ME UP! It wasn’t long after that, that the training began. I had so many tearful treadmill moments. I remember listening to a song or just thinking about God’s grace and mercy and tears filling my eyes. It was my ESCAPE! I didn’t have to think about how numb I felt or how I shouldn’t feel a certain way because I have an amazing support system and a wonderful family. I could just run! (even if in the beg. it was only a half mile.) I remember one day when I had several good days in a row. Then the next few days were good and the ones after that. I began to forget the bad ones. My body finally had worked out the chemical imbalance it had been experiencing. I felt normal again. (well back to my old self) I would say I felt like the above picture. Victorious!!!!

There are so many people that were there to encourage me along the way. I can’t name them all, but you know who you are. Training for the ½ was more than a race for each of my friends. I did much of my training with April, Little Mulberry park and the treadmill. I also ran with the other girls some, but April was that constant. She was the one that pushed me the whole way. I looked forward to weekly conversations with Bethany, April, Tracy and Lane about when we were running, what day was our long run, and how long it would be.I had a love/hate relationship with training for the ½. I kept saying I am ready for it to be here and ready for it to be over. The thing is, now that it is over, I kinda wished it wasn’t. I will miss my afternoon runs with my friends and my early mulberry park runs. (Funny how that works out.) It has come and gone, but I have much to remember. So here it is……

The race weekend was finally here. We arrived in Nashville Friday Afternoon. We went straight to the expo to pick up our runners bib and goody bag.

Here are pics of us after we arrived.

Bethany posing for the camera outside at the expo.

We went registered and toured the expo and exhibits. We met a

really cool artist that designs all of his art work from crayola crayons.

This was the race poster for 2010.

We tried on funny headbands…I know I look like Richard Simmons . Lane and I stopped for a quick pose.

Bethany and I wanted to start looking like professional runners so we posed with the best of them.

Our bib numbers and t-shirts

Waiting in line to change our corral number.

Later that night we went to Buca Di Beppo for pasta of course. It is what every runner loads up on before. CARBS!!!! Maybe I should stop and share the we…WE included Dave, Peggy, Owen, Lane, Bethany, Sara and I. I have to include Dave, Peggy, and Owen because they were our number 1 fans by far. Matthew and Debbie were following us all morning of the race, but those 3 were there all the way. We had an eventful meal that included all of us trying to look like this guy.

Dave gave it a try.

Then Lane tried…

Sara had a great facial!!

I think I pulled off the lips but not much else.

Then Owen tried and we all agreed…he won.

That night we went to bed with hope that there would be sunshine. At 4:45 a.m. I woke up singing the tune, I’m walking on sunshine…..you know it…sing along. Ok ok…it was dark outside, but imagine listening to the worst weather reports ever and then looking outside to a clear sky. It was a good feeling I must say. We ate breakfast and hopped in the car. Owen and Dave found great parking. We all parked and headed to Corral number 12. The excitement I had the day before, had no comparison to how I felt at the present. That slowly ended when I stepped into my first one of these for the day.

Bethany gave me great advice. “Breath through your mouth.” I actually saw this portable block of nastiness several times that day…..4 to be exact. It totally extended our time, but what are you gonna do?

The race began 15 minutes early due to weather predictions. This is a pic of us before we started.

As I stepped over the start line, I had such a wave of emotions that came over me. It felt amazing. I looked over at Bethany and said, “We did it.” We were only seconds into the race and I already had feeling of accomplishment. On mile 5 a man was wearing a shirt that said You won when you crossed the start line. I loved it! It is so true. We had made it! There were so many Saturdays I had dreaded the long runs but Saturday was different. I was soaking in every mile and enjoying every minute of it. (until mile 11 of course)

Here is a pic of us at mile 3.5.

I realized a few things that day about runners……WE ARE NASTY. I have to include myself now because even though I have never considered myself a runner, I think 13.1 says differently. I experienced /participated in more in those 3 hours than I ever would have on any given day. For instance: Spectators stand outside their homes with fruit already chopped in bowls for you to grab for fuel. I didn’t know if they had been washed or who had touched all over them before my hand dug in the large bowl. It didn’t matter though, I put my hand in the bowl of sliced clementines like the rest of them. Men with large biceps slam their nasty sweaty arms into you as they pass you by…gross! I even saw a nice lady holding out a can of Vaseline for us runners. I thought it was extremely nice because my lips were chapped and I dove right in. A few seconds later I laughed and thought, I would never have done that on any other day. It didn’t matter, I was taking part in the whole experience. Looking back, I laugh about it because I started thinking about all the gross things I experienced in the 3 hours. The bathroom experiences were far worst than the rest. I will spare you the details.

What I loved the most about the ½ is that everyone had a story. So many people were running for something. Some wrote it on their bodies or had it printed it on their shirts, others carried signs and one man carried an American flag. You also had the people that hula-hooped the whole time, wore tutus and other cute outfits, ran barefoot, etc. I saw cancer survivors or people still battling with it, war vets, parents with loss of children, others with loss of parents etc. There were so many reasons for their runs, I loss count. I did however see many that brought tears to my eyes. The woman running with a brain tumor, the parapeligic going strong, a girl in her 20’s with the loss of her dad and many more.

Bethany was my running buddy Saturday. We stayed together the whole time. Lane and Sara also stayed together. It was good because we were matched up by pace well. Bethany and I had reached a deeper relationship with one another after those 3 hours. We pushed each other emotionally and physically along the way. I am very thankful that I had her supporting me the whole way.

Mile 11-13 were the toughest. They were all milestones I had never experienced. They were also harder because it was raining and talk of bad weather was all around me. When I saw mile 13, I began to celebrate. We were almost there. .1 of a mile left. The fans were cheering everyone on as each person crossed the finish. We crossed it at the exact time arm in arm. Tears began to pour down my face for the millionth time that day. We did it!!! Crossing the finish was just as sweet as crossing the starting line. A few hours south two more of my friends had felt the same feeling. Victory. We all had done it. 13.1. Bethany and I met up with the rest of the crew and we all had our big reunion. Sara and Lane, our super fast friends finished in like 10 minutes. J We hugged and all started sharing stories immediately. The next thing on the agenda was the car.

Can’t you tell Bethany and I were happy to see it.

Seats are always a good thing after such a long race.

Here is a pic of all of us after the race back at the hotel.

Showers and food came next. Mexican was a unanimous decision. Yummy!

It was over and we were now ready to travel back to Georgia. Ella and Matthew were waiting for me at home. I owe Matthew a big THANK YOU! There were so many Saturday long runs and late night gym nights that he put ella to bed or watched her while I was gone. He knew how important it was for me and encouraged me all the way. I mean he had moments when he was like…be done with this already….haha…but he was always supportive. Thanks friend!!!

Ok…longest post ever…but thanks for hanging in there with me.