A Very Happy Thanksgiving

It was a great holiday weekend-just wish it had lasted longer! We went to Emporia and Lawrence on Thanksgiving day with my family. Then we spent Friday through Sunday in Moundridge with Grant's family. Went shopping, watched a couple movies, saw some friends, and ate too much. Grant's 26th birthday was on Thanksgiving day, so we celebrated that on top of everything else!

So good to see you Mom, miss you!

Next Thanksgiving we will both have an addition to the family :)

Loved the table setting at my uncle's house!

"It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High" -Psalm 92:1

Deep Cleansing Action

Ahh, I feel so good right now. I cleaned out all the junk in our guest room and an embarrassing amount of clothes from my closet. (This picture is only half of it!) That knocks out two things from my "To Do" list: Clean guest room and take junk to Goodwill. It feels like I am actually making headway towards getting everything ready for the baby. Funny how after I wrote a "To Do" list and shared it with the world that it motivated me to take action!

It amazes me how fast stuff can pile up-and it's just Grant and me! I can't imagine what it will be like with a big family. And wow, how can one person accumulate so many clothes? I got rid of almost all of my summer and dress clothes and shoes. After today, in order to prevent this from happening again I have resolved to only buy clothes that are:

1) Not trendy
2) Higher quality
3) A perfect fit (that means less thrift store finds, but will help eliminate a lot!)

Don't you love the feeling of getting rid of unnecessary stuff?

We have a Winner!

After I had four different trustworthy people give me feedback, I feel confident that I am going with something like this nursery. I completely agree-it's soothing, simplistic, and according to my amazing mother at 3:00 a.m. I will want a soothing atmosphere with a fussy baby. Very good point. My husband liked it too, so we are set. The others are too busy (good call Laura), and would eventually drive me nuts without a doubt. And Jen, I love your honesty, "It's a nursery, not a formal dining room for the Prince of Persia." Lol, that was awesome.

Whew. With that settled, now I just have to tackle the To Do List:

• Clean guest room out
• Move piano and desk to another room (well, that's Grant's job)
• Take junk to Goodwill
• Organize baby stuff
• Set a budget
• Sew bedding
• Have a baby!

And the fun part. The Shopping List:

• Crib
• Mattress
• Fabric
• Dresser
• Lamp, picture frames, other decorative items (or supplies to make my own)
• Something to organize baby toys, books, etc.

I was dreading all of this, but now that I have a plan I am ready to get started.

Thanks for your help!

decisions...decisions...

I suffer from extreme procrastination, but now I am starting to feel a sense of urgency about things needing to be done before our baby boy gets here. With the holidays coming up soon, I know the next couple of months are going to fly by. When Christmas is over, I am going to be so huge that I doubt I will feel up to tackling the "To Do" list. Our guest room, which will be the nursery currently is full of boxes, a piano, a messy desk, and random odds and ends. I would post a picture but I'm ashamed of it. So, I am trying to knock it out now while I am in the "honeymoon" phase of pregnancy (a.k.a. the 2nd trimester). But my biggest problem next to overcoming procrastination is that I simply cannot decide on how to decorate and arrange the nursery. I know I want neutral neutral neutral (with maybe a tad bit of color), as I have never been a fan of the pinks and blues, or themed nurseries.

Now that I have that figured out, do I get a white crib or a wood crib? Do I use grays and green/yellow? Or tans, creams, and browns? What about splashes of color, will they annoy me after awhile?(I tend to get annoyed by too much color, weird I know) How do I arrange the nursery and how much are we going to spend? Do I want a modern, earthy, or classic look? I am leaning towards making my own crib bedding and then the decision of picking the fabrics comes into play which has already been a nightmare in itself. Plus, I basically hate everything in stores, so I have to be original and come up with all the decorations on my own.

I don't want to be completely ridiculous about this(especially since the baby won't know the difference!) and Grant and I tend to like things simple. Here are a few pictures I found online of things I like. I realize these are straight from like designer websites and I won't even come close to them, but whatever. I was happy to find some ideas I liked, but unfortunately they are all so different that I don't feel like I narrowed anything down.

Feedback please? Jen-I know you are reading this to distract you from school, so I need your opinion since you are my personal baby attendant :)

Love ya, Nate!

This weekend was the last time seeing my brother Nathan before he deploys to Iraq again. We celebrated with an early Thanksgiving meal and a cake for his birthday along with family and friends. Praying for you daily and see you next year! Love ya!

It's a....

Today was my first sonogram. IT was AMAZING! Here are some of the pictures of our little...BOY! The technician said he looks perfectly healthy and his measurements were exactly where they should be. When I saw his little feet, I cried! We weren't able to get a great picture of his head, but Grant was satisfied with that because he hates pictures. So he thinks our baby takes after him, avoiding having his picture taken :) Can't wait to meet our little boy in person!

ἅγιον

ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸν καλέσαντα ὑμᾶς ἅγιον καὶ αὐτοὶ ἅγιοι ἐν πάσῃ ἀναστροφῇ γενήθητε,

But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct..." 1 Peter 1:15

While studying the book of 1 Peter for a ladies Bible study yesterday, I was struck by the word "holy" which Peter uses six times throughout the letter. He earnestly exhorts Christians to live a holy life, continually die to sin and this world, and to be obedient to the truth. I decided to look into the word holy a bit more. The word holy in the book of 1 Peter comes from the Greek word "hagios" (pronouced hag'-ee-os, and in greek letters ἅγιον). It is an adjective meaning sanctified one for a special purpose, supernaturally seperate, and that which is anti-secular. I loved these definitions because what better way to describe a true believer? I especially liked "sanctified one for a special purpose." Obviously as Christians, that purpose is to worship, serve, and obey Christ. I realize that this is nothing too profound, but actually quite simple. But for some reason it has really made an impact on my heart. It has given me a greater longing to live as one who is set apart for Him. A.W. Tozer has a quote on holiness that I found. It has stuck with me and I wanted to share:

“The whole purpose of God in redemption is to make us holy and to restore us to the image of God. To accomplish this He disengages us from earthly ambitions and draws us away from the cheap and unworthy prizes that worldly men set their hearts upon. The true Christian ideal is not to be happy but to be holy. When your holiness becomes tarnished, let your joy become dim. Ask Him to make you holy whether you are happy or not. Be assured that in the end you will be as happy as you are holy; but for the time being let your whole ambition be to serve God and be Christlike.” -A.W. Tozer