My daughter, the puppy

Ways that my baby girl is a lot like a puppy:

1. When you shake a can of her snacks, she comes running (or crawling, technically) over because she knows what that sound means.

2. She often comes over and pulls herself up on the kitchen chair someone is sitting on when they are eating, to beg for bites of food.

3. If she gets her hands on a shoe, she will certainly start to chew on it. Ew. Amping up the immune system, I guess. The other day she got a hold of my slipper in my bedroom closet and it immediately went to her mouth.

4. She gets the biggest kick out of mundane things...wrapping paper, crawling on the couch cushion when we put it on the floor, when someone lays down on the floor so she can crawl all over them. We can practically see her tail wagging with excitement.

5. She needs to go to obedience school, as she has not grasped the concept that "no" means "stop doing what you are doing."

6. She isn't potty trained.

7. She eats food off the floor.

8. She loves when you roll a ball around on the floor. She thinks that is hilarious and entertaining.

9. She loves strangers. I think she would sniff them and lick their face if she were able.

10. She sucks on a washcloth. That's not puppy-like, but when she's sucking on a wash cloth at Papa's house, Papa takes the other side of the washcloth in his mouth and they have a sort of tug-of-war with it in their mouths.

Photo credit: Charlie & Violet Photography

Thankfulness - a list

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. And as I prepare to have many relatives from my mom's side of the family over for our Thanksgiving celebration tomorrow, I've been thinking all day about all of the things I'm so thankful for.

I have been abundantly blessed by God. An embarrassing amount. Much more than I ever deserve. But that's the great thing about God - He doesn't actually give us what we "deserve." His grace and mercy overflow for His kids. And I am so thankful for so many things he has given to me. In no particular order, I am thankful for:

1. My sisters. This morning I was looking at the three photos I have framed on my bedroom wall. Each 8x10 is a photo of my two sisters and me, at each of our weddings. Each of us had two maids/matrons of honor...our other two sisters. We each took a turn signing the marriage certificates as witnesses. I signed Laurie's, Michelle signed mine, Laurie signed Michelle's. The three of us are close, with  no drama ever involved in our relationships with one another. At least, not since 2002 when Laurie and I stopped living together. :) I am so thankful for their support, the laughs, the inside jokes, the venting to one another, the countless texts, and so much more. If I go more than a couple of days without talking to either of them, I start to miss them. One sister lives four miles away, the other lives over 50 miles away. But distance is nothing between us. I'm thankful for these bonds.

Love my sisters - one of my favorite pictures of us

 2. My house. I love my house. I think it's beautiful. When I turn up the thermostat, I get heat. When it rains, everything in my house stays dry. I get instant electricity when I need light, or to dry my hair, or to charge a cell phone. When I need water, I just turn on the faucet and I get water immediately. It's a cinch to cook a meal, take a shower, wash and dry our many clothes. This puts me is in a small percentage of people in the world. So many people in the world have NONE of these things. I do not take any of it for granted and am so thankful for it all.

3. My child. I waited a long time to be a mom. And I am loving it. I love taking care of my girl. She is so sweet. And social. And developing quite the sense of humor. She is bright and curious. I am enjoying each stage as she develops and treasuring each milestone. I don't want to take anything for granted and "wish" for the next stage. I'll never rush her growing up, I'll delight in her growth, and I'll treasure her achievements. I am so thankful to be her mother.

My little Tuppy. Ten months old.

 4. My husband. We have so much fun together. We laugh a lot. We make a good team. He is so supportive of me, he encourages me, he prays with me, he loves me just the way I need to be loved. He knows how to speak my love language. He is the second best thing that's ever happened to me. Choosing to follow Christ is the best thing that's ever happened to me. He knows that he will always be number two in my book and he's just fine with that. :) I am incredibly thankful for him!

A couple of months before we were married!

5. My church. I love Faith Community Church. I started attending there about seven years ago. I've served in a couple of different ministries. Husby and I did our pre-marital counseling through the church. We were married there. We dedicated our little Tuppy as part of this church. And now I work there part-time as I help behind the scenes of our Wednesday night children's ministry. I have come to know so many quality people that attend Faith, work at Faith, and volunteer at Faith. The staff of pastors and fellow attenders encourage me, build me up, and teach me how to have a deeper walk with Christ. This is a church that loves people through Christ! And I am thankful for this church!

6. The rest of my family. My parents, in-laws, nieces, nephews - we all get along and enjoy spending a lot of time together. Not all families are like this and I'm so thankful for all of the time that we have had together, growing closer, laughing, eating (lots of eating), just being invested in one another's lives. I am so thankful for functional family love.

7. Pie. I'm thankful for pie.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thankfulness in marriage

When I was single, I spent a lot of time thinking about being single. I thought about what I wanted my life as a single person waiting to get married to look like. I often wondered what my husband would be like and what our marriage would be like.

Now that I'm married, I spend a lot of time thinking about my marriage. Things like areas where Husby and I are crushing it, areas where I need to step it up, things I need to work on, what I can do to speak Husby's love language, my favorite things about being a wife. Stuff like that.

We've been married three years. So I am by no means any sort of expert in marriage. I realize we are just at the beginning of our long lives together. In fact, we're pretty much still in the honeymoon phase. But over the last several months I've come to realize that there is a favorite part of our marriage that I never anticipated. It's an attitude of thankfulness.

This past Sunday our pastor spoke on marriage. I'd like to think that I've been paying attention to sermon subjects the past three years and I'm pretty sure that this is the first sermon I've heard on marriage since we got married. Perhaps our pastor has spoken on marriage before, but I'm not there every Sunday, due to going back to my parents' house on the occasional weekend and attending my home church. Or traveling out of state for a vacation. But I'm pretty sure this is the first sermon I've heard on marriage in three years. So, I'm finally sitting on the other side of the subject...one of the "included" on the subject. Not listening as a single person like I did for years. Listening to a sermon on marriage and actually getting to immediately apply something from it to my life was pretty cool. It was also really cool to sit and listen to someone talk about marriage who was standing in the very spot where we said our vows to one another. AND, it was also cool to hear a sermon on marriage as the timing intersected with the start of November.

November is a great time to reflect on what you are thankful for. Several of my friends take the "Thankfulness Challenge" on Facebook and post one thing every day that month that they are thankful for. It all culminates, of course, with the Thanksgiving holiday.

So getting back to this attitude of thankfulness I mentioned. I think thankfulness is one area that Husby and I really excel. My husband comes from a very thankful and encouraging family. They come by it quite naturally and I don't even know if they realize they are like that. They are quick to compliment one another, give a pat on the back, and generally lift one another up with their words. So, this is how my husband is. He doesn't give a second thought to thanking someone for something they did. I have always been an encourager. It comes quite easily to me, as I believe it is one of my spiritual gifts from God. But saying "thank you" wasn't something that I just did naturally. This saying "thanks" was something I caught onto this quite early in our marriage and started to make it a habit. But I had to make an effort to communicate my thankfulness. I found that soon sincere "thank you's" were flowing effortlessly between us. It's one of my favorite things about our marriage. Even the smallest things are appreciated in our house. If you were a fly on our wall you would hear, "Thanks for mowing the lawn." "Thanks for getting the baby dressed." "Thanks for making the bed." "Thanks for making dinner." "Thanks for cleaning up the kitchen." "Thanks for balancing the checkbook." We clearly communicate when we are appreciative of the acts of service we do for one another. And the funny thing is, the more you hear "thank you" from someone, the more likely you are to say it back. It just kind of snowballs! It's such a good way to let someone know you appreciate them. That's what most people crave - appreciation. Just knowing that someone sees what you are doing and acknowledges the effort.

Our marriage isn't perfect. No one's marriage is perfect because there's no such thing. There are no perfect wives, no perfect husbands, no perfect kids, no perfect homes.  We always have things to work on. But in this area of thankfulness, I think we are doing better than okay.

Here is the link to the audio of the sermon I heard on Sunday. None of it really has to do with "thankfulness" specifically, but it's the catalyst for the subject of this blog post and really got me thinking about writing about this aspect of our marriage. You will probably have to copy and paste the link in your browser.
http://www.fcchudson.com/audio/jesus-and-marriage/

What about you? Does saying "thank you" to those you love the most come naturally? Or is it something that you will need to make an effort to do? Has it occurred to you before to thank those who love you most for the mundane things they do?

Elizabeth's baby dedication

A few weeks ago Chip and I dedicated Elizabeth to the Lord during one of our church's Sunday services. I grew up in a church where child dedications happened quite often, but it occurred to me that several people may not know what it is or what it's all about.

Basically when a child is dedicated to the Lord, it's simply the parents standing up in front of the church congregation, publicly declaring that they will raise that child as best as they can with the help of God, stating that they acknowledge they are stewards of their child, and affirming that they have no clue what they are doing and will fully rely on God to guide them. I'm kidding on the "no clue" part, but not really. I mean, no one makes any parents stand up and say, "We have no idea what we're doing," but I think most parents think that one or two (hundred) times during their kids' childhoods. Am I right, parents?

We went up front and our pastor asked us questions which we answered with, "We will." When we dedicated Elizabeth at Faith Community, here's what we affirmed in front of our church family:

- We recognize her as a gift from God and give thanks for her.

- We recognize she belongs completely to God and surrendered all worldly claims on her life. A couple of years ago our pastor introduced us to the concept of a "ten second prayer." Whenever you tell someone you will pray for them, you stop right there and do it. Even if it's just for ten seconds. Or, if you are in a discussion with someone about something, you pause, and say, "Ten second prayer," and pray right then. Or, if someone or some situation comes across your mind, you say a ten second prayer. It's so quick, but you can say a lot in ten seconds! Chip and I have become big fans of the ten second prayer. We do it often during our every day conversations. One of us will say, "ten second prayer," and then just one of us says one or two sentences in prayer. Sometimes we're in the same room when we do this, sometimes we are far apart and on the phone. For whatever reason, often we are in the kitchen. When I was pregnant with Elizabeth we were talking about something related to her well-being and we decided to do a ten second prayer. In that moment God revealed to me that this little life growing inside of me belonged completely to Him and we were guaranteed no set amount time with her. He had called us to do the best as her parents for however long He has decided to give her to us. So I did a ten second prayer recognizing that we are stewards of her life and our job is to be her parents to the best of our ability but that she is not ours to keep. We hold her in our hands, not in a tight grip, but with open hands. Because when you have a tight grip on something or someone, your hand is clenched, and not available to receive more from God. So, this point of Elizabeth's dedication really resonated with me. She does not belong to us. She belongs to God and He has given her to us and it's our job to do the best that we can with what He has given us.

- We pledged to raise her in discipline and instruction of the Lord; making all effort to teach her the Word of God and the character of Christ in order to bring the joy of the Lord into her life.

-We promised to provide physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual needs for her while looking to God for wisdom, love, and strength in order to serve her.

-We promised to regularly pray that she will come to trust Jesus and follow Him. And for extra measure, I often tack on that she will love others with the love of Christ and that her light for Jesus will shine brightly, becoming a beacon to those who need love or encouragement.

After we affirmed ALL of that in front of the congregation, it was our church family's turn! Knowing that it takes many people who love Jesus to help us cultivate Elizabeth's faith as she discovers who she is in Christ, we turn to the church family for help. The church then affirmed that they also recognize her as a gift, they promised to pray for her and lastly promised to nurture her faith by being the people who teach her throughout her childhood. The people who will teach her on Sunday mornings, who will be her AWANA leaders, who will volunteer during Vacation Bible School were sitting in church that day and we willingly accept their talents and gifts to help develop her faith! When I look back at all of the people who taught me in church during my childhood, the list gets very long very fast! We want Elizabeth to have the same experience of Godly people who are so willing to give of their time for her.

Our pastor then put his hand on Elizabeth and told her that she was being dedicated to Lord and that we surrendered all worldly claims upon her life because she belongs wholly and completely to God.

Lastly we had family and elders of the church come up to the front of the church and gather around the three of us as our pastor prayed for Elizabeth and for us as parents.

Last week a friend posted this saying on his FaceBook page and I thought it was so appropriate for this blog post I was working on. So, I include it here and say, "Amen!" in agreement. We will continually pray throughout Elizabeth's life that we recognize she belongs to God and then we'll thank Him for putting her in our care.

We are so excited to see what God has in store for Elizabeth and how He will use her in furthering the greatest story of history...the story of God's love for mankind and how He sent His son to save a lost and dying world.

Random Acts of Kindness

Thirty-three days ago I turned the big four-oh. In the days leading up to this birthday, I thought about what I could do to mark the occasion. After kicking around on Pinterest for a while, I saw a couple of posts of people who did random acts of kindness on their birthday as a way to spread a little cheer while celebrating their day. They did one random act of kindness for every year of their life. In both cases, the do-gooders where MUCH younger than 40 and were able to all of their random acts of kindness in one day. I knew there was no way I was going get 40 random acts done in one day. So I gave myself the entire month since my birthday was on the first. Then I added the component of asking friends on Facebook to do one random act of kindness on my birthday. About ten people told me they did a random act of kindness on my birthday! How cool is that? And they happened through out the country and even one in Canada. :) Spreading the kindness.

So, did I get all 40 done in May? Nope. I fell short. I have about 10 left to do, so I'm going to keep going into June to get all 40 checked off the list. I didn't do 40 different acts, but rather did several, and often times I did the same thing more than once. But here's some of what I did do in May:

1. In a store parking lot I ended up parking next to a car that had a firefighter designated license plate. So I put a pack of licorice on their windshield with a note that it was a random act of kindness. I kept extra candy in my car and did this two other times as well.

2. While shopping in the diaper aisle of a store, there was a woman buying a specific brand. I had two coupons for the brand she was buying so I gave the coupons to her, saving her a few bucks. One was a manufacturer coupon and one was a store coupon so I told her she could use both that same time. She was grateful.

3. When our baby had a check up at our local clinic I brought small baskets of Starburst candy along. I gave one to the girls at the check-in station, one to the crew at the lab, and then I ran one down to the nurses in the birth suite of the hospital where we had our baby. Each time I explained that I was doing it in honor of turning 40. I gave to the lab and the check-in crews because I figured they probably don't get a lot of treats or gifts from patients.

4. I taped a dollar with a note to the back of a toy in the dollar store. Some child will eventually find it and get a free toy! I taped it so the dollar was sticking out a little bit so it wouldn't get missed. I'm going to do this one again, I just need to get some more dollar bills. I like thinking about some kid finding it and getting a free toy! It's only a dollar, but if you were a kid and found it, wouldn't you remember that for a long time?

5. I bought a box of microwave popcorn, taped a random acts of kindness note to each one and wrote with a marker "Enjoy free popcorn with your movie!" Then I drove to five separate RedBox locations near my work and home and taped popcorn to the boxes. I still have one left to give away.

6. I put four quarters in a baggie with a note and taped it to a pop machine so someone could get a free pop. I'll probably do this one again as well.

7. I had a bunch of coupons that were expiring in a few days and knew I wouldn't use them. So I spent an extra 20 minutes in the store, walking around and putting the coupons on the products so that when people were shopping, they would find a little savings!

8. I gathered stray carts in a parking lot. I'll probably do this one again too...doesn't cost me anything!

9. I left a gift bag filled with taffy for our mail carrier. I put a note on it and the next day I got a post-it note as a thank-you from our mail carrier. And now I know her name.

10. I donated food to the local food shelf.

Most of my random acts included candy. Because who doesn't like candy? Hopefully I didn't give any to any diabetics! Is some licorice stuck under a windshield wiper going to change the world? Nope. But there is just so much DARKNESS in this world. So many people are hurting. Or making really bad choices. It's so easy to spread some LIGHT. It does the heart so much good to take the focus off yourself and simply be kind or encourage. Our society would be so much HAPPIER if people would just take the focus off themselves once in a while. There's so much entitlement and so many who have not been taught that the world is not all about them. There are so many miserable people because they care only about themselves. The thing they have not discovered is the irony of when you think of others is that it brings you happiness. I am so thankful for all of the people who DO spread cheer and encouragement and light and love. Not in some hippy-dippy way, but in practical ways. People who encourage the discouraged, people who give their time and efforts to volunteer and make someone else's life a little better, people who treat the helpless decently, people who respect authority, people who go the extra mile to bring a little happiness to someone else. All without expecting anything in return. I am SURROUNDED by people like this. And I'm so thankful for it.

I really like the song "Do Something" by Matthew West. The message is so true - so many people ask God, "Why don't you fix these problems?" And His answer is, "I did. I created YOU. DO SOMETHING." Don't wait for someone else to tackle the troubles of this world. You ARE someone. And God gave you talents and abilities to help others. It doesn't matter your age, your education, or economic standing. Everyone can do something to make the world a better place. It's like the song says, "We're never going to change the world by standing still." Go out and encourage, spread kindness, serve, SHINE.