Saturday, August 6, 2011

Time vs. TIME

As a stay at home mom, I spend a lot of time with my kids, but sometimes when you spend all day every day with someone its easy to take that time for granted and be so busy with cleaning, calculating, organizing, and running a household that you don't spend a lot of quality time with them. I find that to be true for me.  Recently, I've been noticing opportunities to pour into my children by spending real time with them.  If I'm REALLY honest with you, I would have to admit that a lot of times it does not sound very appealing at all to sit and play pretend or do the things that they would like to do.  In fact, its often the last thing I want to do.  I love accomplishing things like organizing and cleaning and I would much rather be doing that.  So I'm thankful that the Holy Spirit has been ways and reminding me to do things with my kids--and those things have ended up not being painful at all, but have actually been extremely enjoyable.  As I've been being obedient to those promptings I've ended up feeling great knowing that I am not just spending lots of time around my kids, but I am actually spending quality time with my kids.  I love that!

Sometimes, giving them of my time comes when I see them playing in the living room after dinner and I decide to engage with them instead of flopping down in exhaustion because, "Hey! They're already occupied!"  The other night it was as simple and spontaneous as grabbing a bag of pipe cleaners and making them each a crazy hat which then morphed into messing around with some balls outside, which then morphed into them getting creative with pipe cleaners on their own... All before dessert.  I loved it! And they did too.

{Elliott received "antlers" and Caiden received "bug antennae"}









Other times, giving my time to them has consisted of something I like to do, like organizing!  We organized Elliott's legos so we could rebuild some of his old models whose pieces had become jumbled together--so fun!  Then we built a police van, a police car, and a helicopter.  I loved it!  And they did too!

The more time I spend doing things like that with those munchkins, the easier it becomes and the more I realize that I love hanging out with them and spending time with them.  Just sitting quietly--not multi-tasking--just loving them.

That's what we've been up to (so I just wanted to share) learning to love each other more purposefully.  That's what my life here is looking like right now.  And I'm loving it.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Road Trip // July 2011

Dave and I were blessed to have a weekend away this past week!  One of our good friends got married on Saturday.  Dave's cousin offered to fly up to Berkeley to hang with the kids while we drove to San Luis Obispo for the rehearsal and wedding.  It was a beautiful wedding and a beautiful weekend.  Dave and I have had very few of these alone times since the kids came 'round, so it was pretty special.

The wedding took place on the bride's family ranch, the reception was in an old barn on the property.  It was beautiful and fun.  We were so blessed to be a part of this special day for our friends Brandon and Emily.  We can't wait to see how God uses them and their marriage.

This was the rehearsal at the bride's parent's beautiful home.


This is Dave's new buddy, Oakley. (Dave made him an honorary groomsman)



Brandon gave each of the groomsmen a sweet pocket knife, so I guess they were trying to show off their tough side here.


It was great to see so many old friends.

Emily was an absolutely stunning, radiant, and gorgeous bride!!





And in between wedding stuff, there was lots of coffee, of course, and good fellowship.


And lots of driving...







It was a great trip!  Now back to real life!