On Life and Storing Up Memories

Source: bellebebes.co.uk via Kristin on Pinterest

I think about this all of the time. Though not usually so poetically, or in a way that brings tears to my eyes like the poster above. All too often, it comes out in a refrain that sounds a little too much like "this too shall pass, this too shall pass." But, oh how sad I really will be when it does. . .I know this because Owen has already grown so much, and though he's always been independent he's definitely turning into quite the little man, and I'm proud, but also sad, all at once.

A few good memories from this last week, or stage of life, or whatever comes to mind, that I'd love to be able to read and reflect on once this season has come to pass.

• On Sunday a soccer ball broke a candle holder I'd just purchased before Christmas. Lucky for them, I was Oil Pulling at the time and couldn't respond at all and it only cost $5 so it really wasn't the tragedy they thought. But, what I hold onto and remember with joy, is both boys coming out of their time out (that dad initiated) and taking ownership. "Mommy, I'm sorry" Owen said, "It was my fault, I'm the oldest and I should know better." All the while Micah's voice is chiming in "No, it's all my fault, I did it, I'm sorry." Moments like that make me think, wow, maybe we are doing something right. Then my next thought was it's a good thing I hadn't been able to react, maybe I should spit my oil out now, so I can tell them how proud I am of them.  

Hee hee hee. It's okay, I tell you these things, just so you can relate, or laugh. Whichever. Either way, I'm not perfect, I screw up, and once in a while I get it right, by accident, because my mouth is too full to speak without spewing all over my children. I told you it's okay, go ahead and laugh now :)

• The other night my husband was lounging on the couch in his most relaxed state, back arched, belly sticking out, enjoying a moment of comfort, when Micah crawls up onto his lap and says "Daddy, you have a baby in your belly too?" Dad being a good sport replies "Yeah, I have a big baby don't I?" Micah rubs his stomach and smiles, acting for a moment as though he really believes his dad is pregnant. So I chime in "Micah, why don't you talk to daddy's baby?" (This is one of those moments I wish we could buy recordings of  because his response was priceless, I'm just not sure words could capture it, but I'm going to try.) He turned and looked at me, his brows arched in confusion, and with the sweetest most shocked voice he says "Daddy doesn't really have a baby in his belly . . . That was a joke!" As though he's telling me something I didn't know, like I was crazy for suggesting it. The first phrase came out slowly, as though he was weighing his words carefully and the second part was full of his emotion and joy. We, of course, died of laughter, Brian laughed for a good 4 minutes and Micah just watched us laugh, laughing at first, but mostly just staring us down, trying to figure out what had been so funny.

• Micah and Owen playing power rangers in the living room. Micah takes down Owen. It's a beautiful moment, black ranger against red ranger, dinosaur ranger verses somebody else, pow, whack, wham, bodies on the floor, legs a kicking, arms a going. "I've got you"'s and "Your going down"s echoing off the walls, laughter weaving it's way through the tangled bodies. Ninety seconds of my children are getting along bliss, then the tears come. Someone got kneed, or scratched, or head butted. A kiss. A hug. All is forgotten and the rangers are in action again. 

• After about a month of blasting our kids into outer-space at bedtime, they decided this week, they don't want to ride the rocket ship to the moon anymore. Owen wanted to be a robot, and Micah a car, so now their bed is a transformer, because that way they can be both a car and a robot at the same time. So, last night instead of "13, 14, 15 BLASTOFF," my amazing husband stood at the door and proclaimed in his best robot voice "Robot one, robot two" all the way to "RooooooooooooooBOT FIFTEEEEEEN" before closing their door. And the boys stayed in bed. Which is one of the most beautiful moments of all, after 2 years of fighting Micah at bedtime that this new routine has made our evenings go so much more smoothly.  Not every night is so smooth, but every night is better than it was before. 

• We've been enjoying lazy Saturday mornings where we actually get to see the clock hit nine before we crawl out of bed, sometimes the kids are still asleep, and sometimes they are destroying the house, but we know that soon, when Sienna arrives these mornings wont be quite so relaxing, at least not at first. So, I think we enjoy them more, because we know that they are fleeting. 

So much beauty, and good surrounds us. Trying to remember to stop and enjoy the moments, to rest and relax while life and memories are made around me. It brings me back to Psalm 139. How the Lord has each of these moments, memories, days, all written down, how his thoughts for me are so innumerable I couldn't begin to imagine them. All the thought and emotion and love that went into the title of my blog. 

Nothing too profound today, and yet, beautiful anyway because it's real. It's life, and it's important to take stock and store up these moments before it's too late. 

The Pin So Stupid I HAD To Try It

Not everything on the internet is true. It's like a mantra that I seem to say to a lot of people. Specifically related to Facebook, there are so many odd jokes people post or statuses that make you say "huh?" but then I remember, not everything on the internet is true. I forgive people for their stupidity, take it with a grain of salt, and move on.

But Pinterest? That's a different story. It's not to say that I believe EVERYTHING I read on Pinterest, or that every trick of the trade will work for me, but generally I expect that the things pinned have been tried by someone who deemed them pinterest worthy. I automatically assume, someone, somewhere has tried this, and found some truth to it. Pinterest hasn't turned me into a complete idiot, or so I thought, but generally speaking I tend to be more understanding and accepting of statement as fact.

Then, I saw this pin.

To straighten hair without heat,
 just mix a cup of water with 2 tablespoons of BROWN sugar, 
pour it into a spray bottle, then spray into damp hair and let air dry!

Source: Uploaded by user via Ashley on Pinterest

I KNEW IT WAS STUPID.
I scoffed.
I shook my head, in disgrace.
Who would believe such a stupid thing?

I didn't open it. I didn't pin it. I didn't give it another thought. Or, I wish I hadn't given it another thought. The truth of the matter is, the concept was so off the wall, I kept coming back to it. Maybe just maybe, someone really did have success with this? There have been other pins that seemed outrageous but in fact have brought a lot of success to people or made their lives easier in some way shape or form. Perhaps? Maybe?

These thoughts continued on for about 4 days. Then, one evening after getting my kids home/off the bus I had about an hour to shower and get ready for a work meeting 45 minutes away from home. I thought, well, maybe I'll try this trick so that I can have a little time to spend with my kids instead of slaving away with the blow dryer and flat iron for the entire hour.

So, I succumbed people. I tried the pin that was so stupid I scoffed at the person who created it.

What was the worst that could happen? I figured, the worst case scenario was that my hair wouldn't dry straight, it would be frizzy or wavy and it I'd throw it up in a pony tail or a bun.

WRONG.

I wish I'd taken pictures of the progress, but as I mentioned, I'd gone to a meeting for work.

At first, after mixing not two but maybe 1 tablespoon of brown sugar in a bottle with well over a cup of water and spraying it on my hair, my hair did appear to be smother. I combed it and it remained perfectly combed and straight for a long period of time. As I watched tv with the kids and played imaginary games with Micah John I kept checking my hair, it was starting to dry. It wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible.

Then, just before leaving the house I noticed something.

Something I should have realized would happen.

Why should I have realized there would be terrible consequences? Because it's common sense.
Sugar is sticky.

And so was my hair. The back underneath portion that is always kind of dry and impossible to work with was now, sticky, straw like, and even more impossible to work with. I quickly threw my hair into a low pony which I flipped and tucked effectively hiding my hair in a low bun like mess for my meeting.

By the time I got home, my hair was a birds nest. It was not straight. It was not soft or silky like the picture implied. It wasn't even hair. It was like straw.

It made me think of the girls in college who had bleached their hair blond so many times that it didn't even resemble hair anymore. Hair after hundreds of harsh chemicals had stripped it raw.

That was me. After putting a tiny bit of brown sugar in a large spray bottle of water and spritzing less than an ounce of said concoction on my hair.

Apparently, I'm not the only one who was hoodwinked by this woman's silky shiny hair, because when I did a search today for the original pin I found this:

Source: pintriedit.com via Giuliana on Pinterest

Yup, that about sums it up. Though, I would add straw, and birds nest, to the descriptive words.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to go surf around PinTriedit.com to see what other catastrophes I can avoid!

Have you tried a pin, simply because you HAD to know if it would work? Did it? or was it a total fail?

I'd love to hear the good the bad, and the sticky :)

Until Friday my friends!

Teresa

Oh, I almost forgot, this is a good time to share belly pics so here you go, 24+ weeks :) Sorry about the awkward camera-phone-in-mirror photo.

On Life: A long overdue update

So excited to be back here, ready to share with you about the many blessings we have experienced lately. It's going to be a whirlwind, so hang on friends!

1. The announcements have been made, via Christmas cards, facebook, and one on one interactions, but the last step is sharing it here in my blog. Are. You. Ready? {Que the drum roll please}

2. Baby Girl has a name. Sienna Marie. Isn't it beautiful? {hint: if you don't agree, don't tell me ;)}
We wish Sienna had biblical meaning like the boys first names, but it has personal meaning to us as we (my husband and I) met at Siena Heights University. And I'm excited to be passing down my middle name to her as well, a name that has meaning in both my family and Brian's family.

3. Early in December I posted that I really wanted the month to be a time where we, as a family, stepped back and spent more time in the Word, focusing on Advent and the reason for Christmas. I'm happy to report that we did that. And it went well. I also used that time to step away from Facebook a bit, limiting myself to 15 minutes or so a day and really tried to evaluate facebook and it's place in my life. It was a good time for me.

4. As a result of that time, analyzing and processing, I made some changes to my facebook settings and hacked it to be more suitable to my needs as they stand right now. I was fed up with the negativity that would stream into my life through the feeds. I was overwhelmed and annoyed by the ads, political platforms, and the accusations, anger and bitterness people seem to thrive on. But, I also highly value having access to communicate with old friends, church friends, babyfit friends, and family who is spread across country wide, and grow deeper in those relationships. Facebook is the easiest way for me to share family photos with those who are closest to me. But I've come to realize, that not everyone on my friends list needs to see everything I post, and I don't need to know what everyone on my list is doing either. So, I'm utilizing the "Close Friends" list Facebook provides. I've set my status', and photos to be visible to this list only and have selected about 25% of my friends list for this list. These are the people who are edifying in some way, who help me to grow in my relationship with the Lord, who make me laugh, or who simply mean the world to me. Plain and simple. When I log onto Facebook I simply select that list, and scroll through those status's and posts and avoid the main news feed as much as possible. And I must say, I made this change on the first of the year and the difference it has made is unreal. Facebook is now a place that I have some control over. It's a place that brings me light, and doesn't consume too much of my time. I still have access to all of my friends and them to me, and allow my blog posts and occasional status's to go to the whole friends list, but this has helped me to be more productive and allow facebook to influence me in a positive way instead of taking all the negativity with the good.

5. The Lord blessed us with a new car this month. Several weeks back we had a call from a relative saying they would be selling a car and wondering if we were interested in it, for a good deal, we were! With the holidays and a few details that needed to be worked out. Then one day my van up and died, we think it's the battery but my husband can't get it out for several reasons, and low and behold this opportunity was already there for a quick, stress free replacement that was able to help us out before we suffered any of the inconveniences of being down to one car. PRAISE THE LORD! I call the car "Gramps."

6. The Lord is really showing himself and his blessings right now through favor in both of our work places, and that, in a time where our economy is struggling is an absolute blessing that must be sung in praise!

7. This last weekend the Lord blessed us with a rare treat for Michigan. Beautiful weather in January. It was so nice that we took some time out from our cleaning and errands and busy day to get Micah's new bike put together and allow him to experience it for the first time. A giant thank you to my parents for the amazing gift,  a bike is more than just a possession to a little boy, it's opportunity, and personal ownership, it's that feeling of being big. Take a look for yourself (yes, they are in pajamas at 4 in the afternoon, and Gramps is in the driveway so you get to see a lot of his tail end)...

Micah: "Yeaaaaaaa, Micah!" 

8. Owen got a Wii for Christmas, and loves it more than life itself lol. Working on trying to make sure he stays grounded and doesn't get too absorbed into video games. Rules and time limits have been of the up most importance. Micah's imagination never stops working. He is always making up stories, and pretending that his bed is a spaceship has helped improve our bedtime routine by significant amounts. Our lives have been measurably changed, and it all started with a blanket my sister made him for Christmas, a blanket with space pictures, and rockets. The "Magic Blanket." Basically, the blanket just helped us realize that Micah functions in imagination, I'm trying to use this new knowledge to help think of creative ways to teach him things like the ABC's and spelling, phone numbers etc, simply singing a song doesn't work for him the way it did for Owen. 

And, that my friends, is most of it. God continues to stir in our hearts with our new years theme of being rooted and we are so excited about the ministries we are involved in at church and the attitude we are re-cultivating in our home.

"Look mom, it can fly like Mary Poppins"

Photo by Micah

May God bless you abundantly, until Friday!

Teresa :)