Cover Me

Go ahead. Look to your right. Click on that play button. This song won't be on here forever, I'll switch it up a bit. (Here's a shout out to BETHANY for the idea to put songs on my blog---awesome!!).

There are so many reasons this song is particularly hitting home to me today. Mainly because I have been crying out to God this week to GIVE ME YOU. GIVE ME PATIENCE. GIVE ME MERCY. And I love this song because it says it well. Cover Me Jesus. Cover me with You. Cover up my tears, my fears, my insecurities, my "issues." There are plenty of them.

And as a mom, there are some days when I wonder if it is really ME that God picked to raise the little firecracker of a daughter I have. It is so beyond me---parenting, that is. I need Jesus to help me. Period.

Cover me

Cover up my tears

Cover up this man who's covered up in fear

I need a peace of mind

I need a piece of you

To cover all that's gone

and everything that's new

You unveil me

with your mercy

I want to breathe you in

You unfold me

then you hold me

Isn't EL just the BEST big sister? She just loves to "help" EM. Oh wait....hmmmm, maybe not this time...
Instead of EATING her breakfast, EL likes to take pictures of it. HeHe...

Miss EL sure LOVED her swim teacher Nate. She finished two weeks and is about to start another session on Monday. Way to go baby!

Matching PJ's...aren't they so cute??

Exactly 10 years ago

So 10 years ago this summer, RD and I were dating. We were young...in love...full of energy...and of course, kidless. That summer marked the first "real summer" we were seriously dating. So what did we do? We dared each other to swim across Devil's Lake and then back to our cottage (the lake that my family has a cottage on). Did we do it? Sure!! 10 years ago---him and I. The entire time he freaked me about about supposed fish and turtles lurking in my midst. I will never forget that. My brother and some other friends drove the boat alongside us, turned up some music and we had a blast.

Sooooo, TONIGHT as my entire family (all 7 of us + Katie's boyfriend) were sitting around the dinner table up here at Devil's Lake overlooking the calm waters, sipping on a glass of wine, watching the sunset...I got an idea. All the kids were in bed. We just had a nice pasta dinner (carbo loaded), and ya know...there is nothing better than the temperature of July water at the lake. It's delightful. So I made a challenge. Who wants to swim across the lake with me? I'm going in 10 minutes. At first everyone thought I was crazy. Within minutes though...everyone had their suits on. Jamie, Sarah, Katie, Dave (her boyfriend), RD and I...my Dad drivin the boat. We jumped off the dock at the same time and began the swim across. Hilarious.

The best part of all? Jamie didn't have a suit. Did he go without one? Nope. He wore my mom's. YES---we wore a black and pink polka dotted one piece women's swim suit to swim across the lake. When he walked out of the cottage and onto the dock, ALL of us hit the ground laughing. It was one of the funniest things we had ever seen. And he was so stinkin serious.

So did we make it? Obviously. But it wasn't quite like when RD and I did it 10 years ago. First of all, we didn't make it both ways. Secondly, all of our ears hurt the entire time, and lastly---as soon as we got in the boat, we all had a temporary headache. HeHe.
But it was worth it.
Ha! Awesome!!!! The adventure of the summer....made me feel young again. We laughed so hard, and so much tonight. It was the best.

Finding God through my kids

So today was one of those days where I just felt really close to God. I didn't really have a moment to crack open my Bible (although yesterday while EL was sitting on my lap watching Little Mermaid, I was trying to plug through the book of Hosea...quite an interesting combo), BUT...as EL and I were making cupcakes for RD today, we just had a blast. It was so fun to see how excited she was to make her daddy a birthday cupcake. And let me tell you, it sure was extra special. Totally 100% EL. I just had to keep telling myself that it was more impt. for me to be watching EL stir chocolate batter 327 times than doing laundry or something else "productive." It just reminds me of how often God is so patient with me when I slip up or take WAY TOO LONG to do something or figure something out that I could have "gotten" much sooner had I just listened to Him. Thank you God for that.

And then yesterday I had a moment with EM. She was sucking down milk from her bottle. I was gazing at her beautiful eyes. I just could not believe or handle how much love I had for her in that moment. It was almost unbearable. I just had to cry a little bit. And as I was looking at her, praying so hard for God's protection over her sweet little life, I felt God kinda say to me, "I love her even more than you do." It was intense! And I began to think about how I want to assure that my girls make all the "right choices, right decisions" in life. But I can't do that! For crying out loud, I don't even make all the right choices or decisions in my own stinkin life. And in being reminded that God loves my kiddos more than RD and I do, that was the reassurance I needed. They are His. They will mess up and certainly not make all good choices. But God loves them, and that's good enough.


EL's special cupcake for Daddy

EM's new kicks....I mean CHECK THOSE OUT!!!

Over a cup of coffee

Recap of the "chat" I just had with EL...
"EL, you know you're not very nice to mommy sometimes."

"yeah, I know. Or Daddy."

"Why EL?"

"Well, I am nice, I just don't listen."

"EL, that's not a good thing to say. Why don't you listen?"

"Mom, I am done talking about this now."

So, ummmm...yeah. That's what my 3yr old just said to me as we were sitting watching Arthur on my bed together. Me- sipping my coffee. EL- sipping her sippy cup. I think I'm in for it with her. Pray for me now. :)

A Little late

My sister-in-law takes amazing pictures. She has a fabulous camera and is very great at catching the cute shots!! She just sent me some pics from the 4th of July weekend that I had to share, and I threw in a couple I took as well. We had some family friends up to the lake---the same folks we have celebrated this weekend with since I was a little tike. So it is always a cherished weekend. Of course it's always a hoot to see kids "share," in environments like that. It's all about the competition. EL only wants to push her baby doll stroller when she sees her cousin Jack start to push it. Jack makes sure to walk very slowly next to EL when he has a toy she wants. The visitors don't really know how to take our crazy kids and just kinda stay away from them. I don't blame 'em. :) Oh but it sure was a fun weekend!!

On a different note, it's a beautiful Sunday afternoon today. I am finding that it is hard for me to relax in life. I just always always always have a to-do list going through my brain. Even when I tell myself to just sit outside and catch some rays, I find myself looking at the weeds that need pulling, the flowers that need watering. So I walk inside to get a cup of water and realize I never cleaned up after lunch and EL is having an awfully LOUD "rest time" upstairs. Sooo, up I go to quiet her down so EM doesn't wake up. Before I know it, I forget that I'm supposed to be relaxing. Ugh. So I'm getting off this thing and going to go try this again.

UPDATE ON MARY

Mary is going to have a "procedure" done at 9 AM tomorrow morning. This will be to put filters into her arteries to keep new blood clots from forming/moving. Pray that this is safe and helpful to her. Also continue to pray that her body fights the blood clots that are already there. My friend Beth and her sister Jill are sleeping in the waiting room tonight at the hospital. Pray for them as well. Oh BETH I wish I could be there with you tonight. Love you woman.

Prayer for my friends

My dearest friend Beth (friends since 7th grade) called me this morning. Her mom, who was always like a mom to me while growing up in Sylvania...was taken to the ICU this morning. She had foot surgery a few weeks ago and as a result, blood clots have apparantly formed. These clots have traveled to her lungs and various other places in her body. It is really bad. Really really bad. I have talked to Beth multiple times today and she is scared, her mom is in extreme pain and also very scared. Pray for peace for Mary (her mom) and that her body would naturally fight these clots with the blood thinners she has been given. The other options are much more risky and much more dangerous. In fact, as I write this, Beth and her siblings were told to go to the hospital with their dad to make some decisions together as a family. She asked that I would pray that they would make a wise decision together as a family. Wow. I can't even imagine. Please pray along with me.
Thank you.

Adventures of Babysitting

RD and I LOVE (like I mean L.O.V.E) our nights out together, with friends, whatever. Tonight we got to grab some dinner and ice cream with friends from our small group through church. We had a great young girl come to babysit and it happened to be her first time babysitting our kids. Her older sister has babysat once before and they are just a great family in our neighborhood. Go figure we are sitting at dinner and get a call from this girl's mom that she and EL are locked out (with no phone to call us) and EM was up in her bed sleeping. Luckily one of our babysitter's sisters had stopped by for a visit so one could stay "on the driveway" to watch the house with EL while the other ran 6 blocks to their house to get help from their mom. Long story short---everything was fine, our 75 year old neighbors came to the rescue and my sister got to our house within minutes to let them in. The whole ordeal lasted about an hour though. Thank God EM is a sound/good sleeper and wasn't upstairs screaming. Yikes.

This actually wasn't the first time this has happened. Another babysitter locked herself out. This girl had to jimmy-rig a kitchen window and send EL (who was 2 at the time) through the kitchen window, onto our kitchen table, and instructed her to walk around to the backdoor and unlock it for her so she could get in. Now that is some serious trust in a 2 year old!! I'm glad I found out about that one AFTER the fact.

And we also had two other babysitters lock themselves out (why don't people check the door to see if it's locked or unlocked before they walk outside?????) one night when both girls were asleep. As they stepped out to let the dog out, closed the door behind them...they realized they were locked out. Hmmmm....that was resolved easily though. No breaking or entering necessary...another door was open.

So there you have it. Adventures in Babysitting---the Snow edition. (great movie by the way).

Home Again Home Again

Coming home from vacation, unpacking, going through the hoop-la of birthday festivities (yes I just officially entered the last year of my twenties- ugh), and now re-packing for the 4th of July weekend- what a week! But I live for this kind of stuff and, although it's "sick," I love being busy. Fortunately, I love to be busy with family stuff and find way too much enjoyment out of going to Costco, sticking my girls in the extra large, made-for-two, cart seat in the supersize Costco carts. Call me crazy. But I also love what I just got to do for the past 25 min. EM is napping. So EL and I went through the large garbage bag full of hand me-downs that our neighbor just passed onto us for a new batch of clothes. We played dress up and both oohhed and ahhhed over the cute dresses and jeans. It's so great that she has no concept of clothes that come with tags on them or clothes that have been worn by one or two people already. What a blessing! I pray that she is a girl that just appreciates what she has. The funniest part is that EL is currently wearing her favorite item...striped tights (a size too small) as she's "working out" on the elliptical machine next to me as I write this. (see picture below). What a hoot. As I say all the time, Oh the joys...being a mom is the best.

EL with her Aunt Kiki and bud/babysitter E-Marty in a hot tub. Too fun!