I love....

Dear Claire, At 19 months:

• I love running my fingers through your hair at the end of the day while you lay next to me and watch "pets" or "dora"


• I love how you still carry around as many passies "pap paps" as you can carry, normally 5 or 6


• I love how when I awarded myself the "worst mommy of the world award" last night and when I said I was sorry you latched on to my neck and gave me the biggest, longest hug


• I love how you run "full speed ahead" to me everyday when I pick you up from school


• I love the way you say "purple" and "yellow"...and all your other colors


• I love hearing all you have to say...new phrases and words come out of your mouth everyday


• I love how you love your family


• I love watching you dance,...stomp your foot, drop it, turn around, repeat


• I love that you have a new attachment...your "blank", the pink blanket you sleep with...when its bed time you drag it around like Linus


• I love that you want to "help" with everything...which means do it yourself. You love to help put your shoes on, off, on, off....you change shoes 100 times every evening


• I love that you are half way interested in potty training....you don't want to go in the potty but you want to wipe every time you see toilet paper or when I change your diaper, you want to "help" wipe


• I love that you love books and want to read all the time


• I love the way you cover up all your baby dolls...your favorite is Mae


• I love that you will sleep in your big girl bed


• I love that you make my bad days good


• I love that you make me focus on the things that matter


• I love that you make me have gratitude


• I love that you have amazing blue eyes and beautiful curly blond hair...just how I always pictured you


• I love that I am your best friend...right now, I hope to keep that status forever


• I love that you opened my Mother's Day card as you were handing it to me and kept bringing it back to me all day long


• I love that you are my daughter


• I love that the Lord choose me to be your mother, what a gift!!!


• I love you, for now, always, and forever...19 months times eternity

Need a Smile?

Makes me smile!!!

Claire and the Cat

Sharing a little love!

One of Claire's most favorite things is our cat....a little background about the cat. We have never been "cat people". We have always had big dogs. Not long after we moved Nick was at his uncle's house and they had several cats and Nick brought one of them home to help with spiders and other pests....a black cat named Girlfriend. Girlfriend actually ran away for about 2 months and then reappeared...she has never left again. Claire follows her around, drags her by her tail, kisses her, and pets her extra hard...ha! Although Claire said "dog" more than any other word for months I can safely say Girlfriend is her favorite...today any way. And as for me and Nick, Girlfriend has grown on us....two black labs and a black cat...with a blue eyed toddler running around in the middle:) Life is good!

Lessons

Last Sunday I was having a conversation with a friend about certain things that happen in our lives that God uses to teach us something....in particular we were talking about having 2 mortgages at one time...both of us have shared the pleasure of this experience. It is by human nature to try and take control of situations that we truly do not have control over. My friend in a similar, yet very different, situation has made an offer on a new house, contingent upon selling hers....of course wanting the new house brought on the anxiousness of selling the old one, only in a matter of weeks did she think what did the Lord teach me the first time around....and the Lord responded "I got this!!!", you need not worry or be anxious! and what happens, they signed a contract to sell their house this weekend!!!

Then, this is what I read in my daily devotional yesterday "Remembering what God has done in the past spills over into believing God for our future."!!! Gotta love it!

And this was today's which I just love too...because I think it is a lesson to all of us in how we can handle sometimes difficult people or difficult situations:

"Love others not by trying to become their god but by fueling their own faith in God."

Amen

Last night was one of those sweet moments you want to capture....I was getting Claire ready for bed and sat in the rocker for a minute. I said we need to say our prayer..."Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep........I pray to Lord my soul to take".... Claire said in sweet little voice "Amen"........I normally say Amen and she repeats me, but not last night. She said it completely on her own!!!

We also say our prayers in the car every morning on our way to school/work and Claire always follows my Amen but it generally comes in the form of a shout "Amen"...which comes out "May Men":) Just warm Momma moments:)

Smile

Claire loves watering the plants...when she pours all the water she just says "more more" so we filled up the ice chest with water and she goes back and forth. These plants are going to the prettiest on the block with all the water they are getting!

Last night Miss Claire asked to watch a "mooh-V"...movie, so I press played and she said "Pet Pet Dora"! This is the first time she told me what she wanted to watch...Wonderpets and Dora are two of her favorites! Oh! How I love this girl! She just makes my heart smile!

Economic Cycle?

Recession....just part of the economic cycle, right?
Recessions bring hard times that generally are followed by a Depression....some would say that our economy is in a depressed state of mind during this current "recession", others might say we are through the recession and well on our way to recovery, another business analyst might say everything is holding steady...or simply put, just being still

With recession's come tough times, times when people get back to the simple things in life, times when you figure out what really matters, times you slow down, times you are humbled,

times you need hope....

hope that better days will come.

Where do you find hope?

"Put your hope in God...Psalms 42:11"

How many are praising and rejoicing in the Lord for the recovery of the economy?

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" Philippians 4:4

How many are trying to figure out how to be stable with Him? No great highs, no personal troubles, no bottomed out lows....just being still.

"Be still, and know that I am God..." Psalms 46:10

How many learned to live humbly during the last part of our "economic cycle"?

"I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:3-4

How many people turn to Christ during this down times of our economic cycle?

How overloaded is His inbox with prayers??!!

My personal opinion...the business cycle is all part of God's plan...He needs us to seek Him, He needs us to find Him. Wonderful teacher Beth Moore wrote "You do not humble and test us to bring us low and cause us to fail but to teach us how to succeed in You." I think He created this cycle to bring people closer to Him....if I had to bet, I would bet more people seek Him in hard times than in great times....

What I find to be even more of a coincidence....the peak of the business cycle is when the wealth of the people is the greatest, when the riches are overflowing and people have more money to buy the things they want...but if more people turn to the Lord during the low end of the economic cycle during recessions and depressions, then the truth is our Wealth is the greatest, and our Riches are more abundant than ever imaginable than at the peak of the cycle. I just love this thought!

So just maybe the economic cycle is just our Lord's cycle?

"What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory..." Romans 9:23

The pictures are just from a beautiful day the Lord made....things I cherish :)