What is THAT?!

I love my sweet baby, but for once...just once, I would like to get out of the house without snot or drool on my work clothes. Impossible you say? Well can I at least notice it before I am halfway through the work day? Preferably before I have seen about ten people who are rather important or well known in the community.
Granted, when you live in a small town everyone thinks  they are important - so maybe I have only seen about two important people. But THEY weren't going to say "Hey lady what is that on your pants leg?" Oh this? Hmm, looks like a baby booger to me! It's part of my outfit. It's my final accessory, no ensemble of mine is complete without it. All the mommas are wearing them. What? You don't have one? HOW JEALOUS ARE YOU?!
I mean I could avoid touching her altogether, but how can you resist this:

And thanks for all of your prayers! I am thrilled to report that The Hubs has secured temporary employment. We are all very excited about buying Charmin over the scratchy generic brand for the next little bit. Our bottoms and noses thank you too! Because if there is one thing I hate to sacrifice it is quality TP - and I know many of you are bobbing your heads at your screens right now.

Okay okay okay....

It has not been all doom and gloom over here at the homestead. And we have seen several examples of God's provision for us so I don't want to overlook that. It really has been amazing.  I guess the real lesson so far for me has been realizing that I am really good at trusting the Lord on a short time frame, but not so much on the long one. I mean I was ok until last week - which was week four of Job Search 2010 for those of you who are counting. For some crazy reason my switch flipped and I went into panic mode. But after some prayers, a wonderful chat with a sweet friend, and a couple of serious blessings and one major miracle - I am feeling much better.
There I was telling my dear friend, who is having some struggles of her own, to back up and get some perspective - but I wasn't doing the same thing. So I decided to make a mental list. And here are some of the things I came up with!
1) Since Baby H was born we have not had to buy her a single piece of clothing
2) When we are faithful at tithing - we somehow never miss that money :)
3) Lola has been healthy and a bag of little dog food lasts forever
4) Our house has been much cleaner the last month = very happy me
5) I have lost weight - really it's a good thing y'all, it was a push
6) Our cars are in very good shape and should last us for at least another year or so each, maybe more
7) We have discovered we are very creative chefs

And by 'we' I mean The Hubs. He is the mastermind and I am the brilliant overseer, motivator and all important baby wrangler. Do you know how hard it is to try to get all three of us eating at the same time? It takes some serious inventive skills and sometimes major hustle to pull it off. But WE do! It's important to me that we eat as a family - before homework and soccer practice take over our evenings.

I just wanted you to know that we are all ok over here. It's just a bit of an adjustment. But we are making it, and if I can be of any encouragement - make your own list of blessings. It is so easy to get bogged down in the negatives and the stress that you can't see the good things. But it does take a slight shift to get a good view of all of that.

Choosing joy

I know this is not a revelation. But that doesn't always make it easy. I was driving home from lunch listening to some fabulous music, the sun was shining and my freaking eye was STILL twitching. Anyone following me on Twitter knows this has been going on for about 9 days now. I think it is due to stress, shocking I know.
Any who...so I was driving trying to figure out what exactly was all this stress from? I mean stress comes from worry and is kind of like fear in a way, and I heard from someone once that fear was a distrust in God's ultimate control or plan, or something more eloquent than that. Now my husband says he sleeps like a Calvinist - code for sleeps VERY VERY well. And granted, he is probably not full on Calvinist, but I sure would like to sleep more like him!
This week I have wanted to throw things. That is not a good sign. (I said wanted to people, I haven't lost any McCarty to my frenzy just yet.)
And then yesterday my baby did not want to leave daycare. She didn't want to see me when I picked her up. Devastating. I had to peel her from the shoulder of one of our sweet sweet daycare ladies. And she cried all the way out the door and into the car seat. What a motivator for re-evaluating life. I am sure she can feel the tension at home. Granted, I am sure she just really likes all of the toys at daycare too, and what a nice problem to have.
Then it all came smashing in together in a state of "I don't want my daughter to go into the fetal position every time she sees my face spasm - Dear Jesus please help me let go and let my eye stop twitching!" (And I mean Dear Jesus in earnest, not in vain, for the record.)
So what I am rambling on about is making a choice, a conscious and intentional choice to be joyful, or at the very least to let go of the fear and begin to trust more. Some days I am great at it, other days not so much. I mean some hours I am good at and the other 22 or so, well, it's a toss up. It may be that I need to cut out some of the interference, and maybe cut back on the sugar and caffeine as well.

So after that deluge I will leave you with some cuteness! This is our latest trick!

Peek-a-boo!
By the way, can you tell that she loves feeding herself these days? Basically we just strip her down in the sink after and rinse with the faucet hose. No kidding - really we just sit her on the floor and let Lola go to town. It's a two-fer: dog and baby bather! Bonus!!
And I promise I am getting back to my normal, slightly inappropriate, and sassy self. I just need a new haircut.

blurry

We have been busy, and sick, and then not so busy, and now back to busy again! Yes that was all of us. Let's see, for accurate recap: over the past few weeks we have had two sinus infections, one virus, several LONG days of teething, reduction to a single income, sleep disorders, and a minor malfunction with the A/C unit.
In a picture this is how Baby H dealt with the drama:

Snuggled close to dad with her paci and watching a little of the Today Show. I would much prefer this method of coping, rather than having to be all grown up about it.

At the moment I am trying to make Isaiah 12:2 my theme verse: "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation."

I think the most interesting part to me is where the author says that God is their song. I mean first you have to trust - right, ok, working on that. And then overcome fear - getting there. But then after overcoming two HUGE hurdles God is their strength and their song. THE SONG. Think about it. How do most people have to feel before they are ready to sing? Sing out loud even?
I will let you know when I get there...

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Ever feel like your life is just the same thing on a different day? Like all you do is stumble to the shower, blur - blur - blur, crash into bed? I have been feeling like this lately. I hate that feeling. Because I know it is not really that way.
I do have some brilliant squeals and drooling grins to break it up, but those are so brief it seems! However, I think I have figured out a way to combat this feeling: Early morning workouts! Now stay with me here. I got up this morning at 5:09am and went to the gym and 2.3 miles and some sit-ups later felt like a new woman! I am serious. I used to do this on a semi-regular basis, pre-marriage, pre-baby...oh wait those happened at the same time. But I really did - early morning boot camps with mom and Dr. Rock and some half-marathon training as well.
This morning I got that feeling, you know the one - the one that is like "man this is awesome, WHY have I not been doing this all along?" Check back for the recap later tonight, I might be singing a different tune. But I am sure with some schedule adjusting I will be fine. And one of the best parts about it? There were no Nike shorts clad collegiates to content with! AWESOME!  There were maybe 5 people in the whole gym, I loved every minute of it, plus the quiet baby-free car ride there and back.
I am really hoping to keep this up. Today was day one. I am thinking I can do at least 3 early mornings at the gym, and then get in some other work outs at home. With all of the crazy happening in my life right now, I just had to make this happen. I didn't want to sacrifice time with Baby H or the Hubs to have some 'me time' so in the words of Gregory Alan Isakov "I'm saving all me sleep for oh another life..."