The Little Things

He and I had had a particularly rough day.  He hadn't appreciated that he still had to obey his mother, I hadn't appreciated the amount of times I had had to remind him that he still had to obey his mother.  I saw ugliness, selfishness, rebellion, plain ole sinfulness ... in both of us.

I went to bed heavyhearted.  Sad.  Even feeling a little hopeless.  I prayed- for I don't know how long. For him.  For our relationship with each other.  For a miracle.

As is always the case, he was the first child awake this morning.  He came and gave me the same hug and kiss that he always does, he is a super cuddler when he first wakes up.  Then, as the first child awake he knew he was supposed to unload the dishwasher, which he did.

It wasn't those things that gave me hope.  Those things always happen before our day begins to deteriorate.  It was what he decided to do while he was unloading the dishwasher that gave me hope.

When I walked into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee my favorite cup wasn't in the cabinet.  It wasn't hanging from the mug hooks.  I finally found it.  When he unloaded the dishwasher, he placed it on the Keurig so that it was waiting for me.

It might not seem like much, but it filled my heart with joy and gave me a little bit of the hope that I had prayed for the night before. 

TBT = First New Blog Post in a Year and a Half!

I haven't blogged in a a few blue moons.  I'm not somebody that has all of these cool tips to share with the world, nor do I have incredible wisdom to impart.  I don't have decorating brilliance to inspire others.  No, I always kept a blog for my children to look back, remember, and enjoy.  Then, I started to think that they could use facebook for that very same thing, right?  Well, what if facebook isn't around forever?  I've decided to come back home to my blog so that I can utilize a blog printing company to get a hard copy at the end of the year.  The prospect makes me smile.

So, what is the first post?  A facebook inspired post.  Funnily enough. 

TBT, or Throwback Thursday.

This was my Tommy and me in 1999.  We had been "dating" for a whole  month and a half. (If you count talking on the phone every night, going out to dinner after church, and him walking me to my car after Bible Study as dating.)  We were at Word of Life for a weekend retreat with our Bible Study.  It may have only been a month and a half that we had been together, but man, I loved him.  I still do.  He made me laugh when I felt like crying.  He still does.  He made me look to the future when I felt like the world was closing in.  He still does.  He made me feel like I was to be treasured when everyone else was telling me that I wasn't good enough.  He still does.  I guess some things don't change.

So, that was the picture I chose for this week's TBT (Through Back Thursday, remember?) and just posting it wasn't enough.  See, the picture itself rests in one of the first photo frames I filled after we were married.

So, of course I wanted to share the whole frame.  The upper left corner and lower right corner are pictures of our sweet Abigail when she was a newborn ... when we were brand new to this whole parenting thing.  It seems like forever ago and it seems just like yesterday all at the same time.  Here she is with me now, well, six months ago anyway.

Yeah, tell me about it.

The lower left is me when I was a young girl, then beside that one is my Tommy, and the upper right corner is us at Yum's after church one Sunday ... before they were closed by the health department for domesticated animals hanging in the kitchen.  Yeah, I know, lovely thought to reminisce upon.

That frame sits on a dry sink that I grew up seeing in my grandmother's home.  The picture frame is nestled in between copper dishes, also from my grandmother's collection.  On the wall above the frame, a picture that my extremely talented mother in law painted.  I treasure each and every one of those things.

Yeah, see, I never would have written all of that on facebook.  It is good to be back home on my little ole blog. :)

Glory Babies

A Day at Forrest Hall Orchard

Tortillas!

I was getting ready to take a nap with Jonathan (what a wonderful thing a scheduled nap is!) when Ian asked if we could make tortillas.  I told him that I was getting ready to get Jonathan settled into his nap and couldn't right then.

He said, "We can do it, Mom!  All by ourselves!"

So, what could I say to that?  I gave Abigail the recipe and told her that she was in charge.  I knew I'd be back down before the resting stage of the recipe was over so they wouldn't be operating the stove without me.

I came back down, twenty minutes later, after my power nap to find an almost perfect bowl of resting dough.  I had them add just a little bit of water then they got to rolling, stretching and browning.

 

After they finished browning them all and having a little snack, they asked if they could make them into chips to have nachos for dinner.

I know who is making the tortillas from now on!  Though, I don't think we make quite as much of a mess when we do it together.