A Caring Heart

My mom, Diana, is one of those people who truly likes to be behind the scenes. She is at her happiest putting other people first.  Since it is her birthday and a special day, I just want to let Mom know how much we appreciate her.

From a young age, Mom has been a thoughtful caregiver. She helped look after her baby sister. As a young mother, she cared for three children sacrificing so much for us.  Professionally, Diana has carved out a successful career as a nurse. Mom spends many hours caring for elderly patients. It is much more than a job for her as she loves and listens to her sometimes forgotten residents.

I know she is probably cringing now and I don’t want to embarrass her much more. I just want to say, Mom, I am so fortunate to have you as my role model. You have a caring heart. Thank you for all that you do for us. I love and miss you. I wish we could be with you today to celebrate. We are there in spirit and can’t wait to say hello via video.  Xoxo

Happy Birthday Albert

As of 9:12 pm tonight our sweet Albert Aaron is one year old. It’s hard to grasp how fast this past year as gone by for us. I am amazed at how much our little guy has grown. I can’t imagine our family without him.

Albert has been walking for two months now and he is fast. He adores big sister Ivy and is determined to keep up with her. When we play music or Daddy makes a milk shake, Albert will start turning in circles. I call it his happy dance! He says Dadda and Mama and uh-oh. He’s a pretty good mimic with sounds. Albert loves to eat and some of his favourite foods are cheese, blue berries, turkey nuggets and toast. He gives the sweetest cuddly hugs and it just melts my heart when he toddles over to me with open arms.

Happy Birthday Albert Aaron! We love you. We are so proud of you.

 

The World According to Ivy Grace

Both of my babies are crazy about my phone. Their little eyes twinkle with glee and triumph whenever they get ahold of it. They become Gollum and my cell phone is the Precious! I often find photos I know I haven’t taken when I get the phone back. I don’t know how Ivy, as the oldest, manages to take pictures but she has figured it out like a pro.

Whenever I get the chance I scroll through my gallery to delete the repeats of our carpet or stairs. Once in a while one of Ivy’s photos will catch my attention and I have to save the image. It’s a behind-the-scenes glimpse into her world; a unique chance to see our grown up world from Ivy’s fresh perspective. I like her point of view.

Sometimes in the routine of mommyhood I can forget that my little ones are constantly investigating. I forget to see life through their eyes. This is one of the things I love about raising babies. It’s a perk of the job to see the world as a child again. I get to remember the awe and wonder of the everyday. I know this isn’t a new concept but when you are in the thick of things as a parent it can be really uplifting. Remembering Ivy and Albert’s perspectives helps me to have more patience and compassion. How exciting and daunting life must be to a toddler!

Sometimes I’m too tired or in a hurry or dealing with a typical baby emergency and I miss the magic of the moment. Hopefully this gallery of photos will remind me to be present. Enjoy my life, even the mundane parts of it. Enjoy my babies and “Rejoice always.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16) So let’s see if this puts a smile on your face. I give you the world according to Ivy Grace.

 

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Coffee Deprived

On Thursday morning I forgot to put the garbage bin out.  On Friday morning I put face wash on my tooth brush.  On Saturday morning I put my shirt on backwards. This Sunday morning I put my daughter’s leggings on before the pull up diaper. This is me before coffee. This is a couple years without normal sleep. This is mom life.

 

Last day in February

Snow falls like goose feather down outside my window. I can hear the babies playing in the hall. I sip my coffee. I am thankful.

Coffee, Elijah and a fireball from heaven…

Our God is awesome! Thank you Paula Cummings for this reminder. Good read.

Ugly Grace

After a huge, unexpectedly incredible week, I woke up yesterday morning with a brief feeling of ‘meh’.

You know ‘meh’? That feeling of pre-coffee blah; low energy, low mood, that if not suitably restrained, can leak into the rest of your day?

As I got out of bed to head straight for my morning cure (caffeine), a strange thought popped into my bed-head, don’t go straight for the coffee, call on the name of the Lord. 

There was a second’s hesitation, as I really wanted that drink, but I stopped, stood there with my bare feet crunched into the carpet and asked for God’s spirit to give me strength for the day.

And suddenly, standing there in the quiet, it returned, that lovely, pervading feeling of I’m with you. It will be well.

Meh and blah quickly scarpered and if I’m honest, I was a bit surprised, because it…

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And Then There Were Four

Albert Aaron Mitchell was born on May 19, 2017 at 9:12 pm in Cambridge. It was an extraordinary experience delivering this sweet baby and I will never forget that night. We are now a family of four. Life with a toddler and a newborn is exciting and exhausting and challenging and full of precious moments. I now have even less time to myself. Thus I am blogging three and half months later in bed whilst pumping milk and eating chocolate! Ivy is asleep in her bed. Albert is asleep next to daddy watching a game downstairs. I should be sleeping but really wanted to get back into my blog. So you may get a semi-coherent sleep deprived  litany of motherhood and life and faith whenever I can write one.

Psalm 127 says that “children are a gift from the Lord.” Ivy and Albert are the best gifts we’ve ever been given. Mama is the hardest job I’ve ever had in my life. It is a role that requires all my physical strength, creativity, mental energy and prayers. I make a lot of mistakes. I do my best. We giggle a lot during the day. Cry. We make messes and read books. Sing. We dance like fools. Play. We give/ get a lot of hugs and kisses. I try to cherish each day even the really hard ones. Mostly I’m just so thrilled Jason and I get to be parents to our special little ones.

 

 

Pregnancy Perks

“Kiss the baby Ivy!”

At 38 weeks, I realize that I won’t be pregnant much longer. And I really have no idea if I will ever be in this condition again. So, I just want to share my experience in childbearing thus far.  I love being pregnant. It’s true a lot of weird and wonderful things happen to your body. (I’ll try not to get too gross here.) At the same time, there are perks to being pregnant. For instance, I can nap when Ivy naps without  judgement. No one will begrudge a pregnant lady the chance to sit and put her feet up! Secondly, the FOOD. I could write another blog just on eating whilst pregnant alone. It’s wonderful. When you crave something and finally get to eat it, wow how satisfying. I love having a healthy appetite and knowing that my choices are nourishing my growing baby. I also love feeling the baby move. It is at the same time exciting and alien and wonderful and uncomfortable. This baby moves so differently than Ivy. Ivy was a kicker. This little one seems to roll around making my belly ripple and look grotesque. It’s so cool.

No two pregnancies are alike, yet I have this shared experience with millions of other women. This is very comforting as delivery day approaches. I love that my body was created to nurture another human being as he or she prepares to come into the world. I love that the Holy Spirit is in my womb “knitting together,” this unique and precious person. (Psalm 139:13) Children are a blessing from the Lord and it is a privilege to have one. And now we will have two! We are doubly blessed. I am humbled and grateful. Life is a miracle. My pregnancy may make me extra emotional, but it also brings into focus the fragility and preciousness of life.

While I don’t love the back pain, indigestion, and a list of other annoying symptoms, these are a small price to pay.  Now hurry up and come out little one! Your family is thrilled to meet you.

Strength for All Things

Ivy Grace is 18 months old. This is hard to believe! She has grown so much and the time has gone by so fast. Now we are expecting our second little bundle. Despite the growing physical evidence, it doesn’t seem real sometimes.  This pregnancy is different. I don’t have time to focus on it like I did before. Ivy keeps me hopping. I feel so blessed and privileged that our little family is growing. At the same time, I hope I can be enough for two babies at once. As we still struggle to get Ivy to sleep through the night, I can’t help but think what am I going to do with a newborn?! How I am going to night feed and settle a toddler climbing out of bed running to our room?! Though we are enjoying parenthood, the nights can seem long and dark at times. Sleep deprivation combined with hormones have done a number on me.

Caught in the snow.

Philippians 4:13 AMP- “I have strength for all things through Christ who empowers me. I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me. I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency.”

Sometimes I don’t feel very strong. Most times I don’t feel very strong. I know in my heart this verse is true. It doesn’t always feel true. It doesn’t feel like I can be up all hours and then gracious as Ivy refuses to nap meaning no sleep again for me. Smiling and entertaining a toddler through tears is not ideal. But I am learning to be led by the Holy Spirit instead of my ever-changing emotions. It is a process and a daily challenge.

The above verse is the first one I memorized this year as part of the Siesta Scripture Memory Team 2017 with Beth Moore and Living Proof ministries. This online challenge is really sweet to me as I participated in 2015 when I was expecting Ivy. It seems fitting to do it again during this pregnancy. It must be God-designed. He knows how much I need Him. I have so much love in my heart for my husband and babies, but I am not physically able to do what I need to do without God. The dark days happen when I get caught up in my feelings and negative thoughts. When I get so caught up in the circumstances that I forget to pray, forget to recite my verses, forget that I don’t have to do this on my own, that is when I really struggle. Even still I know God is there nudging me to come to Him. And when I do cry out to God, He is faithful. Always. The more I work on my verses, the more the Word comes to mind just in time.

Daddy/daughter cuddles!

I know I’m not the only one. Maybe you are a parent like me juggling family life or caring for an aging parent or dealing with a stressful job. Maybe you are dealing with a loss. Maybe you are kept up at night by the evening news. Whatever it is you are going through, please, know that you can have strength for today. You can have strength for all things through Christ. You only need to ask.

Only Love

Happy New Year everyone! Christmas has come and gone again. It was wonderful experiencing the holiday anew with our little one Ivy. She was so excited. On the other hand, Christmas can also be a little sad for me living so far from family and remembering lost loved ones. Even so, I love this time of year. At the core of it all is the joy of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. Emmanuel. God is with us. The miracle of God’s love which I want to keep with me throughout the year.

During my blog hiatus, I sat down to write (especially since the US election) many times. I was just too emotional and angry to publish. I didn’t want to add to the barrage of negativity already out there.  I wanted to wait until I could encourage and lift us up. My conclusion after taking time to think about it is, all that matters is love. Maybe that sounds overly simple, but it is the truth.

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,^[a] but have not love, it profits me nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

I am in the middle of a Bible study called Power Thoughts by Joyce Meyer. The idea of the book is on purpose thinking and aligning my inner life with God’s word. Replace the negative thoughts with positive thoughts. The chapter I am studying now is: “I love people and I enjoy helping them.” This is more challenging than I expected it to be for me. I love people, I really do. But am I actively loving people? Do I demonstrate God’s love to others? Love is an action. It’s easy for me to say I love people, but what do I do about it? As I process 2016 and dive head first into 2017, I want my focus to be on other people. I ask God daily to let something good happen through me to bless someone else. I also ask Him for the courage to reach out to people whenever the opportunity arises. I think in the world we live in now, more than ever, people need to know love, real no strings-attached or hidden agenda love.

How about you, dear reader? Is there a burden on your heart for 2017? What are you determined to do better or differently this year? Please, click on the comment button above and share your heart.