My momma did tell me long ago that you should know within 6 months of dating a fella if you wanted to marry him. Well, I have been dating Virginia for 6 months, and i can tell you that I don’t want to marry him. But he knew that going into the relationship. He knew Texas had my heart. But, for second fiddle, he knows what he’s doing and has been crooning out some pretty darn enchanting love songs since we first landed and stuck the Dehan flag in the soil.
 |
| the day we found out Li is pregnant |
 |
| the day i met the perfect rainbow |
 |
| the day i re-found out i have the cutest niece in the world |
 |
| the day we enjoyed playing hosts to the first time visit of a dear fousin |
 |
| the day we discovered our affinity for apple picking |
 |
| the day of tears followed by joy |
 |
| i guess we shall see where this relationship goes from here |
Technically, our 6 monthiversary was Sunday. I’d say we did our proper celebration on Saturday night with friends, delicious foods, and a killer brownie concoction.
 |
| a huge thrifting score |
As for Sunday, superbowl shmooper bowl is what I say. I ate pizza, drank Shiner in honor of my state heart holder, and watched freaky friday. Now that’s how you rock a 6 monther.
I have been stretched every which way since I have moved here and it has been painful and hard. But it has been completely blessed by the Lord and so very good for me. I am thankful.
The weekend brought almost all I had hoped for in the shape of hearts, some twine, and a purple bag of M&M’s.
Add a little craftiness, a bottle of wine, some good friends, and a Resurrection day sunset sky worth standing in the cold to capture. Bake in oven at 350 for a few hours and voila: a weekend masterpiece is born.
I didn’t get to see my sweet potato, but all that is about to change, so I count it all as joy. And the not seeing Sophia over the weekend allowed me to feel even more gratitude for my move here, which has provided me with more opportunities to spend time with Lianna and Sophia than I ever hoped for.
God dreamt it for me because I think too small and I couldn’t dream it for myself. It has been an enormous blessing, and the separation due to illness for over a month has only sweetened the deal. All is gift.
Meanwhile, I have been enjoying a couple days of sunshine, which really really makes me feel so darn good. That liquid gold scoffs at window blinds that have the audacity to attempt blockage and streams through in rebellion of such flimsy efforts.
And it makes me happy and it makes the tropical greenness of kiwis smile.
Win to the win.
I love that kiwis teach us a life lesson if we let them get a word in. They are nothing lovely to behold until you see and taste what’s inside that furry brown exterior.
It must have been a humble soul that discovered the edibility of a kiwi. Those who judge by the exterior of things would have quickly passed by those little hairy brown goobers. But the humble soul knows that God does not see the same way people see. “The Lord looks into the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
I love that God teaches us lessons through kiwis.
When my siblings and I were wee ones, my momma found and played for us these awesome tapes in the car that put Bible verses into really catchy songs that went with stories about a couple of kids being visited by angels.
They worked. I remembered a good number of the songs we heard as children and they helped me in real life and in College (I do not consider college to be real life). From what I now realize were promptings of the Holy Spirit, I recently purchased some of these very same CDs off Focus on the Family online to play for the little ones I look after (i HIGHLY recommend for anyone with chilluns).
They still work. Not just on the kids (who are very much enjoying them), but for me who still needs to be told by a couple of angels that I am fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). I was listening to it today (and yes I listen to them when the kids are not with me) and a line that the main angel character (named G.T. short for Good Tidings) really struck me.
He and the other angel “Guardian” are telling the main girl that she is completely special in the eyes of the Creator. G.T. said something to the effect that “never, since the creation of the universe, has there been anyone like you. No one laughs like you, no one cries like you. You are an INCREDIBLE CREATION”.
It went nicely with what the priest told me in Confession a couple of days ago. And let me say right now that this Confession was arranged by the Holy Spirit. I went to Mass on Tuesday morning at St. Philip’s (the Church second closest to my house), but after Mass I knew I had to go to St. James (the Church closest to my house). I knew there was usually confession at St. James around that time on Tuesday, and though I usually go to confession on a different day in a different church, I knew I was supposed to go that morning at St. James.
So I headed over, and when I arrived there was no one there but the Lord. And I thought I was mistaken. Cue 2 minutes later when the Priest from Africa (you know who I’m talking about momma) arrives. So I head in and say my piece and he then spoke a long time and said beautiful things that made me cry. But at the end he said: “I want you to remember 2 things when you leave.
1) When God looks at you He thinks you are the most beautiful creature He has ever seen
and
2) God is doing amazing things in your life every day”.
He said God does not think about our sins. He forgives them, and then He thinks of us and Loves us.
My dear friend Sally often told me and others that He is wild about us. Completely in Love with each one of His beloved children. That Confession experience definitely fit into the New Year theme. I was not expecting that, but that’s what the Beloved wanted me to know. That’s what He wants each of us to know. He is in Love with us. Why else would He leave Heaven to suffer and die? Only Love would dare do such a thing.
I took the kids ice skating and it was wonderful.
My favorite? Watching a brother love his baby sister.
Bradford loves his little Ella and it shows. Yes, they fight. But not that much. Mostly, they just love each other. And it is a joy to witness.
Ella and I grocery shop a lot, and it is extra enjoyable when it’s almost Valentine’s day.
Things sure have changed since I was a kid.
We always stop at the flower section for a minute.
Ella points at her favorites and always tells me not to have the same favorites as her. And we always stop to smell the roses.
So that’s the hodge podge of my life these days. Blessed, beautiful, peaceful (aside from a fight over a lacrosse stick and a 4-year-old yelling at me earning herself a one-way ticket to time out), and heartsy. Yes, heartsy.
I was musing in the car about how weekends feel too short. They have since I left college. Then I got to thinking about the craziness of when you were in grade school/high school and went to school 8 hours straight 5 days a week.
But you just powered through to the weekend. And that, man, that was the dealio for realio.
Those years were some of my most-in-need-of-weekend years (only second to the Chaplain days and third to the Grad school year). And those were the years when I truly knew how to weekend. It was pizza, it was boy meets world and the rest of the TGIF crew, it was sleeping in, chocolate chip muffins (holler Li!), and playing my heart out. Most of all, it was relishing not being in school without actually thinking about school if at all possible.
I want to live the weekend (with a few adjustments) like that. Enjoy and savor and soak it up like a sponge--all the moments--and give the glory to God. But at the end of it, I want to say “It is well with my soul”.
Each moment is saturated with Love from God. Every single one. We choose how we live it. That is our freedom with God. He forces nothing onto us. So soak in the week day love with equal zeal as the weekend. Because it’s all a part of our grand journey Home to the Creator.
It’s Thursday. Thank God! Let’s love it together. Happy pre-Valentine’s weekend!
Add a little craftiness, a bottle of wine, some good friends, and a Resurrection day sunset sky worth standing in the cold to capture. Bake in oven at 350 for a few hours and voila: a weekend masterpiece is born.
I didn’t get to see my sweet potato, but all that is about to change, so I count it all as joy. And the not seeing Sophia over the weekend allowed me to feel even more gratitude for my move here, which has provided me with more opportunities to spend time with Lianna and Sophia than I ever hoped for.
God dreamt it for me because I think too small and I couldn’t dream it for myself. It has been an enormous blessing, and the separation due to illness for over a month has only sweetened the deal. All is gift.
Meanwhile, I have been enjoying a couple days of sunshine, which really really makes me feel so darn good. That liquid gold scoffs at window blinds that have the audacity to attempt blockage and streams through in rebellion of such flimsy efforts.
And it makes me happy and it makes the tropical greenness of kiwis smile.
Win to the win.
I love that kiwis teach us a life lesson if we let them get a word in. They are nothing lovely to behold until you see and taste what’s inside that furry brown exterior.
It must have been a humble soul that discovered the edibility of a kiwi. Those who judge by the exterior of things would have quickly passed by those little hairy brown goobers. But the humble soul knows that God does not see the same way people see. “The Lord looks into the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
I love that God teaches us lessons through kiwis.
When my siblings and I were wee ones, my momma found and played for us these awesome tapes in the car that put Bible verses into really catchy songs that went with stories about a couple of kids being visited by angels.
They worked. I remembered a good number of the songs we heard as children and they helped me in real life and in College (I do not consider college to be real life). From what I now realize were promptings of the Holy Spirit, I recently purchased some of these very same CDs off Focus on the Family online to play for the little ones I look after (i HIGHLY recommend for anyone with chilluns).
They still work. Not just on the kids (who are very much enjoying them), but for me who still needs to be told by a couple of angels that I am fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). I was listening to it today (and yes I listen to them when the kids are not with me) and a line that the main angel character (named G.T. short for Good Tidings) really struck me.
He and the other angel “Guardian” are telling the main girl that she is completely special in the eyes of the Creator. G.T. said something to the effect that “never, since the creation of the universe, has there been anyone like you. No one laughs like you, no one cries like you. You are an INCREDIBLE CREATION”.
It went nicely with what the priest told me in Confession a couple of days ago. And let me say right now that this Confession was arranged by the Holy Spirit. I went to Mass on Tuesday morning at St. Philip’s (the Church second closest to my house), but after Mass I knew I had to go to St. James (the Church closest to my house). I knew there was usually confession at St. James around that time on Tuesday, and though I usually go to confession on a different day in a different church, I knew I was supposed to go that morning at St. James.
So I headed over, and when I arrived there was no one there but the Lord. And I thought I was mistaken. Cue 2 minutes later when the Priest from Africa (you know who I’m talking about momma) arrives. So I head in and say my piece and he then spoke a long time and said beautiful things that made me cry. But at the end he said: “I want you to remember 2 things when you leave.
1) When God looks at you He thinks you are the most beautiful creature He has ever seen
and
2) God is doing amazing things in your life every day”.
He said God does not think about our sins. He forgives them, and then He thinks of us and Loves us.
My dear friend Sally often told me and others that He is wild about us. Completely in Love with each one of His beloved children. That Confession experience definitely fit into the New Year theme. I was not expecting that, but that’s what the Beloved wanted me to know. That’s what He wants each of us to know. He is in Love with us. Why else would He leave Heaven to suffer and die? Only Love would dare do such a thing.
I took the kids ice skating and it was wonderful.
My favorite? Watching a brother love his baby sister.
Bradford loves his little Ella and it shows. Yes, they fight. But not that much. Mostly, they just love each other. And it is a joy to witness.
Ella and I grocery shop a lot, and it is extra enjoyable when it’s almost Valentine’s day.
 |
| Valentine beer. That is what's up. |
Things sure have changed since I was a kid.
 |
| dislike. |
Ella points at her favorites and always tells me not to have the same favorites as her. And we always stop to smell the roses.
So that’s the hodge podge of my life these days. Blessed, beautiful, peaceful (aside from a fight over a lacrosse stick and a 4-year-old yelling at me earning herself a one-way ticket to time out), and heartsy. Yes, heartsy.
I was musing in the car about how weekends feel too short. They have since I left college. Then I got to thinking about the craziness of when you were in grade school/high school and went to school 8 hours straight 5 days a week.
 |
| i can feel the happiness |
Those years were some of my most-in-need-of-weekend years (only second to the Chaplain days and third to the Grad school year). And those were the years when I truly knew how to weekend. It was pizza, it was boy meets world and the rest of the TGIF crew, it was sleeping in, chocolate chip muffins (holler Li!), and playing my heart out. Most of all, it was relishing not being in school without actually thinking about school if at all possible.
I want to live the weekend (with a few adjustments) like that. Enjoy and savor and soak it up like a sponge--all the moments--and give the glory to God. But at the end of it, I want to say “It is well with my soul”.
Each moment is saturated with Love from God. Every single one. We choose how we live it. That is our freedom with God. He forces nothing onto us. So soak in the week day love with equal zeal as the weekend. Because it’s all a part of our grand journey Home to the Creator.
It’s Thursday. Thank God! Let’s love it together. Happy pre-Valentine’s weekend!
 |
| Stop. Smell some roses. Your nose and soul will thank you. |
love the recap, love the reflections, love the pictures, love you. wish with everything in me i was at that dining room table for your saturday celebration (:
ReplyDelete