Prayers.

We pray as a family before meals and have recently begun praying a meal time prayer similar to one I learned as a child.

Owen would usually say a nice loud "Amen" following the prayer, but that was about all.
Friday at lunch, I asked Owen to fold his hands so we could pray. Before he could get his little hands folded & I could get my eyes closed, he said "God is great, God is good, Thank Him for this food. Amen".

Through a few tears, I complimented him on his sweet prayer and assured him that God hears all of our prayers.

Since Friday, Owen has repeated the same sweet words of thanks before we sit down to eat. For me, there is nothing sweeter than hearing my sweet son pray to his Heavenly Father.

I am so thankful.

So hard to believe...

Owen,

I've spent a lot of time over the past week thinking about just how grown up you have become. It seems like just yesterday that you were nestled in my arms, 100% dependent on me to meet all of your needs. Although we still snuggle often, you've learned the word need & you frequently tell me that you "need more milk", "need a snack", "need dry diaper". (You've also recently learned to open the refrigerator & have been known to take out the jug of milk & tell me "need more milk")

It's so hard for me to believe how independent you're becoming...
You want to pick a shirt to put on each morning (you always look for a green shirt), you have learned to put your dirty laundry in the basket when we take your clothes off, you usually start picking up your toys as soon as we say it's time for a bath, & you love to brush your teeth all by yourself.

It's sometimes challenging for me to let go of doing things for you & let you do them on your own, but you're pretty determined to be such a big guy. I'll always be so proud to be your mommy.

Love,

Mommy

Fitting.

The Publix Baby Club newsletter came today & when I flipped it over to the back page I saw a column titled "What Every Mom Needs: Moms Need Perspective". It is an excerpt from a MOPS publication. It's a truth that spoke right to me, and after this past week seems to be yet another fitting reminder of my weaknesses & struggles.

"What Every Mom Needs: Moms Need Perspective

"Not now, honey. Mommy's busy. Maybe later."
How many times a day does a mom give this kind of response to her toddler's endless requests to "Read me another book" or "Play with me...please, Mommy, please," or "Let's make some cookies."

After all, Moms are always busy and always struggling with the decisions of what's most important right now. What a mom needs most in the midst of this struggle is perspective-the ability to fit the meaning of the moment into the bigger picture of life. Moms of young children especially need perspective as they constantly weigh the importance of household tasks against the importance of playing with children. The struggle to balance the urgent and the important. The struggle to recognize the choices and make them with wisdom. The ability to make the most of life's irretrievable moments."

I am learning that (1) keeping perspective is a moment by moment struggle for me, (2) a momentary lapse in perspective doesn't mean that I'm an awful, unloving mother, (3) mothers need to support each other in the challenge of maintaining the right perspective. 

What a wonderful reminder to me of the need to keep the right perspective no matter how difficult it may be!

Owen's Bookshelf.

Owen loves to read. His love of books is no doubt inherited from Chris & I. Our love of reading was certainly instilled in us by our parents & grandparents who invested time in reading to us often.

Because we think reading is so important, and because Owen loves to read, we read a lot of books every day.

Here are some of the books on Owen's shelf that are currently getting lots of love...


"Georgia book" & "Tennessee book" are two favorites. It's a sweet series of books that highlight fun attractions in each state.


I adore that Owen loves this book ("hush baby book") because it was one of my childhood favorites.


Owen loves his "Bible storybook". We have several Bible storybooks, but this is the best for his current age because the stories are brief & the pictures are great. He loves talking about "Noah's big boat" & "Jesus & John in the water".


Let's be honest, Dr. Seuss books are L-O-N-G. But, Owen loves this one & will sit all the way through at least one reading of it & sometimes requests "again". He usually prefers that Chris reads it to him, which Chris gets a kick out of! Owen's loves to talk about "Mr. Gump" & "Mike on the bicycle".

I love watching how much he is learning &  recalling from books. I have also just discovered this great resource for choosing books (& movies) that teach lessons that are important specifically for boys to learn. I'm looking forward to using that to guide some of our future book selections as our little man grows.

Measuring Up.

It is so easy to blog about the fun, happy moments of our lives but we all know that life isn't all fun and happy. Life is hard, and so I am challenging myself to write this post about a less glamorous truth of my life. This is honest. This is real.

If you know me, you know that I am organized & neat. I am a planner. I like helping others, but have a tendency to say 'yes' too often. I thrive off of schedule & structure. I pride myself on being efficient. I seek out technologies and products that make me feel more efficient. I am completely wired & gifted to plan events, to organize spaces, and to structure my schedule to achieve the highest level of productivity.

Since becoming a mom, I have many new responsibilities and have attempted to be very careful in not overburdening myself by saying 'yes' to every seemingly worthy opportunity to help that comes my way. I have attempted to continue to keep my family first.

Sounds good, right? But, here's the problem...I measure my worth by how many things I can accomplish in an hour, or in a day, or in a week. The truth is, I can never measure up to my standards. They are high and often incredibly unrealistic.

God has been teaching me so much about who I am over the last week. It has been a hard week. I have felt unproductive, unchallenged, incompetent, inadequate. It has taken me almost a week to realize that God brought me to this place. He walked me down this path knowing that eventually I would learn something that I needed to learn from Him.

The truths I have learned are that I will never be able to measure up to my standards. I am thankful for that because I have been reminded that God measures me by a non-worldly standard...A standard that is far more important than my standards about how many loads of laundry I can do in one day, how many papers I can grade while Owen naps, how many homemade meals I can cook each week.

I am thankful that the One who measures my life, measures me by my heart, my love, my intentions, & my passion for His causes. And no, I'll never live achieve perfection in these measures either but they're far more important and worthy of my effort than my measures.

Pumpkin Patch.

I took Owen to Walden Farms last Thursday. We had an absolute blast!
He really could have cared less about the pumpkins and was mostly interested in the farm animals & riding the 'train'. Although Owen is no stranger to goats (I think they're his favorite animal), he had never had the opportunity to feed a goat before. No picture would ever to justice to the precious squeal & expression on his face when the goat's lips tickled his little hand.

I love these fun firsts!