More on Samaritan's Purse.

Operation Christmas Child is likely one of the most known missions of Samaritan's Purse, but they sponsor and support so many other worthy causes in our country and beyond.

Several years ago we received a Samaritan's Purse Gift Catalog. It highlights very specific areas of need among their various missions and shares the way that your donation will support their work. You can contribute funds to help build hospitals, houses, churches or to buy livestock, chickens, & fruit trees to support families in needs. You can give money to buy Bibles, children's storybook Bibles, blankets, athletic equipment, or bicycles. One of my favorite options is to contribute to purchase musical "Jesus Loves Me Lambs" for children in difficult situations. I truly love reading through the catalog and learning more about the heart of Samaritan's Purse.

You can purchase gifts in honor or memory of family & friends. Every holiday season, we review the catalog & pray about which specific missions to support and then we purchase a few "gifts" in honor of some family on our gift list who are "difficult to buy for" or who request no gifts.

Check out the 2013 gift catalog by clicking the picture below. Happy shopping & happy giving!

Operation Christmas Child.

Twelve years ago I began participating in a mission that has now become one of the most significant Christmas traditions for me, and now our family.

As a freshman in high school, I was introduced to Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child project through a volunteer service organization. I shopped & packed a shoe box, complete with a letter to an unknown child and felt so impacted by the action that I continued doing it annually as a high schooler. After going away to college, I continued to seek out the opportunity to pack my shoe box each year and send it off packed with toys, treats, and love. When Chris & I married, it became our very first "married holiday tradition". We have continued the tradition, and 2 Christmases ago when we were expecting Owen, we began packing a third shoe box. Last year Owen was a mere 10 months old, but we took him shopping to "pack" his own shoe box.

Several Sundays ago, we stayed for a few minutes following our worship service to pack shoe boxes as a part of our church's quarterly Day of Mission project. We helped Owen color a picture and select items off of a table to pack into shoe boxes to send to "friends" for Christmas. He continues to talk about "packing a box for a friend".

Last weekend we all went shopping for items to pack in our own boxes. Owen announced that he wanted to pack a "yellow car" and "play doh" in his friend's box. This past Sunday during our worship service the three of us, along with other members of our church family, walked our shoe boxes to the front of the sanctuary where we stacked them and then prayed over the boxes, the children who would receive them, and the impact that we know they will have on their recipients.

This year the mission of Operation Christmas Child has an even deeper, more personal meaning for me. It is so important to us to teach Owen the importance of serving others even at his young age. My heart was so full when I listened to him talk about sharing toys with a "friend" and watched him walk his shoe box to the front of our church. Although packing the shoe boxes may seem like a simple gesture, the impact of the love contained with in each box and the story of the greatest love of all placed in each box reaches deeper than any of us may ever know.

There are so many wonderful stories of the impact of the boxes...check them out here.

Pumpkin Carving.

We carved our pumpkin Tuesday evening. We wanted Owen to be able to participate so we kept it simple.

Owen wasn't sure at first, but quickly got into picking out the seeds (one at the time) & scooping out the inside. His favorite part by far was putting the "fire" in the pumpkin.

Such a mess, yet so much fun!

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!

It's Fall Y'all...

I know it's fall because...

-There's a delightfully crisp feeling to the air in the mornings
-This week I cooked a pork loin with cinnamon apples in the crock pot...smelled (& tasted) just like fall
-I broke out my boots & wore them twice this weekend
-We went shopping for our little man some new jeans, little man shirts, & fall-attire
-I baked pumpkin spice cookies with chocolate chips
-Owen is now the proud owner of a "real baby" pumpkin & a mini-light up pumpkin
-If the tv is one, we're watching football. We were certainly watching yesterday when UGA beat LSU....Go DAWGS!
-I made a big pot of chili this afternoon...yummy!
-We have 2 trips to the pumpkin patch planned in the next 3 weeks

We love fall!

September fun.

It's been a very busy September for us, but it's been full of lots of fun...

Labor Day lake swimming...

A trip to see the train at Centennial park...

 We got Owen a 2nd carseat for Daddy's car, meaning we had a giant box for him to play in!

 Playground fun...

 Bruce Munro Lights Exhibit at Cheekwood...

 The Nashville Zoo opened their newest exhibit a few weeks ago, Kangaroo Kickabout. You can walk on a path in the enclosure with kangaroos & if they approach the path, you can actually pet them. We had no luck finding a friendly kangaroo to pet on our 1st trip, but did have success on our 2nd trip with Grandma & PawPaw. Thanks Ima the Kangaroo!

1st carousel ride at the zoo...

 One cool dude cruising the zoo...

 Owen's favorite part of the zoo is the petting zoo where he makes sure he pets every goat (there are probably atleast 15).

Goodbye Summer.

I suppose we have to officially say goodbye to summer.
I was so blessed to spend the summer with our little man.

It was a special summer filled with...

trips to the zoo

blowing bubbles

spending time with grandparents & aunts

catching lightning bugs

roasting marshmallows

coloring our sidewalks with chalk

tending & harvesting our garden vegetables

learning about Play-Doh

lots of wagon rides

washing Daddy's truck

watching for lawnmowers, trash trucks, & mail deliveries

evening family walks

Monday library story times

enjoying fudgesicles

soaking in the pool

walks with friends

Now, it's back our school/work routine. 

We'll miss our summer fun, but I'm so looking forward to this fall.

Choose Joy.

My prayer for each day...

Owen at 18 months.

I'm a bit behind as our little guy is now officially 19 months, but I can't miss the opportunity to reminisce about Owen at the fun age of 18 months.

Owen now weighs 25 lbs & 11 oz. (68%) and is 33 & 3/8 inches tall (75%). You wear mostly 24 month/2T clothes.

Owen-

• To say that you are busy is the world's greatest understatement. You stop only to read, eat & sleep. You love to walk, run, jump, bounce, and most recently climb (my worst nightmare!). 
• You no longer enjoy riding around in the 'buggy' on our shopping trips and evening walks & instead insist on 'walking'. Fortunately, you've learned that this comes with the requirement of holding mommy or daddy's hand & you do that pretty well.
• You love books. We read so much & that makes your mommy so happy. Some of your favorite books are 'Is Your Mama a Llama? (you call it 'llama')', 'See & Spy Shapes' (you call it "circle'), 'All About Tractors' (which you say perfectly!), & 'The Brave Cowboy' (you call it 'cooboy). Some of my favorite moments each day are the ones when you come bringing a book to me to read. 
• You love to go to church on Sundays. You get very excited to see your teacher "Miss Erin" and your friends Elliott, Lorna, Caroline, Max, & Maggie.
• You love to open & close things...doors, drawers, cabinets, straps, zippers.
• Your favorite word seems to be 'NO', but you're quite polite because usually you say 'no m'am' although you haven't quite caught on to 'no sir', so for now everyone is a m'am. 
• You still love to eat. You love 'noodles', 'brocci' (broccoli), 'matoes' (tomatoes), 'berries', 'nanies' (bananas), 'cheese', & of course 'cookies'.
• You love music...your "Hoy" c.d. (Kindermusik) & Daddy's The Doors Greatest Hits Albums are your favorites. You've got some pretty good dance moves too!
• You have soooo many words. I feel like you pick up several new words every day. Some of your newest words are "microwave", "motorcycle", "lawnmower", "highchair" (your favorite seat in the house!), and "quiet" (you love to tell Sadie this all the time).
• You love your Little Bear & binky. You know that you can only have them in bed for naps & at night, so you're pretty good about putting them back in bed when you wake up but you sure do love to snuggle up with them when it's time to sleep. (Don't know how we're going to begin to part with your binky...oh my!)

Dear Owen,

My sweet, sweet boy...You are such a delight to daddy & I. Mommy has been so blessed to stay home with you for the last three months. We have had so much fun together and made so many sweet memories. I am so amazed by how much you are learning and how intelligent God has made you. 

You are definitely all boy...You are completely captivated by anything with wheels, anything related to dirt, and anything that involves running. Your love for books and music is precious to me. 

We love you more & more every day little man.

Love, 

Mommy

Date night chicken.

I was recently in Publix while they were sampling one of their new delicious recipes.
It smelled heavenly & I couldn't resist the chance to taste it.
One bite later, I knew that it was a winner!
I bought the few ingredients that we didn't have at home & made it the very next week.
Without further ado...Date Night Chicken!

Ingredients
8–10 pitted dates, coarsely chopped
2 shallots, thinly sliced
2 oz Deli goat cheese, crumbled
3 slices bacon
1 3/4 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic/herb seasoning
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 cup white wine (or chicken broth) 

Prep

• Chop dates (1 cup). Slice shallots.
• Crumble cheese.
• Cut bacon into 1/2 inch pieces.

Steps

1. Preheat large sauté pan on medium-high 2–3 minutes. Season chicken with herb seasoning and pepper (wash hands). Place oil in pan, then add chicken; cook 2–3 minutes each side or until browned. Remove chicken from pan.
2. Reduce heat to medium and add bacon; cook 3–4 minutes or until crisp. Add shallots and dates; cook 2 more minutes.
3. Remove pan from heat. Add wine and return chicken to pan. Reduce heat to low and cover; simmer 10–12 minutes or until chicken is 165°F.
4. Remove chicken from pan and cut into slices. Spoon date mixture on top of chicken; top with cheese. Serve.

P.S. Don't let the dates scare you...they pair amazingly with the bacon & feta! You can find the recipe for the Baked Tomatoes here too...also delicious!