A Year Later

You may remember that about a year ago I left my job teaching and started a new job of being a full time mommy and wife. You may also remember that decision was a huge step of faith for our family as Nathan was self employed. Our plan was to look around to find him a different job ASAP. We needed (so we thought) a steady, predictable cash flow to make it with me not working. Well, I'm so thankful that God knows exactly where I need to grow because it was His plan that Nathan would continue to be self employed for the whole "school year". Talk about taking the act of provision out of our hands!! There were weeks without work, there were weeks with lots of work, there was a new friendship made that provided work that otherwise would not had happened. He who calls you is faithful. Our bills were always paid, our tummies were always full, we even still had some extras. This year has been so humbling as things didn't go as we planned, but we were still taken care of. Last week, Nathan started a new job. We are beyond words thankful!! He will be working full time and also have benefits. This job came along in God's perfect time. He knew that we both needed to learn to trust Him fully for our provision, so He waited to bring that job. I'm so glad He did. Now, we still won't be living a life of luxury! We don't want that life anyway! We will continue to need to budget well and be wise with our spending, we will just know how much we have to budget. We definitely won't forget who is the one really meeting our needs each and everyday!

Adoption Update Alert!!

We got word last week that our dossier (AKA: big ole stack of papers important for the completion of our adoption) was in the DRC!!! Woooowhooooo!!! We are super excited for this big step!! Our agency estimates the wait time from here to be 4-6 months!! Now, we know adoption is a roller coaster and timelines don't always go as expected, but would you join us in praying that the timeframe would be close to this?? Lylah is asking more and more questions about Lydia. Tonight while I was rocking her she said, "Mommy, Lydia is going to sleep in my pack in play and I'm going to sleep in a big girl bed. I don't think you can rock her.". I explained to Lylah that Lydia may want to be rocked too and asked her if she thought I could rock them both at the same time. Her reply, "oh that's a good idea. After we are finished rocking can I kiss her?". She also asked recently, "Mommy, will Lydia be scared?". Deep question from my little thinker!! I told her that yes Lydia would probably be a little scared because she has never seen us before. Lylah of course had a solution to that problem. "I'll just tickler her mommy, then she'll be happy!". Oh sweet Lydia we can't WAIT for you to get home so we can kiss and tickle you!!!

Sometimes

Sometimes as a mom, you have to take a break from all the teaching, all the discipline, all the messes, and all the "am I doing this right" feelings.

Sometimes you just have to let loose...

Stop being so rational.....

And enjoy the moments....

Of being a mom.

I needed that afternoon of laughter between two buddies more than I realized. I needed a reminder that part of being a mom is not taking yourself too seriously. Oh what a joy it was to see these two girls be silly!!

Down on the farm

Monday we went with some other mama's to tour Chaney's farm. First of all, if you haven't taken your child to one of Mr. Chaney's presentations then that needs to make your summer bucket list! He loves what he does and it really does come through in his presentation!! I was always impressed when he could hold my kindergarten classes attention, but I was even more impressed when he held a rather large group of lil bits (who were mostly 3 and under) attention!! Most of them weren't even sitting with their mommies!!!

Anyway, we had loads of fun!! Lylah loves cows probably thanks to lots of trips to Uncle Kenny's farm. Her favorite part of the day was the baby calf, Bambi. She also got a big kick out of Mr. Chaney trying to squirt he with milk from Miss Glimmer the Cow's udder!! I loved getting to catch up with some of my best mom buddies and even though I did manage to lock my keys in the trunk it was a beautiful day so the wait for AAA wasn't bad at all!!! Here are some pics of our fun!!

Blurry getting squirted picture :)

Petting Miss Glimmer with her buddy Brady and cousin Bella.

Kisses from Bambi the calf!!

Tractor, tractor :)

Hugs from Mr. Chaney. So sweet.

Blue Mooooon ice cream! Yummy!!!

And some fun on the playground!

An impromptu taste of Barren County.

Last Friday we needed to go out to Nathan's uncle's farm in Barren County. It ended up being a delightful evening of enjoying some local businesses in the area!!! First we stopped by the Berry Patch. The Berry Patch actually is the farm right next to Uncle Kenny's so we know the family. After choosing a basket of strawberries we visited for a bit. They were getting ready for their open house and had this huge flower basket as a fun contest!!

How much do you think it weighed?! Lylah even got to help one of the girls on the farm with the chicken chores! She loved that!!! Oh, and the strawberries were so yummy that some of them did not make it home :)

After that we headed over to Kenny's Farmhouse Cheese. We bought some yummy Tomato Basil cheese, chatted with Aunt Beverly, played with their dog and checked out the cows and their awesome new cheese shop that is being built! After that we headed to...

This bakery/restaurant used to be right up the road from Kenny's, but they moved closer to town. It seemed to be a good choice! The place was hoppin' even though we didn't get there until 6:45. They have the yummiest homemade pizza EVER!!!!!

We ended our meal with some super yummy cookies!!!!

Soooo, if you are ever in the Barren County area stop by any of these great places for a treat!!!

And just like that...our little budding artist!!

Lylah and I have been drawing and coloring together for a long time. I mean probably since she was 9-10 months old. I know, I'm weird, but anyway....I have always drawn "happy faces" for her and occasionally I'll draw our family or an outside type drawing with flowers and trees. I am NOT by any means an artist, but maybe I'll be the mother of one ;). Really, Lylah would prefer drawing to coloring any day, but a couple of weeks ago she drew this on her easel:

Her first "happy face"!! A pretty darn cute one too if I do say so myself!!! She hadn't really done it again and then all of the sudden she drew this Monday:

Just incase you didn't recognize her because I didn't either. That is "my little sister Lydia in Africa" as Lylah explained to me! Seriously, watching our child develop leaves me speechless before our awesome Creator God. Wow!!

Needless to say that picture wasn't a fluke!! Here is the artist hard at work and some more of her masterpieces!!

This person has "two short ponytails".

The ones with just one circle and two legs she usually calls "dogs". :)

And here is her super adorable "octopus"! Love it!!!!