A Few Things...

Here are a few things we did this week...

 Went to Chick-fil-A with the Doughman girls and with Aunt Laura and Cousin Jonathan. Yum!

 It was cleaning week in our house, so even Jeremiah helped me to wash the car and tried to eat the sponge but he had fun.

 Since it was hot this week, we played with lots of water outside, and learned how to use the hose.  He tried to drink the water from the hose.

 We used my new grill Michael got me for my birthday Thursday night to celebrate Michael being done with his 2nd year of course work!!!  We are very excited!

I even got a new fire pit for my birthday- we can't wait to try this one out!!!  Thanks Dad & Mom Lyons!

Turning 30!

Yesterday, I turned 30.  It is hard to believe that I have now left the 20s.  To honor my last day of being in my 20s, my husband threw me a 30th "Surprise" Birthday party on Sunday.  He truly did surprise me.  You have to know that my husband worked tirelessly organizing this party in the midst of school and exams this week- poor boy.  We went to our church office picnic grove where I assumed we would be having a quiet picnic and was surprised to see many sweet friends from church and family there.  Papa Growl was our great griller and we had a fabulous cake and everyone brought side items.  It was a lot of fun.  He even made up a quiz.  It was so special.  I think Jeremiah had fun too.  In fact, I think he ate too much cake.  Thank you to all who made my birthday special!  I received yesterday an envelope filled with letters and sweet cards from some dear people in my life.  I will truly treasure those words of encouragement from sweet friends.  Thank you all for making me feel so loved and special.  On my birthday, I went to a singing group with Jeremiah, ate some Penn Station subs (yum), planted some flowers and then went out to Olive Garden with my sweet husband.  The Lord is good and has been good to me!  Looking forward to what He will do in this new decade of life and trusting He knows what is good and best! 

Some sweet cards and gifts from friends:  Emily D. made me this beautiful bouquet.  I also received some yummy pretzel rolls and the book Enough- a sweet reminder on contentment and God being enough for us.

Contentment- Delighting in the Giver!

Lately, the Lord has been teaching me once again about contentment.  It seems that this is a recurrent theme in my life. :)  I thought once the Lord graciously blessed me with Jeremiah that I would no longer be discontented in the area of children.  And yet I find myself again struggling with a desire for another child and waiting on the Lord's good timing and even wondering if I will be able to have another child.  A sweet friend had given me the devotional, Contentment by Lydia Brownbeck during my season of waiting to have a child and I find myself again pulling this book off the shelf. 
"Isn't it better to go without if God is not the giver?  Everything on earth lies at God's beck and call, and therefore He is well able to provide us the thing we long for if it seems good to him to do so.  Are we willing to let go and leave the matter in His hands?  If we will just let go, we will find ourselves content with or without our heart's desire." 
"Can we not be content if part of the "all things" includes some withholding?  For the daughter of God, any withholding is itself a provision, and we can experience it with joy when we know that the with holder loves us."
I was reminded of Romans 8:32 this week- "He who did not spare his own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?"  He did not spare His own Son and so He will graciously give us all things that are good for us! 
And then my last quote- "Our problem really isn't that we need something we don't have; our problem is that we don't find God to be enough for us." 
Phil. 3:8- "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." 
Praying that I would so desire and treasure Christ above all His good gifts and that I would trust that He is as good as He says He is.  No good thing does He withhold.  And praying that I would delight in the Giver above His gifts! 

Clearing the Land...

Last Friday, Ben, Laura and I worked all afternoon clearing our little plot of land in the back.  I spent the morning chopping down branches and piling them up.  Then in the afternoon we chipped and we chipped all that wood down to fine pieces.  I am realizing how quickly honeysuckle bushes can overtake an area.  Needless to say, after all that hard work- we were so tired.  I think it took my body the whole weekend to recover.  :)  Thankfully after a little more work, Jeremiah will some day have a little back yard to explore and play in and we may even put in a sandbox or kiddy pool.  I love to clear the land!!!

This is the mound of brush to be cleared in the back- minus the deer

Finally a yard!

Jeremiah wanted to help- but he had to sit on the sidelines. 

California Woods

Last Friday, we went to California in Ohio. :)  We celebrated Michael's Passover week last Friday and took a hiking trip about 30 minutes away to California Woods.  It was GREAT hiking.  This was our first hiking with the boy trying out the new backpack.  We are in prime Israel training right now.  In about 6 weeks, we will be flying across the ocean to Israel for a few weeks in the summer so we are trying to train now as it will be a lot of walking and probably hiking in some locations.  I am realizing how much Jeremiah is a boy after my own heart- he LOVES to be outside!!!  We love walking, running in the grass and we taught him hot to throw stones in the creek on this trip.  Jeremiah also loved to point and look at the air when he heard an airplane overhead as we were near an airport. 

A picnic before our hike!

Yum PB & J

Listening and looking for the airplane!

What a neat tree we found!

Jeremiah trying out the walking stick!

Dinner...

 Guess what we are having for dinner tonight?  This is what happened the last time we had it....  Need I say more.  Good thing it is bath night!  If only we could eat like this. :) 

Books & Babysitting...

We are so thankful for all the ways the Lord continues to provide for our schooling.  We have started a little business to help us through school by selling some books on Amazon.  Michael went to a Book Sale this weekend and look at the loot he got- over 500 books.  This is a happy boy and his books.  Now I get the happy task of organizing and recording all these books on a spreadsheet.  :)

On another note, yesterday, Jeremiah and I watched 4 other sweet little girls so their mommy go to their daddy's dissertation lecture at Hebrew Union.  We will be in their shoes some day, a long way down the road!  So while I was babysitting them, all 4 of them were being little mothers to Jeremiah.  He had a lot of fun and I did as well but I sure needed a nap when I was done.  I don't know how moms of more than one child do it. :) 

Willing To Be Weak?

My dad sent me an article this morning that was refreshing and a good reminder to my soul.  It reminded me of His grace and my weakness.  I pray that I would treasure Jesus in the midst of trials whether big or small throughout the day and through triumphs, when I may be tempted to glory in myself and not glorify and praise Christ!

Here is a quote (Desiring God Blog):
The gospel should shape the way we shape our home. One way the gospel does this is by us mothers expecting that we will not always meet the standards of excellence that we set. If we want to give grace to our children then we must be willing to receive it first from God. We tend to wallow in shame or scoff in cynicism over our inability to keep our hands out of the proverbial cookie dough. At some point we will fail, and sometimes we will fall hard.
But then we must boast in the gospel because in it God mercifully gives us Christ to be our valued treasure. Jesus is our consistency; he fulfilled the expectations of the law, and in him all the promises of God find their Yes (2 Corinthians 1:20).

My prayer is that I would be reminded of the amazing grace of God in the day to day and give myself grace first before I can hope to give it to my child.  In our last study of Give Them Grace, by Elyse Fitzpatrick, I was challenged with the weakness of parenting.   Dave Harvey states, "I thought parenting was going to portray my strengths, never realizing that God had ordained it to reveal my weakness."  Elyse Fitzpatrick asks the questions, "Is there room in your parenting paradigm for weakness and failure if weakness and failure glorify God?"  It is amazing to think that Scripture says we are weak- we are not perfect parents.  Our weakness is a sign of strength- in our weakness, we are stripped of all boasting in and of ourselves, our methods and our plans and we can truly depend on our Sovereign and All Good God. 

2 Corinthians 12:9- May we ever boast in our weakness- knowing that it is His power that is made perfect in our weakness!  May we glory and boast in our weakness so that through our failures and frailties we would display His Almighty Power that is at work in our weak bodies!!!  As the children's lullaby states- "We are weak but He is strong."

He is Risen!

This past weekend, my parents, brother Josh and sister Rachel and her husband Mike came to visit us for Easter weekend as is tradition for the last 7 years.  We miss hosting Easter in our one bedroom apartment in Louisville. :)  This year, we had beautiful weather and took Jeremiah to Parky's Farm on Saturday- he especially loved playing on the playground and going down the slide.  Saturday night, we walked along the riverfront on the Kentucky side overlooking downtown Cincinnati.  The boys wanted to go to the Reds game that night, but it was pretty much sold out.  Easter Sunday we went to the Lyons' home and did a little Easter egg hunt with Jeremiah and Jonathan.  We are so thankful for the time with my family. 

On another note, we are hoping to listen and follow the Together for the Gospel conference going on now in Louisville, KY.  They will be posting the audio for the conference here.

Here are some of my favorite pics from Easter weekend. :)

Jeremiah on the chicken!

Not sure about that lamb!

Pop-pop running after Jeremiah!

Jeremiah with Aunt Rachel!

Daddy, Jeremiah and Cincinnati skyline