Thankful Tuesday: On Ordinariness

I've struggled for the past few years with this idea of "the ordinary life".  Books like Radical come along and pressure creeps in slowly to leave suburbia for a life of hut-dwelling in Africa.  The question, What am I doing to make known His name? is always present, but life just keeps happening. 

In spite of our dreams, Jarrod and I find that there is never a good time, or never the means, to do something radical.  I crave order and close proximity to our families right now, neither of which I possess.  So I certainly don't have it in me to go somewhere radical just yet.  Visions of strapping Collin to my back and playing with orphans in another country remain just visions.

So today when Micha Boyett posted about the importance of the ordinary life and the dangers in some evangelical messages, I felt a stirring of relief.  Yes, there is a need for other children to be ministered to, but there is just as much need for my own child to be ministered to at home.  I know the Lord is saying this is a season, a very long season, but all the same.  There will be a time for dreams to be fulfilled (or maybe not), but it will be in His time.

Bonhoeffer said, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." (Cost of Discipleship)  I'm learning that "come" may not mean to the other side of the world.  Rather, it might mean learning to come to eye-level with my toddler.  It might mean speaking words of life over my husband.  It might mean loving on the people in my Community Group.  It might even mean putting the desires of someone else's heart above those of my own.

Oswald Chambers said, "All I do ought to be founded on a perfect oneness with Him, not on a self-willed determination to be godly." (My Utmost for His Highest)

This season has us here, and today I'm thankful for it.

Fridays

For the last few months, Fridays have meant Collin and I spend time together getting coffee before Jarrod gets off work.  My office closes at 4:00 on Fridays, so I head over to Collin's daycare and pick him up a little bit earlier than usual.  We travel a couple of blocks over to Starbucks, and he gets to experience the hipster, college environment well beyond his years.

Mommy gets "cossee", Collin gets juice and maybe a little something to munch on and then we just sit.  We people-watch and pretend that the wooden coffee stir-sticks are swords.  Ok, so I watch people and Collin does that other thing!

We don't stay long, just long enough to pass a few minutes so we can arrive back at home around the time Jarrod gets there.  But it's enough.  Enough to have my boy tell me recently on days other than Friday, "I wanna go get cossee, Mommy."  And each time he has said that, I've told him, "Ok, we will on Friday!"

Hipster in the making

Thankful Tuesday

In the Blogosphere, there exists this tradition of Thankful Tuesday.  I love the simplicity of it, as well as the grounding effect it can have.  I've been admiring other writers' Thankful Tuesday posts, so I'm going to give it a stab myself.

* I'm thankful for my boy and for that MLK, Jr. day three years ago when I learned of his existence. 

* I'm thankful for Community Group assignments that take me back in time.  Studying the Book of John with our group and having cause to open another book that has long sat on a shelf.  Instantly being transported back to college and days that were long with both fear and wonder at this thing called adulthood.

* I'm thankful for smoothies!  Collin calls them "moonies", and he can drink a bigger "moonie" than Jarrod and I can put together.  The kid loves them.

* I'm also thankful for new finds.  This stuff alters the taste of a smoothie slightly, and definitely changes the color, but it's not that bad!  Also, I will gladly forgive it for the above mentioned cons because it contains so many pros.

* I'm thankful for Mumford & Sons.  For their words and for their melancholy melodies that can sound new even after so many listens.

* I'm thankful for Giada's White Bean & Chicken Chili - yum!  (Minus the fennel.  I had a bad experience with fennel.)

* And lastly, for this guy... Donald Miller and his eternal perspective. 

Perhaps before we get too excited or too deflated about this week’s inauguration we can remember the One that is to come. This is not a terrible event, nor is it our hope. It is just people creating earthly governments in a life after and still before God. 

(Excerpted from "Inauguration and the Need for a King", Jan. 21, 2013)

Newness

You know those days when you feel that if one more person has "news" to deliver to you that you might just erupt in laughter and your body will physically crumble into a million pieces?  I feel as though the last several months have been like that for me.

Day in and day out, moving forward and yet missing something I never had.  Hoping it will show up.  Doing life.  Trusting in Him and then realizing that the problem all along has been my lack of trust.  And so, starting anew.

***

This week brought sleet and snow to Arkansas.  I had lunch with fun girlfriends on Tuesday and got called to pick Collin up early from daycare because of the winter weather.  My sweet boy tells the firetrucks HI! and BYE! each time we drive past the firehouse.  On the way home from daycare Tuesday, he told them to go night-night and Wednesday morning he said to them How arrrrrreee youuuuuuu? 

He is becoming such a little person.  He napped while I finished my work-day on Tuesday, and then he patiently waited for his daddy to get home so they could Go play snow!



His sidekick is Landry, or DooDoo to him.  He tells her when to sit, stay and (my favorite) Come Baaaack!  It seems like he's always telling her to come back!

Monday afternoon our friends Jon and Gail welcomed their baby boy, Canyon Wayne, into the world.  He is a Madill boy and destined to be a rough-houser.  I can't wait to watch him grow!

We got to meet him last night, and I totally hogged him all evening.  I actually forgot I was holding him a few times because he is just that chill! 

                                    

Collin wouldn't really have anything to do with him, but Canyon apparently made an impression because this morning, Collin asked to "go see Baby Canyon".  He also told me it was Baby Canyon who colored on the wall :)



Oh, you know...

There hasn't been a whole lot going on around here to report on.  Or maybe it's just that I've been feeling lazy about blogging.  Probably more so the latter.

Collin got his first haircut!  People had been commenting for some time on his hair and how he was "about to need a haircut", and I just thought everyone was crazy.  In my mind, he just had a few hairs long enough to need a trim, but not a whole head full, yet.  Boy was I wrong!

He wouldn't sit in the chair on his own, so Jarrod had to sit down first and hold Collin on his knees.  After this, Collin was pretty chill.  Ms. Kim cut on his hair and cut on his hair until I was afraid he was going to be as bald as he was when he came out 2 years ago.  The result was a handsome little man though!

Collin also decided last weekend that he wanted to consistently pee on the potty.  We didn't do anything different, he just kept asking to go potty and peeing every time he did so!  Pretty sure he's motivated by receiving an M&M now, but I don't even care!

So last night we tried out undies for the first time.  He thought they were pretty cool and was perfectly content to wear them around.  He actually ran around like a wild man for the first 5 minutes or so and then said to Jarrod, "I'na do it again!"  He was running, jumping and making funny ninja noises.  I think he was checking to make sure they weren't constricting him in any way :)  However, we only made it for an hour or so and two sets of undies before switching back to a diaper.  We kept stressing that Collin should tell us if he needed to potty and he would say, "OK!" but it obviously didn't click because two different times he would just look down and then look at us with a wet spot spreading across his nether regions.
We'll try again.

Today I made this for dinner: 

Yum!  Funny how our taste buds mature as we do.

And got some super-de-duper good news about her:

Future Physician's Assistant, y'all!

Christmas 2012

Well, hello 2013. 

We are back from another whirlwind trip to TEXAS!  It was such a huge blessing to be off work for so many days and to be able to visit with all of our family.  We started with Jarrod's parents so we could visit Santa at the Gaylord Texan.  They do such a wonderful job there!  The whole place is beautifully decorated, and they have had the same Santa for the last few years.  Here are a few pictures from our visit there:

These two are twins.  Look at those "cheesy" smiles!

Collin is not quite grasping the concept of "cheese" lately!

And of course, the whole reason we went to the Gaylord, to get a picture with Santa!  It looks almost identical to last year's photo, only Collin has more hair and is bigger.  If you ask Collin about his experience wtih Santa, he will tell you, "I skeam (scream) ... I ky (cry)".  He likes Santa from a distance.  He will wave and smile shyly, but he does not want that man to touch him!



Santa is such a pro at this!

Next it was on to Whitesboro to spend Christmas with my family.  Both of my brothers were there and it was fun to all be under the same roof again.  Even if there was unending talk of zombies and the zombie apocalypse.

Preparing for the zombie apocalypse.

 

My new favorite photo.  These two are the cutest things ever!!



In case there's any question about how close they were to the TV, check out the glow on their faces!

From there it was back to Jarrod's parents' house for a day and a half and then back home to Arkansas.  It was a White Christmas, filled with way too many presents, plenty of shopping, all the people we love and rest from work.  Most of all, thankful hearts for the birth of Christ and all that His life means to us.