God has a southern twang.

Ever since I started doing the Beth Moore study, To Live is Christ, the Lord started sounding a little different when he spoke. As a southern girl, plucked out of the south and planting new roots in the midwest, getting to spend a little time with a truly southern woman via video lessons each Tuesday morning is a treat. I love southern twang, in fact I wish mine was stronger sometimes. More than southern twang, I LOVE southern attitude. Which brings me to the Lord's voice. Lately, God has had a southern twang about Him. Two examples, and hard life lessons:

1. Recently some friends from Texas came up to visit. So of course all the long term plans for decorating our home became short term plans in my mind and heart. You know how it is, you want every project done, every decal and frame hung in its proper place. So, we have this big (and oddly lightweight) old brown frame. I decided that it would look awesome hanging on our bathroom mirror (right in the middle to give a little more ambiance). I looked it up online and found that all I needed to do was glue it with epoxy glue. So, being the thoughtful woman I am, after Lyric's four month shots and home with no other helpful adults to assist me, I decided that this was the time for that little project. (I know, its so obvious...just wait until Austin gets home!) As you can imagine the project was a flop for many many reasons. Now the only ambiance our bathroom has is the huge glops of glue all over the mirror. The next day armed with Goo Gone, I scrubbed that mirror for two hours (during nap time, I wised up a little). I scrubbed and scrubbed. And you know what I heard? "Girl, you can scrub that mirror as much as you want, but until you get that heart right it won't matter...even if you do get the glue off." My heart was so set on getting all my cool stuff up and looking good and impressing our friends. How could I be so blind? The gift of hospitality wasn't given to me because I know how to decorate on a dime, it was given to me because I love having people in our home. I love the warmth that comes from sharing a meal with friends. I love using our physical home to be a ministry to others. And so, our mirror is riddled with dried glue, but my heart is joyful.

2. I started doing yardwork. I know, its laughable. I am such an amateur, but I'm trying and I'm enjoying it. I was cleaning up our flowerbed and discovered that we have terrible weeds. Knowing the little bit of gardening that I do, I know that you have to attack the root of these things. Its not enough to pull off those ugly leaf things and call it a day. So I dug and I dug and I dug. As I was breaking a sweat and beginning to grunt, I heard that sweet and strong and now southern voice. "Girl, you have to get it at the root. We're gonna have to do this with your sin." Enough said. I'm becoming excited to brace myself for the uprooting of some nasty roots of sin.

As much as I love this new southern twang speaking to my heart, sometimes my Loving God still whispers gently to me.

Naptimes have gotten a little tricky and a little emotional around here lately. Lyric is a champ at rolling over, but at naptime he can't keep himself from rolling and getting stuck in a corner of the crib. Then he just cries and cries. Today (with the advice of losts of helpful moms) I decided to just let him figure it out and check on him lots to make sure he was ok. But I wouldn't get him out of the crib, he has to learn how to nap with this new found ability to roll. So I did it. And eventually it was a great nap. Then when he woke up (at the appropriate time) to eat, he of course cried and cried. I made a bottle and then went to go get him. My sweet and typically smiley boy was redfaced with big tears streaming down his face. I picked him up and told him "Baby baby, I always hear you when you cry, but I have to do whats best for you." My sweet sweet Savior. I hear you.

"Don't Eat the Grease!"

So as my gal pal Adrienne so delicately put it...this is a semi-devastating event that I encounter seemingly daily. I love that gal.

So today we are doing second coat of blue on the bathroom walls and a first coat of beige on the ceiling. Don't worry, no paint fiasco. However...there was a doggy incident, but all in good time readers, all in good time. So, Austin and I got really pulled into the bathroom project and instead of stopping at 4:45 to get ready for date night (starting at 6), we did not stop until a little after 5-somethingish. So we were both rushing around and not ready on time for our sitter. As I am rushing downstairs, I notice that Austin is putting on new door-knocker thingies and Max is right behind him in the entry way standing over a pile of yuck. Thats right yuck. What is yuck? Yuck is what happens when your small dog gets into a very large Dickeys BBQ cup full of maple bacon grease. If by chance you think that its gross that we have a cup of bacon grease sitting around....please, tell me what you do with your left over grease (seriously, because there must be some other alternative). So I volunteer to clean it...without knowing that its full of bacon grease (and apparently forgetting my unspoken vow as a women to never clean up a dog's vomit if I don't absolutely have to). So I go down to clean it up and.......and nothing....I cleaned it up. But it was extremely yucky and gross. If you were wondering which consistency wins when it comes between dog vomit and bacon grease...its bacon grease, it holds its smell and texture very well. Ew.

Not cute shower head, not cute.

I'm on a blogging roll here, three posts in three days?!

So tonight we are going to Cedar Rapids, which is about 1.5 hours away to see Andrew Peterson play. This means I have to be on my A-game while Austin is at work. On the To-Do List (in chronological order) 1.Wake up (if you know me, you know that this is a to-do) 2.Play with Lyric and give him his "breakfast" 3.Make myself a healthy breakfast 4. Play with Lyric again 5.Take a shower 6.Put on face and fix hair 7.Give Lyric a bath 8. Start Laundry 9.Give Lyric "lunch" 10.Eat lunch 11.Update iphone 12. Put Lyric down for a nap/catch up on laundry and semi-packing for the night 13. Get dressed in cute outfit for cute family togetherness 14.Hit the rode!

So now that you know what my day consists of, you need to know what NOT CUTE thing happened. After #6 I thought to myself "wow this is possibly the best hair day I have had in a long time, yesss." (ok so pause. the arrangement on this blog is that i get to share my more shallow moments as well as deep ones and you can't judge. ok go.) So then I take out Lyric's cute little baby bathtub and set it in the bath tub. I turn on the water and...simultaneously realize "I don't think I pushed that shower/tub lever back down. I think that my head is out of the way." And....gush. On my head. Tons of water, because we just had to upgrade our shower head to have maximum pressure and coverage. Water ALL over my best hair day. Worse than it being a perfect hair day...it was already crossed off my list. Remember #6, yea I am on #7 now and don't have time to work in reverse.

So now, my sweet boy is squeaky clean and I think my hair survived after I rigorously tried to buff it dry (yes like a car wash) with a towel.

Good hair days turned into mediocre to poor hair days. This is the price we pay for motherhood.

Me vs. Me

Do you ever have those days where something or some feeling just lingers inside you? When you are dying to talk to you husband, sister friend, and/or mentor about "it", how "it" makes you feel, what to do about "it"? The thought crosses your mind, if this is so big to me right now, then I should pray about it. I know I should seek the Lord. But that nasty flesh side of you says "that takes too much effort, doesn't give you instant solutions, and frankly you might not hear what you want to hear." And you know (excuse my lack of grammar in this post) that all day long all these thoughts are just leading up to the moment when you finally do seek the Lord about "it," so you might as well go ahead and jump in head first into some intense talking and then listening (and listening some more) to Him.

Yea me too. Thats where I'm at.

So, don't call me. I might just need a little help resisting that nasty flesh of mine. Sometimes its harder to be still, then it is to stay busy. Oh geez, look at me now...using the internet as a gal pal. I'm stopping now.

Quick Updates

Sometimes I love to blog about deep and reflective things, and sometimes I just want to talk about our life. This is one of those times. Austin's parents are here visiting us on their trip to Virginia for IMB training before they leave for Serbia in January. They got here on Friday evening and are staying until Thursday. Since they would be here for awhile, we decided this would be a perfect time for Austin and I to have our first night away. We were blessed with one night at Sofitel Hotel in downtown Chicago, which was AMAZING! We ate dinner at Ra, a small sushi joint, enjoyed a quick and tasty breakfast (possibly the best omlette I've ever had) at Tempo Cafe, went shopping at H&M for winter clothes, and then had a marvelous lunch at Uncle Julios (the first legit mexican food we have had since leaving Texas). We had such a wonderful time, there is nothing better than being married to your best friend. Lyric did great with his grandparents who treated him to a shopping trip for warm clothes! Having fun is exhausting, waiting for Lyric to have his next feeding is killing me; I'm ready for bed now!