Month: November 2013

thanksgiving.

/ lindsay / 2 Comments

As I stated in an earlier post, I went back to work full time a couple weeks ago. The transition has been mostly positive, but it has been a transition nonetheless. And, not sure if you know, but November is quite the busy month for church employees, so I’ve been run a bit ragged.

But it’s okay! Because it’s a huge financial blessing to my family that I’m working full time again.

So, on this Thanksgiving day, when I haven’t had the time or energy to post daily gratitudes like I said I would, I’m thankful for a great job, a great husband, a great kid, and a time of relaxation in a (mostly) great hometown.

Happy Thanksgiving, friends!

shifty eyes.

/ lindsay / 1 Comment

I know you all are giving me shifty eyes right now. Committing to a blog a day was certainly biting off more than I could chew. I admit it! I’m sorry!

So let’s play catch up.

TUESDAY I was thankful for the ability to play music with friends. Can’t beat that, right? Some people like to lose themselves in cooking, or running, or yoga, or, like, America’s Next Top Model marathons. Me? I prefer to lose myself in playing music. (See also: America’s Next Top Model marathons.)

WEDNESDAY I was thankful for the fact that, in November in South Florida, it’s really nice outside. Perfect for late night stroller walks. Mind you, it wasn’t ME taking Dax for a stroller walk. It was the nursery workers at our church. For some reason, Dax doesn’t mind the nursery on Sundays or on Tuesdays. But on Wednesdays he screams his head off the whole time. So these poor ladies have to take Dax out in a stroller and do laps around the church campus until Dan and I are done with our Wednesday night responsibilities. Oy. Bless those women. (Also, any insight from other moms out there as to why he’s so anti-nursery on Wednesday nights?)

TODAY I’m thankful that, at this point, I’m the only healthy one in the house. Last night Dax was up every hour screaming for nursings (yay teeth) between coughs (getting over a nasty cold) while Dan was up battling against (and losing miserably to) a gnarly stomach bug. Praying I stay healthy! Yikes!

What are you thankful for today?

partnership.

/ lindsay / 2 Comments

Well guys, I am now officially full time at the church which is a HUGE financial blessing (miscarrying a child in an emergency room without insurance isn’t cheap, y’all — just a heads up from yours truly). I’m also still able to do about half my job from home so we really only need a bit of finagling to make childcare for Dax work.

Today took quite a bit of juggling; Dan and I both did half our days at home (mine in the morning, his in the afternoon) so that we could both get all of our work done and Dax could be well cared for.  While it did take a bit of logistical brainpower to make the day work, it did work, and Dax was happy all day. (Went to bed early, even!)

I am so very grateful to have such a great husband and parenting partner. Dan is so supportive of my endeavors and I try to be of his, and we are both on the same page when it comes to bringing up Dax. It isn’t always easy, but it’s always workable when you have such an awesome partner.

Thanks for being you, Dan.

Oh and here’s a gratuitous adorable picture of my baby sleeping because duh. (It took everything in me not to crawl into that crib and snuggle with him when I snapped this picture.)

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second chances.

/ lindsay / Leave a comment

This week I had to write a blog for my job about the idea of forgiveness — namely the difficulty of forgiving ourselves — and, I think, when I wrote it I sounded like I knew what I was talking about.

Check it out and let me know what you think. I’ll wait.

Then this weekend happened and my husband and I got into a fight that started because I don’t know how to give myself a break. The biggest reason that sucks is because it put me into a funk too strong to break through to blog.

So today, on this quiet Sunday, I am grateful for second chances and for a husband whose memory is so bad that he only has to remember the most recent chance he gave me to get this wife thing right.

hope.

/ lindsay / 1 Comment

Even though my husband is actually the one who gets paid to do youth ministry, I actually teach a middle school discipleship class at our church on Wednesday nights. That’s right; one other brave volunteer and I face off against upwards of 20 middle schoolers each week by choice and I happen to love every minute of it.

Well, if I’m being honest, every minute of it that I’m not scolding them for doing weird things like drawing on each other’s faces.

Last night our lesson was on grace (specifically, how God will always love you no matter how many faces you draw on). To start out the class I had the students write down all the things they like about themselves and then share them with us (the point being that once you are in Christ, God only sees the good in you and not the bad). One little girl’s answer really struck me.

“I love that I’m really good at the cello,” she started, “and I love that I’m so pretty. Like, I’m really pretty. And I love that.”

Now, if I were to stand up in front of a group of my peers and say that, I might get smacked. But I love that she so boldly stated that for three reasons:

  1. She stated it as if it was a total inarguable fact (and, if I could weigh in, it absolutely is).
  2. She wasn’t ashamed or bashful about this.
  3. In a world where the vast majority of teenage girls today say the exact opposite about themselves every day, how refreshing!

Today when I went grocery shopping, I had so many people stop and tell me about how beautiful my baby is (isn’t he though?) and the whole time I just kept thinking about that girl in my class, and praying that my son never doubts his unique beauty or his worth in this world, despite all the things society may tell him.

And so, today (and yesterday) I’m grateful for the hope in a future where kids/teenagers/adults/people rise above a society built on self-esteem crushing lies.

wine.

/ lindsay / 4 Comments

Today I am grateful for end-of-the-day glasses of wine.

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Baby boy has been fighting a fever for a week now and over the past couple days has developed a wet cough which I’m hoping means we’re nearing the end of that business. Even still, he’s pretty high spirited, perfectly content to spend his days crawling and pulling up and pointing at things and babbling about them and walking and falling and getting up again, all while I’m frantically checking his head and trying to remember, Was it Tylenol or Ibuprofen that I last gave him? And how many hours has it been? Has enough time passed to be safe? Is he going to have another seizure if I don’t stick to a strict schedule? Is he okay is he okay IS HE OKAY?!?

He’s fine. And at the end of the day, when he’s in bed sleeping like an angel, wine reminds me of that. He’s fine. I’m fine.

We’re fine.

the weekend and some gardens.

/ lindsay / 1 Comment

So, uh, it appears as though trying to write a blog each day in November has been a bit more difficult than I’d hoped it would be. Not because I don’t have things for which I am grateful, but because when I stumble across some free time I’d much rather do any and all things instead of sitting down at my computer. Things like go for a walk, read a book, catch up on schoolwork episodes of How I Met Your Mother, New Girl and The Mindy Project.

So forgive me as I shove four (??!?!?!) days’ worth of gratitudes into one blog post.

It was a glorious weekend which started with a Friday that Dan and I accidentally got to spend together for a bit. Fridays are Dan’s day off and I work onsite, so he gets to spend the day with Dax while I get work done and roam the city freely. However, I got done with work around lunch time which gave Dan and me a few hours to spend together before I went out for a GIRLS NIGHT!

Yeah! That happened!

Then, on Saturday, we slept in (!!!) till 9:30 (!!! again) and then lounged around watching Martha Bakes and Martha’s Cooking School on PBS until we were so desperate for delicious food that we ran out and splurged on our favorite barbecue place in town. (Oh yes, we’ve only lived here since May but our duty as good, proper, southern people was to find good barbecue ASAP.)

Sunday was a long day for all of us, which is not unheard of for those of us who work in ministry, but even still, we all stayed relatively uncranky and got to bed at a decent hour. I even got to enjoy a glass of wine while Dan and I watched an episode of Star Trek for our seminary class! (Yeah don’t ask.)

So all in all, it was a great weekend, each day teeming with gratitudes.

And then there was today. Today a dear friend of mine and her two kids took Dax and I to the Botanical Gardens. This was our second time going together but the last time we went Dax was still a stroller-bound infant. This time we started out in the stroller, but we didn’t end there. Once I finally got up the nerve, I set him free. And there he went, the wobbly little toddler, doing all but dragging me all over the place. He even face-planted on the sidewalk once, only to barely whimper for a few seconds before taking off again.

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And my chest heaved with the heartache of a proud mother watching her tiny baby step in the background of history to make way for a child. It was so very bittersweet.

At the moment he is, quite literally, walking all over the house pointing at things and babbling about them, some incomprehensible language only he understands and I wish to, and I can’t help but smile.

And I am grateful.

 

 

a picture.

/ lindsay / 5 Comments

I really have no words for today’s gratitude. Words can’t do it justice, honestly.

So I’m going to let this picture, which makes my heart stop, do all the talking about how grateful I am that God chose me to be this beautiful, perfect little boy’s mama.

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alone time.

/ lindsay / 4 Comments

I love my baby. So very much. Like, so much it actually physically hurts sometimes. But every now and again I crave some time alone, both by myself and just in the company of my husband.

Today, I am grateful for two days in a row of getting just that!

Yesterday, I had to work later than the childcare at church is provided, so Dan offered to take Dax and work from home so I could stay onsite. When I got home hours later, Dax was still napping and Dan was done working, and so we got to enjoy two whole hours of “just us” time. (I had to wake Dax up for dinner at 6:30!)

And this morning, after Dan left for work  around 7:30, Dax was still asleep. So I got up and took advantage of that by making myself some breakfast (a mother??!?!?! eating alone??!?!?!) and pulling out my journal.

When Dax started making noise in his crib, I looked at the clock: it was 8:30! I’d just gotten a whole hour to myself to journal and enjoy some “me” time. For most moms, that’s unheard of! And when it was all said and done I was in such a cheerier mood than I usually am when Dax wakes up in the morning.

And I am so thankful.

Like I said, don’t get me wrong, I am so completely enamored with my little boy. But having some quiet time to myself gives me the recharge I need to be the best mommy for him.

And now, because the sun is shining and the breeze is blowing and it’s not eight hundred degrees outside, we’re going to go to the park. What a great day already and it’s only 10!

What are you grateful for today?

new and sleep.

/ lindsay / 3 Comments

So, hey, already skipped a day. Off to a stellar start, friends!

SUNDAY:

I’m having a hard time choosing what one thing to be grateful for. The entire day from start to finish was perfect. It started out at church, where I got to play a piano that used to belong to Elton John and then see my dear friends’ children get baptized. After that, we all hung out at said friends’ house to eat and celebrate and LET ME TELL YOU, Naples brought out the big guns weather-wise. It was only (!!!) 80 degrees, with a slight breeze, and no clouds in the sky. We sprawled out on blankets in the backyard under trees and sipped wine as we watched all the kids bound about on the springy grass, and all the while my smart phone lay dormant.

And don’t even get me started on the cookies.

But I’ll simplify it to this: today I am grateful for new. I am thankful for new weather patterns, new friends, and that all of this “new” is slowly backing up to make way for “normal”. And I like that.

MONDAY:

Today I’m grateful for Trader Joe’s. (Okay, who isn’t?)

But I’m also grateful for a sweet baby who LOVES to sleep. On top of sleeping all night, my little one is currently on hour three of his afternoon nap. (Called so because he naps the entire afternoon.) I think I’ll join in on the fun.