Exploring the Great Outdoors

If there's anywhere that all three of us love to be, it's outdoors! I get spring fever on that first fleeting warm day in February and want to start gardening and poking around in the soil. Last weekend, we headed outside as it got gradually warmer and spent part of both Saturday and Sunday looking for the remains of winter and the signs of spring.

Ava is at the age now where she protests when we have to go inside! She would honestly play outside all day I think. She's very independent and is fearless around water. She'll head straight for the stream and want to get in.

All of the animals joined us for the fun, and here are a few fun pictures from our adventures last weekend. We are excited to welcome spring!

Ava insisted on pushing her own stroller. She's all about doing it herself right now which we knew was coming. I think it came overnight!



Daddy, Bear and Ava getting ready for Bear's favorite activity - a walk around the yard with his people!



If you double-click on this, it looks like Ava is proclaiming something. "Now this is some great weather we're having!" That or "Now we will go in when I say we will go in."



Collecting nature's treasures. More than one little hand can hold.



Action pet shot. Notice Bear's level of excitement that the whole family is outside with him.



Um, this would actually be Saki our cat, not Bear our dog. Ben and I haven't seen this much activity from her in a LONG while. We didn't know she could still jump with all 13 lbs of herself. Go, Saki!



PLEASE let me touch the water, Daddy.



This blanket goes everywhere with us now, even outside on occasion. She calls it Blankie.



We finally allowed her to get "in" the stream. That is about as far as she got. Her sneaker got stuck in the mud.



Ava threw this ball to me!

Eating is an Adventure!

Mealtime can be neat or messy! It just depends on what we're having and Ava's mood. I took these shots in the last week or so while Ava was eating some "comfort" food while she was teething. She loves to lift the plate or tray toward the end of the meal, and sometimes, most of the time, it still has food on it. Thus, begins the cleaning of the hair and eyelashes routine. I decided to try some fish sticks last week, and she wasn't too crazy about them. Only six more times to introduce them! At least, that's what my book says about toddler eating...

I bought Jessica Seinfield's Deceptively Delicious book today that involves purees of vegetables hidden in toddler's favorite foods. There's a pureed squash and pasta recipe in there I may try tonight. I saw Jessica's interview about this book, and the recipes look really good. She hides spinach in brownies!

I may puree aspargus and put it in peanut brittle for Ben. ha! Sorry, honey. We're way past seven times on asparagus for Ben, but I keep trying. :)

Love to all on this cold temperatures moving in day... Maybe snow tonight? Fingers crossed.

Love is in the Air

Whew! After several weeks of viruses, teething and strange ailments, we are finally and happily getting back into the swing of things! We've spent a lot of time resting and playing indoors because of sickness and the cold temperatures/snow outside. Valentine's Day was spent very quietly at home as we all recuperated. It was getting comical at one point because we were all such a mess! The animals were the only healthy members of the family. Here are a bunch of pictures to catch you up on what we've been up to this past week or so.

On the 9th, Aunt Jill headed over after school to bring Ava "Mischief" the little monkey. Boy, does this description fit her to a tee right now!



She has figured out how to open the dishwasher, and this is where I found her eating her snack one day.



She is WAY into water and pouring it, splashing in it, dumping it, etc. She spends very focused time on her "chemistry" experiments. One day, I decided to bring in some snow in in a bowl for her to enjoy. She was entertained for a long time! When I was a little girl and was sick when it snowed, my mom would put snow in a green bowl and I thought it was so much fun. We're carrying on that tradition. :)







I found her on top of this black chair one day looking at her Curious George story. I see TOP bunk in her future at camp!!



Quiet moment with her special Valentine.



Mimi and Papa came over in the afternoon to celebrate Valentine's Day with us and open some goodies with Ava.




Here's a picture of Ava with her Valentine book, baby, and bear. Kristie, the baby reminds me of Sera's "dee." :)



When Ava went to bed, I made the very first meal my Mom made for my Dad for Ben to celebrate Valentine's Day. Stuffed green peppers! They were yummy. For those of you who haven't been to our house, this is our usual dinner spot. Bear is usually barking on the other side of the window and Saki or Lucy are meowing for food! Tonight, all was quiet and peaceful and it was great to just relax with some warm food.

Well!

Hello, all! We are finally now officially over the worst of our viruses and teething and are reentering life outside! I even "did" my hair today, which believe me is a welcome sight! We barely finished breakfast this morning before heading outside for a long walk. Loads of pictures to share and will do that very soon! Love to all. B, E, and A

Monkeying Around

When we started taking Ava to the nursery at church in 2008, she was just a little turtle. We blinked and she moved to the peacocks and now she's perfectly suited to be a monkey.

Monkey is definitely the animal a 1 1/2 year old most resembles!!! Here are a few recent pics of her time in the monkey classroom. She has some great little buddies in there, and there's never a dull moment. On her first day in there, we came to get her and noticed that the teachers had stacked all the chairs in the corner. Ben and I just looked at each other. We knew. Sure enough, they told us that Ava had been using them to climb on top of the kid table. I joked last night that Ava would be an Olympic climber someday!

On another note, I am really struggling with some health issues- nothing major just several at one time that are causing me some considerable discomfort. I need some prayer cover. THANK YOU!

Our little turtle



Spreading her feathers as a little peacock



Our busy monkey! If there were trees in this room, she'd be swinging or climbing!

Love, Illness and Rest

Well, that whole rest thing I wrote about in my last post? It's happening, because all three of us are sick and are forced to rest!

Ava - a virus or cold of some kind- low fever, fussiness, extremely runny nose, and sleepiness - has now had for four days

Emily- either the flu or another flu-like virus - runny nose, low fever, extreme muscle soreness and achiness and fatigue - has now had for 2 days

Ben- major sinus infection- extreme congestion - has now had for 1 day - went to the clinic for a prescription today.

I've drunk enough echinacea tea for a small village I think. It's starting to gross me out.

So, there's love here today, but it's mingled with sickness and crankiness. We're postponing our Valentine celebration until we're all feeling better!

Sending love that overflows your heart to everyone we know! We love you!

Ben, Emily and Ava

ps -I wish we could train Saki to bring us kleenex.

Resting and Abiding

If there's a brand new day, I fill it. Up. I'm not sure that I really KNOW how to simply rest in the midst of what I'm doing. I received a sweet word from the Lord last night about this, that He's going to show me and teach me more about this simple little word that's packed with SO much necessity. Rest.

Funny how just last week I unearthed a book an elderly friend gave me about three years ago. It's called Sabbath Rest. She's now with Jesus, but she wanted me to have this book.

For me, REST can't always look like sipping green tea with my latest subscription of Real Simple (Thanks, Jenn!), but it can look like something in the midst of my hurry-flurry of meeting people's needs and demands. And that's just in my household on any given day.

Throw in actually leaving my front door and stepping out into the world, and rest hops away like that bunny in Alice in Wonderland who's always watching that watch. Did he have a name? It's been a long time since I've seen that.

Psalm 15 was pressed upon my heart last night when David asks the Lord a question.

"Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in your holy hill?"

I have a hard time with abiding, and the Lord is checking my heart and challenging me on this. So what does it mean to abide?

1)to remain; continue; stay. 2)to have one's abode; dwell; reside. 3)to continue in a particular attitude, relationship.

Number 3 hit home with me. I flounder in and out of continuing in a particular attitude/relationship with Him.

It's a heart attitude for me in the midst of my circumstances, because goodness knows, I'm not always going to have a perfect restful response to whatever's going on around me. I live in the world, and that's bound to bring a host of trials and tribulations and trouble.

So, I'm on a quest this year to learn more about abiding in the Lord. He who promised is faithful to keep me in a continual state of learning and growing along this journey, this walk together. Abiding in Him means relying on him for all of the strength and the fruit that is needed for those around me.

It's His deal. I don't have to do all or be all. My responsibility is to keep my eyes fixed on Him and let him replenish the fruit that gets used up, eaten or trampled on any given day in any given moment.

He stocks the fruit in my heart, and He knows when I'm running out of one or several or all!

"Now the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, patience and self-control." There are constantly people around me that require these of me each and every day.

If I had to restock my shelves with these fruits, it just wouldn't get done in my own strength. Likely, if I had to restock, I'd grab quick little fruit cups because I honestly don't have the time, strength or energy to unpeel and offer a fresh fruit to every person that I encounter.

But, He does. He's all about whole food.

Now, that's nutritious and nourishing food for my weary soul.

And I hope yours, too. You don't have to muster up these in your own strength.

Today, I'm asking to be restocked. I have to leave my front door in about an hour.

Oh, and Mr. Alice in Wonderland bunny? You're NOT accompanying me today.

Blessings,

Emily

Peekaboo . Peep Eye

Good morning, everyone,

I have a few minutes and thought I'd post a quick update and a video. Ava is doing much better with her teething, and fortunately, that one night was the worst night. Now, she's got a little virus and is running a fever of about 100.4, but she's still very much on the go and animated as you're going to see in this next video.

I've found it difficult to post this week due to several factors. There just hasn't been that much down time apart from my "duties and responsibilities." More on that later...

I hope you're having a warm day and that this new video makes you smile.

Ava playing peekaboo "Peep Eye" with Saki. Um, Saki lost patience toward the end of this... She's such a good kitty.

Seven

The video is up! Scroll down this post to view...oh, and don't forget to pause the playlist music.

Happy camper in the morning...





Unhappy camper in the night...

Seven. That's the number of times Ava woke up screaming last night. About every two hours or so, Ben and I would awaken not to whimpering (I'm a light sleeper and usually hear that) but to wailing and screaming. One of us would go in and check the normal stuff like diaper or fever and then put her purple blanket back on her and say shhh...go back to sleep, and she would, only to wake up screaming again a few hours later. I prayed over her at about 3:00 a.m. thinking she was afraid. This morning, the canines coming in dawned on me.

Ava's not had a difficult time with teething so far, one reason I don't automatically think that's the culprit, but I think the canines cutting are causing some real pain. So, I gave her a littel Tylenol for her nap today and a cold teether, and we're doing better. Poor little thing. You can see how sharp they are coming in.

Ben took this video the other night of Ava walking in his shoes...

Special Friends

Hi, everyone,

Be sure and pause the playlist music before you watch the video. :)

If there's one thing that Ava LOVES to do, it's play with our 13 pound cat, Saki. They are best buddies, and Saki will actually approach Ava and nuzzle up against her and want to be petted. I have no idea why, because normally Ava ends up smacking her, picking her up very awkwardly or throwing something at her. This morning, I was teaching Ava about different fruits. I let her hold a grapefruit, and the next thing I know, she threw it at Saki. It missed her by a hair. After that, we stuck to small fruits like cranberries and raisins. :)

Here is a great video that shows their special relationship. Notice Saki at the end! Poor thing, she didn't quite understand how to give Ava five. Way to go, Mommy!

Hope all is well with everyone this week. We took a field trip to PetSmart today and had some fun. Ava, of course, LOVED the cats. There is a huge Main Coonx (sp) there that I almost brought home! Ben would have killed me. Enjoy the video!

Background Bloopers and the Quiver

Ok. I'm in the process of changing my backgrounds and tried about 14 today! I apologize if you landed on my site when some of the really strange ones were there! It looks entirely different in full format! I had to laugh out loud at some I had chosen. I finally landed on this one, after like, 30.

Ava's fever is normal today, and we're in on this rainy day just being. I feel projects and to do lists poking and prodding, but I'm going to take some time today - just to simply be aware of the moment and be intentional about being grateful.

I just changed a lot of my playlist music around. For those of you who listen to the songs, I just added a new one by Starfield that's really awesome. Starfield rocks.

My Streams in the Desert devotional this morning revealed that I am in the shadow of the Lord's hand, that He's making me into a polished arrow and is concealing me in His quiver to be used at His discretion and His timing.

Following the Lord and hanging out in His quiver often means resting and waiting. He has already prepared good works for me to do in advance. I just have to be ready to leave the quiver when He wants me to. To be prepared and ready. I can ready myself for dinner tonight and prepare healthy food, and I can ready Ava by buidling her vocabulary and on and on and on. But at the end of the day, the beginning of the day, my heart has to prepared and ready - ready to love, to fight (spiritually) and to be counter-cultural.

May I never just keep quiet about how much Jesus had changed my life and stop bringing the glad tidings of that good news to those around me.

This Valentines Day and everyday, he is the Lover of my soul.

My soul.

I can count on that when I'm not at my best, when my mascara has run, when I'm having one of those bad hair, bad attitude days and being less than loving to those around me because of my many failings and issues. Yep. I have several.

His love never changes. It's always there, steadfast and sure and certain and trustworthy.

He's the grand Date of my past, present and future.

Nothing I desire here on this Earth, no matter how good it is, compares to Him.

Strip me bear of the world and my possessions and what will be left is my soul. Beaten, broken, with battle wounds along this journey, but fully intact and upheld by the Almighty.

Now, that's good news.

Glad tidings, everyone,

Emily