A walk outside

Today was..well, not what I expected. We went to church, dropped the kids off, then 30 minutes into the service, we got a call that our house alarm went off. We grabbed the kids and rushed home after being assured that the cops were on their way. When we got home do you know what we found?

Nothing. A balloon that we bought the kids had moved when the AC came on and set the motion sensor off. I'm sure we were the least exciting call the cops had gotten all day.

We did enjoy some time outside though. It was one of those overcast, perfect-for-picture-taking kind of days. So Connor and I took a trip outside while Haley was napping.

This guy is busy perfecting his walking. He actually has it down really well, as long as he's not wearing shoes that is.

Shoes on his little chunky feet make him one angry dude. The minute we put them on him, he kicks and whines pitifully until they come off again. It's not comfortable for him, shoes just make his little life more difficult. It made me think of how our relationship with God can be sometimes. When something hard comes along, we kick and scream instead of doing what we should do - just come to Him.

And He picks us up and sets us on our feet again.

That's not to say we won't have other spills later. But He's always there, watching over us like any caring parent does. Ready to wipe away the tears and pick us up again. Because ultimately, we have to go through the hard stuff to make us stronger.

Even though it may be hard to understand at the time, one day we'll look back on all that hard stuff and say, "If I hadn't tried and tripped a little, I wouldn't have learned how to walk."

So thank you God for shoes. And for helping us up when we fall.

3 years

Today is my 3rd anniversary! I still can't believe it's been 3 years since I stood at the altar and said "I do" (actually, I said "I will" on accident).

I can honestly say I couldn't have found a better match.For those of you who don't know, we met through mutual friends and bonded after a friend's birthday party when Patrick broke out in a chorus of "Afternoon Delight" Anchorman-style, and I harmonized along with him. Obviously meant to be, right? 4 months later, we were engaged and Afternoon Delight consequently was the song we walked down the aisle to after we were pronounced husband and wife.

Not sure if many people knew the story behind the song, we got a lot of strange looks. We're a little strange though, so it fit.

Sense of humor has always been very important to me, and it's one of the things that attracted me to Patrick. It's not often you can find someone just as weird as you. We laugh together every day. And I love that.

(Connor looks a little worried that he's related to us. I'm sure I'll totally regret posting this picture later.)

It's true what everyone says, time drags and drags until your wedding day arrives, then it flies by in an instant. 3 years later, we are still just as in love, if not more, and we have 2 wonderful children (and plans for 1 more in the future.) I'm so grateful that we have each other and that one day, we can be that cute old couple holding hands on the porch - harmonizing to "Afternoon Delight" no doubt.

Forgetting to remember

This past week has a been stressful one for a variety of reasons. I've decided that weekdays consist of 5 days because that's just the amount of time we're able to handle without time off before we lose it completely and dive off the deep end into insanity. Lets just say that after this week, I'm even more excited about the weekend than usual.

Throughout every stressfull time in life though, I seem to keep forgetting to remember. To remember that worrying gets me nowhere. To remember that each problem will get resolved eventually. To remember that there are more important things to do than worry. To remember that God is bigger than all of my worries. Worrying is something that I try not to do very often, but when I do, I tend to go a little overboard. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this :) I don't like that I worry so much, and I definitely don't like the anxiety that comes along with the worrying (as it so often does.)

In the midst of my little worry-fest the other day, I did what I should have done when I first started to worry and read what the Bible says about worrying.

Psalm 46: "God is our refuge and our strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging."

How many times in life do I just allow myself to worry and fear rather than giving my fears to God and sheltering myself in Him? Am I so proud that I think my problems are bigger than a mountain falling into the sea? Even then God says not to worry. He is our refuge and strength. He is not just there when He decides it's convenient. He is ever-present.

God, help me to remember.