fmf: mighty

Here are the rules:
1. Write for five minutes flat for pure unedited love of the written word.
2. Link back to Lisa Jo Baker's blog with the rest of the Five Minute Friday-ers.
3. Comment on the person who linked up before you.

Please join us!

Today's prompt: Mighty

GO

"Motherhood is the holy, grueling work of being refined by the fire of sleep deprivation."
-Lisa Jo Baker

Wow, now isn't that something. You've heard of baptism by fire, jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire, etc etc etc. Motherhood is so much. It is gentle and loving and generous, yes. But it is also exhausting, grueling, difficult, sometimes nearly impossible. There's a fire in it.

And that is what makes us mighty.

It's not that we aren't afraid to mother the child or make the life-long irreversible commitment. Sometimes it's not even motherhood specifically. Sometimes, it's not that we're not afraid to take the leap to sign up for that race even if we're no where near in shape for it yet. Or call that person that we met at church or playgroup or the gym and actually set up that playdate (and that's especially hard for awkward little me!). Or write that book even if we don't really believe that people will want to read it or that we're ready to share that part of us. It's not that we're not afraid.

We're just mighty.

STOP

fellowship

Today's blessing:
Human interaction - I don't need a whole lot of it, but I do need some!

For some reason, this word has been weighing on my heart lately. Perhaps it's the lack of physical face-to-face fellowship I've experienced lately. Don't get me wrong - I don't really mind all that much. I'm not a big people person. I'm not one of those who needs human interaction in order to thrive. Of course I like spending time with people I like, but I don't mind going a whole day seeing no one but my hubby and kid.

But fellowship...that's important.

What is fellowship, exactly? It's more than just having people around for company. It's more than being in the same room as a group of people, even if you have similar interests and happen to be talking about the same topic. I learned about fellowship in college. I have my friend, Hannah, to thank, for convincing me to come to my first FCA meeting my freshman year. (FCA=Fellowship of Christian Athletes.) While there were very few of us in the group who were actually still actively involved in athletics, it was still some of the best (and certainly most enriching) fellowship time that I can remember.

To me,
fellowship is Carl and Josh with their guitars leading us in worship music, with Kevin singing (horribly off-key, which I love about him!) behind me.

fellowship is Anna closing her eyes, grin spread wide across her beaming face, leading us in an earnest prayer.

fellowship is laughing, then crying, then laughing again, all within a five minute span, then doing it all over again, sometimes not even knowing why you're laughing or crying.

fellowship is the duct tape olympics - being duct taped to a wall by your team and staying up just longer than your roommate to win the round.

fellowship is VeggieTales during finals.

fellowship is milk and cookies.

What does your fellowship look like?

fmf: joy

Here are the rules:
1. Write for five minutes flat for pure unedited love of the written word.
2. Link back to Lisa Jo Baker's blog with the rest of the Five Minute Friday-ers.
3. Comment on the person who linked up before you.

Please join us!

Today's prompt: Joy

GO

I've always been intrigued by the phrase "choose joy." I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. According to my dictionary app, joy is "the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying."

Sounds great, but not exactly something you can choose. At least, not directly.

If joy is caused by something else, something outside of you, other than yourself, it's not something you can choose. You can, however, set yourself up for it. Follow me on this. It may get a little rough, because I'm still working it out myself as I go. That's the whole point of Five Minute Fridays, right?

I'm currently reading "How to Expand Love" by the Dalai Lama. Brilliant, but that's another post in itself. One of his biggest points is that you may not be able to change the behavior of others, but you can change how you view it. Now, I don't believe in reincarnation, but I'm fascinated by his explanation of it in this book. If, in fact, we are reincarnated an infinite number of times, as is everyone else in the world, then at some point, every person on this planet was once your mother, father, brother, sister, child, best friend, etc. Therefore, in a past or future life, you loved them so much that you would give your life for them. Crazy, right? Using that train of thought, it makes sense that you should want to extend love to them, even if they have hurt you in this life.

I don't know if you've noticed this like I have, but the more you love on others, the more you get back. Now, that doesn't always make it easy, because some people just won't seem to want to be decent to you no matter how nice you are to them, and some people just make it plain old hard to be nice to them in the first place, but keep trying. Sorry for the cliche, but you really do reap what you sow.

And if you sow love all around you, isn't joy going to be a natural byproduct?

STOP

time flies: a two year photo shoot

Today's blessing:

Ellie

Really, she is wonderful. She's been our family photographer for a little over two years now, and I couldn't be happier with absolutely everything she's done for us. She took the picture that's been at the head of my blog for a year now, and she took the one with which I will soon be replacing it. (I just have to decide which one to use and have her watermark it...it's such a tough decision!) Ellie is tasteful, classy, professional, extremely reasonable, and very quick. I've seen her work with families, senior pictures, babies, weddings, maternity photos...it's all great. If you're in the Twin Cities or surrounding area and are in need of someone to photograph anything, I cannot recommend her strongly enough. Check out her facebook page to see some more examples of her work and learn how to contact her. You won't regret it.

A couple weeks ago, Husband, P, and I met up with her at our alma mater. There was something going on on campus, so we weren't able to use several of our preferred locations, but the chapel and atrium proved to be wonderful back ups, and Ellie was able to do great work with the space. There were even some janitors cleaning and students studying nearby who didn't give us weird looks while we were taking the pictures, so that was a nice bonus - Auggies are pretty awesome! (Ellie would probably agree - she married one.)

Note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. I really do just like Ellie and her work that much. She's pretty great!

Look at that face!

Yup, another future Auggie coming September, 2014

Priceless moment caught on camera...

My heart melts every time I see this

I don't like this one, but it's only because she looks like such a kid, and not a toddler at all. Not okay!

P's ao dai from Auntie J. She stole the show at my in-law's Lunar New Year party that night!

Seriously. Heart. Melting.

our little girl: 25 months

Since the developmental milestones are much less defined after 2 years, I'm not going to do a "formal" update anymore like I have been. However, I know there are some people out there who want to be kept up to date on all of P's remarkable developments, so I'll still share some of our fun from the past month, as well as a few cute pictures!

P continues to be stellar in every way. Yesterday was actually 25 months, but it was a busy day, so we're playing catch up!

Our biggest developments this month:
P successfully said her ABCs from start to finish!

Her vocabulary continues to develop at an astounding rate. I don't know that she's learning new words, but she's getting better at putting them into sentences.

She's also getting a lot better at using correct pronouns. There's not so much mixing up of "me" and "I" and "you." It's quite impressive, actually.

P learned that she's going to be a big sister! She loves snuggling with the baby in mommy's tummy and reading books to baby. Cutest quote of the month (as she's patting my stomach): "Hi baby. I'm big sister P!" Doesn't that make your heart melt?!

She has also rediscovered vegetables this month. Yay! She loves peas, carrots (especially with butter and brown sugar), and corn. We're still working on green beans, but at this point, I'm not going to push it!

Now for some cute pictures (we did a 2 year/new baby reveal photo shoot last month, and I will be sharing a bunch of those pictures later this week, but they deserve their own post!)

Me: P, is that a truck?
P: No, a fullvozer. (Translation: bulldozer)

Playing in the most amazing cardboard box with friend S.

I know the lighting isn't great, but it was so darn cute I had to share it!

She asked to do the dishes. I hope this is a trend that continues for many years to come. With as much as I hate doing dishes, she could make bank when she starts earning an allowance!

P with a baby in her belly.

P reading to the baby in mommy's belly.

have books, must read

Today's blessing:
Books

My friends, I am quite literally surrounded by blessings all the time. Of course I mean a comfortable home, loving friends and family, beautiful weather (sunny, snowy, rainy, or windy), and plenty of time at home with my baby toddler. (I'm still getting used to that.) However, for the sake of this post, I mean books. They are everywhere.

I grew up a reader. In third grade when there was a monthly competition to see who could read the most pages, I won every month except one. (And I think she lied. Really, no one in their right mind would read as much as I did!) I was the girl who finished the 600 minute reading challenge in two days one year. (Remember, where you read 600 minutes and you got a free ticket to Six Flags?) I remember my mom telling me to put down my book and go outside. So I took my book outside. Apparently, that wasn't what she had in mind, so when she tried to take my book away, I climbed a tree and read up there. I'm not joking. There is photo evidence somewhere in my parent's house.

While I won't be completely heartbroken if my little girl doesn't love reading quite as much as me, I am definitely relieved that she enjoys books.

Sometimes you just need to escape to another world and live someone else's life. Or sometimes it's good to remind yourself that your life really isn't all that bad. Whatever your reason for reading, it is a good one, and you will be a better person for it!

I've really fallen off the reading wagon lately, so my for my "lenten discipline" this year, I'm going to read more. I don't know how giving up chocolate or coffee will make me a better person in the long run, but I know that reading certainly can.

I recently had the opportunity (joy, privilege, honor, etc) to hear the Dalai Lama speak at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum.

We were in the seventh row. Absolutely amazing. He was such a cute little old man, and so funny!

Hearing his simple brilliance inspired me to pick up a book that I started a long time ago but never finished:

I'm pretty excited to get back into this one!

What should be next on my list? While I like to be entertained, I'm looking for books with substance. I'm thinking about some Donald Miller and possibly Peter Gomes, but I'm definitely open to suggestions!

an announcement!

Today's blessing:
Too many to count!

Well, most of you probably got here via facebook, so there's a good chance you saw my profile picture update. Just in case you didn't...



That's right, in September of 2014, we will become a family of four! I have so many amazing pictures thanks to Ellie and can't wait to share them, but for now, I'm going to go to bed, because turning food into a human is exhausting!