Blessed

I am just feeling blessed today. Well, really I'm blessed every day. But today I just feel like sharing this feeling.

I am so thankful to God that I get to be a stay-at-home mom! This has been my heart's desire for as long as I can remember, and I've been able to do it since Tyler was born (8+ years now). And the Lord has made it possible. I have an amazing husband who loves me and takes care of me. He has a good job that provides for our family. We have two amazing little boys that I love. I am just so thankful that I have this opportunity.

I love being able to participate in my kids' lives, whether they are at home, at school, playing ball, whatever. I love being able to go to the school and have lunch with them when I want. I love going on field trips with them. I love going to their classrooms to help with stuff and get to know their friends. I love watching them play football, baseball, LEGO's, fishing, or whatever else they do.

I also love being able to go grocery shopping "unassisted" when there are not so many people at the store in the middle of the week during the school year. (Let's be honest now.) I love being able to take care of my home. I really don't mind most of the housework, except for dusting. I hate dusting. I love being able to take care of things that Jeremy needs me to take care of while he is at work. I love being "Mom."

I am also thankful for the other moms in my life, whether they "stay home" too, or not. My two older sisters are the ones I go to for advice and prayer first and most often. I know and love and trust them, and I know they will pray for me. I also know that they are in the "trenches" of motherhood, just like me. There are others that live around me that I see and talk to occasionally, who help me to feel like a normal mom whose kids aren't perfect but no less precious. There are blogs I read that encourage me in my marriage and in motherhood. Then there are my Facebook friends, who post the funny, crazy, or challenging things their kids are doing. These things all help me.

There is much encouragement in sharing life's joys and challenges with those around us. None of us is perfect. And neither are our kids (or husbands). I appreciate the shared misery (ha ha!), the inspiration, and the challenges that other moms give me, as well as the prayer, support, and encouragement. Thank you, fellow moms!

Christmas 2011 (a month later)

Yes, I realize it is the end of January. But I just realized that I still had pictures from Christmas on my camera as I was getting the recent fishing pictures off of it. Well, better late than never, right? I'm going to let the pictures tell the story (with just a bit of narration).

Spreading the reindeer food; I love how the flash on the camera caught the food flying through the air! And yes, it's warm enough on Christmas Eve to be wearing short sleeves.

Look what Santa brought! This thing is amazing, but they still haven't put it together and made it work. It's a robot that you build with LEGO's. It has software that makes it work and talk and obey commands. I think Santa brought it for Jeremy as much as for the boys!

These boys LOVE their football cards!

And the new Madden NFL 2012 for Wii

Yes, he's excited.

A big ol' box of Lincoln Logs

Happy Boys!

New Nerf guns! You can't have too many of those...or can you?!

I think he likes it.

And of course, the LEGO's

Santa also brought them scooters, which they love.

 Now it's time to build the new LEGO sets.

This is not nearly all of them.

We also went to visit Jeremy's brother, Pete, and his family and in-laws to have Christmas with them. This little cutie is Jackson, Pete's son. The boy LOVES tractors!

This is what we got him. They were all excited about it. 

Older cousins helping out

Isn't he just precious?!

Tucker's fish

Well, after the 8 lb bass Tyler caught on Friday, the boys were fishing again on Saturday. This time, it was Tucker's turn to catch a good one. He was proud of his catch. Jeremy said it was about a 1 1/2 lb one. Good catch for Tucker, particularly since he doesn't stick around long enough to actually catch anything. A 5 year old needs constant activity, and fishing just doesn't always do that.

But on this particular day, he hung in there long enough to make a catch. Perhaps he'll be encouraged enough to stick with it longer next time he goes out there.

Here's the proud boy with his catch:

Tyler's Big Fish

Tyler caught the biggest fish of his life (so far) tonight. This bass was 8 lbs!!! And 23 inches long! They were fishing at the pond in our backyard just as it was getting dark. Tyler and his Daddy were quite proud and so excited! Tyler came running into the house to tell me to get the camera and bring it out. I was not expecting something so big. I mean, this is something the professional fishermen would be excited about. (I know, because I've seen the fishing shows.) :-)


Tyler and I were running back and forth up to the house to get things we needed. We had to get the camera, a flashlight (it started getting dark), the scale, some string, and Jeremy's boots because it was muddy and I was fussing at him for getting his good shoes muddy. We needed the string to keep a hold of her in the water because Tucker had fallen asleep, and we were trying to keep her long enough for Tucker to wake up and see it. I ended up just picking him up and carrying him out there to see it.


It was quite exciting, and Tyler wanted to be sure I showed everyone the pictures! So, here they are...

Tyler, the author

Last Friday, Tyler's teacher sent me a text message to let me know that Tyler was a 1st place young authors winner!  He won 1st place in 3rd grade for non-fiction at his school.  Now his writing will be sent to the state competition, which will be in the spring.

Needless to say, I had a big, proud smile on my face.  We are all excited for him.  His writing was a class assignment near the beginning of the school year.  There is some exaggeration to make for "juicy" writing, as they call it.  Here it is.  (And for the record...his daddy does have time to help with dinner, particularly helping to clean it up every night.) :-)

Tucker's first tooth

Well, my 5 year old BABY Tucker lost his first tooth yesterday!  He came home with a "big surprise" from school yesterday. His little baby tooth was in a ziploc.  He said he pulled it out himself, just like Tyler did with his first tooth one day in kindergarten.  There was no drama, no blood.  Just a very proud 5 year old with a tooth, ready to put under his pillow that night, along with a little note for the tooth fairy saying how excited he was. :-)

My babies are growing up too fast.  But I am proud of the little boys that they are and the young men they are going to become.  I love them with all of my heart!

He got tired of me trying to get a picture of the space in his teeth, so he doesn't look too happy. His teeth are a bit crowded, so it is a small space.

Here he is at bedtime ready to put his tooth and the note under his pillow for the tooth fairy. :-)

Football Boys

My boys LOVE football and everything associated with it. They especially love the Saints. :-) But they just love football in general. They also have an insane number of football cards, along with some baseball, basketball, and maybe some other kinds. But they each have 500-600 football cards. And it's kind of crazy how much they, even the 5 year old, know about the game of football and so many of the players in the NFL.

I ran across these photos and just wanted to share them because I think they're good pictures.

My Heart

Most of my heart is 15 time zones away right now. My amazing husband has been in Japan since last Tuesday. He will return this Thursday, extremely jet-lagged, I'm sure. I think this is the longest we've been apart since we got married. So it's been kind of hard for me.

He's in Tokyo for work, and there is a 15 hour time difference. This makes it a bit of a challenge to get to talk, but we've managed to do it at least once a day. Thank the Lord for Skype! I really am thankful for Skype. To be able to actually see him while I'm talking to him helps SO much! I've stayed up pretty late a few nights to be able to talk to him once he got a chance after work. And the boys and I got up earlier yesterday and I drove them to school so we'd have a little bit of time to talk to him before he went to sleep. They also got a quick good morning from him this morning before they got on the bus. These things make him feel not quite so far away and make this week and a half much more bearable. Have I mentioned before that I don't function as well without him?!

Well, the latest news on our move to Japan is that we will not be going until August. This could also change again on any given day. We'll see. Although I get worked up at first whenever I'm given new information that changes my plans, I've learned that if I just go straight to God in prayer about it, He is giving me amazing peace about it all! I've always believed that God gives me peace, but I'm still kind of amazed at the reality of this in this experience. I'm "rolling with the punches" that are coming at us. And I know that as long as Jeremy and I and the boys are together, we can go (or stay) anywhere and be happy in our adventures.

I am so thankful that God has blessed me with my incredible husband and 2 amazing little boys, who are getting not quite so little as each day passes. And I'm so thankful for the love, prayers and support of my extended family. I rely on their prayers a lot too. I'm blessed to have some amazing prayer warriors in my family. I go to them for advice a lot too. It's so nice to know that I can talk to them whenever I need to, even if I'm on the other side of the world. Technology is wonderful, when it's cooperating. :) (Mama, we've got to get you a webcam so we can Skype!)

God is in control, and I'm trusting that He's working things out for what's best for us!

Again?

Well, God's working on me again...or still. I'm not going to share details. But today, I'm clinging, quite hard, to Jeremiah 29:11: " 'I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, ' plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you hope and a future.' "

From the book "Jesus Calling" these words are also prevalent for me today: "If you believe that I am Sovereign over every aspect of your life, it is possible to trust Me in all situations. Don't waste energy regretting the way things are or thinking about what might have been. Start at the present moment - accepting things exactly as they are - and search for My way in the midst of those circumstances."

I know that God is in control of what will happen in my life. I sure wish I knew what His plan was and how it was going to work out. But that is what He's teaching me, right? To just trust Him to work it out. I'm firmly believing that it will all work out "for the good of those who love Him."

In the meantime...I pray. I don't think I've spent this much time in constant prayer in my life. I'm glad that I have Jesus to cling to, to love me, to guide me. I'd be a crazy and very bitter person otherwise. Anyone who would like to pray for us too is welcome to! :)

Emotional

My emotions are running pretty high right now. That's probably not the best time to blog. But the writing helps me work through my emotions. I'm on a roller coaster these days. My post entitled "Coming to Peace" explains some of the cause of this roller coaster ride. Here's more on that...

Our family will be moving to Japan within the next few months. Yep, the other side of the world from here. We will be there for about 2 years, then move to Singapore for about a year after that. Should I continue? Or is that enough explanation?

We are excited about this new chapter in our lives. It will be an adventure. Jeremy is actually there right now for work, staying for about a week and a half. That's the other cause of my emotional ride. I don't do very well without him. I'm pretty dependent on him for a lot of things, particularly making me feel calm and normal and happy. We are getting to Skype, which helps A LOT! But still, he's not here. I'm sure you all understand. Also, Tokyo is 15 hours ahead of us here, so figuring out a time to talk is a little bit of a challenge. I can't just call or text him when I feel like telling him something or hearing his voice because I'd have to wake him up to do it. But there is a good stretch in our afternoons that we can talk, depending on what time he wakes up over there. I was also up until about 1 am talking to him.

As far as the move goes...there are just so many decisions to make and preparations to handle that I tend to get a little stressed at times, although "overwhelmed" may be the more accurate term. Most of the stress is that I do not yet have instructions on what all I need to do. I've been told by others the things that they had to do, but I don't know details yet. So, it's really the unknown that worries me more than anything. I've actually been doing quite well, I think. I am in constant prayer, which is the only reason that I've not gone crazy yet. The Lord is teaching me so much through this experience. The lessons I'm learning, particularly to trust completely in Him, giving Him control of our circumstances, are essential.

I'm learning flexibility too! This has never been something that I'm very good at. I like to know ahead of time exactly how things should go so that I can plan and be prepared and just know what to expect going into something. This is NOT going to happen in this situation. I know that, and I've come to accept that.

Once we knew that we were going to move, we didn't really know when the move would be. The window was January to June of this year. We still don't really know. We thought in Dec that it would be around the end of Feb., but now it looks like it will be May/June. But that could change again too. This is hard for me. Again, it's the unknown. But it is one of the things God is using to teach me.

I'm taking things one day at a time, CHOOSING not to get stressed when I feel out of control over what's happening. I still feel overwhelmed at times, like today when other things start to stress me, like the boys not getting along and Jeremy isn't here to help with that. But I am not supposed to be in control. God is. And that's the thing I try to remember. He IS in control, so there is no need for me to worry.

And we really are excited about it all. Jeremy got to look at some apartments and houses that we could live in once we get over there. He was pleasantly surprised at what was available to us. He's also already getting more comfortable with the whole "big city" life that we are unaccustomed to. There are trains and subways and lots of walking and bike-riding that we will do to get around, and he's figuring that out after being there for just a few days.

There will be so many things that we will get to see and do while we live there that we are very much looking forward to. I'm going to have to start planning our weekend adventures now! That will probably be a better use of my time than the worrying. And the boys will be going to an amazing school, The American School in Japan (ASIJ). I'm excited for them and all that they will experience. And they are excited about the Sumo wrestling and the taekwondo. There are also several other people that are already living there that have children close to our kids' age, so that will be great for all of us!

Okay, I'm starting to calm down now and feel better. I read a little of the Psalms before I started writing too. I just needed the comfort. Hopefully Jeremy will be waking up soon and we can Skype and I'll be even better.