Oh this day

So sickness and sleepless nights are visiting the Cook house and John is absent for a few days.  It is a little crazy here today but God in his sweetness is throwing in the laughter which is wonderful for me - I love to laugh!!!  (Read the next post for more of today's saga)  So I put a movie in and tell Jake he needs to rest - his fever is 102.   I put Brady in the beanbag beside him and tell him that he has to sit and watch the movie or go into the playroom.  So everyone is settled watching cars and I sit down to eat breakfast at 10:15.  Jake turns to me and says "Mommie you have a beautiful oval head!!!"  I am still laughing about it 20 minutes later.  

The Wafer Truck is Coming!!!!

My boys love the ice cream truck and they can hear it a mile away.  About 10 minutes ago, I was on the phone with my friend April and I was telling her that the Jake is sick and running fever and he nor I slept much last night.  I also told her that my little Brady was on the prowl full force this morning.  He takes great delight in getting a stir out of most anyone but especially his brother.  So needless to say it has been a little crazy around here this morning and I have started my day quite frustrated.  Then the Lord was sweet and gave me a chance to laugh at Brady rather than scorn him this morning. (Yes I am that dreadful sinner)  Jake said, Mommie look what Brady has in his the back of the blue truck.  So as I head over to look - proceeding with caution - Brady says "You want a nilla wafer mommie?"  This is what I saw and had to just laugh (it is the whole box)  Thank you Lord for laughter at just the right time.

Is Best really Best?

As a young Christian, any time I would make decisions for my life, I was constantly ask by mentors in my life "Which of these decisions is the best?"  Many of you may have heard the saying that making decisions in your life usually does not involve deciding between a good and bad decision but rather a better and best decision.  Every time I say yes to one thing, there are several things that become an automatic no as a result of that one yes. All of those No's have to be factored into deciding on the best YES. 

John and I are in the processes of praying through some hard decisions for our family - I will share more later as they come together. We feel as though God is giving us some answers and well, for me they are hard to swallow.  Last night, we were talking after a CRAZY whirlwind day. I had time to gather my thoughts from the day and I confessed to John that I was sad about some of these decisions.  He ask me if I was "too sad?"  My response to him was that I knew that this decision would be the best for our family and for the long haul of our life but to me nothing about it felt "best."  He ask me what I meant.  Well, I had a hard time describing the word best without using best to describe itself. (weird I know).  Usually when I think about best I think that it is a good thing - not bad or sad.  John, in his wisdom, said that he didn't always see that.  Shocked, I ask him what he meant.  He said that making best decisions while walking with God and deciding to glorify Him with our lives has always meant sacrifice and in his flesh there is nothing best about sacrifice.  This was profound for me in that moment.  It helped me see that I was gazing at my circumstance and only glancing at God.  I very much long for the reverse to be true in my life - gazing at God and glancing at my circumstances.  

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in his wonderful face,

Then the things of earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of His glory and grace."

Please pray for me in the next few days that I would walk toward my BEST - Jesus and that all of the other things would be put into perspective in light of Him and His kingdom.

Good Stuff!!!

I had to share this....

“On the most basic levels, I desire fullness, and fleshly lusts seduce me by attaching themselves to this basic desire. They exploit the empty spaces in me, and they promise that fulness will be mine if I give in to their demands. When my soul sits empty and is aching for something to fill it, such deceptive promises are extremely difficult to resist.

Consequently, the key to mortifying fleshly lusts is to eliminate the emptiness within me and replace it with fullness; and I accomplish this by feasting on the gospel. Indeed, it is in the gospel that I experience a God who glorifies Himself by filling me with His fullness. . . . This is the God of the gospel, a God who is satisfied with nothing less than my experience of fullness in Him! . . .

Indeed, as I perpetually feast on Christ and all His blessings found in the gospel, I find that my hunger for sin diminishes and the lies of lust simply lose their appeal. Hence, to the degree that I am full, I am free. Eyes do not rove, nor do fleshly lusts rule, when the heart is fat with the love of Jesus!”

- Milton Vincent, A Gospel Primer for Christians (2008), 45-46.

Burrito Brady

So I haven't been sleeping much lately and I ask John if I could sleep in this morning. When the kids got up he put a fan by my head so I couldn't hear them and let me sleep. A little bit later he cam in the door with Brady crying. I, halfway awake, ask what was wrong and I thought I heard him say "I am getting something to wash Brady's eye with." So I laid back down and he left the room. A second later he came and said "Your gonna have to help me hold him down." So a little confused I get up and walk in the kitchen, my contacts dry and blurry. I look up and John and Brady are covered in blood. I don't think a part of Brady's face didn't have smeared blood on it. So John holds him down and I attempt to clean it up so I can see how bad it is. Wasn't happening. So we took a beach towel and wrapped him up like a burrito as you can see below. This was the second wrapping after the trip to walmart for supplies so no blood is present. From our trips to the ER with Jake we have learned a thing or two about the need for stitches and how to handle this situation. We decided that Brady didn't need stitches, although, I am a little worried but John seems convinced. Jakes last trip looked way worse than this and they used the liquid stitch so that is what we opted for this time to.
In case your wondering, John said Brady was just rolling around in the floor and hit the corner of the TV cabinet. He just got it the right way and it split his eye open. He is doing ok now. It is already blue and swollen but he is asleep in his daddy's arm still wrapped in his burrito.

There's A Baby in the House!!!!

No I am not pregnant!!! This year I am babysitting a friends little boy. Yes we love that he's a little boy - it's all I know:) Friday was our first day keeping him and it was so fun. Brady adores him and was extremely helpful and loving. Jackson loves Brady too. This was the first time Brady had seen him for the day. He crawled up beside him and Jackson started cooing and smiling and Brady loved it. Seems he will be a great big brother but for now I am getting my weekly baby fix.

Life with Little Ones

Lately I have talked to a few moms that have recently gone from 1 child to 2 and are just struggling to determine what to let go and what to make time for.  Several of you are alot like me in personality and you not only enjoy a clean house but you really don't mind the cleaning itself.   I wanted to encourage you that this is just a short season of life but that from this point on your seasons will come and go in short burst for a little while.  Earlier this spring I shared on here my cleaning schedule.  At that point, Jake was home 3 out of 5 days and life was a little less committed.  This semester (yes I know i am not is college but planning for me works best by semester thinking - I am not a college wantabe - not most of the time :)) life for us has a few more commitments and some specific goals so it doesn't allow for me to be as committed to my house.  Always remember that when you say yes to one thing there are at least 3-4 things you have to say no to.  As a family we are committed to not living busy lives but sometimes for the sake of priorities life has busy seasons.  So I just thought that I would post my cleaning schedule for this season of life.  It is alot different than from the spring and really looks alot like what I did shortly after Brady was born.  Super cleanliness in the house right now is not a yes for me.  Because of my personality it will come around again I am sure.

Morning Routine: (about 30 minutes)

-start load of laundry

-make my bed

-empty dishwasher

-meal preps (includes Jake's school snack, Brady's gym snack, lunch and dinner preps)

-cook breakfast

Evening Routine: (about 10 min for boys and 20 for me)

-Boys (John too) - go through entire house and pick up things laying out and put up (it is mainly toys

-Me: clean kitchen from dinner. I don't clean the kitchen right after we eat.  This is our family time.  I do it while John is doing Bed time routine with the boys and then I join in for parts of the routine and then come back and finish up.

Tuesday Mornings: (about 1.5 hour)

-1st and 3rd Tuesdays:

  - clean living and dining room (dust and vacuum)

  - any cleaning in kitchen & mop

  - clean both bathrooms (scrub and mop)

  - change sheets on beds

-2nd & 4th Tuesdays:

  - clean all 3 bedrooms (dust & vacuum)

  - tidy up bathrooms (wipe off counters, clean toilet)

  - change sheets on the bed

Sometimes in between our bedroom furniture will get dusty and it drives me crazy so I grab a rag and spend 2 minutes dusting off the top.  

So other than my morning routine of about 30 minutes I don't do anything to my house except on Tuesdays. Yes the baseboards need cleaning, the window could defiantly use a cleaning and yes some days I notice and for a moment it makes me crazy but I just have to remind myself of 2 things (really I do have to stop and tell myself this) 1. this is only for a season and my house is not dirty I just see things that could be cleaner 2. the investments that I am making in people will not burn up one day and my house will.

I encourage you not to feel defeated because you just can't do what you could.  Our measuring stick as moms and wives has to be how we glorify God with our time by loving and serving the people he places in our care.