Baby Shower / Dinner Party

I believe that God gives us different friends at different seasons in life for different reasons.  Some friends help you to laugh at yourself, others walk a few steps ahead of you in marriage or parenting, and still others are great shopping buddies.  In my experience, it is rare to find a friend who knows you intimately, cares deeply about your feelings, your family, and your dreams, and is there for you to celebrate victories, grieve losses, and bring meals when you're sick.  These friends anticipate your needs, work hard to make you smile, and call to check up on you when they sense something is off.  Usually they share your world view and values and help to encourage you to seek God daily.  These friends are priceless treasures.

This past Saturday night, some of my treasured friends helped to throw me a baby shower / celebration.  It was a night I won't ever forget.  It was an intimate dinner party for about ten people (mostly my church community group), and the point was not to shower the baby with gifts as much as to celebrate our new little blessing and pray for him and our family.  It was one of those events that could have been just be dinner and gifts, but it was so much more.

My dear friends Hope and Kylie worked really hard to make the night special, meaningful, and memorable for me.  Hope used photocopies of my nursery fabrics and some of my childhood photos to make an awesome decoration for the kitchen island (the nursery is yellow, gray, black and white).  She also planned a craft that was really fun.  We used photocopied fabrics from my nursery to make scrabble tile necklaces with scripture references on the back.  Later, the scripture on the back of each necklace was prayed over the baby by the person who had chosen it.

When I told Hope, "You didn't have to do all of this!  I'm just honored that people would gather to celebrate our baby!" her response was, "I know, but this seems to be your love language and how you love others best, so we wanted to make you feel loved, too."  So, so thoughtful.

My favorite part of the night besides praying for the baby was when Hope showed this video, which was a surprise to me:

What a keepsake!  The video so perfectly captures my kids at this stage in their lives as they prepare for their baby brother, and I am so thankful that I will always have this to show to our youngest and to remind me of how excited Brennan and Cora were to love on him.

The food on Saturday was amazingly good, and my friend Emily made a divine strawberry cake (one of my favorites!) that was possibly the most delicious cake I've ever had in my life.  I could have eaten half of it by myself.  (For real.)

I got lots of great diapers, wipes, pacifiers, and pajamas for the baby, and I am so thankful for how much money this will save us in the upcoming months!  My most meaningful gift was from Hope.  It was three of the scripture verses we prayed for the baby, written out on vellum and framed with some of my nursery fabric behind it.  It is beautiful on many levels, and it will look perfect in the baby's room.

I am incredibly grateful for the friends God has given me at each stage in my life.  It is good to know that our kids will have other adults to look up to and learn from, and Jim and I will have lots of emotional support and extra hands when we need them.  I am so blessed.  Each day we are a step closer to being ready to meet this little guy!

I've Had My Head in the Clouds!

I had been doing really well at keeping up with my goals for the year... until now.  One of my goals had been to blog at least once a week, and, for the first time this year, I have failed.  Sorry.  :-(  But if it counts for anything, I failed because I was working towards one of my other goals:  I left Nashville!  (Hooray!)

This past Thursday through Saturday, I headed to the Smoky Mountains for a Women's Retreat with my church.  Seventeen of us headed to a cabin in the clouds (seriously... it was like driving straight up to Heaven), and it was so. much. fun!

(Yes, I drove my little Honda up here on narrow, switchback roads.  It was so steep my gas gauge dropped by a quarter tank until I got to a level parking space at the top.)

Over the course of the weekend we had gourmet cupcakes...

... other good food (well, it was mostly good because we didn't have to cook)...

...and we went ziplining through the trees!!!

We had great conversations, some thought-provoking Bible study, and lots and lots of laughs.  I mean, I don't remember the last time I laughed as much as I did in the course of those three days.  It was good for my soul.

Something unexpected happened while I was at the retreat, too.  I led the Bible study, and I discovered all over again how much I love teaching!  Throughout the weekend several people told me that they enjoyed my teaching and that I had a gift for making them understand and feel excited about what they were learning.  It made me feel so good, and it was like finding a piece of myself that I didn't know had "gone missing."  I think at one time I knew I was a good teacher, but I had honestly forgotten.  Teaching again was like coming home.

And this discovery was by no means the most profound part of the weekend.  I took so much away that I'm still thinking through.  I'm reexamining how I spend my time and resources, and trying to figure out how to be a better follower of Christ.

It really was a wonderful weekend.

It was beautiful.
It was fun.
It was thought-provoking.
It was inspiring.
It was memorable.

The Holy Spirit was present.  I'm excited to see what God is going to do in the lives of the women in my church!

Little Things Mean a Lot

I think sometimes we underestimate the little things.  Little things can add up to big things, and, I don't know about you, but sometimes I am so paralyzed by a need for big change that I forget the power of baby steps.

This weekend for me was one of great little things and glorious baby steps.

On Friday morning I went to my friend Hope's house, Starbucks in hand, (a great little thing!) to talk about a plan for her living room.  Hope is a good friend with good taste, and I'm honored that she has hired me to help her create a living room that feels more in line with her personal style.  I'll blog about our adventures over the next few months, as Hope has elected to execute the plan in real time, on a real budget.  (I so appreciate this, as most of us cannot realistically change a whole room overnight!)

Hope's hope (I'm lame; I know) is that her room will breathe more, feel more casual, and invite people to come in, put their feet up, and enjoy a glass of iced tea (metaphorically speaking, although I'm sure she'd be happy to make some... Just be prepared to drink it out of a kiddy cup as she is a mom of FOUR young boys!!).

Hope loves blue, green, and yellow and adores spring, so we are going to make her family room feel like spring, year 'round.  Currently the seasons are colliding in a bit in her house, so we'll try to remedy that, one baby step at a time.

While I was at Hope's house we talked about our big-picture plan, we shopped the house a little, and we moved around some furniture.  She had already taken it upon herself to switch out a few things and spray paint some picture frames, and all of these free changes (free minus the cost of some spray paint) have already had a great impact!  Check this out:

Before:

After:

The mantel is not done (yes, I'm fully aware that the clock on the left is the wrong size and scale), but we just moved a few things from other parts of the house to see what we needed to do to achieve a different look.  Check out what a difference it made!  I can't wait to show you more as we progress!

And now I will transition from a beautiful room to a beautiful plate of food.  Is this not a work of art?

On Friday night I took another baby step: I tried sushi!  have to tell you, I'm not a seafood person and I don't do raw anything except fruits and vegetables, so this was a stretch for me.  However, of the eight of us who went out, four were experienced sushi eaters, and they assured me that I could have cooked food that wouldn't taste fishy.  (I gave them some major trust, my friends.)

Surprisingly, almost everything I ate was really quite good!  I only ate one thing that was fishy tasting, and that was a smoked salmon roll.  That one did not make me so happy.  Everything else was pretty yummy, especially the pieces that were fried or had cream cheese in them.  (Who knew that sushi could be fried or include cream cheese??!!)  I never tried anything raw, but one thing at a time, right?

After dinner our friends came over for dessert and games, and it was so fun!  A few dollars spent on a babysitter and dinner was totally worth the soul-quenching laughter and joy after a very long and difficult week.  I am thankful that we are beginning to connect more with people who know how to have fun and also run deep.  Those aren't the kinds of people you meet every day, and I am grateful for them.

 

Here is a picture of my friend Janna trying her own first bite of sushi!

What little things have brought you a lot of joy recently?

Back to Big D

I still have blog posts to write from before we left for Dallas, so I'll just dive in today and finish talking about my trip so I can move forward (or backward, as the case may be).

Dallas was great.  Truly great.  It was a more emotional trip than I was ready for in some ways, but I'm still processing things so it's hard to put into words.  They weren't bad emotions... in fact, most were really positive.  But when you go back and share life with people who really know you at your core, it's hard not to get at least a little emotional.

We barely stopped moving the whole time we were in town.  We went from one meeting or event to another with really great meals in between.  In fact, meals were a highlight of my trip.  I ate Mexican three times in two days, had a brisket sandwich (I truly miss Texas BBQ... Sorry, Tennessee natives), savored my Chicken Caesar Sandwich and pasta salad at La Madeleine, and had a divine Valentine's Day dinner at Bob's Steakhouse with my friend Erin and her boyfriend, John.

Everywhere we went I took pictures of my food, and I think Jim was partly amused and partly embarrassed.

Our old community group used to do a Valentine's Day dinner where the men cooked and cleaned dinner for the women.  It was so fun.  Most people had other plans this year, but our friends Doug and Marc cooked with Jim for Angelia, Susan, and me.  It was delicious and so nice to be pampered a little.

I am bummed that I don't have any pictures with Susan or Angelia.  I think I was too busy talking and enjoying our time together, but I do regret that I wasn't more intentional about taking pictures with them.

We scheduled our trip for Valentine's Day weekend so I could surprise one of my best friends on her birthday, but the surprise didn't quite work out.  Nevertheless it was awesome to finally meet her boyfriend who is an awesome guy.  I feel quite certain that they are the real deal and I will have many more years to get to know him better.

It was really fun to travel on Valentine's Day weekend because Southwest Airlines celebrates in full force.  Every counter and gate was decorated in the most crafty way... 

I didn't try to compose a good picture because the people at the gate thought I was taking a picture of them.  I didn't want to scare anyone.  But you get the idea.

Overall it was a memorable, special trip.  I am not waiting another three years to do it again.