All You Need is Love....

I have had one of those weeks that everything I'm learning in Bible study, church, readings, etc is all tied together and I wanted to share. In women's study we are doing a book called Get a Life by Vicki Courtney-(thanks Alicia!). This week it was on God's love, and that ONLY HE can give that love. It touched on that we often look to our husbands for what only Christ can provide. Of course it doesn't have to be a husband (hello idols), it can be wives, friends, children, activity, material things, etc. I am so guilty of placing expectations and demands on J that he could never meet..leaving me mad, him frustrated...can you see the vicious cycle forming? No matter how much he loves me, supports me, is my knight in shining armour, is my fix-it man, and all the other wonderful things he is to me; I remain in absolute, desperate need for Christ. In Christ alone do we find complete (Col 2:9-10), perfect (1 John 4:17-18), immeasurable (Ps 139:17-18), unconditional (Rom 8:37-39), eternal (Ps 136) love. I am just sinning, pulling myself away from God, and hurting myself (and others) when I look elsewhere for what only He can give. He alone is my sustainer, redeemer, deliverer, salvation, contentment, peace.......the list is too great to write here. The final part, duh, was that relationships, including mine with God, take work and effort....and I'm pretty sure God has covered his side of it. I know this isn't rocket science of Christianity, but it is certainly too easy to distance yourself from it...like 40 years in the desert. This kicked my butt this week, thanks for listening/reading.
"In HIM you have been made complete" Colossians 2:10
"I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! " Romans 7:15-24 Preach it Paul!! Amen!

Lazy Days

After a week of lots of hard work, finished with a day of fun. We went to watch Annie's (our nanny) son's baseball game. Av was a great cheerleader and she had to hold his hand as we walked out of the ballpark. Quite scandalous in Dothan ;). One of my college roomies and her new man came into town and met us for lunch

Really the only reason I'm posting today is the following

1. Children are smarter than we realize. Av's favorite book is The Monster at the End of This Book-with Grover. On the 2nd time reading it tonight she noted that Grover is naked. The 3rd time we read it she read the book to me. I know, I know..she can't read, but what I was amazed by is that she knows at least one of the lines on each page!!! It's incredible how quickly children learn. Which makes me wonder, what other things does she know??

2. Children are hilarious. Before bed Av said she needed to go potty and ran to the bathroom waving her arms over her head. She let me know she finished going teetee then declared "now the poop is coming" I had to leave the bathroom I was laughing so hard. Sorry to those of you that don't have kiddos and don't care to know about their potty habits.

Full Friday

1. Had a great playdate at Darby's house this morning with lots of fun kids and moms


2. Jonathan and I finished cutting down the last trees today-making the grand total 17. At around tree 12 we figured out that J is much better at pulling the rope to get the tree down..so I was relegated to chainsaw duty..scary but successful. We are both sooo tired. I haven't been to the gym at all and have only run once this week, but I think all this yard work counts for workouts! Almost everything has been taken to the street, stumps/roots have been taken care of..so were almost ready for the new fence!!! Yeah!!!!!

This is one of the biggest trees:


Avery "helped mommy" by raking the sandbox while I raked the yard

Then my big helper made enchiladas with me

3. Now we're watching the NCAA tournament. Tenn, Davidson, and W. Virginia did some major damage to my bracket. Jonathan might have a round of golf on me this year.

Easter

Hope that everyone had a nice Easter. We had an egg hunt at Ann's house. It was more Avery and Reed wandering around the yard. Avery would pick up eggs, but then put them in Reed's basket instead of her own. After a while she was more interested in playing with a beach ball, sand pail, and dress-up hats! That afternoon we had a great time with Beba and Big Papa. Avery loved dying easter eggs. On Easter we went to church and that afternoon Jonathan and I cut down 7 trees in the yard! I was at least able to get one photo posted. I tried to get others and was told there was an "internal error" and blogger could not post the other pictured. I still consider this a success since I have at least added one photo!
As of today we only have one tree left to cut down! Jonathan got a pretty bad cut on his forearm from one of the branches. Avery treated it by scratching it with plastic rake from the sandbox and saying "here Papa, here Papa, I'll fix it" Thankfully after all we have done our worst injuries are scrapes and bruises.

It's my first time

So here is our first blog post. I have to say that I am quite impressed with myself since I'm incredible untechno-savvy. I have loved reading so many of our friends' blogs that I thought we should join the club. Also all our fam is out of town, so hopefully this will make us feel not so far apart.
So for this week's events....we have a semi-new couch (that I am so excited about!), new stove and dishwasher, Jonathan and I have cut down 13 trees in our yard by ourselves in preparation for a new fence. It's been quite productive and tiring.
On the Avery front-she had a great morning of dress-up (my favorite outfit was a flapper hat, many beaded necklaces, no shirt, a tutu, a men's gold watch, and blue heels). She is a great sleeper, but lately talks to herself for a while before falling asleep and tonight she was jumping in her bed and squealing over an hour after we had put her to bed! It was hilarious and we got it on the camcorder. Maybe I'll figure out how to post the video on here before too long. That's about all for today!