fun with lovey

fun times this weekend with molly and lovey

baby girl loves to stand on couches and chairs

such a lil dare devil!



how i love thee

jesus is so gracious. so so so gracious. HE is why i breathe.

i am so so so imperfect. i am so mixed up and messed up. i was dead. i was really dead.

now i am alive. i am ALIVE. only by HIM can i breathe. i can breathe.

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

2 Peter 1: 3

our little valentine

we spent our valentines together as a family with no electricity. none. i complained even though i know that many people around the world live with out electricity on a daily basis. it messed up my plans. how were we going to stay warm? what about dinner? i had groceries to put in the fridge? what about molly's sound machine? blah blah blah.

thank goodness allen is my other half. he made things infinitely better by finding candles and lanterns from old camping trips. we thankfully also have natural gas that heats our water and our fireplace and stove so issues like dinner and bath time worked themselves out. molly's sound machine is actually an old iphone with a sound machine app and it was fully charged so that worked out fine too. it was cold outside so some groceries were able to say out on the back porch and allen grilled our steaks on the grill. we had fun.

allen said several times, " we will always remember this valentines day when we had no electricity" and he was right. i will remember lighting candles in our kitchen, dining room and living room. i will remember bathing molly with a lantern as our only light. i will remember us rummaging through the fridge/freezer as fast as we can so that cold air would not escape. i will remember that in the middle of our dinner when the electricity came back on and we cheered and then i asked allen to turn the lights back off because if was more fun talking to one another and eating by candlelight.

our Jesus takes care of us and was patient with me while i struggled with being a brat about not having electricity. i knew that it wasn't the end of the world, i knew that it was more important that i had my family and that we had heat from the fireplace and we were safe. however i still struggled. i still wanted MY plans and i sulked when they didn't happen. HE is always patient and slow to anger. he helped me turn my attitude around and used my sweet husband to help that process.

it was a perfect valentines day. absolutely perfect.

my heart to your heart

i love you!

happy valentine's day

xoxo

whitney. allen. molly 

weekend faves

here are a few of my weekend faves in no particular order

1. walking around the neighborhood with the dogs on a really cold Sunday afternoon
2. my mother in law surprising us and bringing over warm tortilla soup for dinner
3. re-arranging  molly's room
4. discovering more of molly's sense of humor
5. girl talk with a good friend Friday night
6. clean sheets on our bed
7. our go to Sunday lunch: grilled cheese and ham with sriracha

seasons of life

I read a quote today that said " childhood is the most beautiful of all of life's seasons" (anonymous) and I started thinking about the different "seasons" of my life.  It is amazing to think of how different each season has been for me as I have grown up and become no longer a girl but a woman. If I am honest with myself (and you) I still to prefer to call myself a girl because woman seems old and mature but in reality I am a woman. When I was a girl I thought about myself mainly. I didn't see very far beyond my own needs and wants. I was given many opportunities to serve others in the name of Jesus and that absolutely speared me on towards living as a woman who saw others rather than just self.  I thought about cute clothes and boys and what others thought of me. I had a hard time imagining myself with a husband or with a child and the thought of buying a house seemed scary.

I still think buying/selling a house is scary. I still want to wear cute clothes and I worry sometimes about how others see me. However, I know that I married the best man God had for me and that being a mom was my destiny. I think back on the hours that I prayed to God and worried about what I was going to "major" in or do with my life and now I know. I am going to be a mom. Part time to students on a daily basis who struggle with reading and math and behavior issues but also full time to my own child who I love and adore a million times more than myself. I know that saving money and working with what I have in my closet is more valuable and important than wearing the worlds cutest pair of skinny jeans. I know that giving up what I want is way harder but so worth it. I used to have anxiety about how others saw my outward appearance and now I really only care about how my heart looks.

I used to pray all the time that God would mold me into the woman of God he created me to be and I finally am beginning to believe and see that He is doing just that.

**picture of Ariccia, Italy where I spent the summer of 2004 learning and loving all things Italian

my favorite part of yesterday

my favorite part of yesterday occurred at 6am.

after an early morning awakening at 4am by our little one and our attempts to help her fall back asleep I finally caved and brought her into our bed at 6. She nestled down next to me and snuggled up beside me. She sighed and immediately began snoring. She stretched her arms out above her head and in her sleep searched for my hand.

it was such a beautiful moment. I was struggling to keep my eyes open but I really wanted to remember everything. The look on her face, the soft pajamas and the paci moving up and down with each suck. Her tiny fingers curled around my hand and the way her wispy hair fell across her face.

oh my goodness I am so thankful for that moment. it has been etched in my heart forever. being molly's mama was what i was made to do.