Muscle Memory

I've been taking a class at the YMCA for about a year now called Body Combat.  It's a combination of boxing,  karate and tai chi. The class is a series of boxing, kicking, jumping, squatting, lunging, punching and other various unnatural movements set to really loud, really fast music.  When I first started the class I was completely lost and made a fool of myself on a regular basis.  I was weak, out of shape, absolutely intimidated and, honestly, only able to make it through the class if I gave about 50%.  Now, I am able to keep up with anybody in the room, encourage those beside me to push harder and give every ounce of mental and physical energy I have through (almost) each song.  Plus, I actually fill out the butt of my jeans because I have muscles where there were none.  It works, and I'm hooked.

This morning while in the class I found myself thinking about the muscle memory I have gained from being in this class. I find myself following the order of the routine without even looking at the instructor because my body knows what moves to do.  What used to feel awkward and unnatural now feels normal and powerful.  I know what I'm doing, and I'm confident that the moves are building muscle and endurance rather than just building humility.

The parallel to the battle of walking in spiritual strength grabbed me.  Every new challenge I face in my spiritual walk at first feels awkward and uncomfortable.  I feel week and unable.  I feel like quitting, hiding my face, laying down until the urge to fight back passes.  But if I persevere, I develop muscles where before I had spiritual "butt sag".  After a while, I recognize strength in me that I never knew I had, I begin to feel and look like the fighter I am in Christ.  I can keep up and encourage those beside me to push harder, and I can give every ounce of mental and spiritual energy I have through each obstacle.

"When your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything." James 1:3-4

How Times Have Changed

Sunday was my 30th birthday, and it absolutely made me laugh.  Kris gave me a blender, and when his parents took the two big boys home with them from church, we took an hour to rest and then cleaned house the rest of the time that Judah napped. 

The funny part? 

It was one of the best birthdays I've ever had.  Kris' parents did have a party for us Sunday night, and that was fun too.  It just made laugh that I was totally thrilled with a blender and a clean house.  It reminded me of all the times we would ask Mama what she wanted for her birthday or for Christmas and she would, predictably, reply, "Just obedient children."

"I Will Survive"

I've been thinking that I need to update, but honestly, I don't have much exciting to say. In the past three weeks, between the four of us, we've had:

1 stomach bug (Kris)
5 colds (Luke is on #2)
4 ear infections (Yes, all four of us)
1 sinus infection (me)
and 1 trip to the emergency room.

We ended up in the ER when we were in Camilla because Kris and I had both developed ear infections and me a sinus infection and Eli's ear had not cleared up with the first round of antibiotics. It wasn't a "real" emergency (except that Eli's whining was making me feel homicidal), but there weren't any quick care clinics in town. I felt silly going in, but when the doctor look at our ears and said, "Ooh!", I felt a little better.

So, aside from the leftover coughing and nose blowing, we're much better. Eli even played beside me today instead of climbing on my back like a monkey all day. Seriously, Tuesday was so bad I went to the bathroom with him in my lap. At the end of the day I had claw marks on my neck from his death grip. Silly me for thinking he was going to let me put him down.

Thanksgiving was a blur, and we are definitely ready to head back to Camilla at Christmas and have fun. We're just so glad to be almost totally better!

One Man's Trash...

...inevitably gets put to use by someone in my husband's family. Kris still blushes when he talks about his childhood memories of his dad picking "treasures" out of trash piles. I have to be honest that the first time we went on a bike ride as a family and Mr. Eric made the return trip with a vacuum laying across the handlebars, I was grateful I was new to the area and didn't know anyone.

Two major items that have come directly out of the trash or have been brought home when someone else was going to throw it away are the weed-eater and the lawn mower. Mr. Eric is genius when it comes to fixing things. I can't list all the things that Kris and Mr. Eric have made out of wood that has been salvaged from a dump at new construction. This is seriously just the short list.

So, the other day, we were heading to the ball field for Kris to play his softball game, and we saw a tractor in a trash pile by the road. Kris says, "Million bucks says my dad sees that and picks it up." Sure enough, they get to the ball field with a smile on their faces and a green tractor in the back of their truck.

Therefore, without further ado...



And after having been married for over five years, I have been sucked in. These are the "treasures" I picked up yesterday.

On the way out somewhere I called Kris and told him that the neighbors had put this shelf in the trash and that it looked like it was in good shape. He rearranged our entire garage and gave the boys their own shelf for their toys. They LOVED it, and really enjoy taking their toys from the shelf and putting them back.

And I saw this fabulously cute bed in a trash pile when I went to visit some friends yesterday. What I had to do to wrangle it into my car was positively shameful, so I'm trying to forget about that and focus on what a cute bed this is.

My Great Buys

I'm going to a wedding tonight and wanted to have another dress option other than the one dress I wear everywhere. I also have to hold my breath the whole time because it's "fitted", to put it kindly. It didn't use to be such an issue, but having two babies...well, you know. So, I shopped at Belk yesterday. I didn't find a dress, unfortunately, so I've been doing crunches this afternoon to get my stomach muscles used to working. But, I did find a pair of shorts and a cute sundress for me, a nice polo for each of the boys and three nice polo's for Kris, all for $27.49. Unbelievable. Not that I needed to even spend $27.49, but it would have been irresponsible NOT to take advantage of such an incredible sale.

Kris' Birthday Surprise

I finally get to tell what I've been working on! Kris' 30th birthday is in a few weeks. I wanted to do something fun for him, a surprise. So, instead of a surprise party, which would have been torturous for him, I planned a surprise trip to the mountains in North Carolina! His parents kept Luke, and my parents gave us birthday money for a sitter to keep Eli here. So, they had a great weekend, too! Below are some pictures of our weekend.



The best view of the whole trip!

Bears at Grandfather Mountain, a national park. They were used to being fed treats, so they put on a show for us. Really cute, in a dangerous animal sort of way.

Us on top of Grandfather Mountain.

We got to go rock climbing, which was so fun. It was hard and my whole body ached the next day, but I can definitely see how it could be addictive. A serious rush!




It was a wonderful, relaxing trip, and we enjoyed just being together. We missed the boys, and we were very ready to get back home to them. It's been nice to hold them and enjoy them today. We are so blessed to have family that we could leave them with and never worry about them. Thank you to everyone who helped make this trip happen!

A New Occupation

Apparently, I missed my calling. I have a skill that I was completely unaware of. I have a knack for thievery. Surprising, I know. Since going from one child to two, I have stolen:

1) Two deli drinks from Publix,
2) A pack of peanut butter M&M's from Walgreens
and
3) A paint brush from Lowe's.

All three boys were with me at the time of the deli drink theft. We got to the checkout counter and two of the boys melted (No, Kris wasn't one of the ones crying, although I'm sure he, like I, felt like it.) I took Eli out to the car, along with the unpaid for drinks.

Sadly, I can't blame the M&M theft on having screaming children with me. I picked up a bag on the way back to the pharmacy to peacefully (aka "without children") eat my snack and read my book. By the time my prescription was ready, I had finished the M&M's and stuck the empty bag in my purse, thereby forgetting that I had ever picked them up in the first place.

The paint brush theft happened the day I lost my mind and thought I could take both children to Lowe's to pick out a paint color. So many things wrong with that. First, picking out paint colors is a completely painful experience for me. I'm believed by my mother and sister to be slightly color blind. Second, I skipped Eli's morning nap to run this errand, thereby begging for torture just by being in public with a sleep deprived fifteen month old.

So, there you have it. Who needs a college degree when you have sticky fingers like mine?

P.S. In regards to all of the above stolen merchandise, I have returned to the aforementioned stores to confess my sins and pay for the items.

I'm All Better

Thanks for the encouragement and for the "I'm feeling you's". All it really took to dig out of my hole of self pity was a long walk with some good worship music and some concentrated time with Jesus, and I wasn't so bad off anymore. My house, on the other hand, needs more than Jesus. (Unless you want to send a legion of cleaning angels, Lord, and then that should probably take care of it.)

I finally decided to let the house totally go until Eli quit teething. Not like I could do much for it anyway with him glued to my leg like a monkey on a banana, but just saying, "Okay, I'm not going to worry about the house until Eli quits teething" really helped my stress level. Then he got sick, then Luke got sick, then I got sick. Some 24 hour bug. Times 3.

It was pretty pitiful around here. Luke was so bad off that he just laid on the floor whimpering. At one point I asked him if he wanted me to hold him, and he just said, "Nooo." Then I asked if he wanted to watch a movie, and he said, "Nooo." Now anyone who knows my Luke knows that he will watch a movie ANYTIME he's given the opportunity. That's when I knew it was serious. The only thing that perked him up slightly was the mention of a popsicle. We had Daddy pick some up on the way home from work, and that helped a little. But at 7:30 that night, he turned off the TV and said he was ready to go get in the bed. Now that is sick. Now we're all pretty much better, I just still have a sore throat.

One bonus of sickness, the boys are still sleeping in and taking long naps for their bodies to fully recuperate. I'm going to go enjoy my time that's left of this naptime....

I've Spared You the Drama

I know it's been a while since my last post. But I have to be honest. The last two weeks have not been fun, and I haven't had any desire to write. You remember how I wrote about the ten things I love about blogs, and #'s 4 and 5 were about having perspective? Well, not even blogging would have helped with the perspective problem. Let's just say that husbands working a lot of hours, potty training and cranky babies do not make for a very pleasant experience.

I'm trying not to open the flood gates here, so I'll make it brief. Potty training is hard. I don't want to do it anymore. And here is some additional info for you.

Teething baby = cranky baby.
Cranky baby = crazy toddler(And who can blame him, it makes me feel kinda crazy too.)
Cranky baby + crazy toddler = stressed out mama.
Stressed out mama = God revealing many things that need working on in me. It's been down right ugly around here. Which is why you should be grateful I haven't been blogging.

I'm digging out of my hole of bad attitude and selfishness. I'll get back with you in a few days.

Extreme Makeover, Hannah Edition

Luke loves to look at pictures. He gets it from his dad. I can pull out all the photo albums on my bookshelf, and he will sit and flip through the pages over and over. I pulled out an oldie, goldie the other day. It was one that Anna made for me when I was probably nine or ten. In it were pictures of my first trip to a summer camp at Living Waters. Luke took one look at a group picture of me with five other nine year olds, pointed me out and said, "It's Mama!"

The other day I saw my youth minister for the first time in maybe five years. The first words out of his mouth were, "You haven't changed a bit!"

Okay, I'm glad I'm not "showing my age", not that that is such a great accomplishment at twenty-seven. But shouldn't I have changed a little bit since high school? And for the love! I should NOT look so much like I did at nine that my two year old can spot me in a group picture!

Is it my hair? My clothes? Kris can always tell when I put on something that I've had for a couple of years. He'll ask me if I think it's time to get rid of it. Only if I can replace it, Baby. Only if I can replace it.