The Calm Before the Storm

Does that sound ominous or what?

No, we aren't expecting any major terrors around the corner, but in about 2.5 months we will have an addition to our family - and one that is basically completely dependent on us. Look - you can tell she's really in there (and no, my brother isn't having a baby too, he just wishes he looked as cool as me).

Based on conversations with many friends who have recently had babies, Daryl and I are planning for the first 3 months at least to be like war! :) While you can't prepare for what life will be like after baby, we have been assured that things will be different - especially in regards to my sleep.

So tonight we are just chilling. I confess that unless it's a weekend evening I often feel very lazy if I'm not doing something productive - even if it means having coffee with a friend, making phone calls, or writing letters. But I've decided that any chances we get to just chill out these next few months, I better enjoy!

That doesn't mean we are becoming hermotized sloths, but it does mean that tonight after cleaning up dinner I sat on the couch with Daryl and watched him play video games and now we are in bed reading (and blogging)...and just for fun - not for increased learning or anything. I even took a 30 minute nap today.

I know these moments may be fewer and farther between in the near future, so I am relishing it. :)

Any last minute date ideas before baby arrives?

ps - thanks for all of the condolences/prayers regarding Simon. We are doing MUCH better already. :)

In memory of Simon

This weekend Daryl and I rode with my parents to visit my brother and sister-in-law at their new place in DC. Before leaving, we dropped Simon off at the kennel (which he thankfully loved visiting), and sadly pulled down the road with him watching us from the kennel yard - something he didn't usually do.

The following morning Kathy from the kennel wakened us via telephone. One of the girls had let Simon out in the morning after feeding him, and when she returned just a couple of minutes later, he was laying on the ground. When she got to him, he wasn't breathing.

We lost our dog on Sunday.

While I know how nice it will be able to get a new couch without fear of it being quickly destroyed, and how nice it will be not to have to bundle up every morning to take him out, or not have to wash the couch cushion covers every couple of days, I wouldn't have traded him for any of those things.

The joy Simon brought both of us (and especially Daryl) has been amazing! We've been reminiscing about how much we loved having him around. We loved being greeted by Simon when we came home. We even loved how he would steal our seat on the couch if we got up for just a moment and look pleading to Daryl for permission to stay there. Daryl loved when he'd look at us like he was smiling and how much fun he had playing outside or going mountain biking with him as a puppy. I loved how he would put his head next to mine on the bed at night time for his nightly rub, how much fun he had on walks with me, and how he would keep me company when Daryl wasn't home yet.

While these next couple days/weeks/months will be a huge adjustment to us, we recognize God's kindness to us in gifting us with Simon at all and in all the joy we were enabled to have through the gift of Simon. We also recognize that Simon was a tremendous companion for Daryl and how gracious of God it was to keep Simon around until we got married and right before we hope to have another pair of little feet pattering around downstairs to hopefully preoccupy many of our sad thoughts.

We won't ever be able to replace Simon - he was one of a kind and as the woman at the kennel said, "their favorite dog," (sorry if you take your dog there - haha), but maybe we'll get another one soon.

For those of you who don't have dogs or don't care for them, this may all sound ridiculous, but he was part of our daily lives - and a responsive part. We will really miss him. We'll miss him when we come home from work. We'll miss him sitting at our feet at dinner time. We'll miss him spinning around in circles at feeding time. We'll miss him in the morning when we wake up. We'll just miss him.

Thankfully God is a good all the time, and who knows, as Daryl reminded me, Joni Ericson Tada once wrote that while God doesn't owe us or any animal any good thing, wouldn't it be just like Him to have a few more surprises for us in our heavenly home?

Goals and objectives

This month has been fun for me as I've been trying over the course of the past week to narrow down what my goals for the year should be.

As many of you know, I LOVE the Mahaneys, and so I visited the Girltalk.blogs.com and printed off some of their resources from the beginning of the year regarding goal setting.

The issue they really encouraged their readers to grapple with was - are our goals "self-exalting" or "God glorifying"? I love this quote, "If 'good looks' or any other goal is driven by selfishness, or a desperate grasp for glory and attention, we are merely resolving to sin against God. If James 4:6, 'God opposes the proud' means what it says (and Scripture always does), than God is actually opposing our efforts instead of blessing them."

Of course the opposite is true because James 4:6 continues to say that "'[He] gives grace to the humble.' If we depend upon God to do good works and perfect our character in order to reflect His glory, we can anticipate His grace to blow life into our feeble efforts."

While I've really had to study and grapple with my motives and goals, what a refreshing truth it is that when we depend on God and are setting goals in order to help us glorify Him more He is our biggest help and biggest fan. I haven't finalized all my goals because my heart is taking me a while to ascertain :), but while I'm in the process, I'll share with you a goal a friend of mine helped me with in college that I've found worthy enough to continue all my days...

SCRIPTURE MEMORIZATION!

Here is the key she gave me to really memorize verses FOR LIFE, and I love it, so I thought I'd pass it on (and as Anne Rheney says, "repetition, repetition, repetition").

1) Pick the passage you want to memorize and write it down
2) Say it 25x the first day, 20x the second, 15x the third, 10x the fourth, and 5x the fifth day while looking at the verse as little as possible
3) Then say it everyday for 25 days
4) Then say it only once a week for 7 weeks
5) Finally, repeat monthly

This means a lot of time has to be put in, but I generally use my time while driving to work or while taking walks or on the elliptical machine.

Also, I write mine on index cards and keep them in this handy dandy index card organizer from Office Depot hat is like a 3x5 fabric pocket organizer that has multiple sections in it. That way I can keep the ones I'm saying tons of time a day in one section, the once a day verses in another section, the once a week ones in another section, and over course the once a month ones in another section. Go office depot! (I'm sure you can find similar ones at Wal-Mart, etc).

Feel free to ask me what verse I'm working on to keep me accountable. I need it! :)