Birthday Video (for Papaw and the Aunties)

I sadly didn’t get too many good pictures at Jessie’s and Aubrie’s birthday party, but we did get some good video of the cake moment.

Since May is a toss-up for heat and humidity (It can either be really pleasant or really miserable.), we asked everyone to don swimsuits and turned on the sprinkler – it was a LOT on the miserable side. The kiddos also painted ladybugs on their ladybug houses, and a good friend, Miss Karen, painted ladybugs (and a few butterflies and flip flops) on their faces. We have some wonderful friends who endured heat and pesky flies in order to wish Jessie and Aubrie a happy birthday. Thank you!

Happy Anniversary!

Thirteen years ago Todd and I began the wild ride called marriage.  It is amazing to look back at who we were then and who we are now and marvel at how God makes the two one.  In a day of gender blending, confusion and role reversals, I am so thankful for a husband who looks to God’s word for his role as husband and father and who understands that our roles are different but neither less worthy or important than the other.

I started out in marriage thinking that I would do my “job” as long as he was doing his.  Man, does that lead to a big mess.  Since then, I’ve been so blessed to read several books that have pointed me back to the Word for how a wife and mother is to conduct herself.  The life-changer is understanding that I fulfill my role regardless.  When I go back to my conditional behavior (if he does x, then I’ll do y), things can get ugly quickly.

I posted on FB this morning that I’m thankful for the mystery of marriage for it truly is a mystery to me that if we follow God’s plan for surrender and death to self, that the blessings can be so utterly amazing and lead us to places that we never could have imagined. 

A friend said something last summer that really resonated with me.  “I want to understand God’s role for me and then quit fighting against it. I want to find contentment in it and rest there.”

One Month Old

Our garden was planted a month ago today, and we are amazed at how things have taken off.  We harvested the rest of our radishes last night and need to figure out something else to go in that square!

 

We also took some pictures of the girls last week – they had as much fun as I did picking out fun places to “shoot.” 

 

Jessie Claire

Aubrie Ann

Patience Emory (aka, Emma)

Getting into our life here in Clinton is taking some time, but slowly the Lord is showing us where He wants us.  So wish I could occasionally fast forward!  One thing we are SO looking forward to is the Homeschool Conference this month in Starkville.  We just finished (well, Todd has finished, and I am in-progress) reading Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham, and he is one of the main speakers.  Can not wait! 

You Know It’s Bad When

your dad is asking you to update your blog because he misses his grandkids.

So Sorry!

The two major happening in the Williams fam are the puppy and our square foot garden.  The puppy is DEFINITELY more work!  Her name is Brown Sugar – Sugar, for short.  She is super smart and just about potty trained inside.  I know I am very thankful for this.  We’ve had her about a week-and-a-half, and I was up with her more the first two nights than I was when we had babies in the house.  Ugh.  Those nights are much better now, although she still thinks that 3 am is a good time for a party.  I do not.

 

Our other new endeavor is the garden.  We, a.k.a Todd, built two 4x8 beds complete with weed backing and Mel’s Mix from the book Square Foot Gardening.  So far, things are taking off.  I need to take some new pictures, actually, because the tomato plants are much taller now.  The girls have pretty much taken over this project, watering every day and picking weeds.  We can’t wait to start eating out of our own back yard!

 

The Summer Olympics?

Today for our history lesson we studied the beginnings and history of the Olympics.  The girls were really excited about this because what little Olympics we watched this winter, they were really into.  (I know that’s really bad grammar but too much in a hurry to fix it!)  I won’t even go into how frustrating it was to close on a house the day the Olympics started and the fact that once we were pseudo settled, we didn’t have a converter box to pick up any channels.  Okay, so I sort of went into it, but you gotta feel some of my pain.  And, I realize I sound like a complete whiner, but it’s the Olympics, people!

So something I didn’t know that was surprising: The last Greek Olympics were in A.D. 395 because Olympia was destroyed by an earthquake.  They weren’t reinstated until the late 1800s.  Am I the only one who missed this is my history classes?  I just assumed they’d been going on since the Greek time.  Maybe I shouldn’t publicly admit that…

We went back to the “roots” of the games and had five competitions: a foot race, arm wrestling (The Greeks just wrestled, but I figured this was safer.), jumping, discus (plastic lid throwing)  and throwing the javelin (or a really big stick).  I captured some of competitions and just love the very competitive looks on my girls’ faces.  If you know them, this won’t surprise you a bit.  They are very tenacious girls.  Very feminine, but very determined.

Notice Aubrie lost in Aubrie-land.

Here’s some of that determination in action!

The Winner’s Circle

The Sun Shines Again

So glad that the sun decided to make a lengthy appearance today! We thoroughly took advantage of such beautiful weather. We played with friends, came home to rest a little and played some more! I am loving that the girls are enjoying the back yard and have discovered all sorts of fun hiding places. I have a little chuckle every time I hear, “Ready or not, here I come!”

As a matter of fact, they’ve become rather good at hiding inside the house as well, and they had me completely stumped the other day. I was beginning to wonder if they had slipped outside. I’m still not sure how I didn’t see them in the laundry room. It’s not that big, and I LOOKED in there!

We had a really great week of homeschooling and basically stayed on-schedule which is a MAJOR feat for us. Seems like life is always interrupting our schedule. The other big news for the week is that our heater was fixed today! Oh, how I love heat when it’s cold outside. I had taken to moving the space heater to whatever room we were in. So thankful for our home warranty, too. I was trying not to complain when people were asking me how I was liking our new house because I really do love it, but I HATE being cold. Every now and then I over romanticize the Little House on the Prairie days, and then I remember that Laura did NOT have central heat and air and come back to reality!

Painting, Cleaning and Lots o’ Fun

We were able to close on our house in MS this past Friday despite the several inches of snow on the ground.  Our resident meteorologists (Poppy and Emma) tell us that there was between five and six inches.  We built snowmen, made snow ice cream and kept mom busy washing the layers and layers of clothes they got wet and dirty in the snow.  What a first day back in Clinton! 

We then went to work picking out paint colors.  I am so challenged in this area.  I know what I like, but I have no idea how to go from paint swatch to what it’s actually going to look like on a wall.  Our good friend Kristy came to our rescue with her paint samples and touch-up paint, and we have successfully painted the living room, one of the girls’ rooms and our bedroom.  I say successfully only because we’ve decided that we’re not trying to fix anything else.  I don’t know if it’s the eggshell finish, or if we’re just stinky painters, but we could NOT get rid of some of our roller lines.  Ugh.  We’re hoping that when furniture arrives and things are hung on walls that we won’t notice them so much. 

After finishing up our painting this afternoon we shifted gears to cleaning up before the truck arrives.  We have basically worked until we’re both pooped!  But, we have had so much fun getting our house ready to be a home and have not had so much “alone time” in FOREVER!  We even got to have a date Friday night.  Yahoo!  Thanks to Nan and Pops and to the Kysers who have made it possible for us to get this much done in such a little time.

We are so thankful to stand around and truly count our many blessings and are in awe of all that God has done for us.