Our Rock…

I have so many new pictures to post that just haven’t gotten here yet. There has been so much fun going on. New ways of play, crafting all kinds of goodness, new babies… but something else has been on my mind lately.

(one of our first pictures together when we first started dating)

I’ve been reading here, here and here about girls and their hubbys and how loved they are. Since reading those I have been thinking about how amazing it is that God sends you exactly what you need. Joseph is so very perfect for me. Our childhood, our years away from each other, and our coming together was all God-ordained. I am not the type of person to believe that God makes someone purposely for someone else and creates them to be for each other only. But it’s hard for me not to believe that when I was created, He had Joseph in mind.

(A dating picture at Josiah’s birthday party)

Joseph has walked through so much with me. He really helped me learn how to live again. He never judged me for all I’d been through. He gently held my hand and walked me out of it. God had such perfect timing. My heart was rapidly changing and Joseph was just an added blessing. He re-entered my life at the exact right time.

(Married, during the Snakes and Suits time of our lives)

Marriage has been a huge adventure with my best friend. Of course, there have been good times and bad times. But he has been constant through it all. If I could describe him in one word it would be just that – constant. God knew I needed someone solid. A rock. Someone who could handle with complete grace anything that comes at him. And he is my rock.

( The night Scarlet Rayne was born, she knew who he was immediately)

The night Scarlet was born was amazing. It was a whole new level of love. Watching her look up at him only moments after being born. She had the same look in her eyes that I felt in mine. Adoration. Everyday she looks at and gives him these gorgeous google-eyes. He is a rock for her as well. She wakes up in the morning knowing he’s going to be right there to make her smile.

(Our little family on the porch at my grandparents house in Tennessee)

He changes the whole atmosphere of our home. When he walks in, everyone lights up. Macky wakes up in the morning (for the second time) saying ‘Doe-fuf’ and pointing to our bedroom. She loves to here him playing guitar somewhere in the house. He livens up the whole rhythm of our home.

(Looking over Roanoke Valley with Josh and Carrie)

I most definitely cannot imagine life any other way. Life could have taken different twists and turns… I am so very thankful that life turned his way. God knew I needed him, everything about him.

A Book For Me!

Yesterday I finally got out of the house to pick up Amanda Soule’s newly released, “The Creative Family.” It is by far the best book I have ever seen on the subject.

I always thought that I had the weirdest ideas about what being a parent and a family means. Amanda is the only person that I have been able to understand and the way she is a parent to her children. I immediately connected with ‘the why’ in the way she does things. She believes in raising children to understand how to use their imagination. So many toys now do all of the thinking and all of the creativity themselves. It’s amazing to me how many children would rather play with the box the toy came in instead of the toy itself. My heart is to teach all the children that come into my home how to love life, live an adventure, and thank God for all that we have. I have seen so many children (I was one of them) who have forgotten or never knew how precious life is, how fun life can be, and how God created it all and wants His children to be grateful.

In her book, Amanda lays out different ideas about how to become a creative family. How to teach yourself creativity or, for myself, pull it back up from my past. All children are born with the most amazing imagination and creativity. Most of them, along the way, trade it in for wanting to be just like the others in their class instead of embracing the unique ideas God gave them. My goal is to raise mine to be all that they can be and all that God wants them to be. At this point, this book is my manual for doing so.

  

This morning Scarlet sat in her basket (a Grandma idea, apparently I spent a lot of my learning how to sit up in a basket) and I worked on a project for Macky to start on Monday. I decided we will learn the basics of sewing. My book gave me this wonderful way to teach her.

I made pictures out of cardboard and punched holes in them. Macky will use yarn and a blunt-tip tapestry needle to work these. I will let you know how it goes!

Happy Friday!