Fitting in some mom-to-mom time

It's been a while since we watched Elmo so this morning Julian watched a short video. Then we went downstairs to the "art studio" (which is our cluttered basement where I have a makeshift art area) and did some finger painting and coloring. I got out some stickers and he started learning how to stick those on a piece of paper.

Today I was going through 1 Samuel 26 and 27 where Saul is not giving up and continues to go after David. I am struck by how far from the Lord Saul lets himself stray. This is a man whom God anointed as king over all the Israelites, who was given the Holy Spirit and yet he has thrown away his opportunity to live a life of faith. Again David has an opportunity to kill Saul, but holds back his men saying the Lord forbids him to harm the king. Saul finds out he was spared and confesses his wrongdoing saying he will not do it again. I took some time today to go back in my journal and look over the areas that the Lord has been working on in my life. It was good to do this and ask myself honestly if I've seen growth. To that I would say that there hasn't been a lot of change so far, but some. I also saw a common theme to these areas and that is they seem to be connected to the idea of surrender. That to me means recognizing something that is not of God and surrendering it to him in confession, prayer. Places in my life where I need to surrender? Fill in the blank (pride, anger, overeating issues, being overly harsh with Julian). It was good to revisit this and pray again for renewal. I am keeping Romans 12:1 in mind here since it is very fitting. 1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

We had a play date with my friend Eileen and her son Jackson today which included having lunch together at the mall. It was so nice to have some mom-to-mom adult conversation time. After lunch we went to the play area and let the kids have some fun. Then we took a stroll around the mall so we had more time to talk. When we got home I took Julian out for a nice walk in his little car. Being in the sun and fresh air was nice but that wind was a little too cold.

Wow I can't believe I'm on here doing the last leg of my blog before 8:30pm! I have talked with Lanty about finding some "take care of Julian time" that works best and we decided he'd do the nightly routine on Fridays. So I have a little extra time to myself tonight! And I only heard a little bit of fuss up there from Julian so it must be going well. Uh-oh, Julian's crying out for mommy now so I better go upstairs. I just spent a few minutes reviewing the day with Julian and sang a blessing over him then tucked him in for the night. I left and he started wailing which he almost never does, but I did the five minute rule and he was quiet in two. The house is quiet, it's time to go relax.