Morning at the park

This morning, J started asking for his coat before daddy left. He wanted to go outside. He wanted to bring his fire truck and asked me to bring his hot wheel cars (we have a case). Once daddy left, we headed outside to play. It wasn't long before J was asking to walk and this time I asked if he wanted to go in his car. That way mommy can get a little exercise. He let me put him in and we headed down the sidewalk. A few minutes later, he was crying and wanting out. I had been craving some prayer walk time with God which helps rejuvenate me so I said a prayer that J would calm down and enjoy the walk. God answered and J started humming and chatting to himself so I could continue my prayer walk. After a while he started saying "park? park?" and I thought that'd be a fine idea so we went. It was about 9:15 and we ended up being there until 10am and having the park to ourselves. We went on the big swings, the little swings, climbed on the jungle gym and went down the slide. He still wants to slide down on my lap and not on his own. He's only gone down alone a couple times. We got warm so we were able to take our coats off. The morning air was so refreshing. I think it's going to be another beautiful day.

Today I was in the second part of Luke 1 where in the sixth month of Zechariah's wife Elizabeth's pregnancy, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary. On a side note, before the angel spoke to Mary (and Zechariah), it had been 400 years since God had brought about a heavenly visitation. Who would've thought he'd transmit such wondrous news to a 13/14 year old girl. This was the news that she would give birth to a son - the Son of God and name him Jesus (savior). The angel told her not to worry, that she had found favor with God. Could this young girl have imagined what was going to happen? That she would give birth to the savior of the world? Her surrendered heart is beautiful as she answers the angel saying "I am the Lord's servant."

We had a nice lunch at Arby's today. I don't often go out so I brought J's lunch and bought a sandwich before our shopping expo. We went to Savers which is one of the main places I shop besides Target or online. Savers is a secondhand store which has things in incredibly good condition for very cheap. I found J a Caterpillar digger with lights and sounds and a fire engine with the same. I was on the hunt for a couple summer tops and jeans I thought J's new toys would keep him busy but he was whiny from the beginning. I just had to grin and bare it since this is something I do about once every six months, update the wardrobe. After an hour and a half (whoa) I finally had what I wanted. We got home and put batteries in the toys and J loved it with sound and then he went for a nap.

I have to confess that I've not being doing good on my eating program. L and I have been trying to lose weight by changing our habits. We started 3 or 4 weeks ago by eating 4 meals a day with no snacking in between (unless fruit or veggies) and no eating after 7pm. I think I need to change it to 3 meals a day. Anyways, I haven't been following that very well lately. I found these cute little ice creams with about 200 calories and had one last night before bed. I also snacked before dinner yesterday because I just couldn't wait. After realizing how much I've gained since fall and having to go up a couple sizes in clothes, today was like a wake up call in the fitting room. I have to surrender this to God and let it be okay to feel hungry and be willing to do the work I need to for my body to slim down.

J had so much fun tonight playing with his new firetruck and digger. He was a little afraid about pressing the buttons so he had me doing it. (He'd say, mommy press?). Our small group tonight was fairly small. Usually we have 5 couples coming but tonight there were 3 couples. This ended up being good for having more open sharing as we discussed the sermon. A really good question we had was about sharing our faith; are we sharing freely or holding back and why. The common thread for us seems to be context; it really depends upon where you are and to whom you're speaking. We were able to share some neat times that God has opened doors for us to do this.

Tomorrow is a big day. I will be taking J for his first time swimming. He will start swimming lessons on Saturday at the Y so I'm taking him to a swim place tomorrow to have an informal time of getting used to the water before we start the formal class. I'm hoping he loves it of course, but we'll have to see how he does. Another mom from my mom's group is coming with her daughter who has never been either. It should be an adventure. So now's a good time to get our stuff ready so I'm not running around tomorrow.