Back from Mini Blog Break

Well, I didn't intend to but ended up taking a short blog break not writing my "daily journal" since last Wednesday! I've realized we've entered a season of preparing, scheduling, organizing and things starting up for this fall/winter season. I've also been doing some rethinking about the format of my blog and if I want to move away from a daily journal for a time. I know many blogs I read focus on a main subject or a main happening from the day or week and I see how time consuming it can get trying to capture the details of each day. Now that I'm doing more creative theme days, I am going to try and figure out a way to do those yet continue to do some journal blogging in a shorter format.

























































Some of the highlights of the past almost-week has been getting outdoors more to enjoy this beautiful weather we've been having. Truly the summer days are waning yet it has been so nice to soak them up a bit more. Last Thursday and Monday we went to the zoo with friends from our early summer play dates (J's friends Wren and Olivia). It was a nice reunion since it's been over a month or two since we last met. It was cute seeing them so excited to play with each other again. We spent time at the zoo park and then went through the zoo together. On Monday, we added a picnic. J was really talkative as we went through visiting the different animals. He was also really interested in the zoo art which is on display; life-sized animals painted in really bright colors with different themes.











































On Monday at the zoo, we stayed a bit longer than our play date friends. From the zoo, we called my friend Eileen for the 30th birthday and J and I both sang Happy Birthday. It was so cute how he joined in. The funniest thing was she and her son were on their way to the zoo! We did stay and ended up visiting the reptile house which for some reason have not done at all with J (and I like reptiles and some of the creepy crawlies too!) I had so much fun taking J through and showing him the bees in their hive making honey while flying in and out through a long tube connecting to outside, a huge giant tortoise, the (what I consider to be) cute and furry bats, and so much more. I just love these times of being a child again and exploring. Anything having to do with what the Lord created and how intricately they work fascinates me.





























J has really been enjoying story time at the library on Fridays and is starting to sing more with the kids. He also loves to sing at home so I sing the songs from Pal Zone, library story time, CDs we've been listening to, Bible songs and often he's singing some words he knows with me. One of the projects I was busy with was reorganizing the toy area in our living room. Since we live in a condo, it's really the only place we have right now to store things he plays with daily. We do have a finished basement but it's dark with no outside light so he probably won't play there until he's older. Well, he's rediscovered a bunch of toys he hadn't been playing with because he couldn't get to them and his choices are often the musical toys. He's really into a musical nursery rhyme book of his and the cutest was hearing him sing along with the Mary Had a Little Lamb song done all in "dog".

L and I have been able to have some good time alone together. Saturday night we had a date night spending the night downtown at our alma mater's UW Madison campus. We both like middle eastern cuisine and ate at a place called Kabul where we had kabobs with rice and wonderful spices. Then we stopped at the student union for coffee drinks and talking in the comfy chairs and we ran into a college group from Blackhawk church. They were really friendly and we ended up talking for a bit. At 10pm when picking up J he was in our friend's bed with his pj's on with Cecile reading him a book. The minute we walk in he sits up saying "I'm all done sleep mommy!" even though he hadn't been sleeping. Then he was really wired and running around, even when we got home. It's that overtired stage where they don't know how to shut down. We've also been having our time to talk and pray in the morning. Today though J was up shortly after my shower but in listening on the monitor we didn't go get him until he started crying out for me. That at least left us time to pray.

At church, we're going to be focusing on 1Corinthians 13, with a goal/challenge from our pastor to memorize the chapter or specifically verses 4-8. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. In his sermon, he defined this kind of love as agape love, unconditional love. It is an uncommon love of the kind that gives regardless of what comes back in return. We are so wired to give when we get back or give for what we want to get back. It is so hard to keep giving that love when you're not receiving back. Yet it is truly what we're called to do as a follower.

I'm looking forward to this. So often I find myself with this jaded feeling in my heart toward others (while I'm out driving, shopping, out and about and even in social situations) not with a feeling of compassion and love being the norm that I'm experiencing. I think that can be for a number of reasons, but instead of dwelling on that I like focusing on the scripture and allowing the Lord to do a work in me that flows into my interactions with others. In my devotional time, I've been reading To Live is Christ by Beth Moore rotating with Uncommon Vessels; a guide to godly eating habits. The focus lately has been looking at the idea of Romans 12:1 living your life as a sacrifice and what that means. She has some really good questions that have made me think deeper on this. I see things like loving to get my own way, being spiritually lazy and a theme of not wanting to be inconvenienced as really being in my way to living more sacrificially. Being this honest with myself makes me feel "ugly" inside but I have to remind myself I have a teacher (Christ) who is a gentle and loving teacher who is showing me these things so he can impart more of himself into me. So his light can become the light shining through me. Over the past several days, I watched a movie that really hit this idea home for me. It was called Second Chance and in it was Michael W. Smith who does a really good job of acting. The main focus of the movie that struck me was how easy it is to open our wallets and give money to "serve" God, yet how different it is to actually go out and intentionally give of yourself in the community regularly. These are the things on my mind of late.

Photo credit: Grace Baptist Church