Praise the Lord!

So, I am feeling depressed today. Maybe it is because Matt had a ridiculously long weekend and now he is back at work (always hard the day dada goes back to work.) It is even harder because it has been cold and drizzling for about a month it seems. We are going stir crazy. There is literally nothing left to do. I can tell that the boys are bored because they keep asking to watch "Thomas" which is a sing along Thomas the train video that keeps both boys thoroughly entertained these days. I can't stand to see them stare at the TV for more than 20 minutes or so, but we have exhausted all our options. We build some towers, watch Thomas, read some books, watch Thomas, dance to some Christmas music, watch Thomas, take a hot bath to warm up, watch Thomas! I wish I was more creative. Maybe tomorrow I will make play-dough like the Myers. Anyway, as I am tempted to wallow in my "misery" (I even called Matt complaining-yes, I stooped to that level. Sorry Matt!) I remembered some wise words spoken at a Christmas ornament swap last week. The hostess, a sweet lady who hosted about 20 young moms at her home, shared with us that when she is tempted to pity herself, she instead turns and praises the Lord. Well, Matt told me that I should blog as it tends to lift my spirits a bit. I was pondering what to blog about and remembered Charlotte's words. I began praising the Lord as I emptied my camera for these precious children that the Lord has entrusted me with. But I felt myself bordering on becoming more depressed as I feel like I wasted the day being grumpy and thought of all the ways I could have been a better mother. Then I remembered to praise the Lord for being with me on the bad days too. He has given me these children and this incredibly challenging job, but He has promised to stay with me and help me. I hate that I am so stubborn that it takes these reality checks to make me realize I need Him every hour.

Annie Hawks wrote:

"One day as a young wife and mo­ther of 37 years of age, I was bu­sy with my reg­u­lar house­hold tasks. Sud­den­ly, I be­came so filled with the sense of near­ness to the Mast­er that, won­der­ing how one could live with­out Him, ei­ther in joy or pain, these words, 'I Need Thee Ev­e­ry Hour,' were ush­ered in­to my mind, the thought at once tak­ing full pos­sess­ion of me."

I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine can peace afford.

I need Thee, O I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee;
O bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee.

I need Thee every hour, stay Thou nearby;
Temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh.

I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain;
Come quickly and abide, or life is in vain.

I need Thee every hour; teach me Thy will;
And Thy rich promises in me fulfill.

So now onto my post and the adorable boys that inspired it:


Owen has been extremely interested in going "pee peezzzz" in the potty. He comes running when I remind Micah to go potty. He will open the toilet seat for Micah, watch him do his business, then flush for him, and put the seat down. Usually, he will then get his potty seat from under the sink and put it on the toilet. I figure I have to let him try, even though he hasn't quite gotten the skill down for releasing anything. He will push really hard and wait so patiently, sometimes becoming quite frustrated that no "pee peezzz" will come. All of this really just makes me smile!
This is Owen and Oliver at the Myers' house after church on Sunday. Raechel cooked us a delicious meal and afterward, the boys wore their tupperware hats as they played in the playroom. I didn't actually witness this, but Matt said these boys were having a blast. This picture definitely brightened up my day.

And finally, this one. Micah got really excited about this book last week. It is called Bunny Cakes by Rosemary Wells, and is one of the Max books. In the story, Max and his sister Ruby each make their grandma a birthday cake. Max's is an earthworm cake with caterpillar icing and red hot marshmallow squirters; and Ruby's is an angel surprise cake with raspberry fluff icing, silver stars, sugar hearts, and buttercream roses. Micah asked Matt if mama could make him a cake like this and get him some red hot marshmallow squirters. I thought it would be funny to duplicate Ruby's cake. I was buying all the ingredients to make the special cake when Matt found this one in the bakery already done up. What are the chances that there would be a bright pink cake, angel food no less, already made up for $3.50? We got it out last night, and Micah had a blast pretending to be like Max and Ruby and licking off all the "raspberry fluff icing." We also picked up a pack of Gushers- you remember those gummy candies that squirt in your mouth- to be the marshmallow squirters. Needless to say, we all had a big sugar fest last night!