time

I could fill up post after post with the issues Zach and I have had with time in all manners of ways from being on time, to making time for kids, family, each other, to filling up too much time with other things. (I'll leave you to your own imagination to decide whose issue is whose) However, I do not wish to dwell on a sometimes irritating sometimes ok subject. I will share with you this great idea I saw on another blog this morning and tell you that we are TOTALLY going to try this out to solve at least one of the time issues. Coincidentally (or just God telling me 87 million times) this topic came up in my women's group last night so when I saw it this morning I knew it was meant for me :)

Anyone who has d:one pre marital counseling and/or held a conversation with another wife has heard the importance of having a date night with your husband. Now with two small children, limited budgets, and day to day responsibilities this does not seem like an easy task. But, a 'date' does not have to mean what it did in high school. If I had to take a shower, get ready, hire a babysitter, get things ready for the boys, go out to dinner and an activity, come home, clean up after the boys and babysitter, and then get in bed late having a date night would happen once in a blue moon. That is why I loved this idea and I felt stupid not having ever thought of it myself.

Project 52:Date Nights will begin in our home next week. Just in time for Valentine's Day!

bathtub = babysitter

I love my garden tub for many reasons. One, of course, is that I can escape from all the boyness and sit in warm bubbly relaxing goodness. The other is because it is the perfect babysitter for a stay at home mom. An EMPTY (in case any of you were planning on calling social services) tub full of baby toys is a great way to get ready. Since Sunday mornings are usually the only days I have to get myself and both boys ready on a specific timeline my tub is a great helper. Connor loves playing in the tub! It cracks me up every time. Micah was a big fan of playing in the tub too. It was a sad mommy day when he was old enough to get out of it himself. At least I still have a good two or three 'babysitting' months left with Connor. After that who knows what I will start lookin' like :(

my church

We have friends visiting our church this Sunday. The husband has been friends with Zach since we moved to Conyers. They have two children and his wife (who I love but never see) asked me to give her my opinion, criticisms and all, of our church as a young woman, mother, wife, and child of God. TALL ORDER! I have never been asked that so I just started typing and this is what came out. I am sharing this on here because my church is a part of me and a part of my family and that's what I want blog to share. Who we are. The fun stuff, funny stuff, sad stuff and true stuff...

CCC is the only church I have ever loved. I grew up in the same church from 6 weeks old until I got married and I loved many people there but never felt completely at home. For me CCC is home. However we are not perfect. CCC is still a fairly new church. We've only been around for 8 years and only had a building for 4 months. Therefore a lot of things are still a work in progress. We do not have a janitorial staff, we do not have decorated classrooms (yet), we do not have a lot of state of the art stuff most churches do.

There are discipleship groups before church for children 1st grade and up. From what I know they do a lot of learning and memorizing scripture. It's more than our typical bible story stuff. During the service there is children's church for 3-K. We do bible stories, art, snack. These groups are small because our church is still small, but we pray that they effect the members now and we'll continue to grow as our church grows.

Our pastor does not want to be the facilitator/micro manager of the different ministries in the church so he waits/prays until someone in the congregation feels a call about something they wish to get involved in and/or start in the church. For example I am now the social events coordinator because I felt that we needed ways to get together outside of church and events to invite others to who might not be open to going to church. This is all to say that if you are worried that a certain group or activity does not exist that doesn't mean it won't in the future. Honestly some people at our church have left for this very reason. They feel that there's not enough available or feel that they shouldn't have to be the one's to create things or are afraid to step into that leadership role and get burned out. I don't know if that's right or wrong or irrelevant but it's been a struggle for Zach and I to understand. We both came from small church backgrounds that required more member team work and I guess that's just not the same everywhere. Again, though, I can't judge anyone else's reasoning. There are thousands of churches for a reason!

There are times I get discouraged with how slow things seem to be developing. There are times I get frustrated at others for not stepping up. There are times Dave (our pastor) makes me angry because he DOES NOT mince words, but I have learned more about God, His will, myself, and my place in this world in these past 5 years than ever before. This is not all due to CCC but a lot of it relates. I have been introduced and understand Grace more than ever. I have closer friends who I can have deep conversations with. I feel more encouraged and more loved and more accepted than I ever have. I have a group of women at a bible study on Wednesday nights who will let me share anything good, bad or ugly and smother me we love and acceptance. I have many people who look at and love my children and will do almost anything for them. (This is HUGE to me since none of our family is here.) ...

I thank God for this church family daily. I don't know how long we will live in Conyers or where CCC will go/grow in the future, but I am beyond blessed to be there now.

this is the house

This is the house the Mays bought.

This is the family

that lives in the house the Mays bought.

This is the dog

that stays with the family

that lives in the house the Mays bought.

This is the yard where the dog likes to run

that stays with the family

that lives in the house the Mays bought.

This is the sign in the yard

where the dog likes to run

that stays with the family

that lives in the house the Mays bought.

Haha! I thought a little poetry would brighten my current "why hasn't my house sold" blues. I know this is the worst economy our country has seen in quite sometime, I know atlanta has more foreclosures that most places because idiot banks gave idiot people loans to buy ridiculously sized houses, I know there are other people in this country and world who have problems 87,000 times worse than this little one and I KNOW that GOD has perfect timing and there is a perfect God reason that it's been almost a year since our house has been on the market with out being sold. I know all this. Really I do. Just sometimes my own selfish desires creep in and want to scream PLEASE JUST FREAKIN' WANT MY HOUSE!!!! Ok. I feel a little better now. Thanks ;)

my lil' boys

Micah always sits like this to watch Curious George so tonight before bed Connor decided he wanted to do it too. Micah thought it was hilarious that Connor was sitting up too!

christmas in gainesville

Yes I know it's been almost a month since Christmas. I have been planning to post the rest of our holiday for awhile but we had over 300 pictures from the days we were in Gainesville so I wanted to make cute picture collages to show a summary of our trip. However I am a not too picture savvy sometimes and couldn't figure out how to load pics into the collage. Zach just showed me (again) how to do it so I am ready now. yay for that :)

After our wonderful morning at home we went up to Gainesville, GA for the May/Lee family Christmas. Usually we all go to Charlotte for Zach's turn but they came down to us instead this year. That side of the family is pretty darn big and gets together a lot so it's very fun. I had a good time but honestly spent every afternoon waiting for people to wake up and or go down for a nap and most of the evening trying to figure out where to put Connor to sleep since we were having our meals and family time at the church fellowship hall. In and around sleeping schedules I got to play games, talk to the family and even got a lunch out without kids! Zach had plenty of quality time with his siblings and cousins doing all the activities mays love to do.

Out of us all though I think Micah had the best time. He LOVED playing with Zach's younger cousins which are his first cousins once removed. (I have no idea what they are removed from!) He had them all in the palm of his hand. They played with him, fetched his cars, talked and acted silly, drummed, chased, jumped, and ran. He even ate dinner with the 'big' boys at another table from us. It was so fun for us to watch but a little sad for my mama heart. I couldn't believe how old he seemed!

We were there for five days and were exhausted by the end but looking forward to the next gathering of the families this summer.

cradle

I found this cradle look much less cute at goodwill for $3. My boys have no use for this (obviously) but I wanted to get it and fix it up for one of my nieces. Keelie turned 2 on January 10th and since she was the first birthday since the purchase it became hers. I don't have a before picture but just think plain nasty wood color. I spray painted it lime green and weaved polka dot (or pokies as her mother calls them) ribbon through the slats. I really wanted to make a coordinating doll blanket and pillow but that didn't happen. Sorry kiki maybe soon! Happy Birthday Cutie!