It was indeed a happy Mother’s Day for me!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykNQAk-FsoY

I just had the best ice cream ever. No kidding. Who knew it would come from Walgreens? I was there to pick up some photos the other day, and I saw the sale sign and decided to get some. Eric doesn’t like chocolate, but he does like some kinds of mint chocolate, white chocolate, and oreos. Hmmm. None of the flavors were ones I liked too much, so I opted for my favorite hoping that it wouldn’t be too chocolate-ish for him.

Anyone who knows me well knows I am OBSESSED with mint-chocolate-chip ice cream. I like to order it almost every time I get dessert anywhere. I am not that picky; I like the dark chocolate kinds as well as the really milky kinds. Wow. I am in heaven just thinking about it. Anyway, I am confident to announce that Walgreen’s “Creme de Menthe” flavor is the best version of the stuff I have ever put into my mouth. Amazing. Phenomenal. Did I mention I like food? It’s not because I’m pregnant; I promise. Wow. Mmmm. It is difficult to describe it, but it’s like… just… so… good. I think I’ll file this post under “tributes.”

You gotta go get some!

(To answer my rhetorical question - enter this fellow and this post. Now that’s what I’m talking about!)

You know I love you. And you know it’s dangerous when anyone starts a conversation with that.

Oh, my dear house, I am sorry that I have neglected you this week, but it needs to be said: “I can’t take you anymore right now. I need some space.” I know, you’re thinking, “Isn’t 2000 square feet of space plenty?!” But that’s just it. It’s too much, and I think I’m daydreaming about living in a camper right now. I know, it’s hard, but you’ll be fine. I’ll come back to you … well, I’ll come back sometime I’m sure. Maybe when my baby is three months old?

It hurts me just as much as it hurts you. I’m having to completely push aside a nagging nesting instinct. For now enjoy the mountain air from the peaks of laundry on the couches. Make friends with the little groupies of crumbs that have assembled themselves on to your floors. You’ll get by. Just do what I’m doing: look away and laugh!

Happy birthday to my younger sister Jennifer today!!! Yahoo!!

I just wanted to say I most likely will be unresponsive to any emails for the next few days, and I won’t be on my blog much either. I am enjoying the break from that and working on a few things that I have on the plate for this month. I have received a few emails recently indicating problems with my blog comments. I am looking into it and hope a WordPress upgrade will fix much of the problems. Please contact me if you’re having problems commenting and let me know what kind of errors you’re having if you don’t mind, what browser you’re using, what toothpaste you used this morning, etc. (haha - kidding), so that I can have more help in looking into the solution. Thanks!

“There is someone to plead for you with the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who pleases God completely” (1 John 2:1). This thought will bring you relief when your faith is discouraged and afraid. Satan can take some of Christ’s other functions and twist them around to frighten us. After all, Christ, as a prophet, sentences sin’s crime, and Christ, as a king, has the power to execute that sentence. Satan, however, as our enemy, has enough cleverness to abuse both these aspects of Christ to overthrow the faith of the children of God.

Christ is our advocate. This realization will help you to pull off the mask that Satan has tried to put over Christ’s face, misrepresenting Him to you so that you will be weakened and frightened. This is one of the most common ruses that Satan uses against God’s saints; he loves to take a spark of truth, bringing fire from Christ’s truth, and use it to burn us. He tries to make Christ look as though His face is so angry and distant, that a person who is tempted and guilty will hardly be able to look up at God.

But when you think, “Christ really is my Advocate,” this heals everything. Children can sometimes be scared if their father puts a masks over his face, but if the father speaks with Daddy’s voice, then the mask is gone, if not from the father’s face, yet from the child’s mind. Despite the mask, the child will crawl into the father’s lap.

This is exactly what happens when Satan deludes the saints by showing them a disfigured image of Christ’s face. Let them just hear their Lord speak in His own voice — and when we hear Him speak as an advocate this is His daddy-voice — and their minds will be calmed, their thoughts settled, their guilt will disappear, and their faith will revive.

Is Christ Jesus the Lord my advocate with the Father? Then wake up, my faith, and shake yourself like a giant, rouse yourself and stop being faint: Christ is the advocate of His people, and as for sin and selfishness, the one thing, my faith, that you most often trip over, well, Christ not only died for that, and not only carried His sacrifices to the Father into the holiest of all, but what is more, He continues to uphold that offering as an advocate, pleading its power and worth before God and against the devil for us.

The modest saint is apt to be embarrassed, thinking how troublesome she is or what a lazy good-for-nothing he has been in God’s house all day. Go ahead and blush, but never forsake your advocate.

– John Bunyan, The Riches of Bunyan (p. 116)

Man, our little man is three! How time flies…

I am keeping a private blog of all of my sweet and sappy mommy thoughts for my kids, so I will refrain from going on and on here. I just want the world to know how much we love this son of ours and how blessed we are to have him in our lives. I have woken up and gone to bed every day in awe that he lives in my house, and I just watch him play and learn and am amazed and more than blessed. He has his own little way of doing everything, and it makes my heart leap for joy. I cannot wait to see how God uses him in his life to bless others and bring glory to Himself.

Steven, you are

• adorable
• meticulous
• focused
• sharp
• messy with food
• tender-hearted
• and so much fun!

Dear Father,

Thank You for your precious gifts, and thank You for our son. I pray that this next year would be a year of growth, laughter, and joy for us with Steven and that You would be drawing his heart even closer to Yours every day. Use him to teach us, and help us to see into his world and grow beside him in faith. In the strong name of Jesus I pray,
Amen