TWMHTHS #4: Stuffed Shells

The other week I got an instant message from my wife bemoaning not having enough eggs even though she had gone tot he grocery store that day, if I remember correctly. After suggesting she ask a neighbor for that last egg I came home to an amazing meal of Stuffed Shells! What a welcome home to accentuate the wife daughter combo! Definitely a HR! With the first bite I was transported back 3.5 months earlier:

The last time I had my wife's homemade stuffed shells was the night Charlotte was born November 5th. Victoria had tried her hand successfully at the dish in late October. We placed some in a comparable to Tupperware and froze a meal for the big day. Sure enough, I lugged a cooler with ice into the hospital and inside resided the wonder of homemade stuffed shells. After the events of the day, when mother and child were resting, probably near midnightish, famished and beginning the descent from the adrenaline, I heated the stuffed shells in the nearby visitors sitting area microwave. It was so good. I was hungry and the birth fresh in my mind. One can be stone-faced after a birth or trauma or other intense emotional setting, good food can be an amazing way to get back to reality: A respite from the furry of work; a warmth from the cold. Praise to the Lord for the kindness of a pleasure that I've never had to go without. I've never gone to bed hungry and for that I am thankful.

A famous preacher from Nazareth preached on the side of the sea these words:

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t there more to life than food and more to the body than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky: They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you more valuable than they are? And which of you by worrying can add even one hour to his life? Why do you worry about clothing? Think about how the flowers of the field grow; they do not work or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these! And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, won’t he clothe you even more, you people of little faith? So then, don’t worry saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the unconverted pursue these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But above all pursue his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own. (Matt 6:25-34)

Funny how seeking that kingdom and his righteousness adds all these benefits to you. Seems backward. Seems foreign. Do you believe it?

 I do.

P.S. if you want the recipe please email my wife at peteandvic-at-gmail.com and request it.

Tool of the Month Club #2

My former roommate Jim (over at Postcards) taught me about the Tool of the Month Club. If you find a tool like this screw driver I scored at the corner of Forest and 635? (back in November) then you are obligated to pick it up and add it to your collection of tools. Warning: if you don't your out of the Club. This usually involves an adventure if such an item is spotted in the middle of a busy intersection. This warning is also useful to quote when your wife is discouraging/prohibiting such retrievals. Good luck! And remember, "Don't Get Eliminated!"

Getting so big!

A Lesson Learned and to Keep Learning

This past Thursday was probably the toughest I've had yet as a new mother. Charlotte woke up with her first cold - stuffy nose, sneezing, slight fever, and probably a sore throat (because that's what I got two days later). She didn't know what hit her, and neither did I. Charlotte is a pretty independent baby. She's not clingy or needy and would rather play on the mat with you next to her talking to her or be held outward so she can look all around, than snuggle up close. It makes me a bit sad at times because I really like snuggling with her, but I'm also very grateful I don't have a baby that can't be put down for more than twenty seconds. Well, she became that baby on Thursday. For the duration of the entire day I had to hold her nonstop. She'd get extremely fussy - ie. screaming - if I set her down for even a moment, and despite being sick, wouldn't nap for more than thirty minutes twice that day. It was the only hour I had all day to sit down. Oh, and she also knew if I was sitting while bouncing her rather than standing; how she knew this I have no idea, but it made me have to stand all day long if I wanted any breaks in the screaming at all. Needless to say, my nerves were completely frazzled at the end of the day and I was hanging on to the knot at the end of the rope by the last thread. I wasn't sure before that moment what it felt like to lose it, but now I'm pretty sure I've got a good idea. When Pete got home at 7:30pm that night, I handed her to him, told him there's NO way I could do this again on Saturday (he was to work all day Saturday), went and poured myself a hot bath and cried in it for the next twenty minutes.

Throughout the day I found myself praying. Lord, please let her nap well. Lord, please make her feel better. Lord, please help her stop crying. That, along with saying to myself, "I can't do this. I just can't do this." I was asking for reasonable things from our Lord of the universe who healed countless sick, died for our sins, and rose from the dead. Surely he could answer these simple requests from one of his children who was just about to throw herself out the window if she had to hear the screaming for one more minute. But, the whole time I was missing the point. As I must remind myself continuously, this life is not about me, about my circumstances, about my comfort. It's about HIM, about HIS glory, about bringing honor to HIS name. I was making the day all about me and about my comfort, how I would make it through the day, and about what I needed. Don't get me wrong, the Lord cares more about us than we could ever imagine. (Psalm 103:11-13) But, this life, the point of this life, isn't about us and our comfort. It's about HIS glory. As I was reminded by one of our elders this past weekend that, "In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in comformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory" (Ephesians 1:11-12). It is all about His glory.

Too bad for me I didn't realize this until a few days later after the trauma of the day had had time to settle and wear off a bit. Also long after I spent a day not abiding by this principle one bit, as was evidenced in my mantra, "I can't do this, I can't do this." Instead I should have been telling myself that "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me". All things! (Phil 4:13) Isn't that amazing?! He is never going to give me any more than I can handle and I'm only going to sink if I let my gaze fall on the waves instead of on his glorious face. (Matthew 14:27-32) So, why do I doubt so often? Why do I question the God of the universe who created this amazing human life inside of me that I'm blessed to raise and enjoy and teach about His love and faithfulness? The answer is easy but it doesn't make growing faith any easier. Paul describes our struggle with sin well in Romans 7:7-24, and as discouraging as it can be to be caught in a cycle of sin, Paul encourages us in the last verse when he says, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord". Because of Christ we are no longer slaves to sin. And what is sin but a lack of faith. It's doubting God's goodness. The same God who tells us in Isaiah 64:4 and again in I Corinthians 2:9, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him." We can't even imagine in our wildest dreams the greatness God has in store for those who love him.

I pray in time I do a better job at loving my Lord. A better job at trusting his promise and making my days about His glory rather than about my comfort. It's a hard lesson to learn, but thankfully I'll have chances upon chances to get it right. And, I may never get it right, and that may not be the point. Maybe the point is continually striving to do better, continually striving to be more like Christ, and accepting the grace he offers me along the way, knowing one day when he comes again I will finally know life without sin.

P.S. We made it on Saturday :).

The Best Sound in the World

Pete making Charlotte laugh and me cracking up in the background.

Will You Be My Valentine?

 

 Happy Valentine's Day Mom!

  

 Happy Valentines Day Dad!

 

Happy Valentine's Day Kendall Jackson Wine!

The little sacrifices....and big blessings.

[V] The sacrifices.....

Holding it when you really, really, really have to go to the bathroom because your baby is sleeping in the room right next to the toilet and it just might wake her up from her nap if you go now.

Considering all the other places you can take a pee if not in that toilet.

Driving all around town for an extra hour after running errands because you really need your baby to keep sleeping.

Give up your favorite warm honey milk for your evening snack because it just might give her gas.

Drinking an obscene amount of water each day (10 glasses a day is obscene to the woman who rarely drank more than six a day) because you're told it's good for her. You could really care less about yourself.

Holding her just so while rocking her at 8pm trying to keep her peaceful during the witching hour, even when your arm has fallen asleep about a half hour ago.

Realizing I have to wait till she's six months old and on solids before my husband and I can enjoy a date night because I missed my "window of opportunity" for her to take the bottle - now it's just not happening.

Haircut....what's that?

That thing you do at the end of the day after you've worked all day....you go lay down on that big cushy square thing called a...what's that again? oh yeah, a bed....and you do something all night long with no interruptions....what's that called again? oh yeah.......SLEEP.

The blessings....

Being with her daily to watch all her little developmental milestones.

Watching her laugh for the first time - what a sweet, sweet sound.

Seeing the fascinated look on her face as we walk outside under the umbrella in the rain.

Her wake up smiles and coos in the morning when she first gets up.

The soft way she strokes my chest while she's breastfeeding with a contented look on her face.

Getting to see Peter so excited to greet Charlotte with a big hug when he gets home from work.

Singing her to sleep .

Evening sleep cuddles before bedtime.

Knowing the Lord is using her in my life to draw me nearer to Himself.

Almost Three Months Old

Ready to face the day!

Oh, the look...

Becoming tech savvy with Daddy.

Chubby bunny!


Play time with Daddy....so in love with his little girl!



Peter teaching Charlotte all about music.