Great Weekend!

So after being cooped up in the house last weekend with a lot of nasty sickness, this weekend was much welcomed. God blessed us with some absolutely beautiful weather! It has been one very long, harsh winter here in NW Ohio but signs of spring are starting to show and the change is much welcome!

So we have had our home of almost  4 years now, on the market since September. Our realtor wanted to have an open house since the weather was going to be so beautiful hoping to have a good turn out since our last few have been flops. Unfortunately this open house was no different and that was a bit discouraging but we are going to keep on praying that God will provide us with a buyer in His time. As we have been learning over the last few years, God always provides, it just may not always be when we think He should. (more…)

Mimi

So here I am after falling off the face of the earth for a few days. Ok not really Unfortunately, I had opened my mouth a bit too soon when talking with a friend a few weekends ago and said that we were lucky enough to be missed by all the nasty stomach bugs going around this winter. WRONG! Man oh man did we ever get hit hard with it last weekend. Well mainly me. The kids both got a 12 hour bug, however I was out of commission for a good 3 days. I am so thankful that it held off until a weekend so that my husband was here to take care of the kids (plus one). But we are all doing much better now and finally feeling like ourselves.

So Caroline has started to pick up a few new words in her small vocabulary, one of them  and my personal favorite being Mimi. That was the name that my mom picked out for herself when we first found out that we were expecting Joel who is the oldest of her four grandchildren. My mom did not care for the idea of being called “grandma” and wanted a “cool” name like my mother-in-law, Yai Yai, so that is what she settled on.

For those of you who have just recently started reading my blog, we lost my mom this past October to brain cancer. Caroline was only 6 days old when my mom was diagnosed and she passed just 11 short days before her 1st birthday so it was a cold reality that Caroline would not have any memories of my mom and what memories we could share with her from their time together were ones during my moms illness and battle. Even if Caroline does not have memories of her own to remember of my mom, her mimi, it is so important to me that she know all about her and love her just like they had been blessed with years together.

I began working with Caroline a few weeks ago while looking at pictures and showing her who Mimi is and coaxing her to say Mimi on her own. Finally this morning while I was getting her ready for the day she said it! What a sweet sound it was to my ears! As a Christian we walk by faith and not by sight and the greatest mystery to us is Heaven. I know its going to be great but we aren’t revealed much about it and I won’t know until the day that I get there. I don’t know if it’s possible, but I really hope that my mom still gets to take part in little moments here and there like this one from Heaven. Maybe there is an eternal snap shot taken of that moment for my mom to see and play over and over again to her hearts content. I don’t know. It would have made her heart overflow at the sound of her special name coming from Caroline’s sweet little lips! I must admit that I cried this morning as I am again right now retelling it. I thought about how when this “monumental event” (it was monumental to my mom in every way) took place with Joel, I immediately ran for the phone and called my mom to let her bear witness to it for herself. I can still hear her say “Joel Dewey, I just love when you say Mimi you little Puddin’ head!” (Our family comes up with some odd nicknames to show affection.)  I am sure if she could hear Caroline today she said “Oooo Caroline Gracie, I just love hearing you say Mimi you little Peanut!”

Layla Grace

Just a few days ago I was introduced to Layla Grace through another blog that I follow. Please, please, please pray for this family.

Now that I am a mommy myself, nothing tears me apart more than hearing about the illness or loss of a sweet child. I will never understand why in the world there is such a thing as pediatric cancer, but I hold fast to Revelations 21:4 in all mourning situations:

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Thank you so much for praying for this family.

Blessings,

Emily

What’s playing?

Jay and I recently joined our local YMCA to try and start leading a healthier lifestyle and loose a couple of pounds that we have put on in the last five years since getting married and having 2 babies. I have never really considered working out to be “fun” in any way but am quickly changing my mind. I love getting to go and have “me time” while working on getting healthy, and the kids love to go and play in the Discovery Center.

If any of you go to a gym of any kind, I am sure that you notice the good majority of people working out have an iPod or MP3 player going while they work out. Today I decided to take our MP3 player with me and zone out to some music to help the time (more…)

Creamy Chicken Salad | Tasty Tuesday