A Word on Prayer

"It is not part of the life of a natural man to pray. We hear it said that a man will suffer in his life if he does not pray; I question it. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a man is born from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve that life or nourish it. Prayer is the way the life of God is nourished. Our ordinary views of prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves; the Bible idea of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself. 

"Ask and ye shall receive." We grouse before God, we are apologetic or apathetic, but we ASK very few things. Yet what a splendid audacity a childlike child has! Our Lord says - "Except yet become as little children." Ask, and God will do. Give Jesus Christ a chance, give Him elbow room, and no man will ever do this unless he is at his wits' end. When a man is at his wits' end it is not a cowardly thing to pray, it is the only way he can get into touch with Reality. Be yourself before God and present your problems, the things you know you have come to your wits' end over. As long as you are self-sufficient, you do not need to ask God for anything.

It is not so true that "prayer changes things" as that prayer changes ME and I change things. God has so constituted things that prayer on the basis of Redemption alters the way in which a man looks at things. Prayer is not a question of altering things externally, but of working wonders in a man's disposition." - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest 

I hope this devotional blesses you as much as it has me. This life of faith is so much more simplistic than we let ourselves believe. 

Bottom line: It is not all about us; it is about Him. 

House Tour: The Kitchen

I have a question for you. Do you like to paint? (If you answer 'yes' I think you're crazy!) After our recent move, I can affirm that I personally do not. At all. I strongly dislike the smell, the way no matter how hard you try, you cannot escape not getting wet paint on your person (or the floor, ceiling and counters), and most of all the "cutting in" of all the edges and ceiling. Oh sweet heavens above, I am so not a fan. 

But you know what I do love? A finished product. It's that feeling you get when you sit back and see how much all your hard work and forgetting to eat while busy working has come together and it officially paid off. That, my friends, is priceless.  

BEFORE

After several coats of paint, a whole ton of organization, countless bags of trash and a good cleaning... I present you with our kitchen! 

AFTER

Paint Color: California Paint 'Amelia' - made specially for us via Behr Paints by the amazing Tom at Home Depot! 
Tea Pot: TJMaxx
Soap Pump: Target 
Coffee Mug: Anthropologie 
Glass Bottles: Collected at antique shops

So long, 41!

Well, this is it. The day before Strom leaves for a month of training, our last day in our little townhouse and the official launch of probably the craziest summer in our marriage (ya know, all two years of it!). 

It has been an indescribably overwhelming few weeks (okay, months!) moving ourselves in the middle of a crazy summer, but God has been ever full of grace and mercy and we're so grateful to be loading up the last of our belongings as I type.   

We have a list a foot long of everything we're looking forward to after Strom returns from training. Time is going to fly and life is going to be grand!!

The last two years in this house have been amazing. It's where we had our start! Where I learned to be a little less controlling and a little more patient! ;) It's been a great ride, but we can't wait to see all the Lord has in store for us from here on out!

A Move in Process

For anyone who has a spouse in the military who is set to either deploy or in our case, head off for a month of training on the other side of the country... might I give you a word of advice? 

Try to not move in the middle of it. 

Yeah, life is so up in the air and full of craziness right now that I forget what it's like to have nothing pressing on the agenda! Or even worse, what it's like to have a clean, organized house... 

In the middle of the packing for our new house (which we don't move into until August, so all our things are headed for a storage unit!), we have LDAC packing, dejunking, and a To-Do list that keeps growing. I know you're jealous. Y'all want our life, I know. It's pretty desirable! ;)

Miss Scarlett is in heaven though. Every room is filled with her kind of play land and theme park. Bags, packing boxes, packing bubbles.... She's living the kitty dream. I kind of envy her enthusiasm for life at the moment.

It's all good though! It's always a test of patience... a test of diligence and an opportuity to choose a positive helpful attitude. In the end, it's all worth it!

Happy Monday to you! 

I hope your day is sailing right along!

Joe Beans & the Week's Ups & Downs

Confession: Strom and I are a bit on the coffee-addicted side. It's not that we can't function without it... It's just that life would be sad without that sweet goodness. Really sad. (I once gave up coffee for a month before my wedding and I swear it wasn't worth the white teeth!) That being said, we like to indulge in the occasional coffee not made in our kitchen. It's not typically Starbucks, so not to worry, Dave Ramsey! ;) 

We're both major Dunkin Donuts fans and we often resent the fact that the closest one is over an hour away from us. (Please, Dunkin! You need to set up shop in the 'Burg!). But life got a little sweeter this week when we rediscovered Joe Beans (thank you, Kelly!). I think I can hang in there without my Dunkin knowing Joe Beans is in town!

Ups of the week:

• Coffee. Coffee hour in our house is usually around 8 o'clock PM (weird, right?). We never fail to anticipate our hot (or cold, let's face it, VA is a furnace this time of year!) beverage every night!
• Our Life Group. I'm so blessed by the group of people the Lord has placed us in. I'm so happy to call them friends - God is so good! 
•  The art of dejunking. It's seriously the greatest feeling dumping stuff off at Goodwill or in the dumpster. Free at last.
• Today's weather. I've been dying for an overcast day for weeks now. Along with its rolling thunder, today has been nearly perfect. My mile-wide hair doesn't appreciate the humidity though....

Downs are inevitable:

• With that dejunking comes the stress of actually dejunking. We're in the process of moving (yes! We are moving!!) and I am ashamed at how much STUFF we've accumulated in just two years here! I take pride in being a clean and mostly organized person, but somehow we managed to store up a whole ton of random nothings that have lead to one busy stretch of deep cleaning! 
• Our landlord giving us 45-ish minutes notice yesterday to come over to take listing pictures of our place when the packing up process has already gone full swing. I've never cleaned/staged so fast in my life. 

Happy Friday to ya! I hope you have a wonderful weekend! 

...How is it the weekend already?!

An Easter Celebration

We sat side by side in our love seat. Our smiles were genuine as we waited for the automatic timer to click on my camera. He couldn't understand why I kept laughing - it was only a self-timed picture after all! The camera shutter opened and closed in a flash of an instant and I was hopping up and running to check if it passed my approval - in 3+ inch heels mind you.

At try #5 I nearly succumbed to the laughter. My mind was in years gone by. I could see my siblings and me crowded around my mom in our Easter best on the family sofa, waiting for my dad to set the camera timer. My mom, to my right cracking up at the little black lens we all stared into. Words can't describe what a hysterical sense of loneliness it is to stare at a tripod for a family photo. But that's how it was! We were all each other had. The lone wolf family of a very big extended family, we were on our own.

I sat there remembering that feeling so well. And now here I was, all grown up... staring into my own self-timed camera. Thinking of my mom and dad. Admiring their bravery in all those years raising us with no one around. So I chose to laugh happily, when I could have just as easily cried. Because life is good. Because God is good. Because my Savior is risen! Because as lonely as life can get from time to time, it is still a beautiful gift.

 Some iced coffees to assist in our meal prep! 

 My beautiful cousin (and her boyfriend!) were able to spend the holiday with us - such a blessing and joy to share the day together! 

 No self-timer needed this time! Thank you, Hope! 

How cute are they? :) F'real. Love you guys! 

A Christmas Day Affair

Unlike most people, our family celebrates the bulk of Christmas on Christmas Eve. We don't wake up at 6am to open gifts... We stay up til 2am opening them! It's a beautiful tradition of darkness, candlelight and Nat King Cole that we have all fallen in love with! The one exception to this holiday order is precious Evan. He's a little too young to stay up with the big kids, so Christmas morning was full of "oooh's" and "aahhh's" from the little man. It was so fun to watch the delight on his face as he slowly begins to understand that Christmas isn't any ordinary day! 

After all the gifts were opened and paper thrown away, we got our relaxation on. Books were read, toys were played with... and dinner was made! A beautiful Christmas with amazing people... can't get much better than that! And if I am being honest, I truly miss the holiday.  

 Evan's first light saber!

 "I really don't want to be wearing an apron."

 Christmas Day was quite the afternoon for reading! This was the sight around the house literally all day!

Another table setting for another delicious holiday meal! Between you and me, I can't stand Thanksgiving turkey (and about everything else on the table). Christmas is far more my pace... ham, pistachio salad, sweet potato muffins, smoked weenies (is that what they're called??) and a fresh salad. Can we say yum? I'm still getting over the Christmas goodness!!

Christmas 2011..... One in and for the history books!