First Mother's Day

My cup runneth over. 

Yesterday was an amazing first Mother's Day, full of reflection and blessings.  If I could, I might just re-name this day Thanksgiving Part II. Or something of that nature.  I am so just thankful for our healthy little man who makes it possible for me to be included in the celebrations this year and for a husband who is my greatest fan and biggest support.  It's hard to explain how I felt as a newcomer this year - almost like a child who stumbled into a grand room of beautiful hall of fame moms that I adore.  I am blessed to have been raised by an incredible woman who is such an example to me.  I am blessed to have a fabulous mother-in-law.  I am blessed to be surrounded by experienced moms who I can learn from. And I am blessed to have many friends walking through this motherhood journey who I can learn from, observe and share stories with.  God has filled my life with so many amazing women - even those who are not yet moms but who are nurturing and giving.

Church yesterday was awesome.  A couple of thoughts from our pastor's talk yesterday that I will try to do justice to and share how they impacted me. First, 2 Kings 4:1-7 the widow's oil.  What God has given me (and you) is more than enough.  The widow is this passage lost her husband and was about to lose everything else.  All she had was a little oil and in faith, she poured it out into jars that were gathered and the oil just kept flowing until she stopped pouring. If I am obedient to pour out in offering what He has given me, then the miracle can happen.  God will provide.  God has shown us this in our life, especially this year. We trust Him to provide just what we need and continually He does.  In the last year, I have learned to let go and let me just say, there is so much freedom and joy in this! 

Second,  Psalm 16 .  Love this whole psalm, but Eric focused in on vs 5-6.  God has assigned us our portion and given each of us unique boundaries.  These are the things that make up life: marriage, job, house, friends, neighbors,etc.  They are my lot for this life.  And true contentment (and freedom!) comes when I joyfully accept them and find satisfaction in what God has for me.  At the risk of sounding cliche (and if I do, I don't care), I can say "I love my life."  It is possible to look at certain situations from a negative angle, but I chose not too. That does not glorify God. And I exist to bring Him glory ("So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Cor. 10:31).  I am thankful for all I have been given and anticipate what is to come.  I truly hope and pray you can say the same.  That even though situations are difficult or different than what you expected, you can choose to be satisfied in what God has given you.  I know I could not survive in this world any other way.

Patrick and Ronan took me to Rockwood Bakery for breakfast before church. My favorite spot :) 

Loving neck kisses



ohh, someone's getting tired. Somehow he fell asleep at Rockwood and napped through part of church. And then was so good during church. An answered prayer!

After church, we made an impromptu stop at Tower Perennial Gardens. AWESOME. It is out on the Palouse Hwy and  we have always wanted to stop and check it out.  The fact that it was impromptu was made all the more obvious by my high heels, lack of a coat and the wrong stroller for Ronan.  We had an umbrella stroller, but that would have required waking him up...so Patrick generously offered to lug him around in his car seat.  Luckily, we found a stroller substitue that worked great :)

The Tower property and gardens are absolutely beautiful and filled me with so much joy just to explore and soak it all in.  We were a little bummed that Ronan was asleep the whole time - we would have loved to get some pictures with him in this amazing setting. I guess we'll just have to go back!  It might just be my new favorite spot :)

 

Ronan's ride.



We fell in love with this part of the property.  That table has our name on it for a future picnic date :)

I took a brief turn pulling the wagon.

 The picture below is of a grafted apple tree.  Each brach will fruit a different type of apple.  We love the symbolism of this.  Like this tree, the Church is made up of unique individuals, all given special gifts and talents (flavors if you will!).  Christ tells us "I am the vine, you are the branches." (John 15:5) .  This tree reminded us of how each of us are created purposefully unique yet each grafted to Christ, our vine, through his death and resurrection.  He is our source for life and spiritual nutrition. 

Isn't this a great shot? Patrick took it single-handed while pulling the wagon without me even knowing. Way to go babe. I'm imagining smelling lavendar while sitting in our adirondack chairs out front in the sunshine

And here I'm imagining that he might stop taking my picture soon. Oh wait, I may have said that outloud :)  Seriously though, I love the doors in the background which was the true motivation for this picture!

This was a long post, but sometimes there is just a lot to say.