A List

I don't know where to start. So I'll go with a list. Here are some things going on in our life right now:

1. Parker Jane is a MESS. And I take full responsibility. This is how I just found her after leaving her unoccupied for about a minute and a half:

Yep, she unrolled an entire roll of toilet paper. And I probably missed the opportunity to discipline and teach on this one the second I chose to grab the camera. She's mischievous!

2. We've been busy with lots of church stuff. This is pretty much Joel's busy season for work. He's had a lot of weekend events going on the last few weeks, and he will have an event to lead every weekend for the next five. This week, our first meeting with our "new" community group was held. Our old one has divided into two groups to make room for lots of people who aren't in one. Though transitions like these can be a little tough in some ways, we are so excited about leading this group and seeing what God has in store for all of us! We had such a fun time meeting with these families this week! And I've also begun a mom's prayer/Scripture discussion on parenting little ones according to biblical principles. It's mainly for providing relational support to each other on this journey of motherhood. We will meet four times over the next 8 weeks, and today was our first meeting. I can tell spending time with these ladies will be such a refreshing time! As you can see...church life right now is busy, busy. (Good thing we like it!)

3. Joel's birthday was last month, and I just feel a need to show off the birthday cake I made for him. The pictures are less than acceptable. But it's all I've got. I stole this idea from a very fun blog called Whatever. Talk about blog eye candy! That woman is so inspirational for creating beauty in life. She makes me want to learn to sew. Or maybe just color with crayons in one of Jonah's coloring books. She makes you want to do something with color and prettiness. Her pictures are much better. But here's the fun cake:

4. I've started BSF this year, and it's been a good experience. The best part to me: Jonah LOVES it. This is pretty much his preschool this year, and I've been so amazed by his enthusiasm to be there. He did not want to go there the first day, but since then, he's counting down the days til the next time we go to BSF. He's really learning a lot, and I'm starting to see some sweet glimpses of God working in Jonah's heart and showing Himself to him. (Thank you, Lord!) It's been an added support for us this year in training our children. Just praying to not rely on it too heavily but to keep it complementary to what we're doing at home. He's been a sweetie lately.

5. And then this little girl has been changing a ton lately. She's still not really talking much yet. She only has a few words. But she does jibber-jabber a LOT. It's really cute! And my favorite thing about where she is right now is that she loves her baby dolls. Especially this one. She's always carrying it under her arm whatever she's doing, trying to change its diaper and wipe its nose. I'm LOVING it!!! We usually have a baby doll with us wherever we go.

So that's the recap of life these days. I had a couple of other things I left off because now I think they could each be a separate post. Maybe I'll write them before next year.