Changes

Things are slowly taking a different shape around here. Susannah is growing and changing every day it seems. She can even read the Sunday comics!


The home addition project is getting underway. The footers are poured and the guy that is doing the foundation will be starting this week, weather permitting. Daniel is aiming for a house-raising weekend next Thursday, Friday and Saturday, when several friends will come and help frame the addition (2 story).


Susannah is working on her top teeth furiously. Last week she cut an eye-tooth, this week one of her front teeth. I'm pretty sure the other front tooth and eye-tooth will be in by the end of the year. The eye-tooth caused a day and a half of misery for both of us, but once it was through everything was better :)


She is becoming more mobile. Still just rolling around, scooting backwards and in circles. She likes to scoot this box of chocolate chips around on the floor, pull up on it, and of course dig out the fun, crinkly bags of chocolate :) Today in her crib was the first time I saw her actually trying to get up on her hands and knees. She usually does stuff in her crib long before she does it on the floor.


And she is becoming more and more a Daddy's girl all the time :) If he walks into the room and she hasn't seen him for a while, she gets so excited she almost can't contain herself! I have a picture of him beside the rocking chair and she used to grin at it if I showed Daddy to her. Now if I show her the picture, most of the time she turns her head towards the bedroom door as if she's hoping he's going to walk through!


Another change that you've probably noticed already is that I'm not blogging nearly as much. Someday I might get back into blogging more, but for now I've decided that it is not a priority. I kept thinking I would post regularly again "next week" or "start tomorrow" ... but I just never get around to it.

One thing that I'm devoting my spare time to is learning about nourishing foods. And that is another change around here that I really do intend to write more about in the coming weeks.

Bullet Points

Just quickly, I want to share a few things this morning. Nothing deep or profound, I just feel like posting some of the random stuff flying around my head :)

• We had a great visit with my sister, Rachel, and her husband, Ted, on Saturday. Times like that I wish we lived closer to my sisters!!!

• Susannah turned 8 months old last Thursday!! (I need to do a post about that.)

• Chocolate Chips are on sale this week. I am thinking about ignoring what is probably an un-healthy ingredients list and getting extra coupons (they don't expire until Marh 2011).

• Daniel's uncle tuned our piano and worked on the action in the middle C section. It is much, MUCH better (even the other tuner wasn't able to or didn't fix that!) and now it reminds me so much of my parent's big upright. I loooove it!

• I need to start vacuuming the floor more often. Or I could just let Susannah keep doing it with her clothes ;)

• I bought our first Christmas gift last week. And only have about 1,763 to go... I need to get busy!

• I *heart* Swagbucks!! I have been stockpiling $5 Amazon.com gift cards (I'll have $45 worth after my next "order" comes in) and have been tossing around ideas for what I want/need/should spend them on. Christmas gifts? Shoes (I need new Reeboks terribly bad)? Splurge?
  

• I think I've decided what I want to use my Swagbucks Amazon GC's for... or at least towards. One of these. I have my eye on the NutriMill, which costs a pretty penny... which is why it's easy to think I'll contribute my Amazon $$ towards it to lessen the OOP :) I'll probably wait a bit to collect a few more GC's. Maybe after the New Year... or maybe Cyber-Monday??

• I need to go feed Susannah her breakfast - time has flown! Goodness gracious!
  

In The Potter's Hands

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But now, O LORD, you are our Father;

we are the clay, and you are our potter;

we are all the work of your hand.
Ephesians 64:8

I realize I have been scarce here the past several weeks. It seems things have been insanely busy and any spare time has been spent trying to keep up with the regular activities on top of the extra ones.

In all honesty, I've started this post probably
100a half dozen times, not knowing where I was going to go with it. I still don't know! So with my kitchen sink and counters piled high with dirty dishes waiting to be loaded into the dishwasher or hand washed, every other thing house-work-ish imaginable needing done, I'm sitting down and writing this post. I don't know where it's going to go, but I'm going to write and leave the words to God.

This fall I have been overwhelmed repeatedly at the amazing, incredible, GOD stuff that has come through my life. I was thinking last week how much I feel like a piece of clay that God - the Potter - is shaping. I don't know what the finished product will be. How many times He'll have to squish me back into a lump and start over. How many times I'll fall and crack. Or break and need glued back together. But He is shaping me. There's no other explanation for it.

I am in a ladies Bible Study at church where we're studying the life of David (a man after God's own heart - Acts 13:22) in the book , "Anointed, Transformed, Redeemed - A Study of David" by Priscilla Shirer, Kay Arthur and Beth Moore. A couple weeks ago was the Relevant Conference and I was able to hear a little bit of one of the sessions through a live broadcast... and have read some of the conference recaps by different bloggers. This morning Cindy Shufflebarger spoke to our MOPS group.

Each of these things continues to challenge me in one area specifically:

How am I living my life as a child of God?

No, I don't think it's a mere coincidence. That each of these things, all separate from each other, would speak to me in the same way. No, God is putting these events in my path so He can work in my heart through them.

The Bible study is teaching me: I am a child of God, anointed with the Holy Spirit to do His will. He is transforming me each day into His likeness - bringing me through the thick and thin, refining me to clean out all the dross so that I can be a clear reflection of Him (Job 23:10). And because of this, I can live a redeemed life for Him!

The Relevant Conference has left me asking myself: What do I (or does He) want my life to be? What should my BLOG be? Both should be glorifying Christ... reflecting Him to those that I come in contact with IRL or through my blog.

Cindy Shufflebarger spoke this morning about finding JOY in the midst of trials - big or small trials. Maybe just the little things that I allow myself to get ticked off at so easily. Or maybe the big things that really put a kink in my day - or week - or months. But I can choose joy instead of frustration. I can choose joy instead of moaning and groaning about my day not going the way I want it to. I can choose joy when God puts a big mountain in my path and I wonder "how in the world am I going to climb over this?"

All that said... I've been thinking a lot about who I am and who I want to be. I want to be like Christ... in my head. I need to get that into my heart a little better. I want my blog to reflect Christ. I want it to be an encouragement to all who stop by. I want to reflect Christ as I live my life as Daniel's wife. I want to reflect Christ as I mother Susannah. I want to make our home to be one that when people walk in our door they know God is here. I want to show His love to those around me.

I hope this has prompted you, too, to consider, how are you living your life? Are you a child of God? Then how are you living your life for Him? If you're not a child of God, I pray that this post will be a seed planted in your heart that might draw your eyes to the One who loves you so very, very much.

Being transformed,
~Miriam