Week Twelve Inspired by...

"Humility isn't burden or humiliation or oppressive weight but humility is the only posture that can receive the wondrous grace gifts of God."

-Anne Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts




(Photo found here)

Synopsis

Lately I have been a little too preoccupied with other things to be blogging about them. It is kind of a cruel irony that the more you have thoughts and ideas to blog about it is a result of the various stuff going on in your life which means you have little time to actually write. I really wish sleep wasn't such a necessity--I would get so much more accomplished. SO here is what has been going on lately...

--Two weeks ago, I woke to the sound of crashing metal. About 4 seconds later, I remembered it wasn't recycling day and that something was wrong. This was the scene outside my bedroom window. Thankfully no one was hurt but it reminded me of three things 1) if you call 911, tell them it is an emergency. I could have done my taxes by the time the police finally showed up. 2) Wear you seatbelt. I am the worst about not buckling if I am driving a short distance. This guy was six houses away from home. 3) If you don't live in our neighborhood, then quit speeding through from Folly to Riverland and running stop signs along the way. We kind of all adore our kids and pets and would like to keep them--thanks!

--Ever since I half way set up my new office I have been sewing like crazy. I made about eleven skirts and three dresses in a week. Most of them went to these sweet friends who have created the cutest clothing line that also gives back. You can read about it more here. The rest have gone to other friends and some to Loulie.

--I am ging to hear Anne Voskamp speak next weekend with some friends and I am so pumped! I read her book last year and am trying to get through it again as a refresher. I can't wait to share what I learn from her talk--she is truly inspiring and shares her message of thanksgiving in such a unique and beautiful way.

--This is the last week that the Cinderella Project is taking donations in Charleston. I took a whole stack of bridesmaids dresses I will never wear again and now I have tons more closet space. Very cool charity--I love to think of these high school girls feeling special in a dress that would otherwise be collecting dust. The website gives places to drop them off--lots of churches around the lowcountry.

--Happy Belated to my little sis! Her husband threw her a surprise dinner downtown and it was a great excuse to for us to get a sitter and have night out. I love the look on her face--priceless!

--Last weekend, we went up to Pawley's for the night. My in-laws have a house there and in five years we have never just taken off and stayed up there for a weekend. Even though it's only an hour away, it was super relaxing and nice to be away. Sometimes just getting away from laundry and chores and ringing cell phones for even 24hrs can be rejuvenating. We were especially grateful since this week has been hot hot hot and hot weather for Bert means BUSY! 

This is how we role now--with a miniature toilet in the back of the car. And this photo is on the side of Hwy 17. And we are bad parents because we thought this was hilarious and we took pictures and we posted them on the web. Looks like it might be a nursing home for us one day.

I think that's about it. Happy St. Patty's Day! We celebrated early by participating in the Catch the Leprechaun race at Waterfront Park last night. If you are local, please come out next year. It was super fun and is an incredible cause. I mean how can you not keep running when children with special needs are cheering you on along the race route--that's all the motivation I needed to keep my legs moving!

Best wishes for a happy weekend--spring next week. Yes!!!

February Books

So I kept up in February my resolution to read 3 books a month. I began to doubt myself halfway through knowing it was a shorter month and the energy that comes from January resolutions has waned a little. In addition to the three below, we are studying Hebrews in small group. HOW have I gone 31 years without reading this entire chapter of the Bible?! It is gorgeous--the prose, the imagery, the content. And I kind of love how we don't really know who wrote it. Between all that and Jesus Calling, I wore my highlighter out last month.


In Our Time
by Ernest Hemingway
Even though I just said I wore my highlighter out, it was not on this book. After reading The Paris Wife in January, I felt kind of ignorant that I had never read any Hemingway. And I feel a little stupid saying this because he is renowned as a literary genius all over the world, BUT I was so disappointed. I felt the same way reading this as I did when I first read Faulkner in high school. Completely uninspired. He was a depressed person and had just come from war and the story completely personifies "that time," it just wasn't the type of book I like to read. Throughout Paris Wife, he talks about how he wants to write one great sentence a day. I think he wrote a lot of great sentences but just maybe not a great story? I'm not going to completely give up though--I would still like to read A Moveable Feast.




















Hoda
by Hoda Kotb
I found this at my mother's house last year, read one chapter and retired it to the guest room bookshelf. I'm not sure why I picked it up again but I'm glad I did. I feel like so many celebrities publish their story and sometimes when they are like 30. And I'm all "who cares?" but Hoda's story is really inspiring. I had no idea how much she has been through--all the places she worked, how she grew up, etc. And in addition to seeming so kind on the Today Show, she has lead a pretty cool life. She also gives some details on everyone at the Today Show; and as someone who thinks Ann Curry would be her best friend if we ever met, I loved that chapter. I would completely recommend this one--quick read, good advice and just a neat story.



What Difference Do It Make
by Ron Hall, Denver Moore and Lynn Vincent
This sequel to Same Kind of Different As Me shares more of Denver and Ron's story as well as stories of those affected by their first novel. It is everything I love in a book--true events, stories of grace and lovable characters. Denver has so many wise reminders on how to live--things we should have learned but just loose in the shuffle of everyday living. I finished it in a few days and would 100% recommend.

Sophie

In my advertising class at the University of Georgia, we learned there are three levels of advertising (introduction, reminding, blah, blah). And though I don't remember much or even the correct terminology, I do remember the professor saying that once a product was pretty renown, a company could just use a basic ad to keep it in the public eye. And if all else failed, just use the always well received Kodak model--a chubby baby and a furry puppy with your product!

I have two you can borrow...

 

This is Sophie--Lovey and GDaddyBoy's new daughter--another girl, my poor dad can't get a break. We found her at the SEWE Wildlife Festival and by the time my dad walked Loulie through the animal tent, my mother had written a check! We picked her up in Summerville a week later and spent the weekend loving on her as much as we could. Though Loulie is not used to sharing the limelight with someone else, she adapted once she figured out Sophie was someone she could boss around and take care of. No, it's someone else who is jealous....
 

Welcome Sophie!

You hit the jackpot!

We love you!

* On a side note, I can't believe Kodak went bankrupt. Our kids will never know the saying "a Kodak moment." For some reason this is so strange to me. I was listening to a radio segment discussing the reasons for Kodak's decline. They were actually the first to make the digital cameras so popular today but didn't patent or market them. Why? Because they didn't want to compete with their (at the time) current film products. SO instead Nikon and Cannon and others sold them and now Kodak is filing Chapter 11. I thought about this a loong time--what a lesson for business owners!

Needing a realignment

If I had to pick a recurring theme for each week in 2012 here at the Dasher house, it would be illness. I was completely absent from the blog last week after Loulie's first sick visit to the doctor which followed in her getting worse, then myself and Bert following. I found myself so aggravated over it too. Last week was supposed to be super productive and packed with activity but instead I found myself trapped in the house; completely unorganized with a dirty house, empty refridgerator and fussy child! Ugh! I started thinking about how much we've been sick this year; becoming anxious about being self insured and the fear that I let creep up on me over that. Before I knew it; I had hung the streamers, blown up the balloons and was on my way to inviting all around me into a pity party.

And just like I try to discern daily with Loulie, I love how our heavenly Father pulls out different parenting stops on us in every little tantrum we throw. Because that is exactly what I needed--a kick in the pants, a time out, what I call an adjustment of view. It's like you're looking at your world as a 4x6 seeing only what's going on in your peripheral and God opens it to a panoramic so you can see all that is going on around you.

Because in the midst of what was becoming a mixture of anxious pity, I got a phone call from a friend who had a REALLY BAD week. She could have complained about her circumstances but only gave thanks that though her sick family was wearing on her, she was grateful that all were alive and being healed. A reminder that an acquaintance from college (30 yrs old) has been diagnosed with breast cancer. And a comment from Bert on something that had was on his heart--how grateful we should be for employment and a thriving business. 

And then my devotional this weekend held this verse:

"In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."- 1Thessalonians 5

And I am ashamed that I was not more grateful for the quiet time with Loulie at home last week, for the blessing that this has been her first real illness so far and that though taken down with a bug, my family is healthy. And I am grateful that God aligned my circumstances of friends and prayers and verse to remind  me of blessings, of His will and turned me back towards thankfulness. Pity can be a slippery slope, the act itself keeping you from seeing the good right in front of you. And I am grateful that God interceded just enough to keep me from sliding down it.

                 

The fastest long weekend

Warning: I am about to post an absurd amount of pictures of Loulie Bug.

I apologize. If it bores you, just skip this post but I honestly can't help myself. We had one of the best weekends in a long time and I just had to post some pics of my girl having fun. Lovey and GDaddyBoy were here this weekend and we packed it in.

First haircut

Dinner with cousins

First birthday party for a classmate

Sewe Wildlife Festival

Dinner for GDaddyBoy's Birthday

and unfortunately ended it with Loulie's First Sick Visit to the Doctor (although I feel fortunate we've made it this long)

You can tell from the pictures how much Loulie is growing up. She was so proud of herself doing all these big girl things this weekend. We have been looking forward to this weekend and my parents visit for a while now so it went by pretty fast for what was supposed to be a long weekend. Luckily, we spent most of today at home trying to help Loulie get over her sinus infection. I'm starting to panic looking at the to do list for the next four days and it is already past midnight. Not much time for an in depth post so hopefully I'll be back again this week.

I hope everyone had a relaxing long weekend! Back to the grind tomorrow. :0

Valentines

It's a double edged sword this whole motherhood thing: on one side you have this view. The whole "who the hell has time for that?" mindset. On the flip side there's the "you stay at home and you can't find the time to work with your kids on a simple craft? What else are you doing?" I'm just going to confess, I've been guilty of being all judgey on both sides. And after my tirade last Friday and now being in the actual shoes of a mother, I feel super bad for thinking either. And as usual, Bert put it all in perspective for me: "they are just going to throw it away anyhow, what do you think Loulie would like to do?" And then my own conscious reminded me to not really give a damn what everyone else was doing and to just enjoy hanging with my Bug.

So we made these:

   

They are valentine pinatas filled with M&Ms. A homemade valentine meant to be torn open and thrown away! And we had a big time making them. I cut out the hearts and obviously did the names. Loulie and Bert decorated the back. Then I spent about 10 minutes sewing them together and filling them with the candy. All with the Rio soundtrack (per LB's request) playing in the background. It wasn't until they were completely finished that Bert pointed out the mess they could make being torn open in say the car. By that time I was unconcerned and just hoped that the kids would have some type of supervision when going through their valentines. 

The frightening part of this whole ordeal was watching Loulie decorate her hearts. 

"What sticker do you want to give Griffin?"

"Hmmmm" (at least 2 minutes passes) "Dat one--the froggy."

Poor child has my OCD/ things must look just as I envision/older child syndrome. And to place two such people in a situation, each with their own vision? Well, it requires wine, patience and lots of prayers!

But does it really matter what you're giving out when you go to school dressed like Tammy Faye Baker?! Loulie picked out her outfit head to toe on Monday. And nothing says party like a fur coat and sunglasses!

All in all, it was a sweet day. I have never been one for valentine's day but this year we went out with friends to celebrate a birthday. Well into the wine tasting, someone suggested that all the guys had to recall to everyone how they met their wife and how long they had been together. After hearing some hilarious stories and holding my side from laughter; we noticed that many of the couples had known each other 10+ years and based on statistics should be divorced. And since everyone in the room had just reminisced over fateful meetings and years of courtship; someone toasted to "Great friends and beating the odds!"

And I'll celebrate that any day!