Monday, January 17, 2011

We've Moved...

After four years and...we've got a new site:http://www.mysongstosing.com/
Come visit!

Friday, January 14, 2011

Calling Dr. S.

Sophia did great at her 4-year check up this morning. But what's there to fear when you're the doctor?
Here she is checking Foo's throat. Foo was trying out some rubber gloves.
Dr. Mares didn't appear to feel threatened by his new colleague. Probably just jealous of her scrubs...
Turns out role playing with costumes is an excellent coping strategy - and it beats emotional eating every time:)

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Teach Them Young...

Heard this morning at:
"Oh Mommy. It is so beautiful here. Look Mommy. It's so beautiful."
- Olivia, age 2

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Apocalypse Now

When I was in the sixth grade I saw this movie:As a result, I have spent the last 18 years avoiding any discussion of the end times, lawn mowers and the final twenty-two chapters of the Bible. If you actually saw this movie in the 70's when it was produced or anytime after you became an adult, you might have had a broader context to understand it stylistically and philosophically. I was eleven - and paradoxically becoming obsessed with both my appearance and my ultimate fate. (I've since learned I was right on track developmentally.)

And so I would lay in bed at night quaking with fear over the state of my bangs and if the world was going to end before I made it to seventh grade. Behold: a piece of my spiritual baggage - it fits, just like yours, on the luggage rack next to family baggage and emotional baggage. And left un-confronted it has traveled with me even into parenthood. One night I found myself singing "This Little Light of Mine" with my preschooler and realized that I never sing the verse about Jesus coming back... you know, because I don't want to scare her. Why should that scare her? Because it still scares me.

WHAT is this? Has the Year of Slow become the Year of Confronting My Fears of the Apocalypse? I had no intention of this until I sat in a room full of people this morning listening to this dear Texan:
Oh Beth - why isn't there a decent picture of you on Wikipedia? Your hair is AMAZING. And this tiny picture does it no justice...If you know Beth Moore, I need not say anything. If you don't. You should. Can I get an amen? She is in one sense every evangelical stereotype - southern, big hair, passionate, gendered,absolute, waves her Bible and makes sweeping hand gestures. She creates so much material for this cynic to go to town...until I sit in one of her studies. And I open up my Bible and I fight tears because somehow someway I am learning that I am loved recklessly and called to greatness in the scary last twenty-two chapters.

And so B. Moore in the next ten weeks take me into the fire. Only you can pack the house in a study on Revelation - and you are just on a screen. Remind me that this part is the same as the others - a story about He who was and is and is to come. Even more, I dare to hope that if I can push past the fear, there's something new to be learned here - a picture of His love for this world and a perspective on being "chosen, called, and faithful" (Rev.17:14) that I couldn't learn anywhere else.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Baby It's Cold Outside...

But we're still having fun... Tribe Basketball Vs. JMU with Ali
Afternoon stunting like Super Grover...

Playing Jack in the Box in my hamper
(yes, dirty clothes had to be removed for the shooting of this footage)

Pop goes the Weasel!
And again...
She is shouting: "Pop goes Olivia!"
(When I registered for this double hamper at Pottery Barn almost eight years ago, could I have ever envisioned this?)
Hope you are staying warm!





Thursday, January 6, 2011

Upcoming

It's been four years since the birth of this blog...I figure four years is a big milestone and its definitely time to make some updates. All of this is in the works. In the meantime, please cope awith a slightly lacking design scheme that I may play with day to day as I await my professional consult...:)

Also, I wanted to mention something that I'm excited to be prepping for over the next month. Our church is hosting a women's event with author/speaker/adopter Lysa Terkheurst February 4-5. If you live near Williamsburg or love the outlets, the colonial garb, and the pancake houses we would love to see you! Click here for more information and to register. This is my first time being part of a team putting on something of this scale and it is crazy and energizing and my primary excuse for still having this in my living room:
Can we please have a moment for the January Christmas tree? I just tell the girls that in December everyone had a tree. Now, it's exciting because in January we're the only ones with one (or are we? Help me out here...)

This week I am loving...

This girl...and opening shoeboxes filled by the Three Kings..

This girl...and her undeniable stage presence...


good acoustics,




captive audiences,



and the lasting benefits of a good holiday mani/pedi.


Hope your week has been filled with a lot of ordinary goodness!