Enjoying God's Creation

The Alabama Wildlife Federation created the Alabama Nature Center in Millbrook. Also known as Lanark, this Center is a hidden treasure in Central Alabama. Jason's company helped create the nature trails, so he let us in on this wonderful destination. Also, our older boys spent a few weeks going to day camp there this past summer and loved it.
This afternoon we had beautiful sunny skies with a light breeze so we dropped the babies off at my parents' house and we took the older boys for a day enjoying nature. There are several hiking trails, we ventured down all three for a total of five miles of hiking. I cannot begin to detail all of the beauty we saw on our hike, you'll just have to enjoy the pictures and try to imagine for yourself how great it was! Bridges, creeks, ponds, peaks, valleys, and flowers of every sort. Spring is just beginning to bloom in these parts, so not as many flowers as there will be in a few weeks but it was beautiful nonetheless. Of course it was great to have our own tour guide...Jason has a degree in horticulture so he was able to point out the variety of flora and fauna throughout the park.

Scaleback Success

At the beginning of each year the state of Alabama holds a statewide weight loss competition called Scaleback Alabama. Participants form teams of four with family, friends, colleagues, etc. Each person on the team must lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks. Then each team that meets that goal is put into a drawing for monetary prizes.
I entered last year with three colleagues of mine, but discovered 2 weeks into the competition that I was pregnant. Pregnant women are not eligible to participate in the contest, although as sick as I was I just about lost 10 pounds in the first trimester! So, I had to fess up to the pregnancy and our team was disqualified. So, this year I wanted to participate so I enlisted Jason to be on my team. Then to find our other two team members I turned to the world of Facebook. Our friends from church, Anthony & Kimberly Miller rose to the challenge and joined our team. We weighed-in in the middle of January and the race was on! After a lot of hard work from each team member, we all weighed in this morning and the results were fantastic! Our team of four lost a total of 60 pounds (ok, it was actually 59, I'm rounding it up to 60!) Jason led the charge with a loss of a whopping 18 pounds. I am proud to report that I lost 14 pounds. My baby weight is officially gone, now I'm working hard to lose those darn newlywed pounds...content fat I believe they call it. I'm not very content with it!
Since each person on our team lost at least 10 pounds, we are now in a drawing with the first prize being $1,000 per team member. Wouldn't that be great?! I'll let you know how it turns out...

The Joys of Solids

Margaret Jane at Six Months

Snowy Sunday in the South

The weatherman said it might snow today, and sure enough when Jason and I got up at 6:00am it was snowing. So, like little kids we ran through the house waking everyone up and got outside as quickly as we could. Turns out the best time for snow playing was from 6:00 - 7:00am, the flakes were huge and falling hard. When Eli walked out the door and saw the snow for the first time he threw up his hands and squealed with delight. Reminded me of the time we had a family reunion at the beach. My little Michigan cousins, who were 3 or 4 and had never been to the Gulf Coast ran out onto the deck of the beach house, saw the sugar white sandy beach and squealed "It Snowed!!!"
Hugh & Grant built a mini-snowman, then one that was a little bigger. After all our play we headed for church at 8:00am then went to lunch with our Sunday school class afterwards. It's mid-afternoon now and it's still snowing, but no longer sticking.
Fun snow day!

The boys made a mini-snowman:

The tomato eyes didn't stick, we had to use fruit chews instead:
Eli in the snow:
Jason & Josey:
Grant & Hugh had so much fun:
Eli seeing the snow for the first time:
Our Cameilla in the backyard:

Margaret Jane even got in on the snow fun:
This was Eli's reaction when we told him he had to come inside to get ready for church:

Top Ten Best

In December 1997 two of my best girlfriends and I went to stay with a friend who lived in New York City. We were there the week between Christmas and New Year's. We spent New Year's Eve at a fabulous Italian restaurant in Times Square, then went to a party, then headed back to our friend's apartment which was located right in the heart of Times Square. At about 11:30pm we headed up to the roof of her building with a number of the other tenants and could hear and see the crowds gathered down below. We could hear Dick Clark himself prepping the crowd for the big countdown. It was electric. We were having an amazing time and shortly after Midnight one of our friends giddily exclaimed, "This is one of my top ten best New Year's EVER"! To this day we laugh when we talk about her saying that, because it was, without exception, THE best New Year's Eve any of us had ever had.
Jason knows that story, so I laughed when he turned to me this past Valentine's Day, as we were cruising down a rural west Alabama highway snuggled in a Hansom Cab with all four of our children, and said, "Is this one of your top ten best Valentine's Days EVER"?
It was, in fact, my best Valentine's ever. We spent the afternoon at the farm of one of Jason's colleagues in Lowndes County. They had horses, turkeys, a rabbit, pigeons, dogs, cats, and an abundance of chickens. The kids had so much fun. All three boys rode horses and Hugh & Grant jumped on the trampoline. Margaret Jane got loved on by a horse and I think Eli kept a big grin on his face all day! And my favorite was the beautiful 160lb Great Dane, Romulus.
And, as I mentioned earlier, we were treated to a horse-drawn carriage ride -- how fun is that?! We even left with two dozen fresh eggs. This city girl was in country heaven - thanks Gena!

This is Romulus up on the trampoline:
Grant:
Eli hopped up on everything with a seat:
That's Gena in the black hat, unfortunately I didn't get a picture of her where she wasn't looking down at an animal:
Here we are in the Hansom Cab:
Me getting some Romulus love:

Eli riding a horse, he loved it:Hugh:
Grant:
I think the big boys stayed on the trampoline for over an hour:

How about that big Tom Turkey!Margaret Jane even enjoyed the animals. Again, Gena is looking down!

More Pray

I had a particularly cruddy day recently. Now, please keep in mind that my cruddy days are comparatively mild. I have wonderful, healthy children; I have an amazing husband who is loving and fun; I have a nice home and food in the pantry.
So let me set up my bad day story by reminding you that in the past five years I've gone from being a single girl living in Hawaii to being a wife and mother of four. Please hear me that my life now is so much better than it ever has been. However, on some days I have a hard time letting go of my former Rondacentric self. Some days I revert into that 5 year old kid stomping out of the room when she doesn't get her way and slamming a door or two...sad but true. I realize dying to my self-centeredness is a process and that God is teaching me, growing me, refining me. Meanwhile, I have an occasional pity party -- an occasional cruddy day.
Late in the afternoon of my recent bad day, Eli wanted a snack so I put him in his chair and scattered some Honey Nut Cheerios on his tray and filled up his juice cup with watered down Crangrape. Then, holding Margaret Jane, I sat down beside him with a sigh and leaned my back against the wall preparing to crank up the music in my head that would accompany my pity party. Just before the volume went to 10, my one year old son looked at me and said, "Pray". That is not unusual for him, as he loves to pray before he eats, even before he snacks. I said a quick prayer and returned my focus to the angry tune playing in my head. Then my Eli said something that caused the needle to scratch off the record and snapped me out of my mode of self-pity. He said, "More". He had plenty of juice and Cheerios, so I could not imagine what he wanted more of, so I asked him, "More what?" He then said, "More pray".
Tears filled my eyes as I looked at the face of my one year old son and heard the voice of my sweet Savior. More prayer was exactly what I needed, more conversation with a God who loves me exceedingly abundantly more than I can imagine and who seeks to bless me in ways I cannot fathom. Jesus is so incredibly patient with us. All the blessings He has given me, and I am going to grumble and grouse over a thing or two not going my way. When he could have easily rolled his eyes and thrown up his hands in disgust at my lack of growth, my Savior instead spoke to me in the sweet voice of my son and reminded me that He is what I need in every circumstance. So next time I am tempted to sink into the mire of ridiculous self-pity, I instead will remember what I truly need is More Pray.