God's perfect provision

While deep, deep cleaning my home today, God used a simple flip flop to sweetly remind my heart that He will always provide. In His perfect timing. Not too soon, and not too late.

I was cleaning out under our bed, which I haven't done in the 6.5 years that we've lived in our house, and I found a pair of black Old Navy flip flops. They were mine, obviously, but I had no recollection of ever having them or ever having lost them. I wear black Old Navy flip flops all the time. I mean, allllllll the time. In fact, I was wearing a pair of black Old Navy flip flops while I was cleaning, at the exact moment that I find these "lost" pair.

But finding these "lost" pair under the bed completely surprised me. They were in perfect condition and I have no idea where they came from. I shrugged, dusted them off, and put them in my closet with my other shoes. And then completely forgot about them.

Less than an hour later, I was walking down the steps in my original pair of flip flops, when one of them broke. Like, completely, irrevocably, not-able-to-fix broke. I stopped in my tracks and realized:

God knew what I needed, before I even knew it.

God always provides, in huge ways and small ways, and sometimes, in the most unexpected ways.

If God cares enough about me to provide a perfect "back-up" pair of flip flops during one of the busiest weeks of my life when I have no time to breath, no time to eat, no time to shower, AND CERTAINLY no time to go to Old Navy to buy a new pair... how much more does He care about the bigger details of my life??? Such as our future move to GA, the sale of our house, the uncertainty about Andrew's TA position, where will Andrew get a job if he doesn't get a TA position, etc, etc, etc.

And if He cares enough to provide me with new flip flops, He cares enough to provide for everything.

And how much He must love me, to give me identical, new, perfect flip flops at the exact moment when I needed them.

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His steadfast love endures forever." Psalm 136:1

(and because all blog posts are better with a picture, here is a pic of the boys playing together while I was getting breakfast ready this morning)

Eat your peppers

i have so many things... I mean SOOO many things that I want to write on this blog. Vacation at Allen's house, anniversary trip to Niagra Falls, Dad's annual Field Day, our actual 9 year anniversary date, etc, etc. I am constantly thinking about this blog and how I wish I had the time to post on it, but ever since we officially found out that we were accepted to Georgia State University, we have been so overwhelmed with our to-do list. We are officially moving to Georgia sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas and we have tons to do between now and then. We're working night and day and night and day to get the house on the market, so that's taking up all of my waking hours and most of my "sleeping" hours as well. I told andrew the other day that I have at least 25 "#1 priorities" that all are pressing and need done right now and I'm getting so overwhelmed that i'm almost paralyzed, not knowing what to do, when to do it, what is really the "#1 priority" and what is not, etc, etc. We both are just swamped. The verse, "the joy of the Lord is my strength" is constantly running through my mind right now.

But anyway... there was a little thing with Jasper that I had to record on here..


Because we had literally 75 green peppers sitting on our counter over Labor Day weekend, Andrew asked if I could make some stuffed peppers for dinner one night. I happily obliged, seeing as how I, too, love stuffed peppers and cooking for my family is one of my greatest joys. So sunday night, I made awesome, awesome stuffed green peppers. These huge peppers were stuffed with ground turkey, China Red whole grain rice, sauteed cabbage, sauteed peppers, sauteed onions, bacon, 3 different kinds of cheese, 5 different kinds of spices, etc, etc.

And Jasper refused to eat his. Absolutely, all-out refused to eat his. Our rule is this: We eat dinner for around 35-45 minutes. We set the timer for Jasper (and we set a generous amount of time on the timer). If he hasn't finished his dinner in 45 minutes, that's fine, but dinner is over and he will have what is left of his dinner for his bed time snack.

Well, Jasper refused to eat his dinner. So we moved on with our evening, had our family bike ride, had bible time, and Jasper had his left over stuffed pepper for bed time snack.

Only he refused to eat even a bite. I would have sorta felt bad for him, except we gave him such a small portion of pepper, and it was stuffed with his favorite things in the world. He loved stuff peppers! It was quickly turning into the battle of the wills. So we told him, you need to eat this for bed time snack. If you don't, you'll have it for breakfast. And he replied, "I jus' fink I'll have it for breakfast." ok, buddy. Game on.

So for breakfast the next morning, I said, "hey buddy. As soon as you finish your pepper, I'll get you yummy cereal!!" and he said, "Momma, I fought (thought) about it, an' I's decided I's not gonna eat my pepper. Ever."

oh my. I was laughin so hard on the inside. So I said...

"It's your decision of when you eat your pepper. But you are not going to get any other food to eat until you eat your pepper first. So babe, sit at the table for breakfast with me and Brody and eat your pepper."

Jasper said, "I'll sit, but I's jus' fink I'm not gonna eat da pepper."

so I set the timer. He didn't eat a bite. Breakfast was over. About 5 minutes later, "Hey momma, can I pwease hab some rasisins to eat?" and I said, "Sure buddy! as soon as you eat your pepper for lunch, you may have raisins."

Jasper... "No, I's not donna eat dat pepper. But I's so, so hungry."

me- "that's great that you're hungry! Because you have yummy pepper to eat. At lunch time."

Jasper... "I's so hungry, but I's not gonna eat dat pepper."

and on and on all day it went.

you get the point.

At lunch, during my phone conversation with Andrew, he said, "babe, you have to win this battle with Jasper." and I said, "oh I will."

It was a definite battle of the wills.

But...

It gave me a great opportunity to teach him A LOT that day about how our choices have consequences and our bad choices give us bad consequences.

it was almost a full 24 hours that Jasper didn't eat a bite of pepper until he caved and finally ate his original tiny amount from dinner the night before.

But at the end of the day, I'm pretty sure he got the message:

Eat the pepper. Momma don't play.

(this is the infamous pepper. It was on this hill that I took a stand, and it was on this hill that I won the battle. Momma don't play.)

Celebrating Nine Wonderful Years of Marriage!!!

GUEST AUTHOR: Andrew Meade

Sometime, a long time ago, Natalie asked me if I would ever guest-write a post on her blog.  Well, she is out of the house at the moment (rocking it at the gym) and I thought I'd take this opportunity to write a bit...

Tomorrow (Wednesday, September 3rd) marks Natalie and my 9th wedding anniversary.  It's a little strange to think about because the time has really flown by.  We've held each other's hands through many life changes since that beautiful late summer day.  Through each adventure God has helped us to grow and taken our marriage relationship to a greater level.  By God's amazing grace we are different people than we were back then but our love for and commitment to each other has been unwavering.

Look how young we were back then!!

I can honestly say that marriage to Natalie has been the most wonderful, humbling, awesome, blessing that God has given me.  I am consistently challenged and amazed by Natalie - her tender heart for other people, her love for Christ and the church, her willingness to give of herself, her steady patience with the boys (and me!), her ever-growing repertoire of delectable dishes, the way that she teaches the boys about God and life, her loyalty to her friends, her passion, her earnest desire to make our home into the place we all want to be, her ability to absorb new skills, her forgiveness and her dedication.  I am so very, very blessed to call her my wife and to have enjoyed nine years of marriage with her.  I'm so looking forward to holding her hand through many more adventures together in the years to come.

Natalie, I love you!!!

Here is a preview of our (I'm sure soon to come) 9th anniversary Niagara Falls trip blog post.

today is the day!!!

Today is the day that Brody changed. A lot!! He literally changed overnight.

Today, for real, he started:
- crawling. For real crawling. Like, get his eye on a target, crawl fast. and obtain the target.
- sitting up on his own. Tonight, I was busy cooking or whatnot, I glanced over, and Brody was just sitting in the middle of the living room, smiling at me. Before he could sorta sit up for a second and then fall backwards and bonk his head. Now, he can truly sit up like a real human.
- eat table food. For dinner tonight, brody had a lot of sweet potato souffle, some homemade mac n cheese, cut up rotisserie chicken, 2 huge bowls of greek yogurt, and half a banana. He violently jerks his head away if I try to feed him baby food these days. No way, Jose. He only wants real human food. Not that I blame him.


we had a blast tonight, chasing Brody around the house and getting him to crawl. Jasper especially had so much fun, truly playing with Brody. I forgot how much fun this was!

These are some really, really random pics of Brody over the past month or so. He continues to just be the MOST smiley, happy little guy you've ever met! And if his big brother is in the room, no one else matters. Jasper is by far his favorite person in the world, and it's my dream (and prayer!) come true! Brody truly won't take his eyes off Jasper.

O-H...

I-O!!!!
Today is the first day of the Buckeye season (woot woot!!) and in keeping with our annual family tradition, we took Family Buckeye pics outside this morning!

J's bible

The Lord just gave me such a sweet blessing this afternoon...

Every day, before nap, I tell Jasper to go to the bathroom and sit on the toilet for a while. Today I told him he could choose either 1 book or 1 toy to take with him to the bathroom. I walked in a little while later to find that he had chosen his little green bible as his 1 toy/book that he could choose. It was such a sweet blessing to this momma's heart to see his tenderness toward the gospel growing. I pray the Lord continues to work in his little heart!!

Also, Jasper has started calling Brody his "precious treasure" and begs me to let him hold Brody. They are truly bff's and I beg, beg, beg the Lord to let this love and bond only grow stronger as they get older.

it's been a while

it's been a while since I've been on here. Life's been busy but so wonderful!!! I don't have time now, but soon I need to record some stories and cute little sayings of Jasper's. But for now, I'll settle for this:

Every morning, I walk into Jasper's room and he says, "Hey momma!! Whaddya think about cuddling wid Brodybug in our special chair right now?" and I say, "What a great idea!!!"

So we go get Brody up, we all cuddle in the chair together, and then Jasper inevitably says, "Hey momma! Whaddya think about taking my's picture wid Brodybug in our special chair right now?" and I say, "What a great idea!!"

It's the sweetest, I mean the SWEETEST, morning routine ever. It makes my heart squeeze and melt, all at the same time. Oh I just love it. And as a result, I pretty much have a daily picture of the two boys together in the chair. Granted, most of them are blurry, but still, they're priceless. I'm thinking of making a coffee table book out of it someday.

 taken today

 taken last friday

 taken last thursday

taken last wed 

(different chair!!?! apparently, we like to live on the edge sometimes :o))