I Blinked...

...and my babies GREW like crazy!! What in the world?!? So, today is November 18, 2010. It is exactly one week until Thanksgiving, and 37 days until Christmas. I am in shock. Not only because the holidays are here, but because my babies are growing like small TREES right before my very eyes! Seriously. Where is the time going? Today I realized that I am still feeding my little girl like she was a newborn baby, when I suddenly realized, she's not a newborn any more. She's FIVE months old! I should have dropped like 1 or 2 feedings by now, but oh well. It's gone so fast, that just seemed to slip my mind. She has been the WONDER baby! Sleeping through the night by 4 weeks old, hardly ever crying, just happy and content most of the time...oh, and a fabulous eater. :) Sometimes I wonder if it's going by too fast...am I missing things...am I taking it all in?? But then I remember how in love I am with this little person, and this stage right now (5 months) is one of my absolute favorites! She is so interactive and aware. She coos like crazy. She grabs her toes. She smiles. She laughs. She rolls around. She grabs my face, my hands, my hair. She's precious. And her HAIR just keeps on growing! Oh, and have I told you how CRAZY she is about her big brother?? He is the only one that can make her belly laugh! She loves him so much, that she can't take her eyes off of him! I love watching them interact and "play" together. They definitely make life much sweeter right now.






I just can't get over how quickly they change. And that very fact is the thing that just makes me want to have more. :)

Are you Rich?

Finding richness of soul... A couple of weeks ago I had what you could call a "moment" with God. I love these moments. They seem to happen at the perfect time in my life, in my day. And I think that this moment happened simply because I was asking for it. It's amazing what God will do if we just ASK. A lot has come out of this particular moment, and I believe that even more will come forth. Because I believe God awoke/is waking some things inside of me, in my soul. It's good. And it's good because I'm feeling the nearness of God again. Sometimes we can feel as if the Lord is light years away from us...wondering if He even has a clue what's going on in our lives, in our hearts, our minds, etc. Other times, He seems so close and real, that we can actually feel His presence in our midst...as if your best friend was sitting right next to you. The reassuring thing is - even when He may seem distant to us, He's not. He's always right there. Right beside me; right beside you. So the conclusion, then, that must be drawn is, if we feel that "distance," it is not Him who is far away, but us.

I was desperate and longing to feel that closeness again, so with the mercy and grace that He always shows me, He gently nudged me back to His side. As I was processing and reflecting on things I felt He was saying to me, a good friend reminded me of the the little book, Practicing His Presence, by Brother Lawrence & Frank Laubach. I have underlined a good portion of the book, which I'm sure I will continue referring to. But the first thing that seemed to catch my attention in this book, was this: "It is not fashion to tell your inmost thoughts, but there are many wrong fashions, and concealment of the best in us is wrong. I disapprove of the usual practice of talking 'small talk' whenever we meet, and holding a veil over our souls. If we are so impoverished that we have nothing to reveal but small talk, then we need to struggle for more richness of soul... My part is to live this hour in continuous inner conversation with God and in perfect responsiveness to his will, to make this hour gloriously rich."
Chew on that for a bit. :)
So I am on a quest now, that will help produce greater richness in me and in my soul. And I fully believe I can find this richness where I am right now, being a wife and a mom of two kiddos, trying to sort through the dirty diapers, the disciplining, the good, the bad, the highs, the lows, etc, etc. I can find a deeper and greater richness, because I have His presence in my life. And that is all I need.